Fang Pingzhai smiled and remained motionless, watching Tang Lici blow the sword.

“Sixth Brother, is there any way to disrupt his sound-killing technique?”

“Play a piece completely different from his. If his concentration is insufficient, the sound-killing technique will collapse.” Fang Pingzhai’s smile was ambiguous. “But if his concentration is strong, you’ll be in great danger. If you’re the one affected by him, your true force will become disordered and you’ll be severely injured immediately.”

“Play? Seventh Brother, I don’t know music.”

“I can’t help you. I’m still ‘pressure-point sealed,’ and you wouldn’t want the people here to see me suddenly stand up and take out a large drum to oppose Tang Lici, would you?” Fang Pingzhai’s smile remained ambiguous. “Besides, I don’t have the drum with me.”

“What if I break his sword?” Yu Konghou’s eyes focused on Tang Lici. “He’s standing still now and can’t move. If I attack, will he stop?”

“The clearer the sound, the greater its power. The closer you get, the more the threat doubles. If you can approach close enough to break his sword without being injured, you could simply attack and kill him, because the presence or absence of sound-killing would have no effect on you.”

“What if I don’t approach and use hidden weapons?” Yu Konghou smiled charmingly. “Can sound-killing techniques really block hidden weapons from approaching?”

“Haha, you can try.” Fang Pingzhai’s smile remained ambiguous.

Yu Konghou reached into his robes. He carried the same type of pearls as Tang Lici. His fingers lightly rubbed the pearls a few times, then abandoned them. He bent down to pick up a stone from the ground, flicked it with his fingers, and the stone shot out toward the sword in Tang Lici’s hands.

With a loud “clang,” Tang Lici neither dodged nor avoided. The stone struck the sword, producing an unusually loud sound. The surrounding crowd was already concentrating fully to counter the sword-blowing sound. Suddenly struck by this noise, they all let out muffled groans and staggered backward in unison.

Yu Konghou was startled. However, when the stone struck the sword, the sword-blowing stopped momentarily. In this pause, pearls suddenly blazed forth – more than ten pearls shot forward. Yu Konghou swept his sleeve to block them. After the pearls fell to the ground one by one, that demon-like sword-blowing sound had already resumed.

“Even if you can injure his person or his sword, when faced with sound-killing, you always lose the initiative.” Fang Pingzhai said. “He can blow killing sounds at any time, and no matter how deep your power, you must circulate qi to resist. In the time you’re circulating qi to resist, he can counterattack. So provoking with hidden weapons isn’t necessarily advantageous.”

“What if everyone uses hidden weapons? I don’t believe he can—” Before Yu Konghou finished speaking, Tang Lici’s sword-blowing suddenly turned higher, especially shrill and magnificent. Yu Konghou trembled slightly, his qi and blood churning, and his voice transmission technique immediately stopped.

Tang Lici had been struck by his stone and intended to counterattack. Now the music turned stronger, and the crowd, threatened by the sound-killing power, couldn’t be careless at all, much less attack.

The situation was deadlocked. Tang Lici used his entire body’s true force to pluck the sword and blow sounds. At this moment he had the upper hand – everyone was alarmed by his sword-blowing.

But how long could he maintain it?

Yu Konghou, Cheng Yunpao, Dong Hubi and others had deep power. As long as they didn’t intrude too close, they could withstand even the strongest musical sounds. Qi Xing, Zheng Yue and others had weaker power, but even if injured by sound-killing, those with weaker power would be injured more lightly.

The one with the upper hand was actually in the most disadvantageous position.

Yet he persisted in not leaving.

Liu Yan looked sadly at Tang Lici’s back. Listening to his sword-blowing – A Li was seeking the power of intimidation, but what he held wasn’t a musical instrument. Forcing himself to perform, much of the entire piece was off-key, completely on the verge of collapse.

Why wouldn’t he leave?

What was he waiting for?

Whatever he was waiting for, given A Li’s temperament, he would never give up until he got it. He couldn’t lose, nor could he fail to wait for it. If he spoke publicly now about A Li’s injuries, it would benefit neither side. So he could only help him wait.

Rarely did he decide for himself what to do. Once his mind was made up, he took a deep breath and said quietly, “A Li, blow the accompaniment to ‘Sand and Salt’.”

Tang Lici might not have heard, but the sword-blowing paused slightly. Liu Yan saw his profile seem to smile slightly, then several plucking sounds arose. The shrill and magnificent sword-blowing suddenly weakened, becoming thin and feeble.

Everyone felt the pressure reduce and unanimously breathed sighs of relief. Sound-killing techniques affected friend and foe alike. Cheng Yunpao was easily influenced and had already felt burning in his five organs. Now he got a temporary respite.

Yu Konghou’s power was profound. He had been listening for a while, retreating a step, listening for a while, retreating a step – he had already retreated seven or eight steps. Now that the sword-blowing weakened, everyone’s spirits lifted as they grasped their weapons preparing to act. But after the sword-blowing weakened, Liu Yan sang quietly, “Deception… is a heartbreaking feast, harm is a numbing time…”

The melancholy, soft song penetrated the thin sword-blowing sound. Liu Yan’s voice was very magnetic with an especially good resonance chamber. With a hum, borrowing Tang Lici’s true force, it suddenly struck everyone’s hearts. No one present had ever heard this kind of singing – quiet murmuring completely different from the tunes habitually sung by tower singing girls. Their hearts beat faster in unison. Having to resist the injury from musical sounds while preventing their own true qi circulation from being affected by the singing, sweat immediately appeared on their foreheads.

Tang Lici’s sword-blowing went from weak to slow, then stopped. In the gap when he stopped, Liu Yan sang slowly, “Devils… also need to miss someone. He entered the human world and encountered romance. God said humans should love without boundaries, humans should live in Eden, humans should redeem their innate sins; the devil wanted to become immortal, wanted to indulge everything, wanted to satisfy every desire he saw.”

Though the singing carried no internal force, it attracted people to hold their breath and listen quietly. In the moment of distraction, Tang Lici had already drawn out a copper flute, abandoned the long sword, and blew upon the flute.

“The devil became immortal, wearing pure white moon, treading pure white smoke, transforming into the face most beloved by mortals; he covered the sky with one hand, his magic was boundless, exhausting all the devil’s energy sources.” Liu Yan’s song, backed by Tang Lici’s flute sound, became even more soul-stirring. “He had never seen the human world before. He wanted to be trusted, loved, and served by people; he wanted to transcend Eden, he transcended a devil’s limits. But overnight, heaven changed, God exposed the devil’s false face…” Liu Yan sang quietly, “Deception… is a heartbreaking feast, harm is a numbing time…”