“Click” – the sound of a chess piece falling.

Then a great wind arose.

Those four words “I’ll go and return shortly” still echoed in their ears, but when Fujiansheng and the other two looked up, Jian Chou was already gone. They saw the vast starry sky suddenly covered by enormous wings, with a tremendous shadow falling from the clouds onto the lake surface, then swiftly departing into the distance.

Yueying couldn’t help but exclaim in secret: “Heaven-spanning wings!”

“Rumble…”

This was the tremendous commotion as those terrifying wings stirred up waves across the entire lake, while also ruthlessly and domineeringly smashing into that group of uninvited guests from beyond the starry sky!

Rustle rustle, nineteen magical artifact lights trembled wildly!

They had arrived with such fierce momentum, but in this moment, before they could even clearly see what had happened, they felt as if the sky was collapsing as that heavy shadow crashed down upon them!

The sky-covering wings whipped up a fierce wind, blowing across the bamboo sea beneath the moon. Nineteen human figures fell like meteors!

Sounds of impact came from within the forest.

When Yueying, Daoist Diandao, and Fujiansheng turned their gazes back, the shadow that had previously covered the entire sky was gone. The serene moonlight shone on the rippling lake, like silver snow covering the entire lake in deep winter. The mist over the lake was swept clean by the great wind, instantly making mountains appear as mountains and water as water – clean and clear.

Between heaven and earth, it suddenly became extremely quiet.

Except for the sound of wind and waves, no other sounds could be heard.

The three Sacred Immortals sat cross-legged on the solitary boat in the lake’s center. The star pieces on the chess board still emitted a faint glow, yet they all seemed to have heard something.

Yueying frowned in concentration.

Fujiansheng gazed distantly at those azure mountain ridges.

Daoist Diandao pricked up his ears, quietly stroking his beard, as if hearing some melody in the wind filling the sky. His eyes brightened slightly, and he actually embraced the willow qin that had been set aside earlier, turned up his sleeves, raised his fingers, and pressed them to the strings.

“Zheng…”

A flowing tremolo.

Ying Xu felt his ears explode, and almost instinctively called out in a hoarse, deeply angry voice: “Form ranks!”

The other eighteen people who had pursued with Li Xieyang each wielded eighteen different weapons. Regardless of their injuries, they all formed their most familiar battle formation at his command, surrounding Ying Xu.

However, looking around, everything was pitch black.

The bamboo forest by the lake had grown for far too long, covering from the mountain’s base up past the mountainside, all the way to the valleys between the continuous mountain ranges. The brilliant light hanging down from that enormous full moon in the sky could only fall through occasional gaps, then was cut into fragments of silver by the protruding bamboo leaves, scattered all around.

Everyone was tensed to the extreme.

Including Ying Xu.

He held that sharp, pale fang blade, standing motionless in the forest. His python robe was slightly open at the chest, and his solid chest showed faint traces of sweat. Gone was his usual carefree ease, and beneath his long brows, a pair of golden-red demonic pupils quietly turned vertical, with alert and sharp gazes silently looking into that thick darkness.

Broken moonlight.

Bamboo shadows.

Mottled light shuttled through mottled shadows.

But apart from them, there wasn’t a single person! As if that mysterious presence that had ambushed them upon their arrival in this realm was merely an illusion existing in their consciousness.

Yet the qin music continued.

After one sound that shattered the silence, it was followed by two tinkling sounds like spring water, as if all turbulence was calming in the clear breeze.

But Ying Xu distinctly smelled that the killing intent in the forest had become even more concentrated!

“Zheng!”

Another sound!

After the waves calmed, they suddenly surged again, actually higher than the first sound!

When the qin music came, it was like a thin blade flicked by fingertips, passing through the misty rain curtain, cutting into this bamboo forest, among the bamboo leaves!

“Puchi.”

The jade-green leaves wet with dew snapped in response, and the crystalline dewdrops were instantly shattered into flying mist!

The sound of footsteps on bamboo leaves came hidden beneath the qin music.

Suddenly there was a “bang” at his side.

One person in the eighteen-man battle formation had lost all breath.

Scalding fresh blood sprayed from the throat, splashing onto the back of Ying Xu’s hand gripping the blade, causing a shudder that made him suddenly call out coldly: “Be careful, she’s right here!”

What killed wasn’t the qin music, but the person hiding herself within it!

Yet no one could capture her trail!

She only moved forward following the qin music, in the darkness, on those withered leaves that had fallen all over the mountain with no one to sweep them, like an invisible, shadowless ghost. Seven sounds of qin, seven steps taken, but each step appeared in a different direction!

Initially at Ying Xu’s left side, by the end of the sixth sound, she had reached his right rear.

One step, one kill – each qin sound marked one life’s end!

The spraying fresh blood stained the broken moonlight on the ground red, occasionally illuminating the terrified faces churning in the forest.

“Zheng!”

The seventh sound!

The seventh person!

It was impossible to tell what had sliced through the throat – another person fell in the battle formation, but Ying Xu had completely calmed down.

The qin music also gradually lowered at this moment.

Like wind and waves rising, with flying swans drifting like snow across the sky, slowly settling down.

Killing in the cultivation world was never rare, and even less so in the Upper Void. This group from Li Xieyang were all desperate characters.

If they died, they died.

The Liuhe Divine Compass used to calculate Jian Chou’s position fell to the ground. A bright star point had suddenly appeared directly in front of him, having moved from his right rear.

Ying Xu looked up in that direction.

The bright moon hung in the sky, wind passed through the bamboo sea.

The darkness in the forest was like a solid substance – clearly nothing could be seen. But his gaze seemed to have discovered something, fixedly directed at a certain spot.

In this tense atmosphere, any moment of silence seemed to last forever.

The qin music gradually rose again.

The star point shown on the Liuhe Divine Compass remained perfectly still.

Ying Xu couldn’t help but lightly lick his left fang with his tongue. His crimson tongue tip curled out with a dangerous feeling like a snake’s forked tongue. He slightly narrowed his eyes: “Though I don’t know what method you used to create this false formation, when I saw those three positions on the Liuhe Divine Compass, I guessed you absolutely weren’t among them. So I took the compass and pursued you out of the Haotian Star Domain, only to discover your traces on this Cangya Xuanji Star. I am Ying Xu, immortal hunter of Li Xieyang.”

Rustle rustle…

The subtle sound of footsteps lightly treading on the ground covered with withered bamboo leaves.

In the forest there was floating cold mist, the scent of old decaying leaves, and the fresh fragrance from the verdant bamboo branches.

That thread of cold fragrance mingled among them.

Jian Chou walked out from the gloom. On her robe woven from mountains and rivers, not a drop of blood had stained it. Her sword remained undrawn in its sheath, held in her grasp.

If not for the moon above the bamboo sea, Ying Xu would almost think she was the moon itself.

Her features were clear and transparent, suffused with a touch of cold air.

Clearly possessing only an Earth Immortal’s cultivation, yet she had the bearing of profound depth and mountain-like stability. Even Xieyang Sheng, whom Ying Xu often saw, might not possess such composure.

It was clear she had truly become angry.

Having just arrived in this Upper Void immortal realm, she hadn’t even caused trouble for others, yet a pile of trouble had recklessly sought her out.

People who wanted to die truly couldn’t be dissuaded no matter what.

The sound of Daoist Diandao’s willow qin strings from the lake’s center crossed the gradually calming waves on the lake surface and entered the forest.

Jian Chou heard it but said nothing.

Ying Xu observed her, yet smiled with teasing affection: “Snake nature favors lust, and I favor beauties. What a pity that the immortal lady possesses celestial beauty, yet is a revered killing god. Today, I, Ying, fear I cannot return alive.”

Such frivolous words carried quite the air of a libertine.

But Jian Chou still remained silent.

The eleven survivors behind Ying Xu took this opportunity to quickly tighten their formation while also hiding their forms in the darkness. The overly tense atmosphere made cold sweat from their foreheads drip down their jaws to the ground.

Ying Xu listened to the sound of the bamboo sea’s tide and the increasingly urgent, increasingly soaring qin music from the lake’s center. His smile completely disappeared, his five fingers already gripping the fang blade tightly as he said: “I’ve long heard that Yashan has a Sword Drawing School. I presume to test myself against your excellence!”

Sword Drawing…

Jian Chou’s gaze remained fixed on him without moving, her fingers resting on the sword hilt also unmoved as she asked back: “Would you like to see?”

Ying Xu didn’t answer, but the answer was affirmative.

He had never crossed swords with cultivators from Yashan.

He’d heard their swords were all very fast swords.

Especially the moment of drawing the sword.

But Jian Chou’s sword was very slow.

Especially when drawing the sword.

Five fingers pressed on the sword hilt, the deep black blade showing only dim luster, drawn from the sheath bit by bit, inch by inch.

The rising sword was like rising wind.

Everything was in the wind, everything was in the sword!

Li Xieyang’s eleven-man battle formation also launched their assault at this moment when they understood the enemy’s location.

But who could capture the wind’s trail?

The qin music suddenly accelerated from slow, interwoven with wind sounds and sword clangs, actually producing a resonance of golden spears and iron horses, of killing intent!

Like jade pearls rolling across strings, yet what emerged was cold rain connecting rivers.

The sword passed through the night.

The red mark on that sword hadn’t brightened, only bringing the sword swift as a shuttle, passing through gaps in the forest and through the corner of Ying Xu’s peripheral vision.

“Bang.”

Someone fell.

But it wasn’t him.

He raised his blade in pursuit, but that figure with fluttering robes vanished like a ghost in the qin music that trembled like thunder.

In a blink, dark light appeared again!

“Bang!”

Another person fell.

Still not him.

Ying Xu again felt blood splatter on his neck, clearly smelling that rust-like bloody scent, but when he leaped to capture that figure, he felt he was chasing a wisp of rosy clouds.

She treated him as nothing!

The urgent qin music soared, stirring up magnificent waves on the lake!

That qin music crashed into people’s hearts like lightning splitting the darkness on a summer midnight, blazing white-hot!

Towering waves rose from the pitch-black abyss!

The killing intent was ice-cold, yet burned until those layers of ink-stained distant mountain mists steamed and billowed. The complex strings urged each other on, unable to match that pressing time…

As half a sword melody flowed from fingertips, only two sounds remained in the forest.

The solitary boat on the lake surface drifted in the wind.

Yueying listened in intoxication, Fujiansheng listened in confusion, while Daoist Diandao who played the qin was both astounded and admiring.

He had originally thought his qin was leading Jian Chou’s sword.

Unexpectedly, now it was Jian Chou’s sword leading his qin.

The sword realm was so exquisite that even he, who couldn’t use a sword, could feel the great beauty within the slaughter.

Sword song harmonized with qin song, sound answering sound.

Sometimes like a rushing river, sometimes like a collapsing snow mountain!

In the bamboo sea of lake and mountain, two figures darted about like rabbits and hawks, sometimes leaping and turning, sometimes racing swiftly. Using no magical techniques, not even any fancy sword moves, the sword force was shocking yet without the slightest overflow. From the mountain’s base to the mountainside, they left that darkness that could drown people, draping the frosty white moonlight over themselves!

“Zheng!”

Wind moved the sword!

With a turn of Jian Chou’s wrist, she was already atop the high mountain, looking down at the calm lake below like a mirror. The mirror held stars but no moon, with a single leaf of a lonely boat drifting on the lake. The three Sacred Immortals on the boat had all become tiny dots the size of rice grains.

Only that soaring qin music came like tearing silk.

So she drew her long sword up, as if stirring seawater, and under this boundless starry sky, she split open a long rainbow like a blood moon!

Ying Xu’s golden demonic pupils had now completely contracted toward the center, almost forming a narrow slit! His human form suddenly writhed when this long rainbow struck, his loose python robe instantly transforming into terrifying snake skin, wrapping around his revealed true form.

Fierce evil energy immediately surged through the long sky.

The sword shadow created by the sword qi was only a hair’s breadth from his forehead! Yet he forcibly relied on his speed as a viper snake, like a crimson dark line, flying back from the mountainside to land on the lake surface.

Only then did he truly see the shadows of the other three people on the lake.

But these three seemed to have no intention of intervening.

Or rather, even if these three intended to intervene, Ying Xu couldn’t spare attention for them!

“Rumble!”

That long rainbow formed by sword qi, like an arc-shaped crescent moon, grazed his forehead and plunged deep into the lake, as if one sword had split the lake in half!

The solitary boat in the lake immediately became unsteady.

As the master of this realm and this boat, Yueying extended one hand and pressed it on the chess board. All the star pieces that had flown up were pressed back down, then with a “bang,” the chess board also fell back onto the boat, and the boat fell back onto the lake surface.

Only that jar of wine flew high.

The mud seal at the jar’s mouth had opened, and a small ladle of mellow wine spilled out from within. The wine’s fragrance immediately overwhelmed the bloody scent coming from the bamboo sea.

However, all this had nothing to do with Ying Xu.

From the Non-Evil Heaven to the Great Luo Heaven, from demons and monsters running rampant to battles in the immortal domain, he had seen too many strong individuals, but never had anyone used a sword like this.

Without drawing upon half a trace of immortal or demonic power, yet every sword stroke was extremely dangerous.

As if others possessed sword techniques, but she alone possessed the sword dao!

When the dao gives birth, no external force is borrowed – intention emerges from within.

He had suspected this female cultivator practiced external incarnation techniques like himself, which was how she could slay those dozens of Earth and Golden Immortals beneath the Jiangnan shore city wall. But after testing her just now in the bamboo sea, he realized her sword realm was so superb it far exceeded ordinary understanding. Even without using any extraordinary power, she could probably slay those dozens under her sword.

It just wouldn’t produce that hair-raising effect.

And he probably wasn’t her match at all!

But living in the Upper Void meant life and death were determined by heaven!

Ying Xu had never feared anything, and at this moment was too lazy to retreat even a single step. Jian Chou’s unfathomable strength instead aroused the ferocity hidden deep in his demonic nature.

The viper’s powerful tail struck the lake surface hard.

“Splash!”

Water light reached the sky, shadows surged like dragons!

His vertical golden-red pupils suddenly widened, actually bright like two brilliant lanterns. His massive body rode on thick demonic power, directly breaking through the tremendous water wall raised by the falling sword, and opened his bloody maw toward Jian Chou!

The crimson forked tongue trembled in his mouth, with deadly poison hidden in his sharp fangs.

How shocking was the speed of a peak Golden Immortal?

Jian Chou’s form had just landed on the lake surface when she saw a dark shadow pouncing at her from behind the water wall. If she didn’t immediately take countermeasures, she would probably be swallowed into the snake’s belly the next moment.

Yet she didn’t move at all.

In a world full of water sounds, sword songs, and the approaching viper’s hissing, cutting through all these sounds, she heard the qin music, and heard the voice of the heart.

Extreme movement transformed into extreme stillness in just an instant.

In the qin music, beauty’s fingers turned white hair, swords clashed and became broken, flowers bloomed and fell, flowers withered and flew. In the remnant night, a solitary lamp was placed beneath a window, its bright yellow flame with a blue core gradually dimming…

The sword that Jian Chou had originally raised high actually lowered at this moment.

She slightly lowered her eyelids, like a bodhisattva with lowered brows.

That bloody maw was right before her eyes.

Compared to the viper’s true form, she was small enough to be swallowed directly by this snake mouth, bones and all.

However, an indescribable mysterious feeling arose in Ying Xu’s heart.

It was a light sigh tinged with melancholy: “Who told you that Yashan is only famous for sword drawing?”

Though the Sword Drawing Platform was high, it was only thirty-three zhang from the ground.

But the Sword Return Summit stood at Yashan’s peak, as high as Yashan itself!

The sword moved away, but the eyes lifted.

The string under Daoist Diandao’s fingertip lightly trembled, shattering the water droplets that had fallen onto the strings.

The majestic final notes drifted and swayed.

Her long, dense eyelashes also lightly trembled, like butterfly wings, catching the apricot blossoms in the light rain within that clear heavenly light!

“Hum…”

“Hiss!”

It was as if a perfectly harmonious, unopposed sword qi had shot out from between her brows and lashes. Though the sword clearly hadn’t risen, Ying Xu’s head already fell in response!

The waves on the lake remained magnificent.

The mellow wine thrown from the jar was still in mid-air.

From Daoist Diandao playing the qin to Yueying watching the battle, to Fujiansheng comprehending the sword – none of them had reacted in time.

The viper’s massive snake body crashed into the lake.

Jian Chou stood suspended above the lake. With a horizontal sweep of her sword, the head that had flown up and fallen down landed precisely on her Yi Xian Tian, and in a blink was transformed by sword qi into four white bone wine cups!

“Splash!”

Wine fell like splashing rain!

With a turn of the sword, the cups were already full, pressed against the crimson spine of Yi Xian Tian!

The sharp sword tip, whether intentionally or not, extended exactly one foot above the chess board, pointing obliquely at the white-clothed Yueying.

One laugh was a whole life’s pride.

“I’ve killed human heads to make wine cups, but wonder if you gentlemen have the courage to drink them full?”

The wine cups rested on the sword.

Demonic blood had dyed half the lake red.

Her cold brow peaks held a trace of worldly fire, her laughter calm, completely unlike someone who had just slaughtered nineteen people from Li Xieyang – only like she had turned around to fetch wine cups for them.

Still not a single drop of blood stained her body!

The three of them had all seen their share of slaughter, yet at this moment found themselves speechless!

They stared blankly for a full moment.

Daoist Diandao suddenly burst into laughter, saying “What is there to fear?” and directly took a cup from her sword. Yueying and Fujiansheng also sensed from this battle a kind of compatibility between strangers who had found kindred spirits, raised their hands to take wine, and drained it in one gulp!

“Good wine!”

“Good qin!”

“Good sword!”

“How refreshing!”

“Hahaha! Hahaha…”