“If the world’s cultivators and common people were made to always live in days of constant fighting and unrest, never knowing peace, what does it matter if no one ascends?” Huan Zong stood before everyone. Jiu Su’s arrogance didn’t diminish his presence. “Mortals have lifespans of mere decades, with the longest-lived reaching only a hundred years. Those of us fortunate enough to embark on the cultivation path can live two hundred years in Qi Refining stage, five hundred years in Foundation Establishment, Heart Movement and Golden Core cultivators can even live nearly eight hundred years, and if one successfully forms a Nascent Soul, one has a thousand-year lifespan. Compared to ordinary people, we are already much more fortunate. What is there to fear?”
“If the path to immortality can only be built with piled corpses and blood, what does it matter if we don’t walk this path?” Kong Hou stood beside Huan Zong. She turned to look at the sect masters, elders, and lead disciples from various sects. Among them were people she knew and people she didn’t. Sect Master Martial Uncle would secretly slip her some magical tools. Senior Brother Wu Chuan didn’t love talking, but would silently care for the sect’s junior brothers and sisters. And there was her master—the entire sect knew he didn’t have many spirit stones on him, but when she went out traveling, Master would always find ways to save up some spirit stones for her. Because in his heart, this disciple of his was a young lady who loved beauty and enjoyed good food, so he wanted to satisfy her as much as possible.
Sect Master Jin Yue was serious in manner, managing all of Liuguang Sect very well, devoting considerable effort to the entire cultivation world. There were also the Jiufeng Sect master and Zhaohan Sect master—these cultivators with profound cultivation had never acted superior because of their high cultivation. When seeing promising juniors, they would offer words of encouragement.
And all the relatively young lead disciples present—they observed sect rules, were upright in character. Even if each had their own personality and couldn’t achieve perfection, they were all praiseworthy rising stars. All of them were vibrant, living and breathing people. Ascending to immortality certainly held great allure, but if she had to let these people perish for the opportunity to become immortal, she couldn’t do it.
“Have the righteous sects run out of people, that they actually let a yellow-haired girl like you speak?” Seeing Kong Hou, Jiu Su was reminded of how Hong Yan ambushed him ten years ago. He immediately waved his sleeve. Sand and stone behind him gathered into a massive evil dragon that opened its mouth wide and roared toward Kong Hou.
He liked beautiful women, but he didn’t like women who dared offend him.
The evil dragon formed from piled sand and stone hadn’t yet approached Kong Hou when it was severed by one of Huan Zong’s sword strikes. Dust flew everywhere, leaving the ground in complete disarray.
Heng Yan looked at the shattered stone slabs, his heart secretly aching. These slabs were all made from the finest jade. So many shattered at once—they would all need to spend spirit stones to buy new ones.
After defeating Jiu Su, he should discuss with everyone the matter of rebuilding Yunhua Sect’s structures.
“Hmm?” Jiu Su hadn’t expected Huan Zong to quietly block this strike of his. He sneered coldly. “Truly an honorable and righteous man. For your beloved woman, you dare carelessly circulate spiritual energy. Aren’t you afraid your already broken spiritual platform will be completely destroyed?”
Huan Zong didn’t speak. Longyin Sword emitted a humming sound.
“Now you know why I dare oppose you.” Kong Hou, thinking of the dream where Huan Zong’s spiritual platform shattered in battle against Jiu Su and he gradually aged, found Jiu Su particularly displeasing to her eyes. “Because my man is capable and willing to protect me at any time.”
“Zhongxi, despite your great reputation, your judgment is quite poor.” Even as Jiu Su spoke, he attacked Kong Hou again. Of course, this time he still didn’t succeed—the one who blocked him was still Huan Zong.
“Loving someone means protecting her is only natural.” Huan Zong’s red robes churned in the spiritual energy. Only then did everyone see clearly that dragon patterns were embroidered with hidden stitching on his wedding garments.
Jiu Su faintly felt something was wrong. Though Zhongxi was a sword cultivator who could kill across stages, he was at Great Ascension Great Perfection cultivation. How could a Divine Transformation stage sword cultivator be completely unaffected by his pressure aura, without even showing half a hint of exhaustion on his face?
“Zhongxi, stand down.”
Jin Yue suddenly spoke. He and several Liuguang Sect elders flew up to block before Jiu Su, engaging him in fierce battle.
The mockery in Jiu Su’s eyes grew even more intense. These righteous sects wanted to use rotating combat to exhaust the spiritual energy in his body? How laughable. These people had never touched upon how formidable the Great Ascension stage was, yet they actually attempted to use such methods against him?
Truly overestimating themselves!
Thinking this, he stopped being polite. He immediately used sixty percent of his strength. In less than two quarters of an hour, he had slapped Jin Yue and several elders to the ground.
“Nothing more than this.” Jiu Su pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his hands, then threw the handkerchief on the ground. He looked at everyone with cold laughter. “With just this little ability, you still want to stop me?” His gaze swept over everyone, landing on Yuexing Sect’s sect master Wang Su.
“I heard Yuexing Sect closed its mountain gates for a hundred years. Only ten years have passed—why have you emerged?” Jiu Su placed his hands behind his back. “According to the rules, you should properly address me as Martial Grand-Uncle.”
“You betrayed and left the sect, were long ago removed from the sect records. Neither I nor anyone in Yuexing Sect has any connection to you.” Wang Su’s face was like ice. “Where does this talk of Martial Grand-Uncle come from?”
Wang Su was Yuexing Sect’s twenty-fifth generation male sect master, while Jiu Su had once been the twenty-third generation lead disciple. Tempted by the mortal world, he betrayed the sect to join the demonic path, killing many innocent cultivators and common people. Yuexing Sect had long since removed him from the records. The current twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth generation disciples of Yuexing Sect didn’t even know the evil cultivator realm’s Venerable Master had this connection with their own sect.
“Since that’s the case, I need not spare your life for old times’ sake.” Jiu Su’s movements were swift. Several great powers with Out-of-Body stage cultivation were like five-year-old children in his hands, completely unable to withstand ten of his attacks.
Very quickly he reached Wang Su. He extended his hand, using spiritual power to seal Wang Su’s spiritual platform, then grasped his throat and demanded harshly: “Who is the Child of Destiny?”
Wang Su turned his head to glance at Huan Zong in his wedding garments: “Who the Child of Destiny in the cultivation world is—everyone knows. Why must you ask me again?”
“Heh.” Jiu Su laughed softly. “Everyone believes Zhongxi is the Child of Destiny, but I know that with Yuexing Sect’s style of doing things, they absolutely wouldn’t make a big show of revealing the true Child of Destiny’s identity. The real Child of Destiny isn’t here, correct?” He looked toward the main hall doors behind Wang Su. “He’s inside?”
The sect masters and elders who had been beaten dizzy all heard Wang Su’s words and were shocked beyond measure. If Zhenren Zhongxi wasn’t the Child of Destiny, then who was?
“Her.” Wang Su casually pointed at Kong Hou. “She is.”
Kong Hou: “…”
She never imagined that someone as aloof as Sect Master Wang Su would sell out teammates so quickly.
“You think I’ll believe you?” Jiu Su struck Wang Su with one palm. Wang Su’s entire person was sent flying, falling at Kong Hou’s feet.
Kong Hou bent down to help Wang Su up. Wang Su looked at her with calm expression, wiped away the blood at the corner of his mouth, straightened the clothing on his body, still appearing aloof and untainted.
“If she were the Child of Destiny, would you let her stand here? The sect master of Yuexing Sect would rather die than protect the cultivation world’s prosperity. Would you so easily reveal her identity?” Jiu Su waved his sleeve. “Men are heaven, women are earth. When has the cultivation world’s Child of Destiny ever been a woman?”
The expressions of the female sect masters and female elders present became somewhat unpleasant.
What kind of problem was this? Acting improperly was one thing, but also looking down on women?
“Looks like you’re different from us—you came out of a man’s belly.” Kong Hou unsealed the restriction on Wang Su’s spiritual platform, reluctantly pulling out the phoenix hairpin from her hair. “The phoenix crown I’m wearing today is very beautiful, the wedding dress is also very pretty. I really didn’t want to take action.” She removed the phoenix crown and put it in her storage pouch. This thing looked good when worn but wasn’t very convenient for fighting. “However, fortunately your strength wasn’t enough to attack before Huan Zong and I finished our dao companion ceremony.”
Fengshi fell to the ground and transformed into a massive phoenix-patterned konghou, its dharma light flashing.
Jiu Su turned to look back, only then discovering that these people were all standing in strange positions, surrounding him in a circle between the main hall and the people.
After betraying the sect, Jiu Su had always devoted himself to cultivating evil techniques and knew little about formations. But even so, he understood that these people had deliberately lured him into a predetermined location.
Overestimating themselves.
He sneered coldly. The magical tool in his hand spun once in the air, slashing toward an elder. Who knew that spiritual energy would suddenly surge from the ground, blocking his attack?
The main hall doors suddenly opened. Several elders with the most profound cultivation held their life-bound magical tools, spiritual energy churning on their bodies without any concealment. The hall’s eaves and walls couldn’t withstand such spiritual energy pressure and instantly shattered to dust. A great wind rose, wild sand dancing.
“The Twenty-Four Star Constellations Formation?” Jiu Su finally recognized what formation this was. This type of formation mostly used magical tools as formation core and formation points. To deal with him, these cultivators actually used their physical bodies as formation points—did they want to perish together with him?
Looking again at the two people at the formation’s core, they were actually that yellow-haired girl who had joined the sect not many years ago, and Zhenren Zhongxi whose spiritual platform was precarious. Had the cultivation world truly run out of people, that they let these two deal with him?
Of course Kong Hou and Huan Zong wouldn’t kindly explain to Jiu Su what formation this was or what formidable aspects it had. The two exchanged a glance and began attacking.
Between dao companions, hearts were connected. Even between their magical tools, there was tacit understanding. Kong Hou didn’t often use Fengshi to fight people, because when there was no enmity, this thing’s killing power was too great.
Unlike other magical tools, sound attacks came from invisible angles—omnipresent, unable to be seen or touched, impossible to block.
When Kong Hou plucked the strings, Jiu Su sensed something was wrong. This yellow-haired girl had joined the sect less than twenty years ago—why did she have such profound cultivation?
Nascent Soul stage? Heart Movement stage?
Wrong!
Jiu Su dodged Longyin Sword. This was Divine Transformation stage cultivation.
A sound cultivator with Divine Transformation stage cultivation was even more terrifying than a sword cultivator. Precisely because this type of cultivator was too terrifying, wanting to cultivate to Nascent Soul was already extremely difficult, let alone reaching Divine Transformation stage cultivation in just twenty years.
“You opened Yuexing Sect’s small world gates?!” Jiu Su looked at Wang Su. Wang Su lowered his eyes without speaking.
Jiu Su’s heart was filled with uncertainty. Could Wang Su not have lied to him? Was the Child of Destiny truly Kong Hou?
In his moment of distraction, Longyin Sword sliced through his wrist. Blood bloomed in the air, falling all over the ground.
Being injured by the same junior again, Jiu Su was enraged beyond control: “You two want to become mandarin ducks in the underworld? I’ll fulfill your wish!”
“Roar!” From the clouds, a pitch-black massive beast descended from the sky. Saliva flowed from its teeth, emitting waves of foul stench.
“This is…” The Shouwang Sect master said, “This is a Tiger Flood Dragon Beast.”
This type of fierce beast was extremely rare. Legend said it was offspring born from the mating of a dragon and a tiger, possessing tremendous power, able to swallow mountains and devour seas.