A thread of golden silk seeped from Ye Fan’s fingertips, slicing open the stone wall. Instantly, flickers of faint blue-green light flowed out, revealing half a hilt. He gripped it and pulled with force — and at once azure radiance flooded the ground, making him squint.
Clang!
It was a blue-green dagger. When fully drawn, it rang out with a crisp metallic tremor. Azure radiance coiled around it and it was extremely sharp. No more than half a foot in length, it was like a still pool of jade-green water — crystalline and translucent, with a cool chill emanating from it in waves.
Ye Fan knew that this was no ordinary object. A weapon stored away by the great Demon Emperor was certainly no trifle.
“Ha ha ha!” At that moment, a red-faced, rotund Daoist rode a divine rainbow streak down, and though his figure appeared bulky, his movements were remarkably nimble. He descended without a sound, like a falling leaf, and laughed: “What luck — to think I truly tracked down a sentient spiritual weapon.” Saying this, he reached out a great hand toward the dagger in Ye Fan’s hand, wearing a kindly smile: “Child, this is a dangerous weapon — you cannot control it. Come, let this Dao master subdue it.”
Ye Fan had a strong urge to throw a punch at that round, red-faced mug of his. This rotund Daoist was truly shameless, actually treating him like a child to be hoodwinked. He dodged backward. The rotund Daoist was remarkably agile — his great hand gave a light twist, and with a flash he snatched the dagger away. He laughed heartily: “Child, I have noted this favor. The mountain does not move, but the road does — when we meet again, I, your Dao master, will give you a fine reward.”
With those words said, the rotund Daoist gave his rear a pat and made to leave. With a whoosh, he rode his divine rainbow streak skyward.
“You fat oaf — I’ll remember you!” Ye Fan cursed under his breath, waving his fist forcefully at the sky. To have a sentient spiritual weapon seized right out of his hands like that was truly infuriating.
“I’m not that fat, am I — just sturdily built.” The rotund Daoist, some thirty-odd years of age, had remarkably keen hearing — having already flown more than a hundred meters away, he still caught Ye Fan’s murmur. He turned his head and flashed a mouthful of snow-white teeth with a brilliant grin: “The next time we meet, I shall bring you good fortune.”
Seeing that his spiritual perception was this sharp, Ye Fan did not dare make another sound. He rolled his eyes in the Daoist’s direction and watched the rotund figure swagger off into the distance.
At the Demon Emperor’s burial mound, quite a few sentient spiritual weapons had truly made their escape — radiance blazing in all directions, shooting toward every quarter of the compass. Many cultivators rode divine rainbow streaks in relentless pursuit, and the sky above this primitive wasteland was filled with light and shadow.
Whoosh!
Barely a quarter of an hour had passed when another divine rainbow streak shot toward Ye Fan’s position, giving him a great fright. He hastily dodged aside. A streak of crimson radiance, like burning clouds gathered together, rushed over quickly and embedded itself in the stone wall ahead.
Ye Fan was rather surprised. He felt this was truly his lucky day, and was inwardly delighted — he had just had a dagger swindled away by that rotund Daoist, and now another weapon had appeared before him. He cast vigilant glances in all four directions, saw no one passing by, and with a flicker of golden silk at his fingertips, quickly split open the stone wall and dug out a blood-colored bead — and at once, streaks of crimson radiance scattered in all directions.
“Ha ha ha!” Laughter rang out from a distance. A rotund Daoist in the far sky had his mouth split nearly to his ears, riding a divine rainbow streak as he rushed over.
“Damn it!” Ye Fan cursed inwardly, grabbed the crimson-radiance-wrapped bead, and turned to run.
“It seems this poor Daoist and little friend are fated — to think we would meet again so soon.” The rotund Daoist’s mouth was split in a wide grin, immensely pleased. With a whoosh, he descended before Ye Fan, blocking his path. He extended a plump great hand and said with a smiling squint: “This treasure and I share a karmic connection — little friend, lend it to me for a moment.”
“Daoist, you are being far too overbearing.” Ye Fan was furious. Clutching the bead with its blazing radiance, he stepped back: “You’ve already seized one sentient spiritual weapon from me — this one you can’t have as well.”
“This bead is transformed from a demon — little friend, you cannot hold it down. It is for your own good that I, your poor Daoist, have come to subdue it.” The rotund Daoist’s face was flushed and bright, smiling eyes slightly narrowed as he reached out his plump hand, and with a flash, snatched the red bead away.
Ye Fan’s teeth itched with hatred: “Daoist, didn’t you say that the next time we met you’d bring me good fortune and properly thank me? How are you stealing my things again? You’ve already taken one dagger — at least give this bead back to me.”
“Your thinking is mistaken, little friend. Have you not yet understood?” The rotund Daoist’s face was full of gleeful smiles, he spoke with brazen effrontery, every inch the charlatan, and said: “It is precisely because you and I cultivated a karmic bond at our first meeting that we were brought together for this second reunion, so that I could come and subdue this demon-transformed bead, and help you avoid a calamity. This is the good fruit born from the good karmic seed you planted.”
“You utter…” Ye Fan had a genuine impulse to give him a thrashing, and would have loved nothing more than to leave a shoe-print on that fat face of his — but considering the Daoist’s unfathomably deep cultivation, he suppressed the urge.
“Boundless Heaven! Little friend, fate brings us together and fate parts us — I shall take my leave!” The rotund Daoist gave his rear a wiggle, rode his divine rainbow streak, and shot into the sky — gone in a flash.
“You fat oaf, may we never meet again in this lifetime!” Ye Fan was utterly dejected, feeling considerably furious. This unscrupulous Daoist was truly too unscrupulous.
BOOM!
In the distance, the five great figures unleashed another ferocious joint strike, knocking off another corner of the Demon Emperor’s burial mound. Radiance blazed and scattered in all directions, and yet more sentient spiritual weapons burst free. Even with their world-dominating divine might, the five supreme cultivators could not possibly intercept every streak of light shooting skyward — many weapons escaped into the distance. All the cultivators nearby broke into delighted expressions, riding their divine rainbow streaks to shoot off in all directions, intercepting those flashes of light.
Ye Fan sat dejectedly atop the stone mountain, watching the radiance blazing in all directions in the far sky. He was helpless. He muttered to himself: “That damned fat oaf — that shameless wicked Daoist. I curse him to be robbed of everything, not even leaving him his Daoist robes!”
Whoosh!
A streak of violet radiance came rushing from the far sky — swift as a shooting star — and plunged into the stone wall ahead of him. Ye Fan opened his eyes wide, barely able to believe it. Incredibly, a third sentient spiritual weapon had shot toward this location. It was genuinely strange.
This place… He dimly sensed that something was wrong with this stretch of stone wall. Most likely something peculiar was at work here — otherwise, in all this world, there could not be such a coincidence as one sentient weapon after another embedding itself in the same stretch of cliff.
This time, Ye Fan made no hasty move, and waited a long while. Seeing no one else passing by in the vicinity, he slowly walked over, muttering to himself: “The fat oaf won’t appear this time, will he…”
He carefully excavated the stone wall, and at once streams of intoxicating violet light flowed out, dyeing his palm a crystalline shimmer. Violet energy filled the air with a sensation that was remarkably pleasant — and it was a violet jade ring, with violet radiance rising in waves and a thousand brilliant auspicious colors. One look at it was enough to make anyone like it.
“That shameless fat oaf — he swindled two treasures from me. If not for that, I’d have collected three already.” Ye Fan grumbled resentfully: “At least this time I wasn’t caught by him.”
“Your poor Daoist has come!” Before Ye Fan could finish muttering, a portly figure appeared again — a face brimming with joyful smiles, creases bunching up all across his forehead, his mouth split all the way to his ears with his back teeth exposed, as he laughed heartily: “Little friend and I are truly fated.”
“I… you…” Ye Fan’s face turned green. In his wildest imagination he could not have expected this rotund Daoist to cling to him like a plaster that just would not come off. He raged: “Who is fated with you — just get out of my sight!”
“You and I truly are fated.” The rotund Daoist’s face didn’t flush and his heart didn’t skip a beat. Completely serious in his manner, he counted off on his thick fingers: “Look — in barely a short span of time, we have met three times already. How can you call that without fate? It is Heaven’s will!”
“Heaven’s will my uncle!” Ye Fan raised his foot, wanting to kick that fat rear of his twice — but considering the gap between their respective strengths, he ultimately swallowed his fury, stepped to one side, and shouted loudly toward the far sky: “Sentient spiritual weapon…”
He hurled the ring out with force — even if it was seized by someone else, he refused to let this unscrupulous Daoist have his way again, or it really might cause him to spit blood. The violet light sliced through the sky.
The rotund Daoist’s reaction speed was wildly at odds with his figure. With a whish, he shot forward, and before the violet jade ring had flown even a hundred meters, he snatched it into his hand in one smooth motion. Then he landed with a face full of delighted grins: “Heaven’s will, I tell you — Heaven’s will.”
Ye Fan truly felt like spitting blood. This damned fat oaf was too despicable and shameless — deliberately provoking him on purpose.
“Daoist, do you not feel you’ve gone too far?” Ye Fan’s temples were visibly throbbing: “Have a little character as a man of the cloth, would you? A person can’t be this greedy.”
“I have always been self-disciplined. External things cannot move the root of my heart. I wipe the dust daily; my heart is like the sacred moon shining clear across the heavens.”
Watching him put on his charlatan act, Ye Fan’s forehead broke out in a cold sweat: “If you are so self-disciplined, then return what belongs to me!”
“A man of the cloth shows mercy and compassion to all. Only because you and I share a karmic bond has your poor Daoist tirelessly labored to resolve three calamities on your behalf, reluctantly using this humble mortal shell to suppress three great demons.” The rotund Daoist wore an expression of deep compassion, looking remarkably sincere and honest. He intoned “boundless heaven” and put on the airs of a transcendent master beyond the mundane world.
“You charlatan… what the—!” Ye Fan gritted his teeth: “Daoist, what is your surname?”
“My humble surname is Duan, given name De — Duan De.”
“No wonder you are so utterly lacking in virtue. Duan De — ‘severed virtue’ — you have clearly severed all sense of virtue and integrity!”