The two blossoms on the single stalk were a striking pair, one half blood-red and the other snowy white. Their stems joined together, making them resemble two peerless beauties standing silently back to back.
The closer Xu Ziqing came, the more clearly he smelled their fragrance, a scent of extraordinary purity and serenity.
He stood beside the white-jade pool without reaching out to touch them.
Yet he was utterly certain that these were the blossoms that had called to him, drawing him onward through the inheritance grounds. Yes, the thing attracting him was not the supposed ancient inheritance at all, but a faint yet unmistakable summons reaching his sea of consciousness.
But why would these twin lotus blossoms call him?
He could not understand it. As he examined them more carefully, his puzzlement was accompanied by a trace of vigilance.
While he hesitated, a sudden commotion came from behind.
A powerful force hurtled toward him and reached his back in the blink of an eye!
Xu Ziqing was about to turn and defend himself when a hand reached out beside him. A streak of sword qi shot forth and dispersed the incoming attack.
Yun Lie had acted.
Xu Ziqing frowned. Who had attacked him from behind?
As he turned, several more assaults came one after another. Balls of dark blue energy hurtled toward the vulnerable points of his body, each filled with murderous intent, as though their owner meant to kill him outright.
Had Xu Ziqing been alone, he would have struggled to defend against them all even with time to react.
For the attacker was the sole remaining Golden Core perfected master.
Only moments before, the man had been hesitating over the Dust-Separation Pills. Yet now he had appeared here and was attacking Xu Ziqing.
There was no time to think. Xu Ziqing spat out a cluster of azure light, colliding with one attack in a deafening explosion. Yun Lie shattered the remaining dark blue spheres with a sweep of his sleeve, leaving nothing behind.
Xu Ziqing was naturally displeased at nearly being seriously injured by an ambush, and anger flickered in his eyes.
But the Golden Core perfected master showed no regret. He snorted and shouted, “Brat, don’t steal this Daoist Master’s destined opportunity! Be careful you don’t choke trying to swallow something too big for you!”
Despite his harsh words, he was not treating them lightly. In fact, his expression betrayed considerable wariness.
Against Xu Ziqing, he had every confidence in his strength. But whenever his attacks met Yun Lie, they vanished without a trace, like stones sinking into the sea.
A thought crossed Xu Ziqing’s mind, and he understood the man’s behavior.
The Golden Core cultivator must finally have overcome his indecision and chosen to seek the inheritance. But when he reached the end of the passage, he found a green-robed youth bent over the white-jade pool, seemingly about to touch something, with several people nearby protecting him. In that moment, he must have assumed they had found the object of inheritance and were preparing to let Xu Ziqing receive it. Furious, he attacked without restraint.
Understanding this, Xu Ziqing did not know whether to laugh or cry.
It would not be true to say he had no interest in Perfected Master Luofu’s inheritance. But he had already committed himself to cultivating the Great Art of Myriad Woods Heart-Planting and could not possibly switch to the Luofu True Scripture. Even if he obtained the inheritance, he would only consult it to verify parts of his own understanding. He never intended to accept it wholesale.
In the present circumstances, however, the red-eyed Golden Core cultivator would probably refuse to believe him even if he explained.
It seemed a fight was unavoidable.
Xu Ziqing grew alert and immediately circulated his cultivation art.
His senior brother was protecting him, but the attacker was only at early Golden Core. If Xu Ziqing released Rong Jin, he should be able to defeat a foe above his realm. Yet with so many people present, he did not want to expose the demon vine prematurely. He intended to fight using his own abilities and gain valuable experience. Opportunities to battle Golden Core perfected masters were rare for him.
He brushed a finger between his brows and caught a fine needle shimmering with azure light. With a flick of his fingers, he formed an array around himself according to the three hundred and sixty circuits of the heavens. Points of light shimmered like stars, gathering energy.
This was a False Star Formation, a variation derived from the ancient Great Heavenly Circulation Star Array, and a subsidiary formation of another subsidiary formation at that. Once established, it caused the objects arranged within it to move according to the paths of stars, gradually accumulating a semblance of stellar power. Though it was far weaker than true starlight, it could substantially increase its wielder’s power for a short time and make the formation itself formidable.
Ever since Xu Ziqing had learned to divide the Qingyun Needle into hundreds or thousands, a realization had begun to form in his heart.
The Qingyun Needle was the embryonic form of a divine ability he had condensed from the Dao of Wood. To perfect it, he would need further insights.
It already contained the principles of the myriad woods and the cycle of flourishing and decline through the four seasons. But plants also changed in response to the sun, moon, and stars. This, too, belonged within his understanding of the Wood Dao and could be incorporated into his divine ability.
Thus he had searched ancient manuals on formations and found this particular array. He inscribed its pattern into his Qingyun Needle and fixed the number of divided needles at three hundred and sixty. From then on, he intended to use precisely that number whenever he invoked it.
Over time, the Qingyun Needle would acquire some of the principles governing the movement of the stars. Combined with its original conception of the Wood Dao, this would make up for its deficiencies.
Xu Ziqing wished to test the array against this Golden Core perfected master. He therefore deployed it immediately. His sleeves and long hair lifted into the air, and standing within the great heavenly circulation, surrounded by the pull of stellar force, he took on an indescribably mysterious aura.
The Golden Core cultivator’s face darkened.
It had to be said that this was another tremendous difference between disciples of great sects and those from ordinary sects or the ranks of rogue cultivators.
The Wuling Immortal Sect possessed countless manuals and records. As long as a disciple earned sufficient merit points, secret arts and treasured texts of all kinds were available. Those outside the sect might go through innumerable hardships without ever obtaining a cultivation art that suited them. The gulf between them was beyond easy description.
The Golden Core cultivator’s eyes flashed with envy at the sight of this intricate formation.
Under ordinary circumstances, his firm Dao heart would not have been shaken by something so minor. As an unaffiliated cultivator, he had overcome countless dangers to reach his present realm. But today he had repeatedly been forced to choose, surrendering many treasures whose value he could scarcely have imagined in ordinary life. Gradually, the choices had generated an obsession. When he encountered the Dust-Separation Pills, a heart demon finally took root within him.
His decision to attack Xu Ziqing under the mistaken belief that the youth was about to claim the inheritance had already been prompted by that heart demon. Now, seeing a mere Core Transformation cultivator casually deploy such a sophisticated array, the demon within his heart seized upon the spark of malice and magnified it.
This was one reason the path of immortality was so difficult.
The Golden Core perfected master held a pair of silver hooks. His body suddenly became a blur.
He used a movement technique Xu Ziqing had never seen. As he darted from side to side, countless afterimages filled the air, leaving his real body impossible to distinguish.
The hooks were originally very slender, but they had become flickering points of silver light, appearing above and below, before and behind.
Xu Ziqing had already sent the Qingyun Needles outward to surround the Golden Core cultivator in an array. Now, as the man moved, clear metallic chimes rang continuously, as pleasing as rain falling on banana leaves.
Even with his present eyesight, Xu Ziqing could not follow the man’s movements. He could only listen for subtle variations in those sounds and sense the impacts upon his Qingyun Needles. From these clues, he barely managed to infer the Golden Core cultivator’s path.
They remained at a stalemate for half a ke. The array possessed some strength, and the Golden Core cultivator could not immediately escape. But his thoughts were obsessed with the inheritance. He could not bear a prolonged struggle that might let someone else claim it. He abruptly threw out a talisman. The talisman expanded in the wind and transformed into an enormous boulder several zhang high, crashing down from overhead!
Boom!
With a tremendous impact, the Three-Hundred-and-Sixty Heavenly Circulation Formation broke apart. The backlash struck Xu Ziqing, leaving a painful pressure in his chest.
As expected, the difference between Golden Core and Core Transformation was immense. With Rong Jin protecting him, he might withstand a superior opponent, but using his other divine abilities alone, he simply could not bridge the gap in cultivation realms.
After steadying himself, Xu Ziqing flashed backward several zhang, keeping the Golden Core cultivator from closing in.
The perfected master’s eyes still brimmed with murderous intent. He had no intention of sparing Xu Ziqing.
He had even forgotten Yun Lie and the other two Core Transformation cultivators who were watching nearby. The green-robed youth seemed to him the greatest obstacle to obtaining the inheritance, someone who had to be eliminated at all costs.
Xu Ziqing knew he had become the man’s target. Noticing black light flickering within his eyes, he understood that the heart demon had taken advantage of him. Unless someone delivered a profound warning powerful enough to shake his very soul, he would find it almost impossible to awaken.
But such an intervention could only be performed by someone with cultivation higher than his own. Of those present, even Yun Lie, who could kill opponents above his level, was merely at early Golden Core. Even if he wished to awaken the man out of sympathy for the hardships of cultivation, he could not accomplish it.
Xu Ziqing set the thought aside.
After all, it was the man himself who had first harbored evil intentions, leading to this result. He wanted Xu Ziqing’s life. Although Xu Ziqing had no desire to repay harm with harm, neither would he spend much effort returning kindness for such malice.
At that moment, as the Golden Core cultivator was preparing to attack again, a tremendous noise suddenly rose from elsewhere. The sound of fighting rapidly intensified.
Xu Ziqing started. He sensed an aura approaching, one remarkably similar to Perfected Master Luofu’s.
“Could that be the inheritance?” Geng Zheng and Shen Yinglan, who had been watching, immediately dashed toward the sound, unable to suppress their astonished question.
They regretted blurting it out as soon as the words left their mouths. Their self-control was still lacking.
But in the next instant, they forgot their regret.
A fist-sized crystal, clear and radiant, was floating out from a side hall. Behind it seemed to run a small, almost invisible beast several chi long, treading upon clouds. Its mouth opened and seized the crystal as it rushed toward them.
The creature’s form was nearly impossible to discern. Only its muzzle and mouth were faintly visible. Yet a fierce, baleful aura surrounded it, thrown into relief by the crystal’s exceptionally rich spiritual energy.
Several people pursued from behind. The leading two were the languid youth and his attendant. Another three or four Core Transformation cultivators followed, apparently hoping to seize a chance, though none dared overtake the pair.
The languid youth stretched out a hand. Invisible force seemed to surge from his palm, coiling toward the little beast.
For some unknown reason, a Core Transformation cultivator suddenly shouted, “The inheritance is in that beast’s mouth! Stop it!”
Hearing this, the Golden Core perfected master abandoned his struggle with Xu Ziqing and sprang toward the master and servant instead.
The languid youth raised an eyebrow. As the attacker approached, he struck out with his palm.
An instant later, the Golden Core cultivator’s dantian was pierced through, and the Golden Core he had cultivated through so many hardships was reduced to powder.
They had both appeared to be at early Golden Core, yet the youth had killed his opponent with a seemingly casual strike!
How terrifying!
Xu Ziqing was startled. The Golden Core perfected master had indeed attacked first, but anyone with sufficient perception could have seen that a heart demon had seized control of him.
Yet the languid youth had killed him without the slightest hesitation or pity. His methods were truly ruthless.
For an instant, the aura that emerged from the languid youth overlapped with a figure in Xu Ziqing’s memories, someone who had once looked down upon a gathering of powerful experts.