Chapter 78: Dragon Vein, Devouring the Broken Stele
The sharp shriek of the Green Cicada Coins tearing through the air ripped open the congealed Spiritual Qi, and twelve Dunjia Talisman shot out from Lu Qingyang's sleeve. Golden chains formed by burning talismans wrapped around the golden dragons of the inscriptions that were pouncing on Su Li, but they melted into molten iron the instant they touched the Dragon Vein's Spiritual Qi.
"Fairy Su, if your Ice Soul Sword freezes any slower, Mr. Lu's entire life savings will be lost!"
"Noisy."
Su Li's sword tip lightly flicked, and ice crystals condensed from moonlight drilled into the gaps of the golden dragon's inverse scales. The Dragon Vein's Spiritual Qi suddenly trembled violently, and spiderweb cracks appeared on the base of the Dragon-Slaying Stele. The nine golden dragons actually began to bite each other.
Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to insert the Soul-Reaping Banner into the fissure in the earth's pulse , and the evil ghost patterns on the banner greedily devoured the escaping Dragon Qi.
Su Yao's crazed laughter came from underground, and three corpse puppets wrapped in blood robes burst out of the earth. The bronze ge (dagger-axe) held by the middle corpse puppet was engraved with Southern Border witch script, and a two-headed centipede crawled out of its left eye socket: "Sister, do you know that the Ice Coffin of the first Palace Master of Guanghan Palace was buried at the bottom of the Demon Transformation Pool back then?"
Ice Soul Sword Qi swept across, freezing half of the corpse puppet's body. Su Li stepped onto a staircase formed by moonlight, ascending into the air step by step, and the silver threads hanging from her hair formed a Taiyin Star Map: "Yao'er, do you know why Master only taught me the last chapter of the 'Soul-Corroding Scripture'?"
Seven ice prisms descended from the star map, exploding into a sky full of ice shards when they pierced the corpse puppet's crown.
A Green Cicada Coin slipped from Lu Qingyang's sleeve, and the 'Tongbao' characters engraved on the coin's edge glowed with a bloody light. The coin accurately embedded itself into the corpse puppet's joint, and the bursting golden sharp Qi shredded the bronze ge into pieces: "Su Gu Niang's Incarnation is quite extravagant, even willing to use the Heart-Devouring Gu of the Southern Border witches."
He used the tip of his boot to flick up half of the bronze ge, then slammed it into the fissure in the earth's veins. The witch script on the ge's body suddenly lit up with a faint green poisonous flame.
"Kan position..."
Su Li was about to warn him, but saw Lu Qingyang, using the Greedy Wolf Steps, Around to the back of the poisonous flame. The lightning talisman he held between his fingers was not activated; instead, he used the Soul-Reaping Banner to roll up the poisonous flame and fling it towards the Dragon-Slaying Stele.
The inscriptions on the stele twisted and deformed under the scorching poisonous flame, actually revealing a three-dimensional formation map of Taiyi Pavilion's Scripture Pavilion.
"Six-tenths for you!" Lu Qingyang suddenly roared, and the greedy wolf dagger cut his palm. A line of blood flowed along the Soul-Reaping Banner's patterns into the poisonous flame. When the flame shot up three zhang (about 10 meters) high, it condensed into a one-horned fire dragon.
The moment the fire dragon bit into the stele's formation map, the entire Taiyi Pavilion ruins shook, and Spiritual Qi rushing out from the earth's veins formed a tornado.
Su Li inserted the Ice Soul Sword into the Zhen position, and frost patterns spread along the earth's veins. When the two streams of ice and fire Spiritual Qi collided in the center of the tornado, the qingmu spirit pearl in Lu Qingyang's embrace suddenly flew out, and the roots of the Jianmu (Divine Tree) within the pearl greedily devoured the aftermath of the explosion.
The wood grain under the skin of his left arm bulged, and what flowed through his Meridians was no longer blood, but a greenish-glowing tree sap.
"Catch!" Su Li threw out the Guanghan Palace's secret-made Profound Ice Marrow. The instant the ice marrow touched his body, it froze the rampaging Jianmu roots.
Lu Qingyang grimaced as he tore off a piece of tree-bark-like dead flesh, and tender green sprouts actually grew from the wound: "Fairy Su, if this ice marrow were mixed with Jade Pond Dew, Mr. Lu would be willing to take three more sword strikes."
The remnant body of the corpse puppet reassembled in the Spiritual Qi storm, and Su Yao's 본명 (Natal) Blood Lotus rose from the depths of the earth's veins. Sitting in the lotus heart was a Nascent Soul with a face similar to Su Li's, but what the Nascent Soul held in her hand was not a Magic Treasure, but half a shattered ice mirror: "Sister, do you recognize this Tracing Shadow Mirror? When you pushed me into the Demon Transformation Pool back then, did the mirror contain the imprints of my three souls?"
The Ice Soul Sword let out a mournful cry, and fine cracks appeared on its blade. Su Li used two fingers to wipe her brow, and a jade toad flew out from the moon wheel imprint. The moment the toad's tongue wrapped around the Blood Lotus, Taiyin True Water and blood evil Qi splattered like rain.
Lu Qingyang suddenly threw out seven Soul-Nailing Spikes. The spikes passed through the boundary between the True Water and blood evil, actually nailing the fragments of the Tracing Shadow Mirror in the Void Realm.
"Mr. Lu is not interested in sisterly grudges," he said, leaping onto the crumbling Dragon Vein stele. The Soul-Reaping Banner wrapped around three splashed drops of True Water and blood beads, "but this blood dew, mixed with Guanghan Palace's true Biography and Taiyi Pavilion's secret methods, is excellent Materials for Artifact Refining."
The evil ghost on the banner suddenly wailed, and the ghost head that devoured the blood beads actually grew ice crystal fangs.
Su Yao's Nascent Soul crushed the ice mirror, and the mirror fragments transformed into thousands of ice blades sweeping across the entire area. Lu Qingyang pulled out the Mountain River Screen from Ye Lingxiao's Storage Pouch. The moment the painting unfolded, the ice blades disappeared into the painted snow mountains without a trace.
He shook the painting, scoffing: "Su Gu Niang's illusion technique is indeed three points stronger than the dancers of the Drunken Immortal Pavilion."
At this moment, the Ice Soul Sword completed its transformation. Moonlight bloomed from the cracks on the sword's spine, and Su Li's white hair moved without wind. She pointed her sword at the Blood Lotus Nascent Soul, and the phantom of Guanghan Palace appeared behind her. The jade statue kneeling before the palace gate was seven-tenths similar to Su Yao: "Yao'er, that night you stole the 'Taiyin Soul-Corroding Scripture,' did you see the tears in Master's eyes?"
The Blood Lotus Nascent Soul suddenly froze, and the Karma lines beneath the lotus seat snapped one by one. Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to throw out the qingmu spirit pearl, and the Jianmu roots, following the remnants of the Karma lines, plunged into the Nascent Soul's crown.
The chewing sound from within the pearl carried a pleasant tremor, and the rampaging Spiritual Qi suddenly became as docile as a stream, all pouring into his parched Meridians.
"The Dragon Vein's essence belongs to me, and Taiyi Pavilion's secret treasury belongs to you." Lu Qingyang threw out seventy-two Green Cicada Coins to form a Spirit-Locking Array. Floating in the center of the coin array was the completely devoured core of the Dragon Vein. "Of course, if Su Gu Niang is willing to exchange it for Guanghan Palace's 'Plain Maiden Heart Sutra'..."
Ice Soul Sword Qi brushed past his ear, freezing three Gu that attempted a sneak attack. Su Li took the Dragon Vein's essence, and Taiyin True Water washed away the blood evil from its surface: "Fellow Daoist Qingyang might want to look back."
When Lu Qingyang turned around, the entire Dragon-Slaying Stele had already turned into dust. A bronze key floated in the dust, its patterns exactly matching the Sanskrit script on the giant hand of the altar before.
Half of the secretly hidden Illusory True Silk slipped from his sleeve. The moment the silk wrapped around the key, the phantom of the Southern Border's Hundred Thousand Mountains reappeared.
"A sacrificial key of the Jiuli Witch Tribe?" He flicked the humming greedy wolf dagger with his finger: "Fairy Su, do you know that what Ye Lingxiao missed most before his passing was the three jars of Monkey Wine buried under Taiyi Pavilion's outhouse?"
Su Yao's final curse came from the depths of the earth's veins, and the remnant petals of the Blood Lotus transformed into a stream of light, fleeing towards the Southern Border. Su Li crushed a communication jade slip, and frost flowers unique to Guanghan Palace bloomed in the Void Realm: "Three months later, Burning Heaven Valley, Southern Border."
"Wait!" Lu Qingyang shook the Ice Soul Sword's scabbard, which he had somehow taken. "Fairy Su, don't you want to explain the three words 'Gift to Yao'er' at the bottom of the scabbard?"
His fingertip traced the small engraved characters. After the ice crystals peeled off, a section of an inscription carved with a finger instead of a pen was revealed—it was the handwritten message of Taiyi Pavilion's first Pavilion Master before his Dao's demise.
When Su Li snatched back the scabbard, a rare blush appeared on her earlobe. Lu Qingyang had already shot ten zhang (about 33 meters) away, holding a bronze wine vessel he had dug out from the bottom of the stele: "This lip print at the bottom of the vessel, could it be Fairy Su's from a hundred years ago..."
"Go get rid of the poison!" The moon arc blasted by the Ice Soul Sword sent him tumbling into the Dragon Vein fissure. Before the fissure closed, a Storage Pouch flew out, with half of an unburnt lightning talisman still stuck to its opening.
A thousand li away, the miasma of the Southern Border suddenly spread westward, and the phantom of the Blood Lotus floating in the miasma cloud had opened to thirty-six petals. The sound of the Gu gnawing on the Jianmu roots, mixed with the buzzing of the bronze key, awakened a certain ancient witch's corpse sleeping deep within Burning Heaven Valley.