IVYSCP - Chapter 129

Chapter 129

"The last time you killed me, you did it exactly like this. But I'm still alive and well." Blood poured from Cui Heng's mouth, yet defiance remained in her expression. "Do you think..."

"Do you think,"

Ling Qingyue spoke over the second half of Cui Heng's sentence, asking from behind her, "that someone like Lou Wudu would leave herself a hidden danger at a moment like this? Or do you think you were perfectly concealed right under her nose? You know her best, don't you? She trusts only herself."

Cui Heng's lashes trembled. Her gaze lifted, tracking Lou Wudu in the sky above. Trapped within a formation, Lou Wudu still moved with ease, her expression showing not a trace of suffering.

Origin body and clone connected, if the clone was gravely wounded, the origin body would feel the impact as well. It had been exactly so last time in the Ancient Yao Forest Realm. In an instant, Cui Heng understood: Lou Wudu had long been ready to erase her. Even if she hadn't died by Ling Qingyue's hand today, once she lost the connection to her origin body, she would have ceased to exist in this world.

"AHHH!!!"

Cui Heng's anguished cry burst from her throat. She clutched the longsword embedded in her chest and, with a violent surge of force, blasted it out, shattering her heart meridian along with it. Yet even so, gripping the sword, she threw herself wildly toward Lou Wudu.

"Shi Du! I was born because of you. Everything I've done was for you. I am your selfish heart. Why..."

Lou Wudu stamped down, shattering the formation. Her peripheral vision swept coldly past Cui Heng's figure, and the sword in her hand struck without hesitation.

Sword qi struck Cui Heng directly in the heart. In that instant, the figure that had still carried the breath of the living burst apart into countless motes of spiritual light, then in the very next breath gathered wholly into Lou Wudu's palm. From start to finish, Lou Wudu's expression did not change in the slightest.

Ling Qingyue watched this familiar scene and frowned. This method looked like something she had seen before.

"BOOM!"

Thunder exploded above the Dao Debate Platform. The layered clouds for a thousand li around gathered over Shangtianqiong at an unimaginable speed, thickening and thickening until they nearly pressed down upon the mountain peaks.

Lightning Tribulation!

Who was it this time, about to transcend tribulation and break through!?

Ying Ying and Chi Que raised their heads to look up, and their faces instantly changed. Within the cloud layer, heavenly lightning crackled so densely that one barely needed to count to know what kind of tribulation this was.

Tribulation Transcendence stage.

In five hundred years, the Immortal Realm had not seen a Tribulation Transcendence stage lightning tribulation.

Ling Qingyue had already reached Pei Yin's side. She stared in shock at Lou Wudu, whose spiritual energy had suddenly surged. "Six Desires Path! You actually switched to cultivating the Six Desires Path!"

No wonder the method Lou Wudu had used after Cui Heng's spirit scattered had seemed so familiar. At Liuyun Immortal Sect, Lian Yange had once done exactly the same thing to Shi Du!

Lou Wudu had learned Lian Yange's Six Desires Path. Cui Heng was the embodiment of her own inner desires. She had even schemed against herself!

Lou Wudu spread her hands beneath the tribulation clouds, looking down from on high at the two before her, and smiled. "Three thousand Dao paths. None are more than for oneself, for others, for the world. I wish only to cultivate for myself. The Six Desires Path is the path most suited to me!"

The hand Ling Qingyue held her sword in was shaking.

Lou Wudu had become the second Lian Yange. She had turned Shangtianqiong into the second Liuyun Immortal Sect!

The roar of thunder exploded again and again by their ears, but the heavenly lightning still did not fall.

Ling Qingyue's gaze fell upon a restriction mark on Lou Wudu's wrist, and she understood at once: Lou Wudu was deliberately suppressing her cultivation, unwilling to transcend tribulation and break through.

Breaking through at the Tribulation Transcendence stage would mean ascension to the higher realm, and all these years, Lou Wudu had been intent on resurrecting Shi Yanchun. She could not ascend.

For a thousand years, all who ascended from the Immortal Realm were recorded. In the past, when Ling Qingyue skipped the elders' lectures, she had delighted in reading such things. She had even imagined that one day she too would be inscribed alongside those names.

She remembered it vividly: the youngest among those who ascended had been over six hundred years old. Reaching Soul Formation within a century marked one as a heaven-blessed prodigy, but the span from Soul Formation to Tribulation Transcendence was as vast as a single drop within the ocean. Even those prodigies had to cultivate arduously for five hundred years. Where, then, had Lou Wudu's cultivation come from...

"Qingyue, what are you thinking?" Lou Wudu curved her lips into a smile as she asked. She had watched Ling Qingyue grow up and knew exactly what she had been pondering in that brief moment of distraction.

Ling Qingyue snapped back to herself, suppressing the fury in her eyes. Demonic qi ravaged and flared wildly across her body, as if countless hands had extended from within, intent on tearing apart the hypocritical face before her.

Lou Wudu unhurriedly adjusted the ritual robes that had become disheveled during the fight. Her fingertips brushed over the faint half-moon pattern on her cuff, her gaze pausing briefly before she looked away.

"Torch Dragon's Heart Crystal, Rootless Wood, Blood King Lotus, and the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart." Lou Wudu sighed. "Your resurrection was thanks to this Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart, wasn't it? Who would have thought that the very thing I have searched exhaustively for was with you. A miscalculation, leaving Cui Heng alive until now. Otherwise..."

Her tone shifted, her expression turning vicious. "I would have taken the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart long ago!"

Ling Qingyue's teeth ground audibly. A figure suddenly appeared in front of her.

Pei Yin stood before her, her gaze fixed coldly on Lou Wudu.

A few months ago, Lou Wudu might have been surprised. Now, she was not the least bit astonished to see Pei Yin, like one driven to madness, protect Ling Qingyue, who was wreathed in demonic qi.

Pei Yin had always liked Ling Qingyue. She truly hadn't seen it back then.

Her gaze swept over the chaotic Dao Debate Platform, where the stench of blood now permeated the air. Lou Wudu's brows furrowed slightly, as if displeased.

She did not want Yanchun to wake to such a scene. If possible, she wanted Yanchun to awaken in Yuelou Country, in the place where she grew up, in the place most familiar to her, not in this nauseating Immortal Realm that had caused her death.

"LOU WUDU!!!"

A furious roar rang out. Surging demonic qi surged forth, thick with murderous intent. Linked by the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart, Ling Qingyue's own heart surged with agitation in turn.

Not having seen Qiu Feng, Ling Qingyue had been somewhat surprised. She guessed Qiu Feng might have gone to arrange Yu Liuli in a safe place.

The strike, saturated with killing intent, was blocked by a raised hand. Lou Wudu looked at Qiu Feng with cold, appraising scrutiny.

She did not remember this person, but upon seeing the half-demonic face, she suddenly recalled the Three Thousand Gathering from decades past.

"Shouldn't you be in the Great Wilderness?" Lou Wudu's tone was low and icy.

With those words, she turned her gaze toward Pei Yin and sneered coldly. "An Immortal Venerable who secretly releases a demon lord. Do you wish to become a sinner before the Immortal Realm?"

Qiu Feng had no desire to listen to her nonsense. Controlling her demonic qi, she charged forward again.

Seeing this, Ling Qingyue and Pei Yin followed closely behind.

Ling Qingyue's demonic arts had broken through to the eighth layer after the Desire Phase, equivalent to a cultivator's Soul Formation stage. Qiu Feng had likewise halted at the eighth layer of demonic arts.

Right now, three Soul Formation fighters against Lou Wudu, whose cultivation stood at Tribulation Transcendence, could gain no advantage whatsoever. The span of a full major realm suppressed them mercilessly.

Ling Qingyue stepped upon Pei Yin's formation, her figure flashing like a phantom around Lou Wudu. In an instant, Jiuge and Shangbieli clashed. The silvery blade reflected both pairs of eyes: one pair scarlet like blood, the other black and deep as a pool.

A century ago, such a scene might have been a sword match between senior and junior sisters. Now, it was a battle of life and death.

Surging sword qi erupted from the swords in their hands. Spiritual energy and demonic qi refused to yield to one another.

Ling Qingyue sensed another person's aura from Lou Wudu's hand. Her eyes reddened with fury. "Lou Wudu! Are you even human anymore!?"

That was her master's spiritual energy. That was her master's sword qi!

Lou Wudu had reached Tribulation Transcendence by stepping upon her master's cultivation!

Lou Wudu curled her lips in a cold sneer. "A lifetime of her cultivation, aiding my great endeavor. It can be considered her atonement!"

"Atonement?" The rage in Ling Qingyue's heart burned hotter. "What sin has she committed? Are you talking about the matter with your younger sister, Shi Yanchun? My master's cultivation stagnated for so long. Did you not know? Could you not see!? If she had truly used Shi Yanchun to cultivate the Emotionless Path, she would have succeeded long ago!"

Lou Wudu sent a palm strike crashing over. Sword moves lashed wildly toward the figure before her. "If not for her, Yuelou would not have fallen. If not for her, Yanchun would not have been captured by the Demon Race to threaten her. Yanchun would not have been scattered to the winds, body and soul!"

Ling Qingyue blocked with her sword, but Lou Wudu's cultivation far overwhelmed hers. After dozens of exchanges, the space between her thumb and forefinger was a mess of blood, though the coiling demonic qi repaired and restored it. Again and again it split open, again and again it healed, yet the pain did not lessen in the slightest.

"How can you place all the blame on my master! The true culprit was clearly Lian Yange! Even if my master had never set foot in Yuelou, the disaster that befell Yuelou could not have been avoided!" Ling Qingyue's voice was thick with hatred. "Can you truly not understand that, or do you know it perfectly well and still insist on pouring all your hatred onto my master!"

A shadow flickered. Ling Qingyue was teleported aside by a formation, dodging the sword qi Lou Wudu had unleashed.

Pei Yin's brow had remained furrowed the entire time. She was alert to Lou Wudu's every move, and her concern was fixed on the wound on Ling Qingyue's hand.

By now, the hand, enveloped in demonic qi, had recovered completely. The terrifying gashes torn open by sheer force were no longer visible, yet Pei Yin's gaze remained icy.

Ling Qingyue, fearing she was worried, said softly, "I'm fine."

Then she sent a voice transmission to Pei Yin: Lou Wudu hasn't moved with lethal intent. She wants the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart.

Pei Yin's expression had been poor all along. She sent a voice transmission back: That much is obvious.

Although Lou Wudu's strikes against Ling Qingyue were heavy, she always avoided the vital points. Against Pei Yin and Qiu Feng, however, every move sought to kill. Compared to Ling Qingyue's slightly disordered breathing, Qiu Feng's body was now covered in dozens of wounds.

A new figure appeared in her peripheral vision. Ling Qingyue looked over.

Chu Qianshan's hands flew through a series of seals. She said in a low voice, "Stall her a little longer."

Ling Qingyue steadied herself. If Chu Qianshan could come, it meant Piaomiao Sect's disciples had returned safely to Piaomiao Sect.

Before setting out, they had left a teleportation array in Piaomiao Sect.

"Pei Yin! Set the formation!"

Chu Qianshan thrust one hand upward, and in an instant, the formation enveloped the surroundings.

Pei Yin reacted swiftly. Master and disciple together opened the Yin-Yang Formation. In an instant, it was as if everyone had stepped into a realm of ink wash. All that met their eyes was black and white.

The chaos around them vanished without a trace. Ling Qingyue saw Nie Wenxiao wielding her blade, and Ying Ying and Chi Que, who had also entered the Yin-Yang Formation.

Lou Wudu looked at the crowd arrayed against her, shook her head, and sighed. "Why come to seek death? The gap between Soul Formation and Tribulation Transcendence... is not something that can be bridged by mere numbers."

"Ling Qingyue, you will get them all killed." Lou Wudu continued, "You know what I want."

"You want it, so I absolutely refuse to give it."

With those words, Ling Qingyue grasped Jiuge and struck downward toward her.

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