Chapter Ninety-Two: A Late Rain Keeps the Guest Indoors
Wanggu Grove.
The little Taoist boy in yellow robes was still smiling. “Well? Has Brother Liang already gotten it?”
Liang Feng nodded and opened the small box in his arms.
Inside, the spirit pearl lay quietly.
“Good, good. Brother Liang, let me have a look.”
Liang Feng remained silent for a moment before slowly saying, “Once I have rescued A-Qing, I will give it to you.”
The smile on the little Taoist boy’s face slowly vanished.
A sudden surge of spiritual power exploded outward.
Liang Feng was sent flying backward, stumbling as he crashed to the ground.
A blurred bloodied hole had opened in his right shoulder, and blood gushed out in torrents, staining his collar.
Liang Feng grunted and stared fixedly at the man in yellow robes.
“Liang Feng, are you perhaps...”
“You think too highly of yourself.”
A pair of narrow eyes finally opened a little wider.
With blood and qi surging through him, the little Taoist boy in yellow robes reached out toward Liang Feng from afar.
The small box was instantly seized by an invisible giant hand and flew toward him.
His bony fingers clamped onto the wooden case, and under the moonlight the honest face had twisted into a grotesque grin.
“Heh...”
“You really thought I would help you save that living corpse?”
Liang Feng’s expression turned ashen.
It seemed he had anticipated this already; now even the last thread of hope was utterly extinguished.
“If I truly used this Moon-Offering Lotus Seed to save her, would I not be needlessly depriving myself of a trace of vitality...”
“A waste...”
To everyone’s surprise, Liang Feng’s face suddenly returned to normal.
He said nothing. Within his body, spiritual power began to churn in an utterly bizarre fashion.
With no will left to live, he was actually going to self-destruct on the spot.
“Hmph.”
The yellow-robed youth frowned and snorted coldly. “A pointless act.”
As he spoke, he made a casual pressing motion with his hand.
The spiritual power inside Liang Feng’s body abruptly froze.
At the tenth level of Qi Refinement, the realm of Foundation Establishment seemed separated by only a thin line.
In truth, the difference was as vast as heaven and earth.
“Liang Feng, you are a clever man. I think you understood from the beginning that you had no choice.”
“If you wanted to save your wife, you had to gamble.”
“It’s just that now, you have lost your wager.”
The yellow-robed Taoist was about to kill Liang Feng when, for some reason, a fine rain suddenly began to fall nearby.
Then a clear sword light cleaved through the air.
The little Taoist in yellow stiffened, his body instantly transforming into a rain of phosphorescent fire as he tried to flee.
In the distant sky, a pair of slender jade fingers lightly touched the bell in her palm.
Vast spiritual power gathered in the air.
She softly uttered, “Guest-Detaining Rain.”
A hum rang out.
Water vapor burst forth with a thunderous roar, and the torrential rain came down in sheets, sending ripples cascading outward.
That immense spiritual rain actually formed a great trapping formation, shapeless yet spiritually intact.
Within the downpour, the little Taoist in yellow re-formed his body, teeth clenched in fury.
Countless fine strands of rain extended from every direction and clung to his body.
He shouted harshly, “A younger disciple of the Sun-Shooting Sect dares to obstruct my Yellow Spring Path!”
Catching Rain said nothing more. The flying sword at her side turned into a streak of blue light and went straight for the yellow-robed demon cultivator’s face.
Blood mist rose around the cultivator. His gaunt fingers became claws, and the ghostly qi coiling in his palm condensed into a fierce beast’s head that lunged at her face.
The flying sword sliced through the air and, with startling ease, pierced straight through the ghostly head. Water spiritual power erupted violently, blasting the ghostly qi into disorder.
“A low-grade spirit tool?!”
The man in yellow realized trouble.
That streak of blue spiritual light moved swiftly through the rain, and the yellow-robed cultivator hastily retreated, hovering at the edge of the rain formation.
The flying sword circled back to Catching Rain’s side.
The spiritual radiance faded, revealing its true form.
The blade was entirely of blue jade, with layered edge patterns like ripples.
It floated gently, seeming to carry the soft sound of drifting rain.
At the guard of the sword were engraved the two characters: Late Rain.
At that moment, Lu and Song, along with Yan Xun and Wu Duo, all arrived in succession.
Soon after, Cheng Yu and Sheng Yun also reached the scene.
Seeing Liang Feng’s miserable state, Yan Xun could not help exclaiming, “Brother Liang!”
“Heh!” The yellow-robed man resumed that ever-smiling expression. “How close you all are. What a pity...”
“Your Brother Liang is going to bury the entire Coldflower Valley with his living corpse of a beloved wife...”
“What?!”
Yan Xun and Wu Duo stared at Liang Feng in disbelief.
The Taoist in yellow urged his spiritual power, and the spirit pearl slowly floated up.
“This so-called spirit pearl actually hides within it a mature Moon-Offering Lotus Seed.”
“Who knows which fool used such a treasure as the spiritual vein of a valley, merely to nourish flowers and grass.”
“Heh... truly laughable.”
“Your Brother Liang, desperate to save his wife, stole this spirit pearl and offered it to me...”
Cheng Yu’s expression turned icy, and he immediately demanded, “Liang Feng! Are you truly a traitor?!”
Wu Duo frowned slightly and stepped forward. “Brother Liang, I know some of what happened to Sister A-Qing. You—”
“You know?”
Liang Feng’s face was calm in a way that was terrifying. There was no longer any will to live in his eyes.
He had long since guessed at this outcome. Now that the last shred of hope had been shattered, for some reason he actually laughed.
“Know...”
“How could outsiders like you ever know...”
“What it means... to be parted by life and death from the one you love!”
“More than twenty years...”
In truth, it could be summed up in just four words.
But those were seven thousand three hundred and fifty-four days and nights...
Cheng Yu snorted coldly, utterly unconcerned, only wanting to take advantage of the awe inspired by Senior Sister Catching Rain to say a few sharp words: “A mere Qi Refinement cultivator like you dared to scheme with a Foundation Establishment demon cultivator!”
Liang Feng’s voice grew ever weaker. “...If I could bring A-Qing back, even if there were only the slightest hope...”
“What difference would it make...”
Song Yan looked at the spirit pearl, and at the faint pure radiance within it, lost in thought.
So the Moon-Offering Lotus Seed even had mature and immature forms?
That had touched on a blind spot in his knowledge.
The Hundred Flowers Compendium had never mentioned it.
Still, upon closer feeling, the spiritual energy within the spirit pearl was abundant, though its vitality was not as strong as the one in his own hand.
The little Taoist boy in yellow smiled sinisterly. “Girl, such a vast trapping formation of yours must consume quite a lot of power, no?”
Catching Rain remained calm on the surface, though she was indeed somewhat hesitant inside.
By her temperament, she would have preferred to strike with thunderous force within this trapping formation.
But now that the spirit pearl was in the other side’s hands, she worried that in the ensuing chaos she might destroy the very treasure on which Coldflower Valley depended for survival.
For a moment, she found herself constrained.
Suddenly, the little Taoist boy in yellow formed hand seals, and the ghostly qi around him surged wildly.
It condensed into a skeleton demon image over ten feet tall.
“Younger disciple of the Sun-Shooting Sect, you must be careful. If you accidentally destroy this Moon-Offering Lotus Seed, then we all part ways!”
“Heh! Go ahead and search the whole state of Chu if you like; you won’t find a second one to save Coldflower Valley!”
The man in yellow was extremely wary of the spirit tool in Catching Rain’s hand.
If he could stall long enough for this strange trapping formation to disperse, then seize the chance to flee, that would be for the best.
Yet just as his words fell,
a teasing chuckle drifted up from below.
“Heh heh...”
Everyone could not help looking toward Song Yan.
He wore a faint smile that was almost not a smile, and spoke loudly to Liang Feng: “Brother Liang, now you should see it clearly. Scheming with this demon cultivator is nothing but a futile effort, harming others and yourself.”
“Before any grave mistake is truly done, go back with Fellow Daoists Yan and Wu Duo and confess to your crimes and accept your punishment.”
Everyone found this utterly baffling.
“Song Yan, what nonsense are you spouting?”
Cheng Yu glared at Song Yan and shouted sternly, “Now that the Moon-Offering Lotus Seed has already fallen into the demon cultivator’s hands, does that not count as a grave mistake?”
“Have you gone mad? Why are you no different from that demon cultivator!”
Song Yan smiled faintly. “Naturally because the true Moon-Offering Lotus Seed...”
“Is in my hands.”
As he finished speaking, a trace of spiritual light flashed in his palm.
A touch of pure, moon-white brilliance appeared in his hand.
In that instant,
Wanggu Grove suddenly fell silent.