Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 345 - 294

Chapter 345: 294

The terrain of Longhu Mountain wasn’t majestic, but its scenery was pure, picturesque, and steeply rugged.

About four thousand years ago, when the dynasties of Han were transitioning, Zhang Daoling, the founder of the Zhengyi Sect, had once refined his elixir here. Legend tells that "when the elixir was ready, a dragon and a tiger appeared," hence the name of the mountain.

Since the end of the Han Dynasty, the Heavenly Masters of each generation have lived here, practicing their immortal arts and teaching their doctrines at the Shangqing Palace on Longhua Mountain. Gradually, it formed the "Heavenly Masters’ mansion in Sihan" with the "Shangqing Palace on Longhua Mountain" as its core.

Three thousand years ago, the Heavenly Masters’ Mansion received support from The Court and suppressed the South Tianshi Sect of the Gezao Mountain, a branch of the Zhengyi Sect, as well as the Shangqing Sect of Maoshan. It was acknowledged as the supreme authority of the ’Three Mountains’.

After the Great Ancestor ascended the throne, he crowned the former Heavenly Master with the title ’Zhengyi Inheritor - Immortal Master’. He granted the Heavenly Master’s Mansion with the eternal authority to manage Taoism in the world, awarded it a silver seal, conferred it the rank of a second-rank official, established assistant positions, and formally set the system of Zan Sect and Zhangshu.

Since then, the Heavenly Masters’ Mansion in Sihan has prospered, ruling the Taoism.

Even the popular Quanzhen Sect of the north had to rely on the Heavenly Master’s Mansion. Only the Wudang, a branch of the Quanzhen Sect serving as the family temple of the Royal Jin Dynasty, stood out among the Taoist schools.

When Li Xuan and his companions were about twenty miles from the mountain, thunderbolts fell above them. Clusters of lightning struck down, each charged with the power equal to a high-level spell. As they approached, the power of the thunder force increased, forming a massive thunder network within ten miles around them.

Even Xue Yunrou, holding the Umbrella of Yin Yuan, looked deeply concerned.

Li Xuan, wearing the ’Liudao Fumo Armor’, and the Fumo Vajra standing more than two Zhang tall beside him were the main targets of these thunderbolts.

Despite his proficiency in the Thunder Style, Li Xuan found it difficult to endure as he neared the foot of the Longhu Mountain.

However, he swiftly took out several spare porcelain bowls from his mini Sumi Ring, shattered them, and stuck them at the bottom of his and the Fumo Vajra’s feet as insulators.

The intensity of the thunderbolts he encountered was greatly reduced as a result.

Seeing this, Xue Yunrou was slightly curious. She followed suit and found it much more comfortable. Most of the electricity from above passed around their bodies.

However, after this, all the thunderbolts that did strike them were incredibly powerful.

Li Xuan knew this occurred because the intensity of the electric current was sufficient to penetrate the ceramic beneath his feet and transform it into a conductor. He used his ’shenyi’ as a rudimentary lightning rod to guide these electric arcs into the ground.

Although this method couldn’t withstand thunderbolts controlled by a person, it was incredibly effective against these unmanned arcs and could cover both the Fumo Vajra and Xue Yunrou beside him.

"Xuan, you always come up with ingenious ideas."

Though Xue Yunrou had become accustomed to Li Xuan’s ingenuity, she still couldn’t help but look at him with admiration. Afterwards, she looked up at the sky with a serious expression, "This should be the ’Qiantian Wufang Wulei Array’, the top-notch thunder array passed down in my Heavenly Master’s Mansion. But until now, I still don’t know where its base is."

"The base is one hundred and twenty miles away, floating in the sky."

Ao Shuying arrived, stepping in the air from behind, "There are altogether five floating battleships, three hundred Zhang long, distributed in five directions."

This figure had been calm and unhurried from the beginning. The surrounding thunderbolts all twisted direction when they were twenty Zhang from her.

Xue Yunrou could not believe what she was hearing, "This is impossible—"

Li Xuan also couldn’t believe it. A battleship with a length of three hundred zhang? That’s two miles long. This wasn’t a science fiction movie.

"You just can’t see it."

Ao Shuying raised her head, looking at the sky again, "Watch out!"

Li Xuan opened his Tao-protecting Eyes and looked in the direction she suggested, only to see countless silver specks falling from the horizon .

His expression changed and he ordered the Fumo Vajra to lift its massive shield above them.

The moment after, a ringing sounded from the shield. Those were foot-long silver needles falling with the strength to pierce rock and metal.

At the same time, Li Xuan also untied the numerous threads of the Shenyi behind him, bypassing the Fumo Vajra on both sides, and continuously whipping and smacking.

Li Xuan was aware that the Fumo Vajra alone was not enough to resist these silver needles. His strategy was to substitute defense with attack as much as possible, which could greatly weaken the power of the rain of needles.

However, Li Xuan’s multitasking ability was not yet capable of controlling the thousands of silver threads at the same time, so the effect was mediocre.

The main strength relied on Xue Yunrou, who was chanting in a low voice. She invoked, "Liudingliujia, respond swiftly as commanded by the divine law", and gave the Fumo Vajra a pat. This caused the massive puppet to glow.

Li Xuan knew that the so-called ’Liudingliujia’ were the Hufa Divine Generals worshipped by the Taoists. What Xue Yunrou used was most likely the ’Liudingliujia Body Protection Spell’, which had a great power for protection.

At that moment, a harsh and piercing laughter rang out beside their ears, "It’s your lucky day, someone else has come to die!"

The voice came from a black wolf that had darted out of the forest. The wolf was enormous, its shoulder height almost reached ten feet. As it pounced on the three of them, countless sands and stones gathered around its body, forming an even larger wolf, almost ten times its size.

Li Xuan looked back at it with a sidelong glance, immediately mobilizing his Hao Qi Shi of the sword.

"—Nature is a masterpiece, Yin and Yang divide the dawn and dusk!"

A black and white Yin-Yang Fish Diagram appeared in the sky overhead. Wherever Li Xuan’s sword light passed, half was brightly illuminated, while the other half was dim and lightless.

After his ’Bixue Leique Sword’ returned to its sheath, the colossal sand wolf froze in place for a moment before crumbling to pieces. As the sand and stone fell apart, a black wolf that had been split into two halves revealed itself.

"What a great sword technique!"

Ao Shuying couldn’t help but shine with admiration and praised, "Your poem is impressive, and the Yi of your sword is also powerful and unrivaled."

This wolf too was a creature that had entered The Third Door and had reached the seventh house level in cultivation. Although it didn’t have any divine beast bloodlines, its battling power was considerable. But now, it had been cleaved by Li Xuan with a single precise sword strike.

This swordplay also deterred the other monster species lurking in the forest. Originally, they were all rushing toward this direction, but after witnessing this scene, they all stopped in their tracks, looking at Li Xuan with some awe.

"Your Highness overpraises."

Li Xuan looked up at the sky and saw that the rain of needles bombarding from the sky had temporarily ended. "Let’s move — "

Before he could finish, Xue Yunrou had already flashed forward again.

In the area covered by the lightning web, they dared not use Thunder Style again. Afterwards, apart from the thunderbolts falling from the sky, they didn’t encounter any other obstacles, and directly reached the foot of the Longhu Mountain.

The aura from the monster species followed behind them until they saw them entering Longhu Mountain, then retreated away.

As soon as the three of them started climbing up the mountain, a surprised voice came from a small Taoist temple not far away, "Junior sister?"

Li Xuan glanced over and found that it was a middle-aged Taoist in his forties, floating up from the courtyard of the temple.

He also sensed the spiritual energy of more than a dozen spellcasters and Wu cultivators in the temple. Two of them, equal in power to the Taoist, were masters at the pinnacle of The Third Door level.

In addition, there were many chaotic energies, numbering around two hundred — likely to be the common people and believers who had taken refuge in the Taoist temple.

Outside the Taoist temple, numerous silver needles were noticeably planted. Given the power of these needles to penetrate stone, they should have destroyed the temple walls, indicating that this temple also had powerful protective capabilities.

"Brother Xuanxiang? How come you are here?" Upon seeing this person, Xue Yunrou’s face showed a flicker of joy initially, which quickly turned into a solemn expression, "Can you tell me what’s going on inside Longhu Mountain?"

"I was out initially and only rushed back hastily after receiving a signal. Because of the intense Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needle and the Five Directions Thunder array, I had to take refuge temporarily in this Pixuan Temple,"

The Taoist, riding on a flying sword, landed next to them, "According to the master of Pixuan Temple, it was Heavenly Master Zhang Guanlan from the former Yuan and Knife Demon Li Zhetian who struck together. Several insiders from our Tianshi Sect conspired with them, seriously injuring the Heavenly Master and more than a dozen other masters present."

"Knife Demon Li Zhetian?" Li Xuan frowned in confusion upon hearing this, "Wasn’t he seriously injured?"

And who is this Heavenly Master Zhang Guanlan from the former Yuan?

That Taoist Xuanxiang then looked at Li Xuan, "May I know who this is?"

He noticed that Li Xuan was wearing a Liudao Fumo armor with a ’bear’ inscription on its chest, indicating that he was a Fumo Xiaowei.

"He is Li Xuan," Xue Yunrou introduced, "The newly appointed Fumo Xiaowei from the Liudao Division, and the current Earl Jingan."

The Taoist, however, looked puzzled. He judged that Li Xuan’s cultivation was likely around the fifth or sixth house level. He was young and fair-skinned, looking less like a Fumo Xiaowei and more like a pampered young master.

As for the title of Earl Jingan, it must have been inherited.

However, there wasn’t a single mediocre Fumo Xiaowei in the Liudao Division. Either they were exceptionally strong in battle, or they had outstanding abilities and distinguished merit.

He then retracted his thoughts and said in a solemn voice, "Indeed, I have heard that Knife Demon Li Zhetian was seriously injured by the newly appointed Hufa of Neo-Confucianism not long ago. According to the Pixuan Temple master, this time Li Zhetian seemed to have forcibly suppressed his injuries to take action. This Knife Demon came to challenge the Heavenly Master yesterday on a pretense. During their heated battle, the insiders sabotaged our Longhu Mountain’s Shenxiao Dutian Thunder Array.

Zhang Guanlan immediately showed up and used the ’Qiantian Wufang Wulei Array’ to heavily injure the Heavenly Master with the Five Directions Thunder. It was said that not only was the Heavenly Master seriously injured, but the casualty count of the Tianshi’s mansion reached two hundred. All were driven away by the power of the Heavenly Master and the treasure of the heavenly masters’ mansion."

Xue Yunrou’s face immediately turned pale, "How is my uncle now, and who were the people who died or were injured?"

"I don’t know about that. We need to go up the mountain to find out. But — "

The Taoist hesitated and said, "According to them, your two cousins, the two young Heavenly Masters, were killed on the spot by Knife Demon Li Zhetian."

Xue Yunrou’s delicate body swayed, and a tiny trickle of crimson blood leaked from the corner of her lips.