Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 210: A Supernatural Confrontation

The woman and the old man took in each others’ reactions. The former was uneasy, while the latter seemed uncertain.

“You…”

The old man stopped himself just as he began to speak. He heard a crisp series of crackling sounds coming closer and closer. Although the sound was faint, it was particularly conspicuous amidst the sound of wind and snow.

The old man looked at the woman beside him. He stood up from his cushion, and the small door of the wooden house opened automatically again. He looked through the door to into the near distance.

A man in a white robe, which looked much too thin for this harsh winter, was walking slowly towards them.

This canyon was located in a position where it in the shadow of the backlit mountain. It was not only a dark place, but also full of evil spirits. In the autumn and summer, the ground was full of shallow swampland made of black mud, an the wooden house was supported by several wooden poles.

It was currently winter, and the surrounding swampland had been frozen over. As Ji Yuan walked towards them, the ice made crisp crunching sounds, but did not crack.

Even more bizarre was that wherever Ji Yuan stepped, the dirt underneath his feet would move to the sides, resulting in clear patches of ice forming the trail that Ji Yuan was making.

If it were ordinary sludge, it would not have been so extraordinary, but the sludge and filth here obviously carried an evil, foul aura, thus it was even more vigorously expelled from Ji Yuan’s body.

Although there would inevitably still be some black sludge deeper underground, it still formed a very sharp contrast with the surrounding ice surfaces, giving it a sense of incompatibility with the environment and an even more exaggerated feeling of cleanliness.

This phenomenon where dirt separated from an individual on its own was something that the old man had never witnessed before in his life. He didn’t sense any supernatural energy whatsoever; the man was simply stepping on the ice surface. Moreover, the old man didn’t think that a high-level immortal cultivator would be so bored as to squeeze mud out from the ice for fun.

His pupils contracted as he watched Ji Yuan approach. The old man used his supernatural sight to observe him, but no matter how he looked, the other party seemd to be purely a “mortal” without any power or divine aura, and he could only see the traces of other mortals.

If some spiritual weapon or supernatural talisman had been used, how come there was no trace of spiritual energy?

Combined with the other circumstances he had learned of, there was only one possibility that the man’s strange perception could conclude was possible: this man who had just arrived was so powerful that he could not comprehend him with his own ability. Thus, he could see and sense nothing.

As the man in the white robe walked closer and closer over the frozen swamp, his features grew clearer and clearer. Several snowflakes had settles on his head. His expression was calm, and his dark eyes were particularly noticeable. Looking into them was like looking into an ancient well. The breathtaking feeling of flawlessness and purity grew ever stronger.

If this kind of existence really wanted to kill his so-called “disciple,” it would have been impossible for her to escape. She might not even have had the time to register anything around her before dying.

‘She was driven here on purpose! What a traitor!’

The old man internally grit his teeth, but he didn’t dare show any of it on his face. Now, he could only have confidence in a few special talismans and a small stone pendant. Seeing that Ji Yuan had arrived only a dozen zhang¹ away from the wooden house, he pretended to be humble and bowed to greet him.

“Fellow Taoist, why have you come to visit my humble abode in the middle of winter? What can I do for you?”

Ji Yuan just stood outside the wooden house, reaching out to smooth the hair that blocked his lips after being blown in the cold wind, before smoothing it to the back of his neck. He carefully scrutinized the old man and the trembling woman beside him. It seemed that he had no intention of paying any attention to the old man, let alone of returning the greeting.

This scene was a little embarrassing for the old man, but he didn’t dare to speak out in anger.

“Fellow Taoist, are you looking for this ghost mother?”

The old man pointed to the pregnant woman beside him.

“Master…”

“Master? Who are you calling master? I killed an evil cultivator a few years ago, and found a book of evil techniques on his body. It actually contained some tips on refining a Ghost Mother of Nine Children. I was curious, so I stayed to take a look. I didn’t expect that when I went out, it was stolen by this woman, who had gone into the mountains to chop firewood.”

As he spoke, the old man stroked his beard and squinted his eyes, then winked at the woman with a fierce look on his face before continuing.

“Today, this woman actually came to me for help, and even called me her master. Even if I had known that she was practicing evil techniques, she would definitely still have caused trouble. Fortunately, this woman seems to still be in the early stages of this evil method, she is only just pregnant.”

After saying these words in a sanctimonious manner, the old man turned to face Ji Yuan again.

“If you don’t mind, you can feel free to come into my house to rest. This matter was caused by me, so I naturally cannot escape the blame…”²

Ji Yuan opened his supernatural eyes and looked at this old man. He appeared to be more of an immortal in aura than himself to some extent, but he couldn’t even see any evil aura within him. Apart from a strong temper, his spiritual energy was restrained within his body, and his Qi and energy did not leak outside. He appeared to all intents and purposes like a successful cultivator.

However, when Ji Yuan opened his eyes a little wider, and he could see a faint talisman light appearing on the man’s arm inside his sleeve. A faint spiritual light flowed around the old man, as if a film were surrounding his body. At the same time, there was another talisman hidden in his left sleeve. He was obviously covering up his true aura, while also conserving another back-up plan.

Although it seems that his back-up plan was ready to be used, Ji Yuan appeared as though he didn’t care to talk to anyone, which still put a lot of psychological pressure on the old man. Fortunately, Ji Yuan finally spoke up.

“You said that her cultivation is still in the early stages? I don’t think so. This woman has cultivated seven demons, and is ready to kill all the people in the county. How could her cultivation be so shallow? She must have been guided by a skilled teacher.”

Ji Yuan’s words were even and calm, with no emotion.

“What!? She has already refined seven demons? They even threatened to kill all the people in a county?”

The old man looked at the woman angrily.

“You are such a brave witch! No wonder you are so arrogant, it turns out you have already done so much evil!”

As his eyes flashed, the old man’s spiritual energy surged, and he even began to manifest fire between them.

“You cannot continue as you are, witch!”

When the angry shout rang out, the old man had already made a hand gesture and waved his sleeves, and a burst of fire fell towards the woman. The latter never expected that the master whom she absolutely trusted would do such a thing. She was so panicked that she didn’t even have time to escape.

“Shiiiing…”

Just as the sound of a longsword being unsheathed rang out, a silver light appeared in between the pregnant woman and the old man. The sword Qi, sharper than the cold wind and the ice and snow, swept past them, and the fire that the old man was controlling was directly snuffed out.

The old man stared at a palm-wide ravine on the ground in a cold sweat. It had cut through the floor of the wooden house and the frozen sludge below. Looking down, it was pitch black, and he couldn’t even see its depths.

He raised his stiff neck again and saw that a long cut had been made on the top of his wooden roof, from front to back. Looking up at the sky through the crack, he saw a faint green light hanging in the sky.

‘An Immortal Sword! ’

Seeing the old man’s reaction, Ji Yuan sneered in his heart and spoke again.

“Feel free to attempt using the talisman in your sleeve to see if it can save your life. Humph, you have cultivated yourself in a shabby hut in a gloomy and polluted land. It will contaminate my eyes.”³

Ji Yuan brought his left arm behind his back and caught snowflakes with his right. The snowflakes melted down into snow water as soon as they touched the palm of his hand, and gathered into an invisible word in the palm of his hand.

Although Ji Yuan had spoken ruthlessly, the old man would obviously not sit still and wait for death. The spiritual power in his body was already surging. In order to prevent any accidents, he would probably have to kill the old man first.

The pregnant woman had now fallen into a state of fear and anxiety. No matter how stupid she was, she understood that her master had wanted to kill her to silence her just now, and that the man in white would not let her go. It was at this moment that she saw her master yell at her.

“Run!”

The cabin suddenly collapsed, and an enormous wave of earth rose up from the ground, charging towards Ji Yuan, who was still over a dozen zhang away. The old man emitted a yellow light and suddenly escaped underground.

Amidst the rumbling of the earth shaking and the mountains quaking, in barely a moment, Ji Yuan had been shrouded by shadow.

The waves of earth rose more than ten zhang high, supporting the two ends of the canyon. The upper ends curved downward, as if to completely cover the sky.

Ji Yuan swiftly retreated in a flash, using his Dragon Flying movement technique to the extreme.

The sword pointed downwards, and the order was given.

“Execute…”

Shiiiing…

The Green Vine Sword was unsheathed once more. This time, the light of the sword was far more intense than before.

Swish– A flash of silver streaked by, and the enormous wave of earth was split equally into two pieces. Simultaneously, the sword light did not seem to diminish; it directly covered the distant mountains and rivers.

“Aaaaaah…”

A short scream rang out from under the ground.

“Rummmble…. Rumble…”

After the wave of earth had been split, it dragged against the mountains, crumbling on both sides with a deafening noise. The ground seemed to shake slightly, and an endless cloud of dust filled the canyon.

Ji Yuan had lingering fears. Seeing that the pregnant woman was still fleeing rapidly towards the other end of the canyon, he snorted coldly.

“Freeze!”⁴

The character for “Freeze” that had been written out in water was condensed with the power of the Edict in his hand, and it immediately disappeared. At the same time, the woman in the distance felt her body suddenly stiffen. She maintained the momentum of her jump, and slammed headfirst into the rock in front of her with a loud bang.

Even so, she still couldn’t move, couldn’t even breathe or blink, and the evil energy inside her body seemed dead, like a corpse whose thoughts could still turn.

Ji Yuan was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when his spiritual sense twitched again. He stretched out his hand, calculated a divination with his fingers, and couldn’t help but utter a sound in surprise.

“Huh! He’s not dead?”

Although the old man’s body that had been chopped apart underground was made of flesh and blood, it was actually just a fake body.

“It’s not that easy to run away from me!”

Ji Yuan got up and flew rapidly on the clouds, driving the wind onwards. The Green Vine Sword in the sky even made a resentful sound, flashing away with sword light that split the wind.

Under the earth at the bottom of Tingqiu Mountain, the old man held his Hidden Earth Escape Talisman tightly and frantically poured in his spiritual energy. He was already frightened to the point of feeling like his heart and liver were about to burst. The life-saving talisman in his other sleeve had been shattered in a single blow.

Moreover, based on the connection the spiritual technique he was practicing gave him, his “disciple” was in a strange state of neither life nor death. He had just vaguely heard the word “freeze” just now, but couldn’t even imagine what kind of strange power had struck her.

‘No, I can’t save this for later! If I don’t use this now, my life will be in jeopardy!’

The old man crushed a small yellow stone in his hand, and kept muttering in a low voice.

“Mountain God of Tingqiu Mountain, save me! Mountain God, save me! Mountain God, save me!”

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T/n: Yeah, Old Man isn’t doing too hot. He’s going to be doing even worse when JY catches up. XD

This week has been categorically insane and I didn’t expect it to be. I can’t promise that I’ll upload tomorrow of Friday. Worst case scenario, I’ll see you next Monday again. Sorry guys!

1. Over ~100ft/30m
2. T/n: A+ for effort, C for the BS he spouted, and a big fat F in situational awareness and judgement. RIP.
3. T/n: just want to say, no shade to anyone who lives in a swamp. They’re pretty cool places.
4. 定 (dìng): to fix/to congeal/to make definite. “Freeze” works best in context