Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 212: Why Would I Have Bothered?

To be honest, the Mountain God was no longer thinking about how to protect the terrified evil cultivator below him who was unable to move. Instead, he was just trying to figure out how to escape.

Although the white-robed immortal said that he would leave him and his affairs alone, the Mountain God had just proclaimed that he “had an previous connection” with the old man. Thus, the immortal cultivator in white believed that this righteous Mountain God indeed had some past relationship with this evil demon.

What was the term for this situation? If the public of Ji Yuan’s previous life were asked, many people would jump out and inform the Mountain God that this was called “courting death”!

Although “death” did not exactly apply to the Mountain God per se, he indeed could appreciate its meaning and implications.

However, now that he understood, he had a feeling that it was too late. If the sword hanging in the air fell, it wouldn’t just be a matter of shedding a few layers of skin. His true body was also hidden inside the incarnation of the mountain.

Although the spiritual power and the divine light on this mountain did not diminish, both sides could easily sense the decline in the other’s momentum as they were fighting.

Ji Yuan had a keen sense of perception, and his supernatural eyes were fully opened, so he almost immediately sensed that the Mountain God’s influence was not as strong as before. This feeling made Ji Yuan immediately collect his thoughts. Now was not the time to chase after enlightenment.

Seeing that the Mountain God hesitated to speak, then looking at the limp old man down below, it seemed that the evil-piercing sword¹ had achieved its desired effect. ,In addition, the sword force had consumed a lot of mental power, and was not easy to maintain. Ji Yuan immediately withdrew his inner world manifestation.

As soon as the inner world had closed, the feeling of the confluence of heaven and the sword’s power disappeared in an instant. Although the Green Vine Sword still carried the force of its sword intent and unparalleled power, it no longer made the Mountain God fear the terror of the sky falling and the earth collapsing from under him.

“The Tingqiu Mountain range is a vast area, with tall peaks and deep forests. You have achieved great success in your cultivation by becoming the true God of Tingqiu Mountain. As a righteous god, you should not have a close relationship with such evil individuals. If you have made any promises to him, the fact that you have not retreated even a single step under the might of my Heaven-Rending Sword² means that you have lived up to that promise!”

Amidst the faint buzzing sounds of the blade, Ji Yuan reached out and grabbed the hilt of the Green Vine Sword, and pointed at a diagonal directly at the evil cultivator on the ground, his pale, sightless eyes turned towards the enormous eye sockets on the head of the Mountain God of Tingqiu Mountain.

“Will the Mountain God continue to stand in front of this evil cultivator, who deserves a fate worse than death?”

Ji Yuan’s words alleviated the Mountain God’s fears — his words implied that he could have a clear conscience even if he retreated retreated now.

The Mountain God of Tingqiu Mountain breathed a sigh of relief. It was obvious that the other party had given him a way out. If he continued to resist, he would simply be too oblivious for his own good. After seeing the power of the Heaven-Rending Sword, he naturally understood that any fight would most likely result in serious injury to his body, or perhaps lead to more serious consequences.

As if realizing that his situation was getting worse, the old man on the ground came back to his senses from his dazed state, and repeatedly pleaded with the Mountain God.

“Mountain God Hong,³ please, you can’t just stand by and watch me die. Mountain God Hong, you promised you would come to help me when your stone was broken. You promised!”

The Mountain God’s enormous head turned down to look at the old man. His voice was deep and resonant as a bell.

“If it weren’t for me, you would have already died from that first sword strike. I didn’t leave, even under the pressure of that power just now. Isn’t that enough help? I have done my best. Do you really want me to die for you?”

The Mountain God raised his head to face Ji Yuan, who was nothing but a small figure in the distant clouds. He swung his enormous arms, leaving gusts of wind whistling behind them. Ji Yuan was afraid, but didn’t move at all from his position in the air. Sure enough, he watched as the mountain god’s arms collided.

“Boom…”

Dust was carried away by the impact, and the giant arms formed a gesture of a bow with cupped hands.

“I am the humble Hong Shengting, Mountain God of Tingqiu Mountain. Sir, it seems I have offended you just now. Please, I hope you can forgive me!”

Ji Yuan bowed with cupped hands to the Mountain God in return. He hesitated for a moment, but finally decided not to introduce himself. Although it was a little impolite, he really didn’t want to do so at the moment because there seemed to be some hidden Qi in the distance surrounding them.

After greeting Ji Yuan, the Mountain God took one step forward and began to walk with his huge body.

“Boom…boom…boom…”

The surrounding mountains shook. After only three steps, he had already put a considerable distance between himself and the old man Laxie Xiu. During this process, the old man seemed a little hysterical.

“Mountain God Hong! Hong Shengting! You can’t leave, you…”

Shiiing…

The immortal sword flashed with a ringing sound, and the old man was directly slashed by the silver sword light. The ringing abruptly stopped, but his body appeared to be unharmed. Instead, he collapsed to the ground, eyes closed.

Ji Yuan casually slid the sword back into the scabbard floating beside him, and in mere moments the sword intent in the sky disappeared without a trace.

The wind and snow began to fall from the sky once more with intermittent whooshing, and the Tingqiu Mountain Range was once more covered in heavy snow.

This type of sword strike was the same as the one used after the old man had escaped with his life-saving talisman, and had been discovered by Ji Yuan. It only destroyed most of his mind, but did not touch his body or soul. However, compared to the advantages he had gained from observing and developing the Heaven-Rending Sword, this development was insignificant.

This time, Ji Yuan personally held the hilt of the sword and drew it to strike. He used his own spiritual energy to mobilize the might of the Green Vine Sword, slashing away the majority of the evil cultivator’s mind, leaving only a trace of immortality.

Only Ji Yuan, with his supernatural eyes fully open, could grasp the subtleties of this sword-drawing technique. It was different from the ordinary method: the sword Qi was supplemented by sword intent, and how own spiritual energy drove the flow of the Qi. One step further was the destruction of the soul. The immortal sword could not do this by itself for the time being. This style was a consequence of having split the land apart.

With his mind and spirit exhausted, the old man couldn’t move at all, and his entire body was out of his control. He was unable to concentrate or use his spiritual energy. He fell into a complete coma state, which was rare for cultivators of his level.

The Mountain God looked at Ji Yuan, and then at the old man on the ground, and knew that the latter was not yet dead. However, he could not and did not want to care what would happen afterwards. He was even more unwilling to stay here and be further embarrassed, so he he took heavy steps away, shaking the mountains. “Bang”, “Bang”, “Bang”… He stepped deep into the wind and snow. After a few dozen steps, he had moved further away and onto another peak. The enormous mountain-made body slowly sat down, then leaned against the mountain peak.

Rumble… rumble… rumble…

As the mountains shook, the majority of the Mountain God’s incarnation sank into the surrounding surrounding mountains, leaving only a few large boulders exposed. It looked exactly like an ordinary rugged mountain. Even with Ji Yuan’s eyes, he couldn’t detect anything special about this mountain’s aura from afar, as if it were truly an ordinary landmark.

‘This is obviously a consequence of his mountain domain. The Mountain God of Tingqiu Mountain is no ordinary individual! ’

Ji Yuan still stood in the air at this moment, his supernatural eyes wide, scanning around Tingqiu Mountain. He see demonic Qi and some other special auras escaping into the distance, but he had no intention of investigating or pursuing them.

He figured that, after experiencing the might and intimidating power of the Heaven-Rending Sword just now, no one would be so blind as to dare approach him.

Since the rumors of Tianji Pavilion had spread, there were likely countless individuals paying attention to Dazhen, particularly its northern border.

After all, although Dazhen had countries neighboring it on many sides, it was generally considered to be located in the southern corner of the Eastern Cloud Continent. The north was a cold and bitter place in Dazhen, but with regards to the geography of the Eastern Cloud Continent where it was located, the north was actually more towards the center of the landmass.

‘There may be more villains like this old man who dare use evil methods to defy fate. This might be a good opportunity to give them a scare!’

With this thought in mind, Ji Yuan descended from the clouds, riding the wind, before finally landing beside the old man.

As a result of the battle just now, not only did a mountain collapse, but there were also more frequent avalanches. The old man lay in the heavy snow; as the Mountain God’s enormous body moved, it had shaken the snow loose and buried him.

Given the old man’s current condition, if nothing were to be done, he would soon be frozen into into an ice sculpture. He most likely wouldn’t die, but he would probably have to wait to thaw out before waking up.

Just to be safe, Ji Yuan squatted down and used his martial arts skills to change the old man’s internal energy by sealing all the major acupoints in his body.

Just as he was about to stand up, a thought came to mind, and he approached the old man once more. He shaped the snow into the character “freeze” with his sword fingers, then pushed it into the old man’s body. Then he clapped his hands and stood back up.

After completing all of these tasks, Ji Yuan had no intention to leave directly. Instead, be bowed again in the direction that the Mountain God had left.

“Please, let us speak again, Mountain God.”

There was no response for a long time. He couldn’t be sure whether the true body of the Mountain God had already escaped to another place in the mountain range. Ji Yuan figured that this was most likely not the case; it was probably just that he didn’t want to come out again.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Ji Yuan decided to lift his foot and stomp lightly on the ground, using a subtle spiritual power to perform a very mild execution of the Spirit-Binding Technique, just enough for results.

“I invite Hong Shengting, the Mountain God of Tingqiu Mountain, to come and have a chat!”

The ripples of spiritual energy under his feet were weak and fluctuating, and were sensed by the Mountain God in an instant. However, Ji Yuan hadn’t made it too strong, which could be regarded as him affording the Mountain God some measure of respect.s

A faint yellow light surrounded Ji Yuan. A rock broke through the mountain soil and drilled out of the snow. It appeared in front of him, and transformed into a man with rocky outgrowths and patterns on his face. He wore a stone-gray robe, and couldn’t hide the look of surprise on his face.

“Hong Shengting greets the Lord Immortal!”

The Mountain God looked at Ji Yuan with a complicated expression and bowed.

“If you had shown me this skill earlier, why would I have gone through all this trouble…”

1. Referring to the intimidation tactic, based on the couplet at the end of the previous chapter.
2. 天 (tiān): sky/heaven/day, 倾 (qīng): to overturn/to collapse, 剑 (jiàn): sword/sword strikes. Note that I translated it as “sword,” but it’s in the sense of “swordsmanship” or “style” rather than the object itself. Not so much a new title for the sword as a name of the technique.
3. 洪 (hóng) could be his surname, but could also mean “Great,” as in Great Mountain God. Based on the sentences later on, it seems to be his name.