Love & Redemption
Chapter 139: Volume 3: Heartless Xuanji - 46: Lize Palace (3)

Chapter 139: Volume 3: Heartless Xuanji Chapter 46: Lize Palace (3)

What a good play, it’s just a fight! Xuanji looked at him grievously, forced to accept the challenge. Even thinking with your toes, you’d know the essential difference between fighting a junior disciple and facing an elder, and one false move could spell doom for everyone.

As the one who instigated the provocation, Liu Yihuan shamelessly ducked behind Xuanji the moment his attacker approached, shouting, "Help! Little Xuanji! The villain is attacking me!"

Ah, sometimes you really just want to knock him out with the hilt of your sword.

When Elder Luo’s sword light reached her, Xuanji gritted her teeth and caught it. The moment Bengyu touched the sword, it emitted a clear ringing sound, its brilliance surged, seemingly overpowering the other’s sword. Elder Luo was seeing the Divine Artifact Bengyu for the first time and was momentarily stunned when her left hand struck toward his shoulder.

He had to retreat to dodge it. Elder Luo, who prided himself as an elder of Lize Palace, was loath to stoop to physically fighting a young girl; it was beneath his dignity. With his hands behind his back, he stood opposite them, glaring at Liu Yihuan and bellowed, "You shameless scoundrel! Come out at once! Hiding behind a young girl, what kind of image is that!"

Liu Yihuan, who was shameless to begin with, treated his words as nothing but earwax and laughed, "A big man is a person, and a young girl isn’t? I love hiding behind her, and I’m not coming out. If you can, then come catch me and sacrifice me to the Old Palace Master!"

Elder Luo’s wrists trembled with anger, but since he had indeed hidden behind Xuanji, he couldn’t really do anything to her, so he said coldly, "Fine, a vile person like you doesn’t deserve my personal action. Do you still remember what you feared the most back then? Today, let me teach you that they have grown quite large!"

With a sweep of his sword, he plunged it into the sand. A slap on the hilt, and the sword instantly burrowed into the sand with a swishing sound. Liu Yihuan’s face changed, and he whispered, "No way! He’s been raising that thing as a spiritual beast?!" Before he finished speaking, he saw many disciples running towards the gate in horror, as though a sea monster had suddenly appeared.

A sound like thunderous rumbling emanated from the sea, as massive waves crashed audibly, and grains of sand on the beach churned like rice in a pan, shifting back and forth. The three turned around in shock, only to see the previously calm sea now boiling tumultuously, with endless waves churning and foam splashing. Something monstrous seemed to be breaking through from down below.

Xuanji’s arm suddenly tightened; it was Liu Yihuan gripping her fiercely. His hand was trembling slightly – not an act, but genuine fear!

"You... you all be careful! That thing... it’s terrifying!"

Seeing him trembling as he spoke, Xuanji softly asked, "Brother Liu... are you that scared?"

"Nonsense! If it weren’t for opening the Heavenly Eye to save you little ghosts and ending up without any strength to fight back, why would I be scared? It’s all your fault! All of it!" Liu Yihuan blurted out without even taking a breath. Ting Nu, who had been silent all along, suddenly made a sound of surprise, "Is it the Snake Transformation?" That demon typically lived in lakes; could there be one in the sea as well?

Liu Yihuan urgently exclaimed, "Exactly! Those creatures are so annoying! Not to mention the ones living in the sea! They’re ten times larger than the ones in the lake, and a careless touch would rot your whole body!"

Ting Nu calmly said, "Don’t panic, come over here."

He clapped his hands gently into the air, calling out softly, "Dangkang, Barrier." As soon as he spoke, a hairy, odd-looking piglet appeared at his feet. Xuanji immediately remembered seeing it once at the Zhou Residence; it was one of the two Little Demons that Ting Nu had captive, with the other being the Green Cultivation Bird.

Following its master’s command, Dangkang opened its mouth and let out a soft cry, and a faint layer of green light instantly enveloped the three of them. Liu Yihuan’s panic was somewhat alleviated; he raised his hand to poke the Barrier. It was thin as air, almost non-existent, and his finger went right through it.

"Is this thing reliable?" he asked skeptically.

Ting Nu spoke indifferently, "If you don’t trust me, you can go out and find a place to hide at any time."

"I trust you, I trust you! Hey, we’re old brothers, how could I not trust you!" He quickly hooked Ting Nu’s neck and pretended to be close. Ting Nu smiled faintly, looking towards the rolling sea, and said softly, "It’s coming out. I’ve never seen a Snake Transformation that lives in the sea before; today is truly an eye-opener."

While the two of them were chattering away, Xuanji’s brows were tightly furrowed as she stared at the restless sea surface. Suddenly, a piercing and harsh screech sounded like millions of crows crying out at once. The sea surface suddenly shot up with three or four thick black lines, writhing incessantly. Those were Snake Transformations! All three of them stared in stunned silence.

Their bodies were as thick as millennium-old trees, jet-black and smooth, with a shiny sheen. At first glance, they looked very much like snakes. However, near the head, they bore a pair of transparent large fins, and behind their backs grew three pairs of huge wings. Their fangs were sharp, and their faces were fierce. To borrow Liu Yihuan’s words: You could tell at a glance that they were no good.

Summoned by their master, the Snake Transformations awoke from the sea depths. As soon as they surfaced, they made a beeline for the Barrier. The three of them saw the gigantic and ferocious heads of the Snake Transformations ramming towards them. Their sharp fangs scraped against the Barrier, trying to swallow them whole. The insides of their mouths were full of countless backward-pointing spines, wriggling and struggling in a manner that sent chills down one’s spine.

Xuanji felt a chill running down her back. Although Dangkang’s Barrier had stopped the Snake Transformations’ attacks, it couldn’t shield them from the terrifying presence and the cold, fishy odor. Seeing such a huge demon beast so close, with its mouth wide open, would scare anyone half to death.

Liu Yihuan was so frightened that his legs went weak as he exclaimed, "Oh my god, it’s so huge! How can this thing grow so big?!" Before he could finish his sentence, he felt another Snake Transformation lunging at him with open jaws. He hurriedly scrambled and rolled over to Ting Nu’s side, clutching his clothes tightly and refusing to let go.

After attacking for a while and realizing they couldn’t destroy the Barrier, the Snake Transformations could do nothing but hover and spin nearby helplessly. Although they had wings on their backs, they couldn’t fly high—only about three feet off the ground—and soon couldn’t support themselves and returned to the sea, crying incessantly.

Elder Luo sneered from behind, "Not bad, somewhat capable! I’d like to see how long your Barrier can last!"

He slapped the sandy ground with his palm again, and the Snake Transformations immediately became excited as if injected with adrenaline, writhing and coiling in the sea. They churned the sea surface so much that it was constantly shaking, killing who knows how many fish and shrimp. Ting Nu, seeing them open their enormous maws and spew a large amount of black water, hurriedly patted Dangkang’s head and instructed softly, "Add another layer to the Barrier."

The black water fell like rain, and upon hitting the ground, it made a "zzt zzt" sound, instantly corroding the sandy ground into one black pit after another. Although everyone was protected by the Barrier, the sight still filled them with fear and trepidation. If even a bit of skin were exposed, there would be nowhere to hide, and the only outcome would be death.

That an Elder from the Punishment Hall of Lize Palace could keep such formidable spiritual beasts truly was frightening. Xuanji thought of the Spiritual Beast Red Luan that her father had kept for many years and feared that it would not stand a chance against these Snake Transformations.

The Snake Transformations kept spouting black water without a moment’s pause. Ting Nu frowned and said, "This won’t do. If we don’t get rid of these Snake Transformations, we will be trapped here to die."

He looked up at Xuanji, who was holding her sword, her gaze fixed on the Snake Transformations, her eyebrows tightly knit.

Suddenly, Ting Nu spoke in a low voice, "Xuanji, can you still summon the Samadhi True Fire now?"

Xuanji was startled for a moment and hesitated, "Fire Manipulation is no problem... but Samadhi True Fire? What is that?"

"You don’t need to worry about that," Ting Nu said gravely. "Do you want to save Si Feng?"

"Of course, I do!"

"Then it’s up to you to deal with the Snake Transformations, to show them your determination." (To be continued, visit www.qidian.com for more Chapters. Support the author, support original reading!)