Chapter 82: I’ll Talk Your Talk!

The arrival of Celestial Master He Xun struck the Luotian Grand Offering like a meteor crashing into a still pond, and the entire ritual ground erupted into chaos.

Tianlong Temple!

Among the seven Taoist temples beyond the Great Wall that currently have Celestial Masters in residence, it is one of the colossal Upper Three Gates!

And this Celestial Master He Xun was notorious for a fiery temper, a personality like raging flames!

But no one could understand what on earth He Xun meant by his actions.

Face and reputation mattered most among Celestial Masters.

Every word and movement represented their mountain gate and lineage, not to be treated like common rabble.

In public like this, a Celestial Master had to weigh every sentence carefully and not speak carelessly.

Yet now, He Xun’s behavior…

Naturally, people wanted to know what had happened!!

How had someone provoked He Xun to this extent?

Before anyone recovered their senses, He Xun moved!

He stamped his feet hard on the bluestone ground, launched into a ferocious run, then shot skyward like a missile!

“Take this—Nine Heavens’ Responding Primordial Illusion-Breaking Golden Thunder!!!”

A roar that made eardrums buzz!

Lu Yuan: “?”

Celestial Master He Zhen: “?”

Everyone present: “??”

He… he just opened with his ultimate?!

Before the words finished, He Xun’s figure plunged through the air and fused with a violently detonating thunderbolt that had appeared from nowhere!

He didn’t even form a hand seal!

Anger made thought into technique, true intent revealing itself!

His right hand spread into a dragon-claw shape, fingertips spraying a blindingly white-gold thunder!

Within that lightning flashed an essence of ripping power, a purging, unyielding yang force aimed straight for the crown of He Zhen’s head, to snatch him down hard!

This was a top-tier punitive thunder technique for administering justice and dispelling illusions!

He Zhen was utterly stunned, genuinely dumbfounded.

His mind went blank; he couldn’t comprehend what was unfolding.

Every disciple of surrounding Taoist gates was petrified on the spot.

Who would expect a Celestial Master to strike another Celestial Master like this!

Opening with “Fuck your mother” and then a top-tier thunder strike!

In the rushed moment, He Zhen’s body reacted on instinct.

His left thumb gripped the second joint of his middle finger at the Li Fire position, while his right index finger traced a quick semi-circular motion in front of him.

His internal power surged like a breached river, and a translucent protective charm of jade sheen instantly bloomed above his head.

Shriii—

Boom!!!

The golden-white thunder claw collided viciously with the jade light!

The sound was sharp and ear-splitting, like grinding diamond drill against glaze, making one’s teeth ache!

The seemingly indestructible jade light couldn’t last even half a breath against the illusion-breaking golden thunder!

Crack!!!

A crisp snap, and the charm shattered like a mirror struck by a heavy hammer!

The aftershock of the thunderstorm lost control and turned into a golden waterfall of lightning, pouring down on He Zhen’s head!

Only then did Lu Yuan react, cursing inwardly: Holy shit!!

The old bastard left no openings at all!

Run!!!

As the golden thunder waterfall slammed down, He Zhen let out a stifled groan of pain; his Daoist crown above his head was blasted to powder by the violent energy!

His topknot burst apart, a few strands of hair instantly charred black and smoking.

He stumbled backward seven or eight frantic steps, each footfall cracking the bluestone beneath, leaving shallow fissured prints!

His qi and blood churned violently; a metallic sweetness surged into his throat, his face showing a sickly flush.

“He Xun!!!”

He Zhen steadied himself, disheveled and humiliated, pointing at He Xun as he roared:

“You’re fucking insane!!”

“What are you doing!!!”

“When have I ever offended you!!!”

Around them, the disciples swallowed hard, their eyes nearly bulging.

This…

Is this the strength of Celestial Masters…

They saved sealing charms and incantations?

Open your mouth and reach out, and thunder descends?!

At that moment, He Xun was furious, his eyes practically spitting fire.

“You fucking jade-temple dog scum!”

“You trampled my ancestor’s spirit tablet! You still say I didn’t offend you?!!”

He Xun’s roar showed no mercy, giving no time for the other party to catch a breath.

He stamped again, shattering the bluestone slabs underfoot into fragments; he became a blur as he lunged again!

The onlookers were completely stunned.

Huh???

Why is Tianlong Temple involved in this?!

Trampled Tianlong Temple’s founder’s tablet???

What does that mean??

Is Lu Yuan from Tianlong Temple??

But the problem is…

Lu Yuan already introduced himself earlier!

He said he was from Zhenlong Temple.

And his founder’s name was Zhang Jiuting!

Tianlong Temple, being one of the Upper Three Gates, had a founding patriarch legendary in the Beyond-the-Great-Wall Taoist world.

If memory served, the founder’s name should be Li Zhengqing!

He has nothing to do with Zhang Jiuting, so how could this be?!

The young disciples couldn’t make sense of it, but He Zhen only paused for a moment before suddenly piecing together the key point!

An old grievance surfaced in his mind.

These mysteries were unknown to the juniors, but an elder who had lived nearly a hundred years knew them well!

He Xun had not been initiated into Tianlong Temple originally!

He joined Tianlong Temple after already becoming a Celestial Master!

He rose to temple master by means of transcendent cultivation, being crowned repeatedly, now a four-time coronation and about to claim a fifth.

So He Xun’s true lineage was not the Li Zhengqing worshipped inside Tianlong Temple!

His real teacher was… Zhang Jiuting!

In a flash, He Xun was again directly above He Zhen’s head.

This time he intertwined his fingers rapidly, forming an elaborate, ancient, imposing hand seal.

Five-Thunder Sovereign Sky Seal!

His left hand’s five fingers stood for the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth!

His right hand hovered above, commanding the sovereign sky and ordering the ten thousand thunders!

“Rotation of Five Elements, Sovereign Sky Decree!”

“Five-Direction Thunder Prison, subdue!!”

The earlier strike without seals or incantations had been terrifying; full-force, this was even more astonishing!

With his roar, the ground within ten zhang of He Zhen flared with five dazzling colors!

Eastern azure Wood thunder!

Southern red Fire thunder!

Western white Metal thunder!

Northern black Water thunder!

Central yellow Earth thunder!

Five differently colored thunder-dragon serpents shrieked from the void, connecting head to tail!

They instantly formed a high-speed rotating cage of thunder that compressed inward like a cyclone!

This was no mere killing technique!

It was suppression! Imprisonment! One of the Taoist world’s top thunder techniques!

He Zhen’s pupils shrank!

This was not only a mortal threat; to He Zhen it was a colossal insult!

For the Celestial Master of Biyu Temple to be locked like a demon in a thunder prison before everyone!

“Ahhh!!”

He Zhen screamed and thrust both arms upward!

His ten fingers danced with afterimages as he poured out every ounce of his internal power!

“Biyu Holds the Heavens, Invulnerable to All!”

“Jade Splendor Heavenly Gang Shield!!”

A hemisphere shield many times denser than before bloomed around him, flowing with emerald divine light and festooned with countless golden talismanic runes, sealing him inside!

This was Biyu Temple’s top defensive formation.

Boom boom boom boom—!!!

The five-colored thunders hammered at the Jade Splendor shield, erupting an unending, deafening roar!

Lightning and jade light tangled, collided, and annihilated!

Scattered little electric serpents pelted the bluestone ground, scorching countless small black pits into it!

The shield shuddered violently as its golden runes flashed erratically, on the verge of collapse.

Such a cataclysmic scene terrified everyone.

Far away, Song Meiqin and Zhao Qiao'er, having never witnessed a Celestial Master duel before, were pale and weak with fear.

Song Zonghu’s sister, and Zhao Qiao'er, both shocked.

Song Zonghu’s hand dropped the cigarette he’d been holding; he stared blankly at his own sister, his expression writing three words:

Can I handle this?!

“He Xun!!!”

“What exactly are you doing!!!”

He Zhen’s voice distorted through the thunder prison, tinged with a desperate roar.

“Do you intend to kill me?!!!”

“If it comes to this, tell me what you want in compensation!!”

Inside the Jade Splendor shield, his hair and beard stood on end; his broad Daoist robes billowed as power surged.

Under crushing pressure, his face drained red to white, sweat beading like soybeans at his temples and tracing down his wrinkled features.

The Five-Direction Thunder Prison was overwhelming.

It wasn’t just destructive power; it carried a law-enforcing, breaking impulse that ground down his protective qi and battered his Daoist heart.

He Xun, by contrast, was like a thunder god descended, hair bristling as golden electric light coiled all around him!

His gaze locked on his opponent in the prison, both hands holding the Five-Thunder Sovereign Sky Seal!

His power poured into the prison like a sky river unleashed.

The comparison was clear!

One came in furious and relentless like a thunderstorm, refusing to stop.

One was already on the defensive, like a candle in wind, about to be extinguished.

Everyone from the Taoist gates present dared not breathe.

They were shaken to the bone by this utterly one-sided Celestial Master duel.

“You dog bastard!!!”

He Xun’s voice was more violent than thunder.

“Now you beg for mercy?!”

“Fuck your mother!”

“Last night, when Biyu Temple humiliated my line’s juniors, why didn’t you think about today!”

“Just now, you even dared, openly, to force my junior to apologize to you!!!”

Each time He Xun spoke, the thunder prison flared brighter and pressed harder, making the jade shield creak under the strain.

“Too late!!!”

He Xun bellowed like a descending thunder god:

“That bastard Zhao Bing, who is his master!!”

“If you raise without teaching, the father’s fault! If you teach without seriousness, the master’s laziness!”

“To raise something that dares to kick another’s ancestor tablet, his master can’t be any better!”

“Bring him out!”

“Today, in front of all the Taoist gates, I will cripple his cultivation!!!”

Lu Yuan, who had already run far away, blinked at the scene.

This…

Lu Yuan felt he had been ruthless enough last night.

He felt a little guilty, a little uneasy inside.

But…

Seeing this display and hearing He Xun’s words, Lu Yuan suddenly relaxed considerably.

He really was quite the good guy, huh~

Inside the thunder prison, He Zhen was furious to the core.

A cornered dog jumps walls, and what of him—a temple master, a Celestial Master of the age!

This was intolerable!

In hundreds of years of Taoist gates beyond the Great Wall, which Celestial Master had suffered such humiliation?

This insult was unbearable!

First a junior had scolded him in the face, then an elder yelled at him!

After the curses, they used a form of thunder to lock him like a prisoner.

And that wasn’t all.

He Xun even wanted, in front of so many people, in front of He Zhen himself, the Celestial Master and master of Biyu Temple, to cripple his disciple’s cultivation!

Whether today or not, Biyu Temple’s reputation would be ruined.

He Zhen himself would become the most ridiculous “Celestial Master” beyond the Great Wall, a laughingstock for decades, perhaps centuries.

No Celestial Master was a coward.

Even if things were messy, there was at least a baseline all gates respected.

A “Celestial Master” must not be someone who collapses!

“Fuck your grandma!!”

He Zhen had pride, backbone, dignity!

“He Xun, old thief, I know your cultivation surpasses mine!”

“But if you have the ability, kill me then!!”

“You dream if you think you can cripple my disciple’s cultivation in front of me!!”

“I’ll fight you!!”

He Zhen roared like a trapped beast; bloodshot veins burst in his eyes as he tried to forcibly reverse the power, regardless of the cost to his foundation, in order to break the damned thunder prison and battle He Xun to the death!

At the brink of disaster—

“Blessed are the boundless merits, Celestial Master…”

A clear, peaceful voice, with an odd cadence, sounded unexpectedly.

Amid the roaring thunder and shouts, it flowed into everyone’s ears.

Not loud, yet it calmed the agitated spiritual mechanism in the air.

Even the compressing Five-Direction Thunder Prison seemed to stall slightly.

People turned to the sound.

A figure had appeared at the edge between the thunder prison and the shield.

He was lean-faced, with three wisps of long beard flowing over his chest, wearing a crown of sun, moon, and stars, dressed in a unique black-and-white Dao robe.

On the left breast of his robe, a crescent moon was embroidered in silver thread.

On the right breast, a blazing sun was embroidered in gold.

Sun and moon blending, Dao resonance flowing endlessly.

He stood with hands folded behind him, expression serene, gaze gentle as he looked at the two about to clash.

He was the master of Riyue Temple, one of the Upper Three Gates beyond the Great Wall—Celestial Master He Ming!

“He Xun, Dao Brother, please temper your thunderous fury.”

He Ming’s voice was warm as jade, yet carried an undeniable weight.

“He Zhen, Dao Brother, please calm yourself as well.”

He Xun frowned; his attack eased slightly, but the Five-Thunder Sovereign Sky Seal still held and the five-colored thunder prison still roared and spun.

He fixed his gaze on He Ming and growled in a thick, coarse voice:

“Get lost!!”

“What has this to do with Riyue Temple!!”

He Zhen seized the opportunity like grabbing a lifeline and shouted:

“He Ming, junior brother, you saw it too!”

“He Xun acted recklessly, treating Celestial Master dignity as nothing, attempting violence here in the sacred Luotian Grand Offering!”

“Please, junior brother, uphold justice!”

He Ming slightly shook his head, eyes sweeping over the bedraggled He Zhen, then looking at the enraged He Xun.

Finally his gaze passed the distant, stern-faced Lu Yuan, and he sighed softly.

“Both of you are masters of your temples, Celestial Masters of the age.”

“In a place where the world’s Taoist gates gather attention, such public fighting is indecorous.”

His tone remained peaceful but carried implied reproach.

“Right and wrong will be judged.”

“If we let anger consume reason, it will not solve anything; it will only lead to greater disaster and damage the reputation of all Beyond-the-Great-Wall Taoist gates.”

He stepped forward, though there was no violent power fluctuation; his hands formed gestures before him.

His left hand formed the Sun Wheel Seal; his right hand the Moon Splendor Seal.

One yin and one yang, two distinct yet integrated gentle breaths quietly emanated from him.

“Sun and moon revolve, yin and yang harmonize.”

“Sun and moon together, settle the storm.”

As he chanted, a warm golden light like morning sun appeared at his left fingertip, while a cold silver radiance like a bright moon shimmered at his right.

Gold and silver intertwined into a half-gold, half-silver Taiji-shaped circle.

That circle gently but irresistibly pierced between the raging Five-Direction Thunder Prison and the sturdy Jade Splendor shield.

There was no cataclysmic clash.

The gold-silver ring seemed to carry a strange harmonizing power.

Where it passed, the violent thunder grew mild and the taut shield slowly relaxed.

The ring expanded quickly like a soft barrier, forcibly separating the two Celestial Masters’ explosive power fields.

He Xun frowned.

He felt his thunder sunk into a resilient quagmire, not broken but suddenly much more costly to maintain.

He Zhen felt the pressure ease and hurried to regulate his breath, his eyes full of gratitude toward He Ming.

“He Ming! Are you really going to intervene?!”

He Xun roared; his lightning flared again as he tried to force the ring apart.

He Ming’s expression didn’t change; his seal was steady as a rock, his voice sincere and resolute:

“He Xun, Dao Brother, it’s not that this priest favors either side.”

“This matter concerns many; it’s not a simple private grudge.”

“Biyu Temple’s disciple insulting your lineage’s ancestor tablet is indeed a great wrong, and the capture of a newly ascended immortal has many suspicious points.”

“However, Lu Yuan striking down a Biyu Temple disciple in the street is likewise a fact.”

“Each point and piece cannot be resolved here by force alone.”

He turned to the motionless Taoist disciples around the field; his clear voice carried everywhere:

“Today is the Luotian Grand Offering, a time when the world’s Taoist brethren gather.”

“Why not use this altar as the place to lay facts and wrongs before all, to be judged and debated by the world’s Taoist gates?”

“In doing so, we can both quell the fighting and clearly determine right and wrong—far better than the two Celestial Masters battling here, which would cause pain for the close and joy for enemies.”

When He Ming spoke, the tightly wound atmosphere loosened subtly.

Many senior heads among the onlookers nodded quietly.

He Ming’s mediation made sense; it gave both sides a face-saving way out.

Continuing the fight would ruin Biyu Temple’s reputation utterly.

Tianlong Temple would be accused of bullying and ignoring the larger picture.

He Xun glared at He Zhen behind the gold-silver ring.

He then glanced at He Ming, whose calm gaze hid resolve.

At that moment, Lu Yuan immediately looked to He Xun and said:

“He Xun Celestial Master, perhaps it’s better to stop now. I only wish to retrieve an immortal friend.”

Lu Yuan was neither weak nor yielding.

He simply recognized the reality at a glance.

With He Ming present, destroying Lingchen’s cultivation was no longer realistic or achievable.

As a junior, Lu Yuan naturally wanted to give He Xun a way down.

Moreover, Lu Yuan’s real purpose in coming was indeed to find the Yellow Braised Chicken, not to have Lingchen’s cultivation destroyed.

He Xun ground his teeth and knew the same; with He Ming here, he couldn’t carry out his plan.

Finally he snorted coldly.

The lightning around him slowly retracted; the hands maintaining the Five-Direction Thunder Prison loosened their seals.

“You can’t talk like a normal person?”

“Always prattling with flowery words, acting like more educated!”

“Heh, as if reading a few more years made you special!”

He Xun’s thunder faded, but his mouth did not.

He Ming: “…”

Lu Yuan saw He Ming’s chest rise and fall rapidly.

Then He Ming, as if nothing was wrong, looked at He Xun with a smile:

“If so, then let us all sit down and talk properly.”

Next second, He Xun:

“Talk my ass!”

“Did I say I wanted to talk to you?”

Lu Yuan: “???”

Everyone: “???”

Next second, He Xun turned to the distant Lu Yuan, waved a hand and said:

“You brat, come here!”

Lu Yuan: “???”

Lu Yuan wore a puzzled look; he didn’t know what trick He Xun planned, but he obediently went over.

He Xun glanced at He Ming and He Zhen, both wearing grim smiles.

“You two together—powerful!”

“If I can’t defeat you both alone today, I’ll admit it!”

“But I won’t talk much. Just one thing!”

He Xun pointed at Lu Yuan as he approached.

“This brat’s master, Taoist name He Yin!”

“That Taoist name not familiar?”

“I’ll say it in a name you know: his original name is Li Xiuye!”

“He Ming, you like playing the good guy and peacemaker, right?”

“Fine!”

“Right now I will immediately notify Zhenlong Temple and tell Li Xiuye everything about today, in full detail.”

He Xun’s smile grew icier, each word deliberate:

“He Ming, you really are something—have you forgotten how Li Xiuye used to make you his jump rope?”

“If you’re so great, repeat your ‘justice speech’ in front of Li Xiuye now!”

“You better tell Li Xiuye exactly how his disciple was bullied yesterday!”

“Tell him how his ancestor’s spirit tablet was kicked!”

“Awooo!”