Chapter 283: Breaking Out of the Siege (Part Two)

Master Xuanmiao's figure did not pause, nor did he give chase; like an arrow loosed from its bowstring, he charged toward the attacked carriage.

Tao Ji's poison had barely held off the two people and one demon for less than ten breaths before a single person slapped him off the carriage with a palm strike from across the distance.

He spat a mouthful of blood, saw them reaching for Pan Yun, and his eyes went bloodshot with panic. Just as he was about to leap up to block them, he saw them deflected for a moment by the talismans on the carriage, and in the next instant, Master Xuanmiao arrived to kill.

Tao Ji exhaled a breath, finally spitting out the blood that had been clogging his throat, tapped two acupoints on his own chest, then climbed up onto the carriage.

Master Xuanmiao fought the three in a tangled melee, while the remaining small fry, wary of Tao Ji's poisons, did not dare step forward.

Just as they were hesitating over whether to press on or give up, a wave of oppressive might descended. A black shadow, treading on treetops, flew toward them and arrived in the blink of an eye. Before Tao Ji could make out who it was, he shouted, "Junior sister, be careful!"

Tao Ji's poison and horsewhip lashed toward the black shadow at the same time. The black shadow's body rippled with a surge of qi, so the poison could not get near, and the horsewhip was simultaneously blasted away. He brushed past Tao Ji and struck a palm strike straight at Master Xuanmiao, who had her back to him.

Master Xuanmiao swept out a sword without turning around; the blade stabbed backward, driving straight at his palm.

The opponent tilted his palm to dodge the sword tip, but his internal force also pulled back slightly. Master Xuanmiao rippled her whole body, blocking with primordial force, yet she was still shaken back two steps.

The opponent burst into laughter. "Xuanmiao, you cultivators' primordial force isn't inexhaustible either. You're about to run out."

Master Xuanmiao couldn't be bothered to trade words with him. The moment she blocked that strike, she turned and parried three attacks at once. She picked out the oldest among them — also the one with the highest martial skill — ignored the two attacks coming right after, flickered her body, and slipped straight past his side…

The opponent's eyes went wide. "You…"

He had only opened his mouth before blood began pouring out in great gushes.

Master Xuanmiao glanced down at the claw wound on her shoulder, then felt the wet slickness on her back, and her fighting spirit only grew fiercer.

She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, her eyes seeming to blaze with a ball of fire, and said softly, "It's been many years since I've had such a thoroughly satisfying fight."

She glanced at the blood slowly spreading across the old man's chest — clearly already drained of strength, yet refusing to fall — and sneered, "A third-rate sect, third-rate experts, and you dare waylay me? Who gave you the nerve? Him?"

Master Xuanmiao said coldly, "Screaming Emperor Yingzong, I've taken note. I'll go up to the grasslands and wipe them out. Let's see whether your Five Grains Sect can protect your sect."

The old man's eyes went wide, and with a bang he dropped dead on the spot, unappeased.

The one person and one demon on either side, terrified, took a step back. Looking at Master Xuanmiao's surging fighting spirit, they felt a touch of regret.

Then, looking at the newly arrived pitch-black figure, the regret in their hearts deepened.

It seemed they had been tricked by Ming Yi. The newcomer was this powerful — even if they snatched the "Heavenly Treasure," would they get any merit meat?

Just as the one person and one demon were thinking of slipping away, the newcomer suddenly spoke: "Is it a bit late for you to run now? Xuanmiao returns every grievance; if she can recognize Ming Yi as a man of Screaming Emperor Yingzong, do you think she won't recognize you?"

The one person and one demon thought it over and realized it was true, and even the small fry nearby who'd been trying to sneak off couldn't help but stop in their tracks.

He was right — Xuanmiao had sworn an oath, so clearly after tonight she wouldn't let them off. The only option was to kill him.

The newcomer's martial skill was high; he should be at the Fifth Hour — they could take a gamble.

Everyone's fighting spirit was roused, and they looked again at Master Xuanmiao and Tao Ji, and at Pan Yun, who was still in deep meditation.

Pan Xiao Hei, because he was so black, blended perfectly into the night. He was urgently trying to wake Pan Yun. "Wake up, wake up quick! The new guy's martial skill is really high, your senior sister might not be able to beat him ahhhh…"

The sliver of awareness Pan Yun had left around her body did not sense any crisis, so she kept on being a diligent laborer, persistently moving the excess primordial force in her meridians up to her Upper Dantian.

The Spirit Realm wobbled, and Pan Xiao Hei's faint voice came through. Pan Yun heard it, her awareness withdrew from the Mud Pill Palace, and her eyes snapped open with a swish.

The moment her eyes opened, she saw Master Xuanmiao brush past a man in black — the other side dodged Master Xuanmiao's sword, and Master Xuanmiao also slipped past his palm strike — but the instant they crossed, one person and one demon followed up with attacks in relay, pinning Master Xuanmiao.

The man in black who had brushed past turned and struck a palm the moment he did. Pan Yun knew at a glance that this palm had gathered ten-tenths of his strength — far more vicious than the one from the brush-by just now.

A ball of primordial force instantly appeared in her palm; thunderclouds churned in the sky, and lightning flashed and thunder roared at the collision. Pan Yun was about to strike, but in that instant a figure flickered into place in front of Master Xuanmiao. Pan Yun saw who it was, and the hand she had already raised instantly dropped; the primordial force was immediately pulled back into her body, and at the same time she cupped her hands in salute toward the sky over and over. "Didn't see, didn't see…"

The newcomer raised a hand and, with a light touch, caught the man in black's palm strike. No force seemed to be exerted, but at the moment of contact there was a bang — the man in black was sent flying backward, slammed into the mountain wall on the right, and smashed out a hole about five centimeters deep, then slid lightly down from it.

Wang Feiyin withdrew his hand and turned his head. Master Xuanmiao, fierce and ruthless, drove her sword straight through the startled and faltering one person and one demon in a single thrust.

The person was dead; the demon, the moment it hit the ground, instantly transformed into a large buzzard.

Wang Feiyin frowned, his gaze falling on Master Xuanmiao, and his brow furrowed tighter. "You're injured again. Where's Tao Ji?"

Tao Ji crawled out from under the carriage and reached out a hand. "I'm here. Cough, cough…"

Tao Ji coughed up blood. He had just been slapped off again by the man in black's palm strike. Fortunately, he had on him one of Pan Yun's Peace Talismans and one of Master Xuanmiao's wooden plaques — both of which were now completely shattered — so all he'd done was cough up blood; he hadn't been smashed to pieces.

Wang Feiyin hurried over and dragged him out. The moment he felt his pulse, his brow furrowed, and he immediately looked toward the man in black who was struggling to sneak away.

Wang Feiyin's expression was calm as he formed a hand seal and said, "Blessed be the Heavenly Worthy of the Eastern Peak — rewards and punishments are clear, punish the wicked and eliminate the treacherous."

Having spoken, he flicked his sleeve, and a streak of Primal Origin qi force slammed violently into the opponent's back. With a bang, the man's body lurched; he swayed around, only managing to get one look at Wang Feiyin before he dropped with a bang.

The scene fell silent for a moment.

Pan Yun was the first to react, and said in a small voice, "Senior brother, there seem to be a lot of people still in the woods." Wang Feiyin glanced at her, then looked up at the clouds piling thicker and thicker in the sky, and called out in a clear voice, "Are you all not leaving because you want to visit my Mount Sanqing as guests?"

The people and demons who had been hiding in the woods, not daring to act but hoping to fish in the troubled waters, scattered in an instant.

The people and demons standing on the battlefield with blades in hand, seeing Wang Feiyin's gaze sweep over them, trembled, dropped their blades, and scrambled away on hands and knees.

Even those who had fallen and weren't dead didn't dare keep up their act of playing dead or unconscious, and crawled desperately toward the woods, terrified that Wang Feiyin would settle the score with them on the spot.

Yao Wulun, who had been hiding among the corpses, also slipped away.

Wang Feiyin had no time to settle accounts with them one by one. He tossed out a massive medicine cauldron, flung Tao Ji into it, picked up Pan Yun, and flew up to tread on the cauldron's rim.

Master Xuanmiao also leapt up and stepped onto the other side of the cauldron.

Pan Xiao Hei reacted swiftly, leaped with practiced ease straight into Pan Yun's arms. In the next instant, the cauldron took off, whooshed through the air, and flew toward the horizon.

Pan Yun let out a wail as the cold wind came rushing at her face and poured straight down her throat. She threw her arms around Wang Feiyin and buried her head in his chest. "Wuwuwuwuwu?" Why aren't you blocking the wind?

Wang Feiyin transmitted his voice: "Because we need to conserve primordial force. From here to the mountain is still a long way."

Pan Yun only then remembered she could use voice transmission. "What about our carriage?"

!. Read

Wang Feiyin: "If fate wills it, we'll meet again. If not, then it belongs to someone else."

Master Xuanmiao: "Eldest Senior Brother, did you see Miao Zhen and Miao He?"

Wang Feiyin: "They're down below."

Master Xuanmiao and Pan Yun looked down and saw two people and one demon hiding in the woods below, craning their necks to sneak peeks at the road. Above their heads floated a red-clothed female ghost, also craning her neck to look.

Tao Ji, clutching his chest as he sat in the cauldron, also poked his head out to glance down, and called out very matter-of-factly, "Disciple!"

Miao Zhen and Miao He snapped their heads up — the cauldron was plummeting down from the sky.

Moments later, Seeing Miao Zhen and Ge Jingyi each grabbed one end of the red fox—one held her upper body, the other her tail—and squeezed into the medicine cauldron with Tao Ji, while Xiao Hong was sealed by Master Xuanmiao in a talisman, rolled it up, and handed the yellow scroll to the red fox.

"When you release her, just tear open the yellow talisman."

Hong Yan's paws clutched the yellow talisman tightly against her belly, afraid the wind might blow it away.

The medicine cauldron floated up, slowly heading toward Mount Sanqing.

Pan Yun looked at Wang Feiyin with admiration. "Big Brother, you're incredible—you can carry so many people. Isn't this overloading?"

Wang Feiyin: "Shut up!"

Wang Feiyin spent two kezhang covering the distance two hours of carriage travel would take, flying straight back to the peak of Mount Sanqing and landing on the square before the Sanqing Temple.

Wang Cong had been waiting there. Seeing the cauldron land, he rushed forward and asked, "Third Uncle and Seeing Miao Zhen and the others…"

He spotted the three people and the fox crammed inside the cauldron, fell silent, paused, then changed his question: "Are you all unharmed?"

Seeing Miao Zhen passed the red fox forward. "Big Brother, take her."

Wang Cong reached out to receive her, but Hong Yan kicked off Ge Jingyi's body, leapt into the air, landed, and instantly transformed into human form, tearing open the yellow talisman to release Xiao Hong.

Wang Cong turned his hand to support Seeing Miao Zhen.

Pan Yun, lowered from the cauldron by Wang Feiyin, looked up at the thunderclouds chasing them and said: "While it's still dark, go cross the Tribulation. After dawn, you'll scare people."

Pan Yun: "Isn't it easier to scare people in the dark?"

"Everyone's asleep at night. Even if they hear winter thunder, how many will get up to look? Hurry and cross the Tribulation. If you hold out any longer and anger the heavenly lightning, what if it strikes down our Sanqing Temple?"

Master Xuanmiao: "Big Brother, where's the best place for my sister to cross the Tribulation?"

Wang Feiyin thought briefly, then said: "Less than fifty paces northeast of the Purple Smoke Stone is a massive rock, overlooking the Wind and Thunder Pagoda. Go there to cross the Tribulation."

Pan Yun's eyes lit up. "That's also in the Qian direction. Does Qian direction benefit me?"

"No," Wang Feiyin said. "It's open, the rock is hard and won't break from lightning, there are few trees, so it draws less lightning, and even if it catches fire, it won't start a mountain blaze."

Pan Yun: "... Big Brother, you should rephrase that."

Wang Feiyin tapped her on the head. "Hurry up and go. If that lightning damages the temple, you pay for it."

Pan Yun immediately ran off. "Third Brother, Fourth Sister, I'm going to cross the Tribulation first. You two heal up."

See you tomorrow

(End of Chapter)