Chapter 1133 - None Shall Insult the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect
Mu Huanzhi had never directly confronted such fury from Mu Xuanyin. His old face turned deathly pale in an instant. With a “thud” he kneeled down on the ground, and said in a trembling voice, “Sect… Sect Master, please calm your anger. Huanzhi had absolutely no such intention. It’s just that… just that… Huanzhi realizes that he is in the wrong, and asks Sect Master for a chance at redemption!”
Mu Bingyun slightly opened her lips, as if wanting to say something. But upon sensing that Mu Xuanyin had been truly angered, she dropped the idea of speaking anything in defense of Mu Huanzhi.
Whether he wanted to go first or later completely depended on the intentions of the Sword Sovereign. Given his strength, standing, and seniority, no one would raise any objection to the choice he made… However, the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect taking the initiative to let them go ahead out of courtesy was one thing, but the action taken by Jun Xilei, the successor of the Sword Sovereign, was a clear display of her looking down upon the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect. Moreover, Jun Wuming was also allowing her to do as she wished.
If it was any other sect of a middle star realm, they would have absolutely not contradicted the Sword Sovereign with words of discontentment, let alone be enraged by the att.i.tude of the master-disciple pair. At most, they would have felt a little uncomfortable, as the other party was the mighty Sword Sovereign, after all. In the eyes of almost everyone, what Mu Huanzhi did was only normal, and there was nothing to criticize.
But at this moment, Mu Xuanyin was present at this place as well. Mu Bingyun wasn’t surprised to see her getting angry, given her temperament, but she definitely didn’t expect her to explode with anger in front of the Sword Sovereign.
A big frown had surfaced on the face of Jun Wuming. He glanced sideways at the chilly and oppressing cold eyes of Mu Xuanyin. “What is the meaning of this, Realm King Xuanyin?”
His indifferent tone also carried some chilliness. Jun Xilei beside him also turned around, as first a look of surprise, and then an unconcerned and indifferent look appeared on her face.
Mu Xuanyin said coldly, “Senior’s disciple belittled and affronted my Divine Ice Phoenix Sect, which is an unforgivably serious offense in itself. But considering the honor of senior, this king doesn’t intend to pursue it. I ask senior to step back with his disciple, and let my Divine Ice Phoenix Sect go ahead!”
Jun Wuming had no expression on his face, as he looked straight at Mu Xuanyin and said indifferently. “What are you going to do if this old man refuses to retreat?”
His calm and indifferent words made the hearts of everyone from the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect thump loudly, but none of them dared to make a sound. They didn’t even dare to let out a breath, as a deep sense of uneasiness coursed through their bodies.
Sword Sovereign Jun Wuming was a mythical existence of the G.o.d Realm who was truly treated like a deity. Although their Sect Master Mu Xuanyin was powerful enough to be supercilious to the ma.s.ses, whether it was profound strength, reputation, or standing, she was far inferior to the Sword Sovereign in all such aspects. If he were to get angry… the consequences would be too disastrous to even imagine!
Immediately, the already chilly temperature in the snowfield became even more bone-piercing. The people from the Flame G.o.d Realm unconsciously took a few steps back, as they kept quiet out of fear, like those from the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect. The Sword Sovereign had said the six words “what are you going to do” in an extremely flat voice, but each and every one of those words, as if pressing down from the firmament, suppressed them to such an extent that they were unable to breathe.
Confronting the current Jun Wuming, the reply of Mu Xuanyin was so shocking that all the people felt as if their guts would rip apart at any moment.
“Jun Wuming,” Mu Xuanyin directly called him by name, “You are an esteemed senior in the G.o.d Realm, and a guest who has come from afar, so my Divine Ice Phoenix Sect is supposed to honor you. To show respect, this king arrived here from a distant place, and has given you enough respect and face. We haven’t made the slightest mistake with treating you pair of master and disciple. Your disciple on the other hand, returned our courtesy by humiliating my Divine Ice Phoenix Sect. Not only did you, as the master, not stop her, you also didn’t feel the least bit ashamed of her behavior!”
“My Divine Ice Phoenix Sect being respectful to you both, doesn’t mean that you two have the qualifications to look down upon my sect!”
“This king will say it for the last time, make way for my sect! Don’t make a fool of yourself when I’m giving you a chance to save face!”
Her tone was still somewhat mild in the beginning, but her words near the end were said in an ice-cold and decisive tone.
As if an enormous pot lid had covered the area below from the sky, the entire snowy region felt so stifled that even the sound of falling snow could not be heard.
“Sect… Sect Master,” Mu Tanzhi said trembling with fear and his voice shaking. Mu Huanzhi, who was still kneeling on the ground, also raised his head all of a sudden. His lips were trembling, as if there was something he wanted to say but didn’t dare to, considering the current state of Mu Xuanyin.
“Sss! What is going on here? Has this woman gone mad!?” The eyes of Huo Rulie opened wide as his face contorted in agony.
Yan Juehai deeply furrowed his brows, and said in a low voice, “The nature of Mu Xuanyin has always been so, domineering, peremptory, and extremely protective…”
“It’s fine no matter how imposingly she acts before us while in the Snow Song Realm, but the one she is dealing with right now is the Sword Sovereign!” Huo Rulie almost couldn’t hold himself back from roaring out the words.
Yan Juehai let out a low sigh. “Mu Xuanyin definitely went a bit overboard this time… It’s going to be difficult to settle this situation.”
“Master…” Jun Xilei tightly knit her elegant brows, and was just about to say something when Jun Wuming raised his palm. She lowered her leg again that she had just lifted, and there was still an indifferent look on her extremely beautiful face.
Jun Wuming was not the slightest bit angry. Even that indistinct anger of his from before had completely disappeared without a trace. He raised his head and let out a very long sigh, as if lamenting the times and pitying the people. “Sect Master Xuanyin, your talent is extraordinarily high. Back then, this old man too extremely admired and appreciated you for being able to become a Divine Master, despite cultivating in such a barren place. This old man even believed that in next twenty or thirty thousand years, you might even reach the same heights as this old man has.”
“But now it seems that you are far too young, after all. Your vision is also just too narrow.”
Jun Wuming spoke in a slow voice, which traveled as far as a hundred miles away in the midst of the snowstorm. His words sounded aloof as if they were an admonition from heaven. “What is dignity? In this world, your strength is the sole thing that grants you dignity. Save for you, Realm King Xuanyin, all the people in the Snow Song Realm are existences very similar to ants. So, this old man and his disciple can despise them. Besides… even if this old man insulted your Divine Ice Phoenix Sect, what exactly can you do about it?”
He was the Sword Sovereign. There was no way he would show softness in his att.i.tude to a mere Snow Song Realm. In his opinion, the words and actions of Mu Xuanyin were ridiculously childish.
“Jun Wuming, since you don’t want to accept my face-saving offer, this king will no longer display any reverence or politeness to you.” The voice of Mu Xuanyin turned dull, and there was no anger contained in her words either. Her gaze s.h.i.+fted to the side as she told Yun Che, “Che’er, come over here.”
Yun Che was startled but complied with her words and came over to her side.
Mu Xuanyin stretched out her hand as she grabbed his wrist. There were several shallow scars on the back of his hand with blood stains around them. He had gotten these scars when Jun Xilei had shot an astral sword in front of him before. If it wasn’t for the fact that Yun Che had quite a st.u.r.dy body, there was no way he would have only been so lightly wounded.
…Of course, such injuries were nothing to a profound pract.i.tioner of the divine way, even if they were ten times more severe. Basically, they couldn’t even be called an “injury”.
Mu Xuanyin swiped her palm. Following the flick of her snow white, jadelike finger, the sword marks and bloodstains on the back of his hand disappeared without a trace.
“Now that you have offended my sect and also hurt my disciple, it’s time to settle the debt you owe,” Mu Xuanyin said with a gloomy and chilly expression in her eyes. “Jun Wuming, have your disciple Jun Xilei kneel down and apologize to this king’s disciple. Afterwards, both of you immediately get lost from Snow Song. Without the consent of this king, you’re not allowed to take even a step into Snow Song ever again!”
The disciples and elders from the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect and the three sects of the Flame G.o.d Realm were all petrified when they heard her words. The eyeb.a.l.l.s of Huo Rulie nearly popped out of their sockets, and he unconsciously mumbled, “Over, it’s really over. This woman has truly gone mad… But don’t get Young Yun into trouble too, woman.”
Jun Xilei lightly glanced at Yun Che with her beautiful eyes, but s.h.i.+fted them away in the next instant. She was still as indifferent as earlier, without any signs of anger. It was as if she was listening to pointless words, and there was even a mocking look in her eyes.
“Sigh.” Jun Wuming let out a sigh again, which contained a deep sense of disappointment this time. Soon after, he faintly smiled, “This old man has spent all these years wandering to so many realms in search of a successor. It looks like keeping the Nameless Sword sheathed for ten thousand years has made some ignorant people of younger generations forget about the mightiness of this old man.”
His voice turned cold suddenly. The wind and snow between the heaven and earth came to an abrupt stop, and s.p.a.ce solidified layer after layer. A voice reaching every place in the area resounded, as if it was coming from beyond the bounds of sky. “So what if I look down on them? So what if I insult and trample upon them? You are just a mere Snow Song and its trivial Divine Ice Phoenix Sect. But the Sword Sovereign cannot be insulted, and the successor of the Sword Sovereign can’t be insulted, either!”
CLANG!
In the sky above Jun Wuming, three pale white astral swords suddenly appeared within the sealed s.p.a.ce.
The three astral swords were around one and a half meters long and two fingers wide.
The moment the three astral swords appeared, Yun Che felt his heart thump loudly all of a sudden. Despite the fact that he also used a sword as his weapon, he was actually not able to perceive the slightest aura from the three astral swords. No matter whether it was his body or spirit sense, neither could sense even the least bit of sharpness or oppression from the swords… He also couldn’t feel any aura within the world around him, as if everything in the world had become deathly still under the might of those intangible swords.
“Senior Sword Sovereign, please calm you anger, and listen to a few words of this junior…”
Huo Rulie called out in an urgent voice, but was stopped by Yan Juehai who shook his head heavily at him. Huo Rulie gnashed his teeth as his gaze came in contact with Huo Poyun and all the disciples of the Golden Crow Sect around him. Eventually, he held back from saying another word.
“Master!” The expression of everyone from the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect was ghastly pale. Yun Che unwittingly stepped forward so as to stand in front of Mu Xuanyin, but was immediately pulled back by her snow white hand.
“You think you deserve to say those big words!?”
In the face of the three pale white astral swords, while everyone’s pupils shrank in horror, Mu Xuanyin walked ahead at a slow pace.
With her first step, a sound like that of a bell ringing drifted into the air, which was too indiscernible to tell whether it was real or not.
With her second step, the pupils of Jun Wuming shrank all of sudden, although it was hardly detectable.
With her third step… Mu Xuanyin stopped in her tracks. The snow and wind that were in a still state so far, once again began to flow as usual, and the flying fragments of snow stuck to the cold emitting immortal body of Mu Xuanyin. It was as if they were head over heels in love with her magnificence, and didn’t show any signs of dispersing and melting for a very long time.
Yun Che stared blankly at her back that was well within his reach, as he gradually became intoxicated with her. For a short while, he almost forgot the existence of the three terrifying astral swords.
“You…”
Jun Wuming seemed to want to say something, but no words could escape his mouth. Surprisingly, he was unable to make any more sounds. The arm that he had raised just now gradually lowered on its own. If someone were to look straight at him at this time, they would notice that his lips trembled slightly… although it was only for a moment.
When the arm of Jun Wuming completely dropped down, the three astral swords also disappeared, leaving no trace behind.
“Forget it.” He let out a sigh like earlier, but there was clearly something unusual about his tone. He gave a deep glance at Mu Xuanyin before turning around and carrying Jun Xilei up lightly with his aura. “Lei’er, let’s go.”
“Master?” Jun Xilei revealed incomprehension on her face. However, she at once obeyed his order, “Understood!”
This unexpected scene surprised all the people from Divine Ice Phoenix Sect, but they also let out a big sigh of relief to see such a conclusion to the situation. Those palace masters and elders, in particular, were dripping with perspiration when they finally felt relaxed.
The master-disciple pair of Jun Wuming and Jun Xilei turned around and left. The three pale white astral swords were the proof of the anger of Jun Wuming, and the six words “the Sword Sovereign cannot be insulted” were also his own words of adjudication. But all of a sudden, he retracted the astral swords as well as his anger, and simply turned around and left…
Apart from regaining calm in their hearts, there was no one who didn’t feel baffled by the abrupt change in the Sword Sovereign’s att.i.tude.
“Phew!” Huo Rulie let out a long sigh of relief. “As expected of Senior Sword Sovereign, he has such an exceptional disposition and self-restraint. It might also be that he thinks it beneath his dignity to go on the offensive against a woman of a younger generation.”
“…I’m afraid it’s not as simple as that,” Yan Juehai replied slowly, with his voice swaying a bit.
“What do you mean?” Huo Rulie asked in a doubtful tone.
“…” Yan Juehai didn’t say anything in response. Instead of looking in the direction of the master-disciple pair, his flaming eyes were looking straight at Mu Xuanyin. There was an expression of uncertainty within them.
“Stop right there!”
Right after the people from the Divine Ice Phoenix Sect sighed in relief, an ice-cold voice directly stabbed at the master-disciple pair that was about to leave the place, and made the hearts of all abruptly become tense, in no time… Because the voice actually belonged to none other than Mu Xuanyin.
“First you offend me, then you run wild, and now you want to strut away just like that?” Mu Xuanyin said in a chilly voice. “How is it possible for you to get away with that without paying a price?! You truly think that you can bully and humiliate my Divine Ice Phoenix Sect whenever you want!?”
The figure of Jun Wuming came to a halt. Before he could open his mouth, Jun Xilei turned around in anger. “Mu Xuanyin! Given my master’s n.o.ble ident.i.ty, he already feels it beneath his dignity to argue with you. You…”
“What impudence!”
Following her chilly rebuke, no one saw what Mu Xuanyin did when the snowstorm suddenly filled the whole sky. Jun Xilei let out a miserable shriek as she got uncontrollably blown away and smashed firmly into the snow. Still lying down, she vomited a few mouthfuls of blood.
Five extremely visible, bloodlike, scarlet fingerprints were printed on her cheek.