Chapter 290 - By Chance
Beneath the clouds and sunlight, Gu Caiwei a.n.a.lyzed the Qi situation. There were three Huandan Doyens and the skilled Daoist Bai Suhuan; their Qi combined, in terms of combat power, was stronger than any ordinary school of cultivation. Compared to Qingjiang back then, they only had an upper hand in terms of crowd size. Furthermore, Bai Suhuan himself could match Huang Longzi from the Twelve True Zhenrens of Guangqing.
He gathered people of similar ideas to reason with them. It was a big world out there with tons of different approaches to Dao. Not everyone could be as charismatic as him, or if someone was not desperate, they would not have done it too.
Furthermore, the sky and Dao were interrelated. Xuanmen cultivators who observed to get a better understanding of things would understand that it was not illusory.
Gu Caiwei was not able to invite the Drunken Daoist and Ge Yuan to come and ease the tension. After all, Shen Lian and herself had yet built a strong credibility within the school. Shen Lian"s talent had been refined and was on par with Bai Suhuan, he could achieve immortality anytime. The celestial medicine would be safe in his hands. Other people could only try to move him with emotions or convince him with facts but would never use brute force against him. However, it was a different story with Gu Caiwei. It was absolutely hard for her to win the trust of the two Doyens and if it was not for Shen Lian and Ziling, the two Doyens would not have come by and watch.
Fortunately, before the Founding Master retreated into solitary, she was told that she could summon her if she needed to. But that would interrupt the Founding Master"s rehabilitation. Additionally, what if she awakened Qing Xiao instead? With her stubborn character, things might get more complicated.
After all, the human mind was delicate and it could not be subdued with pure force after all.
Bai Suhuan was dressed in green, resembling the cold Qi of the forest. Behind him were Zhang Ruoxu"s nephew Zhang Lingxian and two other Huandan Doyens who had no hopes of attaining Dao. Although they were hundreds of years away from doomsday, they felt that they have yet lived long enough. With Zhang Lingxian and Bai Suhuan as their leader, they were fearless. A group of disciples followed behind; and if anything did happen in the future, these disciples would not be able to escape too. Might as well recruit them over to strengthen the force.
An entourage of people was outside of the Qing Xuan Hall, the gathering of such high level of Qi dynamics was a first for Qing Xuan in the past two hundred years.
With overwhelming pressure, Bai Suhuan took a step forward, and sinisterly said, "You juniors want to be bewitched by her too?"
His Qi dynamic headed to the front of the Qing Xuan Hall, giving out a feeling of "time was like a knife". This showed that his Code of the Bright Moon has achieved the state of transformation.
If it was not for the absence of the peaking Qi and blood, he could easily disrupt the Qi dynamics of any ordinary cultivators.
The halo behind Gu Caiwei blinked as several disciples appeared with their hand-held instruments. The person behind Gu Caiwei, the leader of the pact, was Chous.h.i.+, whom Shen Lian had disseminated Dharma to. After receiving useful pointers from Li Zhichang, he improved ma.s.sively and his combat power was the creme of the crop among every other disciple. However, he might not be much of a help for this occasion.
Yet he still showed up with other disciples who received pointers from Shen Lian. Their vitalities were raging and showed no signs of fear although Bai Suhuan was overwhelming.
Bai Suhuan was furious to see these disciples going against him. His Qi dynamics expanded like a long cable or flying dragon, and it attempted to whip his enemies. The pack moved backward but no one fell over. He was outraged but also surprised by the disciples and thought of going easy on them. At this moment, Gu Caiwei"s eight Qi of Taixu soared, forming a s.h.i.+eld of light to protect them while Qianmo who stood by her side released odd Qi and transfer it into Gu Caiwei"s body. It was exactly what Shen Lian did many years ago.
With Qianmo"s help, Gu Caiwei"s Dharma increased greatly, with a loud voice she said, "Doyen Bai, what are you trying to do?"
Zhang Lingxian came forward and shouted, "Junior Apprentice-Sister Gu, you"ve harmed the Chief in discreet and conspire to steal the celestial medicine. We are here to question you. If you still have any dignity in you, you should hand over the celestial medicine and tell us of the whereabouts of the Chief".
Gu Caiwei coldly responded, "Senior Apprentice-Brother Zhang, do you think everything you"ve done today would not disappoint your uncle?"
Zhang Lingxian responded, "It was my uncle who did not observe deeply and that"s why he didn"t see through your ill intentions."
Meanwhile, Bai Suhuan"s Qi dynamics increased greatly and stacked down like a mountain. Gu Caiwei wanted to reply but the Qi dynamic suppressed her, making it hard for her to catch her breath.
Zhang Lingxian"s force was overwhelming. He knew that it was a do or die situation and he would only stop if Gu Caiwei surrendered the celestial medicine.
He said mean things to her and was involved in spreading rumors about her and Shen Lian. The suppressed anger of many years was raging in Gu Caiwei.
Bai Suhuan"s force was getting stronger and even with Qianmo"s help, she could not top Shen Lian"s performance years ago. The reason why she was able to slightly balance the force was because Bai Suhuan was being easy and intended to wear out her mana.
She was fuming with rage and her Taixu Divine Qi was a mess. The force coming from her Taixu Divine Qi was forced to retreat under such enormous pressure.
She was furious and almost went into psychosis. However, the Taixu Divine Qi was able to self-operate under ma.s.sive pressure and with the help of Qianmo.
Somehow by chance, she stepped into a mysterious state of unintentional success. A spark of light came to her mind and she actually went into the perfect state of Dan Dao at this very moment.
All Bai Suhuan could tell was that Gu Caiwei had some kind of help from some kind of bird. He tried to increase his pressure but she did not crumble and he was genuinely surprised by that.
But he could not just release all forces of the Code of the Bright Moon in one shot as it would permanently damage her Dao and he would not be able to obtain the life-prolonging celestial medicine from her.
With all considerations, he could only gradually increase his force until she surrenders.
If it was not for Qianmo"s support, Gu Caiwei would not be able to gather such huge amount of Qi of vitality to aid herself when she stepped into Dan Dao. Under the great pressure from Bai Suhuan"s Qi dynamics, her pulse point could have collapsed before accomplis.h.i.+ng Huandan.
Again, with the help of Qianmo, it created the perfect Dao state for her
With her body as the bronze stove, the Taixu Divine Qi as the fire, Qianmo"s odd Qi as the coal and Bai Suhuan"s Qi dynamics as the wind, she was the perfect medium to refine this human-sized medicine.
This one in a million opportunity happened in the right time and if any single factor was absent, the outcome could be disastrous and irreversible
She was infuriated by Zhang Lingxian"s words and did not have the time to bother about her body thus allowing the Taixu Divine Qi to operate freely on its own. As a result, she unintentionally mastered the art of Dao and overcame the first steps of Huandan. If Grandmaster Qingshui was still around, Grandmaster would say it was the work of luck and fortune.
Seeing how foul-mouthed Zhang Lingxian could be, Chous.h.i.+"s admiration towards Shen Lian increased to a G.o.d-like status and he could not bear to see Zhang Lingxian defame Shen Lian and Gu Caiwei.
He stepped forward and released a ray of sword light as he coldly said, "Uncle-Master Zhang, don"t you think you"re going overboard?"
Chous.h.i.+ would have been attacked by Bai Suhuan"s Qi dynamics but Bai Suhuan had transited the fundamentals of the Code of the Bright Moon to be released or sent through his heart, paving a way for Chous.h.i.+.
Afterall, he only wanted the celestial medicine and was not too bothered by the juniors. Moreover, he was a person with high ethics and he did not like Zhang Lingxian"s verbal attack on Gu Caiwei. If Chous.h.i.+ wanted to fight Zhang Lingxian, by all means. He could not care less who wins or lose.
The tip of Chous.h.i.+"s sword fluttered as a sword lotus appeared and zoomed towards Zhang Lingxian.
His swordcraft was amazing and that took Zhang Lingxian aback. Zhang Lingxian did not expect his juniors with the exception of Chen Jianmei, to be so skillful. Although it was more like a small sparkle compared to Chen Jianmei, Chous.h.i.+ was still very impressive.
Zhang Lingxian whisked a whirlwind that was constantly changing. As it was whisked in one shot, it was hard to tell if it force was strong or weak.
The whirlwind looked like thousands of silver needles; it made a buzzing sound under the light as if it was a lightning.
This "Floating Sketches" technique was a clever technique and he could transform the whirlwind easily. If it was not for Chous.h.i.+"s awe-inspiring sword, he would not have used this trump card.
Zhang Lingxian was indeed a highly experienced Huandan cultivator. His strong mana and the silver strands of the Floating Sketches was able to tap into the lotus sword in no time. Soon enough, the lotus sword broke in fragmentation. Zhang Lingxian wanted to show off his skills; the silver strands aroused violently, creating a sky of rain that aimed at Chous.h.i.+.
Sudden rays of light s.h.i.+ned through just about when the silver strands were about to poke through Chous.h.i.+"s body to heavily injure him.
The rays of light were silverish white in color was was the illusion of thousands of swords. In a sudden, it started exchanging strokes with Zhang Lingxian. The smoke faded and a figure could be seen nearby. He had a scarf on his head and was dressed like a scholar. He stood there silently as he held a flame of white light that resembled the heavenly sword in his hand.
The silver strands of the horsetail whisk in Zhang Lingxian"s hands turned into ashes. Obviously, he was defeated by the sword gleam.
He looked to the direction of the figure and said, "Apprentice-Nephew Lu, why are you making it difficult for me? Have you forgotten how well my uncle treated you?"
That person was Lu Shouyi. A year after Shen Lian succeeded as the Chief, he left to roam the world and only came back this very day.
But no one expected him to have the ability to break the technique of a Huandan Doyen. Could it be that he had attained Huandan, and Qing Xuan had another disciple who had attained Huandan after Yan Bugui?
In a short period of time, Qing Xuan had produced four Huandan cultivators and that was certainly a good sign for the school. Those were the thoughts of the disciples who were present at the scene.
After all, they had a strong sense of belonging to the school and they were still young. Although many people died before reaching immortality, people like Shen Lian, Chen Jianmei, and Yan Bugui were great role models and that gave them a dash of hope.
Lu Shouyi firmly replied, "I don"t want my late mentor to feel ashamed at the land of the dead and that"s exactly why I won"t allow you to do such a rebellious thing. If you still care about my mentor, you should just leave. I will explain to other Senior Apprentice-Brothers and beg for mercy on behalf of you."
Zhang Lingxian responded, "Junior Apprentice-Brother Lu, you are wrong. Initially, my uncle wanted to groom you as the next chief. But the current Chief was spectacular and that"s why you were denied of succession. Now that the Chief was bewitched by Gu Caiwei, it"s hard to say if he"s dead or alive. If you can see the bigger picture, you should stand by my side and take down these disciples who can"t tell right from wrong. Before Shen Lian returns, I can promote you to be the temporary chief and we can maintain the operations of the school."
Lu Shouyi laughed sarcastically, "Yes, my purpose today is to take down disciples who can"t tell right from wrong."