Chapter 33: The Heart Knows Its Direction It was like no matter how far apart they were, Ning Guang"s voice could cross any distance to enter Di Jiufeng"s ear. Hearing this cry of extreme panic, Di Jiufeng forced her head to turn against the suction.
In starts and stops, though it couldn"t be any more difficult to turn her head, Di Jiufeng resolutely looked over.
Across the sea of clouds and the vast sky, through the flying claws and curving eaves, in the middle of the roiling sea of people, she found that person with one glance. Ten thousand years in one glance, as if eternal.
"Ning… Guang…" Di Jiufeng stretched out her hand, wanting to grasp her fingertips across ten million feet of distance, but the suction behind her was too strong. The second after she raised her arm, her whole person was sucked in.
In the bustling crowd, Ning Guang looked to the sky in terror, her heart stopping its beat for a split second. With Di Jiufeng"s disappearance, the thriving world fell to ashy white. "A… Feng…" She opened her mouth, but couldn"t say a word. Her body was so cold, so cold that she couldn"t help but tremble.
Ning Guang fell into despair like a chunk had been taken out of her gut, a b.l.o.o.d.y dripping pain like a maggot on the foot, eating away at her reason.
She finally couldn"t take it anymore. After a while spent in a daze, she finally let out a bellow loud enough to shake the nine heavens and the ten lands. "Feng, even if we have to die together, I will not let you leave me!"
Ning Guang was the reincarnation of the ancient witch. At her peak, even the Heavenly Way would retreat before her.
Now, though she had lost her mind, when her fury reached its breaking point, all the ancient witch"s power would pour out for a short time. Suddenly, malicious spirits shrieked, resentful ghosts roiled, all the yin energy of the demonic path hid the sky and covered the sun, twisting the heavens and the earth into a dull grey.
Treading the path made by the creeping evil spirits, Ning Guang walked towards the Zhuanlun pillar.
One step, all living creatures fell to their knees, the common people with no cultivation having their guts burst apart under the pressure; two steps, the buildings and pavilions all collapsed, stinking raw winds swept along with the bottomless crevices replacing all the roads; three steps, dark clouds pressed down on the city, demonic energy nearly become substance solidifying into pitch-black frost, mercilessly slaughtering any living thing it touched.
Ning Guang walked over the creviced earth, carrying a terrifying killing intent. She s.n.a.t.c.hed Third Lady Que"s lingering remnant with one strike, voice even colder than the Yellow Springs of h.e.l.l. "Where."
Her voice didn"t hold any emotion, inorganic. The Ji Liuran who had chased over from far away fell to her knees, frightened by this killing intent, her legs out of her control.
Her whole body was covered in top-grade spiritual devices, but she still suffered serious injury under the pressure of Ning Guang"s aura.
Her guts stirred into a clump and blood rushed up and spilled out of her mouth and nose, making her whole body begin to twitch. Ji Liuran fell to the ground, unable to move a muscle. Looking out of the corner of her eyes, other than the bottomless crevices, there was only the back of Ning Guang"s malevolent demonic form.
She had once seen a spiritual body like this in a book. It belonged to the ancient witch, the demonic form unique and unmatched.
Her benefactor was the reincarnation of the ancient witch! If this ident.i.ty was discovered, the whole cultivation world would turn her to dust and scatter her ashes before she could awaken to her full powers. She did not want her benefactor to die. Even if her benefactor was an evil spirit on the crooked path, once her heart was moved, she could never take it back.
Ji Liuran didn"t know why her feelings would be so fierce, but she knew in some dark corner of her mind that when Ning Guang had descended like a deity from heaven and saved her from disaster, there was already no way to turn back.
Ji Liuran looked on as Ning Guang s.n.a.t.c.hed that remnant in her hand.
"Tell me, where is she!"
Under the scrutiny of a fiend like this, anyone would lose the power to resist. But Third Lady Que was not scared. She still smiled, and though her phantom image created from regret grew more and more faint, she didn"t have any intentions of pleading forgiveness: "Shen City was created from my heart. If you love her to the extreme, your longing will draw you to her. I never thought, you would actually be the ancient witch…"
I am only a sparrow yao, so I suffered every kind of separation from her, and in the end was still consigned to eternal suffering. But, you are the ancient witch, the top evil fiend that can stand as an equal to the Heavenly Way, you two…"
"Of course we would be together, we don"t need you to worry about us." Closing her eyes, everything stilled.
Ning Guang only somewhat thought of Di Jiufeng"s appearance, the feelings of longing, then disappeared in strings and threads, bits and pieces of flowing light like a field full of fireflies, little stars glowing with glossy halos.
The heart"s desire, Zhuanlun as conduit. Triggered by the power of this longing, the Zhuanlun pillar immediately slashed open a pa.s.sage through s.p.a.ce.
The dark pa.s.sage in which light and sound went to die was even more dreadful than a man-eating giant beast, but Ning Guang was not a bit afraid. She walked in with large steps.
"Propriety does not allow women to love each other, the Heavenly Way does not allow humans and demons to love each other, not allowed from both sides. Being the ancient witch is actually quite good, perhaps you will be able to take on the Heavenly Way together," Third Lady Que muttered. Then, this lingering remnant, under the encroachment of the demonic energy, finally shattered into smoke.
Not long after everything had settled, countless cultivators ran over. In the lead was Ji Xian.
Seeing the demonic energy not yet dispersed, the elder of the Tiandao Sect furrowed his brow. "This demonic energy! How could a fiend like this appear in the hub of the righteous path!"
Looking at his old friend, another venerable cultivator clenched the horsetail whisk in his hand. "d.a.m.ned, when did this devil appear, it could even make the ten thousand demons pledge fealty."
"Ten thousand demons pledge fealty? To be able to achieve this, who other than the ancient…"
After a pause, that middle-aged rogue cultivator clad in black robes didn"t dare speak that name, only staring at the red-light district transformed into h.e.l.l on earth with a nervous expression. This was a matter which must be kept to the utmost secrecy. "In this world, other than that one person, there is no other who could achieve this. Tell me, who could have done this?"
Everyone spoke, you a word me another, but Ji Xian didn"t even hear half a phrase.
As soon as he arrived, he saw his daughter lying on the ground, and couldn"t care about anything else anymore. He hurriedly ran over, even tearing the hem of his own robes in his panic.
"Ran-er… Ran-er!" Scooping up Ji Liuran, he helped her smooth out her tangled meridians with warm spiritual energy.
Ji Liuran finally felt a bit better, but her throat was still full of blood. Any time she slightly opened her mouth, it would come with a tearing pain. She couldn"t quite get any words out, but her benefactor"s face flashed through her mind, and she couldn"t think of anything else.
She could not let her father know that this person was the ancient witch. Otherwise, even if she liked her, her father would not allow this world-destroying fiend to remain in this world. He would definitely take her benefactor"s life, strangling her in the cradle before she could spread her wings, before she had returned to her true form.
With that, Ji Liuran"s entire body began to tremble, the panic beneath her eyes impossible to hide.
She was afraid her father would see and hurriedly lowered her eyes, both hands fisted in her sleeves deathly tight. Weak and in a flurry of panic, she said, "Daddy, daddy… I saw… it was a mo demon… he didn"t do anything at all, he injured me this much with only the pressure of his aura… I couldn"t see his face clearly… but looking at his figure it should have been a man…"
With urgent gasps of breath, her throat convulsed because she had spoken too quickly, making her begin to dry-heave.
With his daughter so weak, Ji Xian wouldn"t have thought of anything else. But, when he reached to help her up and saw the thumb, its nail nearly picked to the quick, hidden in her palm, Ji Xian"s first reaction was that his daughter was lying.
"Ran-er, what are you deceiving this father about?"
Ji Xian"s brow lowered and he said with a severe voice, "You have never dared deceive me since your youth. Every time you lied, you would always pick at your fingernail, look at this hand of yours!"
He grabbed Ji Liuran"s thumb and held it before her. Seeing her eyelashes trembling, undeniable panic on her face, Ji Xian was more certain of his idea. "That was not a mo demon, mo demons attract mo energy, the race of elder witches are the only ones in this world that can control gui demons. And now the ten thousand demons pledged fealty, the person who could do this, other than the ancient witch, no other exists! Ran-er, what are you hiding for her! You definitely know who the ancient witch is!"
For the safety of the cultivation world, no matter how much Ji Xian pampered his daughter, he couldn"t allow her to do as she wished!
Seeing this severe look on her father"s face, Ji Liuran"s heart tensed, she didn"t dare lie anymore! But, if he wanted her to give up Ning Guang…
Ji Liuran bit down on her lower lip, and could not speak for a while.
Notes:
This chapter was translated by Lily. Tiandao Sect: tīan dào = 天道 = Heavenly way, I wrote it with the pinyin here because it"s a sect name. More Chinese fantasy creatures notes: 魔 (mo2) and 鬼 (gui3) are two types of creatures which can both be translated as "demon" in English, I added in some pinyin this chapter because the distinction is relevant. 鬼 is sometimes translated as "ghost" because the term often refers to once living humans who died and were corrupted into vengeful beings. Ning Guang uses 鬼气 or gui energy, which I have been translating as "demonic energy" thus far because no significant characters have been going around using 魔气 or mo energy. "Ten thousand demons pledge fealty" – 万鬼臣服 (wan4 gui3 chen2 fu2), refers to the whole phenomenon where demons and spirits arise when Ning Guang unleashes her power (and create a path for her to walk over). Obviously, this refers to gui demons in particular. "Demonic form" – here comes a few terms I admit I don"t know how to translate very well. The 鬼相 (gui3 xiang4) "demonic form" "ghost image" etc. is Ning Guang"s 法身 (fa3 shen1), what I translated as "spiritual body". 法身, or the dharmakāya, is a term in Buddhism which Wikipedia can detail better than I can, here I believe it"s something like an image of the true form of one"s powers. I admit I am less familiar with Buddhism-based cultivation settings than I am with Taoism-based ones, if anyone has tips or suggestions feel free to comment!