Chapter 630: Enthralled in White Snow and Red Broth
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
With a thudding sound, countless ruptures appeared on the surface of the blue glacier, ruptures that looked like a spider-web.
Zhao Layue lay in the middle of the spider-web, fresh blood oozing out slowly; it was a gorgeous but ghastly scene.
She hadn’t witnessed the Battle of Zhaoge City one hundred years ago, otherwise she would have known that she and Lian Sanyue were alike at certain moments, regardless of whether she liked it or not.
The shadow blocking the sunlight was gone, and the highly achieved swordsman who had sneak-attacked Zhao Layue left the snowland by way of the Empty Realm.
In the attacker’s mind, Zhao Layue had sustained an unexpected a.s.sault by him and was severely wounded, so she would die for sure.
Even though she was of natural Dao quality and had precious magic treasure in her hands and didn’t die right away of the sneak-attack, she wouldn’t be able to survive the a.s.sault from the Snowy Ghosts.
This place was in the deep part of the snowland and not far from that lonely icy peak; the attacker had no intention of staying around for too long since he didn’t wish to alarm the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom. Hence, he left immediately after the strike.
Who was that person?
Zhao Layue had already figured out his ident.i.ty.
He must be He Wei, the sect master of the Kunlun Sect.
Though He Wei had a similar Cultivation state as hers, he had been cultivating for a much longer period of time; he was more experienced in the sword work and many other aspects. Moreover, he had sneak-attacked her as she was engaged in a vehement battle with the Snowy Ghosts; so she couldn’t defend herself in time.
She could hear many heavy footsteps on the glacier. Those Snowy Ghosts were closing in on her at a fast pace even though they appeared to move slowly.
Zhao Layue summoned her sword heart, but found that she was badly wounded and couldn’t leave by riding the Thoughtless Sword. She got up from the ground with great effort and slammed her palm on her own chest with all her strength. The shapeless sword wills entered her body through her fingers and pa.s.sed through all of her meridians at a fast speed in an attempt to suppress the damaging sword wills left in her body by He Wei.
After that, she reached out her hand, grabbed the Thoughtless Sword, gliding forward as lightly as a gust of wind, and hacked at the Snowy Ghost at the very front, her dress billowing without the aid of the wind.
Crack!!! Crack!!! Crack!!!
A great many pieces of ice shot up into the sky along with snapping sounds, these pieces of ice being as blinding as a sandstorm.
Zhao Layue flew backwards diagonally and headed toward the glacier while breaking through those tidbits of ice.
Thump!!!
A large pit was created on the snowy cliff at the foot of the glacier after she b.u.mped into it.
Lying at the bottom of the pit, Zhao Layue was covered in blood; but she was still quite calm as she wondered if she was to die this time.
The others who had encountered the danger in the snowland could always be rescued by him, she thought.
But, would he show up at that moment?
Well, he was sleeping unconsciously in Zhaoge City at the moment.
The fresh blood kept dripping down and blocked her sight. In her eyes, heaven and earth was red all the way through.
She lifted her sleeve to wipe off the blood from her face, wondering whether she would suffer such a mishap if he were around.
As she was thinking of all this, those Snowy Ghosts jumped up from the glacier and drifted in the air. They drew closer and looked increasingly bigger.
Her gaze pa.s.sed these Snowy Ghosts and cast to the north.
She could vaguely see a lonely icy peak in the distance.
Why did she come to the snowland?
It was because she needed fights to improve her state, because Jing Jiu had come here before, and because Lian Sanyue had planned to carry out that task; but in fact, those reasons were all unimportant, and the real reason was quite simple: She had to take a look at that peak now that she was born in the human world.
But the result was very unfortunate.
…
…
In the late winter, the gra.s.s was still growing vigorously and the birds were still flying around pleasantly on Green Mountain.
Nan w.a.n.g seemed to have been behind closed doors for real; she hadn’t requested to open a pa.s.sage in the Great Formation of Green Mountain to let in the wind and snow for a long time.
Perhaps, it was because Liu Ci died and Yuan Qijing was in Zhaoge City.
It was truly boring without the changes of the four seasons on Green Mountain. As such, the pract.i.tioners immediately rode their swords and rushed over when they heard a loud boom on the top of Tianguang Peak.
No matter what had happened, they expected to find out something interesting to alleviate the boredom in their Cultivation career, and they wished to find an incident about which they could discuss with their colleagues during the Green Mountain Meeting next spring.
The Elder Mo Chi, Guo Nanshan and the others had come out of their manor caves first, looking in the direction of the noise expectantly.
The stone gate of the manor cave had been smashed to pieces, with the wild gra.s.s lying flat on the ground, and the chair in that hut was knocked down on the ground as well; it was a rather disrespectful look.
A flying sword was gliding around in the air and glittering under the sunlight…The dull gray color of the sword seemed to merge into the dark gray sky.
The flying sword had a pure and serene energy with a very high Cultivation state, but it traveled at a slow pace. Seeing the scene, Guo Nanshan smiled, though other disciples of Tianguang Peak were baffled. “This guy does act like our Master,” Guo Nanshan commented, with a hint of reminiscence and sadness in his smile.
…
…
He was the personal disciple of the former sect master, Zhuo Rusui. He had finally broken through the upper state of the Broken Sea after staying behind closed doors for a prolonged period of time.
Judging by the trace of his traveling sword, the Immortal Guangyuan believed that his Cultivation state was even better and actually in the upper limit of the Broken Sea State.
All the people on Green Mountain had learned of the news. The disciples of the peaks came to Tianguang Peak one after the other to congratulate him, and all came out of curiosity.
Hundreds of disciples of various peaks looked at Zhuo Rusui who was talking to the Immortal Guangyuan while standing on the peak top, their eyes full of admiration and aspiration.
Those female disciples of Qingrong Peak who had heard of his achievements in the past were awe-struck.
“Senior Master Zhuo is indeed someone with natural Dao quality; he has reached the upper limit of the Broken Sea State after cultivating less than two hundred years.”
“I believe he is the youngest pract.i.tioner in the upper limit of the Broken Seat State throughout history.”
The disciples of the peaks were engaged in the heated discussions.
It was then that a voice suddenly rang out, “He is one year slower than the Immortal Sect Master; he is not the youngest one in history to achieve this feat.”
The disciples turned around and found that they didn’t know the speaker and had no idea which peak he was from.
The speaker was Yuan Qü. The Immortal Sect Master he referred to was not Liu Ci, but the Immortal Jing Yang.
The young disciples didn’t quite believe what he said, wondering if it was true.
Zhuo Rusui, who was talking to the Immortal Guangyuan in the hut, saw Yuan Qü and walked toward him after hearing what Yuan Qü said. “Have you calculated it correctly?” he asked Yuan Qü uncertainly.
Yuan Qü replied, “I’ve made a copy of all the files. Do you wish to check them out?”
Zhuo Rusui said crossly, “There is no need to be so serious. Besides, I’m only one year behind the Grandmaster; I still consider myself quite outstanding.”
Yuan Qü smiled at him as he said, “I’m sorry, but you’re three years behind my Master.”
Zhuo Rusui was taken aback for a while at first, and suddenly grew furious. “Where the heck is she?” he demanded angrily.
Yuan Qü replied, “My Master has gone out.”
Zhuo Rusui let out an embarra.s.sed smile as he said, “I defeated her after I came out from behind closed doors back then. It looks like she is not confident enough that she avoids me on purpose.”
“You should tell her this right to her face if you think you’re powerful enough,” Yuan Qü said in a mocking tone.
Zhuo Rusui snapped, “I tried to help the Sect Master save face before.”
Hearing the exchange between the two of them, those young disciples who didn’t know Yuan Qü felt baffled, wondering who this person was and why he could talk to the Senior Master Zhuo in such an impolite manner.
Someone said in a low voice, “He is the Senior Master Yuan Qü of Shenmo Peak.”
The resentment and anger that the young disciples felt had all vanished after hearing this.
The words “Shenmo Peak” had a special meaning on Green Mountain, though they knew that the legendary Immortal Sect Master was still asleep in Zhaoge City.
“What are you doing here?” Zhuo Rusui demanded. He suddenly felt the life was as boring as ever after he had heard two pieces of bad news in a row. “Do you try and annoy me on purpose since you can’t bear seeing me in a happy mood?” he asked droopily. He was his old drowsy self again.
“I’d like to invite you to eat hotpot,” said Yuan Qü.
Zhuo Rusui’s droopy eyelids lifted up abruptly when hearing this, saying, “Great.”
…
…
Gu Qing was not on Shenmo Peak, so n.o.body could arrange such a meal. And those monkeys didn’t know how to cook hotpot. As such, Yuan Qü had no choice but to take Zhuo Rusui to Cloudy Town outside Green Mountain. None of them had resided in the Scenery Garden for a long time, and the masters of the Gu Clan had changed many times already. But the Gu Clan still served the garden as before. As the two of them arrived by the stream lined by the flowering trees on its banks, the hotpot was already boiling, giving off an appealing flavor.
Sitting by the table, Tong Yan stirred the white soup slowly while holding the highest spot of the long chopsticks. The slow and leisurely way Tong Yan handled the hotpot was rather annoying.
Zhuo Rusui was especially annoyed by this sort of a person. He thought that the way Tong Yan did it showed disrespect to hotpot. He didn’t dare complain to Jing Jiu before, but he had no problem reproaching Tong Yan.
“Why are you disturbing the soup if you don’t like eating hotpot? And, you shouldn’t eat before everybody is here. Didn’t the Immortal Bai teach you dining etiquette when you were at the Center Sect?”
As Zhuo Rusui was complaining, he had already prepared the sauce for the hotpot. He picked up a piece of tripe and drowned it in the red broth.
Tong Yan didn’t pay attention to him. He picked up a teacup and sipped it slowly after he put the chopsticks on a small ceramic stand.
By the time Tong Yan had the first sip of the tea, Zhuo Rusui had already finished eating the tripe and drunk a bowl of wine. After stealing a glimpse at Tong Yan, he continued attacking him, “Your Cultivation state is not very high…You should have worked a little harder. I had a high opinion of you before.”
Tong Yan still gave him no response. And he said slowly only after Zhuo Rusui had finished two plates of meat, “Fang Jingtian will become the sect master next spring. Do you wish to see him become the new sect master?”
Hearing this, the chopsticks in Zhuo Rusui’s hands halted in midair. “Of course I don’t wish to see it. But what are Gu Qing’s thoughts?” he wondered.
If the position of the sect master of Green Mountain ended up in Fang Jingtian’s hands, it would be immensely difficult for him or Gu Qing to inherit the position later.
Tong Yan asked, “What are you going to do about it?”
After picking up a half of pig brain and threw it into the red broth, Zhuo Rusui returned droopily, “What else can we do then?…We have no choice but to try our best to prevent him from becoming the sect master.”