Chapter 1: Attendant
Rain explicably came down on Changling’s Sun Alley. It only covered this alley, about three hundred meters in every direction. The nearby alleys grew drier, and even the drought-tolerant wormwood on the roof tiles lost their moisture and turned from deep green to yellow.
But none of the households on this street detected the anomaly, nor heard the sound of rain.
Before the rain even landed, some white smoke spread along the wind carrying a sweet scent that made the slumbering people sleep even deeper.
The clean rain washed away the dust on the roof tiles and between the crevices of the cobblestones, but could not wash the shadow on Bai Shanshui’s face.
It had only been a few moments from when the first droplet fell to the rainstorm at present, but she already felt tired.
After the great battle on the Wei River, her cultivation had not been able to recover. Around her, there were at least thirty flying swords coming towards her, dancing through the air, hiding in the rain, hiding in the roof tiles, hiding in the muddy puddles, disguised as dry gra.s.s flowing along the waves, as they slowly approached her.
None of the flying swords on their own was a match for her. Most of the owners of these swords were weaker than her in cultivation, and could not withstand even one blow from her, but there were too many.
It took too much mental effort to keep a watch on all these flying swords. Even more importantly, she knew that the masters of these flying swords were just a p.a.w.n to the Qin army to wear down her power. She needed her mind to focus on the swords that had yet to appear in the night sky.
There were two twisted flying swords fallen by her feet like dragonflies whose wings had been torn off and stomped on. They looked miserable, but at the cost of two flying swords, they had managed to keep her in this alley for ten breaths. This meant the organizer of this ambush was very adept.
Seeing those flying swords that were not in a hurry to approach and were just patrolling ahead, Bai Shanshui knew that she was at the time she could not keep anything back. Her red lips pressed into a line tongue curled slightly, and a gold crystal-like pill medicine she had been keeping under her tongue crunched between her teeth.
The pill cracked in her mouth, and the golden medicinal fluid flowed into her belly.
She frowned, seemingly in pain, whether physical or mental. Then she reached out with her left hand, pointing with her index and middle finger towards the eaves on the left.
A suppressed low shout sounded.
A grey figure seemed to float above the black tiles and flew back with a spray of blood.
At the same time, a droplet of water completely unlike the surrounding rain appeared in the sky above Bai Shanshui.
But this time, the droplet of water contained no dust. It repelled all dust in the air, and even the surrounding humidity.
This water drop seemed to have flown from outside the earthly world. As it quickly dropped, minute vibrations seemed to form naturally inside the droplet.
Bai Shanshui’s expression relaxed.
This water drop fell even faster and grew brighter.
The sky above her started to shake.
Her body seemed to have completely recovered, astounding amounts of primal energies of the universe gathered from all directions.
The clouds moved in all directions. Even the water flowing down along the ground started to tremble and flow towards her.
Many of the cultivators in the darkness looked at the glowing water droplet increasing in power. They felt a mountain coming down.
A thick green sword light formed in Bai Shanshui’s hand. The power contained in the water droplet grew unimaginable.
With a hiss, a spherical wave of energy exploded in the sky, and the falling rain was shattered into mist.
The glowing water droplet pa.s.sed through the mist, and the roofs on this alley were crushed.
Bai Shanshui’s sword greeted this falling water droplet.
This water droplet with mountainous momentum did not penetrate her sword. Her eyes narrowed and flashed coldly as her sword shattered the water droplet.
Finer water droplets splashed. An enormous mountain seemed to be destroyed by a sword in this s.p.a.ce. Each small water bead was an enormous piece of flying stone. There were numerous stones flying in this s.p.a.ce.
Bang bang bang bang
Concentrated sounds of impacts sounded.
All of the flying swords dancing around Bai Shanshui fell to the ground. Sprays of blood exploded in the darkness.
Just the fall of one droplet had created such a stunning and desolate picture.
Bai Shanshui showed no pride. She knew this was just the start. She gave an aggressive and harsh shout. At the same time, her body pa.s.sed around the falling flying swords and travelled over a dozen courtyards.
A thick and wide yellow sword energy appeared in front of her and slashed towards her flying body.
A m.u.f.fled bang!
Her hair tie suddenly snapped, and her hair fell to her shoulders in a waterfall. She and her sword were shocked back by this wild sword light many dozen feet.
Time pa.s.sed as she was forced back. She still had not managed to get out of this alley. She felt slightly bitter.
She knew that most of the Changling experts of threat to her were at Min Mountain or not far from Min Mountain Sword Sect this night. Also, Liang Lian had to make up for his crime with service. He would not pa.s.s this achievement to anyone else. So the cultivators of her level that appeared here would be few.
She was confident she could defeat this cultivator who just forced her back, but she lacked a personal attendant. She could not divide her attention to deal with the flying swords coming at random times when fighting a cultivator of this level. There was also Liang Lian who had yet to join in.
If her senior sect brother were here, perhaps they could break through the encirclement, but her senior sect brother was dead.
As though hearing her thoughts, there was a tragic sword hum between the black tiles and white walls.
Pang pang pang pang….
Over a dozen sounds of flesh and blood being penetrated. A sword light flew towards her, b.l.o.o.d.y but like a falling star.
The sword energy flew towards her side after killing a dozen of the surrounding cultivators. The sword essence was directed ahead of her. Everyone’s first response was that this was a sword that would help her fight.
Bai Shanshui also thought the same.
But in the next moment, she sensed something amiss. Her expression turned cold, and her water-like sword slashed towards that flying sword.
The meteor-like sword light gave a violent hum, accelerating immediately. The moment it was struck by Bai Shanshui’s sword, the blade was already twisting and gave off a bloodthirsty presence as it pa.s.sed by Bai Shanshui’s side.
Bai Shanshui’s clothes were torn at the side, then filled with blood.
Bai Shanshui’s eyes burned with anger.
In war, nothing was too deceitful. This was a clever method but she did not like to be fooled.
In this moment, she did not even focus on the large sword ahead that would attack at any time and the most devious flying sword mimicking dried gra.s.s as it slowly floated towards her. All her senses were on Liang Lian who had been hiding since the start.
Even if there was no meaning, she would be happy in the end. Liang Lian wanted to keep her here. Since she was fated to stay, she would first kill Liang Lian.
Yet, in this moment, many broken tiles fell from the roof. Those broken tiles smashed into the gully where the flying sword disguised as dried gra.s.s was, creating multiple splashes.
One of the splashes came right under the flying sword, extremely odd, but did not attract any attention.
The splash rose extremely high, and when it reached a height beyond logic and still did not fall, the cultivator who had forced Bai Shanshui back sensed something awry. But his attention was not on that side.
Over there was his companion, the flying sword of a powerful cultivator disguised as dried gra.s.s. So, when he started to react and was going to defend with his sword, the splash of water jumped in the air and landed on his neck.
With a light touch, this cultivator who had forced Bai Shanshui back with a blow flew out, his head separated from his body.
“Protect me!”
A familiar voice sounded.
The moment this voice sounded, Bai Shanshui took a deep breath, and smashed towards the courtyard that person was in like a wave.
Zzt zzt zzt zzt…
A burst of sounds occurred in the air. Many flying swords and weapons fell towards this cultivator outside of the plans.
Bai Shanshui attacked.
Her blue wave-like sword light fell towards all the lights heading towards the cultivator. She landed in the courtyard by that person’s side. Her body trembled, but her sword-wielding hand was exceptionally steady.
She previously needed a close attendant, but now, she appeared like that person’s attendant.