A Northern Beauty, One Punch to Topple a City
While Shu Fu and Nan Gongming were engaged in their exchange of verbal (and other) blows, Jiang Xuesheng and the others split up and began their own operation, setting their sights on the demon cultivators among the crowd who possessed divine beasts.
According to He Xiuwen’s original arrangement, the competition was supposed to be an eight-person elimination tournament: four matches, then two, then one, for a total of seven bouts. But after Mulan stirred things up, it had become a seven-round gauntlet, with her facing all seven opponents one after another.
That way, every divine beast would take the stage in turn, and Mulan would send each of them off without so much as a scratch. As for who possessed the divine beasts, the answer was self-evident.
No wonder Jiang Xuesheng hadn’t made any plans to “search for the divine beasts.”
Because their method was simply, brutally, unbelievably straightforward!!!
It was just like the classic brainteaser that asks how to put an elephant into a refrigerator. The answer is: “Open the refrigerator, put the elephant in, and close the door.”
Shu Fu: Who in the world would have thought of that?!
Of course, such a simple and brutal method could only succeed because Mulan’s strength was beyond question. Faced with formidable opponents displaying all manner of extraordinary abilities, she remained calm and composed, handling each one with ease.
Moreover, to this point, Mulan had not displayed cultivation above the early Golden Core stage. She had relied almost entirely on ingenious spells and martial techniques to repel her enemies, while also taking just enough injuries to ensure that no one noticed anything unusual.
A gifted and clever junior of the Moon Jiao clan, proud and self-assured, with every reason to be so—anyone looking at her would come away with precisely that impression.
But Shu Fu could be certain that this impression was nothing more than a carefully painted, captivating mask meant to deceive the eye.
As it turned out, Mulan’s disguise had been a resounding success. She had fooled nearly every demon cultivator.
“Nearly” meant there might still be exceptions. They could not afford to let down their guard.
At present, only the final match remained.
Because Mulan had been going too easy on her opponents, the increasingly agitated demon cultivators began shouting their dissatisfaction. They demanded a fight to the death, insisting that the two dragons battle until one of them was dead. Although Nan Gongming had voiced considerable displeasure, this time, it would likely not be so easy to bring things to a peaceful conclusion.
Sure enough, He Xiuwen once again adopted the audience’s suggestion and imperiously ordered the two of them:
“You two are not to hold back! This match will not end until one side suffers serious injuries. Don’t worry—I have miraculous elixirs. No matter how severe the injuries, I can save you.”
The buyer of the cloud jiao youth shouted as well, “Cheng Qing, I know what you’re capable of. I’ve put all my bets on you, so give it everything you’ve got. Don’t even think about trying to muddle through! If you lose, you’d better consider the consequences carefully.”
“……”
The cloud jiao youth—Cheng Qing—did not answer. He did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.
His already dark and gloomy gaze merely dimmed further at those words, like a murky night that even moonlight could not penetrate.
Under such circumstances, the moment the two exchanged blows, the difference in intensity was immediately apparent.
Cheng Qing was a spellcaster who cultivated both illusion techniques and magic arts. He possessed a pair of naturally uncanny blue eyes, deep and fathomless as the sea. The slightest lapse in caution would send one tumbling into illusions like a drowning victim caught in a whirlpool.
He wove his illusions into fire-based spells. In an instant, flames surged across the arena, accompanied by billowing smoke and waves of scorching heat that struck the audience in the face. Amid the intermingling reality and illusion, even the spectators could not tell which flames were real. Those who failed to dodge in time were steamed until they broke into a sweat.
As tongues of fire rolled and twisted, Mulan’s expression did not change. She continued to respond calmly and effortlessly, weaving through the indistinguishable flames with her movement techniques and occasionally counterattacking with frost spells.
Cheng Qing refused to give an inch. Blazing fire melted the ice, and vast clouds of white steam spread across the arena, as though a dense fog had appeared from nowhere.
Shu Fu thought that if this battle needed a title, it would probably be A Song of Ice and Fire.
Jiang Xuesheng and the others had gone after the demon cultivators who had left the arena. In theory, they should have dispatched them in an instant.
As things stood, all they could do was hope that Mulan would pull her weight and keep the fight going for those few “minutes.”
……
Before the cloud jiao youth, Mulan had sent six divine beasts off the stage in total: a mixed-blood Black Tortoise, a qilin, a Chongming Bird, one honghu, and two yuanchu.
In other words, one of them was a distant relative whom Liu Ruyi had never met.
As for the phoenix clan that Feng Yuandu and Feng Jinyu had been longing for… unfortunately, if the two of them had not survived, the phoenixes might truly have become creatures spoken of only in legend.
The phoenix clan had fierce temperaments and refused to flatter or humor the demon cultivators. In the end, they had lived up to the saying: “Better to die than to submit.”
The remaining six divine beasts had fallen into the hands of four demon cultivators. Three chickens—no, three descendants of the Five Phoenixes—belonged to three different people. One demon cultivator carrying the Black Tortoise remained in the arena. The other three, after losing their matches, left in a fury, swearing and cursing that they would give the divine beasts “a taste of their color.”
To rescue the Five Phoenixes, Jiang Xuesheng, Liu Ruyi, and Wu Yao each pursued one of the three demon cultivators who had flown away on their swords, heading in three different directions.
Then, at three different locations, they witnessed scenes that might as well have been copied and pasted.
“…??”
“Oh? What is this…?”
Just as they launched their surprise attacks, the “demon cultivators’” features suddenly twisted and warped. Like wax figures melting in a fire, their faces dissolved and peeled away, revealing entirely different pale faces beneath. Their eyes were vacant, cold, and utterly devoid of life.
“Corpse puppets?”
All three were seasoned veterans. The moment they saw what had happened, they reacted swiftly.
“These aren’t ordinary walking corpses. Judging by their aura, they’re deep and steady. They must be masterpieces of the Cunning Demon Lord. It seems he has had a hand in this.”
Their guesses were correct.
To deal a heavy blow to Shaking Light Peak, the Cunning Demon Lord had spared no expense this time. He had sent several powerful corpse puppets refined using his own blood. Even Nascent Soul cultivators would have to fight seriously against them.
And the corpse puppets had hostages in their hands. With a tug of a chicken’s tail or a squeeze of its neck, Jiang Xuesheng and the others were naturally forced to hold back. Unable to unleash their full strength, they could only engage their opponents cautiously.
As a result, the three pursuing cultivators found it difficult to return. Distant water could not put out a nearby fire. If something happened in the arena at that moment and forced the person left behind to act—
Almost at the exact same time, something did happen.
“……”
At that point, Mulan of the Moon Jiao clan and Cheng Qing of the Cloud Jiao clan were locked in an intense battle, neither willing to yield.
One was focused on buying time, unwilling to harm her opponent in the slightest and leaving room to spare with every move. The other had staked everything on the fight, battling desperately without regard for his own safety. The battle grew fiercer and fiercer, and the danger mounted by the moment.
Naturally, the one in danger was not Mulan. She was merely terrified that she might strike too hard and accidentally injure this stubborn little blue snake.
“Honestly, what is wrong with the Cloud Jiao clan? Why are they all like this? Is the word ‘adaptability’ simply missing from their vocabulary?”
Mulan muttered under her breath, her voice carrying a hint of reproach. But by the end, it had taken on a touch of amusement.
“Forget it. This is exactly what I like about them. If they weren’t like this, I might never have fallen for Wu Yao.”
Seeing that the youth’s clothes were drenched with sweat, Mulan raised her hand and sent another roaring dragon of fire toward him. Without the slightest hurry, she took one step back and gave her sleeve a light sweep, erecting a wall of ice before her. The flames and scorching waves were shut out on the other side.
…By her estimate, Wu Yao and the others should have finished by now.
As she thought this, Mulan gathered the surging spiritual power in her palm and looked toward the elevated platform where He Xiuwen stood.
Only two descendants of divine beasts remained in the arena.
One was the Cloud Jiao youth Cheng Qing on the platform. The other was the Black Tortoise youth who had entered the stage first. He was currently sitting in the audience alongside his “buyer,” their position plain to see.
With her abilities, getting the two of them safely out of there would be no difficult task.
Of course, the two she wanted to take away were not the only ones. She also wanted He Xiuwen’s head…
—Just then.
“Wait, what are you doing…?!”
Mulan had only let her thoughts wander for a brief moment, yet the Cloud Jiao youth seized the opportunity. He suddenly twisted around, gathered all his spiritual power, and made a move no one present had anticipated—
In full view of everyone, he did not attack Mulan. Instead, he leapt into the air, revealed his vivid emerald-green Azure Jiao form, and flew straight toward He Xiuwen on the elevated platform!
In that instant, as swift as a spark striking flint, Mulan received his voice transmission:
“Moon Jiao, I can tell that you’re far stronger than I am. You’ve merely been holding back on purpose. Since you spared me, I won’t hurt you either.”
“I’ve been in the Demon Realm for so many years that I stopped wanting to live long ago. Rather than die fighting my own kind, I’d rather die at the hands of a true enemy. At least that would be a clean end.”
Mulan: “…………”
The twist was so abrupt that she was left torn between laughter and exasperation. Her temples throbbed, and she nearly blurted out, “You little brat, what the hell do you know?”
—So, to repay me for sparing your life, you’ve decided to throw yours away?
—When are you Cloud Jiao ever going to start thinking normally?
As for He Xiuwen, he had always been greedy for life and terrified of death. No matter where he went, he was surrounded by a large number of guards. This time, he had conspired with the Cunning Demon Lord and was even more heavily protected. Even the maids who served tea and water on the platform were corpses prepared by the Cunning Demon Lord.
The two villains had worked together, and knowing long ago that Yao Guang Peak might strike at the fighting arena, they had made arrangements to counter them at every turn.
Three powerful corpse puppets, each carrying one of the only three Five-Phoenix descendants in the arena, fled in three different directions. If the people of Yao Guang Peak wanted to avoid fighting the demonic cultivators throughout the arena and secretly retrieve the Five-Phoenix descendants, they would inevitably have to split up.
At the same time, with two young dragons fighting to the death in the arena, those left behind from Yao Guang Peak naturally could not stand by and do nothing. They would have no choice but to intervene.
By then, the “restless one left behind”—namely, Shu Fu—would become a fish trapped in a jar, surrounded by every demonic cultivator in the arena.
Even if Yao Guang Peak chose offense as its defense and attempted to capture the leader by taking down Demon Lord He Xiuwen in one stroke, the elevated platform was still guarded by numerous corpse puppets. The Cunning Demon Lord’s spiritual projection was also watching from the shadows, waiting for them to walk straight into the trap.
The demonic cultivators’ preparations were this thorough. A mere Cloud Jiao, charging headlong into the trap without a thought, would be like an ant trying to shake a tree or a moth flying into a flame. How could it possibly make even the slightest ripple?
“Hmph. You’re courting death.”
He Xiuwen had been startled by the Cloud Jiao’s sudden counterattack, but surrounded by layers of guards, he felt perfectly secure. He gave a composed, derisive laugh and raised a hand, signaling his guards to advance.
“You ignorant whelp. If you want to fight to the death, you’d better take a good look at the kind of net you’ve thrown yourself into.”
He Xiuwen spared no expense. He paid his guards high hourly wages, and every one of them was an elite among elites. The Cunning Demon Lord’s corpse puppets were made of copper skin and iron bones, impervious to fire and water. Each was stronger than the last, powerful enough to tear a several-hundred-pound tiger in half with its bare hands.
A young dragon still wet behind the ears, no matter how capable it might be, would become a fish out of water once it fell into the hands of these corpse puppets, left with nothing to do but await dismemberment and skinning.
—That was how things should have gone.
“Miss Shu, what are you doing?”
Jiang Xuesheng and the other two had yet to return, and Nan Gongming had long since begun to harbor suspicions. Now that Shu Fu had also risen to her feet, the way she rested her hand on her sword hilt confirmed his doubts.
“Miss Shu, don’t act rashly.”
Nan Gongming swept his gaze around the arena and warned her in a low voice, “This is He Xiuwen’s territory. If you make a move, you’re bound to come into conflict with them. You’re my guest. I can’t let you put yourself in danger.”
“…”
Shu Fu glanced back at him, the corners of her lips curling into a knowing smile.
“Demon Lord Nan Gongming, you’ve figured it out?”
Nan Gongming nodded at first, then shook his head. “I can only tell that you probably aren’t a demonic cultivator.”
“Demonic cultivators only care about looking after themselves and pursuing their own interests. Of course, I’m the same. With the way we conduct ourselves, we could never have written such ‘core values.’ Many of your ideas have truly amazed me.”
“I don’t merely write them. I put them into practice.”
Shu Fu laughed. She turned around and solemnly cupped her fists toward Nan Gongming.
“Demon Lord Nan Gongming, the fact that you recognize your own nature—‘looking after yourself and pursuing your own interests’—already makes you an outstanding figure among demonic cultivators.”
“Because you’re a demonic cultivator, when faced with a Cloud Jiao who has been persecuted—a promising young man with so much potential—you won’t step in to help out of any sense of justice. Or rather, you’ve never known what ‘justice’ is, have you?”
Seeing Nan Gongming fall silent, Shu Fu smiled again.
“But I’m not a demonic cultivator. So I’m going.”
“—That is the greatest difference between me and all of you.”
Nan Gongming’s brows drew together. “Miss Shu…”
Shu Fu did not look back at him again. She removed the sunglasses concealing her demonic aura and slowly untied her ridiculous panda headpiece.
“Farewell, Demon Lord.”
“Though our views are incompatible, I’ve still enjoyed your farmhouse—and your willingness to work hard at learning new things—very much during this time.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, the Solitary Radiance Sword in Shu Fu’s hand sprang from its sheath.
She bent her index finger and lightly tapped the blade. The long-missed, clear and soaring cry of a dragon rang through the heavens, echoing without end like a joyful greeting from an old friend.
Ancient sword, dark with frost,
Forged thousands of years ago.
Bright within its jade casket,
Clear as autumn waters, yet never flowing.
This treasured sword had slept in its case for far too long.
At this moment, Shu Fu cast aside every disguise. Rising like a flood dragon emerging from the sea, she stood tall, her blazing red robes as radiant as the sun. They pierced through the gloomy, oppressive skies of the Demon Realm, like a field of phoenix flowers bursting into flame beneath the night.
“—Good! At last, you’ve come!!”
He Xiuwen slapped his thigh. Forgetting all about dealing with the Cloud Jiao he had just captured, he rose in delight.
“Seize them—”
The final word had barely reached his lips, and his subordinates had not yet even heard him clearly, when Shu Fu’s answer arrived.
—Her answer was her sword.
As a Demon Lord, He Xiuwen might grovel like a grandson before the other great powers, but in front of everyone else he had always thought highly of himself and looked down on younger cultivators.
Yet this time, he failed to see Shu Fu draw her sword.
All he could see was a dazzlingly beautiful female cultivator standing aloft in midair, a three-foot azure blade in her hand, like a celestial maiden riding the wind in the heavens. Her red robes billowed against the wind like raging flames, their brilliance dazzling—yet even that paled beside the gaze in her eyes, hotter and more vivid than fire itself, enough to make the heart tremble with fear and deter anyone from meeting her eyes.
There was a sword in her hand, a sword in her eyes, and a sword in her heart.
With one sword, she questioned her own heart, standing blameless before heaven and earth. With another, she questioned the world, sweeping away injustice from the human realm.
Then Shu Fu’s sword arrived.
She clearly held only a single sword, yet thousands upon thousands of fierce sword-lights poured down from the sky—like raging winds and driving rain, like flying blossoms filling the heavens, and like the gods of the nine heavens, enraged, casting heavenly punishment upon the mortal world in the form of omnipresent, savage thunderbolts.
…Heavenly punishment?
He Xiuwen had never seen such a thing before.
He believed neither in karma nor in the justice of Heaven. He believed only in the benefits brought by real gold and silver.
To this day, He Xiuwen had gone free despite committing every evil under the sun, enjoying wealth and status without ever experiencing the so-called “retribution.”
—Now, his retribution had arrived.
Seeing the sword rain sweeping toward him from all directions, He Xiuwen was utterly terrified. He hurriedly ordered his subordinates and corpse puppets forward to block it, while channeling his spiritual power to resist.
Though he had forced his way to the Nascent Soul stage by swallowing pills day after day for a hundred years, dealing with a mere Golden Core cultivator should not have been difficult…
“…Huh?”
The next moment, he watched in disbelief as his subordinates seemed to have had a pause button pressed on them. They stood rigidly upright, their terrified and bewildered expressions frozen on their faces.
Even after the sword-light struck the ground and they collapsed with it, their expressions remained utterly unchanged.
“What—what is this…?”
In the midst of his horror, He Xiuwen vaguely saw—
A layer of nearly invisible frost had formed over the corpses.
“…”
At the center of the arena, the young moon-serpent woman raised her lovely face. One hand resting at her temple, she narrowed her bright, jade-green, spring-water-clear snake eyes.
“I had intended to act personally, but I didn’t expect a junior to beat me to it. Children these days—one after another, they’re such a handful.”
“But…just as the Imperial Lord said, this is a good child indeed. The cultivation method Ming Xiao and I created together has not been passed on to the wrong person.”
The girl arched her brows and smiled. Gathering her breath and focusing her mind, she raised her voice toward the sky:
“Shu Fu, draw your sword!”
Shu Fu’s second sword swept out in response. The thousands of sword-lights split apart, then merged again, gathering into a righteous and unstoppable sword aura. Like a sea being parted, it cleaved a path through the massed ranks of black-clad guards and bore down upon the horrified He Xiuwen.
White light swallowed the sun and moon. One sword shattered ten thousand arts.
“W-Wait—wait a moment—aaah!!!”
…
“…Tch. Useless trash, incapable of accomplishing anything and good for nothing.”
At the same time, the Cunning Demon Lord, who had been watching the situation from the shadows, cursed viciously upon seeing this and prepared to deal with Shu Fu personally.
However, the instant he took a step, a warm, gentle male voice filled with amusement came from behind him:
“Hey, now, why are you hiding in a corner and cursing yourself? It may be the truth, but you don’t have to say it yourself. I can do the cursing for you.”
“………………”
The Cunning Demon Lord fell silent at once. His pupils shrank to pinpricks, and with a sharp crack from his cervical spine, he slowly turned around, his entire body stiff with terror.
“You…”
“Hello. Lovely weather today, isn’t it?”
Jiang Xuesheng stood before him in a sky-blue robe, his arms cradling a jade zither. The signature patterns of night-blooming flowers on his hem shimmered like moonlight. His peach-blossom eyes, still carrying a trace of youthful mischief, curved into an almost lively smile as he nodded at the demon.
He lifted one hand and sent a round object rolling across the ground to the Cunning Demon Lord’s feet. It was the head of one of the corpse puppets, its face blackened and its eyes still wide open in death.
“Such a fine day is perfect for cutting off your heads and letting Fuer toss them around as shuttlecocks.”
“This is the grand gift I prepared for her return from seclusion, so you’d better cooperate with me, Demon Lord.”
