Chapter 61

As she laid out talismans and reinforced the formation, she explained, “The principle is similar to light refracting off a water mirror.” She pointed to the pot of lotus seed soup on the table. “I ground an evil-repelling pearl into powder and mixed it in. Splashing it on her isn’t fatal, but it suppresses her strength for a short time.”
When the Xisangyao infiltrated the tower, no celestial anomaly appeared in the sky. There was only one explanation: she had deliberately suppressed her power until her aura fell below the threshold needed to trigger such phenomena.
If suppressing her strength was something she could control at will, then after being doused with lotus seed soup mixed with evil-repelling pearl powder, regaining her power in a short time would be impossible.
That meant Li Daoxuan could beat her senseless without expending much effort.
The second factor was the formation itself. “While she hasn’t recovered yet, I set up a formation to disorient her. In her eyes, there are eight mirrors suspended in the air. All I need to do is take a single step, and within her world, I instantly shift positions. But that isn’t the real me, only my reflection projected by the formation.”
Translation:
As a result, what could be seen was the Xisangyao flailing about inside the formation, attacking wildly, while the real Shen Qing was busy working outside the array.
Li Daoxuan was about to seize the chance to thrust his sword straight into the demon when Shen Qing suddenly stopped him. “Do you even know what kind of demon this is? And you dare stab it just like that? What if you don’t kill her, but instead shock her into breaking the formation and escaping?”
She shoved him aside. “Stop making trouble!”
One had to know that demons like the Xisangyao and the Bai Shuisha were born from the accumulated resentments of heaven and earth. Ordinary attacks couldn’t kill them. Only special formations or artifacts could dissolve the resentment clinging to them; after that, one had to pierce the Fengchi acupoint with a spiritual sword to truly finish them off.
Back then, when Xiangyou emerged at Mount Li, Daoist You had suppressed it chanting the Yanleng Mantra for a full seven times seven, forty-nine days, before reducing it to a pool of water.
Li Daoxuan seemed almost amused by anger. “Do you take this prince for a fool? If I don’t stab her once and see what kind of resentful aura leaks out, how am I supposed to tell what she is? If I don’t even know her type, how am I meant to deal with her?”
Only then did Shen Qing realize that he didn’t know what the creature before them was. She shifted her hand away, looking a little guilty. “Oh… then you’ll still have to wait until I finish setting up the next formation. Don’t stab too hard, be careful not to enrage her. My talisman array is fragile.”
At present, the only artifact capable of truly dissolving the resentment inside a Xisangyao was the Ninefold Samsara Bowl in Daoist You’s possession. Li Daoxuan had already sent someone to borrow it, but they were a step too late, Daoist You had gone wandering the mortal world again, with no set date of return.
Shen Qing’s original plan had been to use the same formation that once subdued Xiangyou to trap the Xisangyao. Unfortunately, such a formation required the perfect alignment of timing, terrain, and people, none of which they had now. She could only substitute it with other arrays.
That formation took great effort to set up and was extremely effective, but using it on a single demon felt like a waste. If that was the case, why not sweep them all up in one go?
The Xisangyao struggled more and more violently.
“Hurry up and think of something, I can’t hold her much longer!” Shen Qing said. As she spoke, she shot Li Daoxuan a meaningful look over her shoulder.
The play had gone on long enough; the heat was just right. Li Daoxuan met her gaze without a trace of expression, then leapt into the air with his sword. With a flick of the blade, he swept up every last drop of the remaining lotus seed soup from the table and splashed it all over the Xisangyao, then seized the moment to slash down hard at her arm.
Unable to endure it any longer, the demon finally screamed for help to her companion hidden in the shadows. “Aaaah, it hurts! Changfeng, save me, !”
Here it comes!
The moment her wails fell, strange phenomena erupted in the sky. The clear blue heavens were instantly smothered by dark clouds, blotting out the sun. Yin winds howled through the courtyard, whipping the treetops into a shrill roar, as though the heavens themselves were screaming in fury.
“The Bai Shuisha is here,” Shen Qing said urgently. “Quick, cripple her badly!”
Once the Bai Shuisha arrived and the two demons joined forces, Shen Qing’s current formation would be nothing more than a mud wall to them, one squeeze and it would crumble. Li Daoxuan alone wouldn’t be able to drag them into her array, especially since it wasn’t fully set yet. They had to buy time.
Li Daoxuan clearly understood this as well. He switched the sword to his other hand, then raised two fingers to Shen Qing’s lips. “Bite.”
Shen Qing stared at the fingers that had suddenly appeared before her mouth. Instinctively, she opened her mouth and bit down hard. Only when blood seeped from the porcelain-white fingertip did the man speak again, as if reminding her, “Rabbit, let go.”
She loosened her teeth, and Li Daoxuan smoothly withdrew his hand. Chanting an incantation, he flicked his pure yang blood onto the Xisangyao’s brow, then wiped the excess along the blade. The Autumn Benevolence Sword absorbed the blood greedily.
Bathed in blood, the sword glowed with pulsing red light, entering a battle-ready state.
Only then did Shen Qing belatedly react. She rubbed her lips furiously and snapped, “Don’t you have your own sword? Why did you make me bite you? That’s disgusting!”
Without even turning his head, Li Daoxuan replied, “The Autumn Sword will never harm me.”
Shen Qing shot back, “Then is your own mouth just for decoration?”
Li Daoxuan’s grip on the sword paused for a brief instant before he said calmly, “Unless absolutely necessary, I don’t like biting people.”
So she was cheap labor now, was she?
Shen Qing kept wiping her mouth, her expression foul.
Bickering aside, seeing that the Xisangyao’s spiritual platform had been shattered by the pure yang blood and that she was rolling on the ground clutching her head, Li Daoxuan drove his sword straight into her heart, dealing her a second heavy blow.
With that, she wouldn’t be a threat for quite some time.
Just as Li Daoxuan raised his sword to deliver the final strike to her dantian, a sharp white radiance struck the blade mid-swing. His sword thrust cut only air, sparks skidding across the ground.
Li Daoxuan’s gaze darkened. “Go.”
Shen Qing tossed half the talismans on her body to him and ran outside with the rest. These were all talismans she had drawn one by one during her idle moments over the past days.
Li Daoxuan caught them with one hand. Unprepared, he felt his hand sink under their weight. When he turned to look, he realized the stack Shen Qing had given him was nearly half a palm thick. A black line flickered across his forehead.
“The big talisman spender!” Shen Qing shouted. “The strongest ones are at the bottom!”
Li Daoxuan flipped through them while he had a moment and saw that the cinnabar lines on the talismans were dark and dull, less like cinnabar, more like blood.
“Don’t tell my senior brother later!” she added hurriedly, referring to her use of blood talismans.
The tiny shack, already fragile, was now on the verge of collapse after the fierce battle.
The moment Shen Qing stepped over the threshold, a chill killing intent brushed past her ear. She bolted forward without looking back, and in the next instant that killing intent was neutralized by an even more powerful inner force.
Fierce winds howled around them, and time seemed to slow. Hearing the disturbance, Shen Qing turned her head slightly and only barely caught a glimpse of Li Daoxuan’s lean shoulder. His jet-black hair whipped wildly in the wind, and one stray strand drifted lightly across Shen Qing’s nose, carrying with it the fresh scent of grass and wood that flooded her senses.
When she turned back, the clashing forces hadn’t dispersed. Instead, a thread of inner strength peeled off, almost sentient, gently pushing at her back and helping her run even faster.
The barrier around the Xisangyao shattered. A white-robed young man descended from the sky and bent down to pull her into his arms.
When he saw her condition clearly, his eyes turned blood-red, his demonic aspect fully revealed.
Yet he didn’t rush to retaliate. Instead, he tugged open his collar and supported her head against his collarbone.
Half-conscious, the Xisangyao followed instinct, biting into the skin at his neck. Long fangs emerged as she greedily sucked at his sweet blood.
Seeing this, Li Daoxuan scattered all the talismans in his hand toward the two demons on the ground. The remaining ten blood talismans he tucked into his robes, talismans he had never planned to use in the first place.
Yellow talismans fluttered down like a rain of paper money. The Bai Shuisha lifted his eyes to glance at him. With a sweep of his sleeve, he wrapped the red-clad woman tightly in his arms, gently stroking her cheek. As he moved, a slender, ghastly pale wrist bone was revealed, wrapped in white silk.
He sealed the talismans outside his barrier. When the yellow talismans struck him, they crackled loudly, and little by little, his white outer robe became tattered and torn.
Moments later, a crimson-robed figure charged through the rain of talismans with sword raised, cleaving down toward the intertwined white and red figures below with a force that could split mountains and rivers.
The Bai Shuisha had no choice but to release the Xisangyao and rise to meet the attack.
Interrupted midway through feeding, the demon’s strength had only barely recovered to half. She regained consciousness, wiped the pure yang blood from her brow, and forced herself to her feet.
With an enraged roar, she spread her five claws and shot past Li Daoxuan, lunging toward Shen Qing behind him.
Li Daoxuan swung his sword at her back, but the Bai Shuisha descended from above to block the strike. He raised two fingers to his brow and intoned softly, “Break.”
The youth flipped away, and in the next instant, the ground where he had stood exploded. Roof tiles crashed down, walls collapsed, and thick dust billowed out, completely engulfing the figures of one man and one demon in moments.
All of it happened in the blink of an eye.
The instant Shen Qing stepped out of the courtyard, a chill ran down her spine. She immediately ducked and covered her head as the Xisangyao’s claws skimmed just above her scalp.
She looked back to see the collapsed building obscuring the two figures, making it impossible to tell how the battle was going.
Missing her strike, the Xisangyao twisted in midair and charged back at Shen Qing.
Facing the ferocious woman, Shen Qing flipped her wrist. Two evil-warding pearls slid between her fingers. As the demon drew near, she hurled the pearls and fired off two talismans at the same time, activating them as she shouted, “Explode!”
The explosion talismans detonated together with the pearls, bursting into clouds of powder midair. Having suffered from these before, the Xisangyao immediately leapt upward, landing on a beam.
Looking down, she saw the ground below shrouded in thick white smoke, Shen Qing’s figure hidden within.
The demon’s robes fluttered as demonic light flashed in her eyes. A sudden yin wind swept across the ground, dispersing the fog. But once the mist cleared, the person who had been there was gone without a trace.
At the same moment, from within the collapsed ruins, Li Daoxuan burst through the dust. He hurled the Autumn Sword viciously toward the Xisangyao, the mystic blade tearing through the air.
The Bai Shuisha narrowed his thin eyes, lifting his delicate chin slightly as he said leisurely, “You’ve given her your sword, Ranran can still handle things just fine. But you,” he pointed at Li Daoxuan, “without a weapon you’re used to, how will you fight me?”
Li Daoxuan slowly pulled his dark leather glove back on, wiped the blood from the corner of his lips with his thumb, and said arrogantly, “Even without a weapon, this prince can still beat you into the ground.”
The Bai Shuisha’s expression darkened instantly, his voice cold. “Arrogant and ignorant.”
In the next breath, the two were entangled once more, beginning another clash.
On the other side, the Xisangyao thought the sword had been thrown at her and hurriedly dodged, unaware that she was walking straight into the girl’s trap.
At some point, Shen Qing had appeared atop the beam. One hand pressed down on the demon’s shoulder; the other opened, and the Autumn Sword flew obediently into her palm, its tremendous recoil neatly restrained.
With the sword in hand, Shen Qing slashed straight at the demon’s arm. The Autumn Benevolence, a bane to all evil, cleanly cut through her flesh.
The demon cried out in pain and immediately struck viciously at Shen Qing’s chest. Luckily, the Autumn shot out in time, its body expanding severalfold to block the fatal blow. Even so, Shen Qing was affected, she spat out a mouthful of stagnant blood, her body falling like a wounded bird.
The smile on Shi Ranran’s lips didn’t last long, because she saw the victorious smile in Shen Qing’s eyes.