Bab 31: Old Books in Exchange for a New Day
Soon after, the voice rang out once more.
It was still four words, four stars, one coordinate.
"Su Shu, Tan Wei."
The Falling Rain Whip in Luoluo's hands complied with the directions, the raindrops and the wind completely condensing into a straight line in the darkness. The sword intent of Mount Zhong, the condensed wind and rain, as if disregarding time, accurately stabbed at that point in the night sky.
It was nothing but pitch-black darkness, but when the Falling Rain Whip stabbed, it came away once more with a spurt of blood and a groan of pain! Different from that cry of pain carrying shock and anger, this groan was more perplexed, and even faintly fearful!
Luoluo felt her true essence swiftly circulating through her body. It was clearly not flowing through the meridians required by the sword manual, yet it was still able to arrive at the hand holding the whip, and it even seemed more boundless than when she normally practiced.
This confused her, but she felt even more elated.
In the following period of time, that voice would continuously ring out, at times speaking from the sword manual of the Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong, telling her which technique she should use. At times, it would speak of how she should circulate true essence, yet these instructions were clearly different from what was laid out in the sword manual. Most of the time was spent with the names of the stars in the night sky.
As she listened to this voice, Luoluo felt like she had returned to when she was very young, together with her father atop a stone plateau as he pointed at the drifting clouds on the horizon and spoke of how to fight. Her emotions began to grow calmer and calmer, more and more cool-headed. She simply stopped thinking, letting her spiritual sense go where it wished. The Falling Rain Whip howled through the air like an extremely sharp longsword, continuously stabbing at the darkness!
Crackcrackcrackcrack. Countless collisions rang out through the seemingly empty darkness, the sound of the tenacious and terrifying Falling Rain Whip lashing against a person's body. It was followed by several dozen pieces of cloth dancing in the wind. When these pieces of cloth fell to the ground, it could be seen that they were all black.
Swishswishswishswish. The forward half of the frenziedly dancing Falling Rain Whip was already dyed red, countless spurts of blood having sprayed out from the darkness, yet the person injured could not be seen. It was like some invisible brush, dipped in ink ground from cinnabar, was wildly scribbling in the darkness, an exceptionally eerie sight.
With a pained and furious shout, the demon expert was finally unable to conceal his tracks, and he dropped out of the darkness. The moment his two feet hit the floor, he stuck to the ground and rolled more than a dozen times. Only when he had retreated to the lake shore did he dare to stop.
The demon expert's body was covered all over in wounds inflicted by the Falling Rain Whip, all of them flowing with blood. His black robe had long since been cut into countless pieces, the remnants hanging in shambles over his body. He looked abnormally miserable and wretched. Just where had all his previous might gone?
His first thought after being forced out of the darkness was to retreat—the farther he could get from the Falling Rain Whip, the better. In his wretched withdrawal, he did not forget to pull that magical artifact out of the grass, because he had been beaten so badly that even his soul had grown disheartened.
He crouched on the lake shore like a dog, his right hand rigidly holding up the magical artifact to protect his head. His voice was like a broken bellows, hoarse and extremely grating on the ears, containing the emotions of shock, anger, resentment, and fear. Even now, he could not understand just what had happened.
"Who? Who is it? Get out here!"
He was able to obtain Military Advisor Black Robe's trust and take on such an important mission because this technique the demon expert was skilled in was a secret technique of Xuelao City, because he was extremely skilled in concealment. Only this way could he have lived for such an extended period of time in the human world. At the same time, it was also because he possessed a near unimaginably tenacious willpower. It was impossible for him to be disheartened over a momentary setback, but tonight's events had completely exceeded his ability to accept and were on the verge of breaking his will.
Because he was most skilled at concealing his tracks, but he had been completely seen through! That enemy that had never appeared seemed to know his techniques inside and out, was able to perfectly determine where he would appear next. Just how was this possible?!
"Just who are you! Show yourself!"
The demon expert looked around at the pitch-black Orthodox Academy, then he turned his gaze to the dimly lit library. He recalled that he had seemingly forgotten something, and his face covered in blood revealed an extremely fierce sense of unease, his voice shuddering.
The grass outside the library grew brighter, because the door had been opened.
Soon after, the lights dimmed once more, because a person had come out.
A youth stood on the stone steps.
He was dressed in an old Daoist robe, a dagger gripped in his hands.
His face was somewhat pale, somewhat nervous, but his eyes were firm with no intention of cowering away.
...
...
Chen Changsheng had been in the library the entire time.
In these past few nights, he had always been in the library.
He was drawing in starlight for Purification.
The reason he had awoken from his meditation was not the fierce battle outside, but that the magical artifact used by the demon expert was interfering with the starlight descending from the night sky.
He had walked to the window and realized that an intense battle was unfolding in the darkness of the Orthodox Academy. He did not know who the girl was, but upon seeing the man's demon horns, he naturally knew which side he should stand on.
Then, the demon man had disappeared into the night.
The long whip in the girl's hands noiselessly summoned a sky full of wind and rain.
At the very beginning, he simply did not believe that he could help this girl in any way. He had not even succeeded at Purification, and it was obvious that the girl and the demon were both very powerful people.
He stood in the corner by the window, silently watching the battle and cheering the girl on. He didn't make any noise because he did not want to introduce any more variables in this battle, did not want his existence to cause the girl to divide her attention.
A demon would naturally not care for the life or death of an ordinary human, but the girl might.
He would not miss even this sort of detail. He was a very detailed person.
But in the next moment, he realized to his shock that he really might be able to change the course of this battle.
The long whip in the girl's hand was clearly no ordinary weapon, but instead of using some whip style, she was using a sword style.
The Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong.
In the old temple of Xining Village, Chen Changsheng had once seen this sword manual. He remembered very clearly that it was within the fourth scroll of the 'Commentary on the Classic of Controlling Splendor'.
Of course, the secrets of the sword manual had mostly existed in the form of debates between distinguished Daoists of old. It was only a few days ago, after he had found corresponding books in the library, that he understood that those words were originally speaking of methods for circulating true essence and the forms of techniques too wonderful to describe with words.
He could recall this sword manual from back to front, and with his review in these past few days, he could naturally see that the sword style this girl had concealed in her whip movements only contained the form of pattering rain of the Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong, but none of its cold and desolate intent. Moreover, there was clearly a problem with her method of driving true essence, or else her movements would not be so improficient.
Yes, his body did not contain a drop of true essence, but he had already begun to research methods of circulating true essence.
In these past few days when he had been comparing the knowledge in the library with that contained in his mind, he had attempted to break through the limits of his meridians to circulate true essence. For this purpose, he had made several hypotheses—it was impossible to link his nine meridians, so if he wished to cultivate, he had to find a completely new method.
He did not know if this method would have any use, if it could control the Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong, because he was just a normal person with no true essence. But at the time, that girl was already covered in wounds and was about to die before his eyes, so he had to take a gamble and hope that it could help her.
Thus that remark.
"The stars in heaven reflect the organs; let your true essence flow voluntarily. Bring your wrist up to your shoulder, and the wind and rain will be restrained."
Fortunately, the problems in true essence circulation the girl encountered when using the Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong were very similar to his own situation.
Even more fortunately, she did not know who Chen Changsheng was yet subconsciously complied with his instructions.
And most fortunately of all, those hypotheses of Chen Changsheng's mind achieved success on her body.
The Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong finally displayed its true might.
...
...
"But how did you know where I was?"
On the lake shore, that demon covered in blood stared at Chen Changsheng and spoke, his voice furious and perplexed.
The Falling Rain Whip possessed shocking might, especially after the girl obtained Chen Changsheng's instructions and was able to use her true essence in the Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong. Thus, as long as it could discover this demon expert's position, it would assuredly inflict heavy wounds upon him.
This was precisely the problem: how had Chen Changsheng been able to see his hidden tracks with a single sentence?
"Northern Snow, the Plum Step, and more than three thousand coordinates—all of these need to be firmly memorized."
Chen Changsheng walked to the girl's side, his dagger held up in front of his chest. As he stared at the distant demon expert, his expression was extremely vigilant, but his words were very casual. "In the past, I did not know that this was precisely the Yeshi Step, but I memorized them."
Yes, this was that most secretive movement technique of the demons, the Yeshi Step. With this foot technique, one could freely move in a fixed range. Crucially, one could borrow the heavenly secrets of wind and snow contained within this movement technique to conceal one's own tracks.
Even amongst the demons, this movement technique was a secret that was not allowed to be passed down.
But when Chen Changsheng was very young, he had already memorized all three-thousand-plus positions, as well as their sequence.
At the time, he believed that he was reading a novel concerning preaching called 'Records on the Bewildering Mists of the Capital'. Only eight days ago, when he saw a book in the library containing the records of a senior of the Orthodoxy on his battles with demon experts, and compared the two, did he understand that the novel was actually a secret technique manual.
"So you were lying, you are not a person of the Mohe, your surname is not Mohe."
Chen Changsheng stared at the demon and solemnly concluded, "You are a person of the Yeshi tribe, your surname is Yeshi."
The demon expert froze, his complexion turning abnormally nasty.
There were too many things that had taken him by surprise.
He had originally thought that the youth in the library would not have any influence on tonight's plan because that youth had not even succeeded in Purification.
He had not expected for that youth to almost break Lord Black Robe's plan.
What surprised him the most was that this youth cared more about the small lie, insignificant to the grand scheme of things, that he had told.
This made him very depressed, very sullen.
Then, he began to feel grief, muttering to himself, "The Lord Military Advisor truly does possess unparalleled wisdom. He calculated that I would not want to die, that I wanted to use the sacred artifact to help me depart…thus, he arranged for the strange you to appear."
Hadiah
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