One finally had the motivation to read the Life Book, while the other remained silent.
The carriage suddenly grew dark.
"Be careful!" Zhou Henn said in a low voice.
"Stop!" In Jiangg Youfei’s delicate voice, there was an unfamiliar sense of authority.
All the horses stopped.
Zhou Henn gave Li Qingxian a look, then lifted the door curtain and stepped out.
The once-clear sky was now roiling with black clouds. Within the clouds, the heads of green-faced, long-fanged demons appeared, bobbing up and down as their shrill laughter pierced the air.
Black, slick sludge submerged the ground, and a faint white mist rose a few miles away.
A frigid wind howled. Everyone shivered involuntarily and pulled their collars tighter.
A disciple of the Celestial Cloud Sect cried out in alarm, "The Twelve Celestial Demon Array! It requires at least twelve Fourth-Grade Demon Sect experts working together to cast."
"Move toward Senior Brother Xiang’s carriage," Jiangg Youfei said.
The Celestial Cloud Sect disciples and the Night Guard moved quickly, forming a protective circle with their backs to Li Qingxian’s carriage.
Jiangg Youfei turned her head and said, "General Zhou Henn, please protect Senior Brother!"
"Yes!"
Li Qingxian’s heart warmed.
"Members of the Demon Sect, show yourselves." Jiangg Youfei’s voice was sharp, like a frozen spring.
"Jiangg Youfei, we meet again."
A frivolous voice sounded as a pale-faced, slender young man emerged from the white mist. He wore the crimson official uniform of a Civil Servant, and on the patch on his chest, a cloud goose looked poised to take flight.
Five people followed him, all in crimson official uniforms. Some had cloud geese embroidered on their patches, others had leopards. There was no gold thread, marking them as Junior Fourth-Grade attire.
The edges of their official robes were trimmed with a dark red chain pattern.
Zhou Henn whispered, "The one speaking is Zhang Tongshi, a Junior Fourth-Grade Direct Lineage disciple from the East Sea Demon Transformation Mountain. He’s the grandnephew of the Demon Transformation Mountain’s Sect Leader. Last year, Jiangg Youfei dealt this group the ’Broken Cyan Cloud,’ which is why they can’t wear Senior Fourth-Grade official uniforms."
Li Qingxian frowned. ’The people who injured Zheng Hui were also from Demon Transformation Mountain.’
"My thanks to Fairy Qingcheng for showing mercy during the Cyan Cloud Examination. You injured me but did not cripple me, allowing me to recover and once again gaze upon your beautiful, fairy-like face." Zhang Tongshi smiled, his eyes, like those of the other Demon Sect People, turning into green, slowly spinning vortexes.
"Today, we’ll have another match." As Jiangg Youfei spoke, a clear ring sounded beside her. With a burst of white vapor, her Ancient Sword flew out.
The sword’s body was pitch-black, its edge silver-white, and it was wreathed in cyan and blue patterns.
Jiangg Youfei stepped onto the air, ascending a Celestial Ladder.
The Cyan Thunder Ancient Sword pointed at Zhang Tongshi.
Zhang Tongshi laughed loudly and said, "Fairy, you misunderstand. I have come for two matters. First, I am here on behalf of my Sect Leader and granduncle to deliver a marriage proposal. I wish to take you, Fairy, as my wife. As for the second matter..."
Zhang Tongshi glanced toward Li Qingxian’s carriage and said, "It depends on whether the Fairy accepts the proposal."
With a flick of his finger, a red envelope appeared out of thin air, spinning as it flew toward Jiangg Youfei.
Jiangg Youfei raised her right arm, extended her index finger, and pointed forward.
ZZZT...
Blue-white lightning coiled around her lotus-root-like arm as her wide white sleeves fluttered.
A bolt of incandescent white lightning, about ten feet long and as thick as a wrist, shot out from her fingertip, instantly striking the marriage proposal.
BOOM!
Sparks flew in all directions as the marriage proposal exploded, turning into faint blue smoke.
Zhang Tongshi kept his smile and said, "We haven’t seen each other for a year, and the Fairy’s Thunder Skill has improved even more. Congratulations. However, your Five Thunders True Method struck the marriage proposal, but it is my heart that is wounded. I have admired you for so long, and I even had the Sect Leader of Demon Transformation Mountain issue a marriage proposal, yet you are so heartless. In that case, I have no choice but to proceed to the second matter. Just hand over Lü Ren, and we will let you leave. How about it?"
"You slick-haired, powder-faced, filthy creature. You think you’re worthy of negotiating terms with me, Jiangg Youfei?"
A Golden Light Eight Trigrams Map appeared in Jiangg Youfei’s left hand. She tapped it repeatedly with her thumb, and a wild wind instantly erupted around her, making her white robes snap and her long hair fly.
She brought her right index and middle fingers together to form a sword-finger, channeled the Celestial Cloud Sword Technique, and pointed at Zhang Tongshi.
"Go!"
CRACKLE!
The Cyan Thunder Ancient Sword hovered in the sky, and the thunderbolt energy around it surged, forming a pillar of lightning about ten feet wide that shot instantly toward Zhang Tongshi.
Zhang Tongshi let out a strange cry and hurriedly retreated, attacking in unison with the five people behind him.
Countless black, green-faced, long-fanged heads filled the sky, trailing long, dark-red tails. They let out ear-piercing shrieks and opened their great maws to bite at the pillar of lightning and the Cyan Thunder Ancient Sword.
The Demon Heads were densely packed, obscuring the sky and merging into a monstrous wave that surged forward.
The weaker Celestial Cloud Sect disciples and Night Guard members retreated repeatedly. Each Demon Head possessed at least the strength of the Tenth Grade, and with tens of thousands of them present, they had enough power to destroy a city.
The pillar of lightning instantly struck the great wave of Demon Heads.
Amid a continuous series of explosions, a sky-full of lightning spread between the Demon Heads like a spider web.
Countless Demon Heads were turned to ash.
The six Fourth-Grade Demon Sect members shuddered and were thrown backward in unison, blood trickling from the corners of their mouths as thunderbolts crackled around their bodies.
"Retreat!"
The six of them spat blood in unison. The blood formed a membrane that repelled the lightning, and their bodies melted into dark-red streams of light, flying rapidly to the edge of the white mist before reforming into human shape.
The members of the Celestial Cloud Sect and the Night Guard looked horrified. They were all Fourth-Grade, yet Jiangg Youfei had injured all six of her peers with a single sword strike. She was even more formidable than the legends claimed.
Zhou Henn was stunned for a long moment before he managed to squeeze out two words: "Can’t win..."
Li Qingxian lifted the door curtain to peek out.
Jiangg Youfei took a step forward and flicked her right sword-finger. The Cyan Thunder Ancient Sword shot high into the sky, then suddenly shattered, transforming into billions of inch-long small swords that swarmed like a locust cloud, diving toward the six Demon Sect members.
"Quick, come out and help!" Zhang Tongshi shouted.
Another six figures rushed out from the white mist and joined forces with the first six. Some released Demon Heads, some activated weapons, and others drove Magical Artifacts, forming a sphere of black energy to block the ten thousand swords descending from the sky.
The sound of DING, DING, DANG was incessant.
The dark clouds above the Demon Array suddenly began to churn violently. All the clouds transformed into green-faced, long-fanged Demon Heads, which converged into a massive blue-black claw. It was dozens of yards across, like a small mountain, and it slapped down toward Jiangg Youfei.
Zhang Tongshi grinned. The twelve of them had feigned luring the Cyan Thunder Ancient Sword away, only to seize the opportunity to unleash the Demon Array’s killing move. The Cyan Thunder Ancient Sword wouldn’t make it back in time...
Suddenly, a number of the fine, small swords coalesced into a brand new Cyan Thunder Ancient Sword. Flashing with lightning, it instantly pierced the Demon Cultivator’s defenses and, with the speed of a thunderclap, ran through the space between Zhang Tongshi’s eyebrows.
The Cyan Thunder Ancient Sword was like a tiger among sheep, felling one person with every strike.
With its support gone, the aura of the Demon Array plummeted. The blue-black giant claw faltered, and with a wave of the large sleeve of her right arm, Jiangg Youfei unleashed the five thunders—cyan, white, black, red, and blue—from her five fingers. Like a waterfall of lightning flowing in reverse, it scattered the giant claw and shattered the dark clouds.
Li Qingxian finally understood why Jiangg Youfei dared to avenge her senior brother.
’Seems this girl isn’t just a stubborn donkey, but a fierce dragon, too.’
"Stop!"
A purplish-red Demon Head tore through the air, protecting the last three remaining Fourth-Grade Demon Sect members.
Even something as powerful as the Cyan Thunder Ancient Sword was blocked by the purplish-red Demon Head for three consecutive strikes before it immediately retreated.
An old man with a furious expression on his face walked out of the southern white mist, treading on the air.
The old man was tall and majestic, with a large nose and deep-set eyes. He wore a purple official robe. On the patch on his chest, which was bordered with gold thread, a colorful peacock was embroidered. The chain pattern on his purple robe was dense and intricate.
He wore a purple leather belt around his waist, from which hung a Golden Fish Pouch.
A Senior Third-Grade official.
He looked at the battlefield.
Three Fourth-Grade Demon Sect members remained standing. The other nine had been pierced through the head, from the space between their eyebrows to the back of their skulls. Their foreheads were split open, and their bodies lay strewn haphazardly on the ground.