Ch53 - Misfortune

As expected.

This old monk had always been greedy. Four years ago when the Demonic Sect invaded, he still didn’t forget to ask for the second half of the Diamond Sutra after the catastrophe was over. He didn’t even spare a mere sheet of paper, much less this hairpin. Fortunately, Tantai Meng’s three views weren’t distorted and she still wanted to return the item to its owner.

Xie Zhiwei asked plainly, “Dare I ask why a girl like you became a disciple of the Buddhist sect?”

“A few years ago when Ashen Cloud Sword Sect still existed, Master went for a conference and passed by a river. He found me unconscious for days upon its banks and asked a few disciples to send me back to the Buddhist sect for treatment. But I lost my memories of the past, so Master took me in.”

Xie Zhiwei finally understood. No wonder Tantai Meng felt like an entirely different person: she had amnesia. But her origins were simple to begin with. The Demonic Sect had slaughtered her entire sect and she was the sect leader’s daughter. She entered the daoist sect precisely to study and get revenge. Unfortunately, she was cold and aloof to begin with and had an even colder, prouder master in Xia Zhiqi. In the end her iciness reached the extremes.

But Du Sheng was different. The old monk had always been a clever, smiling, Buddha-like figure, so it was impossible for the heroine to act arrogant after his inculcations.

Xie Zhiwei nodded and said, “Great Master Du Sheng is truly compassionate.”

“Exactly,” Tantai Meng smiled, before growing puzzled. “Strange, how could a female incense-bearer appear in the rear mountains?”

This casual remark woke Xie Zhiwei up like a hammer. He suddenly remembered that day in Flying Flowers Township, Qiu Chongyun had been wearing this exact same hairpin as she weaved through the city crowds.

At the same time, a loud thunderclap sounded from the front of the mountain. Tantai Meng’s head whipped up to see huge waves of qi condensing atop the peak. It was as if all the clouds in the sky had been sucked in to create a whirlpool. The formation seemed to be communicating some kind of signal, but also looked like something wanted to escape from the vortex. Seeing this unfamiliar scene, Tantai Meng wondered, “Why is it thundering on a clear day?”

As she spoke, the winds picked up and shook the grass and trees, sending sand and rocks flying into the air.

“It’s not thunder,” Xie Zhiwei said with certainty.

This was an all too familiar scene. Before his death by poison four years ago, he had seen the same strange phenomenon above One Step Cliff from Flying Flowers Township. After coming out of the coffin, he was too preoccupied with the hero and forgot the rest of the plot. This should be about the time Chi Yan led his troops to steal Golden Lotus from Aureate Sect.

No wonder they found Qiu Chongyun’s belongings here.

Tantai Meng wanted to ask more questioned but suddenly blanched. She saw thick smoke pouring out from the center of the mountain and a surging wave of qi rising to the sky like a horrific curtain of chaos.

“The Mahavira Hall’s on fire.” Her fingers slackened and the hairpin fell on the ground as she rushed up the mountain.

Xie Zhiwei rubbed the corner of his forehead before picking up the item and giving chase. If this was the past, he wouldn’t care about Aureate Sect—he would only salvage whatever he could from the original plot, even if…the costs were high. But now the heroine was involved, so he couldn’t just sit by. Still, he wasn’t sure whether he could save anyone in time.

Tantai Meng couldn’t bother with the ban against outsiders on the rear mountain now. She allowed Xie Zhiwei to follow her and guessed that today’s oddities weren’t trivial matters.

Nor were they any good news.

The closer they got to the front of the mountain, the stronger the smoke and dust grew. All the monks wailed, but none of them could get past the red-hued barrier separating them from the thousand-year-old hall. Helplessly, they could only watch with fury and anxiety as the flames grew stronger and stronger.

“Injustice, ah!”

The two white-bearded old monks standing in front of the crowd had mouths stained with blood. They were clearly injured, but still tried to break through the barrier. Raucous laughter came from the skies as bright and blatant figures landed on the ground.

“Why waste your breath? Ji Sheng, Hua Sheng (济生,化生), you two bald asses can keep your lives if you hand over Golden Lotus today.”

Hua Sheng took a step forward. “Chi Yan!”

“Demon!” Ji Sheng rebuked furiously, “Kill if you must, but why wreck our great hall and burn our Buddhist treasures?!”

Light flowed through the mask on Chi Yan’s face before he demanded coldly, “Are you handing it over or not?”

Ji Sheng retorted flatly, “What does a demon like you want with Golden Lotus? Years ago, Xie zhenren of Yujing Sect already destroyed Black and White Lotus. Why are you still so delusional?!”

“That’s not something you should worry about,” Chi Yan waved a hand. “Chongyun, you go.”

“Yes, saint sovereign.” Dressed in scarlet robes, Qiu Chongyun emerged from the crowd of colorful Demonic Sect members and flashed a delicate smile at Ji Sheng and Hua Sheng. “Looks like the two Great Masters are already injured. But you don’t have to worry, nujia won’t slack off, oh.”

As she spoke, she posed with orchid fingers while her red damask sleeves sprang towards the two like poisonous snakes.

“Unbridled demoness!”

A Zen staff flew across the sky and stopped in front of Ji Sheng and Hua Sheng at the same time an invisible hand waved a few times to knock back the red silk. The cloth rewound itself around Qiu Chongyun’s waist as she looked up with a coquettish voice. “Oho, Great Master Du Sheng is finally here. With all three Great Sages gathered, nujia is truly honored.”

Du Sheng had forcibly come out of closed door cultivation and moved his true qi. Now he was in a rare fit of anger as well. “Your Demonic Sect is going too far!”

Qiu Chongyun grinned and said, “If you don’t like it, you can come bully nujia instead.” As she spoke, the Zen staff and red silk clashed again while killing intent rose in all directions. Below, the demonic cultivators were already fighting the monks in absolute chaos.

Although the Buddhist sect possessed one of the Five Treasures in Golden Lotus, its power only focused on life and rebirth, not destruction. It was the only treasure with no combat ability. Therefore, the Buddhist sect had no choice but to be beaten up. Through the barrier made by Red Lotus, one could see the golden Buddha statue in the hall being surrounded by flames. Ji Sheng’s heart ached at the sight as he tried to break through again.

“Want to see your Buddha? Fine ah, this Seat will fulfill your wish.” Chi Yan said as the Red Lotus barrier broke up to reveal a path.

Ji Sheng’s eyes lit up before he promptly rushed in. Hua Sheng quickly followed and disappeared inside the barrier. Du Sheng ripped apart a length of red silk before spotting the scene.

“Senior brothers, come back!” he cried. Knocking back Qiu Chongyun with his staff, he made to follow them, but Red Lotus retracted the pathway as soon as he reached the barrier. He crashed against the walls and turned to glare at Chi Yan. “Demon, you…”

The barrier was impenetrable and he couldn’t see any figures inside beyond the flames. It was a sight to chill the heart.

Chi Yan laughed. “It must feel good for a bald ass like you to watch those other two bald asses being burned alive inside.”

The Red Lotus’ flames couldn’t be extinguished by ordinary means. One could only wait until they burned themselves out, which meant the great hall and everything inside it was destined to obliteration.

“I, I’ll fight you to the death!” Du Sheng sent his staff towards Chi Yan, but the demon lord had so many subordinates that he didn’t even have to dodge. Qiu Chongyun herself went to block Du Sheng’s offensive. This situation was much more satisfying than the Demonic Sect’s disappointment at Ascension City four years ago.

But Chi Yan still felt a bit let down.

There were no screams of agony from being burned alive coming from the Red Lotus inferno engulfing Mahavira Hall. In fact, there were no cries of pain at all. One of the monks was striking a wooden fish while the other was chanting Buddhist scriptures. Although his voice was very low, it reached the ears of everyone present in the violence-laden compound. This was no different from the meditation and sutras recited at every morning bell or evening drum.

Chi Yan didn’t want to hear this, so he felt rather thunderstruck.

The Red Lotus spread its petals to devour everything, but seemed to stutter. Its fires intensified like a tongue of flame straight towards the sky. The Mahavira Hall collapsed with a bang before all grew calm. Immediately afterwards, the monks broke out into a wail, but they couldn’t kneel or bow down. The Demonic Sect was too eager for slaughter to give them any chance.

Du Sheng looked dumbfounded at the scene before he howled. “Senior brothers!”

At the same time, Qiu Chongyun saw her chance and aimed a palm strike at his back. The impact made Du Sheng’s face pale as he looked woodenly at the smoke and dust rising from the ruins. Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth.

Qiu Chongyun clasped her arms and said with her head held high, “Great Master isn’t being serious, oh. Looks like nujia needs to work harder.” Although she was smiling, her eyes were murderous. Hidden in her sleeves, her palm gathered energy for a fatal strike.

Right at that moment, a slender red light flew at her like a meteor to slash at her face. Astonished, Qiu Chongyun dodged. The light passed her to head for Chi Yan behind her. But three steps again, it suddenly dimmed as if hitting an invisible wall and bounced towards the ground. Before it reached the dirt, it spun twice mid-air and returned to a person’s hand.

Chi Yan looked towards the spot where the red light had vanished. “Who’s there?”

Tantai Meng had already rushed to Du Sheng’s side in alarm, so there was nobody else by the corner of the wall.

Xie Zhiwei straightened his mildly rumpled robes and tightened the towel across his face before stepping forward. “Just a rogue cultivator, nothing to worry about.” He made his tones low and coarse on purpose so that it was impossible to recognize his original voice.

Qiu Chongyun twisted back to observed him with a smile that wasn’t a smile. “A rogue cultivator who can actually fight a few rounds with a magic weapon is still rather impressive.”

Xie Zhiwei resisted the urge to back away with difficulty after seeing this woman all these years later.

—What am I afraid of, it’s not like the hero’s here.

He lifted the item in his hand and said sincerely, “I just happened to pick it up.”

The red stone on the wooden hairpin flashed. Qiu Chongyun froze before touching her empty hair bun. She laughed and said, “Annoying, you can’t pick things up indiscriminately, oh.”

Chi Yan was impatient. “Chongyun, stop wasting words and kill them.” But then he suddenly creased his brows.

His flow of spiritual power had stopped.

Red Lotus dissipated like smoke and instantly receded into his consciousness. The barrier covered the Mahavira Hall also vanished, though the remnants of flame remained. Still, they were growing weaker and fewer with time.

Xie Zhiwei’s lips curved slightly. I want you to know, “once your grandpa, always your grandpa.”