Chapter 58#
Zhao Duan’s memory continued to unfold.
It was perfectly normal for a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator to disappear for a few days. Zhao Duan had also taken Zhao Qiuran’s life tablet, so no one in the twenty-seventh city discovered that Zhao Qiuran was dead.
A few days later, the first city had an incident. Turbid qi burst forth simultaneously from all forty-nine sword arrays of Beiming, and a barrier sealed the entire Beiming.
Qiao Gou led his people to the sword array, only to see Zhao Duan standing there, covered in turbid qi.
Qiao Gou was stunned for a moment. Seeing the sword array tremble more and more, he angrily said, “Wretch! Haven’t I been good enough to you? Hasn’t the twenty-seventh city indulged you enough? How could you do such a rebellious thing against the world!”
City Lord Qiao had always believed that he had only messed up his family affairs and had not wronged the two realms or the living beings of Beiming.
But he hadn’t expected Zhao Duan to be so selfish.
Zhao Duan’s entry into the demonic path was too deep a blow for him. His eyes were bloodshot, and his heart was filled with rage. When he struck with his sword, he lost his aim and failed to hit Zhao Duan.
Zhao Duan was even angrier than Qiao Gou: “Why does Father want to kill me? Beiming will surely be the world of demonic cultivators in the future. If Father joins me now, he might even obtain the method of ascending to immortality. Yet you want to kill me?”
Qiao Gou was speechless, only saying, “Wretch!! Wretch!!!!”
Zhao Duan’s face twisted, and he said gloomily, “Then you can die too.”
When Qiao Yin, having calmed the chaos in the city, rushed to the trembling sword array, Qiao Gou was covered in sword marks oozing turbid qi. The dignified City Lord had not a single intact spot on his body.
She flew to her father’s side and found that he still had a breath, but he was beyond saving.
Qiao Gou stared fixedly at Zhao Duan, as if he had a thousand words to say.
Qiao Yin’s eyes were red: “Beast!”
Zhao Duan didn’t understand: “You two, one after another, say you want to compensate me and feel you owe me. I just do as I please a little, and you talk about me like this. Sigh, then I’ll just enjoy it alone.”
He wanted to kill Qiao Yin too!
At this moment, a spirit sword flew from afar and, along with Qiao Yin’s spirit sword, blocked Zhao Duan’s turbid qi.
Qiao Ting landed with a cold face. He glanced at Qiao Gou, who was lying on the ground with only a breath left, and then at Qiao Yin, whose expression was a kaleidoscope of emotions, showing no reaction.
He only said to Zhao Duan, “Although the sword array is unstable, Father… City Lord Qiao taught me the method of using the sword array to defend against enemies. If you want to fight us within the sword array, with me, my sister, and all the immortal cultivators working together, are you absolutely sure you can win?”
Zhao Duan naturally was not.
He also didn’t dare to bring Zhao Qiuran’s puppet back into the sword array and cause further complications. His face flushed with anger, he said, “I’ll kill you sooner or later,” and then left.
Qiao Ting arrived in time, and the city was finally not occupied by Zhao Duan and the demonic cultivators he had led astray in the past few days.
Qiao Yin, suddenly facing such a drastic change, cried beside Qiao Gou, yet she didn’t know how to face Qiao Ting.
Qiao Ting approached and leaned down to check Qiao Gou’s pulse: “It’s no good.”
Qiao Gou’s face, which had become bloody and mangled under Zhao Duan’s torture, moved slightly.
Before taking his last breath, he rasped, “Erlang, I’m sorr—”
Qiao Ting reached out and covered his mouth.
Qiao Yin was startled: “Brother!”
“Father has nurtured me. If I have the strength, I will avenge Zhao Duan’s enmity in the future.”
His tone was exceptionally helpless, “But Father’s last words, I don’t want to hear.”
Qiao Gou died.
Zhao Duan had been secretly watching from the side, confirming Qiao Gou’s death. He only felt regret—what a pity. If Qiao Ting had discovered it a little later, he could have controlled the entire twenty-seventh city.
But now Qiao Ting knew some of the sword array’s secrets, and he himself couldn’t possibly defeat the combined forces of Qiao Yin, Qiao Ting, and all the immortal cultivators in the city. In the end, he slunk away.
After that, Zhao Duan wanted to gather more demonic cultivators to deal with the immortal cultivators in the city and then discovered An Wuxue and the others entering the city.
The memory ended, and everything before them quickly blurred and faded.
An Wuxue blinked again, returning to the villa in Zhao Duan’s mountain peak.
The corpses of demonic cultivators and bloodied flesh were everywhere. The golden light of the Soul-Nourishing Tree Spirit began to dim, glowing faintly gold in An Wuxue’s hand.
Zhao Duan’s resentment, no longer contained by the Soul-Nourishing Tree Spirit, gradually dispersed.
Zhao Duan, like Zhao Qiuran and Qiao Gou before their deaths, stared ahead with wide eyes, filled with unwillingness and resentment, and then lost his breath.
Kun Kun rubbed An Wuxue’s wrist: “Wuwu…”
Everyone’s faces showed a dazed expression—they had all seen Zhao Duan’s memories in the light of the Soul-Nourishing Tree Spirit.
But now was not the time to think about other things.
Zhao Qiuran was still confined by Xie Zhefeng, and the sword array core was still connected to her puppet body!
As soon as the memories ended, Xie Zhefeng raised his hand and pulled Chunhua from Zhao Duan’s corpse, saying, “My entry into Beiming this time was due to…”
Because his avatar entered, “…I didn’t bring too many spiritual items or magical artifacts, so I can’t temporarily produce a spiritual item that can be used to transfer the array core.”
Zhao Duan had used that unclear stone to transfer the array core.
Qiao Ting was the first to step forward: “Fellow Daoist, do you need to lead the puppet back into the city?”
Since Xie Zhefeng could produce the Soul-Nourishing Tree Spirit, Qiao Ting and Qiao Yin were not foolish; they already understood that Xie Zhefeng and the others were not merely passing immortal cultivators.
Xie Zhefeng nodded. With a flick of his finger, he removed the spell that had confined Zhao Qiuran’s puppet body.
The puppet immediately attacked him.
He didn’t draw his sword but dodged sideways, saying, “I will lead her into the sword array, but along the way, there might be mortals and immortal cultivators. Please help me clear the path and protect the innocent.”
Pei Qian felt like he was about to die of exhaustion in the sword array.
He didn’t know what exactly was happening with Xie Chunhua and Su Xue. The sword array would move one moment, tremble the next, and then drain the spiritual energy of its guardians.
The remaining immortal cultivators in the city could no longer hold on, leaving only Pei Qian with some remaining strength.
Just as he was about to go find the array core himself, he suddenly felt several cultivators with exceptionally high cultivation approaching.
“One Tribulation Transcendence, two Tribulation Transcendence… no, three Tribulation Transcendence, and one with a very weak aura, but still a Tribulation Transcendence!?”
Before Pei Qian could react, he saw Xie Zhefeng enter the sword array on his sword, followed by a demonic cultivator at the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence stage!
“Playing so big!?”
“Eh, no, the array core!?”
Xie Zhefeng had already led Zhao Qiuran to the place where the array core should have been.
The array core returned to the sword array, but it coexisted with the turbid qi. Under this contradiction, the sword array began to tremble again!
Xie Zhefeng didn’t hesitate at all. He pointed his finger at Zhao Qiuran’s brow, and runes crawled out from her brow.
—He was undoing the connection between the array core and the puppet mark based on the sequence of imprints in Zhao Duan’s memory!
In the center of the sword array, the giant sword hummed, piercing the dark clouds in the sky and sending out a gust of wind!
Xie Zhefeng’s avatar’s cultivation was only below the Immortal Realm, and his speed was extremely fast. He had already begun to repair the array. Qiao Ting and the others only then arrived, entering the array.
Everyone’s robes flapped loudly in the strong wind. Qiao Yin exclaimed happily, “The turbid qi within the sword array is dissipating!”
An Wuxue and Pei Qian, however, both changed their expressions slightly.
An Wuxue murmured, “It’s not enough…”
The sword array had been missing its core for a long time and had been in an imbalance of spiritual energy and turbid qi, consuming too much spiritual energy.
Now that the array core had returned, the spiritual energy was probably…
Pei Qian simultaneously voiced what An Wuxue was thinking: “There isn’t enough spiritual energy in the sword array to repair itself—”
He didn’t have time to finish his sentence.
The giant sword began to tremble continuously!
A huge vortex formed around the giant sword, seemingly endlessly absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy!
This was the sword array’s self-repair ability.
Normally, the array would harmonize itself and wouldn’t need to absorb external spiritual energy. But now, the spiritual energy within the sword array had been missing for too long, so the array spontaneously began to absorb nearby spiritual energy.
Qiao Yin shouted, “Fellow Daoist Pei, I don’t understand array paths. What’s going on?”
“The sword array needs spiritual energy. If it’s insufficient, it will uncontrollably and desperately absorb all surrounding spiritual qi and energy, which might harm the innocent!”
Qiao Ting brought his two fingers together, drew out a spirit sword with spiritual energy, grasped it, and inserted it into the ground. Spiritual energy surged from his palm, through the sword, and into the sword array.
He said, “Why explain so much? It just needs spiritual energy!”
Pei Qian nodded heavily: “Right on!”
He also put down his compass, summoned his spirit sword, and injected spiritual energy into the sword array.
Xie Zhefeng’s eyes were closed, his fingertips touching Zhao Qiuran’s brow, completely focused on repairing the sword array with his five senses sealed.
Silver light spread from around him, falling into the array.
All the other people in the sword array held their swords and lowered their eyes, their bodies shaking with spiritual energy.
Even Kun Kun landed, using its limited spiritual energy as a spirit beast to nourish the sword array.
An Wuxue naturally couldn’t stand by and watch everyone inject spiritual energy while he did nothing.
His Natal Sword was in Xie Zhefeng’s hand, so he took an ordinary spirit sword and, casting aside all distracting thoughts, injected his spiritual energy into this sub-sword array of the Beiming Sword Array.
The moment the spiritual energy entered the array, his thoughts flowed, and he felt a sense of daze.
A thousand years ago, he had also stood here, watching the giant sword pierce the sky and plunge into the earth.
The Beiming City of that time was completely different from now.
Back then…
Back then, they couldn’t even have so many Tribulation Transcendence cultivators in a single sub-city.
And now, after a lifetime, he was still standing in the sword array, connected to this karma that should have involved him.
Silver runes spread.
The giant sword let out a crisp roar.
In all directions of the twenty-seventh city, dark clouds dispersed, and turbid qi vanished.
The sword array circulated again, cleansing the surrounding filth.
Xie Zhefeng withdrew his hand. Zhao Qiuran’s puppet lost all vitality and, like Yun Yao’s puppet at the time, slowly collapsed and softened, decaying into the dust.
Everyone looked weary, swaying as they withdrew their spirit swords.
Kun Kun gave a “wuwu” sound and lay on the ground, unable to fly.
An Wuxue’s spiritual energy was lower than everyone else’s present, yet he had endured until the moment the sword array returned to peace.
He felt as if all the flesh and blood in his body had been sucked dry, and his meridians were empty and faintly aching.
On his left arm, the cauldron mark—no, it should now be called the puppet mark—the puppet mark was burning hot, causing his already dry meridians to throb even more.
His body went limp.
Qiao Ting, who was closest, exclaimed, “Fellow Daoist Su!”
He was about to step forward to support An Wuxue.
But in that brief moment.
The Daoist who had just repaired the sword array had already embraced the exhausted and unconscious An Wuxue from behind, holding him in his arms as An Wuxue collapsed.
His movements were clearly very gentle, yet the glance he cast at Qiao Ting from the corner of his eye was cold and chilling.
Qiao Ting instinctively withdrew his hand.
“Does the City Lord’s Mansion have any spare guest rooms?” the Daoist with exceptionally high cultivation asked.
Qiao Yin nodded eagerly: “Yes, they are in—”
She didn’t even have time to finish speaking.
The Tribulation Transcendence immortal cultivator named Xie Chunhua, whose background was suspected to be extraordinary, had already left, carrying the unconscious Young Master Su.
He was clearly the one who had been most exhausted during the repair of the sword array, yet he seemed not to feel tired at all, still able to use spiritual energy to fly away at this moment.
Before leaving, he even remembered to take the white, fluffy spiritual pet that was lying limply on the ground.
Pei Qian gasped for breath, shaking his head. “I thought of a phrase.”
Qiao Ting was very cooperative and asked, “What phrase?”
“Bringing the whole family along.”
“…”