Chapter Eighty-Nine: Counterattack, Part Two
Shi Qi pulled Yuan Chengtian’s right hand from his universe pouch and said slowly, “Master Yuan, take a good look. Do you know what this is?”
“You!” Yuan Chenglu snapped. “Even if that is my brother’s right hand, it could just as well have been cut off by you in battle. What does that have to do with me?”
Shi Qi let out a cold laugh. “So you refuse to yield until the coffin is in sight. If Shi Cai remembers correctly, Yuan Chengtian’s right hand was severed by your personal dagger, was it not? Do you dare bring out that dagger and compare the lingering spiritual power at the wound?”
“And there is more,” Shi Qi continued. “You took Yuan Chengtian’s storage ring. Everyone knows a storage ring cannot be placed inside another. That means the ring must still be on your person. Do you dare, with a clear conscience, let us search you?”
“What utter nonsense! Why should I let you search me? As for that dagger, I... I lost it!”
Shi Qi burst into laughter. “Yuan Chenglu, I did not come here today to reason with you. We are not like you—a beast in human skin, a sanctimonious hypocrite, no different in conduct from the vilest of the demonic sects.”
He went on, “The witnesses are here, the evidence is here. The truth is plain enough. Whether you admit it or not means nothing to me. I came today for one reason only—to avenge Su Xiaomu!”
Then he turned toward the disciples outside the door. “I am in a generous mood today, so let me give you one more piece of news. Before Yuan Chengtian was even dead, your esteemed Master Yuan Chenglu was already carrying on a shameful affair with Yuan Chengtian’s wife, Madam Wang. And your young master Yuan He? He is Yuan Chenglu’s own son.”
“What?!”
The words crashed into the gathered disciples like water flung into boiling oil, throwing them into uproar.
“You’re lying!”
From the crowd, Yuan He roared and charged in.
“Shi Qi, it was your luck that you escaped with your life that day. And now you dare come here to run wild in Falling Star Manor? Today I’ll kill you myself!”
With that, Yuan He drew his long blade and hacked at Shi Qi.
“You?”
Shi Qi did not even bother to dodge. He lifted one leg and kicked out, striking Yuan He square in the chest.
“Ah!”
Yuan He cried out, spitting blood as he was sent flying through the doorway with a single kick.
“He’er! You little beast, how dare you!”
Seeing Yuan He injured, Yuan Chenglu seized a golden spear from the air and shot upward from the ground, rushing at Shi Qi.
“I’ve been waiting for you!”
Shi Qi shouted, conjuring an icy spear in midair and charging straight to meet him.
Clang!
The two spears collided, and the impact numbed Yuan Chenglu’s grip.
He was shocked. How had this boy grown so much stronger in only a few months?
Bai Qiu raised a hand, ready to join the fight, when Shi Qi suddenly called out, “Everyone, Yuan Chenglu is mine to kill. Hold the field for me. This man is full of schemes—he must have another move hidden away!”
The three nodded and protected the trembling Shi Cai while watching the battle unfold.
After a single exchange, Yuan Chenglu had actually been forced back half a step. Shi Qi pressed the advantage at once, his icy spear darting forward again, driving straight for Yuan Chenglu’s face.
Yuan Chenglu hurriedly twisted aside and narrowly avoided the strike, then spun his golden spear in a sweep aimed low at Shi Qi’s legs.
Shi Qi knew well how formidable Yuan Chenglu’s close combat was. As the spear swept in, he leapt into the air to evade it, then swung his icy spear down from above like a crushing blow.
Yuan Chenglu had failed to land his attack. Seeing the icy spear come smashing down, he drew back his weapon and raised it to block.
Clang!
Shi Qi’s icy spear came down heavily onto the golden one, leaving Yuan Chenglu’s legs almost too weak to stand.
But the sheer force of the blow also shattered Shi Qi’s icy spear on the spot.
Shi Qi shifted in midair and fired a Water Spirit Pellet that he had already condensed.
Yuan Chenglu swung his spear up to block again, but the pellet’s tremendous force blasted the golden spear straight from his hand.
A moment later the Water Spirit Pellet struck before Yuan Chenglu and forced out the protective treasure shielding his body.
“This little beast has grown so much stronger!”
Yuan Chenglu stepped into the air, burst through the roof of the manor hall, and fled outside.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Shi Qi shouted and shot through the roof after him.
The battlefield shifted outdoors.
No sooner had Shi Qi emerged above the roof than golden light blazed. He turned and saw Yuan Chenglu already gathering the Myriad Radiant Golden Arms.
The instant Shi Qi appeared, Yuan Chenglu raised his hand and hurled several hundred golden weapons at him.
Shi Qi had seen this technique before, but he was no longer the same man he had been then.
Throwing out the Thousand-Edge Shield, he shouted, “A thousand cliffs stand sheer!”
The shield expanded in an instant and stood before him.
Clang, clang, clang! Every golden weapon struck the shield, yet it remained utterly unharmed.
Once the Thousand-Edge Shield had blocked them all, Shi Qi withdrew it. At that very moment, he heard the shrill sound of something tearing through the air, and a streak of gold shot toward his eyes.
Shi Qi tilted his head and let it pass, then reached over his shoulder and caught the streak of light in his hand.
It was a golden arrow, fired by Yuan Chenglu.
The sight of it sent fury surging through him. The day he and Su Xiaomu had been ambushed, the first strike had also been a golden arrow.
Clenching the arrow tight, Shi Qi heard again the sound of Su Xiaomu calling him Big Brother at his ear.
His hand tightened suddenly.
Bang!
The golden arrow snapped in two under the force of his grip.
“Yuan Chenglu!” Shi Qi roared. “Today is the day you die!”
Stepping through the air, fingers hooked like claws, he unleashed five spiraling water dragons that struck from every direction.
Yuan Chenglu hurried to dodge.
The five whirlwinds pursued him like living serpents, clinging close behind.
In haste, Yuan Chenglu summoned a shield to defend himself.
The water dragons curved around the shield and wrapped themselves around it.
“Freeze!”
The whirlwinds became pillars of ice, locking hard onto the shield.
Shi Qi yanked with his right hand, wrenching the shield from Yuan Chenglu’s grasp and hurling it away.
Before Yuan Chenglu could recover, Shi Qi launched another Water Spirit Pellet straight at him.
Yuan Chenglu threw up an arm to block and took the blow head-on.
His golden protective barrier, already forced out by the first pellet, was struck by the second and shattered instantly into fragments.
Shi Qi strode through the air, conjured an ice sword, and drove it toward Yuan Chenglu’s chest.
At the critical instant, a wave of danger shot through him. He flashed away at once.
A shadow flickered behind him and appeared exactly where he had just been.
Shi Qi shouted, “Where are my flank guards?”
“Here!”
Bai Qiu answered at once.
A pillar of fire then erupted from the ground and surged toward the shadow.
With a flicker of black light, the shadow vanished from where it stood.
Shi Qi looked down.
Bai Qiu was flying upward, his body wrapped in crimson talismans: the Talisman Sect’s Evasion Armor Art—Vermilion Bird.
The Vermilion Bird talismans became a spirit armor and cloaked his body.
Ringed in flames, Bai Qiu arrived beside Shi Qi in an instant.
“Who is it?” Bai Qiu asked.
Shi Qi scanned the surroundings and murmured, “The Sun and Moon brothers have come. The one just now, with that terrifying speed, should be Sea Moon.”
Bai Qiu nodded. “I’ll deal with him.”
Shi Qi shook his head. “No. He is at Nascent Soul stage, absurdly fast, and he carries a wicked blade. He moves like a phantom.”
“This little monk is here.”
Before Shi Qi had finished speaking, Yuanwu sprang upward and came to their side.
“My mind’s eye can lock onto Sea Moon’s presence,” he said. “Bai Daoist and I will handle him together.”
Shi Qi brightened. “Excellent.”
Bai Qiu said, “If Sea Moon is here, then Sea Sun must be here as well.”
Shi Qi turned. “Look over there!”
Elsewhere, Sun Fanbai was already locked in battle with Sea Sun.
With a sweep of his hand, Sea Sun drove forth a blood-red web-shaped treasure toward Sun Fanbai.
Sun Fanbai stood upon an Eight Trigrams array, the Heavenly Blazing Fire Banner circling him as it resisted the web.
Shi Qi said quickly, “Xiao Bai, Master, Sea Moon is troublesome. The two of you hold him off. I’ll kill Yuan Chenglu as fast as I can and then go help Sun Fanbai.”
Yuanwu nodded and opened his mind’s eye, fixing on Sea Moon’s position.
He pointed. “There.”
“Understood,” Bai Qiu answered.
Wrapped in a surge of flame and clad in the Vermilion Bird Spirit Armor, he charged straight over.
Sea Moon, hidden in shadow, frowned. “A Buddhist mind’s eye? How troublesome.”
He drew his long blade and attacked Bai Qiu directly.
Bai Qiu spat a stream of fire at him.
Sea Moon split the flames apart with one stroke and rushed forward.
Clang!
His flowing slash was blocked by Yuanwu’s demon-subduing staff.
“Amitabha. Benefactor, the sea of suffering is boundless; turn back, and the shore is there.”
Sea Moon flew into a rage. “Shaven little monk, stop getting in my way!”
Yuanwu replied coldly, “This little monk may belong to the Buddhist path, but even Buddha has wrath. Benefactor, do not remain so stubbornly blind.”
“Hmph!”
Sea Moon dodged another burst of Bai Qiu’s flames and withdrew to the rear.
“After him!”
...
On the other side, Shi Qi had already mounted the Hundred-Li Sword and gone after Yuan Chenglu.
By now Yuan Chenglu had lost all will to fight. He could not understand why Shi Qi, who a few months ago had been beaten into a panicked retreat by his hand, could now, while still only at Golden Core stage, overwhelm a Nascent Soul expert like him across the boundary of realms.
When Shi Qi closed the distance in the blink of an eye, Yuan Chenglu had no choice but to summon two golden swords to defend himself.
The Hundred-Li Sword was astonishingly fast, but Shi Qi had not yet reached the Jade Core stage—Nascent Soul—and so could not use sword flight to attack. He could only ride it for movement.
Seeing Yuan Chenglu bring out his golden swords, Shi Qi put away the Hundred-Li Sword and likewise summoned two ice swords, meeting him head-on with blades in both hands.
In an instant, the four swords clashed together.
In terms of cultivation realm and physical combat, Yuan Chenglu should have had the advantage over Shi Qi.
But Shi Qi had consumed the Vermilion Fruit, his strength had surged, and his methods were many. From the very first exchange, Yuan Chenglu was thrown into alarm and confusion.
And in a battle like this, momentum came first. Shi Qi had come for vengeance, his force overwhelming from the outset; Yuan Chenglu, by contrast, had already been exposed before everyone, his guilt gnawing at him, and after only a few rounds he found himself at a disadvantage. The will to fight drained from him at once.
Shi Qi’s twin swords struck faster and faster, driving Yuan Chenglu steadily backward. In the air, the sound of blade against blade rang without pause.
Within the manor, the disciples looked up and saw their master—or martial uncle—being suppressed by a mere Golden Core youth, and they were struck dumb with shock.
“This...”
“How have so many powerful people come to the manor today?!”
The cleverer disciples, sensing that the tide had turned, had already begun slipping away in secret.
As for Yuan Chengtian’s former disciples, once they grasped the truth of the situation, they too guessed that their master had very likely been killed by their martial uncle. Some, more loyal at heart, cast aside their swords and left on the spot; others had already begun looking at Yuan Chenglu’s disciples with naked hostility.
Shi Qi’s assault grew ever fiercer, and Yuan Chenglu found himself less and less able to hold it back.
Bang!
At last, Yuan Chenglu’s golden swords and Shi Qi’s ice swords shattered together. Gold and blue fragments burst apart in the air.
Amid the drifting shards, Shi Qi stood with reddened eyes, staring fixedly at Yuan Chenglu.
“Yuan Chenglu!”
He roared the name.
In his eyes appeared Su Xiaomu: the Su Xiaomu who knew only how to beg him for chicken drumsticks, the Su Xiaomu who only ever whispered Big Brother into his ear, the Su Xiaomu he had always protected behind him...
The Su Xiaomu who, when his life hung by a thread, had stepped forward and stood before him instead...
The Su Xiaomu who had bloomed for but a fleeting instant, burning away her life for the sole sake of saving his...
...
“Big Brother...”
...
“Ahhh!”
“Yuan Chenglu! Give me back my Su Xiaomu!”
With a furious roar, lightning crackled over Shi Qi’s right hand as he clawed toward Yuan Chenglu.
Yuan Chenglu saw only a flash of electricity before him...
And after that flash...
He lifted his head to look at Shi Qi. Shi Qi’s eyes were wide with rage, his face spattered with blood, and in his hand he held something that still beat without ceasing.
Blood? Where had the blood come from?
A sudden cold spread through Yuan Chenglu’s body. He lowered his head and looked at his chest, only to see that there was now a gaping hole through it.
His eyes flew wide open.
In Shi Qi’s hand...
was his heart.