Spirit Transformation Clash

"I can't beat you, but I can still block a move or two." Pan De rubbed his fists and palms together, eagerly flexing his muscles.

"I'm just a doctor. Fighting and killing really isn't my strong suit, and this is no way to press someone into service." Jiang Zhengtai grumbled, his face full of reluctance.

Seeing the three make their entrance, Si Ming suddenly saw the light. A number of things from the past that had been worth noting, but that he had paid no mind to, flashed rapidly through his head.

Why had his master hurried away after taking him as a disciple...

Why had Senior Pan De sent him alone to take part in guarding the superstar...

Why had Jiang Zhengtai been so well-behaved lately...

Why had the Mohist Academy of Science been willing to entrust him with advanced technological devices...

"So that's how it is!"

Si Ming and Yuezheng Qiong spoke in unison. They looked at each other and felt like fellow sufferers in the same plight. Both had played important roles in the scheme, yet both had been kept in the dark, completely unaware of it.

Si Ming didn't feel much about it. He was a junior, after all, so it was only natural that he hadn't been told about the plan. Yuezheng Qiong, however, couldn't help feeling resentful. She now knew that her younger sister hadn't caught a cold at all, but had used it as a chance to step behind the scenes and negotiate with the Mohist School. She had pushed Yuezheng Qiong into the spotlight to keep Fifth Uncle from growing suspicious.

At the same time, Yuezheng Qiong couldn't help being shaken by her younger sister's decisiveness. She herself had resolved to split the family only after seeing Fifth Uncle hire killers with no regard for their family ties, yet her younger sister had made that decision before then. That had undoubtedly taken far greater nerve. Had this scheme really been laid by her own younger sister, who looked harmless to humans and animals alike and only ever smiled foolishly and gently?

Whatever the two were thinking, they were destined to be no more than spectators for now, unable to interfere with the course of events.

"It seems you've anticipated everything."

Fifth Uncle glanced at Jiang Zhengtai and Pan De. Neither was any match for him, and ordinarily they wouldn't even have given him cause for wariness. In the present situation, however, they had become a crucial factor, cutting off any chance he had of breaking out and escaping, to say nothing of the fact that Yan Jinghong was famed for his exceptional lightness skill.

Yan Jinghong shook his head. "I'm no great sage. I merely do my utmost in whatever I undertake."

"That is great wisdom. Anyone who truly gets things done understands that the most frightening thing in this world is taking things seriously."

After facing Yan Jinghong for a while, Fifth Uncle was ultimately the one who couldn't afford to waste time, and he had no choice but to strike first. He spread his five fingers and reached forward, sending hundreds of invisible sound blades shooting out. Wherever they passed, the air churned and cracks were carved into the ground. A buzzing also rang out, disturbing the mind and becoming unbearably annoying.

Si Ming's cultivation was too weak. Even though he was only caught in the aftermath, his head still spun and his Qi and blood surged, nearly making him collapse to the ground. Fortunately, Yuezheng Qiong sent a stream of True Qi into him in time to help him resist the impact of the noise.

Yan Jinghong opened his hand, and a long sword gleaming with divine light sprang from his sword case into his palm. He then raised the sword vertically toward the sky. Sword Qi surged around him, circling his body like swimming fish before rising from the ground to form a small whirlwind.

The sound blades collided with the Sword Qi in a clatter of ringing impacts. Less sharp than the Sword Qi, every one of them shattered, blocked outside the whirlwind and unable to penetrate even half an inch.

"Sword Rises, Wind and Clouds Move!"

Yan Jinghong suddenly moved, thrusting his sword forward at speed and drawing the entire Sword Qi whirlwind into a long-snake formation. Carrying countless strands of Sword Qi that ceaselessly slashed at everything in their path, it charged straight at Fifth Uncle!

Si Ming watched with shining eyes, even forgetting his physical discomfort, and exclaimed, "Now this is the kind of fight I truly long for!"

Chapter 35: Spirit Transformation Clash

Seeing the fierce momentum of his opponent's sword, Fifth Uncle dared not be careless. He flicked his hand, and a long xiao slid from his sleeve. The xiao was white and lustrous from end to end, and had actually been fashioned from white bone. On closer inspection, faint threads of blood-red showed on its surface, giving it an indescribably mournful beauty.

Yuezheng Qiong gritted her teeth. "The Guxi Shao Bone Xiao. He really did bring one of the Twelve Immortal Pitch-Pipe Instruments with him, even though the family rules clearly forbid using them to hurt people unprovoked."

"Oh," Si Ming said, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the fierce fight. He saw Fifth Uncle of the Yuezheng Lineage raise the xiao and blow into it as he faced his master, forming an invisible wall of Qi before him. His master's long-snake formation of Sword Qi was stopped dead, unable to break through. Wave after wave of Sword Qi surged forward, only to be shattered into spray.

"Amazing!"

Si Ming had barely finished exclaiming when he felt a pain in his arm. Yuezheng Qiong had pinched him. Enduring the pain, he said, "What was that for?"

"I just mentioned the Twelve Immortal Pitch-Pipe Instruments. According to the rules, you should have asked me what they are. Otherwise, wouldn't I be terribly embarrassed?"

Si Ming wondered what kind of thing that was to be embarrassed about. Wasn't explaining things supposed to be left to the narrator, who had the power to stop time?

But one look at her posture, which said she would keep teaching him a lesson if he dared not cooperate, made him give in. "What are the Twelve Immortal Pitch-Pipe Instruments?"

Yuezheng Qiong nodded in satisfaction and explained, "The twelve pitch pipes are Yellow Bell, Dalu, Taicu, Jiazhong, Cleansing of the Old, Zhonglu, Ruibin, Linzhong, Yize, Nanlu, Wuyi, and Yingzhong. Each pitch pipe corresponds to an instrument. Our Yuezheng Lineage possesses the three instruments of Yellow Bell, Taicu, and Cleansing of the Old, and our lineage's ultimate techniques are closely connected to them. For example, the Guxi Spirit-Shaking Finger I used earlier was comprehended from the Guxi Shao Bone Xiao by one of our ancestors."

Yuezheng Qiong clearly didn't have the power to stop time. While she was explaining, the battle had changed. Yan Jinghong had been unable to break through his opponent's defense, and after his attack failed, his momentum began to ebb. Fifth Uncle seized the opening to counterattack. The sound of his xiao suddenly turned shrill, and the sound waves seemed to condense into a giant hammer that blasted forth.

Yan Jinghong struck out with his left palm, meeting the shock wave head-on and shattering it. He then used the force to retreat, gathering his power for an explosive strike.

Naturally, Fifth Uncle wouldn't let his opponent have his way. He played a bleak, desolate, and intensely sorrowful melody on the Guxi Shao Bone Xiao. In an instant, spiritual power spread outward and joined with True Essence to form countless flower petals, which swept toward Yan Jinghong like a storm.

Yuezheng Qiong frowned. "That's Flower Burial Lament. As expected of a Spirit Transformation expert, he can actually turn the insubstantial back into the substantial... The song originally told of a young woman who refused to be humiliated and defiled, unwilling to bow her head and submit, and would rather hold fast to the end: 'When spring at last is spent and beauty fades, flowers fall and people die, each unaware of the other.' I thought only a woman could play the true essence of this piece, but Fifth Uncle has turned the pursuit of love into devotion to his ambitions and still reached the realm of stirring emotions through music."

"But that alone won't be enough to do anything to my master," Si Ming said.

On the battlefield, Yan Jinghong unleashed his lightness skill. His figure flickered unpredictably, now to the left, now to the right, as though he were teleporting. To an ordinary observer, there would often seem to be five or six Yan Jinghongs at once, simply because the naked eye couldn't react fast enough to keep up with him. Though the petal storm was swift, howling and sweeping in every direction, it couldn't even touch the hem of his clothes.

"Our Dinghu Sect worships the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan. The saying 'the dragon departs from Dinghu' refers to the tale of the Yellow Emperor ascending to immortality on a dragon. Our sect's lightness skill, Dunjia Heavenly Movement, originates from the art of Dunjia, which Fenghou developed from the immortal arts taught by the Mysterious Maiden of the Nine Heavens. It takes Yi, Bing, and Ding of the ten heavenly stems as the three wonders, and Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui as the six instruments. The three wonders and six instruments are distributed among the nine palaces and governed by Jia; their auspicious and inauspicious influences are observed to determine what to seek and what to avoid. It is a technique that combines lightness skill with the changes of divinatory mathematics."

The basic martial arts Si Ming had learned from the Dinghu Sect included an introduction to related advanced martial arts. Dunjia Heavenly Movement was the sort of technique a mathematical idiot could never learn, and the heights one could reach in it were closely tied to one's mental calculation ability.

Although Yan Jinghong was a Spirit Transformation expert, his talent in this area was only above average, and he too had failed to master it completely. However, he had drawn on other martial arts of the Mohist School, applying insights from one field to another to develop a Dunjia Heavenly Movement uniquely his own. Its effects and those of the original each had their strengths.

Seeing that he couldn't catch up, Fifth Uncle, who had anticipated this, wasn't discouraged. He subtly changed the sound of his xiao, and the petal storm ceased clustering together and spread outward instead. Though this weakened its killing power, it also increased the area it covered. It was the perfect method for countering an expert in lightness skill.

However fast Yan Jinghong's movement technique was, he couldn't avoid being attacked unless he escaped the area covered by the storm. But if he truly fled outward and got too far away, Fifth Uncle might take the chance to slip off. Thus, he could only use his sword technique to protect his entire body, blocking the rain of petals that looked mournfully beautiful but could easily shatter boulders.

Every petal that struck the sword produced the sound of metal and stone clashing. The force behind the blows was so great that the sound made listeners' scalps tingle.

A streak of sword light moved around Yan Jinghong's body. It wasn't particularly fast, yet it managed to block wave after wave of the petal storm, guarding him so tightly that not even a drop of water could get through.

Yuezheng Qiong asked, "What sword technique is that?"

Si Ming wore a strange expression as he answered, "The Non-Aggression Sword Technique. It's a basic martial art of the Mohist School, a sword technique even elementary school students can learn."

He recalled how Qiao Feng had used a common set of Taizu Long Fist to suppress Shaolin's ultimate techniques in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. He hadn't expected to see a repeat of it today.

Hearing this, Yuezheng Qiong couldn't help showing her surprise too. Flower Burial Lament was on the level of a Lineage's ultimate techniques, and one needed at least a seventh-level internal cultivation technique to attempt to learn it. In terms of education, that was college-student level, yet now a college student couldn't beat an elementary school student.