Kui Sound Breaks the Melody

No matter how astonished everyone else was, Yan Jinghong held off the assault with his evasive movements and the Non-Aggression Sword Technique. However fiercely the storm of petals raged, he stood firm as a reef.

Fifth Uncle showed no trace of anxiety. He continued to besiege his opponent with Flower Burial Lament, using true essence to conjure fresh petals as he patiently waited for an opening, even though he was bound to exhaust his true essence first if the stalemate dragged on.

Though Yan Jinghong kept dodging with his movement technique, he was pinned down and could no longer move as freely as before. Layer after layer of petals closed around him, and his figure soon grew indistinct. The sounds of sword and flowers clashing came ever faster. From a distance, the hazy scene looked like a magical girl transforming.

Suddenly, an exceptionally piercing sound rang out from within the storm. It was the sound of a sword shattering!

Fifth Uncle's gaze sharpened. This was the moment he had been waiting for. Sonic force relied primarily on vibration and was especially adept at destroying the structure of matter. The sword in Yan Jinghong's hand was no divine weapon, so its destruction was only to be expected. Fifth Uncle immediately pushed his power to the limit, driving the petals forward to shred him.

The sudden turn of events left everyone with no time to intervene. Si Ming and Yuezheng Qiong, who were acting as commentators, had not even managed to react.

Just then, a tremendous presence erupted from Yan Jinghong. He flung the fragments of his sword blade outward, sweeping aside every petal besieging him and clearing a safe space. Then he held two fingers together as a sword, and the Sword Qi and primordial power he had secretly accumulated while defending poured forth like a flood breaking through a dam.

"A single sword's cold light shines across the nine continents!"

Radiant Sword Qi swept across the battlefield, cleaving the storm of petals in two and slashing with unstoppable force toward Fifth Uncle, whose expression changed abruptly.

Chapter 36: Kui Sound Breaks the Melody

With a clang, Fifth Uncle deflected the radiant Sword Qi into the sky, but its sharp residual force still slashed across his chest, leaving a long sword wound that sent blood spraying. For a Spirit Transformation expert, however, such an external injury was insignificant, not enough to affect his fighting strength.

Fifth Uncle had blocked Yan Jinghong's ultimate move by using the Guxi Shao Bone Xiao as a shield, but the price was a fine crack in the instrument.

Although the Guxi Shao Bone Xiao was a divine artifact, it was clearly ill-suited for combat and could not be compared to weapons such as sabers, swords, and spears.

"He actually used the Guxi Shao Bone Xiao to block an ultimate move!" Yuezheng Qiong was so furious that her hair bristled and her eyes seemed ready to split. "Burning a zither to cook a crane—he doesn't deserve the Yuezheng name! No wonder the family head never considered letting Fifth Uncle inherit his position. He must have seen through Fifth Uncle's true nature long ago and known he had no awareness at all of what it meant to be a disciple of the Music School. I'm afraid that, in his eyes, the Guxi Shao Bone Xiao is no different from those divine sabers and demonic swords, all just tools for increasing his own martial strength."

After unleashing his ultimate move, Yan Jinghong's momentum plunged like a roller coaster. Fifth Uncle would naturally not let such an opportunity pass, but after glancing at the crack in the bone xiao, he showed a flicker of struggle. In the end, he put the instrument back in his sleeve without using it again. Instead, he raised one hand level with his chin, fingers loosely curled as though holding something, and placed his other hand against his chest, lightly plucking with all five fingers as if he held an invisible pipa.

As his true essence circulated, a stirring melody arose from thin air, though there was no instrument. Before everyone's eyes, a scene seemed to appear of two armies locked in a life-and-death struggle. Hoofbeats, the clash of blades and spears, and battle cries rose and fell together, shaking heaven and earth and threatening to send roof tiles flying. It was deeply stirring.

Yuezheng Qiong said tensely, "It's Ambush from Ten Sides, the piece most suited to killing!"

The power of intent spread once more. With Fifth Uncle at the center, countless weapons materialized out of thin air: sabers, spears, swords, and halberds; axes, poleaxes, hooks, and forks; whips, maces, hammers, and clawed clubs; tridents, cudgels, cavalry lances, and staffs... They rained down on Yan Jinghong like a volley of arrows loosed by a million-strong army.

Si Ming murmured, "Why does this look so familiar? I feel like I've seen it somewhere before."

Every weapon that struck its target erupted in a shock wave. Tens of thousands of weapons struck one after another, creating a scene like an attack by a fleet of bombers. In an instant, the explosions completely swallowed Yan Jinghong's figure.

Yuezheng Qiong asked worriedly, "Will Senior Yan be all right? His sword is gone. Can he withstand this wave of attacks?"

"I don't know. A battle at this level is far beyond my abilities... but he should be fine. He hasn't even put on his Cloth yet."

The so-called Cloth was, of course, the Mohist School's Profound Armor. In Si Ming's view, since his master had not activated it, that proved he was confident of defeating his opponent-unless he was a stripping maniac like Shiryu.

Si Ming was, after all, not of this world. Though he aspired to become a martial arts grandmaster, his values were still those of a modern man from his previous life. In his view, it did not matter what tools one used as long as one could defeat the opponent. The Mohist School's Profound Armor was a weapon like any saber or sword; only underhanded tactics such as taking hostages violated the spirit of fair combat.

For Yan Jinghong, however, using the Mohist School's Profound Armor in this battle was out of the question. It was fundamentally different from using a saber or sword. If his skills fell short and he was defeated, he would simply honor his promise and watch his opponent leave. He would never persist shamelessly, shouting things like, "There's no need to observe the rules of the martial world against an evil demon of the Outer Dao. Everyone, get him!" This was a matter of respecting both his opponent and himself.

Only when hunting down utterly heinous criminals would he use any means necessary, gather a great crowd of people, or even draw on the power of the state to pursue them to the ends of the earth.

But Yan Jinghong had not been overestimating himself in this battle. Victory really was firmly in his grasp.

"The art of melody is ill-suited to killing after all."

Through the relentless bombardment of sonic weapons, Yan Jinghong's voice came through clearly, making Fifth Uncle's expression change. Before he could react, a drumbeat like a thunderclap rang out from the spreading dust.

The drumbeat shook heaven and earth, making even the surrounding space seem to jump. His physical shell might almost not have existed; Si Ming felt as though his three souls and seven spirits were about to burst out of his head and melt away beneath the sunlight. And he had only been caught in the residual force.

Fifth Uncle, the main target of the attack, could not help but shudder. The true essence in his body surged wildly backward, throwing the pipa melody into disarray and bringing Ambush from Ten Sides to an abrupt halt.

Kui Drum Thunder Sound!

Legend spoke of a strange beast that resembled an ox, was gray all over, and had only one leg. Every appearance was accompanied by raging wind and torrential rain. Its body shone with light like that of the sun and moon, and its roar rang like thunder. Its name was Kui.

The Yellow Emperor made a drum from its hide and drumsticks from its bones. Whenever the drum was struck, its sound rang out for five hundred li, terrifying enemy soldiers and cowing all under heaven.

This was a sonic art truly meant for martial combat. Unlike a melody such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Kui Drum Thunder Sound had no tune. It was simply a single boom. Yet this simple, brute-force method was perfectly suited to disrupting an enemy's rhythm, and was especially effective against the melodic arts of Music School disciples, like a common soldier beating up a pedantic scholar.

Fifth Uncle forcibly suppressed the rampaging true essence inside him and tried to continue playing the melody, but Yan Jinghong unleashed another Kui Drum Thunder Sound. It struck him like a thunderbolt, aggravating his previous injury as well. The wound on his chest split open, blood splashed, and he staggered back three steps, his momentum utterly spent.

When he raised his head, he saw that Yan Jinghong's sword fingers were already right in front of him. The condensed sword light was less than an inch from the spot between his brows.

"You've lost," Yan Jinghong said.

Fifth Uncle stood rigid for a moment. At last, he sighed, dispersed his true essence, and ceased resisting.

"Since you pursue the martial Dao, you should understand that the Yuezheng Lineage's supreme arts are unsuited to combat. The essence of music is to entertain people and provide spiritual enjoyment, not to kill. With your Spirit Transformation cultivation, you could easily join another school and cultivate a true martial art. Your strength would surely far surpass what it is now." Yan Jinghong paused, then asked, "Are you still unable to let go of your identity as a member of the Yuezheng Lineage, or are you trying to prove something to someone?"

"...The victor becomes king, the loser an outlaw. I have nothing to say."

Yan Jinghong did not press him further. After reaching out and planting a strand of true essence in his body, he had Pan De and Jiang Zhengtai take him away under guard.

Before Fifth Uncle left, he flicked his sleeve and tossed the Guxi Shao Bone Xiao to Yuezheng Qiong. Without a word, he turned and departed.

Yuezheng Qiong looked down and saw crimson blood flowing along the crack in the xiao. Though there was only a trace, it contained powerful vitality that slowly nourished the Guxi Shao Bone Xiao. It was blood from the heart of a Spirit Transformation expert, which could be used to restore a divine artifact's spirituality.

"Fifth Uncle... ah!"

Yuezheng Qiong looked up at his departing back, a complicated expression on her face. She started to speak but stopped, and in the end it all became a sigh.

Yan Jinghong picked up his sword case, slung it over his back, and came before Si Ming. "You did well in this incident," he said approvingly. "You didn't shrink back when the time came, your judgment was sound, and you showed both courage and resourcefulness."

Si Ming pondered. Could this have been another stage of the test?

The earlier acceptance of a disciple had indeed seemed too hasty to him. A dignified Spirit Transformation expert had taken on a senior disciple after a single meeting; however one looked at it, that was a little hard to justify. So Yan Jinghong had added this stage. If Si Ming had failed to measure up, he probably would not have been cast out, but nine times out of ten he would not have inherited his master's true legacy. It was probably the difference between a legitimate son and an adopted son.

Of course, this was all Si Ming's speculation. As for what Yan Jinghong was really thinking, he did not know. After all, judging by this operation, the cooperation with the Yuezheng Lineage had probably been established long ago, rather than initiated after Yan Jinghong met him. This scheme had not lacked a role for him.