As that voice rang out, Cai Tongchen, who had been standing behind Wei Yan, began walking forward step by step. His face and body gradually changed. By the time he reached Wei Yan's side, he had become another person—a thin, gaunt man with a hideous scar covering half his face, as if it had been burned by fire.
"Half-Faced Great Scholar, Su Liancheng!" Ji Zhong sucked in a breath. "He actually came!"
Chen Luo understood at once. This Half-Faced Great Scholar must have been Wei Yan's hidden trump card. With two Great Scholars joining forces, today's matter should be coming to an end.
"Su Liancheng, it was actually you." Granny Rong, who had already transformed into a young married woman in the flower-trusting years, paled slightly.
Su Liancheng ignored her completely and merely turned his head toward Wei Yan. "Brother Wei, focus on driving out the Gu worms. These two aren't getting away!"
Wei Yan nodded. "I'm ashamed to trouble you. I'll leave what comes next to you, Brother Su..." With that, he sat cross-legged. The azure light on his body flickered erratically, clearly indicating that he had begun mobilizing his Righteous Qi to drive out the Gu worms.
Granny Rong quickly considered the situation, grabbed the Confucian scholar, and lightly beat the three pairs of insect wings behind her. The space around them twisted once more, swallowing the two of them. In the blink of an eye, they vanished from the square.
"Um... I think they got away..." Chen Luo spoke up.
Su Liancheng glanced at Chen Luo and gave a slight shake of his head. He slowly extended his right hand forward, palm facing up and the back of his hand facing down.
The universe in his hand, overturned at will!
Su Liancheng suddenly flipped his palm. Chen Luo felt as if Heaven and Earth had trembled for a moment. The space where Granny Rong and the Confucian scholar had disappeared twisted once more, and the two figures emerged from it, as though everything had been played backward.
Great Scholar Divine Ability: Heaven and Earth Overturned.
"I told you, you aren't getting away." Su Liancheng spoke calmly.
Granny Rong took a slight step back and transmitted to the Confucian scholar, "Miss, this old woman miscalculated. I thought the other one was a Great Scholar of the Fourth Mountain and Sea Realm, just like Wei Yan. I never expected him to be Su Liancheng! I will hold Su Liancheng off shortly. Miss, you can leave on your own."
The Confucian scholar shook his head slightly. "It's nothing more than using the art of Home, Country, and World to envelop this area. Granny, prepare to cast the Thousand Mile Wormhole. I'll hold him back."
Their telepathic exchange seemed unable to escape Su Liancheng's notice. He frowned slightly. "Little girl, what a bold tone. If you have such great ability, why hide your face?"
"Scatter!"
Su Liancheng spat out a single word. A layer of glass-like armor seemed to cover the Confucian scholar's body, then shattered apart with Su Liancheng's word "scatter." When everyone looked again, the person standing behind the young married woman was no longer the Confucian scholar in azure robes, but someone else—a woman in a large black cloak, wearing a mask that covered the lower half of her face from the nose down. Judging by her figure, she truly was a woman.
"This humble one is Lian Ai. Greetings, Mr. Su, the Half-Faced Great Scholar." The other party gave a curtsy. "My servant and I came only for this literary heart. We have not harmed a single person. I ask that you let us leave, and we can consider this matter settled. How about it?"
"Absurd!" Su Liancheng gave a cold laugh. "The secrets on the two of you are far too numerous. You will both come with me to the Central Capital Heavenly Prison!"
After Su Liancheng finished speaking, the phantom image of a bamboo scroll appeared behind him. The phantom solidified, and two bamboo slips detached from the scroll, shooting toward Lian Ai and the young married woman like sharp swords.
Lian Ai shouted, "Granny, now!"
At the same time, a streak of light flew from Lian Ai's wide sleeve. She caught it, revealing it to be a scroll. When Lian Ai unfurled it, a mighty pressure poured forth. The two incoming bamboo slips sank into that pressure, melting and vanishing in an instant like snow meeting a red-hot iron. At the same time, the bamboo scroll behind Su Liancheng nearly vanished as well.
Su Liancheng's gaze grew solemn as he looked at the scroll in Lian Ai's hand. "Emperor Lin's Martial Book? How do you have..."
Before he could finish, Lian Ai cut him off with a shout. "By Emperor Lin's decree, bind the Great Scholar Su Liancheng!"
As Lian Ai's voice fell, the eight trigrams—"Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, Kun"—appeared around Su Liancheng. They rapidly revolved around him, and the light they emitted formed a ring that locked Su Liancheng inside.
Seeing this, Wei Yan was about to rise, but Lian Ai called out, "Granny!" Granny Rong, who was constructing the wormhole, pulled a dagger from her bosom and swiftly plunged it into her own left chest. The Gu worms inside Wei Yan seemed to have received some kind of stimulation and began gnawing at his body even more violently. Wei Yan could not keep his balance and collapsed back down.
Su Liancheng looked toward Wei Yan. "Don't be anxious, Brother Wei. This seal guards both inside and out, so they cannot attack me. Besides, this is not the true Martial Book, but merely a counterfeit. I can break it in a few breaths..."
At almost the same moment, Lian Ai, still holding the scroll, turned toward Granny Rong. "How much longer?"
"Miss, hold on! Ten more breaths!"
At that moment, cracks began to appear in the scroll held by Lian Ai.
From the very beginning of the battle, the spectator stand had been enveloped in white light—the protection of the Confucian Temple's fortune. Everyone on the stand watched the fierce battle in the square with unbearable tension.
At this point, Ji Zhong walked up to Chen Luo. "Young Master, I'm going to help the Great Scholar. Take care of yourself!"
Chen Luo grabbed Ji Zhong and said in a low voice, "You're only in the Poem Creation Realm. Going over there would just be sending yourself to the chopping block, wouldn't it?"
"Confucius said, 'Achieve benevolence through death.' Mencius said, 'Embrace righteousness.' Only when righteousness is fulfilled can benevolence be attained," Ji Zhong said.
Good grief, was he planning to fight to the death?
If it was only one strike—if it merely bought them some time—he should be able to do it!
Chen Luo took a step forward and stood beside Ji Zhong. "Listen to me. We'll do it this way..."
"Miss, five more breaths!" Granny Rong shouted.
Lian Ai nodded. Suddenly, a loud cry rang beside her ear—
"Charge!"
The moon was dark, the swallows flew high,
The Barbarian King fled through the night.
We would pursue them with Light Cavalry,
Till snow lay thick upon our bows and blades.
Lian Ai turned her head and saw ten Battle Poem Light Cavalry forming ranks and charging toward her.
"Overestimating yourselves!" Lian Ai exhaled toward the Light Cavalry. The breath she blew from her mouth swiftly transformed into something like icy mist. On closer inspection, the glittering things within the mist were not ice crystals, but tiny insects.
The icy mist formed by those tiny insects swept across the Light Cavalry. The cavalry seemed to have encountered blades of ice and swords of snow. One after another, they fell and dissipated. Only when the last knight collapsed ten meters from Lian Ai did Ji Zhong's figure suddenly appear, pouncing toward her.
"Nine Swords of Dugu—Qi Breaking Style!"
Ji Zhong did not attack with Righteous Qi again. Instead, he unleashed the Nine Swords of Dugu he had just comprehended. Lian Ai frowned slightly, unable to understand why a master of the Poem Creation Realm would abandon the attack method of Righteous Qi and use this kind of ordinary person's brawling technique instead.
That, however, did not affect Lian Ai's movements. With a thought, a golden insect flew from her sleeve and collided head-on with Ji Zhong's long sword. The sword shattered, Ji Zhong vomited blood, and his body flew backward.
What Lian Ai could never have expected was that behind Ji Zhong, another figure had already drawn near her. His right hand held a long sword angled downward, while the fingers of his left hand kept curling. Under the joint cover of the Battle Poem Light Cavalry, Ji Zhong, and Zhong Kui, he was already close enough to strike...
Ji Zhong's figure flew backward and brushed past Chen Luo. Chen Luo suddenly clenched his left hand into a fist, seizing that fleeting opening—
"How is Tai Shan?"
The long sword roared like a dragon, avoiding the Gu worms Lian Ai released again in her shock, and stabbed straight toward her throat. Lian Ai could not react in time and tried to retreat, but the sword-light clung to her like a bone-eating maggot, pursuing her relentlessly.
"Faster, a little faster..." Chen Luo shouted inwardly, unaware that, following his will, a thread of the Red Dust Qi that had always remained within his body quietly emerged and coiled around the sword tip.
A wisp of Red Dust Qi flicked forward like a snake's tongue. Lian Ai felt a pain in her throat, and the Red Dust Sword Qi had already pierced the skin there. At that moment, the half-mask she had worn all along suddenly shattered, and golden light erupted. Within that radiance, Chen Luo felt an immense force resisting the sword in his hand. The long sword shattered, and Chen Luo staggered back several steps.
The killing blow had failed!
Lian Ai seized her cloak with one hand and covered the face no longer shielded by the mask. She glared at Chen Luo, who had just dealt her a lethal strike. She had never imagined that on her first trip outside, the one to make her feel the crisis of death would not be a Great Scholar, but an ordinary person who seemed to possess no "qi" at all.
"That was reckless! So much for the promised guaranteed kill through karma!" Chen Luo sighed inwardly. He had calculated everything, but not the function of that mask.
"You little thief, you're courting death..." Lian Ai said furiously. But at that moment, the literary heart she had kept hidden within her robes suddenly struggled free and flew out, transforming into a streak of azure light that shot toward Chen Luo.
In the blink of an eye, the azure light plunged straight into Chen Luo's body.
"Miss, it's done!" Granny Rong shouted.
Lian Ai glanced at the black hole before Granny Rong and shouted, "You go first!" With that, she charged toward Chen Luo.
In that instant, Chen Luo's mind was suddenly flooded with a vast amount of information, leaving him rooted to the spot. Lian Ai grabbed Chen Luo and flew toward the black hole.
Before anyone could react, Su Liancheng let out a low growl and struggled with all his might. The lock formed by the Eight Trigrams' light shattered into pieces. Su Liancheng raised his head and saw Lian Ai grabbing Chen Luo and flying toward the black hole.
"Sword!" Su Liancheng shouted in a low voice.
Ten years to hone a sword,
Its frosty edge has never been tried.
Today I draw it and show it to you—
Does some injustice remain?
A small sword flew from between Su Liancheng's brows. Su Liancheng hammered his chest, spat out a mouthful of vital blood, and let it fall onto the flying sword. The flying sword shot forth after the others but arrived first. Lian Ai seemed to sense it and thrust Chen Luo in front of her.
Wei Yan glared furiously. "Don't!"
Su Liancheng flicked his wrist. The small sword changed direction and shot toward the black hole. It glimmered faintly, seemingly on the verge of exploding. A look of resolve appeared in Lian Ai's eyes as she dragged Chen Luo into the black hole.
At the same time as Lian Ai and Chen Luo entered the black hole, the small sword exploded with a thunderous boom. The entire black hole seemed to be torn apart by countless rays of light, while Lian Ai and Chen Luo vanished within it...
There is no romance plot! No romance plot! No romance plot!
I won't pull any of that wuxia-novel nonsense where enemies turn into allies and get taken into a harem. There won't even be the slightest hint of ambiguity.
Everyone, rest easy and enjoy.
Before you continue