Jumping into the Well

Dong Tianze's slaughter continued.

Clutching the Dragon-Patterned Spear, Pang Jian watched his every move from below the mountain, calmly searching for even the slightest opening.

The sight of the Su and He families' attendants being brutally murdered had no effect on Pang Jian whatsoever. His heart was as cold and hard as stone.

At that moment, he was thinking about how to strike back effectively while keeping himself alive when he faced Dong Tianze.

Dong Tianze was clearly skilled in some kind of swift movement technique. He darted about like lightning, his movements ghostlike and dazzlingly fast.

Fighting him in open ground would render their numerical advantage useless. He could pick them off one by one.

They had to confine him to a narrow space!

"You two, watch out!"

Just as Pang Jian was thinking things through, Zhou Qingchen suddenly turned around and shouted, "I'll deal with Dong Tianze after all!"

A gleaming long saber suddenly flashed out from the silver ring beneath his sleeve. Gripping it, Zhou Qingchen charged straight toward the low mountain!

The saber's blade was not sharp, and it had quite a few chips in it, yet in Zhou Qingchen's hands, it gave him a weighty presence like a towering mountain.

"A long saber forged from cold iron. Like black gold, cold iron is also a high-grade metal."

Luo Hongyan offered her assessment. Watching Zhou Qingchen charge forward with the saber, she looked surprised and said, "He has a spiritual artifact capable of storing things. In the Fourth Realm, there should be very few people who possess storage artifacts."

After a brief pause, she continued, "Dong Tianze doesn't want to face Zhou Qingchen first because Zhou Qingchen, like him, has entered the Xisui Realm."

"He's worried that while he's locked in a struggle with Zhou Qingchen, the rest of us and Han Duping will join forces and attack him from a distance."

"So he avoided Zhou Qingchen at first and used his swift movement technique to hunt down the weakest among us!"

Luo Hongyan had long since seen through Dong Tianze's intentions. Her crystalline lips curled slightly as she said, "You provoked him with the Bamboo Flute so we could deal with him first, didn't you? As long as we keep him tied down, with Han Duping supporting us from afar, he'll have a hard time escaping the whirlpool."

"But he actually regained his composure by biting that woman. He didn't impulsively do anything stupid."

The calmest person on the field, Luo Hongyan watched the fight and commented as she went. She thought she had seen through Pang Jian's intentions.

Seeing Pang Jian remain silent, she suddenly raised her brows and chuckled. "You look cold and aloof most of the time, like you can't be bothered with anyone. I didn't expect you to be so brazen at heart."

"I didn't think that much about it. I just can't stand the sight of him," Pang Jian said.

According to Dong Tianze, everyone who obtained a drop of Phoenix Marrow would eventually make their way to Lake Heart Island and fight him to the death.

Pang Jian had obtained more than one drop of Phoenix Marrow.

Since one of them was bound to die, of course he would rack his brains to figure out how to eliminate the threat Dong Tianze posed.

He would find a way to kill anyone who might threaten his life, doing his best to leave no trouble behind.

Before long, he saw that Zhou Qingchen was much slower than Dong Tianze.

When they reached the low mountain, Zhou Qingchen tore the Heart-Protecting Mirror from his chest and threw it toward Han Duping. "Old Han, keep it to save your own life!"

Only then did he charge at Dong Tianze.

At that moment, Dong Tianze was fighting Su Yuntian and He Rong alone, barehanded and covered in blood.

Ghost Chant, the Black Gold Dagger, howled through the air like the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda, capturing ghosts and spirits—including one Spirit Sha after another.

The more powerful ghosts and spirits Ghost Chant captured, the greater the power it wielded.

Seeing Zhou Qingchen approach with a presence as imposing as a mountain, Dong Tianze grinned maliciously. Ghost Chant let out a sharp whistling sound and plunged down from midair, flying straight above Zhou Qingchen's head.

Many of the ghosts and spirits that Ghost Chant had drawn into the holes in its blade now flew out of them. They surrounded Zhou Qingchen in a tight ring, like a Mystic Turtle encircled by its shell.

Trapped in a quagmire of ghosts, Zhou Qingchen's eyes revealed pain and struggle as he desperately resisted their attempts to invade his soul.

"Looks like Dong Tianze avoided Zhou Qingchen at first so he could use Ghost Chant to gather ghosts. The more ghosts he draws together, the more powerful the artifact becomes."

Luo Hongyan watched in silence, her gaze fixed on the sky as she sensed the power Ghost Chant unleashed.

"You don't need to worry too much. Zhou Qingchen isn't helpless; he should be able to hold on. After all, Ghost Chant isn't the Soul Array inside the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda. It's not that frightening."

As she spoke, she grabbed Pang Jian and pulled him toward the Pit Well.

"Zhou Qingchen won't be in danger for a while. Dong Tianze is only using that artifact to hold him back so he can kill someone else."

She had roughly judged the true power of Ghost Chant.

Pang Jian had been facing the low mountain, but Luo Hongyan suddenly pulled him around. He turned his head and saw a familiar Spirit Sha drifting toward the Pit Well.

"Luo Meng!"

Sobbing, Shangguan Qin also saw Luo Meng reappear as a Spirit Sha. She wept and called out, "Luo Meng! You came to save me, didn't you?"

Spirit Sha Luo Meng paid her no heed. He went straight into the well Dong Tianze had left and vanished in an instant.

Shangguan Qin stared blankly, her face covered in blood, as though she couldn't accept that Luo Meng, who had always obeyed her in everything, was ignoring her too.

A moment later, she suddenly shrieked like a madwoman. "You heartless dog of a man! Now that I've lost my beauty, even you've abandoned me! Yes, I'm ugly and hideous now. You've started to despise me too..."

She cupped her face, but caught sight of blood seeping between her fingers. In a panic, she covered her entire face.

She buried her head in the grass and sobbed miserably, too afraid to look anyone in the eye again.

"Luo Meng has been dead for a long time. And Ouyang Duanhai—the man you've always thought about and longed to see again—is dead too. He died in Blackwater Pool."

Luo Hongyan approached at an unhurried pace. She had meant to twist the knife and add a few more cutting remarks, but when she saw Shangguan Qin was about to go mad, she stopped.

Hearing that even Ouyang Duanhai was dead, Shangguan Qin's last hope crumbled. She lay in the grass as if her soul had left her, murmuring over and over, "Yes, I deserve this. It's all my fault. I killed my Duanhai. Duan, I wronged you all your life. I'm so sorry..."

In her heart, Ouyang Duanhai—though they had never been husband and wife in name, they had been so in fact—was the only man she had ever loved.

"The Demoness who appeared in the stone pile is on the island too!" Pang Jian warned.

Luo Hongyan stopped and shot him a look. "Wouldn't that make things even better? Dong Tianze is so difficult to deal with that Zhou Qingchen alone might not be able to stop him. With that woman stirring things up, our odds will improve."

"No. The Demoness can control Spirit Sha. I think she's even more difficult to deal with than Dong Tianze," Pang Jian said seriously.

Luo Hongyan was already fuming at the way he kept calling her "Demoness." She said coldly, "She hasn't killed you, and she hasn't killed your friends either. Don't go around calling her a Demoness just because everyone else does!"

Pang Jian was completely baffled.

Zhou Qingchen called her that, and so did Han Duping. Why couldn't he?

"There's Black Tortoise Essence Blood in the well."

Before Pang Jian could think it over, Luo Hongyan pulled him up to the Pit Well and spoke again. "The Mystic Turtle died after the Phoenix Bone pierced its heart. The Phoenix Marrow formed from the Mystic Turtle's flesh and blood must have been taken by Dong Tianze."

"The Mystic Turtle was far more powerful than the Dark Giant Python in Blackwater Pool. A single drop of Phoenix Marrow wouldn't use up all its flesh and blood essence."

"Dong Tianze used the remaining Black Tortoise Essence Blood to temper his bones and cleanse his marrow in the Xisui Realm."

Through Luo Meng, who had gone down into the well, Luo Hongyan had already seen what lay at the bottom. She immediately told Pang Jian.

"The Mystic Turtle? So the giant python in Blackwater Pool was called the Dark Giant Python..." Pang Jian paused, then asked, "Was that what appeared in the sky just now?"

"Mm. That was the Mystic Turtle's beast soul!"

Luo Hongyan nodded and continued, "In fact, all of Lake Heart Island is the Mystic Turtle's back! If you dive deep enough, you'll see the Mystic Turtle standing on all fours, carrying this island on its back."

Pang Jian was aghast. "The Mystic Turtle is that huge?"

"This Mystic Turtle was actually quite small. It only carried an island of this modest size, turning it into a blessed land."

Luo Hongyan knew the details. She gazed at the dark, gloomy sky and sighed. "They say there's a gigantic Mystic Turtle carrying a landmass as large as North Qi on its back, roaming through the three worlds above."

"The spiritual energy on the land atop that Mystic Turtle's back is incredibly dense. It's a spiritual paradise fit for founding a sect."

"Countless powerful people who want to establish sects have secretly searched for that Mystic Turtle, hoping to tame it and build their sect's sacred grounds on the land it carries."

Pang Jian was even more astonished.

He had spent his whole life around the Cenji Mountains and Linshan Town. He had never even left the continent beneath his feet, the one called North Qi.

It was hard for him to imagine a Mystic Turtle capable of carrying such a vast world as it roamed through the three worlds above.

"Dong Tianze is different from Ouyang Duanhai. They both obtained a drop of Phoenix Marrow, but Ouyang Duanhai was consumed by it, while Dong Tianze has kept his own mind. That means he refined the Phoenix Marrow. As one of the Heavenly Phoenix Divine Guards, Dong Tianze is far more frightening!"

Luo Hongyan watched Dong Tianze kill He Rong and Su Yuntian with his bare hands, and a trace of worry showed on her face.

He Rong had always harbored a subtle hostility toward her, and she could sense it, but she naturally didn't care.

The deaths of He Rong and Su Yuntian stirred no ripples in her heart. They had been exactly what she'd expected.

She simply hadn't thought it would happen so soon.

As Su Meng cried, Han Duping activated the Heart-Protecting Mirror Zhou Qingchen had thrown him. A towering red mountain appeared, hovering above him and Su Meng.

The mountain that symbolized Red Mountain released a deep red glow, enveloping the two of them.

Dong Tianze had smashed He Rong's eye socket. Wiping the blood from his fists on He Rong's clothes, he stood and walked toward Han Duping and Su Meng.

Han Duping hurriedly wrapped himself back into a silver sphere and called to Su Meng from inside. "Girl, you and I are both in the Pulse-Opening Realm. I can't protect you. In a moment, I'm going to roll down the mountain. I can't do much for you."

Zhou Qingchen's Heart-Protecting Mirror was in his hands. Wherever he rolled, the red mountain that protected him would follow.

With the red mountain floating overhead, it could block some attacks created by spiritual power. And curled up like a spiky ball, he could also fend off Dong Tianze, who no longer had Ghost Chant in hand.

He said all this to warn Su Meng to flee down the mountain with him when the time came, so the red mountain could protect her too.

Su Meng had just watched her father be brutally killed. She didn't care what he said; because of Su Yuntian's death, she even looked ready to rush out from beneath the red mountain's protection.

Han Duping stuck a hand out of the sphere and grabbed her, shouting angrily, "Are you trying to get yourself killed even faster?"

"Pang Jian, aren't you going to save her?"

After telling him what lay at the bottom of the well, Luo Hongyan glanced at the young man beside her with a strange look. "That little girl is pretty cute, and she hasn't been annoying during the journey. Dong Tianze is about to kill her. You're not going to give her a hand?"

Pang Jian didn't answer. Instead, he suddenly leaped into the Pit Well Dong Tianze had emerged from.

Luo Hongyan froze on the spot.

Meanwhile, Dong Tianze had been walking toward Su Meng and Han Duping, but suddenly stopped!

He had been closely watching the situation across the island, and noticed Pang Jian's sudden leap into the well at once.

His expression shifted unpredictably. He looked at Han Duping, who had turned himself into a silver sphere, the deep red mountain suspended in the air, and Zhou Qingchen, who was temporarily restrained by Ghost Chant.

After a fierce inner struggle, he snarled, "You little brat, still asking for death after all those times!"

"Whoosh!"

He stomped and shot into the air, diving from the low mountain toward the Pit Well below like a hawk swooping on its prey.

He didn't even glance at Luo Hongyan by the well or Shangguan Qin, who had been left in a daze.

In his eyes, the two women were insignificant nobodies. He could kill them sooner or later; it wouldn't take much time either way.

"Damn you, you little bastard!"

Luo Hongyan acted as though she hadn't noticed Dong Tianze speeding toward her. Still fuming, she went closer to the well and shouted down, "You keep provoking him. Do you realize you could get me killed too?"

"I wanted you to come down as well," Pang Jian called from below.

"Wanted me to come down too? Who told you I planned to risk my life fighting him? What do I care whether the Su and He families live or die, or whether that kid Zhou lives or dies?"

Cursing all the while, Luo Hongyan drifted aside and didn't try to stop Dong Tianze from jumping into the well.

"Boom!"

Dong Tianze jumped into the well just like Pang Jian, but struck something below as hard as iron. He was sent flying back out, his head spinning.