Body Fallen into Purgatory, Heart Struck by Calamity

The roar of bursting flames rang across the sky in an instant.

The firelight that suddenly flared seemed as if it meant to tear the entire deep night apart.

Under the sweep of such a wave of fire, the first to break down and flee in all directions were precisely the mountain folk who had been dancing the Shaman dance around the bonfire.

In an instant.

Along with the abrupt halt of the Shaman dance and the chaotic shadows of firelight overlapping.

That bewitching secret art that sent the mind into a trance vanished like smoke and scattered clouds at the same time.

Immediately after.

Bang—

The sound of the pottery bowl shattering was so crisp and grating even amid the continuous crackle of the flames.

Rich liquor splashed all over Jiang Xiuyong.

In that instant, Jiang Xiuyong froze there for a heartbeat.

It was as if only now had he awakened from the bewitching secret art.

Or as if, in this very instant, as Liu Dongqing made his decision, he had only just realized that their plan to win by wits could no longer be carried out at all.

Fortunately, Jiang Xiuyong's reaction was sharp enough as well.

The next moment.

Though he looked utterly bedraggled with liquor staining his body, Jiang Xiuyong abruptly rose, brought his hands together, formed a lotus Dharma seal, and, holding it upright before his chest, pushed it upward.

Even here upon Autumn Water Plateau, now wreathed in raging flames.

The black-red spiritual light that suddenly bloomed from Jiang Xiuyong's body seemed dazzling to an excessive degree.

At the same time, all around Jiang Xiuyong, great amounts of flame were immediately gathered and seized by him, like vine after vine rising from the ground to coil around his body.

In the end, at a glance, he seemed again like an octopus, madly waving those "tentacles" condensed from black-red fire.

He waited like that, arrayed for battle.

And Liu Dongqing, who had just erupted into motion, had also already walked out from the shadow screened by firelight. He stood far away in another direction, one to the left and one to the right with Jiang Xiuyong, completely enveloping the place where the Shamans had originally sat within the scope of their assault.

The next moment.

What answered these two martial brothers was a hoarse, tearing cry of a crow that suddenly rang out.

That cry was as grating as metal scraping against stone.

But what was likewise pierced through and torn apart was the deep azure sea of flames that Liu Dongqing had just spread over the place where the two Shamans stood.

The instant the firelight split in ranks, the old and young Shamans stumbled out from within the sea of fire in sorry shape.

Having suddenly suffered Liu Dongqing's sneak attack, their flames of arrogance were now blazing, and their cultivation realms had been exposed completely.

That aged Shaman indeed had cultivation a line higher; at this moment he revealed the mid-stage flames of a fourth-level Qi Refining cultivator, but his Qi itself had somewhat declined.

The same dark and heavy flame-glow curled around his side. The flames had almost condensed into a tangible form, transforming into a fire snake. Only now did thread after thread of muted hissing begin to appear and disappear amid the explosive crackle of flames across the whole Autumn Water Plateau.

And when one looked carefully, one of the old Shaman's arms was already hanging low. His clothes had long since burned away completely, revealing a body of charred black flesh and blood.

On the other side, the young Shaman, though his cultivation was only at the third level of Qi Refining, shackled within the early stage, had flames of arrogance blazing with exceptional sharpness.

That crow cry that had just torn apart the sea of fire was drawing in around his body.

The flames turned into a pair of illusory fire crows, fluttering and dancing over his shoulders.

The instant the four of them met one another's gazes.

Jiang Xiuyong was the first to make a decision.

Along with the swaying of the lotus Dharma seal condensed by his hands, in that instant, the flame vines around him became like long whips, carrying a whistling, humming sound as they tore through the air, and lashed violently toward the fire snake around the old man.

He had chosen the aged Shaman who seemed to have the highest realm, but was in truth easier to deal with.

And so, almost as if it were only natural.

Liu Dongqing thus paired off with that young Shaman and fought him in a vicious duel.

As it happened, it was quite the coincidence.

Whether it was the aged Shaman's fire snake or Jiang Xiuyong's long whips of smoke and fire vines, both contained dense flame Sha Qi; it was Ding Fire against Ding Fire.

On the other side, azure light overflowed and fire crows wheeled and fluttered, yet both just so happened to be the aspect of flames soaring into the air; it was Bing Fire against Bing Fire.

The instant they had just exchanged blows, joy arose in Liu Dongqing's heart because of this.

Because this match in battle meant that his own inheritance now had a destination.

And likewise.

He himself occupied the Bing Fire Path, while Jiang Xiuyong occupied the Ding Fire Path. At least at a glance, the prospect was one in which each of them would gain something.

Only, right now, Liu Dongqing was rejoicing by himself, while from the side, Jiang Xiuyong, likewise trembling and trapped within the sea of fire, let out a harsh shout of questioning that sounded as if he had flown into a rage out of shame.

"Jiang asks himself that everything before this was done with all my heart and strength, and I revealed no flaw worth mentioning. Why, then, did I provoke such a reaction from the two of you!

"Hmph!

"If the lot of you had known what was good for you, and let the two of us take the mystic art inheritance by clever means before leaving it at that, my senior brother and I would not have been willing to grow extra branches outside the knot, and you people might have kept your lives because of it.

"And yet you just had to use evil arts to plot against me, Jiang.

"Now look. We'll be taking the inheritance, and your lives will stay behind in this sea of fire too!"

The moment his words fell, what answered Jiang Xiuyong was the aged Shaman's hoarse voice, like something that had crawled out of a ghost realm.

"If we had to wait until the flaw was obvious and the proof ironclad before the two of us reacted in any way...

"Then on this road of fleeing between death and life, the two of us should have died a thousand times, ten thousand times over!

"You two came personally to Autumn Water Plateau. That was your greatest flaw!

"What kind of tribe is this Red Crow Tribe of ours, exactly, that it would be worth the personal arrival of two disciples from a sacred land's great sect?

"Besides, young friend Jiang, the noble air about you is far too glaring!

"With such suspicion, no matter what the truth of the matter actually was, it was worth us treating it as if we had already been exposed and fighting back with our lives!

"A pity...

"This world seems not to favor cultivators of our Demon Refining Mystic Sect.

"We could not make even one of you pad our graves before we died.

"Fleeing all the way, disguising ourselves all the way, the foundations of our Daoist arts have long since fallen far too short of true great-sect disciples like you, raised in pampered comfort. If we went back a few years, you and I could still have fought to the death.

"But now...

"Yet even so, taking our lives is easy. But if you want to seize the wondrous arts of my Mystic Sect, you are indulging in a fool's dream!"

By the end of his words, that aged voice was filled with the resentment and grief of ill-fated times.

And the truth was also proving the aged Shaman's words.

They had exchanged blows for only a few breaths, yet Liu Dongqing, too, sensed the weakness of the existence before him.

Under the repeated piercing illumination of the Little Azure Light Incantation, the young Shaman also had his seemingly fierce aura collapse within several breaths, exposing the frail true nature of the fire crows that darted up and down.

As early as when the aged Shaman was speaking, Liu Dongqing's Little Azure Light Incantation had more than once passed through the screen of those two fire crows, and amid the cracks where their strength fell short, sent beam after beam of azure light crashing down toward the young Shaman's figure.

Szz—szz—szz—

In an instant, the young Shaman's clothes were torn in place after place. Wherever the azure light brushed past, it was as though invisible raging flames had scorched him; even his skin split open at once, fresh-red flesh turning outward, and very quickly revealed charred, rotten matter within the azure light.

Even if in theory they were fighting at the same realm, Liu Dongqing believed that as long as he kept his rhythm steady, he would soon be able to take this man's life.

But Liu Dongqing could not feel happy.

He had not come to Autumn Water Plateau to kill people.

With matters having reached this point, where could the turn for the better come from?

He even hoped this young Shaman could lose a little more slowly, so that he would have more time to think.

Damn it, at a critical juncture like this, my opponent is still distracted! If he dies this cleanly, what am I supposed to do about my inheritance!

Wait... distracted?

At last, in that flash between lightning and flint, Liu Dongqing keenly noticed the young Shaman's gaze repeatedly turning toward the mountain folk fleeing for their lives in the surrounding sea of flames.

And so, in the next instant, Liu Dongqing's face revealed a smile that could be called gentle.

"Fellow Daoist, life and death are both matters of fate. At this moment, your lives and deaths have long since been decided, but those of the surrounding mountain folk have not.

"Human hearts are all made of flesh.

"You borrowed the name of Shaman to gather together such a tribe of Red Crow mountain folk. They have sheltered beneath your screen, and I imagine that after so much time together, some feelings must have grown between you.

"Could it be that only in the Red Crow Tribe did you find a few traces of the feeling of home, Fellow Daoist?

"Now, their fates of life and death are held in your hands, Fellow Daoist.

"My senior brother and I came precisely for the mystic art inheritance.

"If we can obtain the mystic arts, then to avoid a long night breeding many dreams and unexpected complications sprouting crosswise, my senior brother and I will immediately withdraw and leave. The mountain folk may naturally flee for their lives.

"But if the two of us go through all this trouble and ultimately gain nothing, "then when fury attacks the heart, how should we vent our anger later...

"We are disciples of the Innate Sacred Sect. Even if you have never witnessed with your own eyes the reputation of this foremost demonic sect of the Southern Border, Fellow Daoist, you should at least have heard of it.

"Besides, Fellow Daoist, you should not cling to sectarian prejudice.

"Who does the Mystic Sect's inheritance rely on? On you sinful cultivators fleeing in panic, whose cultivation foundations are all incomparably feeble?

"In my view, whoever cultivates the mystic arts is a successor of the Demon Refining Mystic Sect.

"You say the two of us are forcibly seizing the cultivation arts, but turn it around and look—would that not also be the Mystic Sect's cultivation arts occupying the magpie's nest?

"This is a trade that kills two birds with one stone, Fellow Daoist. Will you make it?"