Blocking Taiyi, a Battle of Words

Outside Golden Light Cave on Qianyuan Mountain.

This place was utterly unlike the desolate deathly silence of White Bone Mountain. Its mountains and waters were beautiful, spiritual energy hung thick in the air, immortal cranes gathered in flight, auspicious beasts roamed about—a scene of blessed immortal land.

Halfway up the mountain stood an ancient, unadorned cave dwelling built against the slope. The three words "Golden Light Cave" gleamed upon its lintel, while faint celebratory clouds and auspicious mist shrouded it, proclaiming the cave master's profound cultivation and deep fortune.

Yet at this moment, the open ground before the cave was fraught with drawn swords and bent bows.

Lady Shiji's hair hung loose and disheveled, her eyes bloodshot. After fighting Nezha all the way here in pursuit, and overwhelmed by grief and fury, her aura had already become somewhat unstable.

She clutched her fly-whisk and stared fixedly at the child across from her—Nezha—who was making faces while hiding behind a middle-aged Daoist.

The middle-aged Daoist wore a lotus crown and an Eight Trigrams immortal robe, a fly-whisk in hand. His features were clear and lean, three long strands of beard drifting over his chest, while his aura was as unfathomable as a sea.

A vague bank of celebratory cloud hovered over his head, with the phantoms of nine dragons circling within. He was none other than one of Yuxu Palace's Twelve Golden Immortals, Nezha's master—True Person Taiyi!

"Fellow Daoist Taiyi!" Shiji's voice was hoarse, laden with boundless grief and indignation. "Your disciple came to my White Bone Mountain without cause and brazenly attacked, using the Universe Ring to kill Biyun, my attendant!

His methods were cruel, no different from those of demons! As his master, what explanation will you offer? If you do not give me an answer today, then do not blame me, Shiji, for perishing together with you!"

True Person Taiyi's expression remained calm, even carrying a trace of pity, as though he were looking upon an unreasonable child throwing a tantrum. He gently shielded Nezha behind himself and said blandly,

"Fellow Daoist Shiji, you are mistaken. My disciple Nezha is the reincarnation of the Spirit Pearl, the vanguard destined to fell Zhou, and he bears a great responsibility. He is young and mischievous, so perhaps there was an accidental misstep.

But your attendant must also have been fated for this tribulation, destined to ascend the Investiture of the Gods List and walk the path of divinity. That too is righteous fruition. Why cling so stubbornly to the outward shell of life and death?"

With a few light words, he shifted the crime of murder onto "destiny" and "tribulation," even portraying the attendant's death as the "righteous fruition" of joining the Investiture of the Gods List!

"You... you are shameless!" Shiji trembled from head to toe with rage. "An accidental misstep? I saw with my own eyes how he took aim and struck! What accident was there? What fine destiny! What fine righteous fruition!

By your reasoning, my attendant deserved to be killed by him, and I deserved to swallow my anger in silence? Taiyi! Is this how your Chanjiao distorts right and wrong and indulges disciples in murder?"

"Fellow Daoist Shiji, mind your words." True Person Taiyi frowned slightly, his tone turning cold. "Nezha descended into the world under Yuxu's talismanic command and is protected by the heavenly count.

You keep speaking of demons and murderers. Are you questioning Yuxu Palace's decree and questioning destiny?

Furthermore, you Jiejiao disciples are mostly furred and horned creatures, born damp or hatched from eggs. You cultivate neither virtue nor understanding of the heavenly count. You gather ten thousand immortals, your karmic burden is heavy, and you are the main force destined to answer this great tribulation.

The death of your attendant may well have been caused by the entanglement of your own karma. You cannot blame others."

These words did not merely shove away all responsibility. They escalated into an attack on her sect, denigrating Jiejiao as "furred and horned creatures with heavy karma," cannon fodder meant to answer the tribulation. Every word stabbed at the heart!

"You... you twist words and spray blood from your mouth!"

Consumed by fury, Shiji spoke no further. Light flared from the fly-whisk in her hand, and countless stone threads swept toward True Person Taiyi and Nezha behind him like enraged dragons. "Today, we shall settle this with life and death!"

"Stubborn beyond redemption." True Person Taiyi shook his head and sighed, yet a cold glint flashed through his eyes.

"Since you remain obsessed and refuse enlightenment, then to prevent you from creating further slaughter and bringing ruin upon living beings, I can only uphold justice on Heaven's behalf and send you to take a walk upon the Investiture of the Gods List!"

Before his words had faded, he raised a hand and launched an object!

It grew with the wind, instantly transforming into an enormous crimson treasure hood carved with nine divine dragons. It was his cave's warding treasure, a supreme postcelestial spirit treasure—the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Hood!

Its opening faced downward, spewing endless Samadhi True Fire. The phantoms of nine fire dragons coiled and roared, emanating terrifying heat capable of burning Heaven and boiling seas, along with a force of confinement, as it descended straight upon Lady Shiji's head!

It moved as swiftly as lightning and had locked onto the flow of Shiji's aura, leaving her nowhere to evade!

At the slightest disagreement, True Person Taiyi actually intended to kill Shiji outright and refine her!

Lady Shiji's face turned deathly pale. Feeling the terrifying power within the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Hood, enough to refine even a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal, her heart was filled with icy despair.

Her cultivation had already been inferior to Taiyi's, and now she was consumed by grief and fury, in poor condition. How could she resist?

Just as the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Hood was about to descend, and the blazing flames had already scorched Shiji's hair into curling ash, at that critical instant—

"Hold it!"

A sharp cry, like thunder from the Ninth Heaven, suddenly exploded across the scene!

With that cry came a violet-gold sword light that struck after yet arrived first, like lightning cleaving the night sky. With incomparable precision, it slashed into a point in the void between the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Hood and Lady Shiji!

Within that sword light lay a strange Dao intent of "severance," "division," and "shattering fixed destiny"!

Riiip!

The confinement force that had originally formed a seamless whole and locked Shiji in place was forcibly "cut" open by that single sword strike!

At the same time, a violet-robed figure appeared before Shiji like a ghost.

With a sweep of his sleeve, a gentle yet resilient force sent the still-shaken Shiji dozens of yards backward, beyond the core range of the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Hood.

The Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Hood crashed down with a roar, but enclosed nothing but empty air. It merely melted the ground into an enormous crater, magma churning within as scorching waves rolled outward.

"Who goes there?!" True Person Taiyi's face darkened as he shouted sharply, his gaze fixed dead on the suddenly appearing violet-robed youth.

Alarm and uncertainty churned in his heart. He had used his Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal cultivation to wield the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Hood and lock down a Taiyi Golden Immortal, yet someone had shattered that lock with one stroke of a sword? Who was this person?

Lady Shiji staggered to a stop. Looking at the upright back shielding her, she froze at first. Then, when she saw the newcomer's profile clearly, joy and shock overwhelmed her. "Xuan... Senior Brother Xuan Chuan?!"

Xuan Chuan gave Shiji a slight nod, signaling her to remain calm. He then turned toward the grim-faced True Person Taiyi, cupped his hands in greeting, and spoke in a calm voice that carried clearly in every direction.

"Xuan Chuan of Jiejiao greets Uncle-Master Taiyi."

"Xuan Chuan?" A sharp gleam flashed through True Person Taiyi's eyes as he looked him up and down. "So it is you. Tongtian Senior Brother's newly accepted chief disciple?

"I heard you have recently made quite a name for yourself in Jiejiao, rectifying sect rules and purging the ranks. What, have you come to meddle in my affairs today as well?"

"I would not dare call it meddling."

Xuan Chuan was neither servile nor overbearing. "I merely happened upon this matter and saw that Uncle-Master and Junior Sister Shiji seemed to have a misunderstanding. I came only to seek clarity, lest we, all belonging to Xuanmen, wound our harmony over a minor matter and become a laughingstock to outsiders."

"A misunderstanding? A minor matter?" True Person Taiyi sneered. "Her attendant offended destiny and was meant to join the list.

"Yet she continues to pester us and seeks to harm the child of destiny. I acted to protect my disciple and uphold the Heavenly Dao. What fault have I committed? What misunderstanding is there?"

"Oh? The child of destiny?"

Xuan Chuan raised a brow, his gaze sweeping over the disdainful Nezha behind True Person Taiyi. "The child of destiny Uncle-Master speaks of is this brat who intruded into another's Daoist grounds without cause, attacked at will, and killed an innocent attendant?

"This is the 'destiny' decreed by Yuxu Palace? Then this 'destiny' is rather too childish—and rather too... bloody."

"How dare you!" True Person Taiyi thundered. "A child with milk still on his lips dares to discuss destiny?

"Nezha is the reincarnation of the Spirit Pearl and bears a great responsibility. Any minor missteps he makes have their own arrangement in the heavenly count. How can you presume to comment?

"That attendant had a thin fate and shallow fortune, and was meant to answer the tribulation. Being able to join the Investiture of the Gods List was already a stroke of fortune!"

"What fine 'minor missteps,' what fine 'meant to answer the tribulation.'"

Xuan Chuan's voice gradually chilled. "By Uncle-Master's reasoning, anyone carrying this so-called 'destiny' may act as they please—murdering others and seizing treasures without fault?

"The dead all had 'thin fates and shallow fortune,' all were 'meant to answer the tribulation'? How is such 'destiny' any different from the demonic path? Is this how Yuxu Palace's decree teaches its disciples?"

He stepped forward, his gaze sharp as a sword as it pierced directly toward True Person Taiyi. "Moreover, Junior Sister Shiji has always lived peacefully in secluded cultivation upon White Bone Mountain, without contending with the world. Her attendant was even more innocent.

"Nezha came to her door and committed violence without cause. Rather than discipline him severely, Uncle-Master uses 'destiny' as an excuse, then seeks to strike down the aggrieved party who came to demand an explanation, committing an act of utter extermination!

"Is this the reasoning of Chanjiao, Xuanmen's orthodox lineage? Is this the bearing of a Yuxu Palace Golden Immortal?"

Every sentence stabbed at the heart, every word stood on reason. He laid bare True Person Taiyi's indulgence of his disciple's violence, his utter refusal to reason, and even his intention to murder and silence them!

True Person Taiyi's face shifted from green to white. Xuan Chuan's questions had left him somewhat speechless, especially with the other party constantly invoking "Yuxu Palace's decree" and "Xuanmen's orthodox lineage."

He was being roasted over the fire. He could hardly openly declare, "My disciple did nothing wrong in killing someone, and I likewise do nothing wrong in killing a Jiejiao disciple."

"Sharp-tongued!" True Person Taiyi flew into rage from humiliation and simply abandoned all pretense of reason. He rebuked, "Xuan Chuan! Stop making senseless trouble here!

"You Jiejiao disciples are largely of side branches and crooked paths. You cultivate neither virtue nor understanding of the heavenly count. You gather ten thousand immortals, karma wrapped around your bodies, and you are destined to become those who answer this great tribulation!

"Shiji's calamity today is likewise the backlash of your karma! You can barely save yourselves, yet you dare come here and spout nonsense about right and wrong? Leave at once, or do not blame me for taking you down as well and sending you onto the Investiture of the Gods List!"

At last, the dagger had been revealed after the map was exhausted. He directly attacked Xuan Chuan over his sect origins and issued a naked threat!

Upon hearing this, Xuan Chuan did not grow angry. Instead, he laughed, his laughter brimming with mockery. "Karmic backlash? Those meant to answer the tribulation?

"Uncle-Master Taiyi, you keep speaking of destiny and tribulations, but have you ever calculated clearly why this tribulation began? Upon whose head should this slaughter be counted?"

His gaze suddenly turned keen as a blade, as though it could pierce through the human heart. "Were you so eager to send Junior Sister Shiji onto the list truly only to 'protect your disciple' and 'uphold the Heavenly Dao'?

"Or had you already calculated that Junior Sister Shiji would be among those destined to answer the tribulation in its early stages? By sending her onto the Investiture of the Gods List, you could both shield your disciple Nezha from part of the karmic consequences of this calamity and weaken the fortune of my Jiejiao.

"You could further display before your master the might of Chanjiao 'punishing on Heaven's behalf.' Killing three birds with one stone. What a fine scheme, Uncle-Master Taiyi!"

These words were like crashing thunder. They not only exposed the most secret calculations buried deep in True Person Taiyi's heart, but also laid bare in public Chanjiao's scheme to use the Investiture of the Gods List to weaken Jiejiao!

True Person Taiyi's entire body shuddered, his pupils constricting. For the first time, disbelief and shock appeared upon his face! He stared fixedly at Xuan Chuan as though looking at a monster.

This boy... how could he know so much?! Even an ordinary Daluo Realm cultivator might not be able to see through such calculations!

"You... you are spraying blood from your mouth! Nonsense!" True Person Taiyi pointed at Xuan Chuan, his finger trembling slightly, whether from rage or shock.

"Xuan Chuan! You Jiejiao are all crooked paths, yet you dare discuss Xuanmen's orthodox Dao? You dare speculate about a Saint's decree? Today, you have not only obstructed my affairs, but slandered me and slandered Yuxu Palace! It seems I cannot spare you!"

His deepest thoughts had been struck squarely, and rage from humiliation surged forth as murderous intent blazed! What shared Xuanmen, what dignity due an elder—he could no longer care about any of it!

This boy knew too much, and had repeatedly ruined his plans. He had to be removed!

The Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Hood rose once more, its nine fire dragons roaring. This time, it enclosed both Xuan Chuan and Shiji within its range! Blazing flames and killing intent that could burn away the eight wildernesses descended with a thunderous crash!