Dongling Zither

Shi Feiyang flew back to Dinghu Peak, with the Two Maidens of Xiandu chasing him the entire way. The two young girls had sworn to slay the Monster dragon and rid the world of this scourge!

Upon reaching Dinghu Peak, Shi Feiyang coiled his Long body in the air. A thick cloud of mist rose from the mouth of the lake to conceal him, and he spat out two Inner Cores to block the Xin Metal Sword Qi and Jade Centipede Hooks pursuing him.

"You've gone too far," he said coldly.

Xie Lin sneered. "What do you think you are? A thing covered in scales and horns, a menace to the mortal world—and you dare call yourself a person? We sisters have always rooted out evil to the last trace. Today, we'll carry out Heaven's justice and slay Monsters and fiends, so you can never harm anyone again!"

As she spoke, she released the Five-Star Divine Halberd again. Its dazzling five-colored light whirled like lightning and shot forth in a furious gale, cleaving straight toward him.

Unwilling to take this treasure head-on with his Inner Cores, Shi Feiyang turned and plunged into the lake below.

The Two Maidens of Xiandu stood on a rock by the shore and peered down. Xie Lin said, "The Monster dragon has hidden underwater. This makes things difficult."

Shi Feiyang had already vanished beneath the surface, but his voice vibrated through the water and rose to them. "You two are nothing but a pair of lowly little bitches who throw your weight around with your elders' backing. Without Xie Shan to support you, you'd have died hundreds of times over. Every other word out of your mouths is 'Monster dragon' or 'vile beast.' You don't even know my true origins, yet you dare claim to carry out Heaven's justice..."

Seeing how deep the lake was, Xie Lin had hesitated. But when she suddenly heard Shi Feiyang call her a "lowly little bitch," her fury blazed three fathoms high. "Vile beast, you're courting death!" she roared. Pointing, she first released the Five-Star Divine Halberd to part the water, then merged herself with her sword qi, becoming a long crimson rainbow that shot straight into the lake. Once she entered the water, Xie Lin immediately followed, afraid something might go wrong.

Shi Feiyang had deliberately provoked them into coming down. Seeing that both girls had indeed taken the bait, he immediately cast a spell to shift the five elements and turn space around.

The Two Maidens of Xiandu drove their swords downward at full speed. They were traveling so fast that they should have covered three hundred zhang in no time, yet the passage through the water ahead seemed boundless, without any end. They rushed onward for the time it took to drink a cup of tea, but still failed to reach the bottom. When they looked up, the circular mouth of the lake refracted the daylight, rippling and swaying overhead.

The more cautious Xie Ying called her younger sister to a halt. "Don't act rashly! This Monster dragon is unlike the creatures we've encountered before. He can actually wield flying swords and knows many methods of the immortals. He lured us here—there must be an ambush."

Xie Lin remained indignant. "Whatever methods he has, he's still an inhuman fiend. What's there to fear? Besides, don't we have the Dongling Zither? It specifically subdues all nonhuman creatures. Every Monster we've encountered before fell at a single blow, so we've never used that treasure in a real fight. This is the perfect chance to try it out and see whether this Monster dragon can withstand it!"

The Dongling Zither had been given to them by their godmother, Cui Wu. A rare treasure from antiquity, it had first come into the possession of the Han Dynasty Immortal Qiao Gong, who refined it anew with immortal arts and nurtured it day and night. He used it to subdue demons, and it specifically restrained all mountain spirits and sea monsters. When played according to the proper method, its sound would shake the soul and scatter the spirit of even the fiercest monster, leaving it dazed and intoxicated, its whole body limp, helpless to resist slaughter. It could also split mountains and crack stone, opening a path through impassable terrain.

Cui Wu's two most formidable treasures were the Five-Star Divine Halberd and the Dongling Zither. She had given both to the sisters before passing away in seated meditation.

At these words, Xie Ying took out the zither. Its body was jade, only a few inches long, with the sun, moon, and stars carved on its head, and wind, rain, thunder, and lightning carved on its tail. Twelve strings ran through its center, six yin and six yang. The twelve musical divisions established the twelve celestial cycles, corresponding to the twelve months.

This treasure was not played by hand. Xie Ying sent it out to hover in midair. Its jade body shone with a warm blue-green luster, while its metal strings radiated dazzling white rays.

Xie Ying stilled her mind and settled her breath. Forming seals with both hands, she activated her spell, and the zither gave a succession of soft notes.

The instant those notes sounded, the surrounding lake water stirred, rising into towering, terrifying waves!

When the sound reached Shi Feiyang's ears, his head suddenly buzzed, and he felt as though his Primordial Spirit were about to fly out of his body.

Shi Feiyang had not been idle since Xie Ying and Xie Lin entered the water. He had flown to the lake bottom, found Moxiang, and asked him for three drops of blood. Without even asking why, the simpleminded Moxiang had cut his arm and let out blood, giving him five drops in all.

Shi Feiyang dispersed those five drops of venom with his core qi and released them into the lake.

Moxiang's poison was extraordinarily potent. The lake within Dinghu Peak held far more than a hundred million tons of water, yet just three drops of his fluid would instantly poison all of it. Shi Feiyang then used his Elixir Qi to direct the poisoned water, sending as much of it as possible surging toward the two girls.

It was then that he heard a note from the zither. Its influence nearly sent his three souls flying out of his body, and he knew his opponents must have used the Dongling Zither. From reading the book in the past, he had known that the Two Maidens of Xiandu possessed this treasure, the bane of all Demon Beasts and nonhuman creatures. He had never expected its restraining power to reach such a degree. A single note not only attacked his Divine Soul, but also disturbed his Elixir Qi. The Elixir Qi threatened to scatter beyond his control, and even his Inner Cores seemed on the verge of cracking.

Not daring to delay, he hurriedly turned and flew back to the bottom of the lake, coiling atop the Crouching Dragon Stone. He swept both claws outward and spat out another breath of Elixir Qi. A ring of Golden Seal Heavenly Talismans on the surrounding walls lit up together, their golden radiance flickering and reflecting off one another like an enormous mirror of golden light. The zither's notes continued to travel down, but after passing through this layer of light, little of their power remained. Shi Feiyang merely found them pleasant to listen to and felt a little sleepy.

Mo Zhui had already licked Moxiang's wound, causing it to heal rapidly. The two little figures ran over hand in hand, piping up, "What's that sound? It feels as though our minds and spirits are about to split apart. It's terrifying!"

"That specifically restrains nonhuman beings like us," Shi Feiyang said. "Hurry back into your true bodies, focus your minds, and guard yourselves. Don't come out unless I call you!" Seeing the urgency of the situation, the two little fellows hurried back to where they were rooted, burrowed underground, and vanished.

Meanwhile, Xie Ying had also felt the effects of the Immortal's Couch's poison. Her Primordial Spirit grew unsettled, and she became drowsy. Xie Lin's innate aptitude was considerably inferior to hers. Although the sisters cultivated together, their progress differed. Xie Lin had not yet noticed anything and was driving the Five-Star Divine Halberd to hack wildly at the surrounding water when she suddenly stumbled, nearly falling.

Xie Ying hurriedly caught her and released a defensive treasure. "Be careful! The lake water is poisonous!"

The treasure she released this time was called the Demon-Warding Divine Light Shield, bestowed by Ye Bin, mistress of Golden Bell Island in the Lesser South Pole. As it left her hand, it transformed into a canopy of five-colored radiance roughly a zhang across, protecting both girls from head to toe. The surging lake water was pushed away before it could come within three feet of them.

Only after sealing themselves off from the outside did Xie Ying breathe a little easier. She took medicinal pills from her Heaven-and-Earth Bag and was supporting her younger sister, about to administer them, when she suddenly felt an immense force dragging the Jade Centipede Hooks downward. That force seemed capable of toppling mountains and overturning seas, impossible to resist.

Naturally unwilling to abandon their paired hooks, the two girls hurriedly formed seals and cast spells to recall them. As the two sides tugged back and forth, Xie Ying formed a seal with her right hand and pointed diagonally upward, urging the Dongling Zither to sound rapidly without pause. Its sound waves tore through the lake water, sending currents surging wildly. Vast numbers of bubbles formed in the empty spaces, as though all hundred million tons of lake water had begun to boil.

But Shi Feiyang was now at the lake bottom, protected by the Golden Seal Heavenly Talismans. Formidable though the zither's notes were, barely any of their power remained by the time they reached him.

Xie Ying repeatedly drove the Dongling Zither to ring out in a tumult of notes. Seeing no effect, she began to feel afraid. She formed a seal with her left hand to control the hooks and directed her Xin Metal Sword Qi with her right. After coordinating with her younger sister Xie Lin, they simultaneously unleashed two streams of sword qi and the Five-Star Divine Halberd, slashing downward!

This was precisely the moment Shi Feiyang had been waiting for. He immediately cast his spell, reversing the five elements and twisting Heaven and Earth, turning below into above and above into below. At the same time, he released his pull on the two Jade Centipede Hooks.

The girls' two streams of sword qi and the Five-Star Divine Halberd had clearly been aimed at the lake bottom, but now they struck toward the sky, though from the girls' perspective they were still attacking downward. Sensing the Jade Centipede Hooks returning, the two girls relaxed slightly, only for Xie Ying to cry out at once, "Oh no!"

The Dongling Zither hovering above her had now actually shifted below her, where a golden Dragon Claw seized it and forcibly carried it away!