The Feather Daoist

Lady Baoxiang's White-Brow Needles had been refined from the two long brows of her original fox body. Neither metal nor jade, they turned into three silver threads when unleashed, shooting toward the enemy. Screened by the Yellow Sand and sword light, they were almost invisible against the blue sky and emerald sea.

Shi Feiyang failed to dodge in time. The White-Brow Needles pierced his scales and shot into his body.

Once inside flesh and blood, these needles could travel along the blood vessels of their own accord, heading straight for the heart. Once they pierced it, death came instantly!

Shi Feiyang's body was enormous. At first, he felt only a slight numbness at his waist and paid it little heed—he had endured far worse pain. But then he sensed three hair-fine needles traveling through his blood vessels toward his heart, and inwardly cried, This is bad!

He knew Lady Baoxiang possessed the White-Brow Needles, a sinister and vicious weapon, and had remained on guard against them. But he had never seen them and did not know what they looked like. During their exchange of spells, he had also been shifting the Yellow Sand formation, devoting all his tightly focused attention to it. He had hoped to catch his enemies off guard with the Crow-Venom Thorn, only to neglect his own defenses. Not until the White-Brow Needles entered his body did he learn how deadly they were.

He hurriedly circulated his power to force back his blood and vital energy, keeping his true-water life-bound core inside his body to suppress the needles and releasing only one Divine Fire Inner Core to fight his enemies.

At the same moment the White-Brow Needles struck him, the Crow-Venom Thorn pierced Lady Baoxiang's waist and hip. Its approach had been cunning: rather than shooting straight at her, it circled around and came in from the side, concealed by the Yellow Sand. Lady Baoxiang had been intent on striking her enemy with her White-Brow Needles and never expected a streak of emerald fire to fly in at an angle. All nine thorns buried themselves in her left hip, burrowing into flesh and bone as though alive while continuously spraying wisps of emerald flame. The pain forced a loud groan from her. Her whole body shook, and she staggered backward.

Shi Feiyang reckoned that a single inner core could not contend with both of them. He managed to recall the Crow-Venom Thorn as well, then turned and continued flying north.

"How are you?" Zhuge Jingwo asked.

Lady Baoxiang shook her head through gritted teeth. "It's nothing!" Enduring the pain, she used the golden core she had cultivated over three thousand years to suppress her injuries, then took some Elixirs she carried with her and continued the pursuit alongside Zhuge Jingwo.

Shi Feiyang kept flying north, leaving the Eastern Sea and entering the Northern Sea. Gradually, drifting ice began to appear on the surface.

His plan was simple: in terms of actual strength, he was no match for the two of them. His best chance was to exploit the terrain.

When reading martial arts novels in the past, the character Shi Feiyang had admired most was the Blood Saber Patriarch, who had slain four enemies of his own level through a succession of maneuvers pushed to the absolute limit. He, too, intended to play to his strengths and secure victory.

Shi Feiyang's advantage lay in being a Long, better suited to environments of water and ice. He wanted to fly somewhere thick with glaciers and surging Cold Tide, then find an opportunity to kill Lady Baoxiang. Though he would not kill Zhuge Jingwo, he would severely injure him to prevent any further harassment.

Chunks of drifting ice passed beneath him as Shi Feiyang's dragon eyes scanned a thousand miles ahead, searching for a suitable battlefield.

Suddenly, a great bird flew in from the Northwest, moving even faster than Zhuge Jingwo's Invisible Sword flight. More precisely, it was traveling far beyond the speed of sound and arrived directly overhead almost in an instant.

Shi Feiyang's vision blurred. Only then did he see clearly that the newcomer was not a bird, but a man.

More precisely, he was a Daoist with a pair of wings. Tall and slender, with a face like polished jade, Bai teeth, red lips, sword-like brows, and star-bright eyes, he was a thoroughly handsome man. He wore a snow-white, short-sleeved Daoist robe of ice-silkworm silk, leaving his limbs bare. His arms and legs resembled white mutton-fat jade, but the front halves of his feet were not human feet—they were crimson bird talons. A pair of enormous golden wings grew from his back, spanning more than thirty feet when spread.

The Daoist hovered high above, glanced at Shi Feiyang, and called softly, "Little dragon, don't be afraid. I've come to save you!"

He then spread his hands and pressed downward. In an instant, the seawater within a hundred-mile radius turned from liquid to solid, like clear, gleaming crystal. Every wave froze in place, its shape no longer changing.

Then he brought his hands together toward the center. Two wave peaks dozens of feet high rose from the sea at his push, driven together by two tremendous forces. They closed around Lady Baoxiang and Zhuge Jingwo just as the two pursuers arrived, imprisoning them inside!

Shi Feiyang watched, dazzled and enthralled. This fellow is so powerful! What an incredible spell!

He had read the original Mount Shu novels thoroughly, and judging by the man's appearance, this should have been the Winged Daoist, Geng Kun. But Geng Kun should not have been this formidable. In the original story, he suffered setbacks at every turn, and his temper should not have been this pleasant either.

He was just about to approach and ask the man's name when Lady Baoxiang deployed her Myriad Treasures Ruyi Pure Yang Heart-Transferring Lock. A blaze of pure Bai light rose, shattering the solidified wave peaks. They reverted to seawater and collapsed downward.

She flew up, pointed at him, and shouted, "Feather Daoist! Stay out of this!"

The winged Feather Daoist's tone was equally hostile. "You vile woman! It's bad enough that you flaunt your lust and whore yourself about in the Central Land. You won't be allowed to defile the lands beyond the seas! Was the lesson I gave you last time not enough?"

Lady Baoxiang raged, "You feathered beast! Last time, you ambushed me while I was occupied, plotting to steal my golden core. I specially refined this Pure Yang Heart-Transferring Lock to take revenge on you, never expecting our paths to cross on this narrow road today. By rights, we should settle our contest here and now, but that loach stole this fellow Daoist Zhuge's immortal herb. Do you know who he is? He is the true successor of Perfected Xuanzhenzi of the Emei Sect, and today he must recover that herb. Stay out of this! We can arrange a place for a fight to the death later!"

Shi Feiyang hurriedly said, "I found that Immortal Herb first! You're plainly the ones trying to steal it from me. Zhuge Jingwo, tell him—isn't it you who wants to rob me? Do you dare swear in your teacher Xuanzhenzi's name that you aren't?"

For a moment, Zhuge Jingwo was tongue-tied, unsure how to answer.

The Feather Daoist snorted coldly. "Others may fear the Emei Sect, but I don't! They can't even lord it over the Central Land, so how dare they come swaggering beyond the seas? I've taken a liking to this little dragon and intend to accept him as my disciple. If you want to steal his Immortal Herb, you'll have to get past me first."

Lady Baoxiang had damaged Zhuge Jingwo's cultivation foundation this time and feared Xuanzhenzi would kill her. She was determined to help Zhuge Jingwo seize the Purple River Grass so she could beg Xuanzhenzi's forgiveness. Besides, she already had an old grudge against the Feather Daoist. Wasting no more words, she flicked her Rainbow Silk, turning it into a breathtaking ribbon more than a thousand feet long that swept straight toward him, while her Red Cloud Needles attacked in concert.

Zhuge Jingwo was equally determined to recover the Millennium Purple River Grass so he could return, report his task completed, and beg forgiveness. "Forgive my offense!" he said, then deployed his Invisible Sword, merging man and sword into one as he flew forward to slash at the Feather Daoist.

The Feather Daoist knew Lady Baoxiang's magic was powerful, and he also knew how formidable the Emei Sect's Invisible Sword was, so he dared not be careless. He shook the wings on his back, sending out thirty-six glittering golden feathers, each wrapped in radiance like a golden Flying Sword. Twelve met Zhuge Jingwo, while twenty-four engaged Lady Baoxiang.

Forming hand seals, he cast another restriction art, this time arresting the Rainbow Silk in midair. The winding, dancing silk had been as vigorous and agile as a dragon, but it abruptly stopped, becoming a rainbow.

At the same time, he reached toward the sea and grasped at empty air, raising towering peaks of enormous waves across the vast waters. Once the peaks reached nearly a thousand feet in height, he tore them up by their roots and hurled them in a barrage at Lady Baoxiang and Zhuge Jingwo.

This Feather Daoist was named Geng Peng, born of the union between a Roc and a human. He also had an elder brother, the Winged Daoist, Geng Kun.

Both brothers were half human and half bird. After cultivating for many years, they had obtained the Chiyou Threefold Scripture left behind by the ancient Chiyou at the bottom of the Golden Gate Cave in the eye of the Southern Sea. They had mastered the Twelve Heavens Restriction Arts of Size, making their abilities all the more formidable.

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