The thin Daoist watched the talisman arrow land on a nearby islet. How could he not realize someone was hiding there?
"What insolent bastard dares take advantage of your grandpa!"
The thin Daoist was furious. Heading north had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. Poyang Lake was so vast that nobody could possibly have set an ambush in advance. It could only be some unsuspecting passerby who happened to stumble upon them.
But this person had a fine command of incantations, and both spells he had cast were single-word incantations. He was probably no ordinary character either.
Meanwhile, the young hero of the Golden Aspect Sect remained as silent as ever. He had been too far away to strike effectively before, but the thin Daoist's brief obstruction had closed the distance considerably, bringing more methods within reach.
They had finished probing each other. Talismans, spells-they had used everything they ought to use. Now it was time to decide the victor.
The young hero cradled his pipa in both arms, his long, fair fingers dancing across the Six Aspects and Twenty-Four Modes. This time, the strings no longer sounded in isolated, broken notes, but rose and fell in an unbroken melody. His right hand, in particular, almost became a blur of white moonlight.
An intense melody rang out, and ripples began spreading across the lake beneath him. At first, they were only ripples, but they formed faster and faster, the rings growing closer together yet rising ever higher. They danced without pause until they burst into countless tiny droplets. With the young hero at its center, the lake within fifty paces looked as though it had come to a boil!
And this spectacle was merely the result of the pipa's music spreading outward. The true magical intent contained within the melody surged entirely toward the thin Daoist.
The pipa's notes took tangible form. Dimly, a magnificent white eagle seemed to burst from the instrument and swoop at the thin Daoist to kill him.
The thin Daoist could no longer spare any attention for the talisman arrow. He stared at the flickering white eagle, uncertainty flashing in his eyes. He had originally assumed this was merely some run-of-the-mill Golden Aspect Sect disciple passing through, so he had played along, pretending to flee while planning to lure him to the edge of this great lake, kill him, and steal his wealth.
But now things looked rather bad. After such a long chase, this fellow still had abundant magic power, and that pipa was no ordinary object either. He certainly was no common disciple. And there was that skilled incantation caster hiding in the grass. Could the Zhou household's purchasing steward have been bait? Was this really a trap laid to kill him?
Was all this really necessary?
In any case, the thin Daoist abandoned his playful attitude and began fighting in earnest.
He took out a Banner Flag with a gray surface bearing a black beast-head design. The design was extremely abstract and rough: two enormous eyes, a nose beneath them, and two curling horns above. It somewhat resembled a bull's head, but had no lower lip—or rather, its entire mouth had merged with the Banner Flag's surface.
Looking straight at the beast design made one feel as though one's mind might be sucked into it. It felt evil and ill-omened, yet somehow possessed a savage beauty.
The Sound Aspect White Eagle arrived with the music, blasting the lake's surface apart in a chain of explosions along its path.
The thin Daoist shook the Beast-Head Banner, and little ghosts drifted out of it.
These ghosts all took animal forms: tigers, leopards, snakes, and bulls. More than a dozen emerged at once, swelling in the wind until they reached their natural sizes, then gathering to meet the white eagle.
Form met form; the intangible met the intangible.
The white eagle was fierce. It smashed through the tigers and leopards at the front in an instant, though its own form dispersed somewhat as well.
"Kree!"
It was the white eagle's cry, yet the sound came from the pipa in the Golden Aspect Sect young hero's hands. Its tone and pitch were astonishingly lifelike.
The young hero plucked and hooked the strings with his right hand while bending and sliding the notes with his left. The divine eagle rallied again, spreading its wings and soaring high, its hooked claws striking straight at the crowns of the Beast Souls' heads.
Like a dragonfly skimming the water, the white eagle's claws touched down. The Beast Souls could not withstand a single blow and were torn to shreds in the blink of an eye.
The young hero rolled across the strings with his right hand, adding vibrato with his left. The notes sounded like the white eagle's triumphant cries after killing its prey.
The white eagle bobbed its head, then charged straight at the thin Daoist again.
The thin Daoist laughed in his fury. "You're impressive, all right. Let your grandpa see just how impressive you are!"
The Thin Daoist shook the Banner Flag violently, and what looked like a plume of black smoke rose from it.
The black smoke spread, but a closer look revealed that it was no smoke at all. It was countless little ghosts!
Like dark clouds, the ghosts engulfed the white eagle. No matter how the young hero plucked his strings, the eagle could not break free.
And the dark cloud still had strength to spare while suppressing the eagle. A portion split away and flew toward the young hero.
Looking closely, the little ghosts flying toward him were no longer Beast Souls. From their appearance, they were clearly Human Souls!
The Human Souls had heads but no bodies, and harsh, miserable cries rasped from their mouths.
The Golden Aspect Sect young hero's face turned pale. He finally understood how a petty demon in the Qi Refining realm like the thin Daoist had made a name for himself throughout Jiang Nan.
Forcing himself to remain calm, the young hero played the melody again and summoned another white eagle.
But this white eagle's sound aspect was far more transparent than the first, almost invisible to the naked eye. That only told the thin Daoist that his magic power was running low.
Sure enough, the thin Daoist let out a strange, rasping laugh, no different from the laughter of those ghostly heads. It was irritating and revolting to hear.
Seven or eight ghostly heads, their hair hanging loose, bared their teeth and bit into the white eagle. The poor eagle was clung to and gnawed at from every side. Unable to maintain its form, it turned into a few blades of sound that fell into the lake, blasting up countless splashes.
Pull one hair, and the whole body moved. With the second white eagle's fall, the Golden Aspect Sect young hero lacked the magic power to sustain the first, and could only watch as it gradually vanished beneath the ghosts' gnawing.
But the thin Daoist did not look pleased either. That pipa was no ordinary object, and the pretty boy's string music and metal-element magic power were no simple matter. Many of the little ghosts he had painstakingly accumulated had been lost.
Not wanting any more complications, he waved the Banner Flag and gathered every remaining ghost to rush the Golden Aspect Sect disciple. As for the incantation caster hiding in the grass, his timid skulking suggested he was nobody of consequence. He could be dealt with afterward.
But the Golden Aspect Sect young hero apparently had no intention of surrendering without a fight. He suddenly hammered his own chest six times in succession, until he vomited blood.
The thin Daoist did not know what this lunatic was doing, but it certainly could not be anything good. His hand shook the Banner Flag even faster.
"Drown!"
Another incantation rang out.
An enormous wave suddenly rose from the lake between the thin Daoist and the Golden Aspect Sect young hero.
It was as though the lake's surface were a sheet of cloth, and a hand had suddenly appeared, pinched a point on it, and lifted it up!
The towering curtain of water first blocked the little ghosts, then crashed down toward them and the thin Daoist. It had risen so quickly that nobody had time to react.
The water was tangible, while the ghosts were intangible. Beyond briefly obscuring their vision, it accomplished nothing-except soaking the thin Daoist through.
But obscuring his vision and buying the Golden Aspect Sect young hero a little time was enough.
Just as the curtain of water fell and splashed up again, a dazzling mass of golden light blurred everyone's vision, as though a small sun had risen along Poyang Lake's southern shore.
The thin Daoist shrieked repeatedly. Like ice and snow meeting the spring sun, the little ghosts simply melted away.
But the Golden Aspect Sect young hero was not faring well either. He held the source of the golden light in his palm. The radiance was so fierce that the object itself could not be seen clearly, though the fresh red blood staining it was visible. His magic power exhausted and his vital blood depleted, his once fair, handsome face was now as deathly pale as gold paper.
Then he could no longer sustain the magical artifact beneath his feet and dropped onto the lake. Fortunately, his flying artifact's true form was a feather the size of a small boat, rather than a flying sword or something else. It still supported him safely as he floated on the water.
The little ghosts the thin Daoist had accumulated over many years had been swept away completely, naturally filling him with hatred. Muttering an incantation, he brandished the Banner Flag again. This time, however, the beast head on it seemed about to come alive.
"Demon, you're courting death!"
Shouts suddenly came from the distance.
Hearing them, the young hero slumped on the feather breathed a sigh of relief.
Indecision appeared on the thin Daoist's face. Kill, or flee?
Forget it!
A feud could still be avenged ten generations later.
If I keep fighting today, I'll probably damage the Banner Flag's very foundation. The gain won't outweigh the loss.
And laughably enough, all this started because I killed some steward from a godforsaken corner and took a little money. I hadn't even collected his soul, yet this little Golden Aspect Sect lunatic wants me dead so badly?
He's mad enough to vomit blood to retrieve a treasure. I'm not mad.
Of the thirty-six stratagems, retreat is best. If I beat the junior only to be stopped by his elders, I'll capsize in a gutter.
And that incantation caster is still lurking nearby...
The thin Daoist decided to leave and turned to go, though anger still choked him. The Golden Aspect Sect fellow was mad, but the incantation caster hiding close by was truly hateful, ruining things again and again!
Damn it, I haven't even had time to see his true face!
The thin Daoist had already turned around. Gray mist surged, and he was about to depart.
"Burn!"
That incantation again!
The thin Daoist flew into a rage. This time, he did not care. He was going into the grass to fight that incantation caster to the death!
Huh?
But...
Nothing seems to be happening?
The thin Daoist felt no magical intent land on his body.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Something fell into the water.
Belatedly realizing what had happened, the thin Daoist raised his right hand and looked. A huge hole had burned through the bottom of the Dew-Gathering Pouch, and it was still burning!
That scoundrel burned the Dew-Gathering Pouch!
"Damn you!"
The thin Daoist unleashed another torrent of curses, but the reinforcements from the south were already close...
"Aaaah!"
The thin Daoist threw back his head and howled, then rode away on the mist.
First, let me explain the update schedule:
1. On weekdays, there will be two chapters per day, each over 2,000 Chinese characters. The first is planned for sometime between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. I'll post it once it's written and checked, so it may be earlier or later. The second is planned for between 11 p.m. and midnight. If I haven't finished checking the second chapter by midnight, I'll post it first, then polish and correct it afterward. Readers can leave it until the following day.
2. If the plot flows continuously and shouldn't be broken into short chapters, I'll post one long chapter of over 4,000 Chinese characters before midnight. If there isn't time to polish it before then, I'll follow the same procedure as above.
3. On weekends and public holidays, I plan to post over 6,000 Chinese characters per day, divided into chapters as appropriate.
Other matters:
4. Since I have a job, I can't devote myself entirely to this. Thank you for understanding.
5. Your reviews and comments are welcome and appreciated. I'll read every one. I find them very interesting and encouraging, and they help my writing a great deal.
6. Special thanks to reader Findmys3lf for the active comments, reviews, votes, and tips.
7. Finally, please keep voting, recommending, and bookmarking.