Within Soul-Rending Mountain, blazing white lightning crisscrossed like dragons and serpents!
Two cultivators belonging to Thunderclap Prefecture descended one after another in streaks of light, landing before the woman in yellow.
The young man, wearing a Daoist crown with his hair secured by a jade hairpin, asked with concern:
"Junior Sister Zhou, were you hurt? That scoundrel you just sent fleeing in panic-was he one of the Name Teaching's fiends?"
The woman in yellow nodded lightly.
"He cultivated [Blood Steaming] and refined [Yin Baleful Intent]. His methods in battle were quite formidable!
"It is only a pity that I was inadequate. He forced me to use the Thunder-Swallowing Origin-Transforming Pearl, consuming far too much True Xi. Otherwise, holding him here so that you two senior brothers could join me in slaying a demon and defending the Dao, accumulating external merit, would have been a fine thing indeed!" The other man had a lean face and was considerably older, with three wisps of black beard beneath his chin. He had the bearing of an immortal and the bones of a Daoist, extraordinarily graceful and unworldly.
He said:
"That man's cultivation was substantial, roughly at the eleventh level of Qi Refining. Although he had not forged a Dao Foundation, the Law Artifact he carried seethed with Sha Qi. It must have been ritually refined in a Ten-Thousand-Person Pit. Fortunately, Junior Sister Zhou, you drove him off early. Otherwise, the consequences would have been worrying."
The young cultivator, however, was unconvinced and said gravely:
"The Forty-Eight Thousand Thunder Methods passed down by Thunderclap Prefecture can subdue evil demons and destroy blood balefulness!
"When have we ever shown mercy upon encountering the Name Teaching's fiends? And there is certainly no reason for us to suffer at their hands!
"Senior Brother Xu, why are you