Wu and He Repel the Enemy

Su Yao smiled when he saw the two birds playing, but he knew full well:

The best way for the two birds to recover their Law Power was to return to the prism, but they had to put on a show in front of outsiders.

Fortunately, when he had refined the two birds and fused them into the prism all those years ago, it had turned out to be a fortuitous opportunity for them.

Now that he had reached foundation establishment perfection, the two birds had attained the cultivation of the foundation establishment early stage without needing to cultivate.

He reckoned that once he attained the Purple Mansion, the two birds would reach foundation establishment perfection, or perhaps a level between foundation establishment and the Purple Mansion, but not the Purple Mansion itself. After all, the gap between the two was simply too vast.

Then he shifted his gaze and glanced at the hiding place of the witch and the sparrow, thinking to himself:

Though these people hate Qixia Temple to the bone because of what happened back then, they don't dare do anything out of line. After all, what happened to True Person Guangli left both groups shaken to this day.

Yet now they have no choice but to make a move against me. Even if they're unwilling, matters like this have long since passed beyond the control of their two groups.

Qixia Temple has made no shortage of enemies. Noon Sparrow Mountain and the Hepu Witch Tribe are, when all is said and done, mere pawns.

As for why he did not openly expose the pair's whereabouts, Su Yao had his own considerations. Quite a few True Persons were likely watching this place from the Great Void at this very moment, and showing himself to be too capable in every respect would be no good either.

After all, the tree that stands above the forest is the first to be broken by the wind.

To the west, two people were hiding inside an ordinary-looking white cloud in the sky. One was tall and broad, with a gloomy face, and wore a black witch's robe embroidered with stars.

Beside him stood a handsome man dressed in red, with a pair of red wings on his back and a red spear in his hand. His face was full of eagerness to try his hand.

The man in red looked at the man in the witch's robe.

"Zhao Xin, how about we make our move now?"

The man in the witch's robe, called Zhao Xin, looked at his companion in red and shook his head with a smile.

"Let's wait until this Qixia Daozi has recovered a little more Law Power. Otherwise, even if we win, it will look like we took unfair advantage."

He paused, then added:

"After all, right now, I imagine quite a few True Persons are watching from the Great Void."

With that, he looked down at Su Yao and continued:

"Fellow Daoist Que Qiu, you're still too impatient. For someone in the foundation establishment realm to have mastered so many high-grade Law Techniques is already remarkable. Since we've already taken some measure of his strength, there's even less need to rush."

Que Qiu nodded at this, but he still looked eager to try his hand.

Seeing this, Zhao Xin could not help sighing inwardly.

The yao of Noon Sparrow Mountain always act without using their heads.

But in the end, it's the path of Bing Fire that harms both others and oneself. Cultivate it long enough, and damage to the mind is inevitable.

Just like the Fire Ancestor of old, this path of Bing Fire has never been thoroughly humanized.

At the same time, Que Qiu was grumbling inwardly:

The people of the Hepu Witch Tribe think themselves heirs to the Witch God's bloodline, and they've always looked down from on high with no one else in their eyes. But doesn't our Noon Sparrow Mountain have the bloodline of a Yao Saint too?

Who says they're any nobler than us?

Besides, how pure is my own bloodline? I'm a direct descendant of the Yao Saint.

The Hepu Witch Tribe, on the other hand, has long since half assimilated into the human race. If not for that, they would probably have been wiped out already.

"Let's go. Qixia Daozi is on the move."

Que Qiu was still grumbling to himself when he heard Zhao Xin's voice.

He looked down and saw that Su Yao and the others had continued west.

Que Qiu hurriedly controlled the white cloud to follow them.

An hour later, Su Yao and his companions stopped outside a cave.

The two were about to continue waiting when two streaks of light suddenly flew toward them, one black and the other black and red. They frowned and each reached out to catch one. After probing them with their spiritual senses, they could not help exchanging glances.

"Make your move," Zhao Xin said, glancing at Que Qiu.

Que Qiu nodded and waved his hand. The white cloud immediately dispersed.

By then, Zhao Xin had summoned a witch's staff and was chanting under his breath. Yellow Springs Qi churned at the head of the staff, then condensed into earthen flood dragons that lunged at Su Yao below, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws.

Que Qiu swung his spear, and streams of black-and-red Bing Fire transformed into fire sparrows that hurtled after the earthen flood dragons.

Below, Su Yao was leading his two companions into the cave when he suddenly felt waves of chilling Qi rushing at them from behind, followed immediately by violent fluctuations of spiritual power. He at once instructed Liu and Li:

"I'll leave this to you."

Then he headed into the cave with Little Red and Little Orange.

It was not that he was in poor condition. Rather, he had an intuition that made him unwilling to expend extra effort just then.

At his words, Liu and Li each brought out their Law Artifacts, a fan and a flute.

Deep-green He Wood Qi and earthy-yellow Wu Earth Qi rose into the air.

Wu Earth lay below, steady and reserved; He Wood stood above, gathering trees into a forest.

Wood relied on earth to grow and gain strength, while He Wood embodied the gathering-in of the wood virtue. Now, bolstered by Wu Earth's abundant strength, the two combined to become incomparably substantial.

Walls of wood rose from the ground, forming an impenetrable forest before them all.

The earthen flood dragons struck first, but witchcraft and wood were similar and did not counter one another. When the two met, they tangled and locked together, neither able to gain the upper hand.

After several breaths of fierce combat, the earthen flood dragons, unlike the walls of wood, had no Wu Earth to bolster them. Their strength began to flag, and at last they could hold out no longer, dissolving into Yellow Springs Qi.

By then, the fire sparrows behind them had arrived.

In mere moments, walls of wood fell in swathes.

Liu Yunhe and Li Siyi exchanged a glance and nodded to each other.

Seeing this, Liu Yunhe changed his Method Formula. The wooden walls stopped resisting and instead made use of the flames, instantly turning to ash and merging entirely into the Wu Earth Qi below.

In the blink of an eye, the Wu Earth Qi, nourished by the ash, surged upward and formed an earthen wall that blocked all the fire sparrows.

With another thought from Li Siyi, five colors of vapor-white, azure, black, red, and yellow-rose from his body, drifting lightly around the earthen wall and winding their way into the sky.

Seeing this, Liu Yunhe smiled and said:

"Bathe in Five Vapors really is wondrous. The path of Wu Earth truly deserves its place at the head of the immortal Dao today."

Li Siyi shook his head.

"Control Five Vapors is the truly wondrous one. Bathe in Five Vapors was created by borrowing only a few strands of its profundity; it cannot lead one to the Great Dao."

Liu Yunhe teased him:

"How many people dream of obtaining even those few strands of profundity, yet cannot?"

Li Siyi merely smiled and said no more, concentrating instead on his control.

While the two were holding off the earthen flood dragons and fire sparrows, Zhao Xin had quietly taken out a wisp of Su Yao's Qi that he had captured during Su Yao's earlier battle. He then used it as a medium to begin casting an Incantation.

Que Qiu glanced sideways at him, startled inwardly:

Zhao Xin's Incantations have grown even more accomplished. He actually managed to capture a wisp of Qixia Daozi's Qi without anyone noticing.

He settled on a plan, moved in front of Zhao Xin, and spread his wings. Spear in hand, he dove toward the ground.

Though earth countered fire, if the blaze was fierce enough, fire could burn earth just the same.

The paths the two sides cultivated were now at much the same level. The contest would come down to whose cultivation was higher and whose Law Power was deeper.