Chaos

Su Yao looked into the distance.

On the other eight peaks of White Sand Mountain, flames blazed across the sky and earth. Warmth filled his heart. Mystic Crow had wiped out the Lu Household cultivators on every peak except the main peak where he now stood, all in one sweep.

That spared him from incurring more sin through killing.

The crow's name was Gui Hong.

According to Daozheng, eight thousand years ago, True Lord Xicheng had been injured and had secretly come to Qixia Mountain to consult him. As the True Lord was leaving, he spat out a mouthful of Essence Blood, which became Mystic Crow.

As the True Lord was unable to care for the crow, he left him on Qixia Mountain for Daozheng to raise.

Su Yao naturally recognized Mystic Crow. After all, he had been formed from the True Lord's Essence Blood, and the True Lord occupied a place in heaven and earth.

Mystic Crow was therefore, in effect, born of heaven and earth, and was naturally a unique being of the Rainbow Clouds path.

Now, on Qixia Mountain, aside from Guangli, who was imprisoned in the Hall of Reflection, only Mystic Crow and Su Yao cultivated Rainbow Clouds.

Or rather, among everyone in heaven and earth who cultivated the Rainbow Clouds path, True Lord Xicheng included, those who did so numbered no more than two fingers.

And among those above the Purple Mansion realm, there were only Mystic Crow, Guangli, and the True Lord.

The rest belonged to other Dao lineages under the Jade Pure One. When their disciples were suited to Rainbow Clouds, they came to Qixia Mountain to request a Cultivation Method, but they also swore upon their attainment that they would not pass it on.

Thus, Mystic Crow counted as half his master, while Daozheng was the other half.

Although Daozheng was a Wu Earth Higher Perfected who also served as Master of Fate, he had been brought to enlightenment by Patriarch Yun Zhongzi and had followed at the patriarch's side for ten thousand years. Thus, even though he did not cultivate Rainbow Clouds, he had studied the path extensively.

Su Yao looked up at the sky for a while. With his current cultivation, he could not see what the Great Void was like, even with the prism's help.

In the end, he needed to reach the Purple Mansion realm.

Purple Mansion, Purple Mansion-how hard it was for one with a shallow fate to attain!

Putting those thoughts aside, he hung Zhengji at his waist and took out Clear Breeze. Many Lu clansmen remained on the main peak, and he needed to deal with them personally.

At the same time, he thought with a sigh:

He had originally expected the True Lord's emissary he had met at the foot of Mount Zhongnan to act. He had not expected Mystic Crow to be the one.

That was because, when he had first arrived at Golden Ao Mountain, he had used the prism to discover traces of a clash between Fu Water and Gui Water.

Though the traces had been well concealed, he had detected them in the end.

That was why he had dared to be so bold earlier, daring to strike at Lu Shang's life even under a Purple Mansion cultivator's assault. He had been certain the emissary would intervene, never expecting it to be Mystic Crow in the end!

The Great Void was in chaos. Its expanse, once shrouded in gray, was now crossed by brilliant lights of every color.

At the center, a blood-red figure, a cyan figure, and Mystic Crow, wreathed in rosy light, crossed paths with one another.

Countless ghostly apparitions of gods and spirits circled the blood-red figure, staining the Great Void dark red wherever it passed. The cyan figure swayed like a sea of bamboo, countless spectral bamboo leaves whirling out and slicing through the air. With a beat of Mystic Crow's wings, rosy light shot forth like ten thousand arrows, forcing both figures back several li.

Nearby, the woman in palace robes from before looked at the burly man beside her.

"Fellow Daoist, do you know where this crow came from?"

The burly man stared fixedly at the battlefield and shook his head.

"How would I know? The Rainbow Clouds path is rare to begin with. How many people under heaven can cultivate it? Let alone a yao at Purple Mansion Peak, with Five Laws Perfection."

The old man behind them seized the chance to interject.

"Everyone used to say Qixia Temple had declined, yet without a sound, two Great True Persons have appeared: a unique chi of the Fu Water path and a crow who has attained Five Laws Perfection in Rainbow Clouds. It's truly unbelievable."

The woman in palace robes glanced back, her voice thick with envy.

"These immortal temples have inheritances stretching far back. Their forebears were either immortals, Dao Lords, or Heavenly Venerables. We truly cannot compare."

She paused, then her tone changed, carrying a note of feeling.

"Never mind an immortal temple like Qixia Temple. We can't even compare with the Langcao Wu Tribe. After all, they are direct blood descendants of the Wu God... Rumor has it that the great one is still alive, though I don't know whether it's true."

The burly man retorted:

"Around Nanzhao, whose bloodline can compare with that of the ruler of the Nanzhao Kingdom?"

The old man chimed in with a laugh:

"This senior's strength is terrifying too. Even now, he hasn't used a single Spirit Artifact or Spirit Treasure, yet he has those two pinned down..."

The woman in palace robes cut the old man off and turned to rebut the burly man.

"In terms of bloodline, the line of the ruler of the Nanzhao Kingdom is indeed noble. Few households in the world today can compare. But when all is said and done, though their bloodline is no different from that of their ancestors, they long ago lost their forebears' ambitions and seek only to live in peace in one corner. The ruler of the Nanzhao Kingdom now makes eyes at the various Witch Departments and the surviving Witch Clan people, protecting and aiding one another to safeguard themselves against Great Qing's might. Yet his ancestors were mortal enemies of the Witch Clan and the various Witch Departments. Their struggle over the Dao was fought..."

As she spoke, her voice grew halting, and then she began to retch.

The burly man and the old man looked over to see the woman in palace robes bowing her head, spitting out things like tortoise shells, Xun Wind, and yellow mud from time to time.

Seeing the commotion, the burly man, the old man, and several others nearby hurried away.

The burly man cursed inwardly:

That big woman has no filter on her mouth. If she didn't have Nanzhao blood in her veins, she'd probably have been banished to the Netherworld long ago.

The woman in palace robes retched for quite a while, then slapped herself hard several times before she recovered.

"Hahaha!" The burly man's laughter rang out. "Li Chaoxue, I never thought I'd see the day."

The woman in palace robes, addressed as Li Chaoxue, turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"What's it to you?"

With that, she took out a longsword and pointed it at the burly man.

"This palace master is in a good mood today. How about a fight?"

The longsword came out of its sheath, a thin layer of frost forming along its edge as a biting chill radiated from it.

The burly man laughed at the sight and took out a spiked club. He was just about to speak when, the next moment, his eyes filled with terror.

His figure instantly turned into a streak of gray light and fled into the distance. Everyone around them likewise hurried away.

Li Chaoxue froze. Then an angry roar reached her ears, and she reacted, quickly following them.

When she looked back, she saw:

The chief of the Langcao Wu Tribe was holding a tortoise shell, having summoned four fearsome apparitions to circle him.

Yet he did not dare make the slightest move.

Beside him, Nanzhao's superintendent of education, clad in a cyan robe and holding an official seal, was likewise wearing a look of terror.

For behind the two of them, a gigantic figure had emerged-its body was about a thousand zhang long, with a wingspan of a thousand zhang.

More terrifying still, a faint white light now shimmered over the enormous, pitch-black figure's entire body.

It was not a deathly white, but a gentle white like the dawn.

The white light slowly gathered into a feathered robe, turning the ink-black Mystic Crow pure white.

Fear, envy, and all manner of emotions surged up together in Li Chaoxue's heart.

A Law Treasure. That was definitely a Law Treasure!

A Law Treasure of the Lesser Yang path!

In her eyes, wherever that white light reached, the gray mist of the Great Void melted away like ice and snow. An invisible pressure descended like a toppling mountain, sending the nearby Purple Mansion cultivators who had come to watch the spectacle, like her, fleeing like dogs driven from their homes.

So she increased her speed again, hoping only to get away as quickly as possible.

She cursed inwardly: What on earth did Yin Zhangluo and Liu Zhiyuan do to force Mystic Crow to use a Law Treasure?

She shouted to the burly man ahead:

"What did that Wu barbarian or that sanctimonious fraud just do?"

The burly man did not even look back, concentrating only on flying for his life.

"A Purple Mansion cultivator from the Langcao Wu Tribe came and went to capture that boy in the mortal world!"