A Sword Sealed the River

Si Jing was very handsome, but he had a sharp tongue.

As soon as he finished his scathing remarks, the Demon Cultivator with vertical pupils transformed his legs into a long snake tail and whipped it fiercely at Si Jing.

Seeing this, Sang Ying held her sword in one hand and thrust it out before the tail could strike.

Though the Demon Cultivator's cultivation was high, he had not tempered himself into copper skin and iron bones. Sang Ying's thrust did not do him much harm, but it still hurt.

Having suffered a modest setback, the Demon Cultivator grew even angrier. "You little girl, you don't know whether to live or die!"

The long snake tail struck again, but this time it was aimed at Sang Ying.

Sang Ying was ready. The moment he struck, she would chop off his tail!

But she was still a beat too slow. A cold gleam flashed before her eyes, and when Sang Ying looked again, a section of dark red snake tail had been severed outright and fallen to the ground.

The Demon Cultivator recoiled in pain and hurriedly pulled back his tail, leaving pale green demon blood all over the floor.

"Who was that?!" The Demon Cultivator had seen clearly that the blow that injured him had not come from this young sword cultivator. A little girl in the Foundation Establishment Realm presumably lacked the ability as well.

Sang Ying turned to look at Si Jing. He shrugged at her, indicating it had not been him.

Fortunately, the person who had struck had no intention of hiding it. A slightly chilly voice soon rang through the stone chamber. "We agreed to end this quickly. What are you dragging your feet for now?"

Those words were clearly not addressed to Luo Fengyuan and his companion.

The next moment, Si Jing replied, "I saw a good show and came over to watch the excitement! Who would have thought that City Lord Luo, the great benefactor everyone talks about, would collude with the Demon Race and use innocent mortals to test medicine? Tell me, if word got out, would White Foothill City get a new city lord?"

As he spoke, Si Jing stared straight at Luo Fengyuan. Anyone could hear who his words were meant for.

City Lord Luo's eyes darkened. "What do you know?! If I hadn't protected Listening Willow Village all these years, how could it have remained safe for so long? When a beast tide appeared outside White Foothill City, Listening Willow Village would have ceased to exist long ago if I hadn't risked my life to protect them! Now I'm only asking them to help test some medicine. I haven't taken their lives! What have I done wrong?!"

His eyes grew bloodshot. None of his initial commanding authority remained, and he looked almost deranged.

"Heh! By that logic, Sword Master Gu Wangchuan once saved the entire cultivation world. Does that mean he could imprison you, test poison on you every day, and turn you into something neither human nor ghost?" Si Jing's voice was full of mockery.

Gu Shu, huddled inside the spirit sword, was thrilled. "He's talking about my master! Did you hear that? He's praising my master!"

Sang Ying rubbed her temples without betraying any reaction. She truly could not imagine what sort of person the Sword Master was to have raised a Sword Qi with such a temperament.

"Hmph. You have a silver tongue, but I won't argue with you." Luo Fengyuan slowly tightened his grip on his whip. "The Heavenly Dao is unfair. It gives others excellent fortune and exceptional talent, but when it came to me, my wife died young, and my only daughter can only live her entire life as an ordinary person. I refuse to accept it!"

"My wife was gentle and kind, and she was a medical cultivator. Who knows how many people she saved? Yet in the end, she died while searching for Life Spirit Grass for our daughter. My daughter is clever and lovable, countless times smarter than those cultivators, yet she was born without a Spirit Root and is destined to achieve nothing in life. What sense is there in that?!"

"Yes, as a human cultivator, I colluded with the Demon Race and became a sinner who betrayed his own people. But the Demon Race can change my daughter's fate and make her grow a Spirit Root. For her sake, I would not hesitate even to become a sinner in the eyes of the entire cultivation world!"

Sang Ying knew of the Life Spirit Grass Luo Fengyuan spoke of. It was recorded in the Complete Spirit Plant Book, which said that a person without a Spirit Root would grow one after consuming it.

But even the Complete Spirit Plant Book did not say where Life Spirit Grass could be found, and stated that it was very likely only a legend.

Like a person's appearance and origins, Spirit Roots were determined by heaven, and even cultivators were powerless to change them. If something like Life Spirit Grass really existed, word of it would probably have spread among cultivators long ago.

After all, what great Lineage did not have a few younger members with poorer Spirit Roots?

"Why say so much to them? Let's hurry up and deal with them!" Even if Luo Fengyuan was not afraid of losing his reputation, the Demon Cultivator was unwilling to expose his secret prematurely.

Now that the old Demon Emperor's only offspring was missing, the Red Snake Clan still intended to rely on this "treasure," which could change the entire Demon Race, to contend for the Demon Emperor's position.

With that, the two attacked again.

Before they came at him, Si Jing leaned close to Sang Ying's ear and quietly gave her a few instructions.

At a time like this, Sang Ying had no choice but to place her hopes in him. She obediently followed his arrangements, and once Luo Fengyuan and the Demon Cultivator were facing Si Jing and his friend who had been hiding in the shadows,

Sang Ying hurriedly pulled Nan Gurong toward the far end of the underground palace.

A fight between four high-level cultivators was nothing like Sang Ying's earlier skirmish. As the two women made their way through the palace, the entire place shook without cease.

No matter how solidly the underground palace had been built, the spiritual power unleashed by the high-level cultivators had caused faint signs that it was about to collapse.

"Fellow Daoist Sang Ying, what are we going to do?" Nan Gurong did not believe Sang Ying would abandon Si Jing and his companion and run away. She was simply curious what the two of them could do after coming out here.

Recalling Si Jing's earlier instructions, Sang Ying explained to Nan Gurong as they went, "They're fighting so fiercely that this underground palace will probably collapse soon. The palace is connected to the moat outside. If it collapses, not only will the houses aboveground be destroyed, but the moat will also flood into White Foothill City. The cultivators can save themselves, but the mortals making a living in the city will suffer."

After hearing Sang Ying's explanation, Nan Gurong broke out in a cold sweat.

She hurriedly asked, "Then what should we do?"

As soon as she spoke, she remembered the mortals she had seen locked in cages earlier and asked again, "And those mortals—what will happen to them if the underground palace collapses?"

"Don't worry. Those people have already been rescued." Si Jing had told Sang Ying this. He had deliberately provoked their opponents with harsh words to buy time for his friend to rescue the mortals.

That was also why the person who had remained out of sight had arrived so late.

A rumble came from overhead. Sang Ying pulled Nan Gurong against the stone wall, narrowly avoiding the falling rocks.

Ahead of them, the sound of trickling water suddenly grew louder. As they went farther, water even began to appear beneath their feet.

Gradually, the water spread until it became a small stream.

Cracking sounds came incessantly from the distance. Sang Ying knew they were a sign that the stone walls were splitting and the river water was about to pour in.

"Fellow Daoist Nan, do you trust me?"

Sang Ying's question came out of nowhere, and Nan Gurong was taken aback. But once she recovered, she immediately nodded.

"I have a way to stop the river from flooding in, but my spiritual power hasn't fully recovered. I need to borrow yours!" Sang Ying had asked long ago and learned that Nan Gurong also had a Water Spirit Root, so Sang Ying could use her Spiritual Qi.

If Sang Ying had been alone, she would not have dared make such a bold claim. But with Nan Gurong there, could two Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators really be unable to deal with this river water?

The underground palace shook ceaselessly as rumbling came from both ahead and behind.

Sang Ying could no longer spare any attention for what was happening behind her. All she could feel was Nan Gurong's hand pressed against her back and the gentle Spiritual Qi pouring into her body in a steady stream.

"Crash!"

The stone wall shattered completely, followed immediately by the roar of surging river water.

Sang Ying gripped her spirit sword, Gu Shu's incessant muttering filling her mind.

She closed her eyes for a moment, and the entire world fell silent. Sang Ying could see nothing but the water rushing toward them like a colossal dragon.

"Thousand-Mile Ice Seal!"

Frost-white Sword Qi poured from the spirit sword, surging forward with even greater force than the river water.

Nan Gurong felt the Spiritual Qi in her body suddenly run dry. In an instant, the dimness before her turned a snowy white.

Something icy seemed to land on her face. She looked up and discovered it was ice chips falling from the frozen river water.