Chapter 576: The Holder of the Pure Lotus Sword Fragment

Under the night. Atop the uneven buildings of Sleepless Street, three shadows pursued in the direction Lu Yibei had left, pressing forward without pause. “Are you sure? Is Gu Qianqian really investigating Senior Brother Gu?”

“Confirmed.”

“Hmph! Then tonight, she can only stay here forever with Wu Yutang. The Society’s secrets must not be leaked!”

No sooner had the words fallen than a sudden whistle rose by his ear. He snapped his head back to see a sliver of silver light like a crescent moon streaking straight for his neck. With no time to think, he ducked low, narrowly dodging the sneak attack, anger flaring in his eyes. At once, a soft clang sounded behind him—”zing!”—as a Persian scimitar stabbed into the stone platform on the rooftop. “Who’s there?!”

He had barely shouted when an old and a young figure swept in, landed, and, without a word, unleashed spell formations and charged. Ruthless and tight-lipped, crashing in headfirst—this was the Miracle Order’s style! Thirty percent strength, seventy percent confidence, and the remaining ninety percent left to miracles! Blades flashed, sword energy sliced, spell formations and talismans churned in a dazzling blur. “Damn it! Who the hell are you people?!”

Under the ferocious assault, someone cried out in shock and rage. Shem and Salih exchanged a glance, said nothing, and pressed the attack. Hearing these guys planned to harm the Holy Son, they had only one thought—wreck them!

Bang—! The air compressed into a thunderclap. A gale howled in an instant, sweeping up Fang Ji and heaps of trash, tumbling and whirling through the alley—vegetable leaves, bone shards, bottles and jars—junk of every kind pelted his body like bullets, remorselessly slamming into him. At the same time, Lu Yibei, kicked square in the lower abdomen, shot backward from the dark, damp alley like a cannonball, tracing a small arc through the air. In the split second before she began to fall, she caught the crowns of heads of passersby at the edge of her vision and heard the rising clamor. She snapped back to herself, pupils quivering. Seeing the bustling street less than two hundred meters away, Lu Yibei realized that if they fought here, innocents would likely be caught in the crossfire. When she had rushed in, that haunting had been lunging at Fang Ji; with no time to spare, she had slashed with her sword, ignoring the three unknown psychic energy fluctuations trailing her. But now things were different…

Mind made up, with no time to divine the amplification ratio of her next spell, Lu Yibei began to murmur an incantation under her breath. “Jade tower and golden palace, iron cast wall, dragon’s chant, lion’s growl, tiger’s howl, hundred-foot barrier, sealed kingdom, three beast binding!”

“Sound the python flute, strike the turtle drum, moon pierces coral, pine births amber… Sealing Spell Fifty-Three, Python-Turtle Amber Derivation!”

Fluent, rapid chanting, and the two spell formations completed in an instant. “Vmmm—!”

As Lu Yibei uttered the last words, the air let out a low hum. Flashes of gold, silver, and bronze streaked like meteors toward three directions of the alley, sank into the walls, and vanished. At the same time, amber formed from condensed psychic energy surged up the alley walls from the base, rapidly “growing” to plate the entire alley in a thin tea-colored crystal. Both spells amplified at over twofold; the moment they took effect, a wave of weakness from severe psychic energy loss washed over Lu Yibei, her body going limp. For a moment she lacked the strength to correct her balance and could only let her body trace a parabolic arc through the air. “Thud—!”

The instant she fell back into the alley, the tea-colored crystal sealed together above, sounding a low, muffled boom. In just two seconds, this roughly fifty-meter alley had been cut off from Sleepless Street’s main road by her spell. Sealing myself in—this is really a first! Lu Yibei thought. “Thud—!”

Her petite body hit the ground, rolling, spinning, bouncing. The world seemed to lurch; her organs felt displaced, colliding inside her. Then—catching the split second her body rebounded into the air, Lu Yibei drove her sword into the ground, stepped back lightly with both legs, and, with a shriek of rending metal, carved a gouge in the floor, finally steadying herself. The wind died.

With a series of dull clanks, Fang Ji and the whirling trash all plummeted headfirst like tamping piles and slammed into the ground. The instant his face met the cold, damp floor, Fang Ji distinctly heard a crisp “crack!” travel through his bones to his ears. Right after, a rush of heat welled from his dislocated lumbar spine—burning, yet soothing like scalding water. His dislocated vertebra, under the battering of flying junk and intimate contact with the ground, miraculously returned to place. “Huh!? I can move!” Fang Ji stood up with a delighted cry, then looked ahead at the girl standing between him and the haunting, blinked in surprise, and tentatively asked, “Miss, are you reinforcements sent by Miss Guide?”

Lu Yibei: “…” No, I’m the rescue summoned by the Monkey King. “Th-That thing is too scary. I can move now—why don’t we just run?”

“……”

As much as I appreciate your style, we really can’t run this time! If we bolt, the people on the street next door will suffer…

So not only can’t we run, we need to deliver the full package—eliminate, cremate, and scatter the ashes! Lu Yibei thought, opening her mouth to speak, but a low snarl from ahead cut her off. “Rrraah—!”

A guttural growl laced with a tearing rasp, like working a broken bellows. Following the sound, she saw the haunting’s half-shredded chest—ripped apart by sword energy—had somehow mostly regenerated, a viscous, pale fluid slowly welling from the wound. The liquid churned almost at a boil, making a syrupy sound as it restored the body. As it healed, the thing darted through the dim alley like a wraith, lunging fast—sometimes crawling on all fours, sometimes springing forward like a bird in flight—its speed shocking. Seeing this, Lu Yibei’s gaze sharpened, locking onto the haunting. But the premonitory thoughts did not surface in her mind as she’d hoped; as she watched it, her eyes were tugged by some uncanny force, drifting inexorably to the damaged folding fan in the haunting’s hand. As if that fan were its true entity…

A strange notion flashed through Lu Yibei’s mind. Tsk. If I can’t intercept precisely, I’ll blanket it with fire! She stamped her toes into the ground and shot backward toward the end of the alley, snatching Fang Ji with one hand while her other hand pulled out three Alchemical Bombs, which she hurled at the onrushing haunting. “Cover your head.”

She spoke softly to Fang Ji. The instant she caught a glimpse of him wrapping his arms over his head, she triggered the palm print left on the bombs. “Boom—!”

A violent blast erupted, crimson fire swallowing the entire alley in an instant. Terrifying pressure and searing heat swept through; the spell sealing the alley flickered, cracks veining its surface, tiny arcs of lightning skittering over it as if it might collapse at any moment. A strange stench from the disaster water and alchemical residue filled the air; Fang Ji inhaled only a trace, but under the intense hallucinations and the faint invasion of the world’s malice, his eyes rolled back, foam frothed at his lips, his body convulsed, and he fainted. In the final blink before losing consciousness, he seemed to see a sky strewn with endless stars.

“Hoo—!”

Staring into the fire ahead, Lu Yibei slowly exhaled a turbid breath, glanced back at Fang Ji, and frowned slightly. How’d he pass out? That tolerance is a bit weak, huh? Whatever—so long as he’s not dead, it’s no big deal.

Withdrawing her gaze from Fang Ji, Lu Yibei looked toward the flames ahead that had yet to fade. While the detonation of the Alchemical Bomb had temporarily stalled the haunting, her thoughts raced as she analyzed the situation.

That haunting’s psychic energy fluctuation was roughly 0.8 New Rabbit—rounding it off, somewhere between Class B+ and A-. It also possessed rather impressive regenerative abilities…

When it ambushed me just now, not only did it unleash tremendous physical strength, it also caused the air to compress and explode. There’s a good chance it can manipulate airflow…

Although I don’t know why that Huá Sāng is trying to stop me from killing the haunting, she may well interfere with my actions again. And those three unknown psychic energy fluctuations that were following me earlier—I don’t know when they’ll show themselves either. I have to stay on guard…

The two sealing spell formations have already been reinforced, but withstanding four or five Alchemical Bomb explosions is about their limit. I can’t use anything too powerful…

“…”

A boss with high damage and high regen, a “freeze” debuff that procs at random, elite mobs randomly crashing the fight, and locked skills…

What kind of cursed-ass modifiers are these?! If this were in Love and Magic Girls, the devs’ mothers would’ve been dragged out by the rage bros and exiled to the Kuiper Belt ages ago!

Lu Yibei did not believe for a second that three Alchemical Bombs would be enough to kill that haunting. When she arrived here, she had already probed it with her psychic sense. Its psychic energy fluctuation was about 0.8 New Rabbit, which rounded off to somewhere around Class B+ to A-. Although the Alchemical Bombs had undergone several upgrades, greatly increasing their lethality and even adding debuffs that reduced defense and luck, using them to kill a Class A- haunting was still asking too much.

The main problem was that the yield was insufficient.

If it were [Flower Thousand Trees] or the newly created [Falling From Heaven], then maybe.

“…”

So, the only option was to cheese it!

Once the heat from the explosion dropped to a bearable level, she would move in before that thing could recover, use [Royal Authority] to intimidate it and force it into a brief moment of rigidity, then end the battle instantly with Heavenly Symphony.

That way, as long as she compressed the sword energy into a single straight line as much as possible, even if the spell formation were torn apart by the sword energy, it would not cause large-scale destruction or harm the innocent.

So Lu Yibei thought.

After deciding on her next course of action, she did not relax her vigilance in the slightest. After all, an enemy that could force her to use more than half of her abilities all at once was already extremely, extremely troublesome. She could not afford the slightest carelessness!

Then…

Ahead, the firelight in the alley began to fade.

Now!

With a thought, Lu Yibei stepped forward, kicked off hard, and her body flashed. Like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, she closed in on the charred haunting at an inconceivable speed.

The instant she raised her head to look at the haunting towering two heads above her, a pale golden radiance flashed through her eyes, and a magnificent, solemn aura spread outward.

Catching the brief stiffness in the haunting’s body, she turned her wrist and drew a dazzling sword flourish, then thrust out the Pure Lotus Sword in her hand without hesitation, its blade ignited by her innate skill.

[Taihe Gentleman Sword · Heavenly Symphony]—high-concentration compressed innate-skill enchantment version!

“Whoosh—!”

With that thrust, the Pure Lotus Sword struck the haunting squarely in the chest and pierced out through its back. Accompanied by a piercing whistle, dazzling crimson sword energy shot out from the end of the Pure Lotus Sword and slammed into the spell formation at the other end of the alley.

In an instant, the spell formation collapsed like a mirror. Streams of gold, silver, bronze, and tea-colored light darted wildly through the alley.

It felt like a bunch of bratty kids had decided to kick glittering disco balls around the alley like soccer balls.

Silently, the sword energy shredded the haunting’s body from the inside out. Starting from the wound pierced open by the Pure Lotus Sword, its body began to crumble, powder, and dissipate.

As if devoured, that burly body was reduced in the blink of an eye to only a head and a single arm, which fell to the ground.

Staring at the head and arm still connected by a thick, white, viscous substance, Lu Yibei’s eyes trembled slightly.

What the hell is this?

Even if its weak point were hidden up its ass, it should be done for by now, right?

Realizing in astonishment that, despite roughly eighty percent of the haunting’s body having been destroyed by the sword energy, its psychic energy fluctuation had only weakened slightly, Lu Yibei’s heart jolted. She instantly tightened her grip on the Pure Lotus Sword and thrust the blade forward without hesitation, intending to deliver a righteous finishing blow.

However.

Just as the blade was about to touch the haunting’s head, a black shadow suddenly flashed past, intercepting the Pure Lotus Sword’s path.

“Clang—!”

The sound of metal striking stone rang out.

Lu Yibei’s palm went numb from the impact. She focused her eyes, and her pupils quaked.

That black-iron sheen, that long ruler-like shape without any obvious markings—what else could it be if not the fragment of the Pure Lotus Sword that Qing Ji had described?

Lu Yibei followed the fair little hand gripping the ferule upward. When she saw that exquisite, makeup-free face wearing an angry expression, she froze for a moment, then gradually understood everything.

The fragment of the Pure Lotus Sword was actually in Huá Sāng’s hands?

Then didn’t all that effort I spent searching through the Great Pure Palace amount to absolutely nothing?

Come to think of it, could the “crossed frequency” between me and her be because she’s been carrying a part of the Pure Lotus Sword on her person for so long?

As Lu Yibei was thinking, Huá Sāng’s questioning voice entered her ears and cut off her thoughts.

“Who exactly are you? Why are you trying to kill my senior brother?”

Lu Yibei: “???”

That ghostly thing is your senior brother?

Has the Great Pure Palace become so indiscriminate in its teaching that it even accepts hauntings as disciples now?

Do you think a cute and charming haunting like me has a chance?

As she thought this, her gaze passed over Huá Sāng and looked toward the haunting behind her. Then she saw a human head slowly float up, staring darkly at Huá Sāng’s back as it raised the arm connected to the damaged folding fan…