922. Besieged (IV)

Bang!

An explosion of blue and black spiritual auras shook the sky and the earth. The walls of Three Clouds City almost crumbled. The aftermath and shockwave sent both Liu Bang and Chen Wentian tumbling away.

“Haha! You’re strong!” Liu Bang laughed as he straight+tened himself, “Let’s fight some more!”

Chen Wentian didn’t bother replying with words and just sent another huge burst of blue flames. Then, he grabbed Qiu Chuyi and Tie Buqun and raced toward the top of the dome of the protection array. Xuan Xina followed close behind.

However, they didn’t get very far before they saw another bandit trying to block their way. It was Immortal Green Cloud Yun Duling of the cloud siblings. She had also sneaked through the besieging array and joined the melee.

Facing them, she raised her hands and sent forth a wave of toxic green clouds.

“Hold your breath!” Chen Wentian shouted and emitted a wave of fiery spiritual energy.

The blue flames met the green clouds and instantly set them on fire. The clouds were burned away as quickly as Yun Duling could produce them.

Finally, with multiple bandits converging from all directions, Chen Wentian and his party reached the opening of the protective array. Below, Zhou Ziyun quickly manipulated the controlling inscriptions and they were able to return inside to safety.

“Whew!” Chen Wentian let out a breath.

“Damn it! That was close!” Qiu Chuyi said.

“What a good besieging array, which pervert came up with that?” Tie Buqun grumbled.

“Master!”

“Master, are you alright?”

Lin Qingcheng and the other disciples rushed up and circled Chen Wentian, making sure he was unharmed.

Xuan Xina side-eyed these women. She felt a stab of annoyance and forced herself to look away. It was none of her business how many disciples this playboy took in.

Above them, Yang Gehu and the bandits did not continue attacking the protection array. Instead, they returned to their original positions outside of the besieging array.

“Eh? They aren’t going to attack us?” Tie Buqun asked.

“Why would they?” Xuan Xina retorted, “The besieging array will do the job and all they have to do is maintain it. Since we have no way of breaking their array, there is nothing we can do. We can’t even run.”

“Xina,” Chen Wentian detached himself from his disciples and walked over to her, “Do you have any way? You are a prioress of the Virtuous Order. If you have any other methods, please, this isn’t the time to be holding back.”

Everyone looked at her, some with hope and eagerness. The Virtuous Order was the overlord of the southern region, surely…

Xuan Xina glared at them, especially Chen Wentian, “All of this your fault, and you still have the face to say that I am holding back?”

“Prioress!” Long Yifei spoke up before anyone else could. Her harsh tone surprised everyone, even herself, and her subsequent words were softer, “Prioress Xuan, this is an extremely dangerous situation for all of us, including you. Those people won’t let any one of us go. They won’t let you go even if you are prioress of the Virtuous Order.”

“Yifei…”

Faced with her favorite student, Xuan Xina felt helpless. It was her mission to protect her. If anything happened to Long Yifei, Abbotess Li would not forgive her. Long Yifei was far more important to the Virtuous Order than Chen Wentian could ever know. Whether it was Yang Gehu or anybody else, she would not hand over Long Yifei to anyone else.

Xuan Xina sighed, “Fine.”

She flipped her hand and withdrew a large clear crystal. There was a strange energy trapped within that seemed to take the shape of familiar written characters.

Chen Wentian recognized the item. He had used one before but it had been far smaller than the one Xuan Xina held.

“This is a long-distance messaging crystal,” Xuan Xina explained, confirming Chen Wentian’s guess, “I can send and receive short messages from the Order. It was created by a master of spatial attribute Dao and its profoundness far surpasses ordinary besieging arrays. Even if the Ebony Elude doesn’t work, this should…”

She activated the crystal and the old words were slowly replaced with new ones. She read the message and frowned. She quickly sent her spiritual energy into the crystal to send and receive more messages. As she did so, her frown deepened and her face took on expressions of gloom and disappointment.

“How… how can this be…” She muttered.

“Prioress, what’s wrong?” Long Yifei asked.

“This…” Xuan Xina stared at the crystal in her hand as if it had killed all of her hopes.

By now, everyone sensed that something was seriously wrong. They all gathered around Xuan Xina, full of concern.

“Xina, what’s wrong?” Chen Wentian asked.

His voice seemed to wake her from a daze. She looked at him and then let out a shuddering breath, “We’ve been attacked. Not us, but the Order. The Sororal Order has attacked the Virtuous Order at the Temple of the Clouds. Cardinal Liu and the Sororal Order’s cardinal fought for a full day and a half. The Virtuous Order has sent all the abbotesses and prioresses they can spare to the Temple of the Clouds. There won’t be anyone to help us. At least, everyone that could have come to help us have been sent north. Now, it will take at least one full day for others to come and there is no way we can last a day. With the state of the besieging array, we’ll be lucky if we can last a few more hours.”

“Only a few more hours, that’s impossible…” Tie Buqun muttered.

“Can’t we break the array? Is there no way?” Qiu Chuyi asked.

“Why did they start fighting? Master, what happened at the temple?” Long Yifei asked.

Chen Wentian frowned, “I don’t know…”

He really didn’t. He didn’t think his little ploy at the Little Shop of Pleasure would result in the two cardinals fighting. Spirit Emperors wouldn’t decide to put their lives on the line for trivial matters. At most, he expected the Sororal Order to send some people to sneak attack a few of the frontrunners.

If it wasn’t anything he did, then… was it someone else? What could someone do to instigate a full-blown conflict between the two orders?

“I don’t know,” He said again, “But it doesn’t matter. We are still here. We can still fight. I will lend you some additional strength.”

He gestured with his hand and retrieved several items from his disciples.

“Qiu Chuyi, this is my Purple Jade Sword. It should be able to support your fighting style. Tie Buqun, this is the Cloudy Bronze  , it has an extremely strong defense. Xina, this is the Winter’s Sun. Use it to enhance your ice attacks.”

“This…” Qiu Chuyi’s eyes widened as he stared at the treasure sword that radiated a powerful sword intent.

“Many thanks!” Tie Buqun received the parasol enthusiastically.

Xuan Xina also took the sword named the Winter’s Sun and swung it around. She already had a Spirit Lord Realm item but it only had supportive effects no direct offensive use. This sword was perfect for her.

“Let’s hit them hard. Everyone ready?” Chen Wentian asked, brandishing the Summer’s Dance sword.

“Yes, Lord Chen!”

“Yes, Lord Chen!”

“Alright!”

---

Thank you to all my patrons!

Support me and read ahead by 200 or even 400 chapters!

p atreon.com/kigreenwriting

Join my discord for updates, delays, and my ramblings :)

d iscord.gg/dY5UApw