Chapter 243 | Confrontation

Chapter 243: 243 | Confrontation

Cold winds blew through the rear chasm of the Main Peak, passing through the fading cyan formation light in the midnight sky.

At the entrance leading onto Bamboo-Mist Peak, the towering cyan light-curtain of the Tier-4 Peak Ancestral Locking Array flickered unstably.

Three large cracks had formed across the lower half of the barrier due to the powerful spiritual backlash from inside. Cold air flowed through them, carrying a faint metallic smell of blood and traces of disturbed Late Stage Core Formation Qi.

More than two dozen inner deacons and several council elders had gathered outside the barrier, their faces pale in the torchlight.

Sect Master Hong stood at the front of the path, with the grey-bearded First Elder beside him.

Hong Xuan’s face showed deep worry and sorrow as he looked toward the frost-covered bamboo grove beyond the barrier. But he stood in front of the narrow stone entrance, blocking the way and stopping anyone from going inside.

"No one is allowed near the barrier!" the First Elder shouted at the worried crowd. "Senior Sister Chu Qingyi has suffered a sudden meridian deviation while trying to break through to the Peak Core Formation Realm! Her Ice Qi is out of control. Anyone who enters now could trigger another clash of spiritual power and put her life in danger!"

"Indeed," Sect Master Hong sighed heavily, shaking his head with a pained expression as he raised one hand toward the elders. "Qingyi has kept herself locked inside Bamboo-Mist Peak for ten years grieving our late Master. Tonight her impatience to break through awakened a heart-demon. Everyone return to your peaks at once! This Sect Master will stand guard outside the gate until morning and check on her once the frost settles."

Several older council elders who had served under the Previous Sect Master exchanged uneasy glances.

"Sect Master, since the ancestral barrier has already cracked open from inside, shouldn’t we ask Alchemy Peak to send emergency core-stabilizing pills inside immediately?" an elderly council member asked hesitantly. "When a Late Stage Core Formation cultivator’s meridians freeze over after a failed impact, waiting until morning could crack her Golden Core!"

"Even an alchemist’s refined pills will clash with her rampaging ice essence right now!" the First Elder snapped sharply. "Do you question the Sect Master’s judgment?"

"Since when does a cultivator suffering an backlash need to be left unattended in the dark while the sect’s Chief Alchemist is kept outside?"

A cold, clear woman’s voice cut cleanly through the howling mountain wind.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Four streaks of spiritual light descended from the night sky and landed squarely on the outside the barrier, less than ten paces in front of Sect Master Hong and the First Elder.

As the light faded, Elder Liu, Lin Tian, Elder Bai, and Elder Qing stepped forward together.

Seeing all four Core Formation Elders arrive at the same time within breaths of the explosion, the First Elder’s pupils shrank noticeably.

Sect Master Hong’s hands, clasped behind his back, tightened.

Through the faint crimson glint of his Insight Eye, Lin Tian caught the cold, killing intent hidden beneath the skin of Hong Xuan’s.

Hong Xuan had calculated that the midnight explosion would catch the other peaks asleep, giving him enough time to send the council elders away and wait for the ten years of accumulated Corpse-Marrow Stagnation Ash to finish rotting through Chu Qingyi’s cracked Golden Core. Once she slipped into an irreversible coma before dawn, he could walk in alone and take the Crimson Nimbus Ancestral Seal without a single witness.

"Junior Sister Liu, Junior Sister Bai, and... Elder Lin, Elder Qing," Sect Master Hong forced a strained sigh onto his face. "You came quickly, but no one can enter Bamboo-Mist Peak tonight. Senior Sister Qingyi’s spiritual sea is in complete chaos inside the seclusion hall. Even my Peak Core Formation aura cannot rashly approach her right now, let alone an alchemist’s flame."

"Is that so?"

Elder Liu did not give an inch. Stepping straight up to the barrier line, she locked her dark eyes directly onto Hong Xuan’s face with the unyielding authority of a Tier-4 Mid-Grade Alchemist.

"I have treated more than a hundred cases of meridian deviation over the past century," Elder Liu said loudly, making sure every elder and deacon on the cliff could hear her. "Senior Sister Chu has a Single Ice Spiritual Root. When someone with her constitution suffers a breakthrough backlash at the Late Stage Core Formation Realm, the rebounding Ice Qi rushes toward the heart meridian. If it is not controlled within half a watch, her life will be in danger."

Elder Liu took another half-step forward, her voice turning colder than the mountain wind:

"By blocking and refusing to let me treat her until morning, Senior Brother Hong—are you trying to protect her, or are you waiting for Senior Sister Chu to freeze to death inside?"

A loud murmur of shock swept through the gathered council elders and deacons at Elder Liu’s blunt accusation.

The elderly council members who still remembered the Previous Sect Master’s kindness immediately stepped forward in agitation.

"Elder Liu speaks the truth! If the cold Qi reaches her heart meridian, Senior Sister Chu won’t survive the night!"

"How can we leave the Previous Sect Master’s only daughter inside without a single alchemist?"

The First Elder’s face turned livid. "Presumptuous! How dare you twist the Sect Master’s good intentions—"

Sect Master Hong raised a hand, cutting the First Elder off mid-sentence.

The air around Hong Xuan grew deathly still as his gaze met Elder Liu’s fierce stare and then shifted briefly toward Lin Tian’s calm, unfathomable golden eyes standing right beside her.

If he kept blocking their way after the Chief Alchemist had made it clear that any delay could cost her life, every elder on the mountain would suspect him of trying to kill the Previous Sect Master’s daughter.

Corpse-Marrow Stagnation Ash have already fused into her Golden Core over the past ten years, Hong Xuan calculated coldly behind his somber expression. Not even a Tier-4 Mid-Grade Alchemist can pull that ash out of a cracked Core during an active backlash. Let Liu Ying go in! When Chu Qingyi dies under her hands anyway, not a single person will be able to blame this Sect Master!

"Junior Sister Liu misunderstands my caution," Sect Master Hong sighed, stepping aside from the cracked barrier with a look of heavy reluctance. "Since you are confident in stabilizing her rebound without agitating her ice Qi, I will not stop you. Come—I will go in with you to check on Senior Sister Qingyi!"

Seeing Hong Xuan take a step toward the gap in the cyan barrier, Lin Tian’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Yet before Elder Liu or Lin Tian even needed to speak

HUMMMMM!!

From the summit of Bamboo-Mist Peak beyond the mist, a sharp, piercing sword-hum rang out, followed by a streak of freezing blue sword-qi that slashed down from the upper pavilion and carved a deep line across the path right in front of Hong Xuan’s boots!

"Stop... right at the gate, Hong Xuan..."

A woman’s voice—weak and trembling from internal injury, yet colder than ten-thousand-year glacier ice—echoed down from the upper peak through the cracked formation.

"Ten years ago... before my father’s spirit tablet, I swore that you would never take a single step onto Bamboo-Mist Peak," Chu Qingyi’s voice drifted through the freezing mist, followed by a suppressed, painful cough. "Elder Liu may enter... If anyone from the Main Peak crosses that line, I will detonate the Ancestral Seal along with this mountain!"

At the entrance of the peak, Sect Master Hong’s foot froze in mid-air above the sword-scarred stone.

In front of twenty council elders and deacons, having his nominal fiancée threaten to blow up the mountain rather than let him take a single step inside made a dark, ugly flush flash briefly across Hong Xuan’s cheekbones before he forced it down.

"Senior Sister Qingyi’s temper is still affected by the backlash," Hong Xuan said stiffly, drawing his foot back behind the line. "In that case, I will remain right here outside the barrier to guard the entrance."

"Elder Bai, Elder Qing—stay at the outer gate alongside the Sect Master and stabilize the array from the outside," Elder Liu said briskly, not giving Hong Xuan another glance as she turned to Lin Tian. "Elder Lin, your Yang Qi and Yang Fire control are needed to help me push the frost away from her heart. Follow me inside!"

Before the First Elder could object to a newly promoted male Elder accompanying her, Lin Tian and Elder Liu stepped cleanly through the gap in the cyan light-curtain and disappeared into the freezing bamboo mist.

***

The gate is open and the Sect Master is left outside. Guess what Lin Tian finds inside Bamboo-Mist Peak. Drop your Power Stones and Golden Tickets.