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CHAPTER 38: Two Deaf Souls
How did these people appear?
Taixuan Wuji had clearly activated the grand defensive array and had permitted no one entry, yet these figures had surrounded the sect silently and without warning. The scene was enough to make one's skin crawl.
The sect leaders had assumed Chao Jinsui was alone, a nuisance to be killed and forgotten. In their humiliated rage, they had discarded all reason and sought to bully the weak, intending to slaughter her to vent their frustration.
They had guessed wrong.
Elder Ping’s face paled drastically. "Who are they?"
Shi Chunqiu roared in fury, "It must be that old scoundrel Chao Taichu! Didn't he say he wouldn't interfere in her affairs?"
"No," Elder Ping hissed, "this is definitely not the Kunlun Sword Sect!"
Realization struck them both quickly, it was that gang of ferocious bandits! Recently, Taixuan Wuji's convoys had been frequently raided, their auction houses pillaged, and their forbidden grounds looted. The entire sect had been ransacked by a group that moved like shadows, leaving no trace.
With trouble knocking on their door one after another, Taixuan Wuji had found no time to deal with the bandits. They knew how formidable this group was and had harbored vague suspicions, which was why they hadn't dared to escalate matters until now.
Sweat beaded on Elder Ping’s forehead. She exchanged a look with Shi Chunqiu, and they both saw the same conclusion: it was the Demon Race!
If it were truly the Kunlun Sword Sect, they wouldn't be quite so terrified. But as the saying goes, even the ruthless fear the reckless. The demons were a pack of suicidal madmen!
Even with her suspicions, Elder Ping couldn't be certain, and she certainly couldn't voice them now.
Chao Jinsui asked softly, "Elder Ping, can you hand over the item now?"
Elder Ping made a split-second decision. "Seize her!"
They chose to strike the "softest" target. Elder Ping understood the principle of capturing the leader to disperse the followers. Since these people were here for Chao Jinsui, capturing her would provide the perfect hostage to force the black-clad figures to retreat.
As the command left her lips, Elder Ping’s cane expanded into a long staff, and she lunged toward Chao Jinsui. Shi Chunqiu’s hands formed seals as he aimed directly for her face. Other disciples moved as well, pouncing toward her silhouette.
The tall demon youth leading the group let out a cold snort. The swarm of black-clad demons dove toward the white-robed cultivators like a murder of crows.
The massive, animated stone statue, bolstered by the array, unleashed devastating power as it swung toward the tall demon leader. The Demon Lord clicked his tongue and blocked the statue’s path.
For a time, the air was filled with the sounds of slaughter. Mid-battle, the demons peppered the air with crude shouts like "Old scoundrel!" and "Your mother’s...!"
Ling Yun was shocked. "Are fights in your Demon Race always so...?"
Hong Niang fanned herself gracefully. "This mistress wouldn't dream of acting like them."
"Bah! Guang Ping, you silver-plated spearhead of a coward, how are you still struggling with a Golden Core? Move aside, let me!"
Ling Yun: "..."
They said people always picked the softest fruit to squeeze. But today, Elder Ping and Shi Chunqiu had grabbed a fruit made of tempered steel.
Chao Jinsui moved with incredible speed. Having reached the Gale Realm and the middle stage of the Nascent Soul realm, her body felt lighter than air. Before Elder Ping’s staff could even graze her, she had already tapped her toes and soared deep into the heart of Taixuan Wuji.
Elder Ping followed hot on her heels, with Shi Chunqiu a step behind. The staff lunged like a striking serpent, aimed at Chao Jinsui’s back.
She swung her sword in a backhand strike, the blade clashing violently with the staff in mid-air.
Both Elder Ping and Shi Chunqiu were at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm. Their strikes were ruthless, seasoned, and perfectly coordinated. Ordinarily, it shouldn't have been difficult for them to restrain her together; with a bit of luck, a two-on-one fight should have secured an easy victory.
This was Chao Jinsui’s first real battle since entering the Nascent Soul realm. The Kunlun Sword hummed with excitement, the battle-hungry blade perfectly in sync with her will. She felt as though she were back in the Founder’s small classroom for Kunlun Sword Tactics, except this time, facing Elder Ping, she was no longer the one being suppressed.
Furthermore, she was in a foul mood today and had no intention of holding back. Her sword moved like a torrential storm, its speed reaching impossible heights. She practically replicated every move the Founder's golden silhouette had used to beat her into the ground.
The clashing of sword and staff rang out incessantly. Elder Ping struggled to parry, forced back repeatedly. Seeing an opening, Shi Chunqiu’s sword lunged toward Chao Jinsui from a sharp angle behind her.
Chao Jinsui twisted in mid-air, her blade meeting Shi Chunqiu’s. Elder Ping seized the moment, her staff flying toward her like a venomous snake. The two worked in tandem, one in front and one behind.
Shi Chunqiu sneered, "Let's see how you escape today!"
In the next second, Chao Jinsui pushed the Gale Realm to its limit. She burst out of their encirclement, retreating dozens of meters in a flash. She landed on a rooftop, flipped, and her sword condensed into frost. Thousands of tiny frost-swords shot toward the pair.
Just as they were caught off guard, frantically trying to dodge the tricky frost-swords, her blade swept across the air like a soaring swan. Elder Ping was knocked violently from the air, crashing to the ground. The next strike was already aimed directly at her face.
Cold sweat drenched Elder Ping as she barely managed to roll away. This "soft fruit" was a piece of iron-clad, unyielding copper!
Shi Chunqiu struck from behind, hoping to rescue Elder Ping, but his vision blurred. Suddenly, Chao Jinsui’s silhouette appeared behind him. A sword pierced through his side. Despite his defensive treasures glowing brilliantly, the blade ran him through. He plummeted from the air, enduring the agony to flee, while Elder Ping also turned and ran.
Chao Jinsui gave chase. Elder Ping shrieked, "Stop! We can talk!"
"I tried to reason with you at the beginning," Chao Jinsui replied. "Why didn't you want to talk then?"
Elder Ping could barely dodge; she was nearly struck down from the sky. She knew the terrain of Taixuan Wuji well, but Chao Jinsui followed like a vengeful ghost, impossible to shake. Moreover, Chao Jinsui specifically targeted the sect’s landmark buildings. Wherever her sword passed, pavilions collapsed and rooftops crumbled.
Elder Ping gnashed her teeth in hatred. At this rate, half of Taixuan Wuji would be leveled. The sword cultivator behind her kept pursuing, questioning her with every strike.
Elder Ping finally broke down. "Stop! Be reasonable! I'll talk! Whatever demands you have, we can discuss them!"
At first, they had relied on their strength to bully the weak, refusing to honor their promise and calling for her death. Now that they were losing, they wanted to start a civil discussion. There was no such cheap bargain in this world!
Having spent so much time with the demon, this sword cultivator seemed to have picked up some of his temperament. "I don't want to listen anymore," she said.
Blood trickled from the corner of Elder Ping’s mouth from the force of the sword's vibrations. She knew she was no match for this woman. Shi Chunqiu was heavily injured and had vanished to parts unknown. Their perfect plan had disintegrated into this nightmare.
Elder Ping gritted her teeth. "Don't you want the real Yin-Yang Fish Treasure? I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!"
Chao Jinsui did not stop, her sword lunging toward her face. Elder Ping screamed, "It’s in the Treasure Pavilion!"
The tip of the sword stopped abruptly at Elder Ping’s brow. "Lead the way," Chao Jinsui commanded.
Just as Elder Ping thought she would sheathe her weapon, the blade shifted, resting against her neck. Elder Ping sucked in a sharp breath, her body stiffening as she stood.
By now, Taixuan Wuji was a ruin. The inner courtyard was a scene of devastation; the outer courtyard must have been even worse. Elder Ping suppressed her fury and terror, her face deathly pale.
When they reached the Treasure Pavilion, Chao Jinsui finally understood why the demon had found nothing during his last raid, there was an incredibly complex array inside.
"Let go of me first," Elder Ping said. "How can I undo the array like this?"
"Don't you still have feet?" the sword cultivator replied coldly. "Use them."
Elder Ping choked on her words. Sensing the Kunlun Sword humming displeasurably against her neck, she took a deep breath. Forced to maintain her awkward position, she painstakingly drew a Yin-Yang array on the ground with her foot.
The Treasure Pavilion before them vanished, replaced by a tall tower. Inside the open doors, a sea of fire roared.
In the next heartbeat, Elder Ping lunged forward, throwing half of a Yin-Yang Fish Treasure into the inferno!
Seeing the object fall into the flames, Chao Jinsui did not hesitate. Frost condensed on her blade as she dove toward the fire. The moment the ice blocked the heat, she charged inside. It was a true Heaven-Mending Stone; she wouldn't hesitate even if it meant braving a mountain of knives or a sea of fire.
In that flash of movement, Elder Ping seized the chance to flee, flying out of the Treasure Pavilion. She had been wearing the real Yin-Yang Fish all along, the woman was clever enough to know that given a choice between the treasure and herself, Chao Jinsui would choose the treasure. She used it as bait to buy her escape.
However, Elder Ping froze the moment she retreated. A handsome man with two demon horns was leaning against a pillar, watching her with a slanted gaze.
"Why don't you guess why she didn't even give you a second look just now?"
Naturally, it was because she knew someone was waiting outside.
Terror seized Elder Ping, and she scrambled to escape. But the Great Demon was not Chao Jinsui. She had held back to force out the location of the stone, but now that it had appeared, Elder Ping was of no further use.
A massive black body lunged through the air after her. Elder Ping’s defensive treasures flared with light as she channeled her spiritual energy to resist. But a dark shadow appeared behind her.
Elder Ping spat out a mouthful of black blood and snarled, "Demon Lord Yan Xueyi! What a 'noble' Chao Jinsui, colluding with a Demon Lord!"
the tall youth gave a poisoned smile, his phoenix-eyes brimming with malice. "If I kill you, no one will ever know, will they?"
They had intended to kill Chao Jinsui within these walls. If they silenced her, their broken promises and treachery would remain hidden. In their eyes, her life was a trifle, a reckless upstart to be eliminated for wounding their pride. They did not realize that in others' eyes, her life weighed as heavily as Mount Tai.
The Demon Lord tore through Elder Ping’s body.
Chao Jinsui pursued the stone into the tower. Past the fire, she encountered another stone Xiezhi.
Unlike the one Elder Ping had summoned, this one was vivid and lifelike, its surging aura making it seem like a true divine beast. Taixuan Wuji lacked a powerful sect-protecting array, but they possessed a guardian stone beast left by their ancestors. Though ancient divine beasts had long vanished, this stone contained the preserved roar of a long-dead Xiezhi.
This was exactly why Elder Ping had lured her here. The stone beast held the Heaven-Mending Stone in its jaws.
Chao Jinsui prepared to charge, but in the next second, the Xiezhi unleashed a titanic roar. The sound was like a massive bell tolling directly against her ear, its echoes thundering through the world. Within the enclosed tower, the sound reverberated endlessly.
She retreated dozens of steps, but it was still too close. The vibration left her mind blank, her ears ringing incessantly.
She reacted quickly. The divine Xiezhi was a beast of pure righteousness, capable of discerning good from evil and repelling all filth. Its roar was its greatest weapon; a truly wicked person would have their heart shattered by the sound.
If even a righteous cultivator like Chao Jinsui struggled to endure it, what about a demon? A demon was the very incarnation of evil.
As she retreated, she saw Yan Xueyi. Catching a break in the roaring, she shouted, "Yanyan! Get away! Have the demons withdraw immediately! Fast!"
the Great Demon faltered. Soon, a massive column of black smoke rose into the sky, forming a signal. It was the command for the demons to retreat.
Amidst the chaos, the demons had held an overwhelming advantage, beating the Taixuan disciples until they wailed for their parents. Now, they all stopped.
But then, both human and demon alike heard a world-shattering roar from the distance. Even from afar, the sound made their heads spin, and they immediately accelerated their retreat.
The Great Demon, who was closest, did not leave. It would be no exaggeration to say the Demon Lord was the embodiment of supreme evil. As the reincarnation of a demon god, the divine beast’s roar felt like ten thousand tiny hammers striking his head. His skull felt as though it were splitting open. Dark energy flooded his eyes, and black blood began to seep from his mouth and ears.
He endured the agonizing vibrations, raising a protective barrier of demonic energy. But the statue continued its roar.
Chao Jinsui was the closest; her mind was nearly a blank slate. They could not approach the statue; as soon as they drew near, the terrifying sound would explode within their minds. And the tower’s design was ingenious, it even created echoes!
The demon suddenly transformed into a cloud of surging dark energy. The demonic aura flourished, filling the entire tower. Sure enough, the stone statue turned its head stiffly, as if it had found its target, and lunged toward the source of supreme evil.
Once the statue charged out of the Treasure Pavilion into the open world, its roar, while still terrifying, at least lacked the echoes. Chao Jinsui pursued it with her sword.
In the distance, the tall Demon Lord's hair billowed in the wind. Watching the stone Xiezhi charging toward him, he wiped the blood from his mouth with utter indifference and drew the Demon-Subduing Sword.
The swirling black energy converged frantically toward him as he slammed the sword into the ground. The earth shattered into a web of cracks with a terrifying sound.
As the statue lunged toward him, the ground collapsed! The beast fell into a massive pit, buried by the collapsing structures, which managed to dampen the horrific sound waves.
Thousands of strands of demonic energy formed a massive net, lunging toward the statue like a dark cage, pinning it deep underground. The divine beast's roar weakened the demonic energy, causing the black strands to fade, only to be replaced by even more surging darkness.
Across the pit, the Great Demon looked at her from afar. His beautiful phoenix-eyes watched her, black blood still trickling from his mouth and ears, and he gave her a small smile.
With a single look of understanding, Chao Jinsui knew what she had to do.
Only a righteous cultivator like her could approach this statue. No wicked or demonic presence could get close.
She raised her sword, enduring the soul-shaking vibrations of the roar, and flew toward the beast. But as she drew closer, the ringing in her brain grew more intense. Though her heart wouldn't be shattered, she couldn't continue like this; if she forced her way in, the sound would turn her into an idiot.
She thought of the fourth stage of the Kunlun Sword Tactics, the only defensive technique in the manual, known as the Golden Body Realm. She was still stuck at the Thousand-Jin Realm, but she couldn't care about that now.
She activated the sword technique. The Kunlun Sword expanded, golden inscriptions appearing on the blade and forming a barrier of countless tiny golden swords around her. The barrier she could sustain wasn't enough to cover her entire body, so she focused the golden inscriptions to protect her ears and her heart's meridians.
This worked. She endured wave after wave of the roar’s vibrations and managed to reach the statue.
She knew she only had one chance, one strike.
The demonic energy coiled around the stone beast surged, pinning it to the ground without showing any sign of weakening. But she saw the demon standing above the pit, black blood flowing from beneath his long hair.
She couldn't let him hold on any longer. This one strike had to succeed!
In an instant, the ringing in her head seemed to fade. The frenzied stone beast became a mere target in her vision, a single point for her to aim at.
She took a deep breath. The surrounding spiritual energy surged frantically, becoming a vortex that she compressed further and further. The Thousand-Jin Realm, which she had struggled to break through, was pushed to its absolute limit.
With all her might, she thrust her sword into the statue’s throat!
The statue let out a final, piercing cry that turned her mind white with vibration. But then, the terrifying sound finally stopped. The statue’s head slumped to the ground.
Chao Jinsui let out a sigh of relief. She prepared to rush forward to find the Heaven-Mending Stone.
In the next second, she was suddenly pulled back. A tall figure tackled her, and they rolled across the ground, with him shielding her completely beneath his body.
A deafening explosion followed as the stone statue self-destructed. Flames shot into the sky, and the aftershock leveled the surrounding area.
But the demon was tall and large, shielding her perfectly from the blast. She heard him grunt, and black blood seeped from his mouth again, which he wiped away carelessly. His thin lips moved; he seemed to be saying something.
"You..."
"That Yin-Yang Fish Stone... it’s probably gone."
She had jumped into a sea of flames without blinking for that thing; it must have been very important to her.
"I’ll help you find others. I’ll definitely find one exactly the same."
The demon noticed her long silence and her dazed expression. He reached out to touch her head, thinking she had been deafened into stupidity.
"Yanyan," she said, "what are you saying? I can't hear you!"
He touched his own ears. "What are you saying? Say it again!"
The two deaf souls began to speak louder and louder. Unfortunately, they were talking past each other, desperately trying to guess the other's lip movements. In the end, neither understood a word the other said.
They fell silent for a moment, then both suddenly burst into laughter. When one is deaf, one can say anything.
The demon suddenly lowered his head and smiled. "I want you."
She couldn't hear him, but she saw his gaze gradually grow exceptionally deep. She couldn't guess his lip movements, and her ears were filled with buzzing. She said, "Yanyan, you're so cute."
He froze instantly. There was still blood on his mouth, which she gently wiped away. The demon lowered his eyes, obediently letting her wipe his face. His beautiful phoenix-eyes, however, peeked through his long lashes, staring at her as if he wanted to see right through her.
He pressed his face into her warm palm, like a predator staring at the prey he was determined to have. His breath wasn't hurried, it was even slightly cool, yet when it fell on the skin of her wrist, it felt burning hot.
His gaze seemed to convey the intent of a predator about to strike. However, when she tried to pull her hand back, he gripped it tightly.
She was a strange person. Outwardly, she seemed like a cold, sickly beauty, not particularly aggressive. In reality, she was made of iron, like a bamboo that could not be bent. With someone like her, one could only use soft methods, acting weak and miserable in front of her, never showing any aggression.
If you tried to take her by force and break her bones, she would bite your throat until the end. If you were hard, she would be harder. She possessed a fearlessness that contradicted her appearance and was especially ruthless toward herself. Her heart was firm and unyielding.
Yet such a person possessed a paradoxical tenderness and soft-heartedness. It was as if she had fed him a love potion, making this violent, possessively terrifying beast willing to pretend to be a pathetic, obedient puppy in front of her. He only hoped she would pat his head and allow this vicious hound to draw near.
He lowered his head, the scent of blood still clinging to him, and let her wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. He didn't even stop her when she reached out to pinch him.
He just wouldn't let her go. This vicious hound stared at her hungrily while murmuring:
"I want you."
"Now that I’ve tricked you into the Demon Realm, do you really think you can run away?"
He held her hand against her soft palm, his breath hot against the skin of her wrist. The hound could finally be unrestrained, no longer needing to pretend to be a pathetic, drenched puppy.
After all, she couldn't hear him.
The buzzing in her ears gradually faded. "Yanyan," she asked, "what did you say?"
She sensed his expression was strange, as if he had said something important. But he suddenly laughed. "Nothing."
A moment later, both of them returned to normal. The lighthearted atmosphere vanished, because the closer they walked to the center of the ruins, the more they saw everything was smashed to pieces.
She looked at a patch of powder on the ground, her expression growing worried. She could only pray the Heaven-Mending Stone truly lived up to its name and remained intact after the explosion.
Seeing her like this, the Great Demon, who had never comforted anyone in his life, hesitated, lost in thought. Suddenly, he paused. "Found it."
He reached into the rubble and hauled out his natal spirit beast. Little Eye's eyes were rolled back, looking as if it had swallowed something highly toxic and was at death's door. Normally, such a sight would have earned it its master's disdain.
But now, the Great Demon finally discovered a use for his spirit beast. "When the explosion happened, it opened its mouth."
Although the master usually deeply detested this stupid dragon-serpent's habit of gaping its mouth wide, at this moment, Little Eye had lived up to the fine tradition of being a trash can.
Chao Jinsui: "..."
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