The Legend of Zu 2

  This young Taoist priest who suddenly appeared was naturally Zhu Hong. Looking at him, Yue Qing felt a surge of uncontrollable anger rising from the bottom of his heart, filling his entire chest.

  Zhu Hong sneered, "You've come to find me, thinking that the root of Master's death lies with me, and you've specifically come to take revenge on me. You must have also set your sights on our sect's secret manual and the Taiyi Five Smoke Net. However, before coming, you should weigh your own abilities. Yet, you're only capable of setting up a simple array and using Obfuscation Techniques, and still dare to come find me? Don't you fear that I'll disregard our fraternal bond and send you to your death?"

  The woman was both startled and frightened, standing behind him and tremblingly asked: "Are you also from Wudang?"

  Zhu Hongdao said, "Lan Mei, don't be alarmed. He doesn't dare to show his face, so he's definitely not a master. If it were someone like Wan Miao Xian Gu or Jin Shen Luo Han, they would have directly used the Five Elements Divine Thunder to blast my cave. Besides, this formation is set up very crudely. Watch me break it!" As he spoke, he mobilized his Five Elements true energy, and a brilliant light burst forth from his palm, striking out with a loud clap of thunder.

  A deafening explosion shook the air, and the surrounding mountains and rivers seemed to shatter like a broken glass. In an instant, they were fragmented and scattered, as colorful lights and dust dispersed with the wind. Yue Qing appeared before them, holding Si Tu Ping in her arms.

  Zhu Hong originally thought that the ones coming were just Hu Shi, Sun Fu and the like, even if they came in threes or fives, he could still handle them. But when he saw clearly under the sunset glow, that one white shirt fluttering in the wind, he was suddenly scared out of his wits, and even started trembling as he spoke: "Yue... Yue... Brother Yue, how can it be you..."

  Yue Qing said coldly: "Why can't it be me?"

  Zhu Hong was also a cunning person, and earlier in the sky, he had already observed for a while, seeing that the formation laid out below was indeed very shallow, and with a wave of his hand, he could easily break through it, thinking that it would not be a master.

  He was naturally intelligent and had a good aptitude, and in the past few days he had devoted himself to practicing the secret transmission of his school's Taoist methods. He had also refined several powerful magical artifacts according to the records in the appendix of the Taoist scriptures. He thought that among the Five Peaks Sect, except for Xu Fei'niang, Fa Yuan, and a few others, no one else was a match for him, so he came down to rescue the woman. However, he never expected that the person who arrived would be Yue Qinbin.

  It was only because Yueqin Bin had been hiding in the Lock Cloud Cave on Mount Heng since his master's passing, and never came out to travel. Even when the Wutai and Huashan factions joined forces to capture him everywhere, Yueqin Bin did not participate. Who knew he would find me here today!

  Zhu Hong was well aware that this senior brother had been in the Tao for over 300 years, and his profound magical powers made him feel inferior. If he had known it was him here earlier, he should have fled immediately and never come back.

  Zhu Hong composed himself and ventured: "Elder Yue, this formation..."

  "If I hadn't set it up this way, you would have escaped long ago, wouldn't you?" Yue Qing stared at him with a cold gaze that seemed to want to pierce holes in his body. "You say my formation is shallow, but that's because your realm is too low and you can't recognize the subtleties within. Let me show you what's formidable!" With a flick of her sleeve, the formation changed, and numerous golden flying swords suddenly appeared from the ground, shooting towards Zhu Hong like rain.

  Zhu Hong was startled and didn't know what kind of magical flying sword his senior brother had cultivated, so he hastily sprayed a mouthful of immortal energy onto his own Three-Element Sword and wielded it to resist. However, when the golden swords collided with his, they all turned out to be illusions, and Zhu Hong's full-strength slashes all landed in empty air.

  "Brother Yue..." He looked up to find Yue Qing, but he had already disappeared. Surprised, he quickly turned his head and said to the woman, "Lan Mei, we can't resist this brother at all. Let's take advantage of him not having formed his array yet and make a joint effort to break out!"

  The woman nodded: "Good!" However, her hands did not move. When Zhu Hong looked at her, a strange smile had already appeared on his face. A pair of white and tender hands grasped Zhu Hong's, "Brother Hong, are you really willing to spend the rest of your life with me and cultivate together?"

  "That goes without saying!"

  The girl inserted her hand under her chin, peeled off her facial skin upwards, revealing blurry bones and flesh, getting fresh blood all over, and sighed faintly: "What if one day I become like this?"

  Zhu Hong suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, and he abruptly came to his senses. He stretched out his hand and pointed, and the Three Yuan Sword flew over to chop it down. In an instant, the woman vanished into thin air, and it turned out that she was also an illusion.

  "Yueqin Bin, don't be too arrogant!" Zhu Hong shouted loudly, his sword breaking through the air and flying away. He was also familiar with the Qimen Dunjia technique, but he had relied on the favor of the Taiyi Hunyuan ancestor when he learned it, and only practiced those powerful cultivation methods. As for the Qimen Dunjia technique, he could only say that he was familiar with it, but couldn't compare to others who had spent two or three hundred years researching it.

  Zhu Hong released the Five Elements Divine Thunder in the direction of the calculated position, and he had already seen that this was an Eight Gates Golden Lock Array, with the surrounding mountain peaks and valleys as the eight gates. He wanted to use his magical powers to fix the formation and find a way out through the life gate.

  However, he did not know that Yue Qing's formation was set up in a strange way, with all the doors and gates reversed. The usual eight-gate golden lock formation was completely different from this one. East, west, south, and north were all mixed up, and even the space above and below was inverted. He had wanted to fly south but instead turned northeast. What looked like the Life Gate led to the Shocking Gate instead, and even when he flew upwards, he ended up diving headfirst into the ground, banging his head against the rocks. With the surrounding scenery constantly changing and the colors dazzling and complex, he was completely unable to escape. He couldn't see Yue Qing anywhere and could only fly around like a headless fly.

  Because he was a traitor who led to the tragic death of his benefactor, and had already fallen into the net, Yue Qing did not rush to capture him, but instead went to see that woman.

  That woman had also heard of Yueqinbin's great name and knew how formidable she was. Now, she was trapped in the formation of a family and was being burned by a large fire that seemed both real and illusory. At first, she thought it was an illusion, but the flames burning on her body made it hard to resist, and the heat entering her body was about to burn her internal organs to ashes. If it were real, although her skin and flesh were painful and unbearable, they didn't seem to be burned badly. Seeing Yueqing holding Situ Ping in front of her, she quickly knelt down in the fire and loudly begged for mercy: "Yue Xianchang, spare my life! I only knew Zhu Hong a few times, and it was just because I heard he was a high-ranking person from the Wutai faction. I wanted to learn some magic from him to save my life!"

  Yue Qing asked: "Who are you? Who did you learn that Soul Stirring Technique from?"

  The woman originally wanted to use some lies to get past, but when Yue Qing called out the name of her magic trick, she didn't dare to take risks and had to answer honestly: "I am Nian Lanxin..."

  "Is that the notorious Nian Lanxin?" Yue Qing had indeed heard of this name, and it was not because her magic was particularly powerful, but rather because she was too famous for her promiscuity. Regardless of whether they were righteous or evil, immortal or mortal, as long as they were sturdy and handsome men, anyone who encountered her would be on her list of conquests. Even the Wu Tai Sect had many people who had dealings with her.

  Niang Lanxin said: "Does the immortal know me?"

  Yu Qing nodded: "I've heard of it, you're a disciple of Tian Yu's daughter?"

  Ni Lanxin hastily nodded: "Exactly, exactly. My master has also heard of the great name of Yue Xianchang and said that he regretted not being able to meet him..."

  "Tian Nu's reputation is much better than yours." Yue Qing said disdainfully. In fact, Tian Nu was even more promiscuous than her, but she only hooked up with cultivators who had a certain level of attainment and never laid a hand on ordinary people. "Today I'm going to clean house for the Wutai Sect. Since you're not one of us, I won't make things difficult for you. Later, I'll open the gate of life, and you can leave on your own!"

  Niang Lanxin was overjoyed: "Thank you, immortal elder, for your kindness!"

  This vengeful woman was also ruthless and cunning, realizing too late that she had fallen into the other party's trap. On the surface, she appeared humble and grateful, but in reality, she hated Yue Qing to death. Seeing an opportunity as the surrounding flames died down, a dark cloud revealed a gate, and under the bright sunlight, she thought it was her escape route. She hastily mounted her sword light and rushed towards the gate. Upon reaching it, she saw the sunset outside, with gentle rain falling, and realized she was already outside the formation. Overjoyed, she harbored malicious intentions and poured a handful of cold, soul-pursuing sand onto Yue Qing's head, shouting: "You wicked Daoist, what are you worth? You're not even worthy of me calling you a Xianzhang! Earlier, I fell into your trap, but now that you've come out again, let's fight..."

  Ni Lanxin hadn't finished speaking when suddenly three sword lights, blue, yellow and black, flew in from outside the door. She was so caught up in her own excitement that she didn't even have time to turn her sword around to defend herself, and was directly swept away by the three sword lights, cutting her into four pieces. She recognized that it was Zhu Hong's Three Elemental Sword, but until her death, she had no idea why Zhu Hong suddenly appeared outside or why he would kill her with such a deadly blow.

  Her eyes widened, and along with half of her corpse, she fell into the fire, instantly turning to ashes.