Chapter 379: Jun Xiaomo’s Escape, Zhuang Hongsheng’s Ambition

Translator: Minotauruz

Having noticed the escalating tension, the sprightly old man immediately stepped forward and broke up the confrontation between Ye Xiuwen and Chi Jingtian, raising his hand with a “stop” gesture, “Li’l lads, stop arguing and listen to what I have to say.”

Chi Jingtian had always respected his elders, especially someone like the sprightly old man who appeared to be of similar age to his grandfather. This gave him a sense of familiarity with the old man. Thus, he heeded the old man’s suggestion and shut his mouth obsequiously. At the same time, Ye Xiuwen also temporarily suppressed the roiling emotions in his heart on account for the fact that his own master had just interjected.

The old man addressed Chi Jingtian first, “Li’l lad, don’t blame my disciple for his poor attitude. The recent times have been rather stressful for him as well. The problems with Xiaomo’s body aren’t entirely caused by my silly disciple. The main reason is the child in her womb.”

“The child in her womb?” Chi Jingtian furrowed his brows.

He had personally witnessed several pregnancies within his clan, yet not a single pregnant lady had been reduced to skin and bones like Jun Xiaomo was.

Truth be told, if not for the fact that he detected the faint traces of an aura that did not belong to Jun Xiaomo when he was helping her back to her feet earlier, he would never have guessed that she was pregnant. After all, Jun Xiaomo was far too frail right now. It was a far cry from how he had remembered her to be just some time ago.

The old man sighed as he explained, “This disciple of mine is a spiritual cultivator, and his cultivation is built upon and fueled by spiritual energy. On the other hand, Jun Xiaomo is a demonic cultivator, and her body is built upon and fueled by demonic energy. Furthermore, Jun Xiaomo possessed an acquired demonic body, which means that she is entirely incompatible with spiritual energy. This creates a lot of problems with the union between my disciple and Jun Xiaomo. If the child in her womb possesses a demonic body, things would still be alright, and it wouldn’t be rejected by her body either. But the worst-case scenario has occurred – the child in her womb possesses a spiritual body, entirely incompatible with her body, so her body has also been constantly rejecting its existence.”

“A cultivator’s child is different from that of a mortal’s child. At its nascent stages, a cultivator’s child would be nothing more than a formless clump of fetal energy. In turn, this clump of fetal energy requires an immense amount of energy in order to congeal and form its own body. Jun Xiaomo’s body is devoid of spiritual energy to begin with, so she has no choice but to absorb the spiritual energy from the surroundings and channel it straight into the womb. This process is incredibly harmful to Jun Xiaomo’s body. This is why her body, especially her womb, would experience intense cramps every now and then – this is all the result of her body’s rejection of the growing clump of spiritual energy within.”

Pangs of heartache struck Chi Jingtian as soon as he heard this.

“Then is there any way to resolve this? Does Xiaomo have to wear down her body like that in order for the child to thrive and grow?”

He finally understood why Ye Xiuwen was unable to smile whenever he looked at the child in Jun Xiaomo’s body. If this child’s survival was potentially at the expense of Jun Xiaomo’s life, even he might be unable to look upon the child with any measure of expectancy.

It stands to reason that the child’s father, Ye Xiuwen, would naturally be the one most distressed by all of this. On the one hand, the love of his life had her life on the line; while on the other hand, his biological child’s life was at stake.

No wonder he finds himself unable to smile at the situation... Chi Jingtian thought he finally understood the situation.

“There are a few ways of circumventing this issue. In fact, this is why we had come to the Sunset Mountain Range in the first place. Do ye see the lotus pond in front of us? The Rainbow Lotus Flower in the center of the pond is Xiaomo’s hope.” The old man pointed at the lotus pond as he spoke.

A brilliant patch of glistening, pristine lotus flowers sat in the middle of the lotus pond, enshrouded by wisps of thick spiritual energy slowly swirling about. Of these lotus flowers, the most dazzling ones possessed petals far larger than that of any others around, and its colours were incredibly striking – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. When the gentle breeze passed by, its bright petals looked almost like seven beauties swaying their bodies in tempo and swishing their rolling skirt ensembles as they danced harmoniously with the wind.

“Since those seven lotus flowers are Xiaomo’s hope, why aren’t we picking it for her yet?” Chi Jingtian hardly deigned to enjoy the idyllic view from the side of the lotus pond. As soon as he heard that the Rainbow Lotus Flower was Jun Xiaomo’s hope, he immediately thought to pluck it from the center of the pond.

However, the old man simply shook his head with some measure of exasperation, as he supplicated, “The thing that we want is not the Rainbow Lotus Flower itself, but its seeds. The Rainbow Lotus Flower blooms once every hundred years, and bears seeds after the next hundred year. Each coloured flower will bear only one seed, and the effects of these seeds can only be seen when a person consumes all seven seeds of different colours. As ye can probably tell, the Rainbow Lotus Flower’s seeds is incredibly precious. If not for the fact that the seeds are only useful for improving the constitution of cultivators below the Nascent Soul stage of cultivation, I’m afraid that there would most certainly be a bloodbath every time the Rainbow Lotus Flower bears seeds. After all, who wouldn’t want something that would change their constitution on a fundamental level and make the process of cultivation that much easier and smoother?”

“If that’s the case, it’s not going to be easy for Xiaomo to get her hands on the lotus seeds.” Chi Jingtian rubbed his chin as he spoke.

“That’s right. Li’l lad, this is why ye can’t underestimate the problem with Xiaomo’s body just because it’s caused by a formless clump of energy. This isn’t a problem that can be easily resolved.” The old man patted Chi Jingtian’s shoulder.

“I understand. Don’t worry. Leave it to me. I’ll make sure that Xiaomo obtains the Rainbow Lotus Flower’s seeds.” Chi Jingtian declared proudly as he puffed out his chest and patted it.

“Huh?” The old man glanced at Chi Jingtian suspiciously, “Are ye sure? Ye are only in the advanced-tier Golden Core stage of cultivation. Ye can’t even hold a candle to my disciple!”

Chi Jingtian was slightly dumbstruck by the old man’s comments. He was just about to retort, saying that there were several more clansmen supporting him from the shadows, but he immediately had his reservations about that. After all, it was hardly a glorious thing to rely on his clansmen. In fact, he even felt that it accentuated his weaknesses if he did so right in front of Jun Xiaomo. Thus, he swallowed the bitter pill and silently accepted what the old man was saying – We’ll deal with this again once we’ve obtained the lotus seeds. He murmured in his heart.

The old man patted his shoulders, adding, “Young man, don’t make promises ye can’t keep. Otherwise, ye’ll only embarrass yourself when push comes to shove.”

Even though the old man was reticent to see Ye Xiuwen crush the young man in front of him, it didn’t change the fact that Chi Jingtian was his own disciple’s love rival when all was said and done. Thus, the old man naturally had no qualms putting him on the backfoot and highlighting his flaws in order to place Ye Xiuwen bad in the competition.

As soon as the old man finished speaking, Ye Xiuwen coldly addressed Chi Jingtian, “You don’t need to interfere in the things between Jun Xiaomo and I.”

Chi Jingtian folded his arms and barked back bluntly, “Will you be able to properly protect her if I don’t butt in? Are you certain you’ll be able to fend off all the competing powers and obtain the seeds of the Rainbow Lotus Flower?”

“This isn’t something that an outsider like you needs to concern himself with. Whether I succeed or fail, everything is between Xiaomo and I.” Ye Xiuwen walked over to Jun Xiaomo’s side and pulled her into an embrace, intending to forcibly bring her away from Chi Jingtian’s presence.

Yet Chi Jingtian stood directly in front of him, obstructing his path and castigating him, “Are you saying that you don’t even care if Xiaomo gets hurt? You don’t care one bit if the child in her body torments and wears down her body?! What kind of love is this?!”

“If we’re unable to obtain the Rainbow Lotus Flower, we’ll abort the child.” Ye Xiuwen stated calmly, devoid of any ripple of emotions in his voice even when he spoke of the possible abortion of his own child. It was almost as though this were nothing more than a simple act of discarding trash to him.

Jun Xiaomo’s body had already stiffened up slightly when Ye Xiuwen thought to forcibly bring her away from the lotus pond. Then, as soon as she heard Ye Xiuwen’s intention to abort the child in her womb, she immediately began struggling against Ye Xiuwen, “No! I’m never going to agree to that! This is my child! Nobody is allowed to take my child away from me!”

Ye Xiuwen had never expected Jun Xiaomo to struggle like that. With this momentary lapse of attention, Jun Xiaomo managed to wrestle free of his grasp, and she instantly shot off, fleeing into the distance.

“Xiaomo!”

“Disciple-in-Law!”

Chi Jingtian and the old man called out at practically the same time. However, the person who reacted the most quickly was still undoubtedly Ye Xiuwen. In the blink of an eye, Ye Xiuwen operated his Windwalk ability and shot straight after Jun Xiaomo!

Jun Xiaomo could sense that someone was hot on her tail. However, there was only one notion on her heart right now – that was, nobody must hurt her own child!

Almost instinctually, Jun Xiaomo reached into her Interspatial Ring and retrieved an Invisibility Talisman and applied it onto her own body. Thus, just as Ye Xiuwen was about to catch up to Jun Xiaomo, she suddenly vanished in front of his eyes.

“Xiaomo!” A trace of panic finally filled the depths of Ye Xiuwen’s eyes. He paused in his steps and glanced around, “Xiaomo!”

Unfortunately, no matter how much he called out for her, he couldn’t see any traces of her in sight at all.

Meanwhile, the Greenwich Kingdom’s King and the Zephyr Sect’s Sect Elders had finally received Zhuang Lenghui’s transmissions and learnt of the grave news that two Zephyr Sect disciples had perished to Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen. It would be too much of an understatement to simply state that they had reacted furiously to the news.

Most pertinently, the identity of the two disciples who had perished were incredibly special. One was the beloved princess of the Greenwich Kingdom who formed the basis of their cooperation with the Zephyr Sect, while the other was the First-Seat Disciple of the Stoneknife Sect. The death of either disciple undoubtedly dealt a massive blow to the Zephyr Sect, much less both disciples.

“Jun. Xiao. Mo! Back then, we should never have agreed to Elder Tong’s request and allowed him to take her in as his disciple! A like master begets a like disciple. Both of them are ingrates who betray the sect as soon as they learn to fly!” One of the Zephyr Sect’s Sect Elders cursed indignantly, nearly crushing the missive in his hands.

“Hmph. Are you still calling him Elder Tong? He’s no longer an elder of the Zephyr Sect ever since that day he betrayed us!” Another Sect Elder bellowed in rage, “If not for the fact that he’s hidden himself so well all this while, we would already have crushed that old ingrate by now!”

“Killing his disciple is the same. I refuse to believe that we won’t be able to kill that measly Jun Xiaomo with the backing of our entire sect!”

Just as all of the Sect Elders were fleshing out their plans to kill Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen, a man who had been remaining silent all this while finally spoke up. This man was none other than Zhuang Lenghui’s father, Zhuang Hongsheng, “Esteemed Sect Elders, please hold onto that thought for a moment. Rather than mobilizing our entire sect for an insignificant traitor of the Sect, why don’t we leave this matter to Xingping and afford him the opportunity to exact vengeance for his own disciple? What do you think?”

The man referred to by Zhuang Hongsheng was none other than Wei Xingping, the Peakmaster of the Stoneknife Peak, and the late Zou Zilong’s master.

“Xingping? Isn’t he still locked in his closed-door cultivation?”

“Then shouldn’t we shelve these thoughts and discuss them once he’s out of his closed-door cultivation? After all, matters of exacting vengeance are best left to the ones directly involved or implicated.” Zhuang Hongsheng calmly explained with a bright gleam in his eyes.

Truth be told, he had already thought of a way to reach out to Wei Xingping, circumventing his closed-door cultivation measures. Thus, it wouldn’t be a long time before he finally learns about the death of his beloved First-Seat Disciple.

I wonder how heavy a blow the sudden news of Zou Zilong’s death would be to him? Will it cause his spiritual energy to flow in reverse and damaging his vitality?

No matter what happens, all the Phoenixia Peak needs to do right now is to wait and watch the good show that is soon to unfold. It was indeed as his daughter mentioned – in the fight between the snipe and the clam, the fisherman has the best of it.