Chapter 307 – Ever-Growing Ancestral Seal, The Shadow in Li Yuan’s Heart - Part 3

Under ragged clouds and a bitten moon, Li Yuan’s birds cast their gaze on top of a slope leading to a cliff.

A young man stood at the edge, nowhere left to run. Right hand clenched a slim dagger, eyes blazing at the encircling exotic beasts. Yet the blade’s tip pointed

not

at them, but at what he gripped in his left hand—a rolled scroll.

“Bring Xu Lan here! Otherwise I’ll destroy Southern Mountains’ Ghostly Rain!” His voice was rasped, and he had a crazed smile on his face.

Li Yuan recognized the young man. It was Xu Sheng.

It appeared Xu Sheng had stolen the scroll to force the Lotus Cult’s hand. Before, his own madness would have made that impossible; but since Li Yuan had removed the abnormal ancestral seal shard, the young man’s sanity had returned. A clean 411~425 now floated over his head.

“Move!

Now!

Let Xu Lan through, or see if my blade is faster than you!” Xu Sheng barked, his old youthful defiance burning in his eyes.

“Back! Everyone, back!”

The Lotus Cult clearly feared for the scroll; the exotic beasts edged away.

A calm voice drifted from their ranks.

“Instructor Xu, Xu Lan will be here shortly. When she arrives, what then?”

“Enough talk—bring her out first!”

Silence followed, then the voice answered, “Very well.”

Minute by minute passed.

The beasts gradually withdrew until only Xu Sheng and a man in a lotus robe remained in the gloom.

Three hours crawled past.

At last a figure in pale green drifted into view like a cloud.

Xu Sheng’s eyes locked on her and lit up.

“Lan Lan!”

The newcomer, a woman in a green cloak, lowered her hood, revealing a lovely, guileless face. She glanced at the man by the cliff and smiled. “Xu Sheng, what are you doing out here?”

“I heard you’d been sent on a mission. I didn’t believe it, so...” His voice trembled with relief. “Seeing you unharmed, I can breathe again.”

“Why would anything happen to me?”

Xu Lan stepped forward, closer and closer...until she was right in front of him.

“Give that to me.”

One hand extended for the scroll while a needle-thin glare of cold steel flicked from her other sleeve and slid straight into Xu Sheng’s heart.

His expression barely changed. No shock, only a gentle gaze at the woman who had stabbed him. He even leaned forward, arms wrapping her. “If you wanted me dead, Lan Lan, all you had to do was say so. No need to dirty your own hands.”

Boom!

A violent force hurled him backward over the cliff.

He fell, arms wide, a smile frozen on his lips while hot arterial blood fanned out from the wound.

Xu Lan tossed the scroll behind her; the lotus-robed man caught it and turned to leave.

Then she leapt after her prey.

A sixth rank martial artist wouldn’t die easily; even a pierced heart could be mended by sketching an ancestral seal.

She meant to finish the job.

At the foot of the cliff, Xu Sheng landed hard on the ground.

Xu Lan dropped after him, blade flashing down.

He had already drawn an ancestral seal to heal himself. He caught her strike and whispered, “Lan Lan, something’s wrong with you. Do you still remember our parents’ names?”

No answer, only another thrust.

Xu Sheng’s laugh was bitter. “I knew it. They did something to you. Curse the Lotus Cult!”

Dagger clenched, his body flickered like a ghost and the two clashed in earnest.

High above, the man in the lotus robe strode off with the scroll just as five more figures in green cloaks, killing intent rolling off them, sprinted past and hurled themselves over the edge.

These five were Green Lotus fearless soldiers. Xu Sheng’s stunt turned into a convenient training exercise to test them out in real world combat.

Six sixth ranks versus one.

In the blink of an eye, Xu Sheng was carved bloody; in the next, he faced certain death.

But then, a blur stepped from the darkness. One step carried it across the clearing. Before the form had even solidified, a blade traced a single, unadorned arc—speed and power fused into inevitability.

No dazzling effects, simply a stroke that ended all stories.

The blade swept through all five Green Lotus fearless soldiers.

Time itself seemed to crawl, everything slow except that single stroke.

Bodies hung, sliced clean in mid-air, then shattered into ruin, far beyond the power of any ancestral seal to heal.

A casual strike, yet almost divine.

The arc ended beside Xu Lan’s temple. Though rebuilt with killing intent, she felt like an ant gazing up at a mountain.

“Not a run-of-the-mill weapon. She still has a mind of her own. Interesting...” The voice was mild.

Whack!

The blade flipped flat and slapped Xu Lan to the ground, unconscious.

Xu Sheng stared, unable to make out the newcomer. A heartbeat later, the flat of the blade crashed into his forehead; darkness claimed him too.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

The next morning.

Dawn arrived over the Eternal Rest River. Golden scales of sunlight danced across the water.

A small skiff drifted north. Once it crossed the river, the boat would be inside Northriver Prefecture, the Holy Tree Temple’s territory and the new northern front after Gu Xuejian’s hard-fought advance.

Xu Sheng woke groggily, head throbbing. Beside him sat a shackled young woman he didn’t recognize, along with two sealed letters and a bronze mirror.

The memory of last night’s battle returned, his wounds already healed. He lifted the mirror and found a stranger’s face looking back.

The first letter explained that both he and the woman had been given a Yin disguise. Wash the mask away with shadow blood before landing, and their true features would return. The shackled young woman was, in fact, Xu Lan—modified by the Green Lotus Cult into a fearless soldier, yet somehow still herself.

The letter urged them to seek Gu Xuejian of the Holy Tree Temple, reveal all they’d learned of the Lotus Cult to the deputy temple master, and ask whether Xu Lan could be saved.

For an audience, Xu Sheng only had to say the phrase,

“Friend in cave, blood sealed pouch.”

The letter was signed,

A Friend of the Mister. Burn after reading.

At the word

Mister

, Xu Sheng shivered, crumpled the letter to powder, and let it blow away.

The second letter, sealed in red wax, was addressed to Gu Xuejian. He left it closed.

The skiff rocked gently on the current; the northern bank drew close.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A black robed figure streaked over the Eternal Rest River toward the heartland of the Lotus Cult.

Landing inside an encampment, the figure released a 30-meter domain, dust and stones floating up under its influence.

Only fourth rank powerhouses could create a domain, and none of the disciples had seen one spanning this size, not even from the vice cult leader, Peng Guang.

Terror stilled every Lotus Cult disciple.

“I wish to see Peng Mingyi,” a purposefully hoarse voice rang out.

None of the disciples dared to refuse.

At last, a fifth rank elder arrived and bowed.

“Please follow me.”

“Alright.”

Then, the pair flew southward, deeper into the mountains.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

The next day.

In a small mountain pavilion hidden lost to the world, a silver-haired youth with jade-white eyes gazed over a sea of clouds. He was Peng Mingyi, cult leader of the Black Lotus Cult.

The elder bowed and withdrew, leaving the cult leader and stranger alone.

“Peng Mingyi.”

The cloaked figure’s rasp was gone, now a calm, commanding baritone.

The youth turned. “What are you offering?”

“The Holy Tree Temple’s battle plan, their defenses, every trump card.”

“And in return?”

“Our goals align. I’ll even join you. But you must help me swallow

him

completely and break into third rank.”

“Third rank isn’t simple. I’ve never seen anyone reach it. There may be traps. Even if you consume him, can you truly ascend?”

“I’m out of time. He’s seizing this body more often than I am, but I still have the edge. He can’t see what I do, while I see everything he does.”

“I see.” The silver-haired youth smiled. “Welcome, Temple Master Qing. You’re going to love the new world that blooms when the lotus opens.”