Chapter 1298: Taisui Appears

“Spring Kill...”

While wearing an angry expression, the white-robed Li Qingping waved his plum blossom branch and summoned a gust of clear wind and plum blossoms.

The wind kept blowing, and the plum blossoms kept growing. Soon, the entire sky was filled with them. It was like the start of a new year.

The soaring plum blossoms brought fragrance and vitality; dream and hope. However, hidden within the dream and hope were cold killing intent.

Winter was the coldest period of all seasons, but springtime ran a close second. As a result, a thin layer of ice appeared on every paper doll touched by the spring wind and froze them in place.

Then, the dancing plum blossoms pierced their bodies and extinguished their sapience.

The onslaught of spring wind and plum blossoms dropped the paper dolls like bundles of wheat and disintegrated them as soon as they hit the ground. Then, it moved onto the next batch of paper dolls and repeated the process.

Meanwhile, the black-robed Li Qingping was swinging his sword and unleashing tidal waves of sword qi. They split every paper doll in their way in half as if he was splitting heaven and earth.

Of course, it wasn’t just the paper doll’s bodies that were broken. The souls in the paper dolls were cut in half as well.

That was why the cut paper dolls were wailing in pain on the ground.

The white-robed Li Qingping and black-robed Li Qingping were Sages. It was only natural that they slaughtered the paper dolls like dogs.

However, the real Li Qingping was no less impressive than the black-robed and white-robed versions of himself despite only being a Half-Sage.

Every time he made a move, it was as if he was flowing in tandem with the will of the world itself as a rich air of Dao embraced him. His eyes seemed to be the sun and the moon themselves, and his chest thudded like rhythmic thunder. His breath turned into wind, his cries turned into thunder, his swings crushed mountains, and his stomps divided rivers.

It was like he was a walking calamity. Every move he made was imbued with unparalleled, unimaginable power.

Thanks to Li Qingping, not a single paper doll was able to get close to him, much less Ye Qing.

“Hmph. Have fun with my paper dolls.”

Papersmith looked disdainful as a couple hundred more paper dolls flew out of his sleeves. These paper dolls were even more powerful than the ones fighting Li Qingping—they were all Half-Sages.

As if that wasn’t enough, there were three paper dolls that were thirty meters tall and even more powerful than the Half-Sage paper dolls. As soon as they appeared, thunder rumbled in the sky, and yin qi automatically gathered into dark clouds. They were Sages.

Once ready, the three gigantic paper dolls led the charge and attacked the three Li Qingpings respectively.

Outnumbered to such an extent, not even the three Li Qingpings were able to break out from the encirclement immediately. They could only watch as Papersmith and his army of paper dolls strode toward Ye Qing.

“You shameless, despicable old fuck!”

When Yue Wanfa, Yuan Zhantian, Bai Huaxian and more saw this, they gave up their fight and rushed toward Papersmith in unison. Despite their differences, no one wanted Papersmith to succeed.

“Weak.”

Papersmith did not even look at them. With the wave of a hand, the space in front of the group suddenly folded unto itself a dozen times over like it was paper.

Caught within the spatial folds, the warriors suddenly found that the short distance they should have been able to cover in an instant were extended a hundred, no, a thousand times over. As a result, they were unable to stop Papersmith.

While this was going on, Ye Qing was still absorbed in his profound enlightenment. He did not seem to notice the dangers happening outside nor the despicable Sage walking straight toward him.

“Your soul and the Earthly Sovereign Bell are mine.”

When Papersmith finally reached Ye Qing, a greedy smile spread across his wizened face. Then, he made a grab for the young man.

The hand rapidly grew bigger as it moved toward Ye Qing. At the same time, the center of his palm split open like a maw. It looked like it would swallow Ye Qing whole.

Right before Ye Qing would be devoured, a muffled groan suddenly escaped Papersmith’s lips. At the same time, his hand blackened like it was burned and dissolved into ash.

Not only that, the strange blackness was rapidly spreading up his arm and burning everything into ash. The blood draining away from his face, Papersmith backed an entire kilometer away from Ye Qing while leaving behind a Papersmith every three meters or so. More accurately, he was leaving behind a paper doll that looked exactly like him; paper dolls meant to act like meatshields.

The paper dolls’ arms were all scorched black, but the degree was decreasing with each iteration.

In the end, Papersmith’s true arm was almost completely devoid of blackness.

“Taisui Ghost Flame... It’s you, Ghost Taisui!”

Papersmith said darkly.

“Hihihi[1]... Indeed, it is I.”

A strange cackle echoed, and a youngster abruptly appeared in mid-air. “Long time no see, Papersmith!”

“You... What happened to you? How did you become...”

Papersmith’s eyes widened like saucers when he saw the youngster. He couldn’t seem to believe his own eyes.

Papersmith and Ghost Taisui were fellow heretics of the Dark Ways. Naturally, they knew each other.

Papersmith was also aware that Ghost Taisui was nearing the end of his lifespan. The last time they saw each other was over a year ago. At the time, Ghost Taisui was oozing deathliness like he had one foot in the grave. He would not have been surprised if the old man had perished in the next second.

But today, Ghost Taisui looked anything but old. His hair was pitch black, and his appearance was that of a youngster. Of course, that wasn’t the main point. The main point was that the deathliness that surrounded him was all gone, replaced by exuberance and vitality. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the rich, immense vitality inside his body was shining like a beacon. It was absolutely a body that only a twenty or thirty years old could possess.

There was no mistaking it. Somehow, Ghost Taisui had become young again!

But how? How was this possible?

“That’s right. As you see, I have become young again.”

Ghost Taisui spread his arms and showed off his young, vigorous body to his heart’s content. “It should not need to be said, but my strength has returned to its prime as well.”

“So?” Papersmith’s pupils contracted a little.

“So, you can fuck off now,” Ghost Taisui said rudely and frankly.

“And if I don’t?” Papersmith asked coldly. As much as he loathed to admit it, Ghost Taisui felt a lot scarier than he used to.

If this was the old Ghost Taisui, then he wouldn’t have feared him. Although Ghost Taisui’s fame and accumulation were greater than his, he was also older.

There was a saying in the

wulin

called, “Even the greatest fists fear the strength of youth.” It was a true saying no matter the power level.

As a person aged and neared the end of their lifespan, their qi, essence and spirit would decline dramatically. Not even a warrior was exempted from this rule. Forget becoming weaker, some warriors even dropped to a lower cultivation level against their will.

If this was before, Papersmith was confident he had at least a seventy percent victory chance against Ghost Taisui.

This was different though. Ghost Taisui hadn’t just become young, he seemed to have returned to his prime as well.

Because of this, his seventy percent victory chance had dropped to just thirty percent. Frankly, it might even be lower.

It was said that a gentleman does not stand next to a crumbling wall. Since it no longer looked possible for him to claim Ye Qing, logic dictated that he should withdraw immediately.

He was reluctant to do so though. Not when his prize was right in front of him.

“If you won’t leave, then you may die here.” Ghost Taisui sneered.

Papersmith scoffed at first. Sure, he was most likely no match for the current Ghost Taisui, but it was ludicrous to think that the Sage could kill him.

He was proven wrong the next moment. Even as a sense of unease suddenly intruded his thoughts, the faded blackness on his arm suddenly deepened in color once more.

Not only that, it spread even faster than before and engulfed his entire right arm in just the blink of an eye.

By the time Papersmith reacted, his entire arm had already burned into ash.

“Impossible!”

Papersmith exclaimed in shock even as he tried and failed to eliminate the blackness spreading throughout his arm.

“You really thought you could block my Taisui Ghost Flame?”

Ghost Taisui scoffed as his eyes grew as black as the abyss. There, the Taisui Ghost Flame burned like an inferno.

A muffled groan escaped his lips the moment Papersmith met Ghost Taisui’s gaze. As if his mind had suddenly fallen into the abyss, every paper doll on East Radiance Mountain abruptly burned into ash.

“Argh!”

The next moment, Papersmith let out a bloodcurdling scream, and Taisui Ghost Flame gushed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. It looked horrible.

That said, Papersmith wasn’t helpless. A paper bridge abruptly appeared underneath his feet. It was over three meters wide and ten meters long. At first glance, it looked no different from your ordinary arch bridge.

Papersmith began walking toward the other end of the bridge. It looked like an arduous task as a giant hole was burned on the bridge every time he took a step. However, the Taisui Ghost Flame ravaging his body also became much thinner than before.

Not only that, by the time Papersmith had reached the other end of the bridge, he was thousands and thousands of kilometers from where he was a moment ago.

“I won’t forget this, Ghost Taisui.”

1. I went and did some research and what did you know, the true sound of “Jie jie jie” is really “Hihihi”. The long story short is that the character originated from Hong Kong, but the Cantonese word is literally impossible to type (It doesn’t exist in the electronic glossary). So, they opt for the next closest character instead; the “Jie” you see today. ☜