Chapter 336: Against Cui Haitang

Lightning and fire blazed, each blow stronger than the last. Because Marquis Zi was an Immortal himself, the heavens deemed fit to administer bolts of tribulatory lightning with mounting strength.

"Please, let go! Argh!" Marquis Zi vomited out blood as he pleaded with Ye Dafu for mercy.

Ye Dafu, for his part, had a death grip around Marquis Zi's waist. Regardless of how Marquis Zi elbowed him, he refused to let go. Strong though Marquis Zi's elbow strikes were, Ye Dafu cultivated Indomitable Body and was perfectly suited for withstanding them.

Marquis Zi continued to suffer as the lightning grew stronger. His hair came unbound. Wounds perforated his skin. His blood wouldn't stop dripping.

"Are you intending to use me as your shield for this tribulation? Die, you bastard!" Marquis Zi roared, slashing down at him with a longsword.

It struck Ye Dafu with a metallic clank—then bent out of shape, ruining Marquis Zi's fifth longsword.

"Let go! Let go, you!" Marquis Zi howled desperately.

In order to obliterate the cultivator who was ruining the fairness of the tribulation, the bolts of lightning were only growing stronger. Marquis Zi was completely charred by then. After vomiting out copious amounts of blood, he fell paralyzed to the ground, no longer breathing.

After some time, the intensity of the tribulation slowly ramped down.

Ye Sanshui, his eyes filled with tears, cried out, "Dafu, the tribulation has sensed that Marquis Zi is dead! Release his body and proceed carefully with the tribulation!"

"Let go of him, Boss!" a group of golden cultivators shouted from afar, likewise having broken free of their chains.

Ye Dafu seemed to have been stunned from the repeated shocks. He continued to hold onto Marquis Zi's corpse, refusing to let go. The lightning struck at Ye Dafu over and over again, surrounding him until he was crackling. After an indeterminate amount of time had passed, the tribulation finally dissipated.

As the final bolt of lightning landed, Marquis Zi's corpse disintegrated into powder and vanished. The dark tribulatory clouds rumbled and transformed into multicolored propitious clouds that surged into Ye Dafu's body.

"Boss survived the tribulation—he became an Immortal!" the group of golden cultivators cried out.

However, Ye Dafu didn't seem at all happy about his achievement. With tears in his eyes, he cried out, "Father, Second Uncle, I've avenged you!"

After that shout, Ye Dafu collapsed. His head drooped as he fell toward the sea.

"Dafu!" Ye Sanshui rushed forward and grabbed his unconscious nephew.

Just then, Xiao Nanfeng vanished from sight as the white light buffeted him.

The white light was like a tidal wave, one that sent Xiao Nanfeng flying. He rapidly stabilized himself in mid-air, only to find that fog had suddenly appeared all around his surroundings.

"An illusion?" Xiao Nanfeng cried out in surprise.

It had been so long since he had last entered an illusion that he was almost discomfited by the notion. He immediately grew alert; it was likely a cursed effigy had brought him here.

"Xiao Nanfeng? I haven't even gone looking for you yet—and here you are," a woman's voice said.

Xiao Nanfeng traced the voice to its origin: a square table in the distance, with a woman seated by its side. She was beautiful and gave off an aura of elegance, but her eyes were filled with tremendous hatred.

"Cui Haitang?" Xiao Nanfeng frowned.

He had seen Cui Haitang's portrait before, and he recognized the Empress Tianshu immediately. What was she doing on Blackflame Island?

"What a pity that only your yin body showed up here. We wasted our time establishing this illusion, only to be unable to destroy your physical body," Cui Haitang said, discomfited.

Xiao Nanfeng belatedly noticed that Cui Haitang was accompanied by someone—no, something. It was a paper figure whose body was snowy-white. The figure's features seemed to have been drawn on crudely, almost like the paper figurines used for secular funerals.

The paper figure's motions were jerky and stiff. It was seated by the side of the table with a pair of chopsticks in hand, consuming a dish of... paper snakes.

The paper figure ate paper snake after paper snake in what seemed to be a sinister ritual of sorts.

Despite sensing Xiao Nanfeng's gaze, the paper figure didn't turn to him. Rather, the paper snakes on the plate hissed at him.

"Well, it matters not. You haven't been at Yin Body for long, have you? You might as well leave it behind today," Cui Haitang said chillingly.

"I, on the other hand, will be taking your head as a sacrifice for Senior Uncle Hong Lie!" Xiao Nanfeng retorted.

With a flick of his wrist, he sent a length of red rope toward Cui Haitang.

The paper figure's chopsticks clacked as they pinched the red rope.

Xiao Nanfeng snapped the length of red rope he held, causing it to return to his hand as the chopsticks were knocked aside.

The paper figure turned its head toward Xiao Nanfeng. Its crude features warped in a sinister, ghastly smile.

"Dear Sister, this is the Xiao Nanfeng I told you about. He possesses the red rope cursed effigy. Please strike at him and defeat his cursed arts," Cui Haitang told the paper figure.

The paper figure nodded slightly. With a stiff voice, it said, "Dear Sister's affairs are my affairs. My affairs are Dear Sister's affairs. If Dear Sister wants to kill him, I want to kill him."

The paper figure jerked up. The ground trembled, then cracked open, releasing a torrent of paper snakes. The paper snakes hissed at Xiao Nanfeng and sent a gust of cursed spiritual power toward him, forcing him to take to the skies.

"Eateateateateat!" the paper snakes hissed, crawling up from the ground in ever greater numbers, then leaping toward Xiao Nanfeng.

Xiao Nanfeng's eyes turned cold. "Cursed effigy, for killing my senior uncle Hong Lie, I'll destroy you today!"

With a wave of his hand, he filled the sky with red clouds. Lengths of red rope dropped from the clouds and sought out the paper snakes.

With a snap, one length of red rope sent the paper snake in the lead flying.

As the paper snakes continuously flew toward Xiao Nanfeng, more and more lengths of red rope fell from the skies.

They snapped and sent paper snakes flying by the dozens, by the hundreds. The paper snakes continued to attack fiercely. Some even bit down on the red rope. Pained, the red rope instantly retaliated by looping around the paper snake's neck and squeezing, intent on choking it to death. Neither cursed effigy was willing to relent.

Countless lengths of red rope and paper snakes faced off against each other, almost like a war of epic proportions. A frightening tempest resulted.

Xiao Nanfeng stood at the heart of the tempest. His eyes flashed as he flew toward Cui Haitang and the paper figure, punching forward with a fist out of the red storm.

The paper figure didn't make a move. It continued to manipulate the paper snakes into attacking. Cui Haitang stepped forward and met Xiao Nanfeng's punch with one of her own.

The two cultivators' fists clashed and formed a shockwave. Cui Haitang seemed to be the stronger cultivator, and she sent Xiao Nanfeng stumbling back.

"You're at mid-stage Yin Body!" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed.

A red moon appeared behind Xiao Nanfeng's back.

"The Taiqing red moon? You were the cultivator at Yin Body in Yongding, then! Xiao Nanfeng, you cultivate particularly quickly, don't you?" Cui Haitang demanded, her eyes frosty.

A red moon appeared behind her head.

"You have a Taiqing red moon, too?" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed.

"You've just reached Yin Body, and you're no match for me," Cui Haitang said coldly. She shot forward.

The two cultivators exchanged blows once again. Though Xiao Nanfeng might have been weaker, his Hegemon's Fist was incredibly strong. Gradually, he acclimated to Cui Haitang's attacks and began to fight on equal footing with her.

"What an incredible fist technique. I shouldn't have left you this much time to grow."

The two cultivators began to fight more and more furiously before they both suddenly frowned.

"Red light? So much red light!" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed.

"Damn it. I forgot that you had the Taiqing red moon, too!" Cui Haitang exclaimed.

All that the two cultivators could see was bathed in red; they seemed to have been hypnotized by each other's red moon.