In The Cultivation World, Are There Only Demonesses Left?

Chapter 7: Torrential Rain

The pattering rain fell on the leaves, crisp and pleasant to the ear.

But such scenery lasted for less than the time of one stick of incense.

Very soon, the torrential rain drowned the entire world, and thick layers of cloud concealed the moon.

Qiu Yuehan seemed to be asleep.

Lu Changyuan sat right beside her, listening to her even breaths.

The dense sound of rain and the fairy’s breathing seemed to form a kind of pleasing harmony.

The fairy’s lashes trembled lightly, as if she was having a nightmare.

By his judgment, Qiu Yuehan counted as an extremely outstanding disciple of an Immortal Sect.

Since one could be deemed outstanding, it meant she ought to pursue cultivation by any means necessary—no, to put it more nicely, it should be said that she held only the Great Dao in her heart, so for the sake of the Dao, she could sacrifice everything.

All these seekers of immortality who had stripped away their humanity over countless years had used this very excuse.

The temperament of hating evil like an enemy should not have appeared on such an outstanding fairy.

But Lu Changyuan could not help but think.

Hating evil like an enemy and using any means necessary did not seem to be mutually exclusive traits.

Boom!

A massive thunder dragon illuminated the entire night in an instant.

Xia Lianxue’s eyes suddenly snapped open.

Borrowing the scattered light, she met Lu Changyuan’s gaze.

For a brief moment, Xia Lianxue felt a trace of fear, and also a trace of familiarity.

She was puzzled as to where this familiarity came from, when she heard movement within the rain.

A strange sound of a flute burst forth from the rain curtain.

Xia Lianxue abruptly raised a hand to her head, her beautiful eyes slowly tinged with a faint red.

Lu Changyuan softly murmured: “It seems someone has arrived. Fairy, are you still well?”

Smooth black hair slipped through Xia Lianxue’s fingers, veiling her trembling body.

But only for an instant.

“It’s nothing. Watch over Senior Sister.”

Xia Lianxue seemed to immediately return to normal.

She halted the carriage, drew her sword, pushed open the door, and said coldly: “Sneaking about—who is there!?”

The rain seemed to fall even heavier.

Not only that, the clear rainwater seemed to be stained layer upon layer with fresh blood, turning incomparably crimson.

Xia Lianxue’s brows knitted slightly: “Blood Demon Palace? Truly lingering like a ghost, do you insist on opposing my Jade Palace?”

The flute within the rain grew even more urgent, as though it had shifted from misty rivers and lakes to an ambush on all sides.

The red rain fell to the ground, staining it crimson.

Very soon, the ground began to writhe and churn, finally forming some kind of disgusting creatures.

Inside the carriage, Lu Changyuan looked clearly through the rain at those sticky creatures multiplying one after another, until finally hundreds and thousands surrounded the carriage.

If victory were to be decided by numbers—

Then today, both Jade Palace fairies and he, Lu Changyuan, would likely perish here.

A pity.

For with a single sword light, the rain between heaven and earth seemed to pause for an instant.

When the radiance dissipated, those nauseating monsters had all been annihilated beneath that sword.

Lu Changyuan had never seen Qiu Yuehan in her full glory, but he had just witnessed Xia Lianxue in hers.

Without yet reaching the Fifth Realm, without yet clarifying her Dao, without yet breaking her Heart Tribulation—still, with one sword, she could cleave through space and time, sweeping across all directions.

This generation of young ones was strong to the point of excess.

At some unknown time, Qiu Yuehan had already woken up.

Her hand rested on her sword’s hilt, though what she was thinking remained unknown.

Lu Changyuan smiled and said: “Are there more reinforcements? This so-called Blood Demon Palace seems to have had its eyes on your Jade Palace long ago, relentlessly seeking your lives.”

If a sect’s two most outstanding True Disciples were slain, then its next generation would truly be severed.

Qiu Yuehan said nothing.

She only wished to rise with her sword to aid in battle, but in the end, she sighed softly and sat back down.

“I saw you send two letters that day. There should be reinforcements, yes?”

Qiu Yuehan lowered her beautiful eyes, her expression complex, which Lu Changyuan could not quite read: “One letter was to my junior sister, the other was sent back to the palace. My junior sister and I will most likely need to return. As for the affairs of the Glazed Dynasty, we can only entrust others to handle them.”

Sending a message back to Jade Palace from here would take several days at least, and for them to dispatch reinforcements would require several more.

Calculated together, reinforcements would not arrive today.

Lu Changyuan still bore the same relaxed expression as he looked out the carriage window: “Then we can only place our hopes upon your junior sister.”

The rain outside remained cold to the extreme, yet it could not taint in the slightest the fairy’s plain white garments.

Her clear and gentle voice, however, carried a chill that permitted no refusal: “If this provokes an all-out war between the two palaces, can your Blood Demon Palace shoulder the responsibility?”

A faint voice came drifting from afar: “No need for the fairy to trouble herself. Better to think of how you will escape this blood prison first!”

At some unknown point, countless blood pillars surged from all directions, encircling the entire mountain.

The sizzling sound was especially clear amidst the patter of rain, and as the blood prison took form, the mountain’s soil began to turn red, gradually becoming corrosive.

Xia Lianxue snorted coldly: “So it’s just this little trick.”

Jade Palace Immortal Art—Reflecting Moon Technique.

A bright moon slowly shone forth behind Xia Lianxue, piercing through the clouds, suppressing the rainfall, and rising to mirror the round moon in the heavens.

For a hundred li in all directions, only the center here was free from rain and cloud, allowing the moon in the sky to be seen.

And the figures behind the blood prison were also revealed beneath the moonlight—it was the very two people who had been frightened off by Xia Lianxue earlier.

No one knew why they had pursued once again.

The two black-robed men of the Blood Demon Palace exchanged glances, both sighing helplessly: “We still underestimated Jade Palace’s True Disciple.”

Before the words finished, one of them had already broken through the wind, charging straight at Xia Lianxue’s face.

This was a sneak attack.

Not only that, the other black-robed man circled swiftly behind her, seeking to flank Xia Lianxue and strike from both sides.

But around Xia Lianxue suddenly manifested a dreamlike glazed feather robe.

“Break.”

Only then did the two from the Blood Demon Palace realize that behind them, at some unknown moment, a white feather had appeared.

At Xia Lianxue’s word, the feather abruptly expanded, as heavy as a thousand catties, then heavily smashed upon their bodies.

Both coughed blood at once.

The slightly taller black-robed man sneered: “Xia Lianxue, do you truly not know what’s good for you? If we rid you of Qiu Yuehan, you would be the Young Palace Mistress.”

Xia Lianxue’s gaze was like frost and ice: “Do not try to sow discord within my Jade Palace.”

Just at that moment—

A giant blood-red skeleton suddenly appeared from who knew where.

Seizing the instant when Xia Lianxue turned her sword against the two black-robed men, it charged straight toward the carriage.

Not good—there was still someone hidden in the shadows.

This was Xia Lianxue’s first thought.

I can make it in time—this was her second thought.

At once, the feather robe expanded, like a bird spreading its wings, flying swiftly toward the carriage to shield it.

The flute restarted.

Mournful and lingering, like a sound flowing from the past.

The feather robe suddenly halted in midair.

Xia Lianxue’s eyes turned crimson, and countless voices exploded by her ears.

All the myriad scenes of this world passed before her eyes, until in the end, only True Person Hanshui’s words remained:

“When Yuehan and the Palace Mistress were young, they were extremely alike.”