Ninety-Six: The Ridge Turns Again

"Stop! What do you think you are doing?" A furious roar came from far away; before the last word had even faded, the speaker had already rushed close. A flying sword slashed viciously across the outstretched hand of Master Heartless.

"Lord of the Jade Balance?"

Han Su was still tightly bound by the seven-limbed octopus and could not move.

This octopus seemed to be Master Heartless's spirit beast. The instant they fell into the sea, it had wrapped them both up and fled with all its might. In the water, it was in its element; in only a few breaths, it had crossed a distance that would have taken everyone on the spirit vessel half a day to cover by flight.

When it judged that they should no longer be discoverable, it finally stopped, carefully set Master Heartless down, stood on its three main limbs, and used the other four to wind tightly around Han Su, leaving her no matter how she struggled.

Who could have imagined that the Lord of the Jade Balance would be able to chase so far in such a short time?

Han Su knew very well that Master Heartless must be after her necklace, and her mind raced for a way out.

If she were to flee into the immortal palace at once, she would indeed escape, but then this trip would have been for nothing, and nothing would be resolved. It would be better to remain calm and wait a little longer.

Still, she was truly grateful that the Lord of the Jade Balance had come to rescue her at this time. He had at least relieved her immediate distress. Better to watch and see first, then decide on the next move.

Master Heartless and the Lord of the Jade Balance were already locked in combat. At first, one would have thought the Lord of the Jade Balance, as a dao cultivator and one with a single fire affinity, would be at a disadvantage in this boundless sea. Yet his swordsmanship was unexpectedly superb as well.

But Master Heartless was clearly no ordinary man either. The two fought back and forth, evenly matched.

As a Zen cultivator, Master Heartless had weaker offensive power, so he was somewhat at a disadvantage against the ever-victorious spirit sword. However, his defense was remarkably formidable. Though it seemed the Lord of the Jade Balance had the upper hand, he could not maintain it for long; once his spiritual energy was exhausted, who knew what the outcome would be.

Han Su, watching from the side, grew anxious. She had brought this on herself, but she had absolutely no wish to drag others into it. Alas, the seven-limbed octopus had her bound so tightly that she could not move at all.

Hm? Actually, there was still something that could move.

Han Su had been born with extraordinary spiritual sense, and later obtained a manual devoted specifically to training it. With such a skill, controlling objects and injuring others with spiritual sense, she had used it before as a covert means of attack when challenging demonic beasts in the Heaven-Together Secret Realm, and again when hunting in the Stone-Guard Realm.

Only, whenever she dueled with people or beasts, it was always with the aim of sparring and tempering herself. Spiritual-sense attacks were hidden and effective, but they made battles end too quickly. So unless an opponent was especially troublesome, she rarely used this specialty. Thus, for a moment she had not thought of it: though her body was restrained, her spiritual sense was not.

At once she steadied her breathing, and her spiritual sense condensed into several fine threads, all aimed at Master Heartless's twelve vital apertures, stabbing fiercely toward them!

The Golden Bell Shield was indeed formidable, but it was only effective against physical and spell attacks. Though there were many in this world gifted beyond measure, with spiritual senses far superior to ordinary folk, few could project them beyond the body, let alone hurl them out to wound others.

Thus, although he eventually detected those strands of spiritual sense, it was already too late. Moreover, he had spent all his strength forming the Golden Bell Shield to defend against the Lord of the Jade Balance's attacks, and it was by no means as effortless as it appeared.

Just like that, not a single strand missed its mark, each piercing one of his twelve vital apertures!

Han Su's spiritual sense far surpassed that of her peers, but it was still only roughly on par with a Nascent Soul Lord. Once projected beyond the body, it weakened further, and then split into twelve threads; one could say each strand's attack was not especially strong.

So when Master Heartless had no choice but to let them enter, he did not take it very seriously. The force was probably about the same as a Qi Refining cultivator's; there was no need to split his focus to evade it.

Who could have known that these twelve strands of spiritual sense, once entering his body, would lengthen on their own and interweave into a small, simple Spirit-Locking Formation?

Though the formation dissipated after only a few breaths, one must not forget the presence of the Lord of the Jade Balance, whose offensive power was extraordinary.

He seized those precious few breaths when the Golden Bell Shield vanished, and in that brief window his spirit sword stabbed countless bloody holes through Master Heartless's body. At the same time, he brought forth the magic treasure Heart-Locking Cauldron, and Master Heartless was immediately grievously wounded and sealed inside it.

The seven-limbed octopus, which had been lounging nearby, waiting for its master to tidy up the enemy so it could be rewarded for its merits and make up for the injuries it had suffered under the simultaneous attacks of six Nascent Soul experts, suddenly discovered that its master had been beaten so thoroughly he could not even fight back. Just as it was about to rush forward to rescue him, its master had already been defeated and locked inside the enemy's cauldron.

After only a moment of hesitation, it swiftly released the five tentacles that bound Han Su and hurriedly tried to flee.

How could the Lord of the Jade Balance allow it to escape?

He threw out the pill cauldron he usually used for alchemy; the little cauldron spun and enlarged, snapping shut over it in one motion. Then he took it in hand, shrinking it to the size of a palm.

By the time the Spirit Snow outside the immortal palace sensed something was wrong with Han Su, she had already exhausted almost all of her spiritual sense when the Spirit-Locking Formation was formed. Relying on her belief in the Lord of the Jade Balance's ability, she forced herself to hold on for a few breaths longer, and only then did she go limp.

Still inside the immortal palace, Snow Spirit felt her distress and sprang out at once. Just as it was about to drag her into the immortal palace, it saw outsiders nearby. While it hesitated, the Lord of the Jade Balance had already dealt with the man and beast, returned to Han Su's side, and picked her up.

Snow Spirit had no choice but to follow behind him as they flew together toward the sea.

The Lord of the Jade Balance did not choose to rejoin the other nine; instead, he returned directly to Yaohua.

The couple, Lord Lanhe and Lady Daojun, who had been frantic upon hearing the message from the nine that Han Su and the Lord of the Jade Balance had gone missing, and were about to go out to sea in search of them, suddenly saw the Lord of the Jade Balance walking toward them step by step while carrying their daughter. At that moment, he looked almost like an immortal descending.

Even Lady Miaozhen had an absurd thought rise in her heart: how wonderful it would be if Senior Brother Jade Balance were my son-in-law!

The joint sea investigation launched by the various sects came to nothing after two Nascent Soul Lords and one Golden Core cultivator disappeared.

Yet when they returned gloomily to the Starfall Realm, they learned that the two from the Yaohua Sect had returned even earlier than they had!

This once again stirred strong dissatisfaction among the alliance of lesser sects. They swaggered over to Yaohua to demand an explanation for why only the two of them had reappeared, while Master Heartless was nowhere to be found. Some even suspected that the two of them had joined forces to kill Master Heartless in revenge for his plain-speaking honesty.

At this very moment, the Yaohua Sect held a banquet at exactly the right time.

They invited the heads of all the various sects and factions, making the event even grander than the previous celebration for the twin Golden Core breakthroughs of the Dao Lords Ji Yan and Zihuan Shan.

The leaders of the sects were full of suspicion. Looking at the Lord of the Jade Balance, who seemed serene and bright as the wind and moon, as though nothing had happened, and then at the Lord of the Duji, who wore a fox's sly, sinister smile as if he had stolen a chicken, someone finally could not hold back and asked about Master Heartless.

It seemed the Lord of the Duji had been waiting for someone to ask. His anger looked highly unnatural; no matter how one saw it, he seemed delighted indeed.

He struck the table and rose, glaring at the palace master of the Yancheng Palace as he shouted, "I don't know where Palace Master Yan found this so-called Master Heartless, but could it be that you are the one colluding with demonic cultivators?"

Palace Master Yan naturally refused to back down, and likewise put on the air of someone deeply insulted. He snapped, "We respect your Yaohua Sect as a great sect, yet I never imagined you would slander people with such baseless lies. Could it be that you have already done away with the master and... With such utter madness, how can you deserve the title of the greatest sect in the Starfall Realm?"

Someone else chimed in as well: "What sort of words are those from the Lord of the Duji? If you have evidence, why not bring it out and let us see? Slandering others with false accusations is not the conduct of a grand master."

The Lord of the Duji gave a cold laugh and said, "You people won't believe it until you see the coffin. Very well, then let me show you who is truly speaking falsehoods!"

As he spoke, he swept his right hand, and two little Dao boys came forward carrying the Lord of the Jade Balance's Heart-Locking Cauldron, displaying it before the crowd.

"This... this is..."

"No, impossible! You must have forged it!"

Inside the cauldron was unmistakably a golden fox, wearing Buddhist prayer beads around its neck and a monk's robe on its body!

"Hmph, we were already prepared for you to bite back. Han Su! Present the evidence!"

"Yes." A clear voice answered at once, and then a slender, graceful female cultivator came walking from the side of the stage. Everyone could not help but widen their eyes. Wasn't this clearly the Golden Core cultivator Jiang Han Su? How had she formed her Nascent Soul in just one month?

Could she have been hiding her cultivation? No, the spiritual energy around her was somewhat disordered, her pressure spilling outward. She looked exactly as one would expect after just forming her Nascent Soul. She must have broken through only within these past few days and had not yet stabilized her realm.

Han Su took just a few steps forward and spoke with ease and composure: "A month ago, I boarded the spirit vessel of the Zhengyi Sect with all of you, heading to the Fuhai Realm. Unexpectedly, along the way we were attacked by a seven-limbed octopus. Working together, we still failed to stop it from breaking through the vessel's defensive formation, seizing me and Master Heartless, who was outside the formation. Elder Yuan, surely you found that strange?

"You were the one who activated the defensive formation, so you should know it best.

"When the incident occurred, did you think that octopus had the power to break through the formation under the siege of six Nascent Soul cultivators?"

"Uh, this..." Elder Yuan frowned and pondered. "This elder did indeed find it somewhat abnormal. The formation clearly showed no sign of damage... how did it pass through?"

Han Su smiled slightly. "It did not pass through the defensive formation. I was the one who, under Master Heartless's control, jumped down on my own. It..." Han Su glanced at the fox in the cauldron, then continued, "It has a technique for bewitching the mind and causing brief delusions. After it controlled me and I just barely slipped out of the defensive formation, I was snatched away by the seven-limbed octopus waiting outside, and together with him, we fled into the sea.

"After that, I quickly woke up. Because the seven-limbed octopus was extremely fast, they did not pay special attention to me. During that time, I had a chance to activate the hairpin on my head that contained an image-recording jade.

"You may watch the rest for yourselves."

With that, she removed the hairpin. Someone had already prepared a stone screen capable of displaying images.