Chapter 86: The Fierce Aura of the White Tiger

After Yuan Yi left, although Shiyue wanted to give chase, she hesitated, remembering Xu Zhong’s prior warning; it would not do for her to leave on her own. More importantly, Xu Zhong’s fortune was so strikingly peculiar that it made her wary. Such fortune often portended the dispelling of calamities, but also the constant entanglement of sinister forces. What she did not know, however, was that this fortune did not belong to Xu Zhong himself. To possess virtue unworthy of one’s position is to invite disaster. Following Xu Zhong might be even more perilous.

“So, what should we do now?” she asked.

Xu Zhong replied, “You have the star chart; you can discern the whereabouts of our friends. Why not follow its guidance?”

Those among them who were not cultivators of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths were best kept together, for each was a vital catalyst in some greater design.

Shiyue nodded, activating the star chart. Silken threads, like ripples on water, shot forth from its surface, flying toward the unknown, relaying information back to her. The wind howled in her ears, and all around, ghostly murmurs echoed incessantly.

The next instant, Shiyue felt a surge of dread. She snapped the star chart shut, and the silken threads were instantly severed. It felt as though something had crashed heavily into her, violently knocking her soul from her body. Her three souls and seven spirits, ten clusters of light and shadow, interwove and overlapped, threatening to dissipate entirely.

Xu Zhong, seeing this, acted at once. He cast a spell of immobilization, freezing Shiyue’s souls, spirits, and physical body together, then used a soul-capturing technique to gather them into one, pressing them firmly back into her forehead.

Shiyue jerked awake. Her mind was clouded and her body unsteady; she stumbled to the ground, exhaling a long, shaky breath.

“Are you all right?” Xu Zhong asked.

Shiyue produced a pill, swallowing it to restore her strength.

“Someone used the myriad threads technique of my star chart to trace my location and attempted to kill me from afar!” she said, still shaken.

“What kind of cultivation does that require?” To be able to trace the flow of a spell back to its source and kill the caster—such means bordered on unimaginable.

“It was the Poyi!” Shiyue’s face darkened. She glanced at Xu Zhong with suspicion. “He entered with us, but it seemed he was searching for someone.”

Xu Zhong’s heart skipped. “Could it be me he’s after?”

At that very moment, ripples spread through the palace before them. The Poyi, transformed into the guise of a middle-aged Daoist cultivator, stepped out from the shimmering air and fixed his gaze on Xu Zhong.

“You are bold indeed, to use a star chart to seek direction in a place like this,” the Poyi said coldly, casting a chilling glance at both Xu Zhong and Shiyue.

Xu Zhong frowned, feeling as though a brand had been seared into him by the Poyi’s gaze.

Then, Xu Zhong summoned a rush of wind, swept Shiyue up in a sword-lit current, and leapt into the cascading cloudfall. The Poyi paused, but did not try to stop them.

“I wonder which hidden trove he’ll enter this time,” the Poyi mused. “If he steps directly into the Fire Luminary’s Treasury, that would be ideal.”

Wei Yan’s golden core originated from the Fire Luminary’s Treasury. To seize the core, one must begin at the source.

“If I could control the ritual artifacts myself, I’d never have needed these ants…”

Within those ritual artifacts lay a unique power capable of refining them into innate elixirs. Perhaps this was the curse left by the Thunder Ancestor upon his secret palace before he died.

The Poyi wanted to escape, to break the curse, and Wei Yan’s golden core was the key. Thus, he allowed Xu Zhong to depart, hoping he would find his own way into the Fire Luminary’s Treasury.

…

Within the cloudfall, circles of boundless light stretched in every direction. These rings brimmed with the purest primordial qi; the moment they leapt in, the energy invaded their bodies. Xu Zhong felt his own power swelling uncontrollably.

Yet the reservoirs of spiritual energy within the human form were limited. If this continued, the surging qi would soon burst their inner reserves apart.

The two exchanged a single glance and leapt out of the cloudfall together, plunging downward like a rainbow piercing the sun. They had no idea which treasury’s palace they had entered.

No sooner had they landed than platinum bands of light flared from all directions—spells and magical treasures unleashed in a deadly assault.

Clearly, the cultivators in this palace had mistaken Xu Zhong and Shiyue for the tentacled monstrosities that devoured flesh and essence.

Xu Zhong hurriedly summoned the Six-Foot Pearl and the Tricolored Water Lotus to shield them both. In the blink of an eye, however, both treasures were knocked aside by the platinum bands, and the two of them went tumbling like tumbleweeds across the palace floor.

Only then did the other cultivators see their faces clearly and retract their spells. Yet one cultivator, upon recognizing Xu Zhong, activated his treasure—a pale banner infused with the essence of a white tiger.

As he waved the banner, a white tiger sprang forth, its figure flickering as it swept towards Xu Zhong and Shiyue, suffused with the metallic force of pure geng-gold. The force surged higher and higher, in a single breath filling Xu Zhong’s vision.

Suddenly, the entire white canopy of metallic qi transformed into the gaping maw of the white tiger, descending to devour Xu Zhong.

Xu Zhong’s heart lurched. He drew a round cauldron from his pouch and hurled it with all his might at the white tiger.

With a thunderous crash, the tiger was smashed to pieces, its essence dispersing throughout the palace.

The cultivator sent the banner flying again, summoning the Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise to form a Four Symbols Array, trapping Xu Zhong within.

Xu Zhong’s mind raced, and he invoked the Black Tortoise’s Seven Stars, shifting the balance of life and death in an instant. He collapsed backward, feigning defeat.

The cultivator withdrew his banner and strode forward. In that moment, Xu Zhong sprang up, grabbed the cauldron by its handle, and crushed the man’s skull, then spat forth a blaze of ding-fire, incinerating the soul.

“Bold, indeed!” the others shouted, advancing at once.

Each unleashed their own spells, sending a barrage of magic against Xu Zhong, who braced himself behind the cauldron, shielded by a layer of primordial water.

At the same time, he seized the fallen cultivator’s innate elixir, the four banner treasures, and his pouch.

One cultivator’s greed was barely concealed as he watched Xu Zhong—and when he realized Xu Zhong was only at the Guardian realm, his avarice grew. Little did he know, within this secret realm, Xu Zhong’s cauldron drew mysterious power from the palace itself, greatly enhancing his spells. The fight was not determined by cultivation alone; Xu Zhong’s true strength was closer to the middle stages of the True Essence realm.

“Hand over the elixir,” the greedy cultivator demanded, his expression flickering as he shifted his powers.

In a flash, the entire palace responded to his spell. Endless metallic energy condensed into silvery droplets, falling from the ceiling, intertwining with his magic to form a new white tiger’s killing aura that surged toward Xu Zhong like a devastating flood.

Xu Zhong kicked the corpse at his feet into the oncoming current. The body was instantly pulped, blood splattering through the shimmering force.

At that, Xu Zhong laughed aloud. “Is this what you call a white tiger’s might?”

From within him burst the seven lights of the Kuí, Lóu, Wèi, Mǎo, Bì, Shēn, and Zī stars—the Seven Mansions. In that instant, a true white tiger leapt up behind him, shaking the palace to its foundations. The metallic energy fused into the white tiger’s form, flowing into the Cloud-Swallowing Sword in Xu Zhong’s hand.

He brandished the sword, unleashing a thousand beams of light, each empowered by the white tiger’s spirit, their might terrifying beyond compare. With a single stroke, the tiger’s killing aura was obliterated, the remaining sword qi cutting down the spell-caster where he stood, his head flying as blood flashed through the air.

Xu Zhong gripped his sword, the white tiger looming behind. Roars echoed through the palace.

“Does anyone else wish to court death?”

No one dared respond.

“Then begone!” Xu Zhong strode forward, the tiger leaping with him. As he spoke, the tiger roared, and white tiger’s force rained from the ceiling, instantly refined by Xu Zhong into sword energy.

Countless blades of qi prowled the hall, making every cultivator feel as though a thorn pressed against their backs.

“Let’s attack together,” one True Essence cultivator called, rallying the others. “We’re all at the True Essence realm—he may be able to kill across realms, but he can’t possibly slay us all at once!”

The others, tempted, struck without hesitation. For them, an innate elixir was a treasure beyond price; it could even carry some directly to the next realm.

“So none of you intend to leave alive,” Xu Zhong said coolly.

The white tiger’s stars on his body shone brighter, the beast behind him growing ever more substantial. With another roar, a silver tide of metallic force surged over the tiger’s back, forming a vast, shimmering lake.

“Rise!”

Xu Zhong wielded his sword, commanding the qi. Waves of silver, tangible as steel, crashed forward. Any who stood before them were crushed to pulp; those behind were flayed by the metallic force, their blood turning the air above the palace into a thick, red mist.

“Too tough—time to run!” The instigator, hanging back, shouted and tried to flee.

But as he turned, he found Shiyue waiting, bored, in his path.

“Out of my way!” he roared.

“You’re the one who should move,” Shiyue replied coldly.

She spun the star chart, and instantly flags appeared throughout the palace. The ground trembled as though something monstrous was about to burst forth.

The cultivator frowned and stepped forward—but that single step triggered the transformation. From below erupted a torrent of earthfire and magma, sweeping him away like a volcanic eruption. All that remained were a few treasures hidden in his inner reserves and his storage pouch; the man himself was gone.

Meanwhile, Xu Zhong had finished off the rest.

He and Shiyue exchanged a glance.

“This seems to be the Golden Luminary’s Treasury,” she said, taking in their surroundings. “This palace may very well be the embodiment of the white tiger’s killing spell.”

Shiyue closed her eyes, sitting cross-legged to meditate on the spell’s mysteries.

Xu Zhong seated himself and produced a torn scrap of Yuan Yi’s robe. He intended to test the fabled power of the Seven Arrow Book.