Three’s Company (9)
Liang Jingxuan regarded Xiao Lanle over the Purple Heavenly Sword whose spirit had vanished, flicked the blade and said, “You’re not the one I want. Step aside while you still can.”
Xiao Lanle’s lips curled in a cold sneer; she was about to spit a few barbs when Chen Shangqing cut her off.
He palmed something small and murmured to her, “Sect Leader, let me speak a few words with Junior Brother Liang.”
Seeing the hatred blazing in Chen Shangqing’s eyes as he stared at Liang Jingxuan, Xiao Lanle warned, “Senior Brother Chen, every major sect is present. Do nothing rash.”
Liang Jingxuan watched Chen Shangqing stride toward him as if courting death, spun the Purple Heavenly Sword lazily and mocked, “So the first to throw his life away is you, Chen Shangqing.”
“I haven’t come to fight,” Chen Shangqing replied. “Only to show you something.”
Chen Shangqing slowly opened his hand. A jade slip glowing with soft light floated into the air, then appeared the next instant in Liang Jingxuan’s palm.
Liang Jingxuan lifted the slip and studied it. The Purple Heavenly Sword lowered by degrees as he turned to Chen Shangqing and said, voice odd, “This is Senior Sister Lin’s identity jade. How did you take it from her?”
Chen Shangqing answered flatly, “Senior Sister Lin conspired with the python beast; snake-venom mist killed countless mortals in the capital. One of our disciples found this slip afterward.”
“Senior sister never did such a thing. She isn’t that sort of person. You’re wrong.”
Liang Jingxuan’s brows drew together; his first thought was that she had been framed.
He stroked the jade and felt, to his surprise, a pang of relief: Senior sister was still alive. The Purple Thunder Fire that had scorched the Soul-Summoning Banner had not touched her soul.
So who is she with now?
A murderous look flashed between Liang Jingxuan’s brows. He crushed the jade slip, the image the system had just fed him still burning in his mind: his senior sister, actually staying alone with an unfamiliar woman. That elegant beauty in purple, he knew her, was none other than the City Lord of Tianshu who had driven him into this misery, the very person he longed to hack to pieces.
Damn it, a few days out of sight and she’s already hooked up with someone new?
Or had there always been something between them? Had Senior Sister Lin been toying with him from the start?
Liang Jingxuan’s face turned the color of pig’s liver. He had been led around like a fool. The Purple Heavenly Sword in his hand had once been a divine weapon, but now its spirit was gone; the sword-spirit inside had been fed to the Taotie just to keep the blade alive. This time he would make her taste the same bitterness of betrayal and desertion. If his life was wretched, then she, his woman, had no right to live in comfort either.
Chen Shangqing noticed the change in Liang Jingxuan’s expression, his sword-sharp eyes thoughtful. It seemed everyone had indeed misjudged Senior Sister Lin; the havoc the python beast wrought upon the capital had nothing to do with her.
He stretched out his hand. “Senior Sister Lin’s jade token still belongs to her; please return it to Chen.”
Liang Jingxuan clicked his tongue. Tossing the jade token, he eyed Chen Shangqing. “Young Master Chen, nothing sickens me more than a righteous man who feigns obedience while plotting in the dark.”
With a lazy flip of his wrist he sent the token upward; a crisp crack rang out as it split into four pieces and hit the floor. The green glow died. Far away, inside Penglai Immortal Sect’s ancestral hall, the corresponding natal soul lamp on the long spirit-lamp terrace flickered out. Lin Qianshuang’s name was struck from the sect roll, every record of her life in the archive erased.
Chen Shangqing’s gaze darkened. He had handed Liang the identity token only to test him; he had not expected it to be destroyed. “What have you done? That token is Senior Sister Lin’s proof of discipleship; without it she can never set foot in Penglai again.”
Liang Jingxuan shrugged. “Lin Qianshuang is a demon cultivator; demon cultivators have no place among the righteous. Besides, she is destined to be my woman, how could she cavort with the female-loving sect leader standing behind you?”
Chen Shangqing’s voice turned cold. “Chen was mistaken. He thought memories of Penglai might still matter to you. Clearly you have always been a maggot rotting inside a coffin.”
Xiao Lanle’s eyes were icy as she leveled her Plain Inquiry Sword at Liang Jingxuan, the blade sliding free and resting against his spine. “Clean that mouth. Lin Qianshuang and I have long cut our ties, yet she remains a true disciple of Penglai Immortal Sect, Martial Aunt Jinghua’s pride. I won’t let you slander her.”
Liang faced the gathered sects. “A murderous demon cultivator hiding among the righteous, what else can it be but ill intent?”
He stroked his horned dragon’s antlers. “Senior Sister Lin and I grew up side by side; I myself sent her here with the python beast.”
Murmurs spread. Everyone knew the current Penglai leader’s romantic past; of course Xiao Lanle would shield an old love.
Chen Sanxuan, sect leader of Lingxiao Sword Sect, smoothed his beard. “Martial Niece Jinghua’s disciple Lin Qianshuang is now steeped in evil. The capital nearly fell, and you, Sect Leader Xiao, saved it by handing out the antidote. The mortal emperor backs you as Immortal Alliance lord. With Taotie loose, you who will soon head all cultivator sects must set the example and give the mortal realm its reckoning.”
He sighed and patted her shoulder. “True or false, that girl surnamed Lin is a demon cultivator. Personal feelings cannot sway this verdict, if she must die, then kill her, lest others question your rule.”
Xiao Lanle uncurled her fingers, her palms livid with bleeding cuts, yet her expression stayed calm. “Uncle Chen, I don’t believe it. My senior sister and I beheaded the python beast together. Someone is framing her, and I will uncover the truth for everyone.”
If she lost everything, how could she carry on the sect her father had left her, avenge those blood debts, or fulfill the ambitions buried so deep inside her?
But she would not watch her senior sister die in front of her.
Chen Sanxuan said, “Yet every witness saw you slay the python beast. Seeing is believing. Sect Leader Xiao, you command a whole sect; when the moment comes, you must decide without hesitation.”
Liang Jingxuan stepped up to Xiao Lanle, and the surrounding cultivators raised their swords and edged back a pace.
He brushed his lips against her ear. “Your dear senior sister is curled up right now with the Tianshu City Lord. There is nowhere in this world I, Liang Jingxuan, cannot search, save for Mu Weiyin, the one person whose aura can block my signal. I have the whole tender scene recorded. Would you care for a preview?”
Xiao Lanle pressed her sword to Liang Jingxuan’s throat and sneered, “Junior Brother Liang, what lies between my senior sister and me is none of your business. Wipe that smug, instigating smirk off your face.”
Liang Jingxuan clicked his tongue, tossed a Soul Snatching Pearl into her arms, and said, “Keep lying to yourself. Mu Weiyin is bad goods. However pretty she looks, a woman that calculating is more than I can stomach. I’m warning you out of what little goodwill we still share; believe me or not, I don’t care.”
When he failed to locate Mu Weiyin, he decided lingering was pointless. He swept a cold laugh across the crowd, sprang onto his horned dragon, and streaked toward the Beast-Sealing Tower Lingxiao Sword Sect had erected.
“Stop him! The brute intends to destroy the second tower!”
Sect Leader Chen Sanxuan sensed the danger, whisked his fly-whisk, and led a band of disciples in pursuit. The ancient bell on the peak tolled, a portent of ill fortune.
After Liang Jingxuan vanished, jealousy dimmed Xiao Lanle’s eyes. Inside the pearl she glimpsed the scattered images he had meant for her: every intimate moment between Mu Weiyin and Lin Qianshuang at the inn was now seared into her sight.
Here she was, frantic for Lin Qianshuang’s safety, while Lin cuddled with the City Lord.
A father-killer, a clan-destroyer, both were sworn enemies, yet she wasted panic on them.
Xiao Lanle hurled the Soul Snatching Pearl to the floor; the bead smashed to glittering dust.
“Sect Leader, where do we go now?”
The last contingents were straggling away. One disciple, catching her thunderous glare, still ventured the question.
Mastering her temper, Shark Pearl orbiting above her head, she answered levelly, “Five Beast-Sealing Towers remain: two already ruined, three standing. The seal on Lingxiao Sword Sect’s tower is the toughest. I fear Liang Jingxuan’s assault on Lingxiao is only a feint; his true target is Tianshu City.”
Chen Shangqing stepped to Xiao Lanle’s side. “The Beast-Subduing Tower inside Tianshu City anchors every protective array. If it falls, the human realm collapses. Junior sister, let me lead a team to Tianshu; you guide the rest to Lingxiao Sword Sect.”
Xiao Lanle weighed the idea, then shook her head. “No. We all defend Tianshu. Whether the other three towers still stand or not, once the city is breached the final line fails. That would be the true cataclysm for both the cultivation world and the mortal land.”
After the Beast-Sealing Tower at Hongye Temple collapsed, specters overran the Wuji Buddhist Sect. Oppressive yin air pressed gray mist against the sky. Gray-plumed birds hopped across the broken tower stones, shrieking. Gold-foil sutras on the walls were charred black. Fallen leaves and dust cloaked once-spotless terraces; old trees yellowed overnight, bleak beyond words.
The spirit images rising from Sword Ruins carried the same heavy gloom.
Lin Qianshuang watched the tower’s fall. When Liang Jingxuan halfway disguised his Corpse Puppet as her to storm Lingxiao’s seal, she still muttered, “Shameless to the core,” even though she knew the male lead’s usual tricks.
Dragged into the mess against her will, she was furious.
Mu Weiyin’s expression was grave as she stared into the distance. “Take up the Thousand Rain Sword and come with this City Lord. Tianshu City has been invaded.”
Seeing that Mu Weiyin was heading out of the city, Lin Qianshuang hesitated. “Where are we going?”
“Wuji Buddhist Sect. The Lord of the Demon Realm has an appointment with this City Lord there.”