Chapter 95: Spiritual Energy Beneath the Blazing Sun (III)

Because he was clever, Mo Chi had realized that Gu Yi had deliberately led him to absorb that spiritual energy; because he was clever, he had also been willing to draw on the spiritual energy within his own body to fight back.

Around Mo Chi, the whirling black serpent mist grew faster and faster, and its presence became stronger and stronger. It billowed up into the sky like clouds blotting out the sun, and it poured over the ground like spilled ink.

The clouds scattered above, the birds vanished from the forest, and the pressure became so real it felt as though it could be touched. Then Mo Chi thrust out with both hands, and the surging waves of force summoned by Gu Yi vanished with a single whoosh.

“The shockwave is coming!”

Gu Yi warned Shu Le, who stood in front of him.

Before he had even finished speaking, the gale stirred by Mo Chi slammed into their faces.

It was the movement of air, invisible, yet unmistakably felt.

Pain.

Severe pain.

All three cried out at once, their bodies thrown backward and down against their will. Their retreat carved three broad trails across the mountain slope, as though an immortal had swept a brush through the hills.

With that single shove, Gu Yi was already more than three hundred feet from Mo Chi in the air. Yet for one at the level of unity, such a distance was scarcely more than a breath’s movement.

There was no fleeing.

Shu Le was in the worst condition. She spat out a mouthful of blood, and the pink spiritual energy around her body trembled, losing its stability and beginning to spiral into disorder, beyond her control.

“What exactly is your plan?” Shu Yu could not help asking.

Gu Yi had no leisure at this moment to worry about Shu Le. He had to deal with Mo Chi, or none of them would survive.

“I’ll plant something inside his body,” he said softly. “For now, we wear him down. It’ll be safer once he has been weakened a little more.”

Shu Yu was half-skeptical, but it seemed she had no choice but to trust him.

“The more we wear him down, the safer it becomes?”

“Something like that.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Shu Yu had already shot forward like an arrow. Gu Yi followed with his sword trailing behind him. He had a set of mountain-sweeping sword techniques, fast and ferocious, and in his state of renewal, their power was even more boundless.

In an instant, Gu Yi, Shu Yu, and Mo Chi were locked in a chaotic, desperate melee.

The sharp clang of impact rang without end, and bursts of spiritual energy in several colors spread across the sky. Even the aftershocks kept altering the terrain; if they struck a peak, the mountain would vanish in a blink.

Shu Le swayed in the air. Her injuries were already grave. She had been wounded before, and just now, while shielding Gu Yi from the black arrows, she had taken some internal damage as well. The intense spiritual force of that unified level was eroding her body, leaving her cold all over.

Yet the ferocity of the battle left her no time to care. She kept watching from a short distance, closely observing the three of them as they attacked and countered one another.

Mo Chi did not wish to kill either of them. He was not very eager to kill Gu Yi, and he would certainly not kill Shu Yu, so he could not bring himself to use truly lethal force. Gu Yi and Shu Yu, in turn, could not inflict a decisive wound on him.

The battle was swift, savage, and breathtaking.

In her heart, Shu Le sighed: “I thought that after entering the academy at Luyang, and being appointed the next master of the pavilion, I would count among the greatest geniuses on this continent. I never expected Gu Yi and Shu Yu to stand so far above me...”

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Gu Yi met Mo Chi in three consecutive palm strikes, each forcing him back. Shu Yu waited behind Mo Chi, and when she raised her sword, it blossomed like a rose—beautiful, and dangerous.

But the black serpent coiled around him and blocked the entire sword assault.

If one looked closely, there seemed to be a faint mist gathered around Shu Yu as well.

Mo Chi’s eyes suddenly filled with greed.

“You’re using it too.”

“Huff... huff...” Shu Yu panted hard, yet still said stubbornly, “Then let me show you what true spiritual mist is.”

The girl withdrew her sword, joined her thumbs, turned her right palm inward and her left palm outward, then reversed them. Her wrists moved with supple speed, stirring a crisp rustling sound in the air. From her lower abdomen, spiritual mist continued to seep out, climbing over her waist and back.

At the same time, her hair began to lengthen, slowly shifting into blue, and her pupils changed with it. Those clear eyes became as deep and enchanting as the sea.

That was not all. Her waist grew finer, and her legs seemed to lengthen as well. There were many such changes, all gathering finally upon the pair of spiritual wings that suddenly unfurled from her back.

An angel.

Descending into the mortal world.

“That is it... that is it...” Mo Chi suddenly fell into a dazed, almost entranced state.

At that very moment, Gu Yi drove his sword from behind straight into Mo Chi’s chest.

“Hm!”

That muffled groan was not Mo Chi’s.

It was Gu Yi’s.

He had not managed to pierce the black spiritual mist at all. Instead, his wrist was caught by a serpent mouth that sprang from nowhere and bit down hard, pinning him in place.

“Annoying little brat.”

Mo Chi turned and kicked him away.

“Gu Yi!” Shu Le cried out anxiously.

Above them, Shu Yu flapped her spiritual wings once. Gu Yi was already injured, and she was far from full strength. If the battle dragged on, it could not last.

If they were going to wear him down, then they had to wear him down thoroughly.

Shu Yu closed her eyes and tilted her face toward the sun as she moved forward. “Unscattered spiritual mist is something the Moss Clan spends its entire life refining. It is not like your black serpent mist, which can only defend. It is also the sharpest form of attack.”

Mo Chi’s gaze burned with feverish desire, not only because of the bare ankle revealed by Shu Yu, not only because of the shape of her legs beneath her trousers, not only because of her waist, her bosom, and the slenderness of her neck.

It was also because of that intoxicating, unscattered spiritual mist.

Mist, in truth, is water suspended in the air.

Spiritual mist is water formed from spiritual energy.

It can beautify the face because that spiritual water flows over every inch of a woman’s skin.

It can be powerful because spiritual energy condensed into liquid form is far more lethal.

To alter the form of spiritual energy is something only the strongest of the strong can do.

But Heaven had granted this ability to the Moss Clan.

“Mo Chi, do you know? There is another race in this world more formidable than unscattered spiritual mist—”

“More formidable than the Moss Clan, more formidable than the Moss Clan...” Mo Chi kept repeating it, almost trembling.

Shu Yu was speaking to buy time. “Yes. Even the palace master has always been searching for them. There is no trace of them, no name, but they are recorded in the history of the Moss Clan. The Moss Clan turns spiritual energy into water, while legend says there is another tribe that turns spiritual energy into a solid form.”

“Which tribe?! Tell me!”

Mo Chi shouted wildly.

Shu Yu spread her wings, then suddenly lunged forward. Spiritual mist was the physical manifestation of spiritual energy, and it could pass through the black serpent mist that had been protecting Mo Chi all along.

Bang!

The heavens and earth quaked with the explosion, and then there came a single mysterious note. Those who heard it each understood it differently.

“The beings of the human path do all things by first giving rise to intention, so it is called intention. Moreover, among the beings of this path, whether in joy or sorrow, in favorable or adverse circumstances, all can endure with steadiness, so it is also called endurance. In the human path here, a day, a month, a world; bodies differ, lifespans differ, skin and hair differ, yet all within the human path suffer the same trials: love and separation, resentment and unwanted meetings, seeking without gaining. Because of this, joy and sorrow are interwoven in the human path, making it easy to awaken and cultivate oneself. Therefore, since we have obtained human bodies, we should rejoice and strive to walk the path.”

“Gu Yi, did you hear that?” Shu Le suddenly asked beside him.

The sky answered with echoes, like morning bells resounding through a temple, deep and endless.

“What did you hear?” Gu Yi asked.

Shu Le said, “It was a line: in the human path here, a day, a month, a world.”

“Only that one line?”

“Only that one line.”

“I caught half of it. The heavenly path lies above all living beings, complete with majesty and divine power. I couldn’t make out the rest...”

Then the voice vanished, and before his eyes was Shu Yu’s body, falling out of control.

Gu Yi flashed forward and caught her. After fighting in succession, she was already gravely wounded. “Enough. Leave the rest to me.”

Shu Yu seemed to be muttering to herself. “The beings of the human path do all things by first giving rise to intention, so it is called intention. Moreover, among the beings of this path, whether in joy or sorrow, in favorable or adverse circumstances, all can endure with steadiness, so it is also called endurance. In the human path here, a day, a month, a world; bodies differ, lifespans differ, yet all within the human path suffer the same trials: love and separation, resentment and unwanted meetings, seeking without gaining. Because of this, joy and sorrow are interwoven in the human path, making it easy to awaken and cultivate oneself. Therefore, therefore... what comes after that?”

“Let go of that girl!”

Not far away, Mo Chi roared in fury.

But Gu Yi’s expression remained calm, his eyelids lowered. “Have you... ever heard of a cultivation art?”

“I told you to let her go!”

Boom!

Mo Chi had not even reached him, yet in his haste he had already thrown out a palm strike.

Gu Yi had no choice but to twist aside and evade it. In truth, Mo Chi did not know that the more spiritual energy he used, the more painful things would become for him afterward...

“Give her here!”

Shu Le shouted and caught Shu Yu’s falling body.

Gu Yi turned back to face Mo Chi, who was wrapped in darkness. The two women had already exhausted their final strength. From here on out, it would be his turn to fight with everything he had.

There was light in the sky and glittering sheen upon the lake.