Chapter 56: Du Xian Sect 14 Part 2

Lu Yun Ting moved like lightning, reaching the boy in a blink. He scooped up the child teetering on the brink.

“Yun Ting! Behind you!”

Xun Ji pulled aside oblivious passersby and warned Lu Yun Ting.

A wider fissure tore open behind Lu Yun Ting, like a giant maw swallowing a pedestrian.

“Earthquake! Earthquake!!” The townsfolk fled in terror, but couldn’t escape the sudden calamity. Countless faces still bore joyful smiles when the ground cracked beneath them, swallowing them whole.

“Ah!!! ”

“Help!!”

Screams, wails, trampling. The festive joy turned to chaos in an instant—pearls fell, hell descended.

The earth quaked, mountains shook, houses collapsed, debris flew. Countless fissures expanded and spread terrifyingly, tearing Treasure Pearl County’s streets to shreds.

Mortal lives were cheap before such vast power—helpless as ants waving frail antennae in despair, plunging into death’s abyss.

The bluestone under Xun Ji’s feet buckled upward. He had just saved a near-victim from a fissure but couldn’t dodge in time and tumbled sideways—toward an even deeper chasm.

Debris rained down. Xun Ji plummeted into darkness. Amid the chaos, a silver-blue arc sliced through the air like lightning, arriving beneath his feet and steadily lifting him up.

“A Xun! You okay?”

Lu Yun Ting gripped his arm, checking him from head to toe. With one hand, he formed a seal to recall the Zhenliu Sword.

Xun Ji shook his head, his face grave. “Don’t put the sword away yet. This isn’t an earthquake.”

Lu Yun Ting’s pupils shrank. He didn’t ask why Xun Ji wasn’t shocked by the flying sword, just nodded silently and summoned the Zhenliu Sword again.

“Looks like some kind of formation.” Lu Yun Ting peered at the fissures’ direction. “Judging by the spiritual energy flow, the Array Nexus… is that way!”

“Just us two can’t save the whole city—we have to destroy the array first to stop the quaking.” Xun Ji decided. “To the Array Nexus!”

The Zhenliu Sword rose into the air. Arms wrapped around him from behind familiarly, as if they’d ridden together countless times. Lu Yun Ting’s eyes darkened, but he said nothing, urging the sword toward the Array Nexus.

Treasure Pearl County’s oldest zhe tree bore countless round, glowing Treasure Pearls, their faint light illuminating half the night sky with an ethereal glow. Some had red ribbons tied below, as if the wish-makers feared their desires unheard and wrote them tediously for the land’s guardian deity.

“The Array Nexus is here!” Lu Yun Ting examined the circle of array runes under the tree. “Someone modified a standard Earth Escape Formation, amplifying it several times to cover the whole county.”

“Just to quake a mortal town?” Xun Ji couldn’t fathom it. “What’s in it for the array master?”

Lu Yun Ting shook his head. “Unknown. But Earth Escape Formations usually serve two purposes: escape, or… searching for things.”

“Searching? In mortal lands, what could be worth…” Xun Ji trailed off, recalling Master Liu’s tale at Liu’s Tea House about Treasure Pearl County’s origins.

Treasure Pearl County, where the True Dragon dropped its treasure. Could it be…

“Never mind that—destroy the Array Nexus first.” Xun Ji told Lu Yun Ting.

Lu Yun Ting nodded. The Zhenliu Sword shot out, its fierce light aimed straight at the tree’s base runes.

“Ignorant juniors! Halt at once!”

The voice boomed like a great bell across the distance. Vast pressure crashed toward Lu Yun Ting, intercepting his sword and hurling him to the ground. The dog mask flew off, cracking in two.

A cultivator in a dark Daoist robe arrived on a sword, hovering above the zhe tree.

Xun Ji’s gaze sharpened. That attire marked him as an Enforcement Hall deacon of Du Xian Sect. The Hall handled discipline, equal in status to the peaks—its deacons second only to peak elders.

Lu Yun Ting clearly recognized him. He rose from the ground and bowed respectfully. “Deacon Xin.” A palm had struck his chest earlier; sweetness surged in his throat, and he spat a mouthful of blood.

“Ah! Brother Yunting, you okay?” A frail figure darted from behind the tree to Lu Yun Ting’s side.

It was Blacksmith Li’s daughter from the shop, Li Mianmian. She clutched a lustrous wish-making Treasure Pearl and glanced around fearfully before asking Lu Yun Ting, “Brother Yunting, are you an immortal?”

“Du Xian Sect disciple Lu Yun Ting!” Deacon Xin bellowed. “You entered the mortal world on the Sect Leader’s orders—yet you’ve done nothing!”

Xun Ji started. Lu Yun Ting requested to temper his heart in the mortal world, didn’t he? He took a task too?

Lu Yun Ting frowned slightly. “Martial Uncle Sect Leader instructed me to investigate anomalies in Treasure Pearl County during my mortal tempering. But it’s just an ordinary human county—no anomalies found.”

Deacon Xin’s face twisted in anger. “Not found, or not bothered to look! Lu Yun Ting, you know the rumors of Treasure Pearl County’s origins!”

So it’s about the pearl after all.

“This immortal speaks of the tale where Treasure Pearl County is where the True Dragon dropped its treasure?” Xun Ji smiled. “Just folk nonsense. No such thing as a True Dragon Treasure Pearl in this world.”

He wasn’t fooling Deacon Xin—the original text only mentioned the True Dragon holding the pearl in its mouth upon descent, nothing more. Likely just flavor, irrelevant.

“Hmph! Mortal ant, how dare you babble!” Deacon Xin’s eyes flashed murderously. He flung a Black Command Token into the air. “By authority of Du Xian Sect Enforcement Hall Deacon—Duansxue Peak disciple Lu Yun Ting, receive the order!”

Lu Yun Ting’s expression changed. “Disciple receives the order.”

“The Passing Immortal Bridge has quaked repeatedly, the crisis grave, threatening our sect’s foundation. Led by Enforcement Hall, we search everywhere for a solution. All Du Xian Sect disciples shall treat deacon orders as Sect Leader’s decree—assist with full force, no defiance!”

The Passing Immortal Bridge quaking—must be from Lu Yun Ting’s Emotion Vein Restriction unsealing. Even the Buddha Heart Stone didn’t last long. Xun Ji thought. But does Du Xian Sect need such fanfare? Desperate measures in mortal lands?

Lu Yun Ting said solemnly, “Yes. Disciple awaits Deacon Xin’s commands.”

Deacon Xin looked down imperiously, glancing coldly at the two irksome mortals below. He sneered, “Your first task: kill these two mortals.”

Xun Ji: “?”

No way, bro—not just for contradicting you? And Lu Yun Ting’s a person, not your sword. You think he’ll just…

“Brother… Yunting.”

The girl’s eyes widened in shock and bewilderment. Blood sprayed from her slender white neck, staining half her face. The lustrous Treasure Pearl, coated in blood, rolled from her hand, splattering tiny blood beads.

The night breeze stirred; the glowing pearls on the zhe tree clinked musically.

Lu Yun Ting stood tall, flicking a sword flower from his wrist to shake the blood from the Zhenliu Sword, letting Li Mianmian’s corpse fall behind him.