A Will Eternal

“Being able to force people to come and go as I wish. Now that is a level unto itself.” The more Bai Xiaochun thought about it, the more he looked forward to it. He could almost imagine what it would be like when he mastered protomagnetic power, and could reduce things to ash with the wave of his hand. The swish of a sleeve could send enemies far off into the distance, and simultaneously bring friends closeby to protect them.

It was such an entrancing idea that Bai Xiaochun looked at his sleeve for a moment, and then decided to perform some more tests.

He worked hard for more than half a month.

One night, in the middle of his protomagnetic power research, a blood-colored palanquin trundled along toward the sect, carried on the shoulders of eight gargoyles.

On either side of the palanquin were hosts of palace maids carrying blood-colored lanterns that caused blood-colored light to spill out in all directions. Inside the palanquin was Xuemei, wearing her mask, staring grimly at a jade slip she held in her hand.

She had left the sect a few months ago on a mission. After killing some Profound Stream Sect spies in one of the local cultivator clans, she was now on her way back to the sect.

“Nightcrypt....” Looking over at the sect, her eyes flickered with killing intent. About a month ago, when she was still in the middle of her mission, she had heard some of the other disciples talking about Nightcrypt. She knew about the chaos on Middle Peak, and also knew that her immortal's cave had been destroyed....

Now, more killing intent roiled in her eyes than before. In the past, she hadn’t thought much about Nightcrypt. To her, he was like an ant, someone who could be killed at the drop of a hat.

If it weren’t for the fact that she had been out on a mission, she would have arranged to have him exterminated. Even the fact that he had been hiding on Corpse Peak wouldn’t have mattered. Of course, she wouldn’t have done the deed herself.

But then Nightcrypt had the gall to actually destroy her immortal's cave. After that came the news that he had fought with a whole group of Foundation Establishment cultivators, and had even drawn upon the blood qi of all of Middle Peak for his Inverse Blood Ancestral Awakening. It was truly a spectacular accomplishment.

However, if Xuemei wanted him killed, she could still do it!

Waving her hand, she said, “To Middle Peak!”

In response to her words, the palace maids and gargoyles changed direction. Instead of heading toward Ancestor Peak, they were now moving through the darkness of night toward Middle Peak.

Her arrival caused pressure to spread out that many of the Foundation Establishment cultivators could detect, whereupon they saw the blood palanquin. As for the cultivators who had teamed up to fight Bai Xiaochun, their eyes shone with delight.

That was especially true of Master God-Diviner. He was now living in a relatively simple and crude immortal's cave, and when he saw Xuemei’s palanquin flying through the air, he began to tremble with excitement.

“Let’s see how you hide this time, Nightcrypt! Everyone else is too scared to attack you. Even Patriarch Limitless approved of you. But Young Lady Xuemei reached nine Tideflows, and she’s Patriarch Limitless’ beloved daughter! If she wants to kill you, not even the patriarch would stop her! You're dead, Nightcrypt!”

Although it was very quiet on Middle Peak, if you listened carefully, you would be able to hear numerous cultivators doing their best to stifle their breathing. It was like the calm before a storm.

Soon the blood palanquin was hovering in the air above Xuemei’s immortal's cave. When Xuemei saw the rubble down below, she began to breathe heavily. Transforming into a beam of blood-colored light, she shot down toward the immortal's cave.

The wave of her sleeve sent countless rocks and bits of rubble flying away to reveal a destroyed spell formation, and the shattered remnants of her blood bottle.

As she stared at her bottle, her murderous aura grew more and more intense, until it formed an explosive energy around her. Astonishingly, nine vortexes could be seen surrounding her.

Those were the manifestations of the nine Tideflows of her Earthstring Foundation Establishment. They spun rapidly until they were like nine enormous tornadoes, causing widespread shock among the cultivators in the area. A moment later, Xuemei's voice echoed out, filled with boundless killing intent.

“Where is Nightcrypt!?”

Master God-Diviner had been paying close attention to what was happening, and as soon as he heard her words, he burst out into the open and flew over. Clasping hands and bowing deeply, he excitedly said, “Young Lady Xuemei, please take charge here. Nightcrypt is matchlessly vicious, a thug who commits every imaginable misdeed. Not only did he destroy your immortal's cave, he killed many fellow members of the sect. Then he stole my immortal's cave! That’s exactly where you can find him right now. I’ll lead the way, Young Lady!”

Xuemei looked at Master God-Diviner, and her gaze caused his heart to pound. Averting his gaze, he quickly led her toward Bai Xiaochun.

Quite a few other Foundation Establishment cultivators were in the area secretly watching, and they began to follow along. Cruel looks could be seen in their eyes as they anticipated the scene of Young Lady Xuemei slaughtering Bai Xiaochun.

“Nightcrypt is dead!”

“Hmph! Let’s see him be arrogant and aggressive this time! He can bully us, but he’ll be like a bug in front of Young Lady Xuemei!”

“Young Lady Xuemei reached nine Tideflows, shaking the entire eastern Lower Reaches of the cultivation world. Other than the legendary Bai Xiaochun, who could possibly be a match for her?”

They followed along excitedly until they were outside of Bai Xiaochun’s new immortal's cave.

“Young Lady Xuemei,” Master God-Diviner said through gritted teeth, “the hoodlum is right here!” After everything that had occurred, Master God-Diviner hated Bai Xiaochun down to his very bones.

Xuemei looked at the immortal's cave and the blood trees with the vicious faces. The blood trees opened their eyes, and immediately began to tremble. None of them dared to even speak; apparently they could sense how much more terrifying Young Lady Xuemei was than Nightcrypt.

Not only did they not say a word, they uprooted themselves and moved off to the side, revealing the blood cistern and the immortal's cave.

Xuemei’s killing intent slowly transformed into blood qi, which swirled around her as she began to stride forward. It only took a moment for her to be hovering directly above the immortal's cave. There, she lifted her right hand, which turned blood-red before she then shoved it downward.

All of Middle Peak trembled in response, and the same spell formation appeared that had appeared when the patriarch made a move not too many days before. Massive amounts of blood qi swirled together, converging beneath Xuemei in the form of an enormous, blood-colored plum blossom.

Then, the plum blossom began to drop down toward the immortal's cave!

The cave’s spell formation was activated, and attempted to fight back, but the blood-colored plum blossom was too shockingly powerful. It had been converged from all of the blood qi in the area, and seemed capable of completely dominating the spell formation. The spell formation only managed to hold out for a few breaths’ worth of time before it faded away. Then Xuemei’s attack continued to descend.

Incredible rumbling echoed out in all directions. The crowd looked on excitedly as Bai Xiaochun’s immortal's cave began to collapse, sending rocks and rubble tumbling in all directions.

“Young Lady Xue is almighty!”

“Hahaha! Nightcrypt, you’re....” Although everyone was cheering at first, they quickly discovered that, unexpectedly, the immortal's cave was empty....

Xuemei snorted coldly, then waved her finger toward the blood cistern. Instantly, blood qi erupted out, slamming into the cistern, which collapsed with a boom. At the same time, someone shot out from inside the cistern, that person being Bai Xiaochun himself.

He had been practicing cultivation happily at the bottom of the cistern when he suddenly heard the commotion up above. Before he could even take the time to check what was happening, the top of the cistern had been destroyed. He wasn’t injured, but he was certainly shocked. He also wasn’t sure what type of mysterious treasure she was using to create such an overpowering aura. That was the only explanation why he hadn’t detected her earlier. “Listen, we’re all Chosen, so please just listen to what I--”

Xuemei looked over at him calmly. There were some people in life that she didn’t view as insects, but Nightcrypt wasn't one of those people.

She waved her finger again, and Bai Xiaochun immediately felt a sensation of imminent crisis. It was the explosive power of nine Tideflows!

She only waved her finger once, but it contained layer upon layer of power, all of which was bearing down on Bai Xiaochun.

Bai Xiaochun was angry; in his opinion, they were all Chosen, so there was no reason they couldn’t sit down and discuss things reasonably. Why did they have to instantly resort to deadly fighting? However, at the moment, he had no choice but to unleash his own blood qi. Raising his hand up over his head, he grabbed the blood sword that formed, and then slashed it out in front of him.

A boom echoed out, shaking everything in the area. As the shockwave spread out, Bai Xiaochun’s hair flew about wildly. For the first time, a brilliant light shone in Xuemei’s eyes, and she snorted coldly.

“Not bad after all,” she said coolly. “But external power is nothing more than external power. Blood Qi Seal!” Her right hand flashed with an incantation gesture, and then she pointed her finger out, and the same thing that had occurred when the patriarch appeared happened again.

All of the blood qi around Bai Xiaochun began to tremble and disperse. Bai Xiaochun looked around, and immediately realized that there were the signs of a spell formation in the ground.

Although she couldn’t control all of Middle Peak like Patriarch Limitless could, she could control a smaller area.

“As of this moment,” she said placidly, “you are nothing more than an ant.” Then she began to speed toward Bai Xiaochun. Bai Xiaochun’s face fell. The blood qi in the area had been suppressed, but if he wanted to, he could seize control back, just like he had done before. Unfortunately, if he did that now, it would reveal some secrets that he didn't want other people to know about.

A boom rang out as they slammed into each other. Bai Xiaochun staggered back, his rage growing. As for Xuemei, intense killing intent could be seen in her eyes. She once again performed another incantation gesture, summoning a blood-colored plum blossom which shot toward Bai Xiaochun.

A fierce look could be seen in Bai Xiaochun’s eyes. Xuemei was far stronger than Song Que, and was in fact the most powerful enemy he had encountered since reaching Foundation Establishment. Even as he was trying to decide how to deal with her, a flirtatious laugh suddenly echoed out in the area.

“What foul wind blew Young Lady Xuemei over here? What’s wrong? You don’t like my Junior Brother Nightcrypt?” Another casual laugh floated through the area as Middle Peak Grand Elder Song Junwan appeared in front of Bai Xiaochun. She was wearing a different outfit than before, but it was just as incapable of containing her voluptuous physique as the other, almost as if she had to breath out just to fit into it. Curves were visible everywhere, along with milky white skin. She was truly explosively sexy....

As soon as the words left her mouth, the blood-colored plum blossom stopped in place in midair. Song Junwan’s hair floated around her, and a fragrant aroma spread out. She was like a ripe peach that caused all of the other Foundation Establishment cultivators to gasp with desire. Tongues sticking to the roofs of their mouths, they bowed their heads to avoid looking at the fatally attractive image in front of them.

Only Bai Xiaochun dared to stare. Then, he spoke up, sounding wronged and bullied.

“Big Sis Song, if you’d been even a bit later, I would have lost my poor little life.”