Chapter 161 — The Ambush

Ming Li's face was cold as frost. "Stand aside."

Wan Jiangu showed not the least intention of standing aside. But after looking Ming Li up and down a while, he suddenly sighed. "That Junior Brother Tian could actually produce a disciple like you—truly remarkable."

Something stirred in Ming Li's face, but at once he gave a snort, and a touch of arrogance surfaced there, as though this Wan Jiangu, so famous in his day, were beneath his notice. He simply lifted his foot and walked on. Wan Jiangu straightened, clasped his hands behind his back, and stood his ground without any thought of giving way.

As the two drew closer and closer, Wan Jiangu suddenly knitted his brows and shot up from the ground. Almost at the same instant, the earth where he had stood gave a muffled thud and split open in an instant; the Soul-Eater, glinting with a cold, dark blue-black mystic light, burst from the soil beneath his feet and hurtled after him.

Wan Jiangu, in midair, swayed his body and suddenly gave a great shout that shook all around him—and reached out with his bare hands, empty, to seize the oncoming Soul-Eater. In an instant the Blood-Drinking Bead at the Soul-Eater's tip blazed red, and every thread and filament of dark red blood-vein lit up, shot through with black light, and charged straight on without the slightest hesitation.

Black qi rolled, red light flickered darkly, and in an instant all around seemed to dim. But Wan Jiangu came charging down, and all that ghostly, baleful aura seemed to have no effect on him. Ming Li's expression changed—a cultivation of this order, he could say, he was seeing for the first time.

It looked as though Wan Jiangu would seize this most vicious thing in the world in his hand—but in that very instant, amid the black qi and red light, upon the surface of the Blood-Drinking Bead at the Soul-Eater's tip, a strange pattern suddenly rose up from deep within the bead. It grew from small to large, from dim to bright, and burst forth from the black qi and mystic light in an instant, golden and radiant: it was the Buddhist true word "卐," and a force both deep and pure—yet tinged with something uncanny—flung Wan Jiangu's palm back by main force.

Wan Jiangu and Ming Li both fell back, and the treasure Soul-Eater in midair flew back into Ming Li's hand. Wan Jiangu halted in midair, his face slightly pale, and stared at Ming Li. Word by word he said, "The Great Brahma Prajna!"

Ming Li's face showed nothing, but inwardly he was shaken. This man's cultivation before him was truly unfathomable. In all these ten-odd years, this was the first time he had seen anyone withstand the demonic power of the Soul-Eater with bare hands.

Shaken as he was, he did not know that Wan Jiangu before him was no less astonished. Wan Jiangu had himself been a man of dazzling talent and breathtaking brilliance in his day, his cultivation far surpassing that of his fellow disciples; save for Daoist Daoyan, who alone could be named his equal, he had held all others in contempt. In after years, though misfortune had heaped upon misfortune and his fate had run rough, facing this young junior today, the pride inborn in him remained as it had always been.

Yet this exchange with Ming Li had startled him badly. The Blood-Drinking Bead's demonic power was uncanny and savage; though he showed no hurt outwardly, it had already set all the essence and blood in his body surging. And then the Buddhist true dharma Ming Li had used, the Great Brahma Prajna, was fused with the true arts of Daoism and the demon cult into one seamless whole—even one of his cultivation could do nothing against it and was forced back. He could not but be shaken to the core.

A cold wind whistled through the clearing; the thin mist drifted lightly and had already begun to look as though it would disperse.

Wan Jiangu looked at Ming Li a long while, then nodded. "Truly, each generation brings forth its own talents. I never thought that in my remaining years I would meet a man like you. Heaven has not been unkind to me after all."

Ming Li frowned, not quite understanding what Wan Jiangu meant. But Master Ghost, standing behind, gave a low sigh, as though lamenting that after all these years the untamed spirit in his old friend's heart was unchanged. Yet even as he sighed, a strange light flickered in his eyes, fixed tight upon Wan Jiangu.

Ming Li said coldly, "Stand aside."

Wan Jiangu looked at him—this young man, so cold and arrogant before him, with an expression and bearing that was suddenly so familiar. He burst out laughing, a touch of bitterness in it, but at once a fierce pride took its place, and he laughed long and loud. "Good, good, good! A young man indeed—the men of this world ought to be held in no regard at all! But if you would pass, you must do it with your own true skill."

Ming Li gave a long cry and, wasting no more words, leaped up. Wan Jiangu's pupils contracted; he suddenly fell back, flying to the edge of the dense woods, and seized with his right hand a pine tree thick as a man's embrace. With a great shout, the ground shook all around; with a rumbling roar, he tore the enormous pine up by the roots and held it across the sky like a giant arm.

Wan Jiangu now brandished the giant tree, standing proud in midair—not a trace remained of the shrunken, hunched figure he had been. See him now, spirits soaring, face alight with excitement, brows and eyes both lifted—this was the man who had once brooked no equal in the world.

"Come!" Wan Jiangu shouted, like thunder rolling. "You have the Blood-Drinking Bead—now let us see how you fare against this giant tree of Qingyun!"

His body swayed, and in an instant the giant tree whirled, moaning through the air, and in the blink of an eye had become swift beyond all telling. Tree-shadows filled the sky, sweeping down from every side; the wind howled fierce and urgent, and no other sound could be heard at all.

Ming Li's face changed drastically. He tumbled among the tree-shadows as that storm of giant timber rolled like a surging sea, like a tide that knew no end, one wave overwhelming the last, each swell higher than the one before, chasing across the blue sky until even the mist on the mountain seemed to tremble.

The wind swept over the treetops and turned to a gale, spinning into a vortex in midair that swallowed all things in the world. Ming Li stood at the very heart of that vortex, tree-shadows all around him, the fierce wind cutting his face like a blade—as though one careless moment would see him minced to pieces by that keen-edged thing.

Wan Jiangu laughed on and on, as though he had returned to the years when he roamed the world at will. His face grew more excited still, wholly fixed on Ming Li. In the midst of the storm, Ming Li suddenly gritted his teeth. Seeing the tree-shadows bearing down on him like a mountain, this time he did not dodge. He raised his right hand, and the Soul-Eater flew out, glinting with a dark red light, and with a soft thunk amid the thousand tree-shadows it pinned itself unerringly to the trunk. In an instant the demonic power raged; wave upon wave of red light rose from the Blood-Drinking Bead and wound about the trunk, and wherever it passed the trunk burst asunder and splinters flew.

In a moment a third of the giant trunk had been devoured by that demonic power—yet Wan Jiangu's face showed no alarm, but rather a smile. With a long laugh he chopped down with his left hand across the air, and the trunk, swept by that invisible force, was cut clean through as though it were bean curd. The forward part of the trunk, wrapped in red light, seemed to give a groan and crumbled to powder, scattered on the wind.