Chapter 221 — Rescue

Lu Xueling's expression changed, and the hand touching the boards whipped back with lightning speed. Just as it withdrew, a mass of black qi burst violently from the spot her palm had touched, a ceaseless "hiss, hiss" filling the air as it burned like ghost-fire over that small patch—no flame at all, yet it burned into the wood a palm print the exact size of Lu Xueling's hand.

Inside the coffin, the witch-demon's heart went cold. The arts he practiced bore some resemblance to this restrictive demonic power, though their might was not to be compared; still, watching that colorless black fire flare up and die in an instant, he could not suppress a shudder. What would happen if that black fire touched flesh—he could more or less imagine. What he could not fathom was why, when he had hidden himself in this coffin earlier, the vicious, uncanny restriction had not stirred against him, and yet now that Lu Xueling had come, it proved so keen.

He was still wrestling with the question, unable to find an answer, when something seemed to come over him; he looked downward, and saw that the mysterious fat man beneath him appeared now, as the restrictions stirred, to be undergoing some strange transformation of his own.

A thick, murky yin energy welled up, a hundred times stronger than the faint presence of moments before, and at once filled the coffin they lay in to the brim. The witch-demon felt a great roar in his skull, as though his mind had gone blank in an instant; countless cold, venomous breaths bored into his body like vipers and clamped hard onto his meridians, leaving him in agony—yet he could not even cry out. For a time he felt he would sooner die than endure it.

And the source of this yin energy was none other than the mysterious fat man, radiating it from within his own body.

Lu Xueling stared at the black palm print, her face paling slightly. Behind her, some distance off, Xiao Bai slowly straightened, no longer leaning on the doorframe, her expression grave.

A moment later, Lu Xueling seemed suddenly to sense something; her body gave a jolt, her whole countenance changed—yet she did not retreat or dodge. Without the slightest hesitation she turned her wrist, and with a "clang" like a dragon's cry, faint rosy light blossomed and pale blue radiance flashed out in all directions, lighting the dark little room bright in an instant.

Tianxuan left its sheath!

Amid the rising auspicious vapor, the autumn-water longsword mirrored Lu Xueling's frost-and-snow face; the blade's light was like water too, rippling in midair like the spreading rings on an autumn pond. After a brief pause it multiplied into an endless host of sword-light phantoms and came slashing down upon the coffin.

Slashing—and yet it seemed to carry no power to cleave mountains or shatter stone. As the sword light swept near, something within the mysterious coffin seemed to sense the threat, and a fine crackling sound began to rise.

A mass of black qi burst abruptly from the coffin, as though it had substance, and actually caught the divine sword Tianxuan in midair. Lu Xueling's face shifted; with a clear, sharp cry she suddenly rose into the air, white robes fluttering like an immortal's.

Where she had stood, within a circle three feet across, a "hiss, hiss" broke out; that whole circular patch had been scorched beyond recognition by a black qi that had come from nowhere.

A smell of charring filled the little room.

Lu Xueling, still airborne, did not panic. The Tianxuan Divine Sword blazed with blue light, tracing a small half-circle in the air before stabbing downward.

By now the coffin was entirely shrouded in gloomy black qi, rolling like clouds. How such a vast quantity of dark vapor could have gathered in an instant was impossible to say; all that could be seen was the blue light descending from above like lightning, the Tianxuan radiance flashing as it stabbed down, while the black qi below gave no ground, as though guided by an unseen hand, gathering from all sides toward the center of the coffin, forming a black wall before the Tianxuan Sword.

Just as the divine sword and the black qi were about to collide, the tip of the Tianxuan Sword touched that wall of black vapor and rebounded as if striking a spring. Lu Xueling's entire body drifted upward like a weightless feather, as though meeting no resistance at all. And in the very moment her form rose, her left hand suddenly pressed two fingers together like a blade; in an instant a faint golden light flickered through her elegant eyes and vanished, while from her palm burst a ray of azure light, the purest of the Taiji Mystic Purity Dao of the Canglan Sect, cleaving straight into the black qi from the side where it lay thinnest.

"Bang!"

The black qi churned violently, followed by several low, muffled thuds, as something shattered and broke apart.

Standing at the doorway, Xiao Bai's lips curved in a faint smile, and she gave a slight nod, as though in approval. On the other side, behind Xiao Wan and the Wild Wolf Daoist, Zhou Yixuan's brow suddenly furrowed, as though he had witnessed something puzzling; doubt and alarm flickered in his eyes, and then he sank into deep thought.

Having been caught off guard by Lu Xueling's unexpected strike, the black qi seemed not to have anticipated it either; in its fury it turned from defense to attack, massing into a dense dark cloud and charging upward at the white figure in midair.

Lu Xueling halted in midair, her hair streaming in the fierce wind. Without a moment's hesitation, her figure seemed borne upward by an invisible force and shot into the air. With a thunderous "boom" utterly at odds with her slender form, the entire ruined roof of the mortuary burst apart in an instant, shattered wood and debris raining down, dust falling like rain—only that white figure, like a drifting cloud, soared into the sky, all the more graceful and unearthly beneath the faint starlight of the heavens.

The black qi pursued her barely a zhang before it seemed to lose its strength; the night wind sweeping across the open plain scattered it in moments.

Lu Xueling paused briefly high in the air, gave a clear cry, and plunged once more toward the little house.

By now Xiao Bai had already leaped out from the doorway and stood at a distance with hands clasped behind her back, watching, while Zhou Yixuan and the other two looked far more bedraggled, frantically dodging the countless pieces of rotting timber raining down from the sky.

Amidst this chaos, Lu Xueling's figure had already charged back into the house. Her crisp, sharp shout rang out, and in an instant blue light blazed from within, shooting out from the house in countless rays. Moments later came a thunderous crash from inside, faintly accompanied by Lu Xueling's cry, tinged with delight: "Martial Uncle Tian, it really is you!"

Zhou Yixuan and the others, standing far off and satisfied they would no longer be struck by falling debris, turned to look back. The interior of the house, so utterly chaotic moments before, was now slowly settling. After a while, the dazzling blue radiance gradually faded, and then, from the doorway, a single figure stepped out first.

This person was not Lu Xueling, but a mysterious figure clad entirely in black, face covered as well, features impossible to make out. Zhou Yixuan and the other two did not recognize this person, but Xiao Bai gave a cold snort; without any visible movement, her body suddenly appeared in front of the Witch Demon just as it was about to move, blocking its path.

The Witch Demon glanced at Xiao Bai and gave a bitter laugh, halting in its tracks.

After another moment, footsteps sounded from within the house. This time, two figures appeared at the doorway—Lu Xueling supporting a haggard-looking fat man, walking out slowly.