Volume Four: The Wind Sweeps Away the Clouds, Four Continents Sink Beneath the Waves Chapter Twenty: Confrontation

“Put him down!” Lin Bai roared at Lanling.

Lanling turned her head to glance at the half-dead Lin Xiaoyun in her grasp, then looked back at Zhuo Hua and asked with a bright smile, “Zhuo Hua, do you think I should kill him?”

Zhuo Hua took two steps forward, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and said, “If you’re asking me, then of course I’d say no.”

Lanling’s smile vanished at once. Her almond-shaped eyes widened as she said to Zhuo Hua, “But this old black dragon destroyed the statues of the Seven Sages and Seven Saints, and smashed the statue of the most revered Elder Yuqing Shu to pieces. Tell me, shouldn’t he die?”

Zhuo Hua froze for a moment, then his expression softened again. “Destroying a goddess warrior’s statue certainly deserves death. But since the statue is already ruined, killing him won’t restore it. Better to hand him over to Jiao Mu Jiao and let the dragon clan settle their own affairs. All right?”

Hearing this, Lanling lowered Lin Xiaoyun, who had been held aloft, though her slender left hand still clamped his throat.

A wicked smile appeared on Lanling’s face. She raised her brows and asked, “Are you begging me?”

Zhuo Hua coughed twice and gave an indistinct answer. “You could say that.”

Lanling leaned forward, cupping her ear as if teasing him on purpose. “What was that? I didn’t hear clearly.”

At that, Qin Ying could no longer bear it. She rushed forward and shouted at Lanling, “He already said yes. What’s the point of publicly humiliating him like this?”

No sooner had she spoken than a fierce wall of water surged toward Qin Ying with overwhelming force. Zhuo Hua hurriedly yanked Qin Ying behind him and thrust out three swift strikes of air-blades with his left hand, just barely dispersing the crashing wave before it reached them.

“You’re still protecting that little vixen,” Lanling demanded furiously. A flush rose on her once-pale cheeks. “She just insulted the Holy Maiden of Mysterious Yellow. Am I not even allowed to punish her a little?”

Zhuo Hua felt awkward and, not knowing what to say, could only answer, “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that this concerns the Cloud Palace. If there is to be punishment, it should wait until we return to the Heavenly Palace of the Clouds.”

Hidden behind Zhuo Hua, Qin Ying peeked out and muttered, “And you still dare call yourself the Holy Maiden of Mysterious Yellow!”

“Shut up!” Zhuo Hua snapped, turning back to chastise Qin Ying. Then he shoved her toward Lin Bai and ordered, “Old Flood Dragon, keep an eye on her. Don’t let her do anything reckless.”

Jiao Mu Jiao tried his best to restrain Qin Ying, but she struck him back with a palm, broke free of his grip, and ran to the space between Lanling and Zhuo Hua. Pointing at Lanling, she challenged her, “You style yourself the Saintess of the Heavens of Mysterious Yellow, Lanling Fair Maiden of the Heavenly Palace of Clouds. But what have you done? You brought the Dark Malice Clan here yourself. You schemed to harm the people of the Cloud Palace and the Immortal-Descended Clan, to seize the Wasteland Cauldron, and to destroy this void. Is this what a descendant of Mysterious Yellow is supposed to do?”

“I do my own business. It’s not your place to point fingers at me,” Lanling said. All the playfulness on her face—mockery, delight, joy, mischief, teasing, all of it—vanished without a trace, replaced by a cold, lethal stillness.

The icy killing intent in those beautiful eyes made even Zhuo Hua shiver when he saw it. Meanwhile, Lin Xiaoyun, still gripped by the throat, began to struggle desperately, his mouth repeatedly forcing out muffled cries: “Let go of me! I don’t want to die.”

His struggle was already futile. A chill flowed from Lanling’s hand into Lin Xiaoyun’s neck, freezing the surrounding seawater as it spread. His neck began to ice over, then his head and entire body.

Within the span of four or five breaths, Lin Xiaoyun could no longer move, for he had become an ice sculpture.

Lanling’s eyes seemed ready to spit fire. Grinding her teeth, she said viciously, “Jing Mu Han, a mortal sin. I should have struck you dead with one palm the last time, you wretched beast.” As soon as she finished, her left hand clenched. With a sharp crack, Lin Xiaoyun’s neck shattered to pieces. One head spun gracefully through the water in a circle before dropping onto the bluestone paving, rolling several times with a dull clatter until it came to rest beside Lin Bai’s feet.

This sudden turn of events caught the Cloud Palace off guard. Zhuo Hua shot forward like an arrow, first dragging Qin Ying back, then extending both palms to meet Lanling’s violent strike head-on.

Lin Bai’s emotions surged and crashed. He had longed day after day to avenge Lin Xiaoyun, but when he truly saw that head rolling at his feet, the agony of losing his father surged up from the depths of his heart once more, and an unnameable rage erupted from his lower dantian. Gathering his force, he pounced toward Lanling.

Lan Sheng and the other Star Lords of the Cloud Palace, however, were somewhat bewildered. They could not make sense of the sudden changes that had unfolded among the people in front of them in such a short time. But seeing Zhuo Hua and Lin Bai take action, they immediately rushed forward as well, charging at Lanling.

Reality was cruel indeed: the surviving descendants of Mysterious Yellow, before the shattered statues of the Seven Sages and Seven Saints, had fallen into fratricide and mutual slaughter.

Just as the Cloud Palace forces were charging Lanling with full momentum, cries of killing erupted from behind them. The vanguard of the Dark Malice army had finally arrived. Seeing their commander surrounded and still unable to form battle lines, Shan Shang ordered a direct assault.

The four guards of the central army had originally been at the rear of the formation. Suddenly hearing a mass of Dark Malice troops appear behind them, they hastily reversed the rear into the front and began organizing a defense on the spot.

When Lin Bai saw the formations behind him, he hurriedly shoved Qin Ying and cried out, “Sister Qin Ying, take the constellations of your Vermilion Bird Palace and block them at once. Slow their advance.”

Qin Ying stubbornly tried to push forward to help Zhuo Hua, but Lin Bai bellowed, “We’re under attack from front and rear right now. Can’t you set aside your temper?”

Like a blow to the head, Qin Ying suddenly came to her senses. She nodded, cast a bitter glance at Lanling amid the chaos, waved to the constellations of the Vermilion Bird Palace, and leaped to the front of the central army’s four guards to fight the Dark Malice clan.

As for Lanling, trapped amid layers of encirclement, she showed no trace of panic. While calmly deflecting the air-blades, air-swords, and hidden weapons flying at her from every direction, her eyes remained fixed, cold and unblinking, on Zhuo Hua.

She sent a private voice message to him. “They are committing rebellion and you still will not intervene?”

Zhuo Hua looked helpless. “They no longer regard you as a saintess.”

Lanling gave a soft snort, and her voice turned mournful. “I do not care if others fail to understand what I am doing. But how can you misunderstand me too? You promised me before that you would always stand with me. Were those promises all just to placate me?”

The muscles in Zhuo Hua’s face twitched. His emotions rising, he transmitted back, “I truly cannot understand what you are doing now. If you really have the good of the descendants of Mysterious Yellow at heart, then stop what you are doing at once and join me in killing the Dark Malice clan. We can return to the Cloud Palace, and you will still be the Saintess of the Heavens, Lanling Fair Maiden, revered by all.”

Lanling still kept her gaze on Zhuo Hua. Tears slowly drifted upward from her wide eyes, forming a thin line that rose through the water. Weeping, she sent back, “Do you know how much hardship I have endured over all these years just to finally find the right path to restore the Mysterious Yellow clan? Yet not only do you fail to understand me, you seek to stop me. You once promised to listen to me forever. Was that all just empty coaxing?”

Zhuo Hua sighed and replied, “Tell me your plan. Explain it to me. If it truly is, as you say, the correct path to save Mysterious Yellow, I will spare no effort to help you. But these things you are doing now—what about them shows that you are doing this for Mysterious Yellow? If you carry on like this, what would the dead elders think? What would our parents and our kinsfolk think?”

Lanling waved both hands and forced back two constellations who were trying to loop the Immortal Binding Rope around her, then kicked over the old man of the Room Fire Rabbit. The tears on her face had already vanished, replaced by a cold, merciless expression. She sent Zhuo Hua one last message: “And if I tell you that all of this is the command of the Third Elder, what then? What will you do?”

Zhuo Hua heard this and shouted, “Stop!”

The Star Lords around Lanling, as well as Lin Bai, all halted and turned to look at Zhuo Hua.

“Everyone stand down!” Zhuo Hua cried sharply.

Though Lin Bai did not know what had happened, he still glared furiously at Lanling, the murderer of his father, and waved his hand to signal the constellations of the Azure Dragon Palace to retreat behind Zhuo Hua. Meanwhile, the battle between the Vermilion Bird Palace and the Dark Malice clan gradually subsided as well. Both sides dragged their dead and wounded back to their own lines, yet they still stared at each other with drawn blades and naked hostility.

The battlefield, which only moments ago had been a place of life-and-death struggle, now fell into silence, broken only by the sound of flowing water.

After a long, long while, Zhuo Hua finally spoke. “Without my key, you cannot open the Wall of Sighs.”

“I know!” Lanling said stubbornly.

“Do you still want me to beg you?” Lanling pressed.

“Don’t force me,” Zhuo Hua said, somewhat angry, suppressing the fire in his heart.

“You know very well that if I want to force you, I have many methods,” Lanling said, still relentless.

Another long silence followed.

“Go,” Zhuo Hua said, closing his eyes.

“Open the door,” Lanling insisted, still wearing that obstinate expression, so like the days when the two of them had fought over a piece of molasses candy as children.

“Even if you take the Wasteland Cauldron, you still won’t be able to use it. You do not have the sacred artifacts of the seven clans,” Zhuo Hua said in a final struggle.

“That is none of your concern. I will find a way myself.” Lanling had made up her mind: today, she would have this candy.

“You know what will happen if the Wasteland Cauldron is taken away, don’t you?” Zhuo Hua asked.

“Of course. The great catastrophe,” Lanling said with disdain.

Huuuu...

Zhuo Hua let out a long breath, as though he had cast off into the abyss of Kunpeng Sea all the longing, unease, anxiety, and indignation accumulated across tens of thousands of years.

“Since you care nothing for the lives of the world, then I will no longer try to persuade you. Forgive me.” As soon as he said this, his aura surged. Everyone nearby sensed the disturbance in the seabed, a strange force rapidly gathering the scant air into one place, and the focus of that convergence was Zhuo Hua.

The air around him gathered more and more densely until it formed a sphere. The concentration became so thick that the figure within could no longer be seen clearly. And as the circulation of aura accelerated, the sphere around Zhuo Hua began slowly to glow and heat, boiling the surrounding seawater.

Everyone nearby unconsciously bent under the immense pressure and this sudden upheaval, raising their hands to shield themselves from the intense brilliance.

But among them all, Lanling was clearly not included.

Though she still stood straight and tall, fear had begun to creep across her face.

Looking at Zhuo Hua, now so menacing and unstoppable, she said with a trace of dread, “I... I don’t believe you would use the All-Form Glass Lamp against me!”