by Mao Ni
She stared at the demon as she lightly shook her whip. The long whip reflected the starlight, seeming to come alive in the darkness. No longer was it a snake, but a dragon.
A dragon amidst the wind and rain.
The Falling Rain Whip, seventeenth on the Tier of Legendary Weapons.
The demon disappeared, and howls surrounded the library. The lights leaking out of the library were like small boats amongst massive waves, dimming and brightening, disappearing and appearing.
Luoluo lowered her head and quietly stood, the Falling Rain Whip in her hands wildly dancing without end in the wind.
Drops of rain could faintly be seen.
Occasionally, a strand of cold Qi would break through the darkness, but be blocked by a drop of rain.
Occasionally, a harsh light would pierce through the wind, but then the wind would suddenly grow more hurried and form a protective screen.
The Falling Rain Whip could draw down the wind and rain from every direction. To protect the body, it was the finest weapon.
This was also the reason she had chosen the Falling Rain Whip as her weapon when she was leaving her home.
In the end, she was still just a girl at the initial level of Meditation. The gap between her and the demon was too great.
If her sneak attack with the Great Emperor's Tusk had not succeeded, the demon might have been able to use his vigorous true essence to oppose the might of the Falling Rain Whip, forcefully break through, and kill her, but the current situation was just as bad for her.
The movement techniques of this demon were far too bizarre. Following some incomprehensible trajectory, he traveled freely through the darkness.
Her whip could drive the wind and rain in all directions, protecting herself in an impenetrable wind, yet it could not seize upon her opponent's whereabouts. Naturally, it could not attack him either.
She could not attack, and how could she keep on defending forever?
No matter how intelligent the Falling Rain Whip was, it still required her soul to control. Every gust of wind or drop of rain consumed a part of her true essence.
Her breathing was becoming hurried. She did not know if she could last until her opponent's strange magical artifact lost its effectiveness, last until her clansmen could hurry over.
She still relied on her composure and willpower that surpassed her peers to persevere, to wait.
She was waiting for the instant her opponent truly revealed his body.
The magical artifacts she had brought with her had all been used, but she was still unable to escape. However, she still had the whip, and crucially, she was still hiding one more method.
Only she knew that although she was holding the Falling Rain Whip, she was using a sword style.
This sword style contained the words 'wind' and 'rain.'
The Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong.
This sword style's most frightening aspect was that it could condense an entire sky of wind and rain into a single point, striking at an opponent's weakest point.
The demon was already heavily injured, no longer at his previous strength. She believed that if she was given an opportunity, she could definitely kill him.
The problem was that the demon had not lost his sense of reason even though he had been angered by his wounds. He displayed extreme patience. Without a complete grasp of victory, he relied on his strange movement techniques to roam outside the wind and rain, not even giving her a chance to attack.
Luoluo suddenly felt rather wronged.
The techniques of demon experts had always been mysterious, so it was fine if she couldn't grasp them, but if she had been able to completely learn the Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong, if she had truly been able to understand the true meaning of bringing down the wind and rain from all directions, what need would she have to be passive?
Why didn't the teachers of the Heavenly Dao Academy and Star Seizer Academy know how to teach her? If she was able to find that person from that night, would he really be able to teach her? Right, if it weren't for that guy, how could she have encountered this assassination? How could she have reached such a miserable state?
Yes, it was all that guy's fault.
Luoluo felt very wronged, so she no longer wished to be so generous. She decided that if she were able to find that person in the future, she would not send him so many gifts.
Perhaps cut the amount of gifts in half?
As she thought of these things, the battle continued.
Danger continued to approach.
A wound appeared on her neck, a result of the demon taking advantage of a gap in the Falling Rain Whip to deliver an almost fatal blow.
Not only did Luoluo feel wronged, she began to feel grief.
She really did not want to die.
She had always believed that living was the most fortunate thing, was the most beautiful thing. The clouds on the horizon were so beautiful, and the clouds of the capital were very beautiful, at times like the hair of a lady on the street. The clouds of her home were also very beautiful, at times like the face of a young horse thief.
Moreover, even if she died, she could not be killed in the capital.
Because this would cause many innocent people to die, like the lady on the street or that young horse thief.
Luoluo continued to lose more and more blood.
The Falling Rain Whip gradually began to lose strength.
The demon continued to remain hidden in the darkness, his position unknown.
She felt very tired, and then a little sleepy.
The Falling Rain Whip moved noiselessly through the darkness, the falling wind and rain also made no sound, and that demon was absolutely silent.
The Orthodox Academy was completely silent, truly suitable for sleeping.
Besides cultivating and playing, what she enjoyed the most was sleeping.
She knew that she could not sleep, but she really was tired.
At this moment, a voice broke the silence.
In the darkness, the Orthodox Academy awakened.
Luoluo also awakened.
"The stars in heaven reflect the organs; let your true essence flow voluntarily. Bring your wrist up to your shoulder, and the wind and rain will be restrained."
Luoluo did not know who had spoken.
But she knew that these were the contents of the Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong.
She subconsciously turned the wrist of the hand holding the whip, slightly bent her left knee, and her true essence voluntarily rose up. Ignoring the meridians mentioned in the sword manual, they followed the channels in her body, traveling through her organs, and reached her chest. Then, she felt the hand holding the whip grow hotter.
What next?
She thought, somewhat puzzled.
The night was still dark.
That voice rang out once more.
"Dou Zhen, Kui Liu."
These were two rather strange phrases.
But if disassembled, people living on this world would clearly understand what they were.
Dou and Zhen referred to two stars, in the east and west respectively.
Kui and Liu referred to two stars, in the south and north respectively.
The stars were eternally constant and unmoving, especially those famous stars. The people on the ground, old and young, would be able to clearly remember their positions.
Luoluo froze, not understanding the meaning. Were they directions?
Could it be that she should stab towards the Dou star? And then at the Zhen star?
Suddenly, she came to her senses.
Between Dou and Zhen, she could draw a line.
Between Kui and Liu, she could also draw a line.
The intersection of these two lines was a single point in the night sky.
Luoluo opened her eyes wide and turned to that spot.
The Falling Rain Whip in her hand had already stabbed at that point in the night sky.
The Falling Rain Whip bound tog
ether the wind and rain into a line, transforming it into a sword.
The Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong.
In the Orthodox Academy, the wind and rain was suddenly restrained, but sword intent flourished.
Squelch.
A spurt of blood shot out from the darkness.
At the same time came the shocked and furious cry of pain from that demon expert.
Chapter 30 – Old Books in Exchange for a New Day
Soon after, the voice rang out once more.
It was still four words, four stars, one coordinate
"Su Shu, Tan Wei."
The Falling Rain Whip in Luoluo's hands complied with the directions, the raindrops and the wind completely condensing into a straight line in the darkness. The sword intent of Mount Zhong, the condensed wind and rain, as if disregarding time, accurately stabbed at that point in the night sky.
There was nothing but pitch-black darkness, but when the Falling Rain Whip stabbed, it came away once more with a spurt of blood and a groan of pain! Different from that cry of pain carrying shock and anger; this groan was more perplexed, even faintly fearful!
Luoluo felt her true essence swiftly circulating through her body. It was clearly not flowing through the meridians required by the sword manual, yet it was still able to arrive at the hand holding the whip, and it even seemed more boundless than when she normally practiced.
This confused her, but she felt even more elated.
In the following period of time, that voice would continuously ring out, at times speaking from the sword manual of the Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong, telling her which technique she should use. At times, it would explain how she should circulate true essence, yet these instructions were clearly different from what was laid out in the sword manual. Most of the time was spent with the names of the stars in the night sky.
As she listened to this voice, Luoluo felt like she had returned to when she was very young, together with her father atop a stone plateau as he pointed at the drifting clouds on the horizon and spoke of how to fight. Her emotions began to grow calmer and calmer, more and more cool-headed. She simply stopped thinking, letting her spiritual sense go where it wished. The Falling Rain Whip howled through the air like an extremely sharp longsword, continuously stabbing at the darkness!
Crackcrackcrackcrack. Countless collisions rang out through the seemingly empty darkness, the sound of the tenacious and terrifying Falling Rain Whip lashing against a person's body. It was followed by several dozen pieces of cloth dancing in the wind. When these pieces of cloth fell to the ground, it could be seen that they were all black.
Swishswishswishswish. The forward half of the frenzied dance of the Falling Rain Whip was already dyed red, countless spurts of blood having sprayed out from the darkness, yet the person injured could not be seen. It was like some invisible brush, dipped in ink ground from cinnabar, was wildly scribbling in the darkness, an exceptionally eerie sight.
With a pained and furious shout, the demon expert was finally unable to conceal his tracks, and he dropped out of the darkness. The moment his two feet hit the floor, he stuck to the ground and rolled more than a dozen times. Only when he had retreated to the lake shore did he dare to stop.
The demon expert's body was covered all over in wounds inflicted by the Falling Rain Whip, all of them flowing with blood. His black robe had long since been cut into countless pieces, the remnants hanging in shambles over his body. He looked abnormally miserable and wretched. Just where had all his previous might gone?
His first thought after being forced out of the darkness was to retreat—the farther he could get from the Falling Rain Whip, the better. In his wretched withdrawal, he did not forget to pull that magical artifact out of the grass because he had been beaten so badly that even his soul had grown disheartened.
He crouched on the lake shore like a dog, his right hand rigidly holding up the magical artifact to protect his head. His voice was like a broken bellows, hoarse and extremely grating on the ears, containing the emotions of shock, anger, resentment, and fear. Even now, he could not understand just what had happened.
"Who? Who is it? Get out here!"
He was able to obtain Military Advisor Black Robe's trust and take on such an important mission because the technique the demon expert was skilled in was a secret technique of Xuelao City, making him extremely skilled at concealment. This was the only way he could have lived for such an extended period of time in the human world. At the same time, it was also because he possessed a nearly unimaginable and tenacious willpower. It was impossible for him to be disheartened over a momentary setback, but tonight's events had completely exceeded his ability to accept and were on the verge of breaking his will.
He was most skilled at concealing his tracks, but he had been completely seen through! That enemy that had never appeared seemed to know his techniques inside and out, was able to perfectly determine where he would appear next. Just how was this possible?!
"Just who are you!? Show yourself!"
The demon expert looked around at the pitch-black Orthodox Academy, then he turned his gaze to the dimly lit library. He recalled that he had seemingly forgotten something, and his face covered in blood revealed an extremely fierce sense of unease, his voice shuddering.
The grass outside the library grew brighter because the door had been opened.
Soon after, the lights dimmed once more because a person had come out.
A youth stood on the stone steps.
He was dressed in an old Daoist robe, a dagger held in his hand.
His face was somewhat pale, somewhat nervous, but his eyes were firm with no intention of cowering away.
Chen Changsheng had been in the library the entire time.
These past few nights, he had always been in the library.
He was drawing in starlight for Purification.
The reason he had awoken from his meditation was not the fierce battle outside, but that the magical artifact used by the demon expert was interfering with the starlight descending from the night sky.
He had walked to the window and realized that an intense battle was unfolding in the darkness of the Orthodox Academy. He did not know who the girl was, but upon seeing the man's demon horns, he naturally knew which side he should stand on.
Then, the demon man had disappeared into the night.
The long whip in the girl's hands noiselessly summoned a sky full of wind and rain.
At the very beginning, he simply did not believe that he could help this girl in any way. He had not even succeeded at Purification, and it was obvious that the girl and the demon were both very powerful people.
He stood in the corner by the window, silently watching the battle and cheering the girl on. He didn't make any noise because he did not want to introduce any more variables in this battle, did not want his existence to cause the girl to divide her attention.
A demon would naturally not care for the life or death of an ordinary human, but the girl might.
He would not miss even this sort of detail. He was a very detailed person.
The next moment, he realized to his shock that he really might be able to change the course of this battle.
The long whip in the girl's hand was clearly no ordinary weapon, but instead of using a whip style, she was using a sword style.
The Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong.
In the old temple of Xining Village, Chen Changsheng had once seen this sword manual. He remembered very clearly that it was within the fourth scroll of the Commentary on the Classic of Controlling Splendor.
Of course, the secrets of the sword manual had mostly existed in the form of debates between distinguished Daoists of old. It was only a few days ago, after he had found corresponding books in the library, that he understood that those words were originally speaking of methods for circulating true essence and the forms of techniques too wonderful to describe with words.
He could recall this sword manual from back t
o front, and with his review in these past few days, he could naturally see that the sword style this girl had concealed in her whip movements only contained the form of pattering rain of the Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong, but none of its cold and desolate intent. Moreover, there was clearly a problem with her method of driving true essence, else her movements would not be so non-proficient.
Yes, his body did not contain a drop of true essence, but he had already begun to research methods of circulating true essence.