Chapter 1546: Successful Escape

The tiger roar came again.

That soul-shaking tiger roar rang out once more.

Niu Youdao and the others stared fixedly at the mass of black cloud overhead, which seemed to rise and fall beneath the force of the sound. Every nerve in them was drawn tight.

Both Niu Youdao and Yun Ji knew Yuan Gang had drawn his saber again, most likely against Du Wuxu.

They did not know the result.

If he succeeded, the purpose of this dangerous venture would have been achieved.

Yin'er, who had just pulled another chicken leg from her satchel, froze again and stared blankly upward.

Hearing the tiger roar, the people of Qiyun Sect were shaken once more. Then one after another they turned to look at Xi Wuxian.

Xi Wuxian, however, wore an expression of pure delight, as though he were listening to heavenly music.

There were things he had always known must exist, yet had never been able to prove.

He had wanted to hear for himself what it sounded like when Crouching Tiger awakened.

Now he had heard it.

So this was the sound.

Beautiful.

Too beautiful!

Thud! Thud!

Two more pieces of a corpse dropped from the roiling black cloud and slammed onto the mountaintop.

Du Wuxu!

The moment Niu Youdao and Yun Ji recognized the dead man, wild joy surged through them.

Success!

Niu Youdao snapped his head upward again.

Now the only thing left was for the group inside to escape.

So long as they emerged safely, he could say with confidence that their withdrawal from Qiyun Sect would no longer be a serious problem.

Hei Shi's expression shifted as well.

In his eyes, only one of the Nine Saints remained.

Wu Chang's dream of standing alone above all beneath Heaven was almost within reach.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when Hei Shi suddenly took advantage of Niu Youdao and the others' distraction and flashed farther away.

Niu Youdao's earlier threat still hung over his heart.

If Sacred Venerable tore down the bridge after crossing the river, those people might really drag Hei Shi down with them. This was a matter of life and death. Of course he remained tense and vigilant.

"Sacred Venerable Wuxu!"

Recognizing the corpse, Taishu Feihua cried out in shock, his face full of disbelief.

By now, nearly everyone present believed this was the work of the Three-Roars Saber.

Twice the saber had unleashed that soul-shaking phenomenon.

Each time it sounded, one of the Three Sacred Venerables died.

There was no longer any room for disbelief.

All of them remembered Xi Wuxian's old boast:

When Crouching Tiger wakes, none beneath Heaven can stand against it!

Such a treasured saber had once been given away so casually.

It had even fallen into the hands of the enemy state's Huyan Wuhen, yet no one had ever tried to recover it.

For a moment, who knew how many people secretly regretted it?

Amid the tiger roar still humming between the mountains, Xi Wuxian suddenly spoke almost as though chanting.

"Slay a Sacred Venerable; Crouching Tiger wakes; none beneath Heaven can stand against it!"

It sounded like a declaration.

Or perhaps proof that he had never been wrong.

The instant those words came out, Taishu Feihua was horrified.

What nonsense was he saying?

Taishu Feihua almost wanted to cover his mouth. How could anyone casually speak of slaying a Sacred Venerable? Had the lesson from all those years ago, when Xi Wuxian boasted of being unmatched beneath Heaven, still not been enough?

But before Taishu Feihua could even speak, his eyes suddenly widened.

He no longer had the chance.

From this moment on, no one in Qiyun Sect would ever again be able to make Xi Wuxian swallow his grievance.

Xi Wuxian's cheeks were beginning to dissolve like drifting dust.

His voice carried endless emotion.

"I never imagined that before the end of my life, I would see the Three-Roars Saber return. I never imagined I would hear Crouching Tiger awaken with my own ears, here within Qiyun Sect. Heaven has not failed me. I have no regrets in this life!"

Deep beneath his words lay the sorrowful weariness of extreme old age.

Yet there was relief in it too, as though he had finally put something down.

And he had.

The last knot in his heart had finally come undone.

His physical body had already decayed long ago. He had been holding it together purely through the last thread of essence, qi, and spirit within him, reinforced by the spiritual power of his cultivation.

Now, continuing to hold on no longer meant anything.

He let go.

The decayed body immediately lost the force binding it together.

His flesh began to dissolve like smoke, drifting and scattering as though carried away by the wind, or as though dissolving into the lingering tiger roar still echoing through the mountains.

His spiritual power finally slipped free of control as well.

Beneath his clothing, his body became like dust swept up by a powerful current, scattering piece by piece until the wind carried it away.

His brilliant red robe collapsed empty onto the ground.

A living man had vanished as though into thin air.

Taishu Feihua and the others had no way to stop it.

For cultivators, the dissolution of the body at the end of one's lifespan was a solemn thing.

Faced with such a sight, everyone bent at the waist, cupped their hands, and respectfully saw him off.

"Ah!"

Still bowed, Taishu Feihua could not help shaking his head and sighing.

His regret was beyond words.

The Three-Roars Saber, together with the tiger roars they had now heard with their own ears, proved something unmistakable.

Xi Wuxian had already touched another realm of artifact refinement.

The weapons he forged could contain more than raw physical destructive power. They could hold other forms of power as well.

That sound which could shake the human heart, even terrify all beasts, had already proven it beyond doubt.

Back then, Xi Wuxian had effectively been kept under soft confinement for half his life.

Perhaps he had been burdened by his own fame.

Perhaps it was because he was an outsider by surname within the sect.

Perhaps many different reasons had become tangled together.

Whatever the cause, the thing no one had believed in back then had now been proven real.

And just as everyone finally understood, Xi Wuxian was gone, taking the insights he had mastered with him.

If Qiyun Sect wanted to develop along this path again, it would have to begin from the beginning.

Who knew how long that would take?

Who knew how many generations it might require before someone could make the power of sound in a weapon reach the terrifying level of the Three-Roars Saber again?

Some things depended on talent.

And it had all happened too quickly.

After the tiger roar, Xi Wuxian had spoken only two sentences before he was gone.

There had not even been time to ask him a single question.

How could Taishu Feihua not regret it?

Yet there was no time to dwell on that regret.

The entire group of bowed figures suddenly snapped their heads around.

The rolling black clouds in the sky had abruptly been dyed red by firelight.

Vast, surging flames intertwined with the churning black cloud, creating a magnificent spectacle like a sea of fire in the heavens.

Then the flames began swallowing the black mist itself.

...

Wu Chang had just concentrated and confirmed that Du Wuxu was dead.

The moment he expelled the corpse from the Boundless Demon Domain, his cold gaze pierced the rolling darkness and settled on the six men.

Then he saw Kunlin Shu's movement.

In the next instant, everything changed.

Flames ignited all around.

The Boundless Demon Domain shattered instantly.

Killing intent erupted in Wu Chang's eyes.

He locked them on Kunlin Shu and flashed toward him.

Within this world of fire, however, Kunlin Shu possessed something close to a home-field advantage. He controlled the flames and could sense everything moving within them, much as Wu Chang could sense everything within the Boundless Demon Domain.

He immediately detected Wu Chang's approach.

"You go first!" Kunlin Shu shouted.

Flames exploded around his body.

In the blink of an eye, overlapping fire-shadows appeared everywhere. A whole host of Kunlin Shus seemed to materialize within the flames, as though refracted from firelight itself, impossible to distinguish as real or false.

It was the Fire Phantom Shadow Escape of the Heavenly Fire Limitless Art.

Seeing his movement and realizing something was wrong, Yuan Cong and the others immediately fled downward.

Yuan Gang did not want to leave Kunlin Shu alone to face the danger. He tried to struggle free, but he could not fly and had no control over himself in midair. Zhuge Chi simply took him and descended.

Niu Youdao had reminded Zhuge Chi again and again before the battle: no matter what happened, Yuan Gang's safety had to be guaranteed.

Wu Chang arrived in an instant.

His palm smashed into the Kunlin Shu standing where the real man had been.

The fire-image blurred and exploded.

A false body.

Wu Chang flew into a rage.

His figure flashed again and again.

Better to kill the wrong one than let the real one escape.

One fire-shadow after another was struck and destroyed.

Not a single one was real.

The fire-cloud had only just risen into the sky when several figures shot out of it and dropped to the ground beside Niu Youdao.

Yuan Cong and the others.

Kunlin Shu was not among them.

Niu Youdao's voice immediately sank. "Where is Kunlin Shu?"

Before anyone could answer, another figure dropped from above.

Kunlin Shu.

Niu Youdao finally breathed again.

Then Kunlin Shu spoke a single sentence that tightened every nerve in him once more.

"Wu Chang attacked."

Niu Youdao did not waste a word.

"Go!"

Yun Ji and the others immediately seized Niu Youdao, Yin'er, and Yuan Gang by the arms and fled at full speed.

Within the fire-cloud, Wu Chang swept aside every remaining "Kunlin Shu" without finding the real one.

With a whoosh, he burst free.

His gaze swept outward.

Suspended in the air, he watched the fleeing group, his eyes fixed especially on Kunlin Shu.

From time to time, however, his gaze also shifted toward Yin'er.

He had already missed his chance.

He could continue the pursuit, yes.

But the moment the Holy Rakshasa transformed, Wu Chang had no confidence in defeating her quickly. If she entangled him while the Demonic Sect's Holy Son added the terrifying power of that saber strike, the one in danger might instead become Wu Chang himself.

This was precisely the leverage Niu Youdao had relied upon after seeing the Three-Roars Saber kill both Lan Daolin and Du Wuxu.

He knew Wu Chang would be wary.

He knew that if Wu Chang had another safe and easy way to deal with them, he would not take this risk now.

The group disappeared into the distance.

Wu Chang remained where he was.

He had, on the surface at least, honored the promise he made before and refrained from tearing down the bridge after crossing the river.

Below, the people of Qiyun Sect stared at him in trembling fear.

They had seen Lan Daolin and Du Wuxu die.

They had seen Wu Chang emerge as the sole remaining one of the Nine Saints.

From this day onward, only Wu Chang remained!

Taishu Feihua and the others were also puzzled that Wu Chang did not pursue the fleeing group.

Then they noticed the wounds on his body and assumed his injuries were the reason.

At the same time, they had finally seen whose hand held the Three-Roars Saber.

It was not Wu Chang's.

That meant the person who had killed Lan Daolin and Du Wuxu was not Wu Chang, but someone else.

This only deepened Taishu Feihua and the others' regret.

More and more, they felt Qiyun Sect had allowed a supreme treasure to slip through its fingers.

They could be certain the fleeing group's cultivation and strength were inferior to Wu Chang's. Otherwise, why would they flee?

Yet previously, even Wu Chang's strength had not been enough to deal with the other two Sacred Venerables.

Those people, weaker than Wu Chang, had nevertheless killed both Sacred Venerables with the Three-Roars Saber.

Naturally, Qiyun Sect concluded that the decisive power belonged to the saber.

They even began imagining that some hidden power within the Three-Roars Saber had never been understood by the sect at all.

That made the sense of loss even more painful.

But there was no hope of taking the saber back now.

Those people might be weaker than Wu Chang, but they were certainly not people Qiyun Sect could afford to provoke.

Wu Chang slowly descended onto the mountaintop.

His gaze swept once over the corpses on the ground, then returned to the direction in which the group had vanished.

Hei Shi finally flashed over.

Seeing the injuries on Wu Chang's body, he asked in alarm, "Sacred Venerable, are your wounds serious?"

Wu Chang answered coldly, "Nothing worth mentioning."

Hei Shi followed his gaze toward the fleeing group.

He too had realized that Lan Daolin and Du Wuxu had died beneath the Three-Roars Saber.

After hesitating, he asked, "That Yuan Gang is holding a treasured saber and will surely become a future threat. Why didn't Sacred Venerable seize the chance to eliminate him?"

Wu Chang suddenly whipped his head around.

His cold gaze locked on Hei Shi.

"Yuan Gang is not worth worrying about. Killing him would be as easy as turning my hand. The true future threat is Kunlin Shu!"

He had broken the Boundless Demon Domain effortlessly twice in succession.

Wu Chang could no longer tolerate Kunlin Shu's existence.

That was why, the moment he attacked, he ignored everyone else who was escaping and went directly for Kunlin Shu.

Who could have known Kunlin Shu would then unleash the Fire Phantom Shadow Escape and escape from directly beneath his hand?

Even face-to-face, Wu Chang had been unable to distinguish which figure was real and which was false.

Compared with what had happened in the Desolate Marsh Deadlands, the feeling was even stronger now.

Or rather, in Kunlin Shu, Wu Chang had seen the shadow of his younger self.

Given enough time, this man might become just like Wu Chang had once been, someone the other Eight Saints could do nothing about.

Wu Chang had slaughtered the other Eight Saints.

Was another Sacred Venerable destined to emerge and stand equal with him?

[End of Chapter 1546]