Chapter 85: Killing

Mu Jiuhan. Shang Youqing, as if hearing a profoundly absurd question, "What? Of course not, Junior Sister! Forget you, I haven't even seen him."

She looked back toward the ancient temple atop the snowy peak. The wind and snow whistled past her ears, and the vague unease she'd felt a moment before suddenly intensified. Shang Youqing stood up and began to retreat.

But before she could take a step, Mu Jiuhan gently placed his hand on her back, his laughter almost whispering in her ear. "It's too late, Junior Sister! Look up at the sky."

Shang Youqing followed Mu Jiuhan's gaze. The horizon behind the snowy mountains had been swallowed up imperceptibly, replaced by clouds converging toward the ancient temple, rapidly forming a vortex of lightning and thunder.

Because this section of the mountain range was too far from human exploration and situated at the Eye of the Mountain, the divine aura of Father Phoenix stretched for thousands of miles.

For Shang Youqing, this was the most suitable and safest place she could imagine to weather the thunder tribulation.

But at this moment, when she thought of the slender figure of ice and snow that she had seen in the temple not long ago, her heart could not be at peace at all.

Mu Jiuhan said that she could not possibly know that person, but she felt that the sense of familiarity that instinctively overflowed from her could not be faked. She must have seen that person somewhere, and that sense of familiarity was not just a few encounters.

It was precisely because of this uncertainty that Shang Youqing's originally arranged plan was disrupted.

She wanted to leave here immediately, at least to find out the identity of the person in the ancient temple first.

But now it was too late -

as Mu Jiuhan said, the thunder tribulation in the sky was brewing.

In other words, from now on, she had no way to escape. No matter where she fled, the thunder tribulation would automatically track and lock onto her.

Mu Jiuhan obviously understood this as well, and finally let her go with peace of mind. Amid the thunder that resounded through the mountains, he walked slowly around to her -

"Now that things have come to this, I'll tell you the truth, little junior sister. The person you just asked about has been a person that cannot be described by the way of heaven for a long time. Do you want to guess why our master accused me of treason and expelled me from the sect?"

Shang Youqing stood there with her head lowered, "Because you wanted to wake him up at that time?"

"Yes, I became our master's disciple in order to find a way to wake him up." Mu Jiuhan squinted his eyes and looked at the vortex of lightning that was getting more and more intense in the clouds above his head, but his face was calm, "Awakening him and reviving our clan, this is my mission." "

What a pity."

"What—"

Mu Jiuhan had just turned his head in confusion when he was caught off guard by the flaming blade, tempered by the Phoenix Fire in Shang Youqing's palm, which pierced his shoulder and nearly pinned him to the rock wall behind him. Shang Youqing continued, "I will never let you succeed."

Mu Jiuhan's face paled. He covered the spot where the flaming blade had instantly pierced through. Although he quickly used his spiritual power to cover it, the burning pain was still too much for him to move. He struggled to grab Shang Youqing's hand as she turned to leave. "Junior-sister... listen to me. After the thunder tribulation... after we complete this mission... I, I will take you back to Wutong Mountain... we..."

Shang Youqing swiftly shook his hand off. "You're dreaming."

Shang Youqing glanced at the vortex that had formed above her, now about 70% complete. Knowing that time was running out, she once again summoned the Phoenix Fire Formation and headed straight for the snowy mountain's summit.

This time, she charged into the ancient temple with a clear goal.

Whether this person was someone she knew or had met before was no longer important.

Mu Jiuhan's words, "The Unspeakable Way of Heaven," reminded her.

She had always been unaware of the priest's slumber, knowing only that he had left during her childhood and never returned.

Only when she grew up did she learn from her master that the priest had been forced to leave the mountain by a secret order from Heaven. While he ultimately fulfilled Heaven's command, he also fell into a slumber within the Kunlun Mountains, never to awaken.

Coincidentally, the person Mu Jiuhan sought to awaken was "The Unspeakable Way of Heaven."

This suggests that it was this very person whom Heaven had sent the priest to slay, and that the priest had likely paid a heavy price in the battle. While he ultimately succeeded in slaying the person and imprisoning him within the ancient temple, he himself was forced to slumber within the temple.

The person the priest would willingly sacrifice himself to eternally slumber within the Kunlun Mountains was undoubtedly a dangerous entity that would wreak havoc on the human world.

Therefore, she must strangle this man before the thunderbolt strikes, no matter what. She must not let the priest's sacrifice be in vain!

Shang Youqing didn't give the man a chance to fight back. She grabbed him by the back and twisted him around, stabbing the flaming blade, tempered with phoenix golden feathers, precisely at his heart.

"Playing tricks! How shameless are you? You don't even dare let me see your face?"

The moment the flaming blade pierced the icy black robe, Shang Youqing raised her eyes and met those unfathomable, icy eyes that seemed frozen for millennia. She also saw the face clearly.

He had been rooted to the spot, motionless from beginning to end. He watched

coldly as she slew him.

Shang Youqing felt as if something shattered in his heart, and hot blood rolled down his throat.

But Shang Youqing had no time to think. Immediately, the entire ancient temple was ripped apart by the thunderbolts above.

The thunderbolt had arrived.

It struck directly toward the mountain range where Shang Youqing lay.

Icy silver strands, lifted by the wind and snow, brushed against Shang Youqing's face, caressing her cheeks.

Shang Youqing stared at the face before her, her eyes bloodshot. Far from drawing her flaming blade, she pierced its heart without hesitation. Then, with a shrill cry, she transformed back into her true phoenix form.

She tucked the encased chick under her belly feathers, where it was safest. She spread her vast phoenix feathers, bracing herself against the lightning tribulation, preventing the person from absorbing even a single ounce of its energy.

However, a deafening roar of thunder followed.

All that remained was an endless, swirling mass of frost and snow, and the lightning tribulation... hadn't struck her true phoenix form.

Shang Youqing turned in disbelief, finally spotting He Cong, standing on the cliff face, higher up on the other side of the ancient temple, wearing a Buddhist amulet imbued with her spirit.

Because he was at an altitude closer to the thunder tribulation, and he had deliberately released the spiritual energy of the Buddha amulet, so that when the thunder tribulation rushed towards her, he stood in the way and blocked it for her.

However, Shang Youqing stared at this scene in a daze, but was not moved at all.