Chapter 129: Crack the White Armor; Curious Magic Shatters the Cursed Shackles

THE SWORD FANGXIN emanated dominating power, and those watching from afar could already feel themselves shudder at the mere sight of it—let alone Xie Lian, who was being forced back by its attacks, step by step.

Hua Cheng had been more than capable of taking on White No-Face alone, but the emergence of Jun Wu demanded both he and Xie Lian give it their all to even make an equal match. It was obvious that Jun Wu was at an advantage in having Mount Tonglu as his main spiritual domain; Xie Lian could sense grievous power suppressing them.

Jun Wu was also protected by a layer of white armor—it was an ancient spiritual weapon he had personally forged, and it was practically impenetrable. He only needed to guard his head. Hua Cheng’s scimitar was incredibly fast and precise, and Xie Lian also struck wherever he could. The two of them launched an all-out barrage against Jun Wu—aiming at his neck, his heart, his back, his stomach, his shoulders. But nothing they did affected their opponent in the slightest.

“Stop wasting your strength! It’s pointless!” Mu Qing shouted. “It’s impossible to penetrate that white armor!”

“Aim for his waist, just beneath his ribs on the right!” Xie Lian exclaimed.

Hua Cheng unleashed his scimitar again and struck where Xie Lian had instructed, but as expected, it did nothing.

“I told you it’s pointless!” Mu Qing shouted. “Why don’t you come up with a way to withdraw, and then we’ll join the fight! Feng Xin! Where are your bow and arrows?”

Feng Xin was climbing around on the rocks trying to capture the fetus spirit, which was spitting wildly and slithering its tongue at him. When he heard the call, he answered, “All right! I’m coming!”

However, Xie Lian instructed, “Keep going—don’t stop! Attack his right side just below the ribs!”

“Your Highness!” Feng Xin shouted. “That armor is formidable—it might not crack even after hundreds of blows from that scimitar!”

Nonetheless, Xie Lian was adamant. “Don’t worry; just listen to me! It won’t take that many strikes!”

Hua Cheng didn’t question him and continued attacking nonstop. Finally, a crack appeared at the spot the blade had been targeting. Blood spurted.

Eming’s blade had cut into Jun Wu’s stomach on the right side, just below his ribs!

Gripping his scimitar in one hand, Hua Cheng stood before Jun Wu and met his gaze squarely with a cold, severe glare. Meanwhile, Xie Lian made it to Jun Wu’s side and Ruoye took the chance to bind Jun Wu’s hands, preventing him from blocking anymore.

Mu Qing was dumbfounded. “How is this possible?”

How had Hua Cheng so easily cut through that ancient white armor?!

Pulling Ruoye taut, Xie Lian eyed Jun Wu. “Did you forget…? You and I had a fight eight hundred years ago.”

It dawned on Feng Xin and Mu Qing. “Your second ascension?”

When Xie Lian had requested that Jun Wu banish him once more, he also suggested they face off in a match. Although they promised each other that neither would show mercy, in retrospect, Jun Wu must’ve still held back.

But Xie Lian used everything he had.

He unleashed over three thousand swords. Over four hundred of them managed to stab Jun Wu, and of those four hundred, more than a hundred had pierced this exact spot—his relentless barrage of swords broke through Jun Wu’s impenetrable, ancient white armor and stabbed the right side of his abdomen, just below his ribs.

That was the exact spot where Hua Cheng’s scimitar made it through!

Xie Lian had left a weak spot on Jun Wu’s armor eight hundred years ago, and it only took three slashes from Hua Cheng to crack it! And Hua Cheng’s scimitar was much fiercer than Xie Lian had ever imagined—it would surely inflict a critical hit when it cleaved into Jun Wu’s abdomen!

He had only just sighed a mental breath of relief when he heard the state preceptor yell, “That’s no use! He—”

Logically, Jun Wu’s movement should’ve been hampered by this grave injury, but his expression didn’t even change as he lowered his head to give the wound a glance. Just as Xie Lian sensed something was off, Jun Wu’s hands moved slightly.

Xie Lian heard something tear, and his hold on the band went slack.

Ruoye…had ripped!

The white silk band dropped lifelessly to the ground—fully torn in half. An instant later, Xie Lian felt a hand around his throat, choking him as it lifted him off the ground.

He heard Hua Cheng exclaim, “Your Highness!” but his voice suddenly seemed far away. Jun Wu’s voice, however, was right beside him.

“Xianle, did you truly believe that I know less of being stabbed than you do? Did you think I would care?”

“Stabbing him won’t work, even if you do it hundreds of times!” the state preceptor called to him. “It seems…he cannot feel pain at all anymore…”

Xie Lian could take a longsword through the heart without flinching. Jun Wu was the same.

When he heard the state preceptor, Feng Xin lowered the bow he’d held drawn and aimed at Jun Wu. “What?! Then even if we manage to land a hit, it won’t matter?!”

“I have some more bad news,” Mu Qing said. “From what I’ve observed, I suspect he can heal faster than we can injure him.”

“What?!”

Xie Lian could verify that. Jun Wu’s wound had been terrifying; anyone else would’ve been bisected. But he’d already stopped bleeding.

“No need to be so surprised,” Jun Wu said. “When you’re constantly stabbed in the back, you’ll die a thousand times over if you don’t force yourself to recover right away. But the two of you are certainly something.”

Jun Wu smiled.

“In the past eight hundred years, I’ve only been wounded by one sword and one scimitar, wielded by the two of you. Crimson Rain Sought Flower, stand back. You wouldn’t want to see me wring Xianle’s neck.”

“…”

Hua Cheng’s face was dark, and a roaring tempest raged in his eye. But Jun Wu was dangling Xie Lian over the Heaven-Crossing Bridge, and he would only need to release his grip to send Xie Lian plummeting into the fiery pool hundreds of meters below. A moment later, he reluctantly withdrew his scimitar, rested one hand behind him, and slowly backed away a few steps.

Although he appeared calm, the scimitar at his side gave him away. Eming was extremely agitated; its eyeball spun wildly and cast desperate looks at Xie Lian. Hua Cheng had to back up to the very edge of the Heaven-Crossing Bridge before Jun Wu was satisfied.

“That’s good enough.”

Still holding him by the neck, Jun Wu locked eyes with Xie Lian. Then, without warning, he brutally slammed Xie Lian into the nearby rock wall.

The collision was incredibly brutal. Xie Lian’s head rang, and blood poured messily from his nose and mouth to flow down the contours of his face. He thought he could hear people screaming in alarm in the distance, but he couldn’t tell who. The only thing he could hear clearly was Jun Wu’s placid voice murmuring in his ear.

“Xianle, does it hurt when your head is smashed against a wall?”

Xie Lian couldn’t quite process the question, so he didn’t respond. Thus, Jun Wu grabbed him and slammed him into the rock wall again before asking him once more.

“Does it hurt? Does it hurt? Does it hurt?”

With each repetition, he slammed Xie Lian into the wall so hard that Xie Lian started screaming. But what he screamed was, “San Lang, don’t come over here! I’m fine—I’m fine! Absolutely do not come over!”

At least not yet—an opportune moment hadn’t arrived!

Hua Cheng was ready to charge over at the very first slam, but he hadn’t taken two steps before Xie Lian told him not to approach—and so he forced himself to stop. His face had turned completely savage, and the veins on the back of his shaking hands were about to burst.

Although Jun Wu wore no expression on his face, his hand furiously rammed Xie Lian into the rocks as he asked him over and over again, “Does it hurt? Does it hurt?”

“Your Highness!” the state preceptor cried out. But who knew for whom he was calling?

Xie Lian’s bloody hands pushed against the uneven rocky surface of the wall. He grit his teeth as he roared, “…It hurts!”

Only then did Jun Wu flash a satisfied smile and spare Xie Lian’s poor head. He settled him on the ground. Xie Lian fell back clutching his ringing skull as tears and blood flowed uncontrollably down his face.

Jun Wu crouched next to Xie Lian and stared at him for a while. And then, he raised a hand and stroked Xie Lian’s head, before gently wiping the blood from his face.

“…”

The gesture was gentle and affectionate, like that of a father comforting a child he had just beaten black and blue.

The scene made the hair on Feng Xin and Mu Qing’s necks stand up. “Has he… Has he gone mad?”

Hua Cheng’s hand rested on his scimitar, and his knuckles cracked. The pupil of Eming’s eyeball shrank and went bloodshot.

Xie Lian didn’t breathe a word and simply allowed Jun Wu to wipe him clean. Jun Wu muttered to himself as he did so.

“You silly child. If it hurts, why don’t you turn back? Do you think that if you keep slamming into a wall, keep smashing yourself against it, it will crumble on its own? Why not change course instead?”

“I won’t turn back,” Xie Lian stated.

Jun Wu raised his hand and slapped him—so hard and with such violence that it knocked Xie Lian to the ground with a loud thud. He was still dizzy when Jun Wu picked him back up.

In a tone that sounded like he had almost lost patience, Jun Wu asked him, “Must you anger me like this? Let me ask you again: will you change?”

Xie Lian coughed twice, then spat out a mouthful of blood. “I won’t.”

A crack finally appeared in Jun Wu’s gentle expression, a flicker of savageness.

The state preceptor’s face was grim. Seeing that this was going downhill fast, he shouted, “Your Highness! You never wanted to kill the boy! You really like him—you said so yourself! Have you forgotten?!”

Jun Wu snorted. “If I didn’t like him, I wouldn’t have exhausted all of my patience and tolerance on him alone for the past eight hundred years. He would’ve long since become part of the Heavenly Capital’s foundation—trampled daily by thousands.”

A sudden fury seized him, and he turned to Xie Lian.

“But he doesn’t know what’s good for him. Stubborn, capricious, unheeding of my every word! He just had to go against me! You won’t change, will you? Very well—then why don’t we see if this wall will fall if your head is cracked open against it!”

When he saw him lifting Xie Lian again, the state preceptor shouted to him hastily, “Your Highness! Your Highness! His Highness…the Little Highness is still ignorant! Just let him go this time, let it go! He will understand one day…”

Jun Wu spared a glance at him, and his chuckle grew grimmer. “Do you really think I’ve gone mad? Don’t lie to me—he’s not the one you think is ignorant. It’s me. Isn’t that right?”

The state preceptor was taken aback, and Jun Wu continued.

“You invested so much of yourself into nurturing, teaching, and guiding him, purely because you hoped he could win against me. All so you can prove that I was wrong and you were right—that you were all in the right. All so you can cling to the illusion of the perfect Crown Prince of Wuyong—and dismiss the Jun Wu standing before you now! Isn’t that your goal? Did you really think I didn’t know what you were thinking?!”

“That’s not true!” the state preceptor cried. “Stop getting tied up in right and wrong, victory and defeat! I’ve never thought that way, never!”

But Jun Wu couldn’t bear to listen anymore. He raised his voice, his tone sharp. “Forget it! Let me tell you right now, all of you can forget it! No one can win against me! Especially him!”

Laughing maniacally, he dragged Xie Lian over to the rocks again, slamming him into them as he bellowed, “Will you change? Will you change?! Will you change?!”

As if he’d also gone mad, Xie Lian gripped Jun Wu’s arm and roared, “I won’t! I won’t! I won’t change!”

Even though the beating was so excruciatingly painful that it made him see stars, he stubbornly endured. He adamantly refused to give the desired answer, adamantly refused to change—and oh how gratifying it was!

He’d been pent up for far too long. It was as though he’d been waiting for a chance like this all these years, and tears rolled as he screamed, “I won’t change! Even if it’s painful, even if I die, I won’t change, I will never change!”

Now the tables had turned—Jun Wu was no longer driving Xie Lian mad; Xie Lian was the one pushing Jun Wu to madness! Eyes bloodshot, Jun Wu was about to punish him with another strike when he came to a sudden halt.

He craned his neck to peer behind him. A long saber was stuck in his shoulder, and eight long arrows made of sticks were neatly pinned into his back.

Neither of those things mattered, for neither the saber nor the arrows had penetrated his white armor.

However, his right hand was gone.

That was the hand he’d been using to hold Xie Lian, and it was gone. All of it, vanished from his wrist, the cut neat and clean.

Xie Lian was also gone.

When he turned his head, he sensed something hurtling directly at him, sharp winds whistling around its flight. With a swing of his left hand, he caught the projectile—and realized afterward that it was his own right hand.

Across the Heaven-Crossing Bridge, Hua Cheng held a blood-drenched Xie Lian. With one hand, he gripped his scimitar in a reverse hold as he hugged Xie Lian’s shoulders. He covered the wounds on Xie Lian’s head with the other.

“Keep your filthy hands off him,” he said in a chilling tone.

Xie Lian’s obstinate refusal to admit defeat had finally enraged Jun Wu enough that he’d left himself open!

Jun Wu stuck his hand back onto his wrist, twisted it a couple of times to work out the kinks, and then plucked the arrows from his back. Something seemed to cross his mind, and when he glanced behind him, his eyes happened to land on the one still gripping the long saber—the pale-faced Mu Qing. Mu Qing was startled when their eyes met, but he forced himself to remain calm.

That calm didn’t last long.

Jun Wu glanced at his shoulder. “As expected,” he idly commented. “Compared to Xianle, you’re still lacking.”

Mu Qing’s expression shifted. The long saber in his hand abruptly dropped, and a moment later, his face changed color completely. He yanked up his sleeve only to find that the black cursed shackle around his wrist had tightened. The veins and nerves around it were bulging as if all the blood in his body was being drawn to that point.

Feng Xin saw that Mu Qing was frozen in place and shouted at him, “What are you doing just standing there?! Run!”

“Feng Xin, you little idiot, how can he run with injured legs?” the state preceptor berated.

“Oh, fuck!” Feng Xin blurted. He’d completely forgotten!

Normally, Mu Qing would’ve been so angry at this that his eyes would have rolled all the way back into his head. But now, he knew it’d be pointless even if he fled—thanks to the cursed shackle on his wrist, it wouldn’t matter where he ran.

Feng Xin swore. He was about to go over to Mu Qing when Jun Wu hurled the arrows he’d plucked out of his back right at him. Feng Xin felt his chest go cold, and he looked down. All eight arrows had been returned to him—neatly piercing his chest.

Jun Wu walked languidly toward Hua Cheng and Xie Lian, but Hua Cheng didn’t spare him a single glance.

“Gege? Gege?” he called to Xie Lian, who was still in his arms.

Xie Lian had taken a brutal battering, and it took a while for him to blearily come around, his head still throbbing. But before his eyes even blinked open, he muttered, “…San Lang? Are you all right?”

Hua Cheng gazed at him for a moment, then suddenly pulled him hard into an embrace. “I’m completely fine,” he replied softly. “Why don’t you take a look at yourself?”

Xie Lian clung to the one who held him. Although the hug was very tight, it did not press on any of his wounds. With great effort, Xie Lian opened his eyes and took in all the chaos around them.

Mu Qing was frozen on the spot, one hand clutching the opposite wrist as if he was fighting for control against the blood-sucking cursed shackle. Judging by how pale he was, he might not hang on for much longer.

Feng Xin, on the other hand, was slumped over the edge of the bridge. The eight arrows hadn’t pierced him completely through, but his injuries were still severe. The fetus spirit was howling in demonic elation, jumping up and down around him before stomping wildly on Feng Xin’s face with one foot. Despite his fury, Feng Xin couldn’t move for fear of worsening his injuries.

Meanwhile, all of the Heaven-Crossing Bridge had started to cave in, stretch by stretch, block by block. They might go down with it at any moment!

When he finally processed the situation they found themselves in, Xie Lian panicked and tried to stand. Hua Cheng helped him, and the two rose to their feet. They both gazed ahead.

Jun Wu was languidly walking toward them. The firelight all around him made him seem much bigger than he was, and he cast an immense shadow. Staring hard at the approaching figure, Xie Lian wiped hard at the blood around his eyes, nose, and mouth.

Zhuxin’s blade coursed with spiritual power in Jun Wu’s hold, the blade at a relaxed slant. At that moment, Jun Wu was so calm that he seemed almost a completely different person from the Jun Wu who had manically slammed Xie Lian into the rocks.

“Xianle, you know that your defeat is assured.”

He understood Xie Lian too well. Jun Wu knew exactly how he would fight, and his spiritual power overwhelmingly dwarfed Xie Lian’s. Xie Lian could sense that Jun Wu’s battle aura and spiritual powers had grown even stronger before they exchanged a single blow. In the end, Mount Tonglu was his territory, and it was becoming more and more obvious just how it suppressed their abilities.

Xie Lian knew that was probably true. He couldn’t win.

But even if he couldn’t, he had to fight!

“No,” Hua Cheng interjected. “Your Highness, you can win.”

Stunned, Xie Lian stared at him, and Hua Cheng returned his gaze measure for measure.

“You can win. You’re stronger than him.” His one eye was as bright as if it were ablaze, and he said with certainty, “Believe me. He’s wrong. You’re right. You’re stronger than him. You’re much stronger than him!”

Jun Wu let out a deep, quiet chuckle. Perhaps he was amused by Hua Cheng’s naivete, or perhaps he was pleased by all the power he twisted so effortlessly between his fingers.

He alone held the power of millions of believers in his grasp!

Hua Cheng gripped Xie Lian’s shoulders. “So what? They’re millions of fools; they’re all useless trash! But for you, one person is enough!”

One person was enough?

Xie Lian hadn’t yet wrapped his head around that before Hua Cheng pulled him close.

His eyes widened as spiritual power exploded and rushed in.

This was the most overwhelming transfer of spiritual power he’d ever experienced. Even the wraith butterflies and molten vengeful spirits all around them felt its terrifying intensity—one by one they began to explode, shrieking as they burst into nothingness.

Xie Lian’s fingers were practically convulsing. His legs shook so badly that he was about to fall to his knees. In his mind, he cried again and again, Stop! No more! But Hua Cheng’s hand was firmly locked behind his head, not letting him leave, refusing his refusal.

A long time passed before Hua Cheng finally released him and his throat relaxed. Xie Lian’s knees buckled, and he dropped to the ground. His hands flew out to support him, and he managed, with great effort, to keep himself from falling over completely.

Jun Wu paused his steps and stared at them, his expression severe.

Feng Xin, who was lying some distance away, said with disbelief, “Your… Your Highness, your…your…?”

Reaching out with trembling hands, Xie Lian felt his own neck.

But there was nothing left for him to feel.

Hua Cheng had poured too much spiritual power into him, so much more than the cursed shackle could ever hope to restrain.

The two shackles that had fettered him for eight hundred years had shattered!

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