316 The Battle of Jin River

Jiang Hengchuan's pupils contracted, and he made himself rigid, for as soon as the direction of the Qi changed he wanted to take the opportunity to break out.

At the same time several thoughts surfaced in his mind,

"Since he knows about the mysteries of Samsara, could it be that he is the same as us?"

"He spoke instead of simply attacking, could it be that he wanted to negotiate?"

Meng Qi stood before him, unrestrained and calm. He had waited a long time to show off such a style, and he had no intent to kill. His imposing manner had not reached its peak either. It would appear that Jiang Hengchuan's assumption was right...

Right at the moment Jiang Hengchuan hesitated, a voice came through the clouds that could only be described as commanding. If Jiang Hengchuan had encountered a dragon before, he would understand that this was an actual Dragon's Cry.

The Dragons' Vast Cries from the 12 Magical Sounds of Langhuan!

The commanding voice spoke straight to the soul, and Jiang Hengchuan shivered inside out of sheer fear. If it were not for the Oneness of Heaven and Men, the surrounding environment scattering and greatly offsetting matters, he was afraid that he would have lost his nerve and would have no way of using genuine Qi.

The Dragon's Cry reverberated in his mind over and over, upsetting his Vital Spirit. His eyes glazed over and he felt the urge to crawl on the ground, for he was devoid of any strength to face it with.

Then, as the light dimmed, an impressive glimmer was reflected in his slightly dulled pupils; a sword light that made everyone forget about everything else.

Heaven and earth altered subtly and were no longer the same. Jiang Hengchuan's Oneness of Heaven and Men was imperfect. It was out of balance with nature and the environment!

In the state of Oneness of Heaven and Men, his mind should have been acutely aware of everything, able to sense even the most minute changes to the enemy's pores, leaving them fully exposed to his senses. However, at this moment his inner self was utterly consumed by the brilliant, mighty and pure glimmer of sword light.

On the inside Jiang Hengchuan felt fear from the Dragon's Cry, while on the outside he was mesmerized by the Divine Sword. Even with all his abilities, in the face of such an ambush, he still could not be overly hasty in dealing with it.

Thinking was hard enough, let alone taking this on.

In this moment Meng Qi was drawing attention, his words relaxed and unguarded. Ruan Yushu was far away from here and would not be discovered, kept under control by the chord notes. Jiang Zhiwei was closer, and upon Meng Qi's word would be there in an instant, her sword a blur, before Jiang Hengchuan could realize it and the chords sounded!

The sword was enraged and the clear skies abruptly came to a boil, as if a Flying Bird had swooped by and left behind a white contrail.

The clouds parted and brilliant golden sunlight illuminated everything.

Jin River split around it, the torrent briefly dividing into two.

Jiang Hengchuan drew support from the realm of Oneness of Heaven and Men and made every effort to calm his Vital Spirit, diverting the genuine Qi. The thing hidden in the center of his palm crumbled.

Blue light gleamed, fully exposing Jiang Hengchuan's hiding place, but just as he was shrouded in the light, he suddenly disappeared and re-materialized in an area a few meters to one side.

"Teleportation!"

The sword light from the Anatta Lakkhana made a wonderful little arc in mid-air, surprisingly keeping pace. Jiang Zhiwei's control of her full-on attack was much better than Meng Qi's. Plus, close range teleportation was not able to shake-off the Anatta Sword.

The moment Jiang Hengchuan saw the sword light he knew that relying on Teleportation would not allow him to escape. He was simply using it as a means of gaining some temporary reprieve, a means of reducing the Dragon's Cry influence in some small way. A smile came over his face and he felt inner peace, his right hand morphed into flower shapes, altering rapidly. He performed multitudes of variations, as if it was his heart that was blooming.

His five fingers closed together before he calmly pointed with one. It was like the constant among numerous changes. The world might be fraught with constant change, but change is always constant!

He finally resorted to Normalizing Finger, but this was affected by the magical sounds and put off by the sword light. With this kind of haste how could it prove effective?

With his pointed fingers exposed, the tip of the sword found its mark.

Power surged, the Sword Qi raged, and Jiang Hengchuan's right hand immediately shredded to ribbons of flesh and blood, as it continued to spread towards his body.

At that point, Jiang Hengchuan's face lit up in a dark gold glow. It was seemingly pure and solemn, heavy and thick, like a bronze statue or something difficult to break through.

"Golden Bell Shield!"

With Omni-concealment and sound cultivation methods in mind, Jiang Hengchuan invoked the Golden Bell Shield as a strong defense. Due to the realm's influence, the effect was stronger than that of Meng Qi.

He was really scraping the bottom of the barrel here!

There were sounds of crisp cracking. Jiang Hengchuan's right hand was damaged and now looked like an open umbrella. With the dark gold glow over his body broken and the pieces cracked, blood spewed forth from his mouth, as the sword entered his body, and the state of Oneness of Heaven and Men was vanquished.

However, he still had his life!

With this in mind he made a break for the waters of the Jin River, thinking he could escape this way. If it was just Jiang Zhiwei on her own they might be almost on par, but adding Ruan's clan's chord playing maiden and Killing Blade Su Meng to the mix could only mean certain death.

With both the Heavenly Sounds of Langhuan and the Anatta Sword, he had been severely wounded by the ambush. All he could do was rely on his inner strength to avoid being finished then and there.

Unfortunately, he was aware of his situation, but just could not get away. Meng Qi's sword came from the forest, flashing like fireworks, and everything within 30 meters turned red.

The blade seemed to flutter like a flying fish or a mosquito, following aong the seams of Jiang Hengchuan's mind until it found its way to his Vital Spirit.

The lives of Rogue Cultivators was hard. Even if you were particularly adept at it, appearances were deceiving. To make a name for yourself you had to break your back over it, or you would never amount to anything.

His own background had not been good, but he was not indignant about it. However things had been, he had never bowed his head, nor was he sycophantic with his elders, or a master. The path to Jianghu had been particularly hard for him and he had at times just felt like going home to plow the fields. However, fate left him a lifeline and he ended up having one of the greatest encounters of all...

Later, he met peers and joined an organization that helped him, but did not force him to complete missions. His cultivation method and designation was that of the Civil Star.

However, on each mission, how many people had died at his hands, or from his schemes?

Considering it retrospectively, even as one's heart gradually turned to stone, it was still hard to clean the slate. Just like this Chu Guan fellow, even if he was just an outer member who knew little of the organization's secrets who would not even be considered a peer to them. Coldly forcing him to commit suicide like that, was still something that weighed heavily on his mind.

Being weak and hurting people like that, well naturally, there would be no means to salvation.

Jiang Hengchuan suddenly realized that the knife energy had broken through the Protective Upstanding Qi and was now in front of him.

He used the state of mind he had a moment ago, a smile took over his face, delight ensuing. His left hand took on the shape of a flower and he became carefree.

Flower-pinching Finger was intended to be used for the Power of Omni-concealment. Although there was a difference in essence and in power, it was more than appropriate to use here.

With a swish of his fingers, the knife energy receded and Jiang Hengchuan's pupils suddenly contracted. The blade's genuine Qi was only superficial!

It would seem that at the moment of breaking the Protective Upstanding Qi, Su Meng had retrieved his genuine Qi and was waiting for the right moment to use it again. He had used a nifty trick to circumvent his no longer undamaged senses.

"Ah..." He heard a sigh in his ear, one that was almost sympathy or compassion, regretful yet staunch. Then, he saw sword light seemingly coming out of nowhere.

The blade's intent would follow its ruse and if nothing happened. That was for the best, because the long sword had come from a Hidden Latch, and as such, was now unstoppable.

The sword struck Jiang Hengchuan midbrow, and he suddenly had a thought,

"At least I've heard the Heavenly Sounds of Lang Huan..."

The long sword pierced Jiang Hengchuan in the middle of his eyebrows by an inch, the releasing Sword Qi populated and destroyed his life force. Meng Qi breathed a long sigh of relief. He had been able to fend off Master Wang that morning, but how could he counter them after exhausting all his energy in the ambush?

One should not take victory too lightly, as Jiang Hengchuan had not had a chance to retaliate. They had pulled out every trick in the book and put everything into it. At the slightest dent in their plan, Jiang Hengchuan would have slipped away.

Having just used the Samsara talisman to reincarnate, he was at his most alert; as such, Meng Qi did not choose to ambush him near the inner palace. He rather decisively gave up on finding cover there, and instead chose to wait outside in a muddy hole near the bluestone.

Then he waited until Jiang Hengchuan did not find an ambush inside, because he thought that the mysteries of the Samsara talisman were unknown. When he let his guard drop a little, he fell into the trap Meng Qi had set.

Jiang Zhiwei's strength should be about the same, if not a little stronger than Jiang Hengchuan's. Combining Ruan Yushu's 12 Magical Sounds of Langhuan to her own Eight Nine Mysteries, Ananda Oath-breaking Bladesmanship and Heavenly Fairy, even the Wolf King would eat humble pie.

Of course, uniting against these masters and defeating them was a lot easier than killing them. It was up until Jiang Hengchuan's midbrow met the sword, only then did Meng Qi relax.

Jiang Hengchuan gradually faded away, and just before he died Meng Qi's eye's took on a radiance, a far off look as if he were a deity observing the world.

"Supernatural Power of Shaking Heaven and Hitting Earth!"

Following Jiang Hengchuan's death, his corpse would be destroyed. Only by taking advantage of this rare opportunity could one break through his soul's defenses and call up the bad memories.

At the same time, Jiang Zhiwei's left hand was constantly flicking her fingers like swords, to cut off items from Jiang Hengchuan's body, fearing that like the Fire Lord, they would combust away cleanly after death.

Even if he went all out and there were no good items, at least he could still find a clue!

The normally fluctuating sea of souls returned to tranquility. The golden debris slowly sank to the bottom, the colors slowly fading away. Here, would be a lonely place of rest.

Suddenly, large waves surged. The golden pieces jumped without warning. One piece rapidly grew larger in a magnificent display.

It was a splendid palace with no one at the top. On each side there were ten people sitting upright, all wearing masks and taking measured breaths.

Their masks included: Crape Myrtle Star, Thunder God From the Nineth Heaven, Military Star, Mountain God and Golden Emperor Queen Mother of the West.

Suddenly, everything was fragmented in front of Meng Qi, a faint and difficult to distinguish sword light stood out, and the sea of souls collapsed.

Meng Qi took a step back, his nose was bleeding as he was struck by a retaliation countercharge. Jiang Hengchuan's corpse abruptly released Sword Qi. It had been cut into tiny mince meat pieces, including all the items on him that had not been stripped away.

In anticipation of this scenario, Meng Qi sighed and mourned within his heart silently,

"Brother Jiang, if you're thinking up some kind of setup, conspiring in some way, unless you open a plug-in, I am already far enough away from you. Early on I was aware of the Xuan Tian Sect's opinion of you, so I called upon Zhiwei and the others for assistance, to follow you discreetly. Even though the last part you may have worked out, there was still no opportunity for you to escape the inevitable..."

"I blocked your requests and broke your setups. When faced with enemies like you, you have to take down the assassin first, or you won't be able to sleep at night in the future."

At least for now, Old Zhong who had fled halfway through, as well as Crape Myrtle Star who was tripped up even before entering the inner palace, were only roughly aware of what had really taken place inside. The real master-mind was evidently, Master Wang!