274 Shooting Stars

Nanke’s expression was stern yet proud. Her gaze was concentrated and serious.Her eyes were like two sharp awls staring at Xu Yourong. The speed she spokewas not slow, however it did not have any variation in intonation, which madeher seem especially apathetic. She clearly had the appearance of a young girl,but it gave an observer the feeling that she overlooked and looked down on allliving things, exuding great confidence. The two most respected, and those who carried the greatest innate talent, inthe younger generation of the Human race and the Demon race finally met on thepeak of Sunset Valley. It could be said that it was destiny for them to meeteach other, or that they were simply willing to meet. The battle was fated tobe recorded within the books of history. Before it began, there was definitelya ceremonial feel between the two. Nanke made a salute, and the white-clothedyoung lady made a salute in return. Afterwards, they began to converse. “So you are Xu Yourong.” The night wind on the mountain peak was somewhat strong, so she was unable tohear whether the white-clothed young lady replied “yes”, but… yes, she was XuYourong. She was that reincarnated Heavenly Phoenix, the young expert who had thegreatest prospects on the continent of that current day. She was the next HolyMaiden of the south, the junior that the Tianhai Divine Empress loved the most,and Qiushan Jun’s most beloved and respected junior. However now, she had anadditional identity that was known by the world—the fiancee of Chen Changsheng,the principal of the Orthodox Academy. Nanke stared at her and sized her up. Her thin brows were slowly raised, andher indifferent face revealed an unhappy and disappointed expression. “Thosemediocre and ignorant people often compare you with me. It was hard for me toavoid being somewhat curious towards you, but upon seeing you today, I’mdisappointed.” Xu Yourong blinked. Her eyes were bright, and she asked somewhat curiously,“What is disappointing?” Nanke raised her hand and pointed at her. “Just like your current expressionof curiosity, it causes people to be just very disappointed. Your mannerism cannot be described as magnanimous at all, like a young wife. You are not talleither… I really don’t understand exactly why humans admire you, that even mybrother views you as a treasure.” A demon prince liked Xu Yourong, even though he had never seen her. This wasnot a secret on the continent at all. What was interesting was that althoughthe humans swore at the demon prince for being wishful, they were not reallyangry at all, and instead felt proud and joyful for some reason. It was alsothis which caused Nanke to be unashamed. To be described as a young wife, Xu Yourong was not angry, and only found itto be very new. Thinking about it again, how did this village girl who cutpigweed every day seem like the cold and terrifying Nanke in the rumors? However, some of what Nanke had said made her very unhappy—Nanke said that shewas not tall. Her stature indeed was not tall; especially with the large whiterobes on, she seemed even smaller, being loved by the majority. Xu Yourong pondered a little, and then smiled at Nanke, “But I am taller thanyou.” Although she said this while smiling, her tone was very serious. Hearing that, Nanke’s expression also grew serious. The dullness in her eyeswas replaced with rage. Especially because Xu Yourong raised her head slightly. She seemed to be veryarrogant. She was indeed worthy of being arrogant. How was she not magnanimous? Nanke’s gaze shifted downwards from her face, and landed on her chest. Stayingsilent for a while, she said, “To not know shame, you are also unafraid totarnish the blood within you.” Xu Yourong felt slightly shy but she continued to smile. She did not respond. Nanke grew even madder, and said, “You just make me too disappointed. Just whyare you equally as well known as me?” When she spoke, her black hair danced crazily in the night, actuallysuppressing the darkness of the night. In the human world, the name Nanke was very unfamiliar. Only great people likethe Pope or the Divine Empress knew who she was, or young people like Zhexiuwho often made contact with the Demon race. However, in the land of demons,this name represented great strength and tyranny. Nanke was one of the youngest daughters of the Demon Lord, however, this wasnot important. In the long life of the Demon Lord, he just had too manypartners. Just the offspring that had their names recorded in books reached anumber of several dozen. The reason her name could be so terrifying in XuelaoCity was mainly because her innate talent was extremely great, and she was theonly disciple of Black Robe. “You only broke through to Ethereal Opening this year. I succeeded last year,and I am younger than you. As a result, it is very obvious that I am strongerthan you.” Nanke looked at Xu Yourong, and said without an expression, “Come,let us fight fairly. Allow me to prove your weakness, to let the entirecontinent know exactly who can fly higher between us.” Xu Yourong did not say a word. As the person being challenged, she naturallyrevealed some sort of tolerance and confidence. The zither-playing old man always stood silently to one side as a bystander.He did not dare to turn down the requests of Nanke. Even though he had livedfor several hundreds of years, seeing this, he still felt somewhat astounded.From the beginning to now, the fated battle that was destined to shake theentire continent just seemed to be like the argument of two small girls oversome insignificant affairs. Of course, this could not be the entire battle. The battle relied on fightingto determine life and death, and only afterwards could victory or defeat beseen. At the peak of Sunset Valley, wind suddenly began blowing, bringing chaos tothe night. Borrowing the momentum of the wind, Nanke floated swiftly throughthe air. Her sword was already in her hand, piercing towards Xu Yourong. Although the surface of Nanke’s sword did not seem to have any specialfeatures, the sword was actually very special. This sword was extremely thin, but it definitely was not elegant. This wasbecause the sword was very long—an abnormally exaggerated length. It was evenlonger than those ancient scholar trees beneath the mountain. The sword style that Nanke used also did not seem to have any specialfeatures. It seemed to be just direct thrust forwards, however, because of itssuccinctness, it carried unbelievable strength. The wind immediately began to blow wildly. It blew around the flat peak,producing a terrifying roar. In the air several hundreds of zhang above the peak, a single bright strokesuddenly appeared. In the deep abyss several dozens of zhang below the cliff, a faint, matchingstroke also appeared. That was the border of the space the zither-playing old man had created usingthe sound of the zither. With such a level of subtlety and cleverness, even Xu Yourong could not helpbut temporarily stay within the space. Yet it was directly cut by the swordintent of her simple-looking strike. Just how overbearing was this sword energy! The strike arose from several hundreds of zhang away, but it approached XuYourong head-on. Seeing the strike, Xu Yourong did not reveal any expression of surprise, nordid she carry the implications of any vigilance. Instead, she felt that it wasvery logical. This was because she knew how strong she was herself, and as a result, shealso should have known how strong Nanke was. She was already prepared for thisstrike. In the moment Nanke struck out, she had already removed the longbow from herback, and had it standing in front of her. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the strike was too quick, but she couldnot manage to pull an arrow from her quiver. As a result, the bowstring wasempty. She brought together two of her elegant fingers, and pulled the bowstringgently yet firmly. Then she released. The whole maneuver was smooth like flowing clouds and water. However, it wasalso abnormally succinct and clear, as if every moment of detail could be seen. The zither-playing old man had already stopped his motions of playing thezither, so the sound of the zither between the cliffs had stopped too. At this moment, she drew her bow strongly. As a result, the sound of a zitheremerged again in between the cliffs. It was a clear, yet long sound… twang! From hundreds of zhang away, Xu Yourong drew her bow at Nanke. However, there were no arrows on the bowstring, so what was shot? As soon as the sound of the bowstring began, the sound of an arrow resonatedin the night sky. This sound was very clear, and lasted even longer, as if it had alreadyresounded in the night sky for a very long time without being heard, and onlynow could the world hear it. An arrow emerged from the depths of the night, and shot towards the areabetween Nanke’s eyes like a lightning bolt. Where did the arrow come from? This was the same arrow that Xu Yourong had shot after calculating for a longtime from beside the lone tree. It was believed that because of the obstruction of the space, the arrow haddisappeared between the cliffs. However, it seemed that the arrow was actuallyalways flying in the night sky, and only now could it be seen by the world. The arrow shot from beside the lone tree arose several moments before, andfell at that moment. A loud bang! On the peak of Sunset Valley, gravel rolled quickly and powerful Qi radiatedin all directions. The dark night was unable to cover up the streams of aircreated from the collision. On the surface of the tough cliff face, countless thin cracks appeared. Th cracks all originated from the bottom of Nanke’s boot. Her feet were very small, and wore two boots made out of dragonskin. Steppingon the cracks that rippled towards the side of the cliff, they made a veryshocking scene. Those cracks represented the clash between incomparably terrifying powers. Nanke did not expect this arrow, however, she was able to block it. Two sword intents that were extremely clear formed a cross in front of her,blocking that arrow that came from within the depths of the night. The end of the arrow vibrated at a great speed. The two sword intents in theshape of a cross also vibrated with it, and in the space above the flat peak,the arrow actually also began to vibrate, with rays of light being refracted byit. Behind the Qi was Nanke’s face. Her expression was still indifferent, and hergaze was still dull. With a soft pop, Xu Yourong’s arrow was shaken into countless pieces. Withthat, the two extremely overbearing sword intents also disappeared. The clear barrier between the two also disappeared. It was unknown whether itwas the space created by the old man, or something else. At this moment, Nanke’s dress gently swayed before turning into nothing. In the next moment, she appeared on the other side of the flat peak, onlyseveral dozen zhang away from Xu Yourong. She thrust the sword in her handforwards. However, Xu Yourong’s speed was even greater. She did not move, and instead raised the longbow in her hand once again,pulling the bowstring. This time, there was an arrow on the bowstring. The sound of the arrow arose from the mountain in the night. Nanke’s dress swayed again, and turned into nothing again. She immediatelyappeared in another area on the flat cliff. Whoosh! At the same moment that she had appeared again, Xu Yourong shot her thirdarrow. This arrow did not hit Nanke either, and only hit the night wind. Afterwards,it disappeared into the deep night sky. Seeing Nanke’s extremely weird and unexplainable movement technique, XuYourong finally revealed a cautious expression for the first time. However, this did not impact her speed of drawing and shooting at all. Hermovement was still succinct yet natural, and did not seem like she was in abattle. Nanke’s movement technique was too fast. Xu Yourong’s shooting technique actually had the same level of speed as Nanke. If normal people watched the battle, they would only see Nanke disappear fromher original location, and then appear in the next moment in a different place.Similarly, they would not be able to see what Xu Yourong was doing. In theirvision, they could only roughly see the quiver in the night sky shake slightly,and see countless images of Xu Yourong drawing the bow. However, they would beunable to see what she was doing. Only by putting these images together could the real world be seen. The real world that only belonged to her. However, if Chen Changsheng was shown this battle, he would be able tounderstand it very easily. Xu Yourong treated the Icebreaking Sword of the Holy Maiden Peak… as ashooting technique to be used. As for Nanke, what she used was the strangest and most unfathomable techniqueof the entire continent… the Yeshi Step. Also, she did not use the simplified version of the Yeshi Step that ChenChangsheng had used his unbelieveable memory and willpower to learn—it was thecomplete version of the Yeshi Step. It could even be considered as the perfectversion of the Yeshi Step. Compared to the demon expert who was sent toassassinate Luoluo before, it was unknown how many times better her movementtechnique was. Logically, it was impossible to learn the complete version of the Yeshi Stepif one was not a part of the Yeshi Clan, let alone the perfect version.However, Nanke was a part of the royal family, so she naturally carried thebloodline and talent of the various clans in the land of demons. Speaking fromthis sort of idea, cultivating was never a fair matter. Xu Yourong’s cultivation level did not fall below Nanke’s. Her shootingtechnique that was rarely shown in the world was even more exquisite andunparallelled, conforming to the natural laws. Facing up against Nanke’sslyfully wonderful and indescribable foot technique, she stayed silent and didnot panic in the slightest bit. With the sounds of the bowstring and the soundsof the arrows shot out, it actually prevented Nanke from advancing. However… the arrows in the quiver were limited, and there would also be amoment when it would be emptied. This was reality, and reality meant that it would definitely occur at acertain moment. Perhaps it would be the next moment. In the next moment, Xu Yourong’s quiver became empty. She was no longer able to influence Nanke’s weird movement technique. With a great sound, Nanke’s figure blurred between real and fake, and arrivedin an area several zhang in front of Xu Yourong. An extremely overbearing and powerful yell exploded out from Nanke’s petitebody. At the same time, an extremely bright sword ray exploded forth. That sword ray of several inches in length originated from her tightly graspedlong sword. The sword ray drew a circular arc in the night sky, and chopped violently atXu Yourong’s body. The sword ray carried sword energy of unparalleled domination, directlysealing off all of the other directions around Xu Yourong. It actually gave thevictim a feeling that even if they wanted to dodge, they could not avoid it. The night wind on the peak of Sunset Valley blew violently, and the sword raywas bright like lightning. Xu Yourong’s hair band was invaded by sword intent, and was cut silently. Herblack hair fell onto her shoulders. If she was hit by the sword ray, she would definitely die. How would she receive this strike? She extended her hand towards the sword ray. That hand was very white and very elegant. Compared to the violent and terrifying sword ray, it seemed tiny and weak. However, her expression was still so calm, so confident. Past the bright sword ray, she stared calmly into Nanke’s eyes. Her hair danced gently in the breeze created by the sword. A shapeless Qi exuded from her hand into the night. The Qi was very warm and did not carry any killing intent. It was as if it wassummoning something. Suddenly… hum hum hum hum hum In the night sky surrounding the peak of Sunset Valley, countless shrillsounds of arrows suddenly resounded. Over ten arrows pierced through the night sky, arriving from all directions. These arrows were all the arrows she had shot previously. They seemed to havedisappeared into the night sky, but just like the first arrow she had shot onthe mountain path, they had never flown off, and were only waiting for hersummoning. She extended her hand towards the night sky.