285 I Want Your…

The Setting Sun Sect was a very special sect on the continent. It was not partof the Orthodoxy's north or south, because this sect's method of cultivationdid not use purification by starlight as its foundation, but drew its powerfrom earthfire. The sect was located in the remote southwest by a volcano, andthe cultivators of this sect rarely showed themselves to the world. Who wouldhave thought that in this year's opening of the Garden of Zhou, one of theircultivators had actually come? If it were an average cultivator, then it would have been just like that oldman said—she would not have even heard the name of the Setting Sun Sect before.But she was no ordinary cultivator. As the next Holy Maiden of the south, eventhough she had been born in the capital, she had still later gone on to theSouth Stream Temple. There, besides cultivating and reading the Heavenly Tomes,she also had to learn about the various sects of the continent, so she knewabout the Setting Sun Sect. She even knew about this old man called Bai Hai. He was an elder of theSetting Sun Sect and possessed a violent and powerful strength. Histemperament… cruel and bloodthirsty. "So…Senior is part of the Setting Sun Sect." She paused in the middle, making her seem like an ordinary disciple that didnot know of the Setting Sun Sect, and so repeated it out of respect. Bai Hai, this elder from the Setting Sun Sect, asked her with considerableinterest, "What sect are you a disciple of?" Xu Yourong clasped her hands in respect and solemnly replied, "This Junior isan elf and is not part of any sect." Bai Hai seemed a little surprised, as if he did not expect this young lady tobe an elf. Then he said, "Let's go." With these words, he began to walk towards Xu Yourong. It was very natural, asif he was prepared to help Xu Yourong by taking up Chen Changsheng from hisplace amongst the fallen leaves. "Very well, Senior." With those words, Xu Yourong lifted Chen Changsheng up from the leaves andbegan walking towards the elder. It was also very natural, as if she were acute girl following the orders of her senior. Neither she nor Bai Hai noticed that Chen Changsheng’s eyelids were trembling,as if he was about to wake up. But in the end, he did not wake up. The leaves rustled beneath their shoes. With each rustle, the distance betweenthem shrank. Bai Hai suddenly stopped and casually said, "You've suffered such heavyinjuries. Why don't you give that fellow daoist to me?"  Xu Yourong calmly replied, "Many thanks to Senior for his loftyrighteousness. My injuries are not too severe, and still bearable, so yourassistance is not needed." At this moment, the two were still separated by a bit more than a dozen zhang. But neither of them took another step forward. The rustling of the leaves ceased, and the forest returned its formerserenity. One could even call it a deathly stillness. After a very long time, a sigh resounded through the forest. His face filled with regret, Bai Hai sighed, "Even now, you haven't showed anygaps. Truly perfect." Xu Yourong calmly replied, "The same for you." It was obvious that she no longer called that man a senior, and that she haddropped any pretense of formality. Bai Hai slightly raised his brows and said with some confusion, "When we wereseparated by more than a hundred zhang, my lady could have released her bow andshot at me, so why did my lady choose not to do so? Don't say that my lady hadnot yet seen through me then." He very naturally no longer referred to himself as a senior, and his languagehad become one of respect. Xu Yourong did not explain, because she did not want to reveal to her opponentthat her true essence was exhausted, and so she could not ensure that the WuArrows could fly so far a distance to kill a peak level Ethereal Opening expert. If they were a little bit closer, just like now, except if her opponent tookjust one more step forward, then she would attempt to shoot her opponent todeath. It was a pity that her opponent did not do so. So her mood at this moment was also full of regret. Bai Hai asked, "My lady had already seen through my intentions?" Xu Yourong calmly said nothing, thus tacitly admitting it. Bai Hai asked, "But how? I thought my acting was rather good." Xu Yourong's answer was very simple. "Feeling." Bai Hai ruefully sighed, "I suppose this is what they call talent." With these words, he slapped his palm at the air in front of Xu Yourong. A dark flame appeared at the edge of his palm. As the energy from his palm shot forward, one palm became dozens of palms,surrounding Xu Yourong from all sides. The sky above the forest grew dark red. Those dark flames seemed heavier than normal flames, as if they possessedtheir own substance. It was like the dark but incomparably hot magma thatflowed under the earth. The tender leaves on the branches suddenly curled up and the bark began tocrack as the temperature suddenly increased. In the next moment, those dark red flames would completely engulf Xu Yourongand Chen Changsheng. As Bai Hai made his move, Xu Yourong’s right foot lightly pressed against theground. With a light crunch, the fallen leaves around her and Chen Changshengwere suddenly jolted upwards, dancing about in the air. The fallen leaves were incapable of obstructing those innumerable palms imbuedwith dark flames. With a boom, they were instantly set aflame, creating a seaof fire. It was exactly this sea of flames that obstructed Bai Hai's line of sight aswell as the killing intent concealed in his innumerable palms. This was to fight fire with fire. Under the cover of the berserk flames of the sea of fire, Xu Yourong liftedChen Changsheng up and turned into an after-image. In a flash, she arrived atthe cliff outside the forest. This was the one place Bai Hai’s flame palms could not block, and it was alsoa place that she had already taken note of. If the cliff was solid, shenaturally could not enter it, but this part of the cliff had a cave. Before this sinister dialogue had even begun, she had already noticed the caveand made her plans. If she could not seize the decisive moment in the battle,she had already prepared for herself a path of retreat. This cave was her path of retreat, but it was not an escape. Bai Hai pierced through that chaotic sea of fire, and with a grave expression,attacked once more. Those innumerable palm images carrying those dark flames suddenly combinedthemselves into a perfectly straight lance of fire, which rumbled towards XuYourong's back. This Setting Sun Sect elder knew what sort of person this younglady that he wanted to kill was, so he did not dare to spare any effort, nordid he leave himself any path of retreat. When he attacked, he used his mostpowerful Setting Sun Palm and expressed the sum of his entire life ofcultivation. Xu Yourong turned around and saw that lance of fire which contained aterrifying power, but her expression was as serene as ever. With a flip of herwrist, she thrust the Tong Bow into the ground. The surface of the cave was very sturdy. With a crack, inch by inch, theground gave way. The Tong Bow was thrust deep into the earth, and yet it wasstill taller than her. In a flash, countless branches rose out of the Tong Bow, and numerous leavessprouted from those branches. In that space warped by the heat of that lance offire, it seemed a little ostentatious. It brought a very fresh and clean odorthat permeated the entire cave entrance. The course of events was very hard to describe with words. A long stretch of time was compressed into these few moments. For a hundred-year-old tree, how many years would it take to construct it intoa palace? This was the growth of a lonely wutong tree, and it was also the constructionof a palace. The Tong Bow had become a wutong tree, and it also had become a Tong Palace.Yes, this was the Great Zhou Imperial Palace's Tong Palace, the palace that hadserved as Chen Changsheng's jail for one day and one night. The Wutong, as the unique and unmatched pair of divine artifacts on the Tierof Legendary Weapons, had also possessed this sort of wondrous use. Theprevious Holy Maiden of the South Stream Temple had actually attached the TongPalace to the Tong Bow. The Tong Palace was an array of sorts. For imprisoning enemies, it wasextremely powerful. For protecting others, it was incomparably tenacious. There was a boom. This was the sound made as fire rapidly expanded, as well asthe sound made as the wave of fire dashed itself against a stone wall. At the cave entrance, the fire blazed to the heavens, and it seemed like theverdant leaves of the wutong tree were about to burn, yet that lance of firecould not take one step past that wutong tree. This was the wutong in which the Phoenix dwelled. Its blood was fire, its bodywas fire; the Phoenix was fire incarnate. Over the course of tens of thousandsof years, the wutong tree had been imbued with the essence and spirit of fire,so how it could be afraid of flame? The flames of the Setting Sun Palm were nomatch; even if the longbow was directly thrown into the Setting Sun Sect'sravine of earthfire, it still would not be damaged in the slightest. The green branches stretched out, turning the cave and the outside into twoworlds, barring the fierce earthfire and Bai Hai from entering. Separated by the flames, Xu Yourong gazed at Bai Hai, silent and calm. Bai Hai had a very solemn expression, but he had none of the sense of defeatthat should have resulted from the inability of his flames to break through theTong Bow's defense. He said to her, "My Setting Sun Sect was founded in aremote volcano valley. Besides the terrifyingly hot earthfire, the mostabundant thing there is miasma. The miasma and earthfire feed off each other,so I would very much like to know if this longbow can withstand theircombination." With these words, he withdrew his Setting Sun Palm and stepped in front of thewutong tree, then he unhesitatingly gave it another slap. This time there were no intense flames, only a faint and bizarre Qiaccompanied by countless tiny particles shot out of his palm. They blanketedthe wutong tree's trunk and leaves. In an instant, that fresh and green wutong tree looked like it had spentseveral years in the blustering sands of the north. It was now covered with athick layer of dust, no longer expressing its former exuberance. The dust was formed of the tiny particles, and each of those particles was theessence of the fiery miasma that Bai Hai had breathed in and out and collectedover his several hundred years in the remote volcano valley. For the outer surface to darken was not important, but what was even morefrightening was that the particles were corroding the body of the Tong Bow atthis very moment. The green leaves of the wutong tree were already beginning toshow many thin specks of grey, and those grey specks were growing larger by thesecond. The bark was similarly beginning to show many horrifying cracks whichwere continuing to deepen. If this was in a normal situation, relying on her boundless true essence, XuYourong could have prevented the Tong Bow from being contaminated with thisdust, to say nothing of the absurdity of her true Phoenix blood beingcontaminated by such a trifling poison. But now, she could only rely on the Tong Bow to protect her body from thisfiery and poisonous miasma that originated from deep in the earth. How longcould the Tong Bow hold on? Separated by the wutong tree's leaves, she looked at that elder from theSetting Sun Sect and calmly asked, "Why are you doing this?" Bai Hai replied, "All those who enter the Garden of Zhou do so for their ownbenefit, and I am no exception." Xu Yourong said, "You believe… that the benefits you will obtain from my bodyexceed the risks that you will face?" Bai Hai smiled. "I believe it with all my heart." Xu Yourong indifferently replied, "I could give you endless benefits, benefitsthat you could not imagine." There were currently numerous sects on the continent, each of them with theirown precious secrets, and for a strange sect like the Setting Sun Sect, thiswas even more the case. But she definitely had the status to say those words,and in addition, her opponent had no choice but to believe her. Bai Hai replied, "To earn the gratitude of both the Holy Maiden Peak and theZhou Dynasty is naturally difficult. Sadly, if I had not forced my lady intosuch desperate straits, how could I have possibly obtained such benefits?" Xu Yourong asked, "Did you know who I was this entire time?" "Yes, venerable Heavenly Maiden… did I say it wrong? I heard that all thesects under Holy Maiden Peak, whether it is the Gentle Stream Monastery or theSouth Stream Temple, all refer to you in this manner." Bai Hai smiled at her. "Last night I was at the bottom of the Sunset Valley,and I saw my lady unfurl her wings of fire." Xu Yourong said, "You know who I am, but you dare to show such disrespect?You've cultivated for more than two hundred years, but could it be that youcan't even control your own greed, so much so that you've gone mad!?" As she said these words, her expression was still calm, as if she was notangry at all, but possessed a sort of disdain from on high. Bai Hai calmly replied, "Greed does make one go mad, but I have not gone mad.If this were outside the Garden of Zhou, I would definitely be kneeling at mylady's feet, kissing the ground beneath your shoes, but… this is the Garden ofZhou, and my lady has already been heavily injured by the Demon Princess. If Iwere to miss this opportunity, I would definitely incur the wrath of heaven." Xu Yourong gazed at the leaves before her eyes and calmly asked, "What do youplan to gain from me? This divine artifact? Or something else?"