Chapter 132: Breaking the Formation

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The man wore armor of fine black-iron scales, each scale formed from a small, neatly cut fragment of black iron, all linked together in dense ranks like tiny overlapping scales.

His bandage-wrapped left hand still carried a Vermilion-Bird helmet with a red plume, while his right hand braced against the roof ridge, holding down an unopened scarlet banner.

The fair-faced man, his pale-red hair loose and disheveled, lowered his eyes toward Priest Si, who gripped a pair of iron maces. When he caught sight of the dragon-and-phoenix red Daoist robe the priest wore, a barely perceptible trace of mockery lifted the corner of his mouth.

But the mockery came and went in an instant.

“Do not be nervous. I am the Commandant of Southbrook Commandery. I have come to ask you one question.”

As he spoke, the man casually tossed the sandalwood identity tablet hanging from his belt to the ground before Priest Si.

Priest Si naturally had no intention of bending to pick it up, but he still cast a sidelong glance at the information engraved upon it.

Commandant of Southbrook Commandery.

Beneath those five brief words were two imperial seals. Priest Si was not familiar with the slightly larger one, though he had seen it several times before: the seal of the present Son of Heaven of Ancient Qin.

The other was the seal of the King of the Southern Wastes.

“Fufeng Abbey has never concerned itself with worldly affairs. If Your Excellency has come here to ask questions, I fear you have chosen the wrong place.”

Priest Si withdrew the killing intent that had surfaced around him moments before. The sudden appearance of this fair-faced man in black-iron scale armor was far too unusual. If he could avoid provoking trouble, Priest Si had no desire to invite more of it.

Yet a clear voice within him kept warning him that the visitor meant no good.

The three men on the other rooftops had also noticed what was happening, but they were responsible for controlling the banners in their hands and could not leave their positions at will.

The fair-faced man let out a soft sigh and ignored Priest Si’s words. He merely asked, “The person trapped within your formation—is she wearing a long gown embroidered with azure and black silk? Is she roughly fourteen or fifteen years old? Her features have not yet fully matured, but she should grow into a beauty.”

Priest Si tightened his grip on the two maces. The killing intent he had restrained surged forth once more.

“Surely not. Could it be that such a girl really is trapped inside your formation? Do you not know that she is an official of the imperial court? Or do you know and have done this deliberately?”

The faintly mocking smile at the corner of the fair-faced man’s mouth was plain to Priest Si’s eyes. At last, the priest could no longer restrain himself.

“Since you insist on seeking death, do not blame me for showing no mercy.”

Priest Si smashed his two maces together. A spark burst forth, then spread until the pair of weapons blazed like fire-forged maces.

The fair-faced man merely shook his head and sighed. “It is not that I insist on seeking death. What could I do? My junior apprentice, who serves at the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, instructed me to look after someone for him while I was in the Southern Wastes.”

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Priest Si could no longer be bothered to listen to the fair-faced man in black-iron scale armor. His steps blurred, and in the space of a few flickers he had already closed in on the man.

“Walking the Celestial Dipper? It seems this fraud of a Daoist possesses a little skill after all.”

The fair-faced man lowered his eyes to the illusory footwork Priest Si had just used, entirely unconcerned that the priest had raised both fiery maces above his head, poised to smash them down upon his skull.

“But that little skill is not enough.”

The fair-faced man stamped one foot. His steps shifted and turned as though he were treading upon the stars of the Heavenly Stems and Northern Dipper, and in an instant he had retreated far from Priest Si.

The fiery maces struck empty air.

Priest Si watched him with a mocking smile. “Did you think I meant to kill you? I merely wanted to reclaim this Dragon-Phoenix Red Banner!”

He thrust out his hand and seized the Dragon-Phoenix Red Banner on the roof ridge, then abruptly jerked his arm.

Silence.

Only a faint night breeze drifted past.

“I can still play with you a while longer. That little girl has remarkable endurance.”

The fair-faced man turned his right hand over, and a black oil lamp shaped like a lotus appeared in his palm.

Its ghostly blue wick flickered. Within the flame, one could make out the hazy soul-shadow of Fan Xianyue.

Priest Si glanced sideways at the scarlet banner clutched in his own hand. At some point, a deep-blue jade bracelet had clamped itself around the banner. No matter how violently he shook his arm, the scarlet flag refused to unfurl.

“What petty miscreant dares raid my Fufeng Abbey in the dead of night?”

Priest Lu, who had been standing atop the ridge of the left-hand roof, could no longer contain himself. One hand gripping his treasured sword, he tapped the roof tiles with his toes and vaulted onto Priest Si’s rooftop.

Sword light flashed.

Streak after streak of radiance blossomed into white flowers, each flower containing a frigid, murderous sword aura.

Yet the instant Priest Lu left his rooftop, the fair-faced man rose into the air. He stepped upon the empty sky, every footfall giving rise to rippling starlight. His illusory figure wove between the severe sword rays and arrived upon the rooftop where Priest Lu had stood.

The bandages around his left hand suddenly came undone, revealing a palm twisted by hideous burns. Wild flames erupted from its center as he fiercely clenched his hand around the plain-colored banner.

The azure mist filling the courtyard abruptly scattered. A white tiger sprang from within it, and a dazzling flame, shaped like a great python, inexplicably ignited across its body.

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The fiery python wound tightly around the roaring white tiger.

“Have you forgotten about me?”

The fair-faced man turned back and asked with a light laugh, “What of you two standing beside the Azure Banner and the Yellow Banner?”

“I am the one who will deal with you!”

Anger showed on Priest Lu’s face. He tapped the roof tiles once more with his toes, intending to fly back to his own rooftop.

Thunder boomed.

Brilliant bolts of lightning suddenly crashed down from the sky, striking Priest Lu, who had only just leapt into the air. His hair stood on end, his face was blackened, and he fell rigidly to the ground.

A trace of languor appeared in the fair-faced man’s eyes. Raising the corner of his mouth in a provocative smile, he said, “You are all Daoist priests clothed in robes. Surely, aside from that so-called Celestial Dipper footwork—seven parts false, three parts true—you cannot be incapable of performing any other Daoist arts?”

“Thunder magic…”

Priest Yin Chunxin held the Yellow Banner and looked up. Beside the dark clouds veiling the bright moon, another mass of black cloud had suddenly gathered. His pupils contracted as he murmured to himself.

He already felt the urge to retreat.

But the fiery python that had been wrapped around the roaring white tiger suddenly lunged at the fair-faced man standing on the roof. At the same time, the scars on the man’s left palm, gripping the plain-colored banner, split open. Blood poured forth, only to be instantly dried by the flames.

The fair-faced man’s eyelid twitched. He did not evade the python’s attack, instead taking the full impact of the fiery creature that had abruptly turned against him.

The bandages whipping through the air once more bound the python and coiled it around the burned flesh of his left hand.

The wild flames rising from his palm were extinguished as a result. One could even clearly see the faint serpentine red mark within his pupils grow brighter, while burn marks began to spread across his fair cheek.

“Senior Brother Yin, he is already at the end of his strength!”

The moment Priest Pu, holding the Azure Banner, saw the fair-faced man take the full force of the surging fiery python, and then noticed his condition, he hurriedly shouted, “He cannot hold out much longer!”

“Do not move!”

Priest Yin Chunxin’s brows drew tightly together as he hastily shouted the warning.