Something wasn’t right about his shizun, if the person was that in the first place. The moment Ling Luoying saw the person that stepped out of the fog, he knew that it wasn’t Yan Pingxie. The man who was his shizun was described to be an aloof master devoid of worldly desires… or something like that. The guy that appeared had, firstly, a wretched smirk on his face. The next thing that caught Ling Luoying’s eye was the shining, dark blue mark in the center of his forehead, glimmering brightly in contrast to his almost translucent skin and dark hair. A demonic marking?
It certainly looked like one to him, despite never having seen one before. And judging by the reactions of the disciples and Hallmasters around him, it probably was. “Who are you?” Ling Luoying, as the disciple with the most seniority, took the initiative to ask. “And where is our shizun?”
The evil grin on the man’s face widened. “You’re quite smart, little fool. I would’ve thought that having not seen your shizun consistently for the past few years would’ve dampened your memory of him.”
“Even someone with half their meridians broken and a damaged core can tell you’re a demon.” Fang Yuan snapped.
Ling Luoying had no idea what on earth the insult Fang Yuan just said was, but he rolled with it. “Leave this peak at once, demon.” One of the Hallmasters said, a handsome man with long brown hair and his hand on the hilt of his blade.
“What? Going to such lengths to try and kick me out? How inhospitable of you.” The demon sneered.
Before any of them could blink, the Hallmaster that had spoken up was yanked over with a long tendril of dark blue water, right into the demon’s arms. “Alright. Fine. Any of you move, and this guy gets his throat snapped.”
“Hallmaster Jing!” Shi Lianfeng exclaimed, hand paused on his sword.
“Stand down, Disciple Shi. This is no ordinary demon.” One of the other unnamed Hallmasters warned.
“Correct!” The demon said, sweeping down in a mockingly low bow, one hand still firmly grasped around Hallmaster Jing’s neck. “I am Dong Shuilian. Surely you’ve heard of me?”
Ling Luoying had not heard of the name ‘Dong Shuilian’ before (was he ever mentioned in the novel? He didn’t seem to remember, or was he a new character in some part two or fanfiction?), but it seemed that everyone else had. Even Fang Yuan, who had been spewing insults at the demon since Hallmaster Jing had gotten held hostage shut up. Dong Shuilian seemed more relaxed when he met the reactions of the other disciples and Hallmasters.
As the only one unfazed by Dong Shuilian (more because he had no idea who he was and what he’d done), Ling Luoying quietly summoned a stack of assorted talismans that had been sitting on a Hallmaster’s desk, waiting to be corrected and marked. There was no time to check if they worked or not, he just had to activate them, pelt Dong Shuilian and pray for the best.
“When I said no one move, I meant you too, unruly brat with the white hair.”
Ling Luoying froze, talismans clenched firmly in his hands. Who was he talking about? There were no disciples with white- oh. Oh right. He had white hair. Amidst all the things he’d been tangled up in, Ling Luoying had forgotten that important little point. [Remember that host still has life-insurance.] MiSi popped up conveniently, proving helpful for once.
Ling Luoying’s mind flickered back to when MiSi had bought him the life-insurance package while he was collecting the Everfrost Glowberry.
“MiSi, can you check if there’s a switching talisman in here anywhere?” He whispered to MiSi.
He’d learned that apparently no one could see him talk to his system, which was convenient, cool and weird at the same time. It was something like time was frozen or something. Either way, no one knew what was going on. Just in case though, he still whispered and tried to pretend he wasn’t saying anything. [There’s none, Host. Would you like to buy one from the shop? The beginner user benefit grants ten talismans for free.]
Ten free talismans? That was useful. “Get me one, thanks.”
In the next second, Ling Luoying felt a moderately unpleasant sensation of something cold and slightly sharp spreading along his hand, accompanied by a quiet fizzling noise. He winced, feeling as though tiny shards of glass were worming around in his palm. [Replacement Talisman Creation Progress: 87%] MiSi noted.
He bore with the pain for a second longer before he heard a new talisman crinkling in his hand.
Staring at Dong Shuilian challengingly, he forced as much of his qi into the talisman as he could before flicking it out at the demon. No matter which one of them he hit, Hallmaster Jing would be okay… he hoped. With a gentle ‘splat’ sound, the talisman hit Hallmaster Jing’s cheek, rapidly dissolving into his skin. “Smart. Really smart.” Dong Shuilian hissed through gritted teeth. “Let's see what’s faster. Your talisman or my qi.”
As he spoke, rivulets of black traced their way up Hallmaster Jing’s fading body, spreading like cracks on marble. “Disciple Yan and Disciple Chao, take Hallmaster Jing to Qiancao Peak! Disciple Mo, go find Hallmaster Chi! Disciple Yan, get reinforcement from Zhuzheng Peak!” A burly man with tousled black hair stuffed into an unruly bun at the back of his head commanded, pointing different disciples in different directions.
The moment Ling Luoying swapped his position with Hallmaster Jing, he unsheathed his sword and swung it at Dong Shuilian’s face. With a sharp clang, his blade stopped short, centimeters from the demon’s face. “You have some nerve, picking a fight against a Demon Lord.”
Ahhh, now Ling Luoying knew who this mysterious ‘Dong Shuilian’ guy was. He was one of the four Demon Lords in the original book. They hadn’t gotten much closure because their existence was solely there to either act as fodder to highlight the power of the original Shi Lianfeng or be his powerful underlings.
Still, they were considered to be extremely powerful and capable of destroying whole countries alone, if they were bothered with such a task. “MiSi, this sounds stupid, but what are the chances I could come out of this fight without life-threatening injuries?” Ling Luoying asked.
[One in a million, if there is no outside assistance.]
“So there’s still a chance, right?”
[To be honest, even that chance will leave Host with a destroyed golden core, at best.]
“What!?” Ling Luoying was beside himself with the news. “Why is he so overpowered!?”
[Don’t ask me, Host. Ask the author.]
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Woah, that’s really helpful, especially if I’m the one STUCK IN THE NOVEL!” Ling Luoying yelled.
MiSi shrugged in response and waved goodbye, fizzing back to wherever it came from with a few lackluster words of encouragement. [Don’t worry Host! The life-insurance package is still active!]
Better than nothing, Ling Luoying supposed.
“Demon Lord or no Demon Lord, what makes you think you can freely intrude upon the Qiuhai Mountain Sect!?” Ling Luoying glared, forcing Qingtao down as hard as he could.
“Simple. None of you here are strong enough to stop me!” As he spoke, a powerful shockwave of demonic qi resonated through the entirety of Anlue Peak, causing the ground itself to tremble in its wake.
Ling Luoying was knocked back into Shi Lianfeng, who, like all the other disciples and Hallmasters, seemed to be frozen at a sight behind them.
With an ear-shattering sound of wooden planks splintering and stone crunching, a gigantic black vortex opened at the center of Anlue Peak. From it, hundreds upon thousands of demons swarmed out, armed to the teeth with what seemed to be every single weapon in the Demon Realm. “How did the demons get in here!?” Shi Lianfeng exclaimed, unsheathing the replacement training sword he’d received.
“Focus on the lesser demons, Disciple Ling! We will handle him!” Hallmaster Yi, the only one Ling Luoying had actually heard about in the story ordered, waving Ling Luoying back.
“Me and Shi-shidi will locate the source of the vortex and stop it! Everyone else make sure that the lesser demons do not interfere with the Hallmasters in their fight!” Ling Luoying yelled.
He and Shi Lianfeng immediately dashed into the fray, cutting down demons left and right. Corpses fell everywhere, littering the ground and turning into morbid roadblocks. “Ling-shixiong, reinforcements from Zhuzheng Peak will be coming soon.” Shi Lianfeng panted, swinging his sword endlessly as he parried and sliced his way through the horde.
“Focus on getting to the center!” Ling Luoying was too stressed to bother continuing the use of honorifics and all that crap.
Fighting was taxing, especially since he never received any teaching in sword fighting. Thankfully, it was mostly just Qingtao leading him around, killing any demons coming his way while he dodged their countless, tireless attacks. Ling Luoying bowed in respect to all the cultivators that did this kind of thing on a near daily basis. If it were him and his own skills, who knows how many times over he’d have died already!
-
“Ling-shixiong, we’re almost there. It looks like the cause of the void was in the… dormitory.”
“The demons had to be let in, and it seems like they were prepared ahead of time. That, paired along with this, means that…”
“There’s a traitor on Anlue Peak.” Shi Lianfeng finished gravely.
It was hard to wrap his head around the fact that there was a traitor on Anlue Peak. Although the original novel, ‘Racing Against Divinity’, had mentioned a traitor, it was for a mere two hundred or so words, and their identity was never revealed. To think that it would be one of the loyal disciples from Anlue Peak…
Keeping their guards up, they approached the building, which had been blasted half off its foundations by the violent vortex. Ling Luoying pushed the door open quietly, and the two crept inside, keeping an eye out for anything or anyone that was inside. “This way.” He mouthed to Shi Lianfeng, pointing towards the dorm furthest away from them, where the gathering demonic qi was the strongest.
However, before they even got two steps, a cold voice spoke next to them. “Fancy seeing you here, Ling-shixiong and Shi-shidi.”
Ling Luoying whipped around, recognising the pitch of the voice. “Fei-shidi. I didn’t expect you, of all people, to be the one that let them in.”
A twisted grin was etched across Fei Luoci’s face, and his palms glowed with dark demonic qi. “I must say, you two got here a lot faster than I had expected.” He murmured, advancing with slow steps towards them.
Ling Luoying pulled Shi Lianfeng by the sleeve, slowly backing towards the dorm they needed to head to. Catching onto his plan, Shi Lianfeng started speaking to distract Fei Luoci. “Why did you betray the Qiuhai Mountain Sect?” He asked.
Fei Luoci chuckled. “Why? Why do you think!? Every single day, I wake up knowing that I won’t get any further than the Peak Lord of some useless, mundane odd jobs peak!” He seethed. “They told me I am destined more than that, so how can I bear to be the head disciple of such a useless place!” He shouted, slashing at Ling Luoying with his sword.
Ling Luoying blocked Fei Luoci’s furious slashes, being forced further and further backwards. “Fei-shixiong, think about this carefully. Just because Dongguan Peak doesn’t seem as reputable as the others doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its own honours and fame.” Shi Lianfeng said to try and convince Fei Luoci.
Instead of calming him down, it only made him angrier.
“Shut up!” He roared, turning on Shi Lianfeng. “You of all people have no right to say that to me, you street rat!”
Alright, Fei Luoci had officially taken it too far.
“Fei-shidi, there’s a prudent thing that helped Shi-shidi get to where he is today.” Ling Luoying said with a forced smile on his face. “You know what that is?”
Fei Luoci snorted contemptuously. “I have no need for what that street rat-”
“We call it thinking before you speak.”
A smooth silver blade with intricate swirling peach blossom carvings plunged into the teetering wooden wall by Fei Luoci’s head.
-
On the outskirts of Anlue Peak, the disciples were struggling. The spectacular arrival of Hallmaster Chi, who taught sword formations, boosted their morale and will to fight, but the sight of him losing the fight against Dong Shuilian dampened their spirits once again. It didn’t help that they were wholly unprepared to go up against demons decked out in battle gear. “When will the backup arrive!?” Fang Yuan yelled, fending off a snake demon that was spewing poisonous purple venom everywhere.
“The demons are breaking the waypoints!” Another disciple yelled frantically, swinging his training sword wildly.
Fang Yuan slapped three talismans on the ground in a formation, leaping up and sparking the formation to life. A bright blue electric shock sparked from the talismans, aimed directly at the snake demon’s dantian. With a roaring screech, the snake demon was immobilised. Fang Yuan slashed at the snake demon wildly, taking the opportunity to do as much damage as he could. Plunging his sword into the snake demon’s stomach, it vanished with an ugly screech, sending metallic purple scales scattering across the battlefield. The moment the demon fell, he rushed to the waypoint, driving his sword through everything that entered his vision.
A steady stream of faint qi trickled weakly out of the desecrated stone waypoint. Something had cleaved it in half, the two broken parts of the waypoint lying on its sides. Fang Yuan groaned in frustration. Now that the waypoint closest to the fighting was out of use. Backup had to come from the ones farther away, which were no doubt getting beaten down right now.
Fang Yuan didn’t want to admit it, even to himself, but he could tell they were losing. Anlue Peak’s Peak Lord was never one to promote disciples without innate talent and grit to inner disciples, so there weren’t many disciples that had high cultivations. Compared to the relentless waves of demons, it was already a miracle that there had been no deaths yet. Now that the reinforcement’s path was broken, how were they possibly going to win this?
“The disciples from Zhuzheng Peak are arriving as swiftly as possible!” Yan Yu yelled, stumbling into the fray from the direction of the closest currently-standing waypoint.
The disciples that had their own spiritual swords would arrive first, since Zhuzheng and Anlue Peak were right next to each other. “Has the Sect Leader returned from Helie Village?” Hallmaster Yi yelled, hands practically blurring with how fast he was throwing out talismans.
His question was unanswered, everyone else too busy fighting for their lives to reply.
-
Thick, dark blood from the slain demons splattered everywhere, dying the white robes of the disciples and Hallmasters a wretched black. It trickled in trails and pooled at the white marble stairs, staining them irreversibly. It seemed as though the ground itself would be dyed from all the bloodshed that was occurring on Anlue Peak.
Just as there seemed to be a ray of hope for the cultivators, a dark shadow smothered out the sun. With rumbling steps, a gigantic demon almost thirty meters tall stomped its way to the battlefield, crushing disciples and demons alike underfoot. An ear bursting roar gathered all the demons around it, acting like meat shields.
Mid-fight, Dong Shuilian grinned.
Suddenly leaping back, he plunged himself right onto Hallmaster Chi’s sword, sending a spray of red blood dripping down to the ground and getting absorbed by the dirt. Hallmaster Chi jerked back in shock. What kind of Demon Lord gave the enemy a free hit? There was definitely something going on. Hallmaster Chi’s suspicions were confirmed when a series of strangled screams erupted from the battlefield.
Thousands of tiny little snakes with metallic purple scales writhed up from the ground, entangling themselves in the arms and legs of the disciples. Immobilised, they became sitting ducks, forced to stand there and wait for the imminent attacks of the waiting demons.
One by one, disciples from both the outer and inner areas of Anlue Peak fell like dominoes.
Just as they were about to be slaughtered into defeat, a terrifying pressure enveloped the battlefield.
“What is going on here?”