Calling him angry was an understatement. Yan Pingxie was livid. He had been alerted of the situation by Mo Pingchu and rushed over immediately from the next village over. Ling Luoying had never seen anyone so angry before. It wasn’t the fiery type of anger that made someone’s face red and twisted it into grotesque frowns and glares, but the cool one. The silent anger that filled the air with a gentle tinge of bloodlust and froze one's face in a mask of disgust and annoyance. Mo Pingchu himself had to rush over to Anlue Peak to calm Yan Pingxie down.
Demon Lord or no Demon Lord, Yan Pingxie seemed ready to head to the Demon Realm and personally massacre Dong Shuilian. “How dare he intrude upon Anlue Peak.” Yan Pingxie said with a cold laugh, staring frostily at the remains of his Peak.
“Calm down and think about this, Yan-shidi.” Mo Pingchu soothed, “Xi Mu’ou was interfering as well. This may mean that the Demon Lords have teamed up against the Human Realm. As of now, no other sect or clan knows about this, and so there won’t be any immediate support. Even I wouldn’t try to take on those four at the same time.”
-
In the world of ‘Racing Against Divinity’, there were a select few that could utter the names of the powerhouses in the Demon Realm without shuddering. Mo Pingchu and Yan Pingxie, the two strongest Peak Lords of the Qiuhai Mountain Sect, just so happened to be two of them. Ling Luoying vaguely remembered such a scene where Mo Pingchu challenges one of them (it was such a small plot detail that it was only mentioned in passing once, ever) and calls the guy by his name, but that was about it.
Apart from these two, and probably a few other powerful cultivators from other sects and clans, no one else could dare to utter their names without shaking in fear. That was how great their destructive power was. In the novel, when the two Demon Lords Ling Luoying hadn’t met yet had teamed up to rebel against Shi Lianfeng in the early stages of his rule, the novel described it so vividly, with so much emphasis and detail that it was physically impossible for Ling Luoying to not remember it.
‘Pure demonic energy swallowed the skies, turning them darker than the darkest midnight. On land, the once peaceful town of Lanyang became a bloodied battlefield. Amidst thousands of carcasses of demons, cultivators and mortals alike, stood three figures, lit up monstrously by the flames devouring every building still standing. On one side of the gigantic rift stood [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], with thousands of their strongest warriors behind them and an all-enveloping haze of death and destruction. On the other side, sitting lazily atop a mountain of corpses a hundred tall was Shi Lianfeng. With a casual smirk on his face, like it was just another Sunday, he raised Moyao, sending a shockwave of killing intent so strong it weakened the knees of the strongest warrior.’
Ok perhaps the excerpt was all about Shi Lianfeng (if the paragraphs weren’t about him then it was about a potential wife or a problem concerning Shi Lianfeng, both of which were countless), but it was the closest the author of the novel had ever gotten to giving the Demon Lords some screen time that showed their strength.
Yan Pingxie being able to say such words so casually showed just how strong he was. But was he strong enough to take down a Demon Lord? In all honesty, Ling Luoying didn’t think Yan Pingie would win. No offense, Yan Pingxie was cool, but the author had written that the Demon Lords were stronger than the strongest cultivator in one of the side notes. If Yan Pingxie went, he would lose.
There was little doubt about that.
-
“Now that you have calmed down, Yan-shidi, shall you and Disciple Ling accompany me to the Peak Lord meeting?” Mo Pingchu asked with a pleasant expression on his face.
Yan Pingxie took a deep breath before nodding. “Let’s go, Zhangmen-shixiong.”
Ling Luoying followed two steps behind his Shizun, listening in on the little conversations he had with Mo Pingchu. Were they this close in the novel? Ling Luoying didn’t recall such a complex relationship between the two. It almost reminded him of a certain other story he’d been forced into reading.
Trying to ignore the depressingly dull conversations happening, Ling Luoying turned his gaze into his surroundings. Dongguan Peak, being as swift as it was, had already started on the numerous repairs that the invasion had caused. Dongguan Peak may have been last in terms of Quihai Mountain Sect’s strength ranking, but it certainly ranked top three in efficiency.
He focused his attention on kicking a tiny pebble along the path, watching with avid curiosity as it shimmered and changed colours slowly with every bounce off the stones. As if in an effort to include him in their conversations - which was really pointless, what on earth would a disciple have to say that would interest a Peak Lord, much less the Sect Leader? Drama between disciples of different Peaks? - Mo Pingchu turned to him. “I see you’ve found a Sevencolour Starstone, Disciple Ling.” He said, face all smiles.
A what?
Sevencolour… Starstone?
What kind of a crappy name was that? In fact, all of the names in this stupid world were excessive and cringey. Thousand Ruby Lotus? Strange. Everfrost Glowberry? Excessive. Sevencolour Starstone? Just hearing the name brought despair to Ling Luoying’s literary mind. Which bumbling fool was so out of ideas they threw four words and mashed them together to form a phrase?
Even something like Spectrum Crystal would’ve been cooler!
Ok… perhaps Spectrum Crystal was just as bad, but Ling Luoying was a genius (or so he was told) mathematician and literarian (clearly not, seeing as he couldn’t even come up with a better name), and he had better things to do than stand around making up random names for a silly little story!
“Uh, yes. A Sevencolour Starstone. How very intricate. Thank you for pointing it out, Zhangmen.” He mumbled, hoping he didn’t come off as sarcastic or disrespectful.
He heard Yan Pingxie barely muffle a snort behind his sleeve. Did he have a sense of humour? The Yan Pingxie, Qiuhai Mountain Sects world-renowned tactician, a sense of humour? It was like telling him robots were sentient! Not entirely impossible, but not believable to the average, normal human being.
“My Head Disciple has seen thousands of such stones.” Yan Pingxie commented dryly.
Ling Luoying nodded along, praying to god that Mo Pingchu didn’t ask him to give an example, since he didn’t have one to give. [If Host is out of ideas, MiSi can give you one!] MiSi offered helpfully, popping out with a puff of blue dust.
“Hey… did you get a new effect? Also, how did you know what I was thinking?”
[It was written all over Host’s face…]
Oh. Ling Luoying hoped he wasn’t too obvious in his panic.
Thankfully, before Mo Pingchu could ask anything else that would possibly disclose his identity as a transmigrator, they arrived at Zhuzheng Peak’s Qianying Hall.
The grandest of all the buildings in the area, it towered with sturdy marble pillars veined with golden ivy, translucent leaves shimmering with a golden hue. Each tile on the roof of the three storey building was snow jade, carved with flourishing plum blossoms and dragons. Inside, the walls and floor were made of maple wood, with the same grand marble pillars. Hundreds upon thousands of delicate sculptures and carvings made of jade dangled from the ceiling, fastened by the same ivy creeping across the walls. A faint sprinkle of golden dust drifted from the leaves, vanishing with a gentle golden aura as they touched the ground.
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At the back of the room was a grand staircase leading to the second floor. The balustrade was decorated with friezes of butterflies and phoenixes, and at the tip of each handrail was an intricately carved blooming lotus. Placed in the dead center of the room was a marble round table with seven chairs placed evenly along the edge, each design different. At the center of the table was an orb that looked like yin and yang, glowing ethereally and levitating off the table.
A beautiful lady wearing a fluttering hanfu and adorned with dangly jade hairpins was sitting serenely on the chair with a huge self-playing guqin as the backrest. The armrests were made to look like the neck of a pipa, the instrument slowly curving. The feet of the chair were shaped into dancing ribbons, curling and weaving around eachother elaborately, yet not messily. Needless to say, this was the Wuqin Peak Lord, Mei Pingyu.
A tanned, muscled woman with deep red hair and a long scar running down her right eye sat in the chair next to Mei Pingyu. Ling Luoying knew it was the Peak Lord of Qianshou Peak almost immediately. Only a blind person would miss the huge monster head placed on the backrest, and the fluttering wings sticking out of the back.
Their Head Disciples, Ming Luoqiao and Chi Luolian, were standing behind them in the signature lilac and white robes of Wuqin and tawny orange and white of Qianshou. When Mo Pingchu entered, they stood up in sync, clasping their hands and bowing.
“You may rise.” Mo Pingchu said, waving them up.
“Pingxi-shixiong will take a while, he is tending to the heavy injuries, and Pinglong-shidi is currently finishing up the bigger repair problems.” Mei Pingyu informed Mo Pingchu, Yan Pingxie and Ling Luoying, who settled in his position behind his shizun’s chair.
Despite the grandeur of the building, the atmosphere was gloomy and dreary. The recent demon invasion would not pose a good thing for Qiuhai Mountain Sect, both because of the social backlash and the inevitable realisation that their defences were not strong enough to keep out a Demon Lord.
The silence was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Ming Luoqiao’s eyes flickered between themselves, the Peak Lords, and Ling Luoying with a polite look of confusion. Chi Luolian wasn’t as nice about the stare, practically glaring daggers into his skull. Ling Luoying shivered nervously as he realised he’d most likely be hunted down by the two the moment the Head Disciples were dismissed into the outer chamber for a full recollection of the entire happenings.
It wasn’t a long wait before the doors were pushed open again, and a severe looking lady with fiery red makeup along her eyes and metal plates of armour running down her sides strode in. Behind her trailed a slightly kinder looking young man. The first thing Ling Luoying recognised about the guy (and probably his only defining trait too) was the elaborately decorated sword dangling at his side.
The sheath was adorned with jade pendants and sword tassels alike, each decor swinging with each step and shining eye-burningly when they reflected light.
There was no doubt that this was the Peak Lord of Huolian Peak, which produced armour (mostly sold to villages, cultivators didn’t need armour) and weapons, Mu Pingli, and her Head Disciple Jia Luoshen. With a swift bow, Mu Pingli sat, ramrod straight, in her seat, a normal chair, if not for the towering backrest in the shape of a sword.
It was quite a funny sight. If Jia Luoshen was any shorter, he would not have been able to see from behind the backrest.
The Peak Lords made idle chatter with each other as they waited for their last two while Jia Luoshen joined the other two in staring moderately discreetly at him. “MiSi.” Ling Luoying whispered out of the corner of his mouth, trying his hardest to look like he wasn’t speaking.
For some reason, the stupid, disorienting thing where the world bled out of colour and turned gray occurred again.
“Ok, why is this happening again? If this is what’s gonna happen every time I want to talk to you, I’ll just leave notes.” Ling Luoying sighed.
[Well since Host was okay with it when he was accessing the shop, Host should be okay with it when speaking, right?]
“What if I just want to say one thing and leave?”
[Fine. The feature will be disabled for everything except accessing the shop, inventory and profile.]
“Pardon? There’s a profile? And you never told me?”
[The profile is irrelevant to Host, and cannot be accessed right now. Now please get to the point, Host.]
Sighing at MiSi, Ling Luoying ‘got to the point’. “The other Head Disciples are definitely going to drag me into a corner and ask about the invasion. How much of it should I reveal?”
MiSi’s little pixie avatar thing shrugged. [However much Host wants to reveal, but it would be best not to explain how you won the fight, lest they start getting suspicious.]
Ling Luoying hummed and nodded. It sounded like a good idea. As long as he avoided the topic of how exactly he managed to get Xi Mu’ou out of Fei Luoci’s body, it would be (mostly) fine (he hoped).
A loud creaking noise, followed by two sets of hurried footsteps interrupted Ling Luoying, and he winced as all the colour flooded back into his vision. “Pardon the tardiness.” Zheng Pingxi sighed. “There were more injured than I had expected.”
Behind him, Ci Luoyang looked about ready to pass out on the spot. Oh. Ling Luoying had never really anticipated how hard of a job it was going to be for the Yaocao Peak disciples. All they did was make medicine, which, compared to Dongguan Peak, was a supposed walk in the park.
Now that he thought about it though, Yaocao Peak was about the same level of labour intensity as Dongguan Peak. Refining pills didn’t involve much moving around, but pills required a lot of spiritual energy and concentration. One lapse of judgment could ruin an entire batch of pills.
That, paired with all the inevitable injuries that happened after every fight, meant that Yaocao Peak disciples had it rough. Between refining, mixing, tending to herbs and patients, no wonder Ci Luoyang looked like he’d aged ten years.
It was almost routine now, how the Peak Lord settled into their chair and joined in amicably in the conversation while their Head Disciple stood behind their chair and stared holes into Ling Luoying’s head.
-
By the time Yi Pinglong stumbled in, Fei Luoci noticeably absent, Ling Luoying had already conjured up a believable tale as to what had happened in the dorm buildings. There was no one that could correct him. Fei Luoci was being possessed, Shi Lianfeng was unconscious, and it wasn’t like they would drag in Xi Mu’ou for a testimony.
The first half of the meeting was mostly a plan for the upcoming group training mission to deal with some demons in the area. It looked like they were all diverting the topic to a time when Yan Pingxie calmed down a little, or at least looked like he wasn’t going to plan and execute a murder the first moment he got.
Unfortunately, one of Yan Pingxie’s greatest traits in the book was that he was stubborn and steadfast. His face remained stony and cold the entire time, answering curtly whenever he had to. The topic couldn’t be avoided for much longer, and the Peak Lords knew as much. Mei Pingyu looked between Mo Pingchu and Zheng Pingxi, waiting for one of them to start the conversation. Mo Pingchu pressed his lips into a thin line and sighed deeply.
“About the demon invasion… it seems that Dong Shuilian managed to enter the barrier with an array.”
Yan Pingxie raised an eyebrow. “An array? Which, exactly?”
“Aren’t you the head of the peak that’s supposed to deal with things like arrays and talismans?” Mu Pingli asked.
“I am, but that only applies if I see that array.” Yan Pingxie replied through clenched teeth. “Isn’t that right, Pinglong-shidi?”
Yi Pingling jumped when Yan Pingxie suddenly turned to him, leaning over Mo Pingchu to smile dangerously at his junior.
The seats were arranged in order of greatest to least authority in a clockwise direction, meaning Yi Pinglong was approximately one Mo Pingchu away from certain strangulation at the hands of Yan Pingxie.
“Listen, I preserved the array in a Separate Space Talisman, but I removed the real one in case it was used again or taken by another malicious party!” Yi Pinglong hurriedly explained, really fearing for his life right now.
“Pingxie-shidi, calm down. It was not Pinglong-shidi’s fault. He was merely thinking for the greater good of the sect.” Mo Pingchu mediated.
Ling Luoying watched all this with avid interest. Dang, he never knew Peak Lord meetings were this interesting. He almost wished he could freeze time, buy a bucket of popcorn, and then come back. But then they’d all see his food.
Totally immersed in the drama, he didn’t realise he was being called on until he heard his shizun sigh and send a gust of wind into his face. “As I was saying,” Yan Pingxie started testily. “My disciple fought against Xi Mu’ou.”
Ling Luoying straightened up and nodded, front hair horrifically tousled from his shizun.
Fan Pinghe’s eyebrows neared her hairline as she examined him. “This brat? He looks like a twig. And what’s with the hair?”
Oh. Yeah, Fan Pinghe was as… rough, for lack of a better word, as she was in the novel.
“My disciple’s hair colour has no need for your interference or judgment, Pinghe-shimei.” Yan Pingxie snapped.
Fan Pinghe backed down with her hands up. “Calm down, shixiong.”
Yan Pingxie was officially ready for murder, or so Ling Luoying thought. “Disciple Luoying, please explain to us what exactly happened during the fight.” Mo Pingchu requested, a soothing expression on his face.
Ling Luoying stepped to the side, in between his shizun and Mo Pingchu’s chairs and started talking. He noticed Ming Luoqiao’s eyes widening with each sentence he spoke. Even the immovable Jia Luoshen’s eyes widened slightly. “Quite the story.” Fan Pinghe noted, swinging a sword tassel around her finger.
“Thank you for the recount, Disciple Luoying.” Mo Pingchu said loudly, before Yan Pingxie could be provoked any further.
He stepped back and waited for the Peak Lords to finish up the discussion, which was honestly just Yan Pingxie ruthlessly sniping everyone with criticism. Someone remind him never to piss his shizun off… Ling Luoying did not want to be on the receiving end of the onslaught.
Finally, they were dismissed into the outer chamber while the Peak Lords did whatever Peak Lord-y stuff they did privately.
As he predicted, the moment the door to the outer chamber closed, Chi Luolian grabbed him by the shoulders, sat him down on a chair, and they all swarmed him. “What the hell really happened?”