"So your immortal sect really does not take me seriously at all?" Li Minghan appeared on a high cliff not far away said.
"May I ask why you insisted that Xiaoyi come in person?" Li Luoning said.
"Li Luoning, you may only be an idle medicine master of Liaoyin Immortal Realm, but no matter what, you are still the last disciple of the High God Liaoyin. So why does your mind seem so dull? Have you boiled medicine for so long that you boiled your brains away too?" Li Minghan mocked.
"You—" Mie Xingzhe snapped.
Li Luoning raised a hand to stop him, telling him not to react. He then gave Yun Qingyi a look, warning him that things might change very soon. Yun Qingyi understood at once, gave a small nod, stepped a little closer to Mie Xingzhe, and quietly handed him the Zhishou gold-thread jade pendant.
"Niannian, take this," Yun Qingyi said.
Mie Xingzhe lowered his head and looked at it, only to realize it was the Zhishou gold-thread jade pendant he had lost.
"My pendant? I thought I'd lost it for good. Qingyi-ge, where did you find it?"
"This is not the time to talk about that. Keep it on you. If both sides start fighting later, stay close to me no matter what. That Demon Sovereign clearly came prepared. I'm afraid today's battle is unavoidable." Yun Qingyi quietly warned him.
"Your little disciple with the golden core really does have quite a temper. The question is whether his cultivation can back up that personality of his." Li Minghan went on.
[He actually knows about the golden core inside Nian!]
"You have kidnapped my disciple again and again. Was it all because of the golden core inside him?" Li Luoning ask.
"The golden core? I did not care much about that at first. But now, the Floating Light Golden Seal inside him has become something that interests me very much. In all three realms, everyone knows this saying: with the twin pills and the Floating Light Golden Seal, the whole world can be taken." Li Minghan spread his arms with a light laugh.
"So it really was you!" Li Luoning's guess had been right. The one pretending to be the Demon Sovereign was indeed the same man who had fought him in the pill chamber that day.
Since Li Luoning had already recognized him, Li Minghan slowly removed his mask.
"So you are not as foolish as I thought. Then let me introduce myself again. I—no, I am Li Minghan, your... twin brother." Li Minghan spoke the last two words one by one, staring at Li Luoning with a ghostly look and pointing at him with contempt.
"Master, his face..." Mie Xingzhe finally understood why the "Master" he had met before had felt so strange.
"Why are you doing all this?" Li Luoning asked.
"Which part are you asking about? That old man who made medicine?" Li Minghan asked
"Liaoyin Immortal Realm is heavily guarded. Without the Konghua Token, a demon like you could never come and go as you pleased. Who exactly did you make this deal with?" Li Luoning asked.
"Me? A demon? Fallen into the demonic path? And who do you think I have to thank for that? What, you still do not understand? Then let me tell you."
Li Minghan continued,
"It has long been said throughout the three realms that when the twin pills appear, with the golden seal added to them, the three realms can be unified. You and I are twins, and we are also the vessels of those twin pills. From birth, we were destined to sustain each other and oppose each other at the same time. But because the Moon Shadow Pill in my body feeds on yin energy and draws its power from all suffering in the world, it carries foul, chaotic power. From the moment I was born, our birth father abandoned me in the mountains and forests and left me to live or die. If the Dragon King had not later taken me in, I would have rotted in the wilderness long ago. And you..."
Li Minghan suddenly stopped. He lifted one finger and pointed at Li Luoning. After a pause, he locked his eyes on him and went on,
"You enjoyed the life that should have belonged half to me, living with our birth parents, growing up as the cherished young master of the house. But do not forget, the Chixi Pill inside you absorbs the essence of the sun and moon and has the power to purify all things. Father cast me aside only to protect you, so you could grow up untouched by corruption. Later, when the Dragon King took me in, it was also because of you—because of this face, the same face as yours. I was forced to be hidden away in that dark sea floor, veiled every day, living like a shadow in the dark. Your shadow. In other words, everything I am now is because of you, and because of that damned Chixi Pill inside you. If not for you, how would I have fallen this far?"
The disappointment in Li Minghan's eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by naked hatred as he looked at Li Luoning.
"Chixi Pill?"
"You became a disciple of the gods and now you do not even remember who you were?" Li Minghan sneered at the confusion on Li Luoning's face. He turned his hand over, and a blue inner core floated above his palm.
"That's—Senior Brother's inner core! You killed Senior Brother?" Li Luoning recognized it at once.
Senior Brother Muhan had always been skilled in divination and reading the will of heaven. He had long understood his own fate. Ever since learning that Senior Brother had ascended away, Li Luoning had never been able to understand why. He had never imagined he had actually died by another's hand.
"What your useless senior brother said was true. Your master Liaoyin really did seal your memories back then, along with that cursed Chixi Pill inside you."
The moment Li Minghan finished speaking, a powerful wave of demonic force swept out toward them.
Li Luoning was still lost in the grief of Muhan's tragic death. He had no time to react before Li Minghan's power was already upon him.
"Master, watch out!"
Mie Xingzhe cried out instinctively and threw himself in front of Li Luoning. The Floating Light Golden Seal protected its host on instinct, and a burst of golden light blocked the attack.
Li Minghan drifted down from the cliff above, took two steps forward, and continued,
"You really are lucky. You were nothing but a cripple with no spiritual power, yet you somehow came upon a golden core. And now you even have the Floating Light Golden Seal, something that has not been seen for ages. The only question is whether your cultivation is enough to hold on to it."
The Moon Shadow Pill inside Li Minghan had long since awakened, and on top of that he had already devoured the old Demon Sovereign's demonic cultivation.Though Li Luoning and his two disciples could still barely match him for the moment, they were already beginning to struggle.
Within only a few exchanges, Mie Xingzhe was struck by a palm and sent flying.
Yun Qingyi turned in concern the instant he saw Mie Xingzhe knocked away. But in that moment of distraction, Li Minghan's whip struck him too, sending him flying backward. He slid several yards before coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Protected by the Floating Light Golden Seal, Mie Xingzhe himself was unharmed. Seeing Yun Qingyi wounded, he quickly got back up and rushed over to check on him.
After several more exchanges between Li Minghan and Li Luoning, both sides finally separated and returned to their own sides.
At the same time, Qingyuan arrived with three hundred immortal soldiers.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Yun Qingyi replied.
Qingyuan looked from Li Minghan's face to Li Luoning's and could not help looking baffled.
"He is the one who broke into the pill chamber that day and murdered the Medicine King."
"Immortal Master Xiaoyi... this is..." Qingyuan looked at Li Minghan across from them, clearly unable to understand the situation.
"He is Master's twin brother," Yun Qingyi explained.
"Situ Fanzhi really is amusing. Three hundred soldiers? That is just sending them here to die. Li Luoning, do you really think he sent you here to investigate and demand justice?" Li Minghan mouth curled into a careless smile.
As soon as Li Minghan finished speaking, he summoned the black iron bell and shook it lightly twice in his hand, then turned with a wicked smile toward Mie Xingzhe.
"Not good—Nian! Watch out!" Li Luoning was the first to react and flew at once toward Mie Xingzhe. But no matter how fast he was, he could not move faster than the command carried by the bell.
The instant he heard the order, Mie Xingzhe's eyes turned blood-red. With one sweep of his sword, he struck at Yun Qingyi and Qingyuan. Luckily, both reacted in time and narrowly dodged.
"Qianmo!" Qingyuan naturally knew what it was.
"Niannian! Wake up!" Yun Qingyi called again and again, retreating and blocking rather than striking back.
At the same time, Li Luoning was also trapped in battle against the many puppet demon soldiers. For a moment, the entire sinkhole became a storm of flashing weapons and clashing steel.
Yun Qingyi suddenly remembered what Master had told him before. Leaning back to avoid a sweeping sword aura from Mie Xingzhe, he flipped under Mie Xingzhe's outstretched arms and moved behind him. From there he hooked one arm tightly around Mie Xingzhe's throat, drove a short dagger into his own chest, and smeared the blood from his fingers onto Mie Xingzhe's forehead.
The moment he sensed Yun Qingyi's blood, Mie Xingzhe froze. The crimson in his eyes flickered in and out.
"Hmph. Trivial tricks." Li Minghan had taken in Yun Qingyi's actions from the side. He snorted with complete indifference. Then he drew out the black iron bell again and shook it twice in a different rhythm.
This time, the sound of the bell made several immortal soldiers stop where they stood. Then they turned their weapons on the other immortal soldiers and officers around them.
"What is this!" Even Qingyuan was caught off guard by this move. The already limited number of immortal soldiers now fell into chaos within their own ranks.
"You did not really think this was all I could do, did you?" Li Minghan smiling wickedly.
And when Mie Xingzhe heard the bell once more, the crimson in his eyes burned even brighter than before. With one violent motion, he broke free of Yun Qingyi's hold.
Besides the Qianmo, Li Minghan had previously forced Mie Xingzhe to swallow another pill as well. It had been done precisely to make sure that even if the Qianmo failed, Mie Xingzhe would still remain under his control.
With a sudden cry, Mie Xingzhe's eyes changed from crimson to pitch black. Veins stood out all over his body, and a huge surge of spiritual force wrapped itself around him.
Hearing the sound, Li Luoning turned toward him. The moment he saw the way Mie Xingzhe looked, he knew something was wrong. He flew straight to him and shot strands of spiritual force into several of Mie Xingzhe's major meridians.
"Do not waste your strength. The drug I put inside him cannot be undone by you," Li Minghan said.
"We must stop Nian.The demonic cultivation inside him is destroying his mind. It must be removed immediately. Otherwise, Nian'er will lose himself completely and become their puppet forever." Li Luoning said.
Li Luoning threw out a Binding Immortal Chain. Together with Yun Qingyi, he managed to bind Mie Xingzhe tightly.
By now, Mie Xingzhe was no longer conscious. He could not tell friend from enemy. He struck at anyone in sight, killing countless immortal soldiers. His body and face were already covered in blood.
"Master, I tried using my blood just now. It can suppress Niannian for a moment, but not for long," Yun Qingyi said.
"Li Minghan has just strengthened the force driving his puppets. Looking at Nian'er's condition, I fear there is something else inside him causing trouble as well." Li Luoning said.
"Qianmo... heart's blood... Niannian... Niannian... what do I do?" Yun Qingyi kept repeating the words to himself.
Then, after a moment's thought, he drew a dagger from his waist and stabbed it straight into his chest again without hesitation. At that moment, besides heart's blood, he could think of no better way.
Li Luoning seizing the moment, he gripped Mie Xingzhe's jaw, forced it open, and poured Yun Qingyi's heart's blood into him. The instant the blood went down, Mie Xingzhe lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground. At an angle no one noticed, the short sword made from human bone hidden on his person slipped free and fell to the ground.
Yun Qingyi reacted quickly and caught Mie Xingzhe in his arms. Together with Li Luoning, he helped carry him aside and laid him against a rock.
Li Luoning turned back and saw the battle still raging before him, puppet soldiers and immortal troops crashing into each other. Cries of pain and killing filled the sinkhole on every side.
Blood flowed like rivers through the pit. Corpses lay everywhere. Severed limbs and broken bodies were scattered across the ground. The air was thick with a choking smell of blood, and the black smoke above made everything around them feel like endless night. The whole place had become a living hell.
Looking at the scene before him, Li Luoning could not bear it any longer. He turned once more to glance at Yun Qingyi, who was bent over checking on Mie Xingzhe.
[If all of this is truly only because of the private hatred between him and me, if the Moon Shadow and Chixi really are things that bring disaster to all living beings, then I can let them go. Because of one man's resentment, countless lives across the three realms are suffering. Master... Xiaoyi has sinned. If sacrificing only myself can stop this war and end this carnage, then why should I not do it?]
As the thought passed through his mind, Li Luoning looked back one last time, reluctant. Then, with a sweep of his hand, he cast a golden barrier around Yun Qingyi and Mie Xingzhe.
"What—Master, Master, what are you doing? Let me out!" Yun Qingyi cried, realizing the barrier around him.
He knew his master too well. One look into Li Luoning's eyes told him everything.
"Master, no! Don't do this! Don't! Stop! Please stop!" Yun Qingyi screamed, his voice breaking as he pounded desperately against the barrier.
Li Luoning closed his eyes tightly in pain, took a deep breath, and slowly walked into the center of the slaughter. With his right hand he formed spiritual force, then lightly cut across his left wrist. The drops of blood that fell shone with golden light. Dipping two fingers into the blood, he drew a mark across his brow.
"I cast this body into a storm of blades; let blazing slaughter sweep all before me—break!"
At his call, a terrifying burst of force exploded outward from Li Luoning as the center. Every puppet was hurled down to the ground. Qingyuan, who had just stopped fighting, turned to stare at Li Luoning in utter disbelief.
The one equally stunned was Situ Fanzhi, who was watching the battle through an image projection.
"So Xiaoyi actually has this kind of power? It seems I really underestimated him before."