Life as a Rogue Cultivator

Chapter 325: Reunion

As it turned out, today was the day Qingyuan Sect and the Maling Mountain had picked for their all-out war. Both sides had already set up their formations along the two banks of the North River. Even so, each side still had its reservations, and the fighting had not yet truly begun. No one expected Liu Xiaolou to blunder straight into the area by mistake and set off the battle himself!Liu Xiaolou’s gut dropped the second he realized he had wandered onto a battlefield. Panic kicked in hard; no way in hell was he sticking around for this mess. He yanked back the Mysterious True Cord and snatched the the Formation Disk. Leaving the Three-Mystery Sword behind to cover his retreat, he spun around, and fled south.

He was right in the middle of the Qingyuan Sect’s formation, running in the opposite direction. This immediately caught the attention of the experts overseeing the formation. Two cold shouts rang out, one right after the other:

“Take one more step back and you’re dead!”

“No deserting in the middle of battle!”

Two streaks of light shot toward him from the left and right.

These beams were far more powerful than Feng Yuanfa’s Judge’s Pen. From the moment Liu Xiaolou caught the first glint of them to the instant they filled his entire field of vision... barely the blink of an eye had passed.

Liu Xiaolou’s heart damn near stopped. He whipped the Three-Mystery Sword around to shield his front, at the same time frantically pouring every last drop of true qi into the Glass Shield, forcing out wave after wave of shimmering glazed light in a desperate bid to hold those two terrifying streaks at bay.

At the same instant, Liu Xiaolou yanked his movement technique into a hairpin turn. He abandoned the southward escape and whipping around to charge straight north instead, barreling headlong toward the raging chaos of the North River battlefield.

Less than half a breath later, a massive impact slammed into his back, like getting smashed by an entire goddamn mountain. His body was hurled forward, and he couldn’t stop himself from coughing up several mouthfuls of blood, which sprayed down like a bloody rain over the dense forest below.

If not for the Glass Shield protecting him, that blast of light would have left him seriously wounded on the spot. In a panic, he checked the shield. As expected of a high-grade artifact, it had not shattered, but its glow had dimmed considerably. That was clearly because his true qi was running low.

At the same moment, the Three-Mystery Sword collided with a second beam of light. Liu Xiaolou felt an overwhelming force surge forward, utterly irresistible, completely crushing the vibrating counterforce of his sword.

The Three Profound Sword let out a low, mournful hum. It urgently needed to return to his Qi Sea to be nourished and stabilized, but the beam of light had seized the channel. It chased right behind the sword, about to follow that same path straight inside.

What kind of expert was this?

At the very least late-stage Foundation Establishment. Possibly even a Golden Core cultivator.

He knew there was no way he could block it. All he could do was run for his life. But that beam of light had already found the entrance to his Qi Sea channel, and no matter how he tried to shake it, he couldn’t lose it!

With no other thoughts left in his mind, Liu Xiaolou pushed himself forward in a desperate sprint. He moved faster than he ever had in his life, skimming over the surface of the river so quickly he didn’t even need to touch down. In an instant, he was already on the far bank of the North River.

The Maling Mountain cultivators on the opposite shore immediately moved to intercept him. Six magical artifacts flew toward him at once. Liu Xiaolou didn’t dare slow down for even a second. He was truly panicking now.

Most of the incoming attacks slammed into the Glass Shield, causing its glassy light to dim yet again. It was on the verge of failing.

A sudden idea flashed through Liu Xiaolou’s mind. He yanked his body into a violent spin mid-flight. The beam chasing his Qi Sea channel whipped around with him, carving a wide arc through the air, still glued to his back and just about to dive inside.

Right at that moment, the follow-up artifacts from the Maling Sect cultivators caught up, streaking in from behind and slamming dead-on into that deadly streak of beam chasing him.

A string of thunderous BOOM-BOOM-CRACK-BANG explosions burst out behind Liu Xiaolou, successfully slowing the beam of light and cutting its pursuit speed way down. Only then did Liu Xiaolou see that the beam of light was actually a square seal.

Right after that, a short blade came flying in, heavy with power and crushing pressure. He had no idea which high-level Maling Mountain cultivator had thrown it. With his life on the line, Liu Xiaolou’s spiritual sense sharpened to an almost microscopic clarity, taking in everything around him. At the very last second, he lunged forward a single step. The blade and the seal slammed into each other and were knocked flying in opposite directions.

With that, Liu Xiaolou finally burst through the chaos of the battlefield.

Behind him, countless flashes of light were still erupting across the field. He couldn’t help but glance back. All those lights gradually merged into layers of black clouds, varying in thickness and density. Together they resembled a massive piece of cursive calligraphy, sprawling across the sky and blotting out the stars completely. The world grew even darker.

Liu Xiaolou couldn’t make out what the writing said, but he felt his entire being suppressed by that vast sweep of calligraphy covering most of the night sky. His true qi, his blood, even his breathing began to slow and congeal. Somewhere deep inside, he knew that if that calligraphy were to press down on him, he would likely die, body and soul alike.

So this is the true power of the Qingyuan Sect? Was this a sect treasure, or the work of one of their great cultivators?

He never stopped running. He tore outward in a mad sprint, pushing faster and faster, straining to break free before the cursive strokes crushed down on him and escape this deadly place. But every time he looked up, those sweeping lines of ink seemed to weave themselves into a massive net. And he was nothing more than a trapped insect inside it. No matter how hard he struggled, there was no way out.

Just when despair was clawing its way into his gut, a single dazzling point of white light rose slowly into the sky. It drifted up right into the thickest, blackest clot of that monstrous ink, then shooting countless rays of light in all directions...

To Liu Xiaolou, that white light did not seem to illuminate the world, but his own heart. It shone straight into the depths of his Qi Sea, bright as midday. In an instant, all the gloom and corruption that the ink had left behind was completely swept away.

“Thank you,” he murmured to himself, silently offering his gratitude to the powerful cultivator of the Maling Sect who had shattered the inky cloud.

After running for a long while, he figured he was finally far from last night’s battlefield. He simply could not hold on any longer. Only then did he let himself slow down, quickly finding a secluded spot where he could tend to his injuries.

This time, after stumbling into the battlefield, he realized only afterward that his body was covered in all kinds of wounds. The worst of them came from the final clash, when the Qingyuan Sect’s seal struck head-on against the Maling Sect’s short blade. Even with the protection of his Glass Shield, the shockwave had rattled his Qi Sea and thrown his meridians into chaos. The injuries were severe.

He swallowed a Tiger Bone Pill and a Heart-Nourishing Pill, then spent a full day and night recovering. By the time he was done, his external wounds had healed and his internal injuries were finally under control. Only then did he begin to think about where to go next.

When he recalled those cursive ink strokes that had sealed off the sky, along with the earth-shaking brilliance that had lit up his Qi Sea, Liu Xiaolou felt both awe and helplessness. Could he ever reach that level in this lifetime? Probably not.

He also had no idea who had won yesterday’s battle. Had it been the Qingyuan Sect, or the Maling Sect?

Back then, he had fled in blind panic, with no sense of how far he had actually run. He needed to be careful.

He leapt up into the treetops and scanned his surroundings, moving from spot to spot until he reached the highest point nearby. From there, he finally spotted the North River beyond the mountain. That bend in the river stood out clearly.

So in the end, he had only escaped five or six li from the battlefield that night.

His guard shot up at once. He kept watching for a while longer, then quietly slipped off toward the northeast.

He’d just caught a faint rustle in the woods, too vague to make out clearly, but it could damn well be the winning side’s people sweeping the area for stragglers. His injuries were still far from healed. If he ran into any real trouble now, getting away clean would be a hell of a lot harder.

He moved in stealth for about an hour, covering more than five li, when Liu Xiaolou suddenly froze in his tracks. His spiritual sense swept out and brushed against someone ahead. At almost the exact same instant, the other guy sensed him too.

Talk about enemies running into each other on a narrow road. Of all people, it had to be Feng Yuanfa again. The guy was standing right there, with the same three Qi Refinement goons in tow. No clue what the hell they were doing skulking around out here.

Feng Yuanfa of the Qingyuan Sect showing up here. Did that mean the battle two days ago had ended in the Qingyuan Sect’s victory?

Liu Xiaolou was already very familiar with Feng Yuanfa, but Feng Yuanfa had never seen his real face. After sizing him up for a moment, Feng Yuanfa asked, “And who might you be?”

Liu Xiaolou replied, “I’m from Bazhong, on my way to visit a friend. I happened to pass through here. Might I ask what brings you here, fellow cultivator?”

Feng Yuanfa nodded. “Bazhong? Then you can put that visit on hold for now. The Qingyuan Sect is at war with the Maling Sect, and if you come with us, you won’t be treated poorly.”

Liu Xiaolou froze for a moment. “I’m a Foundation Establishment cultivator…”

Feng Yuanfa replied, “I know. The fighting is still intense, and we could really use your help.”

His words were polite enough, but his actions were anything but. With a sharp whistle, he summoned another Foundation Establishment cultivator from nearby. The two of them fixed Liu Xiaolou with predatory stares.

“Well? You’re coming with us.”

Things really must have reached a desperate point if they were forcibly recruiting even Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Liu Xiaolou was just about to give the name of the Southern Sea Sword Sect and claim some connection to it, when he suddenly changed his mind. His eyes locked onto something behind one of Feng Yuanfa’s Qi Refinement subordinates.

It was a bamboo basket.

Inside the basket lay a snow-white goose.

The goose was staring straight back at him with a pair of jet-black eyes, its head cocked slightly to the side.