My Husband’s Ascension C44 (Part 2)
Chapter 44.2 Reciprocal Defense
The group continued circling through the water for another two hours before finally sensing the presence of another surface above. A hazy glow grew clearer overhead, and everyone’s spirits lifted.
Mo Lingyun gestured for silence, then took something no larger than a fingernail from his sleeve and released it, letting it drift slowly up through the water.
As the Panoramic Pearl emerged above the surface, the scene above was clearly reflected below.
Zhao Zhao strained to make it out, but could only tell that it seemed to be within a stone cavern.
—There are twelve formations, with seventy-two guards rotating duty.
Gui Fangliu of the Ghost Soldier Sect spoke his assessment in a low voice.
—There is also a formation seal on the water’s surface. That Panoramic Pearl has already lightly triggered it. If a person were to surface from below, it would immediately alert the guards above.
Yin Shanji of the Yin-Yang Sect frowned as he remarked.
This was only the security within this single cavern. Once they made landfall and attempted to leave it, there would surely be even more layers of defenses.
What secret was being guarded so fiercely, to warrant such airtight vigilance?
—Mount Ling’s guards are all of Mount Ling bloodlines. Their cultivation is not high and poses little threat. The only real obstacle is these formations. Do any of you have a solution?
Yin Shanji plucked a strand of aquatic plant and lightly brushed the water’s surface. Golden ripples spread across the formation. He took in every etched line and pattern with a single glance.
—It’s difficult. The sealing formation on the water’s surface is a Yin-Yang array. The one who set it far surpasses me in skill. Even if I dismantle it with all my effort, I can only open a gap for a few breaths. I cannot break it completely.
What Yin Shanji left unsaid was that within the Yin-Yang Sect, only elders, perhaps even Sect Master-level cultivators, possessed the ability to lay down such a formation.
If the human pillar had existed for several thousand years, then to what extent had the Yin-Yang Sect been involved in Mount Ling’s secret?
Zhao Zhao suddenly spoke.
—I possess a Mount Ling jade token. After the next guard rotation ends, we can take action. We’ll start by investigating this cavern. When the next shift arrives, we deal with them, then withdraw safely. That gives us at least two hours to investigate.
The group had been hesitating in the face of the layered mechanisms. At Zhao Zhao’s words, everyone’s gaze turned toward her.
—You really aren’t afraid of death.
Shi Lanyan lamented.
Zhao Zhao turned and smiled at her, sending a private transmission meant for her alone.
—I don’t have a choice. Perhaps this is why they call it ‘strong as a mother’.
Shi Lanyan guiltily looked away.
—They’re changing shifts, Yin Shanji.
Dao Lord Tianshu’s words instantly put everyone on edge. Yin Shanji immediately drove his spiritual power forth, precisely locking onto several of the formation’s nodes.
—Merely two breaths’ span. Quick!
At his command, the white-robed female cultivator shot out of the water first. Talismans in her palm wrapped in spiritual power lashed out like lightning, striking everyone with speed as sharp as sword light.
The Mount Ling guards, whose highest cultivation barely reached the first major realm, had no time to react before all of them collapsed unconscious.
Dao Lord Tianshu’s expression suddenly hardened.
“Careful. This formation is linked to mechanism arts!”
The moment they emerged from the water and before they could steady themselves, the sound of countless arrows tearing through the air rang out. None were ordinary arrows. They could track a person’s movements, and wherever an arrow brushed past, the area instantly froze over in ice.
“Subzero Arrows!”
In the depths of the harshest winter, an arrow’s passage meant instant ice. Mo Lingyun recognized at once the mechanism arts and specialized arrows of the Moyan Sect.
Shi Lanyan: “If you know what it is, then hurry up and figure out how to stop it!”
Shi Lanyan saw with her own eyes an arrow skim past her hair, freezing a whole lock into glittering icicles. Cold sweat broke out across her back.
“Right away, right away!” Mo Lingyun dodged arrows as he edged toward the mechanism core embedded high in the stone wall, his progress inevitably slowed.
Fortunately, Zhao Zhao noticed his difficulty and immediately urged her vines forward, wrapping him within their shelter. Seizing the opening, Mo Lingyun strode ahead. As he dismantled the mechanism, his heart brimmed with a sweetness born of being protected by the one he cared for.
Zhao Zhao’s complexion, however, grew paler by the moment.
The ice arrows struck the vines again and again. Mo Lingyun within remained unharmed, but the vines were sealed layer upon layer in ice. Bone-chilling cold crept along them inch by inch, and as Zhao Zhao continued to channel her spiritual power, that cold burrowed straight into her body.
In no more than the time it took an incense stick to burn, frost had begun to form on Zhao Zhao’s lashes, and the flow of blood in her veins seemed to slow.
Shi Lanyan dodged arrows while shielding the helpless Divine Farmer Sect disciple, sweat pouring down her face as she shouted at Mo Lingyun, “How much longer?! If you don’t crack that mechanism soon, we’re all going to freeze into ice statues!”
Even if the ice arrows did not strike them directly, the temperature within the cavern was plummeting. It was already so cold that even breathing felt like swallowing blades. If they weren’t killed by the arrows, they would freeze to death instead.
Mo Lingyun was just as anxious, but mechanism arts were a discipline of precision. The more one rushed, the harder they were to unravel.
He steadied his breathing, cast aside all distractions, and focused single-mindedly on the exquisitely complex mechanism before him.
Such refinement was beyond ordinary Moyan Sect disciples. This required, at the very least, an elder’s level of mastery.
Could it be that the Moyan Sect was also involved in Mount Ling’s affairs?
There was no time to dwell on it. Just a little more. One final step, and the mechanism would be undone.
At the other end of the vines, the figure stood motionless, like a sculpture carved from ice.
Amid the extreme cold, for reasons unknown, her body began to feel strangely warm.
Hot.
How unbearably hot.
One hand still sustained the vines, while the other drifted in a daze to her belt.
It was too hot. She needed to remove her outer robe.
Just as Zhao Zhao was about to tug at the belt, a hand suddenly seized her wrist.
In that instant, a steady surge of warmth poured into her body. The snow-robed female cultivator, always cool and restrained, flung out several talismans. Flames roared forth, melting the solid ice encasing the vines, and in the same blaze, burning away the vines that shielded Mo Lingyun.
Mo Lingyun, still dismantling the mechanism, was abruptly struck by an intense wave of cold. His fingers stiffened at once. “Give me one more incense stick’s time! Just one!”
He was already drenched in sweat with tension. The sound of an arrow tearing through the air rang by his ear, yet he had no spare attention to give it.
Only the final step remained—
“Protect her. You still have time.”
The sound of tearing air was abruptly cut off. Mo Lingyun froze for a split second as a sweep of snow-white robes passed him. At his feet lay a green-robed female cultivation, her face drained of all color.
“Miss Immortal Tanzhao…”
Hearing this, Shi Lanyan turned sharply. She saw the snow-robed cultivator use her fingers like a blade, slicing cleanly across her wrist. Blood spilled like rain, tracing a perfect semicircle around Zhao Zhao and Mo Lingyun.
At the same moment, the blood surged upward, igniting into a wall of fire. Flames roared, instantly reducing the incoming arrows to ash.
“Hot!” Inside the fire barrier, Mo Lingyun cried out instinctively, yet his hands never stopped moving.
Thinking of the person at his feet, he shifted his stance, drawing Zhao Zhao’s frail body beneath his own to shield her from the heat.
In her haze, Zhao Zhao gradually regained consciousness, her eyes falling on the snow-like figure beyond the blazing fire, as imposing as Mount Jade.
…So similar.
So very similar to someone else.
Ever since the Single Intent Sword had ceased to obey him as it once did, Dao Lord Tianshu had rarely wielded it. Controlling talismans, however, came effortlessly to him.
Even so, while supporting the others at the same time, a few arrows occasionally slipped past his defenses. Though, each was swiftly dispersed as his vast spiritual power surged forth to counter it.
As blood loss mounted, his spiritual reserves steadily drained, and his vision blurred further.
In the instant his focus wavered, an arrow broke through his layered talismans and shot straight toward his heart—
Clang!
The arrow halted an inch from his chest.
Dao Lord Tianshu lifted his eyes. His gaze passed over the wall of fire and settled on the weakly opened eyes of the green-robed woman.
Flames raged. She slowly raised an arm, her spiritual power still flowing without interruption, firm and unyielding as it bound the arrow frozen in midair.
But her eyes no longer held worry or concern.
Instead, there was something faintly mocking there, as her lips curved ever so slightly.
Click.
The arrows ceaselessly streaking through the cavern came to a sudden halt.
“It’s stopped! It finally… stopped.” Mo Lingyun’s back was soaked through with sweat. He had no time to wipe it away as he quickly crouched to check on Zhao Zhao. “Miss Immortal Tanzhao? Are you all right? D–Don’t fall asleep. This is all my fault. My skills weren’t good enough. I took too long to break the mechanism, and you had to hold on for so long. Where’s the Divine Farmer Sect disciple? Hurry and come look at her. What’s wrong with her?”
Before anyone could fully relax, Mo Lingyun’s panicked voice rang out.
The Divine Farmer Sect disciple hurried over, channeling wood-attribute spiritual energy into her before carefully examining her meridians. “She overexerted her spiritual power. Cold qi invaded her body and froze her blood. If it hadn’t been noticed and stopped in time, she would have froze to death.”
The unbearable heat Zhao Zhao had felt earlier, the urge to strip off her clothes, had been a sign of imminent freezing.
Everyone shuddered inwardly.
Shi Lanyan hurriedly asked, “Then what about now? She’ll be alright now, won’t she?”
The Divine Farmer Sect disciple pressed his lips together. “The blood-fire has already gone out, yet this cavern is still bitterly cold. It would be best to warm her as soon as possible. Otherwise, there’s a risk her meridians could be damaged by the frost.”
For cultivators, nothing was more vital than their meridians. If they were harmed, the damage to one’s future cultivation would be irreparable.
Mo Lingyun immediately said, “Then we should head back at once.”
“No.” Zhao Zhao spoke up to stop him. Though there was little color left in her face, her almond-shaped eyes were bright and resolute. “We only get this chance once. Look over there. What’s written on the ice-sealed walls?”
Everyone followed her gaze. Sure enough, around the cavern enclosing the human pillar, the surrounding stone walls bore markings at different points, as though carved with words.
Zi Qian of Polaris Confucian Sect stepped forward, using his brush like a blade to cleave through the thick ice on the stone wall.
Inscribed there were the words:
Earth Element, Yin-Yang Sect Yi Yuan.
Yin Shanji looked mildly startled. “That’s Sect Master Yi Yuan of our Yin-Yang Sect, who ascended in the previous generation.”
Seeming to realize something, Gui Fangliu at his side split open another ice-covered wall. Written there was:
Fire Element, Ghost Soldier Sect Chi You.
“That’s… a senior who ascended from the Ghost Soldier Sect.”
Those who successfully ascended in the cultivation world were exceedingly rare. These once-in-a-millennia geniuses had long been etched into the history of the entire cultivation realm.
Yet their names appeared inexplicably within this small cavern of Mount Ling.
Set beside the pillar that pierced the heavens.
A chilling truth began to take shape in everyone’s minds. They shattered more layers of ice, revealing the names beneath.
Wood Element. Water Element. Together with the previous Earth and Fire Element.
Four of the Five Elements were already present.
Only one remained—
Metal Element.
A cultivator whose soul affinity was Metal Element, the most likely great power of this era to ascend…
Everyone’s gaze unconsciously fell upon the female cultivator wearing Kunwu’s disciple robes.
Zhao Zhao, too, looked at him in silence.
The truth was now laid bare.
Mount Ling’s tireless efforts to nurture those with the potential to ascend, to support Dao Lord Tianshu, had never been about delivering all living creatures from suffering.
It was all to fulfill an unspeakable secret.
Dao Lord Tianshu included.
Yet he seemed scarcely concerned with any of this. Instead, he simply extended his blood-soaked wrist toward Zhao Zhao’s pale lips.
“Drink it.” Fine beads of sweat seeped from his brow as he looked at her, his eyes calm as still water, his voice gentle.
Zhao Zhao stared at her own reflection in his gaze, her brows knit with unspoken confusion.
“My blood carries Pure Yang qi. It can ease the cold lodged in your meridians,” he explained.
But that was not what puzzled her.
Why was he saving her?
Wasn’t he devoted solely to the sword, intent on ascending to immortality?
With such a vast conspiracy of Mount Ling laid bare before him, why did he seem deaf to it all, instead worrying about whether her meridians would be harmed?
If this were the Xie Lanshu of the past, such actions would not be strange.
But he was not.
There was no longer any Xie Lanshu in this world with whom she could lower her guard and rely upon.
“No need,” Zhao Zhao said, pushing his hand away, her words deliberate and clear. “You saved me once, and I saved you once. We are even now. There’s no need to entangle ourselves in any further Hetu-Phala.”(
