CHAPTER 39: 039 FEATHERED DAOIST

Lady Bao Xiang’s White Brow Needle was crafted from the lifespan eyebrows of her original fox form; it was neither gold nor jade. When released, it transformed into three silvery streaks that shot towards the enemy, inconspicuous against the vast backdrop of the blue sky and sea, hidden by the glare of the Yellow Sand Sword Light.

Shi Feiyang failed to dodge in time and was pierced by the White Brow Needle through his scales and into his body.

Once the needle entered the flesh and blood, it was capable of traveling along the bloodstream straight towards the heart. If it pierced through, death would be instantaneous!

Shi Feiyang’s body was enormous. He first felt a slight numbness in his waist area and didn’t pay much attention to it. He had endured far greater pain before. However, he soon sensed three fine needles moving along his bloodstream towards his heart and immediately realized something was terribly wrong.

He knew that Lady Bao Xiang possessed the White Brow Needles, both sinister and harmful. He had always been on guard against them, but he had never seen them before and didn’t know what they looked like. In the midst of their recent duel, while maneuvering through the Yellow Sand Formation and focusing all his attention on catching the enemy off guard with the Black Crow Needle, he had neglected his own defense. Only after the White Brow Needle entered his body did he realize its power.

He hastily circulated his energy to drive his blood and reserved his True Water Lifebound Primordial Pill within his body for suppression, only releasing a Divine Fire Inner Core to fend off his enemies.

As he was stricken by the White Brow Needle, Lady Bao Xiang simultaneously suffered a hit from the Black Crow Needle at her waist. The Black Crow Needle came cunningly, not flying straight but curving around the Yellow Sand, and while Lady Bao Xiang was intent on using her White Brow Needle, she didn’t expect a streak of green flame to come flying diagonally. Nine sharp spikes nailed themselves firmly into her left hip, burrowing into the flesh and bone like living things and continuously erupting streams of green fire. The pain caused Lady Bao Xiang to let out a loud groan and tremble all over, staggering backward.

Shi Feiyang reckoned that relying on a single inner core, he couldn’t defeat both adversaries, so he summoned the Black Crow Needles back and turned to continue flying northward.

"How are you holding up?" Zhuge Jingwo asked.

Gritting her teeth, Lady Bao Xiang shook her head resolutely, "It’s nothing!" Enduring the pain, she used a Golden Core cultivated over three thousand years to suppress the injury. She also took some elixirs she carried with her and continued the pursuit with Zhuge Jingwo.

Shi Feiyang kept flying north, from the East Sea into the territory of the North Sea, where ice floes started to appear on the surface of the sea.

His calculation was that, lacking the raw strength to take on both opponents, it would be best to use the terrain to his advantage.

In reading martial heroes novels of the past, Shi Feiyang admired Blood Saber Ancestor the most; through a series of extreme tactics, he killed four enemies of equal standing. Shi Feiyang was also prepared to play to his strengths and emerge victorious.

Shi Feiyang’s forte was that he was a dragon, better suited for water and ice environments. He planned to fly to areas dense with glaciers and chaotic spouts of cold waves, then find an opportunity to eliminate Lady Bao Xiang. Though he might not kill Zhuge Jingwo, he intended to deal her significant damage to prevent any further entanglement.

Ice floes drifted past below, and Shi Feiyang’s dragon eyes stared thousands of miles ahead, seeking a suitable battleground.

Suddenly, a large bird approached from the northwest at a speed faster than Zhuge Jingwo’s Invisible Sword Escape—actually, far surpassing the speed of sound, arriving almost instantly overhead.

Shi Feiyang’s vision blurred before he could make out that it wasn’t a bird approaching, but a person.

To be exact, it was a Daoist with a pair of wings. He had an elegant build, a face like polished jade, white teeth, red lips, and eyes as sharp as stars under arched brows—a complete and striking beauty. He was dressed in a snow-white Ice Silk half-sleeve Dao robe, his limbs bare, his arms and legs like polished white jade, but the front halves of his feet were not human—they were red bird claws, and behind him spread a pair of massive golden wings. When opened, the span exceeded three meters.

The Daoist hung high above, first glanced at Shi Feiyang, and softly exclaimed, "Little dragon, don’t panic, I’m here to save you!"

With his hands stretched out, he pressed down, and in an instant, the sea water within a hundred miles turned from liquid to solid state, looking like a transparent crystal. All the waves froze in place, no longer shifting.

Then, bringing his hands together in the center, he conjured up two wave crests, dozens of meters high on the sea surface, and pushed them together with a powerful force, trapping Lady Bao Xiang and Zhuge Jingwo who were in hot pursuit!

Shi Feiyang was dazzled and in awe, thinking to himself, this guy is incredibly strong, his spell is just amazing!

He had studied the original Shu Mountain scriptures, and from the appearance, he could tell that this person should be the Winged Daoist Geng Kun, but Geng Kun shouldn’t be this formidable, as the original scriptures depicted him as often at a disadvantage, and he wasn’t supposed to be this amiable either.

Just as he was about to approach and ask for his name, Lady Bao Xiang summoned the Hundred Treasure Ruyi Pure Yang Heart Lock. A white brilliance rose, breaking apart the frozen wave crests, reverting them into water that collapsed downwards.

She flew up, pointing and shouting, "Feathered Daoist! Don’t meddle in affairs that don’t concern you!"

The Winged Daoist, who had wings attached, also spoke with a hostile tone, "You lowly woman! Fooling around in Central Earth is one thing, but the seas abroad will not tolerate your contamination! Wasn’t the lesson I gave you last time enough?"

Lady Bao Xiang angrily retorted, "You flat-haired beast, last time you ambushed and betrayed me while I was busy with my affairs to steal my Golden Core. I specially cultivated this Pure Yang Heart Lock to seek vengeance against you, and here we are meeting on this narrow path today. By right, we should settle our scores here, but that loach stole the Immortal Herbs of this Daoist friend Zhuge. Do you know who he is? He is the successor of the True Master Xuanzhenzi of Emei Sect, and today he must retrieve the Immortal Herbs. Don’t meddle in affairs that don’t concern you, we can arrange a place to fight to the death later!"

Shi Feiyang hurriedly said, "I found those Immortal Herbs first, it’s clearly you who are trying to rob me of them. Zhuge Jingwo, tell me, aren’t you trying to rob me? Do you dare to swear on your teacher Xuanzhenzi’s name that you are not?"

Zhuge Jingwo was at a loss for words, unsure how to respond.

The Feathered Daoist snorted coldly, "Others might fear the Emei Sect, but I do not! They can’t claim to be kings or dominate others in Central Earth, how dare they come to foreign seas and show off their power? I find this little dragon quite good and plan to take him under my wing. If you want to steal his Immortal Herbs, you’ll have to get past me first."

Lady Bao Xiang, now jeopardizing Zhuge Jingwo’s Dao Foundation and fearing that Xuanzhenzi would kill her, was determined to help Zhuge Jingwo retrieve the Purple River Grass to beg for Xuanzhenzi’s forgiveness. She harbored old grudges against the Feathered Daoist and without further ado, flung her Rainbow Chain, turning it into a stunning rainbow over a hundred meters long, and coiled it around the Feathered Daoist, meanwhile coordinating with the Red Cloud Needle.

Zhuge Jingwo was also determined to recover the thousand-year-old Purple River Grass, bowed and said, "I apologize!" He summoned the Invisible Sword, achieving Human Sword Unity, and flew slashing towards the Feathered Daoist.

The Feathered Daoist, knowing Lady Bao Xiang’s mana was formidable and aware of Emei Sect’s Invisible Sword’s prowess, dared not be careless. He fluttered the wings on his back, sending thirty-six golden, luminous feathers into the air, each wrapped in radiance, like thirty-six golden flying swords, twelve meeting Zhuge Jingwo’s attack, and the rest twenty-four facing Lady Bao Xiang.

With his hands forming seals, he invoked another Prohibition Technique, freezing the Rainbow Chain in the air. The slithering Rainbow Chain, originally as agile as a dragon, suddenly halted, turning into a rainbow.

Simultaneously, he reached towards the sea, grabbing wave after wave to create tidal Divine Peaks right from the vast sea. When the peaks grew to nearly a hundred meters, he uprooted them and hurled them chaotically at Lady Bao Xiang and Zhuge Jingwo.

It turned out that this Feathered Daoist was called Geng Peng, born from a union of a Roc and a human. He had a brother named Winged Daoist Geng Kun.

Both were half-human, half-bird creatures, who had cultivated for many years, and in the depths of the Gold Tower Cave beneath the South Sea, they had acquired a part of the Chi You Three Disks Scripture left behind from Ancient Times. They perfected the Twelve Heavenly Forbidden Techniques, their means growing ever more formidable.