That a heavenly official failed to mind his duties and instead went undercover in the Ghost Realm for over a decade was quite the scandal. Never mind the politics behind it; if Ming Yi was to remain imprisoned and tortured, all heaven would break loose if he actually died at Hua Cheng’s hands—the world would be gripped by absolute chaos. If that day came, no one would be spared.
After thinking all this through, Xie Lian could only say, “I understand that the fault is ours. But San Lang, I still hope you will let us go this time around.”
Hua Cheng watched him intently, then after a moment, he said quietly, “Your Highness, some things are best not to get involved in overmuch.”
Suddenly, Shi Qingxuan cried from the side, “Wind, come to me!”
The moment the fan came out, wild gusts started blowing through the armory. The weapons on the walls and shelves began to rattle, humming and moaning.
“Lord Wind Master! We haven’t done anything yet!!” Xie Lian was bewildered.
“I don’t think either of you are going to make a move first,” Shi Qingxuan said. “So, I’ll be the bad guy. WIIIIIIND! COME TO ME!!”
There was an enormous cracking sound, and Xie Lian could feel clumps of dust falling from above his head. He looked up and saw that one side of the roof was being raised by the gusts, breaking at the seams and forming a large fissure.
The armory had no windows or other visible exits. Shi Qingxuan’s intention was not to fight but rather to escape through a crack in the roof!
Within the crazed gale, Hua Cheng’s raven-black hair and maple-red clothes whipped wildly, but the man himself remained utterly unmoved. He smirked.
“You have a fan, and coincidentally, so do I.”
Hua Cheng retrieved a fan from one of the armory shelves. It was small and intricate, its spine and leaf made of pure gold, serene and beautiful. Hua Cheng twirled it in his hand, then snapped it open. He grinned wordlessly, elegance suffusing his murderous aura. He flipped his hand and fanned, and a strong gust shot toward them with a blinding silver flash. The three dodged and heard behind them the sound of hail-like darts battering the walls and ground. When they turned their heads to look, row upon row of long strips of golden foil were nailed into the ground. Each piece was thin but deeply embedded, its sharpness and viciousness clear.
Every weapon inside this armory was a spiritual one, and any one he grabbed at random possessed equally murderous power!
Hua Cheng flipped his hand again, and another golden-foiled gust blew. The winds called forth by Shi Qingxuan were strong, but the stronger they were, the more dangerous the situation became. The armory was only a hall, and its space was limited. The winds raised by the Wind Master’s fan would rebound around the interior and blow the golden foil whirling around them, dancing in this madness.
Xie Lian was afraid the golden foil would harm them, so he shielded Lang Ying and cried, “Lord Wind Master, please stop for now!”
The golden foil whirled closely around Shi Qingxuan and Ming Yi. Shi Qingxuan wanted to stop as well, but the roof had been raised by his winds, revealing a crack. If he stopped now, all his efforts would go to waste.
Just then, the golden sheets encircling them suddenly flew upward all at once. There was a cacophony of clinking and clanking, then a person broke through the roof and leapt down, accompanied by showers of debris and dust.
The moment he landed, that person shouted, “Lord Wind Master, I apologize, but I just couldn’t sit still any longer!”
Shi Qingxuan was overjoyed. “Qianqiu, you’ve come just in the nick of time!”
The young man carried a greatsword, its blade as wide as a grown man’s palm. It was indeed Lang Qianqiu.
His greatsword was shimmering gold, but at a closer look, it wasn’t because his sword was golden but because it had sucked up all the golden foil. They overlapped and covered the entirety of the blade, making it look as if it were a massive sword forged of gold.
Lang Qianqiu’s greatsword was forged from a curious metal born of a lodestone mountain, and it had the amazing ability to magnetize and attract metal. As long as the opposing spiritual weapon did not exceed a certain level of spiritual power, once he gripped the hilt, he could mentally incite its ability and pull in all surrounding metals, absorbing them into his blade. Sure enough, soon the layer of gold foil was sucked into the sword, the gold disappearing completely. At this sight, Hua Cheng laughed out loud, closed his fan, and tossed it away behind him.
“Are the heavenly officials so pathetically poor that once they see gold, they can’t let it go?”