"Third Sister, how about we have a nice long talk since we didn't get a chance to last time?" Jiang Chunye asked.
The last time they met, it was still during the Demon Slaying Expedition, but not many people wanted to interact with her due to Tianyi's words. Luckily, some people like Hun Jusang were capable of ignoring Tianyi's pressure and saw her for the unpolished gem that she was.
"Yeah, last time I saw you, weren't you followed by some more people. If I recall correctly, their name was Yi Dongli and Tong Lizi, weren't they?" Daoyi asked as she stared meaningfully between her second sister and Hun Jusang.
Hun Jusang showed a flash of happiness in his eyes that was so quick that Daoyi thought it was a hallucination, but Jiang Chunye was as calm as ever. "Senior Brother Yi currently is preparing to enter the nascent soul realm; he has no time to accompany me. As for Brother Lizi, he has his own matters to attend to."
"Then can I take this as an alliance between the Nihility Sect and Jade Cauldron Sect?" Daoyi lightly asked, but the meaning behind those was infinite.
Hun Jusang's gloomy expression turned even gloomier as he stared unkindly at Daoyi while Jiang Chunye lightly smiled as if all was within her control. "You can."
Daoyi raised an eyebrow, not expecting Jiang Chunye to admit it so easily. Still, it was the words of two disciples, it can't represent their whole sect, but it was enough evidence for the Buzhou Immortal Sect to take action. "What astounding news. Congratulations to you two. Perhaps you two may become dao companions as a form of an alliance like that Bai Weiwei and Bing Huoyuan."
Jiang Chunye's face dimmed. "Second Sister, can you be any more creative when you try to mock me?"
"Sorry, but I just don't care. It's not like you don't know how the relationship between us is." Daoyi said with a smile. Then she wrapped a piece of cloth around her and completely disappeared.
Jiang Chunye frowned and focused her senses. Even as an early soul nourishing grandmaster, her martial body's senses were not one whit inferior to late soul nourishing grandmasters. Moments passed, and her face showed a trace of astonishment. "I can't discover any hints of her?!"
Hun Jusang also waved his hands, and tens of black shadows whizzed from his own shadow. He was a spiritual cultivator, but his methods were similar to soul cultivators, so he had the confidence to deal with Daoyi, a genuine soul cultivator. "Found her."
Jiang Chunye shared a look, and both of them disappeared. According to the plan, it was not yet time to let the Sword Empress discover the abnormality of the Xi Emperor. That's why they must not let Daoyi return to the Buzhuo Immortal Sect.
Not long after, the two of them appeared in a forest clearing near the eastern gate of the capital. This was the route Daoyi took when coming to the capital. Jiang Chunye and Hun Jusang observed the surroundings carefully for any trace of Daoyi. Suddenly, Jiang Chunye pointed at a specific location at the edge of the clearing. "There!"
The forest clearing seemed normal, but Jiang Chunye's acute sense of sound could detect a split in nature's sound and foreign music. In her eyes, it could only be Daoyi, so he drew a dagger and charged.
Like a hole in a piece of fabric, space was torn away to reveal a bluish-white flame, a will-o-wisp, with no sign of Daoyi. "Second Sister, you are too impulsive."
Jiang Chunye's face changed when she heard Daoyi's voice coming from the flame. She knew she had fallen into a trap and moved to distance herself, but it was too late. The will-o-wisp's flame erupted and formed a formation over a hundred meters large, trapping Hun Jusang inside as well. Haunting music could be heard, one that caused Jiang Chunye and Hun Jusang's minds to panic.
'Not good!' Jiang Chunye thought as she noticed the effect of Daoyi's musical offense. She was not too worried about herself, she had long trained her mind not to panic, but Hun Jusang was different. Hun Jusang's willpower might even be stronger than hers, but he was constantly being assaulted by the devil sealed within.
As Jiang Chunye expected, Hun Jusang's face paled, and an expression of struggle appeared on his face. Jiang Chunye couldn't care whether Daoyi was planning anymore and immediately attacked the source of the music and formation.
Jiang Chunye's attack was nimble and swift, much like her prided nature as an assassin. But no matter how quick they were, her attacks would only momentarily disrupt the formation while passing through the will-o-wisp. It was as if the will-o-wisp existed in a different dimension like the moon reflected the lake. No matter how many times the monkey reached for it, it would not touch the moon.
Seeing that her attacks weren't effective and the deteriorating situation of Hun Jusang, a flash of decisiveness flashed in Jiang Chunye's eyes. She pulled something out of her spatial ring and attacked the will-o-wisp once more. This time her dagger was cloaked in ethereal silver light, and when the tip made contact with the ghostly flame, the flame burst like a popped balloon with no hint of resistance.
Jiang Chunye's eyes showed an expression of joy as she saw this and moved to check Hun Jusang's condition, but before she could do so, nine more will-o-wisp appeared and surrounded her. As if in concert, the nine will-o-wisp formed an overlapping formation that was ten times stronger than the last. Not only that, but the ghostly flame began to move around instead of staying stationary like previously.
"Damn you, Daoyi," Jiang Chunye muttered with an ugly expression. She never expected that her second battle with Daoyi would become like this, and this was with Daoyi not being personally present.
At this point, Jiang Chunye already discovered the suspicious absence of Daoyi. If it were her, instead of sending more will-o-wisp, she would change her tactics, but Daoyi didn't. This meant that this was a diversion, and the track Hun Jusang discovered was something Daoyi deliberately revealed.
"It seems that we can only rely on Senior Starsoul," Jiang Chunye muttered with a trace of unwillingness.
-line break-
Daoyi's eyes flashed with some surprise. Not because Jiang Chunye was able to break her will-o-wisp, but because of how. If Jiang Chunye continued to attack the ghostly ember, it would eventually use up all its energy.
She never expected the will-o-wisps to defeat Jiang Chunye and Hun Jusang, although she was pleasantly surprised by how effective her mental disturbance music was against Hun Jusang. The will-o-wisps' most important role was to delay the two and allow her to escape back to the Buzhou Immortal Sect as soon as possible.
What surprised her was the silver light coating Jiang Chunye's dagger. Daoyi's foot paused as she stopped in midair. Using her spiritual sense, she locked onto the fragment of the Spectral Rising Jewel within her dantian. Had it not been for the divine artifact fragment, her cultivation wouldn't have been so fast. The Spectral Rising Jewel perfectly suited her immortal path, but she never imagined that Jiang Chunye would also have a fragment.
Daoyi was in a dilemma. Should she return and take the fragment for herself or flee? She didn't know when she would have another chance to discover another fragment. All this time, she had been seeking to return the Spectral Rising Jewel to its complete form but had no luck until now. Daoyi also had an intuition that if she didn't flee now, there was a high chance that she would fall.
After a moment of hesitation, Daoyi's eyes hardened, and she resumed her escape. Cultivation relied on herself. Only power that was entirely her own would be worthwhile. External objects could be stolen and destroyed. They can be used but cannot be her foundation.
Without looking back, Daoyi continued her escape, but around ten kilometers away from the city, she stopped, and not because she wanted to. Her senses could barely detect a thin barrier blocking her. Although it felt nonexistent and flimsy, Daoyi could deduct that her soul would be affected if she touched it.
Her brows furrowed. A soul cultivator of at least the Immortal Realm was supporting Jiang Chunye and Hun Jusang's actions. Furthermore, she worried for Xi Ri since he obviously discovered something. Otherwise, he would have left a message. Daoyi originally planned on informing Mengfei for help. Mengfei taking action was Xi Ri's greatest chance to survive.
Now that her chances of escaping were lowered, Daoyi planned on making some contingency plans. Tianyi's immortal boat was fast, but it remained unknown how fast the enemy was, so it was unreliable to place all her hope on an artifact.
Daoyi opened her mouth, and an ethereal blueish-white flame floated out. Under Daoyi's order, the will-o-wisp flew into a distance while Daoyi hid. Once it was at least ten kilometers away, the will-o-wisp morphed into an incarnation of her. This was Daoyi's Will-O-Wisp Incarnation. It was like Tianyi's Stellar Incarnation Technique; only it used the will-o-wisp Daoyi produced in her dantian.
Slowly, Daoyi's Will-O-Wisp Incarnation touched the thin barrier and was immediately struck with a soul attack. Most incarnations were created using a strand of spiritual sense, so Daoyi's soul was fine, but she had a slight headache from the destruction of her spiritual sense strand.
Daoyi could detect much, but she knew that the person who set the barrier was far better than she imagined. Daoyi feared that Xi Ri's and their secrets would be exposed if the soul immortal were to interrogate him.
Her eyes drifted towards where her dissipated incarnation once flew. Two streaks of light flew towards where her incarnation touched the barrier from the eastern side of the capital. The two were naturally Jiang Chunye and Hun Jusang.
Daoyi hugged her cloak closer to her body and then flew away. She still needed a way to think of a way to escape her predicament. Fighting the two would not help her at all even if she got another shard of the Spectral Rising Jewel. It was more likely that the immortal who set up the barrier would arrive before she killed one of them.
She tested the barrier several more times after healing the damage to her spiritual sense, but each time, her incarnation would be destroyed before she could glimpse any weak points. Each time her incarnation was destroyed, Daoyi would receive a migraine and need a certain about of time to heal.
As a week passed, Daoyi began to feel restless. Although Tianyi lent her an Immortal Realm artifact cloak that could conceal her presence, she still felt like a noose was slowly tightened around her neck. Her frustrations growing, Daoyi took out a calabash gourd out of her spatial ring and took a sip of the sake inside.
Although she liked all types of alcohol, Daoyi still preferred sake the most. The Liquorlight Gourd was repurposed using the Hundred Ghost Dwelling Gourd that Mengfei had given to aid in her cultivation while she was still in the Core Formation Realm and the wine gourd Tianyi had found in the Immortal Court Ruin. Naturally, the sake inside wasn't regular alcohol but refined from ghosts she caught and refined and the immortal wine that was already inside. Its purpose wasn't just store sake but had other functions.
Daoyi plugged the Liquorlight Gourd and hung it around her waist with a sigh. She had a feeling that she would be drinking from it a lot more in the near future. Now that her spiritual sense was soothed from drinking the Liquorlight Sake she brewed, Daoyi began contemplating her possible course of action.
'If I knew I this would happen, I would have refined an avatar.' Daoyi thought with some regret. Before leaving the Buzhou Immortal Sect, Daoyi separated a portion of her soul in order to create a clone or avatar in the future to aid in her comprehension of the laws and concepts.
Avatars were exact copies of the cultivator, while clones were different from the cultivator, but both of them were linked to the cultivator. Still, if she had an avatar or clone in the Buzhou Immortal Sect, she could easily contact her master.
Daoyi paused and wanted to slap herself in the face. She forgot the easiest method of contact! "Xi Mengfei."
Daoyi waited and waited, but there were no changes at all around her. Her brows furrowed, and she knew that someone was blocking Mengfei's detection of the Xi Dynasty.
"Found you."
Daoyi stiffened and looked up to see Jiang Chunye and Hun Jusang standing in the sky near her position. She could tell that both of them didn't know her exact position, so she began to flee.
"Don't bother. We've locked the surrounding thousand meters. You can't escape without our notice." Jiang Chunye said as if all was within her control.
Daoyi frowned when she detected the barrier spanning a thousand meters. It was like the previous barrier that trapped her, only it was far more condensed and powerful. Just looking at it made Daoyi's heart palpitate. She knew that she couldn't escape.
With a sigh, Daoyi looked at the Liquorlight Gourd with some thought. She pulled off one of the spatial rings on her hand and dropped it into the gourd after imbuing a silver-white light into it before having Shuijing take it away and hide for a chance. At the very least, she can't let her treasures be stolen so easily. Least of all, let it fall into Jiang Chunye's hand.
She wasn't ready to show herself just yet. Using Shuijing's silk web, Daoyi set up a web-like formation in the thousand kilometers she was trapped in. However, midway through, Daoyi had to stop and dodge an attack.
"Third Sister, did you think you would ever have such a day?" Jiang Chunye asked as she stared at Daoyi's location. Behind her, Hun Jusang stood with vigilance, a black orb filled with countless starlight in hand.
Daoyi could feel countless fluctuations emanating from it, forming a search system akin to a sonar. Seeing that her location was exposed, Daoyi removed her cloak and appeared in front of the duo. "Possibly, but at least I know that you will also have such a day."
"That remains to be seen." Jiang Chunye said and immediately began her attack. Hun Jusang showed no signs of taking action as if content to watch the battle between the two.
Daoyi didn't dare to allow Jiang Chunye to get close to her. She was a soul cultivator and not a martial cultivator. Without a doubt, she would lose to Jiang Chunye in close combat. Wary of Jiang Chunye's Spectral Rising Jewel fragment, Daoyi didn't dare to use the same tricks she used to dodge the imposter Vast Heaven Young Master.
"Stop running away and face me like a woman!" Jiang Chunye shouted.
Daoyi ignored her. 'I left my three lifebound artifacts with Shuijing and the gourd. Since defeat is inevitable, I don't want my enemies to have them. Without my defensive artifact, I don't want to allow Chunye to get to close me at all.'
Forming a hand seal, the silk strands placed beforehand by Daoyi began to vibrate and emit a ghastly tune. The tune was a soul attack that would grind the soul and pierce the receiver's mind.
"Third Sister, you're using the same old tricks after all these years!" Jiang Chunye shouted. A black light covered her and protected her against Daoyi's music.
Daoyi didn't say anything and continued to dodge Jiang Chunye's attacks. Her attacks were insidious and often deceptive. Many times, Daoyi thought she would dodge, but Jiang Chunye would always unleash an attack from an unexpected angle with deceptive range, forcing Daoyi to fatigue faster.
Jiang Chunye wasn't actually much better. Although she could defend against Daoyi's soul attack but not completely, her thought process was being constantly agitated and bombarded. The more time passed, the greater Daoyi's chance of victory. At the same time, Jiang Chunye was growing more and more frustrated looking at Daoyi's face.
'Why are you so calm?! Do you not know what kind of predicament you are in!? I could kill you, and everything would be over!' Jiang Chunye paused for a moment when she discovered her agitated emotions. She glared at Daoyi. The more agitated she was, the easier it became to dodge her attacks.
A sneer appeared on Jiang Chunye's face. 'Since I discovered your trick, it won't be useful anymore. I want to see how much longer you'll last now!'
She moved to attack, but her body stiffened as she vomited a mouthful of blood with an expression of disbelief. Hun Jusang's expression tightened and moved to aid her but was stopped by Jiang Chunye's raised hand. "I didn't think you were so insidious. Not only does your sound attack my soul and agitate my mental state, but it also makes me ignore the damage of my physical body."
Daoyi smiled. This was her three-layered attack. Even if you block two layers, there would always be a third layer. Since she stepped into the Nascent Soul Realm, she had comprehended the Concept of Vibration and Tune. "Thank you for your praise, but I feel that Second Sister's sinister techniques aren't one white inferior to me."
Jiang Chunye gave a disdainful smile as her body disappeared from sight. Daoyi frowned and moved to use her soul detection method but discovered interference from Hun Jusang. She stared at Hun Jusang before focusing all her senses against Jiang Chunye.
Daoyi didn't just wait for her sister's assault and increased the frequency and intensity of her sound-based attack. However, she still couldn't detect any holes in Jiang Chunye's concealment technique. Compared to their first battle, it was like the difference between heaven and earth.
Suddenly, alarm bells rang in Daoyi's mind, and she shifted her body. And not a moment too soon as a dagger flashed by, slicing through her robes and leaving a gash on her arm.
Daoyi took this chance to open her mouth and prepared to attack using her voice, but Jiang Chunye had the same idea as she turned her head towards Daoyi and spat a thin needle-like jewel fragment.
Daoyi's pupils shrunk into needlepoints as she noticed the aura emanating from the needle-like jewel. It was a shard of the Spectral Rising Jewel! She gave all offense and mobilized all her energy into defense.
A brief moment passed, and Daoyi closed her eyes as blood leaked from the corner of her mouth. The ghastly tune disappeared, and the silk-like webs fell to the ground as if they lost all support.
"Hmpf, that was a treasure I found specifically to deal with you. How do you like it?" Jiang Chunye said with a sneer. That sneer quickly disappeared as she spurted out another mouthful of blood.
Jiang Chunye walked closer to Daoyi and raised the dagger in her hand. "Goodbye, Third Sister."
Hun Jusang appeared next to Jiang Chunye and grabbed her arm, preventing her from bringing down the blade. "Jusang, do you want to stop me?"
"I know you want to kill her, but don't forget about the bigger picture. Each Buzhou Immortal Sect disciple will like a soul lamp in the sect. If she dies, then the Sword Empress will be alerted." Hun Jusang said with the utmost seriousness.
"Hmpf," Jiang Chunye pulled her arm away with dissatisfaction, but she didn't take any more actions against Daoyi. "Let's take her back to Senior Starsoul and have him deal with her."
Hun Jusang nodded and released a spectral spirit to carry Daoyi back to the capital of the Xi Dynasty.
