Chapter 257: Repaying a Favor

"How dare you try to bewitch me? You're asking for death!"

Gu Jie roared, his voice like a great bell, instantly dispersing the woman's laughter.

With a flick of his wrist, a ripple appeared in the void before him, and a cyan flying sword materialized, darting swiftly toward the woman in white.

Without any visible movement from the woman, the snow lotus beneath her suddenly blazed with light, and a petal, pure and jade-like, rose up to shield her.

A sharp clang rang out.

The tip of the cyan flying sword pierced the snow lotus petal by about an inch, but could advance no further, only trembling and humming in midair.

Seeing this, Gu Jie formed a sword seal with both hands and silently chanted an incantation.

The runes on the cyan flying sword flared brightly, and at the tip embedded in the petal, a tiny cyan light, the size of a grain of rice, flickered to life, emitting a dense aura of wood-element energy.

With the appearance of that cyan light, the entire snow lotus petal began to change from translucent white jade to sparkling emerald.

A soft "puff" sound was heard.

The hazy cyan light, no bigger than a grain of rice, suddenly flickered and then blazed brilliantly, shooting out a slender, jade-green thread as fine as a hair. Though it seemed fragile, its speed was astonishing, instantly piercing through the snow lotus petal and into the flower bud.

Seeing this, the woman reclining in the snow lotus narrowed her eyes slightly and swung the leafless white flower in her hand toward the green thread.

Two more soft "puff" sounds followed.

The green thread pierced straight through two layers of petals before stopping. Its light dimmed and then dissipated, while two petals on the white flower in the woman's hand turned black, withered, and fell off.

"Truly不懂得怜香惜玉."

The woman gently caressed the white flower with some resentment, then stood up and flicked her finger lightly at the tip of the cyan flying sword embedded in the snow lotus petal.

The cyan flying sword, as if struck by lightning, let out a mournful tremor, shook violently, and flew out from the petal, circling back into Gu Jie's hand.

As soon as Gu Jie grasped the sword hilt, he felt a strange itch in his palm. Looking down, he saw the hilt covered with pink crystalline powder.

Before he could release the hilt, the powder flashed with light, and from it emerged a swarm of colorful, dazzling butterflies, densely packed, quickly enveloping him entirely.

Gu Jie frowned. The runes on his armor flickered, and a burst of cyan light erupted. Slender cyan vines extended from the armor, surging densely in all directions, instantly engulfing and shredding the butterflies.

But at that moment, he was astonished to find that the white snow lotus and the woman in white had vanished completely, along with all traces of their aura.

He turned around and looked around in horror, finding the surroundings utterly empty—nothing at all, not even the snowy plain beneath him.

"Hmph! A mere illusion, you think you can trap me..." Gu Jie murmured.

With that, he closed his eyes tightly, and his lips began to move silently.

As a low chant arose, a cyan glow lit up in his palm. The runes on his armor and the sword in his hand simultaneously flared, emitting a brilliant green light.

After a moment, his eyes snapped open. Holding the sword with both hands, he slashed downward in front of him, letting out a thunderous roar.

"Open!"

Behind him, the void blazed with cyan light. Seven colossal cyan sword shadows, each over a thousand zhang tall, crashed down like toppling mountains, carrying an overwhelming momentum.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

The void echoed with continuous thunder as the seven sword shadows fell one after another, causing the entire space to tremble violently.

Yet, as the violent tremors gradually subsided, the surroundings remained empty, unchanged.

The expression in Gu Jie's eyes finally shifted. He realized at that moment that he seemed to be trapped in an absolute void.

"Fellow Daoist Gu, I think there's no need for us to continue fighting. Can we sit down and talk now?" At that moment, the woman in white's ethereal voice suddenly echoed through the surrounding void.

"What do you want to talk about?" Gu Jie asked.

"I've already learned about the situation. This was merely a mission from the Alliance; they were just executors and did nothing wrong," the woman in white said slowly.

"Ridiculous! They killed a True Immortal of my Immortal Palace who had a high chance of becoming a Heavenly Alchemist, and you say they did nothing wrong? Then my coming to seek revenge is even less wrong!" Gu Jie roared furiously.

"Indeed, what you did, Fellow Daoist Gu, was not wrong either. But they killed one of yours, while you... have killed more than one person from the Wuchang Alliance, or rather, the Zhulong Dao, haven't you?" the woman in white countered.

"How can the lives of these people be compared to that of Ping Yaozi?" Gu Jie sneered.

"That is from your perspective. From my perspective, you have already gone too far. It's time to stop," the woman in white shook her head and said calmly.

"If the other two don't die, this matter will never end." Gu Jie snorted coldly, resolute.

"I'm only saying this out of respect for the North Cold Immortal Palace. If you continue to be ungrateful, though I may not be able to truly keep you here, I can, at the cost of a thousand years in seclusion, seal twelve of your apertures and greatly diminish your strength. That said, don't think the Immortal Palace would truly fall out with both the Candle Dragon Sect and the Wuchang Alliance over a single Golden Immortal. If that were the case, you wouldn't be here alone, would you?" The woman in white finally darkened her expression.

Gu Jie's expression stiffened at her words, and he fell silent.

"As for those you killed earlier, whether from the Wuchang Alliance or the Candle Dragon Sect, they will not pursue the matter further. This ends here. If you know what's good for you, leave Guyun Continent at once."

As the woman in white's voice gradually faded, the sky above Gu Jie suddenly opened, and several enormous petals bloomed outward, releasing him from within.

Then, the huge white snow lotus flashed with light and vanished with a bang.

Gu Jie hovered in midair, his face shifting between expressions, before his form blurred into a streak of cyan light and sped northward.

Half a day later, on an unnamed peak of the Candle Dragon Sect.

Inside the mountain, there was a spacious circular altar surrounded by eight black stone pillars, each topped with a brazier burning some unknown oil, casting a crimson glow that illuminated the space.

In the firelight, a tall man wearing a green deer-head mask and a black cloak paced back and forth on the altar, rubbing his hands together, his steps erratic and anxious.

It was Lin Jiu.

He had already learned of the recent killings of Wuchang Alliance members in the Candle Dragon Sect territory, and from fragmented messages within the alliance, he deduced that the Golden Immortal elder from the North Cold Immortal Palace had come to settle scores.

He had originally planned to use some excuse to leave the sect and hide in an unknown secret realm until he became a Golden Immortal before returning, but just as he was about to flee, he received a message from a high-ranking Wuchang Alliance member, telling him not to leave the Zhongming Mountains and to wait there for news.

He had waited for nearly a year, but there was still no news, which made him somewhat worried.

Just then, a white light suddenly appeared at the center of the altar, and a white snow lotus bloomed from within, its light flickering to reveal a woman in white.

"Yun... Senior Lin San." Lin Jiu hurriedly called out and went to meet her.

"The matter with Gu Jie is no longer a concern. But for the next thousand years, you must not set foot in Minghan Continent." The woman in white said calmly.

"Thank you, Senior Lin San, for resolving this." Lin Jiu quickly bowed deeply, speaking respectfully.

"The favor I owed you before is now repaid. If something like this happens again, I will not intervene. You're on your own." The woman in white said with a detached tone.

With that, her figure dissolved into a white light and vanished.

Lin Jiu could only force a bitter smile and bow to the empty air.

Then, he removed the deer-head mask from his face, his body suddenly shrank, and he transformed into a short, stout man in a resplendent gold robe—it was none other than Xiong Shan.

...

Outside Guyun Continent, within the East Flow Sea, there was a patch of unfrozen deep blue waters.

Within that sea area lay a ring of coral reefs, beneath which was a pitch-black trench ten thousand zhang deep.

At the bottom of this trench stood a gray-white stone tablet ten zhang tall, covered in pits of varying depths eroded by seawater, and overlaid with a layer of slimy black seaweed, making it indistinguishable from a seabed rock.

However, this gray-white stone tablet was actually the entrance to a cave heaven secret realm under the jurisdiction of the Candle Dragon Sect.

Inside the secret realm, on a white stone plaza atop a verdant peak suspended in the void, Han Li stood with his hands on the railing, gazing into the distance.

As far as his eyes could see, thousands of lush, verdant solitary peaks, each a thousand zhang high, hung unsupported in the void. Beneath each peak, there was no root touching the ground, only dense green vines like strands of hair hanging down into the gray mist below.

This secret realm was called 'Floating Mountains,' containing thousands of solitary peaks rich with abundant primordial qi, growing all kinds of top-grade spiritual herbs, including those needed for various earth-grade pills, such as Shanfushen and Fulong Ginseng.

Below these floating mountains lay a deep, mist-filled abyss, hiding many strange creatures shaped like humans with grayish-white skin.

Their true name had never been recorded in any ancient texts, so the Candle Dragon Sect cultivators named them 'White Ghosts' based on their appearance.

Normally, these White Ghosts never left the abyss to come to the floating mountains, but every few years, the thick mist in the abyss would rise without warning and spread toward the floating mountains above.

At such times, a large number of White Ghosts would surge from the depths of the abyss, charging into the mist-covered floating mountains to harvest the various spiritual herbs. If they encountered cultivators, conflicts would erupt into battles.

These White Ghosts were not particularly powerful in combat, but they were numerous and utterly fearless. In several large-scale conflicts in history, neither side gained any advantage.

Later, to permanently block the White Ghosts, a Dao Lord skilled in formations within the Candle Dragon Sect laid a powerful restriction beneath the floating mountains to prevent the mist from rising, thus completely stopping the White Ghosts' incursions.

Unfortunately, the good times didn't last. People soon discovered that without the mist spreading, the yield of spiritual herbs on the floating mountains decreased year by year, and herbs like 'Shanfushen' became extinct, not a single plant to be found.

It was then that the Candle Dragon Sect cultivators realized that this secret realm had its own unique symbiotic system, where a single change affected the whole.

Afterward, that Dao Lord removed the restriction formation, no longer blocking the mist from rising, and left an order: as long as the White Ghosts did not attack the floating mountains beyond the mist-covered areas, they would not engage in battle.

However, to avoid accidents, besides a large number of Deity Transformation stage disciples and puppet servants, at least one True Immortal realm elder had to be stationed in the secret realm at all times.

Now, Han Li was that True Immortal realm elder stationed here.