Chapter 195 – The Miserable Pudu Cihang

The brilliantly lit imperial palace, a slanting pavilion collapsed in the distant darkness, imperial guards and soldiers holding torches shouted hoarsely in a continuous din.

“It’s falling down!!” “Protect the Emperor! His Majesty is still there.”

“…Don’t go over!” “Careful!”

Countless lines of sight interwove, seeing the enormous black shadow that smashed through the palace rooftop plummet from the sky, voices cried out:

“It’s coming this way!!!”

The gigantic insect body hung with a hundred legs and crashed heavily onto the imperial plaza with a thunderous boom, its massive bulk still carrying force as it pushed the ground bricks with a clattering rumble, flipping them up as it plowed left and right. Whether they had reacted or not, guards and soldiers were struck on the body and face by flying fragments of shattered bricks…

Some clutched their foreheads and sat on the ground, blood pouring through their fingers, then were dragged away by companions. Some had their legs hit amid the screaming, becoming limping and crippled. More still were so shocked by the heaven-falling centipede demon that they could not speak.

Zhang Lihua, who had hurried over with palace maids and eunuchs, together with the other consorts, stood in the distance. Seeing the gigantic insect corpse still sliding with residual force across the plaza, their eyes widened, and they covered their mouths in fright.

Beside them, the Crown Prince Chen Jing pressed his lips tightly together, yet his eyes flickered with brilliance, fists clenched as he stared at the figure standing atop that ferocious centipede head.

“It’s Mister Lu…”

Within the swaying range of patches of firelight, the entire palace plaza trembled. Atop the red-headed centipede that slid while pressing the ground, a blue-robed figure rustled in the wind. Lu Liangsheng held a sword in one hand, slanted down at his side, the remnants of post-hysteria heat still lingering in his gaze. His eyes swept the surroundings. At a glance, he resembled an immortal riding a demon spirit, descending to the mortal world.

Ahead, Chen Shubao screamed in panic, “Ahhh—,” the guards on both sides fleeing like madmen, leaving only him collapsed on the ground, ignored by all.

The moment he saw the scholar’s face clearly, he recalled the words spoken that night when the other had stood upon the city tower, and he shrieked, kicking his legs wildly, his backside pressed to the ground as he scooted backward.

“Don’t come over… don’t come over!!”

Kua kua kua kua…

Bricks burst and cracked in heavy overlapping succession, pushed and sent flying. The emperor’s terrified shouting finally turned into a long “Aaaa—,” as a centipede head the size of half a palace, its gray-white insect eyes, enlarged within his pupils.

Boom!

Boom!

With two thunderous crashes, the centipede’s pair of long whiskers smashed apart the stone platform outside Chenyun Hall. Amid Chen Shubao’s terrified screams, it slowly came to a stop. His eyes opened to their absolute widest as he stared at the insect mandibles almost touching the tip of his nose. His shoulders jerked violently, his toes went rigid, and his face flushed instantly into a ghastly bluish green.

“Uh… uh…”

Chen Shubao’s eyes bulged; his scream turned into a low groan in his throat as he fell straight backward.

“Your Majesty—!”

Voices shouted all around. Palace guards and soldiers rushed forward, but upon seeing the enormous insect body, they hesitated and slowed, not daring to approach too close, cautiously staring at the white-robed, blue-gowned figure standing atop the massive corpse.

“That man is Lu Liangsheng?” “That centipede demon… he’s the one who killed it, right?”

“You’re blind or what? He’s standing on the monster’s head—if he didn’t kill it, who did?”

“Quick, go see how His Majesty is!” “You go first…”

Amid the distant murmured exchanges, Lu Liangsheng glanced at the emperor, who lay askew with his head tilted and legs twitching, his expression unchanged.

“Too cheap a death for you.”

With that, he leapt down from the centipede’s red head. His gaze swept the surroundings. The soldiers who had intended to step forward immediately pressed their long spears down and retreated in unison.

With a light flick of the sword’s edge, Lu Liangsheng said softly: “All of you, back away a bit more.” Then he turned to look at Pudu Cihang, who lay sprawled on the ground without moving.

To protect the common people of the city, he had no choice but to swing his sword and slay it. Now that the people’s crisis had been resolved, there was nothing left for him to worry about.

“The Illustrated Canon of Mountains and Seas says: among the currents of rivers and seas, when strange creatures transform into dragons, they must be baleful beings. They break their constraints and charge into the Ninth Heaven. One day they are formless; four days and sinew and bone condense; ten days and flesh grows; fifteen days and scales cover them; after more than a month, dragon horns emerge…”

The scholar’s lips moved faintly as he recited in a low, measured murmur. Suddenly, the prone corpse began to tremble slightly. Segment by segment, the armored shell cracked with a series of sharp ka-ka sounds, splitting from the tail all the way to the red head.

All around, soldiers retreated in alarm. Palace maids and eunuchs pulled the noble consort and the Crown Prince toward the great hall. Mother and son—and indeed everyone nearby—kept turning their heads back again and again.

Along the long winding back of the creature, cracks spread, and from the fissures streamed threads of golden light, illuminating the palace plaza. The instant the golden radiance flew out of the centipede’s shell, the corpse gradually turned into drifting sparks in the wind, while the lingering demonic aura of its long body slowly dissolved.

“Heh heh…”

The ascending golden light tangled together and fused into a pillar of brilliance. Amid a cold laugh, it coiled and swam through midair, faintly revealing the shape of a dragon.

“…Hahahaha… Lu Liangsheng, this Venerable Master thanks you for granting this destiny!”

Over here, Lu Liangsheng watched calmly as the dragon-shaped golden light shot into the night sky, shining as it wound and swam. At some point, a writing brush had appeared in his hand.

“Is that so… Venerable Master, no need to be polite.”

He removed the cap from the tip of the brush. His sleeve swept, and the brush traced a line of ink through the air. The tip tapped repeatedly, writing three large characters: Binding Dragon Rope!

Then he swung it toward the sky.

“Go!”

In the empty air, a streak of spell-light flared into existence, whoosh—shooting upward, stretching longer and longer in the wind as it chased after Pudu Cihang. In an instant, it wrapped around the creature’s tail end. The scholar flipped the brush in his fingers, and the ink line immediately tied itself into a knot, binding the golden radiance fast.

“Transform into a dragon?! Not so easy. Get down here!!”

He grabbed the ink line and yanked downward.

“Roooaaar—!”

Above the imperial city, the winding dragon form was dragged tight against the night, unable to break free. After breaking its shell and becoming a dragon, Pudu Cihang’s former cultivation was gone. To gather draconic spirit power required at least a stable physical form—right now was precisely its weakest moment.

“Look at the sky!” “My heavens…”

“Dragon! Dragon! That’s definitely a dragon!!” “Hey, looks like there’s something behind it pulling it!!”

On the long streets, the frightened citizens’ emotions abruptly shifted. Gazing at the golden dragon shape swimming through the night, they naturally also saw that within the glow, a black line had it bound.

“Lu Liangsheng!”

Pudu Cihang’s furious voice rang through the night sky, so enraged it wished it could return to its demon body and tear that scholar apart, ferrying him straight to the Western Heaven.

Yet just as it roared, another voice—majestic and resonant—boomed distantly from the north:

“Hahaha!!! Lu Liangsheng, let this Venerable lend you a hand—”

Hm?!

Pudu Cihang twisted its golden form and turned its gaze. A vast surge of spell power rushed from the northern night. That cultivation felt like blazing fire; before it even arrived, it already caused a scorching sting.

“This demon—this Venerable will take it away!!”

A figure burst through the darkness. Around his shoulders and above his head circled five fireballs blazing fiercely. The man lifted his broad red-patterned sleeve, and several black shadows shot out from within it, dragging a clatter-clatter of chains, instantly hooking onto Pudu Cihang.

The Fire-Praying Sect?!

When Lu Liangsheng saw the five flames around that man’s shoulders and head, he flicked his fingers in a hand seal, fastening the ink line to a stone pillar along the long stair. His foot stomped, and he shot into midair. The Veiled Moon Sword flared with spell light as he swung it fiercely in a slash.

At the same time—

Above the city wall, the white-robed City God and the four presiding judges also looked over. The City God’s brows knit tightly.

“Heretical fiend!”

With a wave of the ceremonial tally in his hand, the four judges hurled out their ritual implements. The white-robed City God also tossed out the register in his grasp. It flipped open midair, and on one turned page, the written characters blazed with divine light, shining down over Pudu Cihang.

Bang bang bang—

In the space of a few breaths, the implements and the Veiled Moon almost simultaneously collided with that man. The surging spell force was like a blazing sun illuminating the night sky. Below, building after building of the imperial city swayed and trembled in the rippling shockwaves.

The robes and armor on soldiers, guards, palace maids, and eunuchs all gave tearing, cracking sounds as they screamed and ran into the great hall to hide. Through the windows, Chen Jing and Zhang Lihua—mother and son—looked out at the night sky, their faces pale as if facing heaven’s punitive thunder, their bodies unable to stop trembling.

Boom!

Boom!

Spell-light circled the golden dragon form again and again, suspended high in the night sky. The one Lu Liangsheng called the Sacred Flame Exalted Venerable let his sleeves whirl. Palm after palm struck out, dispersing the incoming beams of spell light, while the iron chains from his sleeves swung with a clang, blocking the slashing Veiled Moon Sword.

Heh heh heh…

Hahahahaha—

His figure was broad and towering. With the chains, he knocked aside Lu Liangsheng’s sword strike, his laughter rising higher and higher.

“Lu Liangsheng, you ruined the foundation of my Huaiyi Province and damaged my spiritual treasures. The soul of this great demon—this Venerable will take it!!”

Spell power drove his laughter and words, vast and thunderous, shaking Lu Liangsheng to the core. Even the sounds of the entire city were suppressed beneath that voice.

“Wishful thinking!” The white-robed City God’s register shone with even greater golden radiance.

Lu Liangsheng’s figure dropped back, landing atop a stone pillar of the imperial city. With a beckoning motion, he pulled the ink line into his hand, bit open his index finger until drops of crimson welled out, and smeared the blood across the ink line formed by his spiritual power.

The three sides pulled almost simultaneously!

“You all!!”

Pudu Cihang lifted its head toward the moonlit, drifting clouds and let out a shrill howl, its dragon’s roar echoing across the sky.

Roooaaar—

Between heaven and earth, the golden light exploded with a crash, splitting into three portions.

One ray was taken into the sleeve of the Sacred Flame Exalted Venerable.

One was drawn into the City God’s register.

The last followed the ink line, winding and swimming, and in the blink of an eye plunged into the Veiled Moon Sword.