Chapter 89: Enforcing Justice on Behalf of Heaven

Qing Li listened to the commotion outside and recalled the words of the Great Immortal. Indeed, her own immortal was far superior; while the outside cultivators were nearly in tears, the Great Immortal remained calm and composed.

Jiang Lan handed the empty cup to Qing Li. “If the carnage outside becomes too severe, I must go out and see. Though this isn’t the one I know, it should be a direct descendant of his bloodline. The ones out there aren’t able to handle it.”

Qing Li wanted to stop her—those cultivators were all sanctimonious scoundrels, hardly worth the Immortal’s effort to save. But she knew better than to interfere in the Immortal’s affairs. As long as Jiang Lan was unharmed, Qing Li cared for nothing else.

Jiang Lan instructed Qing Li to keep an eye on the situation outside, and if things escalated, to wake her at once.

“Don’t worry, Great Immortal, leave it to me,” Qing Li replied.

Jiang Lan nodded, gently touched Qing Li’s hair bun, and lay back to rest. After a long day, staying up late was a real torment.

Outside—

“Uncle Wei Li, what should we do? We can’t hold out!” Many imperial monitoring Daoists gathered around Wei Li seeking protection.

Wei Li’s body bore many bloodstains; evil spirits and demonic creatures swarmed around him. Drawing power from his treasures, he could barely withstand the onslaught, while the young ones behind him were utterly exhausted, their spiritual power spent.

“Form a circle, get under my protection.”

“Yes, Uncle!” the disciples replied.

Wei Li did his best to shield the juniors, but as their numbers grew, more fiends rushed over.

Unable to hold out alone, Wei Li called up to Rong Mu, who was presiding over the formation in the sky, “Uncle Rong!”

Rong Mu glanced over and spoke to Wen Rang, who was assisting him, “Go, help below, but be careful.”

Wen Rang hesitated; his master was maintaining the grand array, and if left alone, might face powerful monsters. Yet his senior’s situation was dire.

“Go. Have them hold on a bit longer,” Rong Mu encouraged when he saw Wen Rang’s indecision.

“Very well, Master.”

Wen Rang ran to Wei Li’s side, unfurled a formation flag, and drew much of the fiends’ firepower.

Still, the two were vastly outnumbered, struggling with great difficulty.

They were fortunate compared to the scattered cultivators, who suffered much worse—many missing limbs or grievously injured. With the support of the great demon, the fiends’ power soared, and they turned vicious, as if avenging previous wrongs, slaughtering cultivators with reckless fury.

Blood soaked the ground, and the blood array enveloping the Duke’s mansion swelled, swallowing neighboring estates.

Inside Mountain Wind Residence, Qing Li nudged Jiang Lan, who lay on the bed. Instantly, Jiang Lan opened her eyes.

“Has the situation changed?”

Qing Li nodded. “The Daoists out there look like they can’t hold on. The aura has expanded threefold; many caught inside are having their vitality drained.”

Jiang Lan sighed, got up, took her robe from the screen, fastened her belt, and picked up the mask from the table.

“You stay here and guard the house. I haven’t set up a barrier; if any demon tries to drain vitality, don’t interfere, just watch over Ming. He has the Yin-Yang Eyes, and is prone to seeing unclean things. Protect him, and make sure he doesn’t notice you.”

Qing Li nodded.

“I’ve placed talismans throughout the blood light; the draining of vitality is abnormally slow. If the blood light expands, the talisman’s power will last only three breaths. Be mindful of this.”

“Great Immortal, rest assured.”

“Mm,” Jiang Lan replied, turning away, divine movement and invisibility talismans glowing at her fingertips.

As Jiang Lan stepped out, she saw the night outside lit up like day by the aurora.

Within the city, ordinary people slept on as a deadly battle unfolded.

Before leaving, Jiang Lan glanced at Gu Chengwu’s room. “What trouble has that boy caused? Is this deal really worthwhile?”

She dared not delay, quickly finding a weak spot and penetrating the blood aura into the slaughter field.

The battle had reached its fever pitch; when Jiang Lan arrived, the ground was soaked with blood and scattered remnants of fiends.

“Luckily, there are no casualties.”

Jiang Lan revealed herself in the midst of the chaos. She did not need to hide; in this mingling of humans and fiends, her presence was unremarkable.

She casually picked up a magic-blessed sword from the ground, rushed to the nearest cultivator, and drove off a murderous evil spirit.

“Thank you, fellow Daoist,” the rescued cultivator clasped his hands in gratitude. Jiang Lan merely nodded.

Another fiend approached—Jiang Lan wielded her weapon to drive it away, and spoke softly, “I won’t kill you. Take your kin and leave quickly.”

“Insolent!” the evil spirit roared, its anger swelling the blue aura behind it, pressing towards Jiang Lan’s flesh.

Seeing this, Jiang Lan tossed aside the troublesome sword and charged forward, fists flying.

“Will you flee, or be scattered into oblivion?”

The evil spirit knelt, clutching its chubby face, begging, “Great Immortal, spare me, spare me—I’ll leave, I promise.”

Jiang Lan was about to nod in approval when a flash of light appeared beside her; the fiend was pierced by a sword, its form destabilizing.

Jiang Lan turned and kicked aside the sword-wielding cultivator—astonishingly, the very one she had just saved.

“Why are you kicking me? I was helping you!” The Daoist, sent flying twenty paces, was stunned, then slowly recovered.

“Turns out you’re in league with the fiends!”

Jiang Lan, behind her mask, shot the idiot a cold glare, then bit her finger and pressed a drop of blood to the fiend’s brow, who was fading into nothingness.

The fiend instantly regained vitality, the evil aura dissipating. He looked at Jiang Lan, flustered. “You…”

“Gather your kin—I’ll help you get out.”

The fiend nodded, then looked at Jiang Lan with difficulty. “But we can’t break the formation outside.”

Jiang Lan glanced around, surveying the formation and its white-robed core, then said to the fiend, “Just tell them to return. Leave the formation to me—come back in half a quarter of an hour.”

The fiend nodded and drifted away.

Jiang Lan joined the fray, sometimes saving fiends at critical moments, and sometimes rescuing imperiled cultivators. Yet the cultivators ignored the latter, and insisted on grouping Jiang Lan with the fiends.

As the murderous crowd surrounded her, Jiang Lan picked up a sword.

She couldn’t fight bare-handed; her strength was too great, and one punch could easily kill. Using a sword would help her hold back.

“She’s the one! I saw her helping fiends and demons!” cried the Daoist she had first aided.

Jiang Lan said nothing, her masked gaze fixed on him, right hand holding the sword behind her.

“She… she’s quite formidable,” the Daoist stammered, unable to withstand Jiang Lan’s stare.

“Which temple are you from, aiding the fiends?”

Jiang Lan did not answer. The advancing Daoists, step by step, were ignored; her eyes locked onto the one who tried to have her killed.

The Daoist retreated in terror, hiding behind the others.

One Daoist blocked Jiang Lan’s view, forcing her to look at him.

“Since you reject the righteous path, today we shall enact justice!”

Jiang Lan stepped back, flicked away the Daoist’s horsetail whisk.

In an instant, the whisk dissolved into nothingness.

…