A Pawn's Passage-Chapter 1245: Ancestral Witch
Qi Xuansu sighed with emotion. “It seems that Wu Luo’s murder of Wu Xian to usurp the position of leader dealt an extremely severe blow to the Wuist Sect. With internal morale already in such a state, how could they possibly defeat the Heavenly Sect, which claims to act on heaven’s behalf?”
At that very moment, the figure unexpectedly solidified, transforming from a shadow into a living, breathing person, taking on vivid color.
Just as Qi Jiaoyao had said, the shadow world was encroaching upon the real world.
This was an ancient witch clad in a long robe and wearing a feathered crown. She was only of ordinary human height and had an unfathomable aura.
Qi Jiaoyao frowned. Realizing that the situation was far from simple, she quietly retreated behind Qi Xuansu.
Qi Xuansu had nowhere to retreat and could only choose to face this ancient witch head-on.
The ancient witch stopped muttering and turned to glare at Qi Xuansu, her eyes filled with hatred. Then, she moved.
Once a Martial Arts Practitioner reached a certain realm, they no longer clung to any fixed move or form, choosing only the most suitable technique. At this moment, she advanced straight through the center, striving to land this punch on Qi Xuansu in the shortest possible time.
Qi Xuansu crossed his hands and drew a blade and a sword, using Pure Bodhi for defense and Green Cloud for offense.
When this punch landed upon the blade of Pure Bodhi, the ancient witch immediately sensed a special surge of energy rushing forth, first seeping into her palm, then flowing upstream, all the way into her mind.
This was the third transformation of Pure Bodhi, meant to aid others in attaining purity. However, this degree of purity surpassed even the first transformation of self-purification, causing one to lose the six senses. It would feel as if one had fallen into the void, everything vanishing without a trace.
This move carried no killing power. It merely severed the six senses, allowing one to enter a mysterious realm of purity and ease, unaffected by even the slightest external influence. It was an excellent state for comprehending Buddhist doctrine. Yet in the midst of fierce combat, suddenly being unable to see, hear, speak, smell, feel, or perceive would undoubtedly put one at the mercy of others.
Although the ancient witch did not fall fully into such a state, she was nevertheless affected, becoming confused and sluggish.
At the same time, Qi Xuansu’s Green Cloud had already struck.
Sword qi flowed, preventing the ancient witch from daring to take the blow head-on. Yet the ancient witch had her own means of response. Her entire arm was instantly shrouded in a layer of ghostly green protective qi as she met Qi Xuansu’s sword, barely managing to block the strike.
The two separated at first contact, each retreating backward.
A thin red line split open on the ancient witch’s hands, with fresh blood seeping out.
The ancient witch clenched her five fingers. The blood then flowed back into the wound as it healed. Then, streaks of ghostly green light shone through the gaps between her fingers, which was a most unsettling sight.
The ancient witch took a single step, shrinking the gap between them and instantly appearing behind Qi Xuansu.
Qi Xuansu had already sensed it. He reversed Pure Bodhi, stabbing it under his own armpit and toward the back.
The ancient witch did not take the blow head-on. She spread his five fingers, shooting out countless streaks of ghostly light from her palm that rained down toward Qi Xuansu’s back.
Relying on the Demonic Blade Technique, Qi Xuansu moved even faster than the ancient witch, already turning around and thrusting a sword toward his opponent’s forehead.
Affected by Pure Bodhi, the ancient witch reacted a fraction too slowly, clamping down on Green Cloud only when the sword was about 10 centimeters from his brow. Even though she managed to immobilize the sword, the sword qi rushing toward her stung her face.
However, Qi Xuansu wielded two blades. Even if one sword was immobile, he still had another one. With a single sweeping slash across the waist, Qi Xuansu sent the ancient witch flying sideways. Though it did not cut the witch in half, it still blasted her away.
After the ancient witch landed, cracking and popping sounds echoed throughout her body as she slowly rose. She then swelled to a height of over 5 meters. Her robe tore apart, revealing countless bizarre beastly patterns painted across her upper body. These patterns were vivid and lifelike, with faint beastly roars seeming to echo from them.
The ancient witch threw a punch.
This time, Qi Xuansu used Green Cloud to defend, meeting the punch head-on. The force was so great that Qi Xuansu nearly lost his grip on the sword hilt.
Qi Xuansu drifted backward and simply spread his five fingers, releasing Green Cloud.
Green Cloud did not fall to the ground but hovered midair. Even without Qi Xuansu holding it, the sword body trembled slightly, waves of sword-qi rippling across it then pointing straight at the ancient witch and flashed forward.
The sword light swept past, grazing across the ancient witch’s throat.
Yet for an ancient witch with such overwhelmingly abundant blood qi, this injury was nothing at all, like a giant elephant shot with an arrow. Even if the arrow pierced skin and flesh and caused pain, there was absolutely no threat to its life.
However, the ancient witch’s eyes were soon tinged with a layer of blood-red.
The Wuist blood sacrifices used the blood of feral beasts as their medium, greatly amplifying one’s beastly nature while weakening human reason.
The ancient witch let out a furious roar and stomped fiercely on the ground beneath his feet.
The entire shrine sank in an instant, and fissures immediately spread across the ground. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
This was not caused by channeling innate qi into the ground but purely by overwhelming brute force.
In the next moment, the ancient witch charged toward Qi Xuansu, plowing a deep trench into the ground wherever she passed.
At that very moment, an extremely faint red line flickered eerily behind the ancient witch, as thin as a strand of hair. It was impossible to notice without focused attention. As it neared the back of the ancient witch’s head, that thread of blood instantly solidified, transforming into a one-meter blood-red sword. Ripples shimmered along the blade, as if bloodlight were surging within it, yet no wielder could be seen.
At the critical instant, the ancient witch abruptly halted and twisted her head aside ever so slightly, narrowly evading the lethal strike. Even so, the sword qi still left a cut across her neck.
The ancient witch spun around violently, punching in all directions around herself without leaving the slightest gap. After a ripple of qi spread out, the wielder of this sword appeared. It was none other than Qi Jiaoyao, who had retreated behind Qi Xuansu earlier.
For Qi Jiaoyao to dare enter Lingshan Paradise alone, she was naturally no ordinary figure. Her sword struck like a dragon, flashes of bloodlight streaking out and carving trajectories that lingered without fading. Sword qi twisted and interwove, like a dense spring rain, spreading around the ancient witch. It was pervasive and omnipresent, the threads binding into an inescapable net. If the ancient witch dared not confront it head-on or hesitated even slightly, she would immediately be crushed by the strangling force of countless sword qi. Thus, even if she did not wish to fight, she had no choice but to do so.
The blood within the ancient witch’s body surged in response, looking as though it were about to burst out of her flesh. Were it not for the fact that her cultivation resembled a Daoist Martial Arts Practitioner, any other person would already have been bleeding from their orifices. Even so, several patches of her skin bulged outward, as if snakes were writhing beneath, roaming restlessly and trying to break free of the body.
The ancient witch could only continue throwing punches.
The punches were launched without sound, yet they caused this small area to quake violently. The blood-colored sword qi visibly twisted, accompanied by a rapid series of explosions.
For a moment, only the clang of blades could be heard. Countless flashes of bloodlight exploded and fell. Innumerable strands of sword qi spread in rolling waves, like a churning sea of blood.
This wave of qi affected even the ancient witch. Her six senses that were already influenced by Pure Bodhi were obscured for a brief moment by the surging blood qi. In that fleeting instant, she suddenly felt a sharp pain at the center of her back. The protective qi enveloping her body began to collapse rapidly.
At that moment, heaven and earth fell silent.
The ancient witch lowered her head to look, only to see the tip of a sword protruding from her chest. It was Green Cloud.
The ancient witch let out a furious roar and swept her arm sideways as she turned around.
Qi Xuansu had already withdrawn his sword and retreated, but he was still a step too slow and was sent flying. After landing, he bent his left leg and braced his right leg behind him, stabbing both blades in his hands into the ground and plowing two trenches over 3 meters long before he managed to halt his backward momentum.
Although the ancient witch’s regenerative ability was terrifyingly fast, they were immediately torn apart by the sword qi coiled around the wound. It was a bizarre sight to see the flesh forming and dispersing in rapid succession.
The ancient witch paid no heed to her injuries and pressed in close once more, transforming her palm into a claw, carrying fierce killing intent as she grabbed at Qi Xuansu.
Qi Xuansu was likewise a Zaohua-stage Martial Arts Practitioner, so he did not lose out to the witch in terms of physique. He did not evade but met the witch head-on.
After another dozen exchanges, the ancient witch suddenly accelerated. Wherever she passed, the ground shattered into dust. She raised an elbow and struck horizontally, its momentum unstoppable as it crashed down like an avalanche.
The elbow strike was accompanied by a resounding explosion. When the elbow collided with Pure Bodhi, the ripples of qi swept across the area like a gale, leaving the ground shattered and broken.
Qi Xuansu’s hands trembled slightly, and traces of blood seeped from the corners of his eyes and nostrils.
The ancient witch shifted techniques once more, turning her claw into a fist. Veins bulged across her entire arm, like the roots of an ancient tree breaking through the earth. What followed was a surging, colossal force, its power comparable to that of a dragon.
With such tremendous force at such close range, Qi Xuansu was shaken so violently that he lost his grip on the blade. He had no choice but to abandon his blade and retreat.
The ancient witch violently shook her hand, flinging away Pure Bodhi, which had pierced her palm.
The two clashed again. This time, Qi Xuansu only had Green Cloud, which the ancient witch found difficult to withstand, like ordinary flesh meeting metal blades. After barely a dozen exchanges, the ancient witch was already covered in wounds. Yet at this point, she was numb to pain. Instead, this provoked her ferocity. Disregarding her injuries, she traded blow for blow with Qi Xuansu, the two nearly reaching a state of mutual destruction.
At that moment, Qi Jiaoyao seized the opportunity and struck again, unleashing torrential sword qi that landed on the ancient witch. The ancient witch, who was already wounded, had no strength to resist. Her flesh rapidly decayed until only a ghastly white skeleton remained—a truly horrifying sight.
