Chapter 272: The Phoenix Tree
More than a dozen meteors descended from the sky, the night illuminated faintly bright, allowing a clear view of the foremost tips—those arrowheads that seemed to be burning.
Nan Ke’s face remained indifferent and wooden, but her pupils contracted sharply. Both hands gripped the sword hilt tightly, and without time to slash at Xu Yourong, she thrust her sword toward the night sky instead.
Thrusting toward the night sky was an action. If frozen, it would only be a single image. But her sword strike seemed to stab into the night countless times, simultaneously forming a combination of countless still frames.
Nan Ke raised her sword high, perpendicular to the night sky above her head, her eyes fixed on Xu Yourong, who stood several zhang away. Yet countless sword lights blazed around her, coalescing into a perfectly flawless sphere of light.
Countless fine lines covered the surface of the light sphere—those were all swords.
The meteors formed by the dozen arrows crashed into that mass of sword light.
A dull, thunderous roar exploded repeatedly atop Mu Yu Peak.
The hard cliff rock beneath Nan Ke’s dragon-hide boots cracked with countless fissures once more, deeper than before.
Those arrows were all blocked by her sword, shaken off and sent flying, but this time they did not vanish into the night again. Instead, as if imbued with spirit, accompanied by a clear arrow whistle, they struck once more.
The dozen arrows transformed into a torrential rain of arrows, pounding Nan Ke in unbroken succession.
Crack, crack, crack, crack—an extremely dense sound erupted atop the peak.
Those sounds were the crisp ringing of metal colliding, the ear-grating, strange noise of sharpness and hardness scraping against each other.
Countless sparks burst forth on the cliff top, even lines of sparks, all the result of arrows and swords clashing.
But not a single arrow could approach Nan Ke’s body. Even those fleeting, ethereal sparks could not drift into the sphere of light formed by her swords.
The ground atop the peak was covered everywhere with marks carved by arrows, some deep, some shallow, dense and thick, like traces left by a rainstorm on a sandy surface.
She stared at Xu Yourong beyond the sword light, her sword held high, seemingly motionless.
Yet in every instant, she unleashed countless swords.
From Xu Yourong’s perspective, those slender sword shadows behind Nan Ke formed a fan shape.
Like a peacock spreading its tail.
Watching the sparks fly atop Mu Yu Peak and hearing those fragmented sounds, the old zither player was moved to silence.
At this moment, between Nan Ke’s spiritual sword and Xu Yourong’s divine sense, no matter how powerful Xu Yourong’s perception was, controlling the rain of arrows made it difficult to launch another attack. The situation seemed deadlocked.
What truly moved the old zither player was the fan spread by Nan Ke’s long sword.
Only then did he realize that Her Highness the Princess had already reached this level—truly worthy of being the strongest among the younger generation of the demon royal clan.
A cultivator who had reached the Star Gathering Realm had one major difference: they possessed their own domain—a world belonging to them, called the Star Domain.
Within the Star Domain, no one could harm them, unless the opponent had an overwhelming advantage in cultivation level and forcibly broke through.
Similar concepts existed among the demons, but the self-domain of the royal clan’s strong ones was not called the Star Domain; it was known as the Moon Ring.
Due to her age, Nan Ke’s cultivation level was still insufficient, unable to summon a complete Moon Ring. Yet she used a flawless sword technique, with no gaps, to perfectly compensate for her incomplete realm.
That sword fan blooming atop Mu Yu Peak was her Moon Ring.
At this point, the old zither player finally stopped worrying about the battle.
Because even if Xu Yourong’s bloodline talent was extraordinary, she was still bound by her own cultivation level. As long as she remained in the Tongyou Realm, she could never harm Nan Ke.
This meant that in this battle within the Zhou Garden, Nan Ke stood undefeated.
The old zither player thought with awe: Lord Strategist must have known this, which was why he unhesitatingly entrusted the task of killing Xu Yourong to Her Highness.
Lord Strategist truly left nothing to chance.
The old zither player ceased to worry, but he forgot one thing: being undefeated does not equal victory.
Facing Nan Ke, who simulated the Moon Ring with her sword technique, Xu Yourong’s performance was perfect—perfect in the absolute sense.
Whether it was the frequency of the arrow rain or the angle of each arrow’s light, everything was flawless.
Nan Ke, even with her sword fan deployed, could only hold her ground, unable to find any opportunity to counterattack.
For her proud self, this was an unacceptable fact.
Her purpose in entering the Zhou Garden was to defeat Xu Yourong, to kill Xu Yourong.
The clear whistles continued, the arrow rain did not cease, and the sparks atop the cliff kept blazing. In the outer night, those flowing lights were like scars, gradually fading with time, only to multiply again in an instant.
The grating, unbearable sounds and the terrifying clashes echoed in Nan Ke’s ears.
She stared at Xu Yourong, her expression wooden, her dull gaze gradually sharpening.
Suddenly, she closed her eyes, with a hint of madness, and let out a loud cry.
“Ah!”
With that shout, the sword light around her grew even brighter, her sword momentum surging by another three-tenths.
Crack, crack, crack, crack—a chaotic noise. Her figure suddenly blurred, then solidified, as she burst out from her own sword fan, thrusting her sword straight at Xu Yourong.
She disregarded the rain of arrows, condensed all her cultivation into one sword strike, and aimed to cut down Xu Yourong.
Even if her sword struck true, those flowing-light arrows would inevitably pierce her body. This battle had so quickly reached its most perilous moment.
The old zither player’s expression changed drastically, and he abruptly stood up from beside his zither.
With the dignity of a demon princess, a life-risking sword strike—how terrifying would its power be?
Nan Ke’s sword strike carried two beams of clear light.
The two sword lights intersected, slashing toward Xu Yourong’s face.
The old zither player’s face turned pale, and he shouted in shock, “The Southern Cross Sword!”
In the human world, the demon moon could not be seen.
In the demon domain, the starry sky above human heads was visible, but due to position or other reasons, the demon’s view of the sky was not a multitude of stars, but two star belts like the Milky Way.
Those two star rivers intersected in the night sky, forming a cross.
Relative to Snow Old City, the starry sky lay to the south, so the demons called it the Southern Cross.
The sword Nan Ke now slashed at Xu Yourong, split into two star lights, was precisely the famous Southern Cross Sword of the demon domain.
The old zither player also knew that Her Highness Nan Ke’s long sword was itself the renowned Southern Cross Sword.
One sword was the technique, one sword was the blade.
Nan Ke, using the Southern Cross Sword, wielded the Southern Cross Sword technique.
A powerful sword intent soared into the sky. Before it even reached Xu Yourong, countless fine cracking sounds echoed from the distant night sky.
A flicker of pain crossed the old zither player’s pale face, and his body swayed.
That was the sound of the void shattering.
Then, deep in the grasslands far below Mu Yu Peak, that strange suspended light began to shimmer, and the light cast toward this spot twisted slightly, proving that space was distorting.
Nan Ke’s sword strike… had reached the peak allowed by the Zhou Garden’s rules, nearly crossing that boundary.
The dozen arrows transformed into flowing lights, piercing high through the night, so that to the naked eye, they seemed like a vast rain of arrows.
By releasing her Moon Ring and condensing her sword fan into a single strike, Nan Ke had exposed herself to this terrifying arrow rain.
If Xu Yourong could withstand this fearsome Southern Cross Sword, then it would be Nan Ke’s turn to face extreme danger.
The question was: this Southern Cross Sword was so terrifyingly powerful, and the Southern Cross Sword in Nan Ke’s hand was a renowned weapon in the demon domain, fully qualified to rank on the Hundred Weapons List in the human world.
Xu Yourong only had a wooden bow in her hands—how could she withstand it?
A zither note sounded; a string had snapped.
The bowstring broke at the tail, curling up like flower stamens, falling onto Xu Yourong’s wrist.
She thrust the bow body into the cliff rock before her.
With a dull thud, the cliff rock shattered, the long bow embedded in the ground, swaying in the night wind, as if it had become a tree.
With a thunderous roar.
The terrifyingly powerful Southern Cross Sword struck the long bow.
This bow was very long, so it didn’t seem very sturdy, and it was clearly made of wood, yet it blocked the sword.
On the peak of smooth cliff rock, this tree was inevitably solitary, like the tree she had seen on the mountain path earlier.
The mountain path was an illusion; the tree she saw was the one she wanted to see.
The tree she had seen on the mountain path was a phoenix tree.
Now, this long bow was also a phoenix tree.
This bow was itself a divine weapon on the Hundred Weapons List.
Phoenix Tree, a powerful artifact of the Holy Maiden Peak, ranked thirty-first and thirty-second on the Hundred Weapons List.
Why did one artifact have two rankings? Because the Phoenix Tree was not one artifact, but two.
The arrows that howled through the night sky were the falling leaves of the phoenix tree, called Wu Arrows.
The long bow she now held in her hands was the sturdy trunk of the phoenix tree, called Gu Tong.
Wu Arrows and Gu Tong.
My arrows, solitary phoenix tree.
This was a king’s artifact, unusable by anyone but a sage or an emperor.
But Xu Yourong could use it, and only she had the ability to unleash its maximum power.
Just as why, on the mountain path, the solitary tree she saw was a phoenix tree.
She was a phoenix, perching on the phoenix tree.
She was a born king.
The clear light scattered like waves crashing against rocks, splashing everywhere.
The collision of two powerful auras illuminated the peak of Mu Yu, also lighting up each other’s eyes.
Xu Yourong looked at Nan Ke, her expression serene, powerful without words.
Gu Tong had blocked the Southern Cross Sword—where were the Wu Arrows?
The sound of piercing air grew loud in the night, countless arrows raining down on Nan Ke.
Nan Ke’s sword was locked in combat with Xu Yourong’s long bow—how could she avoid this arrow rain? As said before, if she couldn’t end the battle with one strike, it was her turn to face absolute danger.
Just then, an unexpected scene appeared.
Nan Ke’s hands, gripping the sword hilt, separated in a cross motion. One hand held the sword against Xu Yourong’s long bow, while the other swung out, generating a sword fan that deflected all dozen or so Wu Arrows.
The Southern Cross Sword was actually two swords.
Just as the Phoenix Tree was two artifacts.
On Mu Yu Peak tonight, flowing lights and clear notes never ceased.
This was an unimaginable battle. In terms of intensity, it might not match the century-rare ambush outside the Zhou Garden, but it was more captivating.
As the rumors said, whether in cultivation level or will, they were extremely close, even their weapons and techniques were so similar. As imagined, they had finally met and fought—phoenix and peacock, Phoenix Tree and Southern Cross Sword—who would win in the end?
If there was fate, then they were destined rivals. Anyone who saw this battle tonight would believe it without doubt.
If no one saw this battle, it would be a regret for the entire continent.
Fortunately, this battle had a spectator.
Every wrinkle on the old zither player’s face expressed shock and admiration.
Not just for Nan Ke, but also for Xu Yourong.
He had never seen such powerful bloodline talent and combat ability.
Not to mention how young they were.
Wu Arrows met the sword fan, the Southern Cross Sword met Gu Tong. Now, the battle on the cliff had once again entered a stalemate, waiting to see who could hold out to the end.
The old zither player understood this well, so he stood up in admiration.
A fair fight? Just as demons never believed in human tears, that was a hypocritical word, meaningless.
But Nan Ke glanced at him then, even if just a sidelong look, it was still cold as snow.
Demons never believed in fairness or justice, but she believed in pride.
So, the old zither player withdrew his step.
The peak of Mu Yu remained bright throughout, from the sparks of arrows and swords scraping, from the flowing lights of sword and bow auras colliding.
Amid the sparks and flowing lights, Xu Yourong’s ordinary, delicate face grew brighter and calmer, a sign of confidence.
A righteous aura emanated from her white ceremonial robe, utterly radiant.
Nan Ke’s eyes were still somewhat dull, but increasingly fierce, because she grew more focused, more cold.
Suddenly, a clear cry burst from her lips.
That sound was somewhat childish, yet immensely proud, symbolizing unruliness and arrogance.
It was a peacock standing alone deep in a swamp, casting a contemptuous glance at the hundred birds flying into the distance.
Silently, blood flowed from between her hands, coating the hilt of the Southern Cross Sword.
The blood she shed was not red, because she was not human, nor was it the green of ordinary demon blood. Her blood was a riot of colors, brilliantly variegated.
This blood was not disgusting; instead, it had a strangely beautiful allure.
The blood seemed very cold, like flowing ice, slowly covering Nan Ke’s hands and sword hilt, then beginning to burn, yet the flames seemed cold as well.
Ice-like flames blazed fiercely on the Southern Cross Sword.
In an instant, a layer of frost covered the Phoenix Tree bow body, and moments later, several ice spikes grew from it.
Where the bow body connected to the cliff face, it trembled violently, creating several cracks, as if it might not hold.
Is this the true blood of the Transcendent Bird? Xu Yourong thought silently.
Then, her brow furrowed slightly.
Not from vigilance or fear, but from anticipating pain.
Bleeding really hurt.
She didn’t like pain, so she didn’t like this way of fighting.
But since Nan Ke had issued her an invitation, she couldn’t refuse, because she disliked failure and death even more.
Because of the pain, her brow furrowed tighter, looking somewhat pitiable, yet her eyes grew brighter, her expression calmer.
Blood slowly flowed from between her fingers, trickling onto the bow body she gripped tightly.
That blood was red, because she was human, but upon contact with the night wind, it turned golden.
The blood seemed like flowing gold, utterly solemn, utterly sacred, as if containing endless energy and warmth.
The Phoenix Tree long bow ignited like this.
The frost and snow spikes instantly purified into green smoke.
(These two days have been four thousand words each, because breaking the story here is more beautiful and fitting than at three thousand. Well, then the question arises: what to do without a manuscript... Tomorrow I have to fly to Shenzhen, leaving at six in the morning, hoping to reach the hotel by six in the evening. China is just this big, we northeastern residents are so willful. I’ll write a bit first, and adjust the updates for the next few days as needed. Still, as I said, the total for this month won’t be less, but due to affairs and health reasons, some time periods might be rough. Please understand. Finally, the imagery in this chapter is also very beautiful. Let me add one more thing: in my outline, the imagery in these upcoming chapters is all very beautiful—they must be turned into visuals, or it’s a loss.)