A Good-for-Nothing

297. He Zheng’s Worth it

Translator: Dragon Rider

It had been quite some years since citizens of Coastal City had named this mountain “Mount Xiangshan”. In fact Mount Xiangshan was just a barren hill, desolate and lifeless. Originally it had been called “Mount Huangshan”, but over time it had inexplicably gained the name “Mount Xiangshan”.

If it weren’t for this, SMB would not have gone to so much trouble to lure the Demon King onto Mount Xiangshan to Seal him twenty years ago.

It was utterly windless as though the air had solidified, the clouds in the sky quiescent. Amid the quietness and deadness reigning the hill, two men were standing opposite each other.

In Li Zong’s hand was Firelight, his sword, the blade of which was enwrapped by flames. His golden pupils lent him a certain deity.

The man standing opposite him was different. His features were exquisite and eerily other-worldly, and his palm was facing slightly upward, a sphere of black gas spinning inches above it. At the corners of his mouth was a ghost of a languid smile, which made him look as if he were just a tourist who had wandered to this place unawares. However, the coldness in his eyes and the arrogance etched on his face rendered him out of tune with the surroundings.

His fingertips circling around beneath the sphere, Xiangshan without the slightest change of his countenance watched Li Zong conjure a magical barrier, gave a chuckle before his eyes fell upon Li Zong’s sword. As a look of dawning comprehension flashed across his face, he said, “I was wondering what it was that burned my demonic Qi so easily. It turns out they’re karma flames. You’re a descendant of Zhu Rong, I suppose?”

Li Zong momentarily lifted his left eyebrow and with that the Qi flowing in the vicinity of him turned into a kind of white mist, which coiled around him, making him look even more like an immortal that had descended into this mortal world from a divine plane of existence.

And as a matter of fact, he was indeed a divine being. Having obtained the Dingshui Bead, Li Zong had rid himself of the ailments hidden from view that had plagued him for years. He was never a mortal human being. He would not have lost his Mark of Deity were it not for his many forcible entries into the circle of reincarnation. But as he had come by the Dingshui Bead, Li Zong had regained around thirty percent of his original powers.

Previously Li Zong might not be able to overpower the pillars of SMB, such as Elder Chen, Zhou Yang, but now, with his powers boosted, he could detach himself from a fight with them unharmed without much difficulty.

As a result, Li Zong, who had been no match for the Demon King a few days before, did not really stand no chance of winning.

Li Zong was standing motionlessly, but karma flames abruptly flared up from his feet, burning the black gas in the air to nothingness. His countenance unchanged, he said, “Let’s get it over with.”

The surprise in Xiangshan’s eyes deepened. He lazily sent out a ball of black gas which then collided head-on with Firelight. Li Zong raised his hand and deflected the shock wave with the greatest ease.

On the surface this was a common blow meant to take the opponent’s measure, but actually a deadly skill had revealed itself. All plants that the ball of black gas had passed instantaneously withered.

A hint of amusement flitted across Xiangshan’s eyes. “It would seem I was mistaken,” he said.

He licked the corner of his mouth and, looking excitedly in the direction of Li Zong, observed, “Those geriatrics in SMB have finally found themselves a decent employer.”

Li Zong did not lower his guard. He knew that Xiangshan was now going to display his true strength.

In SMB.

With a sickening bang, a black blur curved through the air in an ominous arc and with that He Zheng hit a wall hard, slid down it to the ground and spat out a mouthful of blood.

His back felt as though it would shatter. The pain was such that He Zheng’s eyes began to water as he let out an anguished groan.

He Zheng was a sorry sight, but Zhou Congzhi was virtually unscathed.

The floor they were on had almost been reduced to rubble. Black marks caused by lightning and signs of fighting were everywhere, showing what this place had just witnessed.

Zhou Congzhi looked down at He Zheng. His face had been placid all along. He Zheng, his mouth full of taste of blood, cursed resentfully. Zhou Congzhi was indeed no milksop. He Zheng was not weak, and common people were no match for him, but as the headman of Demon’s Attendants, Zhou Congzhi was clearly more powerful than He Zheng had expected. As this thought crossed his mind, a fierce look appeared on He Zheng’s face.

“I had three sons. All of them died at the hands of SMB. Tell me – should I make you people pay for it?” Zhou Congzhi’s voice was unemotional. He Zheng had a sense of foreboding and the next second, predictably, Zhou Congzhi was dealing a lethal blow.

Without warning, the whole office building of the United Front Work Department started quaking violently with loud crashes and sharp cracks. As black gas came into contact with the remaining few windows, the panes shattered to a thousand pieces and shot out in all directions!

He Zheng rolled sideways helter-skelter, dodging the flying shards of glass, then scrambled to his feet and took to his heels. At the sight of this, Zhou Congzhi casually twitched his fingers and with that the black gas thickened considerably. As the chief of Demon’s Attendants, he indeed had some unique skills. He Zheng felt a couple of shards of glass, which he failed to dodge, sink into his back. He abruptly tottered forward and almost fell to the ground.

Blood slowly trickled down his arm and dripped onto the blade of his sword, Shadow, which started glowing at short intervals, giving off an odd red light. However, He Zheng was in too great hurry to notice this.

The swarm of pursuing shards of glass, sharp like blades, were growing in number. They were chasing He Zheng like venomous snakes and he was unable to lose them, no matter how hard he tried. He Zheng was exhausted for running. In the knowledge that he would end up dead if he kept fleeing, he gritted his teeth hard and then had an inspiration …

On Mount Xiangshan.

Numerous golden strips of light interspersed with red ones were circling around Li Zong, intertwining with each other. The potent demonic Qi emanating from Xiangshan had rendered the air in the vicinity pitch-black, and Li Zong was enwrapped by it. Common cultivators or Yōkai, if engulfed by such demonic Qi, would instantly be deprived of their free will and reduced to puppets of the demon. But Li Zong was no ordinary person.

Li Zong’s golden eyes had been fixed on Xiangshan all along. As minutes ticked away, Xiangshan’s smile finally grew fainter and fainter.

However, amid the impenetrable black mist, a firelight issuing from Li Zong gradually expanded from a spark to a fist-sized ball, then covered Li Zong’s whole body, and it was still enlarging.

Though Xiangshan was the Demon King, he still found such loss of demonic Qi alarming. Over time the smile on Xiangshan’s face disappeared. “It seems you got much more juice than those geriatrics.”

There was faint apathy in the depths of Li Zong’s eyes from start to finish, and he made no reply to Xiangshan’s remarks. As he raised his hand, Phoenix Flame shot out from his palm like a flaming dragon. Luminosity Flame, Crimson Lotus Karma Flame and Phoenix Flame were all from a superior plane of existence, and the latter was the most potent. It contained enough energy to burn anything in this world to ashes. The Phoenix Flame blazed its way into demonic Qi like a blade into tofu, reducing it to smoke.

Both Li Zong and Xiangshan knew that this was a fight of attrition. Demonic Qi and Phoenix Flame both came at a price, which meant the one who lasted longer would be the winner of this fight.

Why didn’t they attack directly? Because if the two of them went all out, there would be huge waves of energy. Neither of them wanted to alarm the Divine Law, which was why they adopted this roundabout method to duel.

Xiangshan, cold-faced, waved his hand and the gaps in the demonic Qi was filled. He chuckled, “Now I know who you are. It turns out you’re a descendant of a phoenix.”

“You made a wrong guess,” said Li Zong. Suddenly, a glaring golden light burst forth from Li Zong’s body, and a distressed look appeared on his face as a pained groan escaped Li Zong’s throat. Without warning two lumps rose on Li Zong’s smooth forehead, and a mist of yellow gold emerged out of thin air around him, which began to swallow the demonic Qi in the vicinity even quicker than the flames did.

“A dragon?” asked Xiangshan as a look of astonishment flashed across his eyes. And then he burst into laughter. “Ha ha … This is so interesting. Tell me, is this mortal world really worth such efforts of yours to protect it?”

“It’s not, but He Zheng is,” Li Zong replied to Xiangshan in a muffled voice with great difficulty.

Both the dragon Qi and Phoenix Flames that Li Zong was emitting were taking a heavy toll on Li Zong, who was using his own body as a demonic-Qi-cleansing machine. He was unable to do this for long. Eventually, if his opponent lasted longer than he did, he would either be turned into a demon or cease to exist.

“Your little sweetheart is still alive. Are you sure you want to have us both perish?”

“That … is not what I want, but … if that’s what it takes … to kill you, I’ll do it.” Li Zong was vomiting golden blood profusely. Clearly the consumption of his energy at such a fast rate was causing serious bodily harm. The next second the two lumps on Li Zong’s forehead finally became two imposing dragon horns, but oddly enough, his torso remained unchanged.

Li Zong raised his head and let out a roar.

Even Xiangshan found himself unable to withstand the dragon howl containing evil-exorcizing powers, backing away one pace after another despite himself.

At the same time, from amidst the pitch-black fog emanated a faint glow.

Zhang Jingqiu’s voice came from the depths of the fog, incanting the first half of a spell.

No sooner had his voice died away than Zhen Daoyuan, Zhao Yidi and Tan Lubai chorused the latter half of the spell.

Xiangshan was instantly on the alert and had just jerked his head around when Li Zong let out another deafening dragon howl which instantaneously dispersed the pitch-dark mist. A flinty look appeared in Xiangshan’s eyes and, as a foreboding feeling rose in him, he jerked his head back only to find that Li Zong was standing in the position of Zhonggong, that Zhang Jingqiu and another three people had positioned themselves in another four particular spots.

The five of them had formed a giant exorcism formation with Xiangshan at the center of it!

Suddenly it dawned on Xiangshan that this whole thing was a trap that SMB had laid for him!

Li Zong could tell from the change of Xiangshan’s facial expression that the demon had caught on to what was going on, but this did not mean much to Li Zong.

As he raised his hand, the four colleagues of his infused their Qi into the magic circle at the same time. The exorcism formation started functioning. With the help of Li Zong’s powers, the intensity of the golden light in the vicinity boosted. Xiangshan was finally unable to maintain his expression of sheer patronization, cracks appearing in his other-worldly face.

“Shit! How dare you!”

But it was too late. SMB had paid such a heavy price for this plan to work. They had even used Zhang Daoling’s exorcism formation. If this operation turned out to be unfruitful, all of them would be bitterly disappointed. Xiangshan must be Sealed once again on this day.

The demon began to roar, his whole body shrouded in black gas, and the next second, the demonic Qi in the vicinity of Xiangshan abruptly expanded to several times its original size. Li Zong, as the pivot of the magic circle, inevitably took the brunt of the blow and started coughing blood repeatedly.

Zhen Daoyuan’s eyes went cold and with that he instructed the other three in a deep voice, “Hurry up! Li Zong’s in trouble!”

The others inclined their heads and quickened the incantation.

Xiangshan was roaring even louder now. As four beams of white light rose from the four people respectively, the demon-binding magic circle was finished. The job was done.

All action abated. Standing in the middle of the formation, Li Zong abruptly spat out yet another mouthful of blood as he buckled at the knees and almost slumped to the ground.

Li Zong wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth and said to the others, “I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you guys to take care of the rest.”

“What do you want to do, Li Zong?”

“To find He Zheng.”