Chapter 73: Counterattack

Li Xiangping walked for a while, carried by the wind, until a small orchard appeared before his eyes. It was enclosed by a brown wooden fence, and kumquats hung from the branches of the fruit trees, looking like a farmer's crop.

"Considering the distance I've traveled," he noted, "I'm already deep within the Ji family's territory. This household must be one of the farmers under their rule."

Li Xiangping had been fleeing all night, and his face was very pale. The talismans in his hand had dimmed, seemingly exhausted.

He took out a greenish-grey magic mirror from his pocket, lightly stroked it, and half-closed his eyes. Sensing that the old Daoist's aura was still far behind, he couldn't help but curse under his breath.

Inside the mirror, Lu Jiangxian saw with greater clarity: The old Daoist had forcibly suppressed his injuries and taken several pills, managing to stabilize his aura. His eyes filled with ferocity, he flew on his shuttle towards Li Xiangping.

"As long as this old Daoist uses a spell to absorb or attack my mirror body," Lu Jiangxian thought, "I will feign a natural counterattack and kill him."

Lu Jiangxian frowned as he watched for a while. He saw that the old Daoist had lost his left arm, and his magical power was not flowing smoothly. The lingering power of the Taiyin Profound Light was still disrupting his body, causing him to occasionally close his eyes to regulate his breath for a few moments. His speed naturally slowed down, yet he was still a notch faster than Li Xiangping.

"As long as I catch up," the old Daoist thought, "as long as I catch up to that kid, I'll strike him dead with one palm, seize that mirror, and leave."

Anger, greed, and rationality pulled back and forth in the old Daoist's mind. He fiercely thought to himself:

"A practitioner at the Fetal Breathing stage possesses such power with this mirror. What would it be like in my hands? This person only used it once and then continued to flee instead of pressing his advantage. This attack must consume a tremendous amount of energy; he probably can't use it again for a while."

The old Daoist slowly accelerated on his flying shuttle. A village appeared before him, and the orchard ahead was planted with kumquat trees. The person was continuously weaving through the orchard, speeding up. He was no longer riding the wind, presumably having run out of talismans.

Li Xiangping flipped his hand, holding his last talisman firmly in his palm. It was a Vajra Talisman; once cast, his skin and bones would become like steel. He should be able to withstand a few blows from the old Daoist and fight to the death.

As the old Daoist slowly descended on his flying shuttle, he saw Li Xiangping suddenly turn around and raise the greenish-grey mirror in his hand once more.

"Again?" he muttered.

The old Daoist almost spat out a mouthful of blood in frustration. He forcibly twisted his flying shuttle, landing crookedly on a tree branch. He then saw Li Xiangping standing with a cold smile, leaning against a kumquat tree and watching him.

"Clever kid," the old Daoist thought.

Instead of getting angry, the old Daoist was pleased. He patted his storage pouch, put away the flying shuttle, and lightly landed on the ground. He then saw Li Xiangping had already rushed in front of him.

The old Daoist wasted no words. He conjured a dazzling golden light in his hand and struck it directly towards Li Xiangping's chest.

A humming sound resonated from Li Xiangping's body as a soft white light also emanated from him, attempting to dissipate the incoming golden light. The old Daoist's spell swirled a few times within that soft light but finally blasted onto Li Xiangping's body.

"Pfft."

Li Xiangping's internal organs were instantly rattled, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. The mirror in his hand flew out, about to fall crookedly to the ground.

The old Daoist's gaze was instantly drawn away. The white strands of his whisk grew longer in the wind, like a large hand reaching for the magic mirror.

A fierce glint flashed in Li Xiangping's eyes. Taking advantage of the old Daoist's attention being drawn to the mirror, he conjured a golden light spell with his left hand, about to strike it towards the old Daoist's head.

Lu Jiangxian, inside the mirror, watched as layers of strands reached for him. For some reason, a strong sense of disgust suddenly rose in his heart, as if an overconfident child had picked up chopsticks from the table and pointed them directly at his eyes.

Yet, he secretly thought:

"What a chance!"

But as soon as the strands grabbed the mirror, they bounced away as if they had touched hot charcoal. The greenish-grey mirror, as if shamed, suddenly floated up, suspending a foot above the ground, frequently emitting and retracting white light.

The twelve runes on the edge of the mirror body lit up one by one. Blazing white light undulated like water waves on the mirror's surface, blinding anyone who tried to open their eyes. Like a small sun, it quietly hung above their heads.

An intense, chilling sense of danger instantly emerged in both their hearts. A heavy pressure rendered Li Xiangping and the old Daoist motionless; like performers in a paused play, they stood dumbfounded in place.

"This is bad!" the old Daoist thought.

The old Daoist's heart sank instantly. He secretly thought with extreme regret:

"I shouldn't have used the whisk to grab that mirror!"

The old Daoist had cultivated for many years and had heard of some mysteriously powerful magic artifacts that possessed great sentience, requiring respect and adherence to many taboos. For example, the Great Snow Severing Blade of the Green Pond Sect, if not wielded by someone it recognized, would remain as still as a stone.

"This is bad, this is bad. Is this mirror so extraordinary?" he worried. "I'm afraid I've violated a taboo of this greenish-grey mirror."

Li Xiangping was about to strike the old Daoist's head with a golden light spell, but he was rendered motionless by the pressure. He watched as the mirror, enveloped in white light, ascended into the air, just as his father and second brother had described on the night they encountered the wolf demon. He immediately understood that the old Daoist had likely triggered the mirror's self-defense mechanism, and a great sigh of relief escaped his heart.

Li Xiangping did not know what method the old Daoist had used, but the old Daoist's low voice sounded in his ear:

"My young friend," the old Daoist pleaded, "this old Daoist is as foolish as a pig. I don't know what taboo I violated to cause this artifact to retaliate against both of us. Please, young friend, if you have any ritualistic incantations, save us... There will certainly be a generous reward afterward..."

Li Xiangping rolled his eyes fiercely inwardly, completely ignoring the old Daoist's nonsense.

Lu Jiangxian looked at the motionless old Daoist and instantly gained a new understanding of his own power. He silently mused:

"So, by condensing the Taiyin Profound Light, as long as the distance is close enough, it can even stun a Qi Cultivation practitioner, rendering them immobile."

With his spiritual sense sweeping out, Lu Jiangxian discovered that someone in the farmhouse had woken up. A young boy in tattered hemp clothes was stealthily approaching, lying behind a tree and carefully watching the two.

"Let's finish this quickly," he decided.

With a thought, pure white Taiyin Profound Light poured down. The old Daoist only managed to utter half a syllable from his throat before he and his whisk dissolved completely, like melting snow.

"Plink."

A small brocade pouch fell to the ground. The handle of the whisk, made from an unknown spiritual material, had been reduced to a puddle of light blue metal, which landed gently on the ground.

Then Lu Jiangxian slowly extinguished the white light and quietly floated in the air.

Li Xiangping finally moved, spitting out another mouthful of blood before collapsing limply to the ground.

He was just about to regulate his breath when his head was struck hard, causing him to see stars for a moment. He struggled to turn over and look.

He saw a young farm boy in tattered hemp clothes, his face filled with greed and joy, straddling him. The boy raised a stone and rained blows down on Li Xiangping.

"Damn it!" Li Xiangping cursed internally. "How dare he be so bold, even picking up scraps from an immortal cultivator?"

Li Xiangping painstakingly gathered the last trace of magical power in his body. He stretched out his left hand to block the stones, while his right hand fumbled on the ground for a long time. Feeling his head pound and seeing stars from the blows, he finally found a tree branch, imbued it with a Golden Light spell, and thrust it towards the boy.

The tree branch, imbued with the Golden Light spell, was incredibly sharp. It pierced straight through the boy's neck. The boy's eyes instantly stared blankly, and he spat out a few mouthfuls of bloody foam as he clutched his throat and fell to the ground, struggling.

Li Xiangping lay paralyzed on the ground, watching the boy struggle and thrash. Fearing that more people would be drawn to the scene, he quickly grabbed the brocade pouch and the metal lump, stuffing them into his clothes. He then grabbed the magic mirror floating in the air, staggered to his feet, and ran out of the village.