Chapter 17: A Tide of Beasts and a Sword’s Resolve

At this very moment, Shen Zhaoqing, who was currently the focus of Ning Jihe’s attention, was facing the greatest crisis of her life.

She realized she seemed to be… surrounded by all the monsters in the valley.

Awoo—!

A saber-toothed tiger with piercing eyes and a white forehead, which had been locked in a fierce battle with two outer sect disciples, suddenly twitched its nose in the air. As if catching the scent of something delicious, its eyes instantly turned bloodshot.

With a roar, it inexplicably abandoned its current opponents and bolted directly towards Shen Zhaoqing.

The two disciples exchanged bewildered glances, utterly dumbfounded.

“What’s going on?”

“It… why did it run off?”

“I don’t know,” one replied. “Could it be… that it thinks we’re too weak to be its opponents?”

Meanwhile, three porcupine demons, their bodies bristling with sharp quills, were relentlessly chasing a hapless disciple, leaving them no escape.

Suddenly, all three porcupine demons halted, their noses twitching.

As if receiving a command, they uniformly turned. Scampering on their short legs, they snorted and charged towards Shen Zhaoqing.

The disciple who had been fleeing collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath, relieved to have escaped certain doom.

Such scenes were unfolding repeatedly across every corner of the Myriad Beasts Valley.

Whether avian creatures of the sky or beasts of the land, whether herbivorous or carnivorous, all seemed to have received a mysterious summons at this moment.

They abandoned their original targets, completely ignoring other disciples passing by.

With bloodshot eyes and drooling mouths, they converged into an unstoppable torrent. From all directions, they launched a death charge towards a single objective: Shen Zhaoqing.

The scene was, for a moment, truly spectacular.

“What’s happening? A beast tide? Is the Azure Cloud Sect Grand Competition really this intense?”

“No, wait,” another chimed in. “Look at them… it seems… they’re chasing something?”

“Chasing whom?” a third asked. “Such a grand display? To actually trigger a beast tide?”

As for Shen Zhaoqing, who had been “blessed” with this overwhelming attention, she was now running so hard she was on the verge of collapsing.

“Help me! What is going on?!”

Shen Zhaoqing shouted as she ran: “I’m not Tang Sanzang’s flesh, esteemed sirs! [TL Note: Tang Sanzang’s flesh is believed to grant immortality in ‘Journey to the West’.] You’ve got the wrong person!”

“You there! Over there! Yes, you! Stop chasing me, damn it!”

“Why is a herbivorous spirit deer chasing me?! I don’t have any grass growing on me!”

Her “Dao Origin Physique,” under the stimulation of the “Pure Law Heartlock Array,” had its fatal allure to all living beings fully unleashed.

To these unintelligent demonic beasts, Shen Zhaoqing was like a walking, potent, human-shaped immortal pill, capable of making them instantly ascend.

That primal craving, stemming from the depths of their bloodlines, overwhelmed everything else.

They didn’t want to kill her; they simply wanted to… devour her.

And wasn’t that even more terrifying than being killed?!

Shen Zhaoqing ran, her hair disheveled. Her servant’s uniform was tattered from tree branches.

Her face was smeared with mud and sweat, making her appearance utterly wretched.

Finally, there was nowhere left to run.

She was forced to the edge of a steep cliff; behind her, a dense horde of demonic beasts, their eyes glowing green, pressed in.

Leading the charge were the saber-toothed tiger and the three porcupine demons. Behind them, countless other demonic beasts completely blocked all her escape routes.

They didn’t immediately pounce. Instead, they encircled her tightly, emitting low roars from their throats.

Greedy drool dripped from their mouths, forming small pits on the ground.

Shen Zhaoqing leaned against the cold cliff face, her legs trembling as if she had the shivers.

It was over.

She was truly about to become a “loot box” now. [TL Note: A gaming term for dying and dropping items.]

She shakily raised the sensing jade talisman in her hand, channeling her spiritual energy into it. Yet, this useless talisman seemed to have been ineffective from the very beginning.

“Awoo~” The saber-toothed tiger pressed closer. Shen Zhaoqing clutched the magical artifact in her Qiankun pouch, intending to leap off the cliff.

Zheng—!

A cold, clear sword light, seemingly capable of freezing souls, descended from the sky without warning!

The sword hummed like a dragon’s roar, reverberating through the valley.

That sword light was both blindingly fast and intensely cold.

It seemed not to originate from the mortal realm, but from the Nine Heavens above, from an ancient, unmelting ice plain.

Wherever the sword light passed, the air congealed into frost, and the ground became covered with a thin layer of ice.

The demonic beasts at the forefront couldn’t even utter a whimper.

Their massive bodies froze mid-air, then, with a “bang,” shattered into countless ice crystals. These crystals refracted brilliant, deadly light under the sun.

With one sword strike, frost descended upon fourteen provinces.

Immediately after, a cyan figure, stepping amidst the swirling ice shards, descended gracefully.

The newcomer wore the Azure Cloud Sect’s snow-patterned sword robes, her figure slender and upright.

In her hand, she held a long sword, entirely frost-like. Her sword-like brows extended to her temples, and her almond-shaped eyes, like cold stars, held no trace of emotion.

“Do not fear.” She landed steadily in front of Shen Zhaoqing, shielding the small figure completely behind her.

Her nascent flying sword, named “Frostbright,” hovered slightly before her. The sword hummed, emanating a biting cold energy.

This frigid aura actually forced the raging beast tide back several zhang!

The entire world, it seemed, fell silent beneath this single sword strike.

Shen Zhaoqing stared blankly at the back in front of her, a familiar, crisp, cold fragrance lingering at her nostrils.

‘It was Senior Sister Gu…’

‘She… how could she be here?’

During the Grand Competition, no one except participating disciples was permitted to enter the Myriad Beasts Valley. This was an ironclad rule.

‘Had she… violated the rules?’

‘For her sake?’

Seeing the familiar figure, Shen Zhaoqing’s eyes reddened. A wave of grievance surged within her, and her heart involuntarily skipped a beat.

Gu Chang’an did not turn around. She merely stood there silently, sword intent swirling around her, forming an absolute domain that no demonic beast could breach.

She could feel the faint, chaotic aura behind her.

She could also feel her Dao Heart, which had grown increasingly cold due to the “Supreme Heartless Sword Art,” experiencing a hint of warmth as it drew near this aura.

Outside the Sword Tomb, it was precisely this aura that had allowed her to break through her bottleneck.

At the Sect Council meeting, it was also to protect the owner of this aura that she had uttered the shocking words, “Abandoning the sword to embrace demonhood.”

To Gu Chang’an, Shen Zhaoqing was neither a junior sister nor a friend.

She was… a part of her sword dao.

She was the only one “protected by her sword.”

Thus, the moment she saw Shen Zhaoqing being hunted by myriad beasts and driven to desperation in the water mirror on the high platform, she unhesitatingly entered the dense forest and rushed to her side.

‘Sect rules?’

‘If sect rules meant harming her, then what did breaking them matter?’

“Gu Chang’an!”

At the instant Gu Chang’an made her move, a cold, utterly emotionless voice, amplified countless times by the array formation, boomed like heavenly might throughout the entire Myriad Beasts Valley.

Ning Jihe sat upright before the array formation. “For your personal desires, you have openly defied the Sect’s Grand Competition. What crime have you committed?”

Gu Chang’an’s grip on her sword tightened imperceptibly.

She slowly raised her head, her gaze piercing through layers of trees to meet the equally cold gaze from the high platform.

Heavenly might shone resplendently, its voice like a divine decree.

The air, at this moment, completely solidified.

The beast tide, temporarily repelled by Gu Chang’an’s frosty sword strike, ceased its snarling charge, emitting uneasy growls from their throats. Their scarlet beast eyes flickered between Gu Chang’an and the source of the invisible voice.

Gu Chang’an did not turn around, nor did her posture holding the sword change in the slightest.

She merely shielded Shen Zhaoqing even tighter.

Shen Zhaoqing, huddled behind Gu Chang’an, felt like a femme fatale who had triggered a world war.

Though she was neither femme nor fatale, at most, a disaster.

‘Oh, great.’

‘This feud has truly escalated.’

‘Senior Sister Gu openly violated the Grand Competition’s ironclad rules to save her. If those ‘rule-obsessed’ patients from the Enforcement Hall caught her, wouldn’t she be dragged to the ‘Snow Law Discipline Courtyard’ to copy the ten thousand times?’

The thought of that dark, endless confinement sent a shiver down Shen Zhaoqing’s spine.

She peeked half her head out, looking at Gu Chang’an’s stern, chiseled profile, and mumbled softly: “Um… Senior Sister Gu, maybe you should leave first? I… I can manage. I’ll just crush the jade talisman again, don’t… don’t do this for me…”

Gu Chang’an did not turn around, merely squeezing two words through her teeth: “Shut up.”

The voice was not loud, but its undeniable coldness instantly made Shen Zhaoqing swallow the rest of her words.

‘Alright, you’re the boss, you call the shots.’

Shen Zhaoqing quietly withdrew her head.

High above, Ning Jihe’s voice resonated again, this time carrying an undisguised sense of oppression.

“Gu Chang’an, I ask you once more, do you admit your guilt?”