Chapter 442 : Sharing Glory
442: Sharing Glory
Thunder rumbled as torrential rain poured down. The small spirit boat drifted like a water caltrop through the downpour.
Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue sat by the window, watching the rain cascade like a waterfall outside, while not a trace of moisture penetrated the spirit boat. The rain had been falling for a long time. Though the downpour didn't affect the interior of the spirit boat or impede its progress, the obstructed visibility, coupled with the dull thunder and persistent patter of raindrops, gradually bred impatience.
Finally, Jiang Mo couldn't help but sigh. She pulled a stack of jade tokens from her sleeve and laid them out one by one. Each token emitted a faint glow, though some shone brighter than others, seemingly indicating some distinction.
Her fingertip—white and delicate with a healthy pink tinge—slid across the stack of jade tokens, finally stopping on the brightest one. After a moment's pause, she looked up at Yun Qingyue beside her and asked, "Qingyue, half a day's journey eastward—shall we go?"
Yun Qingyue had been staring absently at the lightning flashing outside the window. Hearing Jiang Mo's question, she finally withdrew her gaze and turned her attention to the jade token.
Nearly two months had passed since they left the Buddha Sect. During this time, they'd been traveling continuously, rescuing quite a few Buddha Sect disciples along the way. The stack of jade tokens had been given to them by Golden Peng when they departed, allowing them to contact Buddha Sect disciples in the field and also locate them... The brighter the jade token, the closer the distance between them.
The token Jiang Mo was pointing to now was particularly bright, and half a day's journey wasn't far. However, since the person hadn't encountered danger or requested their help, whether to go or not was entirely optional.
After all, though Buddha Sect disciples were being targeted, not all of them would be attacked. Those who hadn't encountered trouble could safely return on their own. If they escorted every group they encountered, they probably wouldn't save many people. So in such situations, they would typically contact the other party, and if no danger had been detected along the way, they would let them return to the sect on their own.
Today's question from Jiang Mo seemed unusual, and because of this peculiarity, Yun Qingyue thought only briefly before saying, "Let's change course eastward and have a look." As she spoke, she steered the spirit boat in a new direction.
Jiang Mo had merely asked out of boredom and was surprised when her Senior Sister actually changed course: "Eh, we're really going?"
Yun Qingyue nodded affirmatively and explained: "You don't usually ask such questions, and a cultivator's occasional actions are rarely on a whim, but rather some form of special premonition. The higher one's cultivation, the more significance there often is in a momentary thought... Besides, it's only half a day's journey. Even if we go and find them safe, we can still give them some protective magical treasures and urge them to return to the sect quickly."
The protective magical treasures weren't a sign of Yun Qingyue and Jiang Mo's generosity, but items that Abbot Huining had given them before they left. Reportedly, despite his injuries, he had divined for the Buddha Sect, and the results weren't good. So he had opened the sect's treasury and asked the two to deliver items on his behalf.
The little tiger was poor, but would never covet or embezzle others' belongings. Hearing her Senior Sister's explanation, she immediately nodded in agreement.
The spirit boat changed course in the wind and rain, heading deeper into the curtain of downpour.
...
Thousands of miles away, in the continuous downpour, Tan Ming stood with several Junior Brothers at the entrance of a cave where they had temporarily sought shelter from the rain.
The rain here hadn't fallen for as long, just a day and a night. However, no one enjoyed traveling in the rain, as both visibility and sensory perception were inevitably affected. So when the downpour began, they had found this cave for temporary shelter.
A whole day had passed, and as the group stood at the cave entrance looking skyward, they saw no sign of the torrential rain and thunder abating.
Finally, Tan Zhi, standing to Tan Ming's left, spoke up: "Senior Brother, we don't know how long this rain will last, and we can't keep waiting indefinitely. Besides, the sect has urgently summoned us back. We're all cultivators—should we really be deterred by such minor weather?"
Hearing this, Tan Ming pondered for a moment before finally nodding, but cautioned: "Then let's set out now. But the sect has sent word that the road isn't safe. Stay alert and don't fall victim to any traps."
This warning was unnecessary. Since Tan Xin's mysterious disappearance, Buddha Sect disciples had been on high alert. After receiving the sect's warning, they had become even more cautious on their return journey, almost to the point of seeing enemies in every shadow. The Junior Brothers all nodded in acknowledgment, made thorough preparations, and finally left the cave in the rain.
Several streaks of spiritual light flashed briefly in the rain curtain before disappearing into the depths of the downpour.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · · · · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
The spirit boat traveled through the torrential rain, heading eastward.
The spirit boat originally belonged to Jiang Mo, part of her allocation as a Fusion stage cultivator before leaving the Xuanqing Sect. At that time, she had been preoccupied with finding someone, and having obtained the spirit boat as a better means of transportation, she had promptly slipped away.
However, when it came to piloting the spirit boat, Jiang Mo naturally couldn't compare to Yun Qingyue, and she habitually deferred to her Senior Sister. So after leaving the Buddha Sect, she had handed over control of the spirit boat to her Senior Sister. Now Yun Qingyue was piloting while Jiang Mo sat idly on the boat, absently playing with the stack of jade tokens.
Suddenly, the brightest jade token began flashing urgently. Seeing this, Jiang Mo immediately sat up straight: "Ah Yue, quick! Someone's calling for help—it's the brightest token from before."
This was truly a fortuitous coincidence. Being close enough, they could provide rescue, but had they been far away, they would have been helpless despite their good intentions.
Yun Qingyue turned her head and immediately spotted the rapidly flashing jade token. Controlling the spirit boat, she naturally knew how far they were from the other party's location. With a thought, the already swiftly flying spirit boat suddenly doubled its speed—this spirit boat was of Fusion stage quality, usually flying at a leisurely pace, but now pushed to its limits, it instantly gained the momentum of wind breaking waves.
They flew quickly, but the token's distress signal became increasingly urgent, each flash seemingly containing endless peril. It was as if in the next second, the token would no longer shine, and the person at the other end would cease to exist.
Jiang Mo even felt the token becoming hot to the touch. Finally, she solemnly said: "We won't make it in time."
Hearing this, Yun Qingyue glanced at her. As their eyes met, an unspoken understanding formed between them. In the next second, the spirit boat that had been rapidly traversing the wind and rain suddenly vanished, and two figures abruptly appeared in the rain curtain, drenched by the downpour.
This situation lasted only a brief moment. The next instant, a giant white bird appeared in the rain, and the seemingly small figure beside it immediately landed on its back. Then the phoenix spread its wings, covering a thousand miles in an instant, transforming into a streak of white light that quickly plunged into the rain curtain. The rushing wind it created even dispersed the downpour and disrupted the cloud layer, causing the rain to temporarily stop in its wake.
The Swan Goose flew with incredible speed, especially when she transformed into her original form and exerted her full power, faster than lightning.
Sitting on the Swan Goose's back, Jiang Mo carefully grasped the massive white feathers with one hand to stabilize herself, while quickly setting up barriers around them with the other. Sure enough, in the next second, she heard the sound of torrential rain hitting the barrier—a rapid, urgent patter, loud as a hail of bullets.
...
By the time Jiang Mo and her companion arrived, Tan Ming's group had barely half a breath of life left.
Their luck had been truly terrible. On this expedition to search for Tan Xin's whereabouts, Tan Ming, as the senior disciple, had led a separate team. Thus, the group had no elder to protect them, and Tan Ming, the highest cultivator among the younger generation, was only at the Void Crossing stage, not even having reached the threshold of Spirit Division. Yet they had encountered a team of black-clad individuals led by a Spirit Division cultivator, and were immediately overwhelmed upon engagement.
What had enabled them to hold out for a moment? It was thanks to their Buddhist cultivation—Buddhist light naturally suppressed demonic qi. Otherwise, facing opponents of superior cultivation level, they would have been instantly killed.
Even so, the gulf in cultivation levels was insurmountable, and they were merely struggling in their final moments.
In the face of imminent death, the Buddha Sect disciples stood back-to-back in a circle, the golden Buddhist light around them suddenly becoming dazzlingly bright. Even cultivators unfamiliar with Buddha Sect techniques could guess they were preparing for a desperate last stand.
At that very moment, the Junior Brother who had been instinctively protected in the center by his senior brothers suddenly pointed to the distance and shouted: "A phoenix! It's a phoenix!"
Everyone heard this exclamation and instinctively turned—the phoenix clan had long since departed from the cultivation world, but monks wouldn't lie. So even the attacking demon cultivators were drawn by this cry. They reflexively looked back and indeed saw a radiant white phoenix flying rapidly toward them, its beauty undiminished despite being battered by wind and rain.
In that instant, the fighting stopped, and everyone even instinctively held their breath.
The Buddha Sect disciples were the first to recover their senses. Three years ago, a Swan Goose had undergone heavenly tribulation at the Buddha Sect. Though that Swan Goose had been struck down on the spot, before the tribulation, everyone had caught a glimpse of its exquisite form.
Now another white phoenix appeared—could it be coincidence? Had a second Swan Goose emerged in the cultivation world?
Impossible. In the current state of the cultivation world, such a divine beast was unique. So the Buddha Sect disciples instinctively thought of "rebirth through nirvana." That Swan Goose must have undergone rebirth, making the one before their eyes the same one that had undergone tribulation at the Buddha Sect three years ago—although the sect had never publicly revealed its identity, since it could undergo tribulation at the Buddha Sect, it must have deep connections with them!
In an instant, these Buddha Sect disciples' eyes brightened, and the despair of death that had shrouded their pupils dissipated without a trace.
Sure enough, as soon as the phoenix approached, it swept forth a beam of spiritual light with a flap of its wings. The black-clad attackers surrounding the Buddha Sect disciples had no time to escape before frost instantly solidified, turning these previously arrogant individuals into ice sculptures.
The Buddha Sect disciples weren't attacked, but already drenched by wind and rain, the approaching cold still made everyone unconsciously shiver. The Junior Brother stared blankly at the beautiful phoenix soaring in the sky, then at the thoroughly frozen ice sculptures before him. After a long while, he finally squeezed out a stuttering sentence with his round eyes: "S-so powerful!"
Not far away, Jiang Mo, still on her Senior Sister's back, heard this praise and immediately raised her chin proudly.