Vessel of Worlds

The woman was none other than Fairy Hongchen—the girl he had known for decades, his old comrade of the beast-hunting team.

A dozen-odd years since their last parting, and she too had advanced to late-stage Foundation Establishment.

Her opponent was a cultivator at the late-stage peak—and he appeared to hold the upper hand.

Since fate had put her in Andy's path—and in danger besides—he was hardly going to look away. He recalled the Ice-Wind Python into its pouch, brought out the Wind-Treader Dragon, leapt aboard, and shot toward the two at full speed.

At the artifact's astonishing pace, mere moments brought Andy within several hundred zhang, still closing.

Even locked in fierce combat, both fighters noticed the streaking newcomer.

The girl in the red dress, her bright eyes like clear water, saw the refined face of the purple-robed youth—and astonishment broke into overjoyed recognition. "Fifth Brother!" she cried.

The middle-aged cultivator—green-robed, high-cheekboned, his neck unnaturally long—registered that the newcomer was another peak late-stage cultivator, and his brow knotted. When he heard the girl name the man as an old friend, alarm took him outright.

One against one, he had held only a slight advantage. Against her plus a helper of his own caliber, he stood no chance at all.

A decisive man, he cast out his flying artifact the instant he saw the reinforcement and turned to flee.

"Hmph—running?" Andy, already within dozens of zhang, gave a cold snort and swept his sleeve. A dozen-plus points of red light streaked out, fanning wide to intercept the fleeing man.

He had deployed the entire Red Cloud Thirteen Needles, splitting them along three vectors toward the middle-aged cultivator.

Fast as the man's artifact was, against needles whose whole virtue was speed it fell far short. Launched behind, arriving ahead, the needles appeared directly across his path and stabbed inward—while more thrust at him from either flank.

The middle-aged cultivator was no stranger to the world; he knew the needles' menace at a glance and dared not meet them on body-light alone. Grudgingly he produced two shields, one gold and one silver, and sealed himself behind them.

Both shields were the finest of peak-grade artifacts; used together, their defense was all but seamless, and they shut every needle out.

But his flight slowed badly for it—and Andy and the girl closed to within dozens of zhang, one to his left, one to his right, folding around him in a pincer.

Surrounded, the man showed little fear. Indeed, the gaze he turned on the girl still carried threads of lechery and greed.

The red-dressed girl, meanwhile—cheeks flushed, lips parted—was watching Andy with eyes brimming with delighted surprise.

Andy swept the area: no treasure anywhere. Taking in the two's expressions, his thoughts turned once—and the whole story assembled itself.

The middle-aged cultivator had coveted the girl's beauty, judged his own strength comfortably above hers, and moved to take her by force. She, with no great speed of flight, could neither shake him nor bring herself to trigger the disc and abandon the sealed space—so she'd had no choice but to turn and fight. Barely a day of the seven had passed, after all; to quit now would be a bitter waste.

This text was taken from NovelFire. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Fairy Hongchen—why was this man fighting you?" With the cultivator's escape now closed off, Andy felt no urgency to strike, and sought confirmation first. He didn't know what other grievances might lie between these two.

Before the girl could answer, the long-necked man laughed aloud. "Why? Her beauty, of course—and her maiden body! Captured alive for a furnace-cauldron, with her late-stage cultivation and primal yin intact, she'd serve this seat handsomely at the breaking of the Core Formation bottleneck!"

"Pah! Rotten to the core after all!" the girl spat, coloring.

"Since your malice came first, blame not my hand for its lack of mercy!" Andy's face went dark. The thirteen needles surged and wove—and in an instant the Cloud-Piercing Needle Formation snapped into being.

With his advanced cultivation, not only had each needle's power grown considerably, but the formation itself now took shape almost instantaneously.

Once laid, the thirteen needles flickered high and low, left and right, advancing, retreating, quickening, slowing—attack possible at any instant from any quarter, impossible to guard. Under the formation's pressure, any defense short of a full-body barrier would sooner or later crack—and one breach meant death.

At Andy's current strength, every needle-thrust carried extraordinary force; ordinary body-light could not blunt them at all. Only a peak-grade artifact of the finest defensive make and material could withstand a needle head-on.

Facing that dense, shifting, uncanny assault, the long-necked man's strange face slid from shock into wary gravity.

"Fine work! A matched set of peak-grade needles!" he said with genuine admiration—then turned to threats: "Release me, both of you, and the matter ends here. Refuse, and don't blame me for unleashing my last art—by then, begging will come too late!" As he spoke he merged the gold and silver shields into one, raising a two-colored barrier that sealed his whole body.

The barrier could indeed hold the needles' relentless assault—but its cost in spiritual power was enormous. The moment the long-necked man's reserves faltered, the needles would punch through and finish him.

Andy ignored the threats entirely, driving the thirteen needles against the two-colored glow without pause.

The girl had a hundred things to say to Andy—but this was hardly the moment. She deployed two deep-yellow flying blades and joined the attack.

The long-necked man gave a great shout, and—inside his barrier—sat down cross-legged in midair. Harsh, uncanny syllables poured from his lips; his hands wove seals; and thread by thread an eerie green radiance seeped from his body, congealing into a thick sphere of jade-green light that sealed him within.

One Red Cloud needle cracked through the gold-and-silver barrier—and the green sphere stopped it dead, without sound, without yielding a fraction.

Several sharp reports followed as more needles breached the shields' glow—and every one was caught fast by the green light.

"What—what is he doing?!" the girl cried in alarm.

Inside the green sphere, the man was transforming monstrously. His skull narrowed and flattened into a triangle—no longer human at all, but distinctly serpentine. Green light beaded from the skin of his face and hardened into jade-green scales. A green tail a chi long sprouted from his back, growing longer and thicker by the moment, armored in the same scales. His hands and feet stretched and swelled into great green claws.

"The Beast Transformation Secret Art!" Andy recognized the uncanny technique at once. He snatched back the Red Cloud Thirteen Needles, swept the Wind-Treader Dragon to the girl's side, and called: "On! Now—we go!"

The girl didn't hesitate—she recalled her artifacts and leapt aboard.

Andy drove the Wind-Treader Dragon to full flight, and in moments they were dozens of kilometers away.

"The Beast Transformation Secret Art? That's a technique of the Monster Gate—rarest of the heterodox paths. Is it truly so fearsome? Fifth Brother turned tail without a heartbeat's pause—even the two of us together are no match?" the girl asked, puzzled, seeing no pursuit behind them.

Andy answered over his shoulder: "I know it only from the texts. They say the casting exacts an enormous cost—but once complete, it grants the body of a beast for a span: astonishing defense that scorns artifact attacks outright, and tremendous speed and agility for close combat. For cultivators like us—who fight through artifacts while our own bodies stay fragile—it's dangerous in the extreme. Best to leave before his transformation finished. We came for treasure, and time is short; there was nothing to gain by risking ourselves on that man."

"A beast's body... yes, domineering indeed. And to think—a dozen years apart, and Fifth Brother's cultivation has leapt again, past mine to the late-stage peak!" The girl's smile bloomed, her face bright as peach blossom.