Chapter 30: Sparrow Severs the Flying Dragon (Part 6): Heart Like a Bright Mirror, No Shadow Within Part 2

Jiang Yuanqi blinked. “Weren’t there some in the vault?”

Not much left—poorer than expected—but a bit of gold particles remained.

Shang Shan said, “There were, but taking ’em would be stealing. Not right. So, lend me some?”

Unsure of her intent, Jiang Yuanqi still pulled out his money pouch and poured the gold particles into his palm for her. Not much—three or four finger-sized bits, his entire fortune now.

Tan Que wanted to chip in too but emptied every pocket to no avail and gave up.

Shang Shan counted them and took without ceremony. “I’ll pay you back once I make some money.”

That phrasing usually meant no payback. Jiang Yuanqi sighed. “No worries, no worries.”

The frogs still poured downslope. Once in the village, it’d be a massacre. Rescuing the princess brooked no delay. He tapped his flute. “When I start playing, you two charge. Quick fight, got it?”

The two girls nodded. “Got it.”

Jiang Yuanqi stood, waved, and released the Fate-Burying Bamboo Slip. It spun circles in the air, cords untied, unfurling its vast segments around him.

He channeled spiritual power, formed special hand seals before him. Text on the slip spewed black mist, thickening until countless little white paper figures burst forth.

The little paper figures had smiling faces drawn on them with cinnabar. They followed the invisible wind and flew downward toward the stronghold bandits like white doves, one by one sticking to their shoulders and settling in like they were pitching camp. Those that accidentally bumped themselves askew revealed crying faces, fluttered unsteadily to the ground, then climbed back up from the legs and stuck themselves properly again.

In this way, hundreds of little paper figures pressed down entirely on the shoulders of the stronghold bandits. They had also noticed something was wrong and wanted to struggle free, but they discovered their bodies had already begun to go numb, beyond their control.

“Now…” Jiang Yuanqi held the Demonic Sound horizontally to his lips. “Go!”

The shrill flute notes shot out like a sharp arrow, piercing the night and harmonizing with the thunder and lightning. Shang Shan leaped out first, charging through the ranks of stronghold bandits toward the three at the cliff edge.

Heaven-Flipping Mirror sensed the anomaly and turned to look, slightly startled. He immediately fired off a talisman.

The talisman flame grazed past Shang Shan’s side. In her headlong rush, she rapidly closed the distance. As the man grew clearer and larger in her eyes, she threw both hands to the ground, flipped using the momentum, and fiercely pushed off to kick up from below at the man.

Heaven-Flipping Mirror sneered, tossed the iron cage to Dao Liangduan who had just reacted, forcibly gathered spiritual power in his palm and held it under his chin to catch the girl’s foot, then gripped it and forcefully flipped her over. Just as he prepared to strike her chest with one blow, she leaned back to dodge, then twisted her head and bit into his forearm, tearing off flesh and blood.

Having landed the strike, Shang Shan swiftly retreated, opening up some distance. At the same time, Tan Que also entered the fray. She sat on Cuihua’s back and shouted, “Stick out your tongue!”

Cuihua opened its huge mouth, nearly perfectly round, and a long, sticky pink fleshy tongue burst forth.

Dao Liangduan pounded his chest with a loud shout, then promptly tossed the iron cage into Miao Cunfu’s hands. He stomped both feet into the ground, his mountain-like sturdy body unmoving amid the wind and rain. With a great palm, he slapped aside the fleshy tongue, then grabbed it in reverse and yanked Cuihua along with the person on its back toward him.

Over there, Miao Cunfu inexplicably caught the iron cage and only then realized a shocking change had occurred in the blink of an eye. The flesh on his face twisted as he shouted, “What’s going on?”

He turned his head to look at Li Cheng at the forefront of the stronghold bandits and roared hoarsely, “What are you waiting for? These things are right in front of us, and you’re still watching the show?”

The sea of frogs was right below their feet, and time was critical—no room for error, or else the demon would tear them apart alive. He knew the stakes and grew so anxious his voice cracked. But after shouting, he only then noticed that the stronghold bandits weren’t refusing to charge; rather, they seemed fixed in place, their expressions twisted in struggle, bodies trembling, even their knees quivering slightly, as if shouldering massive mountains.

As he wondered in shock, he suddenly heard the wavering flute notes amid the rain. He looked up.

On a gentle slope behind the crowd stood a beautiful youth with a face like a divine sculpture. A bamboo slip radiating faint black light encircled half his body, while he blew sideways on the jade flute. Amid the flying silver tassel, the musical notes took on substance, pressing the crowd below lower and lower until they thudded to their knees.

Miao Cunfu’s pupils trembled. “He… he really…”

Though unable to turn back, Li Cheng roughly knew who the troublemaker was, since he had personally retrieved the flute. Propping himself on his sword, he strained to say, “Big Immortal Heaven-Flipping Mirror already checked him. He clearly said he’s not a cultivator…”

“He’s pretending! I knew it!” Miao Cunfu fumed. “I told you not to tie people up at a time like this, but Dao Liangduan, you insisted on doing it your way!”

He had emphasized and warned about this minor issue many times, fearing that the impulsive, brainless stronghold leader wouldn’t listen. He had even explained why clearly.

The reason was simple: the village chief below kept bringing in strange experts to break the stronghold. Among all those people coming and going, they would eventually encounter someone truly capable. So at this point, no one could be trusted, and they shouldn’t provoke anyone lightly—what if they ran into a tough opponent and invited wolves into the house?

Unexpectedly, even so, he still wouldn’t give up. In his anxiety, Miao Cunfu lashed out again. “Do you want to get all the stronghold brothers killed or what!”

Dao Liangduan had already grabbed Cuihua and wanted to cleave straight down, but at these words, fury exploded from him. He roared violently, “Say that again!”

Seizing the chance, Tan Que drew the Wolf Fang Dagger, hugged Dao Liangduan’s thick arm in reverse, and stabbed into his wrist, hoping the pain would make him let go.

Unexpectedly, in his rage, the man felt nothing from that bit of pain. She had no choice but to twist the blade tip, nearly digging out a purple vein, before prying open a few of his fingers and freeing Cuihua.

But as Dao Liangduan gripped his great blade tightly and stepped toward Miao Cunfu, Shang Shan had just dodged two talismans and hadn’t steadied herself when an object-controlling talisman turned into a flying sword stabbing toward her.

Having been bitten, Heaven-Flipping Mirror was furious. The flying sword aimed straight for vitals. Though Shang Shan’s movement was nimble and she always dodged, she knew herself that she couldn’t drag this out much longer. Amid the chaos, she glanced back.

The flute notes urged on like a whip, wave after wave growing more urgent with eerie shrieks. The little paper figures pressing on everyone’s shoulders had turned their smiling faces to angry ones from the effort, flapping their wings desperately to push down. The stronghold bandits had already knelt and sprawled, needing just a bit more time to fully collapse.

Shang Shan gritted her teeth, wanting to look up again, but she couldn’t see the woman sitting on the stone behind the slope from here—nothing was there.

This instant of distraction let the flying sword slice a thin, long wound across her cheek. A few drops of blood floated into her mouth, blooming on her tongue with a metallic, rusty taste.

She lightly licked her lips, tasting her own blood, yet it reminded her of another flavor.

As this illusory scent overtook her taste and smell, the slope that had clearly been empty moments ago now seemed to carry that person’s unique epiphyllum flower fragrance.

Did Master say she wasn’t needed because Master thought she could win hands without relying on her and defeat these people?

At this thought, Shang Shan gained some strength. Master was far more capable than her; if Master believed she could do it, then she could.

The flying sword struck again. This time, Shang Shan only shifted half her body to dodge and rolled up her sleeve. The sword blade drew a long gash on her arm, and blood immediately gushed out wildly.

Heaven-Flipping Mirror laughed maniacally. “Can’t hold out anymore, little girl? For a mortal to have such movement technique is impressive enough, but you’re still too green. This time, you’re done for in this old man’s hands.”

Mu Qian Tan heard this nonsense from the slope and thought, no way, is there really this cliché plot?

She rose and walked to the slope’s edge to look down. She saw Shang Shan’s arm gushing blood. The girl didn’t cover the wound with her hand but let it flow until her face paled, then tightly bound it.

Li Biyuan said, “Ah, this is one way Cat Dragon forces herself to boot up—bloodletting.”

Mu Qian Tan also remembered this.

Actually, Shang Shan knew she often acted muddleheaded, her mind unclear. She didn’t know why, but as long as she let out some of the hot blood inside that made her irritable and restless, she could calm down. Right now, she wanted to use this method to break the one-sided losing battle.

After bloodletting, her five senses sharpened several times over. She then heard the argument from Miao Cunfu’s side, her mind turned, and recalling the stronghold bandits’ conversation she’d overheard in the cell, she shouted loudly, “He’s just a deputy stronghold leader, yet he dares curse you to your face. Don’t say it was just blurted out in haste—often, those words are the true thoughts!”

Mu Qian Tan said, “She spotted that.”

Though Miao Cunfu and Dao Liangduan both worked for Flying Dragon Stronghold, they weren’t on good terms. Take Heaven-Flipping Mirror, for example—Miao Cunfu had spent a lot to bring him in, but he said he would only defend the stronghold and refused to lead troops to attack, infuriating Dao Liangduan who saw it as wasting money on a useless pet.

Though later events like crafting unmanned armor showed Heaven-Flipping Mirror’s extraordinary skills, Dao Liangduan still vented by casually injuring Miao Cunfu—the wound on his head came from Dao Liangduan’s hand and still hadn’t healed.

On a broader scale, their temperaments clashed: one overly clever, the other simple-minded. The rift had long formed.

Deep down, Miao Cunfu believed that if not for Dao Liangduan’s shortsightedness, Flying Dragon Stronghold wouldn’t be merely this size and would have taken those villages long ago. Dao Liangduan felt someone relying on a bit of smarts dared challenge his authority—unforgivable. As conflicts accumulated, the rift widened, and it showed now.

Dao Liangduan wanted to kidnap or outright kill downward because of his hot-tempered nature and habit from past dealings. Miao Cunfu, however, believed they shouldn’t risk exposure now but hunker down in the stronghold, waiting or using others as meat shields.

For the stronghold’s future, he had finally convinced Dao Liangduan not to provoke people lightly, and he had agreed. But unexpectedly, he hadn’t given up and still sent elite Li Cheng to bypass the officials and kidnap on Loyalty and Righteousness Road.

Now, it had truly come to pass as he predicted—they had clearly kidnapped someone extraordinary.

Though those two sentences angered Dao Liangduan, he knew the situation was urgent, and with Miao Cunfu nearly kneeling to beg, he hadn’t chopped down. But now with Shang Shan’s stirring, his rage flared again.

The flying sword struck once more. Shang Shan picked up a stone from the ground and flicked it to intercept while circling to dodge. Surprisingly, the flying sword snaked past her body.

It had only been a guess that these two weren’t harmonious, but unexpectedly those words worked. She shouted again, “He made such a huge commotion—maybe he wants to find a chance to kill you and take your place! Deputy stronghold leader sounds bad; to drop the ‘deputy,’ he has to first remove the stronghold leader!”