Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 14

“We’ll only believe you if you make your junior sister come down!” Lin Jingtao narrowed his eyes.

Cang Li laughed.

He glanced at the giant pythons stirring restlessly below, then looked toward Yan Haonan, Weng Mingshu, and the other Tianyun Sect disciples.

“What do you say?”

“I’ll go down and fight the pythons, but on one condition.” Yan Haonan nodded, then turned to Weng Mingshu. “My junior sister must remain up here too.”

Weng Mingshu frowned. “How could I stay up here when the rest of you are going down? Besides, I’m not that weak. I’ve reached late Foundation Establishment, at least.”

“Junior Sister…” Yan Haonan began.

Weng Mingshu cut him off.

“I, Weng Mingshu, am no weaker than any of you!”

Her expression was utterly serious.

“Better to take the initiative than sit here waiting for death,” the two Qingyun Sect disciples said.

“Hah! Then go throw your lives away.” Lin Jingtao scoffed.

The cultivators who feared death echoed him. They were not naive. They knew that if they went down, they would surely die in the jaws of the pythons.

Those were third-rank giant pythons.

Not first or second rank.

Without warning, the pythons below began to ram the walls.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The impacts thundered through the cavern. Solid stone loosened and cracked in an instant, sending rubble tumbling down.

Weapons that had not been driven deep enough into the wall immediately came loose.

“Help!”

Several cultivators screamed as they fell.

In the blink of an eye, the giant pythons opened their gaping maws and swallowed them whole.

“The longer we wait, the worse our chances become!” Cang Li said coldly. Once more, he glanced upward.

He could not let his Little Junior Sister die trapped in this place.

If there was no way out above, then he would carve out a path for her below.

He drew a long saber, drove it into the wall, and gripped the hilt with one hand. Then he swiftly pulled out his spear.

Without hesitation, he yanked the saber free and let himself fall.

One giant python bared its fangs and lunged viciously at him.

The youth raised his black spear and brought it crashing down upon the creature’s gaping maw.

Boom!

Purple lightning erupted along the spear and smashed into the python’s skull.

With a deafening crash, its head slammed into the ground as if struck by a colossal hammer. The entire cavern shook beneath the impact.

The youth did not pause. He surged forward and thrust his spear into the giant python he had just felled.

Clang!

The spear pierced its skull in an instant, spraying blood through the air.

The python shrieked.

At once, the surrounding pythons closed in, nearly drowning the youth beneath their massive bodies.

His gaze flicked across the battlefield as he swiftly assessed the situation.

Then strength exploded through the spear in his hands. With a violent upward sweep, he lifted the giant python whose skull he had impaled high into the air.

And then—

He swung its corpse into the pythons around him.

Rumble!

The enormous body crashed through the others, setting off a chain of thunderous collisions. Cang Li’s lightning element rampaged through the swarm like a storm, paralyzing several of the pythons and briefly robbing them of movement.

The watching cultivators stared in disbelief.

“What cultivation realm is he in?”

The lightning element under his control was terrifying. Its pressure descended like heavenly thunder itself.

“Cang Li of the Xiaoyao Sect…” Yan Haonan, Eldest Senior Brother of the Tianyun Sect, narrowed his eyes.

He could see that Cang Li was only at peak Foundation Establishment, yet his strength allowed him to battle across realms.

No wonder Junior Sister Mingshu had lost to him.

“Eldest Senior Brother, let’s go!” Unwilling to fall behind Cang Li, Weng Mingshu struck the wall with her palm and used the recoil to wrench her sword free.

Before Yan Haonan could react, she dove toward the ground.

“Mingshu!” His expression changed sharply. With no time to think, he pulled his weapon from the wall and chased after her.

Lin Jingtao of the Chixiao Sect watched with a mocking expression. “Let them court death if they wish. Those so-called Heaven’s Chosen always think they’re invincible, as if they can settle anything under the sun. They don’t realize that geniuses dying young is the most ordinary thing in the world.”

“You Chixiao Sect people are nothing but cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong!”

The two Qingyun Sect disciples exchanged a look and sneered. Then they drew their weapons and descended.

Lin Jingtao’s face darkened, a sinister light flickering in his eyes. Several coldly gleaming silver needles appeared in the hand concealed beneath his sleeve. Without making a sound, he flicked them toward the two Qingyun disciples.

In the chaos of the cavern, the needles were almost impossible to see.

Just as they were about to pierce the backs of the pair’s heads, a clear cry cut through the air.

“Third Senior Brother!”

A white figure plummeted from above. The bright-eyed girl swung her multicolored sword without pause, her blade flashing with the speed and fury of a driving storm.

Clang!

By seeming coincidence, the girl’s sword knocked every silver needle out of the air.

Lin Jingtao’s gaze darkened.

Had she done it deliberately—or by accident?

Cang Li looked up and saw Yuan Yao diving straight toward him.

Shock swept through him, mingled with the exasperation of hating iron for not becoming steel.

He had no time to think. He rushed forward to catch Yuan Yao before she could hurt herself.

But in the next instant, he realized what she was doing. Disbelief crossed his face.

“Myriad Arts of a Thousand Mountains—”

“Sword Subdues All Creation!”

An indescribable coldness rang through the girl’s voice.

This was Master’s signature sword art—Myriad Arts of a Thousand Mountains!

Cang Li hurriedly dodged aside.

Yuan Yao gripped the sword in both hands. A vast phantom of sword spirit took shape, then descended with her strike.

An enormous blade of light cleaved downward.

Boom!

More than a dozen giant pythons were hurled to the ground. A deep fissure split the earth beneath them.

Everyone stared, dumbfounded.

She was only at the ninth level of Qi Refining?

Impossible!

Yuan Yao drove her sword into the ground and dropped to one knee, her breathing ragged.

She tried to use the weapon to push herself upright, but her legs went weak. She stumbled and nearly collapsed before Cang Li caught her shoulder.

“Why did you come down?” he demanded.

He had no idea how his Little Junior Sister had produced a strike of such astonishing power. But he knew one thing: protecting her in this place would be difficult.

Very, very difficult.

Yuan Yao looked up at him. “Cang Li, I don’t want to keep hiding behind all of you.”

Cang Li froze, inexplicably moved.

He was expecting some heartfelt declaration of repentance and resolve when she sighed.

“Besides, Master put eight life-saving talismans on me. You could die a hundred times, and I still might not.”

Cang Li’s face instantly went black.