Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 16

Without warning, the situation changed.

Boom!

An explosion tore through the cavern, and the Eight Trigrams Formation shattered.

The backlash hurled Yuan Yao, Cang Li, Weng Mingshu, and the others across the ground.

The Great Sun Heaven-Scorching Mirror abruptly shrank and fell from above, striking the floor with a clang.

The dozens of giant pythons had all been grievously burned by the True Solar Fire. Roaring in agony, they lashed out in every direction like creatures gone mad.

Yuan Yao and the others had become thorns in their eyes—and the chief targets of their fury.

Blood surged from Yuan Yao’s mouth, and darkness swam across her vision. Several pythons were already charging toward her. Forcing down the pain, she scrambled to her feet.

Several attacks descended at once.

Yuan Yao immediately formed a defensive seal, but it did nothing. The pythons’ power blasted her into the cavern wall with a bang. She hit the ground and rolled several times.

At the same moment, a giant python’s tail shot toward her like lightning and coiled tightly around her body.

The tail constricted.

Yuan Yao felt as though a mountain were crushing every bone in her body. She could barely breathe.

“Phantom Spirit!” she shouted.

The sword embedded in the ground gave a sudden hum and tore itself free. In a blur, it shot toward the giant python’s tail.

Slash!

The outrageously ugly sword severed the tail cleanly—and split the giant python’s body in two.

Freed from its coils, Yuan Yao collapsed onto the ground. The Phantom Spirit Sword returned to hover before her.

Sudden warmth trickled beneath her nose. She touched it and found her hand covered in blood.

The sounds around her faded and swelled by turns. A sickening sense of weightlessness swept over her. Her mind went blank, her vision dark, and she bowed her head, gasping like a fish on the edge of death.

So tired.

It hurt so much.

She wanted to sleep…

Through the haze, she heard someone calling her name.

“Yuan Yao…”

“Yaoyao…”

Cang Li saw his pampered Little Junior Sister sitting amid the pythons, drenched in blood. Their gaping jaws had already turned toward her.

His heart leaped into his throat.

“Look out!”

Cang Li pushed his speed to its absolute limit, desperate to reach her.

He was still a fraction too late.

The lead python swallowed Yuan Yao whole.

“Little Junior Sister!”

In the next instant, the python’s body exploded into a shower of pulp. Yuan Yao, who had just disappeared into its belly, now floated inside a ring of light.

Relief crashed through Cang Li.

Thank heavens. The girl had not lied.

Master really had placed life-saving talismans on her.

Within the ring of light, Yuan Yao gradually regained consciousness. She jerked her head up just in time to see a cultivator before her torn apart and devoured by another python.

Blood sprayed. Flesh became a mangled ruin.

Yuan Yao’s expression turned grave.

She remembered what had just happened to her. Without the life-saving talisman Master had placed on her, she would already be dead.

One truth settled more deeply into her heart: a battlefield could change in an instant.

A second of hesitation, a moment of indecision, and she would die.

Since she had chosen the path of cultivation—chosen to grow stronger and protect her sect—then she needed the resolve that path demanded.

She reached out and closed her hand around her lifebound sword.

Victory or death.

Yuan Yao rose again and met the eyes of Cang Li as he reached her.

“Third Senior Brother…”

Cang Li said nothing. He shoved the Great Sun Heaven-Scorching Mirror he had retrieved into her hands, pinched her cheeks, and poured healing pills into her mouth.

His face was cold. “Yuan Yao, once the bow is drawn, the arrow cannot turn back. Are you ready to fight at my side?”

“I am.” Determination shone in her eyes.

Cang Li’s heart stirred.

Their Little Junior Sister truly seemed to have grown up.

He turned, black spear in hand, and assessed the battlefield. “Those pythons are already badly wounded. They’re no longer a serious threat. We’ll wear them down until they die.”

Yuan Yao stepped up beside him and raised the Phantom Spirit Sword.

“All right.”

The two exchanged a glance, then charged forward shoulder to shoulder.

“First Form of Xiaoyao—”

“Sword Arcs to the Heavens!”

“Thunderflame Spear!”

At the same time, Yan Haonan, Weng Mingshu, and the others wove among the pythons, fighting them without pause.

Lin Jingtao, who had been watching from the sidelines, silently put away his silver needles.

He had discovered that Yuan Yao carried a life-saving talisman—and the one who had given it to her could only be Qian Jueshan, Third Elder of the Xiaoyao Sect.

If he actually killed Yuan Yao, Qian Jueshan would surely trace the deed back to him.

Lin Jingtao would never dare provoke that man.

Qian Jueshan was the foremost sword cultivator on the Ninth Continent, his cultivation unfathomably deep. The Xiaoyao Sect had risen from an eighteenth-rate sect to a first-rate power solely because of his existence.

Who on the Ninth Continent would dare offend Qian Jueshan?

Lin Jingtao knew that Cang Li was Qian Jueshan’s third disciple, but he had not known Yuan Yao’s true identity. With such low cultivation, he had assumed she was merely an ordinary junior disciple of the Xiaoyao Sect.

Now it seemed…

She was *that* Little Junior Sister, the darling of the entire Xiaoyao Sect.

Qian Jueshan’s youngest disciple—the one he guarded most fiercely of all.

No wonder she possessed so many high-grade artifacts!

The thought left Lin Jingtao cold with fear. Thank goodness he had not acted. Otherwise, death would have been the least of it. His soul might have been scattered, leaving him to live a life worse than death.

…

An hour later, more than half the giant pythons had been slain. The survivors finally sensed the danger and fled into a deeper, darker passage.

Weng Mingshu tried to give chase, but Yan Haonan stopped her.

“Never pursue a cornered foe.”

“But…” Weng Mingshu barely got the word out before fainting.

Yan Haonan’s expression changed. He caught her at once.

Carrying Weng Mingshu in his arms, he strode over to Cang Li and asked anxiously, “What’s wrong with her?”

Cang Li had no desire to deal with them. Still, since they had been willing to come down and help, he checked her pulse.

“Nothing serious. She exhausted too much spiritual power and physical strength, so she collapsed. Her external wounds are fairly severe, though. They need treatment.”

Yan Haonan frowned at him.

“Don’t look at me. I won’t dress her wounds, in case she accuses me of coveting her beauty.” Cang Li pressed his palms together and sighed. “Amitabha. Heaven is my witness—I, Cang Aotian, am a man entirely free of mortal desires.”

Yan Haonan was speechless.

He silently looked toward Yuan Yao in the distance.

Cang Li sidestepped and blocked his view. “Don’t even think about asking my Little Junior Sister for help. She’s exhausted. She can’t move a finger.”

Yan Haonan spotted something, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “Didn’t you just say she couldn’t move?”

“Of course she—” Cang Li began as he turned around.

Then he saw his Little Junior Sister clambering atop a python carcass and laboriously sawing it open with her sword to dig out its beast core.

His eyelid twitched violently.

Was this truly the same pampered, lazy Little Junior Sister he knew?

“Uh… I suppose those are convulsions.”