Dragon Tamer

“If you step out of this palace today, that painter will not live to leave Miao Kingdom!” Wen Lingfei declared in an unquestionable tone.

“Master Wen, are you serious?”

“If I abandon the luxuries of silk and jade, royal power and riches, to endure hard cultivation for twenty years in Miao Mountain Sword Sect, only to be forced to compromise with others in the end, what meaning would all my efforts have?” Wen Lingfei spoke coldly, the authority of a sect leader fully manifesting at that moment.

She stood there like a galaxy waterfall cascading straight down, exuding a vast and majestic breathtaking aura that made one feel suffocated by just getting close.

“Master Wen, there are some words of yours that I agree with, but there’s one thing you’re wrong about,” Zhu Minglang stood in front of the gate leading to the courtyard, his back against the towering palace walls, and behind him, a golden autumn moon. The brilliant glow of the night poured down, casting Zhu Minglang’s silhouette tall and resolute.

“Ideals differ, so where is the right and wrong!”

“Looking at the world, apart from Zhu Xuehen, no one in swordsmanship realm can compare with you…” Zhu Minglang slowly raised his hand.

The night sky was clear, the moonlight dazzling, yet a blazing sword was burning; the bright crimson seemed to brighten the entire palace’s night sky, turning the indigo, translucent silver moon into a brilliant fiery red!!

In his palm, flames burst forth violently, streaks of fire patterns like dragons and pythons wrapped around Zhu Minglang’s long arm and quickly penetrated his veins, muscles, and bones, turning Zhu Minglang’s entire body into a piece of well-forged iron, glowing red-hot. Every inch of his flesh and bone erupted with fierce power, as if a god demon was awakening in his mortal flesh!

“Fire Trace Sword—Sword Awakening!”

An eternal flame of heart that millennia could not extinguish, as long as it is still raised by someone, brandished against the enemy of fate, this indestructible fire core would burn once more on the sword’s rusted blade, and shine brilliantly again!

The aura was like a waterfall plunging straight down, cold and grand. Yet, Wen Lingfei’s current momentum couldn’t suppress the fierce fire aura igniting all over Zhu Minglang’s body. Her face was reflected red, and her eyes were filled with disbelief!

Zhu Minglang’s body clearly possessed not a bit of sword cultivator’s cultivation base.

Why at this instant…

Powerful, wild, it was like a mountain of flames, making the entire palace seem as if it had fallen into a sea of flames, engulfed by a fiery purgatory.

“Didn’t Master Wen obsess over the Heavenly Fall Sword Technique of the Yaoshan Sword Sect?” Zhu Minglang, holding the Fire Trace Sword, danced with burning flames, the blaze like blood-colored lotus in the sky!

“Hmph, even if you can cast the twelve swords, how could you possibly trouble me!” Wen Lingfei had already drawn her sword, its body smooth as jade, sleek and magnificent. Under the night moon, it was moon-white, and amidst a sea of flames, it turned maple red!

“The first twelve swords wouldn’t even touch a single hair of Master Wen. But these last five swords, they’ve cut through veins of the earth and made a piece of land fall. I wonder which sword Master Wen can withstand!” Zhu Minglang’s aura suddenly burst forth.

At that moment, Zhu Minglang was a volcano whose molten lava had burst the entire volcanic dome, the scorching liquid and debris sweeping together. Such terrifying power, if unrestrained, would turn the Princess Palace to ashes in an instant.

However, Zhu Minglang had long reached the realm where he could freely control this momentum. He directed this power at Wen Lingfei alone, and although not a single cup in the room shook, Wen Lingfei herself was caught in a horrific calamity, as if heaven and earth were collapsing, hardly able to stand steady!

“Heavenly Fall Sword Technique…”

Without the initial twelve swords, Zhu Minglang started directly from the fourteenth sword. The grand palace, the luxurious Princess Palace, was silent, not even the wind changed. But as Zhu Minglang’s sword fell, Wen Lingfei’s complexion changed.

She leaped with her sword, touched lightly on the palace eaves, aloft as a nightingale, swiftly soaring into the night, quickly escaping Zhu Minglang’s paralyzing momentum…

Wen Lingfei flew higher and higher, the vast palace now appearing like a sheet of paper on the earth below, with the entire Capital of Miao Kingdom within sight.

Looking down, Wen Lingfei’s gaze penetrated the hollowed eaves and saw Zhu Minglang, and even more tellingly, those eyes of his still locked on her with an intense heat—their prominence inexplicable as if, even were she to ascend into the starry rivers of the ninth heaven, they would still be fixed upon her!!

“Vermilion Bird Sword!”

The sword technique spoken matched the one that whispered in her ears.

Zhu Minglang swung his sword toward the night sky, toward the Wen Lingfei who sought to break free from his aura’s binding hold. In an instant, the sword body blossomed like a Fire Lotus, as if setting the night sky ablaze. A celestial beast, the Vermillion Bird, descended amongst the myriad starlights, born from the scarlet autumn moon, unfurling fiery wings wide enough to potentially shroud the entire Capital of Miao Kingdom, its majestic form making the whole expanse of heaven seem cramped!

The sword transformed into flames, assuming the form of a Verminion Bird. In that moment, every street, house, and courtyard of the Capital was illuminated in a crimson glow, as if the palace’s high walls heralded a sunrise of fiery red…

People raised their heads, and under the intensely fierce night blaze could see a woman with a graceful figure repeatedly casting frighteningly powerful Sword Qi into the night sky. Each stream of Sword Qi Hong was like a surging river—and any single inadvertent strike that swept over the streets would leave them flattened!!

But even such sword power could not tear through that fiery Vermilion Bird Sword.

The Vermilion Bird plummeted toward the palace; the sumptuous palatial buildings and towers were on the brink of becoming wastelands devoid of life!!

“Master Wen, in the future, do not lightly use what I, Zhu Minglang, hold dear as a threat. Otherwise, your palace, your Sword Sect, and even you, will be ground to dust by me!!”

Wen Lingfei was greatly shocked—so domineering was this fiery Vermilion Bird Sword. She might survive the descent of this flaming sword, but the palace at her feet would be instantly obliterated, potentially claiming the lives of myriads of the palace’s nobility, maids, and guards.

However, just as that raging Vermilion Bird Sword fire was about to touch the flying eaves of the highest pavilion, the rampant flames suddenly turned into harmless fireworks in an instant. Aside from their dazzling beauty, they did not destroy anything.

Not a single blade of grass or tile, and those palace maids and guards were frozen like petrified chickens who dreamt of purgatory. Not a hair on their head was singed, but the fear that seemed to give them a glimpse of Ghost Gate spread from the depths of their hearts to their entire body, paralyzing them as they collapsed to the ground one after another…

Wen Lingfei descended from the deathly splendid night sky, alighting on the towering eaves of the Princess Palace.

Her gaze was icy cold as she watched Zhu Minglang, who had jumped atop the palace’s high wall.

Zhu Minglang turned to look at her once more, perceiving something more complex in the woman’s eyes, but knowing there was no possibility for any outcome today.

“You can hide, but you cannot escape our ultimate destiny”, Wen Lingfei spoke with a tranquil breath.

If the Way of Cultivation was a journey to ascend to heaven, the myriad Ordinary Spirits would slowly fade into the lofty mountains, but at the peak of Sky Gate, only a few will meet.

Until now, Wen Lingfei thought Zhu Minglang would be trailing behind her, struggling to keep up, yet at least she could see his figure.

But now, she believed that in the meeting of those few at the pinnacle, Zhu Minglang would have a place. Regardless of which mountain they climb from, which land they commence their ascent, in the end, they would watch over each other out of loneliness at the highest peaks.

This was their ultimate destiny, so why struggle? However beautiful the scenery along the way, what did it matter?

“I’ve had my destiny read, and to comply with that destiny, I must work doubly hard,” Zhu Minglang said to Wen Lingfei.

Having said that, he sheathed his sword, leaped down from the towering palace walls, and plunged into the vast bustling streets below, without a moment’s lingering attachment to the palace or the beautiful Sect Leader.