STNS: Chapter 480 (Patreon)

Mei Qi had been working toward this day. She had plotted and planned to make sure everything would go smoothly, gathering allies in secret and sowing the seeds of dissent. Many of the people who worshiped her had already been converted to her side. She had used every means at her disposal, from seduction to forced coercion. Nothing was off-limits to her. She would do everything in her power to accomplish her goals. Mei Qi had even killed her more promising younger sister to get the elder position.

The Heavenly Sword Sect was extremely well-protected, located as it was within the Heavenly Sword Realm. Numerous protective sealing arrays prevented unaccessed entry into the realm. Even as an elder, she did not have access to the sealing arrays. Only the sect master and head elder could manipulate the sealing arrays. Unfortunately, she had not managed to get Jiànkè He on her side. That man was fiercely loyal to Zhe Dāozhe. They were childhood friends and he had always supported the sect master. Mei Qi understood intuitively that she could not come between them.

That meant she had to use other means of manipulating the sealing array.

Her allies had fortunately come through and given her several artifacts that could temporarily bring down the barrier. Known as Yin Yue Stakes, these artifacts were ancient, mystical objects crafted with a unique metal that Mei Qi had never seen before. She did not know what they were called, but they were supposed to be infused with moonstone and were known for their ability to interact with a leyline’s chi.

They had numerous effects. The first was how they excelled at channeling energy from the leylines and using those forces to power their primary function, which happened once they were activated. Upon activation, the stakes would emit a subtle, pulsating aura that disrupted the stability of magical barriers, specifically targeting the harmonics of protective enchantments to temporarily neutralize them without causing lasting damage. That made them harder to detect.

For maximum effectiveness, the Yin Yue Stakes needed to be placed strategically alone the leylines. This simultaneous activation created a resonant network that suppressed the area’s protective barriers, allowing brief access through the normally impenetrable defense. The influence was inherently temporary and linked directly to their active period of leyline energy absorption. The barrier would be restored once they ran out of energy.

She had seduced several disciples whose job was to guard the leyline and had them place those stakes several months ago. The Yin Yue Stakes were designed to be difficult to detect by conventional methods, especially when inactive. That was why nobody had noticed them. Even Wu Meiying with her vaunted clairvoyance could not detect them due to the Zhou Clan’s concealing methods. It was just a matter of waiting for the right time to activate them.

Which happened to be now.

It was late in the evening and Zhe Dāozhe was out on an errand. He had been called away to deal with an emergency that required someone at the Perfection Realm. In truth, the Zhou Clan had summoned a powerful magical beast using a method unknown to her. She did not know the type of magical beast or how it had been summoned, but she understood it had the same level of a Perfection Realm expert, which was why Zhe Dāozhe had been called upon to defeat it. It was currently rampaging through the Ming Province.

After the recent debacle with the Yuan Peninsula, Zhe Dāozhe had taken it upon himself to deal with any threats from magical beasts. This was both his way of atoning and proving that the Heavenly Sword Sect had nothing to do with the summoning of all those magical beasts that had rampaged through the Xaio Continent. He couldn’t afford to do any less if he wanted his sect’s reputation to remain strong.

It would take him at least a few weeks to defeat this beast, and her benefactors had told her that now was the time to activate the Yin Yue Stakes.

Mei Qi journeyed from her mountain to the leyline’s entrance. It held the appearance of a cave mouth with rocky formations and outcroppings hanging from the walls and ceiling, though it was not actually sediment but a type of coagulated chi. The gaping entrance was dark and journeyed down. A pair of guards stood on either side.

As she landed, one of the guards stepped forward and offered a polite martial bow. She was a young woman who couldn’t be older than her mid to late teens, with dark brown hair and eyes like chocolate. Her cultivation was quite high despite that. Second subrealm of the Deva Realm. Yes, she was quite powerful indeed. Mei Qi recognized her vaguely, though she’d never had any dealings with this girl.

“Elder Mei, what are you doing here?”

Mei Qi smiled. “I simply wanted to check on the leyline. I feel uneasy with our sect master out, so I wanted to make sure the leyline is functioning as it should.”

“I understand your unease, but I’m sorry, this place is off-limits to everyone except the sect master, head elder, and a few disciples who tend to the leyline. I know this is imprudent of me, but I cannot let you inside.”

“Are you sure? You can’t even let me see it just for a little bit?” asked Mei Qi, eying the other guard who had come up behind the young woman.

“Yes, I’m afraid I can’t--”

Mei Qi had to give this girl credit. She was quick. The other guard had fished out a knife and prepared to stab her, but she spun around before he could even complete the action, knocked the knife out of his hand with a quick kick, then kicked him again in the chest to launch him backward. The young man skidded along the ground. The young woman glared at her partner.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Oh my. What’s going on?” asked Mei Qi, affecting a surprised voice.

“I don’t know,” the young woman said, still glaring at the young man. She didn’t even notice Mei Qi come up behind her. That was to be expected. She might be strong, but she was still young, and she lacked Mei Qi’s talent. The woman continued talking heedless of the danger. “You’d better have a good explanation for this, Huan He, or I’ll--urk?!”

The young woman’s back arched as Mei Qi thrust a palm into the woman’s back. She injected the young woman with extremely cold yin chi shaped like a tiny needle. The chi needle penetrated the woman’s heart and instantly killed her. As the woman began falling, Mei Qi gently held her and lowered her to the ground. She stared down at the young woman whose final gaze was one of wide-eyed astonishment.

“You were far too naive,” she said to the dead girl. Then she looked at the other disciple. “Excellent work. Have there been any problems so far?”

“None,” Huan He said. He was an average young man who was neither ugly nor handsome. His cultivation was roughly the same as the young woman Mei Qi had just killed, but he was much older in his late thirties. She didn’t particularly care for him, but he was easy to please. Offer him a little praise and he was putty in her hands.

“Excellent job. I appreciate all of your help.”

“O-of course! You know I’d do anything for you,” the man said with a blush.

She smiled seductively. “I know you will. Once we are finished here, come find me. I will reward you.”

She wouldn’t, of course, since she had standards and he didn’t meet them, but this would tide him over for now. Once she had accomplished her mission, she would disappear from this place and he would likely be sentenced to death for betraying his sect… well, if the sect survived. Whatever happened after all this was none of her business.

“Th-thank you,” Huan He said.

Mei Qi gave him one last smile before walking into the leyline’s entrance. While the outside had the appearance of a dark cave, the inside was surprisingly well lit, with glowing moss coating the walls. Their light did not extend far, which was why it looked dark from the outside. This moss was created from the leyline’s chi. The chi permeated this land and infused all of the plant life, creating an abundance of strange and colorful flora.

After reaching the end of the tunnel, she walked into an open area that could have fooled most people into thinking it wasn’t underground. No sun existed in this place, but the area was so well-lit that anyone would be fooled into thinking it was caused by sunlight. A beautiful array of colorful flowers and grass swayed only slightly as though alive. There was no breeze in this underground area, so perhaps they really were alive, or maybe it was the thick chi of this place that caused them to move. Mei Qi didn’t know. However, she walked through the field with confident footsteps.

In the very center of this cavernous space was a massive tree situated alone on an island surrounded by what at first glance might have been mistaken for water. It was much thicker than water, however, and glowed with an ethereal vitality that no known liquid contained. What surrounded the tree was not liquid but chi that had condensed so much it achieved a liquid-like state.

The three itself was a thing of incredible beauty and immense size. The bark was not a typical brown or white but pure silver with iridescent blue veins traveling along its surface and forming symbols that seemed both organic and manmade. The veins pulsated with energy that traveled through the tree. Each leaf was as tall as Mei Qi and held the same silver color as the bark, though they were even more luminescent, as though they had been bathed in the sun. Large peach-like fruits grew from the tree.

These fruits were called Leyline Peaches because of their shape. Zhe Dāozhe offered these peaches to disciples who proved themselves. The elders were also given one peach per decade. Mei Qi had heard a rumor that Wu Meiying had been offered several peaches a year. That was just another thing she would hold a grudge over.

As she got closer to the tree, Mei Qi spotted a foreign object resting near the trunk. It was a young woman, sitting with her legs tucked underneath her and a small sheathed sword in front of her. The young woman was ethereal and beautiful, perhaps even more so than the tree. Hair so black it seemed to absorb light contrasted with her beautifully pale face the same color as the most valuable jade. Her lips were a light red and she wore only a touch of eyeshadow. She wore a hanfu ruqun that was dark purple silver.

Mei Qi was instantly on guard.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” Wu Meiying said as she opened her eyes, revealing sky blue irises that seemed to see everything.

Mei Qi pursed her lips. Should she play innocent? No. There was no need, not at this late juncture.

“You knew I would come?” she asked.

“Of course,” Wu Meiying slowly, casually, stood to her feet, picking up the sword as she went. “There are only so many ways a traitor can deal any damage to our sect. After thinking about it, I realized that the most effective way would be to use the leyline to affect the barrier that prevents others from entering this realm.”

So she had used simple deductive reasoning? And it seemed she had been onto Mei Qi for a long time, though perhaps that was natural. They did not and never had gotten along.

“It does not matter if you know what I plan to do. It is too late to stop me,” Mei Qi declared. “My pets are already causing disturbances throughout the sect. You have no one coming to help you.”

As though her words were prophetic, the sound of distant explosions rumbled to them. Those would be the bombs she’d had her people set off. By now, they should already be overrunning the streets of Heavenly Sword City, killing disciples at random. She had quite a few powerful people under her command, including some elders whom she had seduced. They were being led by Feng Renjian.

“You say that as though I need help to deal with you.”

Wu Meiying slowly spread her feet until they were shoulder-width apart. Her chi flared into existence, and Mei Qi took a deep breath as the power of a Seeker Realm cultivator swept across the land. The leafs of the leyline tree swayed and the liquid chi rippled. Seven orbs of brilliant silver appeared around Wu Meiying as she slowly unsheathed her sword and took a stance that, despite looking basic, contained no holes that Mei Qi could exploit.

“Come,” Wu Meiying said with eyes that were cold and promised only death. “Let me show you the immense difference between us.”