Chapter 272: Hot Pursuit

How high was a hundred thousand feet? Such a lofty peak was definitely not created by natural means. In truth, the original Jade Pearl Peak was only twenty to thirty thousand feet high; it was only because of the supreme arts of the cultivators from the Jade Pearl Pavilion that it slowly grew to such a height.

Such a high peak was not merely used to look imposing and majestic, the crucial point was that being at such a height allowed for a more beneficial absorption of the Astral Wind of Nine Heavens, Solar Truefire, and the moon’s Lunar Blessing. All these were the unique heaven and earth energies needed by the more accomplished cultivators, and due to their rarity in the world, they could only use such a method to search for the energies.

Of course, building such a tall peak would be easy, but maintaining it would be more difficult. However, with the Jade Pearl Pavilion’s strength, they could definitely achieve it. In order to maintain the stability of this hundred-thousand-foot-high peak, it was unknown how many heavenly materials were sacrificed and how many formations were laid down. In any case, they refined the Jade Pearl Peak into an integrated whole forcefully, making it several times more durable, stable, and heavy than a normal mountain.

Normally, having such a stable Jade Pearl Peak would be beneficial; however, when the peak collapsed, it became their worst nightmare.

The hundred-thousand-foot-tall peak, heavy beyond imagination, collapsed as though someone had pushed a gold mountain but triggered a jade pillar to topple. The incredible momentum caused by it falling could only be explained with the word ‘catastrophe’. The cultivators at Jade Pearl Pavilion could not even attempt to stop such a disaster. They could only hurriedly get onto their flying swords and escape the scene.

Following the countless sword beams fleeing the scene, the Jade Pearl Peak fell to the ground with a loud ‘thud’. Clouds of dust and debris billowed up to the skies and the surrounding thousand miles felt the quaking of the earth. Be it the elixir hall, armament hall, or anyone else, all were helpless in the face of the colossus that was the Jade Pearl Peak. The peak in question shattered into innumerable pieces, the Jade Pearl Hall at the summit turned into an unrecognisable paste. This scenery, such a magnificent sight!

As for the countless precious ma.n.u.scripts of their ancestors and the best heavenly treasures, they were all completely destroyed without a sc.r.a.p remaining. In the future, Jade Pearl Pavilion could be said to be no longer in existence!

Watching how a ten thousand year super sect vanished before their very eyes, the Jade Pearl disciples were all heart-broken, filled with grief and indignation. Their tears fell like a downpour; many of them almost lost consciousness from the heartbreak.

Celestial Meihua, who was hiding by the side together with her disciple, was also sluggish in her reaction. Celestial Meihua could not help but laugh bitterly, “My my, I seem to have bitten off more than I can chew!”

Her original intention was to allow SongZhong to destroy the external facilities of the Jade Pearl Pavilion, like the elixir hall, since they were not worth much and could be rebuilt in a matter of time. At the very most, the resources from the past hundred years of Jade Pearl Pavilion would vanish in smoke. However, so long as the Jade Pearl Hall still existed, the Pavilion could still rise from the ashes one day.

However, who would have known that SongZhong would be able to destroy even the main Jade Pearl Hall? Now that the matter had been blown completely out of proportions, the Pavilion master Huo Qingyun would also no longer be able to keep matters under wraps. The upper echelon would definitely be alerted, and in order to absolve her blame, Huo Qingyun would definitely make Celestial Meihua the scapegoat. After all, who asked her to reveal the weakness of the Jade Pearl Pavilion? At that time, Meihua herself would also fall into great trouble.

Thinking up to this point, Celestial Meihua could no longer remain pa.s.sive, and immediately pulled at ShuiJing, saying, “My disciple, this is no small problem, and no longer within my jurisdiction. We had better make our escape now; otherwise, when the Jade Pearl Sect sends their experts here, we will not be able to get out alive!”

Celestial Meihua did not even give ShuiJing the chance to speak before she took her and fled the scene.

As for SongZhong, he did not even sense Celestial Meihua escaping. He was only quietly looking at the skies filled with dust, his very being filled with excitement and joy. To be able to annihilate a sect that had existed for a deca-millennium, how could it be an easy matter? However, to think he actually achieved it!

Truth be told, SongZhong would never be able to achieve this with his current strength. It was only a matter of circ.u.mstance which allowed him to achieve this magnificent feat. Of course, the person which contributed the most would be Celestial Meihua, who had advised him on the weaknesses of the Jade Pearl Pavilion.

The jade slip which she gave him had a few key points of how to break the Jade Pearl Pavilion’s defensive formation, but obviously, SongZhong had zero idea on how to interpret it. However, this did not obstruct the demonic witches who had been living for over ten thousand years from solving it. With the memories of their FenShen cultivator experiences, they could deduce many solutions from those few hints, and quickly refined a solution to crack the defensive formation. This was the reason why SongZhong was able to easily destroy the formation after testing it out once.

As it is, there was another coincidence, and that was the fact that Jade Pearl Pavilion had, of all things, placed the strongest defence of their formation on the summit of the Jade Pearl Peak, where the Jade Pearl Hall was. In this manner, the base of the mountain would become exceptionally frail, a fact which was completely taken advantage of by SongZhong. With the strength of the Purple Lightning Yellow Dragon Cannon, it easily blew through the hundred-li-wide base of the Jade Pearl Peak, resulting in the destruction of Jade Pearl Pavilion.

However, this could not be blamed on the people of the Jade Pearl Pavilion. No one would have thought that there would be someone who could seize the weakness of the defensive formation in such a short while, and furthermore have an ultimate ability like the Purple Lightning Yellow Dragon Cannon. One could not break into the formation if he was lacking either one of the above criteria.

SongZhong had neither remorse nor pity as he stared at the ceaselessly spewing clouds of dust and the crying female cultivators. Instead, he laughed darkly to himself, ‘Since you mother-daughter pair dared to kill my entire family, I shall annihilate your entire sect! It doesn’t end with Jade Pearl Pavilion though; Thousand Desires Sect, you had better watch out!’

Lost in his thoughts of jubilation, SongZhong was jolted awake when Huo Qingyun’s humiliated and furious voice sounded out, “SongZhong, since you dared to destroy my Jade Pearl Pavilion, the Jade Pearl Sect will never leave the matter alone! You had better clean your neck and prepare for your death!”

Hearing this, SongZhong immediately threw a glance over, and found Huo Qingyun standing not far away, together with Han Bing’er and Huo QianWu. His eyes gleamed as he replied excitedly, “Huo QingYun, when I will die, I don’t know, but right now, your death date has already arrived, did you know that?”

As he spoke, SongZhong waved his hand, and the Nine Beauties Painting immediately gathered, driving the Golden Dragon Boat towards them. At the same time, a bolt of golden lightning was shot out from the boat.

   沒有了護山大陣的保護，火青雲可不敢直面數以千計的黃金神雷。所以她急忙抓起火千舞和寒冰兒，一邊往遠處飛遁，一邊高喊道：“璇璣閣弟子聽令，各自散開逃命！”說話間，火青雲就首先帶着二女逃走了。

Without the protection from the Sect’s defensive formation, Huo QingYun did not dare to face the golden lightning head on. She grabbed onto Huo QianWu and Han Bing’er, evading the shot as she shouted, “Pavilion disciples, hear my order! Every man for themselves, flee the scene!” The moment she finished speaking, she flew away like the wind.

   不得不說，火青雲不愧是一派的首腦，她並沒有因爲過分的怒火就衝暈頭腦，知道自己的弟子打不過人家 的黃金龍舟，所以她並沒有盲目的要求門下送死，而是以身作餌。陰*宋鍾追趕，好給其他人一條生路。

One had to say that Huo QingYun really had the makings of a leader. She did not let her anger cloud her judgement, and instead realised that her disciples could not defeat the Golden Dragon Boat. She could not order them to their deaths, so she used herself as a bait, allowing SongZhong to chase her so as to give the other disciples a path to live.

   果然如同火青雲預料的一樣，宋鍾對周圍四散奔逃的女修士一點興趣都沒有，他又不是殺人狂魔，纔不會隨意追殺這些無辜的女修士呢。宋鐘的全部精力，都集中到了殺父仇人火千舞和火青雲身上。見到她們逃走，宋鍾二話沒說，就駕馭着黃金龍舟追上來。

As expected, SongZhong showed absolutely no interest in the escaping disciples. He was no devil who reveled in slaughter, why would be purposely hunt down all the innocent disciples? His focus was only on the killer of his parents, Huo QianWu and Huo QingYun. Seeing them escape, he immediately used the Golden Dragon Boat to give chase.

   一邊追，宋鍾一邊讓九美瘋狂攻擊，黃金神雷就和不要錢一樣砸過去。逼得火青雲上躥下跳，不停的躲避招架。而宋鍾還不忘怒罵道：“火青雲，你丫有種別跑啊？你不是要袒護你那賤人女兒嗎？你不是要污衊我家都是妖族奸細嗎？你不是有個風老魔當拼頭嗎？你有種別跑啊？”

As he pursued them, SongZhong allowed the Nine Beauties to fire at will, shooting out golden lightning bolts as though they were free of charge. Huo QingYun could only make sudden swerves now and then as she dodged them all. SongZhong did not forget to curse at them along the way, “Huo QingYun you s.l.u.t, if you’ve got the guts why don’t you stop running? Don’t you want to s.h.i.+eld that daughter of yours? Don’t you want to slander my family and I and brand us as spies for the demons? Didn’t you have Old Devil Feng as a support behind you? Why don’t you stop running?!!”

   在前面逃命的火青雲氣得臉都綠了，心說，你這王八蛋要是沒有黃金龍舟，我一巴掌就能拍死你！哪裡還輪得到你來耀武揚威啊？

The escaping Huo QingYun already had a face full of anger. She thought, ‘You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, if you didn’t have this boat, I would have killed you with a simple slap from my hand! How would I even let you bl.u.s.ter and show off here?’

   雖然火青雲心中委屈，可是卻一點廢話沒有，只是悶聲逃命。可是逃着逃着，火青雲就鬱悶了。因爲她發現，在自己帶着兩個人的情況下，飛行的速度驚然比不上黃金龍舟。

Even though her heart was full of grievances, she did not waste her time talking, only silently putting in her full effort to escape. As she fled, she grew even more anxious. This was because she found out that her speed was slower than the Golden Dragon Boat when she was carrying two others.

   其實這也很正常，火青雲並不是以遁術出名，雖然是元嬰大圓滿的修士，她全力趕路的速度，也就六七千而已。但是現在帶着兩個人，受到了拖累，實際上也就五千左右。

This was nothing strange, Huo QingYun’s specialty was not in fleeing, and even though she was a YuanYing cultivator, her traveling speed in a straight line would at most reach 6000-7000. Now that she carried two others. She was burdened down, and only travelled around a speed of 5000.

   一刻鐘就飛出去5000裡，對於普通修士來說，算得上是驚人，如果讓宋鍾自己飛，肯定是拍馬都追不上。

Flying 5000 li in a quarter of an hour was an insane speed for ordinary cultivators, and SongZhong could not even chase up to her no matter how hard he tried.

   可問題是，人家宋鍾現在有黃金龍舟啊？有了梅花神女送的那一大批上品靈石，宋鍾底氣十足，催促九美全力趕路，完全不要擔心消耗。

But the problem was, SongZhong possessed the Golden Dragon Boat! And with the huge present of high-grade spiritual stones from Celestial Meihua, SongZhong had the stamina and confidence to plough ahead using the boat.

   在這種情況下，九美將這些年操控黃金龍舟的心得全部拿出來，再加上自己不凡的見識，結果愣是將黃金龍舟的速度保持在了六千左右。恰好比火青雲三人快一籌。

Under such circ.u.mstances, the Nine Beauties used their utmost concentration to operate the boat. With their extraordinary knowledge and experiences, they managed to keep the boat moving at a speed of 6000, one notch faster than the Huo QingYun trio.

   快這一籌可就要命了，雙方的距離不僅沒有拉開，反而還在縮短，而宋鐘的攻擊卻還一刻不停的砸過來，數千黃金神雷，形成一道大網，從後面兜過來，逼得火青雲不得不祭出法寶和飛劍招架。一邊逃命，一邊被後面的神雷轟擊，自然是弄得火青雲狼狽不堪。

This spelled disaster for her, as their distance shortened, not increased. Furthermore, under the barrage of lightning bolts, Huo QingYun was forced to constantly take out her artifacts to ward off his attacks, leaving her in a miserable state.

   再加上距離逐漸縮短，神雷的轟擊速度也越來越快，一股前所未有的危機感隨即籠罩在火青雲心頭。她清楚的知道，這樣下去不行，一旦被追進了，宋鍾自己的本命法寶也配合黃金神雷砸下來的話，火青雲就是有三頭六臂也擋不住了。

With the distance getting shorter, the intervals for the lightning bolts also became faster, and a never-before-seen cloud of danger appeared in Huo QingYun’s heart. She was clear that if this continued, if SongZhong were to use his natal artifact to attack her together with his Golden Dragon Boat, Huo QingYun would not be able to block it even if she had three heads and six arms.

   所以唯今之計，只能是拋棄一個人，以火青雲的實力，只要負擔少一半，速度馬上可以飆升到6000以上，甚至達到七千。到時候一眨眼的功夫，就能擺脫黃金龍舟。可問題是，拋棄誰好呢？是自己唯一的親生女兒？還是掌握超九品靈寶的得意弟子寒冰兒呢？

Right now, she could only choose to abandon one person. With her capabilities, as long as she reduced her load, her speed would immediately rise to 6000, possibly even 7000. With that, in just a blink of an eye, she could escape the Golden Dragon Boat. But the problem was, who should she abandon? Her one and only daughter? Or her favourite disciple who wielded the spiritual artifact exceeding the Ninth Grade?