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 manuscripts of their ancestors and the best heavenly treasures, they were all completely destroyed without a scrap 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 passive, 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 circumstance 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.
没有了护山大阵的保护，火青云可不敢直面数以千计的黄金神雷。所以她急忙抓起火千舞和寒冰儿，一边往远处飞遁，一边高喊道：“璇玑阁弟子听令，各自散开逃命！”说话间，火青云就首先带着二女逃走了。
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.
不得不说，火青云不愧是一派的首脑，她并没有因为过分的怒火就冲晕头脑，知道自己的弟子打不过人家 的黄金龙舟，所以她并没有盲目的要求门下送死，而是以身作饵。阴*宋钟追赶，好给其他人一条生路。
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.
果然如同火青云预料的一样，宋钟对周围四散奔逃的女修士一点兴趣都没有，他又不是杀人狂魔，才不会随意追杀这些无辜的女修士呢。宋钟的全部精力，都集中到了杀父仇人火千舞和火青云身上。见到她们逃走，宋钟二话没说，就驾驭着黄金龙舟追上来。
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.
一边追，宋钟一边让九美疯狂攻击，黄金神雷就和不要钱一样砸过去。逼得火青云上蹿下跳，不停的躲避招架。而宋钟还不忘怒骂道：“火青云，你丫有种别跑啊？你不是要袒护你那贱人女儿吗？你不是要污蔑我家都是妖族奸细吗？你不是有个风老魔当拼头吗？你有种别跑啊？”
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 slut, if you’ve got the guts why don’t you stop running? Don’t you want to shield 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?!!”
在前面逃命的火青云气得脸都绿了，心说，你这王八蛋要是没有黄金龙舟，我一巴掌就能拍死你！哪里还轮得到你来耀武扬威啊？
The escaping Huo QingYun already had a face full of anger. She thought, ‘You bastard, 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 bluster and show off here?’
虽然火青云心中委屈，可是却一点废话没有，只是闷声逃命。可是逃着逃着，火青云就郁闷了。因为她发现，在自己带着两个人的情况下，飞行的速度惊然比不上黄金龙舟。
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.
其实这也很正常，火青云并不是以遁术出名，虽然是元婴大圆满的修士，她全力赶路的速度，也就六七千而已。但是现在带着两个人，受到了拖累，实际上也就五千左右。
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.
一刻钟就飞出去5000里，对于普通修士来说，算得上是惊人，如果让宋钟自己飞，肯定是拍马都追不上。
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.
可问题是，人家宋钟现在有黄金龙舟啊？有了梅花神女送的那一大批上品灵石，宋钟底气十足，催促九美全力赶路，完全不要担心消耗。
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.
在这种情况下，九美将这些年操控黄金龙舟的心得全部拿出来，再加上自己不凡的见识，结果愣是将黄金龙舟的速度保持在了六千左右。恰好比火青云三人快一筹。
Under such circumstances, 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.
快这一筹可就要命了，双方的距离不仅没有拉开，反而还在缩短，而宋钟的攻击却还一刻不停的砸过来，数千黄金神雷，形成一道大网，从后面兜过来，逼得火青云不得不祭出法宝和飞剑招架。一边逃命，一边被后面的神雷轰击，自然是弄得火青云狼狈不堪。
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.
再加上距离逐渐缩短，神雷的轰击速度也越来越快，一股前所未有的危机感随即笼罩在火青云心头。她清楚的知道，这样下去不行，一旦被追进了，宋钟自己的本命法宝也配合黄金神雷砸下来的话，火青云就是有三头六臂也挡不住了。
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.
所以唯今之计，只能是抛弃一个人，以火青云的实力，只要负担少一半，速度马上可以飙升到6000以上，甚至达到七千。到时候一眨眼的功夫，就能摆脱黄金龙舟。可问题是，抛弃谁好呢？是自己唯一的亲生女儿？还是掌握超九品灵宝的得意弟子寒冰儿呢？
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?