Thousand Dusts Ferry Me - Chapter 74

The several people fought while converging toward Yun Qing’s direction, and Yun Qing was also retreating toward the edge of the Silence Formation, planning to escape from the formation’s range.

Sensing that their opponents intended to flee, how could the Huayang Sect disciples allow it? They entangled them even more tightly in combat. Not only could they not permit their retreat, but they absolutely could not allow them to regroup.

The spherical lantern in mid-air suddenly collapsed, revealing the Jade River Sky-Shaking Mirror that had stopped within it. Stardust scattered across the mirror’s surface as the Milky Way poured forth.

This time, Jiang Binghe learned from his previous lesson and did not plan to capture several people at once, deciding to take them one by one.

This Jade River Sky-Shaking Mirror had a particular characteristic: the longer it charged, the slower the flow. Now that Jiang Binghe wanted to defeat them individually, the charging time was very short, making the stardust river narrow and swift.

The glowing Milky Way pierced through the wind and snow, first sprinkling toward Fu Xue’s back. Yun Qing’s attention was also on this Jade River Sky-Shaking Mirror. Despite being extremely busy, she could still seize a moment of opportunity and struck her junior sister with her sword sheath.

Fu Xue took this sheath strike and rolled to one side. The stardust river missed its target and spilled onto the ground. The ground instantly became hollow, revealing a black deep pit.

On Yun Qing’s side, she had divided her attention after all. Her back was struck by Xie Junze’s kick, and she was knocked to the ground. Before she could land, she twisted her waist, then quickly rolled several times on the ground, getting covered in broken jade fragments before flipping back to her feet.

After standing up, she glanced around. Fu Xue’s figure had already disappeared, and another deep pit had appeared where she had vanished.

Yun Qing’s eyes turned red, her eyeballs protruding from extreme anger, glowing frighteningly bright.

She recklessly charged toward Jiang Binghe’s direction. When Huayang Sect disciples blocked her path, her steel sword trembled, and the silver blade swept across someone’s neck at an unimaginable speed.

Hot blood splashed onto her face, even splattering on her eyeballs. Her vision became half white, half red.

Li Xiuzhu and Xie Junze hurried to intercept her. These two had made up their minds to display their abilities well before their master today, so they were also fighting desperately.

These three people were like frenzied beasts. The other disciples couldn’t get close for a moment.

Jiang Binghe watched their struggle with satisfaction. With a thought, the stardust river rolled again, this time easily sweeping away Cheng Suiyan.

During this process, the river touched several Huayang Sect disciples and swept them away as well.

He smiled and said, “Don’t rush, one by one.”

The glowing Milky Way wrapped toward Yun Qing. Fortunately, she hadn’t completely lost her reason and quickly dodged to the side. However, after the Milky Way descended, it suddenly turned a corner and rushed toward Hanlu Zi.

Yu Beiting seized the opportunity and blocked in front of Hanlu Zi, enduring being stabbed by her sword to obstruct her vision.

Combined with the wind and snow interfering with judgment, by the time Hanlu Zi noticed, it was too late. She had just driven the Xuan Sword into Yu Beiting’s right chest. The two were very close, and the Milky Way instantly struck, sweeping both of them away from behind Yu Beiting.

Seeing the situation turning bad, Ci Li rolled on the ground and transformed into a small cat, trying to escape.

However, Mingxuan Zi smiled slightly. He had been waiting for this moment. He pulled out a demon-catching net from his waist and threw it at the small cat. The net automatically pursued Ci Li, enveloping it and restraining its movement.

Ci Li was, after all, a great demon. He transformed back into human form and shattered the purple net. However, this step ultimately cost some time. The Milky Way arrived in the blink of an eye and swept him away.

Yun Qing could neither run nor fight. At this moment, her blood surged upward in waves, her mind went blank, and she assumed a desperate stance of mutual destruction, which somewhat intimidated Li Xiuzhu and Xie Junze.

Jiang Baiyu hovered in mid-air, fighting Xingge Zi while observing Yun Qing’s side.

People lay scattered on the ground. Yun Qing was entangled in combat with Li Xiuzhu, Xie Junze, and four or five other disciples, unable to escape the Silence Formation. In the fierce sword light, he noticed her sword tip quickly pointing in two directions.

The two directions corresponded to two of the five petals of the plum blossom formation.

She pointed once in one direction and three times in the other.

Jiang Baiyu understood that this Silence Formation actually had two formation cores, and she was pointing at the two disciples who served as formation cores.

The Caihen Sword struck toward one of them, while he himself quickly leaped toward the other.

Xingge Zi’s sword tip struck right at his back. He didn’t even blink as he took this sword strike. Under the astonished gazes of Xingge Zi and other attacking disciples, he rushed toward the other formation core covered in blood.

At the same time, the stardust river likewise descended toward this formation core disciple.

Jiang Binghe watched him with great interest, seeming to eagerly anticipate his choice.

Jiang Baiyu did not hesitate. In the blink of an eye, he arrived and, almost simultaneously with the Caihen Sword killing that formation core disciple, he snapped the neck of this formation core disciple.

With the formation cores dead, the Silence Formation was broken.

The Milky Way also at this moment engulfed his body.

He only had time to leave behind three words: “Yun Qing, go.”

Seeing that he had captured Jiang Baiyu alive, Jiang Binghe was so excited that his heart pounded rapidly. But he knew it wasn’t time to celebrate yet.

There was still one more, only one left.

Yun Qing’s eyes were about to split with rage. She roared. “Ahhhh!!!”

She wielded her steel sword like a windmill. The blade finally couldn’t withstand such intensity and snapped in two with a crack. She finally couldn’t hold back anymore, threw her head back and spat out a large mouthful of fresh blood, splattering it across the vast wind and snow.

She finally took advantage of this strike to roll to one side and pulled off the bracelet from her wrist.

At this moment, Yun Qing’s face was pale, with blood on her face and chin. Even her gaze was somewhat scattered. But she knew this was the opportunity that Baiyu had created for her by sacrificing himself. She could not fall.

She threw out the bracelet, summoned all her strength, and quickly recited the incantation:

“A thousand li of bright moon, a thousand li of dreams, Free in the mortal world, free as the wind. The beauty lies drunk among the flowers, Fragrant mist drifts, returning to yun qing.”

Returning to yun qing, returning to yun qing…

Yun Qing’s eyes moistened, and a clear tear gathered at the corner of her eye.

White mist appeared instantly and began to rapidly converge.

Seeing that she was about to escape again, Jiang Binghe flew into a rage, blood rushing straight to his head.

This demoness had repeatedly frustrated him. This time, he absolutely would not let her escape again. He not only wanted to use her to threaten that little brat but also to dismember her body!

When the Jade River Sky-Shaking Mirror finished collecting people and needed to readjust its angle, it had to scatter stardust again. Jiang Binghe saw the mist converging and knew it was too late to use the Jade River Sky-Shaking Mirror against her.

Fortunately, he was not far from the demoness at the moment. He directly cast a swift movement technique, his feet shook, and like an arrow released from a bow, he instantly rushed into that thick mist. At the same time, he beckoned with his hand, and the Jade River Sky-Shaking Mirror above vanished into thin air, returning to his consciousness.

When the thick mist enveloped the two of them and completely converged, he heard the demoness say softly: “People can be foolish, but they cannot be greedy.”

……

Initially, when she first proposed that plan, Cheng Suiyan had evaluated Yun Qing this way:

“You really are a natural-born gambler.” He had thought anyone could be a gambler, but he never expected Yun Qing would be one—this woman who had always been extremely thoughtful and cautious in her actions. People really were complex.

Yes, Yun Qing’s plan was to gamble—to bet on whether Jiang Binghe could resist missing the best opportunity to kill or capture her. Of course, this opportunity was one she deliberately created.

The reason for this plan was that it was a method born of desperation. Jiang Binghe had high cultivation and the powerful weapon of the Jade River Sky-Shaking Mirror, plus numerous Huayang Sect masters. Facing such opponents head-on would be like throwing eggs against rocks.

Of course, Yun Qing had little confidence in this extremely risky plan. Therefore, she only proposed it for everyone to discuss together, hoping collective wisdom might inspire better ideas.

The one who supported her most was Hanlu Zi.

When Hanlu Zi heard about this plan, she felt that while it appeared to be a high-stakes gamble at first glance, the probability of success was actually quite high. It was definitely not comparable to gambling based on luck.

The reason lay in Jiang Binghe’s character.

“If given time to think, he might not fail to understand the key points. But in such an urgent moment, people have no time to think. What drives human behavior is instinct. And what does instinct come from? Naturally, character.

I understand Jiang Binghe’s character extremely well. He is stubborn and self-opinionated, arrogant and proud, has strong self-esteem, and is extremely greedy.

You have repeatedly defied him and made him lose face. He must hate you to the bone. I think, in such a moment, he absolutely will not miss the opportunity.”

Yun Qing was encouraged by this, but after thinking it over, she still had some hesitation and said, “Should we leave Baiyu behind? He has the Golden Frost Jade Dew Lotus, which is our most important bargaining chip. What if Jiang Binghe stops after capturing Baiyu?”

Hanlu Zi smiled slightly, her face relaxing into gentle lines. She said confidently:

“It seems you still don’t understand Jiang Binghe. If at such a moment, if all of us including Baiyu have already been captured in his mirror, and he could stop there and let you, the last fish, go, then he wouldn’t be Jiang Binghe.

Greed is his most fatal weakness in this life. Also, the stronger the opponent, the more cautious he becomes. When you have nothing left, that’s also when his guard is lowest.

If Baiyu doesn’t enter the mirror, he would have some concerns, which would actually reduce our chances of success.

Since we’re gambling, we should gamble boldly and put all our chips on the table. Life is not always foolproof—or rather, most of the time it isn’t.

You, girl, are somewhat too cautious. You should know that blindly pursuing safety can indeed help you avoid some failures, but it also makes it difficult to achieve success. Do you understand?”

Yun Qing nodded. “I understand, Senior.”

“At critical moments, people only make choices that conform to their character. And our plan is a trap tailor-made for Jiang Binghe, targeting his character.”

The others were all persuaded by Hanlu Zi. What rather surprised Yun Qing was that Ci Li also agreed to this plan. He was a great demon who hadn’t known them for long and had no compelling reason to wade into these troubled waters.

To this, Ci Li’s answer was, “I only trust the instincts of a wild beast.”

Fu Xue interjected from the side, “What kind of wild beast is a cat?”

Ci Li: “You are—you wild boar naturally count as a wild beast.”

……

At this moment, after entering the white mist, Jiang Binghe’s vision became extremely distorted and blurred. In almost an instant, it became clear again.

The wind and snow had disappeared. The surroundings were dim and damp, with seventeen pairs of copper lamps on the walls glowing eerily, illuminating the bright red runes beside them.

Guizhen Cave!