Night of the Broken Gliph

All of a sudden, all the commoners and cultivators below the one-chambered stage on the Southern Mountain passed out. A loud chime rang from the five clans, announcing the presence of an enemy, as all the two-chambered gliphers rushed towards the source of the scream.

“Return my treasure!” A dishevelled woman chased after the circular shield, her long hair flying after her. It was none other than the Yellow Spring’s Lady. 

“You devil! Necrogliphism hasn’t appeared for years! It’s still lurking in the shadows as expected!” The figure slapped the circular shield around Chui Yim in the direction of the Ping Clan. The figure was revealed to be Ping Chi. 

A grandmaster of alchemy and medicine, he was also a hundred-gliphic gliphist; Ping Chi was determined to keep Chui Yim alive, the child who was meant to be his direct disciple. So, after Chui Yim nearly died the other day, he secretly left a gliph string on Chui Yim so that he would be alerted if anything happened to Chui Yim. At the very least, he would be able to tell if anything happened while Chui Yim was within Southern Ping. 

This was why he had arrived so quickly. Ping Chi stared at the Yellow Spring's Lady solemnly, forming a circular elixir with his gliph strings! Since most elixirs were spherical, it would be hard to distinguish an elixir without analysing its aroma, colour and pattern. But if Chui Yim was conscious, he would definitely be able to tell that it was the Poorest Elixir! 

The gliph strings overlapped each other, forming a Poorest Elixir! An alchemist with the ability to refine the Poorest Elixir was extremely rare, so Ping Chi felt strongly about it. He didn’t care about how this elixir could change someone’s life or allow one to reach the sixth chamber, but rather the hard work behind refining it. Alchemist Hui started working on the elixir when he was a grade two alchemist, and he sacrificed his whole life on nothing other than just this one elixir. It could be said that he exchanged this elixir with his life. 

His determination moved Ping Chi, who created a gliph using the Poorest Elixir, which he named the Poorest gliph. It was also Ping Chi’s personal gliph. He looked confident, but he didn’t let his guard down as he used his personal gliph against the Yellow Spring’s Lady’s necrogliphism. 

As soon as the gliph took shape, it shot towards the Yellow Spring’s Lady with a powerful force behind it. 

 “Get lost!” The Yellow Spring’s Lady looked up, staring at the gliph with her demonic eyes. The chambers on both her legs and right arm turned black, energliph flowing into her heart chamber as she screamed. 

It was no ordinary scream. The sound waves instantly turned into a black gas, forming a giant ball of negative energy that collided with the Poorest gliph. 

Boom! 

Ping Chi’s face fell. He coughed blood as he fell from the sky in a wobbly descent with a pale face. Both of them were of the same stage, but the Yellow Spring’s Lady could destroy Ping Chi’s personal gliph with just one attack. 

Immediately, the Yellow Spring’s Lady chased after Chui Yim, who had landed within the Ping Clan’s territory. Chui Yim and the forearm bone were the only two things she cared about. She had spent a century and hundreds of rare materials to nurture her treasure after all.

However, it was the Ping Clan that Ping Chi had sent Chui Yim towards. Countless elites of the Ping Clan appeared. Seeing Chui Yim shrouded in a light shield with Ping Chi’s aura, they didn’t stop him as they went past him, charging towards the Yellow Spring’s Lady. These elites included Ping Cheng Sau, a four-chambered glipher, and Ping San Yat, a ten-gliphic gliphist and a few other guest elders. 

Besides silver taels, guest elders of Ping Clan would get many herbs and elixirs to help their cultivation. These conditions were what attracted many capable cultivators to the Ping Clan. As an alchemical clan, the elixirs they produced were rarely found elsewhere, and only as a guest elder would you normally be able to acquire them.

The Yellow Spring’s Lady was a guest elder too, so the other guest elders had interacted with her in the past. Yet, realising that she was the culprit behind the many brutal murders in Southern Ping left them furious, so they launched countless attacks at her without hesitation. 

But this didn’t stop the Yellow Spring’s Lady. She raised her right arm, covered in a black gas, as an illusionary figure materialised. It was a pitch-black figure resembling a shadow that floated in the air with a sword in its right hand. 

The hand holding onto the sword moved slightly, cutting across the skies with a sharp whistle!

A black, blurry figure then shot out from her left leg. It was a giant figure that repeatedly hammered its chest, its aura rising sharply before releasing a destructive punch aura. Both figures used simple and righteous attacks, but they contained horrifying power and had a creepy atmosphere. Both the sword and punch aura collided with the attacks from the Ping Clan elders, leaving Ping San Yat and Ping Cheng Sau coughing blood while the other guest elders were sent flying away! 

“The River Crosser and Sky Squash Punch! Those styles belong to the North’s Four Season Heaven and the Hung Clan’s past genius, Lee Yan Si and Hung Sing! Those two figures… Oh my god!”  

“Necrogliphism!” Ping San Yat’s face fell. “She deserves death!” 

The Ping Clan elder might’ve been injured, but they still managed to stop the Yellow Spring’s Lady temporarily. 

Whoosh…

Sounds of countless figures dashing through the wind rang out. In no time, hundreds of cultivators surrounded the area. All of them were at least of the three-chambered or ten-gliphic stage, and they each belonged to one of the five major clans of Southern Ping. They were also the foundation of Southern Ping’s strength. 

All of them watched the scary Yellow Spring's Lady in shock. They were thrown off their feet to see the four-chambered Yellow Spring’s Lady defeat the Ping Clan elders with ease! 

“Everyone!” Just then, Ping San Yat’s voice rang throughout the skies. “This demon is a follower of necrogliphism. She deserves death! Please cooperate to defeat her! I’m not making this request as the Ping Clan leader, but as a cultivator of this world!” 

As soon as Ping San Yat said this, the Suen Clan, one of the other five clans, spoke up immediately. “Clan Leader Ping, we are more than willing! It’s everyone’s responsibility to eliminate those of necrogliphism; they are the enemies of all cultivators!” 

All other clans agreed, even the Mo-Yung Clan who was unhappy with the Ping Clan. Mo-Yung Yin knew that their disagreement was about dominance over Southern Ping, but everyone who practised necrogliphism should be culled. This was an unspoken rule in both the North and the South. 

A black gas now surrounded the Yellow Spring’s Lady. Her hair floated in the air, making her look like a ghost from the underworld. A black gas from the shadow realm was emitted from her right arm and left leg. Two huge, black figures condensed from the gas and stood around her.

There wasn’t the slightest fear on her face; she looked like a madman. “Since you’re here to fight, why would I be afraid to oblige?!”