Icy Lotus Flower grinned down at . At this point, she was just ssing with us. Or, more likely, she wanted to make suffer the sa pain as her boyfriend.
But this also gave ti to think.
I doubled my split mind technique to 12. My head ached. This was more than my current body could safely handle, but I needed the extra processing power. I could treat any sequelae later.
A drop of blood began to fall from my nose. Several band mbers glanced toward expectantly.
Shit. There had to be sothing more we could do! Everyone worked so hard to save their sect. Even now, the look on their faces showed they were willing to risk their lives to keep going. Especially since we’d already done the impossible twice by knocking out two Nascent Souls! They trusted .
If we could escape, that would be ideal, but she could easily murder most, if not all of us. Individually, we didn’t have a single chance out of a hundred trillion to defend against her. Since she’d seen us take down her Nascent Soul comrades, she would never let one of us live.
Unless I couldn’t co up with anything, retreating would be my last option.
So, what could we use to fight her?
I had so defensive tools, but that wouldn’t cover the whole band. Hell, it might not even protect !
Shit, what other tools did I have? What songs? What concepts? There had to be sothing I could do! I was god-damned, Fairy Lin!
A concept from my past-past life bubbled up from my mories, and everything clicked into place.
“Heh. Hahaha. Muahahaha!” Just before that drop of blood reached my mouth, I wiped it from my upper lip.
“Sister Lin?!”
::Pearlescent Rose. I have an idea, but it will take a minute to set up. Break off your band and protect us!::
”I don’t know how long we can last, but we’ll do our best to counter her. Just hurry!”
All of our Golden Core seniors lifted out of the formation while playing an ethereal song. Real illusions of tigers and dragons appeared behind them. The nagerie rushed into the sound Qi attacks aid at us.
::Elder Vengeful Siren. I know you’re in the middle of a fight. But watch this if you can!::
Frankly, if I hadn’t already done the calculations for this, we’d be fucked.
I pulled out all 888 flags that Siren gave , grabbed onto Little Spring’s arm, and spun our flying sword around while releasing each one. With a little push from my spiritual energy, they landed in the exact location they needed to be. All except for one.
The first part was done.
I moved the band into position and activated the formation by placing the final flag.
::No one move unless you’re avoiding attacks that co your way! Next, play this!::
I sent out a new, simple lody that was based on our three somniferous songs. To all the vocalists, I gave the lines and lodies from those songs with instructions to sing them on my command. All except for Lotus and Thunder. I sent them the simplified lody and lyrics from “Dragons Never Die” — the song we used to purify souls.
::Pearlescent Rose, Return to the band!:: Then to one third of my vocalists I said, ::Sing the new 'Counting Sheep!' Don’t stop!::
With the activation of my 888 Stars Amplification Formation, our sound and energy were amplified to the point where we didn’t even need my battle formation. The biggest problem with this was that we were like trapped ants that Icy Lotus Flower could squish at any ti.
“Fools!” She played the counter she’d created. With every touch of her zither strings, another illusory arrow was released. It was as if she were trying to prove that this was pointless and we should just wait in despair for her to smoosh us to death.
Despite their efforts, two more of my students vanished into dust.
Fuck! This wasn’t good.
::Sister Lin, your musicians aren’t as skilled as you are.::
::I know that. They don’t have the split mind technique. They can’t focus on both the new version of the song and dodging sothing this powerful.::
::... actually, I don’t think they can even see her attacks.::
::Then I’ll do it for them. I refuse to lose more students than I have to!::
I pulled out four puppets to replace those who were missing and increased my split minds to 16. A sour feeling started at the back of my throat. I coughed up a mouthful of blood. But the puppets went to their nodes and perford with the band.
With what ntal energy I had left, I used it to move my students so they wouldn’t be where her attacks landed.
::Sing 'About 8 Hours' in three, two, one!::
The lodies began to overlap. At first, it was awkward, but as they played together, their confidence in this new variation grew.
Icy Lotus flower looked confused for a second, then continued to play her counters for both songs.
Another of my students went down despite my efforts. I pulled out a fifth puppet.
::'Enter Sleep!' in four beats!::
The notes had deepened as more complexity was added to this impossible song.
But there was sothing missing.
I knew there would be. Spiritual music had originally been ant to heal, and just making people fall asleep wasn’t healing enough. Not when every one of those enslaved cultivators was still cursed.
”What is this?” Icy Lotus Flower yelled. “What are you trying to do? It won’t work!”
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She adjusted her grip on her zither and played in a way that counteracted all three songs simultaneously. Sweat beaded on her forehead. She sent out several dozen simple sound Qi attacks. I couldn’t avoid one, and another of my students vanished.
I pulled out a puppet to replace him.
Blood ran down my nose in two streams.
::Now!:: I told everyone in Lotus and Thunder and sent each of their minds the Nascent Soul level counter curse enchantnt. ::Visualize that symbol while playing.::
“You’re not asking for much, Band Leader,” Gold String said.
“We’ll get it done!” Dread Lotus yelled.
I moved our flying swords into a facsimile of that sa enchantnt.
But it needed a boost. Sothing to propel it forward and upward so it could reach even more cursed elders. Sothing that could help us fight off the demonic cultivators that attacked.
I sang and played a simplified version of the first Dao of Rock song to ever exist in this tiline, Stairway.
All five songs combined using the overlapping lodies technique from my past life’s musical theater. Songs like these were the act one closers, sotis called the finaletto, and were everyone’s favorite songs. They were pieces like “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto or “One Day More” from Les Misérables.
Five aning-filled songs blended together, two versions of the enchantnt — ntal and external — all enhanced exponentially by the 888 Stars Amplification Formation!
This was what I did — combining things that would normally never touch to improve them far beyond their original design — because I had no limits! My Dao was Unlimited. Muahahaha!
As I played and visualized the enchantnt, I realized a truth about music in this universe: It mostly affected the listener’s soul, but it was also an expression of the player’s. Wasn’t my soul at the Immortal Ascension stage? While I wouldn’t be able to touch its power until I reached Nascent Soul, maybe I could use this impossible song, which created energy that fit my Dao to tap into a small portion of it!
Above us, a massive, powerful, golden sheep with swirls of ti in its eyes stepped into existence. The curse-breaking enchantnt glowed on its rump. It began to run on a glittering, ever-changing staircase, spreading a cloth of golden sand out with each step.
Just from its initial sweep of energy, most of the low-stage cultivators below us fell unconscious. Their techniques fizzled out, and their swords missed each other by yards.
Since the initial energy was directed at her, Icy Lotus Flower coughed up several mouthfuls of blood.
Her eyes grew wide, and she ford a series of complicated hand seals. An illusory giant lotus appeared in front of her. It twirled through the air, accelerating toward our sheep, which bleated, then chomped on the petals, consuming it in two bites.
She gasped in shock, then spat out more blood. As the sheep closed in, she attempted to take a step and escape. It ramd its horns into her ass before throwing her up and out of its way. Then it took another step on its infinite golden stairway.
Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she dropped like a teor into the chaos below.
The sheep quickly reached the nearest cursed elder. The enchantnt on its rump glowed and flowed into the sheet of sand at its feet. It slapped itself onto the distracted elder’s skull, removing the curse completely... Fortunately, or unfortunately, it also made him fall asleep... as well as the guy who’d been fighting him. Oops.
I glanced over at Siren to find him staring at the sheep. His eyes were wide open with shock.
MiaMia held their enemy’s neck in one creepily clawed hand. Apparently, they’d captured him long enough to shove a sleeping poison into his mouth.
Realizing what was happening, MiaMia happily tossed her burden into the path of the sheep so it could counter his curse.
Scowling, a demonic cultivator near the peak of Nascent Soul, shielded himself with a sneer. He even took out a spiritual tool that was specifically used to counteract powerful music Qi.
When the blanket of sand hit him, his technique resisted it. Our sheep eyed him.
The man smirked and made the ‘bring it’ gesture.
The staircase suddenly turned toward him. It ran down it and ramd through his shield and defensive spiritual tools, smashing his cheek with its fluffy head. He dropped out of the sky.
The sheep snorted, then continued.
One enslaved elder attempted to flee. Her opponents caught her with a rope beast taming technique and pulled her into the sheet of sand. As soon as the enchantnt hit her, they both fell unconscious.
A poison body cultivator fighting an enslaved golden core expert grunted as she was hit with the sheet of sand. The cure slamd into her opponent, causing him to go unconscious. She punched him one last ti before succumbing to the technique herself.
Foundation Establishnt cultivators from all sides, who hadn’t passed out, began to defend their helpless elders while the other side attempted to kill them off... Not that their weak-ass attacks could do anything to a Nascent Soul, even if they were comatose.
Actually, the poor Golden Cores caught up in this were in a little danger, but they probably had defensive tools, so whatever.
Siren sighed. “Elder Linlin, did you have to make it take out people on our side, too?”
::They should have helped when I asked for it!::
“… I sincerely apologize that I couldn’t reach you in ti.”
::I don’t want your apologies. What I want is for you to murder these demonic cult bastards before they wake up! Especially that bitch who killed my students!::
“As you wish.”
MiaMia picked up Icy Lotus Flower’s body. She seed to grab sothing invisible out of the air and devoured it. She then threw the now lifeless body into her storage space.
She burped and sent a happy wave.
I returned it awkwardly and gave her a thumbs-up. She briefly looked up in confusion before returning to Siren’s side.
Holy shit! That rmaid ate Icy Lotus Flower’s fucking souls! While I didn’t know much about spiritual beasts, I guessed that it would take her many years to fully digest those. Absolutely horrifying. And frankly, I couldn’t think of a more perfect fate for the demonic bitch that murdered my students!
Both Siren and her quickly sent attacks toward those cultivators caught using demonic energy. They also used their spiritual energy to pick up the other unconscious elders and throw them to Doll Monarch’s puppets.
Our song had already ended, but the sheep still ran.
Three enslaved elders ca together, using their life energy to power a forbidden spell. It created a multilayered shield that surrounded them. When the sand struck, it blocked the counter curse. When the sheep noticed, its stairway turned toward them.
The trio drew closer together and forced more energy into their shield.
The sheep ramd through their technique, then smashed through them like bowling pins. They were flung up and outward. As their unconscious bodies ca down, another blast of the enchantnt slapped onto their skulls.
Our sheep snorted, as if satisfied, then finished off the last of the cultivators who were attempting to escape it.
Little Spring rocked my shoulder in excitent. “That was incredible!!!”
“Damn straight! And I realized an amazing concept. In fact...”
The clouds above opened, and heavenly energy dropped onto my head.
Little Spring tugged on my sleeve. “Sister Lin… are you having an epiphany? Right now?” He gestured to the war that was going on. Not to ntion, we still had a bunch of Immortal Bone Creation powerhouses above us that were fighting.
Goddamn it! Why were epiphanies always so fucking inconvenient?
I imdiately recalled my puppets, ended my split mind technique, and coughed up seven mouthfuls of blood.
Shit! I overdid it. Considering how many of my students and friends survived fighting a Nascent Soul, it was worth it! Muahahaha!
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Apparently, I had briefly blacked out because when I ca to, the kid was grabbing my arms and keeping upright. My limbs couldn’t move the way I wanted. I managed to pat his hand and dropped heavily into a cross-legged position. Little Spring had already taken over my flying sword.
::Dread Lotus, you’re in charge!::
“Yes, Bandleader!”
I tried to sit with my back straight, but it wasn’t happening. My body didn’t have the energy. I subtly leaned against the kid’s armored shin. “Your turn. Protect my ass.”
He bent down and practically slapped several Lin’s Healing Dan and spirit replenishing pills into my mouth. “Always!”
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