The spear cut through like splitting bamboo [1]an idiom for unstoppable, overwhelming momentum jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015891_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015891_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. The black-robed man, seeing the spear come flying at him wrapped in fierce killing intent, panicked and threw up a protective barrier, which was shredded to ribbons instantly.
He immediately tried to flee, but the spear had already reached him.
The other two demonic cultivators watched their companion’s chest run clean through by the spear, his soul escaping his body and trying to flee, only to be sucked in by the puppet…
Body destroyed, soul extinguished.
Alarm bells rang loudly in the remaining demonic cultivators’ hearts, their faces filled with shock.
That, that had been a fifth-grade protective barrier! Even in the Northern Continent, such a magic tool was hard to come by, a late Golden Core cultivator would need continuous strikes for an entire day and night just to break through one, and yet the enemy had done it with a single thrust.
Just what kind of thing was this puppet??
The Sixth Elder found himself swallowing hard again.
That protective barrier, he’d hacked away at it desperately for ages, gouging craters into it with his own sword, and still hadn’t managed to chip off even a fragment of the enemy’s shield. This sixth-grade spear truly was formidable.
The puppet really was terrifying, in a single instant, the two demonic cultivators, without even time to flee, were cleaved in two by the Azure Dragon Spear.
Their bodies dropped with a wet thud onto the deck.
The demonic cultivator who’d summoned the Soul-Binding Banner, seeing most of his fellow sect members dead or wounded, his eyes bloodshot with fury, raised a hand and pointed, shouting, “Go!”
A dense swarm of ghostly spirits, like a cloud of insects, instantly surged toward the puppet.
The puppet stood perfectly still. The demonic plant darted out from its nostril, its vine tip spinning like propeller blades at high speed, whipping up a vortex that instantly sucked in the ghosts charging at the front, swallowing them whole.
Some of the ghosts further back, sensing trouble, tried to fly back the way they’d come, but the vortex’s pull behind them felt like a pair of giant hands, gripping them firmly and dragging them backward.
“What’s happening?”
Seeing this, the demonic cultivator immediately raised his Soul-Binding Banner, trying to recall his ghosts. But the demonic plant gave him no such chance, having the Black-Spotted Poison Crimson Python direct the puppet to fly onto the deck. No one knew exactly what the demonic plant did, but the demonic cultivator suddenly found the Soul-Binding Banner in his hand exploding violently, and every ghost bound within it swarmed toward the puppet all at once, only to be devoured completely in an instant.
“No…” the demonic cultivator cried out, his eyes filled with deep, seething hatred.
The ghosts within that banner were people he’d captured himself, deliberately tortured to death to build up towering resentment, then refined for over eighty years, a batch painstakingly cultivated through decades of effort.
Now, a century’s worth of hard work had vanished in an instant.
The ghosts, once undefeated in every battle, now seemed to have met their natural nemesis, swallowed up entirely. A milky, babyish voice came from the puppet’s nose.
“Ah! Still haven’t filled the gaps in my teeth! Kid, is there any more? Give me some more.”
The demonic cultivator: “…”
With the puppet unleashed, the remaining demonic cultivators were no longer a threat. The Black-Spotted Poison Crimson Python controlled the puppet, cutting through them like slicing melons and vegetables, laying waste across the deck in every direction.
Demonic cultivators died or fled, everything descending into instant chaos.
“Still trying to run?”
“Run where? Didn’t you just say not a single one gets to leave? Guess I’ll give that line right back to you.”
“No running allowed.”
“Sssss, fun, fun, this is so much fun~”
The Sixth Elder looked at the ground strewn with mangled limbs, in barely more than a stick of incense’s time, most of the Demon Gate Sect’s members were gone. His expression had already gone past shock into something indescribable, his stomach churning wave after wave.
The other disciples, hearing this, watched their expressions shift again and again, finally turning pale and instinctively hiding behind the Sixth Elder.
Fun?
This puppet was more demonic than the demons themselves.
“Sixth Elder, what is this thing?”
“Ssssss, you’re the thing here. Say another word out of line and I’ll cut you down.” The puppet suddenly turned around, its tone hostile.
The disciple immediately shut his mouth.
The Sixth Elder’s expression was extremely grave.
This puppet radiated a demonic aura, it must be a demonic cultivator controlling this puppet, and judging from the overwhelming pressure that had leaked out just now, this cultivator must be at peak Golden Core.
Demonic cultivators differed from human cultivators, at the same tier, demons surpassed humans. Demonic cultivators had massive, sturdy bodies, unlike humans, which was why during the ancient wars between humans and demons, cultivators had developed the Five Arts, using defense and offense to supplement the body’s shortcomings.
Judging by the aura, this puppet and those other two things inside it had been contracted.
Whoever could command a demonic cultivator of this caliber to control a puppet like this was no simple person.
At the very least, no one in the Southern Continent had this kind of capability.
The Fifth Elder, throwing all caution to the wind at this point, pressed closer, his eyes shining as he stared at the puppet. “Excuse me, may I ask who your master is? Where might they be right now? Could I possibly pay them a visit?”
“Ssssss, my master is—”
The Fifth Elder’s ears practically perked straight up.
“I’m not telling you. Sssss.”
The Fifth Elder: “…”
Unable to resist, he took another step closer, his hand itching to reach out, apparently wanting to touch it. The puppet, sensing his intent, raised the Azure Dragon Spear and aimed it at him. “Ssssss, what are you trying to do? Trying to take advantage of me?”
“No, I just, I just wanted to touch it.”
The puppet erupted. “Sssss, you shameless old man, even wanting to take advantage of a puppet, sssss, disgusting, so disgusting.”
“No, I really just wanted to touch it,” the Fifth Elder explained.
“Touching isn’t the same as trying to take advantage? Sssss, don’t take me for a fool. I won’t let you take advantage of me.” The puppet activated a talisman and vanished from the deck in the blink of an eye.
Its parting words drifted on the wind.
“Hmph, shameless old man, shameless old man, I’m not playing with you all anymore, sssss~”
The Fifth Elder chased after it a few steps, gazing longingly toward the direction it had disappeared, only snapping back to his senses when the Sixth Elder called out to him. He sighed, feeling utterly regretful about it.
“Sixth Junior Martial Brother, who do you think that was?”
The Sixth Elder shook his head. “No idea.”
This puppet really was strange, helping them out and then simply leaving.
…
Back in the cabin, a small snake, its whole body pitch black, crawled out of the puppet, its tail tip poking Xu Yifan’s calf.
“Sssss, mission accomplished, where’s the promised reward!”
The demonic plant wrapped itself around Xu Yifan’s other calf. “Me too, me too.”
“Every single one of you is a glutton.” Xu Yifan sighed, pulling two bottles of pills from his ring and tossing them over. “Hurry up and get back to the secret realm.”
The Black-Spotted Poison Crimson Python coiled around the pill bottle. The moment it opened, a burst of medicinal fragrance wafted out, invigorating anyone who caught its scent.
It seemed to treasure it deeply, drool practically dripping from its mouth, yet it held back, only sniffing it twice before carefully tucking the pills away into a pouch hung around its neck.
“Ssssss, Boss, next time there’s a good gig like this, remember to call me, kay? Sssss, this old snake’s on standby anytime, ready whenever called.”
“Yeah, sure,” Xu Yifan said.
Seeing this dead snake made him irritated all over again.
The Black-Spotted Poison Crimson Python was something he’d brought back from the inner region of Beiman Mountain. Back when he’d just formed the contract with the demonic plant and was about to leave, the Black-Spotted Poison Crimson Python had emerged from the lake, no idea where a demonic beast had picked this up, shouting some nonsense about “this road, I built it, this tree, I planted it, if you want to pass this way, leave behind some pills” [2]a parody of a classic bandit’s toll-demanding taunt from wuxia and folklore jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015891_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015891_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
The Black-Spotted Poison Crimson Python had known someone was on the shore all along, having lain in ambush underwater the whole time, planning to catch them off guard for a hearty meal. Little did it expect Xu Yifan to pull out something so fragrant, more delicious than human flesh, and it had held itself back, thus witnessing the entire process of Xu Yifan coaxing the demonic plant into a contract.
When Xu Yifan tried to leave, it had immediately moved to block him, but who could have known this two-legged beast, despite being only Qi Refining sixth layer, wielded a terrifyingly powerful soul force, which transformed into a giant hammer and pounded it relentlessly, leaving it utterly unable to fight back.
Xu Yifan himself didn’t expect that a demonic cultivator of proper late Golden Core cultivation, unable to beat him, would shamelessly cling to him afterward, whining, “Sssss, I want candy beans too, I want to contract with you too.”
As long as no one provoked him, Xu Yifan was generally easy enough to get along with, but once someone crossed him, he’d kill without hesitation if he could manage it.
After all, the books all said it best: kill your enemies early, or things get troublesome once they grow strong.
Better to die early and be reincarnated sooner [3]a darkly humorous twist on Buddhist reincarnation beliefs, framing killing as a mercy jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015891_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015891_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, practically a good deed, really.
He’d originally planned to kill the python and dig out its Golden Core before leaving, but the Black-Spotted Poison Crimson Python had cried so pitifully that, with no other choice, Xu Yifan had brought it back along with him.
Ever since then, the Black-Spotted Poison Crimson Python had stayed hidden away cultivating in the small secret realm Xu Yifan had refined. The spiritual energy in there was rich and dense, and normally, whenever Xu Yifan wanted to send it out to do some errand, it was hard to budge at all, the Black-Spotted Poison Crimson Python simply refused to come out. Today, only after much cajoling and the promise of a whole bottle of pills had this creature finally condescended to come out and run an errand for him.
That damn thing.
Eating his food, living off his hospitality, and yet asking it to run one errand required begging it three or four times over, if it weren’t for its uncommon bloodline, he’d have killed and eaten it long ago as snake meat.
Xu Yifan thought bitterly to himself.
…
Lianyun Mountain.
The formation had held against prolonged assault, but with the three Burst-Pattern Tigers growing increasingly agitated, the Second Elder, after examining the array that morning, wore an extremely grim expression.
“Old Seven, we need to prepare,” he said.
The Seventh Elder’s brow furrowed. “How much longer can it hold?”
“About half a stick of incense,” the Second Elder said.
The Seventh Elder, brows knitted, instructed the disciples behind him, “Once the formation breaks, the Second Elder and I will try to hold them off. All of you run south immediately.”
Most of the disciples were more than happy to hear this.
With their low cultivation, they stood no chance at all against a fourth-grade demonic beast, being able to flee was naturally a relief.
A few, though, spoke up insisting they wanted to stay behind.
Staying behind would only mean throwing their lives away, so the Seventh Elder refused to allow it.
Xian Qinglin, having been refused, fell silent and said nothing further.
“Boom.” A violent collision sounded, and the protective array was blasted open with a breach.
The Second Elder shouted loudly, “Run, now!” At the same time, he swept his hand, instantly detonating several dozen second-grade talismans.
Taking advantage of the moment, the disciples flew south by sword. One Burst-Pattern Tiger roared and turned to pursue, but the Seventh Elder summoned his magic sword and flashed in front of it, blocking its path.
The Burst-Pattern Tiger, at late Golden Core strength, had exceptionally tough hide and flesh, the several dozen detonated second-grade talismans barely scratched it, while draining a considerable amount of the Second Elder’s spiritual energy in the process.
“These beasts really do have thick hides.”
The Seventh Elder held off two of them, with the Second Elder assisting from the side, while the remaining tiger lunged straight toward Xian Qinglin.
Six sword-shadows attacked the Burst-Pattern Tiger from extremely tricky angles. Sword intent surging around him, the Seventh Elder fought while scolding in frustration, “Didn’t I just tell you all to run? Why haven’t you left?”
“This disciple hasn’t even reached Foundation Establishment yet. I can’t just leave my master behind alone.” Xian Qinglin said.
“You…” The Seventh Elder didn’t know what to say.
It was his own oversight.
Sword-flight consumed an enormous amount of spiritual energy, most cultivators at the Qi Refining stage generally couldn’t sustain sword-flight for more than half a stick of incense.
Half a stick of incense wouldn’t carry him very far, and a late Golden Core beast could close that distance in the blink of an eye.
There was no use fleeing at all.
The Burst-Pattern Tiger leapt in front of Xian Qinglin, its terrifying pressure bearing down on him. His rational mind screamed at him to flee immediately, but his body felt as if gripped in place, unable to move at all, his legs numb and paralyzed, a dense layer of cold sweat breaking out across his forehead.
His skull felt as though something were pressing down on it with crushing force, or as if a hammer were pounding against his brain again and again, splitting his head with pain, as if it might explode at any moment.
Xian Qinglin found even breathing difficult. The sword in his hand clattered to the ground, and he collapsed to his knees. As his mind grew a blur of confusion, hazily, indistinctly, he seemed to see a red-robed cultivator, cradling something in their arms that looked like a lantern yet somehow wasn’t quite a lantern, stumbling forward through a vast expanse of snow.
They kept walking, on and on, cradling that lantern, utterly alone, the scenery around them shifting again and again, one moment a winter of drifting snow, the next a spring of endless drizzling rain, then a summer scorched by blazing sun, and then an autumn of falling leaves drifting on the wind.
They kept walking, seemingly tireless, crossing countless mountains and rivers, from the Upper Realm all the way to the Savage Continent. They kept walking, as if searching through this empty, desolate world, trying to find some trace of something lost.
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