Seen Through

The clay puppet's thrust hit empty air. Qin Sang realized that these clay puppets were different from the earlier ones; they seemed to be a kind of sword puppet. Fairy Qiuzhi let out a soft exclamation, surprised that Qin Sang's reaction had been so swift. However, the lethal strike she had painstakingly prepared would not be dodged so easily. She immediately formed a peculiar sword incantation, and all four clay puppets shattered in unison, transforming into ten thousand swords! Right at that moment, Fairy Qiuzhi suddenly sensed a terrifying aura manifest above her. Her delicate brows furrowed as alarm flared in her heart. *Crack!* A deafening roar of thunder shattered the air. It was none other than the Thunder Command Art unleashed by Qin Sang. Remembering that Qin Sang possessed a formidable thunder technique, Fairy Qiuzhi dared not be careless. Glaring resentfully at him, she was forced to shift her incantation, sending the clay puppets beside her flying above her head. *Crack, crack...* In an instant, the clay puppets coalesced into a tight cluster, forming a massive stone wall. In the next breath, lightning crashed down from the heavens, violently striking the stone wall. A thunderous crash reverberated as the stone wall trembled violently. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface, and rubble showered down. Immediately afterward, the stone wall split down the middle. The residual lightning ruthlessly tore through the barrier and blasted downward, yet it too struck only empty air. Fairy Qiuzhi's figure reappeared a hundred zhang away. She was uninjured, but having evaded in haste, she was left somewhat disheveled. She recalled her clay puppets, only to find several completely shattered beyond repair. In her heart, her appraisal of Qin Sang rose another notch. Sword arts, thunder techniques, and movement arts—every one of them was a genuine threat to her. This man was not a cultivator who merely relied on external aids. Even without demonic fire, his prowess placed him at the pinnacle of the Beichen Realm. Their brief clash had been fraught with extreme peril. Fairy Qiuzhi was forced to withdraw her strike to protect herself, giving Qin Sang the opportunity to escape danger as well. Yet he did not halt. Seizing the opening while Fairy Qiuzhi's clay puppets were damaged, he immediately wielded his ebony sword to launch another furious assault. Then, with a flash of thunderlight around him, he lunged straight toward Fairy Qiuzhi in person! *Not good,* Fairy Qiuzhi thought. Her sneak attack had failed, and now Qin Sang had seized the initiative. She hurriedly drove the Xuanhuang Greatsword forward as she fell back, frantically summoning her clay puppets to intercept him. Midair, the two flying swords tangled together, turning into a chaotic sphere of light where neither could be distinguished, accompanied only by continuous clangs of metal ringing from within. *Boom! Boom!* Using only his bare fists, Qin Sang knocked aside several damaged clay puppets one after another, closing the distance at alarming speed. Fairy Qiuzhi's face changed at the sight. No wonder this man had managed to disguise himself as a Demon King without being exposed—his physical body was truly as formidable as a demon beast's! Fairy Qiuzhi violently flicked her arms, and two white flowing sleeves shot forth like two exceptionally agile white serpents. As it turned out, this was also a magic treasure. Right at that moment, an abrupt flush rose on Fairy Qiuzhi's face, and she cried out in fury, "Shameless!" She hastily shielded her face with her sleeve, retreated further, and tossed out a piece of cyan jade. The moment the jade appeared, it exerted an attractive force. Something in the void was instantly sucked entirely clean by the jade, which turned an ashen white, drained of all spiritual power. *Crack!* The jade dropped to the ground, shattering into several mundane fragments. Qin Sang inwardly lamented the missed chance. His close-range charge had been a feint; Fairy Qiuzhi had merely lost a single exchange and was far from running out of steam. She had not played any of her trump cards yet, and who knew what other treasures she had held in reserve. No matter how strong his physical body was, there were limits; Qin Sang had no desire to take a magic treasure head-on with his flesh. His real killer move had been the aphrodisiac poison, followed by the demonic fire. When Qin Sang had taken Yue Sanren's belongings, he discovered that the flower fan was Yue Sanren's natal magic treasure. While he could not wield it for the time being, he could extract the aphrodisiac poison stored within. This poison had taken Yue Sanren immense effort to refine—colorless, odorless, and impossible to guard against. Unfortunately for Yue Sanren, his demise had come too quickly, and the poison could not overcome the demonic fire, so it had failed to affect Qin Sang. To deal with Fairy Qiuzhi, Qin Sang had simply extracted all of the aphrodisiac poison and released it in secret. To his surprise, Fairy Qiuzhi possessed a treasure that repelled poisons, preventing it from taking effect. Fairy Qiuzhi suppressed the flush on her face in an instant, gritting her silver teeth. Although unharmed, she was thoroughly humiliated and enraged. Shaking her flowing sleeves, she surged forward to counterattack. To her astonishment, Qin Sang, who clearly held the upper hand, suddenly recalled his sword and retreated for reasons unknown. Before she could react, he had already fled far into the distance like a wisp of smoke. Fleeing mid-battle on the front lines! Fairy Qiuzhi was momentarily stunned. Qin Sang's behavior was far too bizarre; she suspected it might be a trap, but she still locked onto him with her divine sense and prepared to give hot pursuit. At this moment, ripples stirred the waters in the distance, and two figures emerged, one from the left and one from the right. Looking toward the direction Qin Sang had fled, one of them sneered, "Lucky for that brat, he runs fast!" "Fellow Daoist Shan! Fellow Daoist Song! When did you arrive?" Fairy Qiuzhi stopped in her tracks, startled and surprised, her face filled with both shock and delight. Both of these men were long-famed experts of Sin Abyss. Cultivator Shan's cultivation was only slightly beneath Fairy Qiuzhi's. Cultivator Song was a minor realm lower, but his mastery of the Yimu Divine Saber was superb, giving him the prowess to challenge opponents above his stage. He had been present during the battle at the Blood Pool, but had been assigned to coordinate with Jiang Chenzi and the others in driving the Banner Gate Grand Array, so he had not taken part in the core battle itself. The two of them had not originally been stationed at Mount Shuangjing; they had been dispatched here under orders to provide reinforcements. They had approached quietly, intending to ambush Qin Sang, and had refrained from sending voice transmissions to Fairy Qiuzhi to avoid tipping him off. Even Fairy Qiuzhi had failed to notice them, yet Qin Sang had seen right through it. Caught off guard by Qin Sang's sudden retreat, the two had no choice but to give up the pursuit. Cultivator Song narrowed his eyes in the direction Qin Sang had vanished and said impassively, "He didn't even use his demonic banners, clearly holding strength in reserve. Even if we surrounded him, we might not have been able to keep him here." Recalling her Xuanhuang Greatsword, Fairy Qiuzhi agreed, "This man's senses are far keener than ordinary cultivators'. The sword puppets I had concealed underground earlier were spotted by him as well. Elder Ye once remarked that he was well-versed in warding arts, but in my view, that might not be the case. Rather, he possesses some formidable detection method—perhaps a secret divine sense art, or spiritual eye art..." "Fairy, your sword puppets had turned into stone, effectively inanimate objects devoid of any fluctuation, yet he still detected them?" Cultivator Shan was taken aback upon hearing this. "Fairy has always been an accurate judge of others. It seems we will need to guard against him on this front in the future." Pausing, Cultivator Shan could not help sighing, "What a troublesome fellow!" "He is indeed difficult to deal with. Not only are his Daoist arts and magic treasures top-tier, but his physical strength is also beyond anything I have ever witnessed. He is adept in some form of body-refining art..." Fairy Qiuzhi recounted her observations from just now, practically laying bare Qin Sang's cards one by one. Humans lacked the formidable bloodlines of demon beasts. In this day and age, how arduous was the path of body refinement? Shan and Song felt a wave of helplessness, inwardly wondering how the Xiaohan Realm had produced such a monster. After a brief exchange, Fairy Qiuzhi said in relief, "With the aid of you two fellow Daoists, Mount Shuangjing will be secure. I shall return to preside over the grand formation. May I ask you two to remain inside the formation to snipe the Two Domains Alliance's Nascent Souls and watch for an opportunity to break through their Xun Wind Grand Formation!" The two exchanged glances and hurriedly called out to stop Fairy Qiuzhi. "Fairy, you may not know yet, but Elder Ye and Senior Canghong have already ordered a general retreat. We were sent here under orders to assist Fairy in withdrawing from Mount Shuangjing!"