Xuanjia Talisman

Qin Sang's expression shifted slightly. With a sway of his body, he vanished into the forest. To his surprise, the incoming streak of light flashed, seemingly detecting his tracks, and dove into the woods as well. *Whoosh! Whoosh!* Two figures shot out of the mountain woods one after another, confronting each other midair. His face grim, Qin Sang secretly summoned the ebony sword and fixed his gaze unblinkingly on the figure before him. The newcomer appeared to be a handsome youth with an ethereal bearing. His long hair was gathered loosely by a ribbon of unknown material, cascading naturally down his back. His pupils were strikingly green, glinting with an uncanny, demonic weirdness. "You're finally here, Fellow Daoist. You've arrived rather late; we have been waiting for quite some time. Fortunately, you haven't delayed our important undertaking, otherwise the Great King would likely punish you if you were a moment later." The long-haired youth looked Qin Sang up and down, eyes shifting as he spoke with a faint smile. Qin Sang froze upon hearing this. When he sensed someone approaching, he had thought cultivators were locked in battle again. Unwilling to be drawn in, he had immediately slipped into the woods, only to be easily flushed out by the youth and forced to reveal himself. After confirming there were no pursuers behind the youth, warning bells rang in Qin Sang's heart, suspecting the man intended to murder him for his treasures. Yet he did not panic. The cultivation displayed by the youth was formidable—at least that of a late Core Formation expert. But as long as the other party was not a Nascent Soul Patriarch, Qin Sang was confident he would not be outmatched. Having already activated the Heavenly Demon Transformation divine ability and secretly readied the ebony sword, Qin Sang had been on the verge of striking first to seize the upper hand, only to be caught off guard by the youth's words. "You have mistaken me for someone else!" Qin Sang narrowed his eyes and replied coldly. "Impossible," the youth said, shaking his head repeatedly with utter certainty. "The demon qi radiating from you is genuine! Those human cultivators who consume Fiend Demon Pills refined from the flesh of our fellow demons might carry a faint demonic aura, but that kind of demon qi differs from ours; only those of our kind can tell the difference. Even setting aside our token of identification, can't you tell that the demon qi about you is just as pure as mine?" "The demon race?" At these words, Qin Sang was utterly stunned, waves of shock surging through his heart as his muscles tensed sharply. When demons underwent transformation, the difficulty and the realm required differed from tribe to tribe, but at the very earliest, it required breaking through to the Transformation stage—which was how the realm had earned its name. This man looked no different from an ordinary human, yet claimed to belong to the demon race. Could he be a Transformation stage great demon? Qin Sang stared intently at the youth, thoughts racing. The man was likely not a demon beast from the Demon Sea; the teleportation formations between the two regions were controlled by the two factions and guarded by Nascent Soul cultivators, making it impossible for a Transformation stage great demon to be allowed into their hinterland to stir up trouble. Although the Canglang Sea was dominated by immortal cultivators, countless demon beasts lurked in the oceans, particularly in the Rain Desert of the North Sea, an uninhabited wasteland teeming with hidden beasts. The emergence of a Transformation stage great demon was not entirely out of the question. Yet who could have imagined that a Transformation stage great demon would dare enter the Hall of Seven Kills? Was he not afraid of being discovered and besieged by the cultivators of the two factions? The man seemed to have mistaken him for a demon beast, likely due to the Heavenly Demon Transformation. Back in the Demon Sea, Qin Sang had discovered that cultivating *Heavenly Demon Form Refining* caused the demon qi around him to grow increasingly rich, so much so that even beasts within beast tides regarded him as one of their own, significantly reducing their hostility. He had never imagined that the demon qi of *Heavenly Demon Form Refining* would be so pure that it could deceive even a Transformation stage great demon. What alarmed Qin Sang even more was that he could not sense the slightest shred of pressure characteristic of a Transformation stage great demon from the man. By all appearances, he seemed nothing more than a late Core Formation cultivator. This indicated that the other's true cultivation was far more terrifying than imagined! Then what sort of existence could the "Great King" he spoke of possibly be? Qin Sang startled himself with the thought. Could other supreme beings be lurking within the Hall of Seven Kills? He dared not make any rash movement; if his cover was blown, he would die without a burial place. Inside the corpse puppet pouch, Bai's entire body was equally rigid, afraid to move an inch. His expression fluctuated unpredictably as he cursed endlessly in his heart, *He's a jinx! A complete harbinger of disaster!* Bai deeply regretted his choice to travel with someone like him. Suppressing his unease, Qin Sang measured his tone and asked solemnly, "Where is your token of identification, Fellow Daoist?" The youth gave a soft sigh. "In a foreign land surrounded by an alien race, I understand your caution. Why not take out your Xuanjia Talisman, Fellow Daoist? One test will tell." With that, the youth took out an object from his waist and displayed it to Qin Sang. The object was only palm-sized—a tortoiseshell plaque crafted from a black tortoise shell. The front bore natural striations, while the back was carved with intaglio runes. Upon seeing it, a sense of familiarity immediately welled within Qin Sang, and he instantly recalled where he had seen one before. Inside his Qianjun Ring was a similar tortoiseshell plaque! During his first entrance into the Hall of Seven Kills, following the resonance of the bone flute, he had tracked down an aquiline-nosed man. After turning the tables and killing him, Qin Sang had obtained not only the bone flute and the star conch, but also this very tortoiseshell plaque. At the time, he had tried several times but failed to activate the runes upon it. Sensing its aura and feeling it was not an object of the human race, he had treated it as a curious relic and stored it away for the time being. Yet the person before him possessed one as well, calling it a Xuanjia Talisman. Could the aquiline-nosed cultivator he had slain back then have some connection to this Transformation stage great demon? Yet the youth had not sought vengeance for the man, and even addressed Qin Sang as "Fellow Daoist." Such strange behavior left Qin Sang thoroughly baffled. Just as Qin Sang was lost in thought, the youth traced in midair, swiftly sketching several runes and tapping them into his Xuanjia Talisman. The runes sank into the talisman and vanished. The next moment, the Xuanjia Talisman shone brilliantly with azure light, and a thumb-sized shadow of a flood dragon emerged, swimming within the talisman. At the same time, an abnormal stirring arose from the Xuanjia Talisman inside Qin Sang's Qianjun Ring. He hurriedly brought it out, only to find the talisman in his hand undergoing the exact same change. The two tiny flood dragons shared some mutual resonance, each struggling to break past the constraints of their talismans and fly toward one another. "So you hail from the Bijiu clan, Fellow Daoist! It is fortunate that you showed restraint earlier; otherwise, even with my flood dragon body, I would not dare lightly touch the poison of the Bijiu. You carry the aura of a Qingluan—you must possess a trace of Qingluan bloodline, don't you? You are a rare descendant of the Qingluan; I never expected the Bijiu clan would be willing to send you out. When traveling the Canglang Sea, I took the name Yuan Zhu. Might I ask what to call you, Fellow Daoist...?" To Qin Sang's eyes, the flood dragon souls within the two Xuanjia Talismans appeared identical, yet somehow the youth had discerned a distinction between them, smiling as he spoke. "With the Xuanjia Talisman here, you can set your mind at ease now, can't you, Fellow Daoist?" the youth asked with a smile. Qin Sang stared at the Xuanjia Talisman in his hand, instinctively feeling that something was amiss. In particular, hearing the youth claim he came from the Bijiu clan reminded Qin Sang of the wings of light displayed by the aquiline-nosed man he had killed years ago, as well as the azure venomous smoke that man had spat out at the very end. After a brief silence, Qin Sang stowed the Xuanjia Talisman, sizing up the youth covertly before speaking. "So it is Fellow Daoist Yuan Zhu. I took the Daoist title Mingyue for myself. Aside from you, Fellow Daoist, I wonder which other fellows have arrived?"