It was eight in the evening. The Bewitching Demons on watch at the estate were still up—some fooling around with women, others drinking. A few had already been alerted by the commotion of battle and rushed out of the houses with weapons in hand. Others only realized they were under attack when Edo Swordsman cried for help, running out into the courtyard after the fact to assess the situation.
"Have the officials launched a raid? Damn it, fight them to the death! With the meager manpower of the Changchun branch, they actually think they can purge us?"
"Fuck! What the hell is that? A werewolf?!"
"What a... terrifying aura..."
The Bewitching Demons who had just charged aggressively into the courtyard came to an abrupt halt.
Although the werewolf lacked overpowering skills, its aura genuinely belonged to Level 5. Slaughtering Level 2 and Level 3 Bewitching Demons would be as easy as crushing bugs.
Beneath the moonlight, the werewolf flew forward on all fours, its powerful spine rising and falling in stride. Wherever its claws struck the ground, a thick layer of frost instantly condensed.
Blood Drinking Mad Blade has already been pinned down, and there's another one outside... Edo Swordsman, heavily wounded, could not help feeling a surge of despair. Halting in haste, he watched the charging behemoth; before it even reached him, frost crept up his trouser legs, unleashing a bone-chilling cold.
Frost? It counters my close-quarters combat! His heart sank even deeper.
His eyes reflected the rippling muscles and movement trajectory of the werewolf, and using Insight, he foresaw its attack. Edo Swordsman did not retreat; instead, he charged forward. Dropping suddenly to his knees, he leaned backward and slid across the ground under his momentum.
Just at that moment, the werewolf pounced. It stretched out its claws with all its might, trying to intercept the human sliding beneath it, but Edo Swordsman once again anticipated the attack and tilted his head aside to dodge.
Man and wolf flew past each other in parallel.
The werewolf caught nothing but air and crashed heavily to the ground. Blood sprayed from its belly, and its entrails spilled precariously from the wound.
When they had crossed paths just now, Edo Swordsman had unleashed sword qi to slice open its abdomen. If not for the werewolf's coarse fur and astonishing defensive resilience, it would have been cleaved in two.
On the other side, Edo Swordsman pushed himself up, leaning on his broken katana and gasping for breath.
Frost clung across his cheeks, chest, and arms. The freezing temperature had numbed his pain and congealed the puncture wound in his chest, but that was hardly good news.
The chill seeped into his body, stiffening his limbs and further diminishing his combat power.
Incapable of feeling pain, the werewolf pounced once more. The wound on its belly froze over, its blood turning into crimson ice crystals, and its dangling entrails were likewise encased in scarlet frost.
Edo Swordsman panted heavily, taking in as much oxygen as he could. Veins bulged along the hand gripping his blade as he braced to meet the werewolf.
In this exchange, he had to slay this werewolf. Otherwise, once Yuanshi Tianzun and the female swordsman emerged, his death would be certain.
Right then, as Edo Swordsman sprinted forward with his blade, a sudden sharp pain struck his chest like a heart attack. The strength in his limbs evaporated instantly. Stumbling several steps, he leaned on his blade and dropped to one knee.
The werewolf gaped its maw, dripping with saliva, and lunged to bite off Edo Swordsman's head.
At that critical juncture, a window in the distance shattered with a loud crash. A bloody afterimage shot through the air with a piercing screech, skewering the werewolf through the waist from the flank and pinning it to the ground.
It was a long saber. The blade had driven entirely through the wolf's torso, leaving only half the hilt exposed.
Seizing the opportunity, Edo Swordsman summoned every ounce of his remaining potential. Gripping the broken katana with both hands, he raised it high above his head and brought it down with a vicious slash.
Into this single strike, he poured every drop of sword qi in his body.
A bolt-like arc of sword qi cleaved outward, splintering the bluestone pavers along its path and plowing open the lawn to expose the black earth beneath. So ferocious was the sword qi that the hair of the Bewitching Demons watching from afar stood on end in shock.
*Slash!*
The werewolf's neck split open, its head separating from its body. It instantly ceased its struggles and collapsed into a lifeless corpse.
On the other side, Blood Drinking Mad Blade hurtled out through the broken window. One of his eyes had been blinded, and his cast-iron physique was covered in claw marks and bruises.
The moment he leaped from the window, a one-armed young woman burst out in hot pursuit. Her body looked like a radish hacked to pieces by wild cleavers, missing chunks here and there.
Bizarrely, she was still alive. No blood flowed from her wounds; instead, wisps of lunar energy drifted from them.
"Hide in my mist to recover first, and watch me turn the tables on these scumbags!" Blood Drinking Mad Blade roared.
As he spoke, he opened his mouth and exhaled. A dense plume of white mist poured from his jaws, spreading rapidly to engulf the courtyard, the garden, and the buildings.
The dense mist was a Mist Lord's most terrifying skill. Within it, a Mist Lord was invincible.
Once I stabilize my wounds with a Wood Demon item, I can team up with Blood Drinking Mad Blade to turn the tables on these bastards... Damn it, if only I had a Saint-grade healing item... Edo Swordsman's eyes lit up as he spotted a glimmer of hope amidst his desperate plight. Clutching his broken blade, he immediately dashed toward his ally.
Suddenly, a brilliant, dreamlike streak of starlight rose within the thick mist.
"Yuanshi Tianzun..." Edo Swordsman did not panic, knowing that the dense mist enveloped the entire area. He yelled, "Mad Blade, Yuanshi Tianzun is right here! The one who ambushed me is Yuanshi Tianzun! Slay him, and you'll receive an unimaginable rewar—"
*Woooo—*
A mournful screech of wind rang out across the estate. A gale whipped up from nowhere, sweeping grass clippings, dirt, branches, fallen leaves, and the heavy white mist into the sky.
The estate, shrouded in dense fog just moments ago, cleared in an instant.
Edo Swordsman's expression froze, swiftly turning to utter despair. The word "—ard" caught in his throat, unable to break free.
"Damn it!" Blood Drinking Mad Blade cursed under his breath. What he feared most had come to pass.
The gust of wind earlier had led him to suspect that the enemy might belong to Heaven's Punishment, but throughout the subsequent battle, no more fierce winds had stirred, and no Wind Mage skills had appeared.
That had given Blood Drinking Mad Blade a sliver of false hope.
"Yuanshi Tianzun, now that you're here, don't even dream of leaving! Fear Heavenly King will arrive any second!" Two extra pairs of arms sprouted beneath Blood Drinking Mad Blade's ribs as he blurred forward, pouncing toward Zhang Yuanqing.
He had never imagined that the intruder would be Yuanshi Tianzun.
Shock aside, he was also exhilarated. Yuanshi Tianzun was an official genius who had made it onto the Earth Ranking as a mere Level 4; evil organizations had placed an exorbitant bounty on his head.
Killing this one person alone would feed him and his subordinates for three full years.
Zhang Yuanqing turned a blind eye to the enemy closing in from behind. Staring at Edo Swordsman, he said with a faint smile, "I just read your face with Star Physiognomy. You're a dead man. Not even heaven itself can save you now. If you don't believe me, look behind you."
He had victory firmly in hand. Tonight's assassination had gone exceedingly smoothly; by severely wounding Edo Swordsman in the room, the mission was already accomplished.
The Thousand Cranes Group lacked powerful items; Edo Swordsman could not possibly possess a Saint-grade recovery item, let alone life fluid.
Moreover, Swordsmen were a high-damage, low-health class. Once severely wounded, death was guaranteed.
"You're the one who should look behind you!" Edo Swordsman roared.
The moment his voice fell, a loud buzzing erupted, sounding like the rapid beating of insect wings, only amplified countless times over.
The next second, a blast of wind swept in. Edo Swordsman watched as Blood Drinking Mad Blade, who had been sprinting in a straight line, flew sideways and crashed violently against the villa wall.
*Boom!*
The entire villa trembled.
The figure that tackled Blood Drinking Mad Blade was a tall, seductive bee woman clad in light armor.
Her face was patterned with yellow and black, her pupils pure black, and her features alluring yet grotesque, topped by two curled antennae on her forehead.
The bee woman locked her legs tightly around Blood Drinking Mad Blade. Her plump bee abdomen swelled, and the jet-black, gleaming stinger at the tip jabbed into his chest in a fleeting strike like a dragonfly skimming water.
Having landed the strike, she immediately beat her wings and took to the air, pulling away before his two pairs of illusory arms could close around her.
Such was the combat style of the bee form: relying on terrifying speed combined with toxic stings, coming and going without a trace.
However, it was ill-suited for sustained melee combat; entering a protracted clash meant certain death.
"Aaargh!"
Blood Drinking Mad Blade let out a bloodcurdling shriek. As though splashed with a bucket of boiling oil, he sprang up, flailing wildly and screaming as he charged toward his distant subordinates.
He had been injected with a lethal venom. The only thing that could save him now was the Bewitching Demon passive—Bloodthirsty Rampage.
Plundering vitality through slaughter.
Cries of agony erupted, and three Bewitching Demons were instantly butchered by his hands.
Commandery Princess Yinyao and Xiao Yuan pursued Blood Drinking Mad Blade.
An—another Saint? A chill swept through Edo Swordsman's heart, drowning him in despair.
Just then, he heard heavy, low breathing, and a shiver crawled up his back.
The werewolf is still alive?! The incredulous thought flashed through his mind. Relying on a Swordsman's instincts, he spun around and slashed with his broken blade.
A dim wave of sword qi swept out with two sharp clangs, striking the sharp wolf claws and sparking against them.
The immense impact knocked the broken blade from his grip. Edo Swordsman had no time to inspect the revived werewolf; borrowing the momentum, he rolled sideways, leaped to his feet, and bolted toward the estate gates.
His body was already pushed to its absolute limit. His only remaining leverage to save his life was to escape the estate, rush into a densely populated area, and take ordinary people's lives hostage.
No Spirit Realm walker would willingly fight in a bustling downtown district.
"Edo Swordsman, your time has come!" A figure dropped from above, blocking his path. Before she even touched down, a clear, crisp shout rang out:
"Frost Descent!"
An overwhelming wave of freezing air howled forth, as if opening the gates to the arctic. The soft ground rapidly hardened into permafrost, and the lawn was coated in white rime, turning brittle and stiff.
Moisture in the air coalesced into fine, drifting ice crystals.
"Asano Ryo..."
Mid-sprint, Edo Swordsman let out an unwilling roar, then froze on the spot, his ferocious expression set like stone.
His body became dusted with white frost, tinged with the pallor of departed life.
Severely wounded and utterly drained, this Swordsman possessed no remaining strength to struggle. He returned to the Spirit Realm.
Asano Ryo stepped forward, sweeping her Ice Soul Blade across. Edo Swordsman's body shattered into pieces, without a single drop of blood spilling forth.
Zhang Yuanqing walked over to the corpse, his eyes welling with pitch-black darkness. "Huh? The spirit body dissipated?"
"Yuanshi-kun, did you get it?" Asano Ryo asked, full of anticipation and nervous tension.
Zhang Yuanqing gave a nod and tapped his bulging midsection. "Right here."
The reason he had not pursued immediately was that he had directed Little Doubi to search the room for the Takamagahara key.
The Takamagahara key was an ancient relic rather than a Spirit Realm item, meaning it could not be stored in the inventory, and Edo Swordsman had fled naked.
Therefore, the Takamagahara key had to be hidden inside the villa.
In the end, he and Guan Ya had followed Little Doubi to a safe inside the wardrobe, where they found the jade plate.
*Pity his spirit body was destroyed; I can't interrogate him on Takamagahara's location...* Zhang Yuanqing glanced at Edo Swordsman's right hand, where a pitch-black ring sat, seemingly an item.
*Did that item destroy his spirit body?*
He immediately told Asano Ryo to take the ring, then turned toward Commandery Princess Yinyao and Xiao Yuan, who were locked in combat with Blood Drinking Mad Blade, and shouted:
"Retreat!"
Although they could slay Blood Drinking Mad Blade if they worked together, there was no need.
For one thing, a Mist Lord possessed far greater combat prowess and endurance than a Swordsman. For another, who knew when Fear Heavenly King would arrive?
If Fear Heavenly King showed up, it would mean a total wipeout.
With the prize secured and the mission accomplished, there was no reason to expose everyone to unnecessary risk.
Even though Star Physiognomy showed no fatal calamity for their party, whether Star Physiognomy worked against demigod-level experts—or whether it could be deceived—remained an unknown.
Xiao Yuan shot straight into the air, vanishing into the night amidst the buzzing hum of her wings.
Commandery Princess Yinyao dispersed into starlight.
Zhang Yuanqing grabbed Guan Ya and rode the wind aloft, while Guan Ya tossed the Night Walker Cloak down to Asano Ryo.
The group swiftly evacuated.
Above the sea of clouds, inside the Gulfstream cabin.
Everyone gathered around the table, examining the bowl-sized jade plate. The plate was deep green, its surface dark and smooth, engraved with cloud patterns and flames, with a black swallow-like bird carved at the center.
"There's no item description at all. Can this thing really open the legendary Takamagahara?" Xie Lingxi asked, glancing at her Japanese peer.
Asano Ryo shook her head honestly. "I don't know."
Because of the recent eavesdropping, everyone had learned about Takamagahara. With Asano Ryo's consent, Zhang Yuanqing had revealed the truth to the team.
Li Chunfeng had grown excited upon hearing it, though not over the treasures within Takamagahara, but because he believed this subject deserved deep research—enough to write an academic paper that would stun his peers.
"Alright, I'll keep the item for now. I'll bring it back out once we reach Takamagahara," Zhang Yuanqing announced domineeringly, stowing the jade plate away.
Queen, on the other hand, was fraught with worry. "Now I just hope we can make it back to Songhai safely, without Fear Heavenly King intercepting us in midair."
"Pah, pah, pah! Jinx!" Xie Lingxi turned around and spat at her.
After retreating, the group had not even returned to their hotel, heading straight to the airport to flee back to Songhai aboard Fu Qingyang's private jet.
Xiao Yuan remarked indifferently, "Fear Heavenly King is a demigod-level expert. Even if we flee back to Songhai, so what? Can Fu Qingyang and the five elders stop him?"
Zhang Yuanqing nodded. "That is indeed a concern. Once we're back in Songhai, I'll discuss it with Fu Qingyang. Ryo-chan, what do you think?"
"B-But... you promised not to tell the Five Elements Alliance," Asano Ryo said meekly.
"Don't worry, I'll only mention that we provoked Fear Heavenly King. I won't reveal any intel about Takamagahara," Zhang Yuanqing said with righteous conviction. "Don't you trust me? I am a warrior of noble virtue."
"A-All right then..." Asano Ryo could only concede, though she quickly brightened up. "With the mission accomplished, I need to report the good news to the Group Leader."
Clutching her phone, she headed toward the lounge at the rear of the cabin.
Zhang Yuanqing took the cue to stand up as well. "I'll go check on Commandery Princess Yinyao."
Commandery Princess Yinyao had sustained heavy injuries and was currently resting in the lounge. Even the invulnerable physique of a yin corpse could not withstand an armor-shredding Bewitching Demon; after holding off Blood Drinking Mad Blade alone for so long, her body was riddled with wounds.
Worse yet, the princess was like rootless duckweed, her spiritual energy only draining away with no replenishment—every bit used was gone for good.
Zhang Yuanqing planned to seize this opportunity to refine Commandery Princess Yinyao into a yin corpse of his own, nurturing her physical body while also enabling her to accompany them to Takamagahara.
A win-win.
In the countryside far outside Chun City.
Inside a single-story brick house, Blood Drinking Mad Blade sat beneath a dim yellow bulb, wolfing down wine and dishes served by the homeowner.
The owner of this house had already become his servant.
The long escape had drained his stamina, and the toxins in his body were not yet fully purged, leaving him extremely feeble.
*Ring, ring, ring...*
His phone began to ring. Blood Drinking Mad Blade retrieved the phone. Caller ID: Fear Heavenly King.
Chapter 408