The talisman drifted lightly in a circle through the air, casting a pale white light that brought clarity to the surroundings. Splatters of blood and severed limbs emerged into view, while a hazy glimmer rose from the darkness.
Li Qinghong cast a glance over them, a flash of fury in her eyes. Beside her, the man bowed respectfully and reported, “Twenty-seven households, one hundred and ten souls. Not a single survivor.”
Li Qinghong narrowed her eyes. Planting her spear against the ground, she channeled her arts to investigate, murmuring in a low voice, “No monster qi. This was not the work of a beast. I fear it was some cultivator looking for blood food.”
*Whoosh...*
As Li Qinghong examined the scene closely, a dark dart suddenly shot into view. Spells shimmered over it, and attached to its tail was a pitch-black thread that vanished into the darkness.
Li Qinghong had been on guard all along. Brushing aside her dark hair, she flicked her spear upward, erupting in a burst of purple arcane light. Struck by the spear, the dark dart wobbled and tumbled down. Li Qinghong called out in a clear voice, “Which fellow Daoist seeks blood food in our Li family’s territory? You have quite the nerve to lie in wait here.”
A plume of black mist billowed from the darkness, revealing a gaunt, withered old man with a sullen expression. In his hand, he still held the black thread, which clinked as it dragged across the ground. The old man glanced at Li Qinghong, merely frowned, and called out, “Why make a fuss over nothing, young lady? I haven't harmed any children of your noble clan. I was merely passing through an immortal family’s territory, resting my feet here and liberating a few two-legged sheep. Yet you press so aggressively—where is your great clan’s poise?”
Li Qinghong scrutinized him for a moment, her eyes brightening as the purple hue in her pupils grew all the more piercing. Hearing the old man say things like “passing through an immortal family’s territory” and “two-legged sheep”—terms used only in the northern states of Zhao and Yan—she realized he was from the north. Delighted, she said, “So you hail from Jiangbei! Looking at you, you must be a demonic cultivator. Come, have a bout with me so I can broaden my horizons!”
Paying no heed to the old man’s stunned look, she swept her spear straight down at his head. With no choice, the old man lifted his sleeve and puffed out his cheeks, exhaling a cloud of dark, misty smoke with a *poof*. Within it sat men, women, old, and young, plainly clad, all wearing joyful expressions.
Li Qinghong was completely unfazed. Wherever her spear reached, lightning erupted in brilliance. Lightning naturally dispelled delusion and purged evil; in an instant, it swept away the smoke. The men, women, old, and young all let out shrieks of agony. Horrified, the old man cursed, “Damn it all, you're a lightning cultivator!”
This was Li Qinghong’s first time clashing with a cultivator outside the path of Purple Palace and Golden Core. She remained secretly vigilant, keeping her distance. Lightning coalesced on her spear, crashing down relentlessly upon him. After taking two blows, the old man could contain himself no longer and roared, “A petty Qi Refinement cultivator dares bully me?!”
With that, the robes on his body burst apart, exposing a gaunt, withered, decaying physique. He swelled up furiously as a mass of flesh and blood thrust out from his abdomen, instantly coalescing into a hairless, blue-skinned head several times the size of a person. Two bloodshot crimson eyes, each as large as an ordinary head, stared straight ahead, drenched in blood and weeping tears, while neat rows of stark-white fangs shone with a lustrous pale gleam.
“So this is a demonic cultivator... truly devoid of human form!”
Li Qinghong thrust her spear, sending lightning rippling outward like water. The demonic monstrosity spat a mouthful of bloody vapor from its fang-filled maw, completely neutralizing Li Qinghong’s attack, and cursed loudly, “Motherfucker, you push people too far! What I cultivate is the Benevolent Joy Demon—it has far more human form than your path of Purple Palace and Golden Core!”
At this point, the aura on the demonic creature had climbed to the sixth or seventh layer of Qi Refinement. Though his tongue lashed out viciously, he showed little actual intent to fight.
He was, after all, a demonic cultivator who had attained the rank of Master, the equivalent of Foundation Establishment in the path of Purple Palace and Golden Core. He had eaten people along the entire journey without running into trouble; only today had he failed to curb his gluttony and gorged on a few extra bites, leaving him secretly vexed.
Normally, out of mutual respect, most prominent clans wouldn't drag him out over such a matter for no reason. But if he ran into a clan that took things to heart and brought the matter out into the open, he was indeed in the wrong, nor did he dare actually wound Li Qinghong.
*I hear this Li family is a clan of sword immortals, and this girl is proficient in lightning arts... Her background is surely not simple.*
The demonic cultivator found himself riding a tiger with no way off. He sullenly endured Li Qinghong’s lightning, afraid to retaliate and injure her, yet fleeing on the wind would cause a Master of his standing to lose face. He could only wait for an elder of the Li family to show up and give him a way out.
Li Qinghong, having only unleashed two spear strikes, had already realized that this demonic cultivator’s cultivation was decidedly above her own—roughly at the sixth or seventh layer of Qi Refinement. It was only because her lightning countered him and he lacked any will to fight that a stalemate had formed. Slipping a jade pendant into her hand, she quietly crushed it, thinking to herself, *I haven't even used my talisman qi yet. If this old demon turns murderous, holding out until my clansmen arrive won't be a problem...*
Lightning flickered at the foot of Mount Yuting. The demonic monstrosity was far more formidable than Li Qinghong, yet it could hardly endure the dense, fierce lightning in her grasp. Bearing the innate power to dispel demons and purge evil, it wore away at his cultivation, giving him the faint sensation that his progress was eroding. Growing anxious, he shouted, “Stop at once, young lady! Your cultivation technique damages cultivation! If you keep fighting, I'm going to get serious!”
Only then did Li Qinghong pause slightly. Fortunately, streaks of arcane light rode the wind toward them from both sides. One person flew over brandishing a sword, looking anxious and fierce, while the other appeared in his forties or fifties, his expression solemn. The latter barked, “Who dares run wild in our Li family’s territory!”
The arrivals were none other than Li Yuanjiao and Tian Youdao. Tian Youdao had recently broken through to Qi Refinement as well, becoming the third Qi Refinement cultivator of an outside surname in the Li family. He cultivated the second-rank technique provided to cultivators of outside surnames and had consumed Xiaoqing spirit qi to make the breakthrough. The two landed at Li Qinghong’s side. Li Yuanjiao was faintly on guard, thinking, *The timing of this person's arrival is awfully clever, just when An Zheyan and Uncle Donghe are away... Only a few of us remain at home. Without alerting the Ancestor, it truly won't be easy for us to suppress him.*
Seeing that more and more people were being alerted, the demonic cultivator hurriedly retracted his gory demonic form and returned to human shape. Bitter in his heart, he said in a heavy voice, “I am Murong Xia. Traveling through Jiangnan, I passed through your immortal family’s territory and indeed consumed a few two-legged sheep. If I have caused offense, I ask for your forgiveness... A mere handful of mortals hardly warrants becoming enemies, surely.”
Hearing this, Li Yuanjiao knitted his brow. Beside him, Li Qinghong said in a low voice, “Twenty-seven households, one hundred and ten souls.”
The demonic cultivator blinked in surprise. With his years, he understood from Li Qinghong’s quiet words alone: these people were not angry because he had taken without asking, but genuinely repulsed by his cannibalism. Catching on immediately, he cupped his hands and said earnestly, “You have lived long in Jiangnan and do not know the orthodoxy of our demonic sects. I fear you have listened to the immortal sects’ propaganda and believe our demonic sects commit every evil and relish eating people. In truth, nothing could be further from the case.”
Li Yuanjiao and the others had never expected him to come out with such a claim. Finding it absurd, they exchanged glances as Murong Xia wagged his tongue, saying solemnly, “Even a dying man is granted a word or two of parting. I ask that you hear me out, so that you do not condemn all of us who cultivate the demonic path with a single stroke.”
Yet Li Yuanjiao looked down at the growing crowd of townsfolk below and saw their uneasy eyes. Frowning, he said, “This is no place to speak. Please follow me up the mountain, Fellow Daoist.”
“Very well!”
Murong Xia was completely unafraid, nodding in agreement. Li Yuanjiao made an inviting gesture, and the group—who had been at each other’s throats moments before—turned and ascended the mountain together.
Li Qinghong sneered, transmitting her voice, *Eating people is eating people. Can he really spin flowery rhetoric out of that?*
Li Yuanjiao merely shook his head silently, replying through voice transmission, *The mountain has the great array and the Ancestor holding down the fort. Once he steps into the formation, he will be entirely at our mercy.*
Chapter 276