Wutu Peak.
Li Yuanjiao let out a long breath. In his hand, the longsword Jiaopanying gleamed with scaly light, radiating an azure brilliance, while his other hand held the pale-purple Moon Crescent Sword Scripture.
He was thirty-three this year, with a cultivation at the sixth layer of Qi Refinement, merely half a step away from the seventh layer. Bolstered by the Circulating Qi and Devouring Spirit Talisman and the Li family’s present resources, such a cultivation speed was already formidable.
After all, Li Tongya had been fifty when he reached the seventh layer of Qi Refinement, and even Li Xuanfeng was nearly forty when breaking through to it. In comparison, Li Yuanjiao’s pace was exceptionally swift, standing out even among sect disciples.
“By my calculations, I should be able to break through to the seventh layer by the end of the year. The late stage of Qi Refinement places the greatest emphasis on accumulation; the seventh and eighth layers alone will likely take me six or seven years... Pair that with a talisman pill to break through the most difficult ninth layer, and after two years of gathering strength, I can attempt Foundation Establishment.”
If all went smoothly, Li Yuanjiao could enter seclusion in his early forties to make a push for an immortal foundation.
With a flip of his hand, Li Yuanjiao put away the sword scripture and retrieved a jade-white slip. It was the commentary written by Li Tongya, the True Explanation of the Jiazi Sword Scripture. Far more accessible than the obscure, difficult Moon Crescent Sword Scripture, he read through it carefully twice, thinking to himself:
“Granduncle’s talent in the sword was so exceptional, and he even received personal guidance from a sword immortal, yet he only comprehended sword origin at eighty. It shows how difficult this supreme path of slaughter truly is... Who knows how many sword wielders there are in Jiangnan, yet how many sword immortals can there be?
“In the family today, only I have enough sword talent to hope to follow in Granduncle’s footsteps. Qinghong and Xicheng wield spears; Zhi’er, who has the finest talent for the sword, went to the sect; Xijun is somewhat decent, but Ximing merely treats a sword as a cleaving tool—he is no material for a sword cultivator.”
Occupying his current position, Li Yuanjiao had far too much to consider. As he stroked his chin in thought, a man came up from below. He was a middle-aged man with light brown skin, prominent brows, and large eyes. Cupping his fists, he said, “Peak Master! Something has happened on Guli Road!”
This man was Shamoli. Now a cultivator at the fourth layer of Qi Refinement, he had relinquished his position in the Shanyue State to cultivate under Li Yuanjiao.
Although he was a miscellaneous qi cultivator, the heaven-and-earth spirit qi he inhaled and exhaled was diluted orthodox qi corresponding to his path, and the technique he cultivated, the Purple Lightning Secret Origin Method, was profound, allowing him to rival ordinary Qi Refinement cultivators.
Li Yuanjiao froze slightly, then rode the wind upward. Sure enough, thick smoke billowed over Guli Road. Cultivators from various families took to the sky to watch, several streaks of white light hovering in midair, hesitant to advance.
“Something happened at Guanyun Peak!”
It was thanks to the Xiao family repairing Guli Road and establishing post stations manned by cultivators along it that Li Yuanjiao and the others were able to receive news of Guanyun Peak so swiftly. His expression instantly changed, and he thought, “Not good! How could this be? Father and the others are still in the market!”
“Go!”
He hurriedly rode the wind downward, summoned Li Qinghong, An Zheyan, and several other mid- to late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators, and flew eastward together.
***
Meanwhile, watching the monkey disappear, Li Xuanxuan could not help feeling countless doubts. Wavering between hope and fear, dreading that the creature had simply run off, a twinge of regret and worry surfaced within him.
Clatter—
Before Li Xuanxuan could think further, a faint rummaging sound rose. Alarm bells instantly sounded in his heart. Unfortunately, the fiendfire in the backyard was dense; his spiritual sense was suppressed by the fiendfire leaking from the fire vein to just a few inches around his body, rendering him unable to probe the surroundings.
He waited a moment in the pitch-black backyard veiled in fiendfire. Soon, a dark silhouette emerged indistinctly from the flames, shrouded in a red glow and tall in stature.
Li Xuanxuan had waited for a long time, having already clutched his most powerful fire spell talisman in his palm. Staring intently at the newcomer, he reasoned inwardly, “Dressed in black, carrying the stench of blood—he is unmistakably a demonic cultivator. I must strike first! Even if I cannot best him, it will buy me a chance to escape...”
Seizing the moment when the man was probing his surroundings, he suddenly erupted. The talisman in his hand flared with red light, striking straight at the figure, while his other hand drew a massive axe from the storage bag at his waist, twisting and swinging it straight toward the man’s head.
The demonic cultivator’s spiritual sense was likewise suppressed by the fiendfire, unable to detect anything. How could he have anticipated someone lying in ambush in the dark corner? Caught off guard by the sudden leap, he took the mid-Qi Refinement fire talisman squarely in the face and was instantly engulfed, turning into a man of flames.
“Awoooo—!”
The fiendfire and the spell’s flames resonated, as if triggering a chain reaction. Their power surged, blazing a brilliant crimson that illuminated the pitch-black ruins in blood-red light. The firelight glinted off Li Xuanxuan’s great axe as it hacked viciously into the man’s neck.
Squelch...
A tooth-grating snap sounded from the demonic cultivator’s neck. Like a green sugarcane snapped in two, his head tumbled down. Blood spurted under intense pressure, pattering heavily across the ground.
Seeing the enemy’s gruesome state, Li Xuanxuan had just begun to relax when the headless body took two steps forward. Those pale hands shot out abruptly and slammed onto his chest.
“What—!”
A tremendous force struck him, sending him flying backward. He slammed heavily into a crooked beam with a loud crash. Ash and smoke billowed up as two collapsing pillars crashed down directly upon his chest.
His chest tightening painfully, Li Xuanxuan coughed up two mouthfuls of blood. Not daring to pause and rest, he scrambled to his feet while seeing stars. The demonic cultivator had already picked up his head and set it crookedly back onto his neck. His face was pale and delicate, but his eyes were filled with fury and terror. He cursed, “I knew something was wrong! Where the hell did an immortal cultivator come from?! You nearly beat me to death!”
Even as he barked curses, his hands did not slow. Swiping at his waist, he produced two short blades dripping with bloody gore. Striding forward, he arrived before Li Xuanxuan in an instant and thrust his daggers forward.
Li Xuanxuan was only thankful that he had endured the pain and never let go of his magical artifact. With a twist of the haft, the broad axe swung around like a shield, blocking the man’s blood-red blade qi and sending a jolt through Li Xuanxuan’s aching chest. With his other hand, he pinched another talisman, releasing a golden stream of light that formed a protective golden barrier around him, finally granting him a moment to catch his breath.
Failing to strike home with a single blow, the demonic cultivator retreated several paces, gasping heavily. He clearly had not recovered from the initial talisman attack and was hurting as well. Opening his mouth, he spat, “You motherfucking bastard... ambushing your grandfather...”
Li Xuanxuan pushed himself up in silence, carefully sensing his opponent. The man was around the mid-stage of Qi Refinement, weakened from taking the brunt of the ambush. He thought, “He is far faster than me. I cannot run blindly; my only hope for survival is to fight!”
He felt fortunate only that this man’s cultivation was inferior to that of the demonic cultivator with the thunder pearl earlier, and his path of cultivation was quite different. He thought grimly, “Strike while he is down!”
Swinging the heavy axe in his hands, he hurled it toward the man’s face. The demonic cultivator glared savagely, crossing his dual blades to forcibly parry the axe. Then, working his lips and tongue, he spat out a plume of bloody vapor.
The blood mist billowed forth like smoke and fog, likely some sinister technique. Li Xuanxuan did not know what kind of foul trick it was, leaving him no choice but to grit his teeth and retreat. Anxious, he thought, “What should I do?!”
He had never been skilled in combat and lacked any effective fighting techniques. Even this magical artifact axe was held only because it was high grade and no one in the family used axes. Watching the demonic cultivator gradually recover his breath, using his superior speed to score repeated blows—carving slices of flesh from his body and leaving a bloody puncture in his thigh—Li Xuanxuan grew increasingly desperate.
Gritting his teeth, he pulled a whole stack of talismans from his sleeve, thinking, “No matter how precious they are, I must stay alive to enjoy anything!”
Seeing him pull an entire stack of talismans from his sleeve, the demonic cultivator’s increasingly relaxed expression vanished into horror. Groping around, he could produce only two talismans. Meanwhile, several talismans in Li Xuanxuan’s grasp had already ignited, hurtling viciously toward him.
“Madman!”
The backyard was cramped, and the power of multiple talismans detonated simultaneously was far greater than a mere sum of their parts. Shrieking shrilly, the demonic cultivator detonated half of his body into bloody mist, retreating only three or four feet in the darkness of the courtyard before a shout rang out:
“Order!”
Several talismans detonated in bursts of brilliant red light. Seeing that the place was engulfed in fiendfire, Li Xuanxuan had deliberately chosen only fire spells. In an instant, a dazzling scarlet brilliance ignited, and roaring flames surged forth, swallowing them both.
Boom!
Already damaged beyond endurance, Jiadan Pavilion was consumed by the roaring flames in an instant and collapsed with a deafening crash. Fortunately, fires blazed everywhere across the market and buildings were collapsing constantly, so this went largely unnoticed.
The protective shield around Li Xuanxuan shattered in an instant. Swept away by the blast of fire, he rolled twice across the ground, coughing up blood again. Several of his ribs were broken, and his left leg hung limply, clearly fractured.
Blazing fires raged all around, scalding his skin with clusters of blisters. Wincing in pain, he dragged himself up. Since he had been further from the epicenter, the broken left shin was still held together by sinew. So long as his limbs remained intact, it could not be considered a severe injury.
Slapping a healing spell onto his leg, Li Xuanxuan stood up unsteadily, only to feel his magic power completely drained. The protective shield had likely sucked every drop of power from his body to preserve his life.
“Where is that man...”
Fiendfire drifted everywhere, fueling the open flames into a frenzy. Tongues of fire detached from broken beams and snaked through the air, distorting his vision. Li Xuanxuan saw the demonic cultivator also struggle to his feet.
His flesh appeared roasted, exuding a pungent, charred stench. Yet his bone-exposed hands still gripped the two short blades. Seemingly in much better shape, he strode forward steadily.
“You...”
The demonic cultivator glared at him with venomous hatred. Just as that single word slipped from his throat, a petite figure suddenly burst from the raging fire beside him. A jade-green pestle thick as an adult’s arm whistled through the air, smashing squarely into his skull.
Crack!
A resounding crunch of fracturing bone rang out. The demonic cultivator’s head exploded like a watermelon, red and white fluids spraying outward like fireworks and splattering the ground. Shattered teeth showered over Li Xuanxuan’s face and head like raindrops, with two even tumbling into his sleeve.
Thud.
Unable to hold out any longer, Li Xuanxuan collapsed to his knees, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Thwack... thwack...
The monkey continued to swing the jade pestle, pounding the demonic cultivator’s chest again and again. Flecks of flesh and blood flew everywhere, caking the creature until it became a blood-soaked monkey, yet it still refused to stop.
Li Xuanxuan swallowed an elixir, regulated his breath for a moment, and cast a few more healing spells on himself. The fire nearby burned hotter and hotter, bathing everything in scarlet beneath rolling clouds of dense smoke. He croaked, “Good monkey... burn it! Use fire to burn it...”
Before the old man could finish speaking, he caught sight of the demonic cultivator’s blood-smeared fingers twitching.
Having witnessed the man reattach his head earlier, how could Li Xuanxuan dare let his guard down? Even with his eyes tearing up from the choking smoke, he kept his gaze glued to the body. Noticing the twitch instantly, he cried out in horror and frantically drew out his great axe.
Just as he did so, the demonic cultivator’s lower abdomen swelled abruptly and exploded a breath later. A gaunt, emaciated child darted out, terror filling its eyes. The moment it hit the ground, it bolted like the wind, lunging into the fire.
Fortunately, Li Xuanxuan had already raised his axe. With a vicious cleave, a crisp snap sounded, and the bloody little creature was severed in two. Collapsing onto the ground, it shrieked:
“Mercy, Immortal Master! Mercy, Immortal Master! This lowly one knows his wrong! This lowly one—”
As Li Xuanxuan caught his breath, the monkey turned back in terror. Swinging the emerald-jade pestle twice, it pounded the child’s two halves into puddles of mashed flesh. Not daring to delay any longer, Li Xuanxuan conjured a fire spell.
Boom...
The blast of fire incinerated the demonic cultivator’s body into charcoal. Taking the monkey’s blood-covered hand, he whispered, “Let’s go!”
His voice was hoarse and grating, unrecognizable even to himself. But the monkey nodded, fished out a black-and-gold storage bag, and handed it to Li Xuanxuan. It was indeed the demonic cultivator’s belongings.
“Good monkey.”
Stashing the bag, Li Xuanxuan and the monkey sprinted out of the inferno, rushing into a small, unburned house in a nearby street before collapsing to the floor to regulate their breathing and tend to their wounds.
“Motherfucker...”
Li Xuanxuan had not cursed in years. Now, as the hoarse profanity slipped from his mouth, a surge of joy nearly brought tears to his eyes, and his cultivation, stagnant for so many years, even showed faint signs of stirring.
After meditating for just a short while, he snapped back to alertness. Taking the monkey by the hand, he said, “Stay here and heal for now.”
Seeing the monkey nod, Li Xuanxuan placed two bottles of medicinal pills before it and crept outside. Winding through two streets, he indeed spotted a person standing anxiously at the spot where he had hidden the jade talisman.
With Jiadan Pavilion collapsed and fiendfire spreading, spiritual senses throughout the surrounding streets were heavily restricted. His eyes burned by the flames, Li Xuanxuan could not see clearly, but the figure had already looked over, startling Li Xuanxuan into wanting to turn and run.
“Could that be Brother Xuan?!”
Li Qiuyang had also been acting cautiously, but he gritted his teeth and called out. Overjoyed to the point of tears, Li Xuanxuan croaked, “Qiuyang!!”
Li Qiuyang stepped forward, immediately jumping in shock and exclaiming in disbelief, “Brother Xuan?!”
The person before him limped heavily, his face gaunt and haggard, his frame reduced to skin and bones. His eyes were milky and dim, his body covered in black blood and blisters of all sizes. Not a strand of hair or brow remained, and his sleeves still dripped with dark red blood—he looked just like a corpse dragged from a burning furnace.
Had Li Xuanxuan not called out his name, Li Qiuyang would never have believed it was him. As he stared blankly, Li Xuanxuan was about to speak when the ground shuddered violently.
Rumble!
Cracks spread across the grand array in the sky. Both their expressions changed. Li Qiuyang urged anxiously, “Brother Xuan! Let’s go!”
Li Xuanxuan’s expression flickered rapidly as he replied, “Wait! Wait!”
Shaking his bloodstained sleeves, he whipped up a gentle breeze and darted into the depths of the street. Li Qiuyang stamped his foot and hurried after him. Just as he rounded the corner, he saw Li Xuanxuan rushing back, leading a monkey by the hand.
“Ah!”
Li Qiuyang froze, staring at the creature that was similarly blackened all over and covered in blisters. Startled by him in turn, the monkey bared its fangs viciously, swinging the jade pestle toward his head.
“Huh?!”
Dumbfounded, Li Qiuyang scrambled backward as Li Xuanxuan shouted frantically, “One of us! It’s one of us!”
The old man shouted and pulled the monkey back. Together, the two men and one monkey rode the wind close to the ground. Li Xuanxuan yelled, “The array is about to break! We slip out by Jiadan Pavilion!
“Once the grand array shatters, the demonic cultivators outside are bound to swarm in. The fiendfire suppresses spiritual senses; once total chaos erupts, no one will be able to track us down!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he was jolted alert. Fumbling at his waist, he brought out the black-and-gold storage bag, bundled up his robe, and with a clatter, dumped out a dazzling pile of glittering items. Several of the sharp magical artifacts pierced right through the leather robe, stabbing into his flesh.
Enduring the pain, Li Xuanxuan shoved the magical artifacts, jade slips, and valuable items into his own storage bag. Then, he tossed the remaining odds and ends along with the black-and-gold storage bag aside, scattering them all across the ground.
Chapter 343