How could the Wind Demon, which had once forced the Jeweled Tree King to intervene personally, truly be held back by a measly stone pedestal?
In ancient and medieval times, the Wind Lion Lords were like markers telling the Wind Demon where it ought to tread lightly. After all, on the former main peak of the Piaomiao Sect, the spirit herb fields situated along the fissures were even more fragile than humans, and the immortal sect had to lay down clear rules for the monster.
When the Wind Demon slammed into the Wind Lion Lord's barrier, it felt an uncomfortable jolt, which made it reluctant to draw near—much like an electrified fence in a wildlife reserve that wouldn't kill a lion, but caused enough pain to keep it within its own territory.
However, "ought to" was not "must."
"Reluctant to" did not mean "unable to."
In this day and age, with the Piaomiao Sect long gone, breaking past the restriction of a Wind Lion Lord was far easier for the Wind Demon than before.
Yet He Lingchuan crooked a finger at the Wind Demon.
No one could mistake the meaning of that gesture: *Bring it on.*
And so the Wind Demon charged.
Brawling in such a cramped space, it could actually compress its entire gale into a wind ring less than five feet wide. As a result, Fu Shanyue, standing in the cave above, didn't even have the hems of his robes flutter.
Yet the wind ring gave off ominous whistling shrieks. Every gust of high-speed spinning astral wind within was like a steel blade, shredding whatever it touched.
It lunged straight for He Lingchuan.
The fierce current sweeping along with it threatened to pin him against the stone wall, leaving him immobile to be diced into thousands of pieces by wind blades.
Under such immense wind pressure, even raising a blade against it was excruciatingly difficult for He Lingchuan, let alone fighting back.
How could a mortal fight the wind?
Rushing over, Fu Shanyue watched without blinking, terrified of missing a single detail.
To have caused him this much trouble, the fellow couldn't possibly be a fool, could he? He likely had a card up his sleeve. Fu Shanyue felt an ominous foreboding.
Just as the Wind Demon was about to slam into He Lingchuan, the man abruptly vanished.
Vanished into thin air, not crushed into powder.
The Wind Demon's full force crashed into the stone wall. Amid tooth-grinding shrieks, that hard rock face, weathered by countless years of wind and frost, had a crater three feet wide and a foot deep gouged into it!
Had that struck flesh and bone, wouldn't it have instantly erupted into a cloud of blood?
Meanwhile, He Lingchuan himself reappeared behind the Wind Demon—right where the Wind Lion Lord had cracked apart!
Fu Shanyue's pupils shrank slightly. "Teleportation?"
That was something achievable only through a divine ability, not martial arts.
Of course, He Lingchuan didn't know any teleportation. He had simply slipped the ghost shadow cicada slough beneath the stone carving when setting down the Wind Lion Lord. The moment the divine ability "Sacrifice the Plum to Preserve the Peach" activated, he and the ghost shadow cicada slough swapped places.
Thousands of dead lives bore witness to how fearsomely the Wind Demon had wreaked havoc just a quarter of an hour ago. Taking on the host head-on in its own home territory was simply not something an ordinary human could do.
Having completed the swap, He Lingchuan did not flee immediately. Instead, he pushed off the ground with his toes and charged straight at the Wind Demon!
The distance between them was barely ten feet. Fast as he was, the gap vanished in a heartbeat.
Fu Shanyue halted mid-stride, baffled as to why this guy had gone to such lengths to escape only to turn around and throw his life away.
The Wind Demon had struck empty air and was just about to wheel around—after all, it wasn't human, lacking He Lingchuan's agile footwork—when the enemy pounced from behind. The saber at He Lingchuan's hip cleared its scabbard in a flash, delivering four consecutive slashes in the blink of an eye!
Back at Zhao Pan's frontline camp, He Lingchuan had been able to slice through seven raindrops in a single stroke; executing a four-slash combo here was child's play.
Faint blade-light flickered in the stone chamber as all four strikes landed across the Wind Demon's back.
Fu Shanyue knitted his brows tightly.
One could not cut the wind. His opponent couldn't possibly lack even that basic common sense, and the fellow's weapon wasn't coated in origin power. So then...?
Yet the Wind Demon let out an ear-splitting howl.
Fu Shanyue, who was well acquainted with it, started in shock:
That howl was steeped in agony!
Across the Wind Demon's form, the sections cleaved by He Lingchuan's saber were actually flaking off like solid matter!
Though they dissipated into nothingness in the blink of an eye, Fu Shanyue was certain his eyes had not deceived him: the Wind Demon's body had genuinely been severed into several pieces by the blade!
This brat can even cut wind?
Grip tightening on Fusheng, He Lingchuan felt the blade almost merging with his body. He sensed the agility and chilling lethal intent inherent in the weapon.
Facing the Wind Demon, an epiphany rose in his heart:
Fusheng's "Void Breaker" trait worked against the Wind Demon!
It could sever anything without form or substance. If ghosts fell into the realm of the "formless," the Wind Demon clearly belonged to the "substanceless."
The Wind Demon's body was now only half its original size. Out of pain and rage, it blew a barrage of wind blades at He Lingchuan.
Though unseen and shadowless, slicing flesh and shearing bone was no trouble at all.
He Lingchuan had anticipated this. Without waiting for the Wind Demon to turn after his fourfold slash, he planted one hand on the floor, kicked against the stone wall with his right leg, and spun through the air like a swallow to flank it.
If you throw a punch, you have to watch out for a counter-kick. The gust of wind blades was dodged cleanly.
The Wind Demon had yet to recover, and wary of its crushing wind pressure, He Lingchuan had no intention of letting it return to its original state. He brought two more slashes down upon its head, hacking it straight into pieces!
With a screech, the Wind Demon's shape abruptly dissolved, turning into wild winds swirling throughout the entire chamber!
It had finally figured out that its humanoid form, while most potent, was terribly suited against this bastard.
Then it would disperse back into its true form. Even if its raw power diminished somewhat, it would slice this fellow into a thousand ribbons!
True power surged through He Lingchuan's dantian, instantly raising his protective astral qi.
He could feel the astral qi being shaved away rapidly; in an instant, he had weathered an untold number of wind blades. Fortunately, when dispersed into a whirlwind, the Wind Demon's lethality dropped significantly. Furthermore, having gained enlightenment and advanced at Three Hearts Plain, his cultivation had reached a higher plane—otherwise, he might not have withstood such rapid depletion.
Right, the heart-protecting mirror was doing its part as well.
As wild winds howled across the stone chamber, the divine bone necklace suddenly emitted a speck of red light.
Then, the winds blowing past He Lingchuan were drawn straight into it.
What ghostly thing was that? Refusing to believe it, the Wind Demon whipped up its gales once more.
Yet no matter how much wind it sent, the divine bone necklace swallowed every bit, turning nothing away.
In just two breaths, the divine bone seemed to turn into a massive black hole, poised to swallow the entire whirlwind whole!
By the time the Wind Demon thought to flee, it was already too late.
It struggled desperately to dart outward, but could not withstand the suction dragging it back toward the black hole, whistling as it was drawn inside.
Fu Shanyue, who had just rushed into the stone chamber, paled in horror. Lunging at He Lingchuan with his water-parting piercer, he roared, "Stop!"
Packed with shock and rage, the strike was immensely powerful. In the nick of time, He Lingchuan parried with a reverse grip on his saber.
*Clang!* Metal clashed against iron, and both men fell back two paces.
The divine bone necklace finally halted its feast and fell quiet.
He Lingchuan's sharp eyes caught sight of something small in Fu Shanyue's left hand.
It was a half-palm-sized... Wind Lion Lord?
At a moment like this, whatever he brought out could not be meaningless.
"It is the last Wind Demon in this world. It would be a tragedy to kill it." This Wind Demon had accompanied Fu Shanyue for a very long time; his heart was aching terribly right now.
He Lingchuan said coldly, "What does that have to do with me?" If you can't control your own pet, don't blame others for disciplining it.
Fu Shanyue raised his water-parting piercer with a backhand grip. "Return it to me, or this place will be your grave."
He Lingchuan crooked a finger at him too. "Come take it yourself." Whatever the divine bone necklace ate, it could never spit back out.
Tension flared instantly inside the stone chamber.
Yet two breaths later, the sound of tumbling rocks echoed from outside.
Whether dislodged by mountain wind or brought about by an approaching traveler, neither knew.
Fu Shanyue's expression shifted. He abruptly lowered the point of his piercer. "Forget it. I'll spare you this once."
Amused, He Lingchuan did not linger to squabble with him. Pulling up his face mask, he darted out of the chamber, bounded over to his rock sheep in two leaps, and vaulted into the saddle before riding away.
The divine bone necklace no longer glowed or radiated heat, evidently sated after a hearty feast.
Today, it had gorged on two fine treasures in a row.
Fu Shanyue stepped out of the chamber and looked around. No one was outside, only the whistling of the wind.
He leaped down the stepped terraces and ran to the edge of the fissure. Only then did he look down at the miniature Wind Lion Lord in his left palm; its carving was far more exquisite than the other statues throughout the mountain:
"Come out."
A few wisps of mountain wind twined together, condensing into a pocket-sized version of the Wind Demon, barely three inches tall.
So the divine bone necklace hadn't swallowed it completely after all.
Yet this Wind Demon was now only the size of a spinning top, coalescing and dissipating erratically, seemingly unable to maintain its form—a truly pitiful sight.
Diminished in size, it no longer looked so terrifying. Who could have imagined that just a quarter of an hour ago, this creature had devoured countless living souls?
"Just what kind of magical treasure did that kid use to reduce you to this state?"
The Wind Demon whimpered in complaint.
Fu Shanyue listened for a while but couldn't make heads or tails of it, understanding only that an astonishing suction had erupted from the brat, swallowing well over half of the Wind Demon's origin essence.
Had he not arrived in time, the Wind Demon would certainly have been devoured completely.
"Enough, rest while you can." He pointed toward the fissure. "You didn't wipe out the escort detachment completely, so they will return to investigate. In a few days, this place will be crawling with people from the Jeweled Tree Kingdom."
The Wind Demon promptly dove into the fissure, vanishing with a whoosh.
From here on, it would enter a state of dormancy, replenishing itself with the wind energy deep underground. As long as it fed on the Meridian Divine Wind once or twice, it would recover its strength.
Fu Shanyue took out the wooden vial once more and examined it, his face steeped in thought.
Why had that kid thrown the dragon marrow back?
Why that peculiar smile?
Had he tossed it back because he deemed it worthless? In other words, was he certain of what it actually was?
Fu Shanyue silently put the vial away, then found a stone chamber across the mountain road to enter meditation.
This way, should anyone enter the hollow of Wind Demon Mountain, he would spot them immediately.
He needed to stand guard for the Wind Demon.
A raptor flew across midair, and Fu Shanyue immediately ducked deeper into the stone chamber.
***
By the time He Lingchuan caught up with the caravan, Second Master Shi was directing his men to salvage the remains left behind by the escort detachment.
He Lingchuan nodded. "Quite righteous of you, Second Master."
In truth, Second Master Shi was still uneasy. "Brother He, are you sure the Wind Demon won't come out again?" With no shelter on this open road, even the elite escort detachment hadn't been able to withstand the beast. If that monstrosity made a comeback, wouldn't their tiny caravan be blown away in a single gust?
He Lingchuan made no mention of what had transpired within the immortal sect ruins, offering only reassurance: "It only attacks its enemies, and it suffered heavy injuries as well. It shouldn't be coming out again anytime soon."
Chapter 400