With the Jiuying dead, morale soared on Lu Yang's side, and they pressed their advantage to bring the battle to an end.
"Barbarian Battle Technique—One Force Suppresses Ten Feats!"
Man Gu roared, driving both fists inward from left and right in a pincer strike that caved in the armored demon beast's head.
Lost in the illusion, the patterned python had shed all reason and swallowed half of its own body. By the time it came to its senses, it was already too late, with no hope of recovery.
Seeing Lu Yang slay two demon beasts with a single sword strike, Meng Jingzhou felt a competitive urge rise within him. Unleashing the Heaven-Shaking Six Forms, he bludgeoned the tiger demon and lion demon to death, leaving neither beast any chance to flee.
Out of breath and thoroughly exhausted, Meng Jingzhou and the other two wore bright grins.
No matter how hard it was, they had finally won the battle.
Lu Yang had hardly depleted his own strength, having drawn upon the power of the Immortal Fairy.
"Release!"
Now that the battle was over, there was no need to maintain the Immortal Fairy's appearance.
The moment he reverted to his original form, Lu Yang felt his mind come alive again. His thought process was no longer as simplistic as before.
"What on earth was I doing just now?!"
Cold sweat broke out on Lu Yang as he recalled the foolish things he had done.
"You did great just now! It was just like my style!" The Immortal Fairy gave him a thumbs-up, praising Lu Yang for having the makings of an immortal.
"That's the biggest problem!"
Reflecting on the course of the battle, transforming into the likeness of the Immortal Fairy via the Huang Doudou Fist had indeed granted a massive increase in combat prowess—surging would not be an exaggeration.
He could guarantee that with the Huang Doudou Fist, he was an absolute invincible existence in the Foundation Establishment stage; no one would be a match for him.
But the price was far too steep.
Silly giggles, foolish remarks... Fortunately, he hadn't done anything completely out of line this time; otherwise, if word got out, how could he ever show his face again?
Lu Yang secretly resolved to classify the Huang Doudou Fist as a forbidden art, never to be used unless pushed to absolute desperation.
"Fairy, I can't imitate you so casually in the future. It's too dangerous," Lu Yang sighed. This was power traded for his brain.
"I don't think it's dangerous at all?" The Immortal Fairy scratched her head in confusion.
"Impressive, Lu Yang! You even killed a Jiuying. Who knew your Imitation Fist could be used like that!" Meng Jingzhou burst into laughter.
"What a pity I can't learn your Lu Clan Imitation Fist. Otherwise, I could transform into my father or grandfather and borrow their power. Then let's see who could beat me!" At this, Meng Jingzhou looked regretful.
"Though there's one thing I haven't figured out."
"What is it?"
"If the Jiuying was so tough to fight, couldn't we have just used a teleportation talisman to warp it straight to Demon Quelling Pass?" Meng Jingzhou was puzzled. Lu Yang had worn such a tragic, heroic expression when using the Imitation Fist—was that really necessary?
Lu Yang: "..."
He was finished. He was slowly being assimilated by the Immortal Fairy, and his brain had stopped working properly.
"Senior Brother Lu, who was that you turned into just now?" Tao Yaoye asked curiously. She had no idea Senior Brother Lu knew such an adorable young girl.
"This is an ancient legacy, not to be spoken of lightly," Lu Yang said with an air of profound mystery, though he wasn't really lying.
The more people who knew about the Immortal Fairy, the more dangerous it was.
Even now, no one knew who had killed the Immortal Fairy, what methods the perpetrator possessed, or what their objective was.
Anyone who knew of the Immortal Fairy's existence risked drawing their attention.
Right now, only five people knew about the Immortal Fairy: Lu Yang, Meng Jingzhou, Man Gu, Eldest Senior Sister, and the Immortal Celestial.
Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu were unavoidable exceptions; both had been present when the Immortal Fairy revived.
Needless to say, Eldest Senior Sister was a force of her own—it remained to be seen who would actually be in danger.
And the Immortal Celestial could not leave the Dao Seeking Sect, making him safe as well.
"Come on, come on, time to take stock of the spoils!" Meng Jingzhou called out to everyone to butcher the demon beasts and see if there was anything good.
Meng Jingzhou had no shortage of treasures or spirit stones; he simply enjoyed the thrill of reaping the harvest.
The Jiuying had been roasted to charcoal by Lu Yang, and its demon core had split in two, ruined beyond use; there was nothing left to scavenge from its corpse.
The two demon beasts Lu Yang had decapitated with one sword strike were fairly ordinary, yielding only demon cores, pelts, and the like.
The tiger demon Meng Jingzhou had killed held quite a few valuable parts—tiger bone and tiger penis were both aphrodisiacs, though regrettably, those were utterly useless to Meng Jingzhou.
The blood of both the tiger demon and the lion demon was exceedingly valuable; an alchemy master could refine it to trace their lineages back to their origins, extracting a single drop of true Luwu blood and true Nine-Headed Lion blood.
The patterned python's gall bladder could detoxify poisons and fetch a handsome price.
Tao Yaoye was the poorest among the four of them. Lu Yang and the other two had all undertaken the undercover mission in the Immortal Cult and even lent a modest hand to the historical process of its destruction.
Those all translated into contribution points.
In contrast, although Tao Yaoye had completed plenty of missions, none could compare to the Immortal Cult mission.
Man Gu stripped the armored scales off the armored demon beast. Tough and slippery to grasp, they were prime material for crafting armor.
"I'll show this to Junior Brother Haoran when we get back." Man Gu stowed the scales into his identity jade pendant.
After cleaning up cleanly, the four built a campfire and began preparing the evening's dinner.
From attending the auction in the morning to entering the dense forest at noon and fighting throughout the afternoon, they had been busy all day. It was high time to relax and indulge.
Especially having just obtained so many fine ingredients, it would be a shame not to feast.
"Can we eat the lion? Back in my tribe, I heard the Central Plains has a traditional delicacy called lion's head meatballs. I've never tried it," Man Gu suggested.
Tao Yaoye fell silent for a moment before saying, "Junior Brother Man, is it possible that the lion's head dish you're talking about isn't the same thing as the head of an actual lion?"
"Aren't they both called lion's head?"
"...Never mind. Lion's head it is. Today we eat lion."
The group divided the labor. Though Man Gu had never eaten lion, back in the Barbarian clan he had frequently butchered other demon beasts, and the process was much the same; he took charge of preparing the lion.
Lu Yang felled a large tree and whittled it down with the Green Blade Sword into a three-meter-long wooden spit to skewer the lion.
Meng Jingzhou set up a large automatic barbecue array and erected the grill.
Tao Yaoye went off to search the surroundings for edible fruits, which could cut through the greasiness of the meat.
Man Gu plucked the fur, gutted the lion, and brushed it with secret Barbarian sauce. Lu Yang skewered the beast, hoisted it onto the grill, and ignited the Three-Flavor True Fire.
Mounted on the large automatic barbecue array, the lion was pierced through by the wooden spit and rotated slowly. The Three-Flavor True Fire roasted it until fat sizzled and dripped, filling the air with a mouthwatering aroma.
Man Gu stared blankly at the lion, lost in thought about who knows what.
"Man Gu, what's wrong?" Lu Yang thought Man Gu was feeling homesick.
"I was thinking," Man Gu replied. "The automatic barbecue array is mainly meant for small grilled skewers. When dealing with a whole roasted lamb, a whole roasted lion, or roasting other large beasts, it struggles quite a bit. The heat isn't even, so it really tests the barbecue master's skill."
"So you're thinking..." Lu Yang couldn't quite grasp where Man Gu was going with this.
"I heard that some sects in the Southern Border specialize in controlling corpses. Could we learn that kind of spell and use it for barbecuing?"
"Like, controlling a sheep's corpse so it roasts itself over the fire?"
Lu Yang: "..."
Am I the only normal person left in the Dao Seeking Sect?
Chapter 263