“Divine Transformation stage cultivation?!” Kong Hou thought her ears had malfunctioned. Her master was at Soul Separation stage cultivation, already an expert in the cultivation world, yet she hadn’t expected this evil cultivator’s cultivation to be an entire level higher than her master’s. She thought for a moment, then inserted the Shuishuang Sword back into her hair bun.
“Miss Kong Hou, what are you doing?” Lin Hu, who had rushed to their side with his sword, saw Kong Hou’s strange behavior and was puzzled.
“Master and Senior Brother haven’t had an easy time raising me all these years.” Kong Hou took out a messenger talisman from her storage ring. “Before dying, I should at least leave them a few words.”
Seeing the young girl’s deathly pale face, her hand holding the messenger talisman trembling slightly, Lin Hu didn’t tell her that even if she intended to send the messenger talisman out, with the White Evil Venerable’s cultivation level, he had plenty of means to intercept it. However, in all his years alive, this was the first time he’d encountered a disciple who, unable to win a fight, prepared to leave a will.
Kong Hou had never directly experienced how terrifying Divine Transformation stage cultivation was. When she saw the Painless Old Man merely wave his sleeve once and cause the flying palace to sway in the wind and the heavens and earth to change color, she finally understood how insignificant she was, and why cultivators called those above Nascent Soul stage cultivation “Ancestor.”
If she had known she would die here today, she should have bought all the books written by Miaobi Ke, then found him and told him that his story books were very good and he absolutely mustn’t give up. Recently she hadn’t been able to buy his new works—she didn’t know if he had already given up writing or if other matters had delayed him.
She shouldn’t have brought so many things out with her. Now that she was dead, everything she carried would definitely all benefit that evil cultivator. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became, until Kong Hou’s eyes reddened with fury.
“Don’t be afraid.” Seeing Kong Hou crouching on the ground clutching a jade talisman, her eyes red-rimmed and particularly pitiful, Huan Zong bent down to look into her eyes and reached out to gently pat the top of her head. “I’m here—I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Huan Zong.” Kong Hou grabbed his sleeve. “Don’t take risks—your injury hasn’t healed yet.”
“It’s fine.” Huan Zong smiled at her, a very gentle smile. Kong Hou stared at him in a daze, unable to speak, her hand tightly gripping his sleeve and refusing to let go.
“You haven’t seen me use my sword yet—don’t miss today’s opportunity.” Huan Zong turned to look at Painless outside, who was attacking the flying palace’s barrier with magical tools, then flew out of the barrier, his white robes fluttering like an immortal.
“Huan Zong.”
“Young Master!” Lin Hu knew he was no match for Painless. He turned to look at Kong Hou and the Jixiang Pavilion disciples, saying to them, “Everyone stay inside the flying palace and don’t come out. I’m going to lend Young Master a hand.”
Kong Hou watched Lin Hu follow after Huan Zong, put away the messenger talisman in her hand, and removed the phoenix-headed hairpin from her hair. As the hairpin touched her hand, it transformed into a miniature phoenix-headed kong hou, the phoenix head emitting a sharp phoenix cry.
“So it’s actually a phoenix-headed magical tool. This old man’s fortune is good today—I’ve encountered a heaven’s pride among the orthodox sects.” Hearing the phoenix cry, Painless looked at Kong Hou behind the barrier and laughed strangely. “You harmed my disciple’s life, so I’ll take your orthodox sect’s outstanding disciples’ heads in compensation—this business isn’t a losing deal.” As his words fell, the magical treasure in his hand blazed with great light. The entire space seemed to twist, and the barrier collapsed at this moment. A massive gale swept through the flying palace, and the Jixiang Pavilion disciples screamed, nearly being swept outside the flying palace.
“Weng!”
Kong Hou plucked the strings on the phoenix head. The massive sound wave blocked this gust of wind back. She stood on the railing, her hair bun scattered, her jet-black hair dancing in the wind, but her eyes were exceptionally bright.
“Some backbone.” Painless snorted coldly. The offensive in his hand didn’t stop—a move called Blood Mountain Fire Sea came carrying what seemed like countless souls’ wails. The entire heaven and earth fell into black and red colors. How could a Heart Stirring stage cultivator possibly withstand the offensive of a Divine Transformation stage great power? If not for having the phoenix head protecting her, Kong Hou would almost be pressed until she couldn’t stand steady by this airflow.
Painless’s killing intent was intense, showing Kong Hou no mercy whatsoever. However, he couldn’t get close to Kong Hou because someone blocked his way.
“What a hero saving the beauty—today I’ll first kill…”
Huan Zong was too lazy to listen to his grand declarations. As the Longyin Sword left its sheath, it carried heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing momentum.
“You!” Painless hastily dodged but was still injured by the sword qi. His jade crown was shattered into two halves by the fierce sword qi, his silver-white hair scattering everywhere. That immortal air about his entire body instantly lost more than half its effect.
Huan Zong didn’t give him time to react. The Longyin Sword tore through the void, directly targeting Painless’s qi sea. Painless no longer dared maintain his previous careless attitude. He threw out his life-bound magical treasure to block the flying sword and hastily avoided a strike. His eyes looking at Huan Zong were both shocked and suspicious. This person’s bone age was only over three hundred years old—why did he have such profound cultivation?
Since ancient times, righteousness and evil couldn’t coexist. If orthodox sect disciples had such outstanding talent, where would there be any foothold for them evil cultivators? This wouldn’t do—they absolutely couldn’t allow the orthodox sects to have such disciples. Today they must strike him down here!
Painless’s heart became ruthless, and he no longer thought about toying with these juniors, bringing out his true abilities. He took out a magical tool emitting black qi all over, activated it with spiritual energy, and threw it into the air. This magical tool was called Heart-Seizing Intoxication. Though the name was quite beautiful, it was actually a weapon for inducing inner demons. He had specifically refined it using the dan cores of nearly three thousand evil cultivators to deal with orthodox sect great powers.
He hadn’t expected that this secret weapon hadn’t yet been used on orthodox sect great powers—the first to taste its威力 would actually be a young sword cultivator.
He hadn’t expected that this secret weapon hadn’t yet been used on orthodox sect great powers—the first to taste its might would actually be a young sword cultivator.
As soon as Heart-Seizing Intoxication reached the air, it transformed into a massive umbrella. The evil qi and baleful qi within the umbrella almost condensed into solid form, baring fangs and brandishing claws as if wanting to devour all living beings into the umbrella’s ribs.
“Young Master!” Lin Hu’s heart secretly worried. Young Master already had problems with his mental state—if his divine soul was captured by this strange umbrella, wouldn’t it be adding frost to snow? Not daring to let the evil cultivator see Young Master’s weakness, he formed hand seals with both hands. Massive golden light scattered from his body, dazzling and piercing.
“Demon qi.” Painless sneered. “Remnant demon blood actually stays by a human’s side as a servant. How glorious the demon race was five thousand years ago—to think their days have fallen to such a state. You might as well follow us evil cultivators—at least you won’t have to look up to others.”
This cultivator’s demon qi manifested as golden light. His ancestors should have been extremely powerful demons, though it was unknown how many generations had passed—this demon qi was so faint it was difficult to identify.
Seeing Lin Hu trying to use his bloodline to disperse the baleful qi, Painless laughed loudly. “Perhaps your ancestors could have broken Heart-Seizing Intoxication. Now you want to rely on that bit of weak bloodline inheritance to break this divine artifact refined from three thousand evil cultivators—you’re simply dreaming.”
Lin Hu ignored him, looking at Young Master in the black fog and circulating his spiritual energy even faster.
“Since you’re so obstinate, I can only send you on your way first. Going down earlier, you can still greet your master on the Yellow Springs Road.” Painless spread his five fingers. All the water droplets in the air condensed into ice, the ice transforming into a sharp-toothed monster that opened its mouth to bite Lin Hu, intending to swallow him whole.
Music sounded, forcefully blocking the monster’s gaping maw. The sound was formless and shadowless. Countless streams of spiritual energy drilled into the monster’s ice bones, and the Shuishuang Sword flew through the air, cleaving the monster’s massive head into two sections.
“Miss Kong Hou?” Lin Hu looked at Kong Hou gasping for breath while holding the phoenix head in the cloud layers. He hadn’t expected that the young girl who just moments ago had been so frightened she couldn’t even hold a messenger talisman steady would actually stand forward at this moment.
Kong Hou’s entire body was covered with various talismans, and protective magical treasures hung from her waist and hair. Her whole person was like an eager-to-show-off nouveau riche, displaying all her good things on the outside. Yet at this moment, no one laughed at her.
“I’m fine.” Kong Hou’s hand plucking the strings was trembling slightly. Blocking a Divine Transformation stage great power’s strike had already consumed more than half the spiritual power in her body. But at such a critical moment, she couldn’t show weakness. One must not lose face even if losing the battle—the face of orthodox sect disciples still mattered.
She looked worriedly at Huan Zong, who was shrouded in black qi and baleful qi, reached out to catch the returning Shuishuang Sword, slightly raised her chin to point the sword tip at Painless, and said, “Disrespectful in your old age, using age to bully the young—shameless.”
“Sharp-tongued brat—didn’t anyone tell you that we evil cultivators never have shame?” Painless looked up. A massive monster once again condensed in the air. “Children with sharp tongues aren’t liked by their elders.”
Kong Hou didn’t dare directly confront him. She tore off a magical treasure from her body and threw it out. The magical treasure collided with the monster, shattering with a sound, and the monster was also blown to powder. At this time, she couldn’t care about how valuable or precious the magical treasure was.
Time was money—delay one moment and gain one moment.
Lin Hu also hadn’t expected Kong Hou would actually play with high-level magical treasures by exploding them. No wonder Yunhua Sect dared let a Foundation Establishment stage disciple go out—with this many magical tools, she could throw down a few magical treasures and run.
At this moment, if she didn’t care about Young Master or those Jixiang Pavilion disciples, she would have a chance to escape with her life.
Having his offensive blocked twice in succession by a Heart Stirring stage yellow-haired girl, Painless became somewhat displeased. He ignored Huan Zong and Lin Hu, directly flying through the air with one palm strike.
Kong Hou was struck solidly by this palm. Before she could even make a sound, she fell straight from the clouds.
“Xianzi Kong Hou.” Seeing this, Hong Ling and Ge Jin from the flying palace jumped over the railing and flew down, wanting to search for Kong Hou whose life or death was unknown. However, the massive Divine Transformation stage pressure made the spiritual energy in their bodies run chaotic. If not for their junior brothers and sisters being quick-eyed and using magical tools to drag them back to the flying palace, they would probably have fainted on the spot.
“Senior Sister, are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” Ge Jin shook her head, looking below at the thick cloud layers, her brows tightly furrowed. She was also at Heart Stirring stage cultivation—under this evil cultivator’s pressure, she couldn’t even circulate spiritual energy freely. Having taken that palm strike, how could Xianzi Kong Hou have any life left? She raised her head to look at the massive, terrifying umbrella in the air. The person who could save Xianzi Kong Hou might only be him.
But this umbrella had been motionless for a long time—could it be that…
Many dark thoughts flashed through Ge Jin’s mind. She hurriedly steadied her mind—this umbrella was wrong. She wasn’t someone who thought of everything in the worst direction. For them divination masters, even the worst death situation had a thread of hope. Cultivators born pessimistic weren’t suited to be divination masters.
But when looking at the umbrella just now, her mind was full of various bloody and gory scenes, completely unable to think normally.
She had only looked once and had such power—what kind of impact must Daoist Huan Zong’s mind and spirit be receiving, shrouded within the umbrella?
Just at this moment, the giant umbrella floating in the air suddenly shook violently, emitting tens of thousands of wailing cries. This scene made Ge Jin’s heart turn cold. She thought of the Unending Hell, where countless evil spirits dragged passing travelers, wanting them to sink into depravity together.
“Don’t listen!” Ge Jin covered her ears and said to her junior brothers and sisters whose expressions were dazed, “Everyone seal your hearing.”
After being unable to hear the wailing sounds, she indeed felt much better. Ge Jin’s worry grew heavier—the strange umbrella showing this kind of change, could it be that Daoist Huan Zong had already…
Just at this moment, a golden dragon flew out from the thick black fog. The golden dragon opened its great mouth, its dragon cry shocking enough to make heaven and earth tremble together. Ge Jin unconsciously lowered her hands covering her ears, staring blankly at the golden dragon phantom in the air. Only when it coiled around the strange umbrella, making the evil spirits’ wailing sounds diminish, did Ge Jin suddenly come back to her senses.
This was Daoist Huan Zong?!
The thick fog gradually dispersed. The white-robed man holding a sharp sword walked out step by step through the void, his gaze as cold as snow on mountain peaks that never melted year-round. He turned to look at that massive black umbrella, raised his hand and swung his sword. Accompanied by a dragon’s cry, the black umbrella was split into two sections.
“Young Master…” Lin Hu’s complexion looked extremely unpleasant.
The white-robed man looked at him with a cold, indifferent expression. His robe corners danced in the air as he looked coldly at the Painless Old Man, his lips moving slightly. “Seeking death.”
“You can actually come out from inside—this is impossible!” Painless looked at the destroyed Heart-Seizing Intoxication. His heart was both hateful and annoyed. He most hated these high and mighty sword cultivators. Born possessing outstanding qualifications, always wearing a righteous appearance every day—revolting.
Huan Zong flew forward with one sword strike. His sword had no fancy sword moves, but this one move was extraordinarily beautiful, like an immortal coming from beyond the heavens, about to punish an evildoer who had committed crimes.
Boom.
Painless’s magical treasure collided with the sword. Massive airflows scattered in all directions. Lin Hu hastily withdrew to the flying vessel, establishing a barrier before the Jixiang Pavilion disciples.
The two seemed evenly matched, but only Painless’s heart was shocked beyond measure. He looked at the fine cracks on his life-bound magical treasure, his heart aching as if the cracks were in him. Using all his strength to repel Huan Zong’s strike, Painless no longer wanted to continue fighting. He threw down a magical tool to explode it and tried to escape.
However, sword cultivators excelled in speed. He had barely skimmed out a short distance when Huan Zong flashed and blocked his path. This was clearly the same person, but Painless felt that the sword cultivator who came out of Heart-Seizing Intoxication was like two different people from before.
The sword tip pierced into his arm, blood blossoming on Painless’s white robes. Painless couldn’t care about the wound, using his uninjured hand to barely block the opponent’s next strike.
He had used Heart-Seizing Intoxication to release an evil spirit, and what was even more terrifying was that this evil spirit wasn’t targeting the orthodox sects, but them evil cultivators.
“Want to escape?” Huan Zong threw aside his sword and struck Painless’s chest with one palm. The Longyin Sword flew in a circle through the air and fell back into his hand. He struck with one aerial sword thrust, the sword penetrating through Painless’s abdomen.
“You, you…” Painless lowered his head to look at the sword inserted in his abdomen, his face revealing a fearful expression.
Just who was this?
“A hundred years ago, there was an evil cultivator called Joyless who also died under this sword.” Huan Zong withdrew the Longyin Sword from Painless’s abdomen. Blood dripped down the blade drop by drop. “At that time, you all seemed to call yourselves the Three-Color Evil Venerables?”
“You are Zhong, Zhong…” Painless clutched his ceaselessly bleeding abdomen, his eyeballs bulging enormously.
How could it be him? How could it possibly be him?!
If he had known that the person who killed his disciple was this individual, even if ridiculed by the entire evil cultivation world, he absolutely wouldn’t have come alone to his death single-handedly. Painless was filled with regret—which bastard had told him that those who killed his disciple were just two young orthodox sect disciples?
This wasn’t him seeking revenge—this was coming to his death!
Looking at the expressionless Huan Zong, Painless’s heart filled with despair. Today he would die here. Moreover, even after dying, he would be mocked by all the bastards in the evil cultivation world as one of the most foolish Evil Venerables in five hundred years of evil cultivation.
If he could return alive, he would definitely properly train disciples for intelligence gathering, definitely not easily provoke evil cultivators, definitely not run here to show off威风 for the sake of face.
If he could return alive, he would definitely properly train disciples for intelligence gathering, definitely not easily provoke evil cultivators, definitely not run here to show off and display power for the sake of face.
Definitely…
Watching Huan Zong raise the Longyin Sword again, Painless looked up at the sky, awaiting death’s arrival.
Just as Huan Zong was preparing to kill Painless, he glanced toward the distant flying palace, but didn’t see the person he wanted to find there.
He had told that young girl not to be afraid, that he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Now he had done it—where had she gone?
“Where is she?” Huan Zong’s emotionless eyes stared at Painless. Painless felt like he was being targeted by a cold, icy snake.
It was all because of that yellow-haired girl. If not for that yellow-haired girl, he wouldn’t have treated this killing god as an ordinary sword cultivator. Everyone in the evil cultivation world knew that in the evil cultivation world, there was a killing god effective at stopping children’s night crying who always came and went alone, cutting down their people and leaving. When had there ever been a woman by his side?
Empiricism killed people. Even though he was a killing god who, apart from looking human, acted without any living spirit, in front of the woman he liked, he was fucking just a dog. Also, which bastard said the killing god was hideously ugly with eyes as big as bronze bells?
This had to be a conspiracy by the orthodox sects!
Despicable orthodox sects—not a single good thing among them!
“Speak.” Seeing Painless not speaking, Huan Zong stabbed another sword into him, the efficient posture like stabbing a piece of pork. How would Painless dare say that young girl might have been killed by his palm strike? If he dared say these words, this killing god could, in the blink of an eye, poke dozens of bloody holes in him.
Although already at death’s door, he still had a will to survive.
“I, I didn’t notice. Perhaps during our fight just now, the yellow-hair…” Painless bit his tongue tip and changed his words. “That beautiful young lady perhaps was too frightened and found a place to hide.”
“He’s lying!” Ge Jin, shoulders shaking, rushed over on a flying magical tool, so frightened her voice was trembling. “Xianzi Kong Hou was struck down from the clouds by his palm—her life or death is already unknown!”
My life is finished!
Painless dodged backward, attempting to avoid Huan Zong’s incoming sword strike. However, a white light flashed before his eyes and the killing god had disappeared. Painless immediately didn’t hesitate any longer. He jumped on a flying magical tool and fled, not even sparing the destroyed Heart-Seizing Intoxication another glance.
Huan Zong, riding his sword, searched everywhere above the dense forest. The Jixiang Pavilion disciples and Lin Hu also flew down, but their cultivation couldn’t compare to Huan Zong’s—they were left far behind.
The dense forest had many trees. How easy could it be to find a young girl who had already lost consciousness?
Huan Zong wanted to split open all the trees with one sword strike, but feared accidentally injuring Kong Hou. He could only continuously fly and shuttle through the dense forest, even throwing out many search magical treasures.
At a mountain water pool, Huan Zong saw the unconscious young girl in the water. Her long beautiful hair floated in the water like dense, tangled water plants. The forest in the air still seemed to hold lingering traces of a bloody scent that hadn’t completely dispersed.