The gold spirit incense burned out in an instant. The faint spiritual smoke, carrying the power of prayer, transformed into golden fireflies and vanished into the void...
Two of Min Zhan's confidants at the spirit elixir stage chased after them. Catching sight of the spiritual smoke from afar, they immediately realized their targets had lit the incense.
Although Min Zhan had deceived his subordinates by labeling the Wendao Sect group as demonic cultivators—and the soldiers fighting in the night believed it—these two, as Min Zhan's left and right hands, knew exactly what they were doing.
If that wisp of spirit incense returned to the Wendao Sect, everything they had done would be exposed. Yecheng would be in grave danger.
Min Zhan, the city lord, and even they themselves would have nowhere to hide.
Panic surged through them.
"Quickly! Seize that spiritual smoke! We can't let it fly back!"
"Go!"
The two crossed the sky in pursuit. Seeing this, Nangong Ning stood up, fueled by sheer conviction. She did not hesitate to burn her life source as she lunged forward to intercept them.
"Don't even think about it!"
She unleashed a violent strike mid-air, blocking their path. With a desperate, life-risking posture, she threw herself into a chaotic melee against them.
"Damn it, again!"
"Are you truly throwing your life away..."
Spirit incense was a tool for communication between cultivators. Once lit, it would automatically fly back to the sect like a homing pigeon.
However, much like the preparation time for a spell or a rocket launch, the spiritual smoke moved slowly at the moment of its generation.
Never mind foundation establishment, even a core formation cultivator could easily intercept and disperse it...
Moreover, when it first appeared, it was particularly conspicuous.
This was why, throughout the night of battle in Snake Valley, Xu Xian and the others had never found an opportunity to secretly light the incense. Doing so would have been useless; under those circumstances, the enemy could have intercepted it with ease. It might have even exposed a weakness for the enemy to exploit.
It was the same now. If Nangong Ning had not intervened, even the golden spiritual smoke would have been seized by the two pursuers before it could vanish into concealment...
The three fought a frantic battle. Nangong Ning, at the end of her strength, relied on her staggering willpower to slay one of them and heavily wound the other.
Watching the spiritual smoke disappear into the horizon and vanish from sight, the heavily injured general fell into despair and cursed.
"You crazy woman! I’m done with you!"
Without hesitation, he chose to retreat, fleeing back the way he came.
The leak was a fact; their exposure was now inevitable. Within days, the Wendao Sect's accountability would arrive, and Yecheng would be in peril. Whether the woman before him lived or died no longer mattered.
Furthermore, given the current situation, it was uncertain who would win if they continued to fight. Useless sacrifice was meaningless. His priority was to bring this news back to the Grand Marshal so they could prepare...
Nangong Ning did not take the chance to pursue. She only looked back at the sky, watching the spiritual smoke merge into the world. This meant that even if an immortal descended, it could no longer be intercepted.
Her mission was complete.
In that instant, the conviction that had sustained her vanished. The light in her eyes dimmed like a dying lamp, and her body went limp.
Like a kite with a severed string, she plummeted straight from the heights toward the mountains below...
The wind whistled in her ears, but Nangong Ning didn't have a shred of strength left. She allowed herself to fall like a drifting leaf. Her gaze remained fixed on the direction of Snake Valley, tears streaming upward against the wind.
She couldn't forget the youth's free and easy nature during that night's lecture, his blood-soaked silhouette as he charged into battle, or the fearless resolve of that Green Lotus sword move when death was imminent...
He was only at foundation establishment, yet he had saved her, a nascent soul.
He was the Little Grand-Uncle, but in the end, he was just a seventeen-year-old youth.
And yet...
A genius cut down, fallen to the mortal dust.
How tragic, how heroic. The greatest regret in the world was this: a star falling before it could truly shine.
'Little Grand-Uncle, I'm sorry. The words you wanted me to give to Martial Uncle Qingshan... I still couldn't deliver them for you...'
She slowly closed her eyes and lost consciousness...
A moment later, a dull thud echoed through the mountains, startling a few beasts into flight.
...
Meanwhile, the dawn arrived silently over Snake Valley.
Beneath the sky lay a landscape of ruins. The bamboo forest that had once stood tall was now riddled with craters. Fallen bamboo covered the ground, and half a mountain peak had vanished, with yellow earth burying the surrounding miles.
The morning wind blew, clearing the smoke.
The entire Snake Valley was eerily quiet. Not even a bird chirped, yet the scent of blood still lingered in the air.
On a patch of cleared ground amidst the collapsed bamboo, mud and dust were scattered everywhere. Fresh earth covered more fresh earth, strewn with massive fragments of a corpse. The soil had been dyed a dark crimson, and the head of a giant serpent, as large as a small hill, was particularly striking. A foul, acidic stench permeated the air.
Suddenly, a hand reached out without warning. Then the soil was pushed aside and shed. Before long, a figure crawled out.
He stood up shakily, shaking off the mud and bits of flesh, and didn't forget to toss his head to clear the blood from his hair.
Xu Xian walked a few steps forward and sat down with a thud, leaning against a blood-stained boulder. He slowly surveyed his surroundings, his eyes still filled with bewilderment.
Having survived the ordeal, he felt not only lucky to be alive but also profoundly shocked and confused.
Was it a dream or a hallucination?
Was Min Zhan dead? Had Nangong Ning escaped?
What exactly happened afterward? Why was the giant snake in pieces? Why had the wounds on his own body healed?
A string of questions flashed through his mind simultaneously. As for the answers? God only knew.
In his daze, he only remembered being grabbed by Min Zhan and swallowed into the snake's belly together. Then he had blacked out, only to wake up suddenly. He vaguely recalled hearing a whale's cry accompanied by a voice shouting, 'Sword, come!' Then everything went white... and that was it.
When he woke up, this was the scene before him.
'Was it the sword embryo? Or the stele?' The youth's throat bobbed as he pondered, unable to find an explanation.
However, he knew this likely had something to do with the sword embryo. The death of the giant snake before him was probably related to the Sword Tower left within the stele. Unfortunately, he tried to call out to the book spirit, but there was no response. If he hadn't been able to sense that the little guy had fallen into a deep sleep, Xu Xian might have thought it was dead.
His thoughts were a mess, making his head feel like it was about to explode. Looking at the brightening sky, he forced himself to stop thinking. He had survived, and now was not the time to obsess over these details. Since he wasn't dead, he had to keep living.
Although Min Zhan was dead, the two Ghost Venerables were dead, and the Xiushe was finished, he still had to leave. Who knew if another nascent soul beast would show up? If that happened, he wouldn't be able to escape even if he wanted to.
"Cough, cough!"
"At least I'm lucky."
He muttered, lifting his right hand—which was now missing its sleeve—and hooked his finger. "Wait, come back!"
Wait shot out from the pile of mangled flesh, flying through the air to land firmly in Xu Xian's hand.
Xu Xian gripped Wait and pressed it against the ground, intending to use it as leverage to stand up. Unexpectedly, movement came from the blood-stained rock behind him.
Crack! Crack!
Xu Xian immediately grew alert and jumped back, instinctively opening some distance while staring intently at the rock.
The blood-soaked boulder was actually splitting, covered in a dense network of cracks. The cracks were spreading rapidly, as if something were about to crawl out from inside.
Xu Xian tightened his grip on his sword, his brow furrowing as he said in a low voice, "A snake core? ...No, a snake egg!"
Rate on N.U.
