In an instant, the crowd of demonic cultivators scattered like startled birds, thrown into total chaos.
They no longer cared about the infants or the group from the Wendao Sword Sect; everything Xu Xian had done was cast to the back of their minds.
Blood Venerable’s whereabouts were unknown.
Ghost Venerable had died right before their eyes.
Only one thought filled their heads.
Run.
If they hesitated for even a second, they would be doing a disservice to the infamy they had earned over decades as demonic cultivators.
The giant serpent rampaged.
It seemed intent on devouring everything.
Ruan Zhong returned, glanced at the infants on the ground, and gritted his teeth. "Run!"
Nangong Ning nodded slightly, understanding his intent. Forcing out a breath of true essence, she swept her sleeves. With the power of a nascent soul, she bodily gathered up half the infants, soaring through the air atop Ningyue.
"Take the children with us!"
The others did not dare delay. They withdrew their sword stances and, just as they had when leaving the blood pool, transformed their life-bound swords into transport vessels.
Only this time, with two nascent soul experts joining them, it became much simpler.
After all, those in the nascent soul stage were existences capable of splitting a small mountain with a single strike. Having mastered the art of object control, they could apply it to items—and naturally, to people as well.
A single infant weighed less than ten pounds.
Even a thousand of them totaled less than ten thousand pounds, which was an easy burden for them.
Though the method was unavoidably a bit rough, the current situation left them no choice.
With a wave of their hands, Nangong Ning and Ruan Zhong swept away the majority. The five members of the Supervision Hall didn't hesitate either, easily taking the remaining children.
"Withdraw!"
Xu Xian, his hands empty, flickered behind Song Qingshu.
"I’m taking you out of here."
"Little Grand-Uncle, don't worry about me. You guys go first."
The youth ignored him, slinging the boy over his shoulder. He stepped onto Wait and gave chase.
The giant snake’s speed wasn't as fast as expected, likely because it had just swallowed a nascent soul and energy was surging wildly within its belly...
It approached slowly.
Crushing stones and snapping trees, it looked like a black and red river flowing forward under the moonlight, destroying everything in its path.
The demonic cultivators, carrying nothing, ran incredibly fast. Some foundation establishment cultivators, too terrified to move, became food for the serpent one by one.
By sacrificing themselves, they bought time for the others to escape. This was likely the only good deed they had ever done in their lives.
Although Ruan Zhong and Nangong Ning were in the nascent soul stage, they had been wounded repeatedly and had just fought a bloody battle. Now, carrying over a thousand infants, they couldn't even keep up with the unburdened foundation establishment cultivators.
The other five were in no better shape.
Naturally, they were being left far behind by the fleeing demonic cultivators.
As for Xu Xian, though he had the immortal sword Wait, he couldn't bring himself to abandon them.
If he just focused on flying, the others wouldn't be able to compare to his speed... but they had fought this far and reached this point together. If he were to throw them away and run now, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.
However, turning back to stop that giant serpent was even more unrealistic.
Above that giant snake's head, the words 'Beast King Stage' were practically written in bold.
The realms of beast beasts were: first-tier mortal beasts, second-tier vicious beasts, third-tier ferocious beasts, fourth-tier berserk beasts, fifth-tier sapient beasts, sixth-tier beast king stage, seventh-tier beast emperor stage, eighth-tier beast sovereign stage, and ninth-tier beast god stage.
Their power levels roughly corresponded to the nine major human cultivation realms. Even if there were slight deviations, the difference was negligible.
The snake behind them was a beast king, an existence of the sixth stage, superior to the nascent soul stage. Even if its realm had been forcibly triggered by swallowing a beast core after possessing a body, it was still formidable.
And from the look of it, the creature was frenzied and its aura was violent, as if it had no brain left.
Regardless, it wasn't something Xu Xian could go up against.
As Xu Xian ran, he couldn't help but complain, "I really fell for your nonsense. We stopped the sacrifice, and yet this beast still came out."
Feng Shisan said, "My guess was right. This is the Xiushe. The one they were trying to resurrect was the Great Calamity Xiushe."
Nangong Ning analyzed the situation calmly. "It's not that these demonic cultivators wanted to resurrect the Xiushe; rather, the Xiushe wasn't fully dead and wanted to resurrect itself. That Blood Infant Patriarch must have been bewitched by a remnant thought of the Xiushe to do all this."
"Seeing the sacrifice interrupted, the Xiushe forcibly possessed that old man's body and swallowed its own beast core. Using that nascent soul body, it forcibly manifested this giant snake. Although this snake is in the beast king stage, it has defied the natural order to return to life, thus suffering the backlash of the Great Dao. Its soul is currently unstable, so only its physical strength is at the beast king stage."
"Its intelligence is like that of a third-tier ferocious beast, as are its instincts. It only knows hunger and slaughter. Every living thing it sees will be swallowed..."
A disciple asked anxiously, "Then what do we do? Even if it has no intelligence, we still can't outrun it!"
Song Qingshu, weak on Xu Xian’s back, added, "If I'm not mistaken, the more living beings it devours, the stronger its physical cultivation will become. Once its body reaches a certain strength, it will be able to withstand its original soul power and suppress the backlash of the Heavenly Dao. When that happens, we'll be in real trouble..."
Xu Xian furrowed his brows and said in a heavy voice, "That's a problem for later. Before that, I'm afraid the entire Tianzhu County will be eaten clean. By then, the dead won't just be these three thousand infants."
Hearing this, the group fell silent.
What Xu Xian said was their greatest fear. Even if they could escape, the Tianzhu County Prefecture was only a few hundred miles away, home to tens of thousands of commoners.
"Damn it, it's just one thing after another."
Originally, after a bloody battle and the dispersal of the demonic cultivators, their certain-death crisis should have been resolved. Even if the snake hadn't swallowed that old ghost, victory would have belonged to them.
Xu Xian's plan had been executed beyond expectations.
Though the eight of them were injured, not one had died.
Thousands of infants had been rescued, and they had razed the enemy's nest, leaving no survivors among the core leadership.
If they went back now, this would be a grand victory—a classic battle that could be written into the Wendao Sword Sect's textbooks.
But the sudden appearance of the giant snake had disrupted all their plans. The task before them was no longer killing demonic cultivators or saving infants; it was how to stop this giant snake from wreaking havoc on the world.
But that was a beast king. It was far too troublesome.
Ruan Zhong gritted his teeth. "No matter what, we have to stop it."
"How?"
Nangong Ning stared into the dark night ahead and pulled a blood-stained formation flag from her robes. "This is a formation flag I took from the Blood Infant Patriarch. If I'm not mistaken, this should be the flag for the isolating formation the Little Grand-Uncle mentioned. We'll charge out first. Junior Brother Ruan and I can use this formation to trap the snake inside."
She paused and looked at the others. "You will split into two groups. Little Grand-Uncle, light the spirit incense to send a signal first, then go to the nearest Supervision Halls for reinforcements. The rest of you, take the children back to Tianzhu County and evacuate the citizens!"
Xu Xian asked grimly, "Can you hold it?"
Nangong Ning said hoarsely, "We have to try... If our luck is good and you run into a Merchant Hall fleet on the way, we might make it in time."
Rate on N.U.
