Deep in the withered wood, dozens of disciples from various small sects and rogue cultivators fled in disarray.
They no longer possessed the high spirits they had held upon entering the secret realm; battered and drained of spiritual energy, their eyes were filled with terror and exhaustion.
Worst of all, these demons were in no hurry to wipe them out all at once, treating it instead like a cruel game of cat and mouse.
They herded these exhausted “prey,” launching ambushes from the shadows every now and then, snatching or killing only one or two defenseless disciples at the rear each time, relishing the thrill of their quarry struggling in despair.
“We can’t keep running like this!” A blood-soaked young man gripping a broken sword halted abruptly and bellowed hoarsely, “If this continues, more and more brothers will be picked off, and sooner or later, they’ll devour us all one by one! We have to stand and fight them to the death!”
His outcry resonated with many who felt the same way, a surge of fiery courage welling up amid their despair.
Yet before his words had fully settled, a ghostly shadow melted into the wind and appeared behind him in the blink of an eye.
“Tsk.”
A faint sound accompanied the whisper of a blade slicing through flesh. The impassioned young man stiffened, his pupils dilating instantly. A thin line of blood formed across his neck, followed by a violent spray of crimson. The light in his eyes rapidly faded, and he collapsed to the ground with a dull thud.
The shadow receded, revealing a young man clad in black robes with a lazy, wicked cast to his features.
Flicking imaginary blood from his fingers, an annoyed scowl crossed his face as he looked down at the corpse and grumbled, “Hey, don’t go breaking the rules on a whim.” His tone sounded like he was chiding someone for spoiling an entertaining game. “Wouldn’t it be better if you just ran for your life like a good boy?”
Even as he spoke, a fierce ray of sword light suddenly flared from behind him, thrusting straight toward his back! It was a cultivator lurking to the side, attempting to avenge his companion!
Yet the black-robed man named Feng Zimo acted as though he had eyes in the back of his head. Without even turning, the corners of his lips merely curled into a sneer.
In an instant, the blurry, savage phantom of a black leopard flashed behind him, unleashing a screeching howl that tore through the air as it lunged at the ambusher.
“Aargh—!”
The agonized scream was cut short. The ambushing cultivator and his sword light were both ripped to shreds by the beast phantom, bursting into a mist of blood.
Only then did Feng Zimo turn around languidly. Looking at the dissipating blood mist, a troubled expression took over his face, and he spread his hands. “See? If you’d just run obediently, we might have taken you back as captives, and you could’ve lived a few days longer. Why rush to throw your life away?”
His gaze swept across the remaining rogue cultivators trembling in heightened terror after witnessing this brutal scene. His smile turned cruel and playful. “Alright, that little inconsequential interlude is over. The game continues. Let’s see who falls behind next, shall we?”
“Feng Zimo, stop playing around,” a low, hoarse voice called out from the side.
Another man faintly enveloped in the phantom of a black leopard approached. His face was grim, his eyes like those of a viper. “You’re making too much noise. If you attract the four great righteous sects, it won’t be so easy to deal with.”
Hearing this, Feng Zimo chuckled dismissively, even casually rolling his neck. “Deng Nie, when did you get so timid? With our skills, even if those so-called geniuses of the four great sects show up, could they actually stop us if we want to leave?”
Ignoring him further, he resumed the chase.
Licking a bead of blood from his fingertip, his wicked gaze locked onto a young cultivator in the crowd who was stumbling in terror. With a slight shift of his body, shadows began to pool beneath his feet.
Just as he was about to melt into the shadows once more to strike a lethal blow—
Whoosh!
A bone-chilling sharpness struck toward his throat without warning! Feng Zimo’s hair stood on end. Relying on instincts honed through countless life-and-death battles, he snapped his head back. A slender yet razor-sharp sword wind grazed past his skin, leaving a clear trail of blood across his neck.
“Tsk!” Shocked and enraged, Feng Zimo instinctively assumed his companion had blundered and snarled, “Deng Nie, what the hell are you d—”
His voice broke off abruptly.
He turned around in bewilderment, only to see Deng Nie clutching his left shoulder and stumbling backward nearby. An azure spiritual arrow, its fletching still trembling faintly, was embedded deep in his shoulder blade—definitely not a technique of the demons under their command!
Tracing the path of the arrow, he saw two figures standing silently ahead, having appeared at some unknown moment.
On the left stood a tall, straight-backed man holding a longsword gleaming with cold radiance; on the right stood an elegantly clad woman in an azure robe, holding an ancient-patterned greenwood longbow whose string still hummed faintly. Clearly, that precise and deadly shot had come from her hand.
“Who goes there?!” Feng Zimo suppressed the jolt of shock in his heart and barked sharply, his eyes darting warily around in suspicion of more ambushing forces.
Su Yi did not answer him. Scanning his surroundings and finding that the enemy numbered only around twenty, he secretly signaled with a wave of his hand, allowing only the Divine Might Manor disciples hidden in the dark to step forward.
“Divine Might Manor, Su Yi.”
The two across from him froze at his words; they had not expected to actually draw in one of the four great sects. But a moment later, they burst out laughing.
“You mean that Divine Might Manor, the sect with the flimsiest heritage among the four great righteous sects?”
Looking at the squad behind Su Yi and seeing that their aura was seemingly far weaker than his own side, Feng Zimo grew even more arrogant. “My Pestilence Manor ranks among the top three giants of the demonic path. Has your trifling Divine Might Manor come here to throw your lives away?”
【Young Manor Lord Su, let my Return to Origin Sect team step in instead,】 Shang Shuyi transmitted secretly. She was a bit worried; Divine Might Manor’s heritage truly fell far short of Return to Origin Sect, the leader of the righteous path.
【No need. I originally assumed they’d have the advantage in numbers. As it stands, if you reveal Return to Origin Sect, this fish will slip away immediately.】
Saying that, Su Yi took a step forward, raising an eyebrow. “Popping the champagne at halftime—don’t you know that’s dangerous villain behavior?”
“You might just end up losing quite miserably.”
Though Feng Zimo did not grasp the exact meaning of this otherworldly banter, the blatant contempt and ridicule in Su Yi’s tone pierced like a needle right into his haughty heart.
“What a sharp-tongued brat!” Feng Zimo’s expression darkened drastically as his killing intent flared. “Today, I’ll ensure not a single soul from your Divine Might Manor leaves this Foundation Establishment secret realm alive!”
Before his voice faded, his figure flickered and dissolved into a hazy shadow once more, attempting to melt into the surrounding gloom. His sinister voice echoed through the woods: “Deng Nie! Tie down that Su Yi! Once I slaughter his Divine Might Manor disciples, we’ll see if he can still act so arrogant!”
Nearby, Deng Nie’s brows furrowed tightly upon hearing this.
He felt as though he had heard the name “Su Yi” somewhere before, yet it felt dreamlike and surreal.
‘It shouldn’t be the person Senior Brother spoke of; that man ought to have established his foundation long ago!’
‘Right! It must be a coincidence! There’s no way someone would cripple their own Dao foundation and cultivate all over again!’ Deng Nie forcefully suppressed the unease and preposterous suspicion in his heart; the present situation gave him no time for second thoughts.
“Roar—!”
He let out an unearthly bellow as black qi surged around him. The ferocious phantom of the black leopard materialized once more, merging even closer with his body and radiating a savage, violent aura.
His pupils narrowed into feral vertical slits, locking onto Su Yi. In the next breath, he kicked off the ground with tremendous force, rocketing into the air like an artillery shell and pouncing straight at Su Yi without regard for anything else!
The black leopard phantom opened its gaping maw, unleashing a powerful suction that enveloped Su Yi. Disregarding the glow of the Golden Body Mantra swirling around him, it seized him in its jaws and forcibly dragged him away from the main battlefield!
“End this quickly!” Deng Nie’s roar resonated far and wide, tinged with a faint, imperceptible anxiety.
“Senior Brother Su!” Shang Shuyi gasped, hastily nocking an arrow.
【Don’t worry. If they had attacked together, they might have gotten scared after seeing my strength and fled in separate directions, making it impossible to finish them both off. This move suits me just fine.】
Su Yi transmitted calmly. Although Shang Shuyi was somewhat anxious, remembering everything that had transpired before, she lowered her longbow and watched ahead.
‘Senior Brother Su didn’t have Senior Sister Ling and the others intervene, which means that in his eyes, I alone am enough to handle the situation here. If so, I cannot let him look down on me!’
Rate on N.U.
