On the wide, smooth wasteland, there were no mountains to be seen, only a bumpy ditch.
Luo Jianqing grasped his sword in his right hand, brows tightly locked together, as he looked all around him cautiously. The piercing cries of beasts echoed from every direction, like a monster was following Luo Jianqing. The purple phantom turned into a virtual image, so quick that Luo Jianqing couldn’t see it, but he had a rough idea of who the demon beast could be.
A rank six demon beast, the phantom demon fox!
The fox race had always been intelligent. At rank five and six, they could pour out any kind of human speech.
“Little darling, why don’t you give your servant a smile, hm?”
“Human, why do you still hold your sword? Your servant is confused.”
“Why don’t you follow your servant? Your servant might spare your life.”
Laughter like silver bells reverberated all around him. The sound was like a weapon that ruthlessly stabbed into Luo Jianqing’s ears.
”Green Lotus Sword Seal!”
Luo Jianqing did not stop changing hand-seals. Shuang Fu rose slowly and transformed into four sharp swords, protecting Luo Jianqing. The four identical swords shook ceaselessly in the air and formed a green barrier. The demon fox’s attacks kept ramming into the barrier.
The green curtain of light shook endlessly. The first attack was already hard to resist, and by the second attack it already looked like it was about to fall apart. Luo Jianqing’s eyes trembled with fear. He took out a Spirit-Assembling Pill from behind his back and took ten pills at once. Immediately, his spiritual energy sharply increased, the screen of light becoming considerably stronger as well.
At the same time, Luo Jianqing watched his surroundings carefully, about to track the trail of the other party.
“Darling, if you don’t obey your servant, she will be very hurt.”
The purple figure slowly condensed into form, transforming in front of Luo Jianqing.
It was a purple demon fox as tall as a person, its huge purple tail constantly swaying behind its body. Its form wasn’t complete yet, but its eyes were already overflowing with fox charm, fixed on Luo Jianqing’s face. Its blatant gaze roamed over his body, like it was undressing him.
“You humans are always so stupid like this. Since this is the case…” Each word was a powerful mental attack. Luo Jianqing was appalled to find out that even though the other party revealed its body, he was unable to attack, only defend passively. He saw the demon fox close its big mouth and laughed, “Since this is the case, then… peel off this leather bag of a body for me!”
Its voice had just fallen when the demon fox suddenly changed into a purple light, charging towards Luo Jianqing.
Luo Jianqing’s phoenix eyes lifted, the side of his mouth evoking a smiling expression. The four swords transformed into one Shuang Fu, appearing in his right hand.
“Sword Draws Lightning!”
Silver lightning rumbled from the sky. The thousand-year lightning crystal inside Shuang Fu pulled all the thunder and lightning from the sky. Luo Jianqing’s right hand slashed through the air, sending thunder towards the phantom demon fox’s body.
The demon fox was startled and hurriedly continued downwards, receiving a small wound.
“You child, I’ll make you regret disobeying me!” (1)
A demonic light flashed through the demon fox’s eyes and the purple tail suddenly grew larger, striking towards Luo Jianqing in a split second.
The silver sword and purple tail battled endlessly in the air. Luo Jianqing continued to struggle against his opponent. The tail became rapid attacks in midair, which he couldn’t react to.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It seemed that the demon fox was absolutely terrible at spiritual attacks. Although it had already reached Nascent Soul, the strength of its body was on the same level as Luo Jianqing’s.
In a flash, a golden sword-light shone behind Luo Jianqing’s body.
The demon fox’s tail was suddenly cut in half, making it howl horribly. Though it didn’t move, a ray of golden light flashed and the demon fox was cut cleanly into two pieces. A white core rolled out from its body.
Luo Jianqing’s entire body was frozen stiff, standing in place with disbelief.
A neutral voice said behind him, “Jianqing.”
After a while, Luo Jianqing slowly turned around and finally saw that person.
With brilliant white clothes and cool, elegant features, a eight-petaled golden lotus sword mark on his forehead, not even the purity of his features was dirtied in this desolate place. He watched him, then slowly stretched his hand towards him. His voice had a hint of urgency as he said, “Jianqing, your master has arrived a bit late.”
Luo Jianqing could not help grasping his hand in return.
The coldness was no different from what he remembered.
Luo Jianqing murmured, “Master…”
Xuan Lingzi gazed calmly at his disciple. His lips quirked up, revealing a hint of a very light smile. “Good to see that nothing happened to you. That demon fox is Nascent Soul stage. You are much weaker than it. Had your master arrived a second later, you may not be alive right now.”
Right after his voice fell, Xuan Lingzi thrust his palm right into Luo Jianqing’s chest.
Like a lotus flower, cool air immediately flooded his nostrils. Luo Jianqing was seized with terror from this feeling in his chest, and heard a low voice mutter into his ear, “Jianqing, if you need me for something, it would be good to let your master know.”
Luo Jianqing’s fingers shook slightly. He couldn’t help but embrace the other tightly, greedily sucking in the familiar scent of his chest. He heard the other person said quietly, “These remnants are truly unusual. Today your master will first bring you out, then Tai Hua Mountain will come and carefully examine it. After that, we might find out what kind of mishap occurred here. Jianqing, your master will not permit you to do something so dangerous again. When we get back, you will remain at Tai Hua Mountain and concentrate on cultivating. This… ngh, you…”
Shuang Fu stuck out from Xuan Lingzi’s stomach, without a drop of blood on the blade.
In a flash, the entire world changed, and the Xuan Lingzi just then transformed into a demon fox. The purple demon fox spat out blood, its paw already on Luo Jianqing’s back, only three inches away from pulling out his heart!
The demon fox said in disbelief, “Why?… My illusion comes from what you humans desire the most. Your cultivation is lower than mine, it would be impossible for you to realize… why…”
His elegant and calm face without any trace of expression, Luo Jianqing emotionlessly pulled out his sword. He thrust his left hand inside the demon fox’s dantian and pulled out the purple core.
“You ask why I could see through your illusion?” His left hand still sticking out from the demon fox’s body, Luo Jianqing lowered his head with a tranquil expression, and said neutrally, “Because that person would never say those kinds of words to me. If I died, he would still stand at his Yu Xiao Peak. He wouldn’t show a fraction of sentiment for me.”
Luo Jianqing took out the purple core. The demon fox trembled with hatred as it spit out a final purple breath of demon mist, then looked at Luo Jianqing’s resisting sword, Shuang Fu, who was brimming with lightning as it blocked the demon mist out of Luo Jianqing’s body.
“What I did to little junior sister before, I won’t do again. Since you’ve delivered yourself to me, then use your life to apologize to little junior sister in my past life.”
With unwillingness and remorse, the demon fox gradually fell down.
The rank six phantom demon fox’s corpse was also quite valuable as the fur on its body could be used to make a magical tool. Luo Jianqing put the demon fox’s corpse inside his storage ring with a wave of his sleeve. He carefully observed the purple demon core. Purple light was circulating around its surface, faintly reflecting a sort of sinister feeling. Luo JIanqing thought to himself that this was a bit strange, but finally put the demon core in his storage ring.
“If you weren’t so impatient for victory and battled with me for a moment longer, I’d be unable to resist you.”
Looking at the pool of bloodstains on the ground, Luo Jianqing was not at all reluctant to lift his head. He pulled up his sword and left. Though he had just gone through a life-threatening aerial battle and still haven’t regained his strength, he still had enough to fight a Phase Two Qi Condensation boy and more.
When Luo Jianqing flew back to the basin, Li Xiuchen had just sat on a large stone, panting. It seemed that he had killed those two demon beasts just now and didn’t notice Luo Jianqing’s arrival.
Luo Jianqing didn’t give him a moment to rest. Without saying anything, a green sword light flew down rapidly, aiming straight for Li Xiuchen’s head!
A Core Formation cultivator’s breath was absolutely not anything Li Xiuchen could sense. He remained resting on the large stone, still not noticing the earth-level sword coming right towards his head. However! Right when it was about to pierce through Li Xiuchen’s skull, he suddenly shifted to the side a little bit.
“Ahhhh! It hurts!”
Shuang Fu had skewered through Li Xiuchen’s left shoulder to his arm, narrowly destroying his hand!
Luo Jianqing’s pupils shrunk, and instantly understood why.
“The will of the heavens!”
The wrath-filled voice made Li Xiuchen turn his head and see Luo Jianqing, startling him, then hurriedly moved towards the side to dodge. This time he could not attend to the unbearable pain in his arm, and he said urgently, “What… what are you doing? Do you want to kill me?!”
Luo Jianqing didn’t answer. Shuang Fu turned into a ray of green light and returned to his right hand. With a handsome face as cold as snow, his completely emotionless gaze fell on Li Xiuchen, like he was looking at something that was not a living being.
Suddenly, Li Xiuchen understood. “You want to kill me and replace me as the main character? Luo Jianqing, that’s impossible! I am the main character, you put down your sword right now and leave with me. I guarantee that you and I can become immortal together! I won’t kill you, I won’t kill you in the future okay!”
Luo Jianqing didn’t acknowledge him, the ray of sword-light flying rapidly towards Li Xiuchen’s stomach.
Li Xiuchen ran ahead and never stopped, but he couldn’t run anywhere that Shuang Fu couldn’t get to in a flash. In a very short time, the tip of the sword was about to pierce Li Xiuchen’s stomach. Yet Luo Jianqing didn’t relax and took two fingers together, three rays of sword-light springing up from his fingertips to block Li Xiuchen from the other three directions.
Shuang Fu’s tip had already impaled through Li Xiuchen’s clothes.
Luo Jianqing’s eyes widened, waiting for that moment to arrive.
Until… the world rumbled loudly, and white light flooded everything. When Luo Jianqing opened his eyes again, Li Xiuchen had disappeared from the Endless Wasteland. Luo Jianqing stared dumbly at this scene. After a very long time, he clenched his right hand and took back Shuang Fu, pointing it towards the blue sky in resentment.
“The will of the heavens!”
In the next moment, a white light flickered in front of Luo Jianqing’s body, and the Endless Wasteland no longer held his shadow.
Everything around him was darkness. Luo Jianqing looked so gloomy that it looked like a drop of water was about to leak, Shuang Fu grasped tightly in his hand. He couldn’t make out anything in his surroundings because he had been transported to the sixth pass—Tianxuan Pass.
“Seeking Immortality” had said that this pass was the easiest to cross. All he needed to do was to stand in place for a moment, and he would cross.
In the endless chaos, Luo Jianqing heard an indistinct and hoarse voice. This voice was like rough sandstone and repeated three words over and over, never-ending, like it never got tired.
“Human or demon…”
“Human or demon…”
“Human or demon…”
There was no other voice, but it was mixed with a tinge of something ancient, echoing endlessly in this space. Luo Jianqing’s face was calm, and didn’t take notice of the voice, until it suddenly stopped somewhere not far from him, and said one sentence in a low voice, “You are human.”
Luo Jianqing immediately brandished his sword, but only cut through empty air.
Yes, Li Xiuchen was human, so he was transported to the seventh pass.
“Human or demon, human or demon, human or demon…”
The voice slowly came towards Luo Jianqing. At this very moment, his anger had even cooled down a bit. Luo Jianqing calmly took out Shuang Fu and waited for the pass to test him. When it finally arrived near him, he seemed to feel a faint presence stop in front of him. The voice whispered, “Human… or demon…”
The voice stopped spontaneously. After a moment, it suddenly said in a sharp voice, “You are a demon!”
(1) 敬酒不吃吃罚酒: The actual phrase was this. CCdict’s definition is to “to refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit; fig. to hesitate to do sth until forced to do even more”. Here’s a more extensive explanation. I obviously had no way of putting this comfortably in there lol…