On the streets of the eastern city, dust and sand filled the air, as if a sandstorm had swept through, leaving everything impoverished.
Many buildings were overturned by the shockwaves, and the paving stones on the streets were uprooted, with only a few low houses surviving the ordeal.
Bang!
A golden figure plummeted from the sky, crashing onto the roof of a tiled house, sending tiles flying in all directions. Then, like a bouncing ball, it rebounded and fell back to the street, rolling away without moving a muscle.
Yun Xi lay on the ground, staring blankly at the sky, where a strange giant snow lotus was visible, her mind in a daze.
She realized she must be seriously injured, but she didn't feel any pain at all.
In fact, Yun Xi felt as if she only had a head and a right hand left, with the rest of her body missing.
"Hiss– cough— cough, cough, cough—"
She tried to sit up but found she couldn't muster any strength. There was a taste of rust in her throat, as if something was stuck in her windpipe, making her extremely uncomfortable.
At this moment, the blood lotus in the sky began to contract once again.
Whoosh!
After a loud rumble, the lotus once again sprayed countless crimson pollen into the air, completely dyeing the sky above the Chi Dragon Mansion a deep shade of red.
Seeing the falling crimson snow, Yun Xi finally reacted and realized she needed to take cover indoors.
Thanks to the demonic cultivator earlier, her clothes were torn and her hat was missing. Moreover, she couldn't use her Thunderfire Body Defense now.
She had seen the fate of those who were touched by the crimson snow.
"Tsk—"
Yun Xi clicked her tongue and gritted her teeth, trying to use the only hand she could move to drag herself to the shelter of the eaves by the side of the street. However, just lifting her hand already exhausted all her strength.
Knowing she probably couldn't escape being possessed by the Blood Spirit and turning into those disgusting monsters, Yun Xi felt a sense of resentment. With her last bit of strength, she raised her right hand.
She gave a thumbs-up to the blood lotus in the sky, then turned her thumb downward.
A furious shout resounded:
"Fuck you! you damn demonic cultivator!! I'll definitely kill all of you in my next life! Cough, cough— cough—"
The crimson snowflakes floated down from the sky, heading straight for Yun Xi's scarred face.
Yun Xi had resigned herself to her fate, and her raised right arm suddenly fell back onto the street.
Swish—
The sound of dragging footsteps filled the air, followed by a torn paper fan slipping into Yun Xi's field of view, shielding her from the crimson snow and the giant snow lotus in the sky.
A paper umbrella blocked her sight.
Yun Xi turned her eyes towards the person holding the umbrella for her.
He was a young man wearing a straw hat, his face covered in bandages, with only a pair of deep purple eyes visible. His clothes, now covered in dust, looked somewhat disheveled.
After a moment of silence, Yun Xi opened her mouth and took a deep breath:
"Hiss— you— cough, cough—"
But before she could finish her sentence, she spat out a mouthful of blood.
Yun Xi glanced at him with disdain, but couldn't muster any resistance.
Leaning down, he held the umbrella under his armpit, supporting Yun Xi's back and buttocks, and lifted her up, heading towards a barely intact two-story pavilion by the roadside.
Though Yun Xi was reluctant, she had no choice but to glare fiercely at the young man to express her protest.
Inside the pavilion, Pei Lengxue was sitting cross-legged on a wooden table, meditating. She opened her eyes upon hearing the commotion, watching her senior brother carry a girl into the room. She puffed her cheeks in dissatisfaction and immediately jumped off the table.
"I'll take care of her."
Pei Lengxue snatched Yun Xi from Ye Anping's arms and placed her on the table where she had just been meditating. Ye Anping approached the table and grabbed her dislocated knee.
Click—
"Ahhh—!!"
After a miserable scream, Yun Xi's dislocated knee was reset by Ye Anping's bare hands. Then, he proceeded to adjust her left hand and left foot.
Yun Xi gritted her teeth, which are missing a chunk of her big tooth, and shot one last glare at Ye Anping's deep purple eyes before her eyes rolled back, and she passed out.
After confirming that Yun Xi's condition wasn't too severe, Ye Anping used his spiritual sense to check on her before gently closing her eyelids. He then walked to a corner and checked on another Shadowmoon Sword Sect disciple he had brought in earlier. Confirming that the person's breathing was stable, he stood up, adjusted his straw hat, and together with Pei Lengxue, walked out of the room.
On the street, the crimson snow had become denser. Ye Anping glanced up at the sky under his hat, then pushed Pei Lengxue's hat slightly forward before heading back to the square where the battle had taken place.
The square was now unrecognizable, with all the surrounding buildings destroyed, leaving only a clean, circular open space. At the center lay the headless shell of Zuo Min and the golden page on the ground beside her.
Though in the game, Zuo Min's self-destruct would mean the end of the battle, Ye Anping couldn't shake off the eerie feeling in this place. He had a faint sense that Zuo Min might still be alive. The resilience of a Gu cultivator's life force was akin to that of a cockroach, so he had to remain cautious.
"Be careful, Junior Sister."
Ye Anping drew his spirit sword, and with his junior sister by his side, he approached Zuo Min's shell, picked up the golden page, returned it to his storage bag, and then slashed Zuo Min's body twice with his sword. He then took out a fire talisman and set her shell on fire.
Watching Zuo Min's shell gradually wither and turn into ashes, he breathed a sigh of relief. However, when he looked down, he noticed some black spots resembling ashes on the ground.
"Ashes? Or..."
Ye Anping frowned slightly, then took out a fire talisman, gesturing for Pei Lengxue to step back. He placed the fire talisman on himself, igniting it with his spiritual energy.
In an instant, flames engulfed his entire body.
Pei Lengxue, who had retreated to a safe distance, widened her eyes in shock, wanting to rush forward to help extinguish the flames, but Ye Anping stopped her.
"Don't come closer. Five, four, three, two—"
Ye Anping gritted his teeth against the intense pain, counting down quietly.
And as he uttered the word "one," a piercing scream erupted from his back.
"Ahhh—!!!"
Instantly, a blood-red spiritual light soared into the sky as Zuo Min's soul couldn't withstand the flames and leaped off his body.
"You little brat!!!"
"Junior Sister!"
Ye Anping shouted and quickly took out a water talisman, splashing himself with water to extinguish the flames.
Meanwhile, Pei Lengxue saw the escaping soul and immediately formed a sword gesture with her hand, stepping forward with her right foot as icy blue spiritual energy spread around her. In an instant, the ground of the square was covered with a layer of frost, and countless sharp ice spikes shot towards Zuo Min in the sky. Finally, they froze Zuo Min's soul into an ice sculpture, causing it to fall back to the ground and crash.
Trapped in the ice, Zuo Min glared at Ye Anping. She had just housed her soul in a flea-like gu insect she had raised, intending to jump onto the girl when they returned to pick up the golden pages and seize the opportunity to possess her. However, when Ye Anping picked up the pages just now, the girl was standing quite far away, leaving Zuo Min with no choice but to let the insect cling to Ye Anping's clothes and wait for an opportunity.
But who would have thought that this lad...
"Ahhhh!!! Wu Yue!!! Yao Yuanhua!!! You two useless idiots!!! If it weren't for you, how could I have fallen into the hands of two Foundation Establishment stage cultivators?!" Zuo Min shouted to the sky in anger.
Ye Anping looked at her expressionlessly.
Indeed, if Wu Yue and Yao Yuanhua hadn't died, the remaining three demonic cultivators wouldn't have needed to share the formation eye with those two. Relying solely on him and his junior sister, killing Zuo Min would have been a difficult battle.
However...
"Senior Zuo, who do you think they died at the hands of?"
"Died at whose hands..." Zuo Min paused slightly upon hearing this sentence. Because Yao Yuanhua had a somewhat impulsive temperament, when Yao Yuanhua was killed by the guards of the Chi Dragon Mansion, she and the remaining demonic cultivators all believed that it was Yao Yuanhua who caused trouble in the brothel and exposed his identity as a demonic cultivators, leading to being killed by the guards and two disciples of the Profound Star Sect.
Wu Yue was also similarly eager to avenge Yao Yuanhua, so she exposed her identity and tragically fell victim to the massacre. They never thought that they were being deliberately targeted for an attack. After all, the Heavenly Demon Sect only sent the five of them to the Chi Dragon Mansion to prevent leaks and to prevent interference from figures like Moon Dan Master. The matter of the Chi Dragon Mansion was only known to a few elders and the sect master within the Heavenly Demon Sect, and there was no possibility of information leakage. But...
After hearing Ye Anping's words, Zuo Min also understood. Among the five of them, there was a traitor!!
Zuo Min gritted her teeth and shouted loudly at Ye Anping, "Could it be— Yao Yuanhua!!! Did he tell you, right?!! I knew it, that scum who thinks with the brain below his waist!!"
"... ..."
Ye Anping shrugged, wiped the blade of his spiritual sword with a fire talisman in his left hand, and suddenly flames erupted on the blade.
"Wait!! Mysterious Yin Art!! I know where it is!! Let me go, and I'll tell you the location of the remaining volume of the Mysterious Yin Art!"
With a horizontal and a vertical sword strike, two flames of spiritual sword energy intersected to form a cross, directly igniting her soul through the ice prison formed by Pei Lengxue's spiritual energy.
"Ah—! If you kill me, you'll never know where the remaining volume of the Mysterious Yin Art is!!!"
"One hundred miles east of the Chi Dragon Mansion, in Song Yan Mountain?"
"What—?"
Ye Anping winked at her with his left eye and said with a smile, "Senior Yao told me."
With that, he turned and walked out of the square with his junior sister, leaving Zuo Min behind to wail and scream.
Originally, he wanted to take Zuo Min's Storage bag, but... he thought better of it. Most of the valuable things she had were probably stored in the cave in Song Yan Mountain, and who knows what strange things she might have in her Storage bag now.
In the game, Zuo Min's "Volume One of the Mysterious Yin Art" required killing her to drop a secret letter, decrypting it to find her hiding place in Song Yan Mountain, but since he already knew, there was no need to decrypt it.
He came back just to take the "Volume Five of the Mysterious Yin Art" that he had previously used as bait.
After leaving the square, Pei Lengxue turned back to look at the struggling and wailing Zuo Min and asked softly, "Husband, what does it mean to think with a brain below his waist? How can the brain be below the waist?"
Ye Anping paused for a moment, his lips slightly parted as he turned to look at his junior sister's innocent eyes, feeling choked up for a moment.
"It's... it's like..."
"It's like?"
Just at this moment, in the direction of the central city area of the Chi Dragon Mansion, a golden dragon soared into the sky, causing Ye Anping to turn his head to look. He remained silent for a moment before answering, "It's like... Feng Yudie."
"Oh."
<+>
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[3] https://www.patreon.com/posts/volume-4-chapter-128691741
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