"Kill your damned mother!"
Li Xun spat the curse out between clenched teeth. His face, already pale, had turned almost translucent.
But the pain only drove him further into madness. Facing the enemy's hand-blade chopping down once more, he let out a piercing howl and struck back with a hand-blade of his own.
He had said he wouldn't kill, but the Eroding God Blade had no qualms about severing an arm first.
The strike didn't slow. With a clang like steel against steel, their blade-formed palms crashed together.
In that instant, a flicker of surprise crossed the gray eyes of the Eroding God Blade, eyes that had been unchanged for years.
This wasn't Li Xun's arm.
The long black sleeve shredded into ash, revealing an arm white as polished jade. In the clearing light of dawn, it gleamed as though it might give off its own radiance.
Even the "Thousand Demons Erosion Technique," which could corrode anything, had failed to leave so much as a mark.
And then, before his eyes, everything blurred again. From within that arm; he could only describe it that way, as though two arms overlapped and suddenly one shot free. Another palm burst out like a thunderbolt, only to land softly on his chest, as light as brushing away dust.
A heavy shock hit his heart as he took Li Xun's retaliatory strike head-on.
Li Xun's palm strength wasn't overwhelming, but the moment it touched his chest, the yin fire surged and churned. In the blink of an eye it shifted through nearly three hundred variations, pulling and tearing with relentless force.
No matter how strong his protective true qi was, it was torn apart under such high-frequency changes.
At that moment, Li Xun's palm pressed and lifted at once, neither fully striking nor withdrawing. Ghostly yin fire surged endlessly in his hand, and in an instant it formed a bottomless black hole, ravenously drawing away his life force as if it meant to rip out his very organs.
He let out a muffled groan. Pouring his full strength into the Thousand Demons Erosion Technique, he clashed again and again with the yin flame, and finally managed to shake Li Xun's hand away before his insides suffered irreparable damage.
But Li Xun had already anticipated this. Borrowing the recoil, his body shot backward in a straight line. No matter how many trees stood in his path, he ignored them all, his figure passing through branches and leaves like a phantom, as though they didn't exist.
The Eroding God Blade did not give chase. Taking Li Xun's strike had left him in no better shape. The corners of his mustache twitched, and from deep in his throat he let out two words:
"Nethermyst puppet?"
The words crossed distance as if it meant nothing, reaching straight into Li Xun's ears.
Li Xun kept retreating, his expression carrying a wry smile. He knew there were no secrets that lasted forever, and he wasn't foolish enough to think everyone else was blind. Still, being called out to his face was never pleasant.
Of course, he didn't forget to lay down another smokescreen. "I will never forget the gift of the Eroding God Blade. One day I will return it in full."
He forced out the last words through gritted teeth, but as he drew breath again he coughed up a mouthful of blood. Swiftly smearing a layer of life-restoring salve over his chest, he pulled farther and farther away, until at last he slipped free of the Eroding God Blade's spiritual lock.
But the trouble was far from over.
The clash with the Eroding God Blade had been as sudden as a hawk striking and just as brief. Yet the surge of primordial qi was like a beacon in the night, radiating far and wide. Any cultivator within a hundred li could sense it clearly. The disciples of the Underworld Monarch Sect and the Heavenly Vigorous Sect were no exception.
In a situation this tense, how could curiosity not be stirred?
Li Xun soon felt at least a dozen auras latching onto his trail.
The fact that the Eroding God Blade hadn't pursued him was likely not unrelated to this.
Li Xun ran for over three hundred li before he finally shook off his pursuers, switching between sword-flight, escape techniques, and lightfoot skills the entire way.
But just then, his racing figure suddenly halted. His face turned pale, and he spat out another mouthful of blood.
Three hundred li wasn't a great distance, but evading pursuit had cost him a hundred times more effort than he could normally afford. His injuries no longer allowed him to keep up the frantic pace.
The palm-shaped wound on his chest had only just grown a thin film of new flesh. Through that fragile layer, he could still see the stark white of bone, and deeper inside, the faint twitching of his organs.
In this condition, fighting again was almost out of the question.
If he encountered another powerful enemy, his only option would be his Nethermyst Puppets.
The forests of the southeast stretched endlessly, dense and tangled, every corner offering a perfect hiding place.
Li Xun didn't bother to choose carefully. He slipped into the nearest thicket, intent on applying more medicine.
But the ripples of sword-flight energy clung to him like maggots to bone. After only a brief pause, they pressed closer again. Li Xun cursed bitterly in his heart, but he no longer had the strength to run. Holding his breath, he looked upward.
The figure that appeared made him start.
Gu Pin'er? No, more likely the female cultivator who only looked like her.
Li Xun still remembered the impression she had left: with just a few moves she had cut down a Nether General, and her striking purple dress made her impossible to mistake.
Now, seeing her ride her sword through the air, the glow around it faint and subdued, he could tell her cultivation was extremely refined. She was a formidable opponent.
Coming for me? That was his first thought.
Even so, he felt no real fear. The woman might be strong, but against his two puppets she would last no more than ten breaths.
Her sword light flashed brilliantly, and in the space of an instant she crossed the ten-plus li between them. Yet instead of stopping, she swept past without pause.
Just passing through? Li Xun exhaled in relief, and even felt a twinge of admiration for her nerve. To have slain a Nether General, then wander alone in the forests crawling with Underworld Monarch Sect disciples. How could Ti Wujiu possibly be at ease letting her do as she pleased?
He still had doubts about who she really was, but with this trouble avoided he could finally breathe easier. Setting the thought aside, he prepared to tend his wounds.
But just as he uncorked the medicine vial, Nether Two suddenly sent a warning.
Instinctively, Li Xun covered the mouth of the vial with his finger, blocking the medicine's scent from escaping. Almost at the same moment, the flow of qi behind him shifted. The sound of something slicing through the air was faint, but it could not escape his ears.
He snapped his head around. And he froze.
Through the gaps in the forest canopy, scattered shafts of light fell across the grass, and across the figure of the purple-robed woman behind him. The glow reflected off her face, making her delicate, graceful features all the more dazzling.
What struck him as strange, though, was how different she looked from before. Gone was the fierce, commanding aura of the woman who had just cut down a Nether General with three strokes. Her pretty face now carried a subtle, unreadable expression, her lashes lowered to hide the brilliance of her eyes.
Li Xun had the distinct feeling she was studying his wound. Then he heard a voice:
"You're hurt."
The sound was soft and melodious, but it made him tremble.
Such gentle concern was anything but normal. The thought he had been unwilling to confirm earlier surged to the surface, and he said, "Gu Pin'er?"
"You still remember me?"
The woman lifted her gaze in surprise and delight, paying no mind to the shock she caused him. Across her flawless, jade-like cheeks spread the faintest blush.
At that, Li Xun nearly cried out.
"How could you recognize me?"
He was still wearing the guise of a Hundred Ghosts, his face and expression completely different. How had this woman seen through it?
A luminous spark flashed in Gu Pin'er's eyes, and she was just about to speak when a sharp, ringing sword cry pierced the sky. Two streaks of sword light shot toward them from dozens of li away.
Judging by the fluctuations of their qi, they seemed to be from the Heavenly Vigorous Sect as well. Li Xun frowned, then heard Gu Pin'er's gentle, melodious voice again:
"Rest easy and tend to your wounds. I'll handle them."
Li Xun's pupils contracted. His lips parted, but in the end he said nothing. He only gave a small nod, then invoked the earth-escape technique and sank into the ground.
At his ear came Gu Pin'er's parting words:
"If you have time… come find me."
Darkness quickly swept across the dense forests. After days of chaos, the area around the Demon Thunder Monastery settled into an outward calm.
The Heavenly Vigorous Sect's movements made it clear they truly knew nothing of the monastery's secrets. Their focus wasn't within its walls at all, but radiating outward from it in every direction. Their true target was likely the vanished Xiao Zhongzi. And the incomplete copy of the Blood God Child he carried.