As alarms blared madly in his chest, the dense branches and leaves suddenly whipped in the same direction. In Li Xun's ears it was like a roaring tide crashing through, and woven into that roar came shrieks sharp as ghostly wails.
Seven Ghosts Shattering the Sea!
Li Xun was now facing the Supreme Secret Art of the Underworld Monarch Sect itself.
He had plenty of experience dealing with the sect's various techniques. But today, his opponent was none other than Yuan Nan, one of the sect's rare top cultivators.
The Underworld Monarch Sect made its home on an island chain called the Seven Ghost Reefs. The sect was surrounded on all sides by the sea, its waters choked with reefs. With each crashing wave and surging tide, countless hidden whirlpools formed around them, terrifying to behold.
And because the sect specialized in summoning spirits and binding the dead, the surrounding seas had, over countless ages, been filled with vicious souls and resentful wraiths. When the waves rose and howled, it was as if ten thousand ghosts wailed together, blotting out sky and sun.
This was the origin of the name Seven Ghosts Shattering the Sea.
When Yuan Nan had fought Ti Wujiu earlier, Li Xun had not yet arrived, and so he hadn't experienced the dread force of that technique for himself.
But now, as the Seven Ghosts Shattering the Sea descended on him, it felt as though the strange howling would rip his heart straight from his chest. The yin-flame in his body faltered and clogged, while some foreign energy seemed to seep in through every pore, trying to squeeze his very soul out of him.
Li Xun didn't hesitate. He wrapped his spirit aperture in yin-flame, steadied his mind, and retreated.
As far as he was concerned, Yuan Nan's real target was Xiao Zhongzi. Perfect. He was welcome to him. But Li Xun had, for a moment, forgotten what kind of figure the so-called "Hundred Ghosts" appeared to be in the eyes of the Netherlord Sect.
In that brief moment between advance and retreat, Yuan Nan's gaze suddenly flickered and locked onto his face. "Hundred Ghosts?"
Only then did Li Xun realize something was wrong.
Worse, he remembered that among the two Seven Underworld Star Envoys he had crippled, one of them might have been related to Yuan Nan. It was far too late for regret. With a piercing howl, Yuan Nan drove the sound of tidal waves and ghostly wails in the air to ten times their strength.
Back when Li Xun was still "Spirit Bamboo," he had once taken a strike from Yuan Nan. But at that time he had been farther away, and Yuan Nan had held back, not yet knowing who he was.
Now the situation was entirely different. This was a furious blow, with no restraint at all. Yuan Nan's pure demonic essence surged like a raging sea, wave upon wave, stacking up in an instant to three thousand layers.
Such a high density, high purity, and high intensity of true breath spilling into the air made the very space within half a li groan as if on the verge of collapse. Visible ripples of distorted air swept outward, and where they passed, hundreds of massive trees didn't even have time to topple. They simply disintegrated into nothing.
Li Xun groaned as well. But unlike those trees, he had no intention of waiting around to be destroyed.
Within him, the Bottomless Nether Ring flared to life almost the instant danger arose, opening a tiny gateway to the Nine Netherworlds.
From that gateway seeped a single drop of the purest Nine Netherworld Earth Qi, like a bead of water slowly welling up and then dripping into the depths of the ring.
The yin-flame coiling around and through the Bottomless Nether Ring was as if drenched in oil. With a thunderous roar it surged outward, flooding every corner of Li Xun's body.
Forming a strange and twisted hand seal, Li Xun pressed his two index fingers tightly together. From their tips, a faint gray-white glow slowly began to shine.
Thousands of threads of obscure qi wrapped around him, refusing to disperse even within the raging storm of Yuan Nan's energy. With each flicker of that glow they gathered more and more of the surrounding heaven-and-earth primordial qi, crackling and hissing as they condensed.
The more primordial qi the glow pulled in, the greater the disruption it caused to Yuan Nan's demonic energy. And in the space of a single blink, the clash between the two forces ripped open a tiny vacuum zone scarcely a foot across.
Li Xun shrank his body tight, limbs curled in, and in the next instant he had rolled himself into a compact sphere of flesh, tumbling rapidly within that fragile pocket of emptiness.
Dense, pure yin-flames enveloped him, pulling in more and more of the surrounding qi. Under the crushing waves of Yuan Nan's orderly demonic force, the flames peeled away as much lethal pressure as they could, clinging desperately to protect Li Xun's life.
The essence of the "Seven Ghosts Shattering the Sea" lay entirely in its word: Shattering.
The most lethal blast had already passed. The rippling aftershocks of Yuan Nan's power could no longer deal Li Xun any mortal wound.
Li Xun let out a long laugh, his body unfolding as he drifted backward on the force of the still-surging wind.
But as soon as he slipped into the surviving edge of the forest, that laugh suddenly cut off.
Yuan Nan cursed. Though frustrated that Li Xun had managed to escape intact, hearing his laughter falter, and realizing he must be badly injured, soothed his anger somewhat. Balancing his priorities, he turned to pursue Xiao Zhongzi, who was still fleeing.
But just as Yuan Nan moved, Shui Die Lan let out a lilting laugh from several li away. Unfurling her unmatched flying technique, she withdrew from the fight with startling decisiveness, leaving Ti Wujiu completely on his own.
Neither Yuan Nan nor Ti Wujiu had expected such a turn. Their eyes met, and in that instant both blazed with murderous fury, as though they could never share the same sky.
Naturally, this meant no one was left to chase Xiao Zhongzi.
Meanwhile, Li Xun lay sprawled beside a riverbank, coughing and retching, spitting out seven or eight mouthfuls of blood before his face grew deathly pale.
The power of the Seven Ghosts Shattering the Sea lay first in its devastating blast, and second in its soul-seizing force. Though Li Xun had survived the initial impact without being torn apart, he had no way to withstand the overwhelming invasion of Yuan Nan's demonic qi.
The demonic–nether qi not only dealt brutal physical damage, it also shook and corroded the soul.
Though Li Xun had shielded his spirit aperture, the violent surge still invaded his body. His soul quivered from the shock, leaving him dizzy and nauseated. His qi mechanism grew chaotic, dragging his own yin-flames into conflict with each other, tearing at him from within.
Fortunately, his Nethermyst Shadow Body technique had long since reached mastery. His two puppets, sensing their master's weakness, poured their pure breath into him without pause. Though the true breath of man and puppet were utterly different in nature, the Nethermyst Shadow Body served as a bridge, blending them together as smoothly as water and milk.
After spitting out several more mouthfuls of clotted blood, Li Xun finally stabilized his injuries and regained enough strength to defend himself.
He wiped the blood from his lips. Strangely, he felt calm. The sting of defeat was unpleasant, of course, but he had no reason to despair.
In terms of pure cultivation, he was still a step below monsters like Yuan Nan, who had been famous for over a thousand years. But that wasn't the heart of the matter. The real issue was that his own NetherYin Qi, like Yuan Nan's Seven Ghosts Shattering the Sea, belonged to the same demonic path of yin-based secret techniques. When two forces of the same nature clashed, the stronger simply overwhelmed the weaker. There was no room for nuance.
If instead he had relied on the orthodox Lingxi Art, paired with the Shadowed Bamboo, Rising Mist sword technique, the battle would not have been so one-sided.
"Next time, I'll make that ugly ghost pay," he muttered.
But no sooner had he marked the grudge than a figure flickered into view. Shui Die Lan appeared, pouting as she scolded, "This is all your fault! If you hadn't let Song Yuanchi slip away, none of this trouble would've happened!"
Li Xun had been expecting Shui Die Lan's scolding. With a helpless shrug he said, "It was beyond my strength…"
"Do less, get less! If there's treasure, you take two parts and I take eight!"
Li Xun couldn't help but laugh. So that was her real motive.
For now he had no interest in bickering with her, but of course he still had to put on a show. He kicked a pebble into the river and said firmly, "No way! If we have to break through formations and you won't lift a finger, how should that be counted?"
The pebble splashed down, sending ripples across the water. Shui Die Lan was just about to snap back when she noticed Li Xun staring intently at the river's surface, his expression fixed.
This was one of the countless tributaries threading through the southeastern forest, a vast network of rivers weaving like a net before all flowing into the Lancang River that split the woodland in two.
Seeing Li Xun's thoughtful look, Shui Die Lan glanced at the water herself. Something stirred in her mind, though the thought wasn't yet clear.
At that moment, Li Xun struck out with a hand like a blade, cleaving the river's surface apart from a distance. "Water Escape..."
The word seemed wildly out of place, but it made Shui Die Lan suddenly understand. "Xiao Zhongzi escaped using Water Escape! But… while the surface is full of rivers, they're hardly ideal hiding places, whether for safety or secrecy…"
"Underground rivers!" A gleam lit Li Xun's eyes. His idea, however, was not quite the same as hers.
Looking at how the fire vents were distributed in the old temple, you could see that the southeast forest was one of the rare places where water and fire truly balanced each other. On the surface, the restrictive formations set up in the temple seemed as if they were meant to seal something away. But in truth, they might also have served to help water and fire flow together. If you only fix your eyes on the temple itself, then your view is really too narrow.
Of course, Li Xun wasn't about to share this line of thought with Shui Die Lan. In fact, he already regretted blurting out what he had earlier when he lost control for a moment.
Now he only spoke to the point: "No one knows the layout of the underground rivers better than Xiao Zhongzi. As long as he hides down there, no one can catch him. Yet he actually dared to surface in plain sight. There has to be a reason for that."
"That's only natural," Shui Die Lan replied. Her knowledge was far above Li Xun's, and she said, "The Blood God Child is one of the highest manuals of the demonic path. When someone first falls into demonic cultivation, they become bloodthirsty, cruel, and addicted to danger and excitement. Until they reach a certain stage, there's no way to shake it off.
"He was forced to stop halfway through his cultivation. The backlash must be unbearable. Right now he's probably just looking for a target to vent his torment on."
"Is that so?" Li Xun asked. He had a complete copy of the Blood God Child, but for many reasons had never trained deeply in it. He wasn't too familiar with the details. Still, thinking of Blood Sanren's fearsome reputation in the past, the explanation sounded plausible enough.
His mind worked quickly, and before long he had already seized on another crucial point.
The whole forest is crawling with masters who could crush him with a finger. He must be suffocating. If only there were some bait to draw him out...
His eyes flicked toward Shui Die Lan, but he quickly dismissed the absurd thought.
Not only would that run completely against his purpose, even if he truly wanted to use someone as bait, he doubted Shui Die Lan could rival Qin Wanru's skill at acting. If the plan backfired, it would be a disaster... Wait, what was that expression on Shui Die Lan's face?
"What is it?"
"Someone's calling over there!" Shui Die Lan's sharp senses had caught it first. She tilted her chin toward the direction. "It's a woman. And no, not your little sweetheart."
Li Xun didn't take her good-natured teasing to heart. He only joked back, "Maybe Xiao Zhongzi couldn't hold himself back..."
But his words cut off abruptly. At that instant, a faint yet undeniable ripple spread through the air from that direction. It was like a red-hot needle stabbing straight into his nerves.
The ripple carried the stench of blood.
Burning Blood Yuan Qi!
Li Xun knew that aura all too well. And since Nether One was still right by his side, that meant the one over there had to be... Xiao Zhongzi?
Shui Die Lan reacted even faster than he did. The instant the ripple spread out, she shot through the air, and by the time Li Xun took his first step, her figure was already gone.
Because his injuries hadn't healed, his pace was slow. When he finally arrived, he found Shui Die Lan standing alone, her gaze fixed coldly on a nearby tree.
It was obvious she hadn't caught anyone.
The clearing around them was open and fresh, but now there were clear footprints pressed into the grass. Following Shui Die Lan's line of sight, he saw a tree about ten paces away. Its trunk had been gouged open by some strange finger strike, and sap was still dripping from the wound.
Li Xun stepped closer, a flicker of surprise rising in his chest. This didn't look like the work of Burning Blood Yuan Qi at all. But of course he couldn't say that. Instead, he asked in a perfectly ordinary tone, "Was it him?"
Shui Die Lan glanced at him, and the icy sharpness in her eyes melted away. A smile tugged at her lips. "Your idea wasn't half bad. That crazed fool may have just taken the bait. Too bad, though; the one who cast the line wasn't us."
Li Xun's pupils narrowed sharply. Something had gone wrong after all. For a moment he wasn't even sure what he felt, and only managed to ask, "Who?"
"All I can say is, it was a woman. There's a trace of a woman's scent here." Shui Die Lan studied the small hole in the trunk, but the other party was clearly no amateur. She hadn't left behind anything too obvious.