“He actually managed to escape.”
Li Qingshan murmured, and the direction that the blood-red light fled in just happened to be the direction Xiao An had travelled off to. As he thought about the twisted expressions of Zhou Tong and the others right now, he could not help but smile.
“Don’t worry, my Xiao An will help you deal with this great enemy. I can’t accept those True Spirit pills for nothing.”
……
Having undergone a heavenly tribulation and become a Daemon General, Bloodshadow obviously possessed two innate abilities. The first one was a sound wave with an extremely large range of attack.
The second innate ability was the Bloodlight Escape. He could cross five hundred kilometers in a single instant, which was a hundred times more powerful than Li Qingshan’s Escape talisman. Even Golden Core cultivators would struggle to hunt him down.
However, whenever he used it, he would have to abandon all of his flesh and blood, which took a great toll on him. As a result, he would never use it unless he faced life-threatening danger.
As for his ability to control blood and the powerful vitality that allowed him to stay alive even when he was reduced to mince meat, they were the same as Strongboulder’s abilities as a Rock of Slaughter. It was a talent they were born with, not an innate ability.
This was also the reason why daemons with special bloodlines were stronger than regular daemons.
The torrential rain doused Bloodshadow. His face was pale-white, as if he did not even have the power to block the rain with his daemon qi. He leaned against a tree in exhaustion. His face was filled with resentment as he ground his teeth, thinking about revenge.
Suddenly, his face lit up. He sensed a vigorous cluster of vitality. This was the exact supplement he needed right now.
Bloodshadow made his way over to the other side of the tree. A young girl just happened to be sitting there, staring at a sparrow on the tree branch with her head raised. She seemed to be sheltering from the rain. Hearing the noise, she lowered her head and took a look. Her clear eyes reflected Bloodshadow’s figure perfectly. She was completely calm.
“A Foundation Establishment cultivator!”
Bloodshadow shivered inside, having sensed the spiritual qi within the girl. He had already become extremely shaken up. Afraid it was another trap, he wanted to retreat.
The girl did not move at all. The flowing blood under her jade-like skin gave off an intoxicating fragrance. Bloodshadow had never smelled something so tempting before.
The thunder continued to boom. The tree basically held up the surrounding region as the thunderstorm outside formed curtains of rain.
“How dare you come so close to me. This is just your bad luck. I’ll drain your blood first so that I can recover some daemon qi.”
Bloodshadow gradually settled down and sneered. With his speed, a distance of a few meters was basically no distance at all. He opened his pale hand and extended it towards the girl’s heart.
All of the blood in the girl surged and rampaged. With a bang, it erupted from her body.
Bloodshadow gulped down the blood. He immediately felt refreshed. The taste was just far too delicious.
However, to his surprise, the girl did not resist or put up a struggle. She did not even show any pain or fear. She just continued to stare at him calmly, which made him, the blood demon who had killed countless beings, feel strangely uneasy.
He felt like a frog that had caught a snake’s attention. Under the threat of his natural predator, his body stiffened, unable to move.
“What are you looking at!?” Bloodshadow was agitated. He struck with lightning speed, sending his fingers into her clear eyes.
When his fingers were just an inch away from her eyes, Bloodshadow suddenly froze.
W- What’s going on? Why can’t I move anymore?
The frog had yet to notice, but the lethal venom had been injected a long time ago.
Every inch of Bloodshadow’s body that had merged with the blood suddenly burst into flames. It began to burn vigorously.
With a boom, the Samādhi Flames of White Bone oozed out from every single pore on Bloodshadow, setting him alight and turning him into a torch.
The fire swayed and happily set Bloodshadow’s blood, flesh, and bones alight while freezing his soul. All he could do was watch as he burned.
The great vitality he depended on to make a name for himself, the great vitality he took pride in, had now become the perfect fuel for the flames.
In that instant, deep fear filled Bloodshadow’s eyes. “You’re not human…”
The fear vanished as his eyes were burned away. His voice halted as his tongue turned into fire.
With a swish, the blood-red daemon core shot off into the distance.
“You’re the one who’s inhuman.”
TL: An insult in Chinese is to label someone as not a human. It’s basically calling them inhuman, used for cases of inhumane cruelty or savageness. Xiao An is basically retorting Bloodshadow’s (true) statement that she’s not human.
Xiao An’s clear eyes turned, and she grabbed the daemon core. The daemon core trembled and struggled violently in her hands.
Her right hand gripped it firmly, immobilising the blood-red daemon core. Suddenly, it began to shine with dazzling, red light. It had already given up on escaping. Bloodshadow wanted to blow up his daemon core and drag her down with him.
She brought her left hand over the daemon core, forcefully drawing out a half-transparent, mist-like soul. It vaguely resembled Bloodshadow.
The red light dispersed, and the daemon core rested silently in her hand.
Three words naturally appeared in her mind—Blood Sea Banner.
A while later, a bolt of lightning shot over from afar. Zhou Tong did not place his hopes on catching up to Bloodshadow. The reason why he pursued was just to do everything he was capable of.
“Hmm?”
Zhou Tong sensed Xiao An’s aura from extremely far away. He descended from above on the Lightning Slaughter.
“Have you seen Bloodshadow?”
“He’s already dead.” Xiao An told the truth.
“You killed him?” Zhou Tong was overcome with both joy and surprise.
“Yep.”
“Did you predict he would escape here?” Zhou Tong was at a slight loss as for how to react. If that were the case, didn’t it mean Xiao An had predicted they would fail to make Bloodshadow remain behind?
“Yep.”
“Then why did you-” Zhou Tong forcefully stopped talking half-way. There had been a whole group of them who surrounded Bloodshadow, yet he still managed to escape. How could he still bring himself to question this girl?
“Senior Zhou, the heavenly secrets must not be divulged!” Li Qingshan made his way over from afar with a wide grin. He rubbed Xiao An’s head heavily. “Well done!”
At this moment, several other streaks of light shot over. Liu Zhangqing’s group had arrived too. After learning the end result, they could not help but look at one another. Apart from joy, there was astonishment on their faces too.
She had reached Foundation Establishment at a tender age of thirteen or fourteen, deploying the troops and hiding her killing intent. She killed the blood demon the moment she struck.
These mid and late Foundation Establishment cultivators seemed to have become her subordinates, yet they were unable to speak a single word of complaint. Instead, they had to thank her. Were there any schools or sects that did not have disciples that died to the blood demon?
She could no longer be described with just “genius”. As they looked at Xiao An who snuggled by Li Qingshan’s side with a rare smile, all of them felt speechless. At the same time, they gained a deeper understanding for the mental depth and terror of practitioners of divination.
What was terrifying was not the practitioner themselves, but the fate they could control.
However, no one doubted whether Xiao An had the ability to kill Bloodshadow or not. When Bloodshadow fled, all of them could tell he was heavily injured. All of them dismissed their doubts when taking the terrifying talent Xiao An had demonstrated into account.
……
The Parlour of Clouds and Rain was adorned with decorations, filled with a long-lost, boisterous atmosphere. They celebrated the death of the blood demon, as well as the efforts that Zhou Tong and everyone else had put in.
However, the main focus of the banquet was obviously Xiao An.
Qiu Haitang activated the mechanism and opened the walls in the centre of the parlour so that the Qi Practitioners could witness the “heroes”. It added some liveliness to the atmosphere.
Just as Qiu Haitang had expected, both upstairs and downstairs immediately fell silent the moment Xiao An appeared before everyone. Both men and women were amazed, with many male cultivators falling in love at first sight.
Qiu Haitang shook her head gently. “This is the power of the Aspect of Heavenly Fragrance and Beauty.”
When everyone’s gazes were drawn away by Xiao An, Li Qingshan instead sensed a gaze of disdain cast his way. Turning around, he discovered it to be Ru Xin, who stood nearby.
Because Ru Xin was a doctor, her primary mission was not to purge daemons, but to heal injured cultivators and refine medicine. As a result, she never got the opportunity to see Li Qingshan as of late.
“I never thought you would be someone like that!” Ru Xin communicated. Her gaze moved around between Li Qingshan and Xiao An, filled with shame, as if she was embarrassed to have a friend like this.
“You can piss off!” Li Qingshan smiled and replied viciously.
Ru Xin felt her mind buzz. Li Qingshan possessed the Tiger Demon’s Fierce Roar, so he was much more powerful with mental communication. It made her frown and rub her forehead.
“It’s just a joke, so do you have to be so serious? Have I actually hit the mark and pissed you off from embarrassment? It’s not like I look down on you. I’ll just call you even worse than a beast at most.”
“You’ll call me even worse than a beast, and you’ll still look up to me? Oh, I forgot. You’re even worse than a beast too. You’re half-human, half-fish!”
“Oi, Li Qingshan, you’ve gone too far with that! Though, have you finally admitted you’re even worse than a beast?”
“Who has admitted that? I’ll go overboard because I want to. What are you going to do about it?”
“You better be careful, just in case I divulge you are connected to the Soaring Dragon Elder’s death. You’ll be cut down the moment you step out the door.”
“Then I’ll have to silence this person, no, fish, with death.”
“It’s merfolk, not fish!”
“Once you return to the Chain mountains, I’ll give you a great gift.”
“Don’t change the topic. What gift?”
As the two of them secretly squabbled, the celebratory banquet officially began.
Xiao An just sat there emotionlessly. She did not eat or drink, completely ignoring all the praises and gazes of admiration. Instead, Li Qingshan emptied all the cups of alcohol the moment they were poured on her side, talking and laughing with ease.
Liu Zhangqing said, “Everyone, may I have your attention! Now, I shall be representing the academy in bestowing this arcane artifact to Xiao An. This was offered up by fellow Ma, the heirloom treasure of the leader of the school of Yin-yang.”
As he spoke, he took out a lot from his sleeve. It was jade-like yet also bamboo-like lot less than a foot long, verdant green and transparent. He passed it to Xiao An.
“So this is an arcane artifact. It doesn’t seem particularly special?”
“Isn’t that the Bamboo-Jade Lot of the Cloud Bookcase that school leader Ma never parts with? He’s actually managed to bring himself to take it out.”
Among the discussions, Ma Buyi stood up too. “Xiao An, this Bamboo-Jade Lot of the Cloud Bookcase is rumored to have been created with the Cloud Bookcase of the Seven Lots. The two complement each other. Originally, there were seven lots, as well as a lot pot. Although only a single lot has been passed to me now, it’s still an arcane artifact. I hope you can make good use of it. I believe it will definitely shine resplendently in your hands!” Then he glanced at the Bamboo-Jade Lot of the Cloud Bookcase again. His eyes were filled with reluctance.
The Bamboo-Jade Lot of the Cloud Bookcase was not just an arcane artifact, but an extremely rare arcane artifact for divination.
No matter how much Ma Buyi admired Xiao An, he would have never given this away for nothing. He had only done this after a lengthy persuasion from Liu Zhangqing and everyone else. In the end, they had basically purchased this from him with the resources of the academy before bestowing it on Xiao An.
Their objective was obviously for Xiao An to play an even greater role in the war. And, if it were not for the pressure from the war, Ma Buyi would have never sold it.
The soul sense on the Bamboo-Jade Lot of the Cloud Bookcase had already been removed by Ma Buyi. It was ownerless. As soon as Xiao An accepted it, she felt her spiritual qi and mind become closely connected with it.
