Chapter 111: Killing Duan Yewu

Chapter 111: Killing Duan Yewu

From Duan Yewu's unusual expression, Chu Ning could sense that something was amiss.

So, he was prepared for Duan Yewu's impending attack.

Almost as soon as Duan Yewu launched his spell, several lights flashed beside Chu Ning.

Two intermediate defensive spells were activated simultaneously.

A yellow and a white barrier shielded Chu Ning's body.

Duan Yewu was a Ninth Layer Qi Refiner, a disciple of the Artifact Refining Hall, and possibly armed with secret techniques from the Yin Demon Sect. Chu Ning dared not underestimate him.

And Duan Yewu, evidently, had not anticipated Chu Ning's ability to activate so many spell shields at once.

His lips twitched involuntarily.

But his hands didn't slow down.

In his hand appeared a fork-shaped item, glowing brightly as he channeled his spiritual power into it. It shot towards Chu Ning with formidable force, seemingly a high-grade spiritual artifact.

Now that Chu Ning had activated several layers of defense, he finally had the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

He didn't use the talisman ring in his hand, as the true talisman spells within were only of elementary superior might.

They would be too weak against a Ninth Layer Qi Refiner.

With a raise of his hand, Chu Ning unleashed two intermediate-level talismans.

He had obtained several intermediate talismans from He Yunming earlier that day, and they came in handy now.

At the same time, he channeled his spiritual power into his right hand, sending the Ten Flames Blade Technique hurtling towards Duan Yewu.

"You're indeed no ordinary person."

Duan Yewu was astonished to see his own spell being blocked by the outer layers of shields.

It couldn't even graze Chu Ning, yet Chu Ning could launch decently powerful attacks. Duan Yewu was both shocked and furious.

He activated a high-level defensive artifact, similarly blocking the spell attacks from Chu Ning.

However, this caused all the defensive shields around Duan Yewu to dissipate.

But at this moment, Duan Yewu lifted his head, a sneer on his face.

"Intermediate-lower tier defensive talisman, intermediate-lower tier offensive talisman, high-grade offensive artifact...I want to see what else you have..."

Duan Yewu had barely finished speaking when his expression changed drastically. He saw that Chu Ning had casually taken out several more intermediate talismans.

"Damn it!"

As he spat out those words, Duan Yewu's face contorted, and his body shone with the same bloody light as when he had used his escape technique earlier.

In a flash, he vanished from his original spot.

This speed was even faster than when he had pursued Chu Ning earlier.

Chu Ning's heart skipped a beat at the sight.

Without activating the intermediate talismans in his hand, he used the Lightning Step to vanish from his original spot.

At the same time, a blood-red figure appeared where he had just been standing, quickly closing in on his new position.

"You little brat, today I'll kill you even if it costs me a huge amount of cultivation!"

As the words left his mouth, Duan Yewu's blood-red figure arrived.

It seemed he had used some kind of secret technique, as one of his arms was now pitch-black and glowing with a crimson light.

His fingernails had grown to an inch long, transforming into sharp claws.

He reached towards Chu Ning's heart.

The intermediate-lower tier defensive talisman shield couldn't withstand this attack, shattering under the clawed hand.

Even though Chu Ning had cultivated the Unbreakable Tendon, he dared not take this attack head-on.

He channeled his spiritual power into the Earth Spirit Bracelet on his left hand, and a yellow light flashed as a layer of protective shield, exuding a dense Earth Spirit energy, appeared before Duan Yewu's astonished eyes.

"Pop!"

The black-red demonic claw landed on the yellow light shield.

The yellow light shield only trembled slightly, showing no signs of breaking.

"What...?"

Seeing his all-out attack, empowered by a secret technique, being blocked by Chu Ning, Duan Yewu's face twisted.

"Not good!"

His heart lurched, and the black light on his right hand quickly faded.

Instead, a black protective demonic light formed around his body.

At the same time, a fist enveloped in flames struck like lightning.

It was Chu Ning's Heaven Piercing Fist, empowered by the might of the Lightning Step, attacking Duan Yewu.

And just before that, there was also an attack from a high-grade artifact.

The Blazing Flame Bracelet!

The scorching flames struck Duan Yewu's black light, causing the protective demonic light to vanish.

And in the next moment, Chu Ning's fist, imbued with spiritual power and heavenly spirit energy, slammed into him!

"Bang!"

A dull thud rang out.

In the next instant, Duan Yewu was sent flying, and he softly collapsed to the ground.

Even as a Ninth Layer Qi Refiner, he couldn't withstand Chu Ning's successive attacks.

Chu Ning quickly performed a set of hand seals, and several Fireball Techniques followed, burning Duan Yewu's body to ashes.

Only after doing all this did Chu Ning put away the black dagger he had taken out from his storage bag, ready to activate at any moment.

It wouldn't be needed now.

Then, he slowly walked over.

By now, Duan Yewu had turned to ashes.

On the ground, there was only a storage bag and two artifacts.

This level of Fireball Technique couldn't burn the storage bag and artifacts.

Chu Ning picked up the storage bag and the artifacts and disappeared from the spot with a few quick flashes.

About half an hour later, after circling around twice, Chu Ning reappeared near the entrance to the forbidden area.

He found a spot that could block his line of sight and sat down cautiously.

"Having more good items on hand really gives an advantage. Killing a Ninth Layer Qi Refiner with obvious means at his disposal isn't too strenuous."

He had indeed faced Duan Yewu with relative ease that day.

Duan Yewu, an Eighth Layer Qi Refiner, possessed two high-grade artifacts and evidently, a demonic path secret technique.

Yet, Chu Ning hadn't sustained any injuries, and his clothes weren't even dirty.

This was thanks to the artifacts and talismans he had obtained from Elder Tong and Liao Yunming earlier that day.

With these thoughts in mind, Chu Ning took out Duan Yewu's storage bag and the two artifacts.

The fork-shaped artifact had decent offensive power, breaking through Chu Ning's intermediate-lower tier defensive talisman with a single strike.

And the other artifact, a black round shield, had withstood his intermediate-lower tier offensive talisman attack.

It took Chu Ning two intermediate-lower tier offensive talismans to break through it.

Holding the artifacts in his hand, Chu Ning examined them and found that they were both clearly artifacts of the Qingxi Sect.

However, given Duan Yewu's identity as a disciple of the Artifact Refining Hall, this wasn't surprising.

When he opened Duan Yewu's storage bag, he found that it also contained quite a few items.

There were materials from various demonic beasts, and it was unclear if Duan Yewu had accumulated them beforehand or obtained them after entering this forbidden area.

There were also several jade boxes containing spirit herbs—six in total.

In addition, there were also several hundred spirit stones and several bottles of pills.

Among the pills was the Spirit Nurturing Pill that Chu Ning had been taking during this period, and there were nearly 30 of them.

There were also pills like the Recovery Pill.

What surprised Chu Ning was that there was also a bottle of the same kind of pill that exuded a dense blood-evil aura that he had obtained a few days ago.

In addition, there were also some artifact refining materials.

Chu Ning recognized some of them, but not all.

The last item that caught Chu Ning's attention was a thumb-sized black metal material and a white pearl.

It was only the size of a thumb, but such a small piece of material was obviously not ordinary if Duan Yewu had kept it in his storage bag.

He didn't understand much about materials, but he could vaguely tell that the quality of this item was quite good.

However, Chu Ning always felt that if he looked at this black material for slightly longer, it seemed to captivate his soul.

With this in mind, Chu Ning released his spiritual sense.

What surprised him was that this black metal material seemed to be beyond the range of his spiritual sense.

"Can't sense it with spiritual sense?"

Chu Ning was taken aback, encountering this for the first time.

He picked up the small piece of black material in his hand and closed his eyes again, sensing it with his spiritual sense.

Something strange happened again.

Clearly, Chu Ning was holding the item in his hand, but when he probed with his spiritual sense, it was as if there was nothing in his hand.

He carefully extended his spiritual sense towards the black material again.

To Chu Ning's astonishment, his spiritual sense was directly devoured as soon as it entered.

Chu Ning immediately stopped probing.

"This thing seems unusual."

Thinking this, Chu Ning put the small black stone into a separate storage bag.

Chu Ning then picked up the white pearl and found that it was a spiritual artifact.

Chu Ning tried to infuse it with spiritual power, and the white pearl suddenly emitted a white light, illuminating the entire area.

However, there were no other reactions.

"Could it be that this is just a lighting artifact?"

Chu Ning muttered to himself.

Then he put the pearl away as well.

As for the rest of the demon beast and artifact refining materials, he set them aside.

"Although I lost a few intermediate-low tier talismans, which are worth a few hundred spirit stones, these items are more than enough to make up for the loss."

After storing everything in his storage bag, Chu Ning didn't go anywhere else and just stayed put.

He didn't even let Ling Xiao Bai out, worried that the little guy would wander off and cause some trouble.

Although Chu Ning was indeed curious about the spirit seed and the Five Elements Grand Array, his inherent caution kept these curiosities suppressed.

After all, he had entered illegally, and if he was discovered again, the consequences would surely be severe.

Hiding in a secluded spot, Chu Ning took out the Earth Spirit Crystal and the jade knife and continued cutting.

Then, he reattached the Earth Spirit Crystal to his Earth Spirit Bracelet.

After all, he wasn't sure if there would be any more dangers within this place.

In addition, he cut ten extra pieces as spares.

Fortunately, no dangers appeared for the rest of the time.

After staying there for almost a full day, from dawn to dusk, Chu Ning finally took Ling Xiao Bai out of the spirit beast bag.

"Xiao Bai, your powers should be almost recovered, right?"

Chu Ning looked at the little fox expectantly.

"Almost!"

Ling Xiao Bai let out a soft "Yin," and Chu Ning nodded.

After waiting for about another hour, Ling Xiao Bai let out another "Yin."

Chu Ning understood that Ling Xiao Bai was telling him that his powers had fully recovered.

He immediately stood up, and the two of them headed towards the spot where they had broken through the formation and entered the day before.

After some thought, Chu Ning said to Ling Xiao Bai, "Don't take me out first. Go out quietly and see if there's anyone outside. If there is, come back immediately."

Ling Xiao Bai understood Chu Ning's words and darted out, slipping through the formation and exiting.

Seeing this, Chu Ning couldn't help but feel a little worried.

He hoped that there wouldn't be anyone outside so that they could leave without any problems.

Otherwise, even if Ling Xiao Bai came back, it would still be troublesome for him to get out.

Soon, the little fox reappeared before Chu Ning.

"No one's there!"

Hearing Ling Xiao Bai's mental transmission, Chu Ning finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Let's go!"

Chu Ning called out, and Ling Xiao Bai immediately jumped onto Chu Ning's shoulder.

At the same time, a white light descended from Ling Xiao Bai's head, enveloping Chu Ning.

In the next moment, Ling Xiao Bai darted forward, taking Chu Ning with him as they exited the formation.

Chu Ning landed and looked up. They were at the edge of the mountain gate, the same place as the night before.

Only then did Chu Ning's tense heart truly relax.

He didn't dare let Ling Xiao Bai stay outside for long and quickly put him back into the spirit beast bag before hurrying back to his courtyard.

At this moment, as Chu Ning's mind calmed down, countless questions arose in his mind.

For example, how did he end up in that forbidden area after passing through the mountain gate's protective formation? Was it the same formation, or was there something else at play?

What was the spirit seed that the Yin Demon Sect disciples mentioned in the forbidden area? Why could only Qi Refiners enter the forbidden area, and why did they have to rotate the disciples after a period of time?

Couldn't they just let the original disciples stay inside to maintain the formation? Unfortunately, there was no one who could answer these questions for him, and he couldn't even find anyone to ask.

Of course, Chu Ning's mind wasn't filled with only questions.

At least two things made him feel slightly relieved.

First, the disciples of the Qingxi Sect were already aware of the infiltration by the Yin Demon Sect.

Moreover, they knew the reason for their infiltration—to enter the forbidden area—and had been clearing them out before and after their attempts to enter.

This greatly relieved Chu Ning, who had known about the infiltration but didn't know how to inform the sect.

The other thing that made him feel slightly better was that the sect's secret task was not as bad as he had imagined.

Although there were some dangers, according to what the Yin Demon Sect disciples had said, the dangers within the forbidden area mainly came from the demon beasts from different places.

And the highest level of these demon beasts was only a high-level first-tier.

In other words, they were still at the Qi Refining stage. Even if some of the demon beasts were relatively strong, as long as they weren't too outrageous, having more means of protection should be enough to deal with them.

With these thoughts, Chu Ning finally returned to his courtyard.

It was only then that he released Ling Xiao Bai again.

"Xiao Bai, from now on, you're not allowed to enter that place without my permission, understand?"

"Yin!" Ling Xiao Bai whimpered softly.

At that moment, Chu Ning remembered Ling Xiao Bai's ability to bring him through formations.

He asked, "Xiao Bai, was the ability you used to bring me through the formation something you awakened after advancing to a Tier 1 High-Ranked Magical Beast? Do you have any other abilities?"

"No," Ling Xiao Bai whimpered pitifully.

Hearing Ling Xiao Bai's response, Chu Ning let the matter drop.

Worried that the little guy would run off again, he recalled him back into the Spirit Beast Bag.

Ling Xiao Bai naturally resisted, but under Chu Ning's insistence, he eventually complied and hopped back into the bag.

As Chu Ning watched Ling Xiao Bai's figure disappear, he shook his head.

He recalled that Zhuang Yunde had mentioned before that the outer pavilion of the Library Pavilion mainly stored miscellaneous books, and outer disciples were free to browse them at any time.

He had originally planned to visit the library during the day to see if there was any information about spirit beasts and to search for details about Ling Xiao Bai. However, it seemed like that would have to wait until next time.

After cultivating the Refine God Technique for a while, having gone two days without sleep, Chu Ning finally fell into a deep slumber.

The next morning, Chu Ning got up early and arrived at the outer gate exit on time.

Soon, Gu Xiaoqin, Shen Zhengquan, and Lu Miaoying also arrived one after another.

What surprised Chu Ning slightly was that Lu Miaoying, who had been at the fifth layer of Qi Refining, had now broken through to the sixth layer.

Chu Ning wasn't the only one who noticed this; Gu Xiaoqin also exclaimed in delight and asked, "Lu Miaoying, you've broken through?"

"Yes, I've been stuck at the fifth layer of Qi Refining for quite some time. But after returning to the sect yesterday, I felt relaxed, and somehow, I managed to break through."

A hint of joy appeared on Lu Miaoying's face.

Her smile was more natural now, distinct from the forced smile she had worn at the market square.

It was clear that her breakthrough had brought her genuine happiness.

"That's wonderful. Cultivation is like that; sometimes, when the conditions are right, you'll naturally break through," Gu Xiaoqin said with a smile.

The two girls started chatting, while Shen Zhengquan chimed in with a few congratulatory words, joining the conversation sporadically.

Chu Ning simply offered his congratulations and remained silent afterward.

Before long, Chu Ning spotted the group of people he had seen at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion the other day.

Then, a man who seemed to be an executor rode a spirit boat and took them away, piercing through the sky.

Perhaps noticing that Chu Ning was staring at them, Gu Xiaoqin explained, "They were carrying out a mission in another place, and it seems they encountered people from the Yin Demon Sect on the same day as us.

One of them had a precious artifact, which is why they all survived. They're here to receive their reward."

Only then did Chu Ning understand why they had been at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion the other day.

Shen Zhengquan spoke up, "I heard from the elders in the hall that on that day, a total of five groups encountered attacks from the Yin Demon Sect.

Aside from our two groups, the other three groups all perished."

"Shen Zhengquan's information is correct. I also heard about it from the people in the hall," Gu Xiaoqin nodded slightly, confirming the news.

Then, she sighed softly and said, "From now on, let's be more careful and try to stay close to the market square. If we need to go anywhere, we should stick together."

Upon hearing this, the group fell silent.

The cheerful atmosphere from earlier suddenly turned somber.

Even though several days had passed, the memory of the ambush was still fresh in their minds.

As Chu Ning listened to Gu Xiaoqin's words, he secretly shook his head.

He agreed with most of what she had said—it was indeed better to stay close to the market square if possible.

However, he disagreed with the idea of always traveling in a group.

In Chu Ning's opinion, the reason they were targeted that day was likely because they were such an obvious group.

If he had been alone and used his illusion technique, the chances of the Yin Demon Sect discovering him would have been slim.

Of course, these were just his thoughts, and he didn't voice them aloud.

For now, he decided to wait and observe before making any decisions about how to navigate Yanji Square.

After a while, Lin Changqing arrived.

He released a flying boat and carried the group away, piercing through the sky.

An hour later, they arrived at Yanji Square.

The square was already bustling with people.

Lin Changqing didn't bother to find a discreet landing spot and instead landed the boat directly in front of several shops.

As Chu Ning and the others disembarked, they immediately attracted envious gazes from cultivators from various sects and wandering cultivators.

"It's good to be from a major sect!"

"Of course. It's not easy for just anyone to become an outer disciple of the Qingxi Sect."

"I heard that the Qingxi Sect has been aggressively recruiting in recent years. I wonder if any of my younger family members will have such an opportunity..."

Amidst the whispers, Chu Ning and the others disembarked from the boat.

He was just about to return to his shop when he heard Lin Changqing's voice.

"You don't need to worry too much. The area around the market square is still safe, and I'll be staying here for the next few days as well.

Additionally, our sect is currently joining forces with the other six sects to launch a large-scale crackdown on the Yin Demon Sect disciples.

We estimate that within a month, we should be able to eliminate most of the Yin Demon Sect's disciples."

After delivering this message, Lin Changqing once again took to the skies with the spirit boat.

Chu Ning and the others then opened their respective shops.

Just as Chu Ning stepped into his shop, a figure swiftly followed him inside.

"Shop owner, you're open! I've been waiting here since early morning.

Do you have any Elementary High-Ranked Talismans? I want to buy a few."

Hearing this, Chu Ning turned around in surprise.

It was unusual for someone to proactively come to his shop asking to buy Elementary High-Ranked Talismans, and the fact that they wanted several of them was even more surprising.

He recognized the man as a middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance who had purchased talismans from him before.

However, as far as he could recall, the man hadn't bought any Elementary High-Ranked Talismans, so he was curious as to why he was asking for them now.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end