Chapter 140: Instantly Killing a Demon Beast with Foundation Establishment Strength

Chapter 140: Instantly Killing a Demon Beast with Foundation Establishment Strength

At the same time, within Xin Wuyao's cave abode...

He Litiao looked at the approaching elder with a blue robe and white hair, his expression slightly bewildered. Nonetheless, he quickly cupped his hands and bowed, "Greetings, Elder Yang!"

Following his lead, the other six Qi Refining disciples also greeted respectfully.

"Greetings, Elder Yang!"

"Don't call me Elder. I'm just a useless cripple now."

Elder Yang waved his hand dismissively.

This person was none other than the Elder Yang who had selflessly destroyed his Golden Core to protect the sect during the previous crisis.

Hearing Elder Yang's words, the disciples fell silent. They had witnessed his actions during the attack by the Yin Demon Sect, and they couldn't help but feel a sense of respect and gratitude.

Elder Yang's gaze fell upon He Litiao. "Hand them over."

"Elder, I..." He Litiao's expression turned conflicted.

"I know the Sect Master gave you instructions, but the sect is now facing a life-or-death crisis. Even if the Sect Master were here, he would make the same decision."

He Litiao hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. "Please forgive me, Elder, but my master repeatedly instructed me to protect these people. I..."

Before he could finish, his expression changed drastically as he felt a tremendous oppressive force descend upon him.

It was the kind of pressure he usually felt from Golden Core cultivators like Xin Wuyao.

"Elder, you..." He Litiao stared at Elder Yang, his eyes filled with shock.

But the next moment, the oppressive force vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

Elder Yang's voice echoed once more. "With a mere thread of cultivation remaining, I might not be able to do much, but dealing with you is more than enough. Don't push me."

He Litiao's face underwent several shifts in expression before he finally relented. "As you wish, Elder."

Elder Yang's face remained impassive as he scanned the six disciples with his gaze. "There's still one missing. I recall there was another disciple named Chu Ning."

"I've placed him in another stone room," He Litiao replied.

"He overheard some things just now, so I'll bring him over," he said, heading towards the stone room.

However, when He Litiao opened the door and peered inside, his expression froze. "Where is he? Chu Ning!"

He Litiao called out twice, but there was no response.

Elder Yang approached, his brows furrowed. "What's going on?"

"I clearly told him to stay in this stone room, but he's gone now," He Litiao said, his face darkening. Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, he quickly turned to Elder Yang and added, "Elder, I haven't deceived you."

"Earth Escape Technique." Elder Yang, who had entered the stone room, suddenly looked at the ground.

"Earth Escape Technique?" He Litiao's face turned slightly ugly when he heard Elder Yang's words.

Obviously, he was annoyed that Chu Ning had played such a small trick right under his nose.

"If I hadn't lost most of my cultivation, a sweep of my spiritual sense would have immediately found him.

But now..." Elder Yang frowned slightly.

"I'm afraid the Yin Demon Sect has already found out about the situation, and they might not let it go just because one person is missing."

Then, Elder Yang sighed. "Never mind. This crippled body of mine is useless anyway. Let's just leave a glimmer of hope for the Sect Master."

Hearing Elder Yang's words, He Litiao's eyes widened in confusion.

But the next moment, his eyes widened in shock as he saw the spiritual power fluctuating around Elder Yang's body. In the next instant, his white hair turned black, and the wrinkles on his face gradually disappeared, replaced by a youthful appearance.

And this face was also extremely familiar to He Litiao—it was Chu Ning's face.

At the same time, the aura around Elder Yang's body fluctuated and settled into the late Qi Refining stage.

"You still have an inner sect disciple's robe in your storage bag, right?"

As He Litiao stood there, stunned, Elder Yang's voice rang out, sounding incredibly youthful.

He immediately took out a set of ordinary inner sect disciple's robe from his storage bag.

"Let's go. After refining the spiritual energy, even a Nascent Soul cultivator won't be able to detect it. They won't have any suspicions." Elder Yang put on the robe and walked out of the stone room, explaining as he went.

He Litiao followed closely behind, still reeling from the surprise.

In the main hall of the cave abode, the other six Qi Refining disciples saw He Litiao and the person with him, but they didn't have the slightest doubt.

They hadn't known Chu Ning originally, so when they saw He Litiao bringing someone out, they didn't think anything of it.

Soon, the group followed He Litiao out of Xin Wuyao's cave abode.

At this moment, the three Golden Core cultivators who had stayed behind to defend the Qingxi Sect looked at the weakening defensive formation with ugly expressions.

This time, the sect was already short of two Golden Core cultivators to power the formation.

Although there were many Foundation Establishment disciples supporting it, the formation's power was still greatly diminished. They could only desperately hold on to the defensive formation and had no chance to counter-attack.

Moreover, the Yin Demon Sect was even more prepared this time, and the demonic fire of the Black Fire Vulture-Winged Crows was causing significant damage to the defensive formation.

"Are you surnamed Mu and Zhu willing to risk your lives for that spirit plant?

They're just a few Qi Refining disciples. First of all, who knows if they can even find the spirit plant, and even if they do, with your Qingxi Sect's strength, do you really think you can obtain it?"

The Yin Demon Sect had just launched a fierce attack, and during this break...

They were not fools, and their faces twitched as they understood the implications of these words.

They also realized the true meaning behind Elder Yang and He Litiao's earlier conversation.

Seeing the expressions on their faces, He Litiao sighed and said, "The Sect Master once ordered that we must protect you at all costs, but now, faced with the might of the demonic path, we have no choice but to let you go.

Take care of yourselves, and I promise you, on behalf of the sect, that your families will forever be under the protection of the Qingxi Sect."

After saying this, He Litiao glanced at "Chu Ning" and then transmitted his voice to the three Golden Core elders in the sky:

"The seven Qi Refining disciples who obtained the Spirit Aura are here. Please decide, elders."

The three elders, who were already worried, looked down and then at each other, seemingly communicating through transmitted voices.

Finally, Elder Zhu, the black-faced elder, took out a sound transmission talisman and threw it towards the bald giant.

The sect's defensive formation prevented spiritual sense transmission, so even these Golden Core cultivators couldn't directly transmit their voices through it.

The bald giant caught the sound transmission talisman, a puzzled look on his face, but he still listened to its contents.

After hearing the message, a smug look appeared on his face, and he muttered, "Fake benevolence and righteousness."

"Let's go!" he said, waving his hand.

Suddenly, the huge Blackfire Vulture-Winged Crow carrying the Yin Demon Sect members flew away.

Seeing this, the executives and disciples of the Qingxi Sect heaved a sigh of relief.

Under the attack of the Yin Demon Sect, the defensive formation of the Qingxi Sect had almost been broken.

The situation had everyone worried about their fate if the sect fell.

But for now, everyone was also puzzled as to why the Yin Demon Sect had left so abruptly.

Not only were the members of the Qingxi Sect confused, but so were the members of the Yin Demon Sect.

On the back of the Blackfire Vulture-Winged Crow, the skinny, black-robed elder who had come before asked the bald giant, "Brother Xu, why did we leave so suddenly?"

The bald giant laughed, "The Qingxi Sect agreed to hand over the Qi Refining disciples to us.

But on the condition that we leave first and they hand them over to us in private.

They will send the disciples to meet us at the Soul Summoning Banner you set up last time, Brother Dao."

"They don't want to be known for failing to protect their disciples and ruin their reputation, huh?" The skinny, black-robed elder cackled.

His tone was full of ridicule.

"No wonder Brother Xu said they were being fake benevolent and righteous. But, Brother Xu, aren't you afraid they're up to something?"

"They dare not!" The bald giant coldly smiled.

"We know which disciples obtained the Spirit Aura. If they dare to play tricks, hehe..."

"If the Sect Master wasn't in seclusion, we wouldn't have let them off so easily. We would have destroyed the Qingxi Sect, and even the other six sects in the Qingxia Mountains wouldn't have dared to say anything."

Hearing this, the skinny, black-robed elder cackled again.

"However, after this incident with the Wood Spirit Plant, the other six sects will surely be very dissatisfied with the Qingxi Sect.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have remained silent during our two attacks, even the Wind Canyon, which is the closest to us.

After we receive those Qi Refining disciples, we can casually spread the information..."

As the bald giant listened, he burst into loud laughter.

"Good! Brother Dao, your method is excellent. Let's make the Qingxi Sect regret their actions!"

In the air, the mocking laughter of the Yin Demon Sect members echoed.

......

"We're quite a distance away from the Qingxi Sect now, so there shouldn't be anyone else around, right?"

In an underground location within the Qingxia Mountains, Chu Ning was enveloped in a yellow light barrier, but he didn't continue flying. Instead, he stopped.

After exiting the sect's grand formation, Chu Ning didn't dare to immediately emerge from the ground.

He was afraid that the Yin Demon Sect or the Qingxi Sect in the air would sense him, so he used the Earth Escape Technique to travel a considerable distance before stopping.

Hidden about thirty feet underground, Chu Ning used the Spirit Concealment Technique while cautiously extending his spiritual sense outward to probe his surroundings.

His spiritual sense could reach about fifty yards, which was enough to detect any nearby movements.

Chu Ning was slightly relieved to find that, according to his spiritual sense, there were no cultivators or even any living beings nearby.

This eased his worries, but he remained vigilant.

He stayed underground for a while longer, using his spiritual sense to probe the surroundings once more, but he still found nothing.

Only then did Chu Ning truly relax. Holding a mid-grade intermediate defensive talisman, he used the Earth Escape Technique again and emerged from the ground.

The scene before him matched what he had sensed with his spiritual awareness.

Chu Ning now found himself in a dense forest of towering trees, the spiritual energy here as dense as in the Qingxi Sect.

"Looks like I've veered off quite a bit," Chu Ning muttered to himself.

If the Qingxi Sect was to the east, near the end of the Qingxi Mountains, the spiritual energy wouldn't be this dense.

And if it was to the west, it wouldn't be this dense either, so there was only one possibility.

He must have traveled a short distance southeast into the depths of the Qingxia Mountains.

At the same time, he took out a set of clothes he had prepared earlier in Yanjibi and quickly changed out of his Qingxi Sect inner disciple robe.

Then, after determining his direction, he flew northeast.

Chu Ning didn't use the Chase Wind Shuttle.

This was also because he was worried that he hadn't put enough distance between himself and Qingxi Zong or Yin Demon Zong, and there might be people from either sect nearby who would spot him if he flew in the air.

As he flew, Chu Ning released the puppet bird.

His spiritual sense could now reach fifty yards, but it was still inferior to the puppet bird's.

As for Ling Xiaobai, the little guy was feeling listless after consecutively using his innate divine ability twice.

Chu Ning fed him a spirit fruit, and he crawled into his sleeve to rest.

It would have been best for Ling Xiaobai to return to his spirit beast bag to rest.

However, Chu Ning still needed him to sense the changes in spiritual energy to determine their direction, so he let him stay outside.

They traveled like this for about eighty miles.

Through spiritual communication with Ling Xiaobai, Chu Ning learned that the direction they were heading in indeed had sparser spiritual energy, and he couldn't help but feel delighted.

Just then, Chu Ning's expression changed slightly, and his steps faltered.

Within the puppet bird's line of sight, a massive beast lay coiled in front of Chu Ning.

The beast was only about the height of a person, but it was over forty to fifty feet in size, with a hulking body.

Its body was covered in gray mud, and its incredibly sturdy limbs were partially visible underneath.

Sharp claws gripped a boulder, which seemed to have been inadvertently crushed by the beast as it slept, now reduced to half its size.

When Chu Ning saw this beast, he vaguely guessed what it was and paled slightly.

He quickly turned around and prepared to fly away.

However, at the same time, the beast's large eyes suddenly opened, fixing on Chu Ning's direction, a fierce light shining in its eyes.

The next moment, its massive body rose, charging towards Chu Ning at great speed.

And at this moment, the beast, which had originally been about the size of a person, stood up and ran, now towering over two people in height.

Chu Ning could sense its powerful and heavy aura even from several dozen yards away.

"Second-rank demon beast, Iron Rock Beast!"

Within the range of Chu Ning's spiritual sense, he quickly discerned the beast's true identity, and his expression changed slightly.

A second-rank demon beast was equivalent to a cultivator at the initial Foundation Establishment stage.

Moreover, this beast's defense was astonishing; ordinary attacks would hardly harm it.

In a flash, a small, pitch-black dagger appeared in Chu Ning's hand.

Since he knew that continuing forward would bring him closer to the outer reaches of Qingxia Mountain, where the demons should be lower in rank, he decided to use his trump card to avoid lingering in this area.

Soon, the massive Iron Rock Beast came into Chu Ning's line of sight.

Its two eyes, glowing with green light, fixed on Chu Ning's figure, and its gaze became even more vicious.

But the next moment, the second-rank demon beast suddenly slowed down.

Its instincts made it sense a trace of danger and unease.

As a second-rank demon beast, it had decent intelligence. Its eyes locked onto the black dagger in Chu Ning's hand, seemingly understanding the source of danger in an instant.

Fear flashed in its eyes.

But it was already too late. Chu Ning waved his hand, and the black dagger transformed into a beam of black light, shooting forward.

In the blink of an eye, the black light pierced through the Iron Rock Beast's head.

What surprised Chu Ning was that the Iron Rock Beast was still running forward.

"This..."

Startled, Chu Ning's hand moved, and different talismans and artifacts appeared.

"Bang!"

Just then, the Iron Rock Beast's massive body slammed into the ground.

It turned out that the beast had died too quickly, and its body was still moving forward due to inertia.

Seeing this, Chu Ning finally relaxed.

Without hesitation, he quickly flew forward, picked up the black dagger, and put it back into his storage bag.

Then, he also stored the Iron Rock Beast's corpse into his storage bag.

The corpse of a second-rank demon beast was a treasure.

Although Chu Ning didn't have time to process it now, he wouldn't leave it behind, either.

After doing all this, Chu Ning prepared to leave directly.

However, when he took out the puppet bird's control mirror from his storage bag, he paused.

He saw that where the Iron Rock Beast had lain, there was now a tiny creature wriggling.

It looked just like the Iron Rock Beast, but its size was at least ten times smaller.

"An Iron Rock Beast cub?"

Chu Ning guessed what was happening and quickly flew over.

As he approached, he indeed found a tiny Iron Rock Beast, seemingly just born, with its eyes still closed.

At this moment, Ling Xiaobai also crawled out of Chu Ning's sleeve, curiously observing the tiny beast on the ground.

Seeing this, Chu Ning smiled and said to Ling Xiaobai, "Little White, take this little guy with you as a companion, alright?"

"Cheep!"

Hearing Chu Ning's words, Ling Xiaobai let out a cheerful sound.

Chu Ning smiled and took out a spirit beast bag from his waist, putting the tiny Iron Rock Beast into it.

Then, his figure flashed, and he continued to fly forward.

In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from view.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end