CH 10.2

—

beside the one-line sky mountain, a small forest’s branches trembled, causing the leaves to rustle.

occasionally, accompanied by the trembling of the earth.

the movements of lin fairy and xiao immortal were, in a way, too intense.

the convoy members looked up, and in unison, they began timing them.

“daoist xiao has endured for half an incense stick’s time.”

“hey, don’t forget, fairy lin was displeased from the beginning, feeling that her heart wasn’t pounding enough and she hadn’t broken into a sweat, so the one-quarter incense stick’s time from earlier doesn’t count.”

“poor daoist xiao.”

everyone was anxious about xiao qi’s situation. with their ears perked up, they could only hear his heavy and wheezing breath, which was becoming weaker.

it seemed he was about to reach his limit.

male martial cultivators silently cheered for him in their hearts.

female martial cultivators, on the other hand, had disdainful looks on their faces.

zhou xuanwu sat cross-legged, his long sword laid across his legs, and he had stopped cultivating.

he attentively listened while also observing the incense stick held by the male martial cultivators.

as the sunlight rose, the small forest swayed even more, and even the boulders seemed to vibrate, showing signs of cracking. everyone was astounded.

zhou xuanwu first felt admiration, then his face changed dramatically.

“enemy attack!”

every pore of his body tensed, and he immediately shouted.

however, before his words could fully land, a burst of cruel laughter accompanied a huge hammer that flew closer and closer.

with a loud boom, the giant rocks in front of the convoy and beside the small forest exploded, turning into smoke and dust.

“hahaha, condensed qi level nine, vigorous qi and blood, excellent! just what i need for replenishment!”

savage laughter seemed to come from all directions, yet there was no sign of a person.

zhou xuanwu’s face turned as dark as water. flipping his sleeve, he released several first-grade defensive talismans, sticking them to the sides of the convoy’s carriages, then turned to the convoy’s martial cultivators and old man sun, shouting, “get on the carriages!”

the second strike of the iron hammer came swiftly, suddenly aiming straight for his face.

zhou xuanwu immediately formed a hand seal.

the water spirit technique swiftly activated, his flying sword flowing like a river, blocking the assault of the iron hammer.

in an instant, the sword and hammer collided, and spiritual energy clashed!

zhou xuanwu’s hand holding the sword momentarily shattered, and spiritual energy surged backward.

he retreated five or six steps, only stopping his retreat as he collided with the carriage behind him.

looking up in disbelief, his eyes filled with shock, “condensed yuan…”

“heh, you still have some insight.”

under the dim yellow moonlight, on the one-line sky mountain, a sinister man with a scar across his nose and lips, half of his body bloodied, held his shattered shoulder where his right arm used to be, and he grinned with narrowed eyes.

“come here by yourself and let me enjoy a satisfying bloodsucking, and i’ll spare you a whole corpse!”

old man sun in the carriage trembled in fear, his lips quivering.

in front of ordinary people, qi condensation cultivators were revered as immortals because they had embarked on the path of cultivation and were no longer bound by the mortal lifespan.

however, before the condensed yuan realm, the capacity and intensity of spiritual energy in the dantian were a whole level lower.

even though zhou xuanwu was at the 9th level of qi condensation, he was no match for someone at the 1st level of condensed yuan, let alone considering that this sinister man looked extremely ferocious.

when the convoy saw zhou xuanwu retreating ten steps, fear and despair filled their hearts.

“why are we so unlucky to encounter a demonic cultivator?”

“originally, senior brother zhou had more than enough power to deal with those bandits…”

“right, there’s also daoist xiao, fairy lin! quickly call for them!”

with a bang, zhou xuanwu was smashed by the golden hammer and thrown into the one-line sky mountain’s rift. his spine cracked, and his vision darkened.

going against the natural order in cultivation was fraught with difficulties, and his luck was just too terrible.

zhou xuanwu struggled to stand up with unwillingness.

he threw out a first-grade sound transmission talisman he had just inscribed, despite being weak and only able to groan. it was a masterpiece.

“daoist xiao, fairy lin, escape!”

the sound transmission talisman burned quickly, and even though he was too weak to close his eyes, the message reached the small woods!

zhou xuanwu couldn’t close his eyes due to his weakness.

he hadn’t even managed to create a sound transmission talisman at the first-grade, nor had he learned second-grade talismans from steward’s senior brother, li, at the transmitting mastery hall.

and his sword technique practice—he still hadn’t achieved first place among the outer sect in all these years.

plus, steward’s senior brother, xu rui, had already reached yuan condensation, and he had always wanted to surpass him…

“i’ll let you consume my qi and blood!”

zhou xuanwu reached out, tightly embracing the condensed yuan demonic cultivator who was incessantly drawing spiritual energy from his dantian.

his ten fingers dug into the back and arm of the condensed yuan demonic cultivator.

liu ba, the wielder of the golden hammer, became furious and slapped zhou xuanwu’s back, “let go—”

zhou xuanwu opened his mouth and bit into his intact arm.

amidst the burning of the sound transmission symbol, his spiritual consciousness continued to spread.

“old sun… escape!”

“senior sister lin… quickly… escape…”

zhou xuanwu strained to open a bloodied eye slit, attempting to see the path he sought to ascend—clearwater sect’s inner sect.

but he saw nothing.

in his blurred vision, he could faintly see a red-rope-bound, green-sleeved arm fluttering and rising amidst the trembling small woods.

then came a furious scolding.

“you scoundrel!”

“how dare you harm my fellow traveler!?”

zhou xuanwu, on the verge of losing consciousness, “?”

fellow traveler?

did he hear lin junior sister’s voice?

zhou xuanwu struggled to hold onto the condensed yuan demonic cultivator, preventing him from attacking the mortal members of the convoy. but he couldn’t hold on much longer. why wasn’t she leading them to escape?

but just as this thought formed, he felt a loosening in front of him.

the condensed yuan demonic cultivator, whom he had firmly held onto with his ten fingers, disappeared before him.

the palm that was extracting his blood and qi abruptly receded from his chest.

zhou xuanwu strained to lift his head, and as he opened his eyes, he saw the severed-arm demonic cultivator’s neck being suspended by a red string.

the strange pink boxing-glove-like object struck him under his chin, on his back, on his chest… he was sent flying, then crashed into the mountaintop.

“how dare you harm a grade-5a natural scenic spot, one-line-sky mountain! ruining my sightseeing plans!”

“how dare you interrupt my quarter-hour fat-burning exercise! disrupting the rhythm of my heartbeat!”

“how dare you harm my fellow traveler, causing an unexpected event during my three-day weekend getaway!”

“disrupting my schedule, my mood, my work efficiency, my contact list—”

with rolling rubble, one pink fist, then another.

the man with the severed arm was hammered into a pit, sinking ten feet deep!

zhou xuanwu: “…!”

wide-eyed and speechless, his bloodied mouth slightly open, he was handed two rejuvenation pills by the breathless xiao qi, who then helped him sit down and stumbled himself.

xiao qi smiled

“don’t worry, once she finishes another quarter-hour fat-burning exercise, it will be over.”

“………..!”

author’s note:

《chapter 134 zhao sect master’s journal 10》: “she isn’t human.” (note: this sentence was written randomly by senior brother zhou xuanwu in my journal. it wasn’t written by me, zhao keran, personally.)

zhou xuanwu: i was foolish back then, really.

demonic cultivator: i’m the foolish one, seriously. without ten pounds of blood clots in my brain, i wouldn’t have thought of going to desolate mountain.

xiao qi: we’re saved, yay!

*