Chapter 396: Chapter 394: Three Moves (Request for Monthly Pass)_1
Fang Xi felt a chill in his heart as he looked towards the source of the voice.
In the void, a black-robed figure had appeared at some point.
This man of middle age, with slightly frosty temples, hands behind his back, wore an expression of cold amusement as he mockingly observed the three people in the scene.
A surge of magic power exceeding that of an early stage Nascent Soul Cultivator caused the very void around them to seem as if it were congealing.
"Lord Black Sand?!"
Lady Snake cried out in alarm, her face filled with a color of despair.
She could not have imagined that this mid-stage Nascent Soul Cultivator, rumored to have gone mad due to cultivation mishap, would actually appear in pursuit of them...
What virtue and ability did their family possess to warrant a mid-stage Nascent Soul Cultivator personally hunting them down?
"Lord Black Sand Ancestor?!"
But then, a strange scene unfolded.
Seeing Lord Black Sand, Old Huang screamed even louder than Lady Snake, his expression filled with even greater fear.
"Elder Huang, hello, you’re very good!"
Lord Black Sand looked at Elder Huang with an amused smile.
"Ancestor, I beg to report, this junior was chasing down these treacherous remnants for the sake of the sect!"
Old Huang immediately bowed, pleading.
At this point, Lady Snake’s face lost all color.
A mid-stage Nascent Soul Cultivator taking action meant that she and her family were certainly doomed.
"Hehe... a fallen house is worth you chasing this far?"
Lord Black Sand chuckled, "If it weren’t for the news of this lord’s mishap during cultivation, confirming that I’d gone mad... you probably wouldn’t have decided to take this step, would you? As the undercover agent of the Eight Desolate Sect within the Yellow Sand Sect, after lurking for so many years, you’d naturally want to return to your sect once you found the opportunity... After all, with a great battle imminent, the intelligence you hold is worth its weight in gold, and the merits you could claim are immeasurable."
When he mentioned "Eight Desolate Sect," Lady Snake wished she could cut off her own ears.
Why did she have to hear so many secrets?
"I was wondering... an elder of a Nascent Soul major sect chasing so far... giving so much importance to a small Core Formation family seemed a bit too much. So, there was such a reason."
Fang Xi murmured thoughtfully to himself.
Lady Snake’s family seemed to be nothing more than a front.
After putting on a superficial act, Old Huang might very well have planned to make his escape!
Thinking back on the man’s previous performance, even Fang Xi couldn’t help but admire his acting skills.
And Old Huang seemed to be aware of it as well.
When Lord Black Sand laid out his cards, Old Huang clenched his teeth fiercely, appearing to use some sort of secret skill. A fierce burst of energy emanated from his body, reaching the peak of Core Formation.
But that wasn’t all!
Whiskers sprouted on his face, his pea-sized eyes emitted a faint light, and behind him emerged the phantom of a brocade-furred jade rat!
Whoosh!
His figure exploded, turning into several streaks of earthy yellow light, fleeing in different directions across the desert.
"You little rascal, always dishonest... even managing to refine a strand of Earth Traveling Jade Rat’s bloodline. Such a bloodline excels at Earth Escape, and combined with your Earth Attribute cultivation skills and level... ordinary Nascent Soul old monsters might really let you escape."
Lord Black Sand smiled and pointed casually at the surrounding desert.
Boom boom!
An earthy yellow light blazed into the desert, producing a cringe-inducing sound. It exploded on impact, turning into a cloud of black gas that dissipated...
As the vast yellow sand scattered, it revealed something pitch black and metallic in color beneath it.
It seemed that with a casual flick of his finger, Lord Black Sand had executed the "Turn Earth into Steel" divine skill, which totally countered Old Huang’s Earth Escape.
Put put!
Each streak of earthy yellow Escape Light tried to burrow into the ground, only to smack against an iron barrier, with utterly tragic results.
Whoosh!
Within the final Escape Light, Old Huang’s figure emerged, holding an ancient jade talisman in his hand.
Buzz buzz!
But above him, a dark canopy of sand descended with a boom!
Beneath the torrential black sand, Old Huang’s yellow gourd was just like a spark in a deluge, extinguished in the blink of an eye.
Then, countless particles of black sand converged, forming a huge black sphere.
Lord Black Sand clasped his hands, sending spell after spell into the black sand sphere.
The surface of the sphere flashed with spirit marks, suddenly turning into a dark coffin-like object with numerous spirit marks on it, which Lord Black Sand casually pocketed.
Only after completing all this did he turn to Lady Snake and Fang Xi, "Although you’re only a facade, with the great battle ahead... no cultivation force in this realm is allowed to leave! You’ve broken the rules, just the right case to kill the chicken to warn the monkey."
"Lord, please spare us!"
Lady Snake was so frightened that she turned deathly pale and collapsed on the spot.
After all, the fate that befell Old Huang had crushed any thought of resistance in her.
But then, a sigh sounded.
Demonic light surfaced on Fang Xi, and a surge of magic power, far exceeding that of a Perfect Core Formation, rippled out, shattering the clouds in the sky, "Black Sand, why give a junior such a hard time? Let’s call it even for the sake of my face, shall we...?"
"A... a Nascent Soul?"
Lady Snake’s beautiful eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at Fang Xi, completely unable to grasp that the Core Formation cultivator, who had shared a carriage with her day and night, close as can be, was actually a concealed Nascent Soul old monster!
"Sir, you truly are..."
Lord Black Sand looked at Fang Xi, his face displaying a moment of astonishment.
But when thinking about how most Nascent Soul old monsters are of strange temperament, with many liking to play the fool to catch the wise, indulging in the mortal world, it was unexpected yet reasonable.
Although cultivators in the early Nascent Soul stage are not as strong as those in the middle phase, if they were set on escaping, even those in the middle Nascent Soul stage would be helpless to stop them.
The only ones who could suppress both were the great cultivators in the late Nascent Soul stage!
In any major realm, the cultivators in the late phase have an overwhelming advantage over the previous two minor realms!
Because the term ’late phase cultivator’ broadly includes the minor realm of ’perfection’ within it, there is no bottleneck from the late phase to perfection, just the accumulation of magic power.
Some deeply cultivated late Nascent Soul stage cultivators can completely crush those in the early and middle Nascent Soul stages, even killing them outright!
Therefore, upon seeing Lord Black Sand, who was in the middle Nascent Soul stage, Fang Xi didn’t feel much tension.
"Are you going to plead on behalf of Lady Snake?"
Lord Black Sand asked emotionlessly.
Lady Snake, on the other hand, was nearly moved to tears, and she almost thought she had fallen for an illusion.
After all, casually drawing in a late Core Formation cultivator, only to discover that he was actually a Nascent Soul, and the only hope to save her family from a deadly tribulation, was simply like a dream.
"Indeed..."
After giving the woman a glance, Fang Xi answered indifferently.
"..."
Lord Black Sand fell silent for a moment, then asked, "May I inquire as to how my fellow daoist is called?"
"I am Master Mu, just an individual cultivator..."
Fang Xi replied with a smile.
Individual cultivators, at the lower levels, are completely inferior to Sect disciples, and even so at the stage of Core Formation.
But at the Nascent Soul stage, it’s entirely different.
Any individual cultivator who has condensed a Nascent Soul is one in a million, possessing great fortune, and outstanding in temperament and perseverance!
It can be said that after taking the step of condensing the Nascent Soul, whether one is an individual cultivator or a Sect disciple, or even the differences in Spiritual Root quality, all become much less significant.
Every Nascent Soul old monster should not be underestimated.
Not to mention that individual Nascent Soul cultivators, unburdened by Sect affiliations, act as they please and are often the most troublesome entities for those in Nascent Soul Sects.
Sometimes, these troublesome individual Nascent Soul old monsters would even have their profiles compiled and distributed by Sects to their disciples, warning them not to provoke or violate taboo.
Lord Black Sand suddenly felt a headache coming on.
Although strict Sect rules must be enforced, dealing with the traitorous family required careful consideration, lest it provoke an individual Nascent Soul old monster who might remember the slight, which seemed hardly worth it.
Moreover... Lord Qian Sha had just recently perished, and the Sect was currently in a state of turmoil.
"If sir is willing to join our Yellow Sand Sect... this matter could indeed be negotiable."
Lord Black Sand suddenly spoke up, making a proposal.
"Recruit me?"
Fang Xi looked slightly amused, while internally scoffing: ’If you knew that I’ve killed a few of your Yellow Sand Sect’s Core Formation cultivators, and even the fall of Lord Qian Sha is largely connected to me, I wonder if you would still say such things... Well, it seems your Yellow Sand Sect doesn’t have a high and mighty secret skill like ’Resented Spirit Trace’...’
"Sorry... I have always been accustomed to being carefree."
After pretending to consider for a while, Fang Xi naturally refused.
He would not join a Sect that was about to go to war with another Nascent Soul-level school, to become advanced cannon fodder.
"Since that’s the case..."
Lord Black Sand said, "This woman’s family has betrayed the Yellow Sand Sect and must be disciplined. If sir can take three strikes from me, we’ll let bygones be bygones... This is my final decision."
"Three strikes?"
Fang Xi rose into the sky and faced Lord Black Sand: "Please!"
At this moment, the two were hundreds of feet apart, but their strong Divine Consciousness had already firmly locked onto each other.
"In that case, Master Mu, you must be careful. My ’Black Marsh Mysterious Sand’ is not inferior to the ’Wu Earth Divine Sand’, and moreover, it has the ability to corrupt both the cultivators’ physical bodies and Divine Souls..."
Lord Black Sand warned, raising a single hand to initiate a spell.
In the void, countless minute black sand particles appeared out of nowhere, potentially enveloping several miles in range!
It could be said that Fang Xi was completely surrounded in all directions.
’So it was these black sand particles that were set up early on all around, blocking Old Huang’s Earth Escape route...’
With his strong Divine Consciousness, Fang Xi had seen everything that had transpired and naturally harbored some concerns about this Black Marsh Mysterious Sand.
He did not know that Lord Black Sand was a Heaven Grade Earth Spiritual Root and had awakened a ’Black Sand God Body.’ The ordinary Wu Earth Divine Sand, once refined by him, had turned into an even more powerful ’Black Marsh Mysterious Sand’, earning the formidable title of Lord Black Sand, making him one of the more difficult Nascent Soul middle stage cultivators to deal with.
"The first strike!"
As Lord Black Sand spoke, the ’Black Marsh Mysterious Sand’ floating around instantly congealed, forming into countless tiny needles as thin as cow hair, impossible to count.
Then, the countless jet-black needles converged and shot out from all directions toward the center with a relentless barrage, leaving no dead angle.
Whoosh whoosh!
Countless black needles almost drowned Fang Xi.
And when all was said and done, only a giant phantom with three eyes and six arms could be seen, with hands clasped tightly to protect Fang Xi within...