Clutching eight or nine storage pouches in his chest pocket, Li Yuanjiao murmured, "We’ve slain many Embryonic Breathing Realm cultivators so far... If we continue at this rate, I fear the more powerful devil cultivators will have escaped."
He discreetly consulted his mirror, scanning the blood-soaked landscape with its help, and immediately glimpsed blood and fires in his vision.
"To the southeast! Let’s catch the big fish first!" he commanded decisively in a grim tone.
As they flew onward, accompanied by the monkey, they soon spotted three Qi Cultivators hovering in the sky. They were manipulating a spell that glowed crimson. On the ground, they saw a large formation drawn with blood, linking it to those three Qi Cultivators above.
Li Xuanxuan glanced behind him—the distant smoke from the towns along Guli Road was still visible, so they would not miss any signal for help from their family.
Li Yuanjiao murmured, "Two at the middle stage of Qi Cultivation Realm and one at the late stage..."
Devil cultivators varied greatly; those who wielded white qi were notably more formidable. Observing that these three were merely shrouded in a faint blood light, Li Yuanjiao nodded firmly to his group.
Li Qinghong caught on immediately, her fine eyebrows arching as she clasped her hands together and conjured a dense purple glow between her palms—the Purple Talisman Origin Light Secret Technique .
The devil cultivators, engrossed in completing their formation, were caught off guard by the direct assault. Scrambling, they raised their dharma artifacts in clumsy defense. With a wave of her slender hand, Li Qinghong sent a lightning-charged talisman hurtling right toward them.
If only we were closer, the ambush would have been more devastating!
Due to their heightened spiritual senses, the Qi Cultivators rarely fell prey to sneak attacks unless their enemies employed a unique dharma artifact that could conceal their presence. Li Qinghong closed the gap swiftly, further reducing the time for her enemies to react. She smashed a thunder talisman into the face of the weakest cultivator.
Boom!
The impact sent the mid-stage Qi Cultivator flying backward and spitting a mouthful of blood, his dharma artifact scorched. Seizing the momentum, Li Qinghong followed up with a spear attack. The other members of the Li Family swiftly engaged and tackled the remaining two enemies.
The attack took a very noticeable toll on the devil cultivator. Fortunately, his rich experience in combat allowed him to diffuse most of the talisman's power with his dharma artifact, avoiding serious injury. His gaze turned vicious as he cursed at Li Qinghong.
"Such resilience!" Li Yuanjiao exclaimed, slashing his longsword across his opponent's chest, leaving a bloodied scar. Yet, he noticed that the three Qi devil cultivators seemed unnervingly composed, and were even smirking confidently.
A bad feeling rose in Li Yuanjiao's heart as he urged the others, "Let's finish this quickly!"
Mana surged within him as he twirled his gleaming sword, engaging another mid-stage Qi Cultivator in battle. Leveraging his powerful River One Qi Technique , he attempted to tackle two enemies simultaneously.
Li Xuanxuan, catching onto his intentions, coordinated with the old monkey and Li Qinghong to converge on the wounded devil cultivator.
The late-stage Qi devil cultivator in black robes sneered, rebuking sharply, "How bold... Are you seriously treating us like mere rogue cultivators from some lowly families?"
The dharma artifact in his hand came whistling through the air while the other hand performed a spell that cast a chilling blood light. As he aimed to strike Li Yuanjiao, the gray-robed devil cultivator at the middle stage of the Qi Cultivation Realm seized the opportunity and closed in to attack Li Yuanjiao as well.
Li Yuanjiao swiftly clapped his storage pouch, conjuring a large, earth-colored oval shield. The six overlapping barriers glowed with mana light, blocking the incoming attacks and unleashing a burst of white light against the crimson light.
As the Six-Stone Cloud Plate, a mid-grade dharma artifact, flared to life, the mana within Li Yuanjiao surged like a tidal wave, defending him against the assault from his attackers.
"Ah, so you have a dharma artifact to rely on!"
The mid-stage Qi devil cultivator sneered, performing hand seals with his hands before breathing golden flames that slammed ruthlessly against the Six-Stone Cloud Plate.
With his mana reserve quickly depleting, Li Yuanjiao was forced to retract his dharma artifact. He drew back and unsheathed his sword, leaping into the air and executing a Celestial Moon Slash, forcing the two attackers back momentarily. A fleeting touch of red light from earlier left the tip of his nose chilly.
The devil cultivator was in a worse state. His body was engulfed in black smoke with wounds marring his body, and panic took over as he shouted, "Our reinforcements are coming! You should run while you still can!"
The other two cultivators merely threw a few vicious glares at him but said nothing. Devil cultivators were selfish. Both of them were only thinking about stalling the Li Family without any concern for their ally's fate.
Cornered by Li Qinghong, who had thwarted all his attempts to escape, the wounded devil cultivator could not think of anything else other than trying to convince his enemies to leave.
"It is my possessions that you all covet, right?! Killing me serves no purpose! You guys won't survive once our reinforcements are here! Spare my life, and I assure you, you will receive what you desire!" he yelled out in desperation.
He swiftly grabbed the storage pouch at his waist while enduring the barrage of assaults from his attackers. As blood spilled from his lips, he mustered the strength for one last spell. The storage bag shot away like a meteor as he descended to the ground.
Having borne the brunt of multiple spells, a trail of blood leaked out from the corner of Li Yuanjiao's mouth.
"Let's go."
Li Qinghong snagged the pouch with her electricity, then deactivated the spell that drained her mana. Her face paled, but she managed to still summon a wisp of purple lightning to employ her secret technique.
"Trying to escape?" the late-stage Qi devil cultivator in black growled, swinging his dharma artifact fiercely at Li Yuanjiao's retreating figure.
"Fool! Don't chase him!" the wounded devil cultivator, who relinquished his storage pouch, cried out as his comrade surged forward. The black-robed cultivator was momentarily taken aback.
Li Yuanjiao sheathed his sword and extended his spiritual sense into the mirror. The devil cultivator, feeling a sudden chill down his spine, found his hairs standing on end. In a desperate bid to escape, he performed a secret technique, causing his form to blur like flowing blood. With a violent push of energy, he managed to swiftly retreat several feet away.
Refraining from using the Supreme Yin Profound Light publicly, Li Yuanjiao simply intimidated the devil cultivator before seizing the opening to fly away in another direction. The anger in the devil cultivator’s eyes had completely dissipated, now replaced by a deep-seated terror.
As the gray-robed mid-stage qi devil cultivator tried to give chase, Li Qinghong’s thunder talisman struck him hard. The devil cultivator was forced to deploy his dharma artifact in defense, barely managing to shield himself as he watched his targets disappear into the smoke and dust.
Employing his secret technique to flee had severely depleted the mana reserves of the late-stage qi devil cultivator, leaving him visibly pale. He hovered in midair, momentarily dazed. From below, the devil cultivator who had lost his storage pouch rose into the air with a chilling laugh.
"The two of you should be grateful that I saved your lives just now!"
The mid-stage qi devil cultivator in gray shot him a cold look. The leader of their group, who was dressed in black, looked relieved.
"Fellow Daoist, given your experience in the sect, you must be quite knowledgeable. What insights can you offer?" he asked humbly.
Despite losing his storage pouch, the other cultivator replied with a grateful tone, "I've reviewed our sect’s catalog before. That man in black wields the Qingche Sword, there's no doubt about it! That's the weapon of a Sword Immortal... Imagine the power of the sword qi hidden within it!"
"None of us, not even our lord, could withstand that sword qi without spending seven to eight years to recover from the injury. The sword's intent is no laughing matter," he added solemnly.
The black-robed cultivator sighed deeply, his previous fear now explained. The gray-robed cultivator, though secretly relieved, remained outwardly stubborn.
"You may have a profound origin, but it changes nothing. You're just another wanderer like us now. If you want to brag about your achievements, you should have stayed in the sect and strove to achieve the Foundation Establishment Realm instead of turning to devil cultivation!" he snarled coldly.
The black-robed cultivator waved his sleeves and quickly intervened.
"That's enough... Let's wait for our lord to come and collect all the blood qi from Moongaze Lake. We'll leave quickly after that and head to the Golden Feather Sect."
Moongaze Lake was shrouded in mystery. Aside from the sword immortal clan, there was also talk of a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator concealed on the opposite shore. There were also rumors about another Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator surnamed Jiang hidden among the families in this region.
"What a dreadful place!"