The Forbidden Path to Immortality

Chapter 290

The thought had barely crossed his mind when a sword cry, twisted and distorted by the rampaging primordial qi, slashed into his ears.

Almost in perfect sync with that cry, the raging tide of primordial qi triggered by the displaced Stabilizing Star Stone began to subside from its peak. It was gradually drawn back under the control of the vast formation of the Gathering Stars Platform. The Greedy Wolf Immortal Sword shot back toward him, and he cleanly caught it. And then, at long last, he could finally see Ming Ji.

At a glance, he let out a quiet breath of relief.

At that moment, Ming Ji held her sword across her chest. Her face was pale, and her shoulder was stained with blood, but the light in her eyes was sharp and focused. Clearly, she was not seriously injured. As for the blood shadow, no one knew where Ming Ji’s strike had landed. It was knocked flying and rebounded through the air. And before it had even stabilized, it blurred again. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a streak of blood-red light, its speed surging even higher than before.

But maybe getting slashed by Ming Ji had rattled its brains, because the direction it was retreating in was straight toward Yun Xing. And as it pulled back, it let out this shrill, howling laugh the whole way, sounding like a busted old bellows wheezing and rasping. It was godawful.

The words spilling from that mouth were a hundred times uglier than the sound itself. “Ming Ji, you little bitch. Sooner or later I’m going to fuck you till you break.”

Ming Ji’s face froze into ice. Yun Xing let out a low growl, “Shameless scum!” The Greedy Wolf Immortal Sword swung up to meet that streak of rainbow light head-on.

Everything happened too damn fast. Even the demon probably hadn’t expected its luck to turn to complete shit like this. The instant the sword light flashed out, Yun Xing knew right away. For the first time, his blade had struck something real.

And right on its heels, the blood rain that sprayed everywhere proved it. Those droplets, hot as boiling oil, burst into scattered sparks. Then vanished without a trace.

A shrill, ear-splitting howl ripped through the air. The rainbow streak of light dimmed at once. Then, with a lightning-fast twist, before Yun Xing could even unleash his second strike, it relied purely on raw speed to scrape right past his side and rocket back the way it had come.

But after that sudden burst, its movement was clearly slower than before, weaker by a whole level at least.

This bastard is badly wounded!

Yun Xing was very confident in his own cultivation. Above all, the unusual power of the Greedy Wolf Immortal Sword gave him absolute faith. Without a second thought, he whipped around, mounting his sword, and giving chase at full speed.

If nothing else, that filthy curse the demon had just spat out was reason enough. Yun Xing was not about to let him get away.

Good, Li Xun thought. Come after me.

When he first lured Yun Xing into pursuit, Li Xun had deliberately slowed down, even crashing through several restrictions along the way. But once he had put more distance between himself and the Gathering Stars Platform, he gradually picked up speed. He kept Yun Xing on the line while little by little widening the gap.

Flying in his Blood-Shadow Demon Body felt incredibly good. The blood-colored arc of light had a unique quality, something both real and unreal at the same time. Paired with top-tier speed, it treated the dense web of restrictions in the void as if they did not exist at all.

Just as The Blood God Child recorded it, once the Demon Body was fully perfected, you could roam the nine heavens and ten lands without limit, reaching anywhere at all and shattering every law of the world.

That line might sound like some over-the-top bullshit that'd been parroted in every damn classic out there, but when it came to describing the Blood-Shadow Demon Body, it fit like a glove. Couldn't be more spot-on.

Li Xun felt like a mad bull charging through the sky right now. Whatever forbidden formations or techniques got in his way, he just stomped straight over them with one hoof, and not a single restriction could slow him down even a bit.

Plenty of Xingji Sword Sect cultivators were rushing toward the Taiwei Enclosure from the direction of the Qingcang River, but faced with Li Xun’s completely unreasonable, world-shaking speed, most of them only caught a brief blur before he shot past them. A few with quick reactions tried to launch sword strikes or use restrictions to block him, but none of it even came close to landing.

He kept accelerating. Just before he burst out of the Taiwei Enclosure, he finally shook off Yun Xing and the others who had turned back to chase him. He left them so far behind that not even their shadows remained, carving out a vast stretch of empty space within the Sea River.

The sheer exhilaration of that speed made Li Xun throw his head back and laugh out loud.

Mid-laugh, the blood shadow suddenly split in two. One streak of blood-red light continued to surge forward at full speed, while Li Xun’s real body vanished into the void at the instant of separation, leaving no trace behind.

The blood shadow that had just flown off was actually an externalized Blood Nightmare. After breaking into the True Person realm, Li Xun had gained control of this nasty technique as well. He had not cultivated it yet, so its performance in real combat was nowhere near the uncanny mastery Blood Wanderer had once displayed, but it was more than good enough to fool the eye.

Using the Blood Nightmare to draw the attention of those chasing and trying to intercept him, Li Xun dove down from mid-air, and plunged right into the into a river that ran through the area.

In the water, he did not circulate his qi at all. Holding his breath, he just hovered quietly beneath the surface.

During that time, sword lights kept streaking and flashing across the sky. Who knew how many cultivators passed overhead, yet not a single one noticed anything amiss in the river below.

Li Xun was back to looking like Spirit Bamboo. Standing in the water, he swapped out the magical items on his body, his mind replaying the the actions he had taken.

There was no denying it. His sudden decision to stir up such a massive commotion was, to a large extent, because of Ming Ji. At the very least, he couldn't stomach the thought of that Immortal Master Ming Ji, usually sharp as a sword, ending up humiliated by some little prick.

Still, that was all he could do.

There was no way he could carry Ming Ji with him and force a breakout. That's impossible. All he could do was use Yun Xing’s hand to break the restriction, buying her a split-second window to slip free. As for how she'd handle the swarm of top-tier bastards from the Star River hunting her down after that... well, that was up to her own luck and skill.

As for that thing the Palace Attendant mentioned... screw it, Gu Yin herself had already said it wasn't important, so why the hell should he give a damn? Besides, if everything unfolded exactly the way Gu Yin had predicted, then chances are he'd been dancing in this woman's palm from the very start. And he'd never get out.

Being throttled by a Zhong Yin once was already frustrating enough. He had no desire to experience that a second time.

Just look at the mess we've got now. A great demon wielding the “Blood-Shadow Demon Body” suddenly barrels into the Star River right at this exact moment, seemingly intent on killing Ming Ji. He lands one massive strike, it flops, and then the bastard just slips away like it's nothing. After that, if Ming Ji managed to get away and the Xingji Sword Sect Sword Sect lost one or two key figures along the way…

This scenario looked simple and obvious on the surface, but the escalating complications created a web of contradictions that would leave sect masters and power brokers racking their brains. The flood of speculation it would spawn was enough to form a fog so thick no one would ever find its edges.

That was exactly what Li Xun needed.

And all he had to do was wash his hands of it. Nothing more.

Li Xun had already taken note of this on his way in. The river he was hiding in was a tributary of the Qingcang River. If he followed the riverbed, it would take less than a half an hour to reach the spot Bisu had designated. Of course, by now Bisu was probably worried sick.

He let out a chuckle, but it quickly turned into a grimace.

Only then did he remember that when he withdrew from the Gathering Stars Platform, he had deliberately taken a sword strike to lure Yun Xing into pursuit. Back then, in the Blood Shadow Demon Body, he could not tell where he had been hurt. Now that he had returned to human form, he realized that the sword had slashed across his chest. The cut was not very long, but it was a good three tenths deep, close to splitting him open.

Thankfully, the Blood Shadow Demon Body’s regenerative ability was astonishing. The wound had already scabbed over, and in a few more hours it should be partially healed.

Li Xun shook his head slightly. The Blood Shadow Demon Body was indeed powerful, but its methods of both offense and defense were completely different from everything he had learned before. If he were willing to throw himself fully into the demonic path, that would be one thing, but he had to switch back to human form constantly. That alone caused him no small amount of trouble. It seemed he would have to study it in depth and grow accustomed to it before it could truly become second nature.

Lost in thought, Li Xun slipped downstream with the current. The restrictions around no longer bothered him in the least. In the water he moved like a fish, weaving smoothly around every obstacle. In no time at all, he had already covered more than ten li.

Up in the sky, the flight paths of the cultivators had begun to shift. Some were still heading toward Taiwei Enclosure, but far more of them changed direction midway, skimming past the Qingcang River and flying toward Bihua Mountain nearby.

And Bihua Mountain was exactly the escape route Bisu had planned for Li Xun. It was also the duty zone of Wang Luo of the “Lesser Brilliance Star.”

The heavens shifted, the paths of the stars realigned. By now, the sky had already begun to pale with the first hint of dawn, which meant the Star River had completed yet another silent migration. And right at this moment, that natural "flaw" created by the turning of the celestial stars had slipped into the Bihua Mountain region.

According to the original plan, once Li Xun was exposed, he was supposed to retreat toward Bihua Mountain, drawing the pursuers with him and luring Wang Luo into the chase. Ideally, he would pull Wang Luo out beyond the Star River. Outside the star field, Palace Attendant would spring her own scheme, drawing in the main force of the Xingji Sword Sect. The two sides would clash in open chaos, and amid the confusion, they would seize their advantage.

But now things had gone off the rails. Li Xun’s improvised move had stirred up a storm so big it shook the entire Star River. At this point, even Old Tian Yuan would probably come charging out. If Li Xun still followed the original plan under these circumstances, it would be no different from throwing his life away, and that was not something he was about to do.

Luckily, the “Blood Shadow Demon Body” and Bihua Mountain had drawn everyone’s attention. With all eyes focused elsewhere, Li Xun ignored the excitement over there and headed straight for the Qingcang River instead. Before long, he reached the rendezvous point he had agreed on with Bisu.

The area was completely deserted. Even if Li Xun jumped around and cursed at the top of his lungs, nobody would have bothered to respond.

He chuckled to himself and was about to move on when his eyelid suddenly twitched. Without a moment’s thought, he dropped flat, pressing himself to the ground and slipping into the shadow cast by the stone wall along the riverbank.

Only a few breaths later, a streak of sword light plunged down from the sky and landed not far from him.

When Li Xun saw who it was, he let out a quiet breath of relief. Even so, he didn’t let his guard down. He quietly circulated his true breath and made every preparation. Only then did he tap lightly on the rock wall, a smile finally appearing on his face.

The sound of the tapping startled the man. He whipped his head around and found himself staring straight at Li Xun’s smiling face. The tension drained from his body at once. He clearly let out a long breath, then shook his head and said, “Good heavens. What on earth did you do this time?”

The newcomer was none other than Bisu.