novelraw Chapter 22 : Chapter 22
Chapter 22 : Chapter 22
Chapter 22 : Decisive Battle
Hearing the sound of footsteps, the Tai Xuan disciple opened his eyes and saw Xun Qiu, her white robe stained with large patches of blood, push the door open and walk in.
In her hand, she held a dark black sphere that looked like some kind of stone.
His expression was slightly startled, and he subconsciously asked:
“You went and killed a demonic beast? Did you use true qi?”
He believed that the Demonic Cult member had surely followed his aura to the vicinity.
If Xun Qiu were to erupt with true qi at this time, although it wouldn't be as conspicuous as a torch in the dark, it would definitely be a disturbance worthy of a second glance, like a ripple on a lake, and might attract that person's attention.
“Su Wantian killed it. It was already over when I got there.”
Xun Qiu casually tossed him the inner core that the cook had taken out.
“That demonic beast died a miserable death, and so did Su Wantian and the group of hunters he brought with him.”
The Tai Xuan disciple caught the inner core and was silent for a moment:
“A group of ordinary people?”
“Mm.”
“……If I can survive tomorrow, I will personally visit them to express my gratitude.”
The Tai Xuan disciple paused for a moment, sensing the vigorous baleful qi clinging to the inner core.
“Someone died?”
“One.”
Xun Qiu said:
“So, there is no reason for you to say you can't win.”
The Tai Xuan disciple was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled:
“I think it was you who had that thought, like if you can't win, you'd just run away on the strength of your cultivation.”
Xun Qiu's expression did not change:
“No, but if you get killed in a single exchange, I won't go over and throw my life away either. My life doesn't just belong to me.”
“Heh… could it be that you owe someone money for your life? If that's the case, I'll pay it back for you later.”
The Tai Xuan disciple closed his eyes and said no more, focusing on refining the essence within this demonic beast's inner core.
The Tai Xuan true qi was neutral and peaceful, with no shortcomings.
People from other sects might be troubled by the baleful qi within, worrying that the baleful qi entering the body would breed inner demons, but he had no such worries.
The Grand Profound, that which subtly restrains all things without revealing its form, is the principle of the natural evolution of all things, encompassing everything in the universe.
One who has cultivated the Tai Xuan Heart Sutra can naturally transform all things into themselves, refining baleful qi into true qi.
The sun rose and set in the west.
A day passed, and the Tai Xuan disciple had completely refined that demon core.
To his surprise, this demonic beast's bloodline, or rather, its cultivation, was not ordinary.
The true qi it provided him was almost equivalent to a month of arduous cultivation.
His condition recovered much better than expected.
Although he still couldn't say his condition was perfect, his chances of winning had increased by a few points.
Without waiting for the time limit to run out, after sensing the unique true qi of the Demonic Cult member that could be identified from a great distance, he and Xun Qiu arrived at the carefully selected battlefield still in the mountain forest outside Xinyang City.
Fighting in the city would be to disregard others' lives.
But a secluded and deserted place was also not easy to choose.
After much thought, only this vast mountain forest was suitable.
The story of Xinyang City began here, and it was also here that the curtain would fall.
According to the pre-arranged plan, Xun Qiu moved a little away from the Tai Xuan disciple and found a place to hide her aura.
The Tai Xuan disciple, on the other hand, did not hesitate.
After confirming that she had completely concealed her aura, his vast Tai Xuan true qi was also displayed without any concealment.
It was as if a raging fire had risen in the dark night, the light of the early morning shining in all directions.
Such momentum could even be felt by ordinary people, and it was impossible for the Demonic Cult member who was searching for him not to feel it.
Two or three breaths after the Tai Xuan true qi appeared, a person rushed out from the dim sky, heading straight for the mountain forest away from the city, and landed in front of the Tai Xuan disciple.
This was a person with ordinary clothes and an ordinary appearance, without any distinguishing features.
His skin was dark, very much like a farmer in the fields, not at all like a member of the Demonic Cult.
But if one looked closely, one could see that his skin was covered with dense and complex tattoos, which slowly expanded and contracted like living things, as if breathing.
He glanced at the Tai Xuan disciple, whose chest wound had not yet healed and whose clothes were still stained with blood, and sneered:
“Knowing that you can't survive in the end, so you came out for a desperate gamble? What a fool. If you had hidden away sneakily, you might have been able to live a little longer and still have a chance to inform your Sect Master.”
The Tai Xuan disciple's expression was calm:
“Beasts indeed like to drag out an ignoble existence, judging others by their own standards.”
The Demonic Cult member's face immediately fell:
“Sharp-tongued. You righteous hypocrites are really annoying.”
He said no more.
With a flip of his right hand, he held a sinister white bone long saber in a reverse grip.
With a tap of his foot, he was in front of the Tai Xuan disciple in an instant, and he brought the saber down on his head.
To fight when you can't win an argument, this was the style of a Demonic Cult member.
Facing this saber, the Tai Xuan disciple did not dare to be the slightest bit negligent.
He had made the mistake of being careless when he had fought this person in his prime state before.
He had not noticed the sinister and evil qi hidden within this person's wide-open moves, and the demonic qi entering his body had triggered his internal injuries, causing him to fall into a disadvantage.
If it weren't for his more solid foundation, allowing him to seize a flaw in his opponent and make a life-for-a-life posture that forced him to retract and defend, he might not have had the chance to fight again today.
The Tai Xuan true qi gathered in his hands, and the awe-inspiring righteousness of the profound sect's orthodox lineage dissipated the Demonic Cult's sinister demonic qi.
But the Demonic Cult member had no discernible saber techniques.
When one saber blow failed, his left hand, which was not holding the saber, directly punched out.
A phantom Taiji diagram appeared, and the Tai Xuan disciple, unmoving, once again received the blow.
The force entered the ground from his body, causing his entire person to almost sink into the ground.
His entire body's true qi shook, triggering the old wound on his chest.
A mouthful of blood reached his throat, but he forcibly suppressed it.
The Demonic Cult member, on the other hand, retreated two steps to avoid the erupting Tai Xuan true qi.
Just as he was about to raise his saber and attack again, he saw the Tai Xuan disciple suddenly rush out, his right hand holding a frost-white longsword condensed from true qi, and thrust straight forward!
Clang—
The two's saber and sword clashed, and for a moment, they were in a stalemate.
But in the long run, it would definitely be the Demonic Cult member, who had no hidden injuries, who would emerge victorious.
Xun Qiu, in the distance, narrowed her eyes, carefully observing their battle.
To be honest, this was completely different from the cultivator battles she had imagined.
It was not as grand and exaggerated as moving mountains and filling seas, or shifting stars and plucking the moon, which at one point made her think that this was the actual performance of the Middle Four Realms.
But she soon discovered that her perception was wrong even if these two couldn't achieve such an exaggerated state, they could easily shatter this mountain forest with a full powered attack.
It was just that they had completely controlled their strength, not a single bit of power leaking into the surrounding environment.
They would also avoid using moves that "sent the opponent flying" during battle, because that would just give the opponent a chance to shed the force.
Perhaps the stronger experts in the Middle Four Realms had other, more suitable tactics, but for these two, whose conditions were not good, this method of cherishing every bit of strength and resource was the best choice.
Xun Qiu closed her eyes and felt the Tai Xuan true qi that was still automatically circulating and gradually growing within her body.
Then her gaze sharpened.
She saw that the Tai Xuan disciple and the Demonic Cult member had already ended their close-range saber and sword fight, and had both pulled some distance apart, gathering their true qi, about to release their real killing moves.
This was the opportunity the Tai Xuan disciple had deliberately created.
“Tai Xuan Heart Sutra Myriad Things Ninefold Likeness!”
“Watch me cleave you with one saber blow!”
She did not hesitate.
When the Demonic Cult member had not yet finished gathering his strength and still had some leeway to change his move, she rushed out from behind him.
The Tai Xuan true qi of the Fifth Realm that she had already reached erupted without concealment, condensing into a greatsword more than ten meters long, stirring the clouds in the sky, cleaving apart the dissipating demonic qi, and slashing straight towards his back.