Chapter 15: The Drought Demon
As the old man's true body exploded into pieces, the previously eye-catching deceitful corpse, having lost control, plummeted to the ground.
Onlookers glanced at the falling decoy, then back at the true body almost cleaved in two... Ah, they understood.
So there had been a decoy left to confuse everyone, while the true body had already planned to flee, only to be seen through and directly slain by Qing Heng True Person with Man-Sword Unity!
The morale of the Shushan side immediately soared, and the previously low spirits due to True Person Yang Chang's calculated defeat were reignited with Ling Yunpo's victory.
On the Demonic Path's side, there wasn't much reaction. The Nether Ghost Path collectively maintained their silence, while the other paths mainly sneered, barely audibly whispering among themselves, "It seems that cultivators from the Nether Ghost Path really are no good."
Soon, another person was dispatched from the Nether Ghost Path, this time a young Daoist of upright appearance who greeted arrogantly, speaking coldly,
"Fen Shen of the Nether Ghost Path, wishes to experience Qing Heng True Person's swordsmanship."
As his voice fell, countless nether spirits surged out from his sleeves, circling around him.
Ling Yunpo remained expressionless, internally scoffing.
Clearly, this Fen Shen of the Nether Ghost Path cultivated a rather rare defensive spell.
Probably, having witnessed the earlier battle, the Nether Ghost Path believed that Ling Yunpo's strong Daoist magic sealed on his sword was his usual method, thus they chose such a cultivator in an attempt to counter him.
However, this was not an incorrect assumption; for most Shushan cultivators, rapid and powerful strikes of the Immortal Sword were the primary means of combat.
If one could not break the defense, a Sword Immortal's offensive ability from Shushan would be mostly neutralized, like what happened with the Iron Vein Elder from the Asura Path earlier—Ling Yunpo and An Zhisu could only run.
Luckily, before the watchful eyes of the crowd, the Nether Ghost Path did not have the audacity to send out a Nascent Soul Elder to fight him. As for this Golden Core Realm Fen Shen, whether he could truly prevent Ling Yunpo from breaking through his defenses... Ling Yunpo was quite skeptical.
No need to guess any longer, let's test my sword on him!
The Fen Shen Daoist brought his palms together, and a robust, white radiance burst forth from his palms, almost large enough to engulf Ling Yunpo completely.
Although the white light spell seemed fierce, its flight speed was too slow. By executing the Cloud-Parting Eight Trigrams Step, he simply sidestepped the white radiance and sent the Thunder Punishment Sword tentatively shooting out.
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The Thunder Punishment Sword turned into a beam of golden light, striking the white nether spirits surrounding the Fen Shen Daoist, only to be deflected as though it had hit stone.
Huh? That's somewhat interesting... Ling Yunpo's interest was piqued.
After observing for a moment, without even needing to scan, he deduced from his extensive and profound knowledge that the Fen Shen Daoist's defensive secret technique actually caused the white nether spirits to rapidly explode upon being attacked, bouncing the assault outward.
The ability to devise such an intricate secret technique indicated that the Nether Ghost Path indeed had some depth... However, this technique might be adequate against large-scale Daoist Magic, but what if faced with overwhelming concentrated power? Could these white nether spirits still block it?
Ling Yunpo said nothing, and directly initiated his powerful move, Man-Sword Unity, and ferociously charged at the Fen Shen True Person.
Fen Shen True Person hastily formed Daoist hand gestures, and the circling white nether spirits suddenly surged wildly towards Ling Yunpo's sword light, instantly sealing off all his possible escape routes.
What followed was a series of dense and continuous explosions that completely engulfed the sword light.
Fen Shen True Person exhaled slightly, a look of relief spreading across his face.
Since he was facing a Sword Immortal from Shushan who was known for strong offense, of course he wouldn't overlook their classic move, Man-Sword Unity.
As long as the opponent attempted to kill him at close range, he would gather the lingering wronged spirits to switch from defense to offense, using intense explosions to kill his adversary... Considering the strong offense but weak defense of a Sword Immortal, getting caught would almost certainly be fatal.
He must be dead!
Fen Shen True Person looked forward contentedly, only to discover that at the bottom of the turbulent flow of spirits, there was no corpse to be seen dropping.
His heart suddenly filled with foreboding, and he hastily cried out:
"Wait, I surrender..."
Before the words were finished, Ling Yunpo had flashed behind him, once again unleashing the powerful Man-Sword Unity technique, slashing toward the back of the Fiendgod Daoist!
I can't hear! What surrender, I can't hear!
Just when he was about to cleave the Fiendgod Daoist in half at the waist, suddenly another figure flashed in front of Ling Yunpo, raising his sleeve to flick it onto the tip of his sword—Ling Yunpo felt as if he'd been struck head-on by a huge hammer, tumbling backward nearly a hundred yards with both man and blade, vomiting blood before barely steadying himself.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be the Fiendgod Daoist's Nascent Soul mentor.
The other party didn't even deign to give Ling Yunpo a proper look, swiftly checking the Fiendgod Daoist to ensure he had no fatal injuries, then directly took him away with great strides, leaving proudly.
This completely set off the Shushan main formation. A large number of Shushan Sword Immortals started yelling angrily, cursing the Demon Cult elder for not adhering to martial virtue and rashly interfering in the disciples' competition.
The Demon Cult, on their part, disdainfully scoffed: We already admit you won this round, what more do you want? The master is right here, should he just watch his disciple get killed by your Sword Immortals?
Ling Yunpo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, wanting to say something, only to see An Zhisu also arriving by his side on her sword, her expression anxious as she asked,
"Junior Brother, are your injuries severe?"
Ling Yunpo shook his head. After all, the Demonic Path Nascent Soul Elder had intervened on his own accord; thus, he didn't dare to inflict serious harm. Otherwise, the Shushan main formation wouldn't just be filled with tumultuous yelling and cursing right now.
He wanted to comfort Senior Sister An and was just about to speak when Sister stuffed several medicinal pills in his mouth and hurriedly dragged him back for treatment.
"To bully the weak with strength, it's fitting for descendants of the Intercepting Cult," said the Jade Capital Sect Leader as he stepped forward from the formation, coldly stating as he walked forward, "Hu Yanyi, leader of the Nether Ghost Path! Do you dare to take up a challenge?"
The Nether Ghost Path leader was, of course, of the Nascent Soul Realm, and by forgoing the title and directly calling out his name, the Jade Capital Sect Leader was clearly expressing extreme contempt and disdain.
Soon, a middle-aged Daoist parted the crowd, his expression sinister and sneering as he spoke:
"Chai Feng, are you tired of living?"
The Jade Capital Sect Leader made a gesture for An Zhisu to quickly take Ling Yunpo back to the formation, then drew out his Life-bound Sword Artifact, sneering in response:
"Enough talk, if you dare to provoke us at the gates of the Shushan Sect, first test the sharpness of my sword!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than he leaped up, becoming a streak of Sword Light, yet again employing the great Man-Sword Unity technique, with the Sword Light flowing like an endless river, howling down towards the Nether Ghost Path leader!
The Nether Ghost Path leader let out a cold snort, and a gigantic skeletal monster burst forth from beneath his feet, emitting a shrill roar into the sky.
An Immortal Rank zombie, the towering drought fiend!
Legend had it that when such a creature emerged, it would be met with divine punishment. Its breath brought potent poison, and within a hundred miles, all that was touched by it would wither away!
The Jade Capital Sect Leader's expression turned solemn as he shouted angrily:
"Such an evil creature must not be allowed to exist in this world!"
His Sword Light suddenly swelled to nearly a hundred yards, crashing down like Mount Tai upon the drought fiend below.
The drought fiend, just having unearthed its upper body, instinctively reached out with its colossal palm toward the Sword Light of the Jade Capital Sect Leader—followed by the sound of bones being sliced and flesh cleaving, splintering inch by inch before crashing to the ground as if a mountain collapsed.
Hu Yanyi burst into boisterous laughter as the huge severed limb that fell to the ground began to wriggle again, swiftly reattaching itself at the stump and healing as if it were never severed.
This drought fiend had apparently achieved an undying, indestructible body, rendering the vast majority of offensive means in the world completely ineffective against it!