Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 420 Sword Intent
Zhou Xiang grabbed Kong Youxin's arm and pulled her to his side, while simultaneously turning to look behind him—

A figure stood on the field fifty paces away. It was a dark shadow, not much larger than a fist at this distance. With his cultivation level, he should have been able to see the person's face clearly, but now he truly couldn't make it out.

Because the person's face was blurry—not because it was "unclear," but because it currently had three pairs of eyes, four mouths, and two noses, making it appear as if one's vision was doubled. These eyes, mouths, and noses weren't fixed; they appeared one after another, one after another, on the face, making his appearance even more eerie and psychedelic.

The man seemed to be draped in a black robe that trailed to the ground, yet he was also simply darkness itself—in front of him was darkness, the darkness of night, darkness slightly illuminated by moonlight and starlight. But the darkness behind him was different; it was a profound and pure darkness, as if half the world behind him was merely the cloak of his robe.

He stood there quietly, motionless. But life began to spread from beneath his feet. The withered grass began to turn green again, climbing outwards. It grew wildly, like swarms of slender worms crawling up to the man's knees, before quickly withering and collapsing in patches.

The dead grass seemed to pass on life to the grass on the outer edge, so another ring of withered grass began to grow, wither, and continue to transmit vitality. The green spread towards Li Wuxiang, Zhou Xiang, and Kong Youxin, and the air was filled with the fragrance of harvested grass, ripples with vigorous vitality.

Zhou Xiang and Kong Youxin sensed this vitality. They instantly felt a sense of relief; their previous confusion, anger, and fear vanished in an instant. When they looked again at the person in the darkness, and at the greenery spreading towards them, their initial wariness faded like water droplets on sand, replaced by joy—

"How joyous!" Zhou Xiang heard the voice from afar, the sound carried along with the fragrance of grass and the vigorous vitality, "Sharing the same source and benefiting each other!"

And so, a genuine sense of joy welled up within him.

His gaze softened, and when he looked at the man again, the phrase "shared origins and mutual support" echoed in his heart, making him feel as if the man were a parent, a brother, a lover... He was neither frightening nor eerie; he was so... so...

Zhou Xiang took a step forward, stunned.

But suddenly, it was as if a sharp sword, a crimson sword, pierced down from the sky above him, straight into his heart!

Zhou Xiang felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over her head, instantly sobering her up—the invisible force that had awakened her was pinned down in front of Li Wuxiang. The aura of violence and decay exploded outwards, colliding with the spreading green vitality.

The newly sprouted grass seemed to have crashed into an invisible wall, instantly turning from deep green to crimson, and withered again. This crimson color, like a plague, surged back like a wave, spreading all the way to the feet of the black-robed man.

He had no choice but to step back slightly, and the pure and deep darkness behind him instantly receded, revealing the starry sky once more.

The night was quiet; the only sound Zhou Xiang could hear was the rustling of the weeds growing and withering. But to him, the sound was like a series of thunderclaps—

Li Xiao is fighting that person with magic!
This is already the first move!
It wasn't the magic he had learned or heard about, but supernatural power... a kind of supernatural power he had never experienced, could not imagine, and could not believe—

There seemed to be the aura of Taiyi on the man in black… very faint, but something else was much stronger, that vitality… Was it the True Lord of Fate? A strong aura of the True Lord of Fate. But it wasn't just that; there was something else contained within that pure darkness, chaotic nothingness… Zhou Xiang couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, or which True Immortal or Golden Immortal it belonged to.

But he knew that they must be members of the Blood God Cult.

The Blood God Cult's "Corpse Immortal"... is at least an Infant Immortal!
Just now, this Blood God Sect's Infant Immortal invoked the divine power of their Blood God, and in the blink of an eye, he had me bewitched... I have the ancestral Dharma Body protecting me, as well as many spells!
Kong Youxin, who was beside him, let out a weak but painful moan, her body went limp, and she leaned against Zhou Xiang.

He immediately helped her up, knowing that her Foundation Establishment cultivation was unable to withstand the impact of the supernatural power just now—in fact, even he himself couldn't withstand it!

At this moment, Zhou Xiang's blood and qi surged, his heart pounded wildly, and his meridians felt as if they had been pierced by the force of the blow that had struck him from the heavens. All the true energy within him was suppressed. He wasn't a coward, but now he realized that the palm strike he had just delivered to Li Xiao... no, it wasn't the time to think about that, but rather his earlier speculation about Li Xiao—that he had orchestrated everything...

How ridiculous!

With Li Xiao's current aura, methods, and cultivation, there's no need for him to arrange anything with those wandering martial arts cultivators!

He fell silent, and following Li Xiao's instructions, pulled Kong Youxin behind him. Then he spoke, his voice hoarse: "Who's that over there...?"

“People from the Blood God Cult,” Li Wuxiang answered him in a low voice.

"Come...come...come..." Zhou Xiang gritted his teeth, holding his breath. He already had a vague premonition, but to ask this premonition aloud now felt like spitting out rough stones from his chest. What he was spitting out wasn't just stones, but also the support within his body, his spirit, his very will—"Are they here to kill me? Are people from my sect here to kill me?"

"No."

Zhou Xiang was stunned. Before any emotion could even surface in his mind, he heard him say again, "The people who wanted to kill you were from the Great Western Kingdom of the Eastern Continent. I have already captured them. This Corpse Immortal of the Blood God Sect was probably in contact with the demons of the Great Western Kingdom to take the Dao-Merging True Person's body from your body."

Zhou Xiang felt his body become lighter. For a moment, his gaze seemed to lose focus, and when he came back to his senses, he found himself kneeling on the ground.

Li Xiao, standing in front of him, was still confronting the man in the distance, neither of them saying a word.

Zhou Xiang looked up into the distance—the twilight was deep, the starry night was all around, it seemed as if there was nothing around, yet it also seemed as if everything was locked up by the aura of the Corpse Immortal of the Blood God Sect.

"He is... the Infant Immortal of the Blood God Sect, is that right?" Zhou Xiang said in a low voice. "You are a swordsman of the Taiyi Sect? You've been here to protect me all this way?"

"That's it."

"Isn't it because of those magical bodies I possess?" He saw Li Xiao turn his head slightly and smile down at him: "Before I met you, I didn't know you were carrying those things."

Zhou Xiang let out a breath. He shook his head: "Now you know, you've seen, and I've given it to you... Fine. Now that things have come to this, you can use those magical bodies if you want. You can use the spiritual energy inside. These things are equivalent to rare and precious treasures—if we lose, they will all fall into the hands of the Blood God Cult. Rather than that, it's better to..."

"Don't worry. There's no need. I am Li Wuxiang."

Zhou Xiang's mind went blank for a moment, then went completely blank: "You are Li Wuxiang?!"

But Li Wuxiang didn't speak to him again. Instead, he turned his face, took half a step forward, and said loudly, "Are you Immortal Cui? Is Cui Daocheng inside you?"

The Corpse Immortal of the Blood God Cult stood there without saying a word.

Li Wuxiang took another half step forward and stood with his hands behind his back. With this half step, a stream of light appeared behind him. The first ray of light condensed into a small, pale golden sword behind his head. The small sword trembled slightly and split into three. The three small swords trembled again and split into nine.

Nine lightsabers formed a halo behind his head, illuminating the ground within a hundred paces around him as if it were daytime, revealing every branch and leaf.

Zhou Xiang then realized that it wasn't just the infant immortal from afar who had arrived; the three of them had been surrounded.

Surrounded by countless corpse immortals that had not yet taken human form—heads, organs, bones, blood, and mucous membranes, all connected by bright red blood nerves. Countless... The grass a hundred paces away was covered with these things, clustered together, their twisted heads poking out and blinking.

Their eyes were illuminated by the sword light behind Li Wuxiang's head, glowing red in the darkness. The red light was dense, like a swarm of red fireflies. They were still moving, their heads writhing within their bodies, dragging their twisted and deformed bodies back and forth, like a circle of undulating black waves.

"How delightful!" The infant immortal in the distance spoke again, and also took a step towards Li Wuxiang's direction.

The surrounding corpse immortals also spoke at the same time, their voices sharp, but when gathered together, they sounded like thousands of people praising each other. Zhou Xiang felt that in this twisted and eerie atmosphere, there was a sense of holiness—"How joyous!"

They followed the Nascent Soul Corpse Immortal forward. The plains rustled, and the pungent, hot vitality almost transformed into a scorching wave, surging forth with their movements.

Zhou Xiang prided himself on not being a coward, but now he felt fear. This fear stemmed from the aura he sensed—a dense life force, an intense malice, that seemed to descend upon him like a net from heaven. It was as if the entire world had fallen into darkness, leaving only this small piece of land illuminated by the sword light emanating from Li Wuxiang.

He didn't know how to fight these things... If he felt there was even a sliver of hope, he might have tried to pull himself together. But the oppressive aura of the Nascent Soul Corpse Immortal not far away, and the stench of the surrounding corpse demons, almost made him lose his mind, made him...

He couldn't help but use trembling hands to pull out a handful of Jade Blood Pills from the backpack on his chest.

"No." Zhou Xiang was about to put the pill into his mouth when he saw Li Wuxiang smile and say, "There's no need."

Then, the highest of the nine small swords behind Li Wuxiang's head suddenly turned crimson, and the remaining eight also seemed to be stained red by the main sword, all coated with a hazy bloody light.

Zhou Xiang had cultivated the Lesser Tribulation Sword Scripture, and he immediately recognized it as Blood Qi – Blood Qi in the Qi Refining Realm, Blood Fiend in the Golden Core Realm, and Blood Qi in the Nascent Soul Realm!
But what's going on with Li Wuxiang's blood aura?! How can it be so strong?!
However, the next moment, Zhou Xiang's eyes widened again—because an unparalleled, violent aura burst forth from the nine flying swords behind Li Wuxiang's head!
This aura seemed to come from the heavens, from a realm beyond this one, the same violent, desolate, and destructive aura that had just appeared! Only then did he remember that within the sect, Li Wuxiang was referred to as the "Extraterrestrial Demon"!
This aura must be his extraterrestrial demonic energy... It's terrifying!
But there was another aura. This aura emanated from his body. Zhou Xiang now realized that it was exactly the same as what she had felt these past few days—having traveled together for so many days, she had never had the slightest doubt about the name "Li Xiao," which stemmed from this extremely strange "belief," as if she were in a trance!

At this moment, the two auras mingled together, and with the blood-red aura from the flying sword behind his head, it burst forth in all directions. The corpses fell silent instantly, and the bursts of scorching life force vanished as if encountering a cold wind. Zhou Xiang saw those eager creatures suddenly become docile, their blood-red eyes blinking, looking at each other, and then curling up their twisted bodies like worms thrown into ice and snow.

Even he could feel... the sword intent emanating from Li Wuxiang!
That was a sword intent that looked down upon the world, was invincible and unstoppable!

The moment this sword intent entered his body, Zhou Xiang felt his previously suppressed true energy surge back into activity. The fear, despair, and cowardice that had plagued his mind vanished. He crushed the Jade Blood Pill in his palm, first setting Kong Youxin down, then abruptly stood up, drawing his own flying sword. Behind Li Wuxiang, he whispered, "Good…you are Li Wuxiang, you are that little divine lord—I used your name before, so we are destined to meet. Since we are destined, let's fight them side-by-side tonight! Even if I die on the spot—"

“It’s not that bad.” Zhou Xiang’s words were cut short when she saw Li Wuxiang smile again. He was staring intently at the distant Infant Immortal, his expression stern, so the smile was extremely faint and fleeting. But Zhou Xiang could sense the meaning in his words; he seemed somewhat helpless, and also somewhat…amused?
“We don’t need to fight tonight,” Li Wuxiang said. “He doesn’t dare to lay a hand on me tonight.”

"Don't have the guts to make a move? What do you mean?" Zhou Xiang was slightly taken aback, but then realized that what Li Wuxiang had said had come true.

Once his ferocious sword intent erupted, the infant immortal in the distance stopped advancing. He stood still, his body swaying slightly, as if hesitating whether to take another step.

The undead surrounding them, not yet fully formed into human form, were like hunting dogs—originally, they had surrounded their prey, waiting only for their master's command to pounce. But now, they discovered they had not surrounded ordinary prey, but a ferocious tiger, howling! Fear gripped them, and they huddled together, whimpering in terror!
A moment later, the infant immortal moved. But not forward, but backward.

As if receiving instructions, the large horde of ghouls immediately slipped back into the darkness and vanished without a trace.

They...were scared away by...Li Wuxiang!?

Zhou Xiang had heard about the "Little Divine Lord" and Mei Qiulu's story at the Great Calamity Mountain, but he used to think that Li Wuxiang had gained some good reputation by enjoying the protection of that land sword immortal. He never thought that he would make the Blood God Sect's infant immortal so wary - that he would actually retreat without a fight!

Zhou Xiang let out a long sigh: "Then...where do we go now? Should we go to the Taiyi Sect? They shouldn't dare to chase us, right?"

Li Wuxiang turned to look at him and smiled slightly: "No, now we need to go after them."

(End of this chapter)