So it turns out I'm the demon!

"Xian'er!"

Liu Qiantu's eyes widened in horror, and he let out a mournful cry as he rushed forward and scooped the mangled corpse into his arms.

Xun Xiao and the rest of the guards were all dumbfounded.

What's going on?

Wasn't Wei Jingxian supposed to go up and grab Jiang Mu's woman?

How did it turn out like this?

"Buzz"

Before everyone could react, a piercing sound wave assaulted their minds.

Xun Xiaomo and the others felt their minds go blank, and then their legs went weak, causing them to kneel on the ground, unable to move.

"Who dares to lay a hand on my disciple? Show yourself!"

Feeling this oppressive force, Liu Qiantu roared to the sky.

He put down Wei Jingxian's body, leaped into the air, and created a shockwave that rushed straight to the second floor of the inn.

However, the next moment his figure froze in mid-air.

On the edge of the inn's roof, a woman was standing quietly.

The moonlight slanted down from behind the woman, gilding her silhouette with a cool, silvery edge, devoid of any earthly charm, exuding an inviolable aloofness.

"You...killed my disciple?!"

Liu Qiantu stared angrily at the cypress tree on the roof, gritting his teeth as he demanded an answer.

Bai Xiang didn't even bother to look at him.

She slightly raised her head to look at the night sky, her delicate brows furrowed, and murmured softly, "Such powerful sword intent... The Myriad Swords Sect?"

Seeing that he was being ignored by this woman, Liu Qiantu's already volatile emotions completely spiraled out of control.

"You bitch, die!"

He clasped his hands together in front of his chest, and the instant his fingers interlocked, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth seemed to be drawn in by a giant pump, condensing into a blood-red giant blade tens of feet long above his head.

The surrounding space was torn apart by this sword intent, leaving behind dark cracks.

"cut!"

Liu Qiantu roared and pressed his arms down.

The giant blade slashed down furiously towards Bai Xiang's head!

Before the blade even arrived, the roof tiles of the inn bounced off the eaves like startled birds, shattering into dust in mid-air.

boom

The giant blade fell.

However, Bai Xiang remained standing with his hands behind his back.

The fierce wind couldn't even lift a corner of the woman's clothes.

Only a single strand of hair, stirred by the air currents, drifted gently down from Bai Xiang's temple.

Bai Xiang then looked away.

She reached out her delicate hand and gently caught the stray strand of hair.

"How is that possible!?"

Liu Qiantu, who was in mid-air, was stunned, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

escape!

Without hesitation, Liu Qiantu turned and fled into the distance.

Only then did he realize that he had kicked a hornet's nest; the other party was clearly a living devil.

He didn't know who the woman was, what her cultivation level was, or even if he could sense any spiritual energy fluctuations from her.

It is precisely because there is nothing that it is most terrifying.

Bai Xiang's gaze was cold and detached as she flicked her finger, her fingers twirling a strand of hair.

"Whoosh"

The strands of hair slipped out of his hand.

The moment he caught up with Liu Qiantu, his hair suddenly split open.

Ten, a hundred, a thousand... countless threads, like a torrential rain, instantly pierced through Liu Qiantu's body.

Liu Qiantu's screams exploded in mid-air, like a grasshopper pierced by a bamboo skewer, falling from the sky.

Bai Xiang remained expressionless, his five fingers clenching in the air.

Liu Qiantu, who was on the ground, was sucked into the air, his limbs hanging limply, blood dripping.

"Senior, spare me...please spare me..."

Liu Qiantu screamed in terror.

He was filled with deep regret.

Originally, I only wanted to seize an opportunity from the Ten Thousand Swords Sect, which is why I cooperated with the Demon Slayer Society. Who would have thought that this run-down inn would harbor such a powerful figure? Why are you, a top expert, pretending to be a naive little rabbit?

Bai Xiang gently clenched his fist with his five fingers.

Moth

The sword demon's body exploded into a cloud of blood mist in mid-air.

Bai Xiang glanced up at the night sky, sensing the stellar energy that had returned to the starry sea after the great cultivator's demise. A hint of surprise flashed in her eyes as she murmured, "The Venerable Star Position?"

The Twenty-Eight Mansions correspond to the Ninth and Tenth Realms.

Liu Qiantu clearly displayed the strength of the eleventh realm, so in theory he should have already broken free from the shackles of the constellation.

How come he returned to the position of the Venerable Star after death?

Just as she was filled with doubt, a long silver thread exuding an aura of cause and effect suddenly emerged from the blood mist that Liu Qiantu had exploded. One end stretched towards the sky, creating ripples across the heavens.

The other one swept towards the direction of Bai Xiang.

"The Line of Cause and Effect..."

Bai Xiang raised an eyebrow, then suddenly realized,

"So someone used his star-level power to forcibly boost his cultivation level. That's quite interesting. It seems this Blade Demon was nothing more than bait."

The more complex a project is at the top of the pyramid, the more likely it is to employ these elaborate schemes and manipulative tactics.

After all, in this world, seizing a star position is difficult, but maintaining it is even more difficult.

In the final stages of cultivation, the competition is no longer just about cultivation level, but also about who has more hidden cards and who has laid out the deepest schemes.

Raising treacherous enemies, using others to commit murder, and scheming against cause and effect...

It's all about scheming and plotting.

The same insidious principle was behind the demonic monk Ku Hai, whom Jiang Mu had previously killed.

However, for a powerful figure like Bai Xiang, whose harem star position is naturally bound and whose cultivation has reached the peak of the thirteenth realm, it would be difficult for those schemes and tricks to reach her.

Faced with the silver causal thread that was trying to entangle her, Bai Xiang reached out and grabbed it.

"Trying to use karma to turn against me?"

Bai Xiang curled her red lips into a cold, sarcastic smile.

Star power surged in her palm, and the silver causal thread she held instantly burst into flames, which then spread and burned along the other end. At the same time, on a precipitous peak shrouded in clouds.

This isolated and steep peak, shaped like a broken blade plunging into the sky, is the forbidden area of ​​the Blood Blade Sect.

On a rock atop the mountain, two people sat facing each other, leisurely playing chess.

The person on the left looks seven or eight parts similar to Liu Qiantu, and wears a wide black robe, making him appear even younger.

Sitting opposite him was a dignified old monk.

"Benefactor Liu, your moves have been meticulous and strategic, with hidden dangers. It seems your chess skills have improved considerably in recent days," the old monk said with a smile, holding a white piece.

The man in the black robe casually toyed with two black stones, chuckling softly.

"It's not that I've improved, but rather that Master Kongwen, you've developed a mental block. As the saying goes, 'A leaf before the eyes obscures Mount Tai.' This game of chess is like a game of the mind; when your mind is in turmoil, every move you make will inevitably lead to defeat."

"Snapped!"

He flicked his finger, and the black piece fell.

The white dragon on the chessboard was instantly caught off guard, and its several paths to survival were blocked at the same moment.

Looking at the chessboard, the monk Kongwen smiled bitterly and sighed:

"With the bait destroyed, my soul damaged, and my star position in jeopardy, naturally, I have developed a mental blockage. To be honest, the reason I came to Floating Cloud Peak is to ask Benefactor Liu to lend me the 'Transformation Blade'."

"You."

Liu Wantu stretched out his finger and pointed at the monk Kongwen with a smile.

"I advised you from the beginning not to use bait carelessly. That sea of ​​suffering is not very useful, but you wouldn't listen. You said something like, 'This child is born with the destiny of the seven deadly sins, and is the potential of a great fish.'"

Now look what happened! No fish caught, and the bait was broken by someone else. Master Kongwen, you're truly no match for me when it comes to fishing." "Yes, you're right, benefactor."

The monk Kongwen clasped his hands together and forced a smile, but in his heart he had already cursed the old man's ancestors for eighteen generations.

Damn it, before, in order to get favors from me, I was always timid and groveling in front of me.

Now that you see that my soul is damaged and my position is in jeopardy, you start to put on this high and mighty lecturing face in front of me, do you really think you are a god?

The man in black robes before them was none other than the elder brother of Liu Qiantu, the Sword Demon.

Although he looks young, he is a master cultivator at the twelfth level.

The two brothers had a very good relationship, and Liu Wantu was especially protective of his younger brother, often giving him opportunities.

He even used their shared bloodline to perform a secret technique, lending his own star-level power to his younger brother, forcibly raising Liu Qiantu's combat strength from the tenth realm to the eleventh realm.

It can be said that Liu Qiantu's current fearsome power is entirely due to his brother's support.

Liu Qiantu was also deeply grateful to her brother.

But the old monk Kongwen knew perfectly well that so-called kinship was nothing but a fart.

This guy, by taking advantage of the blood ties of lending out his star position, secretly planted a causal life-and-death line on his younger brother, Liu Qiantu, and used him as top-quality bait to catch a big fish.

Once a master kills Liu Qiantu, the causal life-and-death line will automatically lock onto the murderer, transferring a portion of the killer's cultivation and even star position and fortune back into Liu Qiantu's body along the causal line.

It can even be used to shake the other person's star position and plant inner demons!

The Great Way is ruthless; what one cultivates is solitude.

Although he was inwardly angry and contemptuous, he needed the monk's help at the moment, so he could only continue to lower his stance.

"Benefactor Liu, I am not here to borrow this sword for free. After the matter is settled, I will lend you the temple's most treasured artifact, the 'Eight Heavenly Dragons Subduing Dragon Pestle,' to help you comprehend the cycle of sixty years."

Upon hearing the words "Dragon-Subduing Pestle," Liu Wantu's eyes flashed with a sharp light.

Without making a sound, he picked up another chess piece from the chess basket and smiled meaningfully:

"I heard that Master Kongwen has always harbored a secret desire for the Buddha Mother of the Liuli Chanxin School, and longs to practice the Great Bliss and Light Union Meditation with her. I never imagined that such a dignified monk would also have such emotions and desires."

Kong Wen's eye twitched, then he clasped his hands together, lowered his head, and smiled meekly:

"This humble monk has not yet become a Buddha, so naturally I am still a mortal. It is normal for a person to have seven emotions and six desires."

Furthermore, the "Great Bliss and Light Union Meditation" is an ancient orthodox secret method of Buddhism. This humble monk wishes to practice it together only because he admires the Buddha Mother's Buddhist scholarship and wants to use the method of union to verify the Dharma.

As for romantic love, this humble monk has long since severed that worldly desire. Moreover, the Buddha Mother is already at the thirteenth realm, while this humble monk's soul is damaged, and his star position is also in jeopardy; he dares not even entertain such extravagant thoughts.”

Liu Wantu shook his head with a playful smile, looked away and was about to say something when his expression suddenly changed and he abruptly stood up.

The sea of ​​clouds outside Broken Blade Peak was churning violently.

A silver thread pierced through layers of array restrictions and shot back as fast as a spark.

"Is Qian Tu dead?"

Liu Wantu was stunned and speechless.

The monk Kongwen on the opposite side was also greatly shocked.

Although Liu Qiantu's eleventh realm cultivation was borrowed and somewhat weak, he was still a formidable opponent at the Venerable level, not some nobody. Anyone capable of killing him must have at least an eleventh realm cultivation.

After a brief moment of astonishment, Liu Wantu burst into laughter.

"Good! Well done!"

His eyes gleamed, his face filled with fanaticism. "Since Heaven won't grant me this opportunity, I'll go fishing for it myself! Master Kongwen, open your eyes wide and watch carefully; this is how you catch the real big fish!"

Liu Wantu grabbed the flying causal thread, tightened his grip, and his aura surged.

"No matter who you are, since you killed my beloved brother, then use your divine soul and spiritual foundation to pay for his life!"

He gripped one end of the causal thread, pouring his immense stellar power from the twelfth realm into it, preparing to use the causal thread to reverse-track the murderer who killed his brother, and to meticulously pull back the other party's cultivation and fortune.

Liu Wantu was secretly pleased with himself.

"Little brother, I never mistreated you when you were alive. Now that you're dead, do me one last favor, and you'll die a worthy death." But the next second, something unexpected happened.

A cluster of flames suddenly burst forth from the other end of the causal line.

Before Liu Wantu could even loosen his grip, flames had already engulfed his palm, instantly consuming his entire right arm.

Even the protective aura was burned through by the flames.

Even more terrifying, the flames followed the flow of energy and headed straight for his heart!

"Buhou!"

Liu Wantu's expression changed drastically.

In that life-or-death moment, he used his left hand, palm facing out like a knife, to sever his own right arm!

The severed arm, still engulfed in flames, crashed to the ground and burned to ashes.

Even with such a decisive act of cutting off his tail to save his life, some scattered sparks still landed on his chest and abdomen.

Startled, Liu Wantu turned ashen-faced and hurriedly pulled out a jade-colored porcelain bottle from his robes, uncorked it, and poured the precious Taiyin Xuan Water inside onto himself.

"Aaaaaah!"

The icy, bone-chilling Xuan Water collided with the remaining flames, causing Liu Wantu to leap and bound on the mountaintop in agony, like a monkey on Mount Emei. It took him almost half an hour to finally extinguish the sparks on his body.

Even after the fire was extinguished, Liu Wantu could clearly feel that his divine soul essence had been significantly damaged by the fire.

This almost made him vomit blood.

A severed arm can regenerate, but a damaged soul is difficult to restore, and may even lose a star position.

He collapsed to the ground, still shaken, staring at the pile of ashes from the severed arm. His face was deathly pale, and he murmured in a trembling voice:

"Who on earth is this person? How could they possess such terrifying supernatural powers..."

The old monk Kongwen, who was standing to the side, also came to his senses, and his face turned deathly pale.

He instinctively took half a step back, moving a little further away from the pile of ashes.

However, when he saw Liu Wantu's disheveled appearance, clutching his severed arm, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch upwards. He quickly turned away, covered himself with his sleeve, and forcefully suppressed the upward twitch of his mouth.

The frustration I had felt from being mocked and ridiculed by this guy vanished instantly, leaving me feeling refreshed and invigorated.

Laughing at me?

So you've finally met your match.

After regaining control of his facial expressions, Monk Kongwen turned around and let out a long sigh:

"Benefactor Liu, it seems someone is using your brother to deliberately plot against you. This person is extremely cunning; you must be wary."

Liu Wantu's face turned pale and then red, and he gritted his teeth without saying a word.

Xiahe Town.

On the roof of the inn, Bai Xiang casually dealt with Liu Qiantu, and then set off a fire along the causal path.

After waiting for a while, seeing that the person hiding behind the scenes didn't seem to have any intention of showing up in person to get revenge, he lost interest.

Her gaze drifted to the sky on the other side of Xiahe Town, and she murmured in confusion:

"Strange, where did such a massive and overwhelming surge of sword energy come from?"

After hesitating for a moment, she finally gave up the idea of ​​going to find out.

Because she had already sensed that another extremely strong spiritual energy fluctuation was approaching.

As her skirt swayed gently, the scent of cypress drifted back into the house.

Seeing Yuan Aqing lying unconscious on the ground, Bai Xiang bent down, picked up the girl, placed her on the bed, pulled the quilt over her, and then sat quietly by her side to watch over her.

On the street outside the inn.

As the powerful pressure dissipated, Xun Xiaozhi and the others, who had been kneeling on the ground for half a day, were finally able to catch their breath.

She stumbled to her feet, leaning on the scabbard, her knees still trembling.

The woman's mind was still in a state of confusion, unaware of what had just happened.

However, upon hearing Liu Qiantu's screams, she realized that the Sword Demon was dead.

"Just which deity intervened?"

Xun Xiaomo patted her still throbbing head and subconsciously turned her gaze toward the inn.

Could it be...

Just as she was filled with doubt and surprise, a delicate fragrance wafted past her nose.

Xun Xiaomo's heart tightened, and he quickly gripped his knife and turned around.

But then a tall, graceful figure stood quietly not far away.

The newcomer wore a black and white Taoist robe, his long black hair was casually tied up with an ancient wooden hairpin, and he held a snow-white whisk in his hand.

Her temperament is ethereal and otherworldly, like a banished immortal who stepped out of a traditional Chinese ink painting.

"Sect Leader Mo?!"

Xun Xiaomo stared in astonishment, then a thought flashed through her mind: "Was it you who made the move just now?"

Mo Huaisu did not answer, but instead looked up in the direction that Bai Xiang had been gazing at.

"Sword intent..."

After looking around for a moment, she stepped into the inn.

Looking at the woman's aloof back as if she didn't exist the whole time, Xun Xiaomo clenched her fists.

Despite my anger, I also felt a surge of relief.

No matter how cold Mo Huaisu's attitude was, at least the Dao Sect leader had made a move just now; otherwise, she might have really perished here tonight.

Xiahe Town, in another dimension.

Jiang Mu looked around at the believers who were constantly rushing towards him, his brows furrowed.

He thought he could completely wipe out these believers, but he found that they were impossible to kill.

Those believers who were cut into pieces by the blade's energy were able to revive perfectly intact on the spot after falling down.

"It seems that these believers are not the real body, but merely puppets projected by this space using a wisp of the believers' divine will."

Jiang Mu pondered silently.

He looked up at the giant lantern hanging in mid-air.

The warm yellow light stained the night sky with a murky hue, and the ghostly face floating on the lantern paper looked down at him from above, its lips curled into a mocking smile.

"To catch the thief, first catch the king!"

Jiang Mu snorted coldly, and the [Demon Wings] on his back unfolded. With a flap of his wings, he shot straight towards the lantern like a bolt of black lightning.

"act recklessly!"

Upon seeing this, the ghost face opened its mouth and spat out a cloud of black mist.

The black mist rapidly spread out into a giant net in mid-air, heading towards Jiang Mu.

Every thread on the grid was wriggling, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be made up of countless tiny black insects connected end to end.

"go!"

Jiang Mu flipped his hand and took out the bronze Buddha lamp, then lightly flicked the rim of the lamp with his fingertip.

A drop of golden lamp oil splashed into the very center of the black net, and in the next instant, the karmic fire of Buddhism exploded like ignited oil noodles.

The Yin Sha Black Net was quickly burned to ashes.

"Where did this kid get so many strange and unusual magical artifacts?!"

The ghost face was both surprised and angry.

In an instant, Jiang Mu used teleportation to flash directly to the face of the giant lantern, appearing right in front of it.

He grabbed the edge of the lantern's paper with both hands, hooked his fingers inward, and pulled it outward with force!

The ghostly face on the lantern was torn and distorted, emitting a mournful cry:

"Let go! You bastard, let go!"

"Sonima!"

Jiang Mu was preoccupied with the safety of Bai Xiang and Yuan Aqing, and ignored their pleas for mercy. He used his strength to tear the lantern paper off like peeling skin.

"Boom!"

A giant lantern exploded in mid-air.

Yellow shredded paper and embers fell like rain.

At the epicenter of the explosion, a gigantic white skull engulfed in ghostly flames revealed its true form.

"How dare you destroy my Dharma body! Die!"

The giant skull bulged with countless writhing lumps, which burst open one after another, revealing a dense mass of tiny skulls, each the size of a fist.

These small skulls emitted sharp, eerie laughs and swarmed towards Jiang Mu from all directions like a swarm of bees.

Jiang Mu's eyes turned cold, and a Vulcan image, tens of feet tall, appeared behind him, its body wreathed in flames.

Fa Xiang swung his giant fiery fist and unleashed a barrage of attacks on the horde of skeletons.

However, with each punch, although a large number of skulls were knocked down, the little skulls scattered and then gathered again like unkillable rats.

"Jiang Mu, my purpose is to trap you here. Once you get out, you'll understand the consequences of opposing our Demon-Slaying Association." A sharp voice echoed from within the skeletal horde. "You shouldn't have brought your woman to our territory!"

"Another smokescreen?"

Jiang Mu scoffed and raised her finger to touch her brow.

[Spiritual Divination]!

In an instant, all color vanished from the world before Jiang Mu's eyes.

In the black-and-white vision, the little skulls turned into gray shadows.

Only diagonally above, a skull was flashing a blood-red character for "evil".

"Gotcha!"

Jiang Mu's figure vanished from the spot.

The original skull, hidden in the shadows, was smugly manipulating the illusions when it suddenly felt a darkness above its head.

Looking up, it saw Jiang Mu hovering directly above it like the Grim Reaper.

üの」

The skull was stunned.

How did this guy find it?

"die!"

Jiang Mu raised his right arm, and the true meaning of the "Blood Frenzy Blade Technique," which was ingrained in his bones and blood, gathered on his fist.

"boom!"

He slammed a heavy punch into the skull's crown.

Bone fragments flew everywhere.

The skull screamed as it was smashed away.

Before it even hit the ground, Jiang Mu grabbed both sides of its skull, rendering it immobile.

Jiang Mu slowly tightened her five fingers.

With just a little more force, it can be crushed into a pile of bone meal.

Sensing its true spirit about to shatter, the skull finally broke down and begged for mercy:

"My lord, spare my life! I'm just a dog guarding someone's door. Please, my lord, have mercy and let me go!"

"You're obviously not the real deal."

Jiang Mu asked coldly, "Tell me, where is your master?"

The words had barely left his mouth when the sky suddenly darkened.

Jiang Mu felt a chill and looked up, only to see a huge lantern appear in the night sky again.

The lantern slowly descended.

At the same time, the believers below suddenly stopped moving as if controlled by a mysterious force.

All the lanterns in their hands went out.

Immediately afterwards, faint glimmers of light drifted out from the extinguished lanterns.

Thousands of tiny lights flowed upwards, all converging into the giant lantern that was slowly descending in the sky.

The giant lamp shone brightly for a moment, like the sun.

"It's a lantern fairy!"

"The Lantern Fairy has descended! The Lantern Fairy has appeared!"

The previously apathetic believers suddenly became incredibly energetic, kneeling on the ground with tears streaming down their faces.

Lantern Fairy?

Jiang Mu was on guard.

Amidst the watchful eyes and devout worship of the crowd, the giant lamp's light dimmed.

Then a graceful figure descended from the lantern, stepping on a slowly rotating black lotus flower.

She was a young and beautiful woman.

The woman wore a black gauze dress, with a touch of bewitching cinnabar between her brows. Her eyes, like autumn water, were clear and melancholic, possessing both a pure and alluring beauty and an eerie, ghostly aura.

When Jiang Mu saw the face of the so-called "Lantern Fairy," he was struck dumb and froze on the spot.

He wore an expression as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.

"Yu Xiaoqian?!"