Before entering these remnants, Luo Jianqing hadn't expected to run into anything dangerous.
In that book he obtained, "Seeking Immortality", the whole journey was through Li Xiuchen's perspective. As everyone knew, Li Xiuchen was the only one out of seventy-one cultivators who had no const.i.tution. Because he used every kind of baffling means possible to raise his cultivation to Qi Condensation, the remnants went very easy on him.
For example, in the Endless Wasteland, the strongest demon beasts Li Xiuchen came across was nothing more than rank one or rank two; actually he had only came across one rank two demon beast! But right now, Luo Jianqing had just stepped into the wasteland when he was immediately surrounded by nine rank four blazing beasts.
A rank four demon beast was equivalent to a Qi Foundation cultivator!
Nine demon beasts suddenly rushing forth like this caught Luo Jianqing by surprise, and he spent a lot of effort killing all of them. However, he still hadn't put away his sword nor taken a breath when eighteen rank four giant storm snakes surrounded him in every direction!
Luo Jianqing, "…"
The further he walked through the wasteland, the more fearsome these demon beasts became!
To the very end, wave upon wave of eighty-one rank four demon beasts charged into Luo Jianqing simultaneously. The green light on his forehead shone bright as Shuang Fu in his hand let out a clear cry. One man, one sword together formed an illusion, rapidly flitting about between the crowd of beasts. Each blow brought a head dripping with blood. His strikes were fierce and cutting, the results of many years spent practicing at the Wan Shou Mountains.
The eighty-one demon beasts, all at the strength of Qi Foundation, were all slain under Shuang Fu.
But Luo Jianqing did not relax. His eyebrows furrowed slightly as he looked towards somewhere not far ahead. He could only see a ten zhang tall golden ape with fiery eyes, and walked towards it. It was a rank five demon beast, the same level of strength as early-stage Core Formation!
Luo Jianqing's eyes narrowed. In an instant, the sword in his hand flashed and the golden fire-eyed ape's head tumbled to the ground.
Right after that, there was a middle-stage Core Formation golden ape!
And a late-stage Core Formation one… until they reached early-stage Nascent Soul!!!
"This True Lord Beidou is quite remarkable. These definitely aren't an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator's remnants!"
Luo Jianqing's green chang pao danced in the air as he hunted. Sweat was already seeping from his forehead, but he had no fear as he faced against a rank six demon beast who overstepped him by one great boundary, and simply raised his sword as he advanced.
Two jade-white fingers kneaded and pinched ceaselessly, forming complicated hand-seals. After a few short breaths, Luo Jianqing's hand had already formed a virtual image, while Shuang Fu's brilliance erupted at the same time. Dark clouds quietly gathered in the sky, overstepping the remnants' enchanted boundaries as it emerged above the Endless Wasteland.
The lead-colored clouds rolled as a breeze gradually came to brush against the wasteland, then abruptly started to stir up a storm of sand and rocks.
The wind became bigger and bigger, until finally it was whistling and roaring, lifting up Luo Jianqing's robe. Meanwhile, the dark clouds in the sky oppressively shrouded the wasteland, the air gradually stagnating. The rank six golden fire-eyed ape angrily yelled at Luo Jianqing, rapidly slapping its stomach, then fled.
Now's the moment!
Shuang Fu's green light sprung up everywhere. The sky started to rumble with rolls of thunder. A thick and solid bolt of lightning roared as it struck down from the sky. Luo Jianqing raised his sword and the bolt of lightning struck the stomach of the fire-eyed golden ape, making it howl in pain.
"Sword Becomes a Nine-Petaled Lotus!"
Luo Jianqing tossed his sword in the air, the long sword turning into nine as it directly pierced the body of the fire-eyed golden ape. The ape gave a roar of pain, then collapsed on the ground with a rumble. Its enormous body twitched for a little while, until finally it stopped moving, dying the wasteland red with its blood.
Shuang Fu excitedly emitted a sword cry. Like a naughty child, it flew around the sky once before coming back to Luo Jianqing's side. However, Luo Jianqing's face had been pale for some time now. He was quietly gasping, his phoenix eyes half-lidded, vigilantly guarding against his surroundings.
"Sword Becomes a Nine-Petaled Lotus" was one of the True Nine-Petaled Lotus Record's sword techniques. It was reasonable to say that it could be used upon reaching Nascent Soul. Xuan Lingzi had taught this sword technique very early on to Luo Jianqing. However, until middle-stage Core Formation, Luo Jianqing hadn't succeeded once. Just now, he had gotten lucky with this killing technique.
However, this technique used up all of the spiritual energy in his body. Supposing if a rank two demon beast had showed up suddenly right now, he could probably get critically injured. Luo Jianqing absolutely didn't regret using the technique, but that golden ape just now was truly too vicious. He had to be the first to move so he could kill his opponent.
He also had a general idea that sending out a Nascent Soul level demon beast was too outrageous. In a second, there were no more demon beasts to be seen in the Endless Wasteland. Luo Jianqing recovered a bit of his spiritual energy, then hurriedly opened his storage ring to take out the third-level medicine pill little junior sister had refined herself.
This medicine pill was known as the Spirit-a.s.sembling Pill and stored an enormous amount of spiritual energy. Using it recovered a cultivator's spiritual energy.
Luo Jianqing immediately took five pills. Finally he felt the spiritual energy in his body recover by seventy percent.
Very soon, he continued to walk forward while holding Shuang Fu. This time, he didn't run into any abnormal Nascent Soul demon beasts, but he did encounter several late-stage Core Formation demon beasts. Later, the number of demon beasts became greater and greater. Though they were all Core Formation level, they forced Luo Jianqing to have no choice but take out his bamboo umbrella.
One hand held an umbrella, while the other held a sword.
The umbrella's exterior made it unapproachable for all of the demon beasts, while the green-clothed cultivator inside slaughtered life ceaselessly. With one raise of a sword-light came a decapitated head.
The entire journey, Luo Jianqing's speed was extremely quick as he searched for Li Xiuchen's figure.
In "Seeking Immortality", it was in this Endless Wasteland that his little junior sister was sent in. Surprisingly, Li Xiuchen came along with her. After all, they came from the same sect. Little junior sister wasn't the Virgin Mary, but taking care of the new Qi Condensation disciple was something she ought to do. Thus the two walked forwards together.
Li Xiuchen was unable to offer little junior sister any help whatsoever, but she carried him all the way until they left the Endless Wasteland.
Just when they were about to leave, little junior sister ran into a rank six phantom demon fox!
A rank six demon beast was very troublesome. Luo Jianqing had just learned that from experience. What's more, the phantom demon fox was good at illusion techniques. Little junior sister had exhausted her supply of medicine pills and magical tools to finally critically injure the demon fox, then took Li Xiuchen and left the Endless Wasteland.
But little junior sister didn't know that the phantom demon fox walked behind her and Li Xiuchen and spat out a mouthful of purple demon fog. The demon fog was momentarily undetectable, so little junior sister didn't notice it. Surprisingly, the demon fog hid inside their bones, and waited until the last pa.s.s, Tianshu Star, to suddenly flare up, making the poison of desire to flare up in the two of them as well and caused that kind of stuff to happen.
Luo Jianqing's current notion was very simple. According to common sense, the Endless Wasteland should only have two people in it, him and Li Xiuchen!
Although Li Xiuchen's strength was very weak and he had no const.i.tution, the barriers he came across were very simple, so he pa.s.sed through quickly. And he had come the entire way by himself, putting all his mental and physical efforts into accelerating his speed, just so he can catch up to him in the Endless Wasteland and kill Li Xiuchen in one blow!
No one could say for sure what was going on inside the remnants. It was also very probable that Li Xiuchen was crushing the jade token, but was killed by a demon beast before being sent out. In addition, Li Xiuchen was nothing more than an ordinary disciple. In this world, only the almighty Spirit-Refining Xuan Lingzi was able to look back in time, and even looking back in time might only yield the heavens' worst false countercharge. Therefore, it was absolutely impossible for anyone to know how Li Xiuchen truly died.
"The Endless Wasteland will be your burial ground!"
The handsome and apathetic green-clothed cultivator sped along rapidly, searching around in the Endless Wasteland. With the bamboo umbrella to defend him against attacks, he traveled back and forth between the demon beasts, completely worry-free. At last! Inside a basin, Luo Jianqing finally spotted Li Xiuchen's figure!
Li Xiuchen was currently facing off against the attacks of two rank one demon beasts.
A rank one demon beast's strength was no more than a Phase One to Three Qi Condensation cultivator's. He also had no spiritual sense, only being able to rely on pure instinct for combat. This Li Xiuchen was already at Phase Two of Qi Condensation, but surprisingly he could still hold on with such strenuous efforts, which made Luo Jianqing feel nothing but disdain.
Seeing that Li Xiuchen was on the verge of killing one of them, Luo Jianqing put away the bamboo umbrella. The corners of his lips pulled up as he raised his sword before thrusting it downwards. To his surprise, just when he was about to seize his sword and prepare to a.s.sa.s.sinate him, he heard a seductive cry of a beast ringing behind him.
An alarm bell immediately sounded in his head, and the hairs all over his body stood up. Being a Core Formation cultivator, his sharp intuition let him hurriedly dodge to the right. A second later, he left a deep imprint that showed where he was before.
Luo Jianqing rushed to take out the bamboo umbrella and opened it. But a fluctuating mental attack from the sky directly pierced the umbrella's defensive enchanted boundaries, aiming towards Luo Jianqing. Luo Jianqing dodged without end, as the mental attacks never ceased.
When he flew five li away from the basin, Luo Jianqing quickly put away the bamboo umbrella.
"A mental attack!"
The bamboo umbrella could take the entire power of a Body Fusion level attack, but only spiritual attacks, not mental attacks. In this world, there were few cultivators who could use mental attacks. For the most part, mental techniques were an innate skill in demon beasts, almost never seen.
Luo Jianqing raised Shuang Fu and watched his surroundings vigilantly, his entire body on guard.
Suddenly, he heard alluring and charming laughter from the skies, the sound slightly piercing. The arrival smiled softly. "My good handsome darling, how can such beautiful skin exist on your filthy, smelly human body? Wouldn't it be better to peel that leather bag off for me? I'll spare your life. What do you think?"