“You… this is terrifying.”
“What do you mean ‘terrifying’? I’m persuading them toward kindness, letting them escape those low-level tastes. Do you even understand?”
Hua Jian rolled her eyes at Shiqi, her hand still rubbing the Alpha Wolf’s head.
If one ignored the scene of tentacles growing from her body and fiddling with the Alpha Wolf’s ears, this moment was actually quite affectionate.
Unfortunately, it could not be ignored.
Under the dual assault of Flower Fragrance and Vines, the Alpha Wolf’s gaze quickly became dazed, and its proud head slowly lowered.
Before long, even its growl became gentle.
“Woof!”
A peak Ling Shi Realm big wolf-dog was thus born!
“Done.” Hua Jian withdrew her hand and gave it two light pats, brushing off the wolf fur stuck to her palm. “Can I give myself the stage name Nangong Wenya now?”
“What on earth is that?” Shiqi understood less and less of what Hua Jian was saying.
“A very powerful little girl who mastered a divine skill where whoever she touches becomes a fool, just like what I did.”
Hua Jian chuckled and said to the big wolf-dog in front of her, “Take us to the small village ahead. You should know the way, right?”
“Woof!” The Alpha Wolf nodded vigorously, crouching before Hua Jian with utter submissiveness, its mouth open and tongue lolling out in a fawning expression.
Shiqi could actually see a more obvious attempt to please than a human’s on the face of this wolf that had wanted to eat them moments ago. This was simply appalling!
Hua Jian’s ability was too eerie and terrifying!
“You wouldn’t be able to do this to people too, would you?”
“Good question. My Flower Fragrance doesn’t have that much influence on Cultivators. Spirit Beasts’ Soulforce is much more fragile than that of Cultivators, which gave me the chance to take advantage of the weakness and plant thoughts.”
Hua Jian hopped onto the Alpha Wolf’s back, explaining her actions.
Spirit Beasts at the Ling Shi Realm couldn’t be considered intelligent, and Soulforce was theoretically only a concept for them, which was completely different from Cultivators.
Under the combination of Flower Fragrance’s temptation and the Illusory Dream Flower planting thoughts, every single Spirit Beast at the Ling Shi Realm would have to become Hua Jian’s dog.
Of course, the prerequisite was that Hua Jian had to find a way to invade the opponent’s Soulforce. When facing those small insects, she truly had no way.
She couldn’t find an entrance!
But for high-level Spirit Beasts like wolves, it was easy for Hua Jian to deal with them.
“You two pick one to ride as well. Their travel speed in the forest is much faster than ours.”
Hua Jian patted the Alpha Wolf beneath her. With a howl from the Alpha Wolf, the other wolves crouched down one after another, allowing Shiqi and Linglong to choose.
The two chose the two wolves whose strength was second only to the Alpha Wolf as their mounts.
Immediately, the entire wolf pack moved again, racing toward the direction Hua Jian pointed.
This pack could be considered a minor overlord within this Shanmai. As they ran rampant like this, other Spirit Beasts didn’t even dare to steal a glance.
While traveling, Hua Jian connected to the Alpha Wolf’s Soulforce, using the wolf’s sense of smell to distinguish nearby human scents.
If they were lucky, they might find traces of the Magic Path without even needing to go to that small village.
……
“Exalted Immortal, aren’t we going to Ascension City? Why do we have to stay in this Cave?”
In the Shanmai shrouded by Night, several children about ten years old huddled in a cold and damp cave.
One of the slightly bolder boys asked the black-robed youth in the cave with confusion.
They came from several nearby villages and were all potential candidates judged by the Saint Sect as being able to try their luck at the Ascension Gathering.
However, after they set out full of hope with this black-robed Exalted Immortal, they found that things were not as beautiful as they had imagined.
This Exalted Immortal didn’t take them to Ascension City. Instead, he led them all the way into the depths of the Shanmai and into this cave.
If asked why they knew this wasn’t the direction to Ascension City, it was naturally because they knew Ascension City was to the south, while they were currently being led toward the north.
“Not everyone among you can go to Ascension City. I will perform a more detailed judgment of your talent here. Only those with good talent are qualified to be taken by me to Ascension City to participate in the Ascension Gathering,” the black-robed Cultivator said coldly.
The children immediately caused a stir.
This was different from what was agreed upon.
“For those with insufficient talent, I will take you out of the Shanmai, and then you’ll have to look out for yourselves.”
Saying this, the black-robed Cultivator pulled out a pitch-black small curved blade from his waist.
The curved blade was about ten inches long, with the blade taking up two-thirds of the length.
What drew the most attention was that the material of this small curved blade didn’t seem like ordinary metal, but rather like biological tissue taken from some creature.
Its surface was even wriggling!
“Come over one by one. I don’t want to say it a second time.”
The children looked at each other. Finally, the boldest boy stepped forward and reached out his hand toward the black-robed Cultivator.
Ah!
The small knife pierced into the boy’s wrist, causing him to let out a suppressed cry of pain.
The black curved blade drank the boy’s blood, its surface gradually becoming covered with bloodshot veins.
“Inferior talent. Go wait over there.”
He pulled out the knife and pointed to an open space on the side.
Then, he repeated the trick, stabbing all the children, but the results left him very dissatisfied.
The children here all had very poor talent; there was no point in keeping them.
“Sigh, follow me. I’ll take you out of the mountains.” He sighed, walking out of the cave with his hands behind his back.
The children followed him out of the cave. In a place where he couldn’t see, these children were exchanging glances.
As time passed second by second, when the group gradually walked deep into the jungle, one child made a choice first.
He dashed into the jungle without looking back.
This was like a signal. The other children also quickly fled into the jungle, running in different directions.
No matter how foolish a person was, after what just happened, they should know this “Exalted Immortal” was not right.
Following him would definitely lead to nothing good!
The children only lived in the mountains and couldn’t contact the outside world, so their horizons were a bit narrow, but their brains were still normal!
They knew to run when encountering danger, and they knew how to distinguish good from bad people.
“Want to run? Hah, I originally wanted to give you a more peaceful ending, but now you’re asking for trouble.”
Seeing the children scattering and fleeing, the black-robed Cultivator didn’t have the slightest bit of anger on his face.
Instead, there was a bit of… joy.
Slaughtering lambs that didn’t know how to fight back was a bit boring. These little things were so energetic; it only felt right when killing them.
“You were the first to run, so you’ll be the first to go to hell!”
The pitch-black curved blade was drawn, and the black-robed Cultivator turned into a gust of dark wind, rushing into the depths of the Forest.
These children had lived in the deep mountains since childhood.
The Cultivation Method they practiced was the most basic one provided by the Saint Sect.
As for Spirit Techniques, they had none at all.
Facing the pursuit of the black-robed Cultivator, they were like chicks with no power to resist, only able to be unilaterally slaughtered.
Catch up, kill. Catch up, kill.
In the Night, one child after another had their chest pierced by the pitch-black blade, their entire body’s blood sucked dry.
From the moment their wrists were pierced by the black-robed Cultivator’s sharp blade, their aura had already been remembered by this curved blade.
No matter where they fled, the black-robed Cultivator could find them one by one and kill them.
“Hmph, one left.”
Kicking away a shriveled corpse, the black-robed Cultivator gripped the constantly trembling curved blade, sensing the position of the last child.
Running in separate directions was indeed a good method.
While he was hunting down the other children, this last child had already run quite a distance.
The Night was about to end, and the morning light slowly lit up the horizon, but his hunting would not end.
That child’s life had already entered the countdown!
He grinned, looking forward immensely to what kind of fearful expression that last little prey would show before death.
Turning into a streak of black light, he shuttled through the gradually brightening jungle.
About half an hour later, he caught up with that last child.
But as the curved blade in his hand gradually grew hot, he heard the child’s terrified screams.
“Don’t come over! Get away from me!”
The black-robed Cultivator looked up and found the last surviving girl surrounded by more than ten wild wolves, with no way to heaven and no door to the earth.
The girl wanted to resist, but she had lost a large amount of blood after her wrist was pierced not long ago.
Coupled with a night of desperate flight, her spirit and body had reached their limits.
Facing these wild wolves whose strength was not inferior to her own, she had no second ending.
Her thrown punch was knocked aside by the Alpha Wolf in the pack.
The girl fell clumsily to the ground, scrambling with hands and feet to escape, but the wolf pack gave her no chance.
A breeze drifted by, and a faint Flower Fragrance permeated the forest. Combined with the scene in the distance, it was exceptionally ironic.
Watching the wolves tease the girl like a toy, the black-robed Cultivator let out a cold laugh.
Hah, eaten by a wolf pack? This ending isn’t bad either.
“You seem… very happy?”
A voice rang in his ear.
“That is… Eh? Who’s speaking!”
The black-robed Cultivator reflexively replied, then realized something was wrong and quickly turned his head to look around.
Soon, he saw the speaker. It was a girl standing on a treetop, wearing a spotless and beautiful dress with snow-white gloves on her hands, completely out of place with the style of this jungle.
A colorful Butterfly hairclip was pinned to one side of the girl’s hair.
Clearly just a hairclip, but the black-robed Cultivator somehow felt that this hairclip was very concerning to him.
No, he shouldn’t care about that now. What was going on with this girl? Where did she come from?
“Don’t be so nervous. I’m just out for a walk with my little pets.” The girl giggled.
Along with her laughter, the group of wild wolves that were surrounding and licking the girl turned their heads in unison to look at the black-robed Cultivator.
The wolf pack… was actually her pets?
How was this possible? She was just an ordinary Spirit Master.
How could she command so many Spirit Beasts! The black-robed Cultivator’s first reaction was disbelief, thinking the girl was deceiving him.
But the wolf pack’s movements were so real; it couldn’t be his hallucination.
Damn it… clearly he was the stronger side, yet the black-robed Cultivator felt a burst of palpitation. He actually wanted to run!
He, a Ling King, was actually going to be scared off by a tiny Spirit Master? Ridiculous!
“Who exactly are you? What do you want to do!”
“Guess~”
“Bastard, I’ll kill you!”
The huge psychological pressure caused the black-robed Cultivator’s mindset to gradually lose control, and it also made him unconsciously ignore the faint Flower Fragrance permeating the air.
“I say, why do you think I’m standing here talking to you?”
“Is it possible that I’m actually not alone, and behind your back, a sword is already aimed at you?”
The black-robed Cultivator was first startled, but he quickly reacted. The girl must be bluffing.
He wouldn’t fall for such a simple tactic.
The more the girl said so, the more it proved there was no threat behind him!
He was very confident, so confident that when Thunder exploded behind him, he didn’t even realize that Hua Jian was actually telling the truth.
Another girl had circled behind him at some unknown time, stealthily gathering full power, and thrust a sword at his back.
This sword strike directly triggered the protective Spirit Tool on his body.
But this Ling King was truly a bit shabby; the protective Spirit Tool he used was actually only at the Ling Shi Realm.
The result was that it was directly pierced by the sword, only reducing some of the sneak attack’s power and speed, giving him time to react.
After the Thunder sounded, he instinctively leaned his body to the right, finally avoiding the blade’s attack on his vitals.
But the price was that his left forearm was directly severed by the Thunderlight longsword.
“Damn it…”
At the same time, colorful thick mist rose around him, greatly compressing his field of vision.
The Flower Fragrance in the air also suddenly became rich, impacting his consciousness like waves, making him unable to concentrate on dealing with the sneak attacks in the mist.
This was a Trap, a Trap aimed at him!
The black-robed Cultivator gritted his teeth and scanned the surroundings, wanting to find an escape route, but the mist was too thick to find a way out.
He could only fight those two Spirit Masters in the mist now; only by winning would he have a chance to escape.
But this was no easy task. Although he had the strength of the Lingwang Realm, he had only broken through to the Lingwang Realm not long ago, and the method of breakthrough was a crooked path, leaving a significant gap between him and a normally broken-through Ling King.
A Ling King like him fighting an ordinary Spirit Master could still rely on strength to suppress the opponent, but facing the cream of the crop among Spirit Masters, his chances of winning were not one hundred percent.
Moreover, he was the one being ambushed, which lowered his chances of winning significantly.
Whoosh…
A wind sound came to his ear, followed by the sharp aura of a blade. The black-robed Cultivator narrowed his eyes and slashed in the direction the sound came from.
This kind of sneak attack couldn’t hurt him!
Clang!
The curved blade collided with a Black Sword, and another unfamiliar face appeared in the black-robed Cultivator’s vision.
Not good! The black-robed Cultivator was startled. His opponents were actually more than two people.
Just as he blocked the Black Sword, the familiar Thunder rang out again from behind him.
This time, the true crisis had descended.
Perhaps it was a case of “one who stays near vermilion gets stained red,” as Linglong seemed to have become accustomed to this kind of cooperation with Hua Jian.
The two worked together with seamless intimacy.
Hua Jian would release the mist, and she would act as a demon in the mist.
This combo skill of theirs was very effective even on a Ling King.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.