“Yuan He!” Lu Li cried out sharply.
“Alright!” Yuan He shook his arms, enduring the burning flames, and struck the floor where Lu Li was standing with all his might.
“Boom!!”
The ground shattered directly, and a faint golden light burst from beneath the floor, enveloping everyone in the mansion.
The stone slab beneath Lu Li and the Scorpion Chief was sent flying high into the air with the explosion. It pierced straight through Blackstone City’s protective formation and was thrown high up.
“Oh, quick to react, are you?” The Scorpion Chief’s body surface flickered with a faint glow, blocking the burning flames.
At the same time, he looked with interest at the stone slab beneath himself and Lu Li, reached out, and lightly touched it.
“It’s actually a protective formation.”
“I considered that from the very beginning.” Lu Li felt the pure yang fire enveloping his body but felt no pain.
“This is…”
“This is the world’s finest cultivation fire, the Three Yang Refining Fire.” The Scorpion Chief looked at Lu Li. “This flame does no harm to ordinary cultivators; in fact, it’s a great tonic.”
“So no investigation would ever deem it a threat.”
“However, if one absorbs too much of this pure yang substance, they will become drowsy.”
“If the body is weak, they might fall into a deathlike sleep for decades.”
“So your friends, after they wake up, will find that their cultivation has actually improved. Consider it a small compensation from me.”
The Scorpion Chief tilted his head slightly, looking down at the mansion below.
“Once we land, I can collect your Heavenly Furnace and everything else you have on you.”
“Scorpion Chief, you’ve schemed so much, just to put us to sleep?” Lu Li felt the stone slab beginning to descend slowly. “It can’t be that simple, can it?”
“Yes, I’ve managed Copper Stink City for over two hundred years. I wouldn’t want to lose my life over some unclear Ten Thousand Demons Conference.” The Scorpion Chief stamped his feet, and the stone slab they were on quickly descended. “In the end, we’re all Yao race. We see each other all the time. If a frontal attack won’t work, I have to use some dirty methods.”
“Especially… Saintess Su, your Celestial Fox clan has the most yin and softest bloodline in the world…”
The Scorpion Chief stared at Lu Li, a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes, and his scorpion tail stood straight up.
“Strange… logically, you should have fallen unconscious immediately, your whole body weak. How can you still be awake?”
“Because, Scorpion Chief, you miscalculated one thing from the very beginning.”
Lu Li smiled calmly and took a deep breath.
The warm, harmless flame was quickly absorbed into his body.
Lu Li was originally a man.
These days, due to the Yin-Yang Reversal Art, he had been forced to maintain a female form.
For a normal Celestial Fox, the Three Yang Refining Fire was untouchable.
But for Lu Li, it was a true tonic.
Amidst the burning flames, the nine fox tails behind him quickly retracted into his body. His three thousand strands of trouble hair shortened inch by inch in the firelight, reaching shoulder length. His originally soft and charming body gradually regained its long-lost masculine strength.
But his face did not completely revert. His brows and eyes remained clear and beautiful, the corners of his eyes still carried a faint rosy hue, and his lips had not lost their color.
If before he was the Celestial Fox Saintess, now he looked like a girl deliberately putting on a man’s makeup. At the same time, that innate charm still clung to his brows and the corners of his eyes, unable to be completely shaken off.
“You… you?!” The Scorpion Chief’s eyes widened.
At that moment, the stone slab crashed into the Black Stone Mountains.
“Boom!”
Rocks shattered, and dust filled the air.
“You are not the Celestial Fox Saintess! You are a human spy!” The Scorpion Chief quickly retreated, pulling out a glittering golden talisman from his storage ring.
“I’m sorry you had to find out, General Scorpion… pfft.”
As soon as Lu Li spoke, he frowned himself. His voice was indeed lower, but still much clearer than ordinary men, with a hint of soft upturn at the end. But the habits from long-term use of charm techniques were not so quickly eliminated.
“My apologies.”
He tore off the outer dress and casually threw on a robe. Then his long sword was drawn, and a cyan light shot into the air.
In haste, the Scorpion Chief formed hand seals and summoned a talisman.
“Golden Bell Talisman!”
“Hummm~”
Amidst gentle Buddhist chants, a fist-sized bell hovered above the Scorpion Chief’s head. The sword qi that Lu Li casually sent out dissipated directly within the sound of the bell.
“Saintess Su… I’ll just call you that. To be able to disguise yourself to this extent, you must have held that identity among humans.” The Scorpion Chief also pulled out a scythe and stared at Lu Li. “Although I don’t know what you’re up to infiltrating the Yao race, if humans want to command the three cities and sneak into the Ten Thousand Demons Conference, such actions…”
“Very dangerous, aren’t they?”
Lu Li thrust his long sword, but it felt like he had stabbed something slippery. The sword seemed to enter a slippery quagmire, forced to deviate at an odd angle, grazing past the Scorpion Chief.
“It’s useless. The Golden Bell Talisman can withstand attacks from Late Foundation Establishment, or even Great Perfection.” The Scorpion Chief did not dodge, and his scythe transformed into a black streak shooting out. “I don’t like following orders, but since a human has come, die here!”
“Sorry, but I can’t comply.” Lu Li leaped into the air, dodging the black streak that flew toward him. He flicked his left hand, and the spirit fire he had just absorbed condensed into a chain that directly shackled the scythe.
“Since we can’t convince each other, we’ll have to settle it with techniques.” Seeing his scythe captured, the Scorpion Chief turned around, and countless green lights flickered on his scorpion tail.
“Tail Stinger!”
“Breaching Wind!”
Cyan light surged and collided with sword qi in the air.
“Boom!”
Fierce wind swept in all directions, blowing away countless trees and rocks.
“Saintess Su, your swordsmanship is quite weak.” The Scorpion Chief controlled his agile tail, venom and spikes interweaving, constantly stabbing at Lu Li’s face.
“Is that so? General Scorpion’s Tail Stinger is also quite feeble.”
Lu Li finally began to enjoy himself. He had thought that after reverting to his male form, his demeanor would completely return to how it was before. But as his long sword turned and sleeves fluttered, those extremely charming lingering traces still hid in his steps and turns. However, his mind was now completely focused on the changes in sword force, so he didn’t notice.
In his female form, using 100% true yuan could only produce 50% of the force. Now in his male form, with his Sword Spiritual Root activated, 50% true yuan could produce 100% sword force. A casual sword finger strike produced sword wind that previously, in his female form, he couldn’t achieve even with full effort.
His right hand formed sword seals, striking out one after another, wantonly releasing the stagnant yin qi in his body. With a flick of his wrist, he condensed an ice barrier that directly blocked the scorpion tail’s attack. Then he raised his left hand, and a forceful palm strike pushed the Scorpion Chief back three steps.
Yin and Yang—the blazing yang qi and freezing yin qi erupted against each other. It made the Scorpion Chief somewhat difficult to handle. He simply shrank within the range of the Golden Bell Talisman.
“Tch… this turtle shell.”
“Saintess Su’s swordsmanship… is also quite varied.” Although the Scorpion Chief kept dodging, he was also panting heavily.
“Stop calling me Saintess Su!”
“You still have the face of a Celestial Fox girl, and your voice isn’t like a normal man’s. How am I supposed to know who you are?!”
Sword and scythe clashed, sparks flying between them. An even greater force made both Lu Li and the Scorpion Chief step back.
“One sword…” Lu Li gripped the Yin Yang Sword with both hands. The true yuan from the 408 acupoints in his body was poured directly into the long sword. Once, when Lu Li was in the Qi Refining Stage, pouring true yuan could cut open heavenly thunder.
Once, when Lu Li was building his foundation and refining himself, one sword cut open a one-zhang small mountain. At that time, he had only used a few bits of true yuan.
“Saintess Su, have you gone mad?!” The Scorpion Chief also sensed the surging true yuan fluctuations on Lu Li. And the sword that had now become extremely dazzling.
“I just want to break that annoying turtle shell of yours!”
“Impossible, this can block…” The Scorpion Chief tried to retreat, but the overwhelming pressure, transmitted through the Golden Bell Talisman, pinned him in place.
A violent fluctuation of true yuan. Like a rainstorm, like broken stones, it fell straight from the sky. Even with the protection of the talisman, the Scorpion Chief had to lower his head, his feet sinking into the soil.
“Hummm!”
An even more powerful force, like a giant boulder, pressed straight down. The second half of his rebuttal to Lu Li simply couldn’t be spoken.
“Foundation Establishment… how can it have such power…”
“Maybe it’s because you, General Scorpion, are too weak.”
Lu Li felt the scorching sword in his palm and poured the last drop of true yuan from his 408 acupoints into it. But this time was different from before. In the past, once he executed this technique, he would faint. But now, having stepped into the Dragon Revelation Stage, the Thirty-three Heavenly Towers contained even more true yuan.
“Mountain-Splitting Strike!”
The long sword was like light. It slid directly across the rough ground, creating a three-zhang deep trench. Then it swept upward, carrying the ground where the Scorpion Chief stood, splashing sword light across the entire mountain range.
The entire Black Stone Mountains, in silence, were traced with a white snowline.
“Crack.”
The golden bell above the Scorpion Chief’s head also showed the same white cracks. The faint golden light on his body collapsed directly.
“Boom!”
The white line passed through. All the rocks in front of and behind the Scorpion Chief exploded instantly, creating a twelve-zhang deep ravine. Broken stones fell like rain, broken branches fell like snow. Fluttering down.
“General Scorpion, is there anything else you want to say?” Lu Li picked up his long sword and pointed it at the Scorpion Chief, who was now kneeling on the ground.
“Saintess Su is indeed… an outstanding swordswoman.” When the Scorpion Chief looked up, a peculiar light flickered in his eyes.
“If you kill me here, that would be fine.”
“But if I die here, the armies of the Southern Demon Nation will come.”
The Scorpion Chief pointed to his heart.
“Once my Soul Imprint shatters, these human friends of Saintess Su will be trapped and die in the Miasma Plain.”
“Tch…” Hearing this, Lu Li realized that the Scorpion Chief obviously had some kind of eye technique or method to identify bloodlines.
With the effect of the Celestial Fox Sacred Blood fading these days, the Scorpion Chief might indeed be able to tell that they were not Celestial Foxes during this visit.
“So…” The Scorpion Chief slowly stood up, bearing Lu Li’s sword. “Let’s make a deal, Saintess Su.”