Chapter 52: The Bewilderment of the Ghost Sword Immortal

That bag of spirit stones struck Qin Feng’s face, the pain making him drop his grip. Qingmu swiftly grabbed Nongli and tossed her backward.

“Run!”

Qingmu shouted, then landed a punch squarely on Qin Feng’s face, knocking him down before sitting on him.

“Qingmu!”

Qin Feng found it laughable. How could a mere mortal possibly pin him down?

With a pulse of spiritual energy, he sent Qingmu flying and stepped forward, ready to chase after the now-vanished Nongli.

“Don’t run!”

Qingmu quickly got up from the ground, scooped up some dirt, and threw it at Qin Feng’s face, preparing to wrestle.

Qin Feng drew his sword with its sheath and struck at Qingmu’s chest. To his surprise, Qingmu deftly dodged, then landed an uppercut on his chin.

Stunned, Qin Feng felt like laughing from disbelief.

As a cultivator, how could he lose to a mortal?

He stumbled back two steps, his teeth aching from the impact. Looking at Qingmu, who stubbornly refused to relent and clearly had been bewitched by the fox spirit, Qin Feng’s anger flared.

He had to teach Qingmu a lesson—to wake him up!

Regardless of mortal or not, Qin Feng swung the sheathed sword directly at Qingmu.

Qingmu retreated, miraculously dodging the blow.

Not only Qin Feng was puzzled, but Qingmu himself was.

Why did he manage to dodge?

Qingmu asked himself.

It couldn’t be his body’s talent—that wouldn’t make sense.

If he truly had exceptional talent, he would’ve already gone off to cultivate instead of being stuck as an apprentice alchemist at Liuweitang.

Yet… Qin Feng’s swordsmanship felt oddly familiar.

No, not just familiar—the sword technique was nearly identical to the one he practiced under Master Lin Qiyou, the Ghost Sword Immortal!

The trajectory of the sword swing was exactly the same.

Moreover, due to their previous simulation, Qingmu seemed to have developed an instinctive reaction to swordsmanship.

This instinct was more on a conscious and spiritual level.

The reason they were identical…

Probably the system’s doing. Since both were xianxia worlds, reusing simulation material wasn’t hard to believe.

“Strange!” Qin Feng exclaimed in surprise, continuing to attack Qingmu with his sword, no longer holding back. But the more he pressed, the weirder it felt.

He was somewhat scared.

Despite Qin Feng’s accelerated attacks, Qingmu wasn’t yielding much ground. Though Qingmu’s dodges were clumsy and Qin Feng landed a hit or two—thanks to Qingmu’s mortal body’s limitations—he couldn’t gain much advantage.

Suddenly, Qingmu had an idea. He realized that in the real world, he used qijue to enhance himself, so what about this world?

He then activated qijue, and his dodges became more agile, even managing to land a few hits on Qin Feng.

Finally, frustrated, Qin Feng gave up. He threw down his sword and grabbed Qingmu by the collar. Qingmu understood—the fun was over.

Qin Feng punched Qingmu squarely in the chest. Qingmu immediately coughed up blood, and Qin Feng, unintentionally sobered, helped him up.

“Brother Qingmu!”

He embraced the fallen Qingmu, full of regret. He shouldn’t have hit him so hard.

“Cough, cough…” Qingmu grabbed a handful of Qin Feng’s hair and laughed, “Now you won’t catch her… Don’t kill me, I don’t want to die.”

With Nongli gone, Qingmu could finally start begging.

“You’re hopeless!” Qin Feng thought bitterly.

What kind of magic did that fox spirit have?

Speaking of enchantment, Qin Feng felt it was exaggerated. He recalled that the fox never actually shapeshifted.

So how could anyone like a beast to that extent?

“Ugh!”

A furious roar, and Qin Feng was knocked down from the side, clutching his face as he turned to see a fox-human girl holding a dazed Qingmu.

The girl wore simple green robes, had a pair of golden fox ears, shoulder-length silver hair, and a large white tail behind her.

The fox spirit had shapeshifted!

“Qingmu? Qingmu, are you alright?”

Nongli touched Qingmu’s face, her words slurred.

“Why did you—”

Qingmu wanted to scold the foolish fox. He had taken a beating and coughed blood just so she could escape.

But seeing the concern and tears on Nongli’s face, his harsh words caught in his throat.

“Ugh! Ha—”

Nongli growled at Qin Feng, ears pinned back and tail fluffed up.

“Impossible.”

Qin Feng was shocked to see Nongli come back to protect Qingmu.

Wasn’t this fox spirit supposed to eat people?

Chewing up their bones… Such a beast could also protect humans?

“Qin Feng, I beg you, spare her, okay?”

Qingmu stretched out a hand to shield Nongli, who was frantically trying to intimidate Qin Feng.

Qin Feng watched the human and fox spirit express their emotions towards him and fell into thought.

Under the moonlight, he could barely make out Nongli’s beautiful face—fox spirits were naturally beautiful.

But instinctively, he knew Qingmu wasn’t protecting Nongli because of her looks.

“Did I promise you I’d let you off the hook if you messed up again?”

When Qin Feng said this out of nowhere, he already regretted it. But seeing the surprise and joy on Qingmu and Nongli’s faces, he didn’t retract.

“Hurry and go. I’m about to regret this.”

Qin Feng frowned and sighed, tossing the bag of spirit stones back to Qingmu, then turned his back.

“Go!”

Hearing Qin Feng’s command, Qingmu and Nongli exchanged a glance. Nongli quickly helped him up.

“Qin Feng, brother, no need for thanks! We’ll meet again!”

With that, Qingmu and Nongli fled.

“No matter what, humans and demons are different paths.

The Ghost Sword Immortal is still hunting her. What will your fate be?”

Worried for Qingmu, Qin Feng turned to watch them disappear, suddenly touching his nose and noticing blood—his hand was stained red.

“Junior Brother Qin, what happened?”

Two fellow disciples appeared behind Qin Feng, asking, “Why is there such a strong demonic aura?”

“Ah! I encountered a fox spirit. She fled back into Liuweitang, but unfortunately, I didn’t catch her.”

Qin Feng said, inwardly berating himself for sounding foolish. Who would believe that?

Outside Liuweitang, if the fox spirit wanted to escape, she would flee outward, right?

Still, Qin Feng hesitated—if those two wanted to pursue, he would have to stop them.

Instinctively, he gripped his sword.

However—

“So that’s how it is. Let’s go inside to take a look. Junior Brother Qin, you come along?”

The two disciples acted nonchalantly, filling Qin Feng with confusion.

So strange…

*****

Several days later, the Ghost Sword Immortal Lin Qiyou and Qin Feng’s mother, Qin Shuang, arrived at Liuweitang.

Qin Shuang found an opportunity to see her son, chattering about recent days. Throughout the conversation, Qin Feng was unsure whether to tell her about the spell he cast on Qingmu.

He hesitated and never removed the spell.

Just as he finally decided to spare Qingmu, a voice suddenly sounded from behind:

“Qin Feng, you carry the scent of a fox spirit?”

This was it.

Qin Feng thought.