Fearless

"Yin Sha Luo Demon God Earth-Splitting Curse!" Old Ghost Xuan Luo's slick, flippant voice suddenly rang out from the void. "You little bull-noses, why haven't you subdued this lecherous bastard? He's about to trigger the earthcore poison flames within a hundred miles and blast this whole stretch of mountains and forest halfway to the sky for a scenic view. Oh my, your ancestor just used the Minor Sumeru Divine Ability to smack him with a Ruyi from afar. My true essence has been completely drained, so I have no time to restrain him! Hehe, work harder, little bull-noses. Otherwise, once your mountain gate gets blasted into the heavens, heh heh, how should we punish you?"

Daoist Yi Yi was startled. He abruptly raised his head and shouted angrily, "Martial Uncle, since you know it is the Yin Sha Luo Demon God Earth-Splitting Curse, why aren't you acting at once? Your true essence is completely depleted? Who are you trying to fool?"

"I'm fooling you, damn it! Come bite me if you dare! Your master and mistress are both in seclusion beside me. Come bite me if you've got the guts!" Old Ghost Xuan Luo suddenly burst into curses. "I just don't feel like acting. What are you going to do about it? You dare bite your Daoist master? Hmph, hmph, I just won't act! So what? I already struck one sneak blow. My mighty and heroic reputation in this lifetime has been utterly ruined, and now you want me to strike a second sneak blow and ruin my reputation in my next life too? No! No! Absolutely not!"

Old Ghost Xuan Luo sneered. "I'd rather see the mountain gate blasted into the sky than lose face twice!" He grunted. "This Daoist master won't hide it from you juniors. Your master, mistress, and I are joining forces to undergo the Heavenly Demon Tribulation. If we pass it, we'll break through the Nascent Soul Stage and enter the great freedom of the Void Realm. We truly have no strength to act. Deal with it yourselves!"

Daoist Yi Yi and the other Origin Sect elders were startled at first, then their faces transformed into wild delight. Of course they knew what the Heavenly Demon Tribulation was. Refining essence into qi, refining qi into spirit, refining spirit into void, refining void into Dao Integration—these were the four great stages of cultivation before ascension. Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivation belonged only to the great realm of refining essence into qi. Only upon cultivating a Primordial Spirit did one reach the stage of refining qi into spirit. When the Primordial Spirit harmonized with the Dao of heaven and earth and reached the state of unity between heaven and man, that was the realm of refining spirit into void. When the Primordial Spirit could ultimately divide into countless forms and exist between presence and absence, even the flesh becoming a state both real and illusory no different from the Primordial Spirit itself, so that every gesture could invoke the power of heaven-and-earth laws to attack—such people had reached refining void into Dao Integration and could prepare to ascend to an even higher realm.

During the process of refining spirit into void, the Primordial Spirit gradually fused with the Dao of heaven and earth. The energy fluctuations released by the Primordial Spirit could draw Heavenly Demons from unfathomable places beyond the heavens. They would manifest countless strange phenomena and trigger heart tribulations and yin flames to attack cultivators. This was the Heavenly Demon Tribulation. Once one passed the Heavenly Demon Tribulation, the Primordial Spirit would faintly make contact with the Dao of heaven and earth, gaining limitless transformations and divine abilities out of thin air. Only then could one be considered to have formally reached the realm of refining spirit into void. Experts of the Void Realm seemed not to have appeared in the cultivation world for a very long time.

Yet now, three senior elders of the Origin Sect were undergoing the Heavenly Demon Tribulation at once! More importantly, while facing their tribulation, one of them could still divide his attention to use the Minor Sumeru Divine Ability and wound an expert at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage from afar! Clearly, they were close to overcoming the Heavenly Demon Tribulation, and their Primordial Spirits had already initially reached the realm of unity between heaven and man. How could Daoist Yi Yi and the others not be overjoyed?

Compared with three Void Realm experts, what did it matter if the mountain gate within a hundred miles was destroyed? It was no great matter at all!

Daoist Yi Yi threw back his head and laughed three times. He felt strength surging through his entire body. Taking great strides, he advanced seven steps toward Immortal Miao, stopping less than three feet away. With a low snort, a violet flash flickered across the Spirit-Calming Incantation in his hand. He lightly waved his right hand, preparing to stick it onto Immortal Miao's forehead. Immortal Miao, who had been chanting a demonic spell to activate his magic, gave a sinister laugh. Two green lights flashed in his eyes. Suddenly, light and shadow shifted within thirty yards around him, as if countless barren mountains and steep ridges were flashing past him. An immense pressure crushed down on Daoist Yi Yi from every direction. Immortal Miao had used the Minor Formless Heavenly Demon Forbidden Technique, drawing upon the earth-vein qi within a hundred miles and transforming it into a vicious restriction.

Daoist Yi Yi's hand continued steadily toward Immortal Miao's forehead. Yi Xin gave a sharp cry, and a jade bracelet, white as fresh snow and gleaming with gentle light, flew from her sleeve. Like condensed droplets of water, the bracelet broke apart in midair amid the roar of rushing water, turning into a mass of deep-blue ripples that enveloped Daoist Yi Yi and Yi Xin. Layer upon layer of water ripples flashed with dazzling blue radiance. The invisible earth-element gravity from outside slammed against the water barrier. The sound of crashing waves erupted within it, and the deep-blue water ripples kept shrinking inward. Yi Xin's body began to tremble violently.

"Hmph! A little woman at the early Nascent Soul Stage, not knowing the immensity of heaven and earth!" Immortal Miao snarled. "Do you think this Immortal is so easily dealt with?"

With a fierce shout, Immortal Miao's chanting speed abruptly increased severalfold. Light and shadow flickered around him, and two female demon gods appeared at his side. Their figures were graceful, their beauty peerless, their bodies completely naked, with three sharp horns sprouting from their heads. These two demon gods had been refined by Immortal Miao through vicious demonic magic from the souls of countless female cultivators who had died miserably at his hands. They had also been fused with fragments of soul and a little essence blood from an ancient sealed demon god that Immortal Miao had obtained by chance. Their power was terrifyingly great; each was comparable to a top expert of the middle Nascent Soul Stage! The instant the two female demon gods appeared, they swung their claws and viciously tore at the deep-blue water barrier.

Immortal Miao's Heavenly Demon Forbidden Technique and the attacks of the two demon gods struck the water barrier at the same time. Yi Xin gave a muffled groan. Two streams of blood spurted from her nostrils, her body shook violently, and the water barrier suddenly collapsed. The waterlight filling the sky had just begun to condense back into the jade bracelet's original form when the bracelet gave a crisp chime and exploded into countless fragments in midair.

Immortal Miao's body shook, transforming into a greasy pink-red beam of light as he escaped from dozens of Demon-Binding Ropes. He spread his great hand and grabbed at Yi Xin. He let out a strange, savage laugh. "Do you think this Immortal is so easily handled? Keke, Old Ghost Xuan Luo, you truly are undergoing the Heavenly Demon Tribulation. If that strike of yours had been even a little stronger, this Immortal would certainly not have escaped disaster today. But~~~ hehe!"

Yi Xin sneered. A magnificent, brilliant golden light suddenly flew from her sleeve. Countless thread-thin black rays seemed to lurk within that golden light. Immortal Miao's hand had nearly reached her waist when he suddenly saw the golden light. He hurriedly withdrew his arm and screamed in alarm, "How can the Scattering Form Golden Needles be in your hands? Damn it!"

Daoist Yi Yi said nothing. He merely directed that several-yard-long golden light to circle around his body. Countless black rays rained from the golden light like raindrops, forcing the two female demon gods to retreat again and again. Every black ray that passed through their bodies brought up a thread of bloodlight. The two female demon gods howled miserably in pain, their forms gradually growing hazy. Clearly, they had suffered serious injuries. Although the two demon gods were immensely powerful, they had no suitable magic treasures to wield. With bodies condensed from souls, how could they avoid suffering when they encountered the Scattering Form Golden Needles, which specialized in restraining all manner of energy forms?

Seeing the demon gods he had painstakingly refined encounter their nemesis, Immortal Miao shrieked in fury. He snarled, "Excellent! Today, this Immortal will begin a great slaughter and let you juniors of the Origin Sect understand what the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage truly means! This Immortal is only one step away from the realm of refining spirit into void! Watch carefully—this is the power of the Void Realm!"

The power of the Void Realm!

Lin Xiao was startled. Instinctively, he seized Yaoying, who was hanging from his shoulder, and turned to flee. He was merely a fledgling who had just formed his Golden Core. The only offensive art he possessed was a lightning technique from Jiang Zizai. A cultivator who had formed a Nascent Soul was already a supreme expert far beyond his reach, let alone the power of the Void Realm, which surpassed the Nascent Soul Stage by far too much?

The greatest difference between a Void Realm expert and a Nascent Soul Stage expert was that Nascent Soul Stage experts still needed to chant spells and form hand seals to "borrow" the power of heaven and earth. Void Realm experts, however, maintained the state of unity between heaven and man at all times. It was as though they carried an immensely well-stocked little treasury inside their bodies, able to summon endless power from heaven and earth whenever they wished. Even Immortal Miao, who had only just touched the threshold of the Void Realm, could command a quantity of heaven-and-earth power beyond ordinary imagination!

With a flip of his right palm, a small mountain in the forest to everyone's right—about half a mile across and nearly a hundred yards high—suddenly broke free at its roots and soared high into the sky. Like a ball of cotton cloth soaked through with fire oil, the mountain suddenly erupted into flame with a boom. Pale-blue fire burned the mountain into a mass of crimson, semi-transparent lava in an instant. Huge clumps of molten rock fell from the sky. Immortal Miao laughed wildly, and the massive peak came roaring down toward the Origin Sect disciples on the ground amid towering flames and boundless heatwaves.

More than two hundred Origin Sect disciples who had been setting up the Heavenly Net formation were staring blankly in this direction. As that enormous mass of lava descended upon them, dozens of lower-cultivated disciples gave miserable cries and were burned to ash by the terrifying heatwaves. The remaining hundred-odd Origin Sect disciples could only raise a breath of true essence and endure bitterly, desperately resisting the horrific heat from outside. But the burning mountain drew ever closer. Once it fell, they would undoubtedly die.

"Miao White-Face, you've gone too far." Old Ghost Xuan Luo's voice rang out again. This time, there was seriousness and anger in it, none of the earlier slick and flippant strangeness. A tiny black hole suddenly split open in the void before those Origin Sect disciples. A jade-white palm gently extended from the black hole and struck lightly toward the rapidly falling mountain. Boom! Invisible dark force surged forth. That mountain, so immense and imposing, was annihilated in midair, vanishing into thin air without leaving behind a single trace.

"Miao White-Face, enjoy your triumph for the time it takes an incense stick to burn! After that, the three of us martial brothers will join forces to hunt you down! Hehe, let's see what you can do then." Old Ghost Xuan Luo chuckled softly. "The invading Heavenly Demon has already been trapped by the Golden Light Blazing Flame Demon-Slaying Formation formed jointly by the eighteen martial brothers of our Xuan Generation. In the time it takes an incense stick to burn, we will certainly refine it. Hmm, three people hunting you down seems somewhat beneath you, Miao White-Face. Then how about all eighteen of us martial brothers joining forces to pursue you? That should be worthy of your renowned name, shouldn't it?"

Immortal Miao, who had been smugly spewing out thousands of silver sword lights and forcing Daoist Yi Yi and the others to resist bitterly, saw his expression change. His body gave a violent shudder.

After the time it took an incense stick to burn, three supreme experts who had refined the Heavenly Demon and formally entered the Void Realm would join forces to hunt him down? And they called that looking down on him, Immortal Miao? There would even be fifteen Xuan Generation elders of the Origin Sect joining them, each likely at least in the late Nascent Soul Stage? This, this was valuing Immortal Miao far too highly!

Immortal Miao let out a strange cry. He abandoned any thought of killing one or two Origin Sect elders and raised a beam of silver light, preparing to flee.

Far away, more than three miles off, Lin Xiao watched the spectacle and shook his head with a long sigh. "Wouldn't Senior Xuan Luo's words scare him away?" Yet after shaking his head, Lin Xiao praised him again. "But that makes sense too. Immortal Miao's cultivation is astonishingly powerful. If he were allowed to continue, some senior of the Yi Generation would certainly be injured or killed within the time it takes an incense stick to burn. That would not do."

In the later stages of cultivation, the gap between every realm was as vast as heaven and earth. With Immortal Miao's peak Nascent Soul cultivation, so close to the Void Realm, he could easily suppress Daoist Yi Yi and the Origin Sect elders, and might even have a chance to kill several of them. Old Ghost Xuan Luo was unwilling to see his junior disciples suffer losses. That was why he had activated the Minor Sumeru Divine Ability again, using a palm strike from afar to cleanly annihilate that mountain and reveal a little of a Void Realm expert's true power, solely to frighten Immortal Miao away.

Once Old Ghost Xuan Luo and the others refined the Heavenly Demon, with the power of three Void Realm experts, even if Immortal Miao fled an incense stick's worth of time earlier, how could he escape their pursuit? Furthermore, the planets around Qi Yuan Star were all Origin Sect territory. If a million Origin Sect disciples rose up to attack together, even a Void Realm expert would be blasted into fragments. At most, Immortal Miao could kill a batch of low-ranking Origin Sect disciples before being smashed to pieces by the endless tide of Origin Sect cultivators. How could he possibly have any chance of escape?

As long as the sect's core strength was not harmed, the Xuan Generation elders of the Origin Sect would not care much if some lower-ranking disciples at the Golden Core Stage or even Nascent Soul Stage died or were injured~~~.

This was the confidence of the Origin Sect! The Origin Sect's power was simply too great.

Having figured out the key, Lin Xiao nodded lightly, then shook his head again.

The patch of moss on his shoulder wriggled gently. Yaoying's little head poked out from it, and she looked curiously at Lin Xiao before asking in a low voice, "Big Brother Lin, are you trying to capture that person? Don't you have very powerful Pill Poison there? Why not use it against him?"

Lin Xiao casually took a pale-green jade bottle from his bracelet, tossed it in his hand, and said with a bitter smile, "This is the Bewitching Immortal Powder that Senior Sister Yao'er stole from the secret treasury of Spring Return Valley. It is one of the few Xuan-grade Pill Poisons left behind by the Great Luo Pill Dao. Even a Void Realm expert would be caught off guard by it. But~~~"

Lin Xiao's face twisted bitterly. Pointing at Immortal Miao, who was controlling thousands of silver sword lights and forcing Daoist Yi Yi and the others to retreat repeatedly, his fierce Sword Qi shredding the ground into a patchwork of ruin, he shook his head. "Look at that demon Miao. His cultivation is so profound that I'm afraid I'd be chopped into fragments before I even got near him. How could I possibly use this Pill Poison to knock him out?"

"Chopped into fragments?" Yaoying blinked blankly and muttered softly, "What is so bad about being chopped into fragments? Yaoying is used to it. Whenever I used to sneak off to steal medicine, I'd get chopped into fragments every three to five months." Lin Xiao did not hear her muttering. He only watched Immortal Miao and the others fighting in the distance, lightly flicking his fingers as he prepared to toss the Bewitching Immortal Powder back into his bracelet.

Yaoying suddenly took human form. She snatched the Bewitching Immortal Powder from Lin Xiao's hand, laughed several times, and ran toward the battlefield. She was a demon creature. Though she was among the weakest plant spirits, and even among plant spirits was the lowest-quality moss that had taken form, a demon creature was still a demon creature. The physical abilities of demon creatures were far stronger than those of ordinary cultivators. Lin Xiao had not expected Yaoying to snatch the medicine bottle from him. By the time he reacted and reached for her, his fingers only brushed her fluttering dark-green hair. After a few leaps, she had already run far away.

"Yaoying! What are you doing?" Lin Xiao panicked, both anxious and frightened! In his fluster, he even forgot to use the Divine Movement Art, only instinctively chasing after Yaoying at full speed. But Yaoying ran like a rabbit. In a few bounds, she had already covered more than two miles. How could Lin Xiao possibly catch her?

Immortal Miao had already risen more than ten yards into the air. He laughed triumphantly at Daoist Yi Yi and the other Yi Generation elders of the Origin Sect, whom he had forced into breathless resistance. "You are nothing more than this. Hehe, Old Turtle Xuan Luo, listen well. This Immortal came today only to sound out the way ahead. Sooner or later, your Origin Sect will end like the Great Luo Pill Dao, with every last one of you reduced to dust!"

Immortal Miao laughed arrogantly. "But your Origin Sect will not have the good fortune the Great Luo Pill Dao had. All of you will have your souls scattered and spirits destroyed! Your souls scattered and spirits destroyed! Hahaha!"

With a crisp shout of "Rise," Immortal Miao was preparing to leave Qi Yuan Star with the smug satisfaction of having suppressed more than a dozen Origin Sect elders alone. Suddenly, a black shadow raced toward him, lightly leaping more than ten yards high and flying straight at him.

Immortal Miao's reaction was incredibly fast. He gave a cold shout and pointed a finger. The thousands of silver lights he had divided outside his body swiftly twisted toward the black shadow.

From afar, Lin Xiao shouted, "Yaoying! Come back! Are you insane?!"

With a squelch, Yaoying's body was minced to pieces by the thousands of silver lights. Chunks of flesh sprayed outward, and pale-green blood carrying a faint medicinal fragrance scattered through the sky.

Yi Xin cried out in alarm, "Ah! It's that little demon girl!" Daoist Yi Yi's lips trembled. He casually pulled a thumb-sized black-gold pellet from his sleeve, silently recited a true incantation, poured a stream of true essence into the pellet, and hurled it toward Immortal Miao. The moment it left his hand, the pellet turned into a bowl-sized mass of black-gold lightning light. Soundlessly yet incomparably swiftly, it streaked toward Immortal Miao.

This pellet was a supreme treasure that Yi Xin had obtained by chance from an ancient ruin. It was called the Profound Spirit One Qi True Thunder Seed, a demon-subduing treasure refined by a great cultivator of ancient times who had condensed the essence of heavenly lightning and expended countless precious materials. Yi Xin had obtained only this one, always carrying it as her final trump card and unwilling to use it for over a hundred years. Yet today, when she saw Yaoying chopped into fragments by Immortal Miao's sword light, an invisible fury rose in her heart, and she casually unleashed this trump card.

Yaoying's body was scattered piece by piece across the sky, but her tiny right hand still firmly clutched a green jade bottle as it flew toward Immortal Miao's face.

Immortal Miao sneered and elegantly flicked a finger toward that little hand. In his eyes, such a severed limb was not worth wasting even the tiniest thread of true essence on.

Yaoying's right hand was less than three feet from Immortal Miao's face, while Immortal Miao's finger was still over a foot from Yaoying's small hand. Yaoying's hand suddenly clenched hard. The green jade bottle shattered into powder, and an elegant, subtle fragrance suddenly burst from it. Tiny droplets rode the momentum of Yaoying's little hand and splashed across Immortal Miao's face.

Immortal Miao froze. He felt the subtle fragrance rush straight into his brow. His body suddenly went limp, the world spinning around him. His pupils slowly shrank, shrank, while his divine sense, like seaweed baked beneath the blazing sun, slowly contracted back into his sea of consciousness. Darkness fell before his eyes, and he toppled headfirst from the sword light toward the ground.

The Profound Spirit One Qi True Thunder Seed fired by Yi Xin arrived at precisely that moment and lightly adhered to Immortal Miao's lower abdomen. With an exceptionally pleasant ding-dong, a ball of multicolored light flickered over his abdomen. Immortal Miao's lower body was blasted into fragments, and his incomparably powerful heretical cultivation, stirred by the thread of Nine Heavens ethereal qi contained within the True Thunder Seed, immediately dissolved into flowing water.

Yaoying's little hand flew more than ten yards away. It wriggled a few times upon the ground before suddenly turning back into a small patch of moss. The moss squirmed a few times on the ground, and Yaoying began to cry with soft sobs. "Wuwu, I've become small again. I've been chopped into fragments again~~~ Wuwu, I want medicine~~~ Lots and lots of medicine~~~ Wuwu, I want to grow bigger, bigger~~~"

Yaoying's body fragments covered the ground. Those pieces of flesh, nearly identical to human flesh save for their slightly different color, were a horrifying sight to behold.

Lin Xiao, Daoist Yi Yi, Yi Xin, and the others stared blankly at Yaoying, who was constantly wriggling and crying on the ground, then looked at each other in bewilderment.

"That little demon girl has some nerve." Daoist Yi Yi bared his teeth in a grin.

"That little demon girl has an incredible life." Lin Xiao stomped his foot in irritation.

"That little demon girl is so lovable~~~" Yi Xin's eyes narrowed into crescents. She hurriedly called out, "Quick, send her to Medicine Mountain. Let her eat as many spiritual medicines as she wants! Hurry and restore her original form."

Daoist Yi Yi's face immediately wrinkled. He hummed under his breath, "Fine, you're generous. With Yi Xin protecting her, that little demon girl will certainly become lawless from now on. The medicinal herbs on Medicine Mountain~~~ Ah, those few exceptionally precious medicine fields must quickly be protected with powerful restrictions."

Lin Xiao tenderly picked up Yaoying, who had shrunk to the size of a fist, from the ground and helplessly patted her head.

Yaoying giggled a few times and happily bounced about in Lin Xiao's palm.

On the ground, the body parts Yaoying had lost emitted thread after thread of green qi. The Spiritual Energy within those pieces of flesh drifted away, and they quickly dried up and shriveled, turning into patches of black ash.