Nan Shiheng

Ouyang Tuo flew into a rage and immediately used the Great Grasping Technique, seizing Chen Ganliu out of thin air and smashing him hard onto the ground. The impact left him dazed and disoriented before he passed out.

By the time Chen Ganliu woke up, he had no idea how much time had passed. All he could hear was rolling thunder and blazing flames. It seemed that a Magical Combat was taking place nearby.

He raised his eyes and looked left and right. Then he heard an extraordinarily familiar, gentle, and elegant voice say, "Tell me, how did you trade with those two Demonesses?"

Though the voice was gentle, the overwhelming pressure that came with it left him like a monkey crushed beneath the Five Elements Mountain, unable to move even a finger.

Chen Ganliu was merely a cultivator at the bottom of the Qi Refining Realm. How could he withstand the pressure of a Golden Core Realm grand cultivator?

But what hammered his chest and stirred him even more violently was not the pressure of the Golden Core Realm. It was the beautiful female cultivator before him.

His "senior sister," his Dao companion in his previous life—Nan Shiheng.

Chen Ganliu struggled to raise his head and met Nan Shiheng's cold, dignified phoenix eyes. Countless memories suddenly surfaced in his heart, filling him with every conflicting emotion until he could barely contain himself.

Nan Shiheng's flawless, breathtakingly beautiful face seemed untouched by mortal dust and utterly devoid of emotion. She sat cross-legged atop a Golden Lotus over a zhang in size, resembling a lofty Divine Lord, waiting only for his answer.

Nan Shiheng naturally did not recognize him at this time.

Chen Ganliu took a deep breath and recounted everything from beginning to end. By then, he also knew that the two girls were female disciples of that demon. He could not help cursing his luck inwardly.

In his previous life, Chen Ganliu had ultimately been only a Servant Disciple, so he truly knew little of these secrets. Thus, he had never known that the fellow who had wreaked havoc in the Immortal Encounter Sect, broken away from the sect, and turned to Demonic Cultivation had actually taken female disciples.

"I was only selling a few chairs. How did I get dragged into something like this?"

"Although I truly have nothing to do with that demon, the Immortal Encounter Sect..."

"The Immortal Encounter Sect has never been a place that reasons with people!"

"This is bad."

"How can I escape?"

Chen Ganliu suddenly remembered something, and his heart jolted as he cried out inwardly, "Oh no, I'm currently cultivating the Azure Emperor Jia Yi Art."

"If Nan Shiheng discovers it, I'll never be able to explain away the crime of secretly learning the Immortal Encounter Sect's Directly Transmitted Cultivation Method. The evidence will be ironclad."

"I can't say that she was the one who taught it to me, either."

"After all, we were husband and wife in our previous life. Even if I could make someone believe me, I can't sell her out."

"Besides, even if I told them, who would believe me?"

While Chen Ganliu was caught in this dilemma, several more wisps of Black Qi swept across the sky. Nan Shiheng stopped speaking to him, raised her hand, and released a hundred-zhang-long streak of Golden Radiance, engaging the enemy in fierce battle.

At that moment, seven or eight disciples of the Immortal Encounter Sect joined their magical treasures and spells into several mu of Colorful Light and Strange Flowers. It hung high in midair, immovable as a mountain, blocking the thunderbolts, blazing flames, and Black Qi outside.

Without the innate Eyesight Like Lightning, Chen Ganliu could not see through the layers upon layers of magical treasures and spells on either side. He did not know who the Immortal Encounter Sect disciples' enemies were, but he could only guess that they were the two "Demonesses."

He prayed inwardly, "I hope these two are merely fighting the Immortal Encounter Sect over some grudge. Please, don't let this have anything to do with me!"

Before the thought had even faded, he heard a rather familiar voice. It shook the air with magical power and rang out like thunder from the heavens: "You little thieves and wretched sluts of the Immortal Encounter Sect, release Daoist Friend Chen at once, and we may still spare your dog lives."

"He merely sold us a few chairs, yet you want to seize him. You're being far too vicious and tyrannical."

Despair immediately rose in Chen Ganliu's heart. He cried out inwardly, "Why, thank you!"

"This really can't be explained now. Who would believe that you're fighting the Immortal Encounter Sect disciples over some unrelated minor cultivator?"

"I wonder if I'll even have another life after this."

Ouyang Tuo flew into a rage and shouted, "That fellow surnamed Yao betrayed his sect and should have been executed long ago. If Elder Sun had not shown a moment of mercy and allowed a tiger to be raised, bringing disaster upon us today, how could you still be running rampant?"

"Senior Sister Nan, I'll go out and break through the Demonic Formation. Seize the chance to subdue the demons!"

After making his threat, Ouyang Tuo mounted a magical treasure shaped like a Flower Basket and charged out through the Colorful Light and Strange Flowers formed by the layers of magical treasures and spells. Countless Colorful Flowers spun into existence and vanished around him, blocking the Lightning Fire and Black Qi as he repeatedly struck at a crucial Formation Eye.

As a Golden Core disciple of the Immortal Encounter Sect, he had a keen eye and had already seen where the flaw in the Demonic Formation laid down by the two Demonesses of the Demonic Cult was.

He intended to risk a single strike, break the formation, and give his fellow disciples a chance to slay their enemies.

Ouyang Tuo's protective magical treasure was formidable. Seeing that the Lightning Fire and Black Qi could not temporarily do anything to him, the other disciples all breathed easier and unleashed fierce spells to share his burden.

Just then, beside a female disciple of the Immortal Encounter Sect who was at the eighth or ninth layer of the Qi Refining Realm, a Beast Skin Pouch suddenly exploded. A streak of golden light shot out, swept around once, killed the female disciple, and then charged toward another Immortal Encounter Sect disciple.

After Chen Ganliu had been captured by the Immortal Encounter Sect, the Beast Skin Pouch had naturally been taken away as well, ending up in the hands of that female disciple. She had simply been unlucky. Once the Mind-Wandering Zen Blade burst out of the Beast Skin Pouch, it immediately cut her down.

Nan Shiheng cried out in shock, "Uncle-Master Yao's Mind-Wandering Zen Blade!"

Chen Ganliu heard this and suddenly found countless tangled threads in his mind falling neatly into place. He immediately understood what had happened!

Why did the Mind-Wandering Zen Blade resemble Azure Luan in shape and style?

Because it was also a treasure of the Immortal Encounter Sect.

It must have been the weapon bestowed by the sect upon that Demonic Cultivator surnamed Yao while he was still in the Immortal Encounter Sect. When he defected, he had taken it out of the sect with him.

How could there possibly be so many opportunities in the mere Suiyang Immortal Market? Why had the Mind-Wandering Zen Blade fallen into his hands? Someone had arranged it all. Had that shifty-looking man really sold it for seventy Talisman Coins? Of course not. He had not simply failed to recognize its value; he had wanted to borrow the hand of a rogue cultivator to ambush the Immortal Encounter Sect's disciples!

Chen Ganliu had merely been unlucky enough to be chosen as the scapegoat.

Nan Shiheng slightly raised her plain sleeve, and an Azure Rainbow flew out, spiraling around her and wrapping her delicate body. It met the Mind-Wandering Zen Blade head-on as the two sword lights engaged in fierce combat, while the other Immortal Encounter Sect disciples also released their magical treasures.

But under attacks from both inside and out, the formation of the Immortal Encounter Sect disciples collapsed with a thunderous crash after less than half an hour.

The Immortal Encounter Sect disciples each mounted their Escape Lights and shot into the clouds. The seven or eight Escape Lights were about to converge and re-form their formation when a streak of Black Qi shot out from the side. With a single twisting sweep through the air, it shattered all the Escape Lights. Several Immortal Encounter Sect disciples lost the protection of their Escape Lights. The moment they came into contact with the demonic aura, their blood essence and souls were sucked dry on the spot, their bodies becoming withered corpses before being shaken into dust by the vast demonic aura.

All the Immortal Encounter Sect disciples in the Qi Refining Realm were slain. Only the Golden Core Realm Ouyang Tuo and Nan Shiheng remained. The two unleashed their magical power and fought their enemies without pause, their hearts filled with grief and fury.

Chen Ganliu had originally been held aloft by the Immortal Encounter Sect's Escape Lights. The instant the formation created by the Immortal Encounter Sect disciples broke, he plummeted from the sky like a stone. Even though he frantically slapped Light Talismans onto himself, it was still useless.