Ning Xuan quickly glanced at Immortal Aunt Yaozhen and said tersely, "Scout the area."
He needed to confirm whether there were any Human Skin soldiers nearby.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen explained earnestly, "This spell is called Yue Zhang. It uses Dragon Qi to form a mountain. We're inside the mountain, and anything that wants to touch us has to pass through this Dragon Qi mountain. Every step feels like your Divine Soul is bearing a giant boulder, and the closer you get, the greater the resistance. I've cast it twice in a row. I don't have the strength left to cast Cha Di."
Ning Xuan glanced at the black smoke outside. "Take mine down. Next time, don't say so much. Just tell me you don't have the strength left."
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was a little angry. She'd been explaining in earnest. In the Imperial Capital, nobody spoke to her in that tone. She was clearly serene and self-possessed, so why did this young man always manage to make her angry?
Ning Xuan looked at her strangely. "Or... should I take back the second half of what I said?"
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen's thoughts had been seen through, but Ning Xuan's words still annoyed her. For a moment, she couldn't figure out exactly what was so irritating about them, so she held down her temper and answered briefly, "Fine."
Immediately, the golden mountain shrank to half its size. Immortal Aunt Yaozhen remained inside it, but Ning Xuan was left completely exposed.
The black smoke spotted its exposed target. Like man-eating sharks smelling blood in the deep sea, the resentful faces, each trailing a long tail of wolf-like smoke, suddenly paused for a split second. Then they charged at Ning Xuan like mad.
But it was like rain falling into a pond. They struck the ripples on Ning Xuan's skin, yet couldn't do a thing to him.
These faces were feeble beyond measure. Unless they could slip into a person through their acupoints and devour their flesh and blood, they were nothing but useless lumps.
That had been one thing before, but now they were approaching the heart of the demon calamity.
Seeing Ning Xuan remain unharmed, Immortal Aunt Yaozhen looked surprised and thought, He actually seems pretty capable.
She didn't stop.
A First-Rank Celestial Master could only cast one spell at a time.
A Second-Rank Celestial Master, however, could cast two at once.
She used Yue Zhang for defense, then cast Cha Di.
Her eyes turned white in an instant, blind white, and her expression went blank.
She entered a mysterious state. Her sight could reach more than ten li in every direction, and she could look down on the land below from a vantage point high in the clouds.
Ning Xuan's thoughts settled on the Flying Knife Magic Treasure in his arms. Then he moved beside Immortal Aunt Yaozhen and began guarding her with all his might, to keep her from being ambushed while she cast her spell.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen began surveying the area at once.
She saw the vast, boundless forest.
She saw the official road winding like a snake through the woods beneath the moonlight.
She saw the Human Skin Demons walking along the road.
Then she quickly shifted her gaze. She saw a place shrouded in billowing black smoke, and a bonfire "burning" there.
But a burning bonfire gave off light and heat. This thing, however, kept spewing black smoke, which poured from it before flying away at high speed, cackling strangely as if laughing and crying at once.
She tried to see the bonfire clearly, only to find that it was nothing but a mass of "burning blackness."
That blackness even blocked her Dragon Qi from probing it.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was startled.
She had never encountered anything like this before.
A Celestial Master's Cha Di spell relied on Dragon Qi, and every inch of land beneath the heavens was under Dragon Qi's dominion.
To put it simply, everything within a radius of more than ten li, centered on her, was visible to her. As long as she wanted to look, she could even see what every household was doing. Not even someone hiding in a secret room could escape her gaze.
Yet her eyes, which could see through walls, couldn't penetrate that mass of black bonfire.
As Immortal Aunt Yaozhen pondered how to deal with it, she suddenly caught sight of a huge shadow moving through the black fog. It carried a horn-tipped saber, and the "human-face smoke" didn't attack it.
A moment later, Immortal Aunt Yaozhen made out the shadow clearly. It was a Sheep Demon.
It had the shape of a sheep and a black mane, with bristles as stiff as steel spikes. It stood on two hooves, its steps light and nimble.
It was a Sheep Demon!
The Sheep Demon moved faster and faster, carrying "human-face smoke" with it. Like a general leading troops into battle, it had been dozens of yards away one moment, then quickly drifted closer the next. It was heading straight toward them.
Wherever the Sheep Demon went, figures sprang from the dense woods nearby and joined it. Gradually, they gathered into a black tide.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen recognized those figures. Some were Daoist Boys infected by the demon plague, some were elite warriors, and some were people from the martial world. But there was no doubt that they had all become Human Skin Demons: they could walk among the "human-face smoke" without being attacked.
Watching the scene, she felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
She had no time to think it through. She left the state of Cha Di and immediately looked at Ning Xuan beside her. "A Sheep Demon is leading a large number of powerful Human Skin Demons this way. They must have been our elites before they died."
Ning Xuan asked, "Did you see a thousand or so soldiers?"
"No."
"I'll try one move. If things don't look right, I'll rush to you. You grab me and escape underground at once."
A Second-Rank Celestial Master could cast Earth Escape instantly. It took a great deal of energy, but she could still use it a few times. For Ning Xuan, it was the perfect life-saving skill.
He could fight when he wanted and flee when he wanted.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, "Let's fight first."
"Let me try one move first. If we can handle them, we'll fight."
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen thought it over and argued earnestly, "What if we could have won, but your test puts us at a disadvantage and you get hurt? Wouldn't that turn a winning fight into a losing one?"
Ning Xuan snapped, "And what if we can't win, I try one move and confirm it, but you can't escape underground right away because you're casting Yue Zhang and another spell at the same time? What then? Wouldn't we all be wiped out?"
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said unhappily, "General Anyuan, why let others grow in confidence while you undermine your own?"
Ning Xuan said, "Say that again! Once we get back, I'll write a memorial saying that if His Majesty issues an edict ordering me to sleep with you, I'll be utterly loyal to His Majesty!"
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen's face flushed bright red. She stammered, then snapped, "Y-you... you lecher! Why do you always say things like that?"
Ning Xuan let out a long breath. "Listen to me. Get ready!"
This time, no matter how unwilling she was, Immortal Aunt Yaozhen could only answer, deeply aggrieved, "Fine. I'll listen to you!"
She disliked this kind of thinking: "Before considering how to advance, first consider how to retreat."
Now she was starting to regret it.
What had gotten into her when she chose this young man to assist and partner with?
She maintained Yue Zhang while preparing to cast Earth Escape.
Ning Xuan gripped the Beast Slaying Saber tightly.
He couldn't use the Bodhisattva Golden Body so brazenly in front of Immortal Aunt Yaozhen, so his strongest strike was still Yan He.
To keep these all-pervasive "human-face smoke" at bay, he couldn't call on any other body-type Heavenly Demon Scroll, either.
Just as he was thinking—
Whoosh!
A gust of wind rose in the distance.
The woods outside the post station let out a strange laugh.
A huge, terrifying sheep's head swept toward Ning Xuan through the rolling black smoke.
Ning Xuan focused his eyes on it.
Huh? A familiar demon.
Wasn't this the Sheep Demon that had escaped from Manfeng Mountain?
The Sheep Demon spotted the young man up ahead, too.
Its heart lurched. It stopped laughing, and most of its ferocity faded. But then it reconsidered and decided it would be fine.
After all, there was "human-face smoke" now. It could completely pin down a warrior. No matter how strong this warrior was, he couldn't focus on two things at once—fighting the dense "human-face smoke" while defending against its attack.
But the next instant, it saw clearly.
The young man wasn't entangled in any "human-face smoke" at all.
The smoke struck his body like rain hitting a pond, sending out ripples drop by drop, but it couldn't hurt him in the slightest, much less restrain him.
Ning Xuan grinned, showing a row of white teeth.
He had already pieced together most of it: the Stealing Incense Rat had probably joined up with the Sheep Demon, teamed up with some local demons, and then come here. These "human-face smoke" were most likely its doing.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen looked at him, baffled. Before she could ask, "What are you smiling at?" she saw something strange. The huge, terrifying sheep's head, trailing billowing black smoke, suddenly spun around on the spot and charged in the opposite direction even faster than it had come.
Ning Xuan rushed toward Immortal Aunt Yaozhen and said quickly, "Get in front of it."
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen didn't waste words. Golden light surged, and she appeared in an instant hundreds of yards away.
The moment she appeared, the Sheep Demon was charging toward her.
Seeing Ning Xuan suddenly appear in front of it, the Sheep Demon's old memories resurfaced. It was so scared its soul nearly fled its body. It immediately used a demon art and darted off to the side.
A flash of deep blue suddenly gleamed from Ning Xuan's arms.
The Flying Knife!
The flying knife, etched with the patterns of icy brambles, flashed past as a streak of blue light and slashed through the Sheep Demon's left leg. A double burst of force exploded.
A sheep's leg flew through the blood mist.
Ning Xuan darted forward and caught it. With a touch of blood, he refined it in an instant, then glanced over the information.
[Ghost-Horned Mountain Goat]
[Constitution 3.0]
[Phantom Shift: Transform into a black wind, conceal your demonic form, step through the void and tread on solid ground, confound the eyes and cloud the mind.]
The Sheep Demon let out a cry of pain and continued fleeing on three legs. But with so much of its demon essence and blood lost, it could no longer cast Illusionary Escape.
It glanced back in terror.
Why couldn't the "human-face smoke" interfere with this young man at all?
It asked in a voice full of fear and rage, "We're all demons. What exactly do you want?"
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen stared at Ning Xuan in astonishment. She had checked him—there was no demonic aura on him.
Ning Xuan didn't panic or explain. He stared at the demon and spat out one word: "Run."
Before you continue