The Sheep Demon didn't hesitate for long before fleeing in panic.
Ning Xuan and Immortal Aunt Yaozhen followed.
The midnight moon cast its light over the black mist. The sinister wind howled, as if someone were wielding an enormous brush to splash ink across the world. The farther they went, the more it felt as though they'd left the mortal realm.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen suddenly murmured, "Why don't we capture the Sheep Demon and interrogate it? Isn't it too reckless to charge in like this?"
Ning Xuan said, "You've been in the Imperial Capital, devoting yourself to cultivation, right?"
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, "I've also helped martial artists with a few demon extermination missions."
Ning Xuan said, "Then stop talking and just follow me."
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen argued, "I have more experience subduing demons than you do."
Ning Xuan said, "Either stop talking, or go back where you came from."
He was getting a little impatient.
He was in a state of extreme tension, determined to kill his opponent. Yet no matter what he said, this damn woman beside him had to mutter some opposing opinion.
His bottom line was flexible. Right now, he lacked a great deal of information, but still had no choice but to grit his teeth and push on. He might be chasing a demon now, but in the next moment, he could turn tail and run. And if, after running, he thought there was still a chance to turn back, he wouldn't hesitate to double back and deliver a fatal blow. He acted according to the circumstances at every moment. Yet this damn woman insisted on setting rules and talking about her "demon-subduing experience."
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, "I'm your partner. I won't leave you here alone."
Ning Xuan said, "Follow me if you want, or go off on your own if you want."
With that, he acted as if the woman didn't exist.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was a little angry, too.
She had never been this angry before.
Her tranquility had been all but destroyed by this partner of hers.
For some reason, whenever the general opened his mouth, she felt compelled to argue back, even though she knew this was no time for an argument.
She took a deep breath and silently recited, "Chang Qing Heavenly Venerate, quell my anger." Then she said, "I won't hold it against you."
But Ning Xuan really did ignore her.
Besides keeping the limping, hopping Sheep Demon in his sights, Ning Xuan was doing his utmost to observe his surroundings.
Suddenly, a flash of blue light flickered from his chest.
A bloody hole appeared in the back of the fleeing Sheep Demon.
Ning Xuan said, "Quit running in circles. Hurry and find a demon that can save you."
The Sheep Demon clutched its wound. It stopped hopping, dropped onto its forelegs, and began to run faster.
Ning Xuan continued to pursue it.
A series of metallic clinks sounded around him, as if ink blots had fallen onto his body and spread into dark patterns.
He warily scanned his surroundings.
The forest path narrowed, growing narrower and narrower.
Mountains rose on either side.
Mountains as dark as ink.
"Climb the mountain. Go over the top." Ning Xuan laid out the Sheep Demon's escape route. It had the right to refuse, and he had the right to stab it again. In the end, it would still have to obey.
The Sheep Demon had no choice. Its hoof stabbed into the hard rock beside it with a thunk, and it began climbing straight up.
Ning Xuan was also well practiced at rock climbing. Without a word, he drove his five fingers into the rock. His arm tensed like a bowstring, then released, sending him soaring several yards upward.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was considerate enough to maintain the golden sphere around herself and float up beside Ning Xuan, as if keeping watch for him.
Just as the two of them reached halfway up, every sound in the world abruptly vanished.
The Sheep Demon suddenly turned around and gave Ning Xuan a strange, sinister grin.
A flash of blue light flickered from Ning Xuan's chest, and the Sheep Demon was killed instantly.
Its grin froze as its body fell from midair.
It was still falling.
Its eyes were still wide open.
In those open eyes, the dark, ink-black sky was reflected—along with the tip of a green lotus crown poking over the cliff's edge. Then an enormous Bodhisattva face emerged, and a huge golden hand reached down to seize Ning Xuan, who was still suspended in midair, with nothing above or below him.
Greed gleamed in its eyes; foul drool dripped from its mouth.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was startled and hurriedly cast a spell. She thought, A Golden Body Demonic Creature has appeared! We should run first!
But then a whisper suddenly reached her ear. "Yaozhen, smash it."
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen froze, but still changed her spell. A golden seal floated above her head and came crashing down on the Golden Body Bodhisattva.
The blow made the Golden Body Bodhisattva stagger. Its solemnly seated golden body was crushed down until it lay sprawled on the ground.
Ning Xuan wasn't surprised.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen might have been a chatterbox, but there was no questioning her strength.
The Stealing Incense Rat's five points of spirit couldn't withstand her seal.
This also gave him another layer of insurance for killing the Stealing Incense Rat. Someone was holding the demon down, leaving it unable to move.
But right then, Ning Xuan felt an incredibly powerful restraint seize his body. He looked down and saw an enormous, rotten-white Frozen Corpse suddenly emerge from the Ice Mountain he was climbing. Its hands curled inward as it clutched him tightly. He didn't feel any great physical strength, but he felt his Divine Soul being crushed beneath a heavy weight.
At that moment, the scene became utterly bizarre.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen had pinned down the Golden Body Bodhisattva and was waiting for Ning Xuan to attack it.
Meanwhile, the mysterious Frozen Corpse in the mountain had pinned down Ning Xuan and was waiting for the Golden Body Bodhisattva to attack.
They were suppressing each other, like mirror images.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen suddenly remembered the familiar feeling she'd had earlier when she saw the "black qi and Sheep Demon." She hadn't thought much of it then, but now that same feeling returned, and she finally understood.
Back then, the "human-head black qi" had bound the martial artist and Celestial Master, while the Sheep Demon killed them.
Now, the "mysterious Frozen Corpse" had bound the martial artist and Celestial Master, and once again, it was the demon that would kill them.
The demons were imitating them.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen sensed the mountain's sloping face ahead and felt three or four more Frozen Corpses rapidly climbing up. They must originally have been lying in ambush at the end of the canyon. Since the two of them hadn't gone forward and had climbed the mountain instead, the Frozen Corpses had come scrambling over from a distance.
The Frozen Corpses carried a power familiar to Immortal Aunt Yaozhen.
She focused her senses.
She felt it.
Dragon Qi!
The Frozen Corpses actually had Dragon Qi!
Though the Dragon Qi was a chaotic mass, incapable of casting spells, it already possessed an immensely powerful force that could suppress the Divine Soul.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen felt a chill run down her spine.
She had never heard of demons being able to use "Divine Soul suppression." Wasn't that a Celestial Master's specialty?
The next instant, another utterly incredible thought surged into her mind: Could martial artists be learning from demons, while certain unusual demons are learning from Celestial Masters?
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen glanced at the Frozen Corpse, then at the Celestial Master Seal she had brought down, and at the several more Frozen Corpses rapidly climbing up from the slope.
She made her decision at once. She was about to withdraw the Celestial Master Seal from the Golden Body Bodhisattva and send it crashing back to rescue Ning Xuan.
Even if those mere Frozen Corpses had a little Dragon Qi, they didn't concern her.
As for what to do about the Golden Body Demonic Creature afterward, she hadn't figured that out yet.
She would deal with it later.
Just then, a whisper reached her ear.
"Don't move."
After saying that, Ning Xuan broke free of the Frozen Corpse.
The Frozen Corpse's power was strong, but it still couldn't completely suppress his "5.5" spirit.
The instant he broke free, his golden body swelled wildly. A Golden Body Bodhisattva more than ten zhang tall appeared halfway up the cliff. He had to kill the Stealing Incense Rat at once; he wasn't going to lower his odds of success just to keep his ability hidden.
A second Golden Body Bodhisattva had appeared.
Pinned beneath the Celestial Master Seal at the top of the cliff, the Stealing Incense Rat froze, gaping in disbelief.
Ning Xuan didn't pause for even an instant. His every movement flowed seamlessly into the next.
The Bodhisattva pinched a flower between two fingers; the flying knives became petals. A dense chorus of shrill whistles suddenly rang through the air.
Then his hand dropped.
Yan Chao!
The flying knife pierced straight through the stomach of the Golden Body Bodhisattva atop the cliff, spraying a brilliant burst of blood—the Stealing Incense Rat, blasted into a mist of blood.
"Go!"
Ning Xuan lunged toward the golden sphere in midair.
Immortal Aunt Yaozhen's head was buzzing. Everything before her eyes felt like a dream, but after withdrawing the Celestial Master Seal, she still managed, dazed and confused, to cast "Earth Escape" and flee with Ning Xuan.
Before you continue