Ten-odd zhang of startling blade qi and the Golden Light Qi Shield violently crashed together, producing a sound far removed from the expected clash of metal, instead emitting an extremely deep and muffled roar.
Large patches of shattered leaves and broken branches on the ground were blasted apart by the impact qi of the two, leaving the scene in a chaotic mess.
Chen Dengming felt as though he had been struck by lightning. The Dengming Blade in his hand snapped inch by inch, its blade qi withering, while the Golden Light Qi Shield slowly rotating outside the body of the opposite elder remained brilliant and luminous, seeming indestructible.
"With blade qi unleashed by your Xiantian True Qi, you still wish to shake a Dao technique driven by spiritual energy?"
The elder chuckled indifferently, killing intent flashing in his eyes as a flying shuttle condensed from a sharp current of qi prepared to assail Chen Dengming.
Yet in that split second, a dark shadow abruptly bounced forth, striking the Golden Light Qi Shield outside the elder's body, opening jaws lined with pincer-like poisonous teeth to deliver a bite.
Crack!
The seemingly indestructible Golden Light Qi Shield was pierced open in a fraction of a second.
"What is that?!"
The elder was startled with dread, abruptly turning his head as a blood-red dark shadow instantly materialized in his eyes. Its speed was so ferocious that it afforded him no reaction time whatsoever.
"Ah!"
The elder felt a sharp pain across his face, as if he had been fiercely bitten by a venomous insect. In the next instant, his entire face lost all sensation, and his outer Golden Bell Qi Shield also collapsed.
The flying shuttle that had been skimming past under his control brushed right past Chen Dengming's abdomen, kicking up a spray of blood. Just as it was about to pivot and return, Chen Dengming already gave an angry shout, leaping forward to slaughter the enemy as he brought his broken blade down in a fierce slash targeting the elder.
The momentum of a single strike was like ten thousand troops or Mount Tai pressing down from above, erupting with an unprecedented killing intent. When enemies meet in narrow confines, the brave wins.
Plop!--
The elder's body trembled.
Chen Dengming abruptly halted.
The two locked eyes, their momentum clashing like thunder and fire.
One went all out with hair standing on end in fury.
The other was incredulous, in despair and utter bewilderment.
"You..."
The elder's pupils quivered, his peripheral vision catching sight of a blood-red centipede head crawling right up to his eyes.
Abruptly, his gaze darkened as a bloodstain appeared on his forehead, running all the way from his hairline down to his jaw. Then, a jet of blood spattered outward, and he fell backward with a heavy thud.
"Haa..."
Only then did Chen Dengming heave a long sigh of turbid air. Evading the spattered blood, he clutched his continuously bleeding abdomen, staring with lingering terror at the elder's corpse on the ground.
Large areas of dark cyan poison began to emerge on the adversary's face right from the spot where the Blood Centipede Gu had bitten, quickly spreading across the entire face and neck. This caused black meridians to web beneath the skin, and any further fresh blood flowing from the wound had turned black, exuding a foul stench.
Rustle, rustle--
The Blood Centipede Gu's hundred limbs scuttled cheerfully across the wounds on the elder's face. Its pincer-like mouthparts devoured the toxic blood, its body gradually growing incomparably bright and crimson, a truly hair-raising sight.
Did I just kill a Qi Cultivator?
Only now did Chen Dengming completely relax from the tense state of battle, realizing that his entire upper body had gone numb.
Wave after wave of troublesome spiritual energy was still rampaging within his meridians, steadily attacking his heart meridian; his Xiantian True Qi was utterly incapable of blocking it.
If things continued this way, he would either die or be crippled.
The might of a Qi Cultivator and their spiritual energy far exceeded his imagination.
I must immediately deal with the rampaging spiritual energy inside me.
With a grave expression, Chen Dengming watched the Blood Centipede Gu, whose aura seemed to have grown somewhat stronger after devouring a great deal of the Qi Cultivator's toxic blood, suddenly recalling the moment when the Blood Centipede Gu had bitten through the Qi Cultivator's protective shield in a single bite.
This Spirit Gu doesn't seem to fear spiritual energy, and even views spiritual energy as food, capable of absorbing it?
With a steadying thought, Chen Dengming looked around.
He picked up the still-lively Spirit Fish from the ground, and in an unappeased fit of resentment, used the fish tail to savagely slap the elder across the face several times, producing loud slap-slap sounds.
"Like eating fish, do you? Grandpa's treating you to your fill! A cold Spirit Fish, slapping wildly across the face!"
"Eat! I gave you a chance, but you couldn't take it; you're just useless!"
After slapping him to his heart's content, Chen Dengming thoroughly vented his pent-up irritability and gave the old face one last vicious kick. The movement tugged at his wound, causing him to wince in pain.
He could not afford to clean up the scene immediately right now. Using acupoint-sealing and meridian-blocking techniques to simply staunch the bleeding of his wound, he picked up the Blood Centipede Gu and placed it directly over his abdominal wound, circulating his cultivation technique to drive the Blood Centipede Gu to devour the spiritual energy within his body.
Half an incense stick later.
Chen Dengming's expression eased. The spiritual energy rampaging within his body had been sucked away in large amounts by the Blood Centipede Gu, bringing it under temporary control.
Without waiting to fully sort out his internal condition, he rapidly began packing up the battlefield, taking the artifacts and Spirit Stones from the Qi Cultivator's person, and retrieving the shattered blade fragments from the ground.
Pondering for a moment, Chen Dengming once again drove the Blood Centipede Gu to continue corroding the elder's corpse with poison until the wounds on the elder's body were completely unrecognizable, looking as though he had been devoured to death by insects. He then swiftly lifted the corpse and tossed it toward the seemingly ordinary forest opposite.
As expected.
Some sort of formation was set up there.
The elder's corpse was swallowed as if by an invisible mouth, vanishing into the forest in an instant.
"A formation...?"
Chen Dengming narrowed his eyes to observe for a while, suppressing the curiosity and greed in his heart without rashly exploring, and quickly turned to leave.
He already possessed the cultivation technique. Now, all he needed to do was keep a low profile and cultivate prudently, and he could rapidly extend his lifespan. Once his lifespan was extended, he could elevate his Spiritual Root Potential through the Life-Damaging Seedling Pulling Technique. After his Spiritual Root Potential was elevated, it would in turn boost his cultivation speed, and once his cultivation speed increased, his lifespan would grow even faster—this was a perfect, closed loop.
Therefore, there was no need to take risks for minor gains at present.
This time, had the elder not pushed him step by step, he truly would not have been willing to risk fighting a Qi Cultivator, even with the Blood Centipede Gu...
Several days later.
Within the Rogue Cultivator Gathering Place, Chen Dengming had not only recovered from his injuries to about seventy or eighty percent, but he had also long since buried the magic tools and Spirit Stones acquired from the elderly Qi Cultivator in various hidden corners outside the Gathering Place, leaving only a few Spirit Grains on hand.
As for the Spirit Fish, he did not dare take it out to sell, nor did he even dare steam or boil it to be too fragrant. Hiding in a secluded corner, he simply heated it to eliminate parasites and ate it half-raw himself.
Having consumed the Spirit Fish, his injuries recovered even faster, and the spiritual energy in the Spirit Fish meat allowed his Xiantian True Qi to complete its final accumulation, finally breaking through to the eighth stage of Xiantian. His lifespan correspondingly increased by three years, reaching a full 138 years.
Next, he would cultivate the Dao technique Three Yuan Spirit Gathering Technique, refining and transforming all his Xiantian True Qi into spiritual energy, allowing him to break through and become a formal cultivator.
For these past few days, he had been walking on thin ice, worried that the matter of him wiping out the old cultivator would leak out and be discovered, and was prepared to run for his life at any moment.
He had even felt remorse, bitterly hating that old cultivator for refusing a toast only to drink a forfeiture, pushing around an honest man who never sought trouble or bullied others until he was left with no choice but to kill to vent his anger.
If everyone had just talked things through nicely, and the other party had been willing to set aside that Qi Cultivator's pretentious airs and sit down to drink a cup of tea together, he might even have treated the other party to a Spirit Fish.
There was no need to transform into the Spirit Fish God of War and slap someone in the face with a fish tail so vulgarly.
Still, the man was already dead, and his corpse had even been desecrated by him. These feelings of remorse quickly flashed across Chen Dengming's mind, replaced immediately by a sense of exhilaration and relief.
If he had to do it all over again under those forced circumstances, he would still trash that Qi Cultivator, with fish tail face-slapping and all, just to show him how haughty he could be.
Perhaps it was also sheer good luck.
For several days running, not a single person mentioned the news of the Golden Character Workshop's old cultivator's demise.
On the contrary, news of a Demon Beast appearing by Lingyue Lake was spreading far and wide, causing many cultivators who had intended to leave the Gathering Place to turn back.
Chen Dengming knew that this time, he owed his gratitude to that nameless Demon Beast.
It was very likely due to the presence of the Demon Beast that no cultivators from the Golden Character Workshop had approached the lake to contact the old cultivator residing there, and naturally, no one had discovered that the old cultivator was dead.
Besides, when cultivators cultivated, spending a month or even several months in closed-door seclusion was commonplace.
If this world had a police station, people disappearing for a few months probably wouldn't even warrant an official missing person case.
At this point, Chen Dengming completely set his mind at ease, knowing that he didn't need to run.
He reappeared in some of his usual haunts, declining requests from regular customers wanting to buy fish by explaining that he could no longer afford the rent for the fish-selling stall and had now changed trades, while preparing to go claim a temporary residence of his own.
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