I'll Bury You

Despite his lingering irritation, Chen Dengming still explained, "You have the wrong person. I'm not the protagonist you're looking for; I'm just an innocent passerby."

The two cultivators, a man and a woman at the edge of the forest, froze. Listening to his voice, it really didn't sound much like him at all.

Yet changing a person's voice was far too simple; even mortals could pull it off.

The male cultivator clad in blue robes coldly stated, "Fellow Daoist, regardless of whether you are Jiang Qiang or not, to prevent any misunderstandings, please step out now and make things clear. We aren't unreasonable people, either."

Chen Dengming sighed inwardly, tapped the Blood Centipede Gu inside his ear canal, and signaled the creature to prepare for work at any moment.

Simultaneously, the Snake Gu darted out from his sleeve, and only then did he cautiously step out of the woods, frowning as he stared at the female cultivator opposite him who had already controlled a fireball to hover by her side, and said.

"The two of you, I said I'm not the person you're looking for. There's no need to put on this kind of grand display, is there?"

The triangular-eyed female cultivator opposite him frowned as she scrutinized Chen Dengming's attire, exchanging a glance with the male cultivator. Both caught a trace of startled suspicion in each other's eyes.

This getup truly didn't resemble Jiang Qiang whom they had just been chasing, yet the fellow was still wearing a face veil, which felt rather strange.

The blue-robed male cultivator stared at Chen Dengming, his gaze lingering for a moment on the broken blade hilt strapped to his back, and asked suspiciously, "Pull off that veil of yours."

One is at the Qi Refining First Layer, and the other is the Qi Cultivation Second Level.

Chen Dengming carefully sensed the spiritual might of these two individuals as well as the distance maintained between them. Hearing this, although his expression turned displeased, he still complied.

The reason he wore a face veil in the first place was also to guard against the wanted posters of Hutong Street and avoid being recognized by nearby cultivators.

Yet now, having seen no one for over three months, his face was covered in a thick beard. Even if his former neighbors had reported his appearance to the cultivators of Hutong Street, they might not necessarily recognize what he looked like now.

What was more, he was now a cultivator himself, not a mortal.

Seeing Chen Dengming remove his veil.

The male and female cultivators carefully looked him over.

A flash of surprise crossed the male cultivator's eyes, and he suddenly laughed, "It seems we really did recognize the wrong person. It's nothing, Fellow Daoist, please don't take offense."

The female cultivator nodded slightly and relaxed, and just as she was about to dismiss her fireball as well, she suddenly heard the imperceptible voice transmission of the male cultivator beside her. Instantly, the outer edges of her brows hardened fiercely, and she abruptly unleashed the fireball in her hand.

With the three parties' auras linked, just how rich was Chen Dengming's combat experience? Almost the exact split second the woman launched the fireball, his figure had already lunged forward with a giant stride, dodging the fireball in an instant.

Boom!—

The ground to the side shook, a scorching high temperature accompanied by surging flames.

A bronze hue surfaced on Chen Dengming's face, and his figure practically charged out wildly from the edge of the flames, the broken blade on his back drawn forth by the rippling muscles of his back.

"Clang!—"

Accompanied by a glistening, emerald-green blade light that writhed and coiled like a dragon or snake, it suddenly burst forth.

A murderous intent fierce enough to suffocate one's breath abruptly erupted along with the blade aura that stretched over a zhang in length, slashing straight toward the male cultivator opposite who had immediately and hastily conjured a spirit shield.

"Bang!—"

The potent blade aura, saturated with spiritual qi, almost instantly impacted and tore apart the rapidly spinning spirit shield.

"What?!"

The male cultivator's entire body tightened, his hairs standing on end. Terrified, he formed incantations in his mind, and a talisman radiating spiritual light instantly surged up from before his chest, shattering the blade light with a clang.

The male cultivator felt a surge of relief, which instantly turned into a furious glare directed at Chen Dengming. Yet he only met an abruptly even more blazing killing intent in Chen Dengming's pupils. Before he even had time to react, a numb sensation struck his ankles, and simultaneously a buzzing sound swept past his ear, followed abruptly by a sharp, searing pain in his neck.

"Ah!—Go to hell!"

Roaring, he formed an incantation and pointed.

"Whoosh—"

The talisman radiating spiritual light wrapped in sharp pressure waves violently swept past. Listening to the wind to discern its position, Chen Dengming timed the gap with near-simultaneous precision and intercepted it horizontally with his broken blade.

"Clang-clank!—"

The broken blade completely shattered into flying fragments that blasted outward, slashing and tearing open Chen Dengming's palm; even the Indestructible Vajra Zen Skill driven by spiritual qi couldn't withstand it.

Yet the male cultivator also collapsed almost at that exact same moment, his body beginning to convulse wildly as black blood poured from his seven orifices.

"Mu-lang!"

With lightning speed the male cultivator had met his doom. The triangular-eyed female cultivator had only just launched her fireball and caught her breath when she witnessed her companion collapse. She immediately let out a piercing shriek, fixing a murderous glare filled with rage upon Chen Dengming as she rapidly formed incantations, the spiritual might around her body swelling swiftly.

Yet the instant she began forming her incantations, Chen Dengming's gaze turned icy cold.

He flicked his finger.

A strand of spiral qi faster than lightning struck first, directly hitting the arm she was using to form incantations.

"Bang!—"

A burst of blood accompanied by a severed section of shattered arm dropped to the ground.

Excruciating pain immediately assaulted the woman's nervous system, twisting her visage as she let out a miserable scream.

Yet before she could even close her mouth, a dark shadow flashed, and the Blood Centipede Gu drilled straight into her mouth. The woman's eyes widened instantly, black Qi surfaced on her face, and with a thud, she collapsed to the ground.

"Hoo!—"

Breathing heavily with ragged breaths, Chen Dengming immediately stepped forward to inspect them. Confirming that the male cultivator was dead beyond any doubt, he kicked away the dim-looking magical artifact lying beside the corpse and relaxed.

At that moment, his forehead and back were actually drenched in sweat, his lips dry, and his hands trembling and bleeding uncontrollably, whether from injury or spasms.

He glanced down at both his palms.

Gapping, bone-deep splits had ripped open across his palms under the state of the Indestructible Vajra Zen Skill.

On parts of the backs of his hands, even a thin layer of fat was visible, and his blood vessels had been sliced open.

As he withdrew his cultivation technique, blood quickly flooded those areas, and spiritual qi raged within the wounds.

He immediately mobilized spiritual qi to gather in his hands, driving out the foreign spiritual qi while stopping his own bleeding through the technique of pressing acupuncture points to sever meridians.

The battle had erupted fast and ended just as quickly. It looked as though he had won the fight with ease, but in reality, had he been even slightly careless, his fate would have been to die right here—and then what use would it be to pursue the Dao and longevity?

"Good thing, a good thing I didn't stand there foolishly forming incantations and trading blows with them using the Fireball Technique."

Chen Dengming looked at the scattered fragments of the broken blade all over the ground, feeling a sense of fortune alongside a lingering wariness and a trace of lingering fear.

Fortunately, he had decisively unleashed Green Hill Mad Dragon to strike with his blade, cooperating with his Gu worms to slay the enemy. Only by doing so could he achieve such an unexpected and fiercely swift assault that caught the two of them entirely off guard.

Otherwise, had he used the newly learned Great Fireball Technique to engage the enemy, he probably would have been wiped out by the opponent's magical artifact the moment he started forming incantations.

In fact, just moments ago when the female cultivator was forming incantations to cast the Great Fireball Technique, he hadn't hesitated for even a fraction of a second, subconsciously using the Finger Flick Divine Art to swiftly interrupt her spellcasting.

This was all combat experience, and at the same time, habit.

However, relying purely on martial arts to fight, while swift, could only yield results among such low-tier cultivators.

No matter how strong martial arts were, they were merely techniques approaching the Dao; they could never possess the profound marvels of high-level Daoist magic.

Because martial arts could not leverage Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, their consumption of spiritual qi was far too massive, and their might remained severely limited.

Even his strongest ultimate move, Green Hill Mad Dragon, had only managed to barely tear apart the enemy's Spirit Shield. This alone had drained nearly sixty percent of the spiritual qi within his body, and coupled with the other martial arts he had deployed just moments prior, the spiritual qi inside him had completely bottomed out.

"Once the male cultivator had been on guard and blocked it with his magical artifact from the very start, I'm afraid... my only choice would have been to turn tail and run, and even then, I might not have outrun them."

Chen Dengming winced, giving the female cultivator's corpse a kick to summon back the Blood Centipede Gu inside, and shook his head.

"Short-lived ghosts, you can't stop them even if you try to block them! I only want to keep a low profile and survive, yet even refusing to seek out fights for glory, I still want longevity!"

At the same time, he secretly vowed inwardly.

"I must rapidly practice Daoist spells like the Fireball Technique, training them until I can cast them instantly! They consume less spiritual qi and pack massive power!"

What he was unaware of was that sects such as the Hidden World Sect and the Wonderful Sound Sect had jointly held the Ascension Convention in the Nanxun Kingdom—a place that revered martial culture—precisely because they had set their sights on the potential of martial arts.

Among those several sects, there were big figures who wanted to conduct some research in this direction, cultivating a batch of brave and formidable martial cultivators to serve as counterparts to sword cultivators.

Yet such research was merely a small branch within the vast and distant path of immortality; it was not guaranteed to receive future emphasis, nor was it certain to thrive. Perhaps one day, the Ascension Convention would simply cease to be held.

"Rustle, rustle—"

At this moment, the Blood Centipede Gu crawled out from the female cultivator's corpse, spread its wings, and took flight.

Frowning, Chen Dengming flicked the Blood Centipede Gu with his finger as a warning.

This Blood Centipede Gu possessed a killing intent far too intense and bloodthirsty. Once a battle began, it practically couldn't stop, refusing to turn back without tasting blood.

Just moments ago, he had actually intended to spare the female cultivator and ask her why they were so hell-bent on making a move, before politely sending her off to accompany her Mu-lang.

As it turned out, before he could even start asking, she had already been poisoned to death by the Blood Centipede Gu.

Suddenly, Chen Dengming's relaxed physique tightened once again. Spiritual might surged sharply, and the wind-blown sand swirling around his body whipped his clothes into a flutter.

His gaze snapped toward a slope in the distance to his left.

Almost at the exact moment he looked over, a tall, slender figure appeared on that slope as well, emitting a faint ripple of spiritual might.

The cultivator on the slope caught sight of his figure, his brow furrowing in confusion. Then, glancing at the two cultivators already lying dead on the ground, a look of sheer terror instantly flashed in his eyes. His face aged in fright, transforming into that of a terrified junior; wearing a deeply wary expression, he immediately backed away and called out from afar.

"Pardon the interruption, Fellow Daoist! Those two were bounty cultivators who were chasing me earlier, though who could have known they would end up in a conflict with you? In any case, I harbor no ill intentions whatsoever. Let this spirit stone serve as my humble apology."

With those words, the cultivator on the slope produced a spirit stone, tossed it onto the ground, stepped backward rapidly, activated a talisman, and sped away like the wind and lightning.

From start to finish, Chen Dengming simply stood frowning, gazing fixedly at the other's every move until the cultivator vanished into the distance on a divine mobility talisman. Only then did he exhale a breath.

If that cultivator had made a move, he might have found himself in real trouble.

After all, his spiritual qi had already been depleted by seven or eight-tenths; fortunately, the other party was a coward.

"I suppose he must have offended certain people inside the gathering place to end up wanted."

Chen Dengming pondered inwardly, then glanced back down at the male and female cultivators on the ground.

It was only then that he realized why these two had suddenly made a move on him.

Since they were bounty cultivators, they had likely seen his portrait and distinctive features on the bounty boards, which was why they had been so dead-set on targeting him.

However, he was now a cultivator himself, long removed from being a mere mortal. The fact that the two had still acted so decisively meant they likely thought victory was safely within their grasp, preferring to kill the wrong person rather than let someone slip away for the sake of extra ill-gotten gains. Yet this time, they had capsized in a drainage ditch.

"Walking often by the river, how can one not wet their shoes?"

Chen Dengming let out a breath, bent down to loot the corpses, and packed up his spoils.

This experience served as another warning to him: sometimes, trouble simply could not be avoided. No matter how hard you tried to stay out of it, there would always be short-lived fools seeking out their own deaths at your doorstep.

Yet back in the martial world, he had already experienced plenty of similar situations, so he was quite used to it.

Though his personality was low-key and yielding, that did not mean he was timid or soft.

When the time called to strike, regardless of who the enemy was, he would show no quarter.

The "mad" in Mad Blade referred to the exact moment he drew his blade!

Gathering up all the spoils of war as well as the low-grade spirit stone "appearance fee" left on the slope, Chen Dengming departed swiftly.

As for the corpses of the male and female cultivators, he couldn't be bothered to dispose of them.

Old rules.

He only worried about the killing; heaven and earth would handle the burying.

The corpses would receive a generous burial from nature itself.

In novels, characters often used the Fireball Technique to burn corpses and destroy evidence—which was certainly dashing and environmentally friendly, but didn't the Fireball Technique consume spiritual qi? His spiritual qi was truly pitifully thin right now, and he simply couldn't afford the expense.

There will be another update between 11 and 12 AM today! Today is still 6k words! Tearfully begging for monthly votes and continuous readership.