Sword Pill

The Profound Heaven Sword Intent said, "Holy shit! A sword pill! Run! Run into the tomb!"

Without waiting for the Profound Heaven Sword Intent to say more, Li Fan scrambled to his feet and bolted for the tomb, not even looking back.

He heard Yuan Xuanbao let out a roar behind him, a strange shriek like the cries of apes on either side of a river as a boat sailed past. It sounded as though he'd charged straight at the enemy. But the next instant, the noise stopped. He'd probably suffered the same fate—beheaded in the blink of an eye.

Li Fan didn't dare look back, afraid that the moment he turned his head, a streak of light would come after him and slice it off too. But perhaps those two senior brothers had bought him a moment by sacrificing themselves. He sprinted, stumbled, and rolled into the hole leading down into the tomb.

The Profound Heaven Sword Intent said, "Host, keep running! Don't stop! I'll block his Divine Sense for you. He won't be able to lock onto you, and he won't be able to behead you with one strike! Hide in the tomb first, then unleash the Sword Light!"

Li Fan raced along on all fours, his adrenaline surging and his heart pounding. He gulped in air, both lungs seeming full of ice. His sides throbbed with pain.

If the Profound Heaven Sword Intent hadn't been shrieking nonstop, if blood hadn't been spilled at the inn earlier, and if he hadn't already had a little time to mentally brace himself for the way this world worked, he might have frozen in place, unable to think, and let himself be slaughtered.

But the boy he'd just been chatting with and eating stinky tofu alongside had lost his head right in front of him. They knew each other, had shared drinks and conversation. That made the shock far more real and terrifying than the blood-soaked carnage at the inn.

The most ironic part was that Li Fan couldn't summon much sadness or pain now. He felt no guilt for abandoning his companions and running, and not even the slightest fear of the inexplicable Daoist who'd opened his mouth and sent out a flying sword to kill his fellow disciples.

He even found himself checking the system, only to discover that his mood hadn't "dropped by one point."

Li Fan, calm down.

As if he needed to be told! He was calm, wasn't he? He was running—calmly running for his life!

Because Li Fan knew that this was the only way to survive.

Just like when he'd seen so many people die before his eyes at the inn, it was as if a stream of ice had poured over his head. There was no room in his mind for any other confused, needless emotions.

Li Fan thought of only one thing:

Survive.

Survive,

because how could he just die like this?

How could he die like those mangled piles of flesh at the inn?

Let those bastards who relied on their strength to slaughter innocents get away with it?!!

The boy had run until his clothes were disheveled, his hair a mess and his face covered in dust. He slid along the ground and tumbled back to the bottom of the tomb, stopping at the entrance to the underground burial chamber. He pressed his back to the rock wall and hid among the fake burial figures. He had already taken Mu Long's four-foot great sword from his jade pendant and cradled it like a rifle, both hands clamped tightly over the talisman sealing its hilt.

The Profound Heaven Sword Intent said, "Host, don't panic—though panicking won't help either. The sword pill in that man's mouth is at least a third-grade flying sword. To wield a spiritual sword like that, he needs Divine Sense at least at the mid-Golden Core Stage. That's at least four major stages above you. You absolutely can't beat him! Rip off the seal and release the Sword Light, damn it!"

Release it now? Could he even aim properly? Shouldn't he wait until the man got closer...

The Profound Heaven Sword Intent said, "Don't overthink it! Do you think someone at the Golden Core Stage will just stand there and let you take aim? Stop dawdling and unleash the Sword Light! If you can scare the Daoist and make him hesitate, you might survive until your Senior Brother Lu gets back!"

And what if he didn't get back in time?

The Profound Heaven Sword Intent said, "Then you're dead! Even if you use up every last bit of your zhenqi, my Qi at the Qi Refining Stage can't even scratch him!"

Damn it—! Fuck!

Li Fan didn't even know who he was cursing anymore. He was still hesitating. The sword might be his only chance to deal a fatal blow to a Golden Core cultivator, and throwing it away like this, just as the Sword Intent said, was far too risky.

But the situation left no room for hesitation. Li Fan heard a bell.

A bell was ringing in the passage behind him!

Without another thought, Li Fan peeled off the talisman. Over the Profound Heaven Sword Intent's shouts of "Throw it far! Throw it far! Throw it far! Then cover your head!", he threw the sword down the passage he'd just scrambled through, ripped off the sealing talisman, then curled into a ball with his arms over his head.

His eyes were tightly shut, but through his Divine Sense he could see brilliant light flaring. The released sword shot from its sheath and slashed out four beams of Sword Light. They spread open like a fan, then pierced through the mountain surrounding the tomb and shot into the sky. From far away, they looked like four searchlights shining up from beneath the mountain ridge, piercing the clouds and soaring into the heavens.

Then countless layers of sword images appeared all at once, densely packed. In the dark passage, they flashed like a silver web of spider silk. Their reflections scattered along the path of one beam of Sword Light and fell upon the entrance to the underground burial chamber. The bronze-cast, stone-framed tomb door was sliced into countless tiny squares and collapsed with a crash.

The burial objects and terracotta soldiers inside the tomb were swept by the Sword Light and reduced to dust. Even Li Fan, curled into a ball in the corner, had a sword image cut across his back. It left a three-inch gash, and he immediately felt a sharp sting. The wound split open, deep enough to show bone.

But he was lucky to be alive... No, it wasn't luck.

Li Fan raised his head. Something like a silvery-white bamboo leaf fell from his forehead into his palm.

It was the Profound Heaven Sword Intent, even smaller than the flying sword fragment from before. It must have blocked a sword image just now, keeping half his head from being sliced off...

The Sword Intent?

The Profound Heaven Sword Intent didn't respond. It had probably suffered another—yet another—severe loss of vitality. He couldn't count on it.

Looking down, he saw Kun curled up in his arms. Well, that fellow had the best luck of all. It was completely unharmed.

Then the sound of bells clanging, followed by something heavy hitting the ground, came from the passage!

Was he dead?

"Kid, I know you're not dead."

The voice of the Daoist—the man Li Fan had heard speak only a few times, but would probably never forget for the rest of his life—rang out almost without pause.

Fuck—!

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Li Fan thrust the Profound Heaven Sword Intent in his hand into the sword wound on his back, hoping it would recover some power in his blood like it had before and help him.

The pain contorted his face, and he nearly snorted snot out of his nose, but at least he'd managed to gather the strength to get up.

"That was the Black Sword's Sword Light. Where did you get it? Could it have been... the Child of Mu Long?"

The Daoist's voice was like a steel needle, needling sinisterly into Li Fan's ears. It sounded as though he were right beside him, yet also as if he were far away. Li Fan couldn't tell whether the pain in his back was affecting his judgment or whether this was some kind of spell. His head felt like it was about to explode.

"By rights, a Golden Core disciple should have been leading you. Where is he now? Whose disciple are you? You're only at the Qi Refining Stage, so how did you resist my Divine Sense lock just now? What's your Daoist title...?"

The Daoist's voice shifted from near to far, from left to right, echoing through the tomb. There was no way to pinpoint his location.

But there was no need to pinpoint it!

If he didn't even dare come up and cut off Li Fan's head, then he was just putting on a show. The Sword Light had caught him off guard and injured him too, hadn't it? They were evenly matched!

"Your dad's my Daoist title!"

Li Fan grabbed a broken terracotta figure beside him and roared as he threw it toward the sword he'd tossed into the passage!

The moment the terracotta figure hit the ground with a thud, a red dragon surged through the air. A fiery serpent swept in from the other end of the passage, carrying a storm of Crimson Fiend flames. A river of fire surged like a blazing hell, nearly turning every living thing in the tomb to ash. If Li Fan had gritted his teeth and rushed to pick up the sword, that fiery serpent would have scorched him head-on and turned him into charcoal!

But thankfully, Li Fan had thrown himself in the other direction!

He could almost feel the agony of his body being crushed by a hammer. Most of the flesh on his back had been roasted black! The blast of scorching air flung him through the tomb, and he crashed into the tomb owner's burial chamber, its doorway wide open!

"Cough, cough, cough! No offense! I'm counting on you, brother!" Even Li Fan was surprised that he hadn't passed out, and that he could still speak and move.

But he crawled over, grabbed a dried corpse lying at the entrance, and saw all the burial goods on its body and its eight-clawed dragon robe. It must have been a prince, but he couldn't worry about offending him now. He pulled out the Jade Pure Bottle, tipped the baleful qi inside into the corpse's mouth, gulp after gulp, then hurled the corpse out of the burial chamber and shouted,

"I choose you! Go, Zombie King Jiang Chen!"

"Zombie King Jiang Chen" hit the floor of the tomb hall with a smack. A small piece of its leg bone flew off, while a little piece of its shoulder blade stuck to Li Fan's bloodstained palm...

For a moment, an awkward silence fell over the tomb.

"...Heh, heh heh, hahaha! Ha ha ha ha! You're quite an interesting boy!"

The laughter drew nearer, and Li Fan's heart sank.

The white-faced Daoist walked into the passage, a pair of phoenix eyes fixed on Li Fan at the other end of the tomb.

The two wing-like flames that had been behind his head were now reduced to little flickers. The Sword Light had clearly wounded him.

In his left hand, he carried a large, dripping-wet head. It wasn't Chen Daotong's, but the Suanni's. The cut was smooth as a mirror, perfectly clean, just above the bell around its neck. It had probably been severed by the Black Sword's Sword Light as well.

What a pity. The beast had blocked one strike, so the Sword Light had only sliced a gash across the Daoist's chest. It had torn through the Purple Sash Immortal Clothes and spilled out a pile of intestines, which he was holding in his right hand. The spot beneath his right palm was right over his Qi Sea, and faint glimmers of light shone between his fingers. He seemed to be trying to heal himself in a hurry. He was badly wounded.

What a pity! He hadn't managed to cut the bastard in half and take his life!

"I thought you had some strange treasure that could block my Divine Sense and immobilize me, and even scare my flying sword. Why don't you hurry up and use it? It seems your Dao Breath is all spent, too."

The Daoist, who hadn't been killed by the Sword Light but had certainly been startled by the Sword Intent, glanced at Li Fan, then at the dried corpse whose leg had been flung away. He gave a cold laugh. "Mu Long brought his dragon-herding all the way to Mount Buzhou. Bad luck for you... No, you killed my mount, ruined my plans, and damaged my cultivation! I should say I'm the unlucky one!

"Fine, very fine! Kid, out of regard for our shared sect, I'd meant to give you a quick death. I've changed my mind. I'll make sure you don't die so easily!"

Li Fan looked at him, then at the pathetic zombie king. He looked around the burial chamber to see whether there were any more treasures or weapons... There weren't... just a small piece of bone... and a meditation cushion...

A meditation cushion...

As if he'd given up resisting, Li Fan sighed. Ignoring the pain in his back, he crawled over and sat down on the cushion.

"Then come and get me!"

He flipped the Daoist off, then swallowed the bit of shoulder blade in his hand, thick with blood. Sitting cross-legged on the cushion, he stared at the Suanni's round head in the Daoist's hand and told himself he was looking at the moon.

Then he seemed to hear the system again.

Li Fan's mood dropped by one point.

Then, just like the last two times in the bamboo grove, the wind began to blow.

A baleful wind.

"What? Entering meditation... This! You really entered a dream! You little thief, you're asking for death!" The Daoist froze for a moment, then flew into a rage. He opened his mouth and spat out the red sword pill again! It sprang forward and shot off like a streak of light, curving straight toward Li Fan's neck!

The streak of light swept around Li Fan's neck. In the blink of an eye, it cut through half his windpipe, sending blood spraying in a torrent!

But just as Li Fan's entire head was about to fall from his neck—

Kun!

Leapt up!

And swallowed the streak of light!

"What—?!"

The Daoist was so shocked that his phoenix eyes nearly bulged like a goldfish's. But there was no time to be amazed. Thick smoke and black, foggy baleful qi surged up, whipping Li Fan's robes and making them flap wildly. It was as if a black tornado were about to rise from the ground and carry the boy away!

"Monster! You won't turn into a demon on my watch!" The Daoist kept his right hand pressed to the sword wound in his abdomen. He flung the Suanni's head from his left hand, chanted an incantation, formed a hand seal, and leapt across dozens of paces in an instant. He thrust his left hand into the tornado of baleful wind!

The baleful qi immediately rotted and stripped the flesh from the Daoist's entire arm. In an instant, only a white bone arm remained, wrapped in Dao Breath and white as jade. But divine light still protected it. Even as the baleful qi and gale whipped around it, fresh flesh grew over the bone. It didn't crumble at all!

"Get back here!"

The Daoist bellowed. With his bone arm, he grabbed Li Fan, who had nearly dissolved into the baleful qi, and dragged him back from the storm, restoring him to human form!

"What! You didn't turn into a demon!" Seeing that the boy he'd grabbed by the right arm and pulled halfway out of the wind was still human, with none of the mutations of a Devil Embryo, the Daoist's heart skipped a beat. "You're a natural Dao Seed!"

"Spit! You're a natural bastard!" Then Li Fan opened his right eye and stared at him, sweeping his gaze across him. At the same time, he shouted to empower his move. "Crimson Vein Child Sword Technique!"

At the instant their gazes met, a beam of Sword Light flashed in their pupils. It grew brighter and brighter, more and more dazzling! Finally, there were three soft pops.

"Ahhh!" the Daoist screamed. Li Fan had sacrificed his right eye to take both of the Daoist's eyes. The Sword Light swept across his brow, cutting a deep gash into the bone above his eyes! "No! Impossible! You're clearly at the Qi Refining Stage! How can you—!"

"All it took was one second of cultivation to reach Foundation Establishment!!"

That's right! The shoulder blade he'd swallowed belonged to the dried corpse. It had been buried underground for so long that it had absorbed a tiny bit of Return-to-Dust Zhenqi. It was the last great treasure he needed for Foundation Establishment! And with Li Fan's talent, even one second of cultivation through Moon Worship was enough to carry him straight into Foundation Establishment! Leveling up restored all his Qi—that was the rule! If you didn't like it, don't play!

Now Li Fan was unleashing a powerful move with only one eye. His right eye was nothing but an empty, bloody socket, and half his face had been blasted apart by the Sword Light, covered in bloody wounds and the mush of his shattered lens. Unfortunately, even a powerful killing move like the Crimson Vein Child Sword Technique could only cut across the Golden Core Daoist's eyes with Li Fan's Foundation Establishment cultivation. It hadn't severed his head, but taking out his eyes was enough!

"Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword!" Li Fan pressed his advantage! While the Daoist was still pulling him out of the baleful wind, and while the Daoist was blinded by his sneak attack, he struck again! He poured all his strength into both hands and feet...

"Go!" "Bang!" "Ugh—!"

But who could have expected that even blinded and caught off guard, a Golden Core cultivator was still a Golden Core cultivator! The Daoist already had Li Fan by the meridian gate. Though he'd lost his composure for a moment, the moment he sensed zhenqi gathering in Li Fan's meridians, he reacted. He kicked Li Fan with all his strength, sending him flying! Li Fan slammed into the wall, and the impact tore his entire right forearm off, leaving it in the Daoist's hand!

"Cough, cough, cough! Ugh—!" The kick had dealt Li Fan a grievous blow, nearly killing him on the spot. He had no idea how many organs had burst. He smashed into the wall, blood pouring from all seven orifices. He could barely draw breath, and couldn't breathe out.

But the Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword had still been unleashed!

The rampaging sword dragon stirred up a raging gale inside the tomb! Sword winds tore through the chamber, leaving the Daoist covered in dust. Yes, merely covered in dust!

His Purple Sash Immortal Clothes had blocked almost all of the sword winds! The Daoist's right hand remained clamped over the wound below his abdomen. Even as the Sword Qi stabbed into him and tore his flesh to shreds, he refused to expose the injury!

"Damn brat! Give me back my flying sword!" The Daoist had been driven into such a sorry state by a junior cultivator, and his fury boiled over!

He flung Li Fan's severed arm aside, swept his sleeve to knock away the coffins and burial objects in his way, then located Li Fan by the sound of his breathing. He leapt up, about to stomp Li Fan's neck to pieces!

Then someone grabbed the Daoist.

Or, more accurately,

The baleful-qi-saturated "Jiang Chen" grabbed him!

If the Sword Light hadn't wounded his dantian, if Kun hadn't swallowed the sword pill, if he could still see, if his Divine Sense hadn't been obscured by the tomb's baleful qi and the sword winds from the Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword, if the zombie king hadn't absorbed all that baleful qi and greatly increased its power... If all these ifs hadn't lined up, there was no way the Daoist could have been grabbed by a baleful corpse.

But that was exactly what happened.

"Roar—!!"

Perhaps Heaven was watching after all. The corpse used almost the same move as the Daoist. It gave one hard tug and tore the Golden Core villain who'd smashed up its burial chamber into strips of flesh. Then it kicked his chest in. With a single bang, the Daoist slammed flat against the wall. With a splat, a huge mass of blood burst across it, splattering Li Fan from head to toe.

The zombie king's attack had started with a kick to the Daoist's back. It not only blasted the villain to pieces, but also broke his spine and bent it back at a right angle. His abdomen had already been slashed open by the Sword Light, and his arms had just been torn off. After crashing into the wall, there was no way he could protect his insides. He was clearly done for. He could only pant and mumble, then slide down the wall with a sticky squelch, coming to rest shoulder to shoulder with Li Fan.

That wall sure was sturdy. It didn't have a single crack... Well, it had been built to contain the zombie king, after all...

Li Fan had only his left eye, so he couldn't see whether the Daoist on his right was dead. But he could see that the zombie had just been greatly strengthened by the baleful qi. The Black Sword's Sword Light had also destroyed the seal suppressing the baleful qi. The dried corpse had evolved into a proper baleful corpse king, and it was now feral and ferocious, radiating a murderous aura as it turned its head and sniffed toward him!

"Kun, Kun... Kun..." Li Fan's throat was full of blood, and he couldn't feel anything below his waist. He had no way to deal with the baleful corpse king that had kicked a Golden Core cultivator to death and was now striding toward him.

Thankfully, Kun came through.

It flicked its tail, jumped out of Li Fan's arms, and spat at the corpse king approaching it.

Kun said, "Ptooey."

Then a streak of light shot from the catfish's mouth. It was the sword pill from before! It seemed dazed and lost, circling twice in midair. Since it had been spat out right in front of the baleful corpse king, it simply swept around the corpse king's neck and cut off its head.

But the corpse king still didn't die. It even reached out to grab the streak of light!

That only enraged the flying sword. It circled once to the left, then once to the right. In an instant, it sliced the baleful corpse king into chunks, strips, and cubes, leaving a heap of writhing body parts. The more domineering Sword Qi forced all the baleful qi out of the wounds, and the pieces could no longer reassemble.

"Fuck... Kun..."

Li Fan stared with his one eye at the sword pill circling around. It seemed eager to come over and loop around his neck one more time.

Damn it. He'd just been thinking of telling Kun to escape on its own, but it had gone and spat the sword pill back out...

Kun swam up and rested on Li Fan's head, glaring at the sword pill with its round eyes.

Who knew what those two round little things communicated to each other? In any case, they faced off for a while. Then the sword pill hesitated, apparently noticed that the Golden Core Daoist beside them had fallen silent, and simply sprang up. It streaked through the empty air and shot out of the tomb passage in the blink of an eye, as if it had finally regained its freedom.

Kun patted Li Fan's head.

Kun said, "Tofu for dinner."