The Ones Who Survived

This night was destined to be a sleepless, bloody one. Deep within the forests of Ink Bamboo Mountain, Sword Light flashed everywhere, and cold blades clashed. Every now and then, bursts of fighting would erupt in the darkness, followed by deathly silence. It was unknown how long it lasted before the golden crow's sword rainbow in the sky disappeared, and the cold, merciless sword light shone through the forest, like drawing back curtains, illuminating the corpses and bones hanging among the green mountains and black bamboo.

With a turn of the Sword Light, Li Fan landed in the bamboo forest, silently standing on the tip of a leaf. He then raised his hand and released a Bright Light Talisman, illuminating the young heads that had been severed and scattered among the bamboo shoots.

Yes, they were all disciples of Ink Bamboo Mountain who went out to look for someone tonight, but were harmed by others.

Taking a deep breath, Li Fan used his Divine Sense to scan the area and confirm whether there were any survivors.

His injuries were no longer serious. With the protection of his True Yang Qi, the sword force that the green-robed deity had slashed into his body was temporarily suppressed by Li Fan. Although the wounds on his body were severe, they were not fatal.

Although firing sword rainbows repeatedly did consume a lot of energy, and the subsequent pursuit of the purple-clad man had truly exhausted him, after resting for a while and taking a breath, Li Fan had used the moon's energy and the ethereal wind to regenerate his skin, flesh, and eyeballs.

Now that he felt he could fight again, Li Fan naturally wanted to fly back to the battlefield and wipe out all the remaining North Star Guard, Hengshan, Songshan, and monsters.

These shrewd people weren't fools. They might not have believed it before, but after seeing with their own eyes that even two divine lords couldn't defeat Qingyue, they had no intention of lingering and dying; they had already run away.

When Li Fan flew back to his original spot, not only were the fates of Pei Shiqing and his group unknown, but the remains and sword of the Azure-Clad Divine Lord, as well as the severed limbs of the Shenxiao Sect, had also been cleaned up by someone. Only a pool of blood vomited by the fox remained on the ground. However, Li Fan knew where she was probably hiding, and he didn't have time to deal with her now, so he left her alone for the time being.

However, if he remembered correctly, there was a fourth sword cultivator who came to attack him at the time, so Li Fan calculated the clues of the other party and patrolled around the Ink Bamboo Mountain.

Then, places like these were discovered one after another.

Li Fan realized that he had ultimately overestimated the bottom line of some people in this world.

He assumed the other party's target would be a grotto, a sword pool, an alchemy workshop, a divine skill, or a magical treasure.

But in reality, both Ink Bamboo Mountain's enemies and Ink Bamboo Mountain itself are very clear about what Ink Bamboo Mountain's most scarce and precious resource is today.

It's a person.

Even if the abducted disciple is a newly initiated disciple, Ink Bamboo Mountain will do everything in its power to rescue them. However, when the Inner Sect disciples left behind on the nine peaks of Bamboo Mountain, those younger generation who are not yet at the Golden Core stage or are about to complete their sect's cultivation, go down the mountain to search for the abducted new disciple, they naturally break free from the sect's restrictions and the protection of the Black Sword, falling into the enemy's trap.

Even a Golden Core mage like Qingting Sou, who stayed behind, was almost killed in one blow. These disciples, most of whom were only at the Foundation Establishment, were not even a threat to those assassins who were at least at the Nascent Soul Realm stage. They were just like seedlings in the field or weeds by the roadside. With a flick of their fingers and a gust of sword wind, the seedlings and weeds were harvested.

Fortunately, these disciples of Ink Bamboo Mountain probably didn't suffer too much. They were all cut in two with a single sword stroke, their heads separated from their bodies, dying cleanly and swiftly. They probably didn't even have time to react when they rolled down the forest, leaving no sound at all, only the rustling of the bamboo forest, like the movement of a gentle breeze.

It is evident that the same group of sword cultivators were responsible for the killings. They were swift and efficient masters with identical methods: first, they would lure away the unarmed new disciples from the nearby Bamboo Mountain Immortal Peak, kill one of them to attract the Inner Sect disciples who were searching for reinforcements, then ambush and kill them all. Once no one else came, they would also kill the remaining new disciples, leaving no survivors, before moving on to the next ambush site.

Along the way, Li Fan found three such 'execution grounds', located near the left side of the Seven Stars, Crane Head, and Yangshuo Peaks. Perhaps a few survivors remained in the sects of each peak, but the young disciples who had been recruited and trained in the sects over the years had probably all been wiped out by this calamity.

Looking back at the lavish meal arranged for Li Fan, it seems these people originally intended to wipe out all the new generation disciples of the fourteen peaks and two mountains of Ink Bamboo Mountain.

Yes, tonight is not only Li Fan's calamity, but also the calamity of the entire new generation of Ink Bamboo Mountain disciples. Li Fan doesn't know how many people will survive this time. He only feels a ball of evil fire burning in his chest.

If he really can't save any of the Nine Peaks disciples tonight, then he will definitely vent this fire.

Hopefully, someone else survived...

The intense heat of the severed wrist swept over him, and the stinging pain forced Lin Chen to open his eyes. His vision was filled with crimson, and he couldn't tell whether it was burning wildfire or blood.

The night was exceptionally long, so long that Lin Chen couldn't tell if he was dreaming or already dead.

He stared blankly at the flames that danced like phantoms in the wind, then looked at his severed wrist. Finally, with difficulty, memories, along with the pain, gradually flooded back into his mind.

He and his fellow disciples were tied up in a cave, their hands were smashed as they escaped, they encountered two witches, were rescued by a nun from Emei, and then... and then... right, it was a sword.

It's a sword!

The swords rained down from the sky!

Lin Chen's eyes widened suddenly. Stimulated by the bloody smell in his mouth and nose, he sat up with a start and looked around.

The Emei nun's Qiankun was broken.

Dead people everywhere.

Limbs and severed arms were scattered all over the ground.

Are they all dead?

Not a single one alive?

"Waaaaah! Waaaah!"

Lin Chen turned his head sharply and found that not far behind him, the Saintess Ban Yu of the Demonic Sect was still alive. Although she was covered in blood from being slashed by the sword and her body was full of pieces of flesh and her face was unrecognizable, she was indeed still alive!

All the other fellow disciples are dead!

"It's all your fault!"

For a moment, Lin Chen could hardly contain his anger. He lunged forward to punch her, but lost his balance and fell to the ground.

Lin Chen turned his head and realized that his right leg had also been severed. However, for some reason, the wound seemed to be burned, which prevented him from bleeding to death.

"Huff... huff... you, you! You bunch of demons!"

Lin Chen, his face covered in blood, roared as he crawled toward the other woman, grabbed Ban Yu by the collar, and dragged her out from the pile of corpses. He punched her hard in the nose, making Ban Yu scream in pain. Her one blue and one green lake-like eyes were filled with tears and fear, even reflecting Lin Chen's face.

He looked like a Blood Ghost, his face covered in blood, a corner of his forehead sliced off by sword energy, revealing his ghastly white bones.

Lin Chen clenched his fist and glared angrily at Ban Yu, and also at the powerless reflection of himself in Ban Yu's eyes. Suddenly, he thought of his younger sister, Lin Xiang, and in the end, he didn't throw the punch.

He gritted his teeth and glared at Ban Yu for a long while, until she was so frightened that she closed her eyes and dared not look him in the eye again, before he reached out and ripped off the talisman stuck to her mouth.

"Who... I didn't see clearly! Who killed my fellow disciple just now?!"

"I... I don't know! Yes! There were three sword immortals in purple robes, but they and the Emei warriors have already gone off to fight elsewhere!"

Ban Yu shrank back and screamed, "You can't kill me! I have the God Lord Jade protecting me from death! You can only survive if you stand close to me! You owe me a life! You can't kill me!"

"You bastard!" Lin Chen was furious when he heard her shouting so arrogantly. He grabbed Ban Yu by the collar and headbutted her in the face.

Even though Ban Yu was bound and unable to control her Qi, she was still a Core Formation cultivator. This only broke her lip, while Lin Chen himself suffered severe blood loss and felt dizzy from the impact.

But at this moment, Ban Yu was also filled with shame, anger, shock, and fear, and completely broke down, crying out, "Waaaaaah! Waaaaaah!" uncontrollably.

Lin Chen ignored her, gritted his teeth, and crawled back into the pile of corpses, wanting to check one more time to see if there were any survivors.

That's impossible. It's impossible that he was the only one who survived. Maybe there are others still alive...

"Boom!" "Awoooaaaah--!"

Suddenly, a deafening roar came from not far away, startling Ban Yu into stopping her crying. Lin Chen looked up and saw a huge demon god emerging from the storm, swirling with overwhelming malevolent energy!

This demon was nearly twenty feet tall. Its lower body was normal, but its upper body had four heads and eight arms, covered in scales. On the top of its four heads, a huge lotus flower bloomed. The black petals shimmered with purple light under the moonlight, and the red roots wriggled like blood vessels, connecting the four demon heads and binding these strange shapes together. It emitted an astonishing demonic aura, and a dense baleful aura spewed out from its mouth and nose like thunderclouds, obscuring the peaks and forests.

The demon god, with its eight arms flailing wildly, was chasing and attacking two Sword Light swirling around its body. From a distance, it looked like it was swatting flies, except these two were not flies, but stinging 'wasps'. The 'wasps' maneuvered the Sword Light around, occasionally unleashing bursts of Sword Light, severing the demon god's arms, tearing away its flesh, blinding its eyes, and riddling it with holes, yet they could not completely kill the demon god.

Lin Chen stared dumbfounded at the supernatural monster. Although he could tell that this demon was the combined form of the four Black Lotus Sect from before, the sight was still too spectacular...

"... Quick, run! Protector! Protector! Duan Ye! Where the hell are you?!"

Startled by the demon's arrival, and then seeing it approaching, Ban Yu regained her senses and cried out.

"Hey! You with the missing hand! You're doomed if you get tainted by evil energy! Do you want to end up like that monster too?!"

Lin Chen came to his senses, turned his head to look at the corpses scattered on the ground, then at the severed leg, and did not answer for a moment.

"Untie me! Remove the talisman, and I'll help you escape!"

Ban Yu stared at the approaching cloud of malevolent energy and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Do you want to die in a place like this?! Then go die! I don't want to die! There are people waiting for me to go back! Isn't anyone waiting for you?!"

Lin Chen was jolted awake. He gritted his teeth, leaped over on one leg, and removed the talisman from Ban Yu's head.

Ban Yu jumped up immediately, "Good! Good! Quickly! Untie the Imprisoning Immortal Rope for me! I'll take you away!"

Lin Chen gritted his teeth, hooked his left arm around her neck, and used the Saintess as a crutch for support. "I don't believe you! If we're going to leave, we'll leave together! We'll escape together!"

"You! Humph! You're so annoying! You little devil! Ahhh! Protector! Where the hell are you, Protector?!"

Ban Yu was furious, but there was nothing she could do. She could only let Lin Chen hold her like that, and the two of them, supporting each other, limped and hopped away into the forest.

But who would have thought that after fighting the two 'wasps' for a while, the demon god became more and more excited and frantic, and its body grew larger and larger. Soon it forgot its original intention of fighting the insects and began to howl at the False Moon, continuing to grow larger and gathering more and more evil energy to condense the Devil Embryo body.

The two 'wasps' showed no intention of lingering in the fight. They shook off the demon god's entanglement and immediately fled, quickly escaping the range of the evil energy and disappearing into the deep mountain Night Curtain.

With no more constraints, the demon god roared wildly and strode towards Lin Chen and the others!

It wasn't just their imagination; the demon was truly getting closer and closer! After all, a demon as tall as a mountain had only taken a few steps to get to them!

"It's coming!" Ban Yu screamed.

Lin Chen panicked and tried his best to untie the Imprisoning Immortal Rope on Ban Yu's body, but the more he tried, the less he could untie it.

"Help! Help!" Ban Yu screamed in agony.

At that moment, perhaps hearing her call, a 'moth' emitting a white light suddenly rushed out from the rolling demonic clouds and evil aura.

The 'moth' emitted beams of white light to attack the demon god and attract his attention, but its attack power and frequency were clearly no match for the two 'flies'. Moreover, it was obviously seriously injured and exhausted, its flight trajectory appearing precarious. Every time the demon god swung his arm to drive it away, its dodges were fraught with danger, and it seemed that it could be knocked down by the demon god at any moment, its situation extremely perilous.

But the 'moth' still flew towards the flame, trying its best to rush into the core of the demon god and throw magical treasures such as Thunder Talisman to attack the black lotus in the core.

Unfortunately, the 'moth's' life force was indeed exhausted. In its desperate charge, it only managed to throw out a Thunder Talisman, piercing through a petal of the black lotus, before being blasted away by the demon god's palm, plummeting far down the cliff, its fate unknown...

The two men below were truly desperate when they saw that even reinforcements had disappeared.

Ban Yu went weak, so Lin Chen had to do everything he could to drag her along, hopping wildly on one leg, blood gushing from her mouth and nose.

"Guardian! Guardian, where are you?!" Ban Yu cried out, tears streaming down her face.

Just then, a rustling sound came from the bamboo grove ahead!

Ban Yu was overjoyed, "Guardian!"

A pig's head popped out, "Dang Kang? Dang Kang, Dang Kang!"

Ban Yu's eyes were lifeless.

"But you're a disciple of Ink Bamboo Mountain!" Upon hearing the pig's squeal, a village girl flew in.

Ban Yu came back to life, "Yes, yes, yes! We are disciples of Ink Bamboo Mountain! Junior Brother is dying!"

Lin Chen, spitting blood, glanced at her sideways...

"Go!" The village girl cultivator immediately flew over, grabbed the two of them under her arms, threw them onto Dang Kang's back, and left.

Ignoring everything else, Lin Chen grabbed the village girl's sleeve and pointed in the direction where the demon god was.

"Don't worry, the garrison commander of Nakatani will be here soon..."

Before the words were finished, a golden star suddenly flashed across the sky, like a comet falling to earth, carrying a black rainbow as it pierced through the air and landed on the head of the demon god. In an instant, the black lotus was pierced through its body, and its huge body exploded with the wind of the sword. Blood gushed out from the mouths and noses of its four heads like a fountain.

Then, at the core of the demon god's blood-red body, a flash of red light suddenly appeared, followed by a burst of golden light. Then, with a "boom," the entire demon god's torso was shattered into pieces! Sword Light flashed everywhere, and blood winds raged. The demon god's four heads and eight arms were all severed and fell to the ground with a crackling sound, smashing like rotten tomatoes, turning into a large pool of blood, a sea of blood and flesh that submerged the entire mountain range!

Then, from the remaining skeleton, a golden star rose slowly from the burning black lotus. The black lotus was engulfed by this bright flame and instantly burst into flames, resembling a giant candlestick that shone directly into the sky!

Then a huge luminous talisman was thrown out, illuminating the surrounding mountains like a small sun and marking Ink Bamboo Mountain. The golden star on the black lotus suddenly flashed, and instantly it seemed as if a heat wave swept across everyone's faces, the heat flowing straight to the top of their heads, dispelling all the evil energy around them.

Then the Venus leaped and flew to the spot where the 'moth' had fallen. A streak of light shot straight into the sky, tearing through the air and passing directly above Lin Chen and the others, disappearing in the blink of an eye, leaving only a clearly visible, brilliant star trail.

Ban Yu and Dang Kang craned their necks, staring in disbelief. The village girl was also seeing such a scene for the first time and remained silent for a long time.

Lin Chen sighed as he looked at the collapsed, scattered, and mountain-engulfing flesh and blood of the demon god.

It seems he just escaped from the cave at the foot of the demon god.

I just hope the others can survive too...

Then Lin Chen could no longer hold on, and collapsed into unconsciousness. The tofu ticket on his right wrist also seemed to have exhausted its spiritual power, and was completely dissolved in blood.