Huaiyin Mountain (Part 2)

With Ning Ye's guidance, the battle between the five and the Blade-Bone Demon actually became a back-and-forth affair, and they even gradually gained the upper hand.

The Blade-Bone Demon was wounded repeatedly and grew increasingly irritable, yet it remained trapped by the Yi Wood Formation and could not break free. Although its strength was formidable enough to force a breakthrough, it would likely be stabbed to death by the time it escaped, so it could only grit its teeth and continue the bitter struggle, its body accumulating more and more wounds.

The five were deeply grateful for this, and the man leading them with a sword said, "Many thanks. We were in the wrong before."

Ning Ye ignored him, simply stating, "Zhen position, Moon Fire Technique."

Moon Fire Technique?

The five were stunned; they didn't know how to perform that.

This proved fatal. The Blade-Bone Demon roared and charged toward the person occupying the Zhen position, swinging a bone blade that cleaved him in two.

Ning Ye's voice continued: "Li position, Wind Blade."

They knew how to do that. One person hurriedly took the Li position and unleashed a Wind Blade, only to find it completely ineffective. The Blade-Bone Demon blocked it easily, swung its bone blade again, and that man's head went flying into the sky.

With two dead in an instant, the remaining three were terrified and glared at Ning Ye: "You!"

Ning Ye continued: "Gan position..."

"Who the hell is still listening to you!" the three shouted in unison. They realized Ning Ye was playing games and simultaneously avoided the Gan position.

Yet, they hadn't expected the Blade-Bone Demon to charge over again, rushing through the Gan position and stabbing a bone blade into the chest of one of them.

At this moment, Ning Ye's voice continued: "Stab its throat."

Thwack!

The dying man thrust his sword into the Blade-Bone Demon's throat, and it actually succeeded.

This time, he hadn't lied.

The others looked at Ning Ye in horror.

This guy had calculated everything. Not only was he intentionally using them to deal with the Blade-Bone Demon, but he was also using the Blade-Bone Demon to deal with them. He had even guessed their reactions; every step was calculated without a single flaw.

"Why?" the dying man shouted.

Ning Ye finally stopped giving instructions and said indifferently, "Because you all have to die."

Slash!

The next moment, the dying cultivator was cleaved in two by the Blade-Bone Demon.

The remaining two were terrified. Just as they fell into despair, the swordsman suddenly took out a talisman and glared viciously at Ning Ye: "I'll remember you."

The next moment, his figure turned into light and fled.

"Escape Light Talisman?" Ning Ye was taken aback. This was beyond his expectations; he hadn't expected the brat to have such a backup plan.

An Escape Light Talisman was no ordinary charm. Its manufacturing difficulty was immense and it was recorded in the Yang Talisman Scripture. Ning Ye had one, but he hadn't crafted it yet.

This person used a ninth-grade Escape Light Talisman, which was likely more expensive than a typical seventh-grade talisman.

However, Ning Ye was only slightly stunned before he relaxed.

A ninth-grade Escape Light Talisman had a limited escape distance. Once he finished the business here, there would still be time to chase him down.

At this moment, the last person was completely desperate. He charged at Ning Ye regardless of the consequences, his sword tip gathering intense light; clearly, he had poured all his cultivation into this one strike.

Ning Ye sighed, waved his hand gently, and remained standing still.

Thwack!

The sword tip entered his body. The cultivator saw he had struck Ning Ye and was overjoyed: "Haha, die with me!"

But he saw that Ning Ye's face hadn't changed in the slightest.

His heart skipped a beat. He looked at Ning Ye again and saw he had transformed into the appearance of the Blade-Bone Demon.

How could this be?

He stared at the Blade-Bone Demon in shock, and before the Blade-Bone Demon severed his head, he finally spat out: "What a masterful illusion technique."

Thwack!

The corpse fell to the ground.

At the same time, the Blade-Bone Demon swayed, looked at the sword stuck in its body, and then collapsed headfirst.

"That kind of trick doesn't work on me," Ning Ye said coldly.

"Awoo!" The Blade-Bone Demon jumped up, but the moment it leaped, the Wood Wheel Armor Dance technique was activated!

All the trees flew up simultaneously, slamming into the Blade-Bone Demon. With one strike, the Blade-Bone Demon fell to the ground.

This time, it was truly dead.

Only then did Ning Ye walk over, remove the four bone blades from the Blade-Bone Demon, take the Demon Bead, and incidentally rummage through the bodies of the four dead men.

To be fair, he actually obtained some good things, including some medicinal pills for cultivation and spirit stones. Since they were all in the mid-Cang Xiang Realm, these standard mid-Cang Xiang medicines were of some value to Ning Ye.

And what excited Ning Ye the most was that one of them was actually carrying a piece of Jade Ridge Stone.

Jade Ridge Stone was a spiritual material with many uses, and its value was no less than that of the Death Spirit Locust Tree.

Ning Ye was very satisfied. He first disposed of everyone's corpses and all traces of the formation, then activated the Kunlun Mirror to track the person who had escaped earlier.

The opponent's strength was low, so he could not conceal his aura. The Kunlun Mirror quickly located him, finding him not far from their current position.

Ning Ye examined the terrain and took a shortcut to pursue him.

Li Guiling was running for his life.

The scene he had just witnessed had completely overturned his understanding; four disciples at the middle stage of the Cang Xiang Realm had actually been killed by a disciple at the early stage of the Cang Xiang Realm.

Although the opponent had not relied on direct combat strength, life is life and death is death. Between life and death, there is no question of strength.

This was an important lesson Li Guiling had learned during this trip to Huaiyin Mountain. If he could survive, perhaps he would achieve extraordinary things in the future.

"Thank you for the lesson. I will surely repay this day's events in the future!" Li Guiling gritted his teeth and muttered to himself.

Running wildly, he finally breathed a sigh of relief as he saw he was far from the scene of the incident.

Parched after the desperate battle, he noticed a small pool of water nearby. Li Guiling walked over, cupped the water in his hands to drink greedily, and when he was satisfied, he plunged his head directly into the spring. Even so, he did not forget to spread his spiritual power around to perceive everything.

Just at that moment.

Thwip!

A section of bone blade emerged from beneath the water, piercing his throat and protruding from the back of his neck.

Li Guiling was pinned to the ground, yet he was not dead; blood bubbled from his mouth and nose, and he was unable to move.

A figure appeared on the surface of the water, wearing a grim ghost mask—it was the same person from before.

"You're wondering why you were hit even though you were on guard, aren't you?" Ning Ye asked with a smile.

Li Guiling could not speak, he could only tremble incessantly.

"Actually, it's nothing special. It's just a small piece of mechanism craft; there is no fluctuation of spiritual power during the activation process."

The development of mechanism restrictions has many directions—some pursue power, some pursue illusions, and so on. What Ning Ye pursued, first and foremost, was being difficult to detect.

His Spiritless Restriction technique drew on the experience of his past life. It was driven by the mechanism itself, so there was no spiritual power fluctuation when it was triggered, hence the name Spiritless Restriction.

Of course, this method could currently only be used on minor restrictions and could only deal with people of low strength. If it were a great expert like Yue Xinchans, who had reached the level of Heaven-Human Resonance, they would still be alert even without any spiritual power fluctuations—provided, of course, that the restriction posed a threat to them. If it posed no threat, they would not notice it either.

"Mech... anism..." Li Guiling looked at the reflection in the water, looking at the mask.

He finally understood a little: "You... are not... the Black..."

"Whether I am or not, it has nothing to do with you anymore." Ning Ye pressed down on Li Guiling's head and pulled it downward. The bone blade sliced through his skull, turning his brain into mush.

After finishing this, Ning Ye checked the items on Li Guiling, collected all the medicinal pills, and left the magical artifacts behind. After erasing his tracks, he drifted away.

Four hours later.

Fu Dongliu stood beside Li Guiling's corpse, examined it, and said, "Record this: cause of death, killed by the Blade-Bone Demon's bone blade. A normal death."

Luo Qiuzhen, who was responsible for the records, hesitated for a moment and said, "Envoy Fu."

"Hmm?" Fu Dongliu glanced sideways at Luo Qiuzhen.

Luo Qiuzhen said cautiously, "Judging by the method of death, Li Guiling, like the previous four, did indeed die from the Blade-Bone Demon's bone blade. However, the Blade-Bone Demon already died over there, so why would he be killed by it here? Furthermore, his medicinal pills are missing, but his magical artifacts were abandoned. This suggests that someone else has been here."

Fu Dongliu said coldly, "You are overthinking it. It is common for the belongings of the deceased to be taken; someone likely passed by. Not reporting it is simply because they didn't want to hand over what they found—that is human nature. As for why the Blade-Bone Demon is not here, it is because Li Guiling had an Escape Light Talisman. It is entirely possible that he was struck by the bone blade and escaped to this location, only to die from his severe injuries."

"But if that were the case, why would Li Guiling bring a section of a bone blade with him? And most importantly, judging from the examination of the corpse, he clearly did not die instantly. If so, why didn't he quickly treat his wounds? Why did he just wait for death by the spring?"

Fu Dongliu frowned deeply. "What are you trying to prove? Are you trying to prove that someone killed them?"

Luo Qiuzhen paused.

Fu Dongliu said in a low voice, "If you can find the murderer, I don't mind you investigating this as a case. But if you can't find them, you are just looking for trouble for yourself, understand?"

Luo Qiuzhen felt a jolt in his heart, lowered his head, and said, "This subordinate understands."

"Very good. Just process it as a normal encounter with danger." Fu Dongliu left with his hands behind his back.