Red Rock Cave

Though the Heavenly Evil Blood Demon had disguised himself several times, there had once been an occasion when he fled to a crowded market. Someone bolder might have thought the crowds would make it hard for Yan Chihuo to find him. But, as always, the Heavenly Evil Blood Demon fled at an even greater speed than before.

Yan Chihuo had spent the past few days terrified that his opponent might escape. Apart from meditating to restore his spiritual power, he hadn't even slept, and was utterly exhausted. The Heavenly Evil Blood Demon was in even worse shape. He had suffered a sword wound; a few days' rest would have been enough to heal it, but Yan Chihuo's relentless pursuit had not only kept it from improving, it had made it worse. He had no idea how many thousands upon thousands of times he had cursed Yan Chihuo under his breath.

That day, Yan Chihuo arrived at a mountain. In the clearing before him was a cave entrance, and all the stones beside it were red. Before coming here, he had asked around in a village thirty li away. According to the villagers, the cave was called Red Rock Cave. Strange things happened inside, and no one dared go near it.

Yan Chihuo had pursued the Heavenly Evil Blood Demon for three days, finally tracking him to this place. The remaining power of the God-Speed Talisman had then vanished. He didn't know whether the Heavenly Evil Blood Demon had fled somewhere else after reaching the cave or gone inside. After all, the Heavenly Evil Blood Demon had a God-Speed Talisman and was much faster than him. Given enough time, he would eventually leave Yan Chihuo behind.

He had first rested properly for a day in a nearby town and replenished his spiritual power before returning to Red Rock Cave. A faint red glow shrouded the area within a hundred zhang of the entrance. Only his exceptionally sharp eyesight let him see it; an ordinary person wouldn't have noticed a thing.

More importantly, spiritual power seemed to flow within the red glow. Yan Chihuo didn't know what kind of spell this was, but the flow appeared to follow a pattern. Though he had yet to work out what that pattern was, he could see the gaps in the flow clearly.

He followed those gaps and entered Red Rock Cave. It was pitch-black inside, but that posed no obstacle to Yan Chihuo. To his eyes, it was no different from broad daylight. The surrounding cave walls were covered with strange, dark-brown rocks, hard as iron and icy to the touch.

The path inside descended straight into the earth. He couldn't tell whether it had formed naturally or been dug out by someone. After walking for a while, Yan Chihuo had gone deep underground, yet there was no sound at all, no sign of any living creatures.

A sheer cliff suddenly appeared before him. Below it was pitch darkness. Yan Chihuo peered down as far as he could, but deep in the gloom he saw only a few flickering points that looked like ghostly flames. The cliff was so deep that the rock walls extended beyond the reach of his sight.

Fortunately, it wasn't a sheer drop all the way down. There were outcroppings and slopes he could use as footholds. After hesitating for a moment, Yan Chihuo drew his sword, chose a relatively gentle slope, and leaped down.

A moment later, a dark shape suddenly swooped in from the side and lunged straight at Yan Chihuo. He reacted in a flash. Without even shifting his stance, he swept out his sword, sending a burst of Sword Qi toward it. The black shape took the blow like a sledgehammer, let out a piercing shriek, and tumbled backward as blood spurted from its body.

In that split second, Yan Chihuo saw that it was a crow—one more than three times the size of an ordinary crow. Spiritual power clung to its body, making it clear that it was a demon that had cultivated to some degree.

But though he had killed the crow, its dying shriek brought him even more trouble. At the sound, wings began beating furiously, and dozens of crows came swarming in. Every one of them was at least as large as the one he had just killed.

Yan Chihuo was startled. His sword flashed, killing another crow. A bird cried out overhead, and a gigantic crow emerged from the flock. It was clearly much larger than the others. Spreading its wings, it swooped straight at him.

Yan Chihuo raised his sword to block. The crow's talons struck the spine of the blade with a bang, and he staggered twice. This crow was clearly much stronger than the previous ones; its strength alone was on another level. Yan Chihuo wouldn't have feared it on level ground, but the slope here was treacherous, and his foothold was extremely narrow. One slight misstep would send him plunging over the edge.

Before he could do anything else, more than a dozen crows swooped at him. He flicked his sword and heard another loud cry. The crow from before came at him again, its talons once more striking the spine of his blade.

This time, he lost his footing and plunged straight down the cliff. A crow seized the chance to attack. Yan Chihuo flipped through the air and thrust out his sword, slicing through the crow's neck. With a crack, its head came off.

In that lightning-fast instant, he spotted what looked like a cave not far below. There was no time to think. Twisting in midair, he leaped into it.

He hit the ground with a heavy thud, pain shooting through his entire body. He didn't dare linger. Seeing that the cave ran deep, he hurried farther inside, with the angry cries of the crows still echoing behind him.

Yan Chihuo panted heavily a few times. The crows flapped about outside the cave but didn't dare follow him in. Only then did he look back. The cave twisted and turned in every direction; even his penetrating eyesight couldn't make out what lay ahead.

He glanced at the crows at the entrance, then turned and walked deeper into the cave, hoping to find another way out. Though the cave sometimes sloped upward and sometimes downward, it descended overall.

He walked for about half an hour, estimating that he was now another hundred or two hundred zhang underground, when an open space appeared before him. Five or six cave entrances surrounded it.

After a brief moment of thought, he sent his spiritual power to the acupoints behind his ears and heard someone say, "Senior Brother, you've finally come out of seclusion. I've been waiting for you all day and night." The voice belonged to the Heavenly Evil Blood Demon.

Yan Chihuo was both surprised and delighted. He was glad that this really was the Heavenly Evil Blood Demon's hideout; but he was alarmed to learn that someone else was here—the Heavenly Evil Blood Demon's senior brother. The Heavenly Evil Blood Demon was already at the Body Tempering Middle Stage, so his senior brother's cultivation couldn't be any lower.

He didn't dare go farther. Hiding in a corner, he listened closely. Then he heard another voice ask, "You're injured. Who did this to you?"

The Heavenly Evil Blood Demon replied, "Three days ago, I planned to sneak underground and ambush a junior. Who would have thought he'd notice me and stab me first? If I hadn't had the formation flags to protect me, I'd have died right there."

The other voice said, "This man can see through the Earth-Traveling Illusion Array. Could he have a Spiritual Eye? Even so, you were hidden underground. It should have been very difficult for him to find you."

The Heavenly Evil Blood Demon replied, "This man can see through the illusion array. I expect he stumbled on it by chance, so I was just unlucky. But he has another skill that makes him exceptionally troublesome."

"What skill?" the man asked.

The Heavenly Evil Blood Demon replied, "He's skilled at tracking. I used the God-Speed Talisman and left him behind again and again, but each time he caught up. I expect he's still outside Red Rock Cave now. So I'd like to ask Senior Brother to take action and kill him."