Ambush

He shook the gourd again and said, "I may not cultivate the Poison Dao, but with the Poison Dissolving Art, I can tell that someone smeared a thin layer of medicinal liquid on this gourd. The moment it meets realgar wine, it turns into deadly poison. And they thought this trick would catch me off guard?"

With that, he walked over to the serpent demon's corpse and swung his sword at it. Just then, a shadow leaped from a nearby tree. Gripping a sharp blade, it slashed at Yan Chihuo's neck.

Yan Chihuo had his back to the attacker and was completely unprepared. He was on the verge of losing his life to that strike when he suddenly spun around, slipped behind the man, and struck out with his palm.

The man's blade cut through empty air. Startled, he turned and raised a palm to block. Yan Chihuo felt a tremendous force crash into him, sending him flying through the air before he landed more than ten zhang away.

The man gave a startled exclamation, seemingly surprised. He was at the Body Forging Late Stage, while Yan Chihuo was only at the Body Tempering Middle Stage. It was remarkable that Yan Chihuo had sustained no serious injury when their palms met. Then the man felt his palm go numb and couldn't help but stiffen in alarm. His opponent's palm was poisoned!

Protected by the Poison Dissolving Art, Yan Chihuo hadn't taken the poison used by Yang Kun and Mao Chuan seriously. With his Spiritual Ear and Spiritual Eye, he had already noticed this man. But since the man was at the Body Forging Late Stage, Yan Chihuo knew he wasn't his match, so he had laid a trap within a trap and poisoned his opponent.

The man hurriedly swallowed several pills and turned to flee. But the poison was so potent that, in the blink of an eye, his head began to spin. Panic seized him. Yan Chihuo swept his sword, sending a streak of Sword Qi shooting toward him. The man tried to cast a spell, only to find himself weak and sluggish, unable to muster his magic power. Before he could react, the Sword Qi swept across his throat, and his head hit the ground.

Yan Chihuo stepped forward and took the man's Storage Ring. Then he went back and removed the bundles from Yang Kun and Mao Chuan, collected the Talisman Artifacts of all three men, and took the serpent demon's head, scales, poison sac, and Snake Gallbladder. After that, he left.

He reached an open clearing and first opened the bundles belonging to Yang Kun and Mao Chuan. His expression changed. The treasures they carried amounted to only twenty or thirty Jade Crystals and a dozen or so medicinal herbs. There were three Jade Ginseng roots among them, but that was not what surprised him. What truly shocked him were two black Metal Tokens. One bore a tiger's head, with the number "seventeen" beneath it; the other was marked "twenty-one."

These two tokens were exactly like the one carried by the man he had killed when he first entered Snow Dragon Ridge, and the one carried by the Heavenly Evil Blood Demon's senior brother! Yan Chihuo thought, So those two didn't decide to attack me on a whim. There's an organization out to kill me, and they've sent so many people after me.

He then picked up the Storage Ring from the Body Forging Late Stage cultivator and channeled his magic power into it. After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he finally erased the mark on it. Inside, he found more than forty Jade Crystals, a piece of skin made from some unknown creature, several jade bottles containing antidotes and healing pills, and a black Metal Token identical to those belonging to Yang Kun and Mao Chuan. The only difference was the number on it: "ten."

Being targeted by this assassins' organization was certainly troublesome, but Yan Chihuo had no way to deal with it for now. He could only hurry back to the Cloud Soaring Sect. Once he reached the sect, this organization would surely dare not pursue him.

Now that Yan Chihuo had the serpent demon's poison sac and the Jade Ginseng, it was time to return. But the assassins' organization had set its sights on him, and he had killed four of its people in recent days. There was no way to resolve their feud. They would surely ambush him along the way.

Yan Chihuo was strong, but he knew his limits. He still wasn't a match for a Body Forging Late Stage cultivator. This time, he had killed two assassins at that stage only because the Poison Dissolving Art had come through for him. If he ran into another Body Forging Late Stage assassin and had to fight him head-on, he'd have no choice but to flee.

If only he could change his appearance. Yan Chihuo sighed. The Disguise Techniques used by martial artists in the mortal world were completely useless in front of cultivators. It was only a passing thought.

He took out the piece of skin and examined it, wondering, What is this? It even has limbs and a head. Could it be something I'm supposed to wear?

He tried slipping the skin over himself, then glanced at the water nearby. A dark-faced man stared back at him from its surface. Who is that?!

He nearly jumped out of his skin. With his senses so sharp that even Body Forging Late Stage cultivators skilled at concealment couldn't escape his notice, could this man be a Qi Gathering Stage expert?

He looked around. There was no one there, so he relaxed a little and glanced into the water again. The dark-faced man was still there. This time, he couldn't help laughing. The dark-faced man was none other than himself. So this piece of skin could change his appearance.

This was a treasure dropped right into his lap, perfectly suited to his predicament. The problem was that it had belonged to the Body Forging Late Stage assassin, and people might recognize that face too.

Yan Chihuo sighed to himself and said, "If only I could change my appearance." As soon as the words left his mouth, he was astonished to see the face in the water change slightly.

His heart stirred. "That dark face is too ugly. Make it yellow, thinner, and older, with a weathered look, and give it a scar across the cheek." As soon as he finished speaking, the dark face in the water rapidly faded and became that of a yellow-faced, middle-aged man. He looked weather-beaten, with a scar more than an inch long across his cheek. Yan Chihuo was overjoyed. With this treasure, he had a good chance of escaping the assassins' pursuit.

Next, he took out the serpent's head, pulled out its two fangs, and gouged out its eyes. They looked like a pair of pearls. He had no idea what they were used for, but they were surely no ordinary objects. The rest of the serpent's head was bone.

The skull of a serpent demon at the Body Forging Late Stage could be used as medicine or refined into a magical artifact, so Yan Chihuo wasn't about to waste it. He used his sword to peel away the serpent's skin, but beneath a raised spot on its crown, he found a round bead the size of a fist. His heart stirred. Could this Poison Python be growing a horn? If so, it must have Flood Dragon blood in its veins. I shouldn't underestimate it.

At the Body Tempering Stage, demons were generally a little stronger than cultivators, though this was usually true only of Rogue Cultivators. Disciples of sects could instead defeat those demons. There were exceptions, however: a naturally exceptional Great Demon like a Flood Dragon could overpower the disciples of a sect as powerful as the Cloud Soaring Sect. Only disciples of major sects could defeat one. But against demons like True Dragons, even disciples of major sects might not be a match.