"Waiting around like this isn't a solution."
Song Yunzi took another swig of wine and suggested,
"Why don't the three of us spread out a little and widen the patrol range? It's better than crowding together in one spot."
Jiang Wan gave no answer, merely tightening her grip on her sword slightly.
Venerable Huineng shook his head outright, his voice low. "Unwise. Demons are cunning, and their strength remains unknown."
"Divided, our strength weakens. If we are suddenly attacked, we may not be able to support one another. It is safer to travel together."
Song Yunzi shrugged. It had only been a casual suggestion, and seeing Huineng oppose it, he did not insist.
Jiang Wan likewise preferred concentrating their strength. After all, her sword was better suited to facing a clear enemy.
The three continued onward.
Jiang Wan carried her longsword, moonlight flowing across her cool, delicate face and outlining features both exquisite and distant.
Her posture was straight, her legs long; even her stride possessed a crisp, graceful rhythm.
Unfortunately, neither of her two companions had the slightest appreciation for the scene of moonlight illuminating a beauty.
One was a Daoist who never let go of his wine gourd, seemingly carefree but firm in his Dao heart.
The other was a monk who carried a Monk's Blade and chanted Buddhist invocations, with the fierce visage of a wrathful vajra in his heart.
To them, beauty was no different in essence from the stubborn stones by the roadside or the drifting clouds in the sky—indeed, it was less worthy of attention than a demon's movements.
As they walked, a sudden change erupted!
A mass of heavy black clouds, from nowhere, silently rolled over and completely swallowed the pale moon.
The light between heaven and earth abruptly dimmed until one could scarcely see one's own hand before one's face.
Then, without warning, a faint grayish-white mist began to spread through the streets.
The fog carried a faint scent of damp earth, along with an indescribably sweet, cloying odor.
The three instantly stood back to back, circulating the energy within them. Their weapons left their sheaths by half an inch, their vigilance raised to its utmost limit.
A sudden fog on a night under curfew was no accident!
Tap... tap... tap...
Slow, heavy footsteps came from the dense fog at the far end of the long street, drawing closer and closer.
A figure gradually emerged.
It was a fat man dressed in luxurious brocade robes, his waist probably not much slimmer than a water vat.
Layers of fat piled across his face, squeezing his eyes into two narrow slits.
He swayed as he approached, seemingly not seeing the three Qi Refiners standing ready for battle.
Or rather, he saw them but did not care in the slightest.
His gaze fixed greedily on Jiang Wan's face, and drool even ran uncontrollably from the corner of his mouth. He looked every inch the lecherous pig.
"Beautiful... so beautiful..."
He mumbled indistinctly, his voice like bubbles squeezed up from the depths of his throat.
"Far prettier than those dozens at Liu Manor last night... hehehe..."
Jiang Wan's brows drew together slightly, frost rising in her eyes. "On a night under curfew, who are you? Why are you here?"
"Curfew?" The fat man seemed to have heard some joke and let out a strange, grating laugh.
"What curfew? If Pig Lord wants to come out for a stroll, who can stop me?"
As he spoke, he actually moved closer to Jiang Wan without the slightest restraint.
"Little beauty, how lonely this late night is. Come warm Pig Lord up..."
"Impudent!"
Jiang Wan spoke no further. With a clang, her longsword fully left its sheath. Its cold gleam was like autumn water as it shot straight toward the fat man's throat!
This sword strike was swift, precise, and vicious, without a trace of flourish.
It was the opening stance of the Autumn Water Swordplay, the foundation upon which she had traveled the world and cultivated her Qi.
"Hmph!" The greed on the fat man's face instantly turned into a savage grin.
Facing the rapidly thrusting sword light, he neither dodged nor evaded. He merely raised one thick, fleshy palm, his five fingers hooked like claws, and grabbed directly at the blade!
The wind from his palm howled, carrying a tyrannical surge of Demon Power.
At the very instant Jiang Wan drew her sword, Song Yunzi and Huineng moved as well.
Song Yunzi slapped his wine gourd. Its mouth opened on its own, and a blazing stream of fire, rich with the scent of wine, burst forth. Though launched later, it arrived first, curving around Jiang Wan's sword light and rushing straight for the fat man's face!
This was the Blazing Yang Wine Fire he had refined by mixing wine with the fire energy he cultivated. It was especially effective against yin and evil.
Venerable Huineng was even more direct, letting out a low roar. "Wretched fiend!"
He then drew the Monk's Blade from his waist with his backhand. The blade was thick and heavy, its edge flashing with chilling cold light, utterly devoid of a monk's compassion.
Instead, it carried a resolute force as though it would cleave through all filth, slashing diagonally toward the fat man's waist and abdomen!
At the same time, Sanskrit sounds burst from his mouth, each word clear and resonant like great bells and bronze drums. They formed invisible waves of vibration that struck at the fat man's soul.
It was the Buddhist Soul-Suppressing Sanskrit.
Though the three had formed their group only temporarily and had not known one another deeply before this,
the combat instincts honed through the lives of Rogue Cultivators, along with their shared perception of danger,
allowed them to naturally form the most effective combined assault the instant the other side's killing intent erupted.
No words were needed. Their eyes met, and in an instant, they formed a joint attack!
The fat man clearly had not expected these three human Qi Refiners of the Qi Induction Realm to react so swiftly, nor their methods to be so formidable.
The palm reaching for the sword blade was blocked by Jiang Wan's pure Sword Qi, and a stabbing pain shot through his palm.
The wine fire striking toward his face was scorching, making him instinctively narrow his eyes and turn his head.
The blade wind at his waist and abdomen was even sharper, forcing him to draw in his belly slightly.
When the Soul-Suppressing Sanskrit entered his ears, his head buzzed, and his movements slowed by half a beat.
Screech!
Jiang Wan's sword tip ultimately sliced a neither shallow nor deep wound across his thick palm.
No blood flowed out. Instead, a dark-yellow, viscous grease seeped from the cut.
The fat man's savage grin froze completely, replaced by furious rage.
"Good! Very good! You things that don't know whether to live or die!"
The fat man roared. The brocade robes around him suddenly bulged, and dense demonic aura exploded outward, instantly thinning the mist around them.
His body began to twist and swell. That fat face protruded forward, his ears widened and enlarged, his nostrils turned upward, and tusks thrust out from his mouth.
In the blink of an eye, he transformed into an enormous pig's head!
A human body with a pig's head, his demonic aura towering to the heavens!
So it really was a demon!
And judging by the solidity and oppressive force of that demonic aura, it was no ordinary First-Order lesser demon.
It had to be a Second-Order Demon that had condensed a demon soul!
"Everyone, be careful!"
Song Yunzi shouted a warning. The hand seals in his hands changed rapidly, and the flames spraying from his wine gourd grew even fiercer.
At the same time, he flicked his left hand. Three talismans crackling with lightning flew toward the Pig Demon in a triangular formation.
Venerable Huineng's blade attacks grew swifter. Accompanied by increasingly thunderous Sanskrit sounds, every slash of his blade targeted the Pig Demon's vital points.
Meanwhile, Jiang Wan's sword moved with nimble lightness. Her body drifted unpredictably, avoiding the Pig Demon's brute-force lunges as she targeted vulnerable points such as its joints and eyes.
After revealing his true form, the Pig Demon's strength, speed, and defense all surged sharply. Waving his thick arms, he forcefully met the attacks of all three.
Song Yunzi's lightning talismans exploded, jolting the creature until the fat across its entire body quivered wildly, leaving it scorched black in patches.
When Huineng's Monk's Blade struck its body, it could often cut only several inches into the flesh before becoming lodged in its tough fat and Demon Power.
Though Jiang Wan's Sword Qi was sharp, the wounds it inflicted seemed far from fatal in comparison to the Pig Demon's enormous body.
Though startled, the three did not panic. Each displayed their own strengths, and for a time, they fought this Second-Order Pig Demon to a standstill.
The Pig Demon roared again and again. It had thought dealing with three human cultivators in the Qi Induction Realm would be as easy as turning over its hand,
but it had not expected them to be so troublesome. The monk's Sanskrit sounds and the Daoist's lightning and fire were especially unbearable to it.
"Fellow Daoist Jiang!" Song Yunzi shouted amid the fierce battle.
Jiang Wan understood at once. Seizing the instant the Pig Demon staggered from Huineng's slash and Song Yunzi's wine fire struck its face, disrupting its vision,
her left hand flashed to her waist and drew out a bamboo tube-shaped object. She aimed it at the night sky and pulled the fuse at its base!
Calling for backup!