Mound of Heads

In the blink of an eye, four of the Five Ghosts of Yin Mountain were left with two dead, one crippled, and one heavily wounded.

This was something Qin Honglian could not accept no matter what.

The five brothers had run rampant across Youning, and even the One Qi Piercing Sun Alliance's pursuit had failed to do anything to them. Who would have thought that today, they would stumble into the hands of an unknown nobody?

Chen Yuan put away the Source of Killing Intent and suppressed the seething Blood Fiend aura.

At present, he could only ensure that using Blood Fiend Power for thirty breaths would bring no side effects whatsoever. Within a hundred breaths, he could still suppress the Blood Fiend and prevent it from losing control.

Though the chain of attacks just now had changed repeatedly, it had in fact taken just over thirty breaths.

Although he had exceeded the limit by a few breaths, it had almost no effect on Chen Yuan.

His previous estimate of thirty breaths seemed to have been too conservative.

Given the strength of his body, he could sustain it for even longer in actual combat.

Chen Yuan looked at Qin Honglian and Han Gang and said flatly, "I'll return those words to you. Kill yourselves now, and I can still leave you intact corpses."

Han Gang roared and charged madly at Chen Yuan with his burning blood and qi. At the same time, he shouted at Qin Honglian behind him, "Run! Run now! Stay alive and return to the Miao Borderlands!"

Qin Honglian's eyes turned bloodshot. She seemed not to have expected Han Gang to risk his life to cover her escape.

After hesitating for a moment, Qin Honglian gritted her teeth, turned, and fled.

Han Gang was already at the end of his tether. The secret art that burned his blood and qi was not particularly advanced; it burned too quickly, yet the power it brought was not all that great.

Even without using Blood Fiend Power, Chen Yuan could still match him evenly in strength.

"Tsk, tsk. Who would've thought a big brute like you was such a romantic fool?"

Chen Yuan could tell that Han Gang's attitude toward Qin Honglian was clearly different.

It was not the brotherhood accumulated through roaming the martial world together, but a deep and abiding love.

Who knew what exactly had happened between the two of them?

Of course, none of that mattered. Chen Yuan would still kill when it was time to kill.

After several exchanges, Han Gang's blood and qi were nearly exhausted. The burly man's face was pale, and he no longer had the strength to continue.

"If you die while she lives, she'll spend the rest of her life in pain.

"Don't worry. I'll kill her soon and let you reunite below.

"I'm a kindhearted man. I can't stand seeing lovers divided between yin and yang, separated by life and death."

Chen Yuan sighed sentimentally, feeling that he truly was a good person.

The Five Ghosts of Yin Mountain had wanted to kill him, yet he was taking the initiative to send them down to reunite.

What was this called? A textbook case of repaying resentment with virtue.

Yet Chen Yuan's words drove Han Gang's eyes bloodshot. He let out a wild roar and lunged at Chen Yuan.

A flash of stunning blade light swept past, and Han Gang's enormous head flew into the air.

But there was barely any blood left in the corpse to spill. It had almost all been burned away.

Chen Yuan moved and raced after Qin Honglian.

He had promised to let them reunite below, so Chen Yuan could not go back on his word.

Qin Honglian was currently sprinting madly deeper into Demon-Sealing Valley. Her eyes were red with both fear and heartache.

Back then, Han Gang had been grievously wounded in a bloody battle. She had saved him with Gu insects and invited him to join the Five Ghosts of Yin Mountain.

She had also known that from that moment onward, Han Gang had harbored a different sort of affection for her.

But Han Gang was clumsy with words and somewhat cowardly when it came to love, so he had never voiced it.

Still, Han Gang listened only to her in daily life. He would not even listen to Old Daoist Qi.

In battle, he stood before her. During cultivation, he helped her kill people to refine Gu.

Qin Honglian knew all of this, but she had suffered heartbreak in the Miao Borderlands. For the rest of her life, she had been unwilling to believe in love again.

Thus, she turned a blind eye to everything Han Gang gave her and even deliberately avoided him.

She had simply never expected that the words once left unsaid would now never have another chance to be spoken.

"You really are heartless. That big fool was willing to die for you, yet you actually ran?"

Qin Honglian turned around and saw that Chen Yuan had already caught up.

She was a Gu master from the Miao Borderlands and did not know lightness skill. Her explosive power was also weak.

Chen Yuan had deep inner strength. Relying on nothing but the explosive power of his body, he was already far faster than her.

"If I died before him, then he truly would not be able to die in peace!"

As Qin Honglian ran, she pleaded, "We weren't the ones who wanted to kill you! It was Wei Guangming, the Iron Garb Sect Master, who wanted you dead!"

"I know Wei Guangming wants me dead, but that has nothing to do with why I want to kill you."

Chen Yuan said coolly, "In the martial world, there are only two outcomes: life and death.

"From the moment you made your move, it became a fight to the death. Yet now you're begging for mercy. Aren't you being too naive?"

This woman had been calm and composed at the start, capable of keeping her nerve.

But with death looming over her, she was not even as decisive as Han Gang. In the end, she was still afraid of dying.

Qin Honglian shouted furiously and suddenly sliced open her forehead with her finger. In an instant, blood spattered everywhere.

A golden cicada crawled out from the wound on her forehead. Beating its wings, it let out a metallic shriek and shot toward Chen Yuan like an arrow.

After releasing the golden cicada, Qin Honglian's face had already turned pale as paper. What the golden cicada consumed was the blood from her heart.

Qin Honglian was not truly afraid of death. She simply did not want to die now.

The man in the Miao Borderlands who had betrayed her was not dead yet, and she had not avenged herself. How could she die just like this?

Chen Yuan slashed his blade against the golden cicada, and a resounding clang erupted from it.

This thing was actually sturdier than most Mystic Weapons. It could withstand the strike of the Azure Dragon Blooddrinker head-on.

"It's certainly hard, but it feeds on your essence blood. How long can it last?"

Autumn Wind Slash descended, and a skyful of blade shadows came crashing down like a violent storm.

The tiny golden cicada drifted amid the blade shadows, constantly being knocked flying and forced back, its strength rapidly draining away.

After just a few breaths, the golden cicada could no longer hold on. It shot back toward Qin Honglian's brow and began drawing her heart's blood once more.

But before it could finish feeding this time, Chen Yuan's blade light had already fallen. Qin Honglian's head hit the ground in an instant.

Chen Yuan was quite interested in that golden cicada.

Gu masters of the Miao Borderlands were also a major profession in Jianghu II. Although Chen Yuan had never played one, he still understood them quite well.

Some powerful Gu insects could be controlled not only by Gu masters. Other martial artists could use them as well, so long as they knew the method.

Moreover, Gu insects were equally priceless treasures, no less valuable than the hidden weapons of the Divine Mechanism Pavilion or the pills of Medicine King Valley.

The other Gu insects on Qin Honglian's body looked fairly ordinary. Only this golden cicada was something good.

Chen Yuan first poked the golden cicada with his scabbard, but it did not move at all.

"Dead?"

Chen Yuan probed it again with his inner strength, only then sensing a faint trace of vitality within its body.

This golden cicada fed on Qin Honglian's heart's blood. It had likely exhausted its blood and qi and fallen into hibernation.

Chen Yuan wrapped his hands in true qi and carefully picked up the golden cicada for inspection.

Gu insects of the Miao Borderlands were strange and unpredictable, changing in countless ways. Though he had confirmed that the golden cicada was dormant, caution was still necessary.

The golden cicada's entire body gleamed with gold. It had six wings, each one as sharp as a blade. Its design was so exquisite that it hardly looked like a living creature, but rather an artwork.

The wings and the cicada's abdomen were inscribed with dense, tiny spell patterns, so small they resembled carvings upon grains of rice. Even with Chen Yuan's current realm, they appeared somewhat blurry to him.

Chen Yuan was now certain that this golden cicada was absolutely not something an amateur Gu master like Qin Honglian could have refined.

Her attainments in the Gu Path were mediocre. How could she possibly refine a Gu insect of this level?

Even the way she had controlled the golden cicada might not have been correct.

Chen Yuan searched Qin Honglian's body and found a small red leather pouch.

This sort of pouch was used by Gu masters to carry Gu insect larvae. It could isolate outside auras and prevent the young Gu insects from being affected. Almost every Gu master had one.

Chen Yuan placed the golden cicada in the pouch for the time being, intending to study it later.

His instincts told him that this Gu insect was far from ordinary. So long as he found the correct way to control it, it would definitely be a valuable treasure.

At that moment, Chen Yuan sensed several auras watching this place.

He looked up, only for those auras to scatter and retreat of their own accord, indicating that they bore no ill will.

They belonged to other martial artists who had entered Demon-Sealing Valley.

Fierce battles over spirit pills were common within Demon-Sealing Valley.

But people usually only fought a match or two. Those who truly fought to the death were not many.

Someone like Chen Yuan, who began by wiping out his enemies completely, was rare even in past Demon-Sealing Conferences.

Especially since he had killed four of the Five Ghosts of Yin Mountain.

The Five Ghosts of Yin Mountain were quite famous among the Rogue Cultivators throughout the Youning borderlands.

Each of the five had their own strengths. When the four of them worked together, they had even slain martial artists of the Sea Wheel Realm.

Who would have thought the Five Ghosts of Yin Mountain would fall at the Demon-Sealing Conference, with four of them butchered outright?

Even if Old Daoist Qi had not died, the title Five Ghosts of Yin Mountain would no longer exist in the martial world from this day onward.

Just then, Luo Shisanlang walked over, dragging eleven heads behind him.

Besides the eight members of the Iron Garb Sect, there were also the heads of Han Gang and the other two.

Facing eight opponents alone, Luo Shisanlang had not been injured. His inner strength had merely been greatly depleted, leaving him somewhat weary.

The martial artists watching from afar were numb with shock.

It was one thing for Chen Yuan to have killed four of the Five Ghosts of Yin Mountain, but Luo Shisanlang had nearly wiped out the Iron Garb Sect's entire group.

Since when had the Demon-Sealing Conference become this dangerous?

Those martial artists did not dare linger any longer and immediately turned to leave.

They could not afford to provoke two figures like these killing gods.

"Why did you bring all these heads over?"

Chen Yuan was rather surprised.

He had never heard that Luo Shisanlang had such a hobby.

"To build a mound of heads."

Luo Shisanlang piled up the heads and constructed a very small mound of heads.

"My adoptive father said that when dealing with enemies who will not rest until one side is dead, you have to make them fear you, make them afraid.

"These iron-shelled bastards from the Iron Garb Sect come looking for trouble every other day. There are plenty of Iron Garb Sect disciples here too, so I'll build a mound of heads to warn them."

"You really do listen to your adoptive father."

Chen Yuan bared his teeth in a grin.

Luo Shisanlang had carried things from the battlefield all the way here. That was honestly a little twisted.

Whether the Iron Garb Sect people would be frightened was uncertain, but the people attending the Demon-Sealing Conference would definitely be terrified.

"Brother Chen, where do we go now?"

Chen Yuan pointed toward the deepest reaches of Demon-Sealing Valley and said, "The outer formation hasn't been opened yet, so we'll keep going inward."

The two continued onward, while other martial artists also headed deeper into Demon-Sealing Valley.

Some martial artists who had attended the Demon-Sealing Conference before all felt that something was strange.

In previous Demon-Sealing Conferences, the primary purpose had been to suppress outbreaks of demonic qi. They would kill the Corpse Monsters here, while the Three Demon-Sealing Clans repaired the suppression outside and sealed the demonic qi again.

But this time, they had already spent a long while killing Corpse Monsters, even clearing nearly all the Corpse Monsters from this area. Why had the Three Demon-Sealing Clans still not repaired the formation?

The farther they went, the narrower the path became.

The other martial artists also gradually appeared, but they all instinctively kept their distance from Chen Yuan and Luo Lie.

This was not ostracism, but fear.

These two had slaughtered their way through the Demon-Sealing Conference and had even built a mound of heads. Who would not be afraid?

After they had walked along the narrow road for a quarter of an hour, the mist ahead grew thinner, yet even darker. The demonic qi was so dense that it simply could not disperse.

Before them appeared a forest filled with withered trees.

The trees were black from trunk to branch, their texture not even resembling wood, but rather dried flesh and blood.

At the edge of the forest stood a stone stele, upon which was written a line of golden characters.

"Three Absolutes Venerable, suppresses demons here!"