Tower of Skulls

The Four Ghosts of Yin Mountain had suffered two deaths, one crippled, and one severely wounded in the blink of an eye.

This was something Qin Honglian simply could not accept.

The five brothers had roamed the lands of You and Ning with impunity. Not even the pursuit of the One Qi Piercing Sun Alliance had been able to do anything to them. Who would have thought they would fall today at the hands of a nobody?

Chen Yuan withdrew the Source of Killing Intent and suppressed the surging Blood Fiend aura.

At present, he could only guarantee that using Blood Fiend Power for thirty breaths would cause no side effects, and that he could suppress the Blood Fiend for up to a hundred breaths without losing control.

Though his previous chain of attacks had involved many changes, it had actually taken just over thirty breaths.

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

It seemed his previous estimate of thirty breaths had been too conservative.

Given the strength of his body, he could last even longer in actual combat.

Chen Yuan looked at Qin Honglian and Han Gang and said calmly, "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 qi and blood, shouting at Qin Honglian behind him, "Run! Run now! Make it back to Miao Territory alive!"

Qin Honglian's eyes turned bloodshot. She had apparently never expected Han Gang to risk his life to cover her escape.

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

By then, Han Gang was already at the end of his rope. His secret art of burning qi and blood was not particularly advanced; it burned through his vitality too quickly, yet did not grant much power in return.

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

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

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

It was not the brotherly bond accumulated through wandering the martial world together, but a deep and abiding love.

Who knew what had happened between the two of them?

Of course, none of that mattered. Chen Yuan still had to kill him.

After several exchanges, Han Gang's qi and blood were nearly exhausted. The burly man's face was pale, and he could barely remain standing.

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

"Don't worry. I'll kill her next and send her down to reunite with you.

"I'm a kindhearted man. I can't stand seeing lovers separated by life and death."

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

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

What was that called? Repaying resentment with virtue, obviously.

But Chen Yuan's words drove Han Gang's eyes bloodshot. With a wild roar, he lunged at Chen Yuan.

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

Yet there was scarcely any blood left in the corpse to spill. Almost all of it had been burned away.

Chen Yuan moved and immediately gave chase after Qin Honglian.

He had promised to send them down to reunite, and Chen Yuan could not go back on his word.

Qin Honglian was currently fleeing frantically deeper into Demon-Sealing Valley. Her eyes were bloodshot with both fear and heartache.

Back when Han Gang had been gravely wounded in a desperate battle, she had used gu insects to save him and invited him to join the Five Ghosts of Yin Mountain.

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

Han Gang was clumsy with words and timid when it came to love, so he had never spoken his feelings aloud.

But ordinarily, Han Gang listened only to her. He would not even listen to Old Daoist Qi.

In battle, he stood before her. During cultivation, he helped her kill people and refine gu.

Qin Honglian knew all this, but she had suffered heartbreak in Miao Territory and was unwilling to believe in love again for the rest of her life.

Thus, she had turned a blind eye to Han Gang's devotion and had even deliberately avoided it.

She had never imagined that the words left unsaid would now never have a chance to be spoken.

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

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

She was a gu master from Miao Territory and knew no movement techniques. Her explosive power was also weak.

Chen Yuan possessed deep reserves of inner force. Even relying solely on the explosive power of his body, he was far faster than her.

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

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

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

Chen Yuan said flatly, "There are only two possible outcomes in the martial world: life or death.

"From the moment you attacked, it became a fight to the death. Yet now you're begging for mercy. That's rather naive of you."

This woman had initially been calm and composed, capable of holding her nerve.

But when death loomed before her, she was not even as decisive as Han Gang. In the end, she still feared death.

Qin Honglian shouted furiously and suddenly cut open her forehead with her finger. Blood instantly sprayed everywhere.

A golden cicada crawled out from the wound in her forehead. Its wings vibrated, producing a metallic shriek as it shot toward Chen Yuan like an arrow.

After releasing the golden cicada, Qin Honglian's face had already turned pale as paper. What the 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 Miao Territory who had betrayed her was still alive. She had not yet taken revenge. How could she die just like this?

Chen Yuan slashed at the golden cicada, and a resounding metallic clang erupted from it.

This thing was actually sturdier than most Mystic Weapons. It could withstand a direct strike from the Azure Dragon Blooddrinker.

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

Autumn Wind Slash descended, followed by a sky full of blade shadows like a raging storm.

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

After only a few breaths, the golden cicada could no longer endure and abruptly flew back to Qin Honglian's brow to draw upon the blood from her heart once more.

But before it could finish feeding this time, Chen Yuan's blade light had already fallen, and Qin Honglian's head instantly rolled to the ground.

Chen Yuan was rather interested in that golden cicada.

Gu masters of Miao Territory were also a major class in Jianghu II. Though Chen Yuan had never played one, he still knew a great deal about them.

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

Moreover, gu insects were equally priceless, 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 looked rather ordinary. Only this golden cicada was something special.

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

"Dead?"

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

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

Chen Yuan wrapped his hands in true qi and carefully picked up the golden cicada to inspect it.

The gu insects of Miao Territory were strange and unpredictable. Although he had confirmed that this golden cicada had entered hibernation, caution was still necessary.

The golden cicada was entirely gilded gold and had six wings, each as sharp as a blade. Its form was so exquisite that it barely resembled a living creature, more like a work of art.

Its wings and abdomen were carved with densely packed tiny incantations, so small that they resembled grain-sized engravings. Even at Chen Yuan's current realm, they appeared somewhat blurry.

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

Her attainment in the gu arts was mediocre. How could she possibly have refined a gu insect of this level?

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

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

Such pouches were used by gu masters to store young gu insects. They could isolate outside auras and prevent the young insects from being affected. Nearly every gu master carried one.

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

His intuition told him that this gu insect was extraordinary. As 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 from nearby.

He looked up, only to find those auras all retreating on their own initiative, signaling that they bore no ill will.

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

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

However, most people merely fought a battle. Those who truly fought to the death were actually few.

People like Chen Yuan, who moved to wipe out his opponents completely from the start, were 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 independent cultivators throughout the borderlands of You and Ning.

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

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

Even if Old Daoist Qi had survived, there would no longer be any title of the Five Ghosts of Yin Mountain in the martial world from this day forward.

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

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

Fighting one against eight, Luo Shisanlang had not been injured. He had merely consumed too much inner force and looked somewhat exhausted.

The martial artists watching from afar were utterly numb.

It was already shocking enough that Chen Yuan had killed four of the Five Ghosts of Yin Mountain. Luo Shisanlang had nearly wiped out the Iron Garb Sect's group as well.

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

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

They could not afford to provoke two figures who were like slaughter gods.

"Why did you bring all these heads over?"

Chen Yuan was somewhat surprised.

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

"To build a tower of skulls."

Luo Shisanlang stacked the heads together, building a tiny miniature tower of skulls.

"My foster father said that when dealing with enemies who won't stop until one side is dead, you have to make them fear you.

"Those iron-shelled bastards from the Iron Garb Sect come looking for trouble every few days. There are plenty of Iron Garb Sect disciples here too, so I built a tower of skulls to warn them."

"You really do listen to your foster father."

Chen Yuan bared his teeth.

Luo Shisanlang had brought things from the battlefield here and was indeed acting a little deranged.

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

"Brother Chen, where do we go now?"

Chen Yuan pointed toward the deepest part of Demon-Sealing Valley and said, "The outer formation still hasn't been opened, so we 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 found something strange.

The main purpose of the Demon-Sealing Conference in the past 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 been killing Corpse Monsters for quite a while. They had even nearly cleared all the Corpse Monsters from this area, so why had the Three Demon-Sealing Clans not repaired the formation yet?

The farther they went, the narrower the path became.

The other martial artists also gradually emerged, though 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 tower of skulls. Who would not be afraid?

After walking along the narrow path for a quarter of an hour, the mist ahead grew thinner, yet darker. The demonic qi was so dense that it seemed impossible to disperse.

Before them appeared a forest filled with withered trees.

The trees were entirely black. Their texture did not even resemble wood, but rather dried flesh.

Before the forest stood a stone stele, engraved with a line of large golden characters.

"Three Absolutes Venerable, suppressing demons here!"