The Demon Serpent: Setting Wolf Against Tiger

Elsewhere, in Cloudmist City.

Inside a shuttered, dilapidated house, the stench of blood filled the air.

Ling Youdao chanted without pause. Blood energy swirled around him, splitting into more than a dozen thorny threads that crawled and trembled like compass needles.

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At last, Ling Youdao let out a long, turbid breath. His face darkened as he sighed. "I can't find her. What an exquisitely subtle technique..."

The blood threads scattered aimlessly. He had exhausted nearly every method and pushed his secret art to its limit, yet still could not find Ling Moxue.

"Though this is only a minor trick within Witchcraft, its caster has mastered it to a remarkable degree."

Ling Youdao kept the hand seals active as he paced, irritation plain in his eyes.

That Cao Mengde had deliberately written the birth details on cheap yellow paper. The slightest fluctuation of spiritual power would make the talisman paper disintegrate, leaving no clues.

"The technique was used with perfect precision. Even a Demonic Cultivator steeped in this art for years might not have such skill."

Ling Youdao's brow remained furrowed. Beside him, Ling Qiuyun quietly poured a cup of fragrant tea and offered it to her father with both hands. Her voice was gentle.

"This man is meticulous and cautious, but he's likely a low-level cultivator with no backing and a desperate shortage of cultivation resources."

Ling Qiuyun pressed her lips together in a warm smile, though worry weighed heavily on her heart.

With Sister Mo Xue in the hands of such a Demonic Cultivator, she's more likely dead than alive.

"Qiu Yun is right. I let my composure slip."

Ling Youdao sipped the tea, his wariness growing.

A Late Qi Refining cultivator would not bother studying such lowly arts as Witch Puppet and Smoke Cloud Escape. Cao Mengde's cultivation was, at most, around the fourth layer of Qi Refining.

Even so, the man had a wealth of tricks and left no cracks in his plans. He was among the most troublesome kinds of Demonic Cultivators.

If Qiu Yun's life had not been at stake, Ling Youdao would have kept well away from him.

Ling Youdao's brow creased. The problem felt thornier by the moment.

"Father, if it can't be done..."

"Don't worry. Cao Mengde lacks high-level techniques. He can only hide himself with a Breath Concealment Pill or two. Sooner or later, he'll give himself away."

Ling Youdao gently stroked Ling Qiuyun's back. Feeling how slight his daughter's frame was, he pressed his lips together and sighed.

"But the man is cunning. Without the County Office's terrain in my favor, I can't be sure of taking him down with the Soul Banner alone."

As he hesitated, Ling Youdao's pupils contracted. Blood surged through his Meridians, and the tangled blood threads snapped straight all at once, pointing west like spears.

Outside, the night was deep. Ling Youdao immediately leaped through the window, formed the Spirit Palace Finger Art, and gazed in the direction indicated by the Blood Curse.

The sensation was faint and vanished in an instant. He strained to sense it and finally managed to confirm the direction.

"The Four Elements Mountains? He actually hid there?"

Ling Youdao was about to probe further when the Blood Curse seemed to lose its guide. It collapsed into chaos, leaving him no trace to follow.

"What a crafty Demonic Cultivator."

In the Four Elements Mountains, beasts roared like thunder.

Cold rain drifted down, biting to the bone. Luo Fanchen trudged through the muddy forest.

His thin clothes were soaked through, clinging cold and clammy to his skin. He panted steadily. Refining and storing the Blood-Absorbing Talismans had consumed much of his spiritual power, and after traveling half the night, he was exhausted in body and mind.

I don't even know if this will work.

After a long while, Luo Fanchen drew on his experience to reach the right-hand peak. He checked the wind direction several times and finally confirmed it was one of the mountain range's windward openings.

Without this rain, the spiritual wind he could blow out with True Essence would have carried the scent of blood from nine Blood-Absorbing Talismans across at least two-thirds of the valley.

Now he could only hope the rumored Demon Serpent truly existed and had a keen enough sense of smell.

"Phew—"

Luo Fanchen breathed out heavily and worked to steady his rapid breathing. Only when his trembling hands had calmed did he send out a stream of True Essence to hold back the rain and take his prepared materials from the Storage Bag.

Nine Blood-Absorbing Talismans, a Gu Puppet soaked in Ling Moxue's blood essence, three Spirit Stones, and the carcass of a two-meter-tall brown bear.

First, he needed to lure the Demon Serpent and make it swallow the Gu Puppet whole.

Then he would activate the Gu Puppet himself, letting Ling Youdao locate it while setting a tiger on a wolf.

Luo Fanchen was rather grateful that Snake Demons liked to swallow their food whole. Had it been any other Demon Beast, the fragile Gu Puppet would never have survived being chewed.

"Let's begin."

Luo Fanchen bit his fingertip and swiftly drew seal script on the yellow paper with his blood.

The difficult part of the plan was attracting the Snake Demon.

The cultivation world had soul incense used to lure beasts, but it was expensive. He could not afford even First-Tier Low-Grade stock. Fortunately, this Demon Serpent had long lived in the mortal realm, deprived of spiritual power.

He would use blood essence and Spirit Stones as bait, supplement them with a small Spirit-Gathering Formation, then reverse the formation to blow the bloody scent outward on a spiritual wind.

It might draw the Snake Demon over.

The Spirit-Gathering Formation he knew was a stripped-down version. It was terribly inefficient and consumed Spirit Stones at a prodigious rate—the sort of thing even early Qi Refining cultivators scorned.

"Done."

After a long while, Luo Fanchen wiped the fine sweat from his brow. His face was slightly pale.

Before him, nine Blood-Absorbing Talismans lay in a nine-sided arrangement corresponding to the Nine Palaces. The Spirit-Gathering Formation occupied the Central Palace, with three Spirit Talismans representing Yi (Sun Mystery), Bing (Moon Mystery), and Ding (Star Mystery), linked by seal script drawn in True Essence.

At its core, a Spirit-Gathering Formation used the art of the Mysterious Gate to shift the positions of heaven and earth and cycle through the seasons, yin and yang, and the Five Phases. In doing so, it seized and purified the spiritual power of the Five Phases.

The more symbols a formation contained, the higher its rank. The complete formation was said to have seventy-three formation talismans. His had only three.

You can't catch a wolf without bait.

Luo Fanchen's face twisted with pain. As he placed the three Spirit Stones in the Central Palace, his hand shook as though his heart were bleeding.

Three Spirit Stones! How much spirit rice would he have to harvest for that? He feared he could not save three even in two years.

Luo Fanchen rose and cut the bear open. With a hand seal, he sent several streams of True Essence into the Spirit-Gathering Formation to activate it, then stuffed the formation and Gu Puppet into the bear's belly. He stitched it shut with True Essence, darted a hundred meters away, and hid in the crown of an old tree.

The Spirit-Gathering Formation slowly began to turn. Spiritual power from the Spirit Stones mixed with the thick reek of the Blood-Absorbing Talismans, becoming a thin red mist that spread from the mountaintop toward the valley. It was almost enough to make him retch, though its effect was only about a third that of First-Rank Low-Grade beast-luring incense.

Luo Fanchen held his breath and focused. After a moment's hesitation, he took a fragment of a Breath Concealment Pill from his Storage Bag and swallowed it.

Demon Beasts had keen noses, and Snake Demons were especially sensitive to spiritual power. To be safe, he needed the pill to hide his presence.

Half an hour passed. Then an hour.

Rain struck him, chilling his skin until it hurt. Luo Fanchen's face was bloodless, his True Essence nearly spent, yet he did not dare breathe in spiritual energy to replenish it.

After two hours, Luo Fanchen swallowed another fragment of the Breath Concealment Pill. His brow drew tight; his body was nearing its limit.

It seems the story of the Demon Serpent was just a rumor grown in the telling. Two hours was enough to spread the talismans' scent across most of the valley.

Few low-level Demon Beasts could resist the lure of blood and Spirit Stones.

Luo Fanchen sighed inwardly. He was about to move and retrieve the Spirit Stones when a soft rustling reached his ears.

It sounded like scales scraping together, or metal dragged across glass. Luo Fanchen froze, stayed flat against the ground, and held his breath.

Rustle, rustle.

A chill crept down his back. A forked tongue flicked, and the rotten stink of blood filled Luo Fanchen's nose. He felt as though needles pressed against his spine. At some point, the rumored Demon Serpent had coiled around a branch less than two meters above his head. Its tongue flickered, its gaze greedy and savage.

Blood energy coursed through its body, and intelligence gleamed in its eyes. This was undoubtedly a cultivated Demon Serpent that had devoured living people.

It was nearly ten meters long and as thick as a barrel. Its mottled scales were peeling, betraying its age. Dense sword wounds covered its vast body, and several scars looked as though they had nearly severed it.

A First-Tier Mid-Grade Demon Beast?

Luo Fanchen's limbs went cold. He dared look at the Snake Demon only from the corner of his eye.

Demon Beasts were divided into six tiers, each with three grades. A First-Tier Mid-Grade beast roughly matched a Sixth Level of Qi Refining cultivator. This serpent had little lifespan left and carried old injuries, so its true fighting strength should be around the Fifth Level of Qi Refining. It could kill him in two bites.

This creature was not native to the Four Elements Mountains. A cultivator must have gravely wounded it, forcing it to flee into the mortal realm.

Fortunately, he had taken a fragment of the Breath Concealment Pill in advance. Soaked by rain and lying motionless with his breath held, he had barely escaped the Snake Demon's notice.

"Hissss—"

The Snake Demon watched for a long time before cautiously sliding forward. As it passed Luo Fanchen, its enormous tail nearly swept him over, but the danger passed.

It slithered slowly through the undergrowth toward the bear. At five meters away, it lunged as suddenly as Startling Thunder.

Within two breaths, the Snake Demon had wrapped itself around the bear. Luo Fanchen feared it would crush the Gu Puppet inside.

Perhaps its old injuries had not healed. It did not constrict its prey, merely coiling around the bear for show. Then it opened its bloody maw and swallowed the bear whole, head to tail. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a wisp of green smoke and vanished.

The green smoke spread, obscuring the serpent's shape. Though Luo Fanchen had seen it go, he did not rise. He cautiously remained flat against the ground.

A Demon Beast's innate ability?

Luo Fanchen pressed his lips together. The green smoke stank, and it seemed to conceal the Snake Demon's form. Plainly, this was an ability it had gained upon awakening its intelligence.

Sure enough, a moment later, the Snake Demon reappeared in the tree crown above Luo Fanchen's head. It remained coiled there, watching for a long time. Only then did it slither away under cover of the green smoke and disappear from the mountaintop.

Cold sweat covered Luo Fanchen's forehead. He had not noticed when the Snake Demon returned to the tree.

He stayed prone for another half hour. Only after the green smoke dispersed did he rise in relief and flee swiftly beneath the curtain of rain.

"That was close. If the rain hadn't lowered my body temperature, the Snake Demon might really have found me."

Luo Fanchen's calves trembled almost to the point of cramping, and his heart hammered.

He cursed Ling Leng inwardly. He had cultivated diligently for twenty years without incident.

Ever since accepting the man's dying request, he had gained nothing, offended a Demonic Cultivator, and nearly died in a serpent's jaws.

Heaven have mercy—he had never fought another cultivator in his life.

"Fellow Daoist Ling, I've truly done everything I can for your last wish."

Luo Fanchen sighed. Even when he returned to the cave where he was staying, his emotions had not settled.

With his aptitude, cultivation by the book would take him at least two hundred years to reach Foundation Establishment. Core Formation was even further beyond his wildest dreams.

He hated conflict, but the path of cultivation was strewn with thorns.

If he refused to struggle, he would end up as nothing more than a scrap of human material in a Demonic Cultivator's blood pool.

"Phew—"

Luo Fanchen took a deep breath, steadied himself, and composed his expression before striding into the cave. Ling Moxue was nowhere in sight. As he hesitated, a cold, gleaming blade stabbed toward the back of his neck.

Luo Fanchen's expression stayed as calm as a lake. With just two fingers, he caught the blade's tip and glanced sidelong at Ling Moxue, whose pupils were trembling violently.

The girl still gripped the knife, though her little hand shook so badly she could barely hold its handle.

"I—I didn't know it was you, Master Luo. I'm... I'm sorry."

Ling Moxue pressed her lips together and stumbled back several steps before collapsing weakly to the ground.

Her small face was full of fear, her eyes panicked, yet she still would not release the dagger.

Luo Fanchen showed no expression. His thumb stung. A tiny cut marked the pad of his finger, and because True Essence had caused it, the wound was slow to heal.

"You succeeded at Seated Illumination?"

After all, he was a Spell Cultivator with all three channels open. An ordinary blade could hardly hurt him. Without True Essence behind it, the dagger could never have pierced his defenses.

In a single night, she had completed Seated Illumination, refined spiritual power into True Essence, and learned to use it.

"I only managed it thanks to you, Master Luo."

Ling Moxue snapped out of her daze and hurriedly threw away the dagger. She scrambled forward on hands and knees to cradle Luo Fanchen's injured thumb.

Her lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to suck the wound clean to please him. Afraid of soiling Master Luo's sleeve, she instead tore a strip of cloth from her clothes without hesitation and tried to bandage it, though the cloth was still filthy.

What clumsy acting.

Luo Fanchen watched the flustered Ling Moxue with amusement. He could certainly tell that her intent to kill had been genuine.

The road to teaching her better will be long. He did not pursue the matter, merely made a silent mark against Ling Moxue in his mental ledger.

"I tried circulating energy along the route you taught me more than thirty times, Master Luo. At last I sensed a trace of spiritual power and refined it into True Essence."

Only after carefully bandaging his thumb did Ling Moxue stand up timidly. She guided Luo Fanchen to the campfire to warm himself and thoughtfully offered to keep watch.

"You can rest a little, Master Luo. If anything happens, I'll wake you at once."

Luo Fanchen shook his head and refused. He laid a hand directly on the girl's wrist, sending True Essence into her Meridians to trace the Conception Vessel upward from her lower lip.

Sure enough, her Huiyin acupoint had opened, True Essence had begun to form, and the marks Ling Youdao had left at several points in her Meridians had been scattered by it.

As expected of a Superior-Grade Spiritual Root.

"Excellent. Your talent really is outstanding. You wouldn't pale beside the geniuses of the great sects and Aristocratic Clans."

Luo Fanchen clicked his tongue and praised her freely, envy setting his teeth on edge.

More than thirty cycles of energy circulation before even achieving Seated Illumination?

Back when he had reached Qi Refinement First Layer, he had barely managed thirty cycles. A Superior-Grade Spiritual Root was truly terrifying.

"I'm nowhere near as good as you, Master Luo."

Ling Moxue lowered her eyes. For some reason, his praise gave her a strange little thrill.

It had been a long time since anyone other than Qiu Yun had acknowledged her.

Her shoulders drooped, and she glanced sidelong at the dagger on the ground, hesitation flashing through her almond-shaped eyes.

After attaining Qi Refinement First Layer through Seated Illumination, she had erased the measures Ling Youdao had planted inside her and gained a cultivation technique. She believed she could now escape his clutches and walk the path of immortality on her own.

The only thing still binding her was the Master-Servant Blood Contract she had made with Luo Fanchen.

She knew how precious the Heavenly Demon Spirit Puppet was, and that Luo Fanchen must want something else from her. She feared that once this affair was over, Master Luo would sell her.

After all, Master Luo seemed to live in hardship.

"Sigh..."

Luo Fanchen seemed not to notice. The joy on his face lingered a moment before he pressed his lips together and sighed, looking deeply troubled.

"Master Luo? Did I... do something wrong?"

Ling Moxue's toes turned inward nervously. She discreetly kicked the dagger behind her and blocked it from view with her body.

"My cultivation technique is wood-aligned. It was adequate for awakening your spiritual senses and achieving Seated Illumination, but it isn't suited to your cultivation."

"A Gold-Fire Spirit Root..."

Luo Fanchen paced, his brow furrowed.

Not only was Ling Moxue more gifted than ordinary cultivators with dual Superior-Grade Spiritual Roots, gold and fire were aligned with killing and made her exceptionally suited to battle.

His Longevity Art was incompatible with her and too low in rank. It might hinder her future cultivation.

A technique suitable for the girl needed to be at least upper-grade Mystic Method.

Only great Aristocratic Clans possessed techniques of that level. Even when one occasionally appeared on the black market or at auction, it would cost no less than a hundred Spirit Stones.

"I don't mind. The Longevity Art is good. You guided me onto the path, Master Luo."

"I'll find a way to get you a technique. Fellow Daoist Ling entrusted you to me. Naturally, I won't shortchange you."

With that, Luo Fanchen swallowed a Qi Gathering Pill and closed his eyes to draw in spiritual energy. Once his True Essence recovered, he would activate the Gu Puppet inside the Demon Serpent.

Master Luo is going to find a cultivation technique for me...

Ling Moxue fell silent. She stared at Luo Fanchen, who sat with his eyes closed, seemingly defenseless. Her almond-shaped eyes were full of confusion.

Could Master Luo really have traveled a thousand miles to help her enter the path of cultivation, all because of a promise to her father to care for her?

Impossible. Her birth father had killed her mother and stolen her away. There was no evil he would not commit, and his two closest friends were birds of a feather.

How could a man like that have a friend whose word was worth a thousand pieces of gold?

"Impossible! The cultivation world was full of deceit, where the weak were prey to the strong. How could anyone give so selflessly?"

Ling Moxue fell silent. Her small face darkened. Even as she recoiled in suspicion, she longed for someone to accept her.

Luo Fanchen had to want something from her—her body, perhaps, or her Spirit Root.

After more than ten years of hardship, Ling Moxue no longer trusted anyone. Ling Leng and Ling Youdao were only the tip of the iceberg in the cultivation world, yet they were already so vicious. What of Luo Fanchen, whose schemes and cunning far surpassed theirs?

I'm taking back my freedom!

Conflict surged in Ling Moxue's almond eyes. She picked up the dagger lying close at hand, but her small hand shook like a sieve.

Murderous intent welled up in her heart, yet she could barely hold the knife, let alone bring herself to strike.

Whether his story was true or not, Luo Fanchen was the only person besides Qiu Yun who had cared for and accepted her.

"Hmph."

Ling Moxue pursed her lips with a soft huff. For some reason, she recalled how Luo Fanchen had led her through the streets that day like a tethered sheep, and her cheeks burned with shame.

She tucked the dagger back against her chest, wrapped her arms around her knees, and, as if drawn by some unseen impulse, quietly edged over to Luo Fanchen's side and crouched there.

Master Luo's steady breathing sounded beside her ear. A faint scent like cotton batting warmed by the sun lingered at the tip of Ling Moxue's nose.

The slight furrow in the young girl's brow gradually eased, as though only beside Luo Fanchen could she feel the safety she had missed for so long.

She was not ungrateful. If Master Luo truly kept his word, she would keep hers too. After joining the Dao Sect, she would trade for her freedom and help him reach Foundation Establishment to repay his kindness.

But could she trust Master Luo?

(The End of This Chapter)