The Blood-Baleful Wasteland stretched boundlessly, its crimson earth reaching to the edge of sight, where it blurred into the dusky yellow sky.
Ye Chen and his companions concealed their auras. With Ye Ling's help, a thin halo mimicking the wasteland's baleful energy enveloped them, reducing the "attraction" of their pure spiritual energy. They traveled slowly, carefully avoiding areas where space was visibly unstable, as well as lairs that reeked of blood and decay.
All they saw along the way was desolation and brutality.
Bleached bones lay everywhere, some human, others belonging to bizarre beasts. Most were incomplete, clearly discarded after their owners had been devoured. Dried, dark brown bloodstains dotted the rocks and sand. Here and there, a few plants clung stubbornly to life, but most were dull in color and twisted in shape, exuding poison and baleful energy. They could serve as ingredients for certain sinister pills, but to Ye Chen and his companions, they were worthless.
"This damned place is so barren even birds wouldn't shit here." Shi Meng kicked a beast bone out of his path, and it crumbled to powder in midair. "Can't even find prey fit to eat." He rubbed his stomach. Although their cultivation had long freed them from the need for food, satisfying the appetite could still be a pleasure and a diversion. Yet this environment left him with no appetite at all.
"The energy here is scarce and chaotic. To survive, living creatures must either become exceptionally hardy and poisonous, or resort to devouring their own kind, like that Blood Wolf Tribe we encountered earlier," Ye Yun analyzed calmly. His ancient sword remained unsheathed as he vigilantly sensed their surroundings.
Mo Yu's figure alternated between scouting ahead and vanishing into the shadows along their flanks. His voice reached their ears through a special method. "Thirty li ahead, there are faint energy fluctuations and the scent of blood. There seems to be a battle."
Ye Chen's gaze shifted slightly. "Let's take a look. Stay concealed."
They quietly changed direction and crept toward the location Mo Yu indicated. The closer they drew, the stronger the smell of blood and the more distinct the turbulent energy currents became.
A short while later, they crouched behind a raised crimson ridge and looked down.
Below lay the entrance to a small valley, where a group was surrounding three people in a deadly assault.
Some twenty-odd cultivators clad in ragged leather armor and wielding assorted rusty weapons were attacking the three figures. Most of the attackers were at the golden core stage, with a few at the nascent soul early stage. Their faces were vicious, their eyes flashing with the same greedy red light as the Blood Wolf Tribe's. Their ruthless attacks marked them as bandits accustomed to pillage and slaughter.
The three surrounded figures were in dire straits. Two middle-aged men who appeared to be guards were both at the nascent soul middle stage, but they were already arrows at the end of their flight. Wounds covered their bodies, and a foul, blood-colored energy was corroding them, worsening their injuries and drawing black blood from their wounds. The person they protected between them appeared to be a woman. Slender, she wore a pale blue-green dress torn in several places. Blood and dust obscured her features, though the delicate outline of her face remained faintly visible. She held a longsword whose spiritual glow had dimmed. Her cultivation seemed to be only at the late golden core stage, but her swordsmanship was exquisite, carrying a cool, austere air wholly out of place in this wasteland. Even so, she was now hard-pressed on every side, unable to turn the tide.
"Young lady... run!" One guard desperately drove back two bandits with a slash, only for a treacherous blood arrow to pierce his shoulder. He staggered backward, his aura rapidly weakening.
"No! Uncle Chen, Uncle Li!" The woman's voice shook with choked sobs and resolve. Her sword flashed as she tried to force back the approaching enemies, but her strength fell short of her will.
"Heh heh, little beauty, stop struggling! Come back to our stronghold and serve us brothers properly, and we might let you live!" A one-eyed bandit leader at the nascent soul middle stage advanced with a lecherous grin, wielding a Ghost-Head Saber. Its gleaming blade swept viciously toward the woman on a gust of bloody wind.
She raised her sword to block, but the tremendous force split the web between her thumb and forefinger. Her sword flew from her grasp, and she fell to the ground, a flicker of despair crossing her eyes.
The two guards' eyes nearly split with fury. They tried to rescue her, but the other bandits held them fast, leaving them only to roar in helpless rage.
The one-eyed man's Ghost-Head Saber was about to fall.
Just then, a sharp whistle tore through the air!
Whoosh—!
A streak of pale golden Sword Qi, like a swan flashing down from beyond the heavens, launched later yet arrived first, striking the spine of the Ghost-Head Saber with flawless precision!
Clang!!
With a crisp ringing sound, the Ghost-Head Saber, despite its considerable quality, shattered under that seemingly slender streak of Sword Qi! Broken metal fragments flew everywhere!
The one-eyed man felt an irresistible force surge into him. His entire arm went numb in an instant, and the blood in his chest churned. He spat out a mouthful of blood and staggered more than ten steps backward, staring in horror toward the source of the Sword Qi.
Not only the bandits, but even the despairing woman and her two guards froze, looking up at the ridge.
Ye Chen and his companions made no particular effort to hide themselves as they slowly emerged from behind it.
Their fine clothing and transcendent bearing stood in stark contrast to the wasteland and its bandits. In particular, the pure spiritual energy that could still be sensed despite their restrained auras ignited even greater greed in the bandits' eyes, though profound apprehension accompanied it. That streak of Sword Qi had been terrifying!
"Who... who are you? You dare meddle in the Blood Skull Stronghold's business!" Suppressing his injuries, the one-eyed man barked with a fierce exterior that concealed his fear. Yet his eyes involuntarily strayed toward Emperor Xuanwu, whose aura was unfathomable behind Ye Chen (though Emperor Xuanwu had suppressed his cultivation, that invisible pressure remained), and toward the ancient sword in Ye Yun's hand, which radiated keen sword intent.
Ye Chen ignored him entirely, his gaze settling on the woman seated on the ground. Up close, despite her bedraggled state, a clear, cool grace lingered between her brows. Her eyes were like autumn waters in a cold pool, still holding a trace of unyielding stubbornness even in such desperate circumstances.
"Are you all right?" Ye Chen asked in a calm voice.
The woman came to her senses and struggled to stand, but exhaustion and injury made her stumble. Ye Ling flashed to her side and gently supported her. At the same time, emerald-green radiance brimming with life flowed into her body, stabilizing her injuries and expelling the foul, blood-baleful energy.
Feeling that vast, pure vitality, the woman trembled. Disbelief filled her eyes, and she looked at Ye Ling and Ye Chen with gratitude and astonishment. "Th-thank you, fellow Daoists, for coming to our aid. My name is Lin Qingxue. I cannot thank you enough!"
The two guards also approached, supporting each other, and bowed deeply to Ye Chen and his companions. "Thank you all for saving our lives!"
"We merely stepped in when we saw injustice," Ye Chen said lightly. Only then did he turn his gaze toward the bandits, who stood as though confronting a formidable enemy.
Ye Chen's calm, unwavering gaze sent a chill through the one-eyed man's heart. But relying on his numbers and the fact that this was his territory, he gritted his teeth. "Young master, we belong to the Blood Skull Stronghold! Our chief specifically demanded these three! Please do us this favor, and don't bring disaster upon yourself!"
"The Blood Skull Stronghold?" A faint curve touched Ye Chen's lips. "Never heard of it."
He waved a hand casually. "Dispose of them."
"Yes, young master." Ye Yun stepped forward. Without even drawing his sword, he simply held two fingers together like a blade and traced several streaks of pale golden Sword Qi through the air.
Sword Qi crisscrossed like the scythe of death, sweeping precisely across every bandit's neck.
The bandits had no chance even to react. Greed, viciousness, and fear remained frozen on their faces as their heads shot skyward. Blood gushed like fountains, and their bodies thudded to the ground.
In the blink of an eye, more than twenty ferocious bandits were utterly annihilated!
Only the one-eyed man remained. A streak of Sword Qi had pierced his dantian and destroyed his cultivation, leaving him sprawled on the ground like a dead dog, his eyes filled with boundless terror and despair.
Lin Qingxue and her two guards stared, dumbstruck, a chill spreading through their bodies. Before that stern young man, the bandits who had driven them to the brink were nothing but clay chickens and earthen dogs, unable to withstand a single blow! Just who were these people who had suddenly appeared? How could they possess such terrifying strength?
Ye Chen walked up to the crippled one-eyed man and signaled to Ye You, just as he had done with the hyena demon beast earlier.
Ye You stepped forward again and performed the Soul-Searching Art.
A short while later, Ye You reported, "Young master, the information is similar to what we obtained before. The Blood Skull Stronghold is one of the larger bandit gangs nearby. Its chief is at the late spirit transformation stage. They mainly plunder lone cultivators and small tribes in the wasteland. This attack on Miss Lin seems to have been carried out on orders from above. They were to capture her alive."
"Alive?" Ye Chen looked at Lin Qingxue.
Lin Qingxue paled and bit her lip before saying softly, "I... I'm a disciple of the Heavenly Sword Pavilion. The Blood Skull Stronghold... was probably acting on instructions from the Sacred Emperor Palace or the Blood Demon Sect."
The Heavenly Sword Pavilion? The Sacred Emperor Palace? The Blood Demon Sect?
A flicker of interest crossed Ye Chen's eyes. It seemed the waters of the Primordial World ran deeper than he had imagined. And this woman named Lin Qingxue appeared to be entangled in struggles between certain powers.
He glanced at the still-shaken woman and her two guards, then at the wasteland where danger lurked on every side, and formed a plan.
"Miss Lin, we shouldn't linger here. If you trust us, you may travel with us for now."
Before you continue