"Eldest Brother! Are you all right?"
Just then, a figure rushed out of the mountain forest.
Xu Taiping looked closely. Whether in appearance or manner, the figure was unmistakably Ping'an.
But the bead growing ever hotter in his palm was reminding him.
This was not Ping'an.
Xu Taiping, however, had already weathered countless battles. After only a brief pause, he smiled at the Ping'an who was very likely not Ping'an and said:
"Just an ordinary demonic beast. It couldn't hurt me."
Ping'an let out a relieved breath and said:
"Thank goodness."
Just then, Old Daoist Huang, in the form of a big orange cat, also rushed out of the mountain forest and leaped onto Ping'an's shoulder.
At the same time, he said to Xu Taiping:
"Xu Taiping, there are several more demonic beasts in the lake behind us. We must leave at once!"
As he spoke, Ping'an had already carried him briskly toward Xu Taiping.
Less than a hundred zhang now separated them from Xu Taiping.
At that moment, the bead in Xu Taiping's hand suddenly became searingly hot.
Even now, however, Xu Taiping merely nodded calmly and said:
"Let's go."
But the instant he spoke, the long blade in his hand slid out of its scabbard with a shing.
"Boom...!"
Amid a tremendous tremor, a gigantic phantom image of a ruined battlefield suddenly enveloped Xu Taiping and the space ahead where Ping'an and Old Daoist Huang stood.
This was Xu Taiping's blade domain.
At the sight, Ping'an and Old Daoist Huang both looked puzzled and asked:
"Eldest Brother, why open your blade domain now?"
Xu Taiping said expressionlessly:
"For you, of course."
Hearing this, the faces of that Ping'an and Old Daoist Huang abruptly turned cold. Then, with a boom, both revealed demonic bodies shrouded in blood mist.
"Boom!"