Who Was the Real Dog?

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Chapter 26: Who Was the Real Dog?

I can't drag this out any longer.

The scarred brute concentrated his magical power in his feet, shattered the ground beneath them, and charged toward Lin Yu with the speed of thunder before the ear could catch it.

Think you can run? Chen Beiwu changed his hand seal.

Sensing the fluctuations in the surrounding spiritual energy, the brute grinned savagely and crushed the Tiger Seal at his waist.

"Roar!"

A furious tiger's roar thundered out, shaking wind and cloud. Tangible sound waves tore through the fog in the dense woods at a speed visible to the naked eye, revealing Chen Beiwu and Iron Egg.

"Die!"

Seizing that moment of paralysis, the brute surged with crimson blood energy and charged toward Chen Beiwu with tremendous force.

Chen Beiwu did not retreat. His fingers flew through a rapid series of seals.

He had lurked for several minutes before acting not to watch a live erotic show, but to finish laying out his array.

"Rise, Tide Array." Chen Beiwu planted his foot on the Kan water position and activated the array.

The Tide Array had originally been called the Mist-Congealing Tide-Returning Array. By borrowing the ebb and flow of rivers and tides, it gathered the water spiritual energy suffusing the world to briefly enhance a water-element Companion Beast's combat strength. It was an unranked array.

Because the enhancement lasted only three seconds, the array instructor at Shouhe No. 2 Middle School had once jokingly called it the "Humidifying Array" in class, saying it could come in handy when the house was dry. Chen Beiwu disagreed.

Every array in the world had its uses. It all depended on how the caster employed it.

Using the Mist-Congealing Tide-Returning Array solely to strengthen a Companion Beast was indeed like chicken ribs-too little meat to savor, yet a pity to discard. But using it to amplify the instantaneous burst of a water spell would produce an entirely different result.

To test his theory, Chen Beiwu had spent several days modifying the Mist-Congealing Tide-Returning Array into the Tide Array.

"Tide · Instant Slash!"

Chen Beiwu took out a Water Blade Talisman. As he injected magical power to activate it, he channeled all the force stirred up by the Tide Array into amplifying the talisman's power.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Countless azure threads of water, each as fine as a hair, shot into the air. They interwove into a net and, in the blink of an eye, condensed into an unstoppable water blade that sliced everything in its path in two.

That power... I can't block it!

Watching the towering water blade slice through his shield artifact and protective talismans, the brute could not keep the terror from his eyes.

"Impossible! We're clearly at the same cultivation level!"

A line of blood appeared, and the brute's life came to an end. His body abruptly split in two and fell to the ground.

Perhaps because he had died too quickly, his eyes remained filled with defiance and confusion.

There's something off about this spell's power. Chen Beiwu's expression shifted slightly.

He did not know whether it was due to the boost from the world's spiritual energy, but the spells he cast here were extraordinarily powerful. He could even instantly kill a cultivator at the seventh layer of Qi Refining.

At that horrifying sight, Lin Yu froze in place, a trace of regret welling up inside her.

How was that possible?

It was not as though she had never ambushed and killed late Qi Refining cultivators.

Under normal circumstances, even if Zhong Shan, at the Seventh Layer of Qi Refining, was outmatched, his talismans and artifacts should have let him hold out for dozens of breaths.

She needed only four breaths to conceal her aura and activate the Soul-Seizing Nail, completing her sneak attack from the sidelines.

Against Qi Refining cultivators whose lust had gone to their heads and who wanted to play the hero rescuing a beauty, she could even use her looks to launch a sneak attack without a sound.

It was no exaggeration to say that at least five late Qi Refining cultivators had died at her hands.

But in a head-on fight, she could not even beat Tong Yu at the sixth layer of Qi Refining, let alone Zhong Shan at the Seventh Layer of Qi Refining.

"&...@." ("Senior, please spare my life.") Lin Yu dropped her hairpin artifact and pressed her head to the ground.

To be safe, Chen Beiwu flicked a fingertip. Two threads of water shot out and easily severed Lin Yu's arms.

As blood spurted out, her body shuddered. She knocked her head against the ground, hiding the venom in her eyes.

".Woof";psme&;psme&

Iron Egg growled and stood in front of Chen Beiwu, keeping watch.

"Hand over your spirit stones, artifacts, and talismans." Chen Beiwu communicated through his Divine Sense.

Hearing this, Lin Yu bit through her undergarments without hesitation and took out the Storage Bag hidden against her chest.

Chen Beiwu said, "Bring theirs over too."

Chen Beiwu: "Bring theirs over too."

Lin Yu circulated her magical power to stop the bleeding, struggled to her feet, and used her feet to retrieve a Storage Bag from Tong Yu's crotch and another from the sole of Zhong Shan's shoe.

"Very good." Chen Beiwu looked at her impassively. "Do you want to live?"

Lin Yu hurriedly nodded, surprise flashing in her eyes.

She had thought certain death awaited her. She had never expected a chance to survive.

"Senior, please spare me," she said through her thoughts.

Fell suddenly slip jade piece one;psme&;psme&

In front of Lin Yu.

"Use your Divine Sense to record your entire language and writing system in the jade slip. If the information is detailed and complete enough, I won't kill you."

Lin Yu stared blankly for a moment.

She had considered many possibilities. Perhaps Chen Beiwu was mute, or perhaps his cultivation method prevented him from speaking, forcing him to communicate only through Divine Sense.

She had never imagined that he was actually illiterate.

It was unbelievable. An illiterate man could not possibly come from the five great sects. Could he be a cultivator from another region?

"Is there a problem?" Chen Beiwu's gaze sharpened.

"Woof, woof!" Iron Egg barked twice to hurry her along.

Lin Yu hastily knelt and pressed her forehead against the jade slip.

Only after a long while did she cautiously raise her head.

"Senior, it's done."

Chen Beiwu crouched and picked up the jade slip, giving it a cursory inspection under Lin Yu's expectant gaze.

"You can go."

Hearing those words, Lin Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

I'd finally survived!

She had thought she was certain to die today, left with no choice but to blood-sacrifice the Soul-Seizing Nail before her death and try to trade her life for his.

She cautiously took a few steps away. Once she confirmed that Chen Beiwu was not following, she hurriedly quickened her pace.

Watching her distant figure as she was about to disappear from view, Chen Beiwu turned his gaze to Iron Egg.

Iron Egg understood. Planting both feet on the ground, he spat out flames.

After a week of cultivation, he had yet to master even the basics of Blazing Flame Pull, but he had successfully derived an offensive spell of his own from it.

Boom!

Amid a violent rumble, a ferocious Flame Hound abruptly blocked Lin Yu's path.

"You broke your word!" Her pupils contracted, and regret twisted her guts almost green.

Damn it! I should never have trusted an enemy's promise.

"Soul-Sealing Art!"

At that critical moment, Lin Yu spat out a mouthful of essence blood and summoned the Soul-Seizing Nail she had been preparing for so long. It shattered the Flame Hound blocking her way in a single strike, but could not stop the pillar of flame sealing off her retreat behind her.

Boom!

Watching the thick smoke billow in the distance, Chen Beiwu rubbed Iron Egg's head and sighed. "I said I wouldn't kill her, yet you dared to act against my wishes. You idiot, you really deserve a punishment."

Iron Egg's canine eyes widened. For a moment, he could not tell who the real dog was.

He rose and barked furiously, apparently swearing up a storm.

"How about this? Illusion Weasel Wolf meat is poisonous, so your punishment will be to eat a big chunk."

The instant Chen Beiwu finished speaking, Iron Egg stopped barking.

If he got to eat exotic beast meat, perhaps taking the blame was not entirely out of the question.

"A big, meaty bone," Chen Beiwu added.

"A big, meaty bone!" Chen Beiwu added.

Iron Egg opened his mouth in a broad grin and leaped high into the air.

That's right! I killed her!

Nobody told me to do it.

(End of chapter)