Shadow Fox went to three more families.
The first family was a middle-aged couple, sleeping on the same kang. Shadow Fox spit out two wisps of Sha Qi, penetrated their mouths and noses respectively, and sucked them in at the same time. The couple frowned in their sleep and their bodies trembled slightly, but they did not wake up.
The second person was an old woman who lived alone. She had very little energy. Shadow Fox only took a few breaths and then stopped. She seemed not satisfied.
The third family is a young couple with a child. Shadow Fox hesitated for a moment between adults and children, and chose adults - the child's essence is too weak, and it is useless to inhale it.
Qin Tiexin has been following behind, Divine Sense is locked.
He wanted to find out what the fox was doing.
If it is just for hunting, there is no need to secretly suck the essence like this - it is more efficient to bite them to death and suck the blood directly. And judging from the wounds, the seventeen villagers who died before had their necks bitten off to suck the blood, not this kind of slow sucking.
Unless... there is another purpose for sucking the essence.
Shadow Fox finished sucking the fourth one, and his belly was obviously bulging, as if he was full. The swing of his tail became smaller, and his movements became slower.
It turned to the last household - a wooden house at the east end of the village. There lived a man in his thirties. Qin Tiexin talked to him in the afternoon and his reaction was faster than the others.
Shadow Fox Get in through the crack in the door as before.
Qin Tiexin climbed over the wall into the courtyard as usual and posted it in front of the window.
Inside the house, the man was not sleeping.
He stared, lying on the kang, staring at the roof, as if he was afraid of something. When Shadow Fox slipped in through the crack in the door, he just turned his head--
One person and one fox, four eyes facing each other.
Shadow Fox was stunned.
The man was also stunned.
Time seemed to stand still for a breath.
Then Shadow Fox's eyes glowed with blood, it opened its mouth to reveal Sharpness fangs, its tail suddenly stood up, and its whole body Sha Qi swelled. It no longer spit out Sha Qi and sucked it, but pounced directly on the man's throat - to bite off the neck and suck blood!
The man was so frightened that he stared blankly at the fox rushing towards him, forgetting to even hide.
At this moment.
Outside the window, Qin Tiexin moved.
He raised his left hand, and the wolf tooth bracelet on his wrist flashed with green light.
"Ugh!"
A Wind Blade shot out.
This is not Foundation Establishment Realm that is driven with all its strength Wind Blade--Qin Tiexin recently discovered that the wolf tooth bracelet can adjust the power of Wind Blade according to the amount of spiritual power input. Input 10% of the spiritual power, The power of Wind Blade is about Qi Refining Seventh Layer; input 30%, Peak of Qi Refining; input 50%, Foundation Establishment Early Stage; use full force, Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.
This time he only input 10% of his spiritual power.
Wind Blade is light cyan in color, about three feet long, and as thin as a cicada's wing. It breaks through the window and hits Shadow Fox's head directly.
However, the expected scene of the fox being decapitated did not appear.
"Bang!"
The moment Wind Blade hit Shadow Fox's head, there was a muffled sound like gold and iron. Shadow Fox was knocked away by Great Strength and hit the wall, causing the adobe house to rustle with dust.
But it quickly got up and shook its head. It seemed nothing was wrong. There was just a white mark on its forehead, and the skin was not broken.
Qin Tiexin pupils shrink.
This defense... isn't right.
Shadow Fox is a low-level Demon Beast, which is good at speed and has very weak defense. Qi Refining Seventh Layer's Wind Blade is enough to cut open its head. But now, it only leaves a white mark.
Shadow Fox was in pain and let out a sharp neigh. Its blood-red eyes stared at Qin Tiexin - through the broken window, it saw the figure outside - then turned around, no longer paying attention to the fainted man on the kang, and turned into a gray shadow and sprang out from the crack of the door.
Escaped.
Qin Tiexin Divine Sense Lock Shadow Fox, jump into the house first, and check the man's condition.
Fortunately, I just fainted from shock, my essence was not sucked, and I was not injured.
Qin Tiexin turned around and left the house. Shadow Fox had already escaped from the village and ran towards the mountains and forests to the north.
He ran Wood Phase Steps and chased after him. He did not chase with all his strength, but kept about a hundred steps away and stayed far behind. Divine Sense locked the target and at the same time restrained his aura to avoid being noticed.
Shadow Fox ran away very fast at first, like a frightened rabbit, darting left and right in the mountain forest, specializing in difficult paths. It seemed to be very familiar with the terrain, running through dense forests, jumping over streams, and drilling through rock crevices. The route was complicated, and it was obviously made by stepping back and forth many times.
Qin Tiexin followed leisurely.
Wood Phase Steps has obvious advantages in long-distance raids - spiritual power circulates and is consumed very slowly. Moreover, the wood spirit in the mountain forest is rich, and more spiritual power is recovered with each step, which can almost maintain a balance between income and expenditure.
After tracking for about a quarter of an hour, Shadow Fox slowed down.
It seemed to have thought it had got rid of its pursuers, so it stopped running wildly and returned to normal speed. Its tail began to swing again, its belly was still bulging, and it ran a little clumsily.
Qin Tiexin continue to follow.
Half an hour later, Shadow Fox entered a remote canyon, which was also the place where Qin Tiexin saw the highest concentration of Sha Qi during the day.
This place is far away from human habitation, surrounded by steep rock walls, and the bottom of the valley is covered with damp moss and vines. The moonlight is blocked by the rock walls, and the canyon is dark, with only a few phosphorescent lights flickering occasionally.
Shadow Fox turned around in the canyon and finally stopped in front of a rock wall.
The rock wall was covered with thick vines, dark green in color, with fat leaves, like a natural curtain. Shadow Fox used his claws to push aside the vines, revealing a rock crevice behind it, and got in.
Qin Tiexin followed to the rock crevice and stopped.
He did not enter rashly. He first restrained his breath, stuck to the shadow of the rock wall, and slowly probed Divine Sense into the rock crevice.
The rock crevice is very narrow, but very deep. Divine Sense extends forward, and after about ten feet, it suddenly becomes clear--
Behind is a natural cave.
The space inside the cave is not small, about three feet square. There are stalactites hanging down from the top, and the ground is flat rock. There are several cracks on the cave wall, and the weak skylight shines through, and the outline can barely be seen clearly.
And deep in the cave, Qin Tiexin sensed another breath.
This breath is cold, violent, and has a strong Blood Sha Qi, which is more than ten times stronger than the Sha Qi on Shadow Fox. But at the same time, there is a strange "weakness" - like a serious injury that has not healed, or that it is trying its best to suppress something.
The owner of the aura is in the innermost part of the cave, blocked by a pile of rocks, and the specific shape cannot be seen clearly.
But Qin Tiexin can feel that the breath is slowly fluctuating, as if... breathing.
And Shadow Fox, who had just gotten in, was lying in front of the pile of rocks, his tail swaying slightly, and wisps of black essence breathed out of his mouth - which was sucked from the villagers - and slowly poured into the rocks.
The breath behind the rocks undulated slightly, as if it was absorbing these essences.
Qin Tiexin took back Divine Sense, frowning.
Things were more complicated than he thought.
Qin Tiexin stuck to the shadow of the rock wall and felt it carefully for a moment. The aura in the cave was not strong - it was about between Peak of Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment Early Stage, and it was very unstable, like a candle in the wind, bright and dark at times.
Qin Tiexin immediately made a decision, go in and have a look first, and if it doesn't work, leave!
Qin Tiexin took out two pieces of Breath-Concealing Talisman from Storage Bag. The talismans were light yellow in color and had complex surface lines. He injected spiritual power, and the talismans turned into a shimmer and blended into his body. A faint film covered the whole body, the breath was almost completely restrained, and even the heartbeat was so weak that it was almost inaudible.
Then he turned sideways and squeezed in through the crack in the rock.
The rock crevice is very narrow, only one person can pass through, and it is winding. Qin Tiexin is tall and burly, so it was a bit difficult to squeeze in, but Body Tempering Eighth Layer's physical body is extremely flexible, so he still managed to pass.
After about ten feet, the vision suddenly opened up.
The inside of the cave is larger than expected. It is about two feet high, more than three feet wide, and more than ten feet deep. The cave walls are rough and there are obvious traces of artificial excavations - they are not natural, but were widened later.
The light inside the cave was dim, with only a few wisps of light coming from the cracks in the rock wall. The air was filled with a thick smell of blood and Sha Qi, which mixed together to form a sickening sweet smell.
Qin Tiexin glanced across the ground.
Skeletons.
Scattered all over the ground, some were those of wild beasts - deer, wild boars, bobcats, and the bones had been chewed cleanly. But more of them were human bones. Ribs, leg bones, and skulls were scattered here and there. Some were weathered and turned white, and some still had dried flesh and blood.
There are at least a dozen.
Qin Tiexin's eyes narrowed and he gripped Edgeless's knife handle tightly.
He took advantage of the cover of the cave wall and slowly moved inward. His steps were very light, making almost no sound as he stepped on the soft soil and broken bones.
Deep in the cave, Shadow Fox lay at the feet of a figure, like a docile domestic dog. The figure sat cross-legged, with its back to the entrance of the cave, motionless.
Qin Tiexin hid behind a big rock and slowly poked his head out.
Finally I saw the man's face clearly.
First impression: tall.
Even sitting cross-legged, you can see that he is tall and tall, with broad shoulders and a broad back, half a head taller than Qin Tiexin. If he stood up, he would probably be over a foot tall.
But this is not the height of a normal person.
The man's skin was dark blue, like the color of coagulated blood, and the surface was covered with fine black lines - not tattoos, but more like blood vessels or meridians growing out of the skin, twisting and twisting, and revealing something evil.
His eyes were closed tightly, but there was a dark red glimmer under his eyelids, like two balls of fire burning.
On his forehead, two inch-long black bone horns came out from under the skin. They were curved, similar to goat horns, but thinner and sharper. One of them had broken, and there was still dried black and red blood at the root.
The weirdest thing is the back.
The two shoulder blades were bulging high, and the skin was stretched, revealing the dark red flesh underneath, which was still bleeding slightly. The shape of the bulging was very unnatural, as if something was pushing out from the inside, or... something had been torn off, leaving these two bulges.
Qin Tiexin can feel that this person's aura is extremely unstable.
Sometimes it falls to Qi Refining Late Stage, sluggish; sometimes it climbs to Foundation Establishment Early Stage, and Sha Qi reaches the sky. The cycle goes back and forth, like the ebb and flow of the tide.
And the essence breathed in by Shadow Fox is flowing into that person's body through some invisible connection. Every time he absorbs a ray of essence, the bulge on his back calms down a little, and his breath becomes stronger, but it quickly returns to its original state - there is too little essence, and it is a drop in the bucket.
Qin Tiexin observed it for a moment, alarm bells blaring in his heart.
This is no ordinary monk.
Not even an ordinary Demon Beast controller.
In the Flowing Cloud Sect's classics, there are records of some Evil Dao sects that were eliminated. They practiced by absorbing other people's Essence Blood or essence, which was fast but dangerous and easy to Qi Deviation. But those Evil Cultivator at least still maintained their human form and did not grow horns, their skin would not turn blue, and they would not have things like bulges on their backs.
This person in front of me... is definitely not a human being!!
Just when Qin Tiexin was about to retreat, exit the cave, report back to the sect, and then bring people over to encircle and suppress him, the "man" suddenly opened his eyes.
Dark red pupils.
Like two groups of burning blood flames, it was particularly dazzling in the dim cave. There were no whites in the pupils, they were all dark red, and there were fine black lines swirling in the depths.
Those eyes were locked on the big stone where Qin Tiexin was hiding.
Qin Tiexin The muscles all over the body tensed instantly.
Breath-Concealing Talisman has failed? No, the effect of the talisman is still there, and his aura is still restrained. Did the other party sense something? Murderous aura? Sight?
Before he could think about it, the man's mouth opened slightly, revealing a cruel smile.
The teeth are black and sharp, like the fangs of wild beasts.
The voice was hoarse, with a harsh feeling like metal friction:
"You've been watching for so long, why don't you come in and sit down?"
After the words fell, Shadow Fox stood up suddenly, his body Sha Qi surged, and his blood-red eyes stared in the direction of Qin Tiexin.
Sha Qi inside the cave began to surge.