Red Robe
Su Fuxi had no idea that someone was plotting against her.
Between narrow stone walls, a purple figure darted swiftly past like a swallow. As her graceful figure flew out, a coral-shaped spirit herb, translucent and emerald green, had appeared in her hand.
"Kehehe..."
Suddenly, a sinister, eerie laugh came from all directions. Startled, Su Fuxi put the spirit herb into a jade box and tucked it into her storage bag. She spread out her spiritual sense but found nothing, while a restrictive magic treasure appeared in her hand.
With a flick of her wrist, the restriction banner unfurled and floated beside her.
"Who's there? Stop playing ghosts and spirits!" she called out, probing. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew past, carrying a peculiar fishy stench, and a layer of gray mist appeared out of thin air seventy or eighty feet away!
A faint buzzing of insects could be heard.
With a swish, the restriction banner unfurled to a height of several dozen feet, releasing a thick cloud of purple qi that enveloped and concealed her entire figure. The gray mist approached in an instant, and only then did she see that it was actually made up of tens of thousands of fingernail-sized insects. They smacked against the defensive screen of light from the restriction with a sound like a torrential downpour.
In an instant, the insects were either pulverized by the restriction or thrown back by its force. Su Fuxi formed hand seals with both hands and murmured, "Kill!"
A sharp arc of light immediately shot out from the restriction banner, rapidly expanding into the shape of a crescent moon and spreading outward. It swept through a swath of gray mist, shredding the insects until none remained, revealing two figures that the mist had hidden.
Twenty zhang away, two Golden Core cultivators, one in red and the other in purple, stood in midair.
Su Fuxi was inwardly startled. The gray mist blocked spiritual sense, and unless she was close, she normally wouldn't even have noticed their auras!
"Kehehe, Fellow Daoist, you really weren't lying. Your junior sister is an absolute beauty! Hahaha!"
The voice drew closer from afar, reaching the outside of the restriction banner in a moment.
"Hahaha, Fellow Daoist Gu, you give me too much credit. How would I dare lie?"
"Junior Sister! Come out. This fellow daoist wants to meet you."
The moment Su Fuxi saw Zha Wuren, she understood what was happening and wasn't particularly surprised.
"Oh, Senior Brother, I was looking for you too, and here you are."
The gray mist surrounded the man in red robes. Su Fuxi hated insects most of all, and she didn't dare be careless. With a turn of her thoughts, the entire restriction banner flew up, carrying her several dozen zhang back. At the same time, her unhurried voice came from within it.
"Oh? That banner is quite a treasure. It actually wiped out so many of my Spirit-Corroding Insects." The red-robed man glanced at the restriction banner, interest flashing in his eyes. The magic treasure was good, and so was the beauty; he wanted both.
"Beauty, come out. How about I make you my first concubine? Hahaha, if you come out obediently, I can spare your life!"
Su Fuxi glanced at the faint traces of corrosion on the defensive screen of her restrictive magic treasure. She knew those mist insects were formidable, and that this man must be exceptionally skilled in insect arts.
"Zha Wuren, did you bring this man here to divert trouble onto me, or to kill me? Well then, give it a try!"
Su Fuxi smiled coldly, then turned to the red-robed man and changed tack. "You and I are both peak cultivators. Why should I listen to you? If you want me to come out, it's not impossible. Kill the one beside you, and I'll come out. How about it?"
"You! Su Fuxi, you venomous woman!" Zha Wuren's expression changed, and he couldn't help cursing her.
Su Fuxi took a deep breath. In all these years, this was the first time anyone had called her a venomous woman. Venomous was one thing, but what did he mean by calling her a woman?
Zha Wuren had successfully infuriated her. She formed a seal with one hand and pointed, sending a sharp spike flying straight at him.
Zha Wuren hurriedly formed a seal to block it.
The red-robed man watched their exchange from the side and laughed. "The little beauty has quite a temper, but that gives her a flavor all her own. I like it. Haha, since I already gave my word to Fellow Daoist Wu, I can only ask you to come out."
Seeing that Zha Wuren was no match for her and had opened his mouth to spurt blood, the red-robed man waved his sleeve and knocked the spike away. Su Fuxi swiftly recalled it, switched to the Embroidered Gold Sword, and pointed. Embroidered Gold shot swiftly toward the red-robed man.
With a clang, it was stopped by a gigantic golden cicada.
The great golden cicada was several zhang tall, golden all over, with pale gold, translucent wings covered in golden patterns. It had actually used its wings to block the Embroidered Gold Sword. Then it suddenly folded them and sharply raised its slender mouthpart to suck, the needle-like organ strangely dividing into eight flexible, tube-like feelers.
The suction produced a powerful vortex of air that held the Embroidered Gold Sword fast. Even more frightening, the sword's metal spiritual power was visibly diminishing!
This is bad!
Alarmed, Su Fuxi tried to summon the Embroidered Gold Sword back with her mind, only to find that it couldn't break free of the suction. She decisively formed a seal and shouted, "Great Luo Finger!"
The spiritual qi of heaven and earth stirred, streams of air surging together into a gigantic vortex of spiritual qi. In the blink of an eye, it poured into her finger seal, forming a golden finger imprint like a giant's finger that flew out and pressed toward the golden cicada's forehead.
The golden cicada finally withdrew its suction ability and quickly folded its wings together to defend against the enormous finger imprint.
With a thought, she seized the chance to send the Embroidered Gold Sword flying back into the space between her brows as a streak of light.
At the same time, the Great Luo Finger Seal pressed down on the golden cicada's wings, which were a full body length larger than the cicada itself. A tremendous boom rang out, and a vast force shook the surroundings.
The aftershocks spread outward in rings. Zha Wuren dodged them in shock, looking at Su Fuxi with great surprise. He hadn't expected her to have such a powerful spell. Then his expression turned icy. Su Fuxi had to die, or he would face endless trouble in the future!
The finger imprint and the wings met and held against each other for three breaths. The imprint gradually faded and vanished, while a finger mark about three inches deep appeared on the golden cicada's wings.
Countless cracks spread out beside the finger mark.
Veins bulged on the red-robed cultivator's hands as he held his seal, and a drop of cold sweat slid down his forehead. He had been controlling his treasured golden cicada just now, and it was already listless. He had never suffered such a loss before; he hadn't expected Su Fuxi to possess as many or more means than he did.
Su Fuxi looked at the golden cicada warily. It could actually absorb the spiritual essence of metal, directly rendering magic treasures such as flying swords useless.
She looked again at the swath of gray mist spanning seven or eight zhang. There were probably over a hundred million insects inside it. If they had all swarmed the restrictive screen of light just now, the restriction banner probably wouldn't have lasted long either. These inconspicuous gray insects could corrode spiritual power shields, and even... Hiss!
The more Su Fuxi thought about it, the more alarmed she became. Seeing the red-robed man begin to change his hand seals again, she hurriedly formed a seal and condensed a golden palm imprint as large as a giant's hand.
The smile had long vanished from the red-robed man's face. His lips curled bloodthirstily as he said icily, "Without this secret realm, I wouldn't have been able to refine this kind of Thousand Silk Gu."
A fluctuation of spiritual power appeared before him, followed swiftly by a sheet of silver light. Countless fine silver threads flew from his mouth, wriggling like living things. In the blink of an eye, they spread several zhang around him and surged upward to surround the golden palm pressing down from the air.
Layer upon layer, as though there were countless more threads, they swiftly bound the golden palm imprint, slowing its descent.
Su Fuxi clenched her teeth, spiritual power surging through her body. She could feel the palm imprint pressing down within the silver threads, crushing the innermost layer under its pressure. But as the imprint slowed, its energy gradually dissipated as well, seemingly absorbed by the silver threads.
This Thousand Silk Gu could actually nullify her spell directly. It was truly strange. Anyone whose cultivation wasn't stronger than the red-robed man's would probably suffer at his hands. If her cultivation had been even a little weaker than his, she would already have lost.
With a boom, blood trickled from the corner of Su Fuxi's mouth. Gritting her teeth, she gravely damaged the Thousand Silk Gu linked to the red-robed man's mind. The golden palm completely shattered all the silver threads and pressed down toward him, only to be quickly devoured in its entirety by a mass of gray insects.
Swish! In the fleeting instant before the palm imprint vanished, Su Fuxi slashed the throat of Zha Wuren, who had been watching the battle in horror, with a single sword stroke. Then she raced away, wrapped in the restriction banner.
It was his fault for standing right in the direction she could retreat, and his fault for insisting on courting death! She had taken the risk of killing him so he wouldn't cause trouble later!
"Where do you think you're going?!"
The red-robed man also spat out a mouthful of blood. He formed a seal and swiftly sent out a beam of red light. The strange light was not slow in the slightest; it caught up in the blink of an eye and plunged straight into Su Fuxi's back. The red-robed man raised a hand to seize Zha Wuren's teleportation magic treasure, then rode the light in pursuit behind her.
Su Fuxi's body shuddered as the red light entered her. Only after examining it carefully did she discover that it had corroded an incredibly tiny hole, invisible to the naked eye, through the defensive restriction. It was actually even more formidable than those gray insects! It was impossible to guard against.
The sound of rolling thunder exploded behind her.
"Kehehe, if the beauty won't behave, I might as well take your primordial yin and feed you to my little treasures."
"Hahaha, why are you running? Now that you've been struck by my Crimson Immortal Gu, I guarantee you'll feel like you're ascending to heaven and dying all at once..."
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