Chapter 105: The Girl on the Toad
The sound of footsteps on fallen leaves echoed.
Two cultivators in black robes entered the forest.
“Brother, that kid has vanished… He must have some means to conceal his aura.”
“He’s nearby. Force him out and kill him.”
The cultivator at the eighth level of Qi Refining had a thin mustache and looked around thirty years old.
He spoke with an unquestionable tone in front of his younger brother.
“However, he fled toward the Eastern Abyss Sect. He might be a disciple of the sect. He could have some protective measures or escape techniques.”
“Aqing, be careful when we make our move.”
Zheng Heqing nodded and said in a low voice, “Yes, brother.”
Zheng Haiyan and Zheng Heqing were not strangers to this kind of work.
Killing and arson for a golden belt.
This was the fastest way to obtain spirit stones.
Practice makes perfect. Zheng Heqing knew in his heart what to pay attention to when facing different opponents.
But his brother liked to repeat reminders, so he just listened obediently.
“Brother, we’re not far from the Eastern Abyss Sect. Could it be…”
The two brothers were accustomed to caution. Acting here was actually somewhat risky.
Zheng Haiyan shook his head. “It’s fine. Just act cleanly and quickly.”
“After this job, we’ll find a place to lie low. When the wind dies down, we’ll return.”
As he spoke, the faint blue spiritual energy in Zheng Haiyan’s hand grew stronger. “That kid is at the sixth level of Qi Refining. We’ll join forces.”
“Best to kill him instantly and avoid any trouble.”
Hum—
A blue storm suddenly erupted from Zheng Haiyan’s hand and began to ravage the surroundings.
Hidden in the shadows, Song Yan was startled. “Storm Reversal Talisman…”
The storm enveloped the entire dense forest in a short time.
After only a moment of hesitation, he condensed his protective spiritual garment again.
Even if he was exposed on the spot, it was better than being injured before the fight even started.
Spiritual energy fluctuations appeared for an instant.
“…There.”
Before his brother’s voice faded, Zheng Heqing had already closed in.
He held a piece of emerald-green jade bamboo and charged at Song Yan.
“Close combat?”
It could be said that so far, this chase had been within Song Yan’s understanding.
However, the fighting style of this cultivator at the seventh level of Qi Refining was what truly surprised him.
Three pearls condensed from pure spiritual energy were flicked by Zheng Heqing and shot toward him.
At the same time, the jade bamboo in his hand was wielded like a short staff, swinging horizontally with great force, aiming for a fatal blow.
In the distance, Zheng Haiyan had already released a ring-shaped blade that hovered at his side.
Seeing that his opponent had revealed himself and his brother had already attacked, he formed a hand seal.
“Go!”
The blade flashed and shot out, heading straight for Song Yan.
He stood there as if stunned by the scene, showing no reaction.
“Are sect disciples always this weak?”
A sense of pride surged in Zheng Heqing’s heart as he struck the man’s Dantian with his staff, spiritual energy surging wildly.
At the same time, the flying blade arrived.
Song Yan was knocked back by the force of the staff, and at that moment, Zheng Haiyan’s blade sliced past.
In an instant, his head was separated from his body.
“…”
The life-and-death struggle ended in a flash.
But…
Zheng Heqing felt something was slightly off.
“Huh?”
In the distance, Zheng Haiyan was momentarily stunned.
The corpse did not bleed. The skin began to roughen slowly from the fingertips.
The features became increasingly blurred, and the wrinkles and lines on the skin grew denser.
In the blink of an eye, it turned into the appearance of wood and bark.
Zheng Haiyan frowned. “Misfortune Avoidance Talisman?”
At this moment, Song Yan was hiding in the shadows.
A sharp sword gleam gathered slowly at the tip of his right index finger.
In most battles between ordinary Qi Refining cultivators, it was not about comparing spiritual energy levels.
At this stage, powerful techniques and divine abilities were not yet available for cultivation.
Few Qi Refining cultivators like Song Yan possessed sword cultivation heritage and sword dao true essence as a killing move.
Special artifacts and spiritual weapons were also not things most cultivators at this stage could obtain.
Therefore, without time to set up trapping or killing formations beforehand, most of the time it came down to comparing the grade of magical tools and the talismans they could activate.
Low-grade magical tools were relatively cheap and could be used continuously, but they consumed more spiritual energy and mental effort to control.
Although talismans were single-use items, they were convenient to use and had a wide variety of effects.
Some could even save one’s life at critical moments.
Just like the “Green Wood Misfortune Avoidance Talisman” he had used earlier, it was one of the contingencies he had prepared.
Once activated, it could release a clone from the spiritual energy stored inside.
However, aside from that, it had no other use.
It was only meant to divert the opponent’s attention.
If he did not have the Hidden Sword Spirit Concealment Technique, it would have been easily seen through.
Even so, the price of this talisman was not cheap.
Sixty-eight spirit stones.
The original price was seventy. The two spirit stones saved were from his haggling.
“Fellow Daoist, reveal yourself.”
The cultivator at the eighth level of Qi Refining said loudly. “This trick is enough for one use.”
Song Yan would not obediently walk out.
Besides this Green Wood Misfortune Avoidance Talisman, he had also purchased an escape talisman at a high price.
But this talisman required on-site activation and took some time.
The two in front of him were obviously ruthless killers, attacking with lethal force at every move.
If he activated it rashly, he worried they would act too quickly and keep him here.
With his current strength at the sixth level of Qi Refining, facing two opponents was simply courting death.
He had to come up with a feasible and foolproof plan.
Now, this wisp of sword dao true essence, against an unprepared early or mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator, could basically pierce through their protective spiritual garment and kill them instantly.
Against late-stage Qi Refining cultivators, Song Yan was not sure.
He thought that if the opponent had no protective artifacts or spiritual items, piercing the protective garment and severely injuring them should be possible.
After a quick judgment, he dared not be careless.
These two obviously did this kind of work often and likely had no shortage of protective items.
For some reason, Song Yan’s thoughts were very clear at this moment. He felt he had reached the utmost calm.
“Both have a high probability of possessing protective spiritual items. The target cannot be the cultivator at the eighth level of Qi Refining.”
“His cultivation is higher, and the sword essence might not be effective. Moreover, he could only fire one finger in a short time. This choice was not solid enough.”
The current situation did not allow him to consider how to kill these two.
Instead, it was about escaping alive.
“If I can severely injure the cultivator at the seventh level of Qi Refining, I will have a chance to escape.”
Song Yan believed that facing an eighth-level Qi Refining cultivator, victory was difficult. This move seemed to have little effect on the battle.
However, that eighth-level cultivator was farther away, giving him more time to activate the talisman.
“…”
Just as he was about to release the Untethered Vessel and fire the sword essence simultaneously, a sudden change occurred in the field.
Sss…
A subtle cold breeze blew through the forest.
Zheng Haiyan frowned and looked up alertly.
Both brothers thought this hiding cultivator was playing some trick.
Song Yan was also wary, fearing it was some technique of theirs. “Hee hee hee…”
Suddenly, a woman’s light laughter came from somewhere in the dense forest.
Both brothers looked toward the source of the sound, and Song Yan, hiding in the shadows, also turned his gaze.
A faint mist had spread through the forest at some point, and the sound of a heavy object landing came from a pile of fallen leaves.
In the shadows, a pair of pale purple eyes swayed gently.
“Giggle… How lively~”
A crisp, childish voice rang out.
Zheng Heqing retreated swiftly and arrived at his brother’s side.
“Croak—”
Boom!
A massive blue-gray toad leaped from the shadows and landed heavily on the ground, its swollen poison glands emitting a faint, eerie glow.
The sluggish frog eyes stared at the two black-robed cultivators.
Croak—
The two black-robed cultivators looked up and saw a girl in blue sitting atop the toad’s head.
The girl looked no more than ten years old, her bare feet dangling and swaying gently.
The silver bells on her ankles jingled with the movement, producing a delicate, clear sound.
Zheng Haiyan’s heart sank. His divine sense swept over her but could not discern her cultivation level. A hint of retreat already arose in his heart.
This mysterious girl before him seemed to come with ill intent.
Behind him, in the dense forest, a cultivator suspected to be a disciple of the Eastern Abyss Sect was still hiding.
Now…
It seemed as if the two brothers were being caught in a pincer attack by these two.
Although his younger brother Zheng Heqing had slightly less experience in the world, even a fool could see that the current situation was bad.
“This fellow Daoist…”
A green talisman had already appeared in Zheng Haiyan’s hand, hidden in his sleeve.
If things went wrong, he would immediately activate it to escape.
The two brothers had encountered such situations before and were already prepared.
“We are pursuing an enemy here. Could you possibly do us a favor…”
“Of course, of course…”
The little girl giggled, her small feet swinging even more happily, as if something exciting was about to happen.
The brothers’ hearts relaxed slightly, but they remained vigilant.
“Then thank you, fellow Dao—”
At some point, a fragrant breeze began to drift through the misty forest.
A delicate, pale blue butterfly fluttered its wings and danced toward them on the fragrant breeze.
Zheng Haiyan frowned slightly. Although the butterfly showed no spiritual energy fluctuations, he remained cautious.
Just as he wanted to warn his brother, he saw the blue butterfly land on Zheng Heqing’s protective spiritual garment.
“Aqing!”
Zheng Heqing sensed something wrong and retreated while surging his spiritual energy, causing his garment to emit a blue light.
But by this point, the situation was completely beyond his control.
The butterfly’s wings fluttered.
In an instant, Zheng Heqing felt his spiritual energy rushing wildly toward the blue butterfly!
Song Yan, hidden in the shadows, observed the battlefield closely. Zheng Heqing’s anomaly was naturally also in his sight.
“That spiritual butterfly…”
“It seems rather strange.”
Zheng Heqing frantically tried to drive it away and kill the butterfly, but his jade bamboo staff swung without ever touching it.
It drifted lightly with the surging spiritual energy, like a foam rising and falling with the tide.
Spiritual energy was continuously gnawed and absorbed by it.
Zheng Heqing’s protective spiritual garment destabilized and melted like wax near fire!
“Aqing! Move!”
Zheng Haiyan’s heart filled with alarm, and he shouted sternly.
A perfect opportunity!
Song Yan, who was watching the battle closely, could not miss it.
Hum—
In that instant, a black-and-white sword shadow shot out from the dense forest behind.
Before he could make any defense, the protective spiritual jade on Zheng Heqing’s body activated automatically and barely blocked the strike.
The jade shattered with a bang.
But before he could feel relieved, a sword gleam hidden within the flying sword’s afterglow revealed its edge.
In his eyes, blue-gold cracks converged, and the sound of shattering glass rang in his ears.
Pfft.
Zheng Heqing’s gaze was filled with disbelief.
The girl cupped her face, tilted her head, and admired with intoxicated pleasure as Zheng Heqing struggled and collapsed to the ground, unwilling to accept his fate.
She lightly bit her little finger and giggled.
Zheng Haiyan’s roar echoed through the entire forest: “Aqing!!!”
Song Yan remained hidden in the shadows. He looked at the eerie girl sitting on the giant frog, and a few more doubts arose in his heart.
He did not know this person, but now she was helping him escape danger.
Hmm…
It could no longer be called escaping danger.
If she wished, with those strange spirit insects, Song Yan could even join forces with her to slay this eighth-level Qi Refining demonic cultivator.
But that was the problem.
They had just met by chance. Why would she intervene?
Even if she knew his identity, what profit could there be in an outer sect disciple?
What did she want?
Zheng Haiyan did not know their thoughts. He only knew that the brother he had relied on since childhood had died before his eyes.
His eyes were about to split with rage, and veins bulged at his temples.
The two had long anticipated this day would come, but they never expected it to arrive so soon.
He suddenly took a deep breath, activated the talisman in his hand with his spiritual energy, and prepared to flee without even retrieving his brother’s corpse.
“Oh, I haven’t had enough fun yet…”
The girl seemed somewhat displeased. “Why the rush to leave?”
Zheng Haiyan turned into a streak of blue light and flew rapidly into the distant sky.
Originally, Song Yan had not hoped to keep him.
But when Zheng Haiyan had only flown a few zhang into the air, he seemed to hit something and was bounced back?!
His eyes were filled with shock, as if he could not believe it.
At low altitude above the dense forest, a fine silk net had appeared at some point…
“Spider silk?”
Song Yan’s gaze sharpened. It was only after the black-robed cultivator hit it that he could see clearly.
In the shadows, there was a faint sound of some arthropod insects crawling on the trees.
“What a strange cultivator…”
He found it difficult to define this somewhat terrifying girl in his heart.
Insect cultivator?
Not exactly.
In his impression, insect cultivators were like Rong Xiaofeng, commanding swarms of spirit insects.
Beast taming cultivator?
Somewhat similar, but also not quite right.
“My knowledge is still lacking.”
Although she said she hadn’t had enough fun, when Zheng Haiyan fell from the sky, the girl seemed to have grown tired of the game.
“How boring.”
Hum—
A thick scorpion tail shot out from somewhere in the dense forest.
Before Zheng Haiyan could land, the stinger easily pierced through his protective spiritual garment and impaled him.
Then it retracted swiftly, dragging the corpse, which still had some vitality, back into the shadows.
At the same time, a strand of spider silk shot from another direction and dragged the other black-robed corpse into the forest.
Two bone-chilling chewing sounds rang out simultaneously.
A cultivator at the eighth level of Qi Refining…
Killed instantly!?