Chapter 50: Disturbance
The black demonic flame on the sword blade diffused, rapidly seeping through the gaps in Qin Ying’s protective spiritual garment. “Wuwu…”
She only heard a series of shrill, sorrowful wails ring out in her ears, and her mind fell into chaos. The black flying sword tore through her spiritual garment.
Fresh blood scattered, and the instant it touched the black demonic flame, it evaporated instantly without a trace.
Qin Ying let out a muffled groan as her body flew backward.
But the black flying sword was simply too fast, and she could only be driven into retreat.
Jiang Xiao toyed with her like a cat playing with a mouse, launching only two sword strikes with each exchange.
Qin Ying could barely block the first strike, but she would inevitably be wounded by the second.
Her expression turned cold, and resolve filled her heart.
She drew her fingers across the center of her brow, and the jade hairpin in her hair shattered on cue. A torrent of spiritual energy erupted from the crown of her head.
The spiritual pressure of the snow and wind filling the sky surged once more, and the crimson substance on her body was frozen solid.
Since evasion was impossible in any case, she might as well trade her life for his!
Her fingertips lightly formed a hand seal. Three streams of ice-blue sword light landed around Jiang Xiao, and the phantom of frost chains slowly materialized between the three streams of sword light…
“Oh? Heh heh…”
Jiang Xiao, unhurried, controlled his flying sword to slash across Qin Ying’s spiritual garment, leaving a wound on her shoulder.
Qin Ying had never intended to dodge, but the black demonic flame invaded her mind once more.
“Immortal…”
“Save me…”
Ghostly wails, like tormented spirits, echoed and circled in her ears.
A bizarre demonic voice sounded in the depths of her heart.
“Why won’t you save me…”
“You call yourselves immortals, watching demons slaughter mortals with your own eyes… yet you yourselves continue to live!”
“My family was corrupted because of you, my master severed ties with you, my brother died miserably because of your incompetent, weak acquiescence!”
The demonic voice roared continuously, growing ever more chaotic and deafening. Qin Ying’s mind completely fell into disarray, her spiritual energy dissipated, and the phantom of the chains shattered with a snap.
Jiang Xiao laughed heartily: “You will all become blood essence, becoming part of my body. In the future, when I dominate the cultivation world, it could be considered…”
“A shared glory, wouldn’t you say?”
“There is no need to struggle! Your fate is already decided!”
Far below, Song Yan and Li Qingfeng were genuinely anxious for Qin Ying.
Song Yan’s expression shifted from calm to horror.
Senior Sister Qin had actually been driven into a disadvantage.
Both of them understood one thing clearly in their hearts: if even Qin Ying fell to this demonic cultivator Jiang Xiao, then the two of them would have no other outcome but death.
When the lips are gone, the teeth feel the cold.
Song Yan remained silent. He suddenly realized that his fate was once again in someone else’s hands…
“Hum…”
Suddenly, Song Yan felt a chill run through his entire body. All of his spiritual energy and sword qi surged uncontrollably, flowing toward a certain place.
At this moment, a mysterious, incomprehensible aura, like ripples on water, spread outward from the Two Polarities Pearl in waves.
“Hm?”
Song Yan did not know what this aura was, nor why this anomaly had occurred. His consciousness sank into the Two Polarities World, only to see that the black and white runes surrounding him were cycling through birth and destruction far faster than usual.
But Jiang Xiao in the sky suddenly narrowed his eyes: “What is going on…”
He seemed to vaguely sense that his connection with the “immortal sword” had grown considerably weaker.
The black flying sword even felt somewhat unsteady.
Qin Ying also noticed this. She quickly stabilized her mind and regained control of her spiritual energy to resist the corrosion of the crimson substance.
Jiang Xiao looked toward Song Yan and Li Qingfeng.
“What tricks are you playing!”
He extended his palm and grasped toward the location where Song Yan and Li Qingfeng stood.
Song Yan, carrying Gu Qingqing and Li Qingfeng, retreated rapidly. At the same time, sword light condensed in his hand and shot toward Jiang Xiao.
But the moment it made contact with Jiang Xiao’s body, the latter dissolved like an ink drop in water, his flesh and blood forming a circular gap.
The sword light swept past, carrying a gust of wind that tore a blood-red wisp of cloud from his body, which resembled a fog of flesh and blood.
“Hmph, an ant trying to shake a tree!”
Jiang Xiao made an empty grasping motion, and Song Yan and Li Qingfeng felt their entire bodies suddenly constrict, as though an invisible hand were squeezing them tightly.
Their hearts pounded wildly. Both felt the blood in their bodies rushing rapidly, and a wave of dizziness washed over them.
Specks of foul crimson blood quickly spread across their bodies…
What terrifying, bizarre blood energy!
Had Senior Sister Qin been contending against this pressure for so long?
The protective talisman he had activated earlier now cracked inch by inch.
A talisman capable of withstanding three attacks from a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator could not resist the casual grasp of a Foundation Building cultivator.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—
Three streams of ice-blue sword energy circled around Jiang Xiao’s sides. The frost chains materialized again, locking him within like drawing a prison on the ground.
Qin Ying formed the sword seal in her hand: “Frost Sword Formation!” The frigid spiritual light gathered and condensed above the small formation, then plummeted downward, striking Jiang Xiao in an instant.
Boom!
A tremendous, fierce shockwave spread outward, and an extreme cold swept across all of Peach Blossom Dock.
Song Yan and Li Qingfeng felt their internal spiritual energy surge and grow lively, but their protective spiritual garments were blown apart.
A faint sweetness of blood rose in their throats, and their ears were filled with the shattering sounds of frost from the shockwave, making it nearly impossible to breathe.
Song Yan, facing the clash between Foundation Building cultivators once more, still found it inconceivable.
“…It hit!”
Li Qingfeng gasped for breath: “Is that demonic cultivator dead?”
“…”
Song Yan raised his eyes to look. Several concentrated streams of blood gathered in the air, contracted, and re-formed and merged into the shape of Jiang Xiao.
He stared coldly at Qin Ying.
“Heh heh.”
“A monkey dressed in finery, all surface and no substance.”
“Is this even worthy of being called a sword formation…”
Li Qingfeng, while using his spiritual energy to resist the crimson corrosion, transmitted his voice: “Senior Brother Song, this demonic cultivator’s formation is truly bizarre…”
Song Yan pondered for a moment, then speculated: “Aside from this bizarre substance that can corrode flesh and skin, the real reason Senior Sister Qin is struggling to fight him is probably that this formation allows the demonic cultivator to move erratically.”
“Although Senior Sister Qin’s sword formation can briefly trap him, she cannot divide her attention and truly harm his essence.”
“Then what should we do?”
During his earlier scavenging at Firework Fortress, Song Yan had acquired some of the most basic knowledge about formations.
“A formation is nothing more than finding the formation eye and formation anchors, and destroying them.”
“But where is the formation eye?”
Song Yan’s voice grew heavy: “That is the most thorny part. This formation is no ordinary one. It uses that black flying sword as its formation eye, and the roaming blood energy as its formation anchors and formation beads.”
“That blood energy is also quite peculiar. It cannot be disturbed by spiritual energy, nor can it be destroyed…”
Li Qingfeng’s eyes flickered with thought as he considered.
Song Yan’s thoughts gradually cleared from their initial confusion.
“This formation is not fixed and unchanging. It is a dynamic formation controlled at will by Jiang Xiao!”
Now, his Two Polarities Pearl seemed to be able to slightly affect the movement of that black flying sword. Although the effect was minimal, it was the only assistance he could offer.
After all, it was the formation eye of the Blood Refining Formation. Even a slight disturbance and restraint could give Senior Sister Qin room to breathe.
He took out a pill, tossed it into his mouth, and circulated his spiritual energy.
Beneath the Town-Dao Sword Manor, the sword qi surging like lotus petals around the sword seed gradually converged, taking on the form of a wisp of Sword Dao True Essence.
The Sword Dao True Essence was still one of Song Yan’s most powerful killing moves at present.
He did not know whether this could have any effect on a Foundation Building powerhouse, but at the moment, he had nothing else he could do.
If there were another chance to trap that demonic cultivator…
“Senior Sister Qin! Senior Brother Song!”
Just as Song Yan was concentrating, Li Qingfeng suddenly spoke.
Song Yan and Qin Ying turned their gaze slightly, only to see Li Qingfeng put away his black wok and kitchen knife, positioning his body in a strange posture.
His eyes were fierce, and his jaw was clenched tight.
Hummm—
Li Qingfeng’s entire body’s spiritual energy surged. A tremendous suction force emanated from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.
Within the entire formation, all the spiritual qi and blood energy suddenly surged toward Li Qingfeng in a rush.
“What?”
Jiang Xiao stared at Li Qingfeng in disbelief. The blood energy in his hand had barely condensed before it instantly dissipated.
In that brief moment of distraction, the frost spiritual energy had already begun to spread upward from the tips of his toes.
Just as the foul blood was about to touch Li Qingfeng, he forcibly interrupted his own cultivation technique.
“Cough, cough…”
His meridians were reversed, and the little fatty’s complexion was terrible.
Jiang Xiao, whose composure had been shaken, now settled again. He was about to strike first and suppress that fat cultivator, but he discovered that the man had actually started laughing.
“It really worked…”
A Qi Refining cultivator suddenly raised his eyes and locked gazes with this Foundation Building cultivator in the sky.
“What are you looking at?”
A look of pleasure spread across the little fatty’s face.
“You’re going to die…”