Talisman Emperor
chapter-41-30041322

Bloody Mountain, before a gorge.

Ten plus cultivators crowded around them, and the skinny middle aged man in the lead suggested. “Fellow Daoists, please wait. There’s an entire pack of over 100 baleful beasts concealed within this Bloodbath Gorge. How about we team up to hunt them and share the baleful pearls we obtain?”

Du Qingxi didn’t have any intention of stopping as she said coldly, “I’m sorry, we still have matters to attend to.”

“Haha, Miss, don’t refuse so quickly. What matters could be more important than earning money? After all, with our strength, hunting that pack of baleful beasts is nothing difficult. Fellow Daoists, all of you seem heroic and extraordinary. If you join us, you’ll surely be able to obtain considerable returns.” The skinny middle aged man continued to guide them patiently.

Pity couldn’t help but arise within Chen Xi’s heart as he gazed at the cultivators that crowded over.

Du Qingxi didn’t say anything else; Duanmu Ze who wore white clothes and had a smile on his face walked forward, then beamed as he said, “Everyone, unfortunately, I have to tell all of you that you’ve chosen the wrong target to raid this time.”

“Bah! What the hell? Comply or die!” The skinny middle aged man’s face went grim, then he sneered as he snapped his fingers. The expression of those cultivators that had crowded over all suddenly went vicious and their eyes emitted a fierce light.

“I’ll give all of you one last chance, hand over all your baleful pearls and scram! Right, leave that woman, she’s just nice for us to vent some steam.” The skinny middle aged man let out a strange laugh as he gave the last ultimatum.

“You actually dare insult Qingxi? Truly courting death!” Duanmu Ze’s face went cold when he saw the skinny middle aged man actually coveting Du Qingxi, and a rainbow colored sword appeared out of thin air within his hand.

Om!

The Sevenstar Rainbow Sword that contained oppressive spirit energy emitted an unparalleled fierce aura, and it lightly vibrated in Duanmu Ze’s hand; it seemed to desperately want to fly out and drink the blood of its enemies.

In an instant, the disposition of Duanmu Ze who held a sword changed. The slight smile at the corners of his mouth transformed into a wisp of an icy cold sneer, and he seemed to become an unsheathed sharp sword that leaped forward!

“Go! Let’s kill this kid first!” The pupils of the skinny middle aged man constricted when he felt that change in Duanmu Ze’s aura, and he knew he’d encountered a formidable foe. He didn’t dare hesitate and shouted out explosively, then he held his dual sabers in his hands to whip out balls of sword ripples that enveloped right towards Duanmu Ze’s head.

“Kill!” The other cultivators brandished their weapons as well and crowded over towards Duanmu Ze.

When faced with such a situation, Du Qingxi’s expression was calm and Song Lin looked dazed and sleepy. Chen Xi instead gazed at those raiding cultivators with pity.

Aren’t these kids companions? They actually allowed him to give away his life alone? The skinny middle aged man glanced over at them with the corners of his vision, and when he saw Du Qingxi and the others looking on unconcerned, he couldn’t help but be slightly stunned.

“Alkaid!” The moment when the skinny middle aged man was briefly dazed, a low chant abruptly sounded within his ears. When he recovered from his shock, he saw 100,000 unparalleled fierce sword lights had enveloped his surroundings and billowing baleful qi assaulted his face.

Clang! Clonk! Clink! Crack!

A string of dense sounds of metal breaking like popcorn sounded out abruptly, and all the weapons within the hands of the cultivators that had surrounded to besiege Duanmu Ze had snapped at the hilt.

Could it be that the sword in this fellow’s hand is a graded Magic Treasure?

All the cultivators that had surrounded him, including the skinny middle aged man, all revealed astonishment, then their entire bodies were filled with boundless coldness and terror. He was at such a young age and possesses a graded Magic Treasure. Could it be that he’s a core disciple from those great sects or great clans?

“Die!” Duanmu Ze swept the group of stunned cultivators in disdain, then his wrist lightly trembled and instantly pierced out ten plus sword lights that flowed out like water and shot out.

Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu!

A string of blood shot out into the air, the skinny middle aged man and his companions hadn’t even made sense of Duanmu Ze’s identity when they felt pain in their chest and there was already a bloody hole at the location of their hearts, then their pupils dilated before crashing onto the ground.

“Learning to rob others with just this little cultivation, truly extremely laughable!” Duanmu Ze shook his head in disdain, then he elegantly turned around and didn’t take another glance at the corpses on the ground and instructed, “You, clean up the scene.”

Chen Xi swiftly walked up and started to skillfully gather the baleful pearls in the possession of these cultivators.

Since they’d entered Bloody Mountain, they’d encountered the raiding of group after group of cultivators that lacked a discerning eye. These cultivators weaved together various reasons with an objective of none other than to seize the baleful pearls in the possession of others.

When faced with such a situation, Duanmu Ze naturally couldn’t stand idly by and watch.

Of course, it was mainly for the sake of showing off his graceful bearing and formidable strength in front of Du Qingxi, and all those enemies were taken on by him, utterly not allowing Chen Xi and the others a chance to make a move. He single handedly went into battle, relying on the high-grade martial technique, Big Dipper Sword Scripture, that was passed down within his clan and the graded Magic Treasure, Sevenstar Rainbow Sword, in his possession, to easily wipe out all the enemies and bask in the limelight.

As for those people that were extremely formidable, their group of four never encountered a single one and could be considered to be extremely lucky.

Young Master Duanmu felt himself to be above gathering wealth from the corpses of his enemies, and he passed the battle clean-up duty to Chen Xi. For the sake of baleful pearls and the Netherezim Baleful Qi within, Chen Xi didn’t have any reason to refuse, and after experiencing it a few times, his technique in extracting wealth from the dead became even more proficient…

“This gorge is named bloodbath, and there’s a simple city behind this gorge that we can rest in. We have to speed up and hurry over there. Otherwise, once night falls, all the baleful beast packs that are concealed in the shadows will move out to wreak havoc upon every inch of these lands. Even if our cultivation was any higher, we would still be drowned in the extremely terrifying sea of baleful beasts.” Du Qingxi looked at the jade slip map in her hand, and when she saw Chen Xi having finished cleaning up the scene, she didn’t delay in the slightest and walked towards the depths of the gorge right away.

“There’s a city here?” Chen Xi couldn’t help but ask on the way.

“Exactly, there’s already been nearly 10,000 years of history since the Southern Barbaric Nether Domain appeared. For the sake of getting through the terrifying night within Bloody Mountain, numerous cultivators gathered together 1,000 years ago to jointly build numerous defensive campsites. After experiencing the renovation, reinforcement, and expansion of cultivators of the later generations, the current cities were formed.”

“So that’s how it is.” Chen Xi nodded. True Essence would surely be expended when hunting baleful beasts, and the spirit energy within the Southern Barbaric Nether Domain was exhausted, not to mention the baleful qi that billowed to the sky. Not only did replenishing True Essence require bringing along spirit stones and medicinal pills, it also required a safe environment and time to absorb the spirit energy within and cultivate. The appearance of a city undoubtedly solved this problem extremely well.

The following journey was carried out in silence. Chen Xi’s group of four passed through the gorge that was 500 km long and arrived at a vast plain.

On the way here, Chen Xi’s group had encountered a few other cultivators. Before Chen Xi’s group could react to them, they would move far away to avoid Chen Xi’s group as soon as they met, like birds that were startled by the mere twang of a bowstring. Their eyes emitted dense vigilance and alertness.

Cultivators that are able to arrive here have undoubtedly experienced numerous raids and desperate battles for a while now. I presume their strength would be extremely extraordinary as well, and looking at the direction they’re heading towards, they’re also moving to enter that city as soon as possible… So many cultivators gathered together, I wonder if murders and slaughters still occur there…? Chen Xi silently thought about the things weighing his mind, but his feet weren’t slow in the slightest. Under the lead of Du Qingxi, they dashed forward for nearly two hours before finally seeing the outline of the city that appeared extremely far away.

As she gazed at the city that emitted an ancient and historical charm, Du Qingxi’s footsteps slightly slowed down, and her chilly voice entered into the ears of Chen Xi and the others. “This is the first city in Bloody Mountain, Bloodbath City. According to my calculations, there are at least 5,000 cultivators that have gathered there this time. These cultivators have come from different places and there are both strong and weak people mixed within. We must be cautious once we enter.”

Chen Xi lightly nodded. Fights existed wherever people were. Everyone was here for the sake of obtaining baleful pearls, and once a conflict broke out, it would absolutely be a situation where it would not stop until one party died.

However, Chen Xi wasn’t afraid of all this. With his current strength, he could safely retreat even when facing a Violet Palace Realm cultivator, not to mention this was the Southern Barbaric Nether Domain that restricted cultivations and the highest cultivations were only at the perfection-stage of the Congenital Realm.

In next to no time, the four of them arrived before Bloodbath City.

Unlike the cities in the outside world, although Bloodbath City carried the word ‘city’ in its name, its size was no different to a village. Solid walls that were nearly 33m high surrounded the city in all directions and there was only a single heavy iron gate in the center that allowed passage in and out of the city.

But at this moment, the city gate was completely congested as a dispute seemed to have broken out ahead and it caused the numerous cultivators to stand and watch here.

“Li Huai, what do you want to do? Kill us to keep our mouths shut?” An enraged voice sounded out from within the crowd, and Chen Xi couldn’t help but be stunned. Li Huai? This fellow actually came to Bloodbath City as well…

Chen Xi walked forward and briefly sized up the scene, and he really did see Li Huai. Moreover, in the space opposite of Li Huai, he even saw three familiar faces — The Redleaf Institution’s Lu Shaocong, Qu Cheng, and Duan Ying.

At this moment, these three people’s faces were filled with rage, but their gazes upon Li Huai were also filled with fear.

When Chen Xi met the three of them the first time, they only had cultivations at the perfection-stage of the Postnatal Realm. Merely three months had passed. Even if they’d advanced into the Congenital Realm, they still were absolutely not a match for Li Huai who’d advanced to the Violet Palace Realm.

“Hmph! Could it be that all of you have forgotten the incident from three months ago? Not only did all of you spoil an important matter of my Li Clan, you even caused my Li Clan to painfully lose a precious treasure. Tell me, would I let all of you off?” Li Huai smiled coldly.

Spoil an important matter of the Li Clan? Could he be speaking of the matter of me forcing Manager Wu to retreat from Spiritcave Lake and saving the ‘tributes’ the Li Clan wanted to sacrifice? At that time, I arranged for Lu Shaocong’s group of three to escort those people back to Pine Mist City. I presume that the Li Clan noticed them after they entered Pine Mist City… A flash of insight abruptly flashed within Chen Xi’s mind, and he finally understood what had happened, then flames of rage arose within his heart. This matter was caused by me, but it caused Lu Shaocong’s group of three to be implicated. The methods of the Li Clan are really too shameless and despicable!

“Since all of you have nothing to say…” At the moment that Chen Xi was pondering, Li Huai suddenly took a step forward, his right hand lightly grasped onto his sword as a sharp killing intent surged out from his body.

“Then die!” Accompanied by his voice, Li Huai drew his sword and moved forward. The tip of his sword whistled with a cold gleam as it casually transformed into fine bright lights that covered the sky; it seemed to have transformed into a myriad of green and luxuriant pine needles that cut open the sky as it headed straight towards Lu Shaocong’s group of three.

True Essence condensed into sword lights that were as thin as needles, Li Huai’s sword technique had obviously attained the advanced-stage. He only lightly pierced with his sword, but it was grand, majestic, and extremely orderly. It also instantly locked onto all the paths of retreat of Lu Shaocong’s group of three.

Lu Shaocong’s group of three obviously never expected that Li Huai would be so vicious and resolute, and would attack arbitrarily. They were instantly caught off guard, they stared blankly at the sword lights that covered the sky as it flew towards them, and they actually forgot to dodge…

Could it be that we’re going to die like this?

At the moment between life and death, the same thought arose in unison within the minds of the three.