ILDV Chapter 22

Suddenly, a sword light burst through the clouds from the side, its sword momentum brilliant, directly threatening his face. Yan Guihe had no choice but to strike defensively, but miscalculated the difference in their strengths and was swept back into the encirclement by one sword strike.

Shen Muxuan’s figure appeared where the sword light had emerged, holding his sword single-handedly, smiling as he looked at him.

Half his snow-white robe was soaked through with fresh blood. Facing everyone’s surprised gazes, he coughed lightly, rarely showing some embarrassment. “Venerable Yin has a rather violent temper…” As he spoke, he glanced at Yan Guihe with seeming significance.

The two understood in a second.

No wonder—with Tianji Daojun’s temperament, there was no reason he should be injured this severely by Chan Xin’s Buddhist light. If Yin Lang had been tormented to the point of irritation and violently struck out while Shen Muxuan couldn’t defend in time, that would explain it.

“Where is Yin Lang?”

“Yan Guihe hasn’t ordinarily offended the Daojun, so why would the Daojun block my path to survival?”

Both sides questioned simultaneously.

“Venerable Yin…”

Before Shen Muxuan could finish speaking, Yan Guihe’s eyes suddenly widened. His whole body lurched forward three steps and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

“…is behind the Venerable.”

Ah…

He raised his sleeve to cover his face, his eyes slightly curved. “Someone merely followed Venerable Yin here.” It wasn’t intentional to strike you.

Behind Yan Guihe, the blood-covered Yin Lang appeared, his disheveled and wretched state second only to Yan Guihe’s.

He said coldly, “Venerable Tinglan, don’t you owe this Venerable an explanation?”

Hua Tinglan… what could Hua Tinglan say? He’d been screwed over too!

Yan Guihe was surrounded on all sides but still refused to give up struggling. “Tianji Daojun, since we have no past grievances or recent enmity, would the Daojun graciously allow me to depart? Yan can swear a heart demon oath on the spot—as long as the Daojun lets me leave, in the future Yan will surely repay you handsomely!”

Being willing to swear a heart demon oath, Yan Guihe’s promise carried considerable sincerity.

He stared intently at Shen Muxuan, but the other party firmly shook his head. “That won’t do.”

Before Yan Guihe could question him, he said, “Indeed, we had no past grievances, but we do have a recent enmity. Has the Venerable forgotten the good deed you did half a month ago?”

Yan Guihe was extremely puzzled.

His heart was tremendously irritated, but for the sake of survival, he still had to work hard to recall what orders he had given previously.

He couldn’t think of any.

During this time, he had been busy swallowing up Wu Mantuo’s forces and searching for the whereabouts of Primordial Jade fragments. When had he ever had any dealings with Taihua Immortal Sect?

He suppressed his anger. “Please enlighten me, Daojun.”

Shen Muxuan then said, “Half a month ago, on Tianji Peak of our Taihua Immortal Sect, a large mass of demonic qi with corrosive properties erupted, instantly destroying all life force on the entire Tianji Peak. It involved dozens of elders from our sect working together before we could barely suppress it and prevent it from affecting the disciples. Afterward, we successively found three fragments on the peak that were clearly pieces of your shattered demonic core. Does the Venerable believe you and Muxuan have an enmity or not?”

This time Yan Guihe was genuinely and truly bewildered.

What kind of nonsense was this? He had no recollection of it at all! Moreover, his demonic core shattering happened a thousand years ago—how could…

He knew in his heart that someone must have framed him, but distant memories had long since blurred into obscurity. Without evidence, he couldn’t defend himself even with a hundred mouths.

“So then, does the Venerable admit guilt?” The smile on Shen Muxuan’s face gradually disappeared. Conversely, the light on the Tianji Sword expanded greatly. Under the infusion of spiritual power, the two characters ‘Tianji’ shone brilliantly, sword qi surging forth.

Everyone in the world knew that although Tianji Daojun was not a sword cultivator, he surpassed sword cultivators. He was extremely protective, especially cherishing his sect’s disciples. Anyone who attacked Taihua Immortal Sect disciples without cause or bullied the weak with their strength—even if they were at Tribulation stage—if they dared to reach out, he would chop off their hand without hesitation.

Yan Guihe stared fixedly at him, then suddenly curled his lips. Green mist around his body surged greatly, expanding rapidly like a sponge soaked with water, covering most of Ming City in the blink of an eye.

The aerial battlefield immediately became impossible to see. The four including Hua Tinglan were separated by the green mist. The mist with its intense corrosive properties was pervasive, and they quickly raised defensive barriers.

Hiss——

The barriers were also being rapidly corroded!

To escape, Yan Guihe had truly risked everything, even releasing his source poisonous qi. If he lost this, he would need at least several decades to a hundred years of recuperation before barely recovering his vitality!

The buildings in the city were also affected. Chan Xin was protectively shielded behind Jiao Yuyu, who was on high alert. His gaze touched on the areas corroded by the poisonous mist, his eyes filled with compassion. “Fortunately there are no people left in the city…”

The moment their vision was blocked, the real Yin Lang raised his hand and pulled off the purple ribbon at his wrist that had already loosened. The spiritual qi and demonic qi in his meridians, separated only by a thin but solid membrane, flowed freely, and his pressure instantly surged.

He had originally been thinking about how to block others’ vision so he could disguise himself as both ‘Yin Lang’ and ‘Shen Muxuan’ attacking simultaneously. Who would have thought Yan Guihe would proactively provide an opportunity to strike?

In that case, how could Yin Lang hesitate?

A thunderous roar erupted from the green mist high above. Sword light pierced through like daylight in a flash, even the misty poison qi was split open for an instant. As the sword light swept past, tongues of fire followed closely, rapidly spreading along the edges of the green mist.

The sword light flashed again, crisscrossing to slice the substanceless green mist into dozens of irregular pieces. The black flames seemed to cling to the sword body—where the sword light disappeared, the person appeared.

Chan Xin focused intently on this magnificent scene and sighed deeply. “The two truly live up to being opponents who have fought for hundreds of years. They understand each other’s timing for attacks so well. If it had been even a moment slower, the gap the Daojun sliced open would have closed again, and the Venerable’s black flames couldn’t have burned through either.”

Jiao Yuyu scratched his head and thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement. “Yin Lang is really amazing!”

This series of changes naturally also affected the other two people within the green mist. Both were thousand-year-old great demons—their ability to seize opportunities couldn’t possibly be poor.

Taking advantage of no one watching, Hu Yunu manifested a pair of furry claws, five fingers sprouting sharp, gleaming talons. His ten fingers crossed over each other, and the green mist was immediately torn open with a huge gap. Hu Yunu, quick-eyed and nimble-handed, slipped through and rushed out following the direction indicated by the sword light.

Before him was empty space.

Yan Guihe’s true body had long since left the poisonous mist’s range. While they were still groping about blindly and charging randomly, he had already escaped several thousand meters away.

Fortunately, the two demons followed closely behind Shen Muxuan’s sword light guidance and still managed to catch up to the dying Yan Guihe before he could run ten thousand meters.

Yan Guihe supported himself against a tree trunk, gasping heavily.

A golden rope circled around his body, head to tail connected, trapping him within.

Having been jointly attacked by three opponents of equal combat strength, that he could struggle until now was already quite worthy of his title as the Third Venerable of the Demonic Path.

Hua Tinglan stared at that familiar-looking rope for a long moment and transmitted to Hu Yunu, “If I remember correctly, the God-Binding Lock is from Luli’s collection, right?”
Hu Yunu narrowed his eyes and nodded.

“Wow.” Hua Tinglan’s gaze immediately became subtle. “I didn’t expect this. I thought only you had fallen, but who knew Luli had also raised a human cub? I’ve never seen him be so generous to anyone—even giving away the God-Binding Lock.”

“Can you use better words? What do you mean ‘fallen’? Yuyu was carried back to my den since he was small and fed bite by bite by this lady. I even gave him his name. How can that flashy peacock compare to this lady?”

“It’s just a pity that when he was little he was so cute, but when he grew up he became all brawny. Alas, he didn’t inherit any of this lady’s beauty at all.” Hu Yunu’s pair of peach blossom eyes rippled with waves of light. With just a slight glance, even when expressing dissatisfaction, it made people want to drown in the waves of his eyes.

“……” You’re equally flamboyant yourself.

Yan Guihe half-lowered his head, his eyes coldly sweeping over everyone, then grinned: “You all think that by breaking through this Venerable’s poisonous mist, this Venerable can’t escape?”

“Where is Yin Lang? Why didn’t he pursue?”

Yan Guihe finally remembered where his shattered demonic core from a thousand years ago had ended up.

At that time, he and the then-Second Venerable Yin Jiuxuan had both accompanied the Demon Lord to compete for the newly emerged Primordial Jade. That bastard Yin Jiuxuan had ambushed him when he wasn’t paying attention, forcibly shattering his demonic core!

If anyone could produce demonic core fragments, it must be inseparably connected to Yin Jiuxuan!

Yin Lang! It must be Yin Lang!

“Venerable Yin is handling the aftermath in Ming City.” This sentence from Shen Muxuan was explaining to the two demons Hu and Hua.

The two demons nodded to show they understood. After Chan Xin finished his ultimate move and then rushed out from the poisonous mist, Yin Lang, a mid-stage Tribulation cultivator, probably didn’t have much strength left to pursue anyone.

Shen Muxuan said to Yan Guihe, who was trying to tell the truth. “Now, how credible are the Venerable’s words? You and I both understand—why struggle pointlessly? The Venerable need not mention heart demon oaths either. Demonic path cultivators are born with demonic spiritual roots—how would they fear the backlash of heart demons? Even if the Venerable swears, Shen would not dare believe it.”

“Moreover, the fall of a demonic path venerable—how much benefit that can bring to the righteous path sects, the Venerable surely understands better than Shen. Today, the Venerable is destined to fall here.”

These words appeared to be lecturing Yan Guihe, but were actually explaining to the two demons Hu and Hua. No one knew better than him what really happened with the demonic qi eruption on Tianji Peak. If Yan Guihe really told the truth, saying that a demonic cultivator’s heart demon oath couldn’t be trusted would shut him down.

Yan Guihe fell silent, only his gasping became more rapid.

At an angle the three couldn’t see, under the cover of his long hair, his green eyes gradually took on a blood-red hue. At the same time, his aura also gradually weakened.

“Not good! Stop him quickly!” As a plant-turned-demon, Hua Tinglan was most sensitive to life force auras and immediately struck out.

Shen Muxuan’s sword light was no less swift, but in the end they were still a step too late.

The golden light on the God-Binding Lock dissipated with a clang as it fell to the ground.

And Yan Guihe, who had been bound, vanished into thin air, leaving only the lingering bloody scent drifting in the air.