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The silver moon accompanied by frost and snow overturned the dark demonic mountain range.
Thousands of miles away, the towering spiritual light illuminated the sky and earth, and the frost and snow seemed to be unable to find their direction. The wind blew them into spirals between the sky and earth, turning them into blades that cut through the trees and grass inch by inch.
"Gu-Yan--!! Ying--!!"
A fox with black fur, wrapped in black demonic energy, shuttled through the sky thousands of feet high. Relying on its enhanced sense of smell, it chased the bloody scent left behind, tracking down Gu Yan.
Killing intent filled his vertical pupils as if he wanted to skin and eviscerate all beasts.
Ordinary wild wolves in the dark forests could smell the scent of prey five thousand feet away, but a fox demon in the Void Returning middle stage like Hu Mu could accurately locate the movements of the prey within a radius of hundreds of miles as long as they knew the smell.
However...
Boom—
The bursts of spiritual light from Si Xuanji's Moon Spirit and Sun Juehu's Dragon Ice Spear at the back constantly stimulated Hu Mu's already sensitive senses.
In addition, this place was Gu Yan's homeland, and he was a formation cultivator. There were tens of thousands of his formations within a thousand miles, and tens of thousands of similar smells, which interfered with his mind and spiritual sense.
Ying—!!
The fox's cry echoed, and the sound wave shattered the souls of ordinary beasts hiding in the forest below in just an instant. The night crows perched on the dead tree branches had their beaks and eyes bleed and fell from the trees onto the snow-covered ground, staining the white mountain snow with traces of red.
Hu Mu did not know where Yu Yan was hiding, but he was certain it was in one of the hundreds of mountains beneath his feet.
His mouth slightly opened, and black mist came out.
The dark fox's tail flicked, and a black light flashed across the sky.
Boom—
In an instant, Mother Earth's bumps were swallowed up in Hu Mu's foxtail stomach and the thousand-foot peak was cut in half, revealing a smooth surface cut like a mirror.
Hu Mu only had one thought at this moment. Since he couldn't find which mountain Yu Yan was hiding in, he would swallow every inch of land within a hundred miles into his stomach.
Ying—
… …
The wind swept the dark withered forest on the back mountain wall filling the air with blood.
"Ugh— cough cough cough..."
Yu Yan leaned against a dead tree, holding his abdomen with his right hand, and suddenly vomited a large pool of black blood. The red eyes in the holes of his mask were no longer as calm as before.
His whole body was torn, and the sect Patriarch's dark robe no longer looked as solemn and dignified as usual.
His Void Returning spirit was destroyed, and Red Moon's Moon Spirit had directly hit his spiritual sense. If he hadn't reacted quickly and sacrificed his life magic weapon*, he would have turned into a pool of blood and died in that instant.
However, although he barely escaped from Red Moon's hands, his life magic weapon was destroyed, his Void Returning spirit had been injured, and there was a fox chasing him. He could not say whether he could survive now.
Ying—
The shrill fox howl coming from the sky behind him shocked his eardrums.
Gu Yu Yan gritted his teeth, frowning. He looked back and hurriedly leaned toward the rock wall in front of him.
He had to stabilize his injuries first. This place was the hinterland of the Heavenly Demon Sect, and there were tens of thousands of his formation caves within a thousand miles.
As long as he could hide in a formation cave and recuperate for a few days, even if he couldn't fight back, at least he could cultivate his demonic spirit to escape. Then, he could retreat to the east, and Red Moon would not be able to find him for a while.
"Release!"
Yu Yan came to the rock wall and swung his right hand horizontally, sending out a bloody light. After the word he uttered, the stone wall in front of him collapsed toward the door, revealing a dark passage leading down.
Yu Yan hurried in and closed the restrictions again.
Rumble— Thud—
The stone wall blocked the strong wind outside, and the passage instantly became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Then, the dim candles on the walls on either side of the passage lit up with a poof, making the ancient secret passage flicker.
"Hu..."
Gu Yu Yan panted softly as he held the wall, limping down the stone steps.
Ta-ta---
His footsteps were the only sound in the corridor.
Thanks to the quiet environment, Gu Yu Yan was finally able to spare some energy to think about what Red Moon had done.
The Heavenly Demon Blood Pool was broken, this was a fact.
But no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't figure out who could sneak in and break his Void Returning spirit in just a few hours.
Yu Yan thought about it, and the only thing he could think of was the owner of the "Heavenly Scroll" and the "Demonic Scroll".
It was said that the two scrolls recorded everyone that lived in the world.
The reason why he was looking for the Heavenly Demonic Scroll was that he wanted to find out about the things that Red Moon and all the immortal cultivators in the world feared. But now it seemed that someone had learned first about his weakness through that scroll.
Who was it?
And how did they do it?
The more Yu Yan thought about it, the more doubts he had. He himself didn't know how to break his Void Returning spirit in a few hours...
"Cough... For now, I'd better concentrate on healing my wounds, and wait until I get rid of the fox... Cough—"
Yu Yan withdrew his thoughts and continued to walk deeper into the cave, holding onto the wall.
However, after walking about three hundred steps down the stairs, a brand new wheel mark and three people's footprints on the ground came into his sight.
?
Why were there footprints in the formation cave that should have been uninhabited for hundreds of years?
Then, the voices of two women chatting came from below. "Hey, is your waist crooked? Why does it look crooked to me?"
"It was temporarily connected, it's good that I could connect it as it is. Twist it later and it will be straight... Ye Anping~~ Help me twist it, hehe—"
Then, a young man murmured with extreme disgust. "Huh— How about I cut it off for you and reconnect it?"
"Ah~ Ye Anping you are so bad..."
… …
?
Ye Anping?
Yu Yan frowned slightly, remembering that someone seemed to have mentioned this name to him. It seemed to be the Young Master of a third-rate immortal sect in the Western Region. His frown deepened under his mask.
Why would a person whose name he had never heard of appear here?
And the voice of one of the women sounded a bit like his adopted daughter, Gu Mingxin.
But listening carefully, there were some differences.
In his impression, Gu Mingxin spoke very gloomy, not as charming and bright as just now...
He scanned with his spiritual sense and, upon finding that the four people below were all cultivators in the early stage of the Nascent Soul, he lowered his guard. Even if he was seriously injured, four Nascent Soul cultivators could not be a threat to him.
Better said, he just happened to need human pills to heal his wounds at this time.
Tap tap—
Yu Yan gritted his teeth slightly, straightened his back, and walked another twenty steps. The corridor suddenly opened up, and a slightly larger stone room appeared in his sight.
In the center of this stone room, there was a pill furnace burning with a blood-red fire. That was the formation core of this cave. On the side, a black-haired woman buried her head into an old wooden couch, and a silver-haired woman was holding a jade-like medicinal ointment in her hand, applying it on her lower back.
In front of the pill furnace, a black-clothed boy who looked to be about seventeen years old sat cross-legged to condense his energy. There was also a wheelchair next to him. A woman with a bloody left hand and bandaged body sat on it, quietly looking at the boy's face.
Gu Yu Yan was already standing at the entrance, but the four people seemed to completely ignore him.
A feeling of frustration suddenly surged into his heart.
As the leader of the Heavenly Demon Sect for thousands of years, no one dared not to bow down and worship him after seeing him, but these four little Nascent Soul cultivators were actually...
Thinking of this, Gu Yan stared at the black-haired woman lying on the wooden couch again and then recognized that it was indeed Gu Mingxin.
"Mingxin..."
The hoarse and weak middle-aged male voice echoed in the stone room, causing Gu Mingxin and Feng Yu Die to pause and look at him.
Ye Anping, who was collecting the Spring energy flowing throughout his body into his core, slowly opened his eyes and looked toward the entrance.
Silence—
More silence.
And then—
Gu Mingxin's red eyes lit up. She didn't know why, but when she saw Gu Yan in tattered clothes and covered with wounds, she couldn't help laughing. "Hehehe... Master!! How did you become like this?!!"
Crack—
Gu Yan's teeth clenched, and murderous intent burst out in his eyes, but then a roar made Gu Mingxin's laughter stop abruptly.
"Gu-Yan--!!!"
The shrill rebuke echoed in the stone room.
Feng Yu Die and Gu Mingxin were shocked and turned to look at Mo Chi Ling, who had always exuded a scholarly and reserved temperament. Right now, she had bloodshot eyes under the bandage on her head. Her remaining right hand clenched into a fist so hard that her nails pierced her palm, and purple blood oozed out.
Mo Chi Ling propped on the wheelchair armrest and tried her best to stand up, but she almost fell off. It was Ye Anping who quickly pulled her body back to the wheelchair with his spiritual power.
"Gu Yan!!! My brother's death!!..."
"Senior Mo."
Ye Anping calmed Mo Chi Ling with a cold voice, then stood up and said, "Patriarch Yu Yan."
"Mo..."
Gu Yu Yan didn't even look at Ye Anping as he stared at Mo Chi Ling, who was glaring at him like a tiger with its hair bristling. He was silent for a long time before finally recognizing her identity. "Chi Ling?"
Ye Anping sighed slightly. "Patriarch Yu Yan, the one who tied the bell must be the one to untie it. If Senior Mo hadn't witnessed your death, I'm afraid she would feel regret for the rest of his life, so she waited here for a long time."
The red eyes in the mask holes fell on Ye Anping's face, revealing a hint of mocking. "Ye Anping."
"Well, I feel honored to have Patriarch Yu Yan remember my name before he dies."
Ye Anping nodded. He picked up a luminous wine glass from the storage bag, poured a glass of red wine, and waved his sleeves, sending it to Yu Yan. "Now, it depends on whether you want to keep your dignity or I'll have to help you."
Yu Yan lowered his eyes and looked at the wine glass floating in front of him.
There were some purple ripples in the red wine.
Although he didn't know what this purple was, he suddenly realized that it was probably these people who broke his Void Returning spirit undetected .
He was a demonic cultivator, how could poison affect him?
But there were thousands of spiritual poisons in the world; who could guarantee that there was no poison that could destroy his spirit?
He was afraid that two of these people held the Heavenly Demonic Scroll and the Heavenly Dao Scroll.
"Poisoned wine?"
Ye Anping nodded, stood with his hands behind his back, and looked at Gu Yan's expression, then used his hands behind his back to signal Feng Yu Die and Xiao Tian.
Three—
"Well, I'll do it myself."
In fact, the safest way was to expose their position.
There was still a big fox in the sky swallowing the mountains. So let the big fox swallow Gu Yan.
However, he still needed to use Gu Yan's golden shell to help Xuanji deal with Sun Juehu. Naturally, the more complete the corpse was, the better. If he was swallowed by the big fox, he would definitely be missing some limbs.
"Patriarch, your corpse is still very useful to me. If you behave yourself, how about I build a tombstone for you in the Heavenly Demon Valley after everything is settled? In this way, people who come here in the future will also pay homage to you, right?"
After he said this, Xiao Tian and Xue'e floating above looked at Ye Anping speechlessly.
Previously, Ye Anping had said that it would be best to persuade Gu Yu Yan to collaborate.
But now...
"Ye Anping, you call this persuading? Look at the blue veins on this old man Gus's neck. I have been in the Heavenly Demon Sect with Mingxin for so long, and this is the first time I have seen this old man so angry."
"Uhm!"
Ye Anping shrugged and continued with a smile. "Patriarch Yu Yan, you are a powerful person, but apart from your cultivation, what is the difference between your current attitude and that of an ordinary cultivator?"
"..."
"Whether it is you, Sun Juehu, or Red Moon Matriarch, you are all human beings, you just live longer and are stronger. If you are injured, you will bleed. If you are beaten, you will feel pain... If you are killed, you will die. Isn't it good to learn from the old cultivators? All material things are ephemeral, so it is better to... have a good beginning and a good end than to pursue becoming an immortal or a demon."
"..."
"Maybe, even people like Senior Mo, who hates you, seeing you repent, will choose to forgive you and call you Master again... or Father, wouldn't that be good?"
Mo Chi Ling glanced at Ye Anping and answered with gritted teeth. "Young Master Ye, even if it is your request, I can't..."
Ye Anping heard Mo Chi Ling tearing down the stage he was preparing, pursed his lips, and advised her. "Give the Patriarch some way out. How can he collaborate with no incentive?"
"Enough!!!"
The sharp voice echoed, and a crack appeared on Yu Yan's mask, split from the middle, and fell to his feet, revealing a right eye with a sword scar.
This sword mark was left by Immortal Yun Tian's Snow Jade Spirit Sword.
In the past thousand years of his life, he had only suffered two humiliations. The first time was when Red Moon and Yun Tian joined forces to carve this scar between his eyebrows, and the second time was now!!
He was humiliated to such an extent by a bunch of early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.
He grabbed the wine cup Ye Anping handed him with his right hand like a claw. A surging murderous aura instantly erupted from his body, staining the originally pure jade cup with a touch of blood. Then, he flicked his finger.
Buzz—
The jade cup turned into countless fragments, stabbing toward Ye Anping's eyes.
In almost an instant, Gu Mingxin and Feng Yu Die, who were lying on the wooden couch, widened their eyes and turned into two ghosts, one black and one white. They flashed to Ye Anping's side and intercepted all the jade pieces with their swords.
"..."
Yu Yan narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Gu Mingxin who was facing him with a sword. "Mingxin… I was the one who picked you up from a pool of blood that year..."
"Master, you said that demonic cultivators should follow their hearts and desires, and respect the strong." Gu Mingxin leaned on Ye Anping's shoulder. "I am now Anping's follower~ Anping is obviously stronger than you..."
?
Ye Anping glanced at her resentfully, but he still took a step forward, holding their waists with his left and right hands and using his spiritual power to lift up the wheelchair of Mo Chi Ling.
"Patriarch, it seems that you have already made your choice... Whether it is a Void Returning cultivator or a Qi Refining cultivator, life and death are just a thought away, right?"
Gu Yu Yan raised his hand to make a claw, not wanting to listen to Ye Anping's nonsense anymore. Even if he was seriously injured now, these four were still some mere Nascent Soul cultivators...
At this time, the spiritual fire in the furnace in the center of the stone chamber began to stir.
A golden light, accompanied by a dragon's roar, descended into the world.
Roar—
Xiao Tian made a sword finger with her hand, summoned a small section of the Golden Dragon, and wrapped Ye Anping and the other three in it.
Gu Yan's eyes widened slightly, and then he was blinded by a bloody light.
Boom—
A spiritual light burst out from the stone chamber, shooting vertically upward, turning the entire thousand-foot-high mountain into countless pieces of rubble and lifting it ten thousand feet into the sky.
Not far away, Hu Mu, who was still swallowing other mountains in his tail with a determined look on his face, almost instantly caught the spiritual light that soared into the sky. His figure turned into a black shadow, and in a moment, he arrived above the broken mountain covered with smoke and dust.
Ying—!!!
The fox tail behind him instantly turned into a huge fox head as tall as a mountain and took the entire mountain directly in his mouth.
A golden light shot out from the corner of his mouth and flew toward him.
Hu Mu squinted his eyes and saw that it was Feng Yu Die and the others. He ignored them and roared. "Ying—!!!!"
Gu Yan, who was bitten by the fox head condensed by the black fog, used his own demonic energy to try his best to open the fox's mouth, and he and Hu Mu seemed to be friends who sang the same tune.
"Heaaaaa——!!!"
Ye Anping came to Hu Mu's side and bowed. "Your Majesty, please leave a complete body as much as possible!"
Hu Mu glanced at him, not wanting to care about whether the body was complete or not. His cultivation partner Hu Yulan died without a burial place, and there was not even a fox hair left...
Thinking of this, Hu Mu suddenly saw a tuft of white fox hair on the edge of Gu Yan's robe...
"Ying—!!!!"
In an instant, Hu Mu's eyes turned blood red, and his roar blew Ye Anping and the others beside him away.
Ye Anping didn't know why the fox was irritated. Then, he looked sideways and noticed the white fur edging on the corner of Gu Yu Yan's robe...
"Hiss– Not good!!!"
He couldn't let Hu Mu swallow all of Gu Yan. He had to leave him at least a piece of meat...
Otherwise, it would be troublesome for Xuanji.
But at the moment, Hu Mu was no longer listening to anyone.
Ye Anping summoned "Bai Yue", turned around, and rushed toward Yu Yan below. No matter what, before Yu Yan was completely swallowed in the fox's mouth, at least a piece of his meat must be cut off.
"Hey? Anping!!"
Seeing Ye Anping rushing down, Feng Yu Die and Gu Mingxin were startled and hurriedly chased after him.
Xiao Tian and Xue'e were also panicked. This was just like jumping into the crater of a volcano.
"Ah? Anping!!! Yu Die!!! Don't go over there..."
"Hiss– Golden Fool!!!"
"Hey?"
Xiao Tian turned her head, saw Xue'e holding her wooden sword and rushing toward Hu Mu in the sky, and she also hurriedly drew out her wooden sword to chase after her.
Two little figures, one black and one gold, reached Hu Mu's head and poked their wooden swords into his fox ears.
Hu Mu's ears twitched twice with itching, but he didn't pay any attention at all.
"Ying—!!!"
Gu Yu Yan looked at the fox jaws that kept pressing down and knew that he might not be able to resist it. However, seeing that the boy named Ye Anping dared to rush up at this time, he widened his eyes and laughed out loud. "Hahahahahaha—"
Ye Anping narrowed his eyes, held the sword in his hand tightly, and swung out a cross-sword energy horizontally and vertically with the Questioning Sword technique. He hit Yu Yan's body-protecting spiritual shield and then pressed the sword forward with force.
Yu Yan's eyes suddenly darkened, and he withdrew the protective demonic spirit shield.
"Weren't you going to erect a monument for me? Then come with me..."
"Tsk..."
Ding Ding—
Two sounds of clashing iron followed, and Gu Mingxin's and Feng Yu Die's swords directly hit Yu Yan's spirit shield.
The fox's mouth formed by the black fog was closing quickly, and the swords of the three people also pressed against Yu Yan's body protection spirit shield, approaching his neck, but if they continued like this, they would be half a minute too late.
Even if they cut Yu Yan's body, the three of them would not be able to escape the fox's bloody mouth...
Even a little mistake would lead to a complete loss.
Ye Anping's eyes focused, and his brain worked quickly, thinking about how to solve this matter.
But just when he thought of a way and was ready to twist the sword in his hand and change its path…
"Brother!!!"
A delicate shout came suddenly from a little distance, and the owner of the voice was even faster than the sound.
The Black Ice Sword instantly pierced Gu Yu Yan's spirit shield from the opposite direction, pierced into his back, pierced his heart out of his chest, and then cut his body in half.
Gu Yu Yan turned his head and looked, and the moment he saw Yun Tian's Snow Jade Spirit Sword, his eyes widened. "Yun Tian…"
Dong—
Before the word "Immortal" came out, the upper and lower jaws of Hu Mu shut him and his voice in his mouth.
Pei Lianxue, holding the Snow Jade Spirit Sword in one hand, rammed into her brother's chest, knocking him out of the big fox's mouth with Gu Mingxin and Feng Yu Die following closely behind.
"Ugh--"
Ye Anping felt that his ribs were definitely cracked by his sister, but when he saw the heart pierced by the Snow Jade Spirit Sword stringing along, he felt relief and simply relaxed.
Boom—
The four of them turned into a stream of light and crashed heavily to the ground.
Because Gu Mingxin and Feng Yu Die cushioned his fall, Ye Anping had no other injuries except for a few broken ribs.
After coming to his senses, he sat up slightly. Pei Lianxue also sat up with a big bump on her head. "Brother!! I'm here to protect you!!"
"Eh... Ugh—"
Ye Anping was suddenly speechless. After a moment of silence, he simply fell back on top of Feng Yu Die and Gu Mingxin.
In the sky, Hu Mu had also retracted the fox spirit tail. He hovered in the air, gritting his teeth and looking at the mess below. His expressionless and fierce face twitched slightly, as if he was about to cry.
"Hu Yulan… Ying Ying..."
The fox clan members only looked for one partner in their lifetime. Even as the Demon King, he never let any female fox stay by his side after Hu Yulan's disappearance.
"Ying Ying..."
Who knew if this crying was the Fox King's lament for missing his wife...
At this time, Xiao Yunluo, who was chasing after Pei Lianxue, finally arrived at the scene, panting. Looking at the mess below, she took a while to calm down.
Just as she saw Ye Anping, who was now in the woods, and prepared to go down, a fox head suddenly "popped" out of her storage bag.
"Master~~~"
Xiao Yunluo had no idea that Xue Tianqiao was hiding in her storage bag, and she was so startled that she jumped in the air.
"Ah…" Seeing Xue Tianqiao appear, Hu Mu was also shocked. He turned his face away quickly and averted his red eyes to prevent her from seeing it.
Xue Tianqiao pounced on Hu Mu's shoulder, climbed on top of his head, and asked, "Master, you were beaten and cried?"
"..."
"What happened?"
"Tsk, shut up, female fox!!"
"Okay, male fox!!"
Hu Mu was so angry that his teeth itched, but he was helpless. His shoulders suddenly dropped.
He took Xue Tianqiao in his arms, touched her head, and finally glanced at Xiao Yunluo and Ye Anping beside him. Seeing that they were not dead, he turned into a ball of black mist and flew toward the Heavenly Demon Sect.
Ying…