Ch168 Failed Ambush

I begin walking down the Mountain.

It would be faster to hop on my flying vessel, but after a half day of sparring, I am in a good mood, and the sight of the sky turning orange from a setting sun is nice to watch at a leisurely pace.

The path the glowing orb in the sky takes is strange, just like the moon at night.

No matter where I am, thousands of kilometers away in the sect, or here, it travels directly overhead at a steady pace.

The sun dips below the horizon, and the walkway leading through the dense forest on the front side of the mountain begins to cool off.

Fewer servants and less noise from Wang Clan descendants can be heard, and I’m left with only the sound of my own breathing.

Little Red grunts on my shoulder, sending me a pulse of thought telling me he’s done his job, and he spits out the foundational crystal in front of me. His aura returns to a state without any qi as I stow the crystal away.

I nod and open the bronze door in my mind to send him back, but he just burrows further into my robes to watch the sun set with me.

As the door opens, the sensation of Meimei waking up tugs at my soul next, but she just stretches and walks around the hidden realm for a while.

I release the hold on my meridians I’ve been maintaining for over 6 hours, and let the mixed impure 5 elemental qis flow out of my body from many different meridian release points.

A cloud of mixed colored qi flows into the air behind me like mist.

There are some impurities left behind, but not enough for me to care to do a full marrow cleansing session just yet.

Instead, I focus for a few seconds, and push fresh elemental qi back into the cycle to continue my practice.

The forest becomes completely dark as I start walking again and make my way further down the mountain.

There are lighting fixtures on the main path, but the wilderness a few hundred meters on either side becomes dark.

The glowing lights of Lingshi City’s streets come into view eventually, and I make up my mind to pull out my flying vessel soon, but a subtle shiver runs down my spine.

There is an almost imperceptible feeling of being watched that passes through me.

No other cultivators are walking up or down this path, I’m sure of it.

Last time I ignored feelings like this, foundational demons snuck up on me with no warning.

My gaze shifts around, piercing through the darkness quite well, but I don’t see anything.

Three hot stirs manifest in my illusory demon’s concealment art next, lower down the mountain, coming up my way.

I conceal both my qi aura and physique vibrations entirely and walk out of the light to hide behind a large tree’s shade.

As these three approach, I can feel two mid-stage illusory demon physiques, and one late stage physique. It puts me even more on edge.

Demons this weak wouldn't make my instincts crawl so much…

There must be a stronger illusory demon avoiding my senses.

The three warm sensations I can feel come within range of my 105 meter spiritual sense range, and I prepare for only the three system scans to hit my senses, but instead, there are four…

The first three show me the weaker demons are all at the 10th level of qi refinement.

The fourth, I cannot even sense his presence.

[Automatic Inspect Function Activated…]

[Ye Moran] [Age: 196]

[5th Level Foundation Establishment]

[Earth and Metal Spiritual Roots] [5th Grade]

[Acquired Copper Skin Physique] [Perfected Stage - Mortal Grade]

[Acquired Illusory Demon Physique] [Perfected Stage - Mortal Grade]

[No Innate Physique]

[Shadow Elder of the Ye Clan, does not make public appearances. He has ventured to Lingshi City alongside his brother Ye Motao and three underlings in training to investigate the disappearance of their secret assassination team. After weeks of no leads and witnessing the Host’s Celestial Event, they have come to the conclusion that the Wang Clan is at fault.]

My heart rate grows louder in my chest, but I still hold my position behind this tree to watch the three younger demons, climbing the mountain in silence.

Two of them hold mid stage physiques and aren't even 50 years old. They look stern but nervous to be here.

The one with a late stage physique is a decade older than the other and has a strange system secret.

[Shadow Assassin in training of the Ye Clan, does not make public appearances. He has a damaged dantian holding his qi cultivation at the 10th level, but has a half formed foundation from a failed breakthrough.]

I’m confident I can hide from the senses of the younger three, but whoever this foundational elder is, once they’re close enough, I’ll be forced to confront them.

I grit my teeth and make the decision to give away my position first.

Once the three qi-refining demons come within 50 meters, I crush an enchanted defensive talisman and run out from my cover.

An emerald swallow spins around my head, an azure lightning talisman crackles in my left hand, and my right is free, ready to summon multiple options from my system storage.

Left behind the tree, a 2-meter-tall black-armored warrior awaits my command with a string of my consciousness tethered to it.

My footsteps are not silent, my tier two artifacts give off dense qi pressure, and my own usage of the Illusory Demon’s Concealment Art resonates with these demons once I enter their senses. However, I do close the gap.

All three of the illusory demons are startled at my appearance and activate poorly constructed phantom images to attack me while they get into position.

They appear as white and grey streaks of light, quickly constructed by unstable wisps of souls.

I easily continue running forward, dodging all of them as my emerald swallow circles behind me, shattering all three into mist.

The backlash makes every demon in my field of view slow their steps from the pain and gives me enough time to easily catch up to one.

I release the full strength of my Martial Spirit Physique around my fist and break through this demon’s back in a single concise punch, shattering his physique, dantian, and heart in a single blow.

Little Red doesn’t bat an eye, but the excitement of battle in my soul does alert my other bond.

A ripple in the air appears above my head as a white and silver fox yips loudly and looks around to see what’s happening.

The two younger illusory demons that just watched their teammate be killed in a single punch both run in opposite directions. One yells out.

“Senior, we’ve been caught! Save us-”

His words are cut short as a tiny fox jumps off my head and runs across the forest floor in a flash of white light.

Meimei jumps and swings her tail to release a concentrated slash of pure white soul wisp, qi, and physique-imbued energy straight at this demon’s neck.

A wide-open gash severs his vocal cords, and a second slash on the way down from this tiny fox twisting her tail slices off his head.

The third demon with a half formed foundation has enough time to activate one of his life-saving treasures, a low-grade Tier 2 soul explosion talisman.

He aims it right at me, and I watch the emerald swallow circling around me slam into the brunt of the blast.

Some of it is dispersed, but not all.

I think about activating my azure lightning talisman to destroy the rest of the incoming white wall, but stow it away and lunge forward with two glowing white fists instead. There is no need to waste resources.

The active enchanted defensive talisman surrounding me shatters on impact, and in turn the wall of chaotic white souls and qi explode into harmless mist. I run straight through it after the last demon.

My 7th level qi refinement aura bursts out as I catch up with him in a few strides. The full strength of my spirit-grade martial vibrations are channeled through my feet, leaving white dents in the ground below me.

The demon turns around and plants his feet. Extremely dense qi nearing that of a foundational cultivator flows into his arms to block my white glowing fist.

A loud crack echoes through the dark forest as fracture lines form all over his forearm on impact. We would be fighting on equal strength if I didn't pinpoint the pressure of my fist into a weak tension point of his physique, piercing deep into his soul.

“How- How is this possible? I should be invincible to qi refiners like you!”

This Demon coughs up blood and tries to create a soul manifestation copy while he's sent flying backward from the impact force, but I see right through it.

I lunge forward and raise my other hand, this time releasing all of the strained overlapping meridians building with pressure in my chest.

A bright ball of flames, tethered together by light white vibrations forms in my palm and explodes forward, emptying out all of the qi trapped inside me.

The Illusory Demon tries to block his face and chest, but his arms explode from the abrupt force.

An explosion follows, and his whole body flies backward burning in the flames.

He only screams for a few seconds before falling to the ground, laying lifeless like the other two.

Little Red’s gaze tightens and shifts to an empty patch of forest further down the mountain, and heat begins to grow inside of him.

The small toad sends fluctuations of danger into my psyche, ready to jump off my shoulder and release his power.

A faint glimmer of white and copper-colored aura shimmers in my vision where he stares, but it’s all over before either of us can react.

A loud clang of metal rings out, and the full appearance of a tall, muscular illusory demon appears directly in my line of sight.

His eyes are wide in fear and confusion as the top half of his body slides off and gushes with blood and plumes of foundational illusory souls.

His body, physique, and dantian are clearly split from a diagonal sword path, with only a subtle black mist giving off an aura of dread remaining on the wound.

My side quest counter for killing mid-stage demons ticks up by one, and my blood soul dagger trembles with hunger at all the bodies surrounding me.

Little Red returns to a bored, unremarkable state, and Meimei happily yips and runs over to me, hoping for some admiration for her kill.

My gaze stays locked on the Black Armored Warrior standing still in a dormant state after killing a level 5 foundational demon in a single slash.

Hardly any of its charge has been used up.