Lady Cultivator

“I didn’t mean anything by it.” Nie Wushang stood up, pulled up her gloves, and said expressionlessly, “I’m not like Fellow Daoist Mo. Aside from brute force, I have no other strong attributes, so I’ll listen to you two Fellow Daoists on how we’re going to get out of here.”..

“…” Jing Xingzhi paused for a moment then put his sword back in its scabbard and sat back. “I do have an idea, but I don’t know if Fellow Daoists would be willing to try it.”

Mo Tiange’s and Nie Wushang’s gazes were immediately fixated on him.

Jing Xingzhi said, “My plan’s simple, but you’ll have to face a certain risk.”

Mo Tiange said, “We’re trapped here. Our luck has been good so far, but if we run into some troublesome demonic beasts later, how good could our luck possibly be? If Fellow Daoist Jing has an idea, you might as well tell us directly.”

Nie Wushang, although she remained expressionless, also nodded and revealed no objections.

Jing Xingzhi grinned then pointed upward. “Since we can’t differentiate directions, we might as well fly up—there must be a limit to this fog, right?”

Both Mo Tiange and Nie Wushang were startled to hear his idea. Mo Tiange gave it some thought then said, “But Fellow Daoist Jing, there’s immortal aura in the sky above Immortal’s Ruins. We don’t have the bodies of real immortals—we simply wouldn’t be able to stand that immortal aura. What would we do if we ran into them?”

Jing Xingzhi said, “That’s the risk I mentioned. The immortal aura should never have existed in the human world in the first place, so they have a repellent nature against all things. They must also be repellent to this fog. I’m certain that there must be a gap between the fog and the immortal aura. If we’re lucky, we can definitely get out through this gap.”

Mo Tiange and Nie Wushang both sank into contemplation.

The reason why this method wasn’t discussed at the very beginning was precisely because of the existence of immortal aura in the sky above Immortal’s Ruins. For cultivators, the formidable power immortal aura contained was quite terrible. However, Jing Xingzhi’s words weren’t without basis. None of them knew how long they could hold out in the fog like this. Just now, those Gold Wire Rats were all below the fifth rank, but they were already so hard to deal with—what would they do if they ran into fifth rank demonic beasts or higher? That was why they might as well try their luck; they might be able to get out for real.

“Alright,” Mo Tiange said after she made up her mind. “I think Fellow Daoist Jing’s method is feasible.”

Nie Wushang also nodded. She said with her rough voice: “Fellow Daoists, are the seniors from your divisions in the vicinity?”

Mo Tiange and Jing Xingzhi glanced at each other. Then Jing Xingzhi said, “Fellow Daoist Nie means we should summon them?”

“Yes.” As her gaze shifted back and forth between the two people, Nie Wushang said, “Of course, the two of you can also refuse. Maybe the first to come will be my master. At that time…”

Mo Tiange’s gaze flickered, but she didn’t say anything. Judging from what Nie Wushang said, it seemed she was really Master Song Feng’s disciple, and furthermore, Master Song Feng had also come to Demonic Mountain.

This wasn’t good news. Although Master Song Feng’s character wasn’t worthy of praise, the force of his strength indeed couldn’t be doubted. Moreover, there was an old grudge between him and Lord Daoist Jinghe. Lord Daoist Jinghe didn’t matter for the time being. Right now, Qin Xi was also inside this fog. If he was accidentally found by Master Song Feng, his life would definitely be hard to protect.

When Mo Tiange’s thoughts reached that point, she glanced at Jing Xingzhi.

Jing Xingzhi seemed to not notice her glance. He mused to himself then said, “It isn’t impossible, but… inside this fog, we can’t employ Summoning Talismans. We’ll have to see if we can employ them from above.”

Nie Wushang nodded. “What Fellow Daoist Jing said is quite reasonable. Forget it; we don’t have many Thousands of Miles Summoning Talismans. Let’s discuss it again after we’re certain we can leave this place.”

Mo Tiange heaved a sigh of relief. She was really worried Master Song Feng would come looking for them.

The three people immediately acted according to their decided-upon plan. First of all, they had to look for a suitable position from which they were going to fly up. Although Core Formation cultivators could fly very high, the fog was indistinct and mysterious, so they had to be somewhat cautious. Next, they had to prepare their defensive magic weapons and talismans well so that they were ready for any surprises. Lastly, the three of them were indeed in the same predicament, but they weren’t on the same page at all, so they still had to be somewhat on guard against the other two.

Mo Tiange didn’t trust either of these two people. Nie Wushang was Master Song Feng’s disciple, while Jing Xingzhi was merciless and regarded profits highly. No matter which one, neither could be trusted completely. As it happened, she was the weakest among the three of them, so she had to be extremely careful.

After a while, the three of them eventually found a suitable place from which they could fly up.

This particular area was probably also a remnant of the ancient battles between the immortals and devils. The even mountain rock had been neatly cut, exposing its awful, dark gray inner rock. Having been eroded by the wind for millions of years, it no longer had any sharp edges, but it still retained its grotesque appearance.

Jing Xingzhi flew dozens of feet up to examine the situation. When he came down, he said, “Let’s go from here. There seems to be nothing abnormal here.”

Mo Tiange also flew up to take a look. Since she indeed spotted nothing amiss, she nodded with approval. Nie Wushang, on the other hand, looked like she didn’t really care; she didn’t even look around.

Soon afterward, the three of them all started meditating and resting, preparing their magic weapons, talismans and the like.

A long time afterward, Jing Xingzhi asked, “Fellow Daoists, are you ready now?” Jing Xingzhi… If he harbored intentions to flirt, he’d have called them “misses,” but he was now addressing them as “fellow Daoists”—obviously, he already put a stop to such intentions.

The two women both nodded. Nie Wushang was a martial cultivator, so she had nothing to prepare in the first place. As for Mo Tiange, she’d always been careful. Her possessions had long been placed in the most convenient positions for retrieval.

“That being the case, let’s go.”

“Wait,” Nie Wushang suddenly said, “are we all going up at once? If we had one person remaining behind, wouldn’t it be easier to respond if something happened?”

This question made Jing Xingzhi chuckle. “Of the three of us, who’d make the others feel assured if they stayed down here?”

“…” Nie Wushang and Mo Tiange said nothing. True… The three of them didn’t trust each other, so there was no point in staying behind to protect the others. If they really encountered anything above, it could only be said that they were out of luck.

The three of them released their respective flying magic weapons, initiated their protective spiritual aura, and started to fly up.

They proceeded very slowly. They were now in a similar situation to when they climbed up the Tens of Thousands of Feet Peak before, except now, they could run into immortal aura instead of devil aura. They still had to cautiously evade the aura or perhaps use their protective spiritual aura barrier to block it.

The three of them flew higher and higher, moving increasingly farther from the ground. Mo Tiange hung her head and looked down. She didn’t know why, but she felt a bit restless.

She was already a Core Formation cultivator now, so her sensitivity towards outcomes was much sharper than before. She didn’t have a good omen now. She looked at Jing Xingzhi and realized he also happened to be looking at her. Both were frowning. A thought emerged in her mind, but just as she was about to transmit her voice to ask him, she suddenly felt something gripping her ankle—she was being pulled down by someone!

She didn’t have time to think too much. Her flying sword flew out from inside her sleeve and went to cut the thing holding onto her ankle. Meanwhile, she also looked downward.

As soon as she looked down, she was instantly stupefied. She originally thought one of those two people was giving her a sneak attack, but not once did it cross her mind that she’d see a hand stretching out from inside the rock wall!

Throughout the many years she had wandered the cultivation world, this was the first time Mo Tiange came across such a strange scene. Her blood felt like it froze. She was so shocked that she almost cut off her own leg.

In that split second, Jing Xingzhi grasped her hand while his flying sword slashed down. His flying sword was an ancient magic weapon that could be comparable to Qin Xi’s Three Yang Real Fire Sword. With that one slash, the rock hand was instantly cut off. After being cut, the rock pieces seemed to lose their vitality and fell down one after another.

Before Mo Tiange could sigh with relief, a soft cry rang out from Nie Wushang’s end. She was also besieged by rock hands.

Soon afterward, countless rock hands stretched out from the cliff before them, reaching out and trying to grab them.

Thus, the three of them started to fight those rock hands.

Jing Xingzhi was alright. His flying sword was quite sharp, so those rock hands couldn’t bear his slashing. Nie Wushang had a bit of a hard time. Her gloves had spikes on them; if it was anything else, it definitely wouldn’t be able to withstand her punches. Unfortunately, these rocks simply weren’t afraid of the spikes. She had to expend much more strength than she normally would to crush those rocks. Mo Tiange didn’t fare much better than Nie Wushang. She didn’t have many offensive magic weapons to begin with, and her water element jade bottle and soil element square seal weren’t suitable to be used in their current situation. The only weapon remaining, her flying sword, wasn’t like Jing Xingzhi’s; it was extremely arduous to cut the rocks with it.

Upon discovering that using the flying sword consumed her spiritual aura too quickly, she immediately stopped using it then released Xiaohuo from inside the spiritual beast pouch. She let it stand on her shoulders, using its Sun Real Fire to burn those rocks, and she finally had a slightly easier time.

The three people continued to fight for some time before they eventually managed to escape those rock hands. They only stopped after they flew for a distance as they didn’t dare to come close to that area.

The three of them looked at each other then Mo Tiange asked, “Fellow Daoists, what were those things?”

Nie Wushang, whose face was pale, shook her head. Although she wasn’t weak, those odd rocks were incomparably tough—they were just tough enough to match her. Now, she looked rather miserable from all the fighting. “I’ve never encountered such strange things before. How could rocks act like living things?”

Jing Xingzhi waved, causing his sword light to surround himself. He said, “I don’t know either. However, no matter what strange things exist on Demonic Mountain, they’re really nothing unusual.”

That was indeed true. The world was vast and full of extraordinary things, not to mention in a weird place like Demonic Mountain. The environment here was different from the human world. Maybe the rules in the human world simply weren’t applicable here.

The three people sank into silence for a while. In the end, Nie Wushang said, “Forget it; this isn’t the time to look into those things. Since we’ve flown up till this area, we should continue now.”

Mo Tiange nodded in agreement. “I have no objections. What about Fellow Daoist Jing?”

“En,” Jing Xingzhi grunted his agreement. Among the three of them, he was the most relaxed one. Although he’d just gone through a fight, it seemed like he didn’t lose any spiritual aura.

After going through the attack from the rock hands, they became even more careful now. After all, flying high in the air full of gales, restrictions, and immortal aura wasn’t safe at all.

They continued to fly upward for some time. They’d now reached the end of the cliff they climbed up. Mo Tiange took a brief look at it, but she surprisingly discovered that many pink, small, sphere-like plants were growing on the mountaintop. They seemed very familiar.

She looked at them for quite a while then, all of a sudden, she let out a “huh” and pointed at those pink, spherical flowers. “Fellow Daoists, take a look. Are those the flowers of Heavenly Aromatic Bean growing over there?”

Nie Wushang only gave it a glance before she looked away disinterestedly. “I’m not knowledgeable about spiritual plants; I don’t recognize them.”

Jing Xingzhi looked at her with a rather strange gaze for a second then nodded. “Probably. Heavenly Aromatic Grass can’t be considered rare on Demonic Mountain. I’ve heard people talk about it before, and those indeed look very similar to what I heard.”

Upon obtaining his affirmation, Mo Tiange debated the matter for a moment. However, she eventually gave up. Let it be then. Having run into an incident earlier, she didn’t dare to take any risks now. At worst, she’d just need to buy some Heavenly Aromatic Beans after she left this place.