First Immortal of Destiny

Chapter 61: Solitary Shadow on the Cold River, Thunderous Night

They had been waiting since noon, until the sun had set.

Finally, someone arrived!

"Shh! Shh!"

The mud around Gu Ming suddenly gathered and formed into quicksand.

The quicksand gradually converged and transformed into the figure of an old man wearing Daoist robes, with long white hair and beard.

"The master has arrived!" Gu Ming saw this person and quickly bowed to him.

The Daoist only nodded slightly and asked in a somewhat hoarse voice, "How is it going? How many souls have been sacrificed for my Soul Refining Banner?"

"Reporting to the master, I have sacrificed 3,731 people. We are still short of a little over two hundred, according to the amount you instructed," Gu Ming respectfully replied. "At most, it will take another two months to complete the blood sacrifice and successfully form this precious treasure."

"Good, good, good!"

Master Xuanzhi clapped his hands and laughed, saying "good" three times.

After years of careful planning, he was finally going to succeed!

He was originally an ordinary person with extremely poor spiritual roots. Through a fortuitous encounter, he stumbled upon a cultivator's cave and obtained its treasures, which set him on the path of cultivation.

As a wandering cultivator with no sect or school, his cultivation journey was extremely difficult.

After many years of setbacks, Master Xuanzhi finally began to walk the path of evil.

By relying on the method of blood sacrifice, he narrowly broke through to the Qi Gathering stage. After reaching the Second Stage of Qi Gathering, it became difficult for him to make any further progress.

In order to continue improving his combat power and gain the ability to protect himself in the world of cultivation, he began to plan the forging of the Soul Refining Banner.

Once this banner was completed, it would assist him in fighting opponents of a higher cultivation level. Even if he encountered an enemy one stage higher than him, he would no longer have to worry.

"You can rest assured, I keep my word," he said with a smile to Gu Ming. "Once the Soul Refining Banner is formed, I will take you as my personal disciple and pass on the methods of cultivation to you."

"In the future, the two of us will travel the world of cultivation together!" Master Xuanzhi paused for a moment and added, "By the way, why did you activate the Dao talisman and come find me this time?"

"Master, there is an urgent matter that requires your decision," Gu Ming repeated word for word according to Shen Mo's instructions, intending to lower Master Xuanzhi's guard.

To create an opportunity for Shen Mo to launch a surprise attack.

"Wait!"

In the midst of their conversation, Master Xuanzhi suddenly frowned.

His divine sense enveloped the riverbank and found Shen Mo sitting there, quietly fishing alone.

"How can there be someone else present during our discussion?"

Using the technique of concealing his aura, Shen Mo gathered all his Qi Gathering stage aura, making it appear as if he had no cultivation at all.

Therefore, he did not perceive anything wrong and simply regarded Shen Mo as an ordinary fisherman.

However, years of caution and carefulness had made him develop a secretive nature, unwilling to reveal himself easily in front of anyone.

"Kill him and then we can talk in detail!" Master Xuanzhi stomped his foot, leaped into the air, and suddenly slapped his palm towards Shen Mo.

"Boom!"

Thunder roared, and the rain grew heavier.

Master Xuanzhi's palm imprint gathered all the rainwater in the surroundings, forming a huge phantom that crashed down towards Shen Mo.

Just as the giant palm was about to descend, Shen Mo made his move.

"Clang!"

A sword light pierced through the silence of the night.

He had been holding his breath for several hours, just to maintain his peak state and unleash his strongest attack.

This was his first strike after reaching the Qi Gathering stage.

With all three Dantians fully activated, his Dragon Elephant Blood Demon body, and the blessing of his Heavenly Mandate, this sword strike was terrifying in its power.

"Swoosh!"

The sword light surged, creating a turbulent wave in the river. In an instant, it shattered the phantom of the palm imprint.

Then, with the speed of lightning, it slashed towards Master Xuanzhi.

"Not good!"

Master Xuanzhi's face changed drastically as he finally sensed something was wrong.

But it was already too late!

"Pu!"

Blood splattered down from the sky.

With this sword, almost half of Xuanzhi's body was cut off, leaving only mangled limbs and flesh.

If an ordinary person suffered such injuries, they would almost certainly die on the spot.

But Xuanzhi, as an evil cultivator, lived up to his reputation and had not yet died from his injuries.

"How dare you..."

With boundless anger in his heart, he let out a long roar and his figure quickly turned into flowing sand, dissipating in place.

"Master, he escaped!"

Gu Ming saw this scene and panicked.

He knew Xuanzhi's character well. If he didn't die this time, he would definitely find an opportunity to kill Gu Ming, the betrayer.

"Don't worry, he won't get away."

Shen Mo slowly took off his cloak and hat, calmly saying.

The previous sword had severely injured Xuanzhi, and even with his evil techniques, he wouldn't be able to run far.

After breaking through to the Qi Gathering stage, Shen Mo's spiritual consciousness could cover a radius of five li, allowing him to sense any movement and naturally know the direction of his escape.

"Step, step!"

With lightning speed, Shen Mo used the Thunderous Steps technique and chased after him with his sword.

After breaking through, this light body technique had also greatly improved. With one step, he could cover a distance of three zhang. The heavily injured Xuanzhi had no chance of outrunning him.

"Damn it, damn it!"

In the mountains and forests, Xuanzhi felt his life force rapidly fading away and cursed incessantly.

"I can't die like this."

Strong survival instincts drove Xuanzhi to quicken his pace.

But his body had been cut in half, with only one leg and one hand remaining. Even if he wanted to run, he was powerless.

Xuanzhi crossed over muddy puddles, trying to escape.

Suddenly, his expression changed as he saw a figure standing in front of him, holding a sword.

Shen Mo.

He had already run ahead of Xuanzhi.

"Stop struggling, I'll send you on your way."

Shen Mo slowly approached with his sword.

"No, please..."

Before Xuanzhi could beg for mercy, Shen Mo's Longque Sword severed his head, causing him to fall heavily in the forest.

"Hoo."

Having killed Xuanzhi, Shen Mo also breathed a sigh of relief.

After cultivating for such a long time, this was the first time he had truly killed a cultivator.

Moreover, he had killed a second-stage Qi Gathering realm evil cultivator.

Although everything seemed to have gone smoothly, he had made many preparations beforehand.

"If I hadn't lowered his guard and attacked him with a surprise sword strike, causing him severe injuries, I probably could have killed him too, but it would have taken more effort."

Reviewing the previous battle, Shen Mo finally made his judgment.

Putting away the Longque Sword, Shen Mo slowly squatted down and began to search the corpse.

His palm explored the body, quickly finding the Qiankun Bag.

"Indeed, there's something inside!"

After a thorough search, Shen Mo found two Qiankun Bags in total.

One of the Qiankun Bags had a small space and was of the lowest quality.

Therefore, it didn't have any spiritual consciousness imprint, and Shen Mo could easily open it.

Inside were some spirit stones and various materials and techniques.

Although there were many items, their value was not high.

The other Qiankun Bag looked like it contained many treasures.

"Unfortunately, with this spiritual consciousness imprint, I can't open this Qiankun Bag for now."

Shen Mo carefully put away the Qiankun Bag and shook his head.

(End of this chapter)