Xuantian Immortal Cultivation Record

“This…” Lao Deren hesitated for a moment before saying apologetically, “I fled in such a hurry that I completely forgot about the trace stone. I passed many forks in the road along the way, and I don’t know if I can find the right path again!”

Zhang Yuanjing was not surprised and immediately said, “It doesn’t matter. It’s better than me completely losing my way back. Lead the way, Fellow Daoist, and let’s give it a try.”

Lao Deren said with some difficulty, “That place is more than a hundred zhang deeper than here, very close to the abyss where the Profound Yin King Grass is located. It also connects to a downward passage, making it very easy to encounter people from the Star Moon Sect or the Five Factions, which is quite dangerous. If you want to go, Fellow Daoist, you must be prepared for a major battle!”

Zhang Yuanjing heard the contradiction in his words. If Lin Dushan hadn't urged him, he might have hesitated.

Now that a strong enemy was behind them, if he refused, he was afraid that both of them would die miserably. He immediately nodded and said decisively, “It doesn’t matter. It’s better than getting lost. I don’t have many Yang-guarding pills left, and I won’t be able to last long.”

Lao Deren’s lips moved, wanting to say something but stopping, so he turned around and said, “I’ll lead the way, Fellow Daoist. Be careful.”

Lao Deren, like Zhang Yuanjing, used a magical artifact to scout the way, being extremely cautious as he walked.

At each fork in the road, he investigated inside and out. Sometimes, after choosing a path and walking a short distance, he would retreat, re-examine, and either choose a different path or continue on the original one.

Thus, stopping and starting along the way, it took him a day to descend more than a hundred zhang to a narrow cave that was ten zhang wide and thirty zhang long. One side of the cave connected to a deep abyss, and the other side extended into a winding path that continued downward.

“Still going down?” The Yin and Nether Qi here was extremely thick. Without drinking Undying Flame, Zhang Yuanjing’s divine sense was suppressed to the point where it could barely leave his sea of consciousness. He could only rely on his keen vision to roughly judge the terrain ahead.

A trace of shame appeared on Lao Deren’s face, which was constantly changing, and then turned cold. He replied softly, “The narrow passage ahead is where we were attacked. Fellow Daoist, be very careful!”

Lao Deren continued forward, suddenly accelerating his pace, and quickly disappeared into the dark cave, with only the sound of his footsteps coming from within. Judging from the frequency of his footsteps, he was walking faster and faster, almost running.

Zhang Yuanjing felt a sudden surge of doubt in his heart. Could there be some danger ahead, and Lao Deren was deliberately acting strangely to warn him not to follow?

“Follow him!” Lin Dushan’s voice came from behind.

He was hiding about twenty zhang behind Zhang Yuanjing, his divine sense also unable to extend far from his sea of consciousness, but relying on his strong hearing, he sensed Zhang Yuanjing’s location.

At the same time, he also noticed that there seemed to be some kind of danger hidden in this narrow cave. Perhaps, this was an ambush by the Star Moon Sect.

Zhang Yuanjing had no choice but to move forward quickly to track Lao Deren. This section of the road was very rugged and difficult to walk, but there was only one path, with no forks.

As he walked, the sound of Lao Deren’s footsteps ahead became faint, as if he had entered another space.

A strong sense of unease surged in Zhang Yuanjing’s heart. He quickly took out the Undying Flame and took a big gulp. A stream of clear Qi rushed into his Niwan Palace, protecting his soul, and his divine sense could extend a hundred zhang outside his body again.

He held the Profound Crystal Axe in his hand and a low-grade, mid-rank Earth Wall Talisman in the other, carefully walking forward.

Suddenly, “bang bang bang” sounds rang out behind him, as if someone had entered this passage and was running hard.

He couldn’t help but feel his hair stand on end. He turned his head to look, but it was pitch black. The sound of footsteps was rapidly approaching, but had not yet entered his visible range.

His divine sense swept over, and he saw a black mass surrounded by a bloody aura, which blocked his divine sense from investigating.

“Who’s there?” Zhang Yuanjing asked boldly, pouring his magical power into the Profound Crystal Axe, and a bloody killing intent spread out.

There was no answer. Only the increasingly loud footsteps and the increasingly clear sound of hurried breathing could be heard.

The unease in Zhang Yuanjing’s heart grew stronger. The situation ahead was unclear, and he dared not rush in rashly.

Moreover, the person coming from behind was clearly not a good person. It would be extremely inconvenient to deal with him in this narrow space. If there was a mistake, it would be eternal doom.

And Lin Dushan, he didn’t even know where he was. This man’s thoughts were strange and difficult to guess, and he couldn’t rely on him as a backer.

In his anxiety, the person had already rushed within ten zhang. Zhang Yuanjing squeezed the Earth Wall Talisman in his hand, constructing a majestic wall of earth Qi in front of him. His eyes stared straight at the darkness behind the earth wall.

After a moment, a bloody, wolf-headed humanoid monster appeared in his field of vision, crashing into the Qi wall with a bang.

The Qi wall made cracking sounds and disintegrated inch by inch. The monster was also knocked backward.

Zhang Yuanjing’s Profound Crystal Axe took advantage of the situation and slashed down, striking its head with a clang.

The wolf-headed monster howled and jumped up from the ground, pouncing towards Zhang Yuanjing. The axe only left a white mark on its head, without even breaking the skin.

This monster was as tall as a human, with a green wolf head and a stinking mouth with two half-foot fangs hanging from it, glowing with green light. It was covered in a rolling bloody aura, its skin was bright and dripping, its muscles were bulging, and its robes were torn apart, like a violent demon beast.

The beast glared with blood-red eyes, saliva dripping from its mouth like broken threads, and the two fangs were about to dig into Zhang Yuanjing’s neck.

Zhang Yuanjing grabbed the giant axe in the air with his left hand, turned the back of the axe upward to block, and with the other hand, he took out a Fierce Fire Talisman and threw it into the monster’s mouth. Then, taking advantage of its forward momentum, he quickly retreated. After retreating two zhang, he turned and walked quickly.

With a muffled “bang,” the Fierce Fire Talisman exploded in the monster’s mouth. The monster wailed miserably, and a cluster of flames flew from between its fangs, leaving its bloody mouth charred black.

The monster was completely enraged, howling and running wildly, moving forward as if flying.

A hundred zhang later, Zhang Yuanjing rushed into a cave about twenty zhang in diameter. Before he could see the situation inside, he was plunged into a void.

It was a formation!

And a trapping formation!

And a very clever trapping formation!

Like a Void Demon Space, there was no up, no down, no left, no right, no front, no back, just a chaos. His Earth Escape Technique could not be used either.

If he wanted to break the formation, there were no traces to follow, and there was no way to start. Unless his strength far exceeded that of the person who set up the formation, he could forcibly break the formation, or have strong support from the outside to destroy the formation, otherwise he could only wait for death.

“Could it be Lao Deren’s conspiracy! For the sake of this head of mine?” Zhang Yuanjing stopped in place, not running around like a headless fly, nor attacking randomly to waste his energy.

Then, he shook his head. Whether it was the bloody monster or this powerful trapping formation, they were all arranged in advance. There was no need to go to such lengths to deal with him.

Just as he was thinking, the monster also rushed into the formation. The inside of this formation was just a void, without any concealment or division.

As soon as the monster came in, it saw Zhang Yuanjing at a glance. A ferocious and cruel expression appeared on its long face. It raised its two blue-veined, knife-nailed claws high and ran towards him, scattering its legs.

Zhang Yuanjing drove his flying sword, circling around, and occasionally struck the wolf-headed humanoid monster with the Profound Crystal Axe.

This monster was covered in blood, none of which was obviously its own. On the contrary, its flesh was extremely tough. No matter how the great axe slashed down, it would not be harmed in the slightest. It was afraid that it could be compared to Lin Dushan’s Nascent Soul of Flesh.

As soon as he thought of the words “Nascent Soul of Flesh,” he immediately woke up. The origin of this monster must be like Lin Dushan’s situation. It was temporarily concocted in the cave by a certain faction. It was not afraid of the Yin and Nether Qi and the poison of the Yin Fire, and it had far surpassed the strength of a Foundation Establishment Great Perfection cultivator. It was good to sweep away the enemies here and achieve ulterior motives.

After fighting for half a quarter of an hour, Zhang Yuanjing figured out the space inside this trapping formation, which was about a li in circumference, enough for him to dodge back and forth. The wolf-headed monster looked terrifying, but it could only run on two feet and posed no threat to him.

However, this situation was strange, and it might be deliberately done by the person who set up the situation. He carefully observed this monster and found that its aura was constantly changing, sometimes strong and sometimes weak, but the overall trend was getting stronger.

This monster was likely in the process of being forged, and he might be the “medicinal guide” that induced the monster’s growth.

After about half an hour, the wolf-headed monster suddenly roared to the sky, and a rich blood light emerged from its body. Egg-sized round balls emerged from its skin, bulging outward and constantly beating.

Two breaths later, all the round balls exploded, blooming into groups of blood mist, surrounding its body, and instantly solidified into a blood cocoon, wrapping the wolf-headed monster inside.

Zhang Yuanjing frowned, and controlled the Profound Crystal Axe, which had been accumulating power to the extreme, and slashed down with a mountain-splitting strike. He only heard a “poof” sound, as if hitting a rotten leaf, and the momentum of the axe was exhausted, but the blood cocoon was as usual.

He took out two more low-grade, high-quality Fierce Fire Talismans and threw them over, turning them into a huge flame, enveloping the blood cocoon and calcining it for a full thirty breaths of time. However, this cocoon, in addition to being more brightly colored, was still undamaged.

He also had a Gold Sword Talisman and a Gale Talisman from Pei Yunxiu, which were low-grade and high-quality, but he estimated that they would have little effect, so he pressed them down and did not use them.

Another thought flashed in his mind, and he took out five catties of Yin Severing Sand that he had traded from Moyun Cave. He raised his magical power and waved it, and the rice-grain-sized, cold and infiltrating sand grains flew over like a belt, circling around the blood cocoon, and then wrapped upward, immediately sticking to the blood cocoon, making a hissing sound.

This thing was effective. Each grain of Yin Severing Sand etched a mung bean-sized hole in the blood cocoon. The blood cocoon trembled violently, as if there were signs of cracking.

Zhang Yuanjing’s face lit up with joy, and he took out all the remaining Yin Severing Sand and sprinkled it over in the same way, invading inward along the existing holes.

He heard several cracking sounds, and a fishing net-like crack appeared on the surface of the blood cocoon and gradually spread and expanded.

Two breaths later, the blood cocoon made a hissing sound and quickly cracked open from the middle. The wolf-headed monster jumped out from it, half blue and half red, its wolf face turned into a human face, but its ears were pointed and long, still wolf ears, and the fangs in its mouth were much shorter, only two inches long, half exposed outside its purple thick lips.

When he saw this person’s face, Zhang Yuanjing’s expression changed drastically. He took a heavy breath and retreated a few steps to stand firm. He had already recognized this person, who was Shang Ming, one of the five Foundation Establishment Great Perfection cultivators of the Star Moon Sect.

The origin of the wolf-headed monster was also clear to him. It must be that a Core Formation cultivator of the Star Moon Sect captured a wolf demon in the Demon Core Realm, and placed it in a pill furnace to refine a Mad Beast Pill. After this person took the pill, because his flesh was extremely strong, he withstood the first blood Qi impact and successfully transformed into a beast-man.

This was a very rare secret technique, usually only collected by large sects.

The Profound Heaven Sect also had this secret technique, but because it was harmful to the harmony of heaven, only the Sect Leader and Nascent Soul True Person could read it. Zhang Yuanjing was able to recognize it because he had heard Wu Yuankui mention it.

The strength of a beast-man must be above the Pseudo Core. After that, depending on the strength of the pill taker’s flesh, the strength will also increase, up to the Great Perfection of the early Core Formation stage.

However, this cultivator needs to constantly devour the flesh and blood of cultivators to promote the advancement of his flesh and resist the increasingly strong repulsive force. Once he can’t hold on, he will explode and die.

Previously, this monster must have swallowed at least one cultivator in order to have the advancement just now.

It was just that the advancement was not completed, and Zhang Yuanjing interrupted it with Yin Severing Sand, so it failed to fully restore its human form. This meant that the next explosion crisis would come faster.