Without the jailer, the dungeon door kept knocking against the wall amid the trembling earth, making a teeth-grinding creaking sound. Yun Xian and the other three were startled and immediately held their breath!
The big black snake outside noticed something and immediately made a hissing sound that could be described as flattering.
Across the wall, the demon cultivator's voice rang out: "Jimo, you're here too? Where did this apple come from? Did you give it to it?"
"No." Jimo Shu said calmly, "It went to the city to rob."
"As expected of my natal spirit pet, it even learned to snatch people without any instruction. But this apple looks so rotten, I won't eat it." The demon cultivator seemed to want to get closer. Jimo Shu's footsteps sounded, and he said, "Aren't you coming back in ten days?"
"I miscalculated. That damn vixen was so shameless in her pursuit of victory that she even brought in a bunch of decent people to help." Speaking of this, the demon cultivator's tone was filled with anger, gritting his teeth. "Now those bastards are planning to surround and attack me from outside. My injuries haven't healed yet, so I have no choice but to fight to the death - where is the princess? I need her."
Jimo Shu said: "We are still chasing."
"The barrier has already cost me a lot of my demonic energy. I don't want to waste time on this kind of thing." The demon cultivator said coldly, "Come with me out. If she hides again, I'll kill everyone. If she doesn't come out, I'll kill her father first, then her brother, and then kill everyone here. I'll see if she comes out!"
Jimo Shu: "...I understand."
Jimo Shu changed the subject, and the demon cultivator stopped walking towards here, and the footsteps soon disappeared around him.
"We seem to be a bit unlucky." Yun Xian watched the people leave and glanced out the window. The barrier was overwhelming and extremely powerful. "We just happened to run into the demon cultivators when they were tearing each other apart. Now it seems that we have no choice but to fight."
"We knew it from the beginning. There are only two options: either find the princess and hand her over to the demon cultivator, or kill the demon cultivator." Qiao Lingshan said, "But it seems to me that the princess can hold on for a while longer."
"Yeah." Feng Ye agreed, "If I were Tang Wuke, I would just kill my father and my brother, and I wouldn't have to do it myself. Oh, but killing Yahe is not an option."
Xue Lingxiu silently threw the life-saving pill into Yahe's mouth again: "...You still have the mind to chat now. Hurry and find a way to get out!"
In fact, it wasn't that the group didn't care. Yun Xian had a characteristic: the more tense the situation, the more talkative he became. In life-or-death situations, he kept talking. This allowed her to ignore her own rapid heartbeat. Now, Qiao Lingshan and Feng Ye were also beginning to be assimilated. As the four of them rushed out of the palace to chase the demon cultivator, Xue Lingxiu's ears were never quiet for even a moment:
"That white light source Yahe mentioned might be a spirit seed. I've racked my brains trying to figure out how spirit seeds can be passed down from generation to generation. Isn't that random? Also, other regions only produce one innate spirit seed every hundred or even several hundred years, but they've only produced one in the last ten or so. They must have drained all the spiritual energy in the country."
"Having spiritual seeds but no spiritual roots, is this a joke? How can I use them? Even if Heaven is punishing everyone, why is the princess also punished? Princesses of all generations are truly unlucky!"
"So, the current situation is that the demon cultivator has been severely injured and must strip the princess of her spirit seed in order to heal quickly. He also knows that it's unlikely that the princess will voluntarily donate her spirit seed, so he plans to personally search for her... After the relationship is torn apart, there's no need for recycling. He can even destroy this country without any problem. I wonder how many people will die."
"One, protect the princess, and then hold out until the people outside break the barrier. The other, protect the princess, and then kill the demon cultivator. Which one do you think is easier?"
"It feels like being killed by a demon cultivator is the easiest..."
After leaving the palace, everyone finally caught sight of the scene in mid-air. Just like the last time the demonic cultivator descended, the sky and earth were stained a dark, dark hue, and blood surged across the heavens. The citizens still searching the streets froze in their tracks, instinctively wanting to retreat home and shut themselves off. However, they were also ordered to find the princess, and with these two conflicting feelings, they didn't know what to do.
They called him Lord Demon, and they knew they were afraid and didn't want to face him, but they easily sent one person after another to the demon cultivator.
The demon cultivator looked around, grabbed a guard holding a spear, and asked, "Where is the princess?"
"Master Demon, we've already been looking for her!" The man was so scared that he peed his pants and trembled, "She was hiding in the barn before, and it seems that she was rescued by a monk. Now, I don't know where she went -"
The demon cultivator broke his neck before he could finish speaking.
The guard fell down limply, with an expression of extreme fear still on his face and his eyes wide open. The people around him didn't even dare to make a sound and suddenly knelt on the ground.
"Keep looking." The demon cultivator said, "If you can't find it, you will all die."
Jimo Shu stood beside the demon cultivator, quietly watching these people run away as if they were escaping for their lives.
"These cultivators are like fleas. They're so annoying that it makes me dizzy, and they're making me waste more time." The demon cultivator noticed Jimo Shu's look and said, "Don't bother with these people. They don't dare to resist me. They just think the princess killed them. Sometimes I find it strange. I was the one who killed the person, but they don't dare to blame me. They only dare to blame someone who has nothing to do with me. Isn't that funny?"
Jimo Shu asked, "What should we do with those monks?"
"Now that the barrier is up, even if those old immortals arrive right away, it'll take at least two days." The demon cultivator snapped his fingers and said, "Those ignorant brats, still wet behind the ears, dared to challenge me. Didn't they consider their own mortality before coming here?"
"But..." Jimo Shu didn't say anything. She just watched him turn around, narrow his eyes at her, and said, "Jimo, did the leader really send you here?"
There was no room for doubt in his tone.
Discovered? Jimo Shu's heart suddenly sank, and she swallowed slightly. Just as she was about to speak, the demon cultivator smiled at her again, his lips raised, and his eyes flicked with oily stars: "Actually, you have secretly admired me for a long time, but you dare to say it now, right?"
Jimo Shu was stunned: "…………No."
No. Thank you!
Mingshu could no longer sit and wait for death because of a strange phenomenon. He carried Tang Wuke on his back and quickly ran from the foot of the mountain to the outskirts of the city.
He was also gambling. Now that the barrier was in place, it seemed impossible to leave the city. The scene inside was horrifying. Under the pressure of the demonic cultivators, the already maddened people became even more frantic, burning and looting. Even a pregnant woman about to give birth was forcibly dragged out and interrogated, "Are there any hidden people in your house? Are there?!"
The woman covered her abdomen and shook her head, "No, really not! I'm weak and have been staying in my room for the past half month without going out. I don't know anything!"
Bingwei sneered, "How could you not know? No matter what everyone was doing, they all came out to help Lord Demon to find the princess, but you stayed in the room peacefully?! This is abnormal. Do you have any ulterior motives towards Lord Demon? You are definitely on the princess' side! You want us all to die, right?!"
"That's right! This person definitely has bad intentions!"
"How could she not know? How could she not know? Even if the princess is not at her house now, she must have seen it!"
"I didn't... What nonsense are you talking about! No, don't smash it, please..." The pregnant woman watched helplessly as her house was smashed to pieces, her pots and pans smashed to pieces, her small vegetable garden trampled into a mess, and even the bamboo baskets she had painstakingly woven for her livelihood were thrown away. Tears slowly flowed down her face. After a while, she suddenly screamed like a madman, "Yes!! You all should die!!! You should have died long ago!!! You useless bastards who are living in disgrace, and you dare to wear human skin?! Me too, everyone should die, all of us should die!! This rotten place should have been burned down long ago!"
Her string snapped, and the sound it made was like that of a wild animal. She pounded the ground with her fists, and blood flowed out. She was crazy, and those people immediately stopped and scattered, saying, "This person is a crazy woman!" "I really don't know what she said, so scary..." "Go find the next one!"
Before the guard left, he threw her heavily to the ground. The pregnant woman fell to the ground in a daze, with severe pain in her abdomen. A golden light flashed not far away, and something slowly supported her and gradually covered her bulging belly.
The creature inside that was crying along with the mother was finally calmed down.
The pregnant woman looked around blankly. Mingshu, carrying Tang Wuke on his back, continued to walk towards the outskirts of the city with a serious expression.
This wasn't a situation he could handle alone. If he were alone, he would stay. But Tang Wuke had to leave it to everyone.
It was shocking along the way.
Under the fear of death, this peaceful and tranquil small country seemed to have suddenly peeled off its false skin, revealing the festering and smelly flesh inside. Tang Wuke saw a scene that she had never even imagined before.
"No one is allowed to hide inside! Everyone, come out!"
"What will we do if we still can't find the princess?"
"Where on earth did she go?! Why did she do this to others?!"
"But she wants to live! If she wants to live, we want to live too. What's wrong with her running away... The obvious mistake is..."
"Shut up! Do you want to die?! She can escape, but she can't harm us! If she wasn't the princess, who would care if she ran away?!"
Tang Wuke was on Mingshu's back, and scattered points of light appeared in his pupils. Some of the light points had turned into a cluster of flying ash and disappeared completely, while others were suppressed and extremely dim.
"Master," Tang Wuke said blankly, "Can you see the white light?"
Mingshu shook his head.
Only she can see it.
Tang Wuke reached out again, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't use the power. She had already understood: it wasn't hers. She had no spiritual roots, no meridians, no way to cultivate. The only two times it had struck, she'd been injured. She'd actually noticed it the first time, by the riverbank, but everyone else was busy, and she couldn't afford to be a drag.
Can I use it if I'm injured? But it's just a flash of inspiration, how can I control it?
How many more times can she use it, and who can she protect? Who does she want to protect?
Tang Wuke felt that she had suddenly become very selfish. She didn't want to protect anyone, she just wanted to leave, get away, fly away, and never come back.
Mingshu's expression suddenly changed while he was hurrying, and he dodged to the side in an instant, but he remembered that there was someone behind him, and he stopped moving forcibly. A demonic light fiercely brushed past his collarbone. Mingshu groaned, and without any hesitation, he threw the three Vajra relics into the sky, and detonated them!
The golden light flashed across the sky and earth, so bright that the scattered monks looked up instantly and rushed to the place where the relics were!
The dust settled, and before the dust, a ferocious giant snake appeared first, hissing and howling, with blood still stained in the saliva dripping from its fangs.
It seems that it doesn't really like eating people, and its expression is much gloomier than when it was eating apples.
The demon cultivator slowly walked out from the dust and smoke.
He was indeed injured, and his momentum was not as high as before, perhaps because setting up the barrier had consumed a lot of his energy. But now he was looking at Tang Wuke solemnly on the other side, and he didn't seem to care about the serious injury.
Tang Wuke felt a chill when he looked at her.
That wasn't the look of someone looking at a person; it was like looking at a herb, an elixir, a dead object.
The gap between Mingshu's cultivation and that of the demon cultivators was too great. He swallowed and stood silently in front of Tang Wuke.
"Aren't you Buddhists kindhearted and compassionate? Why did you call everyone here?" The demon cultivator raised his eyebrows and said nonchalantly, "Even if I die, I'd rather die with you, right?"
Ming Shu opened his lips and whispered, "If you bring disaster to the world, you should be killed."
"Behead?! What a joke! Everyone who's ever shown off their might in front of me has said that, so how am I still alive?" The demon cultivator seemed to think he was telling a huge joke and laughed heartily, "And the grass on their graves is already three feet tall!"
Yun Xian and Su Chi bumped into each other at the fork in the road, looked at each other, and walked towards the princess.
"Again?" The demon cultivator had already sensed the formidable aura of the sword cultivator and looked at him coldly, "You bunch of shits... Ugh!"
Damn! How can a person look like this?!
"I've already told you, be mentally prepared before you see him." Yun Xian unsheathed the Taiping, and this time it came out with just a pull. It seemed that Taiping also knew that being arrogant should be done at the right time. She pointed coldly at the demon cultivator and said in a shocking voice: "Anyone injured by Senior Brother can circle Tang Ling Country once a year, but sorry, our sect will not be responsible!"
Su Chi closed his eyes: "...Stop making trouble."
The monks: “…………”
It's a good thing to be able to cheer up before being beaten to death. Thank you so much, Fellow Daoist Yun.
The demon cultivator withdrew his gaze from Su Chi's face in embarrassment, stared at Zhang Heyan for three more seconds to neutralize it, then turned back and continued, "Hand the princess over to me, and I will spare your lives."
Yun Xian's expression became subtle for a moment.
"Why, you don't believe it?" The demon cultivator asked, "Besides the princess, has anyone else died in this place? I don't want to offend more sects. I only want the princess."
"I'm familiar with that." Yun Xian continued skillfully, "When I was in the Four Directions Secret Realm, I also said that I just wanted to take the top spot quietly and didn't want to offend anyone. But I also wiped out the entire Sword Sect."
Willow catkins: “…”
Should she be angry...
"You want to buy time?" The demon cultivator didn't bother to argue with her, seeing through her thoughts at a glance, "Don't dream. Even if those people outside arrived at the next moment, it would take at least six hours to break through this barrier. Moreover, the news just came out, so no matter how fast they go, they can't arrive quickly—"
With a clang, a white-bearded old man slowly slid down from outside the barrier. Judging from his attire, he must be an elder of the Xingyan Sect.
Demon cultivator: “?”
There was another clang, and a woman wearing a bamboo hat also slid down slowly in the same way. She spat out blood and pressed the old man against the barrier. "Relieve it quickly! Is three hours enough?"
The old man trembled and sighed, "Pavilion Master, you should also understand my cultivation level..."
"Shut up." Xiao Yuan opened his mouth, his chest stained red, and through a thick barrier, he said to Yun Xian Canlan: "Auntie is here, if you hold on for a while longer, I'll eat this old cucumber with my meal."
Everyone was shocked.
The way he appeared was so bizarre that it left people speechless.
"Auntie!" Yun Xian rushed over and lay on the barrier, tears welling in his eyes, saying, "How did you get here so quickly? There's no spiritual energy here, and I can't even fly my sword!"
"Yeah." Xiao Yuan looked genuinely afraid of being beaten by his sister. He said, "So I asked the elders of the Body Tempering Sect to beat me up. It's pretty easy to practice. I just need to find the right direction and release the protective aura. Then, she'll swing the hammer and I'll fly a long way. Ahem, it's a bit physically demanding though."
Everyone: “…………”
No wonder he's related to Yun Xian. Is this something most people would come up with?!
This demon cultivator has lived for eight hundred years, and he has survived until now entirely by bullying the weak and fearing the strong. Now, seeing two powerful men of unknown cultivation level just outside the barrier, he became nervous for a moment, only to realize that there were only two of them.
We can't delay any longer.
He must seize the innate spirit seed before everyone gathers!
"Three hours?" He slowly emitted a dark purple demonic light from his hand and said coldly, "In just a moment, all these people will die at my hands!"
Xiao Yuan's expression also became serious.
The time for the decisive battle had come. Regardless of whether this was the worst-case scenario or could be even worse, it had just happened. This was the nature of the martial arts world; even if someone was tied to their belt for twelve hours, there was no guarantee they would remain unharmed.
The demon cultivator shouted, "Say it again, hand over the princess, and I will spare your life!"
The black snake behind him was biting Tang Yang in its mouth. The emperor was now dressed in tatters and covered in dirt. He screamed in fear: "Ke'er! Ke'er, even if your father begs you, please come out! Can you bear to watch your father die like this? Have you forgotten all the filial piety I taught you?!"
Tang Wuke stared blankly at his father, whom he once respected the most. He looked so unfamiliar.
Yun Xian's sword touched the ground, and his expression turned cold. "I'll say it again. I won't hand it over!"
"You won't hand it over? Fine, very good." The demon cultivator was extremely displeased with repeated disobedience. With a ferocious expression, he stretched out his hand and said, "Then die!"
With a whooshing sound, all the cultivators used their magic skills at the same time, and colorful spiritual energy instantly filled the entire corner.
Su Chi and Yun Xian were at the front, bearing the greatest pressure, but the huge gap between their cultivation levels could not be easily crossed. Soon one of the cultivators ran out of spiritual energy, vomited blood, and fell into a corner, his life or death unknown.
Tang Wuke began to tremble again. She stood up and wanted to go out, but her throat felt like it was blocked by a ball of cotton, making her unable to speak.
I have to stop them... I have to stop them, but how?!
She was very scared, so scared that she was trembling, but she had nowhere to escape now, and she must not escape!
At this moment, a slender figure stood beside her.
Zhong Changyao looked at her and said, "Princess."
Tang Wuke said woodenly, "You are the one who arrested me before."
"My princess has misunderstood. I didn't capture you to offer you to the demonic cultivators." Zhong Changyao said softly, "I know you have a spirit seed within you, but you can't release it. I simply don't want you to end up like that because of Tang Ling."
"...What's the ending?" Tang Wuke heard something from his tone. "How can I stop him? This devil?"
Another person vomited blood and retreated, his childish face full of pain.
These cultivators weren't much older than him, and Miss Yun was only two years older than him.
"The current situation is far too dangerous." Zhong Changyao looked towards the battlefield anxiously. After a moment's hesitation, he finally revealed everything: "Princess, if this continues, your only escape route will be self-destruction. Or, there's another way."
Zhong Changyao looked at her and said with sympathy, "You used your heart blood as a guide and willingly offered that spiritual seed... to others with spiritual roots."
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