Chapter 43

==================

It’s still Ning Chen. After this kick, everyone became much more obedient.

Even Xie Tingyun looked over in surprise and doubt. Ning Chen patted his shoulder in a very unreserved manner and said, "You want to lead the way? Then come on."

Ning Chen pointed at Xie Tingyun and said, "Open the way."

Then, he raised his chin towards the remaining disciples and said, "Form a formation."

The division of labor is clear and simple, and it can be solved in three sentences.

Xie Tingyun nodded, breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Thank you very much. It seems I have to learn from you."

Tianxiao's style of doing things is very decisive and he will kick anyone who disagrees. If he meets someone with a stubborn temper, he will probably kick them into agreeing.

Xie Tingyun didn't like this kind of one-man show in the past, but now he has tasted some of its advantages, so he is thinking about whether he should put it to use in the future.

After all, sometimes the high-ranking monk's one-man show may really save a lot of time and save lives.

Other monks: “???”

The junior brothers and sisters of Liuyun Sect rushed over first, grabbed Xie Tingyun and said in shock: "Wait wait wait, wait a minute, Senior Brother, stop it, Senior Brother!"

"Brother, you are so calm. It's really scary that you kick people when you don't agree with something... No, what we mean is, it's not scary for you to kick others. There's nothing wrong with that. But can you please not kick us? We are obedient."

Xie Tingyun: "..."

Ning Shen laughed out loud.

Ning Chen loved to stir up trouble, he would not let go of any opportunity, seeing Xie Tingyun's fellow apprentices and sisters suffering like they had lost their parents, Ning Chen was actually very happy to see it.

Ning Chen crossed his arms and watched the show without any hesitation: "Look at your senior brother. No one listens to him when he speaks nicely. You guys all refute him one by one. Now, your senior brother must be pissed off."

He said casually, "Without even a little bit of prestige from a Mahayana, how can I not be irritated?"

Xie Tingyun said helplessly: "Tianxiao! Did they say anything good? Why are you so happy?"

Ning Chen said, "It doesn't matter whether it's a good word or not. Don't you know me? I am happy when they suffer."

Xie Tingyun: "..."

Other disciples: “…”

Xie Tingyun decided not to dwell on this issue for too long.

Seeing that all the monks had gathered, each of them used spiritual power formations to stay together, forming a long team, and standing behind Li Min and Xie Tingyun, waiting solemnly.

Li Min was the most accomplished of the other righteous cultivators. He saw that he could not refute the majesty of Xie Tingyun and Ning Chen, so he volunteered, "Then I will take care of the rest."

In the entire team, the leader is responsible for paving the way and taking on all unknown risks ahead, while the rear guard is responsible for monitoring the situation of the entire team and providing quick rescue when emergencies occur, so that the leader will not be too distracted.

This time no one objected.

As for Demon Lord Tianxiao, he should be able to cross the river easily by himself, so Xie Tingyun is not worried about Ning Chen and can let him do whatever he wants.

Xie Tingyun marked the place where they entered the river to calculate the distance of three reincarnations.

The river water was extremely cold. Everyone was startled when they went down, and they subconsciously moved forward bit by bit, shivering.

Xie Tingyun stepped into the river with a normal expression. His spiritual power could not be used to fly with the Sword of Defense, so he could only cross the river by himself. Fortunately, the Wind-riding Sword could still be used to break the waves for him in front.

Behind Xie Tingyun were three leaders of the Yuanying stage, and at the end was Li Min of the Kongming stage. The Liuyun Sect disciples and other Jindan stage cultivators were sandwiched in the middle.

Ning Chen waited until they jumped into the river one by one like Xia Dumpling, then he lazily stood up and followed them into the river step by step, following quietly behind the entire team without anyone noticing.

In the original book, the hero saw the Demon Lord appear in an illusion, and he only had time to send all his fellow apprentices out of the secret realm before he was entangled and fought with the Demon Lord.

After the other monks saw the earth-shaking fight between the Holy Son of Humanity and the Supreme Lord of the Demon Realm, even the entire secret realm was shaking. Some monks who insisted on risking their lives to enter the secret realm were left behind, and the rest all withdrew from the Nuwa Secret Realm.

After reviewing this, Ning Chen felt a little regretful. If he had known earlier that he would not waste so much time talking and just take all the people out, there wouldn't be so much trouble.

Some people blamed the fact that most of them were forced to evacuate the Nuwa Secret Realm on Xie Tingyun for bringing the Demon Lord in and starting a fight in the secret realm. Therefore, some people had complaints about Xie Tingyun. When they occasionally met him in the illusion, they would mock him and try to trick him. After being hit in the face by Xie Tingyun with his real strength, they dared not to jump.

Afterwards, Xie Tingyun no longer tried to save everyone, but went through the three levels of the secret realm alone. On the third level, Xie Tingyun wasted some energy, trapped the alien beast in the water, and successfully crossed the river three times to the shore.

They brought people with them this time, which might make things a little more difficult.

This river water is different from ordinary river water. As soon as Ning Chen entered, he felt a chill gradually invading his flesh and blood and going straight into his bones.

Ning Shen frowned, and the demonic energy in his body began to circulate, trying to drive away the coldness in his body. However, even if he drove it away, the coldness in the river water still continuously seeped into his body, and everything he had just done was basically in vain.

The chill in the Samsara River seemed to be able to ignore the barriers around the body and penetrate into everyone's body equally. Within an incense stick of time, the demonic energy flowing in Ning Shen Tui had begun to feel slightly stagnant.

This is not a good thing.

Not far from Ning Chen, Li Min kept reminding them with a trembling voice, "Cheer up and don't look back! Even if someone falls behind, don't look back!"

If any of the monks in front can't help but look back, the monks following him will also be lost in the river of reincarnation.

It's a pity that this formation maintained by spiritual power doesn't have the function of forcing people not to turn back, otherwise it would be much easier.

The originally calm surface of the water was stirred up by the movement of the people crossing the river, creating ripples that spread out from the group of people.

A thick gray fog was floating around everyone, making even breathing difficult. Xie Tingyun looked ahead intently, but could not see even a shadow on the other side of the river.

The Chengfeng Sword was not affected by the river water. A transparent spiritual power enveloped the sword. Looking from above from a distance, it looked like a powerful sword that broke through the calm water surface without any hindrance, paving the way for everyone to sail.

All the resistance was taken up by the Chengfeng Sword in the front, and Xie Tingyun and the disciples behind him felt much more relaxed.

However, at this moment, the speed of the Chengfeng Sword suddenly slowed down, as if it encountered an obstacle that even it could hardly break through.

The entire river surface was covered by ripples created by their crossing, and there was no sign of any potential danger underwater. However, ripples from other directions suddenly appeared between the ripples, and the ripples were moving faster and faster, as if something was approaching quickly.

Xie Tingyun had a bad feeling, raised his hand to call back Chengfeng, and slashed at the abnormal ripples with a sword!

The sharp sword energy broke through the water surface and cut the rapidly approaching black shadow underwater into two pieces, and then the two black shadows pounced towards everyone together!

Xie Tingyun swore in a low voice, and his spiritual power condensed between his almost frozen fingers. In an instant, he flew in front of the black shadows and then exploded.

The splashes of spiritual energy were so loud that everyone could not help but close their eyes, and they resisted the urge to turn their heads away.

More and more ripples and black shadows appeared around, and everyone saw that the spiritual power explosion was really useful for these unknown black shadows underwater, so they continuously supplied spiritual power to Xie Tingyun, while mustering up their courage and trying to condense spiritual power balls to attack the black shadows.

All kinds of spiritual power balls smashed onto the water surface, creating clusters of water splashes. For a moment, the water splashed in all directions, and the black shadows kept condensing and dissipating, but no one could successfully touch the edge.

Ning Chenfu was floating at the back of the team, watching these disciples frantically throwing spirit balls onto the water as if they were playing house, and he couldn't help but laugh.

However, before everyone could be happy for long, someone in the team suddenly fell into the water. He struggled to get out of the water in panic, tightly grasped the shoulders of the person in front of him and screamed: "What is grabbing my legs?!!"

The danger approaching unconsciously from beneath the water was even more frightening. People in the team kept screaming and struggling frantically, saying, "Don't catch me! Get out of here!!"

This sudden change happened, so suddenly that the disciples in front couldn't help but panic, and subconsciously wanted to turn around to see what happened.

Li Min reacted quickly, shooting out two beams of spiritual power from the air, which brushed past the sides of the faces of the monks in the front team, forcing them to keep their eyes fixed straight ahead.

Li Min wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, "Don't look back! They didn't cut off your legs right away, but tried to drag you into the water to fight back. This shows that they can't hurt us directly!"

Yes. As expected of an elder in the sect, he is well-informed and intelligent.

Ning Shen thought.

Seeing that the situation was temporarily stabilized, Xie Tingyun retracted the Chengfeng Sword and continued to swim forward with everyone.

However, Li Min soon couldn't laugh anymore.

The water surface not far away was suddenly broken by a huge black shadow. The black shadow was like a big hand, clenched into a fist and smashed towards the center of the team!

Perhaps knowing that the leader and the tail of the team were the strongest and hardest to fool, the underwater creatures began to focus their fire on the most vulnerable center.

It was not until they broke out of the water that everyone could see the true face of the black shadow.

It was a creature that looked like a fish but was not a fish. Below the fish head was an octopus body, and its eight large claws with suction cups were waving as it rolled towards the crowd. The surface of this strange creature was not like the scales or smooth surface of ordinary aquatic creatures, but was covered with sharp spines. The edges of the densely packed short spines were covered with a row of long spines, and the tips of the spines flashed with a strange green light. It looked extremely poisonous at first glance, and no one knew what would happen if you were scratched by it.

Such a huge black shadow dropped from the sky, and eight spiky octopus legs surged down and smashed down on their heads, almost covering half of the team. Countless spikes with green light flashing on the edges stabbed at everyone, silently reminding them that they would probably die if they were scratched.

The impact of such a scene was almost unparalleled. Except for experienced cultivators like Xie Tingyun and Li Min, other cultivators had never seen such a scene before, and it was hard for them not to panic.

They tried to resist with their own spiritual power, but the spiritual power hit the fallen fish-head octopus, at most knocking off one or two spines, without causing any pain or itching, and had no effect at all.

Li Min forced everyone in front of him not to look back, while gritting his teeth and drawing his sword, trying to stop the monster with a fish head and an octopus body.

The long sword aimed at the weak spot in the middle of the octopus's eight legs and stabbed in fiercely. For a moment, blood and sticky ink spurted out together. The severe pain angered the monster, and the eight octopus legs lashed at everyone fiercely!

Li Min's face showed despair.

However, at this moment, the Chengfeng Sword split into eight sword shadows, which cut off all the waving tentacles of the fish-headed octopus in an instant!

Blood gushed out, splashing onto the river in large pieces, soaking all the people below.

The sword formation formed by Chengfeng surrounded the entire fish-head octopus. The fallen thorny tentacles lost power, but still twisted and crashed into the sword formation.

The fish-headed octopus screamed in pain and madly rammed the sword formation formed by Chengfeng. The extremely hard spikes made harsh and unpleasant scraping sounds on the Chengfeng sword. The disciples present moved their hands away from their heads and looked at the fish-headed octopus trapped in the air with their mouths wide open.

Fortunately, the material of Chengfeng is very strong, and even after being damaged like this, there are no marks left on the sword.

Chengfeng temporarily dragged the fish-headed octopus, and it could not get over for a while. Xie Tingyun continued to swim forward with the monks behind him.

Fortunately, they had been swimming for about half an hour since they went into the river, and now they could see the shadows on the other side of the river. If they held on for a while longer, they would be able to get ashore.

However, it seemed that Chengfeng could not hold on for much longer as he was scratched and hit crazily by the extremely angry fish-headed octopus. The sword array that was holding him was flashing and showing signs of instability.

It stands to reason that the spiritual power possessed by Xie Tingyun, a cultivator in the Mahayana stage, is more than enough to trap ten such monsters. With the spiritual power support of other cultivators behind him, he should be able to handle it with ease.

However, this is the home turf of the Fish-Headed Octopus, and the longer people stay in the Samsara River, the more serious the stagnation of spiritual power in their bodies becomes. Naturally, the spiritual power that can be output is intermittent, which is obviously a huge limitation on Xie Tingyun's performance.

Eight sword shadows were patrolling around the fish-head octopus in a cautious manner. Under the continuous and crazy attacks of the fish-head octopus, one of the sword shadows was finally shattered.

A gap was opened in the entire sword formation, and the lifeless thorny tentacles fell into the water one after another, floating around the crowd with the current, which was extremely dangerous.

The fish-headed octopus stared at Xie Tingyun with its strangely protruding, cloudy eyeballs and made a hoarse hissing sound. The next moment, it suddenly grew eight new tentacles and rushed towards Xie Tingyun!

Xie Tingyun's face turned slightly pale. He took a deep breath, his expression still extremely calm. There were only seven sword shadows left in the Riding Wind Sword Formation, but they were not completely unusable.

While he was silently reciting the sword techniques, the sword formation was spinning so fast that people could hardly even see Cheng Feng's afterimage, while he was also on guard against the fish-headed octopus that could rush out at any time.

The fish-headed octopus never thought that it was trapped again, so it attacked the sword array that trapped it even more frantically.

The Riding Wind Sword Formation was missing a sword shadow, so it was much more difficult to block it. This time, the sword formation didn't block it for long, and another sword shadow was completely shattered.

However, just as the fish-headed octopus was overjoyed, the inky and hot demonic aura suddenly burst out from the Riding Wind Sword, forming several sword shadows composed of demonic aura, which perfectly filled the missing sword shadows in the sword formation just before the fish-headed octopus rushed out of the remaining sword formation.

...and more!

Xie Tingyun's pupils shrank, and his cheek just tilted a slight angle, as if he wanted to look back, but the next moment he forcibly held back.

Ning Chen dipped into the water, reluctantly washing off the smelly octopus blood on his body, while controlling the extra magic sword shadows to aim at the wound stabbed by Li Min. He stabbed in one after another fiercely, stirring the flesh and blood inside in all directions without mercy.

The stinky octopus could have splashed blood on anyone else, but it chose to splash blood on Ning Shen's head, which almost made him vomit out of disgust.

Xie Tingyun only wanted to trap this group of people to facilitate crossing the river, but Ning Chen had more ideas.

If he doesn’t kill this stinky octopus here today, he wouldn’t be called Ning!

The sword formation that trapped the fish-headed octopus above became even more difficult to break through with the addition of Ning Shen.

The disciples below watched this scene and found it hard to imagine that Ning Chen was able to infuse his own demonic energy into Xie Tingyun's natal sword Chengfeng. The key point was that he looked very skilled at it and it was obviously not the first time he had done this.

He is so familiar with his old enemy's natal sword that even the devil's aura that counteracts the spirit and the devil can be absorbed by Fellow Daoist Xie's natal sword and used at will. What this means is self-evident.

One side of the sword shadow was clear and pure, while the other side was dark and demonic. They rotated in tacit understanding and formed an impenetrable cage, trapping the fish-headed octopus tightly. Even if more sword shadows were smashed, Ning Chen could continue to make up for it.

It is unknown how long this strange combination of creatures has survived here, and its strength level is unknown, but it is roughly estimated. Ning Chen and Xie Tingyun teamed up to trap it for half an hour. During this time, Ning Chen continued to condense sword shadows to continue attacking its vital points. The whole team was almost turned into zombies after being soaked in the water of the Samsara River, and only then did they see some signs of the fish-headed octopus becoming listless.

The tentacles that floated around rose and fell with the water flow, and the strange protruding spines on them appeared and disappeared, as if they were consciously approaching the living person.

Suddenly, several hurricanes arose on the water surface, rolling in waves from far away. The thorn tentacles around everyone began to roll unsteadily. No one dared to use the spiritual power barrier around them to test whether it could block these poisonous thorns.

They were not at all good at dealing with live fish-headed octopuses, but it was much easier to deal with some lifeless tentacles that had fallen off an octopus.

The monks used weapons where they had them, and spiritual power where they didn't, using every bit they had to try their best to destroy the thorny octopus legs in front of them.

The spiritual energy exploded, the sword energy cut off, and shattered into almost invisible pieces, which were then washed away by the flowing water.

Ning Chen rinsed himself several times until he could no longer smell the stench. His frown finally relaxed. Then he saw the thorny octopus legs gathering more and more beside him, and for some reason his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

Xie Tingyun did not have Chengfeng in his hand, but because of Ning Shen's help in the sword formation, Xie Tingyun's pressure was greatly reduced.

Xie Tingyun couldn't turn around to see the situation behind him, but he couldn't help but sigh when he heard the little brats screaming in fear while throwing spirit balls at the fish heads and the broken tentacles of the octopus.

The cultivators from other sects who were able to stay here had all seen the world. Even if they were a little panicked when faced with such a scene, at least they would not be like the fellow disciples brought out by Xie Tingyun.

The guys from Liuyun Sect were the loudest!

Xie Tingyun's spiritual power spread silently, slowly drawing the broken-armed octopus feet around the crowd to his own hands, intending to gather them all together and destroy them.

The next moment, Xie Tingyun heard a deep and sharp voice behind him saying, "Xie Tingyun!"

Ning Chen didn't even call him Xie Shengzi as he usually did. He rarely called Xie Tingyun's name in such a tone.

Without thinking, Xie Tingyun pushed away the broken tentacles that had gathered together. Almost in an instant, the broken tentacles came to life. Even those that were chopped into pieces turned into new tentacles, which grew and expanded rapidly, covering half of the sky and almost completely covering Xie Tingyun.

The next moment, the chaotically growing group of thorny tentacles suddenly swallowed Xie Tingyun.

The monk behind Xie Tingyun suddenly changed color: "Xie Daoyou!"

"Senior Brother!!"

The leader, Xie Tingyun, was completely dragged into the water. The entire team was swaying and about to fall, and began to panic as if they had lost their direction.

The Yuan Infant cultivator behind Xie Tingyun tried to calm the entire team: "Everyone calm down first. Fellow Daoist Xie is in the Mahayana stage, so he won't get into trouble easily. We can't mess up and cause trouble for him!"

However, as the water surface gradually calmed down, a bloody mist gradually spread over it.

The eyes of the junior brothers and sisters of Liuyun Sect turned red, and they broke away from the team without caring about anything. They wanted to go down to find Xie Tingyun, but they were suddenly hit by a strong force from behind, and all the scattered disciples were beaten back.

"Go back," Ning Chen said in a low voice, "If we don't want your senior brother to be injured and still have to rescue you, then just stay here and don't cause any trouble."

The surging demonic energy connected to Ning Chen from deep beneath the water. He stared at the spreading blood mist, as if trying to locate it.

Ning Chen glanced gloomily at the fish-headed octopus above that was trapped in the sword formation and was being consumed continuously. He saw the swollen and turbid fish beads flashing with a vicious light.

This dead fish thing was dodgy. Its tentacles were all covered with sharp, pale spines, some of which were almost half the length of an adult's arm, not to mention the countless surging tentacles surrounding Xie Tingyun.

Ning Chen said without turning his head, "That Li what, watch out and don't let them turn back. Whoever wants to turn back should get out on their own and don't drag others to their deaths."

Having said that, Ning Shen held his breath and sank silently to the bottom of the water.

Before sinking, Ning Chen glanced at the river bank and saw the mark made by Xie Tingyun on the shore not far ahead.

They were clearly swimming forward at first, but before they knew it they had returned to the distant point.

It seems that the Samsara River has already gone through a cycle.

I sank deeper into the river with my mind focused, and stayed there for so long that I lost consciousness.

The light became dimmer as they went down, but Ning Chen still found a huge ball of flesh formed by the tentacles of an octopus with almost no effort.

The evil energy linked to the inside of the meat ball from Ning Chen's body. Ning Chen's dark red eyes narrowed, and a half-person-high silver gun suddenly appeared in his hand.

Ning Chen held his breath first, then kicked hard, causing the entire ball of octopus tentacles to tremble.

That kick of Ning Chen was completely intended to vent his anger, so he didn't hold back at all and kicked with all his strength.

The spikes on it were broken by Ning Chen's kick and could not hurt him at all.

Then Ning Chen seized the opportunity and directly inserted the silver gun in his hand into the narrow gap that had just been kicked open.

A piece of blood-stained white clothing flashed through the gap, so quietly that it seemed as if there was no sound.

Ning Chen was extremely angry, with a flash of anger in his eyes.

He was the kind of person who would not bear to hurt anyone even in any fight, but he was actually being abused by such an ugly thing.

Damn the ugly thing!

Ning Chen found the right angle and poked the tentacles hard, bringing out a large pool of sticky black blood. He poked and kicked at the same time, almost tearing the entire bottom to pieces.

Even so, the tentacles still refused to relax.

The entire bottom of the meat ball was in a state of disrepair and was loose, just enough for an adult to pass through. So Ning Chen was planning to drill in from the bottom to rescue the person, but he saw a bloody white figure sinking silently from the bottom and happened to meet Ning Chen face to face.

Ning subconsciously opened his arms, and Xie Tingyun fell right into his arms.

A look of surprise flashed across Xie Tingyun's face, as if he was at a loss.

He didn't care about his posture at the moment, but hastily raised his hand to cover his gloomy eyes. The next moment, he saw the tentacles and claws behind him that were trying to catch up were suddenly filled with bright light, and then the whole meat ball suddenly exploded.

The huge impact force pushed the two people apart. Ning Chen reacted quickly and raised his hand to hold Xie Tingyun's waist, then turned over suddenly to block the remaining aftermath.