Chapter 9
"Ancestor Teng Yan?!"
How could it be him? Shouldn't this old demon be in seclusion at the foot of the Withered Blood Cliff, striving for the middle stage of the Spiritual Transformation Realm? How could he appear in a small place like Yunni Town decades in advance?
To what extent has the original plot collapsed in places unknown to her?
Thinking of this, Lin Yibai's heart was filled with fear, and a biting chill rose from the soles of his feet and rushed straight to the top of his head.
The Patriarch of the Tengyan Sect, a giant of the evil ways and one of the only eight remaining Divine Transformation masters in the Three Thousand Continents, is a strange being formed from the fusion of a thousand-year-old demonic vine and the remnant soul of a fallen demon cultivator. His uncanny skills allow him to manipulate the demonic plant to devour the essence and blood of living beings, using methods that are extremely cruel.
In the original novel, this beast was a formidable foe that Yan Bujian encountered during his mid-to-late cultivation and travels through Central Continent. He had never appeared in the early stages of the story! Why did she encounter him so early on, and even bring her along?
Now that they have fallen into the hands of this devil, do they still have a chance to survive?
She looked around in panic. The black fog had cleared, revealing a deep, eerie forest. Towering trees blocked out the sun, their branches an ominous dark green. The air was thick with the pungent smell of rotting earth and blood. The ground beneath her feet was slippery and sticky, covered in thick moss, as if she had stepped into some cursed, ancient woodland.
Where is this...?
Upon hearing this, the withered old man known as Patriarch Tengyan flashed a hint of surprise in his cloudy green eyes, and then he let out a strange laugh like sandpaper rubbing against each other. "You actually recognize my name. You are quite an experienced girl. I believe you come from a noble family. Are you the treasure of some great sect?"
Lin Yibai steeled himself, suppressing his fear and adopting the arrogant demeanor of a young sect leader. "Since you know I'm a distinguished young lady, why don't you just let us go? If you dare to hurt me in the slightest, my father will mobilize the entire sect to crush you to ashes!"
She tried to bluff, but the demon wasn't afraid at all. Instead, he let out a hoarse laugh. "Hahaha, in this vast land of Yunzhou, if my cultivation is second to none, no one dares to claim first place. Let me see which sect you come from to speak so arrogantly!"
Before he finished speaking, he flicked his dry finger: a pitch-black and sharp vine like a poisonous snake's tongue instantly shot out from his fingertips, so fast that only an afterimage was left, and it pierced straight into Lin Yibai's snow-white neck!
Seeing this, Yan Bujian's eyes suddenly narrowed, the shackles made a slight sound, and his body moved slightly subconsciously, but he hesitated for a moment and did not move.
"Ugh!"
Lin Yibai only felt a pain in her neck. The sharp thorns of the vine had penetrated into her skin and began to suck greedily!
The next second, a swollen bubble appeared on the body and quickly moved towards the ancestor's fingertips, transferring the bright red blood bead into his body.
As the blood entered his body, a look of satisfaction appeared on the old ancestor's face. He smacked his lips, savoring the taste carefully. A hint of deep meaning flashed in his cloudy eyes: "The aura of the 'Ember Heaven Art'... actually belongs to someone from the Bo Deng Sect. Haha, I never thought, never thought. If you think about it, you girl and I do have some connection."
He licked his dry lips, his green eyes examining Lin Yibai's pain-pale face with great interest. "A hundred years ago, it was thanks to your father, Lin Wuya's 'Ember Heaven Art' that I was able to slaughter all three thousand troublesome sword cultivators on Bufan Mountain in one fell swoop. You look somewhat like Lin Wuya—you must be his precious daughter, right?"
As he finished speaking, the vines suddenly retreated. Lin Yibai covered his neck and stepped back repeatedly, tears welling up in pain, unable to speak for a moment.
Patriarch Teng Yan stared at her, the greed in his eyes almost tangible. "I never thought Lin Wuya would be born with a profound Yin body—a precious blood medicinal ingredient naturally nurtured by nature! What a brilliant idea! I will definitely make good use of it and will not waste a single drop of my 'old friend's' blood!"
"Oh, and you..."
As soon as he changed the subject, his creepy gaze slowly turned to the silent Yan Bujian. His eyes were like substance, moving over the boy's naked and strong upper body, full of undisguised covetousness and fanaticism.
"Born with sword bones..." The old ancestor's voice grew increasingly hoarse and unpleasant with excitement. "Sword bones are instruments for collecting naturally formed spiritual energy. It's said that even if someone possesses sword bones, spiritual energy will naturally gather on its own, allowing them to break through to the Nascent Soul stage naturally... In this world of spiritual energy depletion, this is truly a peerless bone that's hard to come by in a thousand years!"
His eyes were fixed on Yan Bujian, feeling the fluctuations of his cultivation at the peak of the Golden Core Realm, and then thinking about his own predicament of being trapped in the early stage of the Spirit Transformation Realm for three hundred years. Rampant jealousy instantly overwhelmed his rationality, and his eyes turned a terrifying blood red.
"You, kid, have such a high level of cultivation at such a young age. It must be all due to your natural sword bones. I didn't expect the rumors to be true..."
As the extremely jealous words fell, a crazy and perfect plan had already taken shape in his mind -
He would use the precious blood of the Zhiyin Xuan Body as a guide to forcibly temper and peel off this perfect natural sword bone, and then... replace the bone into his own decaying body!
By then, when yin and yang will merge, it will be a foregone conclusion that I will break through to the Return to Void state. Who knows... I may even be able to get a glimpse of the ethereal immortal secrets and become the only person who has attained enlightenment in this world's Dharma-Ending Age!
"God helps me! God really helps me!" The more Old Ancestor Teng Yan thought about it, the more excited he became, and he couldn't help but burst into crazy laughter.
Amidst his wild laughter, a dark green vine that was several times thicker than before and covered with disgusting mucus swooshed out from his sleeve like a giant python, and first rolled towards the frightened Lin Yibai, easily wrapping her around the waist and lifting her into the air!
Afterwards, he continued to shoot fiercely at Yan Bujian without stopping, intending to capture him as well!
However, just when the slimy vines were about to touch Yan Bujian's body—
The young man, who had been bound by shackles and seemed unable to resist, suddenly looked up - there was no panic in his cold eyes, only icy calmness and sharpness.
I saw that the bound right hand pointed like a sword, and the fingertips suddenly burst out with a dazzling golden light. Then, a determined sword intent to cut off everything slashed down at the vines!
"laugh--!"
The golden sword light was as condensed as substance, and it was faster than visual capture, accurately cutting through the thick vine. The tough demon vine that was strong enough to strangle a Jindan cultivator at will was as fragile as thin paper in front of this sudden golden sword light, and was easily cut off!
"What?!" The hideous smile on Old Ancestor Teng Yan's face froze instantly.
The severed vines shrank back in pain, spurting out green juice. Lin Yibai, caught in mid-air, lost his support and fell to the ground with a thud, landing right behind Yan Bujian.
She covered her waist and abdomen which were in pain from being strangled, raised her head, and stared blankly at the scarred but still upright back of the young man in front of her, with disbelief written all over her face.
He... he could actually still attack?! And his power was so astonishing!
Just now in the black fog, she was obviously of low cultivation and completely defenseless, so why didn't he take the opportunity to take revenge on her?
After a brief moment of surprise, the jealousy in Elder Teng Yan's eyes became even more frantic, almost spitting fire: "Wow, what a congenital sword energy! It is worthy of being born with a sword bone. It is the sharpest sword embryo in the world. It has such power without being carved... What a pity, what a pity!" Although he said it twice, his hoarse and unpleasant voice was filled with a certain excitement of success. "It's a pity that you are young and your cultivation is shallow. You are guarding the treasure mountain but cannot make full use of it. If I give you another hundred years... No, just twenty years, even I am afraid I can't be your opponent!"
——But even with such extraordinary talent, he still became Teng Yan in the end. It makes people tremble with excitement just thinking about it!
"It should be so. Such a precious treasure should belong to me!"
As he finished speaking, the withered face of Old Ancestor Teng Yan was completely distorted by greed. He no longer held back and pressed his skinny hands forward suddenly!
Instantly, the overwhelming pressure of a Spiritual Transformation Stage cultivator descended upon them like a mountain! Countless terrifying vines, far thicker than before and covered in strange scales, erupted from his back, forming a terrifying web that suffocated the two with a suffocating stench.
Yan Bujian's pupils shrank, and the golden sword energy around him surged again. He tried to resist; however, in just a moment, the terrifying pressure completely suppressed the sword energy flowing around him!
Lin Yibai even found it extremely difficult to breathe, his mind went blank, and he could only watch helplessly as the giant net fell over them.
Just before her consciousness was completely devoured and sank into endless darkness, she used up her last bit of strength, turned her head with difficulty, and looked at Yan Bujian beside her.
The young man was covered in blood, his veins bulging. The remaining golden light flickered like a candle in the wind. Yet, in the final moment, as the demonic vines crashed down upon him, he gritted his teeth and held his back straight. His eyes, as dark as a cold pond, burned with an almost ferocious resentment and arrogance, as he withstood the devastating blow with an unyielding attitude.
Yet, how could he, at his current state, withstand the all-out attack of a Spiritualization cultivator? In a single instant, the faint golden light that protected him shattered like glass, annihilating piece by piece. She clearly saw, at the moment of the suffocating, terrifying power's complete impact, his Adam's apple rolled, he swallowed the muffled groan that rose to his lips, and finally, slowly and heavily, he closed his eyes...
*
Bo Deng Sect, Glazed Tower.
"Master, this is what happened. The Young Master was abducted by a mysterious demon cultivator at the port of Yunni Town. Elder Su Hong and Elder Shen Qing were unable to stop him even after working together. Elder Su Hong begs Master to decide whether to abandon the current mission immediately and concentrate on searching for the Young Master's whereabouts?" A black-robed disciple knelt on the ground, reporting the message he had just received in a trembling voice.
Lin Wuya, sitting high on the black jade throne, was enveloped in the dim blue candlelight and swirling black mist in the hall, his face obscure and unclear.
He was silent for a moment, tapping the armrest lightly with his fingertips. The sound was particularly clear in the silent hall.
After a long moment, he slowly spoke, "A demon cultivator in the Spiritual Transformation Stage...do you know who he is?"
Surprisingly, when he learned the news that his daughter had been kidnapped, he did not show any anger or anxiety, and his tone was calm and almost indifferent.
"Replying to the Sect Master, Elder Su said that the man's methods were concealed and he never revealed his own skills. I don't know who he is..."
"I don't know?" Lin Wuya paused slightly when knocking on the armrest.
The disciple shuddered at the sound, cold sweat rolling down his face: It's over, they are so incompetent, the Sect Master will definitely...
However, the expected wrath of thunder did not arrive. After a long moment, the man on the platform simply waved his hand and said in a cold voice, "Send a message to Su Hong and Shen Qing: their mission remains the same. Disregard this matter and continue to search for the young man in the fishing village. Don't make any mistakes."
The kneeling disciple suddenly looked up upon hearing this, his face filled with astonishment and disbelief: "Sect, Sect Master? That Young Sect Master..."
Lin Wuya's cold gaze swept over the disciple, who suddenly felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave. He trembled all over and quickly lowered his head, not daring to say anything more.
"Elder Hong... I'm sure she won't let this go." Lin Wuya pondered for a moment and said calmly, "Send a message to tell her that I've asked Elder Yu to come out of seclusion. Tell her not to worry and just focus on her mission."
"Yes... yes! I obey your command!" The disciple did not dare to raise any more objections. He kowtowed and accepted the order, then left the hall tremblingly.
In the empty and silent hall, Lin Wuya was the only one left again.
He slowly stood up from the throne and walked to the window.
A blood-red moon hung high outside the window, casting a strange light into the hall, just illuminating half of his face.
The face that was originally handsome like that of a young man was half exposed from the shadows under the light of the blood moon - a hideous and twisted smile was exposed, and the dark red in the eyes was as turbulent as boiling blood.
He looked at the blood moon and whispered to himself, his voice filled with a creepy fanaticism and paranoia:
"According to the time, the 'egg' should be here soon... This time, I won't fail again."
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