Chapter 376: Senior Brother, A Meeting Gift
Whoosh…
All sounds are hushed. In the snow forest, only the cold wind brushes the branches, and light snow flies.
On the branches of a pine tree, a round snow eagle, its eyes flashing with a faint glow, stared intently at the snow on the ground in the forest. Sounds of searching for prey emerged from its beak:
Coo… coo…
Suddenly, the accumulated snow under the tree exploded.
Boom—
A head with festering skin stretched out from underground, scaring the snow eagle into leaping into the air.
“Cough, cough…”
The man who crawled out from underground, having taken that Heavenly Thunder spell, was already inhuman. As he stood up, his flesh and blood seemed to drip down like sticky liquid.
Gritting his teeth, the man used spiritual energy to retrieve a pill from his storage bag and pop it into his mouth. He then sat cross-legged on the ground, beginning to cultivate and heal.
“Why are there three cultivators from the Xuan Xing Sect here?… I need to bring the news back…”
Just then, a hawk’s cry suddenly echoed through the quiet forest:
Ying—!
The hawk’s cry spread from above. He immediately looked up, but saw only a fiery red speck circling above his head against the ominous, cloud-filled sky.
“…A divine bird?”
Immediately after, a creaking sound of treading snow drew the man’s gaze back to the forest.
In the dim snow forest, a youth wearing a bamboo hat, not tall in stature, wielding a Xuan Bing Spirit Sword, slowly emerged.
Ye Anping slightly raised his hand to shield his hat, glanced at the man, and seeing that the left half of his body was gone yet he was still alive, furrowed his brow slightly.
He had been waiting and observing on the sidelines when his junior sister and the others were attacking this person.
This Gu cultivator’s cultivation seemed to be only early Core Formation at first glance. After suffering the combined attack from his junior sisters just now, even with ten lives, he must have lost at least nine.
Yet, he still managed to escape from his junior sisters’ grasp.
He had already suspected that this was not his true body, and upon probing with his spiritual sense at close range, he confirmed this.
This man was a clone created by refining Gu worms and his own spiritual soul.
Ye Anping stopped about five zhang away, gripping the Snow Jade Myriad Spirit Sword, and asked,
“Soul Gu clone?”
Upon hearing this question, a flicker of surprise flashed in the man’s fly-like eyes. Dozens of compound eyes reflected Ye Anping’s figure.
“Hmph? To see through it at a glance, you are truly learned. May I know your esteemed name?”
Ye Anping did not answer. After a moment of silence, he spoke again, asking,
“Do you know a demonic cultivator named ‘Wu You’?”
“What?!”
“It seems you do. Then I roughly know who you are.” Ye Anping rotated the Snow Jade Myriad Spirit Sword in his right hand halfway. “Before your master died, he mentioned you to me. Do you want to know what he said?”
“You know him…”
“He said you were an incompetent piece of trash, Jiang Mojiao.”
As the words fell, the sword struck.
Ye Anping flickered and instantly appeared five zhang behind the man.
Thump—
Jiang Mojiao’s clone didn’t even have time to react as its head rolled off its shoulders.
The fly-like eyes in its furnace-shaped head stared intently at Ye Anping’s back, seemingly wanting to speak, but its vocal cords were not there, and it opened its mouth but made no sound.
“This sword is a meeting gift.”
Ye Anping put the Snow Jade Myriad Spirit Sword into his storage bag. The fire phoenix circling in the sky immediately swooped down, opened its beak, and spewed forth rolling miasma fire, igniting the clone’s entire body.
The hissing of insects instantly filled the forest, but in a short while, along with the miasma fire, it all turned to ashes and dissipated.
The fire phoenix circled above Ye Anping’s head for a moment before flying to the shoulder of Li Longling, who had emerged from the forest.
Li Longling looked at the remnants of the demonic cultivator, walked to Ye Anping’s side, and asked,
“Anping, you said that was a clone just now… but this clone is already at the Core Formation Stage…”
“Mm, the main body is at least early Nascent Soul…”
A troubled expression appeared on Ye Anping’s face. A Nascent Soul stage Gu cultivator; his junior sister and Feng Yu Die were currently facing him. Without the sword in his hand, it wouldn’t be easy to kill him.
Li Longling saw the hint of worry on his face and tilted her head, asking,
“Troublesome?”
“A little, but it’s fine…” Ye Anping came to his senses and said, “Let’s see what junior sister and the others plan to do…”
… …
————
At the same time, in a private room on the second floor of the Youren Pavilion inn.
“Waaahhhh—!”
Cries echoed through the room.
The three young girls rescued by Pei Lianxue were terrified. They hadn’t fully recovered from what happened outside. They hadn’t been crying before.
But after entering the room and Pei Lianxue lit a brazier, two of them, excluding Xu Xiyue, couldn’t help but sit by the bed and wail.
Pei Lianxue was also very frightened. She quickly went up and gently patted their backs, checking their pulses.
“What’s wrong? Does it hurt anywhere? Tell big sister…”
“Wuwu—wuah—Mother… wuah—!”
After all, they were two young girls only twelve or thirteen years old. They had seen blood today and encountered a demonic cultivator in the forest in the middle of the night. They likely wouldn’t dare to enter the forest again for a long time.
Pei Lianxue was completely clueless about comforting people. Seeing the two girls crying their hearts out, she was at a loss, a hint of embarrassment showing on her face.
“If it were Senior Brother… what would Senior Brother do… Ah…”
She looked at the two girls in a panic, recalling.
When she used to cry…
“Right…”
Muttering to herself, Pei Lianxue quickly hugged the two crying young girls, one in each arm, turning herself into a rocking chair, and rocking them.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry! If you cry again, I’ll throw you out.”
?
Although her tone was very flat, upon hearing this, the two young girls paused slightly and immediately cried even louder.
A hint of bewildered panic appeared on Pei Lianxue’s icy face.
She clearly remembered that when she used to cry, her Senior Brother would say this, and she would stop crying immediately. Why…
“…Ah?”
Xu Xiyue, standing nearby, watched the scene with a bit of speechlessness. She felt that this senior seemed a bit slow-witted. Taking a deep breath, she also quickly reached out and grabbed the two girls’ faces.
“…Stop crying! This is a senior at the Core Formation Stage. It’s very rude to behave like this!”
Pei Lianxue paused slightly upon hearing this and quickly shook her head.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, I don’t mind…”
“… …”
Xu Xiyue was stunned for a long time. She then frowned and stepped forward, grabbing the two girls’ ears and admonishing them with a frown.
“No crying.”
“But… but Sister Xu, my mother…”
“Your mother is fine. This senior will save her. Calm down! This senior has already driven away the demonic cultivator just now. No one will harm you.”
“Sniff—”
Hearing Xu Xiyue’s stern scolding, the two young girls seemed to finally calm down, their loud crying turning into sobs.
Pei Lianxue also pursed her lips into a smile, gently stroking their heads.
“Don’t worry, I’m here. No one can hurt you.”
“Mmm… sniff—”
The young girls looked at Pei Lianxue’s face, their small hands clutching her clothes tightly.
Sensing this, Pei Lianxue paused and immediately lay down on the bed with them in her arms.
“Rest well, Senior Sister will stay here with you~ Be good!”
Holding them like this for a while, the two girls, perhaps exhausted, fell asleep with their heads on Pei Lianxue’s shoulders.
Xu Xiyue watched from the bedside, quite surprised. It was her first time seeing a Core Formation cultivator comforting two Qi Refining stage young cultivators she didn’t know.
After hesitating for a moment, she also lowered her head and whispered an apology on behalf of the two girls.
“Senior, I apologize on their behalf.”
“It’s alright…” Pei Lianxue shook her head slightly, gently stroking their backs. She then looked around. Seeing that both her hands were occupied, she asked, “Do you want to lie on me?”
?
Xu Xiyue froze, not quite understanding her line of thought, and tilted her head.
“Ah? Senior…”
“Were you not scared?”
“I…”
“It’s really okay. If you feel scared, just lie on me. I’ll protect you.”
“… …”
Xu Xiyue pursed her lips, glancing at the two girls with a blush. Finally, she cautiously crawled over from the foot of the bed and slowly lay down on Pei Lianxue, hugging her.
Pei Lianxue nodded. With a slight turn of her wrist, she used spiritual energy to lift the bedding from under the bed and covered herself.
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid~ Rest assured, Senior Sister is here to protect you.”
With the three of them hugging her, after a while, the door of the private room was gently pushed open from the outside.
“Junior Sister Pei!! We…”
Feng Yu Die, carrying two women poisoned by Gu worms on her left and right shoulders, ran into the room with Xiao Yunluo. Seeing Pei Lianxue now being hugged by three young girls and lying in bed, they both froze.
“Junior Sister Pei, what are you doing?”
“They were scared…”
Feng Yu Die paused, lowering her head and saying,
“Junior Sister Pei, I was scared too.”
Xiao Yunluo, carrying the innkeeper’s wife, cast a cold glance at Feng Yu Die and directly interrupted,
“Lianxue, I’ve brought these three back. Subduing them took some effort. What do we do now?”
“Mmm…”
Pei Lianxue thought for a moment. Seeing that the three in her arms had fallen asleep, she carefully lifted them with spiritual energy, freeing herself from their embrace.
“Let’s go to another room. Second Fool, you guard them.”
“Ah? Junior Sister Pei, I’m scared…”
Before Feng Yu Die could agree, Pei Lianxue took the two women from her shoulders, leaving Feng Yu Die in the room, and directly led Xiao Yunluo to the adjacent room.
After placing the three women on the bed, Pei Lianxue followed the method her Senior Brother had taught her, channeling spiritual energy into her fingers and placing them on their backs.
Three Heart-Devouring Gu worms were directly forced out by her spiritual energy.
She asked Xiao Yunluo to fetch some wine. After washing the three wriggling centipedes in the water, she swallowed all three Gu worms without hesitation.
“Yunluo, listen for my call. Then point your finger at my back, at the spot I just pointed at on them.”
“Lianxue, are you alright doing this?”
“It’s fine, my Senior Brother did this before.”
Pei Lianxue took out a meditation cushion and sat on it. She immediately formed a sword finger, placing it at her chest, and released her spiritual energy along her meridians, simultaneously pouring her spiritual sense into the three Gu worms she had eaten.
Her spiritual sense, along with the souls within the Gu worms, directly followed a thread to a cave dwelling hundreds of miles away.
Countless white, floating insect eggs clung to the cave walls. Below, piles of unyellowed skulls connected by flesh and blood were accumulated.
A man in black sat in the center of the bones, meditating. Waves of killing aura gathered around him into strands of purple mist.
Pei Lianxue gritted her teeth, trying to discern the man’s face. At this moment, the man suddenly turned his head to look in her direction.
Seeing that she had been discovered, Pei Lianxue quickly shouted, “Yunluo!!”
Bang—
A burst of energy erupted from her back. Xiao Yunluo, with a sword finger, pressed upon the spot above her back. Pei Lianxue’s spiritual sense instantly returned to her body from miles away.
A mouthful of black blood, along with the three centipedes, spewed from her mouth onto the ground.
Pei Lianxue gritted her teeth slightly, raised her hand, and summoned her spirit sword from her storage bag. She used spiritual energy to control the sword and chop the three Gu worms on the ground, then used fire magic to burn their remnants.
“Yunluo, it’s a demonic cultivator at the Nascent Soul early stage, on a mountain to the north, about one hundred and seventy li away.”
… …
At the same time, within the cave.
Jiang Mojiao, who was sitting amongst the corpses, squinted at the sky above him. He had a feeling that someone had just sent their spiritual sense to spy on him.
However, this feeling was fleeting.
Before he could send out his spiritual sense to apprehend the person, the feeling disappeared.
Jiang Mojiao was silent for a moment, then slowly stood up, preparing to leave the cave dwelling to take a look.
But as soon as he stood up.
Swish—
A icy blue spiritual energy shot out from inside his neck, directly slicing through a spider Gu on the wall that was busy building its nest and laying eggs.
“Cough—”
Jiang Mojiao lost control of his body and fell to his knees. He clutched his throat, and a hint of shock flashed in his compound eyes.
Not only did someone destroy his Soul Gu clone, but they also injured his Nascent Soul on his main body.
As he pondered this, fragmented memories from the Gu clone began to surface in his mind.
A youth in white clothes and a bamboo hat, a spirit sword made entirely of profound ice, a fire phoenix, and a name – “Wu You.”
– “Do you know a demonic cultivator named ‘Wu You’?”
– “He said you were an incompetent piece of trash, Jiang Mojiao.”
– “This sword is a meeting gift.”
“Impossible!!”
The youth’s playful tone echoed in his mind.
Jiang Mojiao’s eyes widened, a primal fear arising within him. His hands trembled uncontrollably.
Following this were the clamorous hissing sounds of the Gu worms in the cave.
Kaka kaka—
But with Jiang Mojiao’s furious roar, the Gu worms’ cries instantly ceased.
“Be quiet!! You are my Gu now, not my master’s!!!”
The Gu worms let out bursts of dissatisfied chirps.
“Hiss, hiss, hiss— Kaka—”
“All of you, shut up!! He is already dead!!!”
Jiang Mojiao glared at a giant spider Gu on the ceiling and stomped and crushed a small spider.
“You are my slave Gu, not his! I am your master, I am!!”
The spider Gu hanging in the air had Jiang Mojiao’s figure reflected in its compound eyes, but no expression could be discerned.
It simply opened and closed its fangs slightly:
“Hiss—”
Then it turned away, ignoring him.
Seeing the spider Gu’s disdain, Jiang Mojiao trembled and began to bite his right thumb, muttering in near madness.
“No, no, no, I need help… help… help, help!”
His fangs broke his lips. Jiang Mojiao grasped his trembling right hand, took out a black jade slip from his storage bag, shattered it on the ground, and shouted with a trembling voice,
“Gu Poison Sect Grand Tutor, Jiang Mojiao, requests assistance in exterminating immortals!!”
… …
