Back at the foot of the mountain, the two of them had been separated by a veil of mist.
“The person’s gone—probably Mystic Master’s handiwork.”
Du Xuan pondered for a moment, her gaze turning toward the mountaintop.
“If I were him, I’d definitely lure the target up there… Could Mystic Master’s real goal be us?”
Seeing that Little Snake Demon was in danger, the Demon Subduing Division Lord took off without hesitation.
But without Snake Pupils, her Aura Viewing Technique was next to useless in this place. Du Xuan could only rely on her experience, feeling her way up the mountain one careful step at a time.
To guard against mishaps, she tore several talismans into fragments and scattered them along the path, marking an easy route for retreat.
She finally reached the graveyard, where she sensed a massive surge of evil energy from within. The Demon Subduing Division Lord didn’t dare charge right in.
Instead, she fell back to the side, biding her time for the right opening.
But then a commotion erupted from the graveyard. By the time she rushed over, she found a horde of skeletons locked in a chaotic brawl with one another.
She managed to snag one that wore armor and showed signs of intelligence. After a few quick questions, she learned to her shock that Little Snake Demon had beaten her up the mountain!
This girl… was she fearless or just plain foolish?!
With no time to lose, she pressed on relentlessly and arrived just in time…
“Uh…”
Yin Luan froze for a moment, then playfully stuck out her tongue a few breaths later.
“Ehehe!”
“Ehehe, my foot!”
Du Xuan was so furious she nearly dropped dead on the spot.
“Wahhh… I was worried the bad guys had grabbed you, so I… I came up the mountain. I’m sorry, I’m just too stupid…”
Little Snake Demon’s eyes brimmed with tears, her expression the perfect blend of adorable and pitiable.
She couldn’t usually summon tears that quickly, but the powder that had gotten in her eyes earlier worked wonders, crafting just the right heartbreaking look.
And the best part? The Demon Subduing Division Lord ate it up—hook, line, and sinker, every single time.
“Enough,” Du Xuan said, her anger deflating at the sight. “I know you meant well. I’m not really mad at you…”
Truth be told, at least half—no, two-thirds—of her frustration stemmed from worry that Little Snake Demon’s impulsiveness would land her right in the enemy’s trap.
Seeing the girl safe and sound eased that knot in her chest a little.
“So you’re the mastermind?”
Mystic Master had been listening to their exchange from a short distance away, making no move to interrupt.
“The incidents in Huai City and Earthstone City—they were your doing, weren’t they?” Du Xuan took the box from Little Snake Demon’s hands, flipped it open, and began pulling out its contents one by one. “What’s your endgame?”
Fate had forced an early clash with the enemy, so there was no choice but to fight.
“The Demon Subduing Division has its own unique Innate Cultivation Method,” Mystic Master replied. “They say it lets even those with poor talent grasp the ‘Qi’ of the Innate Realm. Color me intrigued.”
“If you’re so interested,” Du Xuan said coldly, gripping her Spiritual Longsword with both hands, “why not come visit the Demon Subduing Division as our guest?”
She shot forward like a streak of lightning, closing the distance in an instant. The blade in her hand gleamed with icy menace as it thrust straight for his vital points.
“That’s not much of an invitation.”
Mystic Master flicked his Fly Whisk, parrying the sword with ease. The rebounding force sent Du Xuan staggering back several steps.
He was an Innate Expert too.
Qi enveloped the whisk in his hand, letting him neutralize her power with softness, holding his ground without falter.
Du Xuan unleashed a flurry of slashes, her sword winds fierce enough to split mountains and shatter stone—yet she still couldn’t pierce his defenses.
“Force-Breaking Talisman!”
The Demon Subduing Division Lord fished a golden talisman from her bosom and slapped it onto the blade. The sword erupted in brilliant golden light.
Boom!
Her strike cleaved the ground in two, the sheer force rattling the nearby house and sending earthen jars wobbling left and right.
“Impressive power from a mere trinket,” Mystic Master remarked. “No wonder the Demon Subduing Division has made a name for itself.”
Against the talisman-empowered sword, he abandoned hard blocks in favor of evasion, slipping past every assault with blinding speed.
Even Little Snake, witnessing a clash between Innate Experts for the first time, could see that Du Xuan was at a clear disadvantage.
She had a knack for handling Evil Spirits, but when it came to fighting people, her edge dulled considerably.
“That’s enough,” Mystic Master said coolly, repelling Du Xuan with a sweep of his Fly Whisk. “With these two special specimens in hand, there’s nothing left in East County worth collecting.”
Buzzzzz!
A deafening buzz, ten times louder than before, rose from every bottle and jar. Clouds of black smoke billowed out, swiftly coalescing into a colossal, humanoid abomination.
“Qi-Inducing Technique,” Du Xuan said grimly. “So the Huai City Living Corpses picked up that trick from you?”
“Doesn’t your Demon Subduing Division have something similar?” Mystic Master chuckled. “Why not use it? Haven’t learned how?”
“You…!”
Du Xuan gritted her teeth.
He was right. She truly hadn’t mastered it yet… This was a relatively complex and profound Innate technique. Even among the senior brothers and sisters in the Demon Subduing Division who were a full decade older than her, plenty hadn’t learned it either.
The Black Smoke Giant towered almost five Mystic Masters high. With just a few strides, it closed in on the two women and brought its foot crashing down.
Bang!
Stones flew in every direction. The sheer force was several times greater than that of the longsword empowered by the Force-Breaking Talisman.
If that foot had landed on a person, there likely wouldn’t even be a full corpse left to bury.
“Retreat,” Du Xuan whispered as she reached Yin Luan’s side. “I can’t beat him.”
She had come to the mountaintop to save people.
Throwing her life away in a show of bravado was the height of foolishness, something hammered home in the very first lesson of the Demon Subduing Division’s training for new recruits.
“Got it.”
The Little Snake Demon had no objections.
“Finding you two perfect specimens wasn’t easy,” the Mystic Master said. He flicked his fly whisk, sending a veil of white mist billowing over them and sealing off their escape route. “What’s the matter? Not willing to come be my guests?”
“Hmph!”
Du Xuan whipped out a crimson Blood Talisman and hurled it straight at him without another word.
“Explode!”
The Blood Talisman burst apart in midair, unleashing a barrage of lightning bolts that streaked toward the Mystic Master.
This was the real deal—genuine thunder power. Even an Innate Expert shielded by their Qi would be gravely wounded, if not outright killed.
Sizzle—
But the Black Smoke Giant moved first, interposing itself in front of its master. It sacrificed half its body to absorb and nullify the talisman’s assault.
“That Blood Talisman packs a punch!”
Yin Luan gasped in astonishment.
Even judging solely by its aura, the Black Smoke Giant outclassed the Huai City Living Corpses by miles—yet a single talisman had cost it half its life.
Du Xuan’s heart sank.
One Blood Talisman, and the thing was still kicking…
That left her with just one final trump card from her master. This was far from good news.
“Into the mist.”
Dragging out the fight would only exhaust their options, making escape impossible. Their only choice was to take a gamble: plunge through the white fog and break free of Chaotic Grave Mountain’s bounds.
“Heh heh.”
The Mystic Master chuckled darkly. He drew a pottery jar from his sleeve and stowed the battered remnants of the Black Smoke Giant inside.
“Then I’ll indulge you a little longer.”
Visibility in the fog extended no farther than five meters.
Du Xuan clasped Yin Luan’s wrist, eyes scanning their surroundings warily.
“Um,” the Little Snake Demon said shyly, “my parents always said that before an engagement, I shouldn’t hold hands with men…”
“If you don’t want me to go down there and apologize to your parents in person,” the Demon Subduing Division Lord shot her a withering glance, released her wrist, and instead laced their fingers together tightly. “Then quit making trouble.”
She drew a deep breath, her words deliberate and resolute.
“I will get you safely down this mountain!”
