Chapter 50 Part 1

Her body’s center of gravity had already focused on the wound. Mu Qian Tan clenched her teeth tightly, barely supporting herself, when she suddenly heard this earth-shattering scream. Her eyes widened slightly.

The mouthful of blood she had been holding back in her throat finally couldn’t be contained. She coughed it out violently.

Shang Shan struggled even more fiercely, her lips trembling. She had clearly panicked: “Master! Master!”

The sound of her amplified heartbeat, spurred by anger and other emotions, boomed in her ears. Mu Qian Tan gripped the black blade embedded in her abdomen, a blue vein throbbing at her temple. She quickly raised her head and gave that brainless idiot dragon a cold look.

Compared to demon exorcism, she wanted to kill someone right now even more.

She swung her sword and severed the black blade, moving so fast that it dragged out sword shadows. Once free from the pierced state, Mu Qian Tan leaped backward and flipped to land on her feet.

She lifted her hand and glanced at the wound. It was on her left abdomen. Fortunately, it had avoided her spine, so she wouldn’t temporarily lose mobility, but it must have pierced some organ or blood vessel. Blood gushed out nonstop, draining the color from her face in the blink of an eye.

Her deep black dress made it hard to see the bloodstains, but the warm, sticky, wet sensation told her where the blood was flowing. Her brows furrowed slightly as she realized the situation wasn’t optimistic.

A tremor came from underfoot. Many ice shards on the ice surface jumped. The shadow demon seemed about to burst out!

With no time to treat the wound, Mu Qian Tan’s eyes turned icy in an instant. She pressed her right palm to the wound on her front abdomen and her left hand to her lower back, simultaneously activating the Frost Ice Technique to freeze the gushing blood along with the wound itself.

The bleeding stopped.

She closed her eyes briefly, moved her slightly trembling hands away, and summoned White Pupil. Swelling white feathers flew out from the back of her neck, condensing into a massive, elegant ice crane amid a long crane cry, with a patch of red on its head as brilliant as blood.

Mu Qian Tan jumped onto the crane’s back, wiped the blood from her lips, and pointed at Shang Shan as she urged the crane into flight.

Although she said nothing and showed no extra expression, it was a gesture any junior could instantly understand—and one that was utterly terrifying.

Wait until we get home, then I’ll settle accounts with you.

As White Pupil’s claws left the ice surface, it stirred up a whirlwind. Several black hands broke through the ice layer, trying to grab the immortal crane, but they were sliced off by sword qi.

The black hands retracted abruptly. A sharp cracking sound came from under the ice, followed by a massive black ball exploding through the surface. Ice crystals scattered everywhere, refracting sunlight to form a narrow, arched rainbow.

Amid it all, the massive black ball smashed toward the crane like a cannonball. Mu Qian Tan grabbed the crane’s neck and flipped rightward with it to dodge swiftly.

The black ball missed. In midair, it reshaped into the form of a yellow sparrow, cackling from its mouth as it confronted the crane.

On the other side, Shang Shan still struggled relentlessly, but her body sank deeper and deeper, making escape impossible.

The two beside her had recovered from their initial shock. They had suspected the person was using a false identity, but they absolutely never imagined it would be Yao’e Immortal.

The result was strange yet not strange. Though they didn’t understand why she did it, thinking back to her tone and certain detailed mannerisms over the past two days, aside from deliberate disguise, most of the time it matched Yao’e Immortal’s usual style perfectly. It would have been strange not to connect the dots sooner.

It felt like a heap of words bottled up, unable to be spoken or vented, turning into an indescribable bitterness clogging her chest. Qin He’s expression grew extremely complex as she turned her face away, no longer watching the battlefield.

Fu Li, meanwhile, uncontrollably recalled the scene of kneeling in the cave. If it had just been a stranger, she could have convinced herself they wouldn’t meet again anyway—like, even if she lost and it was embarrassing, so be it.

But now, she really couldn’t hold back. Her five viscera and six bowels twisted from this belated embarrassment, turning into a hidden fury that burned fiercely.

This was Yao’e Immortal! The Yao’e who had mocked and lectured her!

She couldn’t even count how many times she had been bested in front of that woman—every time like this. She roared inwardly: Why is it always like this? Why?!

Shang Shan didn’t notice the two’s swirling thoughts. Her pupils dilated and contracted from that spot of red, her gaze flashing like lightning as she relentlessly tracked the two large birds clashing in the air, observing every detail.

It could split at will, transform freely. Though made of shadow, it wasn’t illusory—it could hit people and even absorb spiritual power to grow stronger. It was practically invincible.

But in the world, all things had their counters—this was an unchanging truth. It only seemed invincible because they hadn’t found the breakthrough yet. No one could truly have no weaknesses!

The fog in her mind cleared. Shang Shan began combing through the shadow demon’s origins from the start.

The yellow sparrow smashed dead by the falling boulder, its blood spilling out and soaking the rainwater, soil, and the mountain shadow on the mud. A patch of shadow escaped, then reshaped into a yellow sparrow, wreaking havoc on the villages below the mountain.

Intuition told her something was off. She looped the process in her mind repeatedly until it suddenly halted at one point.

That Shadowless Land!

The shadow demon was a shadow, born in places without light, living off darkness. At first, it had no demon core, so its weakness had to be the opposite of its birth: sunlight.

The villagers had seen this from the start, so their search for the weakness was accurate, and their actions swift. In just a few days, they chopped trees to create a Shadowless Land with scant shadows and easy mobility.

But unexpectedly, though they chose a sunny day to strike, once the shadow demon appeared, it wasn’t affected by the sunlight at all—not even slowed slightly.

Fortunately, the crowd was brave and fearless, still suppressing the yellow sparrow. If not for its cunning trick of faking a child’s cry to distract the last brave soul, it would have been killed long ago.

This showed that back then, it couldn’t even match mortal strength—it was so weak. If it truly feared sunlight, it couldn’t have been unaffected.

But why, exactly, was it unafraid?

As her thoughts deadlocked, she boldly guessed: maybe it wasn’t a shadow demon at all!

Shang Shan looked down at the black patch trapping the three of them. Like water, it rippled with waves—supposedly soft, yet exerting an unexpected squeezing pressure, just like…

Just like a swamp.

A spark of insight flashed in her mind.

This wasn’t shadow at all—it was black mud!

Rainwater washed the great mountain, dissolving the hard mud clinging to the rocks on the cliff face, causing the stones to fall and smash the yellow sparrow.

The black mud on the stone, tainted by the sparrow demon’s blood and the resentment of its unexpected death, fused with the sparrow soul unwilling to depart so easily, birthing new life that flowed from the corpse downstream. It looked just like a shadow, and later became the mountain, leading to the long misunderstanding!

No wonder every time Shang Shan spat fire, it dodged nimbly, but faced poison gas and normal attacks fearlessly, charging straight in.

It was a lump of soft mud—impervious to poison, unkillable by hacking. With demonic power, it could resist nearly all damage, but if baked by fire long enough, it would turn to ceramic. Its hardness and strength would weaken greatly, and it could no longer change shape freely to evade!

This was the true weakness!

Having discovered this, Shang Shan felt enlightened and wanted to spit fire, but her hands were trapped below. She couldn’t pull them out, so she couldn’t swallow gold. She could only shout to the not-too-distant figure: “It’s a mud demon! It’s afraid of fire!”

Her shout cracked at the end, but Mu Qian Tan naturally didn’t miss it.

With a brief recollection, she instantly understood. Burn the mud to porcelain, and victory would be theirs.

But her spells were ice-based; she couldn’t create high temperatures. She pondered deeper: since burning it to porcelain weakened its mobility and allowed it to be shattered, extreme low temperature could achieve the same!

The yellow sparrow’s disguise pierced, its playful mood shattered instantly. It shrieked harshly, wanting to silence everyone at once.

Mu Qian Tan acted a step ahead, using herself and it as the two points on the circular edge to activate the Spirit-Breaking Array: “【Winter Solstice】.”

The smaller the array, the more concentrated its power. In moments, one person and one demon were enveloped in goose feather snow, the temperature plummeting like midwinter.

A snowflake mark flickered at her brow. Mu Qian Tan urged the array to keep cooling. As the caster, she was unaffected, but the yellow sparrow clearly couldn’t endure. Its movements slowed greatly. Its surface still surged, trying to escape, but in the next instant, a thick ice shell covered it.

At that moment, it mustered its last strength to raise several pairs of black hands, as if surrendering. But laughter leaked from its throat.

Mu Qian Tan felt a flash of doubt, then reacted immediately. She looked past its surrendering black hands to the rear and saw the three still trapped underground. The mud demon had clearly tightened its grip—they all struggled to breathe, their faces turning blue, in dire peril.

The yellow sparrow waved its hands: “I was wrong, I really was wrong. Spare my life, Immortal!”

This array could instantly bring winter solstice to the area, dealing no small damage, so Mu Qian Tan had limited its range nearby without enclosing the three.

But the yellow sparrow reacted swiftly, using them directly as hostages to force her hand indirectly!

No choice—Mu Qian Tan temporarily withdrew the array. The temperature rose slowly, the ice and snow melting. The yellow sparrow writhed, shattering the ice shell on its surface and shedding piles of ice shards.

It retreated to create distance, reshaping into sparrow demon form, warily eyeing the woman.

Such spiritual array spells consumed spiritual power immensely. Suddenly casting and retracting it left Mu Qian Tan’s lips pale, her figure swaying slightly. White Pupil lightly nudged her back with its head, steadying her.

The yellow sparrow saw she was weakened. Its shrill cackle turned to full laughter, as if victory was assured with hostages in hand. Ignoring the woman, it spun around the three.

It patted this one, eyed that one, muttering: “All so good, ah…. This one! I want this one!”

It stopped before Shang Shan, extended two hands, and clapped excitedly: “Excellent! Excellent! What a fine vessel!”

Shang Shan stared deathly at it, bloodshot veins spreading from her eyes’ corners. She struggled with all her might, even her skin touching the mud demon showing blood lines from overexertion, on the verge of tearing.

The yellow sparrow said discontentedly: “Don’t move. I want your body—don’t damage it.”

Seeing this, Mu Qian Tan recalled how, in the illusion, the yellow sparrow had kept trying to find a good new vessel afterward.

To achieve its goal, it had tried every species, all failures, but it never gave up. The last time, it targeted a baby, only to suffer severe backlash.

Why such obsession with a new body?

A little thought made it clear. After all, it had originally been a living sparrow demon, only to meet utter misfortune getting smashed dead and turning into filthy mud. For it, that reality must be hard to accept.

Mu Qian Tan had it figured. She slightly raised her gaze, picked up a few ice shards and held them in her palm, then spoke: “Her blood is hotter than that baby’s. If you try to take it, aren’t you afraid of getting burned again?”

After the first sentence, she flicked out an ice shard with her fingers—no spiritual power or artifact, just hand strength.

Thus, the ice shard didn’t fly far, posing no threat. The yellow sparrow swatted it away casually and said coldly: “Things are different now. Over these years, I’ve eaten so many people and beasts just for this moment. No matter how hot this little one’s blood is, I can guarantee I’ll swallow it!”