Chapter 50 Part 2

“Just bragging as expected.” Mu Qian Tan kept one hand behind her back, casually flicking more ice shards: “And that baby—don’t you feel ashamed? You ate at least a few hundred people before, yet you lost to a newborn child in the end.”

The ice shards were truly feeble—more provocation than attack. The yellow sparrow blocked them casually, ignoring the few that slipped through, and said speechlessly: “What are you doing? Can’t beat me so you’re just grossing me out? Sore loser, Immortal?”

Mu Qian Tan said: “Why won’t you answer?”

The yellow sparrow said: “Absurd. If I hadn’t wanted to ask those three questions, how would I have given her life? Without life beforehand, how could she have thoughts and resist me?”

“So in a way, I’m like another relative to that child….” It muttered to itself, striding this way as its tone sharpened: “But who told you all this? That woman?”

There was no one else in the cave. Besides that woman, who could tell these outsiders the past? The yellow sparrow growled lowly: “I never should have let her live so long.”

Mu Qian Tan kept tossing, flinging several at once: “Why did you spare her life?”

As the ice shards flew, the yellow sparrow dismissed them, no longer blocking—letting them pass through its body harmlessly. It drawled: “Why?”

Repeating lowly: “Why, indeed…. It’s been too long; I don’t remember anymore.”

After a moment’s silence, it suddenly shrieked: “Hot!”

It jumped away from the spot, rolled on the ground, then looked up to see the vessel it had eyed now spitting fire.

But how? From its observations, this girl needed to eat gold before spitting fire each time, yet her hands were trapped underground now—she couldn’t have eaten any!

In an instant, it spotted the issue.

Scattered before the girl was a pile of ice shards.

She swiftly turned her head toward the woman with a smile on her lips. It bristled with rage, its feathers exploding outward as it glared furiously.

This woman had deliberately brought up topics that interested it to stall for time, then used harmless ice shards to lower its guard. All so that, when it chose not to resist, she could wrap the golden pill in ice and feed it to the girl behind it!

The woman knew full well that feeding it directly would result in it intercepting the pill, leading to another fight with no room for mercy. So she had taken a different path, using this simple and effective method to send the golden pill right past its eyes!

Cunning… cunning!

It let out an enraged cry and charged forward for a decisive battle, but intense pain struck again!

Shang Shan spewed flames from her mouth. This time, they were no longer warm orange but tinged slightly blue, focused on blasting the patch of mud demon right in front of her. Under the intense heat, that black soil turned into porcelain in just a few breaths!

Seeing that blue-orange fire pillar, Mu Qian Tan thought to herself: ‘Here it comes, the original plot point—spiritual power flames unleashed when pushed to the brink.’

Li Biyuan said: ‘Yes, yes, yes! Oh, that’s great. It means even though the process was wrong, the result is still correct. Worth celebrating!’

The flames were spent, and the porcelain had formed. She needed to shatter it, but she couldn’t pull her hand free to use a weapon. Without hesitation, Shang Shan smashed her head into the ground. A dull thud echoed as cracks spread across it, piece by piece, until the whole thing shattered.

Her gaze was sharp as knives. With blood streaming nonstop from her head, she leaped out from the fragments and charged toward the yellow sparrow. At the same time, she reached for her waist, using both hands to stuff all the golden pills into her mouth and chew furiously.

This ferocious beast-like expression shocked the yellow sparrow to its core, instinctively filling it with fear. It subconsciously retreated. At that moment, a soft voice came from behind: “【Winter Solstice】.”

When had she circled behind it?!

An ice-blue magic array bloomed under its feet, while torrential flames crashed toward it from the front. Ice and fire collided, producing streaks of aurora-like lights, magnificent and mesmerizing. It didn’t even have time to scream before it was shattered into porcelain, frozen into ice, and scattered into countless fragments that danced across the icy surface.

In an instant, the tide turned, and victory was decided.

Shang Shan panted heavily, thinking it was over. She hurried to the woman and asked repeatedly: “Master, are you alright?”

She lowered her head, seemingly wanting to check the wound. Mu Qian Tan extended a finger and pushed her head away: “The yellow sparrow isn’t dead yet. Find its demon core first.”

Without destroying the demon core, it could still make a comeback.

Qin He and Fu Li also jumped out, but upon realizing who it was, they didn’t approach. They heard the words from afar and quietly began searching the ground.

Shang Shan’s mind was still on her. Upon hearing this, she knew what was more urgent and could only hold back. She turned and searched across the ice.

The yellow sparrow’s body had shattered into many pieces, all encased in ice. They had to stomp each one to check inside.

Searching like this, who knew how long it would take? And if they wasted time here, the demon core might slip away if it saw the chance.

Mu Qian Tan’s mind raced. She cast a minor spell to melt the ice at her wound, and blood immediately gushed out. Her face turned extremely pale, as if she were exhausted. She slumped to the ground and coughed up several mouthfuls of blood.

“Master!” Shang Shan dropped the ice chunk and ran back: “How are you? You…”

Mu Qian Tan said: “Don’t worry about me. Hurry and find the demon core, destroy it to stop it from absorbing more spiritual power. I can’t hold on much longer. If it comes back now, I won’t be able to protect you all.”

Her voice was extremely weak, as if she might faint the next second. Paired with her pallor and the blood pouring out, no one would doubt she was on the verge of collapse.

Shang Shan’s voice trembled: “Master…”

At that moment, a burst of “haha” laughter erupted from underground. A small round bead shot out from the forest soil, floating into the air in a mad frenzy: “Did you think I was dead? Disappointed, huh? How dare you lower your guard now? I heard that, haha!”

“I’m alive! I’m still alive! Not only alive—I’m going to tear you all apart and eat every last one of you!”

Mu Qian Tan said weakly: “Quick! It’s gone mad. Stop it from absorbing spiritual power!”

After saying this, she whispered something into Shang Shan’s ear. The girl was momentarily stunned, looked at her worriedly, then rushed off to handle it.

Beaten to this extent, the demon core had indeed gone insane. It laughed maniacally and truly began drawing in spiritual power from the natural world.

That vortex-like spiritual wind swirled toward it again. But this time, in its desperate rush to recover, it absorbed chaotically, too impatient to filter out small twigs, leaves, dust, and other debris.

They mixed into the spiritual wind and surged toward the demon core, as if trying to form another body.

Seeing this, Qin He and Fu Li hurled their weapons to stop it. They had just stepped out of the pool when they were suddenly yanked back.

Shang Shan signaled them not to go. She said something to Fu Li, took something from her, then turned back.

Mu Qian Tan still sat slumped on the ground. She pulled out the explosives she had gotten from the cave, injected them with spiritual power until they crumbled into ash, then spread her palm open. The light, floating drug ash drifted toward the demon core and was absorbed.

Shang Shan said: “Master, here.”

Mu Qian Tan took it—it was the igniter Fu Li had used in the cave.

She seemed to recover instantly. The weak facade vanished in a flash, replaced by a faintly smiling face. She stood up, clicked the igniter open with composure, and flicked it toward the demon core. This time, she infused it with spiritual power.

The moment the yellow sparrow saw her smile, it sensed something was wrong. But it couldn’t stop now, or all the spiritual power it had just absorbed would be wasted. Besides, it had revealed itself. Even if it stopped and fled immediately, it would be escaping right under their eyes—no chance of getting away.

So it gritted its nonexistent teeth and endured, refusing to stop. That tiny spark wouldn’t do anything to it. It just needed to quickly form a new body and kill these people—all of them!

Mu Qian Tan murmured: “Idiot, let me light another fire for you.”

The igniter finally reached the demon core, sinking into the layer of accumulated debris. Then, several shrill screams erupted from within. Dazzling golden light pierced through the enclosure, projecting beams outward.

The demon core realized it had been tricked again, but it was too late to turn back. In an unstoppable explosion, it shattered into a thousand pieces!

Before they could celebrate, the heavens and earth shook. The illusion before their eyes shattered in an instant, turning back into the mountain cave. The ground trembled violently, and cracking sounds echoed nonstop from above. Before they could react, the mountain collapsed.

Countless massive rock fragments rained down from the sky, as if carrying resentment to crush them all. Qin He and Fu Li led the way, blasting away the falling stones with spiritual power. Mu Qian Tan was firmly supported by Shang Shan, who wouldn’t let go no matter how she tried to shake her off. She had no choice but to let it be for now.

The four escaped from the mountain cave. The waterfall had vanished. They jumped into the pool, dodging debris, and swam frantically.

Perhaps sensing the mountain’s changes as a threat, the mantis demon had fled ahead of time and was no longer on the shore. The four climbed up, then looked back. The entire small mountain had collapsed into ruins, dust rising like smoke.

Out of danger at last, surrounded by the vibrant forest, they all breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed.

Shang Shan didn’t even glance that way. She frantically searched her body and pulled out a pill, handing it over: “Master, take this. It’ll stop the bleeding.”

Mu Qian Tan glanced down. It was the hemostatic life-saving pill Jiang Min had given her some time ago.

Another senior immortal had appraised it as genuine and usable. She took it without ceremony but didn’t swallow it right away. Instead, she frowned in thought.

Compared to the pain from her wound, something far more serious had just happened.

Her identity had been exposed!

She quietly sized up the two opposite her. Qin He and Fu Li’s clothes were torn in many places, their faces smudged with dirt and hair disheveled, looking utterly bedraggled. But their expressions were uniformly evasive, refusing to meet her gaze—complicated and obscure.

Mu Qian Tan gripped the pill tightly.

Silence them? Silence them? Silence them?

Shang Shan grew anxious, as if she were the one injured: “Hurry and take it, Master. You’re bleeding.”

Mu Qian Tan nearly crushed the pill but loosened her grip and popped it into her mouth. Then she smacked the girl on the head, trying to come up with an excuse.

“Useless thing, you can’t do anything right. If I hadn’t been watching from the side, how many lives would you have left? I knew you were unreliable, so I followed behind. But I never expected you’d be this incompetent.”

As her master, coming to monitor her disciple’s performance and provide some protection along the way should be fine, right?

And to make her fake identity believable, pretending to be weak made sense too!

Shang Shan clutched her head: “But… it was you who told us to go under the waterfall.”

Mu Qian Tan coughed a few times, swallowing the bloody taste in her throat, then smacked her again: “Talking back?”

Shang Shan said: “I’m not! I’m just telling the truth! And what do you mean I can’t do anything? You were scared of bugs, said your stomach hurt, and had nightmares. Didn’t I comfort you and even boil hot water for you?”

Memories too embarrassing to recall—Mu Qian Tan fell silent.

Maybe she should silence her after all!