Chapter 50

In a flash.

The moment he recklessly released his divine sense, the inner demons that had been suppressed for too long finally found an opening and rapidly spread through his sea of consciousness.

Endless, overlapping echoes drifted across his mental realm, tearing at his soul.

His face was taut, his eyes tightly shut.

He had clearly left a talisman of the furthest realms with Su Xue.

Yet whether in Zhaoshuai or Beiming, no matter what kind of crisis arose, Su Xue had never sought him out.

Amidst the pain, his divine sense swept in all directions, completely devoid of Su Xue’s aura.

Since that great demon could spirit someone away in complete silence after they parted, it could only mean the perpetrator was at the peak of the Tribulation Crossing stage.

If Su Xue truly was his senior brother, and if his senior brother’s strength was genuinely reduced to such an extent—

Xie Zhefeng did not hesitate to expand the range of his divine sense once more.

At that moment, Pei Qian and the others finally walked back against the wind current, calling out, "Daoist Xie? What are you doing? Are you using your divine sense to search?"

Those in the Tribulation Crossing stage were not like immortals of eternal life; they simply could not perceive what Xie Zhefeng was doing.

Qiao Yin hurriedly said, "The Twenty-Seventh City is vast; our divine sense is simply insufficient to cover it. After negotiating with Zhao Duan for so long, we still have no idea where he is. This matter must be discussed carefully..."

Xie Zhefeng acted as if he heard nothing.

"Wu-wu..."

Kunkun poked him with Chunhua from the side.

The spirit of the miasma beast gently enveloped his soul. Grasping Chunhua, Kunkun flew up before him and bit open the spirit pouch hanging at his waist.

A faint golden glow emanated from the pouch.

The power of the soul-nurturing tree essence, combined with the spirit of the miasma beast, instantly dragged back a shred of his rationality.

No.

It cannot go on like this.

The more urgent the situation, the more composed he must remain.

He slowly opened his eyes.

Xie Zhefeng tightened his pouch and looked at Pei Qian.

Pei Qian shivered under that gaze tainted with murderous intent: "X-Xie Daoist, I haven't cultivated demonic arts, have I? You shouldn't worry too much. Su Xue is at the late Greater Mastery stage after all; if he crossed paths with someone, there wouldn't be zero commotion. Perhaps he has a way to protect himself. We can first ask the cultivators of the City Lord's Mansion to search the entire city. We mustn't throw ourselves into chaos!"

"He is not in the city."

"Ah?" Pei Qian froze. "Our divine sense can't cover such a vast area, how can you be so sur—"

"Since the immortal cultivators of the Twenty-Seventh City have managed to hold out until now, there cannot be two great demons."

Xie Zhefeng interrupted Pei Qian.

His voice was hoarse, tinged with a faint trace of blood.

"Since it was the only great demon who took him away, it can only be the one who tampered with the sword array of the Twenty-Seventh City. This person is hiding in one of the array cores, and the place he occupies must be the location of the lost array core."

"You mean..."

"Find the array core."

"But it might take me a few days."

"Find it today," Xie Zhefeng said in a deep voice. "Do you truly take me for a fool who wouldn't see through your concealment of your peak Tribulation Crossing cultivation and array mastery?"

Pei Qian’s expression faltered, and he forced a laugh, "Are you joking?"

"Finding the array core within the day is the level of skill expected of you. If you cannot find it, I can only assume you harbor malicious intentions."

"Oh, then—"

"Then I will kill you."

Pei Qian: "???"

-

Outside the city, at Zhao Duan's immortal cave.

The mortals whom Zhao Duan had captured for his amusement had long since scattered and fled, with no one paying them any mind at all.

The several cauldron partners, being cultivators after all, huddled together in a corner, whispering to each other as they watched the trembling barrier.

"Which high-level immortal cultivator is this? Could something happen to Lord Zhao..."

"Where in the Twenty-Seventh City is there an immortal cultivator who can rival Lord Zhao? It must be some overestimating trash!"

"...Didn't you hear what Lord Zhao and that trash said just now? It's probably that Young Master Qiao from the City Lord's Mansion..."

Only the demonic cultivators left behind by Zhao Duan stared tremblingly at An Wuxue without daring to blink for even a second, terrified that some mishap might befall him.

This demonic cultivator had initially assumed that the delicate beauty before him was bound by Zhao Duan's spiritual power, meaning there was no need to worry about him escaping; all he had to do was keep watch.

Yet as he stared, he saw this seemingly harmless delicate beauty cross his hands and pinch a spiritual incantation, instantly gathering the sparse spiritual qi in the vicinity.

In an instant, the chains Zhao Duan had left on the delicate beauty were actually shattered!

"Y-You—!!"

In the back, those cauldron partners were all frozen in place, even their whispers coming to a complete halt.

An Wuxue let out a muffled grunt, thinking to himself that the late Greater Mastery stage still imposed certain constraints; even shattering spiritual chains left by someone at the peak of the Tribulation Crossing stage had nearly caused a backlash against his own body.

The moment he turned his head, that demonic cultivator immediately pulled out a magical artifact and blasted it toward him.

Spiritual power surged in his palm, blocking the opponent's offensive, while his divine sense condensed into a fine needle, piercing through the colliding spiritual power and stabbing straight into the demonic cultivator's glabella!

"Ah—!!!!"

Before the demonic cultivator's miserable scream could fade, An Wuxue manipulated his spiritual power to snatch the spiritual sword from the cultivator's hand.

That spiritual sword was tainted with turbid qi, so he simply treated it as a cold blade, turning the edge to slash at his opponent!

Another miserable scream rang out as blood spurted, splashing all over An Wuxue's plain white robes.

The demonic cultivator's right arm was severed, completely stripping him of any capacity to resist. An Wuxue pinched his palm and drew the man right before his eyes.

He asked indifferently, "Which room does Zhao Duan usually sleep in?"

He needed to check whether Zhao Duan possessed the book from Beiming that Yuan Zhou had mentioned.

The demonic cultivator's eyes widened in terror as he shook his head, "I—I—I don't know..."

As he spoke, as if trying to catch An Wuxue off guard and send a message to Zhao Duan, his only remaining hand moved behind his back to form a seal.

An Wuxue chuckled softly.

"Click—"

With a casual release of his hand, the demonic cultivator, whose neck he had just snapped, completely lost all vitality and tumbled to the ground.

He immediately bent down, his blood-stained hands resembling bamboo joints carved from blood jade, and pressed against the demonic cultivator's glabella.

Extracting the soul, An Wuxue searched it briefly and frowned—this minor demon genuinely did not know.

He turned his head again to look at the few cauldron partners huddled in the corner.

When he had made his move earlier, the turbulent spiritual power had surged past them, and with nowhere left to retreat behind them, they had nowhere to run, able only to huddle there, dumbstruck.

Those who attended to bedchambers... should surely know, right?

An Wuxue walked closer.

Those cauldron partners began to tremble uncontrollably.

These people had previously joined Zhao Duan in watching the forced dances and performances of the tortured mortals for amusement. All of them cultivated turbid qi and had turned demonic, and among them were perhaps even transformed monsters; none of them were innocent.

Unwilling to waste words on these demonic entities, he used his spiritual power to pull out the one on the very edge and asked, "Which room does Zhao Duan usually sleep in?"

The person hesitated for a moment, looking in terror at the violently trembling barrier, and at the fierce battle outside between Zhao Duan and the unknown Tribulation Crossing immortal cultivator, clearly pinning their hopes on Zhao Duan's immediate return.

Unwilling to waste time, An Wuxue flicked his fingers.

"Click—"

With his eyes wide open and filled with grievance in death, the person collapsed.

This time, before An Wuxue even started searching the soul, the remaining two cauldron partners hurriedly dropped to their knees, crawling to his feet and crying out in panic, "We know! We can lead the way for you... but, but can you spare our lives? We bear cauldron partnership seals, and Lord Zhao holds our lives in his hands..."

An Wuxue sighed.

His spiritual sword flew out, instantly piercing the chest of the one who had been pleading.

The expression of the very last person turned ashen, and finally daring not to utter another word, he cried out, "I'll lead the way for you!! I'll lead the way!"

Without waiting for An Wuxue to urge him, the man scrambled up with trembling limbs and ran ahead to guide the path.

Following closely behind at a brisk pace, An Wuxue killed every demonic cultivator he encountered.

Before long, looking up, he saw that the barrier formed by turbid qi had already shattered into a spiderweb-like pattern.

High in the sky, the commotion of the battle seemed to have vanished.

...Who had gained the upper hand?

"Sir, here, right here..."

The cauldron partner pointed toward a bedchamber.

Daring not to delay any longer, An Wuxue stepped up to the door, made a brief investigation to find the weak spot in the barrier of Zhao Duan's bedchamber, shattered it with a wave of his hand, and pushed the door open.

The interior was luxuriously furnished, and he even caught sight of some intolerable luxuries upon the bed.

Averting his gaze in a hurry, he concentrated his divine sense within this mere bedchamber and located several restricted spirit pouches inside a cabinet.

Fortunately, although his cultivation was currently restricted to the Greater Mastery stage, his divine sense remained at the half-step ascension realm. The array formations, spiritual incantations, and spells he had mastered in his previous life were deeply etched in his mind; even though Zhao Duan was at the peak of the Tribulation Crossing stage, breaking his restrictions was effortless.

A cultivator's spirit pouch contained a multitude of items, and lacking the time to search through them one by one, An Wuxue simply shoved all of those spirit pouches into his robes.

Right at that moment—

His movements paused.

The sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh echoed from outside the door.

He instantly gripped his long sword and turned to step outside, only to see that the massive barrier enveloping the courtyard had been shattered, and a tall, straight-backed youth was holding a sword, having just pierced the chest of the demonic cultivator who had just led the way for him.

This was... the other Tribulation Crossing immortal cultivator who had lured Zhao Duan away earlier?

He froze for a moment. The youth pulled out his sword and turned back, seeing him covered in blood, and froze as well before his expression lit up with joy: "You must be the immortal cultivator that dog Zhao Duan captured... named something like Su Xue, right? I'm here to rescue you."

An Wuxue: "……?"

He didn't seem, perhaps, to be in any desperate need of rescue.

"Your Excellency..."

"I am Qiao Ting. I ran into the cultivators from the City Lord's Mansion seeking help in the city earlier, and after questioning them, they told me Zhao Duan had abducted an immortal cultivator of supreme beauty. Knowing what kind of wretch he is, I was afraid that arriving a step late would mean everything was too late..."

An Wuxue raised an eyebrow—a Tribulation Crossing immortal cultivator connected with the City Lord's Mansion, one capable of trading blows with Zhao Duan, yet Qiao Yin had never mentioned him?

Qiao Ting was looking him up and down, confirming that despite being covered in blood, he showed no signs of being tainted by turbid qi, nor any indication of having been reduced to Zhao Duan's cauldron partner. Only then did he heave a sigh of relief.

"It seems I didn't come too late..."

"This... Immortal Master Qiao?" An Wuxue asked in bewilderment, "How did you know I was here?"

"I crossed paths with Zhao Duan just the day before yesterday and knew he was hiding in this courtyard. Isn't this Zhao Duan's bedchamber? Given how selfish and lustful he is, I guessed he would most likely bring you to his bedchamber or some place of amusement. Wouldn't checking a few places do the trick?"

"Where is Zhao Duan?"

The youth smiled: "I used an avatar to lure him away. Fellow Daoist, I know you probably have a stomach full of questions, but we must leave first. That dog cultivated turbid qi and his cultivation skyrocketed; I can't beat him right now, so I could only lure him away temporarily."

"An avatar was enough to lure him away? Just like that?"

"It certainly doesn't work well on others, but Zhao Duan is an idiot," Qiao Ting said. "I've already used this trick to fool him three times."

He stepped forward to pull An Wuxue along. "Let's go quickly, we can discuss everything once we're back in the city."