Chapter 72 Fierce Battle

The Golden Spear Pill was an elixir akin to the great brother's panacea of later generations, used exclusively by those suffering from erectile dysfunction. Since it was merely a group of foreign monks residing here, why would such a medicine be necessary?

However, this had no intersection with the purpose of Li Chou's infiltration, and he did not dwell on it deeply. Facing the foreign monk's eager and hurried gaze, Li Chou merely chuckled, reached his right hand into his bosom, and extended it open before the monk...

"Look, what is this?"

The monk was overjoyed, but when he looked closely, he saw that the palm was completely empty!

Then, the hand grew rapidly before the monk's eyes, covering his nose and mouth directly. Simultaneously, a powerful force struck the back of his head; before the thoughts in the monk's mind could even finish turning, he had already collapsed to the ground.

Without shedding a drop of blood and without making a sound, the foreign monk's remains entered Li Chou's Pot World.

There was nothing superfluous in the stone cave. Aside from a straw mat in the corner, there was a writing desk made of raw timber—its bark stripped and surface slightly smoothed to serve as a desk. On the massive desk were neatly stacked bamboo slips, while the other side held bundles of rolled sheepskin, with an inkstone and a carving knife placed in the middle. Li Chou opened them casually; the sheepskin scrolls were filled entirely with Buddhist scriptures, the characters as tiny as ants, written in the native script of the Buddhist realm.

To call it a dwelling for monks would be less apt than describing it as the study and writing desk of a scribe.

Since he had penetrated deep inside, Li Chou was not in a hurry to leave. He held his breath and began to listen to the surrounding sounds. As his mind gradually sank into tranquility, every surrounding sound was gathered entirely into his ears. After nearly a moment, Li Chou swiftly flashed out of the cave and sprinted rapidly toward the deeper interior.

Although Li Chou's speed was swift and his movements light, such noises were still difficult to conceal within the silent depths of the stone cave. After rushing forward more than ten paces and just reaching a turn, he suddenly heard a soft shout from ahead: "Who goes there?"

Li Chou's movement did not slow down in the slightest. With a flip, he leaped into the air, flying past the top of the corner. His iron staff swept horizontally, swinging left and right with two muffled thumps. By the time Li Chou landed, two foreign monk corpses had already collapsed limply to the ground, their skulls pierced by holes as fresh blood and brains oozed out in a stream...

Relying on his acute hearing, Li Chou had already identified the standing positions of these two sentries. Launching a surprise attack before they could react, he struck them dead on the spot, and then flew further inside.

Indeed, the cave differed from the living quarters of ordinary foreign monks. Aside from the bear skin spread over the straw mat, there were desks, chairs, a bed, and cabinets. Although crude, it was already considered luxurious in this place. More importantly, in the incense burner placed in the cave, sandalwood incense curled upward, complete with teacups and bowls, while the corner was piled with numerous bamboo slips and sheepskins. It was evident that whoever resided here was by no means an ordinary monk.

"My guess was right!"

While listening, he had happened to overhear the small talk of the two sentries and guessed the importance of this location, so Li Chou had tried coming here. Sweeping his gaze from side to side, his eyes immediately locked onto a wooden box on a distant shelf.

If there were any other important documents or writings in this place, they would surely be stored within it.

Li Chou immediately opened it, rummaged through it twice, and promptly found a cured and tanned sheepskin roll. Glancing across it ten lines at a time, he firmly memorized the text inscribed upon it within moments...

"Imperial decree from the Heavenly Realm of Mount Ling:

First, spare no cost to flatten and clear Meishan, establishing an outpost in the Southern Jambu Continent. Utilize the vast ten-thousand-li mountain ranges for our own purposes;

Second, gather demon hordes, temper their bodies, refine their arts, feed them elixirs, and nurture their natures. Once they reach the fifth tier, await further arrangements;

Third, search for the whereabouts of the Gate of Haotian within Meishan, hunt down the Chang clan's monstrosities, and utilize them for our own purposes;

Fourth, infiltrate and closely monitor the Absolute Forest at the center of Meishan. If there are any unusual movements, report immediately..."

Although this so-called imperial decree issued specific commands, the motive left Li Chou somewhat baffled. It felt as though they intended to plant a stronghold in the Southern Jambu Continent, yet why cultivate minor demons? The letter failed to explain, and Li Chou was unable to make a judgment.

As for the latter part regarding the search for the Gate of Haotian, that came as expected. The Western realm's coveting of the demon race's supreme treasure was certainly an intention harbored for more than a year or two. Yet why they had remained inactive for a millennium and were suddenly exerting force now left Li Chou utterly perplexed.

Only the final point was something Li Chou could guess was meant to deal with the Cicada of the Golden Shell. This was the only one of the four points that Li Chou could barely fathom. To gain a foothold in Meishan and seize the Demon-Summmoning Banner, one had to deal with the Demon Ancestor, which was understandable...

Yet Li Chou never imagined that even this final point was actually guessed wrong. The reason Mount Lingtai wanted to deal with the Cicada of the Golden Shell was far from being as simple as merely seizing the Demon-Summmoning Banner. To put it another way, the importance of the Cicada of the Golden Shell to Mount Lingtai far exceeded that of the Demon-Summmoning Banner; their intentions could not be spoken of in the same breath!

At that very moment, the entire cavern suddenly shook violently, accompanied by a deafening roar. If Li Chou had been outside the cave, he would have seen a huge pillar of fire soar into the sky, transforming into a mushroom-shaped crimson cloud that slowly rolled up into the firmament. Beneath that fire cloud, a figure was rapidly fleeing, while not far away, another figure clad in a variegated cassock slowly rose into the air, soaring across the sky in pursuit.

Driven by the fierce gale, Qing Mei's speed was still slightly inferior to Li Chou's as she galloped deep into Meishan. Perhaps due to her speed, or perhaps out of trust in the cassock-wearing foreign monk, the other foreign monks did not join the pursuit. Instead, they took action one after another, controlling the hordes of demons in the camp agitated by the loud explosion, searching everywhere, and even entering the caverns to investigate.

Naturally, the foreign monks refused to believe that there were demons so audacious as to pluck the tiger's whiskers with a mere two or three individuals, yet the reality was precisely that, causing them to waste their energy in vain.

Having killed three foreign monks—though no corpses were left behind, the inexplicable disappearance of people was ultimately a flaw. Li Chou possessed no ability to pluck hairs and transform them into living beings, so only one choice remained for him: to leave quickly, and if possible, rendezvous with Qing Mei and completely escape the sphere of influence of Meishan.

Li Chou believed the contents of the wooden box were already sufficient to explain many things, but for the sake of safety, he still spent a little extra time sweeping everything movable in the cave into his Pot World, not leaving even a single sheepskin roll behind for the foreign monks.

Amidst the shouting and clamor of the foreign monks, Li Chou relied entirely on the disguise crafted by his divine shape-shifting techniques to evade their detection, slipping out of the cave. He then rapidly vanished at the edge of the camp, pursuing the direction whence the sound of the fleeing figure had faded into the distance.

Naturally, Li Chou's action was akin to seeking death; the noise generated by his rapid movement instantly attracted the foreign monk soaring mid-air. After a moment of hesitation, the foreign monk beckoned with his hand, and a human figure appeared out of thin air, dropping straight to the ground before rapidly pursuing Li Chou.

The foreign monk's judgment was correct. In his eyes, the minor demon who had first appeared carried a dense ancient aura, making it more important than the minor demon behind. Thus, he chose to pursue the hunt personally, while the entity released to deal with Li Chou was merely a spell.

A Yellow-Turban Warrior!

A burly giant standing over a zhang tall, wearing a golden bagua vest on his upper body and red robes around his waist, with yellow silk ribbons wrapped around his arms, holding a shield in his left hand and a curved saber in his right, wearing a golden-winged head-ring—without even needing instructions, the giant rushed toward Li Chou like a gust of wind the moment he hit the ground.

Although he had failed to draw the foreign monk away, Li Chou did not lose heart. In the plan he and Qing Mei had concocted by combining their strengths, this was merely one step, and there were still backup measures ahead...

All Li Chou needed to do was kill or shake off the spell-summoned entity behind him, and he could extricate himself to rendezvous with Qing Mei.

The Yellow-Turban Warrior was one of the most commonly used spells in the War of Investiture of the Gods. Qi refiners frequently imprisoned human souls within a piece of yellow cloth, refining them into warriors to be summoned when needed and stored away when idle, bearing a striking resemblance to digital monsters of later generations. The strength of a warrior was entirely determined by the refiner's cultivation. Most Yellow-Turban Warriors were inferior to their masters by one realm, though exceptions existed. Some qi refiners possessed low personal strength but profound refining attainments, enabling them to forge warriors equal to or even higher than their own realm.

Alternatively, warriors bestowed by others could likewise be stronger.

Yet those were, after all, a minority.

The warrior closely tailing Li Chou had already reached the realm of a strange demon. In other words, barring unexpected events, the foreign monk pursuing Qing Mei should have reached at least the Immortal Realm. This posed a severe test for Qing Mei, but Li Chou was powerless and could only leave it to fate.

Such was the sorrow of being a demon.

Li Chou had no spare time to ponder these matters, because after just a few moments of chase, Li Chou discovered that the speed of his pursuer behind him was by no means slow—or rather, only slightly inferior to his own. At the very least, shaking him off at Li Chou's speed would require a considerable amount of time, and judging by the warrior's robust physique, his endurance was likely not much inferior to Li Chou's either.

After all, he was merely a tenth-tier minor demon, still retaining a gap compared to the strange demon realm.

Faced with this warrior's pursuit, Li Chou was not entirely incapable of fighting, but he dared not make a move. Instead, he continued charging toward a position forming a thirty-degree angle relative to Qing Mei; he needed to widen the distance to a certain extent before daring to engage in combat!

During the chase, the two figures sped into the distant reaches of Meishan like gods treading upon the fastest divine winds!

***

Jingming was a disciplinary monk, but from a certain perspective, the work he performed resembled more that of an assassin lurking in the shadows, quietly waiting for his prey to approach.

Outer perimeter hidden sentry—this was the title of the post he held.

When the pillar of fire rose from the camp, all sixty-four hidden sentries surrounding the entire camp were startled into alertness. Although Jingming, lurking in the darkness, did not see the variegated figure fluttering in mid-air, his intuition told him that the enemy was arriving, instantly bracing Jingming's spirit as he tightly gripped the crossbow in his hand.

It was already late into the night, truly the most active time for the demon race, and many demonic entities were far more ferocious than during daylight. Yet Jingming felt a surge of energy; to obtain Mount Lingtai's reward, he had to produce greater battle achievements. The demonic creatures in Meishan itself were already dwindling, and the monstrosity that had managed to infiltrate the camp today was undoubtedly the finest achievement possible.

Gradually, rapid sounds reached his ears—the rustling noise caused by swiftly brushing against leaves and bushes. Jingming slowly raised his crossbow, took aim, and pointed it toward the direction from which the sound originated.

He was not in a hurry to shoot, because judging by the volume of the sound, the target was still some distance away—a distance sufficient for him to make the appropriate reaction. However—

Jingming suddenly felt that this sound was somewhat startling; it seemed to be approaching far too quickly!

The moment this thought arose in Jingming's mind, he also instinctively squinted his eyes and gazed in the direction of the sound. At the extreme limit of his vision, fallen leaves surged and rolled like a tidal wave, appearing in an instant. The rolling leaves even caused the nighttime air to ripple, filled with some faint, whistling shriek, but when he listened closely, the sound vanished once again!

The hairs on Jingming's body suddenly stood on end. The human figure constantly closing in amidst the rolling leaves gave him an instinctive sense of crisis. He snapped to alertness—this was an unprecedentedly powerful demonic entity! Just as Jingming prepared to pull the trigger, the whistling shriek in the air abruptly grew clear and intense, echoing repeatedly through the forest!

Yet the figure in Jingming's eyes had grown somewhat blurred!