Another intense clash of spiritual energy erupted at the bottom of the cliff, and the ground shook violently with the commotion.
Shang Ningye felt extremely anxious.
With Elder Xuan Kong’s cultivation level, facing the Torch Dragon in the cave was likely a difficult fight for him.
Fortunately, all things in nature had their counters. Where Torch Dragons lived, spirit herbs that could subdue snakes, like Serpent’s Ruin and Cassia, usually also grew.
Shang Ningye had previously found a large amount of wild Cassia on this cliff, so a plan formed in her mind.
She carried a few spirit plants in her storage ring, which, along with this Cassia, were just enough to refine a Quiescence Pill capable of making a Torch Dragon temporarily lose consciousness.
She helped Mu Qiuhan recover some of her spiritual energy, then used her own abundant wood-element spiritual energy to assist Mu Qiuhan in refining the pill.
Wu Ling and the others had arrived to see this very scene.
Shang Ningye had planned to return to the cave with Mu Qiuhan after the pill was complete. They would use the Quiescence Pill’s effects to help Elder Xuan Kong temporarily subdue the Torch Dragon and take the opportunity to retrieve the Golden-Edged Chong Lou. Who knew they would instead encounter a sudden attack from a group of demonesses.
The demons had arrived silently, and Shang Ningye hadn’t noticed them at all.
Fortunately, Mu Qiuhan’s temperament was different from ordinary disciples; she didn’t let this sudden situation affect the pill’s formation.
However, although the pill had been successfully refined, it now lay untouched in the pill furnace.
Shang Ningye’s gaze fell on the pill furnace. She hesitated.
Elder Xuan Kong had been fighting the demonic beast for the better part of the day. Shang Ningye worried that the longer it dragged on, the more unfavorable the battle would become for their side.
The spiritual energy fluctuation just now was clearly much weaker than before, a sign of excessive spiritual energy consumption. She didn’t know how much longer Elder Xuan Kong could hold on.
‘Should I keep Mu Qiuhan as a hostage and take the pill down to help Elder Xuan Kong? Even if I can’t help much, I can at least let him know what’s happening.’
Elder Xuan Kong knew nothing about the situation on the cliff; he was likely to be at a disadvantage.
But how could that demoness agree? For a moment, she was at a loss.
She subconsciously glanced at Mu Qiuhan beside her, but Mu Qiuhan seemed to be lost in thought and didn’t notice her pleading gaze.
Another fluctuation came, and Shang Ningye was growing impatient.
Just as she was about to retrieve the pill from the furnace, she saw the leading demoness leap off the cliff.
The other demonesses closed in again at this moment, but as if wary of something, they kept a much greater distance than before.
Seeing they didn’t seem to intend to stop her, Shang Ningye retrieved the pill along with the furnace. But when she tried to approach the cliff edge again, she found she couldn’t.
A demoness silently blocked her path. The other party’s cultivation was at least at the Void Refinement stage, far beyond her own. Shang Ningye had no choice but to give up.
A faint green mist had unknowingly risen on the cliff.
Shang Ningye knew that the Torch Dragon’s time was likely up today.
Torch Dragons could call upon wind and rain from heaven and earth, and their deaths were usually accompanied by unusual phenomena. However, this green mist ultimately failed to gather into rain and slowly dispersed instead.
After the thin mist scattered, Wu Ling reappeared on the clifftop, carrying a figure that had already fainted.
“Elder Xuan Kong!”
Shang Ningye immediately noticed something was wrong with Xuan Kong. At this moment, she could no longer bother with hiding anything. Her figure flashed, and in the blink of an eye, she was before him.
She reached out to check; his pulse was still there. Shang Ningye instantly sighed in relief.
“What did you do to him?” she stared at the limp, unconscious person on the ground and sternly questioned the demoness.
Who knew the demoness would smile at her innocently. “His spiritual energy ran out, so he fainted.”
“Nonsense!”
How could a dignified Integration stage Elder faint just from exhausting his spiritual energy?
Although Shang Ningye was very suspicious of Wu Ling’s claim, she still summoned a green light.
Gentle wood-element spiritual energy entered Xuan Kong’s meridians and circulated for a few cycles. The originally unconscious man actually, slowly, began to wake up.
‘Could it be that he really ran out of spiritual energy?’
Xuan Kong opened his eyes and coughed lightly a few times.
At this moment, his whole body felt as soft as paste, unable to exert any strength.
But seeing the demoness before him, who had suddenly appeared in the secret realm and reaped all the benefits, Xuan Kong seethed with anger.
“You demoness, give me back the Golden-Edged Chong Lou!”
Wu Ling wasn’t as polite to Xuan Kong as she was to Shang Ningye.
She just snorted coldly. “Old fool, if I hadn’t intervened in time, you probably would have perished together with that beast. What Golden-Edged Chong Lou are you even talking about?”
“Even if I perished, that would be my own business! You watched me fight that demonic beast until I was exhausted, then suddenly swooped in to steal the spirit plant. Have you no shame? Hand over the spirit plant quickly!”
Shang Ningye listened with a pounding heart. ‘Elder Xuan Kong was actually planning to die together with the Torch Dragon for this Golden-Edged Chong Lou?’
Wu Ling looked as if she’d heard a joke. “I’ve never seen someone so unable to see reason. Instead of worrying about the spirit plant being taken by me, you should worry about yourself.”
Xuan Kong didn’t know what had happened on the cliff earlier, but he knew this demon’s cultivation was no less than his own. In his current state, none of them would fare well against her.
“Return that Golden-Edged Chong Lou to my disciple, let the two of them go, and I will let you do as you please with me.”
Wu Ling ignored him. “All three of your lives are in my hands. What right do you have to negotiate terms with me?”
She gave Xuan Kong a disdainful look, then changed the subject. “However, people from the Demon Realm never go back on their word. I promised those two earlier that they could leave. As for you… I’ve changed my mind. Since you admit I saved your life, you can come back with me.”
With that, she waved her hand, a gust of wind wrapped around Xuan Kong, and she leaped into the clouds.
Seeing Wu Ling leave, the other demonesses also performed a technique and vanished into the air.
Wu Ling hadn’t originally planned to leave so quickly, but Shang Ningye’s elusive movement technique had made her wary.
She was afraid of causing any trouble, as this Immortal Sect’s elder was very important to Mu Qiuhan.
The turn of events was too sudden. Shang Ningye didn’t even have time to crush the white jade transmission talisman she had prepared.
She stood stunned at the cliff edge for a while, until Mu Qiuhan came up from behind her.
Mu Qiuhan didn’t discuss the recent events with her, but said softly, “Let’s go back into the cave and take another look.”
Shang Ningye thought to herself, ‘I’ve been to that small hidden area in the cave with Master before. Apart from the Golden-Edged Chong Lou growing there, there’s nothing particularly special about it.’
But seeing Elder Xuan Kong captured by the demons, her mind was in turmoil. She had no other ideas for the moment, so she followed Mu Qiuhan.
Mu Qiuhan condensed her spiritual energy into two small fireballs and infused them into two small medicine cauldrons.
She handed one to Shang Ningye. “It’s dark in the cave, and the path is rough. Be careful not to fall.”
Shang Ningye silently accepted it.
The two of them walked forward, following the mountain path wide enough for three people, heading deeper into the mountain.
After walking for almost an hour, the view before them suddenly opened up.
The narrow cave suddenly widened, as if a giant cavern had been carved out in the center of the mountain.
Shang Ningye still had some memory of this place. She pointed to a relatively flat mountain wall ahead and said, “When I came last time, the Torch Dragon’s lair was in that area.”
“Let’s go up and see,” Mu Qiuhan said, then flew forward.
Shang Ningye followed closely behind her.
As they neared the mountain wall, a pungent, fishy smell assaulted their nostrils. Shang Ningye frowned.
This must be the Torch Dragon’s dwelling. She hadn’t come up here last time, only watched her Master approach from a distance.
Hundreds of years ago, when Perfected Dao You was breaking through to the Mahayana stage, he had also come here to find Golden-Edged Chong Lou to refine pills needed for his tribulation transcendence.
Although the Torch Dragon’s cultivation wasn’t low and it possessed intelligence like cultivators, it was, after all, still essentially a snake. Compared to a cultivator’s residence, this place was more like an animal’s den.
After carefully examining the area around the den, Mu Qiuhan seemed to have found what she was looking for.
She pointed to a crack in the stone on the ground. “This should be where that Golden-Edged Chong Lou grew.”
Shang Ningye also took a few steps forward. She reached out, feeling the lingering aura of the spirit plant in the surrounding soil.
“That’s right, it’s the scent of Golden-Edged Chong Lou.”
Mu Qiuhan carefully and slowly pried open the stone crack with a small knife, revealing the rhizome of the Golden-Edged Chong Lou.
She dug forward along the direction of the rhizome and, sure enough, found a fingernail-sized seedling in another small stone crack about a meter away.
Although the seedling was small and not golden, it already had seven leaves, only lacking the small flower in the center that a mature Golden-Edged Chong Lou would have.
Mu Qiuhan carefully removed the seedling and handed it to Shang Ningye.
“Keep this safe. I read in a book that Golden-Edged Chong Lous usually grow in clusters, not just a single plant. That demoness must have missed this one.”
“It looks like it’s several decades old. Although it can’t compare to a fully grown Golden-Edged Chong Lou, its detoxification properties should still be quite good.”
“Try it first. It should more or less help with the poisons in your body. If it still doesn’t work, I’ll think of another way later.”
Shang Ningye was stunned by her words.
She knew, of course, that Golden-Edged Chong Lou was a plant that grew in clusters. However, usually only one of them would fully mature, grow the central flower, and change from green to gold.
Rarely, there would be twin-stalked plants, like the one her Master had brought back hundreds of years ago.
She just hadn’t expected there to be a surviving seedling here. It seemed that demoness wasn’t very knowledgeable.
Shang Ningye accepted the spirit plant and was about to thank her when Mu Qiuhan asked, “Fairy, what are your plans next?”
Shang Ningye shook her head. “I don’t know, I haven’t thought it through yet.”
“In that case, why don’t we return to the sect first and then slowly discuss our next steps? What do you think, Fairy?”
Shang Ningye hummed in agreement.
“Alright. Elder Xuan Kong being captured by the demons also needs to be reported to the sect elders so we can discuss countermeasures together.”
