Chapter Thirteen: "Counter Kill"

Chapter Thirteen: "Counter Kill"

A figure clad in gray linen robes and wearing a bamboo hat dashed swiftly through the woods, their figure slightly distorted due to the speed, surrounded by a shallow gray light shield...

The "Triple-eyed Spider" could only capture these messages.

According to Li Changshou's observation, this person's martial arts were quite strong, and the long knife at his waist should be a deadly weapon. There was a fierce aura emanating from his whole body, indicating someone accustomed to the taste of blood on the blade.

Taking a deep breath, Li Changshou adjusted his breath, and his running speed suddenly increased a bit more;

Shortly after, the person chasing him from the side also accelerated, slightly adjusting the angle of his charge, with Li Changshou undoubtedly being the target.

The opponent's cultivation level was initially estimated to be around the sixth or seventh stage of the Returning Void Realm, but there might be hidden cultivation. Upon a second assessment, it was estimated to be around the sixth stage of the Returning Dao Realm; Since the opponent was chasing him with martial arts instead of more efficient aerial flight, the chance of him being an immortal was extremely low.

Li Changshou frowned. It seemed he was indeed caught up in some strange situation.

How should he handle this situation?

Li Changshou's first reaction was to use escape techniques to get away, but he quickly realized that he had been followed by someone for the past two days, indicating that the other party had some means of tracking him. If he escaped this time, and the other party still relentlessly pursued him, he would be even more in danger.

Five miles ahead in the forest, there was an open space filled with poisonous grass but no trees...

Li Changshou snorted lightly in his heart, clutching two small paper figures in his right hand, and his breath converged quietly in the palm of his right hand.

"The Five Elements rotate, virtuousness brings life, heavy turbidity obstructs nothing, the Earth is at the center!"

A slight wrinkle appeared on the grayish-white ground ahead, as Li Changshou once again performed the Earth Escape technique, but as soon as his figure entered the ground, a bright light erupted from his right hand...

The person chasing Li Changshou from the side frowned. With a cold snort, he sensed the rapid shuttle of Qi in the earth and adjusted his direction again, accelerating rapidly to catch up.

Shortly after, Li Changshou emerged from a pile of poisonous grass, his body shaking as he shook off the poisonous soil and a few poisonous insects. He raised his hand to change a few anti-miasma talismans for himself, and then prepared to sprint again.

Just then, a sudden sound of sword whistling came from the side! A flash of cold light, faster than the sword whistling, directly slashed towards Li Changshou's neck! Li Changshou suddenly turned around, but before he could react, his neck was struck by the long, slender weapon, and his head flew backwards! A wisp of gray smoke lightly twisted as the figure wearing the bamboo hat and gray clothes appeared behind Li Changshou. The front curtain of the bamboo hat floated up, revealing a faint smirk at the corner of his mouth. "Indeed, only at the Nascent Divinity realm, it was effortless to get you... you!" His words suddenly halted as he looked down at his ankle. The "Li Changshou" whose head had been chopped off reached out and grabbed the ankle of the assassin! The assassin reacted very quickly, immediately trying to retreat, but suddenly everything went blurry in front of him. His strength seemed to have been drained away, and he couldn't operate his own mana or Qi at all! At this moment, the assassin saw on his waist belt, where Li Changshou's hand grabbed, there was a small opened bottle... He fell for it! He struggled to bite his tongue, trying to wake himself up, but he couldn't even muster the strength to bite it, and his vision became increasingly hazy! Self-made narcotic: Soft Immortal Powder. Just then, a stream of light flew over the assassin's head, which turned out to be a strange paper umbrella adorned with various colored spirit stones. With a gentle turn of the paper umbrella, the embedded spirit stones scattered, and a fifteen-zhang-wide isolation array appeared out of thin air, using the paper umbrella as its base, instantly cutting off this place from the outside world! Self-made magic treasure: Heaven-changing Paper Umbrella. Li Changshou slowly emerged from the ground, raising his right hand, and three paper figures swelled in the wind, all turning into Li Changshou's appearance and swiftly pounced forward. Taoist art: Paper Cutting into Humans. Before the paper figures could reach the assassin, Li Changshou's left hand had already lifted a bronze short crossbow. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger, and an arrow shot out, piercing the assassin's forehead accurately! The bamboo hat flew up, revealing a slightly sinister and thin face; The short arrow pierced through the assassin's forehead, causing the light in his eyes to rapidly fade. "You..." The assassin let out a final roar of anger, but it was still feeble; as his mouth opened, the three paper figures had already rushed over—— The first paper figure shot out three long nails, directly piercing the assassin's upper, middle, and lower Dantian, locking his three souls and fixing his seven spirits! The second paper figure continuously formed hand seals, spewing out a faint white flame, completely enveloping the assassin's figure; the assassin's physical body was directly ignited by this white flame, like a snowman encountering a continuous flow of boiling water, rapidly melting. Moreover, this guy couldn't even let out a single scream... The third paper figure recited incantations with solemn words, using the Soul-binding and Ghost-exterminating spell, and in front of it emerged a series of ripples, instantly dispersing the phantoms appearing in the white flame! By now, the assassin had already lost his soul, leaving only a small portion of his body being engulfed by the white flames. Li Changshou, still not at ease, threw out a thumb-sized treasure bead. The bead rotated lightly, absorbing a faint green glow without leaving any trace of the assassin's remnant soul. Holding the bronze short crossbow, Li Changshou took a few steps forward, somewhat cautiously grasping the treasure bead; by now, the white flames had extinguished, leaving only a small pile of charred ashes on the ground, half of a sword blade, and a small ring. The three paper figures sat down together, starting to rapidly recite scriptures. One paper figure recited the Taoist scripture for saving people, one paper figure recited the widely circulated Western teaching's Rebirth Mantra, and one paper figure recited the Taoist "Disaster Relief and Blessing Mantra".

Li Changshou casually took the jade ring into his palm, not in a hurry to break the restrictions on it, just wrapping it layer by layer with mana before tossing it into his backup storage artifact, the Heavenly Number Four.

Then, he glanced at the pearl for a moment, a knowing expression on his face. He walked around the three paper men and began to use the Earth Escape technique. As the three paper men quickly recited their respective scriptures, tiny ripples appeared on the ground. Li Changshou waved his sleeves, and the ashes left by the assassins scattered in the wind.

The three paper men leaped into the air, transforming into three palm-sized paper sheets and flew back into Li Changshou's sleeve.

Closing his umbrella, the spirit stones returned to the surface of the umbrella, and the large array dissipated instantly.

Li Changshou raised his left hand and pointed his sword finger. A sword aura surged out, piercing through the poisonous mist above, accurately hitting a black beetle, instantly blasting it into pieces...

This series of actions was seamless, as if he had practiced countless times before.

Li Changshou then turned his head to look at the ground, now restored to its normal state. With a gentle tap on the headless paper figure, he ignited it directly, leaving no trace behind.

Taking a step forward, Li Changshou's figure disappeared into the ground silently.

Ah, it's really exhausting to refine a paper man... But with the resources this guy left behind, it's not a total loss.

From the residual souls collected in the pearl, Li Changshou saw many memory fragments and understood the purpose and layout of this group of people. The assassin who attacked him was named "Ci Jiu," at the second level of the Returning to Dao Realm, hired by someone using spirit stones, specifically for dirty work as a Qi Refiner.

The reason for attacking him was for the transmission symbol on him, wanting to lure Master Jiu here by using the symbol. As soon as Master Jiu arrived, this group would immediately target Liu Yan'er and Wang Qi, then use them as bait to lead Master Jiu into a trap... and their true target was the Sixth Princess of some country—

Qinxuanya.

But this group wasn't trying to kill Qinxuanya. This elaborate layout seemed to be for some more sinister purpose.

From the memory fragments of this "assassin," it was judged that the mastermind behind it all seemed to be Yuan Qing, a junior fellow disciple, or some secular power behind Yuan Qing.

Li Changshou smirked, muttering to himself, "You really can't judge people just by their appearance. Most of these 'nice guys' are just a facade."

But all of this had nothing to do with him.

The fact that the other party went to such lengths to lure Master Jiu into a trap clearly indicated that they didn't dare to confront Master Jiu head-on. So Li Changshou didn't need to worry about the safety of a true Immortal Realm expert...

A gentle breeze blew by, the poison fog returned, and the empty space returned to tranquility once again. The poisonous grass swayed gently, except for a small pile of burnt poison grass, there was no trace left.

No one would have thought that just a moment ago, there had been a not-so-intense "battle of life and death" here;

Moments later, only the wind remained, gently humming a certain melody...

"A cup of tea's worth of time and I'd kill you and scatter your ashes!"

...

On the coast of the East Sea, on a beach, hundreds of disciples were engaged in a fierce battle with the shrimp demons emerging continuously from the sea.

In one corner of the battlefield, several Qi Refinement Realm junior disciples hid behind a reef, chanting spells and activating their artifacts to support several senior brothers and sisters charging ahead. However, all their attention was drawn to a figure not far away.

They saw Lan Ling'e holding two porcelain bottles in her hand, gently sprinkling some powder forward, then blowing out a breath of spirit energy. The powder instantly enveloped the dozen or so shrimp demons charging toward them.

These already not very bright shrimp demons instantly became feeble, collapsing to the ground one by one, frothing at the mouth and rolling their eyes...

Ling'e floated out with a short sword in her hand, delivering precise blows one by one, directly piercing their demon souls, yet her movements were full of celestial grace.

Soon, she floated back to her original position, waiting for the next wave of tidal waves, completely unaware that she had become the object of observation for many fellow disciples.

"The poison powder refined by Senior Brother is just too useful. I wonder if Senior Brother is safe now. The Northern Lu Continent is so dangerous; it's said that even a single bug can take the life of an immortal."

Sighing, Ling'e became more and more annoyed. Suddenly, a shadow appeared in front of her...

"Ling'e Junior Sister, be careful!"

"Quick, get out of the way!"

Suddenly, she heard several urgent shouts beside her. Ling'e instinctively looked up, only to see seven or eight shrimp demons already charging toward her, with a dozen shiny large pincers poised to strike down on her!

There were even pits on the ground; these shrimp demons had launched a surprise attack from underground!

In the blink of an eye, Ling'e lightly exclaimed, reaching into her sleeve and throwing out a porcelain bottle. The voice of her eldest senior brother echoed in her mind...

"When encountering an emergency or a tough enemy, throw this bottle."

Crash!

The porcelain bottle shattered among the group of shrimp demons, emitting a green smoke. In the next moment, the smoke enveloped these shrimp demons.

In the next instant, each shrimp demon hovered in mid-air;

As the sea breeze blew, these shrimp demons with their hard-shelled bodies dissipated into colorful bubbles, drifting gently with the wind...

Ling'e breathed a long sigh of relief, but then she noticed that the atmosphere around her seemed strange.

Turning her head, she saw several senior brothers and sisters rushing towards her, their expressions somewhat strange.

"Hmm?" Ling'e blinked gently.

With a clang, a male junior disciple in the Nascent Soul Realm dropped his long sword at her feet and hurriedly bent down to pick it up.

"Ling'e Junior Sister, you're busy, you're busy."

"We're just passing by... just passing by..."