"Finally escaped."
Wang Yu did not return to Ten Thousand Poisons Town. Instead, he detoured towards the northwest, which was precisely the direction of Night Qiong Prefecture under the Sacred Sect's control.
The Sky Demon Bone Forest was out of the question now.
He planned to recuperate in Night Qiong Prefecture. Once his injuries were healed, he would make an appearance in the **[North Severing Boundary Mountain Range]** to the west of the prefecture. This was to confuse Jin Miaoshan's intelligence network. After all, she knew he possessed incomplete Heavenly Soul Sect inheritance. How to appear without raising suspicion was a delicate art in itself.
Having taken two slaps from the Blood Demon Ginseng, his injuries were not light.
He needed a good, long period of recuperation.
Now that he was out of danger, Wang Yu was just about to summon Xue Yu to carry him for a stretch.
Who would have thought the Stainless Jade Toad placed in his robe suddenly let out two "ribbit" croaks. Puzzled, Wang Yu took it out. Having absorbed too much poison from the poison beast legion, the jade toad had transformed from its jade-white color to a purplish-black hue.
After this ordeal, it might undergo its final cocooning,蜕变成 (metamorphosing into) its complete form. With its protection in the future, ninety-nine percent of the world's poisons would lose their effect on him.
Consider this a blessing in disguise following the poison beast tide.
"What is it?"
The Stainless Jade Toad yawned, stretched out its tongue, and licked the area behind his shoulder. A green, oily poison insect印记 (mark) was drawn out and swallowed into its belly.
Its eyes closed, and it fell straight into a deep sleep.
Wang Yu's expression, however, changed drastically.
"A tracking mark?!"
When exactly it happened, he didn't know.
But by deduction, he could guess it must have been at the moment when the Netherworld Spring Monastery and the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect started fighting. Only then was Wang Yu's attention entirely focused on the immediate threat.
If, at that moment, a malicious party hidden in the dense forest had secretly placed a tracking mark on him, failing to detect it was a definite possibility.
"The Stainless Jade Toad devours poison... This is a Core Formation master specializing in the poison path?"
Making this judgment in his heart, Wang Yu immediately sped towards Night Qiong Prefecture. Looking at the Jade Toad, which had fallen into slumber and begun secreting mucus from its skin to start forming a cocoon, he felt utterly helpless.
Of all times!
Against a poison-path cultivator, its usefulness would far surpass even a Thunder Corpse. His internal injuries were not yet healed, making it difficult to exert his full body refinement strength.
It seemed he would have to rely on his two third-rank refined corpses.
As he pondered, Wang Yu's spiritual sense extended from his brow, transforming into fine threads shimmering with blue light, meticulously sensing the condition of his chest and abdomen.
The technique of materializing spiritual sense into threads was highly practical. Using it now was to guide the shattered bones in his chest back to their original positions one by one, binding them with spiritual sense threads.
It was like performing a precise surgery.
After spending nearly half an hour on this, Wang Yu activated the Secret Art of the Corpse Demon Technique, instantly erupting with a massive amount of Yin Corpse Blood Qi to aid his recovery. Simultaneously, the divine marrow within his Dragon Spine began to take effect.
The formidable vitality granted by his Vajra Body, further enhanced by the secret art, resulted in a recovery speed far quicker than he had imagined, much faster than the several months of recuperation he had anticipated.
Wang Yu quickly realized why.
This was because when the Blood Demon Ginseng struck him, it used brute force and did not employ its own inherent plant-based magic power or Blood Demon energy.
Without invasive foreign energy, given his physique, recovery was swift. He could be fully healed in three or four days.
This counted as one of the few pieces of good news from the Sky Demon Bone Forest expedition.
"—Who's there?!"
While healing, Wang Yu was also propelling himself forward with the Frostmoon Wings, his speed absolutely not slow. Yet, something was closely following him.
Now, hearing his shout.
A mass of black and green intertwined poisonous mist leaped out from among the trees. The top of its head was bald, engraved with a crooked, twisted character for 'poison'. Around the level of its temples grew a circle of greyish-white hair. Its facial features were incredibly ugly: slanted eyebrows, mismatched eyes, a upturned nose, and everted lips revealing a mouthful of rotten teeth.
Forget cultivators; even among mortals, someone with such bizarre looks would be a rare sight, ugly to the extreme.
Its body was withered and hunched, leaning on a Five Poisons walking staff.
On its tattered robes, five poisonous insects crawled about.
Wang Yu understood this was most likely the poison-path Core Formation expert who had left the tracking mark. Moreover, he had seen information about this person in the Listening Wind Pavilion's intelligence.
Ranked second: Five Poisons Old Demon, Core Formation seventh layer!
He had once annihilated a third-rate sect. The Listening Wind Pavilion assessed his strength as comparable to a Sacred Sect Core Formation cultivator—and not an Outer Sect one, but an Inner Sect Core Formation expert.
This spoke volumes about this person's power.
"Jie jie jie—
"Brat, hand over what you obtained inside those ruins, and this old man might consider letting you die a quick death."
"Oh?"
Wang Yu raised an eyebrow.
"You old, ugly devil, aren't you afraid of retaliation from the Netherworld Spring Monastery?"
Being cursed by a junior, the Five Poisons Old Demon showed no anger, instead letting out a strange laugh. "This venerable may not know why a single divine ability proves your identity, but the direction you're fleeing is not towards You Prefecture."
A centipede, pitch black with fiery red markings, crawled out from his mouth, hissing towards Wang Yu.
"For loose cultivators, words alone are useless. Your escape direction cannot be faked. You are not from the Netherworld Spring Monastery!"
Wang Yu ceased his excuses. The other party's reasoning was too sharp, with their own set of theories firmly believed.
It seemed there was no running from this.
"Brat, this venerable says it one more time. The treasure... hand it over!"
"What treasure? That Medicine King was just standing there. If you really have the skill, why not try capturing it yourself?"
"Heh. You will learn what it means to wish for death."
After delivering his threat, the Five Poisons Old Demon pointed his staff towards Wang Yu. The fiery-marked centipede swiftly scurried forward, spitting a line of fire mid-way.
At the same time.
Frostscale Pill Flame erupted from Wang Yu's palm. As a third-rank spirit flame, the fire line spat by the centipede was almost instantly pushed back. The insect's body was also engulfed in blue flames, inch by inch frozen into ice crystals, while being burned from within, causing it to screech miserably.
"Little Spot!"
While the Five Poisons Old Demon was shocked, he directly threw his staff. It transformed mid-air into a hairy serpent, wrapped in poisonous smoke, ferociously charging forward.
Wang Yu sensed something was off.
Low-level loose cultivators might have all sorts of flaws.
But for the Five Poisons Old Demon to survive and cultivate to the seventh layer of Core Formation, he must have experienced countless battles. Why would he use such simple techniques?
*Whoosh whoosh whoosh—*
With a thought, five Black Ice Wheels shot out, spinning at high speed and cutting the hairy serpent into six segments. Its weakness was unbelievable.
As expected.
"You are an imposter... or a分身之术 (clone technique)?"
Hearing this, the Five Poisons Old Demon's twisted expression suddenly calmed. He stared at Wang Yu quietly and said,
"You discovered it quite fast~
"Brat, even if you flee to the ends of the earth, you won't escape. Jie jie jie!!!"
With that, the Five Poisons Old Demon suddenly exploded into a cloud of black-green mist, taking the form of a skull that cackled as it charged forward.
Wang Yu first tried to burn and resist it with Frostscale Pill Flame, but failed.
He then attempted with the Yellow Spring Great Hand Seal. The technique's克制 (restraining) effect on spells did indeed shrink the poisonous skull considerably, but due to his lack of mastery and absence of supporting magic power, it was ultimately insufficient.
The poisonous skull finally caught up to him.
It left a conspicuous mark on the back of his hand. Clearly, this was another tracking method.
The other party's true body was not here.
Thinking carefully, perhaps when the Five Poisons Old Demon went to the Yin Ghost Mountain, he had used a clone. That's why he chose to跟踪 (track) Wang Yu, only revealing himself after being called out.
This implied.
The other party's true body was the follow-up strike, probably waiting somewhere ahead to ambush him.
"Such heavy scheming."
Night Qiong Prefecture was no longer an option. Gritting his teeth, Wang Yu continued detouring north. He planned to make a huge arc from the southwest of the Sky Demon Bone Forest, upwards from the left, heading towards You Prefecture in the east.
If the memories between the Five Poisons Old Demon and his clone were not constantly shared, then the other party wouldn't know the content of their conversation.
He would only know an encounter occurred, and then Wang Yu was marked with the Five Poisons Tracking Seal. Given the dangers of the Sky Demon Bone Forest, choosing a longer detour was not incomprehensible.
If he truly encountered the Five Poisons Old Demon's true body, he might still be able to use the Netherworld Spring Monastery's name as a shield.
Of course, this was only the most ideal scenario.
...
...
The former Yin Ghost Mountain.
Now the Heavenly Soul Sect ruins.
A battle that lasted half a day had concluded. It did not end with the complete defeat of one side; at most, it was a draw with heavy losses on both sides. However, the Transcendent Spirit Poison Beast behind the scenes had achieved its objective.
On the poison beast side, that fourth-rank Moon-Swallowing Toad was devoured by the blood river and had now become the mount of the colossal Demon Blood Sunflower.
That sky-obscuring black sun-flower was now rooted upon the Moon-Swallowing Toad.
The blood corpse side did not fare well either. Ordinary blood corpses were almost completely annihilated, turned into limbless, desiccated corpses forever left on this land.
Blood Corpse Giant casualties exceeded half, but a new fourth-rank Blood Corpse King was born. Its status seemed even higher than the four Blood Demon Medicine Kings.
After the Blood Demon Headless was snatched away by a fourth-rank Poisonous Flood Dragon, the Blood Corpse King let out a soul-shaking roar. From then on, all Blood Demon monsters collectively began advancing southwest, no longer fighting the poison beasts to the death.
The direction of their advance was unmistakably towards the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect's mountain gate... or rather, slightly偏移 (deviating towards) the blood path holy land—**[Blood Abyss]**!
The retreat of the blood path monsters was not pursued by the poison beasts.
Merely half a day later, a sky-shading巨影 (giant shadow) thrust its hand into the earth, uprooting the super spirit vein from the ground with sheer force and carrying it deeper into the Sky Demon Bone Forest. From beginning to end, this巨影 never revealed its true form. Judging solely from that hand, it resembled a dragon's claw.
This commotion sparked another wave of fervor.
More forces from临近 (neighboring) regions arrived at the Sky Demon Bone Forest. With both sides having withdrawn, the Heavenly Soul Sect ruins became a prime exploration site.
Killing, plundering, betrayal... unfolded one after another on this land.
It was evident that the death toll here was far from reaching its destined quota.
Meanwhile, the movement of the blood path monsters was too massive. As they advanced into the heartlands of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect, they brought boundless slaughter in their wake.
Cities along their path fled upon hearing the news.
The impact, especially on prestige, was enormous.
Several days later.
Outside Blood Abyss Prefecture, numerous Nascent Soul cultivators from the Sacred Sect began gathering. They dispatched a team to bypass the Blood Demon monsters and occupy the ruins in the Sky Demon Bone Forest.
The Netherworld Spring Monastery's response was not a step behind, but their chosen countermeasures were恰恰相反 (exactly the opposite) of the Sacred Sect's.
The Netherworld Spring Monastery's Nascent Souls focused their efforts on the Heavenly Soul Sect ruins, sending only two late Nascent Soul great cultivators to continue追踪 (tracking) the Blood Demon Medicine Kings.
Three forces were about to collide!
*(End of Chapter)*