Chapter 257- The Black-Bellied Demon Cultivator’s Senior Brother VS The Righteous Young Junior Brother (22)
Mu Shaoyuan was stunned to see that the person who had suddenly come to help him was Ning Yizhou. Reflecting on Mu Jin’s words, he couldn’t help but feel a mix of emotions. Watching Ning Yizhou engage in combat with the demonic cultivator, Mu Shaoyuan was anxious but powerless to help.
At this moment, although Mu Shaoyuan was conscious, his spiritual energy was sealed, rendering him immobile and unable to enter the Spatial Realm, let alone offer any assistance. He couldn’t help but resent his helpless situation, feeling like a fish at the mercy of a butcher.
When Ning Yizhou finally began fighting the demonic cultivator, he found the opponent’s techniques to be quite peculiar. While demonic cultivators’ methods were often sinister, and some enhanced their cultivation through slaughter, Ning Yizhou had never encountered a demonic cultivator of this level of power. The opponent’s strength, even as a Nascent Soul cultivator, was formidable and challenging.
Seeing that Mu Shaoyuan was unable to move, Ning Yizhou knew he had to use his full strength, or both of them might not make it out alive. With this realization, Ning Yizhou gave a self-deprecating smile. He had initially hoped to find a more opportune moment to reveal his true self, but now he had no choice but to reveal it earlier than planned. At this critical juncture, he had no option but to go all out.
Suddenly, Mu Shaoyuan heard a beast-like roar from Ning Yizhou, and then Ning Yizhou vanished from sight. A massive white tiger appeared before Mu Shaoyuan.
Looking at the white tiger in front of him, the demon cultivator was clearly surprised that Ning Yizhou had suddenly revealed such a powerful move. He was a general under the Demon Lord, highly trusted by him.
His cultivation method was extremely unusual, powerful, and very difficult to master, which was why he had only reached the Nascent Soul stage so far. Nevertheless, ordinary Spirit Severing cultivators were no match for him. He was aware of the cooperation between demon and monster cultivators.
Although the Demon Lord aimed to use the monster cultivators for his own ends and ultimately sought to dominate the entire cultivation world, it was obviously not a good idea to make an enemy of the monster cultivators right now.
Moreover, they needed the monster cultivators to provide information from their hidden positions in various sects, even to launch surprise attacks. So he quickly moved aside and shouted at Ning Yizhou, “You must be sent by the monster cultivators. Don’t get in my way, or you won’t be able to explain yourself to the Monster Lord.”
However, after he said this, the white tiger on the opposite side ignored him completely, continuously using spiritual energy and lethal attacks aimed directly at him, evidently intent on taking his life.
After a few exchanges, the demon cultivator realized this. Although he was unsure of the exact issue with his opponent, he was determined not to let this demon cultivator’s appearance cause him to fail his mission. Thus, his attacks became even more ruthless.
Both the monster cultivator and the demon cultivator were at the Nascent Soul stage and were outstanding talents from their respective races. The battle was intense and evenly matched. However, the demon cultivator’s attacks were ultimately more ruthless.
Ning Yizhou had already felt cracks forming in his demon core from the attacks, and more importantly, the invading demonic energy was continuously corrupting him, obstructing the flow of his spiritual energy. If this continued, he would truly be in danger.
In this critical moment, Ning Yizhou, with a fierce determination, ignored the deep, bone-deep wounds inflicted by his opponent’s spells and charged straight at him.
The demon cultivator noticed that the white tiger opposite had become desperate and used another spell to channel his demonic energy into the tiger’s body. However, the white tiger did not dodge or evade this time; it charged straight at him. The two continued to grapple fiercely, and in the end, the white tiger bit through the demon cultivator’s neck, successfully claiming his life.
Even though the demon cultivator was dead, the white tiger was severely injured, with demonic energy tainting its body and its life hanging by a thread. The tiger transformed back into human form with great effort and slowly walked to Mu Shaoyuan, removing the restrictions on him.
Once Mu Shaoyuan could move again, he saw the severely wounded Ning Yizhou and anxiously supported him. He quickly took out some elixirs, intending to force them into Ning Yizhou’s mouth.
However, Ning Yizhou stopped him, shaking his head and saying, “There’s no need. My demon core is already cracked and will soon shatter. Plus, with the demonic energy invading my body, I won’t last much longer.”
“I never expected to end up like this. The Demon Lord has deceived the Monster Lord into collaborating on an attack against human cultivators, but most monster cultivators don’t actually want to participate.”
“If you forcefully oppose both sides, you won’t gain any advantage. What happens next is for the human cultivators to decide. But it’s too late for me to make any difference now. My time is almost up.”
As Ning Yizhou spoke, he managed a weak smile and then took out a Qiankun bag from his pocket, handing it to Mu Shaoyuan. He said softly, “Help me give this to Xiao Jin. It contains his favorite foods, as well as my spiritual stones and elixirs. Tell him to cultivate well and take care of himself.”
“When you return, tell the sect leader about the demon cultivators you encountered on the way. As for me, just say that I perished in battle with the demons and accidentally fell off a cliff. I don’t want Xiao Jin to see me like this.”
As Ning Yizhou spoke, blood uncontrollably flowed from the corner of his mouth. He staggered as he tried to leave, but Mu Shaoyuan quickly grabbed his arm, his eyes red as he said, “Senior Brother, come back to the sect with me! Perhaps the sect leader can find a way to save you!”
Although he had once resented the monster and demon cultivators for teaming up against human cultivators, now that Ning Yizhou was on the brink of death to save him, Mu Shaoyuan felt deep remorse. The demon core was crucial to a monster cultivator, and once it shattered, their cultivation would be lost.
Especially since Ning Yizhou had been tainted by demonic energy, he wouldn’t last much longer. Mu Shaoyuan could not bear to watch him leave, especially knowing that Ning Yizhou was injured because of him. He felt overwhelming guilt.
Unfortunately, Ning Yizhou was resolute. With his last bit of strength, he transformed back into a white tiger and ran away.
Mu Shaoyuan, who was also heavily injured from the previous battle with the demon cultivators, could not keep up with Ning Yizhou and could only watch as he disappeared from view. He took several elixirs to stabilize himself, then crushed the distress signal jade talisman and waited quietly for the sect’s rescue.
At this moment, Mu Jin, who was on the Chuanyun Peak, was unaware of what had happened. Initially, he had only reached the late stage of the Meridian Opening realm while in the secret realm. However, after leaving the secret realm and just seeing his master, he suddenly felt that the previous bottleneck had loosened and he uncontrollably started to push towards the Golden Core stage.
He even sensed that the spiritual energy around him had become much more concentrated. This change came as a surprise, but Mu Jin could not stop it.
He had originally planned to wait for Ning Yizhou to return and have a word with him before going into seclusion. However, everything happened so quickly that he could only hurriedly explain his situation to his master, Luo Kangde.
Hearing that Mu Jin was about to reach the Golden Core stage, Luo Kangde was immediately overjoyed. He felt that his disciple was truly a genius. To achieve the Golden Core in just two short years since joining the sect was an incredible feat.
Such a rapid cultivation speed was even greater than that of the previously most talked-about disciple with the mutated lightning root from Qing Lei Peak.
Proud of his exceptional disciple, Luo Kangde felt greatly honored and quickly provided Mu Jin with numerous elixirs for his seclusion. He also set up various formations to help him calm his mind and achieve a successful breakthrough to the Golden Core stage.
Clearly, advancing from the late stage of Meridian Opening to the Golden Core was not an easy task. Despite Mu Jin’s strong spiritual soul, he could not bypass the usual process and had to slowly gather spiritual energy into his dantian, gradually refining and solidifying the liquid droplets already formed in his dantian to forge the Golden Core.
During this process, Mu Jin remained in his room. With numerous protective formations set up around him and the malfunctioning 003 unable to detect the outside situation, he was unaware of what was happening outside.
Thus, he did not realize that the male protagonist, Mu Shaoyuan, had been brought back to the sect by the Qing Liu Sect members, badly injured. The information Mu Shaoyuan revealed to the sect leader had cast a tense atmosphere over the upper echelons of the sect.
Meanwhile, in a cave beneath a cliff not far from Qingyun Mountain, Ning Yizhou was surrounded by demonic energy and was enduring inhuman suffering.
The cracks in his demon core were increasing, and he couldn’t understand why he had not yet died at this critical moment. All he knew was that the demonic energy was wreaking havoc in his body, gradually breaking down his bones and muscles.
The pain was so unbearable that he wished he could die immediately, yet he remained alive and unwilling to die.
The man was filled with resentment. Although he knew he might face the threat of death someday, he hadn’t anticipated it would be at this moment.
Cultivators from any side contend with the heavens for their path, and countless have fallen. He had never believed that his journey would be smooth sailing, but he couldn’t understand why it had to end now.
After living so many years in boredom, he had finally met that charming little fellow. Why, just as things were beginning, did it have to end so soon?
He had asked for so little—just to see him every day and be with him.
He had just realized his feelings for the other person. He didn’t even have time to express it, didn’t have time to do more things, and even the kiss was stolen when the other person was in a state of meditation.
He had even thought of some ways to lure the person into his arms and make that person belong to him forever. Why did he suddenly fall to this point?
The demonic energy was still invading the man’s internal organs. The demon pill in his body, which had already had countless cracks, could not resist the erosion of the demonic energy and completely shattered.
At the moment when the demon pill shattered, Ning Yizhou let out a painful beast roar. The man was lying on the ground with his hair disheveled and in a mess. He raised his head again, and his face was no longer as handsome as before. Instead, it turned into a weird face with obvious tiger features.
At this moment, the man on the ground had red eyes, his face was covered with tiger stripes, and his round tiger ears had grown out of his hair. Behind him was a white tiger tail, waving like a long whip, and it cracked a large rock beside him. The sharp nails extending from the five fingertips were also deeply embedded in the stone wall.