Three burly men emerged from the forest. Their faces bore a striking family resemblance, making it clear that they were related, though Xu Ziqing could not tell whether they were brothers or some other kind of kin.
Xu Ziqing studied them discreetly. They carried not only dense baleful auras but also a heavy stench of blood. Greed shone in their eyes, and there was something unmistakably sinister about their bearing. They could hardly be kindhearted people.
Yun Lie’s eyes turned cold. “Wicked demonic path.”
Xu Ziqing frowned. So that was it.
The instant they emerged, the three spotted the martial brothers. The man in front licked his lips, his gaze traveling brazenly over Xu Ziqing. “Heh, heh… What a tender little thing…”
Xu Ziqing shuddered in disgust under that intrusive stare. He took a step back and swept out a line of spiritual light, blocking the obscene intent directed toward him.
His revulsion only deepened.
Before he could act, Yun Lie’s keen senses caught the insult. Golden light flashed between his brows, and a strand of cold sword intent shot toward the speaker. His aura locked onto the man with murderous precision.
The burly man reacted swiftly. Seeing sword intent slash toward him, he raised a golden gong and struck it. A powerful sound wave surged out to meet the attack.
With a thunderous crash, the sound wave was destroyed. Most of the sword intent dissipated too, but the remainder shattered the man’s forearm.
“Big Brother!”
“Big Brother, be careful!”
The other two shouted. They had not expected Yun Lie to be so powerful that their elder brother could be hurt despite responding in time.
The eldest gave a harsh laugh, a savage gleam passing over his eyes. “Sword intent… Such fierce killing intent! So you’re that reckless brat from years ago!”
The other two men’s eyes reddened at once.
“Big Brother, is this the sword cultivator who killed our four younger brothers?”
“Third Brother, Big Brother would never mistake him. It must be Yun Lie of the Wuling Immortal Sect!”
In an instant, dark demonic energy surged around all three.
“We Seven Demons of Hushan were once feared throughout the land. Now only three remain, all thanks to this wretch Yun!” the eldest snarled. “He killed our brothers so cruelly, and now he’s protecting his little sweetheart!”
The other two joined in.
“He killed our brothers. Today he’s fallen into our hands!”
“Yun, you wretch! Had you remained inside the Wuling Immortal Sect, we could do nothing. But you’ve dared enter this secret realm and encountered us. We’ll offer your life in vengeance for our poor brothers!”
The three advanced together, leaving no more room for words.
Yun Lie was utterly unruffled. Holding his spirit sword, he stepped forward to meet them.
In the next instant, all four were fighting fiercely, every move carrying deadly intent.
Xu Ziqing alone stood outside the battle. Yun Lie had already swept him several zhang backward with a movement of his sleeve.
Xu Ziqing was shaken.
There was no mistaking it. His senior brother had encountered old enemies!
His anger at the eldest demon’s offensive remarks gave way to intense concern for Yun Lie.
The Seven Demons of Hushan did indeed have reason to hate him.
Several decades earlier, the Seven Demons had dominated an entire commandery. All seven were Golden Core demonic cultivators and blood brothers. With no one willing to oppose them, they tyrannized local people, massacring families and terrorizing entire communities.
They were not merely murderous. They abused their power to prey on attractive men and women, abducting people regardless of whether they were cultivators or mortals.
Golden Core perfected masters were exceedingly powerful. Body-refining demonic cultivators in particular possessed formidable physical strength, which made their captives all the more helpless.
Their victims suffered appallingly. Cultivators were sometimes stripped of vital essence, killed, and subjected to cruel soul-refining arts. Mortal victims often could not survive even a single violent assault. The youngest particularly targeted mortal men and women, reveling when his victims’ blood splashed over his body and face.
The demons’ crimes were monstrous.
But the Seven Demons of Hushan were also cunning. They avoided disciples of powerful sects so that Nascent Soul ancestors would not pay them much attention. Whenever talented young disciples from those sects accepted missions to eradicate them, the demons refused direct battle and fled too swiftly to be tracked.
As a result, they escaped justice for years.
All of that changed when Yun Lie descended the mountain to gain experience.
By then, Yun Lie had comprehended sword intent and become powerful enough to contend with Golden Core opponents despite his own lower cultivation. Passing through the commandery one day, he discovered that four younger members of the Seven Demons were attacking a ninth-rank sect.
He sensed the concentration of demonic energy and went to investigate. There, the Fourth and Fifth Demons were tearing through the sect’s cultivators with demonic techniques while the Sixth and Seventh were sexually assaulting two captive female cultivators.
Cries of grief rose everywhere. Other disciples watched in despair, too weak to resist.
The Fourth Demon was particularly savage, attacking a frail elderly Golden Core cultivator and feeding upon his blood. A younger Golden Core cultivator battled the Fifth Demon but could barely withstand him, let alone assist the others.
If nothing changed, the entire sect would be destroyed.
And it was far from the first sect to suffer such a fate.
Yun Lie did not know the full extent of the Seven Demons’ crimes. But the scene before him sent his killing intent soaring. His sword intent swept across the attackers, and his first strike severed the Sixth Demon’s head, stopping the assault on a captive woman. The body remained in motion for an instant as the head fell and blood sprayed.
The sudden attack shocked everyone.
The female cultivator who had been attacked was the first to recover. Despite her disheveled state, she seized her flying sword and struck repeatedly at the fallen demon’s remains, crying, “He deserved it! Good riddance!”
Her grief and rage roused the other disciples.
Seeing a powerful sword cultivator arrive to help them, the people of the ninth-rank sect regained their courage. Prepared to fight to the death, they resisted with renewed determination.
The remaining demons were beside themselves over the loss of their brother. Abandoning their attacks on the sect’s disciples, they turned to surround Yun Lie.
However, the young Golden Core cultivator continued to hold off the Fifth Demon despite his injuries, leaving the other two to attack Yun Lie from either side. Neither imagined that this young man, clearly only at Core Transformation, could kill them in a direct battle.
The younger demons had not cultivated for long, and all were merely at early Golden Core. The Seventh had only just formed his Golden Core. His elder brothers had taken him to destroy this sect as a celebration, treating the attack as entertainment.
After doing so much evil, they finally met their reckoning.
Yun Lie was only at Core Transformation, but he had sword intent. Fighting through his own injuries, he killed the two demons who surrounded him, then assisted the younger Golden Core cultivator. Before long, the final attacker had also been slain.
The ninth-rank sect had narrowly escaped destruction. Its survivors wanted to thank Yun Lie, but he did not linger. He simply turned and left.
By the time the three elder demons learned their brothers had died, the little sect had fled to an unknown location. When the demons finally discovered Yun Lie’s identity, he had already left that commandery, finished his journey, and returned to his own sect.
The Wuling Immortal Sect was enormous. Although the three surviving demons had reached middle or late Golden Core, how could they dare challenge such a formidable institution?
Thus, they suppressed their hatred for decades.
Over the years, the three cultivated bitterly, refined numerous demonic techniques, and greatly increased their strength. All of them eventually reached the peak of late Golden Core.
They had entered this secret realm hoping to obtain treasures that would strengthen them enough to seek revenge against Yun Lie.
They had never expected to encounter their enemy immediately after emerging from the forest.
The surviving demons constantly followed news of Yun Lie and knew he had formed his Golden Core. But they assumed he had reached only early Golden Core and could not possibly match three enemies at the peak of late Golden Core.
Now that the hated enemy stood before them, their decades of resentment flared uncontrollably.
Xu Ziqing did not know all these details, but he could infer a little from the three men’s words. He could only protect himself carefully, lest the demons capture him and use him against his senior brother.
His eyes never left the four people fighting.
Black light flashed in the three demons’ hands, and each produced a demon-subduing vajra pestle, striking heavily toward Yun Lie.
The pestles were dark blue-black, and every blow released a deep black radiance streaked with blood-red light, giving them a sinister appearance.
Originally, a demon-subduing vajra pestle was a Buddhist instrument for subduing evil. But the demons had evidently refined theirs in some strange way, turning them into demonic artifacts. One might as well remove ‘subduing’ from their name.
More frightening still, the three demons’ movements brought their pestles into repeated contact. Whenever the weapons struck one another, the wrathful Buddha heads carved at their ends grew more imposing. Thick black smoke poured from their mouths, quickly shrouding all three demons and Yun Lie.
Yun Lie’s spirit sword rang out against the vajra pestles. His footwork and every movement were crisp and precise, his killing aura astonishing. Yet the smoke remained unaffected, growing ever denser beneath the weapons’ demonic light.
Outside the battle, Xu Ziqing became increasingly anxious.
By the end, the smoke had turned pitch black, almost as though it were alive.
When he tried to send in his spiritual sense, it was immediately driven back.