Chapter 83: Stirring of the Demons

In the depths of a dense forest, dead branches lay strewn about while dappled shafts of sunlight slipped through the leaves, falling upon a band of battered travelers. The last glow of the sun gilded the blood on their bodies and threw it back from the broken weapons lying at their feet, lending everything a cold, oppressive blue-black hue. Against the dark forest backdrop, the scene was one of bleak violence and desolation.

At their head stood a man gripping a curved saber. Though lean, he had the bearing of a pine braced against frost and snow, his whole frame still radiating a fierce and imposing vigor. Yet at this moment, even this hardy man could not conceal the worry and weariness on his face. Standing upon the hillside, unable to see far through the thick growth around him, he kept turning to look behind them.

Behind him stood a troop of elite riders. Though every face was weathered by wind and hardship, none could hide the vitality within. Their armor was all torn and battered, flecked with scattered beads of blood. The fine steel weapons in their hands flashed now and then at the narrow passes of the mountains, while the grips were blackened by bruised, dark blood, giving off a faint stench of iron. It was plain to see that this was a force that had just been through battle.

From the indifferent way they looked at the corpses of several fallen comrades on the ground around them, it was clear that such brutal fighting was not new to them. Life and death had perhaps become commonplace.

As the group fell into silence, the leading man’s expression suddenly changed. He tightened his grip on his saber and signaled for caution. In the blink of an eye, everyone vanished from the exposed ridge.

Not long after, the foliage stirred, and a man in purple sprang out of the forest. He only paused briefly before choosing a direction and preparing to dash forward.

"Purple Sand! How is it?" The lean man leapt from concealment and blocked the purple-clad man’s way.

Purple Sand started slightly, then saw that one familiar old brother after another was emerging from hiding. He exhaled in relief and answered, "Brother Ren, the spotted leopard beast that was tracking us has been led away by Brother Hu. My elder brother is still behind us erasing the tracks left by the caravan, and he will catch up soon."

"This place is steep and treacherous, with beasts everywhere. My brother told me not to wait for him, but to cooperate with you and leave at once, so the caravan ahead will not run into any more danger. Once we reach Heaven Net Stronghold, we will have nothing to fear."

The lean man was naturally Ren Tang, the chief escort of the merchant caravan from the Uzan Kingdom. The purple-clad speaker was the younger of the Purple-clad Twin Fiends, while the Brother Hu they mentioned was none other than Hu San, who had left the Wolf Fang Mountain stronghold.

By now, more than three months had passed since they had departed from Wolf Fang Mountain Stronghold. What had been expected to be a smooth journey had instead taken a sudden turn for the worse. No one knew why, but while the mountain strongholds along the route gave them no trouble, great numbers of beasts had suddenly appeared in the forests between them.

Though few of these beasts had formed demon cores, their ferocity was already considerable, and some had awakened rudimentary intelligence. The leader among them possessed strength no less formidable than that of a first-rate martial expert.

The medicinal herbs and rare treasures gathered by the Kingdom of Uzan could not possibly escape their noses. Thus began a relentless pursuit that had dragged on for a long time.

By now, they were close to the exit of the Qilian Mountains, yet here they had unexpectedly encountered another leopard fiend. Though this creature had not yet formed a demon core, its power was already enough to contend with a ninth-tier master of vital force. If Hu San had not lured it away, there might by now not be a single living soul left in the caravan.

"You mean Brother Hu lured it away? I wonder how he fares now. I only hope nothing has happened to him. Though Brother Hu is gifted beyond measure, his cultivation is still shallow. That leopard fiend may well be able to threaten even the very strongest masters, yes?"

The lean man sighed, then added, "To be honest, if not for Brother Hu accompanying us this time, I doubt the two of us would have been able to return safely to Uzan."

"Brother Ren, Brother Hu is under heaven's protection, but we must not linger here. This is still that leopard fiend’s territory, and who knows whether it has accomplices? If anything goes wrong, would we not be betraying Brother Hu’s efforts?"

As Purple Sand spoke, he was about to continue when the forest rustled again. Another large man in purple shot out from within, panic plain across his face.

"Brother Ren, Purple Sand, why are you still here? Hurry and go! That leopard fiend is not alone. Just now, I discovered traces of several monsters no weaker than it. They only failed to see through the illusion array we set for a moment, but I fear it will not hold them for long. While the light still remains, we must leave at once."

This man was the elder of the Purple-clad Twin Fiends, Purple Star. At this moment, he had completely lost his usual composure, and even his purple lips were split with cracks.

"Go!"

At those words, Ren Tang hesitated no longer. The worry vanished from his face in an instant, and with a sweep of his hand he led everyone away swiftly. As for Hu San’s safety, there was nothing more they could do; he would have to trust to his own fortune.

At the other end of the forest, atop a high ridge, stood a sturdy young man in close-fitting riding clothes, with a massive bow of nine oxen on his back and an antique longsword at his waist. In a tiger-like crouch, he pressed both hands into the ground, his entire body suffused with a faint green radiance. Like some giant divine warrior from legend, the cords of his thick arms stood out like iron.

On closer inspection, one would see two great clots of green light at the ends of those iron arms, completely enveloping the young man’s fists. Beneath that glow lurked a savage spotted leopard, as large as two oxen.

Yet this beast, once exuding a murderous and fearsome aura, had long since lost its former majesty. Its broad, savage maw was pinned deep into the rock by the young man’s arms, driven in by eight or nine inches.

The ferocious leopard seemed to have no strength even to breathe. Only its four pillar-like claws spasmed and scraped against the stone, kicking up sprays of flying chips.

A moment later, the young man’s arm muscles suddenly tightened, and the green light clinging to them flared brighter still.

With a sharp crack, the leopard’s eyes bulged outward, its entire head utterly flattened and sunk deep into the boulder beneath it. After a violent tremor, it went still and silent; it was plainly dead beyond doubt.

Only then did the young man let out a breath. It was clear that the struggle with the leopard had not been as easy as it looked.

With a slight motion of his arm, the green light dispersed, revealing a dark gleam in his right hand: a fine black little sword. No one could tell how he had produced it. The black sword merely flicked lightly, and the bony ridge along the leopard’s neck, once as hard as stone, split cleanly in two, a blood line appearing at once.

The sound of bursting vessels rang out, and a stream of bright red blood gushed forth.

At this sight, a trace of satisfaction finally appeared on the young man’s otherwise grave face. With a shake of his arm, the black little sword vanished, and in its place appeared a white jade cup about the size of a human head. No one knew where he had hidden it before.

He brought the jade cup to the wound at the leopard’s neck and, while catching the blood, kept patting the creature’s chest and abdomen with his other hand. After a full quarter of an hour, the apparently enormous leopard had yielded only half a cup of blood. After that, no matter how the young man patted it, no more blood flowed from the corpse.

Yet judging by his expression, he was already quite satisfied with that half cup.

In the sunlight that slipped through the gaps in the leaves, one could clearly see that the crimson blood in the jade cup shimmered with tiny silver specks. As time passed, those specks seemed like bubbles in a dream, constantly bursting and reforming.

Needless to say, this young man was Hu San. By now he had reached the age of fourteen, and with his formidable physical strength, he looked every bit the young man he appeared to be.

During those three months on the road, Hu San had greatly broadened his horizons. Not only had he gained much in worldly experience, but his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds. Naturally, these gains were thanks to the beasts that had coveted the Uzan caravan along the way.

In truth, if Hu San had not secretly emerged again and again to deal with those lesser monsters, the Uzan caravan would likely have vanished into these mountains a month earlier.

By hunting the beasts they encountered along the way, Hu San had made remarkable progress. Not only had his cultivation of the Azure Wood Scripture advanced further, breaking through from the peak of the seventh level and stepping fully into the eighth level of vital force, but his physical strength had also surpassed the limit of fifteen men and reached a terrifying sixteen. Though this was only an increase of one man’s strength, it had greatly enhanced his overall combat ability.

Because of this, Hu San had been able to kill this leopard, whose power rivaled that of a top-tier vital force expert, without suffering a scratch, and at the same time harvest the maximum amount of essence blood from its heart. Had this been before, he would have had to rely on the power of the black sword to forcefully slay it, but in that case the quantity and quality of the essence blood would have been greatly diminished.

"Though it is not as good as the Wolf Demon Chieftain’s, or even the deer demon I first obtained, it is still the greatest harvest of the past year. More importantly, this is entirely intact essence blood from the heart, containing the beast’s many forms of demonic power. Even if refining it directly causes some loss, it will still greatly aid my cultivation as a whole."

Lifting the cup to his lips and taking a sip of the leopard’s fresh blood, Hu San quietly felt the comfortable warmth as the essence blood transformed within him, and could not help narrowing his eyes slightly.

With the mysterious inner space within his body, Hu San did not need to do as ordinary cultivators did and refine essence blood containing demonic power into pills before using it. He could transform it directly.

This meant that, although he could not absorb it as completely as he could with medicine pills, he avoided both the waste of the alchemical process and the loss of demonic power during storage.

Most importantly, it spared him the trouble of alchemy altogether.

Hu San, who had only recently come into contact with the world of cultivation, knew nothing at all about alchemy. Even so, judging from those legendary tales, it did not seem to be an easy craft to master.

After converting all the heat that had accumulated within him into Water Cloud Art power, Hu San drank down all the essence blood in the jade cup, then put the cup back into the hollow stone around his wrist. Only then did he sit cross-legged at once and begin to attack the barrier of the third level of Water Cloud Art.