The outer perimeter of Wuwang Cliff.
Sang Zhi stood alone before the faint-golden formation barrier.
She kept staring toward the south, her brows tightly locked.
That terrifying tremor just now had transmitted here clearly even across more than half of Shen Cang Mountain.
Sang Zhi of course did not know it was the self-destruction procedure the Demon Gate had activated to erase traces.
She only knew that something major had most likely happened on Shen Cang Mountain.
The Demon Gate might already have struck ahead of schedule.
But the only thing she cared about now was that one person’s safety.
Shen Ci… you must not have anything happen to you.
The girl prayed silently in her heart.
Originally, for a predator like her who regarded human lives as grass.
A weak word like “pray” should not have appeared in her dictionary.
But now she could only use this mortal method to suppress the panic constantly churning in her heart.
Before long several figures swiftly swept out from the mountain forest not far away.
Four people in all.
They all wore gray robes meant to conceal the eyes, their steps light, their actions hidden.
Sang Zhi instantly saw that person.
It was… a person held up between two demonic cultivators.
He hung his head as if he had fallen unconscious.
That familiar build, that outer-courtyard dao robe of Shen Cang Mountain, and that half of a face exposed outside the shadow…
It was Shen Ci!
Sang Zhi’s heart gave a violent jump. Joy and heartache rushed into her mind at the same time.
She instinctively wanted to release her divine sense to probe the other party’s condition and see whether he was injured.
Yet the moment her divine sense drew near, it was bounced away by a barrier.
These few demonic cultivators were all Foundation Establishment, and they had used some isolating tool on this “Shen Ci,” sealing all his aura so tightly that one could not probe the truth.
Sang Zhi’s heart tightened. She immediately tried to sense the red string on her wrist.
So long as the red string still reacted, it meant Shen Ci’s vital signs were stable.
But…
The causality line in her sea of consciousness was at this moment like a pool of still water. No feedback came at all.
It was as if the connection had been forcibly pinched off.
Sang Zhi’s face paled for an instant.
She thought it was that the Demon Gate people had used some secret art and thoroughly blocked the red string’s sensing.
How could she know that in a dead angle of sight less than a hundred zhang from her.
The true Shen Ci, draped in the gray-feather cloak, was standing there quietly.
He was circulating the Spirit-Sealing Art, completely cutting his own aura off from this stretch of heaven and earth, and incidentally using divine sense to forcibly block the red string’s sensing feedback.
He looked at that “himself” being held up by the demonic cultivators, the corner of his mouth hooking into an arc of interest.
This “Skin-Painting” grand play had finally begun.
Sang Zhi forcibly pressed down the agitation in her heart and looked at the demonic cultivators opposite her with an icy gaze.
“I have seen the person.” Sang Zhi said coldly. “As agreed, I open a gap in the formation of Wuwang Cliff for you, and you let the person go.”
The leading demonic cultivator stepped forward, looking at the other party with a teasing gaze.
“Little girl, you seem to have gotten one thing wrong.”
The demonic cultivator spread his hands and spoke unhurriedly.
“What we want is not merely for you to open a gap. What we want is the Wuwang Cliff central jade token in your hand.”
Hearing this, Sang Zhi’s gaze abruptly grew sharp.
“You are dreaming?”
“In the agreement I only needed to cooperate with you in entering Wuwang Cliff. When did I ever say I would hand the jade token over to you?”
The central jade token was the core that controlled the entire grand formation of Wuwang Cliff.
Handing over the jade token was equal to handing over her trump card and her life.
“Hahaha…”
That demonic cultivator suddenly burst into loud laughter.
“Little girl, you are far too naive.”
“If you do not hand the formation’s control authority over to us, the moment we step into Wuwang Cliff you will manipulate the formation behind us, shut the door and beat the dog, and suppress and kill us all inside…”
“Then would we… not die too unjustly?”
The demonic cultivator put away his smile and spoke in a grim tone.
“Without this layer of guarantee we will absolutely not go in. Hand over the jade token, otherwise…”
“We can only take this brat back with us. As for whether he lives or dies, that is hard to say.”
With that, a demonic cultivator beside him deliberately pinched “Shen Ci’s” neck hard.
“Stop!”
Sang Zhi spoke through clenched teeth. Fury burned in her chest.
These demonic cultivators were indeed insidious and cunning, not easy to fool.
She had originally planned that after exchanging Shen Ci back, if these people dared make any small move, she would directly use the jade token’s authority to wring them to death.
Now it seemed the other party had long been on guard.
Reason told her that handing over the jade token would mean losing the support of Wuwang Cliff’s formation, and there was still danger.
But… looking at that “Shen Ci” hanging his head, life and death unknown.
Looking at that face, that body she had sworn to raise ripe… now being roughly seized in someone else’s hands.
She could not watch him die.
Absolutely not.
“Fine…”
Sang Zhi drew a deep breath.
“I can give you the jade token.”
“But I want the person in one hand and the jade token in the other. And we cannot trade here.”
The demonic cultivator’s brows furrowed. “What trick are you trying to pull now?”
Sang Zhi gave a cold laugh.
“Just now Shen Cang Mountain’s south made such a huge commotion. The Longevity Palace must already be in chaos, counting heads and checking every node.”
“Wuwang Cliff is of the utmost importance. Patrolling deacons may arrive here at any time.”
“We are standing on this bare cliff edge. It is too conspicuous. For safety’s sake, we go a little farther in and trade in that jumble of rocks over there.”
Sang Zhi pointed to a region of clustered rocks on the flank of Wuwang Cliff.
That place was indeed more concealed, and it did not fall within the coverage of Wuwang Cliff’s formation.
The several demonic cultivators looked at one another, half believing, half doubting.
But after weighing it, they felt Sang Zhi’s proposal was indeed reasonable.
Shen Cang Mountain had just experienced a great earthquake. Trading in a conspicuous place at this time was indeed easy to expose.
Moreover, the jumble of rocks was not inside the formation. Even if Sang Zhi had the jade token she could not pull any tricks.
“Fine. We will follow you.”
The demonic-cultivator leader nodded.
Then the several of them held “Shen Ci” up and followed Sang Zhi toward the jumble of rocks on the flank.
In the process of moving, the demonic-cultivator leader walking at the very front did not notice.
That “fake Shen Ci” who had been hanging his head the whole time, pretending to be in deep coma, quietly opened his eyes in the shadow.
He covertly exchanged a glance with the leader of the group.
Then he closed his eyes again without a ripple and continued to play dead.
And this scene naturally did not escape the eyes of the true Shen Ci in the dark.
Shen Ci understood in his heart.
This fellow disguised as him was by no means some random lackey they had found.
To occupy such a leading position among several Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators…
This could only be that legendary Left Protector with peak Foundation Establishment cultivation, personally taking the field.
The Demon Gate’s Left Protector, though Shen Ci did not know what rank he was, had actually put down his face and personally put on a human-skin mask to deceive a female disciple who on the surface was at Qi Refining.
Truly they would stop at nothing to achieve their goal.
Soon both sides arrived in the depths of the jumble of rocks.
The two sides stopped with about ten zhang of distance between them.
“This will do.”
Sang Zhi took that warm, moist central jade token from her robes and held it up.
“I will count to three. I throw the jade token over, and you push the person over.”
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three!”
The instant the words fell, Sang Zhi threw the jade token into midair without the slightest hesitation.
Opposite, the two demonic cultivators also shoved the “Shen Ci” in their hands hard forward.
The jade token traced a parabola through the air and landed steadily in the demonic-cultivator leader’s hand.
And that “Shen Ci” stumbled toward Sang Zhi.
Sang Zhi’s heart was instantly filled with boundless joy.
Her treasure was finally safe and sound.
She instinctively opened her arms, preparing to embrace the person who was about to fall into her hold.
In the instant the two of them were about to touch.
Because she cared to the extreme, Sang Zhi instinctively probed over with her divine sense again, wanting to confirm whether there were hidden injuries inside the other party’s body.
This time, because the distance was very close, that tool used to isolate probing lost its effect.
Divine sense swept across the other party’s body with ease.
Yet.
The instant she perceived the other party’s aura, Sang Zhi’s pupils contracted violently.
Wrong!
This was not Shen Ci!
This aura…
This was not her possession at all!
“You—”
Astonishment had only just surged into her heart. The words in her mouth had not yet been spat out.
A sudden change occurred.
That “Shen Ci” who a second ago had still been so weak he seemed about to collapse at any moment snapped his eyes open.
Right after, his right hand rose swiftly. A mass of dark-red demonic qi compressed to the extreme gathered in his palm.
Without half a sliver of hesitation he slammed it hard toward Sang Zhi’s abdomen!
This palm he had planned for a long time. Though he was facing a Qi Refining disciple, the other party might still have some life-saving trump card given by a Shen Cang Mountain elder.
So for this palm he used ten-tenths of his strength, lest an accident occur.
In his calculation, at such a close distance, and it being a sneak attack.
This palm was enough to instantly shatter the dantian of the ninth-layer Qi Refining female disciple before him and kill her on the spot!
Yet.
He had miscalculated one thing.
On this Shen Cang Mountain, those who liked to disguise themselves were not only him.
In the instant of life-and-death crisis, Sang Zhi’s instinct as an inheritor of the Devouring Great Dao was thoroughly activated.
A few days ago at the Immortal-Guiding Festival, the White Jade Capital had sent down blessing spiritual energy. Though it had made Shen Ci cough blood, Sang Zhi had accepted it all.
Relying on that refined spiritual energy, her true cultivation had long since broken through the bottleneck and crossed into late-stage Foundation Establishment.
In a flash of lightning.
Sang Zhi had no time to dodge at all, yet a heart-quailing dark spiritual power erupted from inside her body.
That spiritual power gathered at her abdomen like a black hole and hard-met that fatal palm.
Bang—!
Violent air waves smashed the surrounding boulders to powder.
Though Sang Zhi had reacted in time, it was after all sudden. She had not used her full strength.
Under the clash of the two forces she gave a muffled grunt. Her whole person was blasted away like a kite with a cut string.
She tumbled several times in midair and smashed heavily onto a rock. A smear of blood overflowed from the corner of her mouth.
The several demonic cultivators in the distance saw this scene and all revealed savage grins.
The demonic-cultivator leader who had obtained the jade token could not help mocking.
“What a stupid woman!”
“She actually thought that after handing over the jade token we would let her live and go back?”
“Little girl, remember in your next life. Trust anyone, but never trust your enemy!”
He glanced at Sang Zhi lying in the ruins, life and death unknown, and turned his head in disdain.
“Good. The jade token is in hand. The obstacle is removed.”
“Let’s go. We enter now…”
“Form the array!”
A violent shout suddenly interrupted these pleased demonic cultivators.
It was the “fake Shen Ci” standing in place who had shouted it.
His face was extremely ugly. His right arm was still trembling slightly.
In the instant of that collision just now, he had felt that what he struck was not the flesh of a Qi Refining cultivator, but an iron plate.
The force that rebounded nearly damaged his meridians.
“That woman is not dead! Form the array at once!”
The Left Protector no longer hid his true voice and roared loudly.
At these words.
Those several demonic cultivators froze at once.
They instinctively drew their artifacts and closed toward the Left Protector, yet each of them was somewhat astonished, somewhat unable to believe it.
How was it possible?
The Left Protector was a powerhouse at the peak of Foundation Establishment!
How could a palm he had gathered strength for so long fail to kill a Qi Refining female disciple?
Just as they were puzzled and uncomprehending.
In the pile of jumbled rocks.
A hand stained with a little dust suddenly groped out from between the rubble.
Then Sang Zhi slowly stood up.
She wiped away the blood at the corner of her mouth. Her gaze became colder than it had ever been.
She looked at that man wearing Shen Ci’s face, listened to the unfamiliar voice coming from his mouth, felt the nauseating demonic qi radiating from his body…
Daring to use his face to deceive me.
Daring to use him to set a trap.
Unforgivable.
Unforgivable!!
In an instant the girl’s disguise was all stripped away.
The violent pressure belonging to late-stage Foundation Establishment, and that terrifying killing intent, were fully revealed.
“You people…”
“All have to die.”