Sang Zhi stared blankly at the figure standing in front of her.
She still maintained that incomplete seal for mutual destruction, yet her mind suddenly went blank with a buzzing sound.
Shen Ci… had truly come?
A minor cultivator who had spent half a month just to barely draw qi into his body and had not even crossed the threshold of the cultivation world.
Relying solely on a single long sword, he actually dared to stand before a peerless fierce creature of late-stage Foundation Establishment?
For a moment Sang Zhi did not know what she ought to say.
Should she say he was a peerless expert who hid his strength deeply, or that his heart was so large he did not even know how to write the character for death?
No. This was truly disastrous now!
If Shen Ci died here, the rebound of the red string that shared life and death, combined with the turbid qi that had already invaded her body, would mean she was certain to die today!
Sang Zhi immediately forcibly suppressed the intense pain in her meridians, dispersed the true essence at her fingertips, and supported herself against a nearby tree trunk to stand up.
She rapidly restrained all her true emotions and spoke in a tone laced with sobs.
“Shen… Shen Ci… you…”
Sang Zhi bit her lip, her eyes reddening, looking every bit like a young girl who had been thoroughly frightened.
She urgently shouted, “Hurry and leave this place! That monster is not something we can deal with. Just ignore me!”
Yet the Shen Ci ahead did not turn his head, nor did he perform any life-and-death parting drama as she had anticipated.
He merely stood in place, holding the sword and gazing forward.
At this moment Shen Ci’s heart carried a few traces of doubt.
The aura upon this monster’s body… was extremely familiar to him.
In that former era polluted by corpse miasma, the aura emitted by those cultivators who could not suppress the monsters within their bodies after being devoured… was somewhat similar.
It seemed that in essence they were all products twisted by the same power after pollution.
Only…
“Body as large as a hill, twin wings upon the back, even the outer skin keratinized into a hard shell similar to a magical treasure…” Shen Ci silently pondered in his heart.
Although the mutated cultivators of his previous life would also have their forms twisted, there was a great difference in external appearance compared to the monster before his eyes.
Had he not already severed the connection between the Nine Provinces and the divine corpse?
This turbid beast… exactly how had it been born?
Could it be that the residual will of that extraterritorial divine corpse had, during this period, given birth to a new species?
Or was it that this so-called hell had fused with some other thing he did not understand?
While Shen Ci was secretly analyzing, the turbid beast ahead also stopped walking.
It was carefully staring at the two people before it with those two eyes that flickered with red light.
The female human who had fallen by the tree had a withered aura and was already heavily injured, insufficient to fear.
But… the male human blocking the front.
The turbid beast somewhat irritably clawed at the ground.
Its intuition told it that although the interior of this male was completely empty, without any fluctuations of true essence sufficient to threaten it, and even his qi and blood were only at the level of a mortal.
Yet for some unknown reason, the other party merely standing there quietly actually gave it a feeling that made its heart palpitate!?
Shen Ci discovered that this turbid beast actually shook its head in a human-like manner.
What he did not know was that its thoughts were very simple.
Since it did not like this dangerous feeling, then thoroughly crush it!
Roar!
The turbid beast abruptly opened its giant maw. The twin wings upon its back began to vibrate. The gray fog was instantly torn apart by a violent wind.
A gray-black qi blade even thicker and more condensed than before chopped down toward Shen Ci’s head!
“Be careful!”
Sang Zhi cried out in alarm. This time she was truly somewhat panicked.
Weng!
The qi blade fiercely struck upon the golden light of the dharma form surrounding Shen Ci.
The golden light bestowed by the Hall Master of the Longevity Palace possessed defensive capability and easily blocked the opponent’s strike.
Yet the golden light had no source of energy. After one strike it clearly dimmed by a few degrees.
“Shen Ci! That is a late-stage Foundation Establishment monster. Its body is incomparably hard and difficult to injure with techniques. We are simply not its match!”
Sang Zhi urgently shouted from behind.
“While the golden light is still there, hurry and run back!”
Shen Ci turned his head and glanced at Sang Zhi.
The young girl’s face was deathly pale. Blood still remained at the corners of her mouth. Clearly her injuries were not light.
He could not hesitate any longer.
The dao methods of his previous life could not be displayed, and he knew nothing of the environment inside this hell.
Rashly starting a fight might attract even more terrifying existences.
Since that was the case… there was only one path left to choose.
Shen Ci decisively sheathed the long sword. His figure flickered and he instantly retreated to Sang Zhi’s side.
Before Sang Zhi could react.
Shen Ci bent down, passed his left hand under the crook of her knees, wrapped his right arm around her back, and directly lifted her horizontally into his arms.
A princess carry.
Without waiting for Sang Zhi to open her mouth, Shen Ci had already poured all the remaining pure spiritual energy within his body completely into the muscles and meridians of both legs.
Since the technique routes would not work, then use the most primitive and most brutal method to forcibly overdraft the physical body!
Doing this would bring terrifying explosive power of the flesh in a short time.
But the price was that afterward the meridians of both legs would certainly be severely damaged, and might even leave hidden dangers that affected the foundation of future cultivation.
Yet in this dead end before his eyes, Shen Ci simply could not care about so much.
Bang!
Shen Ci abruptly leaped forward. The earth beneath his feet was blasted into a deep pit by this force.
Holding Sang Zhi, he raced wildly toward the direction of Shen Cang Mountain.
“Eh?”
Sang Zhi, suddenly lifted up, was momentarily stunned.
She had already made her plans.
As long as Shen Ci retreated to support her, she would risk damaging her meridians to squeeze out another strand of true essence and carry Shen Ci upon her own back to escape.
After all, even if she was heavily injured, the physical foundation of a Foundation Establishment cultivator still remained.
Yet she had never expected that Shen Ci would, without a second word, directly lift her up!
Because of inertia her head knocked against Shen Ci’s chest.
“So hard…”
Sang Zhi suddenly felt a little dizzy.
This was the first time since her birth that she had been held in such an intimate posture by a man.
The young girl’s heartstring, at this moment, inexplicably skipped half a beat.
A trace of romantic and strange feeling quietly rose from the bottom of her heart.
Yet this feeling lasted less than two seconds before she forcibly suppressed it.
Have I gone mad!?
At a time like this, still thinking of these things!
“You… hurry and put me down!” Sang Zhi struggled a little in Shen Ci’s arms and said urgently, “You only have the first layer of Qi Refining. Carrying this burden that is me, you simply cannot outrun it!”
“Put me down. If we run separately there might still be a thread of life!”
She acted very realistically, her tone resolute.
But in reality what she thought in her heart was: You run so slowly that sooner or later you will be caught. Better to put me down so I can find a chance to lead it away and then escape!
Yet Shen Ci paid no attention to her struggles.
“Don’t move around. Conserve your strength.”
The moment the words fell, Shen Ci’s feet exerted force once more.
His speed actually rose by another segment!
Wind roared.
The ancient trees on both sides rapidly retreated in their vision.
Sang Zhi froze.
Shen Ci’s movement speed… was it not a little too fast?
So fast that she found it somewhat difficult to believe.
Rumble!
From behind, the turbid beast’s attacks arrived in succession.
Gray-black fog qi transformed into several long spears that sealed off Shen Ci’s path ahead.
“Be careful!” Sang Zhi subconsciously reminded him.
Shen Ci remained unruffled.
It was as if he had grown eyes upon his back. He easily avoided the turbid beast’s attacks.
This was the combat experience he had accumulated over a thousand years in the Nine Provinces.
Merely by listening to the wind to distinguish positions and by his keen perception of the changes in spiritual pressure within the air, he could detect the direction of the attacks from behind.
Shua!
He narrowly avoided the first beam of light.
Immediately afterward Shen Ci borrowed force from a tree trunk.
His figure rotated lightly in midair like a falling leaf and once more avoided the pincer attack of two strikes.
This set of movements flowed like clouds and water.
Sang Zhi lay in Shen Ci’s arms and was completely stunned.
She had originally thought that the turbid beast was toying with them and had not used its full strength.
Therefore she quietly released a strand of divine sense to probe behind.
The image fed back by the divine sense instantly enlarged her pupils.
The turbid beast behind was absolutely not toying with them!
Seeing that its attacks repeatedly missed, that monster had already been thoroughly enraged.
It smashed all the ancient trees along the way. Its twin wings flailed frantically. Its scarlet eyes were filled with brutality.
It… was chasing with all its strength from behind!
How was this possible?!
Sang Zhi’s brain crashed.
A cultivator of the first layer of Qi Refining.
Was actually, in speed and reaction, faintly suppressing a late-stage Foundation Establishment turbid beast that was in a rage?!
How could this be possible!
That was a difference of an entire major realm!
While her heart was shaken, Sang Zhi could not help raising her head and blankly looking at Shen Ci’s side profile.
The young man’s jawline was taut. Beads of sweat covered his forehead.
Yet his eyes were extremely focused, without even half a trace of fear toward death.
Looking at that clear and focused gaze that stared straight ahead…
At this moment Sang Zhi’s heart seemed to have been gently knocked by something.
***
Time flowed rapidly during the flight.
The sword-mark markers Shen Ci had left along the way played their role at this moment, guiding him along the shortest route to approach the barrier at the outer perimeter of Shen Cang Mountain.
Not long after.
The surrounding gray fog began to thin. One could faintly see that gray barrier of Shen Cang Mountain that connected heaven and earth.
Almost there!
Yet just at this moment the golden light of the dharma form upon Shen Ci’s body could no longer hold on.
Crack…
The golden light continually flickered and could dissipate at any time.
And the turbid beast behind that had been unable to catch up to the two people seemed also to sense that its prey was about to escape. It let out an earth-shaking roar.
Roar!!!
The turbid beast opened its giant maw. A dark-colored bead appeared inside.
It had brought out its lethal trump card.
Then that bead transformed into a streak of dark light that, at a speed several times faster than before, instantly pierced through the void!
The speed of this strike was truly too fast—so fast that Shen Ci’s body did not even have time to make a dodging motion.
Puchi!
The dark light easily pierced through the teetering golden light of the dharma form upon Shen Ci’s back, then slammed heavily into his back.
“Ugh!”
Shen Ci grunted dully. His face instantly turned as pale as paper.
A large mouthful of fresh blood sprayed from his mouth and scattered upon Sang Zhi’s face.
That impact force caused Shen Ci to lose his balance.
He subconsciously loosened the arms holding Sang Zhi so that the two of them would not suffer heavier injuries by remaining locked together.
Bang!
The two heavily smashed onto the ground and, following inertia, rolled several circles down the slope until they crashed into a rock and finally stopped.
“Shen Ci!”
Sang Zhi disregarded the pain upon her own body and immediately flipped over to rise.
A never-before-seen ferocity had been added to the bottom of her heart.
Since the barrier was right before their eyes, this monster could not be left alive!
At worst she would expose her strength and instantly kill it, then erase all traces in this area, and afterward explain to Shen Ci that some kind of protective magical treasure had saved them!
Sang Zhi’s fingers once more formed a seal.
True essence of middle-stage Foundation Establishment surged frantically within her body as she prepared to deliver a lethal strike to that turbid beast.
Yet at the very moment she prepared to act.
In the gray fog not far away that turbid beast resembling a small mountain stopped walking.
It stood less than thirty zhang from the two of them and actually looked ahead with extreme wariness.
Sang Zhi turned her head to look and instantly understood.
It was wary of the faintly visible barrier of Shen Cang Mountain behind the two of them.
Very soon the turbid beast paced two steps in place. After weighing the pros and cons it finally let out an unwilling low roar.
It glanced at Shen Ci who lay unable to rise upon the ground, then flapped its wings and rapidly left this place.
It ran away?
Sang Zhi looked in the direction where the turbid beast disappeared and was slightly stunned.
The crisis seemed to have temporarily been lifted.
She immediately turned around and, rolling and crawling, ran to Shen Ci’s side.
“Shen Ci! How are you? Don’t scare me…”