Chapter 38: A Skilled U-Turn on the Spot

Ning Xuan quickly glanced at Immortal Aunt Yaozhen and said concisely, “Scout the way.”

He had to determine whether there were any human skin soldiers around.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen explained seriously, “This kind of magic is called a mountain barrier. It uses dragon qi to form a mountain body. You and I are in the mountain. Any existence that wants to touch us has to pass through this dragon qi mountain. Every step is like the soul carrying a huge rock. The closer you get, the greater the resistance. I have cast two in a row, and I have no spare power to cast the earth-surveying technique.”

Ning Xuan glanced at the black qi outside and said, “Withdraw mine. Next time, don’t say so much. Just say you have no spare power.”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was a little angry. She was explaining seriously. In the imperial capital, no one spoke to her in this tone. She was clearly as light as a cloud and as light as the wind, and self-sufficient in her purity. Why did this young man always make her angry with his words?

Ning Xuan looked at her strangely and said, “How about… I take back the second half of my sentence?”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen’s thoughts were seen through, but Ning Xuan’s words were still infuriating. She couldn’t figure out what was so infuriating about them for a moment, so she suppressed her temper and replied briefly, “Alright.”

Immediately, the scale of the golden mountain was halved. Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was still in the mountain, but Ning Xuan was directly exposed.

The black smoke found that the target was exposed, like a man-eating shark that had smelled blood in the deep sea. The resentful human faces, dragging their long tails of black smoke, suddenly paused for a moment, and then rushed towards Ning Xuan like crazy.

But it was like rain falling on a pond. It hit Ning Xuan’s body and created ripples, but it couldn’t do anything.

The power of these human faces was really minimal. If they couldn’t drill into the human body through the acupoints and gnaw on the flesh and blood, they were just a pile of trash.

It was fine before, but now it was close to the center of the demon disaster.

Seeing that Ning Xuan was still like this, Immortal Aunt Yaozhen showed a look of surprise and thought to herself, ‘He seems to be quite capable.’

She did not stop.

A first-grade Heavenly Master could only cast one magic at a time.

A second-grade could cast two at the same time.

She used the [Mountain Barrier] to protect herself, and then cast [Earth Surveying].

Her eyes instantly turned white, the white of a blind person, and her expression was indifferent.

She entered a mysterious state. Her vision could reach more than ten li in the surrounding area, and she could look down on the earth from a perspective in the clouds.

Ning Xuan’s thoughts fell on the “flying knife magic treasure” in his bosom, and then he stood next to Immortal Aunt Yaozhen and began to protect her with all his might, so as not to be sneak-attacked while she was casting the spell.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen began to observe quickly.

She saw the vast forest.

She saw the official road that snaked like a snake in the moonlight between the forests.

She saw the human skin demons walking on the official road.

She quickly changed her line of sight. She saw a place where black smoke was rolling, and saw a bonfire “burning.”

But the “burning” of the bonfire was emitting light and heat, while this thing was constantly spewing out black smoke. After these black smoke came from it, they let out strange cries that were like laughing and crying, and then flew away quickly.

She wanted to see the bonfire clearly, but she found that it was just a mass of “burning black.”

The blackness even blocked the investigation of the dragon qi.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was shocked.

This situation was unprecedented.

The Heavenly Master’s [Earth Surveying] technique was completed with the help of dragon qi, and every inch of this land was under the control of dragon qi.

To put it simply, with her as the center, everything within a radius of more than ten li could not escape her eyes. As long as she wanted to see, she could even see what every household was doing, and even if they were hiding in a secret room, they could not escape her eyes.

But her eyes, which could see through walls, could not see through this mass of black bonfire.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was thinking of a way. Suddenly, she saw a huge black shadow moving forward in the black mist. The black shadow was carrying a sharp-angled saber, but the “human-faced black smoke” did not attack it.

With another look, Immortal Aunt Yaozhen saw clearly that the black shadow was a sheep demon.

It had the shape of a sheep and a black mane, and its mane was like steel thorns. It stood on two hooves, and its steps were light.

It was a sheep demon!

The sheep demon walked faster and faster, carrying the “human-faced black smoke” with it, like a general leading an army on an expedition. One moment it was dozens of zhang away, and the next moment it had quickly floated closer, and its direction was towards the two of them.

Wherever the sheep demon went, figures shot out from the dense forest next to it and walked with it, gradually converging into a black tide.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen recognized these figures. They were either demonic plague Taoist boys, or elite martial artists, or people from the martial world… but there was no doubt that since they could walk with the “human-faced black smoke” without being attacked, they had obviously all become human skin demons.

She looked at this scene and felt that it was inexplicably familiar.

She didn’t have time to think carefully. She withdrew from [Earth Surveying] and immediately looked at Ning Xuan who was close by, “There is a sheep demon, leading a lot of powerful human skin demons. Those human skin demons should have been our elites before they died.”

Ning Xuan said, “Did you see thousands of soldiers?”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “No, I didn’t.”

Ning Xuan said, “I’ll try something. If it’s not right, I’ll rush to you, and you immediately grab me and escape with earth-遁 (dì dùn – earth escape).”

The “earth-遁 (dì dùn – earth escape)” of a second-grade Heavenly Master was instantaneous. Although the consumption of an instantaneous cast was great, it could still be used a few times, and for Ning Xuan, this was a life-saving divine skill.

He could fight if he wanted to, and run if he wanted to.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “Let’s fight first.”

Ning Xuan said, “Let’s try something first. If we can fight, we’ll fight.”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen thought for a moment and discussed seriously, “What if we could have won, but you tried something and fell into a disadvantage, and then got injured? Wouldn’t the original victory have turned into a defeat?”

Ning Xuan said angrily, “Then what if we couldn’t have won in the first place, and I tried something and completely confirmed it, and then you couldn’t immediately escape with earth-遁 (dì dùn – earth escape) because you were casting [Mountain Barrier] and other spells at the same time? Wouldn’t we have been completely wiped out?”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said unhappily, “General An Yuan, why do you have to boost others’ morale and lower your own?”

Ning Xuan said, “You say that again! When we get back, I’ll write a memorial to the throne, saying that as long as His Majesty issues a decree to let me sleep with you, I will be loyal to His Majesty!!”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen’s face turned red in an instant. She stammered, and then said angrily, “You… you… you stinking rogue! Why do you always say such things!”

Ning Xuan let out a long breath of turbid air and said, “Listen to me, get ready!”

This time, even if Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was unwilling, she still replied aggrievedly, “Alright, I’ll listen to you!”

She didn’t like this kind of “thinking about retreating before thinking about advancing” idea.

She was starting to regret it now.

What kind of daze was she in to have chosen this young man to assist and partner with.

She maintained the [Mountain Barrier] and at the same time prepared to cast [Earth Escape].

Ning Xuan gripped the Beast-Slaying Saber.

He couldn’t use the Bodhisattva golden body in front of Immortal Aunt Yaozhen, so his strongest attack was still Swallow’s Union.

In order to guard against these “human-faced black smoke” that could enter through any opening, he also couldn’t summon other constitution-type Heavenly Demon Records.

As he was thinking…

Swoosh!

A wind rose in the distance.

The forest outside the post station let out a strange laugh.

A huge, terrifying sheep’s head, along with rolling black smoke, swept towards Ning Xuan.

Ning Xuan focused his gaze.

Eh? A familiar demon.

Wasn’t this the sheep demon that had run away from Manfeng Mountain?

The sheep demon also saw the young man in front of it clearly.

It was immediately flustered, and it stopped laughing. Most of its ferocious energy was also gone. But on second thought, it felt that there was no problem.

Because now there were “human-faced black smoke.” These “human-faced black smoke” could completely tie down a martial artist. At that time, no matter how strong this martial artist was, he would not be able to do two things at once, dealing with the dense “human-faced black smoke” on one hand, and its attacks on the other.

But the next moment, it saw clearly again.

This young man was not entangled by any “human-faced black smoke.”

The black smoke hit his body, like rain hitting a pond, creating ripples, but it couldn’t hurt him in the slightest, let alone have any “binding” effect.

Ning Xuan grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.

He had already made a rough guess in his mind: the Incense-Stealing Mouse had most likely joined forces with the sheep demon, and had also united with some local demons, and then came here. These “human-faced black smoke” were very likely its doing.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen looked at him inexplicably. Before she could ask “what are you laughing at,” she saw a strange scene. The huge, terrifying sheep’s head that had come with the rolling black smoke suddenly turned around on the spot and rushed in the opposite direction at a speed faster than when it came.

Ning Xuan rushed towards Immortal Aunt Yaozhen and said quickly, “Get in front of it.”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen did not waste any words. A golden light surged, and she instantly appeared hundreds of zhang away.

The moment she appeared, the sheep demon was rushing over.

And when it saw Ning Xuan who had suddenly appeared in front of it, the sheep demon’s past memories were stirred up. It was so scared that its soul almost left its body, and it used its demonic art again and swept to the side with a swish.

A faint blue light suddenly flashed from Ning Xuan’s bosom.

Flying knife!

The flying knife with icy thorn patterns turned into a blue light and flashed past, slashing across the sheep demon’s left leg. The double explosive force exploded.

A sheep’s leg flew up in a cloud of blood.

Ning Xuan’s figure swept, and he grabbed the sheep’s leg. With a touch of fresh blood, he refined it in an instant, and his gaze swept over the information.

[Ghost Horn Goat]

[Constitution 3.0]

[Void and Reality Escape: Transform into black wind, hide the demon’s form, step on the void and tread on the real, confuse the eyes and disturb the mind.]

The sheep demon cried out miserably and continued to flee, limping. But the large loss of demon essence and blood had already made it unable to use [Void and Reality Escape].

It looked behind it in horror.

Those “human-faced black smoke” could not interfere with this young man at all.

It was both afraid and angry, “We are all demons, what on earth do you want?”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen looked at Ning Xuan in astonishment. She had checked, and there was no demonic aura on Ning Xuan.

Ning Xuan was not flustered at all, nor did he explain. He stared at it and spat out one word, “Run.”