Chapter 54: You Think You Can Leave Without Killing Us?

“Why is his aura so terrifying?”

“He’s just putting on a show. He’s the weakest of the three! Right now, the two strongest are resisting that overwhelming flood. He’s the only one who can spare any mind to deal with us.”

“For us, this is a heaven-sent opportunity!”

“He’s just a Qi Refining cultivator. Even if he can fight above his level, how strong can he really be? With so many of us swarming him, we’ll definitely chop him into meat paste!”

Although Xu Gu looked wreathed in demonic flames and hard to mess with at a glance—

As the saying goes, numbers give courage.

These cultivators were gamblers by nature. They were unwilling to let such a huge opportunity slip away before their eyes. With so many people, they were all fired up, blood boiling, killing intent sky-high.

“Hand over the Fallen Spirits and we’ll spare your lives!”

Each of them cast their spells. Spiritual light burst forth, demonic mists rolled out and swept in all directions, the spectacle astonishing. As their attacks fell, their threats followed close behind.

“Senior brother, be careful!”

Mi Suhui and Kong Haoran’s brows lifted slightly. They were about to split their attention to help Xu Gu fend off the enemies—

But Xu Gu stopped them.

“Thunder Ghosts Dance Together!”

Xu Gu flung out a Thunder-Summoning Talisman. At once, winds and clouds churned in the sky above as thunderclouds rolled, but the lightning running through them was unlike ordinary lightning—

Every stroke of thunder within those clouds emanated a chilling aura.

This was Yin lightning.

But instead of striking the charging cultivators, it fell upon the six artifact spirits summoned by the Netherworld Demon Staff.

These six artifact spirits were originally evil spirits, their baleful flames soaring to the heavens. After being struck by Yin lightning, not only did they take no damage, their auras surged instead. They became clad in armor of Yin lightning, gripping thunder in their hands, demonic might surging.

They easily blocked the first wave of attacks from the cultivators.

“That is… a Thunder-Summoning Talisman!”

“And a talisman that draws only Yin lightning!”

Such power was beyond their imagination.

Their offensive momentum slowed. They did not know why, but an ominous premonition suddenly rose in their hearts, as though some indescribable terror was enveloping their souls.

But even so, that should not be enough to deal with so many of them.

However—

The next moment, more than a dozen Thunder-Summoning Talismans appeared in Xu Gu’s hand and were all thrown out at once.

The thunderclouds expanded wildly, almost instantly forming a colossal millstone that rumbled and rolled, then expanded, then rolled again, expanding further—

Its power had reached a level beyond their understanding.

And the six Yin lightning-clad evil spirits they had assumed were Xu Gu’s main offensive did not pounce on them at all. They simply remained around Xu Gu, quietly guarding him, not allowing any cultivator or attack to reach him.

“Damn it! He actually used so many Yin lightning talismans!”

“Is he not afraid of losing control?”

“Does he want to die together with us?”

“That’s impossible. With so many Yin lightning talismans, if he doesn’t unleash them to kill us, he’ll be the first to die from backlash!”

Panic rose in the hearts of the cultivators. Their first round of attacks had been completely blocked by the evil spirits summoned by Xu Gu. Now that the thunderclouds had fully formed, they felt an unimaginable threat pressing down on them.

But they could not understand why Xu Gu would do this.

Talismans, magic treasures, and pills could all greatly boost combat strength—but only within limits. Once those limits were exceeded, one’s own control would collapse. Before killing the enemy, you would be killed by backlash.

“Screech, screech, screech!”

Just then, above Xu Gu’s head appeared the half-transparent gray spiritual form of a fox—exactly a Fallen Spirit manifested.

Fallen Spirits had no fixed shape. After being refined and bound to a master, their appearance was shaped by their master’s heart.

With its appearance, the surging Yin thunderclouds in the sky, which seemed on the verge of going berserk and slipping out of control, actually calmed down.

The function of a Fallen Spirit was to massively strengthen its master’s control over Yin and evil powers. That was why it was worth more than its weight in gold.

“No! A Fallen Spirit!”

“How did he refine a Fallen Spirit so quickly! How did he do it?”

“So many Thunder-Summoning Talismans, and all Yin lightning—plus he’s already refined a Fallen Spirit. He’s been calculating against us from the start!”

“Run!”

Their expressions changed drastically, pupils shrinking. Their bodies trembled as terror and despair flooded their faces. Unable to accept it, they hesitated not at all and all turned to flee.

They no longer spoke of seizing any treasure.

Yang lightning was enormously powerful, so the talismans commonly sold on the market were mostly Yang lightning. Yin lightning talismans were rare, because they only had special effects under certain conditions and were not something ordinary people would ever use in such large numbers.

But the Fallen Spirit Pool was a perfect place to use Yin lightning talismans.

With the help of a Fallen Spirit, it became possible to control so many Thunder-Summoning Talismans—enough to easily slaughter a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator.

One link after another—if that was not aimed directly at them, what was it?

Xu Gu watched everything with cold indifference, his expression always calm. He said faintly, “Perish.”

As his words fell—

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Countless bolts of Yin lightning descended from the sky.

Thunder pillars as thick as a man’s wrist came down like a rainstorm, densely packed, charged with ultimate destruction.

Screams rang out continuously, shrill and miserable.

All of the cultivators’ attacks were shattered in an instant. Then their bodies were struck head-on and exploded into pieces, flesh and blood flying.

The sight was terrifying to the extreme.

They wanted to flee, but this place was sealed off from heaven and earth—where could they run?

“Spare us…”

“We just wanted one Fallen Spirit, we meant no harm…”

“We do not deserve death!”

Pleas rose up. The cultivators had lost all their former arrogance, leaving only panic and despair.

But Xu Gu’s expression did not change in the slightest. “You still have the leisure to beg for mercy? It seems the power still isn’t enough.”

He fully urged the thunderclouds to grind down.

In an instant, the scene turned into a slaughterhouse. All the cultivators were smashed to powder by Yin lightning, dying on the spot, not one spared.

“This…”

The flood dragon, who was still resisting the flood and had been planning to split his attention to help Xu Gu a little and earn some credit, saw this and his pupils shrank in extreme horror.

He also felt a massive wave of lingering fear.

He had originally thought Xu Gu was the weakest of the three.

Now it was clear that Xu Gu was obviously the strongest of them, all right!

Even if his hard combat strength might not match Kong Haoran and Mi Suhui, those heavenly-spirit-root monsters, his soft power was overwhelmingly strong. His killing moves linked together one after another, truly terrifying, and he was far more ruthless, iron-blooded, and merciless than they were.

“So fast?”

Kong Haoran and Mi Suhui were equally shocked.

They were not amazed by Xu Gu’s world-shocking methods—they had already seen those. In fact, from start to finish, they had never considered the other cultivators’ attacks a threat at all.

They were stunned only because Xu Gu had managed to refine a Fallen Spirit so quickly.

They had also obtained Fallen Spirits themselves and knew how difficult they were to refine. Even with their astonishing talent, they would still need ten days to half a month.

With Xu Gu’s three-spirit-root aptitude, even with extraordinary comprehension, it should have taken at least several months or even years.

Xu Gu watched calmly as the souls of the dead cultivators twisted into vengeful spirits step by step, then turned and raised a hand, easily destroying the Tiger Cave and severing the link between the Dragon Pool and Tiger Cave, thus resolving the incoming flood. He then said calmly, “Refining a Fallen Spirit is not difficult.”

Kong Haoran’s heart stirred and he grew excited, asking earnestly, “How did you do it? Teach the two of us?”

“It’s very simple. Catch a Fallen Spirit, and in front of the others, ask it if it is willing to acknowledge you as its master,” Xu Gu said.

“That’s it? They wouldn’t agree, would they?” Mi Suhui said doubtfully.

“If it refuses, just kill it,” Xu Gu said in surprise. “What else would you keep it for? Then you ask the next one. If it refuses, you kill it again. Eventually one will agree. It’s not like I’m short on Fallen Spirits.”

Kong Haoran and Mi Suhui looked at each other and were silent for a long time.

With the righteous path and the Dashang Dynasty cracking down hard, it was extremely difficult to collect evil ghosts. Perhaps only demon heads with enormous perseverance like Redflame and Blueflame, rooted at the grassroots for eight hundred years straight, could gather so many.

So every single Fallen Spirit was a supreme treasure of the demonic path.

Who would use such a simple and brutal method? Probably only Xu Gu.

After all, he had raided the lair of Redflame and Blueflame and obtained over forty Fallen Spirits.

On the other side—

The various Demon Elders of the Demon Den were gathered together to discuss the next stage of development.

Then, quite naturally, everyone’s gaze fell on Blueflame and Redflame, sighing at their good fortune.

“With just a few Fallen Spirits, they solved all their problems and smoothly became the masters of the Pill Refining Peak.”

Everyone was green with envy.

“Heh heh, can’t be helped. Who let the two of us have such good luck?” Blueflame and Redflame chuckled. It really had been a lucky windfall for them.

Sending Xu Gu and the other two to fish—how many Fallen Spirits could they realistically catch? They were certain they would keep the lion’s share for themselves. At most, they would have to give up four.

But the next instant, the expressions of the two elders shifted. They finally sensed the disturbance from the Fallen Spirit Pool and, for some reason, felt a very bad premonition.

Many thanks for everyone’s votes and rewards. I am deeply grateful. Feifei has no way to repay you except by working hard to write more from here on out!

(End of this chapter)