Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Most Trustworthy Companion

“Fellow Daoist, I’ll give you one more chance. Lay down your weapon and leave with me, and I promise to treat you as my cultivation partner. Otherwise…” Feng Liang stepped forward with two black-gold hooks suspended before him, confidence brimming in his stride, his lips curled into a cold, threatening smile.

“In your dreams—go to hell!” Chu Xinyer didn’t wait for Feng Liang to finish speaking. With a sneer, she urged her flying sword toward his head, summoning her magical artifact, as a watery blue shield shimmered around her body.

Her opponent could control two artifacts at once, evidence of his formidable spiritual power. Though maintaining her protective aura drained her cultivation rapidly, Chu Xinyer had no choice but to be cautious.

As expected, Feng Liang used one black-gold hook to entangle her sword, while the other spun toward her.

Chu Xinyer would never let her shield directly withstand an artifact’s attack. She flicked her fingers, sending several half-foot-long sword energies from her fingertips to intercept the incoming black-gold hook.

Boom, boom—

Fragments of grass and wood flew amid the thunderous clash. Her cultivation was lower, so the sword energy she cast was soon shattered by the hook. Yet the artifact’s spiritual glow dimmed significantly. When it struck the blue shield, it merely warped and twisted the barrier without breaking through.

Though temporarily evenly matched, Chu Xinyer’s face was grim. She had to both maintain her shield and manipulate her artifact in battle, rapidly depleting her spiritual power, while Feng Liang fared far better. Confident of victory, he didn’t need to keep up his own shield, fighting with ease.

It wouldn’t be long before Chu Xinyer was defeated. Now, her only hope was that Xiao Wen—who had just slipped from her sleeve—might catch their foe off guard with a surprise attack.

Xiao Wenzi had quietly separated from Chu Xinyer when she landed earlier, immediately hiding in the grass and activating a Concealment Talisman he’d exchanged for. Sixty fourth-tier coins from the celestial system had just bought a talisman whose effect was extraordinary. Even as he stealthily flew behind Feng Liang, the man noticed nothing amiss.

“Die!” Seeing the young woman pale and faltering, with Feng Liang’s lips curled in a sneer as he pressed the attack, Xiao Wenzi cursed silently and unhesitatingly exchanged for a mid-grade Demonfire Talisman.

A hum—infused with demonic spiritual power, the red talisman transformed into a fist-sized blaze, hurtling toward Feng Liang’s back.

“Damn! Who’s ambushing me?”

The Demonfire Talisman struck far too quickly. Feng Liang’s attention was all on Chu Xinyer, and by the time he realized, it was already too late.

Had he been more vigilant, he might have noticed Xiao Wenzi’s approach. But standing in a vast plain where he could see for miles, he hadn’t spared attention for the empty space behind him.

Sensing the terrifying energy in the demonic flames, Feng Liang was appalled. He managed only to spread a thin layer of protective aura. But with so little time, the spiritual power gathered was too weak to block the fireball.

With a hiss, the shield shattered like a bubble. Feng Liang’s face changed drastically, but his experience was vast. He twisted aside, swinging a hand suffused with spiritual glow to intercept the fireball.

Crash—

The shield was broken, and though the hand strike diminished much of the Demonfire Talisman’s power, some flames still spread along his arm. Feng Liang exerted all his strength, driving spiritual power to hold back the blaze, preventing it from engulfing him entirely.

But Chu Xinyer, now able to catch her breath, and Xiao Wenzi, poised to strike, wouldn’t let him recover.

Swish, swish, swish—

The instant the Demonfire Talisman was triggered, Xiao Wenzi beat his wings, launching several sharp wing-blades.

With Feng Liang’s focus elsewhere, his twin hooks lost their master’s control and could no longer block Chu Xinyer’s sword. She tapped her finger, sending the sword streaking like a startled swan to cut down on his head.

All this took place in the span of a moment.

As Feng Liang struggled to expel the demonic flames from his arm, several inch-long arcs of gray blade energy struck, followed closely by Chu Xinyer’s sword.

Blood splattered. Feng Liang narrowly dodged the sword’s lethal strike, but a wing-blade pierced his right shoulder, the pain stalling his spiritual power. The lingering power of the Demonfire Talisman then spread across his arm.

His robe was instantly reduced to ashes, his arm scorched, the smell of roasted flesh filling the air. Feng Liang let out an agonized scream.

But then, as Chu Xinyer’s sword twisted and stabbed into his back, his cries abruptly ceased, his eyes full of unwillingness as he fell backward.

The soul and core of a high-level cultivator are so refined that even without a body, one can seize another and be reborn. A Foundation Establishment cultivator’s soul is weaker, but if lucky enough to find a suitable mortal for possession quickly, survival is possible—unless the opponent is ruthless.

A dim soul flame had barely left his body when it was shredded by sword light.

Even in death, Feng Liang could not believe the tide of battle had been turned by that seemingly insignificant mosquito.

“Xiao Wen, you’re incredible! If not for your surprise attack, I wouldn’t have stood a chance against him… Eh, what’s wrong, Xiao Wen?”

Having destroyed Feng Liang’s residual soul, Chu Xinyer ran over, elated, but suddenly noticed Xiao Wenzi swaying as if about to collapse and hastily caught him.

“It’s nothing. This is the aftereffect of unleashing my innate ability at full potential. Once I absorb some cultivator blood and rest for a few days, I’ll recover.”

When he’d exchanged the Demonfire Talisman earlier, Chu Xinyer had been too busy fighting to notice. But suddenly unleashing power akin to a tenth-tier master would surely arouse suspicion.

To explain this, Xiao Wenzi deliberately feigned weakness.

In truth, he was fine. Even if another Feng Liang appeared, he had enough celestial coins to exchange for more than twenty attack talismans; he had nothing to fear.

“Oh, so that’s it! Don’t worry, Xiao Wen. I’ll take you to find some lone cultivators right away.”

Chu Xinyer didn’t doubt Xiao Wenzi’s explanation. After all, his aura was only like a fourth-tier cultivator; without overextending himself, how could he have unleashed such a powerful fireball?

This also proved that Xiao Wen was certainly a wild ancient species. Otherwise, he could never have used an innate ability to fight above his station.

Speaking, Chu Xinyer happily bent to pick up Feng Liang’s storage pouch and retrieved his twin hooks from the grass.

Without pausing to check the contents, she casually flicked a fireball to incinerate the corpse, then shot into the sky as a streak of light.

In fact, after fleeing and fighting earlier, her spiritual power was mostly depleted. The wisest choice would be to find a secluded spot and meditate to recover.

Yet Chu Xinyer had no intention of stopping. She wanted to find a lone cultivator as quickly as possible, capture them alive for Xiao Wenzi to feed and recover, afraid that any delay would bring unforeseen complications.

Unknowingly, in Chu Xinyer’s heart, Xiao Wenzi was no longer just a spirit pet. Perhaps because he had saved her twice, he had become her most trusted companion.