Volume 2 Chapter 11

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Volume 2 Chapter 11: Traces of Demon Cultivators

Watching the mutated beasts around him open their massive jaws and rush towards him with the intent to tear him apart, all Xu Qingfan saw was a terrifying stretch of darkness. Yet, his expression remained calm, and he didn’t make any move, as he wanted to test the strength of these mutated beasts against the protective array he had set up.

Although Xu Qingfan’s protective array was the most basic level of them all, being the culmination of countless cultivators’ wisdom over thousands of years, it still possessed remarkable intricacy. Even the simplest protective array could withstand three or four full-force attacks from a cultivator in the late stage of the Inedia Stage.

However, what Xu Qingfan saw surprised him.

Just as the mutated beasts charged to within three feet of Qingfan, a burst of white light emerged; it was the protective glow of the array, blocking the attack from the surrounding mutated beasts. Under the powerful force, the beasts were sent flying backward, colliding with those behind them, causing chaos within the attacking formation.

Although they successfully defended against the first wave of the mutated beasts, the protective array underwent intense trembling from their assault. After repelling the attack, the white glow emitted by the array seemed to have dimmed considerably, indicating a significant expenditure of Spirit Qi during the defense. Seeing this, Xu Qingfan frowned slightly, realizing that the strength of these mutated beasts was not less than that of a Qi Refining Stage cultivator. Given their numbers, this protective array wouldn’t hold for long.

What puzzled Xu Qingfan was that, although these beasts could dominate the Southern Wasteland before due to their numbers and tendency to group together, individually, they weren’t particularly strong. Even some martial-trained mortals could defeat them. What could have caused them to become so formidable now?

As Xu Qingfan was lost in thought, a sharp eagle cry broke his reverie. With the ground-bound beasts in disarray, mutated Iron Feathered Eagles began diving towards Xu Qingfan from the sky. The wings of the Mutated Iron Feathered Eagles obscured the remnants of the sunset, casting a gloomy shadow as if storm clouds were overhead.

Seeing the situation, Xu Qingfan knew that his surrounding protective array wouldn’t last much longer. So, he let out a light, cold snort, and a green cloud suddenly appeared beneath his feet, carrying him swiftly into the sky. He quickly left the protection of the array and flew towards the diving Mutated Iron Feathered Eagles, showing not a hint of fear on his face.

Although this meant giving up the defensive formation, in the air, he only had to face the threat of the Mutated Iron Feathered Eagle, making it much easier to handle.

Just as the Mutated Iron Feathered Eagle was about to dive towards him, Xu Qingfan suddenly flicked his fingers, creating countless vibrant red Explosive Flame Flowers from his fingertips, which shot towards the Mutated Iron Feathered Eagle in front of him. The sound of explosions filled the air, leaving shattered petals and black feathers drifting down, creating a tragic and magnificent scene.

By using the Explosive Flame Flowers to clear a path, Xu Qingfan finally managed to carve a route through the encirclement of the Mutated Iron Feathered Eagles. Seeing a glimpse of light breaking through the blackness before him, Xu Qingfan wasted no time, steering the "Three Meters Green Silk" through the opening and ascending to higher skies.

After reaching above the Mutated Iron Feathered Eagles, Xu Qingfan changed his hand’s gesture again, creating countless black Love Flowers from his fingertips, which drifted downwards, covering the ground below like a rain of black petals, creating an exceptionally beautiful spectacle.

Unfortunately, these mutated beasts couldn’t appreciate the beauty before them. After a brief moment of confusion, the Mutated Iron Feathered Eagles reformed their formation, charging towards Xu Qingfan above them, ignoring the black flowers drifting down towards them. Finally, the black Love Flowers collided with the black Mutated Iron Feathered Eagles, shattering into a white Love Mist that spread under Xu Qingfan. The eagles caught in the Love Mist felt their bodies growing numb, unable to control their wings, they fell heavily to the ground, not a single one reaching within three feet of Xu Qingfan.

Seeing that the bodies of these mutated beasts still succumbed to the numbness of the Love Mist, Xu Qingfan breathed a small sigh of relief, knowing it would be much easier to deal with them.

With this in mind, Xu Qingfan didn’t stop creating countless Love Flowers from his fingertips, continuously letting them drift down with the wind, surrounding the bodies of the mutated beasts on the ground, enveloping the earth beneath him in a white Love Mist.

Xu Qingfan stood silently atop "Three Meters Green Silk" high in the air, quietly watching the chaos below as the Love Mist spread. After a long while, the cold Southern Wasteland breeze finally dissipated the white mist, revealing the scene on the ground beneath Xu Qingfan.

The vast, desolate land of the Southern Wasteland was filled with countless fallen black mutated beasts, making the ground appear completely black. The intermittent roars of the beasts added to the mysterious desolation of the Southern Wasteland.

Seeing that he had subdued all the mutated beasts, a slight smile appeared on Xu Qingfan’s lips as he swiftly guided the "Three Meters Green Silk" towards the ground. When he was still about ten feet above, Xu Qingfan halted his descent and began to hover above the fallen mutated beasts.

"Huh?" Xu Qingfan murmured to himself in surprise after searching for a while, "Where did that person go? They’re not among these beasts."

After searching two more times, Xu Qingfan still couldn’t find the mysterious person with a strange aura. Reluctantly, he had to give up. He was puzzled about how this mysterious person had disappeared, knowing that he had been observing the scene from above. If the mysterious person had tried to escape, Xu Qingfan should have noticed.

"Could that person teleport?" Xu Qingfan thought with amusement, realizing his own idea was laughable. After all, teleportation was just a legendary Taoist spell, something not even experts at the Mahayana Stage would necessarily know.

Setting aside his amazement, Xu Qingfan swiftly landed on the ground from "Three Meters Green Silk," turning over a mutated beast’s body, ignoring its struggling growls. He slowly channeled Spirit Qi into its body to carefully examine the situation within. Xu Qingfan was very curious about why these beasts had mutated in this way.

As the Spirit Qi moved through the body of the mutated beast, searching and probing, Xu Qingfan’s expression became increasingly serious, as if he had encountered something terrifying and incredible. Unsure of what to think, Xu Qingfan examined several more mutated beasts, finding the same results each time, which made his face darken.

"’Nine Transformations of Demonization’! It’s actually ‘Nine Transformations of Demonization’!" Xu Qingfan remarked with a bitter smile. "A demon cultivator, could it be that the person earlier was a demon cultivator? Could demon cultivators, who have been gone for nearly ten thousand years, be appearing again?"

"Nine Transformations of Demonization" was the Taoist method demon cultivators used to forge demonic weapons.

In ancient times, there was no distinction between cultivators and demon cultivators—they were all called practitioners. But at some unknown point, a prodigiously talented cultivator became dissatisfied with the slow progress of his path and began seizing the vital essence and spirits of mortals, merging with the sinister energies of the world to boost his own cultivation. After practicing this cultivation method, his progress skyrocketed, making him one of the most powerful practitioners of his time in just a century. This cultivator was later known as the "Demon Ancestor," and the cultivation method was named the demonic path cultivation method.

As this cultivation method spread, many cultivators couldn’t resist the temptation of rapidly increasing their power and began to follow the "Demon Ancestor" as their master, practicing this demonic cultivation method and calling themselves "demon cultivators." It was the darkest period since humans claimed dominion over the Shenzhou Continent, with demon cultivators recklessly plundering the mortal world, extracting souls and essence to strengthen themselves and forge evil artifacts. In less than a hundred years, the human population on the Shenzhou Continent was halved! Mortals lived in constant fear, uncertain of whether they would survive the next moment. Rumors often spread of two or three demon cultivators destroying an entire city together.

However, although this cultivation method was mysterious and rapid in advancement, orthodox cultivators could not tolerate it. Mortals were the foundation of cultivators, and if every cultivator practiced this method, humanity would soon face extinction. More importantly, practicing this method required harnessing the malevolent energies of the world, causing demon cultivators to become sinister and evil in character, though not entirely losing their minds. This was intolerable to the orthodox cultivators. As some demon cultivators discovered that the essence and souls of other cultivators were of greater benefit to them, they began to slaughter their fellow practitioners crazily. This pushed orthodox cultivators to band together to combat demon cultivators and identify themselves as "cultivators."

From then on, cultivators split into two completely different camps, leading to a war lasting several centuries. Ultimately, with the Demon Ancestor slain by joint efforts of the cultivators at Black Emperor Mountain, the defeat of the demon cultivators was officially declared. Although the cultivators won, it was a pyrrhic victory. According to the "History of Immortal Cultivation," after centuries of war, nine out of ten cultivators perished in battle.

It was the most brutal chapter in human history.

Since then, demon cultivators never appeared again, until unexpectedly, after so many years, Xu Qingfan encountered traces of a demon cultivator in the Southern Wasteland.

"It seems I must quickly conclude my affairs here and report these matters to my sect," Xu Qingfan thought with a frown.

With that thought, Xu Qingfan manipulated the "Three Meters Green Silk" to ascend into the sky. Then, through a flurry of finger changes, countless Explosive Flame Flowers formed between his fingers and descended upon the throng of mutated beasts below. Explosions and cries of the beasts quickly followed, obliterating them all. Xu Qingfan knew that if he didn’t act decisively, the mutated beasts would wreak havoc again once the effects of the "Love Mist" wore off, leaving him no room for mercy.

As the smoke cleared and Xu Qingfan confirmed that no mutated beast remained, he swiftly rode the "Three Meters Green Silk" towards the distant place that was once Xu Family Village.

With Xu Qingfan’s departure, the edge of the Southern Wasteland returned to its usual silence, the scattered remains of beast corpses silently recounting the fierce battle that took place.

Suddenly, a heap of wild animal remains began to move, and then a severely wounded mutated blood wolf crawled out from the pile of bodies, ignoring its own injuries and simply casting a chilly glance in the direction Xu Qingfan had left.

After a long while, the wild wolf suddenly emitted a thick purple-blue mist all over. When the mist cleared, it mysteriously transformed into the shape of a human. This person was nearly ten feet tall, with dark skin, and an intricate purple-blue flame pattern on their forehead, the very same mysterious figure Xu Qingfan had just encountered.

"Southern Wasteland, it’s the Southern Wasteland of the Jiuli tribe."

After coldly saying this sentence, the mysterious person also staggered off into the distance.