Volume 3 Chapter 55
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Volume 3 Chapter 55: Battle With the Demon
In the midst of noise, he felt a longing for peace and wanted to be far away, but when he was away from the noise, he felt quiet and lonely. Perhaps it was merely a mismatch of moods, or maybe it was not just Xu Qingfan, but every human is such a contradiction.
Strangely, when faced with Nangong Qingshan, who had undergone a horrifying transformation, Xu Qingfan felt a flood of surreal and elusive emotions after a moment of shock.
Although he missed the peace that seemed to have escaped him for so long, Xu Qingfan had no time for such reflections because right in front of him, Nangong Qingshan eyed him menacingly. The monstrous and neither human nor ghost creature exerted such an overwhelming and dangerous presence that Xu Qingfan couldn’t allow himself to think too much.
Hearing the continuous roars from the front mountain, Xu Qingfan knew that battle had commenced, and he, too, was about to face a fierce and unprecedented fight.
This fierce battle had only two possible outcomes: victory or death.
"Hiss… What is it? Are you scared by my current power? Or are you unable to gauge my strength?" Nangong Qingshan showed no surprise at the roars from the front mountain, as if he was fully aware of everything happening on Jiuhua Mountain. Seeing that Xu Qingfan had no intention of answering his question, Nangong Qingshan sneered with a human-like expression of mockery on his strange and grim face.
Xu Qingfan frowned slightly, as he indeed couldn’t discern Nangong Qingshan’s strength.
At the moment, the Spirit Qi on Nangong Qingshan’s body was fluctuating wildly, and the difference between its peak and weakest points was several times, making it hard to gauge his true power.
However, Xu Qingfan wasn’t overly concerned about Nangong Qingshan’s strength because with Ting’er in Nangong Qingshan’s hands, running away wasn’t an option. He had to engage in battle, and once they began, he’d soon discover Nangong Qingshan’s true power.
The current task was to figure out how to defeat the now extremely strange Nangong Qingshan.
"Are you proud of turning into such a monster?" Xu Qingfan retorted coldly.
At Xu Qingfan’s words, a flicker of anger appeared on Nangong Qingshan’s ugly, terrifying face, but it quickly vanished as he said, "As long as I gain immense power, as long as I’m not the one who dies after this magic duel, I don’t care what I become."
"Oh? To be honest, you look worse than a dead person now," Xu Qingfan mocked unusually.
Xu Qingfan always believed in showing his enemies a basic level of respect and had never taunted during a duel, but this time was different. Was it because he loathed Nangong Qingshan so much?
"I’ll compare you to me after you’re dead," Nangong Qingshan said with a chilling tone, the intent to kill growing stronger in his eyes.
"Really? Is that what you thought the first time your master changed you into this? Back then, you probably had no thoughts at all because you must have been terrified by your own appearance."
Hearing Xu Qingfan’s relentless taunts, Nangong Qingshan could no longer maintain his composure, his face flushed with uncontrollable anger, and the menace and danger emanating from him surged again, becoming even more horrific. Just as he was about to retort, Xu Qingfan suddenly moved his ten fingers, countless Liuling Flowers sprang from between them, a multitude of Liuling Flowers seemed to be swept up by a wild wind, beautiful yet dangerous, rushing towards Nangong Qingshan quickly.
It turned out that Nangong Qingshan’s earlier taunts were merely to provoke him. Although fury can increase a person’s strength, more often, it causes one to lose composure, and losing composure naturally creates an opportunity to exploit.
And once was enough for this opportunity.
As for this being before him, neither human nor monster, Nangong Qingshan, Xu Qingfan wasn’t determined to win. It’s important to know that even before Nangong Qingshan’s transformation, he had the power of the Lingji Stage, and now his strength can only be even greater. With the uncertainty of the Jiuhua Mountain situation, Xu Qingfan might have to rely on strategy to win.
But Xu Qingfan underestimated Nangong Qingshan; after a great transformation, Nangong Qingshan was no longer the same as he was ten years ago.
Seeing Xu Qingfan’s sudden attack, a knowing and mocking smile appeared on Nangong Qingshan’s fierce lips. His face showed no trace of the anger it had earlier, as if he had never been angry before. Interestingly, Nangong Qingshan didn’t dodge Xu Qingfan’s onslaught at all.
Then, all the Liuling Flowers struck Nangong Qingshan, and thick white mist began to spread before Xu Qingfan. At the same time, a strange, sharp, scraping sound accompanied by explosions filled the air.
Hearing this piercing shattering sound, Xu Qingfan, standing outside the fog, couldn’t help but furrow his brow. This sound at such a moment felt eerie, yet the fog prevented Xu Qingfan from seeing what was happening inside.
The mist produced by the explosion of the Liuling Flowers could continuously attack the enemy, but with advantages come disadvantages; while attacking, it also blocked Xu Qingfan’s vision.
Although these Liuling Flowers were launched with all of Xu Qingfan’s strength, he didn’t expect to kill the transformed Nangong Qingshan with just this strike. The best outcome would be that Nangong Qingshan suffered serious injuries from the Liuling Flowers’ attack, but Xu Qingfan also had to brace himself for Nangong Qingshan’s furious counterattack.
However, as the explosions and shattering noises faded, the space where Xu Qingfan stood suddenly fell silent. In the mist after the blast, there were no screams or the aggressive backlash Xu Qingfan had anticipated. Everything was extremely quiet, with a silence that seemed eerie and unsettling.
After staring intently at the calm mist for a while, Xu Qingfan finally made up his mind. He raised his hand, and the "Evil Exorcising Pearl," capable of banishing mists and revealing spirits, flew from his grasp, glowing with a faint blue light. Under this glow, the mist before Xu Qingfan began to quickly dissipate.
Xu Qingfan didn’t believe that his attack could immediately kill the demonized Nangong Qingshan. The eerie silence around him made him uneasy, so he decided not to wait for the mist to clear on its own. He actively used the "Evil Exorcising Pearl" to dispel the mist.
Just as he deployed the "Evil Exorcising Pearl," Xu Qingfan suddenly sensed a strong impending danger swiftly approaching. Without hesitation, he unleashed his speed to its fullest, retreating quickly.
Xu Qingfan’s reaction and speed were incredibly fast. The moment he sensed danger approaching, he swiftly responded, leaving only a blur in his original spot. However, the attack was even more sudden. The ground beneath him shattered, rocks flew, and a slender blue spike shot up from a fissure. Even though Xu Qingfan sensed it and dodged quickly, his right leg was still slashed with a two-foot-long wound, and blood gushed out.
"Senior Brother Xu, didn’t you always pride yourself on fairness? Wasn’t that how you used to lecture me ten years ago? Why stoop to such a despicable surprise attack today?"
Xu Qingfan retreated about thirty feet. Using a martial arts technique, he stopped the blood flow from his leg, then wrapped the wound with healing herbs. As he watched the wound slowly heal, Xu Qingfan’s heart sank. While the technique could stop bleeding, it also restricted blood flow, affecting his speed, one of his advantages.
At this moment, Nangong Qingshan’s mocking voice suddenly came from a short distance to his side.
Xu Qingfan swiftly turned around to see Nangong Qingshan standing ten yards away to his left. Nangong Qingshan’s face, more serpent-like than human, was twisted with a mocking smile.
Xu Qingfan was even more shocked to discover that below Nangong Qingshan’s waist, a long, slender tail had grown without him noticing. The tail was covered in fine blue scales and was currently retracting from the ground.
Even though the tail was slowly retracting back into the ground, the visible part above the surface showed no signs of growing longer, as if all the retracted portions were being absorbed back into Nangong Qingshan’s body.
Looking at the spot where Nangong Qingshan was originally standing, under the influence of the "Evil Exorcising Pearl," the mist had fully dispersed, revealing that Nangong Qingshan’s body had turned into shards of ice, with melting water on the ground. Unbeknownst to anyone, Nangong Qingshan had moved far away and used an ice illusion as a decoy, but Xu Qingfan hadn’t noticed any of it!
Moments later, Nangong Qingshan’s tail was completely withdrawn from the earth, and at the tip, Xu Qingfan saw the sharp green spike that had suddenly emerged from the ground and scratched his right leg!
Xu Qingfan was standing at a location at least ten yards away from Nangong Qingshan, yet Nangong Qingshan’s tail could pierce through the ground and injure him. Just how long was Nangong Qingshan’s tail? How powerful was it? What kind of creature had Nangong Qingshan become?
