Chapter 281: Audacious Enough to Eat a Cultivator

Qin Haoxuan glared at the few demons with disgust. A love-struck girl might have been captivated by their appearances, but as a man, Qin Haoxuan found their androgynous looks utterly nauseating.

‘I used to think that pretty boy Xing was ugly, but I never expected these gender-ambiguous demons to be even more disgusting!’ Qin Haoxuan muttered to himself, paying no mind to the demons that had surrounded him and were gradually closing in. Instead, he said, “Looking at these disgusting things, I’m actually starting to miss Xing a little.”

Seeing no reaction from Qin Haoxuan, the demons’ handsome faces twisted into even more sinister smiles. They tightened their circle and then, with the agility of demons, pounced on him. In that instant, their once-pale hands became wreathed in black qi, and one of them opened its mouth to spew a cloud of poisonous gas.

When he was out killing rogue cultivators, Qin Haoxuan had to be careful not to reveal his trump cards, so he could never fight to his heart’s content. But here in the Aqueous Manor, where he was the only cultivator and everyone else was a Netherworld Demon, he had no such reservations.

Although the demons were fast, to Qin Haoxuan, who had fought for two months in the Illusory Sea of Consciousness, their movements seemed to be in slow motion.

Qin Haoxuan held his breath as his protective spiritual energy enveloped his body, blocking the poisonous gas. At the same time, he lashed out, punching the first demon that lunged at him. The seal on his arm was released, and the sealed Ghost Soldier shot out. Following Qin Haoxuan’s will, it violently crushed the demon’s heart.

With its heart shattered, the demon collapsed to the ground, dead.

Qin Haoxuan moved with rapid steps, his figure moving so fast that only an afterimage could be seen. He released the Ghost Soldier sealed on his other hand, which shattered the heart of the second demon.

The third demon’s face turned pale with fright, its handsome features contorting into a狰狞 grimace. It wanted to turn and flee, but how could Qin Haoxuan let it escape? He condensed a small sword of Spiritual Sense and shot it forth. The demon’s soul was instantly shattered, and its body fell limply to the ground.

“Weak. Too weak.”

Qin Haoxuan recalled his Ghost Soldiers and sighed softly. After this period of tempering, the coordination between his physical body and his spiritual awareness had reached an extremely high level. Both his agility and strength far surpassed what they were during his first time in the Aqueous Manor. Moreover, he was now at the Ninth-Leaf Spirit Sprout Realm and possessed two Ghost Soldiers at the Twenty-Fifth-Leaf Spirit Sprout Realm. Dealing with these minor demons was effortlessly easy.

After killing the three demons, Qin Haoxuan did not let his guard down just because of the easy victory. Although he had grown stronger, who could guarantee that no demons at the Thirtieth-Leaf Spirit Sprout Realm or higher had come to the Aqueous Manor through the spatial rifts?

He reckoned that with his current strength, he still had no chance of winning against a Thirtieth-Leaf opponent; the gap in their cultivation realms was simply too large.

Standing before the corpses of the demons, Qin Haoxuan couldn’t help but recall the scenes of his first meeting with Xing. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. ‘Compared to these ugly fellows, Xing is actually quite cute! I wonder what that guy is up to now? With Lan Yan watching him, he probably isn’t causing any trouble, right?’

…

In a low thicket at the Seven Zhang Abyss, Xing and Lan Yan were hiding. Both of their gazes were fixed on a rogue cultivator walking in the distance.

Xing’s throat bobbed, and his eyes gleamed, but he still looked at Lan Yan uncertainly and asked, “Can I really eat him? Can I really?”

Lan Yan frowned in disgust and said, “That fellow just came back from a nearby village where he violated two innocent women. If you don’t find him filthy, go ahead and eat him! A crooked character like him who cultivates immortality will only bring disaster to the world. Eating him can be considered ridding the world of a pest and avenging those two women.”

Receiving Lan Yan’s permission, Xing’s eyes flashed with a brilliant light, his face overflowing with excitement. Ever since Qin Haoxuan brought him out of the Aqueous Manor, he hadn’t eaten a single cultivator. He had heard how delicious human cultivators were and that eating them could help him recover the strength he had lost due to his injuries, but under Qin Haoxuan’s watch, he had never had the chance. Now, the opportunity was finally here.

Xing had no interest in Lan Yan’s talk of ridding the world of a pest. He waited for the cultivator to draw near, then shot out like a bolt. His handsome face was contorted with excitement.

“Ah!” The rogue cultivator cried out in alarm. He had just managed to summon his protective spiritual energy when it was shattered by a single punch from Xing. Another punch landed on his dantian’s sea of qi. Xing’s fists could even hurt the demonic-cultivated Qin Haoxuan, let alone this mere Fifteenth-Leaf Spirit Sprout Realm rogue cultivator.

In Xing’s hands, he had no room to resist. He was bound by an Immortal-Binding Rope, and as an accomplice, Lan Yan thoughtfully tossed over a piece of ragged cloth to gag his mouth.

After dragging the rogue cultivator into the thicket, Xing asked Lan Yan again, “This rogue cultivator, can I really eat him?”

Lan Yan nodded with certainty once more. “He’s a scumbag. Eat him if you want!”

Xing stuck out his scarlet tongue and licked his lips, an irrepressible smile on his face.

Their conversation scared the pitiful rogue cultivator so much that he wet his pants.

This rogue cultivator had originally come to the wilderness to try his luck, but he never expected to be captured by Xing and Lan Yan. Seeing that they had only tied him up and not killed him outright, he had initially felt a sense of relief, thinking they didn’t intend to kill him.

But to his horror, the conclusion of their subsequent conversation was that Xing was going to eat him. He was instantly scared out of his wits, and a cold sweat drenched his entire body.

Ever since he had joined the war between the Taichu Sect and the rogue cultivator faction, he had anticipated that he might die at the hands of a Taichu disciple. At least then, his body would be left intact. But now, he was about to become someone’s food?

A foul, stinking odor filled the air as a yellow liquid seeped from the cultivator’s crotch.

Lan Yan took a step back in disgust. “Ugh, how disgusting… Go ahead and eat him if you don’t mind.”

“Eating someone who’s wet their pants is better than having nothing to eat at all,” Xing said to Lan Yan seriously. “The next scene might get a little bloody. If you don’t want to watch, you can turn your head away.”

Lan Yan cooperatively turned around, no longer looking at Xing.

Xing chuckled and walked towards the rogue cultivator.

The cultivator’s face was ashen. He struggled desperately, but how could he match Xing’s strength?

Lan Yan, with her back turned, only heard a muffled, miserable groan from the gagged mouth, but soon there was silence.

Before long, Xing leaped in front of Lan Yan, licking his lips with a look of complete satisfaction. “Alright, all done. I feel like I’ve recovered some more of my strength! Cultivators are actually quite delicious. I wonder if Qin Haoxuan will kill me if he finds out I ate a person.”

Lan Yan glanced at Xing, then at the ground. Aside from the Immortal-Binding Rope and some torn clothes, there wasn’t even a single drop of blood. Xing was still as handsome as a pretty boy, his smile warm and gentle. One could not tell at all that he had just eaten a person.

“If you don’t tell, and I don’t tell, how could Qin Haoxuan possibly know?” Lan Yan teased. “If you’re looking to die and you tell him yourself, then even I can’t save you.”

“You are truly a good person. A woman as magnanimous and open-minded as you is truly a rare sight in this world!” Xing pounded his chest and said, “Rest assured, today you have done me a great favor by letting me eat a cultivator to recover my strength. A genius demon like me, who values loyalty so much, will definitely not forget your kindness. In the future, if you have any difficulties, just tell me, and I…”

Xing was still pounding his chest and pledging his loyalty when Lan Yan, already impatient, walked away, muttering to herself, “I wonder where Qin Haoxuan is now?”

…

Qin Haoxuan had been wandering in the Aqueous Manor for two days. His luck was good; he had come across a full bowl’s worth of Spirit Liquid, floating in mid-air. However, there was a faint yellow light barrier around the Spirit Liquid, clearly a restriction protecting it.

Qin Haoxuan walked over excitedly. After two days, he had finally found Spirit Liquid, and so much of it.

If anyone else from the Taichu Sect saw this much Spirit Liquid, they would probably go mad with excitement, right? The last time the manor was opened, Zhang Kuang, who had the biggest harvest, had only collected a little more than half a bowl, and that had already made the elders overjoyed.

From his last experience in the Aqueous Manor, when Master Chi Lian had possessed Wu Yi and tricked more than twenty Taichu disciples into forming an array to break a restriction, he knew that opening the restriction on the Spirit Liquid would not be easy.

Qin Haoxuan condensed a stream of spiritual energy and gently injected it into the restriction.

The yellow light barrier of the restriction flashed, and the inscriptions upon it flickered. A large amount of spiritual energy emanated from the inscriptions, gathering into a massive force that not only repelled Qin Haoxuan’s spiritual energy but also sent him staggering back more than ten steps.

Looking at the unfamiliar and complex inscriptions, Qin Haoxuan clutched his hair and thought for a long time. He tried several methods, but in the end, he failed to break the restriction. It was likely that even using brute force would not be enough.

At times like this, Qin Haoxuan missed that unreliable fellow, Xing, even more.

‘Although that guy is a bit unreliable and sloppy, he’s the best at these sorts of messy problems. If he were here, this restriction could definitely be opened.’ Qin Haoxuan heaved a long sigh, able only to look at the restriction and lament.

Meanwhile, Xing, who had just eaten another rogue cultivator, shivered and sneezed several times in a row, muttering to himself, ‘Who’s badmouthing me behind my back?’

After trying many methods, Qin Haoxuan finally gave up. There was no way for him to get his hands on such a large bowl of Spirit Liquid. He could only sigh, “I must bring Xing with me next time. Although he’s annoying to have around, he’s very useful for collecting Spirit Liquid! If he were here now, this Spirit Liquid would be mine.”

Helpless, Qin Haoxuan reluctantly left, looking back every three steps. He began to wander and search through the vast Aqueous Manor once more.

He didn’t know how big this manor was. He wandered for another day, for a total of three days, and still hadn’t reached the area he had been in during his last visit. One could imagine just how vast the Aqueous Manor truly was.

On the fourth day of his entry, Qin Haoxuan still had nothing to show for it. He hadn’t found any scattered drops of Spirit Liquid, nor had he obtained any other treasures. Although he had encountered many demons, most of them were easily slain. The strongest one was only at the Twenty-Fifth-Leaf Spirit Sprout Realm, and under the combined pincer attack of his two Ghost Soldiers, that demon had met a bitter end.

‘In a few more hours, my time will be up, and I’ll be automatically sent out.’ Qin Haoxuan sighed softly. After walking for four consecutive days, even his demonic-cultivated body was a bit tired. He was walking through a garden and found a rock to sit down and rest.

“Sob… sob… sob…”

Suddenly, the faint sound of a woman crying was carried to Qin Haoxuan’s ears by the wind.

Startled, Qin Haoxuan jumped up from the rock. He listened carefully and became increasingly certain that it was not a sound made by a demon; it was indeed a woman crying.

‘Could there be other people in the Aqueous Manor?’ This guess of his sent a cold sweat down his back. To be cautious, he decided to go and have a look, holding the Thousand-Mile Talisman in his hand, ready to flee at any moment.

Following the faint sound of crying, Qin Haoxuan made his way forward.

After walking for about ten li, by the edge of a pool, he saw from a distance a woman standing by the water. The crying was coming from her.

(End of Chapter)