Chapter 15: The First Battle Against Demonic Cultivators
"Who's there?"
Though arrogant and unhinged in his actions, the white-robed cultivator was extremely vigilant. At the slightest sign of movement, he immediately shook the Dark Yin Soul-Gathering Banner in his hand.
The two remaining first-generation tiger and python demons were instantly drained of their bone, marrow, soul, and essence by the banner, consumed entirely to settle their accounts.
Stripped of their flesh, blood, and demon souls, their massive demonic carcasses turned to ashes and scattered across the ground.
"Oh my, not bad at all! Very alert!"
Jiang Runyue stepped out step by step, twirling a folding fan with a playful look on her face. "Demonic cultivators attempting possession and rebirth need at least the Demon Soul Realm cultivation to pull it off. You old bastard are truly ruthless, though—giving up a lifetime of hard-earned cultivation just like that!"
Staring hard at her, the white-robed cultivator demanded viciously, "Which peak do you belong to? How long have you been eavesdropping?"
Jiang Runyue cupped her fists and smiled slightly. "Jiang Taixu of Yaoyue Peak greets this Demonic Sect senior!"
"Jiang Taixu of Yaoyue Peak?"
The white-robed cultivator sneered. "Such delicate skin and tender flesh, even prettier than many female cultivators! You look like nothing more than a kept boy raised by some big shot in the sect. Today is truly my lucky day!"
"May I ask which sect Senior belonged to back in the Demonic Sect?" Jiang Runyue asked with a smile.
"Telling you won't hurt, since you're dead either way," the white-robed cultivator said with a lecherous grin. "In my past life, I was a Demon Soul Realm cultivator of the Heavenly Demon Sect. My name is Lai Chenfeng, the Cloud-Soaring Crane, and I stand proud without changing my name!"
"Lai Chenfeng, is it?"
With a snap, Jiang Runyue closed her folding fan, tucked it leisurely into her sleeve, and then drew a sheathed precious sword, slowly pulling the blade out.
"Since my Ascension from the lower realm, you are the first cultivator about to die by my hand!"
Holding the Dark Yin Soul-Gathering Banner, Lai Chenfeng watched her at his leisure, his face brimming with mockery and greed.
"So this kept boy is actually a bumpkin from the lower realm? Tsk tsk, such a waste of a good face!"
"Clang!"
The Yulong Immortal Sword leaped from its scabbard with a crisp ring, pointing at the odd-looking Lai Chenfeng. Jiang Runyue said softly, "I really am curious—are all you Heavenly Demon Sect cultivators as brainless as you? Or was your brain damaged during the possession process?"
"What?!"
Lai Chenfeng was momentarily stunned before flying into a rage. "You damned kept boy! Once I capture you, I'll tear that stinking mouth of yours to pieces first!"
With that, the Dark Yin Soul-Gathering Banner shook violently, dropping dozens of black qi currents that swept toward Jiang Runyue with overwhelming momentum.
"Well timed!"
Jiang Runyue laughed heartily, slashing the Yulong Immortal Sword toward Lai Chenfeng with the momentum of wind and thunder. Her speed startled him greatly.
"Sword Qi Thunder Sound? An obscure nobody like you actually masters such peerless swordsmanship?!"
Lai Chenfeng looked at her in shock and suspicion.
"Just so Senior knows, not only do I know Sword Qi Thunder Sound, but I also know a thing or two about the Butchering Ox blade technique. I will definitely let Senior taste it properly in a moment!"
As she spoke, Jiang Runyue quickly raised her right arm, driving the waning moon immortal bracelet bestowed upon her by Master Ruiying, and hurled a cold, biting black blade light from afar.
"Taiyin Blade Qi? You also know this peerless secret art?"
Though deeply startled, Lai Chenfeng did not hesitate in his counterattack. Wielding the banner in his left hand and a sword in his right, he easily blocked both the Yulong Immortal Sword and the Taiyin Blade Qi.
"Hahahaha..."
Lai Chenfeng burst into wild laughter. "Interesting, truly interesting! I never expected to accidentally run into a true successor secretly nurtured by the Taiyin Sect!"
For ten thousand years, Taiyin Sect disciples had only ever fallen into three categories: ordinary disciples in the Qi Refining Stage, elite disciples in the Golden Core Realm, and core disciples in the Primordial Spirit Realm.
Who knew where this fellow had heard such nonsense about the Taiyin Sect having true successors?
Jiang Runyue certainly had never heard of it, nor had her master, Master Ruiying, ever mentioned it; even Cui Dongli and Fang Baiyu had never brought it up once.
Thus, she simply smiled without a word, neither confirming nor denying it. She split her focus to control the Yulong Immortal Sword and the waning moon immortal bracelet, driving Lai Chenfeng into a frantic and bedraggled state of defense.
"Die for this Daoist!"
Pushed to his limit, Lai Chenfeng violently waved the Dark Yin Soul-Gathering Banner, launching another dozen or so streams of black qi.
"Little bastard, if not for the fact that my Dark Yin Soul-Gathering Banner has yet to be fully refined in this lifetime, how would it ever be your turn to act so arrogant?"
Jiang Runyue chuckled lightly, a trace of imperceptible hostility flashing in her eyes. The waning moon immortal bracelet on her right wrist blazed with light as her figure vanished from the spot.
The next moment, streaks of pitch-black Taiyin Blade Qi, radiating a terrifying aura of absolute destruction, closed in on Lai Chenfeng simultaneously from all directions.
"Well timed! Taste my Myriad Realms Annihilation!"
With an angry shout from Lai Chenfeng, his True Essence surged forth like a breached dike. He formed hand seals and unleashed his hard-earned signature ultimate technique: Myriad Realms Annihilation.
Among cultivators who managed to attain the Primordial Spirit, not a single one was easy to deal with.
Daoist Sect cultivators worshipped the Dao and followed nature, mostly treading a grand, righteous path that took the universe as their teacher.
Demonic Sect cultivators, however, were different. They excelled at toying with human hearts, manipulating the seven emotions, six desires, flesh, and souls of men, and loved researching vicious, insidious secret arts by any means necessary.
Myriad Realms Annihilation was Lai Chenfeng's signature technique, and countless cultivators had died beneath this move over the past several hundred years.
Once unleashed, the technique instantly covered a massive area. Anyone trapped within was stripped of their five senses and sixth consciousness, left with only emptiness, darkness, despair, and dead silence, completely robbed of any glimmer of light or hope.
The domineering Taiyin Blade Qi failed to shatter the surrounding darkness, instead swallowed whole by the endless dark until it vanished without a trace.
"Little bastard, once my Myriad Domain of Annihilation forms, those who fall into it have only one path to die. Unless I stop it myself or an Earth Immortal shatters it from the outside, don't ever expect to—hm?"
"How is this possible? How did you escape?!"
Looking at the handsome youth holding an immortal sword who was strolling toward him unhurriedly, Lai Chenfeng asked in utter astonishment.
In his hasty state, he could not possibly execute a second Myriad Realms Annihilation.
Jiang Runyue smiled slightly, revealing eight white teeth. "Guess~"
"You damned kept boy, daring to put on an act in front of me! Today I will—ugk, ah!"
A golden rope like a python suddenly bound him tightly. Lai Chenfeng felt his entire body go limp, his muscles and bones turning soft as even his Primordial Spirit was locked down.
Jiang Runyue closed in on Lai Chenfeng just as a deep, desolate blade light that froze and extinguished all things slashed instantly into the dark domain formed by Myriad Realms Annihilation.
"Boom!"
The dark domain was instantly blasted apart by the Taiyin Blade Qi. A blood-spitting Lai Chenfeng wore a vicious expression as his pale eyes rolled up like a dead fish.
A flawless, moon-white figure drifted out from the shattered domain, then turned into a brilliant radiance and drilled into Jiang Runyue's Purple Mansion.
"You... plotted against me... from the very beginning?"
Blood gushed in great mouthfuls from Lai Chenfeng's mouth.
"I have many questions in my heart and hope you can answer them one by one. Otherwise, you shall end up like that pack of tigers and serpents, becoming nothing more than a primary soul within the Dark Yin Banner!"
The golden rope Dharma Treasure gifted by the mysterious person possessed a might far surpassing the repeatedly refined Immortals-Binding Rope. Cultivators captured and bound by this rope had not even a shred of a chance of escape.
"Even before I abandoned my cultivation and attempted possession, a supreme Heavenly Demon expert planted a life-saving restriction within my demon soul. The moment it triggers, my demon soul will instantly escape!"
"Do you really think you can kill me?"
Lai Chenfeng laughed in a shrill, eerie cackle.