Chapter 17 (2/2)
Li Changshou waited patiently and silently inside the root of the old cypress tree. He was waiting for the opportune time to act. As he waited, he prepared his escape route.
The entire situation had happened suddenly. He was reacting as the situation developed. Thus, he decided to slightly lower his expectations of himself.
As long as he was 80% to 90% confident this time, he would act. It was not realistic to always pursue full confidence.
A while into the battle, a few slightly-bald branches of the old cypress tree were cut into half. Yuwen Ling’s broad axe also made several deep gorges in the cliff, causing part of it to collapse.
The Three-Eyed Blue Wave Serpent was not yet immortal as well. Even though it was fighting an early-stage Essence Immortal, who did not have any particularly amazing Dharma treasures, it soon could not hang on any longer. Poisonous blood was flowing out from multiple wounds around its body. Li Changshou guessed that it would be slaughtered at any moment.
‘Thank you for your hard work, Lunkhead.’
Li Changshou thanked the serpent in his heart. Then, his left hand shook slightly, pouring the colorless supreme-grade Soft Immortal Disperser out from its bottle, and wrapping it with his Dharma powers. He carried the Soft Immortal Disperser to the trunk of the tree and then allowed it to seep out towards Yuwen Ling.
Very quickly, Yuwen Ling’s movements slowed down, and his vision became blurry.
‘This wretched serpent’s poison is so powerful!’ Yuwen Ling cursed in his heart. His eyes widened and became bloodshot as he tried to fight the drowsiness overcoming him. His head felt extremely heavy, and his legs felt extremely light. He let out a furious, guttural cry.
Yuwen Ling did not dream of fighting continuously anymore. At once, he decided to deal a final, powerful blow. His body flew up into the sky as he released immortal powers to keep the serpent still. His broad axe headed straight for the Three-Eyed Blue Wave Serpent’s neck!
The Three-Eyed Blue Wave Serpent immediately thought of retreating. It started to turn away, but as it did, it looked reluctantly at the Immortal-Emanc.i.p.ating Herbs at the edge of the cliff.
It was this moment of hesitation that took away its chance to escape.
The broad axe, steadied by two muscular arms, landed squarely on its neck. The serpent’s head flew up into the sky as its poisonous blood splattered around the ground.
Yuwen Ling landed on the ground. However, his legs could no longer hold his weight. He stumbled backward and only managed to remain standing with the support of his broad axe.
He pulled out a Detoxifying Pill and slipped it into his mouth, but his movements were already extremely slow.
‘What kind of poison is this? Why is it so powerful?!’
“General… We…”
There was a weak voice coming from behind him. As Yuwen Ling tried to turn around, his legs turned to jelly, causing him to almost fall over.
The Detoxifying Pill was not effective at all. The sky was spinning before his eyes.
Just then, he heard something cutting through the sky!
A wooden arrow appeared in his peripheral vision and pierced Yuwen Ling’s neck. The hunk’s body swayed as he turned around and looked in the direction of the old cypress tree furiously.
There, ‘Li Changshou”s body emerged from the tree. He threw out his Heaven-Changing Treasure Umbrella and lifted up his bronze crossbow. At the same time, he scattered three paper dolls.
Pew, pew, pew!
The paper dolls turned into clones of Li Changshou and charged towards Yuwen Ling!
‘Li Changshou’ circled around and arrived back at Yuwen Ling’s side. Rapidly, he pulled out another wooden arrow for his bronze crossbow and readied himself to pull the trigger.
The crossbow glowed with a strange light. The speed at which it shot the arrow was extraordinary.
Yuwen Ling was so heavily poisoned that he could not put up a fight. Once again, the arrow pierced into his neck. His immortal blood rushed out and dyed the ground.
The three paper dolls rushed towards Yuwen Ling and stood on three different sides of him, dispersing more green fog from inside their individual porcelain bottles.
The green fog seemed to have a life of its own as it wrapped around Yuwen Ling. The st.u.r.dy man’s body emitted buzzing sounds. With the last bit of strength in his body, he raised his head and howled—it was a howl of pure pain!
Unfortunately, the Heaven-Changing Treasure Umbrella had already set up the array. The area was isolated from the outside world, and so the howl was not heard by anyone.
Yuwen Ling’s immortal body was rotting in the green fog. His white bones were already showing at several parts of his body, and transparent bubbles were appearing in his skin at others.
He tried hard to deal counter-attacks. His broad axe moved lazily and slowly, allowing the three paper dolls to nimbly dodge his swings.
Whoop!
The third arrow pierced Yuwen Ling in his rotting chest, right through the heart!
The three paper dolls began to conjure hand seals, spewing white flames from their mouths, which consumed Yuwen Ling!
It was only then that Yuwen Ling recognized Li Changshou. Listlessly, he shouted, “It’s… you…”
This Essence Immortal had just ascended to immortality a while ago. However, at that moment, he was on the brink of death.
Immortals were immortals after all—how could they be happy about their lives ending?
While in the white flames, Yuwen Ling suddenly closed his eyes. Immortal light began to shoot out of his terrifying-looking body, and faint images appeared at the top of his head!
His essence soul left his body!
Yuwen Ling’s essence soul shouted, “Die!” It withstood the effects of the Soft Immortal Disperser and dealt Li Changshou a blow!
This blow carried with it the force of Mount Tai, and it felt like there was a flood cras.h.i.+ng through the mountains!
Li Changshou immediately tried to dodge, but a hand had a death-like grip on his ankle. He looked down and saw that it was one of the masked men that had been heavily poisoned by the poisonous beast—he was suddenly moving!
The man was writhing around. Li Changshou did not know how he was withstanding the poison in his body, but while his three immortal souls and seven mortal forms were being destroyed, the man used everything in him to destroy Li Changshou’s last chance of survival.
‘Pui, a miscalculation.’
Li Changshou shook his head slightly, as Yuwen Ling’s attack finally reached him. The impact caused the upper half of his body to be blown to pieces.
Yuwen Ling’s essence soul laughed mirthlessly.
‘This boy’s Dharma powers are quite good, but he still has not ascended to immortality…’
Whoosh…
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
Once again, the sounds of something cutting through the air could be heard from underneath the cypress tree. Seven spikes shot out, piercing various points on Yuwen Ling’s essence soul at the same time!
Each spike carried complicated restrictions and white flames of the underworld!
Yuwen Ling’s essence soul looked down in shock. The three paper dolls around him did not stop spewing flames. Before his essence soul jumped out of his body, his physical body had already been reduced to bones.
At that moment, the masked man, whose own soul was burning, looked up to find the lower half of a paper doll dancing in the wind as it combusted into flames.
That man had destroyed his last hope of reincarnation in order to bring half of a paper doll down with him.
Under the old cypress tree, ‘Li Changshou’ suddenly appeared. He opened his left palm and faced Yuwen Ling’s essence soul. Then, he lightly clenched his fist. The seven Soul-Extinguis.h.i.+ng Spikes, which he expended a lot of effort refining, suddenly exploded!
Li Changshou used his spiritual senses to focus on the rack of immortal bones that could not seem to be completely burnt from inside the roots of the cypress tree. While frowning slightly, he made Paper Doll Five throw out a Soul-Conserving Pearl. Then, he increased the intensity of the flames that Paper Dolls One, Two, and Three were spewing.
The Cold Flames of the Underworld were not powerful enough on immortals. Li Changshou had to think of another way to obtain the True Samadhi Flames from the sect.
He waited for a while longer before the rack of bones finally collapsed and reduced to a pile of ash on the ground. The three paper dolls read their respective sutras. It was only then that Li Changshou finally moved.
Li Changshou would only be at peace if he did the ceremonial step of scattering the ashes himself!
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