Chapter 330: I Am the Victim

The Kong Que Demon King, eyes wide with rage, froze.

He went limp and fell toward the earth.

Mid-air, his form blurred; his humanoid body swelled and transformed, swirling with five-colored radiance, revealing a magnificent, multicolored great Kong Que.

Seven or eight zhang long, his body possessed elegant, splendid curves, shimmering with spiritual light.

Five long tail feathers extended from his back—red, yellow, blue, gold, green—three or four zhang long, their plumage fluffy, their auras interlinked, vaguely forming a single whole.

From the horizon, a hundred Kong Que feathers, all clattering and shooting forth, suddenly lost their spiritual light; yet still carrying immense momentum, capable of piercing gold and cracking stone, easily breaching a Foundation Establishment cultivator's shield, they enveloped a youth in green robes.

"So beautiful. Is he a male Kong Que?"

"No, male Kong Que are naturally far more beautiful than females."

Jiang Ding thought again and let out a helpless laugh.

As the hundred Kong Que feathers were about to strike him, he casually waved his hand, brushing them away like dust; a pale blue sword qi slashed out, shattering the many feathers into fragments that scattered wildly.

They were then gathered and taken back to be destroyed.

The Kong Que corpse, just about to hit the ground, paused, slowly floated upward, and drifted before him; the five-colored spiritual light expanded, covering an area hundreds of meters in radius.

Earlier, the severed claw that had fallen to the ground and pierced the massive green stone was drawn in by his divine sense, returned to its original position on the wrist, and fused back together.

"Not bad. These five tail feathers should be able to refine a fine magical treasure, though they are of no use to me."

Jiang Ding gazed for a moment at the five tail feathers on the Kong Que's tail, known as Floating Feathers, then asked with a smile, "Don't you agree, Great King Kong Que?"

Boom!

A blood hole exploded in the great Kong Que's abdomen; a five-colored Demon Core emerged, bearing a thumb-sized, translucent Kong Que phantom upon it, its expression panicked as it fled toward the distance.

"Sword Disciple, spare my life!"

"You cannot kill this King!"

The Great King Kong Que cried out in terror: "The Xiang Qiyu Sect is currently waging war in alliance with the Demon Nation. If you kill me, the Demon Nation will certainly not let this go; they may even ally with the Xuetudian to surround and kill the Xiang Qiyu Sect. The Xiang Qiyu Sect will surely be destroyed!"

"This King knows his mistake and is willing to hand over his storage stomach, plus offer the spirit stones and heavenly treasures accumulated over seven hundred years in the Demon Nation!"

"Please, Sword Disciple, consider the greater good."

He pleaded.

"I cannot kill you?"

Jiang Ding chuckled lightly: "Then why did you come to kill me? Am I not the greater good?"

"This is different..."

The Kong Que Demon King's soul was speechless.

Boom!

Array patterns resembling magnetic-field-assisted dashed lines spread in all directions; the azure flying sword vanished amidst the sound of an aerial explosion, then reappeared, landing upon the Kong Que Demon Core.

"I do not believe your divine soul has also reached the Jin Dan level!"

Screech!

The Kong Que Demon King's expression of pitiful pleading changed; he let out a piercing shriek, revealing a ruthless look, and converted the vast majority of his divine soul power into sharp spikes, stabbing fiercely at the green-robed youth's skull.

"Ah!"

The Kong Que Demon King let out a wail of agony.

The moment his divine soul touched the enemy's sea of consciousness, it was as if it had crashed into a blazing azure sun; searing, sharp, world-breaking power that could shatter forbidden techniques surged up, instantly burning away all the divine soul power that had intruded.

The entire thumb-sized Kong Que divine soul was barely clinging to life, its aura dropping to a state where even maintaining Foundation Establishment was barely possible.

Whoosh!

The azure flying sword descended, yet instead of cleaving his divine soul and Demon Core in two, it split into countless hazy, fine moon-white sword qi threads, one after another, gently adhering to the thumb-sized Kong Que divine soul.

"I... I feel so sleepy..."

The Great King Kong Que's pupils showed a dazed look; he grew groggy, struggled to keep his eyelids open several times, and finally closed his eyes.

"That will do."

Jiang Ding casually beckoned; the Kong Que divine soul, along with the Demon Core, fell into his hand. Seeing its peaceful state, deep in slumber, he could not help but shake his head: "You truly thought you hid well. If not for the need to learn intelligence about the Demon Nation, I could have long ago slain you with a single sword strike, shattering both your Demon Core and divine soul."

"Come to think of it, the Great Sun Sword Disciple's Jin Dan secret technique seems to have been derived from this natural phenomenon of the Demon race's Demon Core. I should study it more when I have time."

"The traces of battle around here need to be cleaned up."

Jiang Ding looked around, stepped onto the massive green stone on the ground pierced by the demon claw, waved his hand, and the green stone turned to dust, scattering with the wind.

He closed his eyes and sensed for a moment.

"There are still lingering auras: sword qi, demon qi, and even traces of divine soul power remaining."

Jiang Ding frowned: "These past years, I forgot to learn a soul-purifying spell; what I know now is not quite suitable."

"No, aside from escape techniques and daily life spells, I haven't learned a single spell. How can anything be 'suitable'?"

"Go back to the library to learn one, and ask Master Master Dinghai for advice."

"For now..."

He pondered deeply for a long while, finally devising a method that would barely suffice.

In his hand, a azure flying sword about a chi in length appeared; he stroked it gently for a moment.

Lines of pure golden coloration were revealed; the aura, while restrained, spread outward. A terrifying presence capable of breaking, destroying, and forbidding spells flashed briefly, covering an area ten kilometers in radius.

Within this range, all minute supernatural things—sword qi auras, divine soul auras, spell auras, even cultivator auras—vanished completely, leaving behind an immaculate cleanliness.

It was as if one had returned to the moment before chaos gave birth to creation, as if no post-heavenly beings had ever come here.

"That will do."

Jiang Ding sheathed the Taiching Flying Sword into his sleeve; his body turned transparent and hazy, then vanished.

A few breaths later, he arrived at a place scattered with azure ice-crystal powder mixed with much dark brown matter; he waved his hand to gather it, then repeated the same process.

He obtained a flame double-jade scissors treasure with a chip in it, and also a storage bag.

"This person must be a pauper — the storage pouch is nothing to look at, only this magic treasure has some value."

Jiang Ding shook his head.

A newly advanced Jin Dan cultivator's wealth is about the same as a Foundation Establishment cultivator's — really hard to get excited about. He swept it up casually.

"This magic treasure here should be from Xiang Qiyu Sect. Should I return it?"

He muttered to himself, thinking for a moment.

"Return my ass."

"I once promised that after killing Zhou Zhou Kunlong, I would slay a Jin Dan Chu Qi enemy for Xiang Qiyu Sect. Now that's gone — it's not that I went chasing him down and caught him, causing Xiang Qiyu Sect to suffer a Jin Dan cultivator's loss."

"He was the one chasing me."

"I'm the victim here!"

Jiang Ding's gaze turned cold.

In his heart he somewhat suspected that the two Xiang Qiyu Sect Jin Dan cultivators had simply gone with the flow, deliberately letting things slide, and had completely taken Zhou Zhou Kunlong's side.

After all, Zhou Zhou Kunlong was someone they had watched grow up — there was a deep emotional foundation, and after his advancement to False Core, the bond of interest and affection combined, making it very solid.

Compared with the bond with him, which was purely one of interest and calculation, some bias was only inevitable.

Moreover, two living, breathing Jin Dan cultivators had vanished without even a transmission warning — that was far too unreasonable.

"Forget it. Blessed ignorance."

"In this Cultivation World, a partner you can completely trust is hard to find — maybe there isn't one at all. Let it be."

Jiang Ding shook his head, decided not to dig deeper into this matter, swept away the traces and aura here, and his invisible escape light flew off into the distance, quickly leaving the area.

(End of chapter)