Chapter 462: New Clues, the Death of Chili

"You! Ah!"

The only son of Jiuyun widened his eyes, looking at the person before him in disbelief. That claw could no longer descend, not only because there was some invisible, dense layer blocking it in front, but also because a force he could not resist was coming from behind, dragging him away fiercely.

"Tail, a tail?"

The guards were still immersed in all sorts of disbelief and had not yet reacted. Zhu Qing, however, felt that Du En's invincibility was only natural, and he had no thoughts regarding Du En watching the guard captain die. If anything, he even had thoughts like the Emperor finally having a change of heart, becoming wise, and starting to eliminate the treacherous villains around him.

So, he was the first to notice at this moment that lying in the trench dug out by the invisible giant hand was a layer of mottled white fur. It was alive, and judging by the situation, it should be a series of tails.

Six trenches, six tails...

"Ah!!!"

A terrifying roar came from the end of the mine tunnel, causing the entire mine to tremble. A pressure erupted violently, sweeping over with a dim yellow light and shocking demonic power, rushing in like a raging sea.

However, this was only the feeling of the guards and Zhu Qing.

To the other two people here, although this display already had a point or two of the aura of the Spirit Severing stage, it was not only flawed with some instability, but it was also not true Primordial Spirit pressure or great magical power.

Simply put.

Not worth mentioning.

So, after the demonic cultivators went through so much trouble, even capturing the only son of Jiuyun, they could only churn out this kind of trash in the end? Or was it that they arrived too quickly and too early, leaving this guy's tails no time to fully grow?

Du En was not in a hurry to crush the opponent to death. He raised his eyes to look at the mine tunnel ahead, only to see small stones peeling off and falling amidst the rumbling, shaking incessantly.

Accompanying the dim yellow light and the pressure was a not-so-small demon.

It had the torso characteristics of a human, the limb form of a canine, and a fox head, yet it had a human face growing on its forehead. It was eighty percent similar to the only son of Jiuyun, but mixed with the features of others, dragging six tails behind it that had already withdrawn from the trenches, now dancing wildly.

Six-tailed fox demon.

It should carry the bloodline of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox; that could be considered a fairly deep-rooted existence among demonic beasts. So, if this demon were really allowed to grow to the ninth tail, perhaps it would also be a heaven-defying prodigy? Du En used his Source-Seeing Holy Pupils to examine and distinguish it, then secretly shook his head.

Not qualified. With this state of life source, it could at most develop into a strong genius, completely unable to cross that barrier of a heaven-defying prodigy.

This calm and ripple-less performance made the six-tailed demon even more furious. It charged even faster, a cruel and ferocious expression appearing on its face, just wanting to see the other party lose their composure and fail!

Here it comes again...

Du En revealed a hint of indifference.

Then.

Boom! Bang! The dim yellow light charged fiercely with demonic pressure, but it couldn't pass through the True Flame light that had replaced this area at all. It couldn't even get close before encountering an invisible barrier, which blocked all the impact directly like a dam.

What?!

The six-tailed demon was greatly shocked and wanted to slam on the brakes.

Du En had basically seen through its bottom line, so naturally, he wouldn't waste words or drag things out with it.

He looked straight at it, his gaze like a sledgehammer, smashing directly onto its body.

Boom!

The mine tunnel, which could accommodate the fighting of the Spirit Severing stage, suddenly developed countless cracks. A large pit appeared at the center of the impact, connecting to the very bottom of the mine. The six-tailed demon seemed to have turned into a uniformly concave pancake, its six tails standing straight up, resting on the ground behind it.

Logically speaking, it should be dead like this.

However, it was clearly an abnormal situation now.

A wisp of evil nature drifted from who knows where, about to submerge into that meat pancake.

Sheng Zhaoshui suddenly raised his head and struck. A water vortex undercurrent formed and appeared in the void, coiling around and attracting that wisp of evil nature.

He immediately groaned, clearly having suffered some impact, and almost couldn't maintain his Dao technique.

But it was very obvious that although he had been acting lackadaisical and hadn't made a move before, he was actually secretly brewing his methods. Although that evil nature was grotesque, it was unable to escape this void vortex undercurrent for a moment. From the abyss bottom beneath the undercurrent, an ugly strange fish suddenly emerged and swallowed this wisp of evil nature in one gulp.

The tentacles on the top of the strange fish's head lit up at the ends.

"Phew..."

"Fortunately, the True Monarch gave me this Abyssal Fish, which can contain the abnormal things of the world, barely managing to swallow and store it within."

Only then did Sheng Zhaoshui let out a breath, offering a slight explanation. He raised his hand in a beckoning gesture, the strange fish fell into the abyss, and the void vortex vanished.

Without the blessing of such extra power, the six-tailed demon naturally died as dead as could be.

"Wh, why?"

A lingering, dying voice came.

Because the main body died too quickly, the split consciousness on this tail of the only son of Jiuyun didn't have time to return, so it hadn't died yet, and could still speak after returning to the tip.

Du En kept these six tails for this very reason.

After all, having finally found a living witness, how could he let it just die?

His figure flickered, and he had already arrived before it.

The dim yellow light at the deepest part of the mine tunnel suddenly extinguished, replaced by the True Flame light.

Looking back, the innermost part of this mine tunnel was actually empty. There were no other spirit stone pillars, only a single one standing on a blood-patterned demonic array. At this moment, the demonic array had long since dimmed, and the spirit stone pillar had already turned into waste rock.

The tip of the tail of the only son of Jiuyun happened to be dangling at the original edge of the innermost part. He was originally struggling, wanting to crawl back to see if he could do anything to prolong his life, while his mouth couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Until Du En's figure appeared, his movements paused.

His cracked gaze lifted, only touching upon a trace of calmness.

No, it wasn't him...

That gaze was not cold, nor distant, and even lacked the contempt and strangeness he detested. All that was there was ordinary calmness. Of course, it was only calmness; there was neither pity nor softness, and likewise, there would be no regret.

But, for the only son of Jiuyun, it seemed to be enough.

So without Du En asking, he spoke like a delirious person: "The family's ancestral grave, I only woke up half-asleep once in the middle and heard them say it, it seems they said that over there, perhaps, is the thing you want."

"Many thanks."

Du En replied with two words, and the only son of Jiuyun felt relieved.

Then, everything in this deepest part was completely incinerated by the crimson True Flame.

The lamp crystals, the rock walls, the soil, and so on all quietly evaporated, not even leaving room to turn into magma. Right up to the innermost boundary covered by the Wood Domain, the space expanded more than ten times in an instant.

Amidst the nothingness, Du En turned his head and had already appeared before the crowd. The guards here finally regained their senses; they were still shaken and uneasy, but facing the person who had sat by and watched them die one after another without even caring about their core leaders, they could only continue to put on a show of respect and loyalty.

What else could they do if not this?

There was nothing they could do.

Therefore, they could only harbor no complaints and continue to obey orders.

This was the law of the jungle they believed in.

Du En did not care about the thoughts of these fellows and only looked toward Sheng Zhaoshui: "That demon, which used the son of Venerable Jiuyun as a carrier, should not have finished developing yet. It was only born early because of our interference. The key lies in the fact that those demonic cultivators actually left it behind; this situation already looks quite obvious."

Clearly, they had received wind of it in advance, which is why those key demonic cultivators had hurriedly fled and withdrawn from this place, and not having had time to take the thing with them, they instead pinned their hopes on it being able to delay the pursuit here, thus leaving behind the means to trigger its awakening! "How decisive indeed. Looking at it this way, it really can only be that guy."

Old Daoist Chili!

Combining the events before and after, only this guy has the greatest suspicion! Then, the next thing to do is very simple.

Return to rendezvous with Anshen, then see if we can obtain specific information directly from Old Daoist Chili; if not, we will go to the ancestral grave of Venerable Jiuyun's family to check the situation.

However, before that, it is still necessary to clarify one thing first.

Du En's gaze turned toward Zhu Qing.

The other party was immediately uneasy, his eyes flickering as they occasionally drifted past him to look behind him, where it had become quiet, with no more True Flame light shining, but rather another touch of fresh, pale cyan-green radiance in the deepest part of the vaguely soft-lit mine.

There had been no trace of his younger sister, Zhu Yi, along the way, and the only place Zhu Qing had not yet stepped into was that innermost part, so he was actually very afraid of hearing any bad news from Du En's mouth.

"Rest assured, your sister seems to have something special about her, so I did not find any traces of her existence inside."

Facing these words from Du En, while Zhu Qing let out a sigh of relief, his brows subconsciously lifted—not in surprise, but more like a sudden realization.

Was it as expected? After seeing the past residual images in the secret room, the two had already obtained key information: the demonic cultivators were not grabbing people at random, but were capturing those who possessed special bloodlines.

But the situation here with Zhu Qing was clear at a glance; just now he had observed carefully again and conducted further investigation, but other than that small, foreign, contaminated anomaly, he still had not discovered anything special.

As such, the situation was clearly worth further inquiry.

"Looking at your expression, you must have thought of something. If you can, say it directly; it will be more helpful to the current situation and can help you find your sister back."

"There is nothing to hide about that. Actually, upon hearing your words, sir, I wanted to say it. Simply put, although my sister and I have relied on each other and supported each other while growing up, we have no blood relation."

Zhu Qing spoke of this, which he hadn't mentioned before, mainly because he felt it wasn't necessary at the time.

"It is not that this lowly one intended to hide it, but this matter happened before I entered the world of cultivation. At that time, I was only a few years old, and in my hometown in the mortal world, we encountered a famine that was neither big nor small; my family could barely hold on."

"But it was different for my sister. Her family were originally refugees. She was only two years old at the time, and as her family died of hunger one after another while fleeing the disaster, I couldn't bear to see her with only a breath left, so I begged the adults in my family to save her life."

"And so, one thing led to another, and we became siblings. Later, when the famine worsened, everyone in our hometown had to flee the disaster. I thought we wouldn't survive it, but unexpectedly we obtained an opportunity and coincidentally began to cultivate, so we entered the world of cultivation together and relied on each other until not long ago."

Zhu Qing stated this past event from before his cultivation concisely, then gave a bitter smile, "So, as for whether my sister might be hiding something special, I truly have no way of knowing. She has never mentioned anything related to it, so she should be completely unaware."

Having left her original family at just two years old, it was only natural that she wouldn't know.

Of course, if it were like ordinary demon clans, having some kind of bloodline inheritance, that would be another matter.

Du En saw Zhu Qing subconsciously avoiding this, appearing protective of his sister, so he did not speak bluntly, lest he, already uneasy, start letting his imagination run wild.

"Since it is just like this, let's go back first."

"Uh, sir, are there any new clues?"

"There are."

Zhu Qing asked boldly, and Du En answered crisply.

It made people feel at ease and settled.

It also made them skip a beat and tremble.

The guards! There were actually still clues; that meant they would inevitably be used as tools to pave the way through fire again!

They were doomed! They wailed incessantly in their hearts, while on the surface they became increasingly humble, only hoping that the exalted one before them would show a little mercy in light of their loyalty.

Next, Du En retracted the Wood Domain, screened other mine tunnels and pits, and finally surrounded this area and occupied the other tunnels; the True Flame light did not extinguish, and only then did he, together with Sheng Zhaoshui, take the others back.

Stepping outside the mine again and bathing in the sunlight, the guards, whose body enhancements had long since dissipated, all had a feeling of seeing the light of day again. Of course, just like the dark clouds clinging to the horizon, there was still a heavy, gloomy feeling that could not disperse.

Du En stopped his pace at this moment.

Because the Anshen Spirit Mirror appeared before them, spinning, and the Anshen inside appeared quite grave.

It went without saying that an accident had occurred!

Anshen did not waste any words at all and directly emitted a beam of dark light, a means of projection, to straightforwardly present the events he had seen to the two of them.

On the market street, the excitement of Old Daoist Chili faded, and he flicked his sleeves and left.

He walked through the main street, passed through small alleys, and arrived at a place of hidden cultivation, inside a small house with a courtyard.

The overall environment was unremarkable, and the old Daoist did not care, walking straight into the dark room where he usually practiced, sitting cross-legged on the only meditation cushion inside, and taking out the medicinal pill he had just obtained again.

"Truly a good pill! Truly a rare treasure! But... hehe, why did it only appear now? Hehe! It's a pity, that only son of Jiuyun, as a host, was still not perfect enough. I originally thought that was the best bloodline I could find..."

"A better bloodline, a superior bloodline, more... Hahaha!"

Muttering and whispering, completely insane. Anshen, who had originally wanted to see if any more information would leak out here, immediately saw that something was wrong. Just as he was about to strike, the other party's neck tilted, and he died on the spot!

The pill bottle fell to the ground, rolling in the dark room filled with dead, strange silence, making a somewhat harsh, unusual sound, as if the pill inside was actually some other strange thing.

Sticky, stained with blood...

"Actually committed self-destruction to fake death and escape?"

Anshen muttered silently, seemingly unaware of the evil nature quietly spreading in the room, but the next moment, divine fire like countless mirror surfaces suddenly spread out, dividing the entire dark room, the small courtyard building outside the dark room, and even this corner of the alley where there was no one else, into countless distorted mirror surfaces.

He used this to cut off the spread of the evil nature, then tried to find the clues he could not capture directly from the different angles reflected and divided by the countless mirror surfaces.

As a result, he gained nothing.

When the divine fire dissipated, the corner of the alley turned to dust, and nothing was left.

Having lost the target, Anshen had no choice but to rendezvous with Du En here.

(End of chapter)