Chapter 478: Slaying the Demon

At the center of Jiangzhou City, by the willow-lined Liuhu Lake, stood a grand and elegant mansion.

From its gate, one could see the Ten-Mile Willow Lake.

The water shimmered, the willows swayed gently—it was a sight beyond compare.

Li Rui and Nie Nie Siming lay reclining before the gate, reading.

Their ears caught the murmurs of Ning Ning Zhongtian and the others.

"Hu, Lao Liao's right—Jiangnan women are truly the most nourishing; that tiny waist of hers? I'd say it's worth at least three thousand taels, no worse than the courtesan houses in the capital."

"Ning Ge is spot on."

"."

Li Rui rolled his eyes.

For the past month, they had been waiting for news from Jianghuai Town.

Jiangzhou was too vast; they were only a few people, couldn't find him, and had no need to look.

So they had stayed all along in the residence prepared by Fan Wen.

But Ning Ning Zhongtian and the others hadn't been idle—they'd nearly visited every brothel and willow-lined spot in Jiangzhou City.

As for this.

Li Rui and Nie Nie Siming turned a blind eye.

After all, idle hands were idle hands.

Moreover, the Li Xunshan Corps differed from regular armies; all were at least Sea Gazing Realm, all respectable folk, so rules didn't need to be too strict.

Nie Nie Siming stretched lazily, curiously eyeing Li Rui:

"Big Brother Li, that Jiang fellow has already broken through to Celestial Phenomenon—don't you dare surpass me too fast, or my Dao heart will shatter."

When Jiang Lin broke through.

They weren't in the capital.

But when the news reached them, they were utterly stunned.

Too fast—far too fast.

After all, their foster father surged ahead only because he aligned with heaven's timing and the Great Dao—that's how he moved so swiftly.

Yet Jiang Lin, a swordsman, achieved it so fast.

It truly shocked him.

Thinking back to Jiang Lin's claim that Li Rui was no weaker than him, Nie Nie Siming felt a pang in his liver.

Don't tell me you're about to break through too?

He had always prided himself as a genius, yet before these two, his confidence vanished completely.

Too unfair.

He was only just at Mid-Channeling Realm, and even that was only thanks to the battlefield aura from the Northern Plains.

If Li Rui broke through.

He'd truly be green with envy.

He wasn't afraid of Big Brother being strong—he was afraid Big Brother would stop being human altogether.

Li Rui chuckled: "Celestial Phenomenon isn't that simple—it's still a long way off."

Hearing Li Rui's words,

Nie Nie Siming blinked, his heart suddenly feeling hollow.

'Could he already be Celestial Phenomenon?'

But then he recalled:

Celestial Phenomenon breakthroughs were too loud—even if you hid in the Eastern Sea, the immortal sects there would sense it—you couldn't hide.

Thinking of this,

Nie Nie Siming finally relaxed.

He'd almost begged Li Rui to wait for him.

As the two spoke,

Fan Wen strode into the courtyard, speaking with decisive urgency: "Lord Li, General Nie, the demonic cultivator has reappeared—we've locked onto his target. If we set an ambush in advance, we can surely slay him and rid the people of this scourge."

Li Rui and Nie Nie Siming exchanged glances.

They immediately rose.

Together with Ning Ning Zhongtian and the others, they followed Fan Wen out of the city.

Not long after,

They arrived at a quiet, peaceful village a hundred li outside the city, nestled among willows, with wisps of smoke rising gently from its thatched roofs.

The group hid in the woods beyond the village.

"Is this the place?"

Nie Nie Siming glanced at the nearby village: "How did General Fan determine this?"

It wasn't surprising he asked.

Demonic cultivators struck at random; their targets were impossible to predict.

Fan Wen replied: "Thanks to Lord Li's Tracking Talisman, we've tracked the demonic cultivator for days—he returns to this village roughly every few days. Even if he hasn't set his sights on killing here, we can still trap him like a fish in a barrel."

Hearing this,

Nie Nie Siming nodded.

Then both turned to look at Li Rui.

Li Rui chuckled: "Since we're certain he'll come here, we can set up the array in advance. I'll lay the great array first; when the demonic cultivator arrives, we activate it—then even if he has some skill, he won't sense a thing."

"Excellent!"

Fan Wen cheered.

He'd been tormented for too long by this annoying demonic cultivator; he'd brought Li Rui here specifically to set an array and kill the demon.

Afterwards,

Ning Ning Zhongtian and Fan Wen's men from Jianghuai Town took up guard positions around the perimeter.

Fan Wen and Nie Nie Siming followed Li Rui, disguised as villagers.

Li Rui did not enter the village.

Instead, he wandered outside like a traveling peddler, while Fan Wen and Nie Nie Siming each carried a shoulder pole.

"Brother Fan, don't stand so stiff—walk with a sway."

"Ah, yes, just like that."

As he spoke, Li Rui casually tossed a few small stones from his sleeve.

Fan Wen had been slightly embarrassed.

He came from a respectable military family—he'd never carried a shoulder pole before, so he was clumsy, let alone pretending to be a peddler.

But watching Li Rui's movements, he found them strangely fascinating.

As Regional Commander of Jianghuai Town, he certainly had array masters under him.

Yet none laid arrays as effortlessly and casually as Li Rui did.

'No wonder he's a master of arrays.'

He silently praised.

Not just Fan Wen—even Nie Nie Siming felt the same.

He'd only known Li Rui had blocked Su Xuan Yu Daoist's assault with ten thousand arrays for ten breaths; now he understood how Li Rui had quietly laid ten thousand arrays within Qingwei Sect.

This method of arraying,

began with the smallest Five Elements array.

Back then, Li Rui had just entered array art, often practicing with Five Elements stones on Mount Changqing Peak.

As he practiced, he had a sudden inspiration:

Why not replace array flags entirely with array stones?

After several experiments, he indeed improved several arrays—hence the scene that day.

Li Rui walked a full circle around the village, then clapped his hands.

Fan Wen ventured: "That's it?"

"Done."

Li Rui nodded: "Now we wait."

"Brilliant!"

Fan Wen's eyes gleamed.

Li Rui's arraying technique—neither the demonic cultivator nor even he could detect the slightest trace.

A sure thing!

Fan Wen grinned.

"Let's see you run now!"

At Zi Shi,

The cold moonlight spilled over the village's thatched roofs, making it seem even more peaceful; peasants couldn't afford candles, so every household had long since gone to sleep—the village lay shrouded in darkness, utterly silent, save for the occasional hoot of an owl.

At this moment,

A man with a hawk-like nose entered the village.

Seeing the hawk-nosed man appear.

Fan Wen and the others lying in wait outside the village all tensed up.

"Here he comes!"

Fan Wen licked his lips.

He exchanged a glance with Nie Nie Siming, then led his men toward the village.

Li Rui and Ning Ning Zhongtian and the others did not follow.

They remained stationed at the village's perimeter.

Fan Wen and Nie Nie Siming were enough; their task was to monitor the formation and ensure the demonic cultivator could not escape again.

"Big brother, this time the demonic cultivator's finally got nowhere to run, right?"

Ning Ning Zhongtian kept his eyes on the village's interior as he spoke.

He had previously joined Nie Nie Siming in one attempt to capture this demonic cultivator—and the demon had slipped away.

He was just a common peasant.

He understood best how hard life was at the bottom, so he despised most of all such atrocities—killing innocents to forge dark artifacts—and longed to kill the demon with his own hands.

Li Rui narrowed his eyes:

"There are no absolute things in this world. We must remain vigilant."

"You're always the cautious one, big brother."

Ning Ning Zhongtian grinned, throwing in a compliment to Li Rui.

Yet inside, he wasn't worried at all.

Three Spirit-Transcending cultivators against one, with the formation's support—how could they possibly lose?

Besides, his big brother had once slain a Spirit-Transcending cultivator before.

'My big brother is invincible!'

At the other end.

Inside the village.

The hawk-nosed man moved skillfully to a thatched hut deep within the village.

He pushed open the door and sat cross-legged, settling in.

But before he could even enter meditation,

he suddenly opened his eyes, shooting out like lightning—only to be flung back into the hut a moment later, the fragile thatched structure collapsing outright and burying the hawk-nosed man.

At the same moment,

Fan Wen's curse rang out: "Trying to run?"

Before the words had fully faded,

a white banner spewing black qi rose into the air.

The hawk-nosed man slowly rose from the rubble, his face twisted with ferocity.

"Fan, you really think I'm afraid of you?"

With that,

he unleashed his soul banner, sweeping it down over Fan Wen and Nie Nie Siming.

Fan Wen's expression darkened at the sight of the banner.

A Hundred-Soul Banner!

"So it's true—the demonic cultivator is using living souls to forge artifacts."

Fan Wen's killing intent intensified.

To be fair,

the imperial court's deep knowledge of the Ten-Thousand-Soul Banner came largely thanks to Li Rui.

This Lord Li of Yunzhou had once traded a dark technique for numerous talismans and arrays—and that technique included the method for forging the Ten-Thousand-Soul Banner.

Though the court's diviners hadn't practiced it, they had spent years studying how to counter it.

They had even informed the Regional Commanders of all thirty-two garrisons.

Hence, Fan Wen recognized it at a glance.

To forge a Ten-Thousand-Soul Banner, one needed souls with spiritual essence—cultivators or martial artists of rank or higher were ideal.

But the demonic cultivator before him had taken another path.

He slaughtered ordinary people, relying on sheer numbers.

This Hundred-Soul Banner contained at least ten thousand lives.

Fan Wen's gaze grew colder. He growled:

"Demonic heresy—must be exterminated!"

(End of Chapter)