Chapter 166: The Power of Number Three

Just as she was pondering what to do next.

Two streaks of indigo light arrived from the horizon.

Two old men in Daoist robes appeared before Ruan Xing; one held a horsetail whisk and had a red mole between his brows, while the other had white hair tied in a bun and wore a golden ring collar like a young child.

One of them smiled warmly, "Fellow Daoist, congratulations to your beloved disciple for successfully forming a Golden Core. As the hosts, since we have witnessed this ceremony, we must show our respects. Why not accompany us to the Six Suns Study for a few days to allow us to express our sincerity?"

"That will not be necessary. This humble Daoist and my little disciple are merely passing through on our travels," Ruan Xing declined.

"Oh? That would truly be our honor. The borderlands of Nanzhou are a barren place, lacking both spiritual mountains and beautiful waters, and devoid of any blessed Secret Realms. That you would condescend to come here makes it all the more necessary for us to treat you with courtesy," the old man said with a beaming smile.

Ruan Xing frowned and pulled the flustered Ruan Tao behind her, "So, you are insisting that I go as your guest?"

She did not know where the leak had occurred, but the visitors were ill-intentioned; these two were likely the Nascent Soul cultivators Cai Wen had mentioned, and they had actually mobilized together.

The two men also knew it was impossible to trick Ruan Xing into returning with just a few words, so their expressions shifted, and they shouted, "Fellow Daoist, why tear off the mask and make things difficult for us!"

Seeing the two approaching aggressively, Ruan Xing sneered, "Sword, come!"

A short sword appeared out of thin air in Ruan Xing's hand. She swung it back, formed a seal with her fingers, and as her Spiritual Power surged, ten thousand silver-white sword lights appeared beside her, flickering in and out of existence, appearing both real and illusory.

The old man holding the horsetail whisk dared not be careless. He spread out his whisk, and the white silk threads wove together like a net. The ten thousand sword lights fell into it, only managing to sever a few threads! His expression turned grave, feeling a pang of heartache for the severed white hairs on the whisk; those were demon spider silk threads worth thousands of Spirit Stones.

The white-haired old man took off his golden ring collar and gave it a light flick. The collar expanded into a ring as tall as a person, and the golden halo turned into a mist, "Go!"

The golden ring passed through the gaps in the net and struck rapidly toward Ruan Xing. At this moment, Ruan Xing's sword light was nearly exhausted, so she stopped attacking the net and instead condensed the light into a single beam, flying to meet the golden ring. Instantly, a large expanse of golden mist dispersed, emitting a harsh, screeching sound like concentrated sulfuric acid.

The whisk-holding old man immediately retracted his net. Looking at his somewhat balding whisk, he wore an angry expression and cursed, "This thief, starting a fight at the slightest disagreement, and using full force from the very first move!"

With this, he was even more certain that this strange middle-aged Daoist harbored evil intentions; there was a ninety percent chance this was the person who destroyed the barrier. Otherwise, why would they be so resistant to returning to the Sect as a guest? It is no exaggeration to say that when Nascent Soul cultivators fight, it shakes the earth and mountains. Unless there is a blood feud, they generally do not go to such lengths. Tricking or capturing someone to observe them for clues was the main purpose of their trip. If the person had nothing to hide, they could have received a generous gift after the truth was revealed; the Six Suns Study was not short on these few Spirit Stones.

Therefore, even if he felt his status as a Nascent Soul True Monarch was insulted and was unhappy enough to fight, he would not use lethal moves.

Yet Ruan Xing was completely unaware of this, because... in her few experiences fighting Nascent Soul cultivators, which time wasn't a life-or-death struggle? Furthermore, she had no fondness for these people from the Six Suns Study to begin with. Since the opponent showed hostility, she naturally used lethal moves.

The whisk-holding old man was just about to step forward to help the golden-ring old man so they could quickly subdue this middle-aged Daoist and take them back to the Sect, when his pupils suddenly constricted and he screamed, "Careful, they have an accomplice!"

However, he was too late. A pure white figure appeared behind the golden-ring old man, one hand curled into a claw, striking directly at his heart. A flash of golden light appeared on the golden-ring old man, shattering half of his Spiritual Power barrier. Sharp nails sank into his flesh, leaving deep bloody gouges, but no matter how hard Sword Lai pushed, he could not advance further to touch the opponent's heart. His pitch-black eyes turned slightly, and his hand became covered in green blood.

In pain, the old man turned around and struck the pure white figure with the golden ring he had just retracted. At such close range, Sword Lai's figure plummeted like a shooting star, almost every joint in his body dislocated, but he remained expressionless. Upon landing, he quickly rolled and merged back into the air.

And the moment the golden-ring old man turned around, his eyes widened abruptly.

"Explode!"

In an instant, the earth shook and the heavens swayed! Ruan Xing did not even look back; she grabbed Ruan Tao's arm, summoned her sword beneath her feet, and used all her Spiritual Power to operate the Sword Control Technique to flee the area.

This was Little Boy No. 3!

A Self-destruct Puppet made by the Nascent Soul cultivator Xu Shengping! She only had this one Nascent Soul puppet, and she hadn't tested it yet, so she didn't know how powerful it would be.

Just a second before the fight started, she had already instructed Sword Lai through their mental link to use the Invisibility Channel to send Little Boy No. 3 behind the two Nascent Soul cultivators.

Then, Ruan Xing used the most powerful Magic Art she currently knew, draining half her Spiritual Power to create ten thousand sword lights to distract the two opponents.

But at that time, the whisk-holding old man alone could have blocked her attack, and the golden-ring old man still had strength to spare. This was where her second step came in: having Sword Lai ambush the golden-ring old man from behind. Given their positions at the time, ambushing the whisk-holding old man would have been harder to detect, but in that case, the golden-ring old man might have discovered Little Boy No. 3 a few seconds earlier and had time to react, and Sword Lai wouldn't have had enough time to enter the Invisibility Channel.

Therefore, she had intentionally let the whisk-holding old man discover she had an accomplice.

The ground beneath her feet cracked inch by inch, and the mountain rocks and trees rolled as if in a blender. Ruan Xing desperately steered her Flying Sword to fly straight ahead and into the sky, but she still could not escape the powerful force of the self-destruction. The shockwave caused by Little Boy No. 3 quickly caught up to Ruan Xing.

She spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the front of her Daoist robe red, and the Flying Sword beneath her feet tilted uncontrollably. The town ten miles away from the center of the explosion also turned into ruins.

The Flying Sword descended rapidly, and Ruan Xing knelt on the ground, exhausted, while the surrounding earth continued to tremble and crumble slowly.

She pondered in her heart that the range of this self-destruction was a bit larger than expected, but because this was an unmanaged wilderness and the town had no city gates or defensive arrays, it wouldn't have been this powerful if it had exploded at the Six Suns Study's mountain gate, as the Six Suns Study had a Mountain Protection Array and barriers in place.

She called out to Sword Lai in the mental link, and feeling the other's response, she felt half-relieved; as long as Sword Lai was still there, it was fine.

Wiping the blood from her chin, Ruan Xing used her Spiritual Power to clear a three-zhang flat area, adjusted her posture to sit down, and immediately took out a Healing Pill to swallow, then fed one to Ruan Tao.

Looking at Ruan Tao, her heart sank.

The young girl's face was as pale as gold paper, and bright red blood was continuously flowing from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

Even the Healing Pill she had just fed her, after turning into Spirit Qi in her throat, dissipated along with the blood that kept flowing out.

Ruan Tao was only at the early Golden Core stage, her cultivation not yet stable after just passing the tribulation. Even though Ruan Xing had taken her to flee immediately, she still could not withstand the shockwaves from the explosion.

Her Spirit Bone... was shattered.

Even her meridians were broken inch by inch, making it impossible to use Spiritual Power to heal her injuries. If she didn't find a remedy soon, her life would be in imminent danger. However, this was a Simulation.

Ruan Xing's reason told her that trying to save Ruan Tao now was a futile effort; she should use the precious Simulation time to find a way to deal with the Six Suns Study.

But letting her watch Ruan Tao die before her eyes made her feel uncontrollably sad.

"A-Xing, I seem to... still have failed to help..." Ruan Tao coughed up blood and spoke with difficulty.

Her body was limp and she had no strength; Ruan Xing hurriedly held her hand, "It's okay, Sister, I will find a way."

Ruan Tao was the only bit of genuine affection and bond she had in this world of Cultivation.

The pain made Ruan Tao frown, but she tugged at the corners of her mouth, seemingly still wanting to smile, "A-Xing, you don't look good right now... can you change back to how you were before..."

Ruan Xing was stunned for a moment.

Her true form was that of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl, looking even older than Ruan Tao's current appearance.

She no longer had the appearance Ruan Tao was familiar with.

After a moment of silence, Ruan Xing used the Illusion Technique to transform into the eight-year-old Ruan Xing.

Amidst the ashes and ruins, a streak of golden light broke through the soil.

After a few seconds, the light suddenly intensified, and the golden ring emerged from the ground, splashing a large amount of mud and gravel around.

An old man crawled out, stumbling; he was covered in a mixture of dust and blood, his rotting flesh turned outward, one eye was gone, and half his scalp was bare, seemingly revealing the white bone underneath.

Spitting out a mouthful of bloody water, the golden-ring old man swallowed a Healing Pill and used the golden ring to clear the surrounding ruins. Then, he pulled a human shape out of the pit he had just crawled from.

The whisk-holding old man's injuries were lighter than the former's, but he also looked very disheveled. After swallowing a Healing Pill, he hurriedly formed a seal to retrieve a wooden carved mirror.

The two of them had relied on this Sumeru Mirror to face the damage of a Nascent Soul self-destruction head-on; even so, both of them had suffered non-trivial injuries.

The two sat in meditation to regulate their breathing for a while. The golden-ring old man opened his only eye, filled with malice, and cursed, "What a bastard! What did we even do to deserve a self-destruction! Isn't this just insane? What kind of identity does that person have to make a Nascent Soul cultivator self-destruct for them without the slightest hesitation!"

According to the teachings of some traditional cultivators, the Nascent Soul stage involves reshaping the physical body into an immortal body, and the Transformation stage involves refining the spirit and soul into an immortal soul; only when both reach Consummation can one ascend from the Return to Void to the Spirit Realm.

The explosion just now had destroyed nearly a quarter of his immortal body and cost him an eye, so naturally, he hated that strange Daoist to the core.

However, having been blown up like that, he no longer had the arrogant spirit he possessed when he first arrived; instead, he began to wonder if that person had some background that could not be offended, and he could only vent his anger with a few curses.

But that shouldn't be right either; he had never heard of such a figure in any Sect, and that person calling the young girl beside him his disciple didn't seem like the style of the clans in Xizhou.

The old man with the whisk, however, lowered his head in thought before slowly shaking it, "Don't you find it strange? Even with the Sumeru Mirror, it is impossible for the two of us to have survived the power of a Nascent Soul Stage self-detonation completely unscathed."

"What do you mean?" The old man with the gold ring looked at him in confusion.

The old man with the whisk said firmly, "The person who self-detonated should have had at most seventy percent of the strength of a normal Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator."

The old man with the gold ring didn't quite understand, "That shouldn't prove anything, should it? Our Sect also has techniques to rapidly increase cultivation, and I've heard that there are secret methods in Xizhou to cultivate death warriors, which can quickly produce high-level Cultivators, only their lifespans are half that of regular Cultivators. Besides, that person might just be a Cultivator with some defect or whose lifespan was coming to an end."

The old man with the whisk thought for a moment and asked, "How is your injury from just now?"

"What?" The old man with the gold ring was stunned for a moment before he understood what the other was referring to, "It should be nothing; he didn't rupture my internal organs..."

As he spoke, he reached out to wipe his back, and upon seeing the dark green, sticky bloodstains, he immediately fell silent, his expression turning grim, "It's Corpse Poison!"

The two looked at each other, seemingly understanding something.

The old man with the whisk continued, "And just now, through the Sumeru Mirror, I saw traces of the Xumi Realm's restrictions on his body."

"A rat that escaped from the Xumi Realm through a side door, and he actually managed to cultivate to the Nascent Soul Stage without us noticing; we cannot let him leave here alive!" A flash of ruthlessness crossed the eyes of the old man with the gold ring, "He couldn't have avoided the Nascent Soul Stage self-detonation either, so he must be injured right now. He certainly doesn't have a Spirit Tool like the Sumeru Mirror on him, so our chances of winning are not low."

What he said was exactly what the old man with the whisk was thinking, and he nodded slightly, "He can't run far. Within a radius of twenty miles, we will catch up if we pursue. Besides, that little disciple of his is only a Golden Core who just underwent tribulation; if he doesn't stop to prolong her life, she is dead for sure."

"It's just that you..." There was a bit more worry in the voice of the old man with the whisk, "How many years has it been since an Evil Cultivator of the Ghost Dao appeared in Nanzhou? Corpse Poison is hard to resolve; I fear you will suffer for decades."

"It was my carelessness," the old man with the gold ring sighed, "But it's fine; at least we can confirm that the person who was spying on the National Teacher Palace that night was him. The Evil Ghost caught in the Xumi Realm yesterday should also have been his doing. As long as we kill him, there will be no more mishaps regarding the Xumi Realm."

"It's just that I have never been able to understand: when the ancestors of our Sect who founded the Xumi Realm six thousand years ago were rounding up those mortals, hadn't they already screened them once? It is impossible for any techniques to exist in the Xumi Realm, so how could a Nascent Soul Stage Ghost Dao Evil Cultivator be hiding inside? I also don't know if he has had any impact on the dynasty's destiny over these years..."

The old man with the whisk frowned.

The old man with the gold ring was somewhat impatient, "Who can know the affairs of six thousand years ago so clearly? Perhaps those ancestors made a mistake when they were handling things. Besides, when you and I were living as muddled mortals in the Xumi Realm, didn't we also never hear of any talk of gods or ghosts? Stop doubting this and that; come with me to kill him first. The longer we delay, the more he can regulate his breathing, which is only more disadvantageous for us."

"You are right." The old man with the whisk stopped dwelling on it and wiped the dirty blood and dust from his face with his sleeve, "Let's go."

The two headed in the direction Ruan Xing had just left.

(End of this chapter)