Chapter 73

Li Xiangping rode the wind for a while, and a small orchard appeared before him, surrounded by a brown wooden fence. Some kumquats hung on the branches of the fruit trees, looking like the crops of a farming household.

"Calculating the journey, I have already penetrated deep into the Ji family's territory. This family must be farmers under the Ji family's rule."

Li Xiangping had been fleeing all night, his face very pale. The talisman in his hand had dimmed, and it looked like it had been exhausted.

Taking out the grey-green magic mirror from his bosom, Li Xiangping stroked it lightly, closed his eyes slightly, and felt the old man's breath still trailing far behind, so he couldn't help but curse in a low voice.

Lu Jiangxian in the mirror saw it even more clearly. The old man had forcibly suppressed his injuries, taken several elixirs, and managed to stabilize his breath. His eyes were filled with ferocity, and he stepped on the flying shuttle and flew toward Li Xiangping's direction.

"As long as this old man uses magic to capture or attack my mirror body, I will pretend to counterattack naturally and kill him."

Lu Jiangxian frowned and watched for a while, seeing that the old man had lost his left shoulder, his magic power was not flowing smoothly, and the residual power of the Taiyin Taiyin Xuanguang was still causing trouble in his body, forcing him to close his eyes and adjust his breath from time to time. His speed was naturally slower, but he was still a step faster than Li Xiangping.

"As long as I catch up, as long as I catch up with that kid, I'll slap him to death and take that mirror."

The old man's mind was in a tug-of-war between rage, greed, and reason. He cursed viciously in his heart:

"A Qi Condensation stage holding this mirror has such power; what will it be like when it's in my hands? This person only used it this once and continued to flee instead of pressing the attack. I imagine this attack consumes a lot of energy and can't be used for a while."

The old man steered the flying shuttle to slow down and descend. A village appeared in front of him. The kumquat trees were planted in the orchard ahead, and that person was constantly weaving and accelerating through the garden, no longer riding the wind with his feet, thinking the talisman must have been exhausted.

Li Xiangping flipped his hand and held the last talisman in his palm. This was a Vajra Talisman. After casting the spell, his skin and bones would be as strong as steel, and he should be able to withstand a few hits from the old man and fight to the death.

The old man was steering the flying shuttle to descend slowly, but saw Li Xiangping turn around suddenly, raising the grey-green mirror in his hand again.

"Again?"

The old man almost vomited a mouthful of blood, forcibly twisted the flying shuttle, wobbled, and landed on a branch, only to see Li Xiangping sneering and standing still, leaning against a kumquat tree and watching him.

"Good kid."

The old man wasn't angry but happy. He patted the storage bag at his waist, put away the flying shuttle, and landed lightly on the ground, only to see Li Xiangping had already rushed in front of him.

The old man didn't talk nonsense, pinched a brilliant golden light in his hand, and hit Li Xiangping straight in the chest.

Li Xiangping's body hummed, and a soft white light also rose, trying to resolve the incoming golden light. The old man's spell spun a few times in the soft light and finally bombarded Li Xiangping's body.

"Puff."

Li Xiangping's five viscera and six bowels were shaken, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. The mirror in his hand slipped away and was about to fall to the ground crookedly.

The old man's gaze was drawn away. The white whiskers of the whisk in his hand grew in the wind, turning into a large hand and grabbing toward the magic mirror.

Li Xiangping's eyes flashed with ferocity. Taking advantage of the old man's distraction by the magic mirror, he pinched a Jin Guang Technique with his left hand and was about to hit the old man's head.

Lu Jiangxian in the mirror watched layers of whiskers grabbing toward him, and for some reason, a heavy sense of disgust rose in his heart, as if a child who didn't know his own strength had picked up chopsticks from the table and pointed them straight at his eyes.

On the other hand, he secretly thought:

"Good opportunity!"

But just as the whiskers touched the mirror, they popped away as if they had touched hot charcoal. The grey-green mirror seemed to have been insulted, and it floated up, standing a foot in the air, frequently spitting out white light.

The twelve seal characters on the edge of the mirror body lit up one by one. The scorching white light rose and fell on the mirror surface like water waves, dazzling to the point that one couldn't open their eyes, just like a small sun hanging quietly above the two people's heads.

A sense of danger, strong enough to make one shiver, suddenly appeared in both their hearts. The heavy pressure made Li Xiangping and the old man unable to move, standing there blankly like actors in a paused play.

"Bad!"

The old man's heart skipped a beat, and he secretly thought with great repentance:

"I shouldn't have used the whisk to grab that mirror!"

The old man had cultivated for many years and had heard that some mysterious magic tools were extremely spiritual and had to be treated with respect, with many taboos—like the Great Snow Absolute Peak of the Qingchi Sect; if it wasn't recognized by the person, driving the magic tool was like driving a stone that wouldn't move.

"Bad, bad. This mirror is so miraculous? I'm afraid I've triggered the mirror's self-defense."

Li Xiangping was about to slap the old man's head with a Jin Guang Technique, but was shocked by the pressure and unable to move. Seeing the mirror rise into the air with white light, just as his father and second brother had described on the night he encountered the wolf demon, he understood that this old man had triggered the mirror's spontaneous attack, and he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

But not knowing what method the old man used, a low voice rang in Li Xiangping's ear:

"Little friend, this old Daoist is as stupid as a pig and didn't know which taboo I triggered, causing this magic tool to counterattack both you and me. I hope little friend has some sacrificial words or techniques to save us... I will definitely reward you heavily afterward..."

Li Xiangping rolled his eyes in his heart and didn't bother to pay attention to the old man's nonsense.

Lu Jiangxian watched the old man who couldn't move and suddenly had a new understanding of his own strength, silently pondering:

"So, by condensing the Taiyin Taiyin Xuanguang, as long as the distance is close enough, I can even deter Qi Condensation cultivators, making them unable to move."

With a sweep of his spiritual sense, Lu Jiangxian discovered that someone in this farming household had already woken up. A young man wearing tattered hemp clothes was sneaking toward this side, lying behind a tree and staring carefully at the two.

"Solve it quickly."

With a thought, the pure white Taiyin Taiyin Xuanguang poured down. The old man only had time to make half a syllable from his throat before he melted away like snow, along with the whisk, leaving behind a pool of pale green metal.

"Plop."

A small brocade bag fell to the ground, and the handle of the whisk, made of some unknown spiritual material, was melted into a pool of pale green metal and landed lightly on the ground.

Afterward, Lu Jiangxian slowly extinguished the white light and floated quietly in the air.

Li Xiangping finally moved, spat out another mouthful of blood, and collapsed limply to the ground.

He had just prepared to adjust his breath when he was hit hard on the head. For a moment, he saw stars, and he struggled to turn over to look.

He saw a young farmer in tattered hemp clothes, full of greed and joy, straddling Li Xiangping, holding a stone in his hand and smashing it down on Li Xiangping.

"Damn it! What guts! You dare to pick up the scraps of an immortal cultivator?"

Li Xiangping barely gathered the last bit of magic power in his body, stretched out his left hand to block the stone, and groped on the ground for a long time. Seeing he was being smashed until he was dizzy and seeing stars, he finally touched a tree branch, attached a Jin Guang Technique to it, and stabbed it toward the young man.

The tree branch attached with the Jin Guang Technique was incomparably sharp, piercing straight through the young man's neck. The young man's eyes went straight, he spat out a few mouthfuls of blood foam, clutched his throat, and fell to the ground struggling.

Li Xiangping collapsed to the ground, watching the young man struggle and flutter, fearing he would attract more people. He hurriedly grabbed the brocade bag and the metal block, put them in his bosom, picked up the magic mirror in the air, stood up staggeringly, and ran out of the village. ===== CHAPTER 74 =====