Chapter 490: Encirclement and Interception

Just as the Gale Demon King and the Nine-Headed Demon King commanded the demon beast army to move, the Xiaoyao Sect cultivators in Cuiyun Workshop immediately sensed that something was wrong. After True Person Guangling confirmed that the demon beast army had retreated northward, he immediately transmitted this news to Bai Yuxian and the others who were at Guiyun Workshop.

The army of several thousand demon beasts in Gao Yun County retreated northward all the way; it would take at least twenty days or so to reach Guiyun Workshop, which was several thousand miles away.

Furthermore, since Zixing Workshop had already been occupied by Song Qingming and the others, if they wanted to bypass it, they would have to cross a very steep and massive mountain range to the west, which would add another seven or eight days to their journey. The desperate rushing along this path alone would be enough to plunge the entire demon beast army into a state of exhaustion.

Facing this demon beast army that wanted to flee back to the north, the Xiaoyao Sect side naturally would not let them escape so easily. Under the arrangement and coordination of Bai Yuxian, True Person Guangling led the cultivators guarding Cuiyun Workshop in the south to tail and pursue them without stopping, not only killing many slow-moving low-tier demon beasts but also exacerbating the overall fatigue of the demon beast army.

By the time this demon beast army finally crossed the massive mountain range west of Zixing Workshop, the Zixing Workshop cultivator army, which had long been waiting there in ease, immediately charged toward the low-morale and exhausted demon beast army.

Seeing that the human cultivator side had high morale while the demon beast army under their command had low morale and could hardly put up a fight, the Gale Demon King and the Nine-Headed Demon King sensed that the momentum was wrong. They decisively abandoned the demon beast army, directly forsaking the low-tier demon beasts under their command to flee northward alone.

However, before they had run very far, several streaks of light suddenly appeared in front of them, intercepting the two demon kings. They were none other than Li Mu, Song Qingming, and True Person Guangling, who had arrived to provide support not long ago.

Besides them, Wu Wenhai and the others, who were controlling the "Golden-Winged Flying Tiger" puppet beast, although slightly slower in escape speed than the others, also soon appeared on the side of the battlefield. Clearly, the Xiaoyao Sect group did not intend to let these two demon kings, who had plagued Gao Yun County for several months, escape unscathed from Wei Guo.

Facing the sudden appearance of four human Jin Dan combatants surrounding and intercepting them, the Gale Demon King and the Nine-Headed Demon King were instantly thrown into a panic, having no intention to engage in battle with Song Qingming and the others.

The two demon kings directly changed direction and began to flee separately, accelerating their escape speed while using secret arts to urge the several demon kings at Guiyun Workshop to come and support them.

The strength of Li Mu alone far exceeded that of the Nine-Headed Demon King. With Song Qingming assisting from the side, this Nine-Headed Demon King, who was unlucky enough to be targeted by Li Mu, despite resisting desperately for a long time, was ultimately no match for the two and died miserably under Li Mu's sword.

After putting away a set of flying swords in mid-air, Li Mu landed beside the corpse of the Nine-Headed Demon King and, in front of Song Qingming, directly took the demon core from within the demon king's body.

However, it was not so easy for them to escape smoothly. As soon as the Gale Demon King and the Nine-Headed Demon King moved, Song Qingming and the others immediately split into two groups to pursue them and became entangled in battle with their opponents.

Song Qingming, who was assisting Li Mu in the attack from the side, also got to witness the divine abilities of this genius rogue cultivator who had been famous in Wei Guo for over a hundred years through this battle, and he had a brand-new assessment of Li Mu's strength in his heart.

"I promised Senior Li this time to help you deal with the demon beasts, and it was agreed beforehand that I could take away a few demon beast materials I wanted. Fellow Daoist Song, you should be clear about this, right?" Li Mu replied with a cold expression.

Song Qingming did not expect that Li Mu, like the other Jin Dan Elder of the Xiaoyao Sect, Chen Xuan, was actually a sword cultivator who specialized in sword Dao techniques. No wonder his strength was so formidable. Song Qingming estimated that among all the Jin Dan cultivators within the entire Xiaoyao Sect, except for the Sect Master Yao Ganshu in his prime, no one should have the certainty of defeating the current Li Mu.

Although the Nine-Headed Demon King was also a mid-stage Jin Dan demon king, this demon did not have any particularly powerful divine abilities or secret arts, and its strength was relatively average among the many mid-stage Jin Dan demon kings, not even as good as the Nine-Patterned Flood Dragon and the Fire Leopard Demon King that had previously occupied Zixing Workshop.

Seeing Li Mu collect the soul of the Nine-Headed Demon King, a trace of surprise appeared on Song Qingming's face. He couldn't help but step forward and ask: "Fellow Daoist Li, may I ask what use you have for this demon king's soul?"

True Person Guangling and the "Golden-Winged Flying Tiger" joined forces to take on the weaker Gale Demon King, while Song Qingming assisted Li Mu in intercepting the Nine-Headed Demon King, who had a higher cultivation base and had already reached the mid-stage of Jin Dan.

Subsequently, Li Mu took out a white porcelain bottle from his body and used a soul-collecting secret art to store the soul of the Nine-Headed Demon King, which had already turned into a mass, into the porcelain bottle.

"Fellow Daoist Li, you misunderstood. A secret art I am cultivating just happens to require a demon king's soul to break through the realm. I just wanted to ask if you could transfer this demon king's soul to me; I am willing to use other spirit items to exchange with you."

"Of course, if this item is also very important to you, then let's drop the matter. Just pretend I never asked, and I will find another way later." Seeing that Li Mu seemed to have misunderstood him, Song Qingming hurriedly explained with a smile.

Song Qingming wanted the soul of the Nine-Headed Demon King precisely to cultivate the "Soul-Devouring Art." Since breaking through to the Jin Dan stage, although Song Qingming's soul was already stronger than that of an average Jin Dan cultivator, compared to a late-stage Jin Dan cultivator like Li Mu, there was still a gap.

If he could break through the "Soul-Devouring Art" to the third layer of the Jin Dan realm, Song Qingming's soul would likely be able to strengthen significantly, and by then, he should be able to rival a late-stage Jin Dan cultivator like Li Mu.

However, although Song Qingming thought it out well, breaking through the "Soul-Devouring Art" to the third layer was not such an easy task. Song Qingming had also tried several times in recent years to refine the souls of Foundation Establishment demon beasts, but failed several times because the power of the refined souls was too weak. To break through to the third layer quickly, Song Qingming needed to absorb those more powerful Jin Dan demon beast souls.

It was just that the souls of third-tier demon kings were rarely collected by anyone on purpose; even the Xiaoyao Sect's Merit Pavilion did not have such spirit items. To obtain this, Song Qingming would either have to leave Wei Guo to try his luck elsewhere or take the risk of hunting demon kings and collect it himself.

Hunting those powerful Jin Dan demon kings deep in the Fuyun Mountain Range was naturally not an easy task for Song Qingming, who had just broken through to Jin Dan not long ago. He had not dared to have this thought for these years, but this demon beast turmoil had given him some good opportunities to collect demon king souls.

Last time at Jin Shan Workshop, Song Qingming killed the White Lion Demon King and later successfully collected and refined the soul of this demon king. However, the soul of the White Lion Demon King was still a bit lacking and did not allow Song Qingming to successfully break through the "Soul-Devouring Art" to the third layer in one go.

Now seeing the soul of the Nine-Headed Demon King in Li Mu's hands, Song Qingming was truly tempted. If he could successfully refine the soul of this mid-stage Jin Dan demon king, Song Qingming had great confidence that he could succeed in one breakthrough.

After hearing Song Qingming's explanation, Li Mu shook his head slightly and said: "This demon beast soul is of no use to me. It just so happens that I have a good friend outside who might be able to use it, so I collected it first."

"If Fellow Daoist Song wants this, it's not impossible. Anyway, I had already collected one when I was at Zixing Workshop. It wouldn't hurt to let you have this demon king soul. However, if you want to exchange for it, you need to take out a spirit item that is useful to me."

"Fellow Daoist Li, please take a look at this item to see if it can be exchanged for this demon king soul." After saying this, Song Qingming took out a smaller black porcelain bottle from the jade pendant hanging at his waist and threw it directly into Li Mu's hand.

Li Mu opened the porcelain bottle with a calm expression and took a look. A trace of surprise appeared on his face, and then he threw the soul of the Nine-Headed Demon King he had just collected directly to Song Qingming.

"This item is indeed useful to me. Fellow Daoist Song, then this demon king soul is yours!"

After completing the transaction with Li Mu, a trace of surprise and joy immediately appeared on Song Qingming's face. After cupping his hands to thank him, the two did not delay any further and immediately turned into streaks of light and left the place together.

By the time Song Qingming and Li Mu arrived dozens of miles away to rendezvous with True Person Guangling and the others, the Gale Demon King was already nowhere to be found.

After the Gale Demon King fled separately from the Nine-Headed Demon King, it was strangled for a while by the combined efforts of True Person Guangling and the "Golden-Winged Flying Tiger." Although it had suffered heavy injuries and lost the power to counterattack, it ultimately relied on its powerful escape divine ability to successfully flee to the north, where it met another demon king that had come to meet it, forcing True Person Guangling and the others to helplessly give up the pursuit.

The Gale Demon King was relatively lucky, as it encountered True Person Guangling, who was not good at fighting, and the "Golden-Winged Flying Tiger" puppet beast, which had weak escape speed.

Even though the Gale Demon King's own fighting ability was not strong, this demon king possessed a powerful escape divine ability, which saved its life at a critical moment, preventing it from ending up like the Nine-Headed Demon King, who was killed on the spot by human cultivators.

Seeing that the Gale Demon King had already escaped, Song Qingming and the other Jin Dan cultivators could only return to the battlefield first. Before they could arrive to help, the caught-off-guard demon beast army on the main battlefield had already had its formation disrupted by the Xiaoyao Sect cultivators and was being beaten back, fleeing in all directions.

Because these demon beasts had been rushing on the road anxiously and had just crossed the steep mountain range behind, they were already an exhausted army. Furthermore, the two leading demon kings had abandoned them and fled alone as soon as the battle started, which caused them to completely lose their fighting spirit. Before the battle had lasted long, many demon beasts had already taken advantage of the chaos to scatter and flee.

This battle, without any suspense, almost turned into a one-sided massacre from the beginning. Of the several thousand low-tier demon beasts that the Gale Demon King and the Nine-Headed Demon King had brought back from Gao Yun County, only a small portion eventually fled back to Guiyun Workshop in the north, while the vast majority died miserably at the hands of the Xiaoyao Sect group.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 491 =====