Chapter 23

Demonic qi invaded the cloud beast, quickly taking over this body. What's more interesting is that this body had been remolded by demonic qi, making it very suitable for them to temporarily reside.

"Ah!" the red-eyed serpent cloud beast let out a comfortable sound.

It had been without a body for too long, so long that it even forgot what its original world of existence was like.

But it doesn't matter; soon this world will belong to them.

The demon snake's eyes flashed with light, its flight posture became twisted, and only after a while did it return to normal.

"This wisp of demonic soul is still too little; I don't know if I can find the other parts." A large amount of chaotic demonic qi cannot even control a complete demonic soul, let alone this being only one-ten-thousandth of its main body's fragment soul.

To resolve the demonic qi chaos, either discard the excess demonic qi, or find more demonic souls to merge into one.

The former would cause a drop in power, which it would never do; as for the latter, it doesn't want to return to that chaotic environment, even if it means death!

The demon snake opened its mouth wide, and the surrounding spiritual qi surged in like a breached dam; the demonic patterns that had flowed from its body after being remolded by demonic qi gradually diluted, leaving only a faint trace in the end.

Fifth rank! The demon snake's cultivation directly reached fifth rank, equivalent to a Nascent Soul cultivator, but taking into account the cloud beast's bodily advantage, its combat power equals that of two Nascent Soul cultivators who have reached perfection.

Using spiritual power to neutralize the disturbance of demonic qi is indeed a bold approach; demonic qi can affect spiritual qi to a certain extent, but if the amount of spiritual qi is too great, it's like a drop of ink in seawater—utterly ineffective; otherwise, the Cloud Immortal Realm would not have endured for so long.

"A bit weak." The demon snake savored its body; although it was far weaker than when it was in the heavens, this body is solely under its control, and just thinking about it almost makes it burst into tears from excitement.

After a brief indulgence, the demon snake no longer lingered; according to the plan, it was time to act.

Compared to fleeting wonder, it prefers to control the entire world.

The demon snake turned its gaze toward the northern cloud sea, where everything it needs lies.

The flight speed of a fifth-rank cloud beast is exaggerated; even the most skilled Nascent Soul cultivator at flight evasion cannot match it, rank is one thing, but racial advantage is the key.

As a life born in the cloud sea, nothing is more familiar than flight; after all, no matter how well a person can swim, they still can't compare to a fish in water, at least the fish doesn't need to surface to breathe.

It took hardly half an hour before it saw the outline of the northern cloud sea.

Hope lay ahead, but before that, it had to deal with that overconfident little cultivator.

"Hmph! Formations, overestimating oneself!" The demon snake stretched its body, which had been only as thick as an arm, instantly becoming a colossal creature that blotted out the clouds and sun.

"Damn it, I'm terrified of snakes!" Fury wind roared and unleashed his strongest attack.

Indeed! The person blocking the demon snake's front was him; initially he thought it was a small thing, but it instantly turned into a man-eating beast. This contrast didn't affect him much, but the snake's appearance left a huge shadow in his mind.

Fury Wind's all-out attack was like a joke; striking the opponent didn't even produce a bubble.

Yet the purpose was achieved; in just two breaths, expert support would arrive—if he could survive until then.

"Ha, not bad, little bug!" The demon snake looked at Fury Wind; this little guy actually dared to throw a punch at it—somewhat interesting.

The demon snake's gaze grew deep; compared to this body formed of cloud qi, it was more familiar with a human body.

This body before it is quite good; from its years of experience, it can see its advantage lies in the five elements being balanced.

For low-level cultivators, balance is a major flaw, since balance sometimes means being incapable of anything; but for a being of its stature, balance is paramount.

A tail swipe sent the incoming supporter flying; the demon snake amusedly fixed its gaze on Fury Wind, satisfied with this body—unmixed with any heavenly merit, its karmic burden pitifully small, the more it looked, the more perfect it seemed.

The demon snake gulped it down in one bite, repelled the supporting cultivators, and flew straight into the depths of the cloud sea.

What it didn't know was that ahead of it, a battle camp formed by three thousand cultivators awaited.

After the initial tension, Fury Wind also calmed down; mainly because he couldn't see the snake's form, otherwise he'd still be panicking.

Inside the snake's belly there was none of the imagined filth and chaos; rather, due to its composition, the interior was soft and fluffy, like sinking into a pile of cotton.

He still dared not relax; he spread out the five-element formation, completely isolating himself from the cloud beast, only then beginning to look around.

With no entrails, there was no need to worry about being digested, but this also meant the giant snake had no weaknesses, and Fury Wind began to fret over an escape route.

Better to check for weaknesses; Fury Wind then recalled his detection device.

【Fifth-rank serpentine cloud beast, medium demonic soul, demonic qi 500 units.】

Looking at the detected information, Fury Wind swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

I think I'm done for!

He opened the forum, posted his predicament, and soon got a reply.

Exactly! I'm really done for!

Damn!

Fury Wind angrily smashed the spirit cloud, "I won't admit defeat!"

The demon soul—I don't know how to deal with it; so far he hasn't faced a demon soul while conscious, but according to the system prompt he is definitely able to counter demon souls. Demonic qi is also easy to handle; the effect of the "Transforming Demon Great Law" on demonic qi is just right—last time he dealt with Wu Ren using less than a breath, and 500 units of demonic qi would take at most 500 breaths, after which the rest would be simple.

Wait! What's left is a fifth-rank cloud beast—author, tell me how to handle this thing! Fury Wind went berserk.

There must be a way; Fury Wind racked his brain at breakneck speed, his brains almost catching fire.

"Right." He suddenly realized the cloud beast lacks intelligence, so if he could deceive its perception, maybe he could escape disaster.

Fury Wind thought more and more it made sense; he fully exerted the hidden-character art of the five-element formation, used to conceal aura—although he hadn't practiced it before, at a life-or-death moment he instantly performed beyond his usual level.

The demon snake didn't notice Fury Wind's small movements; even if it did, it wouldn't care—what's troubling it now is what's right in front of it.

An entire battle camp of cultivators surrounded it completely, with three layers inside and three outside of formations, making its scalp go numb.

It shouldn't have been so showy from the start; the demon snake secretly regretted it.

The only bit of good news was probably that this troop lacked experience, looking like they were just drilling.

"This commander has something!" the demon snake thought, seeing some familiar things in his troop deployment; some long-lost memories actually resurfaced.

"Hehe, watch this move." The demon snake inhaled sharply, its body swelling until it filled the innermost layer of the formation.

"Not good!" the commander in charge of command shouted.

"Hold!"

The cultivators of the battle camp hastily changed formations; the entrapment-and-killing formation turned into a holding formation, and golden light enveloped everyone together.

A golden light even more dazzling than the formations rose from the center, the intense light making people unable to open their eyes.

"Boom!" A massive sound wave rolled in, clearing a blank area in the cloud sea.

"Casualties?" the commander, a Golden Core cultivator, was also shaken to the point of being disoriented, let alone others.

After quite a while, the subordinate finally recovered, lightly counting the losses.

「Reporting to the Commander, fifteen are seriously injured, the rest are all lightly injured, and no one died. 」The subordinate responsible for statistics reported.

The Golden Core Commander's subordinates were maintaining the names of those fifteen; hearing that there were no further casualties, they also breathed a sigh of relief.

These fifteen were the cultivators closest to the Cloud Beast; fortunately, before the formation was broken, they had already sustained massive damage, otherwise even their years of cultivation could not have saved their lives—only the time to break through to Golden Core would be greatly prolonged.

「Where is the Cloud Beast? 」the Commander intuitively told him, that Cloud Beast might not be dead yet.

「He is already dead. 」the subordinate reported.

「What? 」the Commander frowned, how could this be possible?

「The subordinate discovered the spiritual materials left behind by the Cloud Beast. 」he took out half a fang.

The Commander looked for a while, and had to set aside his doubts; indeed, the aura of the Cloud Beast remained on it.

「Prepare to retreat. 」the Commander ordered.

「Yes! 」

Finally glancing at the converging Cloud Sea, the Commander led the severely injured away.

As for the Demon Snake, of course it didn't die.

Although it instantly gave up three-fifths of its demonic energy, it indeed escaped via the Golden Cicada Shell.

If it really fought, it would naturally not fear, but going against the plan, upon realizing this it had to feign death to escape.

Fortunately, the Cloud Beast was quite at ease in the cloud energy; using the skill of gathering cloud energy, that Commander indeed opened the formation, he also took advantage of the cloud energy's body preparing to self-destruct, carrying away some demonic energy and escaping, and naturally also the Floating Wind that it had taken a liking to.

Now, no one will come to disturb me anymore.

The demon soul separated from the Cloud Beast's body and rushed straight into the Floating Wind within.

The Cloud Beast returned to its original form and continued flying toward the depths of the Cloud Sea; although its presence remained, its strength was greatly diminished.

「Hehehe! This body is not bad; now it's mine! 」

The Five Elements Formation, which had been expected to block it, ended up stopping nothing; the demon soul suffered no influence and simply rushed into Floating Wind's body.

【Medium demon soul eliminated, points +500】

Floating Wind had not yet felt anything abnormal when the system directly notified that the demon soul had been eliminated; he finally understood how the demon soul had previously disappeared.

「Hehehe! 」Floating Wind laughed, stretching out his hands and pressing them onto the Cloud Beast.

【Fifth-Grade Snake-Shaped Cloud Beast, condition: seriously injured!】

In the Cloud Immortal Realm, a Cloud Beast does not exist in a seriously injured state; it is either killed or dies from its own torment—there is no other possibility. Therefore, it fundamentally cannot sense what Floating Wind is doing inside its body, or simply does not care.

The points earned from purifying demonic energy are not as many as those from eliminating demon souls, and moreover, one must do it oneself.

This so-called Great Demon Transformation Method gives no feeling at all, unlike other cultivation techniques which at least provide some feedback.

The system-provided technique specially for handling demonic energy feels completely numb when operated, just like training a character in a computer game—the meaning of one's existence lies merely in pressing the keyboard.

Soon, the demonic energy was completely cleared away, and the Cloud Beast disintegrated as the demonic energy fully dissipated, leaving only a mass of cloud energy.

「Greetings, sir! 」a sudden voice startled Floating Wind, but he immediately reacted.

He's quite familiar with this matter!