Chapter 272

No matter how fast Nan Su dodged, he couldn't match the ice‑soul cold needles shooting from the bamboo tube; as he swung his sword to cut them, one grazed his shoulder.

Hiss! It actually pierced his robe and stabbed into his flesh.

The ice‑soul cold needles also carried a deadly poison; Nan Su felt his vision blur and his body sway.

The Golden Core cultivator gave a hehe laugh, swung his knife to chop; but Nan Su, a Golden Core cultivator of many years, merely threw out a black shield and blocked the blade.

He also took the chance to press his left shoulder, staunching the poison's spread, and said, "Despicable conduct."

While speaking, he ruthlessly unleashed a Nascent Soul sword talisman, "Die!"

That Golden Core cultivator was terrified and fled, but unexpectedly, the side he fled toward suddenly exploded with a thunder talisman, blasting him straight into the Nascent Soul sword talisman.

It was Jiang Yu; seeing the two fighting behind her, she quickly joined in, regardless of who, first eliminate one then talk.

"Ah!" At that moment, he tried to crush the distress jade talisman, but could no longer do so.

Because Jiang Yu's side also unleashed a Nascent Soul sword talisman; although she was attacking Nan Su, he had prepared, and the talisman had just flown out when he fled.

The aftermath of that sword talisman also liberated the soul of the dead Golden Core cultivator, and even scattered his storage ring and the like across the seabed, with no one to retrieve them.

The half‑demon watched a late‑stage Golden Core cultivator perish in an instant, couldn't help swallowing; she had let this person before her save people at the auction, truly ignorant to the extreme.

"Who are you? This sword‑qi talisman comes from the Heavenly Origin Myriad Sword Sect." Nan Su, having escaped with his life, did not leave immediately but took the chance to swallow an antidote pill.

Jiang Yu frowned, her plans unable to keep up with the changes; without a word, she unleashed her lightning‑glimmering natal sword, aiming straight for Nan Su's brow.

"Thunderfire! Are you Jiang Yu? Why?" The crimson‑blood sword of True Person Nan Su flashed out to block.

Crack—, clang

As the two swords clashed, their mana continuously fed the blades; amid the booming sounds, their figures were shaken back by the residual spiritual power.

Nan Su's True Person, having been poisoned earlier, could not help spitting a mouthful of blood as he went all out against Jiang Yu.

He said resentfully, "We come from the same realm; such a sneak attack is the conduct of a petty person."

That's what he said, but his attack did not stop; he even shot a fireball talisman, his words merely meant to disturb Jiang Yu.

"You killed my elder brother and let your disciples seize bodies, causing tens of thousands in my homeland to drown in floods." Jiang Yu was unmoved; she flung a water‑curtain talisman that met the fireball and extinguished it.

Nan Su's True Person felt his qi and blood surge; for a moment he couldn't recall who it was, but he knew he had to withdraw temporarily.

Thus, with a thought, he maneuvered the crimson‑blood sword in a feint, then swiftly retracted it.

As Jiang Yu flew forward, sword in hand, to lunge and kill, he activated a hundred‑mile evasion talisman and whooshed away.

Jiang Yu shoved the half‑demon aside and tossed her a flying sword: "You flee for your life."

She also unleashed the bamboo fan to fan and chase, while sending a message to Jiang Tu; the person had run away.

The half‑demon gazed in the direction she had vanished, leapt onto her flying sword, and flew off in the opposite direction.

Jiang Tu had not yet flown to the predetermined island; he immediately turned toward the direction Jiang Yu had mentioned, saying, "I knew something would happen."

It grumbled incessantly, but after evading for several hundred li, it suddenly heard the Dragon Soul say, "Haha, Nan Su is approaching us!"

"Really?"

"Of course!"

"Set up the formation; you come out to send a message to Jiang Yu, telling her to drive the person into the seabed." Jiang Tu immediately took out several formation flags.

The Dragon Soul flashed out its dragon pearl, scanned the surroundings, and said, "To our west there is a sunken island; occasionally a peak breaks the surface—go set up the formation there."

If possible, Jiang Tu would certainly be willing; "How far?"

"Less than two hundred li." The Dragon Soul grasped the communication jade talisman, waiting for its decision.

Jiang Tu nodded heavily, "Then we'll go there and send word of Nan Su's location." He guessed that Jiang Yu had most likely lost Nan Su's exact bearing.

Moreover, upon seeing the message, Jiang Yu's frustration at losing the target lifted immediately; after replying, she flew in the direction specified by the Dragon Soul.

She also possessed a hundred‑mile evasion talisman, but where it would take her was not up to her.

The azure thunder‑bamboo fan was like a green rainbow, flashing incessantly over the sea.

Nan Su used several evasion talismans in succession, finally unable to sense Jiang Yu's aura, and immediately looked around.

Helpless in the boundless sea, aside from underwater demon beasts swimming away, he saw no island or reef.

He had no choice but to sink to the seabed, find a fragment of coral reef, lay down a defensive formation, and must detoxify quickly.

He dug a hole, buried the walnut‑sized spatial magic cottage he carried, and with a flash entered it to detoxify.

But after just a few breaths, he flashed out of the cottage, dismantled all formations, slapped an invisibility talisman on the roof, and hid there again.

When he paused like that, the Dragon Soul immediately reported to Jiang Yu, "He must be hiding somewhere; can you see the island?"

"No, he's probably underwater; keep in touch, I'll go look." Jiang Yu gripped the water‑avoidance bead and dove into the seabed to inspect with her divine sense.

At that moment, Jiang Tu was earnestly setting up the formation while the Dragon Soul focused on sensing Nan Su; although it could feel its own tracking mark within a thousand li, its true outward‑reaching divine sense was somewhat weaker than that of a ninth‑stage Nascent Soul cultivator.

Thus it failed to notice that three hundred li farther west of this sunken island lay another half‑sunken island, with someone on it.

"Old Dragon King, this seventh‑stage little dragon king actually knows how to set up a formation—quite impressive."

"White Whale, you're not even a seventh‑stage." If Jiang Tu saw, he'd recognize the speaker as the shark‑person king he'd encountered earlier.

Beside her was a fair‑skinned, plump maiden—none other than the White Whale—who said, "Tch, I'm not human. Where is that cultivator called Jiang Yu?"

"Thunder Dragon King, have you seen where he is?"

A Divine Sense cultivator's awareness can reach a thousand li; the Thunder Dragon King was repairing the grand formation, with a purple‑gold thunder bamboo standing before him, and he said, "Don't be lazy—throw the spirit stones into the formation eye for me."

The flood dragons and the others are all working, while you two are delicate. Keep being lazy and I'll withhold your elixirs.

The two demon kings exchanged glances and reluctantly began to work for the Thunder Dragon King.

And the old manager Thunder Dragon King merely glanced, sensing all movement within a thousand‑li radius.

He saw Jiang Yu searching something in the seabed, but had no intention to join; he withdrew his gaze and continued with his own affairs.

Jiang Yu keenly felt that a divine sense had just swept over her; it was too fast, and when she tried to catch it, it had already vanished.

But her intuition told her it wasn't Nan Su, because the divine sense was far stronger.

Jiang Yu could not find Nan Su after a long delay; to avoid another mishap and losing contact with Jiang Tu, she immediately flew out of the seabed to look for her companions.

And she didn't know that she was only a few dozen li away from the coral reef where Nan Su was located.

And after Nan Su had completely detoxified, he also saw her, but in order to recuperate from his injuries, he decided to hide in the seabed, stay a while longer, and incidentally take the Longevity Yuan Pill.

That half-demon business, set it aside for now; Nan Su carefully recalled and finally remembered that several decades ago, he had encountered a demon soul in a mortal kingdom.

At that time his soul was injured, and he barely managed to lead his disciples out of the formation; along the way, it seemed he had captured a boy with spiritual roots, intending to use him for a body seizure should he die.

Could it be that the boy was Jiang Yu's older brother? He remembered handing the person over to his disciple, but the disciple is dead—did that boy also die?

Jiang Yu didn't realize that the people she valued were almost forgotten by others.