Controlled by the Devouring Demon Willow were seven demonic beasts. Among them were four level 6 demonic beasts:
The over 10-foot tall Silver-backed Demon Monkey leader;
The Jade-Horned Forest Python with dragon bloodline, its body as thick as a man's hug;
The over 6-foot tall Dark Gold Terror-Clawed Bear with claws that could slice through gold and silver;
The Green-Eyed Eagle with over a 7-foot wingspan, iron-hooked talons that could pierce greenstone.
Worth mentioning was that the Jade-Horned Forest Python was the giant python Li Shiyin and Qin Ran encountered that night, not the Golden Cloud Leopard.
There were also two level 7 demonic beasts:
The Soul-Devouring Human-Faced Spider over 6 feet tall, with 8 heart-piercing spear-like spider legs, hundreds of soul-stealing compound eyes, and a human face on its abdomen that struck terror;
The petite Seven-Tailed Demon Fox with pure white fur, alluring charm that betrayed its small, cute appearance.
Worth noting was that compared to those level 6 beasts, these two level 7 beasts had much smaller statures, especially the Seven-Tailed Demon Fox that looked like a pint-sized sprite, utterly ordinary and non-threatening.
This showed that even in the demon world, victory was not determined solely by size and might.
There was also a level 8 demonic beast - the Thunder Unicorn Ox!
Worth mentioning was that the night they were chased to the entrance of Daojian Sect by Chasing the Wind's mother, the companion of that Thunder Unicorn Ox was this very one now before them.
That was a rainy night and visibility was poor. From a distance, Qin Ran did not get a very clear look, and his impression of the Thunder Unicorn Ox was only that final bolt of lightning unleashed towards him. At that time, he thought that was the extent of the Thunder Unicorn Ox’s power.
But now, facing the Thunder Unicorn Oxen up close, Qin Ran silently traversed back in time to take back those words.
This Thunder Unicorn Ox towered over 15 feet, blue-black in color, exuding an aura as forceful and fierce as thunder and lightning. That horn on its head, shaded from blue to black, made one think of thunderbolts in the hands of the Thunder God.
Seeing this beast, Qin Ran couldn’t help thinking that Chasing the Wind’s mother was a fierce tigress indeed to be able to capture such a creature for food! Then he wondered, when grown up could that fool Chasing the Wind defeat this creature? He also wondered, could Su Changqing defeat it?!
As the thought flashed through his mind, he involuntarily glanced at Su Changqing.
Su Changqing raised the tracking disk in his hand and said to the others, "The tracking disk is activated. Good luck to you all!"
After speaking, he placed the tracking disk on himself, gripped his sword, and with a flash arrived at the Thunder Unicorn Ox’s side. Compared to the Thunder Unicorn Ox's giant body, Su Changqing was like a sparrow perched on a rhino, utterly inconsequential. But the next moment, an enormous silvery-gray energy wave slashed down aiming precisely at the Thunder Unicorn Ox.
The Thunder Unicorn Ox let out a pained roar as blue electrical arcs flashed over its body. It immediately charged angrily at Su Changqing.
Su Changqing directly rushed out to engage it in battle, leaving Qin Ran no chance to refute him at all. He really wanted to say that he couldn’t even defeat a level 4 demonic beast, but there was no opportunity left to speak... For now, he could only find a weaker opponent to buy some time. Like that Soul-Devouring Human-Faced Spider that looked ferocious and terrifying.
But before he could even draw his sword and rush out, a white figure suddenly spoke from behind him. Bai Ruoxi's voice said, "Brother Qin, the Seven-Tailed Demon Fox will be easier to handle. I'll leave that one to you then!"
"???" Qin Ran was baffled directly.
The Seven-Tailed Fox was easier to handle? Was she kidding him?!
Who didn’t know that nine-tailed foxes were divine beasts? How could a seven-tailed fox with pure nine-tailed fox bloodline be inferior to some lowly Soul-Devouring Human-Faced Spider?
Qin Ran absolutely did not expect that Bai Ruoxi would be his fellow sect member stealing a march on him like this. Caught off guard, he was a step slower than her.
Damn it!
Qin Ran gnashed his teeth resentfully. He had no choice but to look at that seemingly enchanting and alluring, petite and seemingly helpless Seven-Tailed Demon Fox that evoked tenderness and compassion.
This seven-tailed fox, with its whole body covered in soft white fur like snowflakes or cotton, gently swayed as the wind blew through its fur. Its charming fox eyes held a bewitching allure, its fox lips brimmed with beauty. Just a turn of its head could seemingly enchant all between heaven and earth.
Qin Ran felt a surge of doting affection, unable to bear harming it.
No wonder King Zhou was bewitched by Daji's charms...
"Crap!" Qin Ran shuddered in shock. "Damn it! I got tricked!"
What peerless beauty, it was just the demon fox's bewitchment!
"From nothingness comes existence, from existence reverts nothingness..."
Qin Ran quickly circulated Master Danfeng's nameless cultivation chant to stabilize his mind. He closed his eyes briefly then opened them again a moment later feeling clear-minded once more. Looking again at the fox, he just saw a fox.
"Phew..." Qin Ran let out a light sigh of relief, silently reciting the Heart Mantra and gripping his sword as he slowly approached the demon fox.
Seeing Qin Ran break free of her bewitchment so quickly, a flash of astonishment appeared in the Seven-Tailed Fox's eyes. A mere Golden Core cultivator, yet with such steady mind?
Then seeing Qin Ran approaching, the fox suddenly let out a sharp cry. With a leap, it abruptly disappeared.
The fox disappeared. Qin Ran hurriedly halted his steps and raised his sword to guard himself.
Around the other battlefields:
Qi Yun and Jian Yuanjie were being chased everywhere by the four level 6 beasts.
Bai Ruoxi was carefully maneuvering around the Soul-Devouring Human-Faced Spider, avoiding its venom.
The battle between Su Changqing and the Thunder Unicorn Ox had taken to midair. Glancing up, their exact forms were unclear, only occasional bursts of sword qi and lightning bolts raining down.
Suddenly, the seven-tailed fox pounced at Qin Ran from behind. Qin Ran shifted his body to evade then swung his sword at the fox. The fox opened its mouth and clamped down on the sword, biting with force and shattering the sword completely. Then it swiped out its claws towards Qin Ran's head.
Seeing his brains about to be clawed out, at the critical moment Qin Ran lowered his head then swung back around. In his hand appeared a huge cauldron...
"Clang!" He smashed the cauldron heavily down on the fox's head as it pounced over.
What crappy sword skills could Qin Ran perform? He was just putting on a front by holding a sword. What he truly excelled in was this kind of rough and simple move - bashing heads in with a cauldron.
The seven-tailed fox was smashed dizzy, nearly blacking out for a moment. Seeing Qin Ran ruthlessly raising the cauldron to smash down again, it quickly retreated in a panic. Then it immediately displayed its skills, disappearing from sight in this space.
"Damn, can't handle it?" Qin Ran cursed silently. "F*ck, you go invisible, I'll go invisible too!"
He moved his mind and utilized supernatural arts to transform his body into water form.
Water itself was transparent to begin with. And with him deliberately concealing his presence, he really attained an invisibility-like effect such that if one did not peer closely, his form could not be made out at all.
The fox turned invisible and vanished, so did the now invisible Qin Ran. Thus, in this battlefield, the fighting unexpectedly stopped because no one was left visible.
However, while both sides were now invisible, the seven-tailed fox's was innate supernatural powers while Qin Ran's invisibility could hardly be considered true invisibility. His presence was easily perceived and soon enough, his concealment was seen through. The seven-tailed fox then solidly slapped him out from his invisible state. After a direct and a supernatural confrontation, having gained an adequate grasp of Qin Ran's abilities, the fox dropped its own act as well and pounced forth directly with tooth and claw towards Qin Ran.
Attacking now at full speed and strength, it seemed for a time as though countless fox demons were assailing Qin Ran from every direction. Already unskilled in combat, Qin Ran was even more hampered maneuvering a heavy clumsy cauldron. He was utterly unable to withstand the seven-tailed fox's fierce assault.
In no time, countless scratches and bite marks appeared all over his body. Exhausted from defending, he constantly felt as though he would die after persisting a while longer.
"Damn it!"
Qin Ran cursed inwardly then suddenly kept the Nine Territories Cauldron, forcibly taking the brunt of the seven-tailed fox's next strike to activate Illusory Reflections of Flower and Moon.
Whereupon the pouncing, biting fox failed to evade and directly smashed into him. Qin Ran was sent flying out with over a dozen reflections of himself crashing chaotically, flying haphazardly in all directions from him.
The seven-tailed fox glanced up to see more than ten midair doppelgangers and its mouth clearly curled into a contemptuous smirk...
Doppelgangers against the nine-tailed fox clan?
Then its seven tails gave a swish and the fox's entire form vanished abruptly. In but a blink, seven identical foxes suddenly manifested herein. Their behinds each sported only a single tail.
One tail, one life. Compared to Qin Ran's subpar water clones, these were true doppelgangers...
Such was the difference with innate supernatural powers!
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
