Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation
Page 507Chapter 506: Ghost Race
Xiao Chen had never let down his guard against this person at all. He had been observing every single move of the swordsman. This little trick would only backfire.
Xiao Chen drew his saber at lightning speed, moving it like a silver snake. By the time the swordsman completed his turn, a pitch-black saber already rested against his neck.
It seemed as though the swordsman turned so as to deliver his neck to Xiao Chen. As for his sword, it was still about half a meter away.
Xiao Chen pressed the Lunar Shadow Saber against the swordsman’s neck and said coldly, “Don’t bother playing any tricks. You are just a Small Perfection half-step Martial Monarch. You are too weak for me to care about. Scram!”
The final “scram” resounded in the swordsman’s ears like a bomb explosion. Xiao Chen instantly applied some pressure on the saber and cut into the swordsman’s neck slightly.
The swordsman was terrified. At that moment, he thought that he was going to die.
“I’ll scram! I’ll scram! I’ll scram immediately!”
The situation was more than that swordsman could handle. So, he put away his sword and fled miserably with his subordinates, not daring to play any further tricks.
When Wu Quan and the rest saw Xiao Chen scare away the swordsman, the shock in their eyes was indescribable. They had not expected an expert to be hiding among them.
Wu Quan got up from the reef and went over to Xiao Chen. He had a complicated look as he asked, “Xiao Chen, what is your purpose in following us?”
Xiao Chen said calmly, “Don’t overthink this. I have my own agenda but I have no intentions of harming you all. However, it looks like I won’t be able to accomplish it. Let me escort you to the outpost islets first.”
Xiao Chen’s original plan was to use the battles of this team to observe the specialties of the various Demons, in preparation for his own solo experiential training.
He managed to scout out only slightly more than half of the Demon species. There were still a few rarer species of Demons that they had not seen yet.
Now that this happened, Xiao Chen could only shelve his plan. It seemed like his solo experiential training was going to be more problematic.
Everyone was speechless throughout the journey back. It was fine for most of the team. Although they were astonished at Xiao Chen’s strength, they did not feel too unnatural about it.
However, Ping Xingteng felt extremely awkward. Normally, he was the most talkative one around. Now, he did not even dare to say anything. His entire body was very uncomfortable.
Ping Xingteng occasionally glanced at Xiao Chen, feeling very conflicted in his heart.
Soon, the three islets appeared before everyone. Xiao Chen stopped and said, “This is as far as I will escort you all. I’ll take my leave first. Don’t go back into the inner area again until you are ready.”
“I really did not expect this. Xiao Chen normally seems so unremarkable. Unexpectedly, he is so strong.”
“Actually, I felt that he was helping me in secret during the past few days. However, when I thought about how weak he was, I believed that I was overthinking it. It looks like it is true.”
“I really don’t understand why this person was going with us. I can’t figure it out, no matter how much I think!”
As the team watched Xiao Chen leave, they discussed in soft voices. As they spoke, there were many things they did not understand even after thinking about it.
Wu Quan patted Ping Xingteng’s shoulders and said, “Xingteng, he left already. You can stop staring blankly after him.”
Ping Xingteng said depressedly, “Don’t call me Xingteng. Just call me a stupid fool. I really embarrassed myself. How am I going to face other people in the future?”
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It was now night. The sky was pitch-dark. When one stretched his hands out, one would not be able to see their fingers. Suddenly, a wooden coffin rose up from the scarlet sea.
“Pa!”
The coffin lid opened and fell into the water. The scar-faced man from the Dark Church emerged from the coffin with a sinister gaze. He looked around and muttered, “I finally arrived at the Deep Sea Battlefield.”
This scar-faced man had been paying very close attention to Xiao Chen. Initially, he waited for Xiao Chen to leave Desolate City before making his move, so he could obtain the Major Fiend Essence Pill as soon as he could.
However, Xiao Chen traveled together with Bai Lixi. The scar-faced man had no confidence of defeating them if they worked together, so he could only wait for another opportunity.
The scar-faced man waited all the way until now. The Divine Dragon Palace hated the Demons a lot. So he wasted a lot of effort in order to get here.
However, he was very relaxed now. “You are really seeking death. Unexpectedly, you came to the Deep Sea Battlefield. Now that you are here, even if you work together, I will be able to defeat you easily!”
The scar-faced man looked around and determined his position before reentering the coffin. The coffin lid flew back on the coffin, automatically sealing it. Then, the coffin sank into the sea.
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At this moment, Xiao Chen was having some difficulty investigating the specialty of the remaining Demons. However, he did not know that a strong enemy was targeting him.
The corpse of a middle-ranked Ghost Race lay quietly on the calm scarlet sea. The Ghost Race walked upright like humans did. However, their heads looked like a monster’s.
Xiao Chen could not describe what the Ghost Race looked like exactly. Their appearance was rather similar to the malicious spirits of the Buddhist hell of his previous life, but not as sinister.
Now that Xiao Chen was alone, it was no longer that convenient for him to move around. The Demons usually traveled in groups of at least two Demons.
Fortunately, Xiao Chen already familiarized himself with the Life Bestowal Spell. It was not difficult to use that to draw away some Demons. However, this method still wasted more time than he had needed before.
“Although there is the word ‘Ghost’ in the Ghost Race, its specialty did not have anything to do with its name. Instead, it used Mental Energy to create illusions to fool its opponents.”
Fortunately, Xiao Chen had strong Mental Energy. Illusions of this level would not affect him. All he had to do was look sharply at it and he could easily break the illusion.
“There are three more types of Demons to investigate. After that, I will have the information of all the varieties of Demons. Then, I can go to the inner area to train.”
So far, with regard to strength, Xiao Chen had not found a variety of Demon in the periphery that could last more than ten moves with him. At best, it was just more problematic when they arrived in large numbers.
This was not the purpose of experiential training. Xiao Chen had to experience the feeling of standing on the border of life and death. Otherwise, he would not have an opportunity to grow.
However, Xiao Chen was not arrogant and overconfident. If he went directly to the inner area and met Demons that he did not know about, he might not know how he died.
Hence, Xiao Chen had to cautiously investigate the strengths of every Demon and know them like the back of his hand.
This way, Xiao Chen would not panic when he encountered an unexpected situation while fighting the mysterious Demons in the inner area. He would be able to fight them calmly and not die in confusion.
There was no wind or rain in the scarlet sea. The sun could not shine on the ground at all. This place was dark all year round.
“Berserk Dragon Fist!”
A dragon head appeared over the fist and a huge force burst out. Xiao Chen hammered a low-ranked Ice Demon, knocking it to the surface of the sea.
Then, Xiao Chen spread his fingers out to form a claw. A resonant dragon roar echoed as a realistic azure dragon claw appeared from nowhere.
Xiao Chen swiped with his claw and another Ice Demon was torn to pieces. An invisible red light rose up from the Ice Demon’s corpse and entered Xiao Chen’s forehead.
The injured Ice Demon on the surface of the sea climbed up in horror and quickly tried to flee.
Xiao Chen’s expression did not change as he watched the Ice Demon. He did not chase after it immediately.
Xiao Chen clenched his right fist and executed the Dragon Claw Fist’s second move—Burning the Heavens. He felt like his Vital Qi was burning.
Xiao Chen felt very hot as azure energy flowed from his dantian into the Chanzhong Acupoint on his chest. Then it burst forth from the Baihui Acupoint on his head.
The dark clouds above suddenly started churning. Azure energy burned in the clouds, like the heavens were on fire.
“Fist Burning the Heavens!”
Xiao Chen shouted ferociously and punched. The flaming clouds above quickly gathered and formed a dragon fist descending from the sky.
“Bang!”
The attack struck the fleeing Ice Demon, shattering it into countless shards of ice that fell into the scarlet sea.
Xiao Chen withdrew his fist and stopped his Martial Technique. The clouds above restored to normal, becoming as dark as they were before.
“What a horrifying attack. This attack works by burning my Vital Qi. The more Vital Qi I burn, the more powerful it will be. I wonder, how strong will it be after all my Vital Qi is burned?”
Now that Xiao Chen had cultivated the Firmament Body Tempering Art to the fifth layer, his Vital Qi was sufficient for practicing all the moves of the Dragon Claw Fist. So he was perfecting this Martial Technique while he prepared to enter the inner area.
This way, Xiao Chen would have more skills to select from during his solo experiential training, boosting his confidence.
“Ta! Ta! Ta!”
Xiao Chen walked over to the Ice Demon corpse. There were two more Demon Cores that he had not extracted; he should not waste them.
The Ice Demons were rarer than the Ghost Race in the periphery of the Battlefield. Furthermore, they would be only low-ranked Ice Demons; he could not find middle-ranked Ice Demons.
The Ice Demon was made of ice crystals. They were born with the ability to manipulate water-attributed Spiritual Energy. In this scarlet sea, there was an unlimited supply of water-attributed Spiritual Energy for them to use. So they were very problematic to deal with.
Even Xiao Chen did not dare to be careless. He would take on only two Ice Demons at a time. If he dealt with more simultaneously, he would have to expend a lot of effort.
Xiao Chen placed the Demon Cores into the Universe Ring and muttered, “I still have not met three types of Demons. I have to spend some more time looking for them.”
The remaining three Demons were the Fire Demon, the Iron Demon, and the Eros Demon. These Demons were rare and he had only seen them from afar. Furthermore, they had good mobility.
These Demons were difficult to find. However, no matter how hard it was, Xiao Chen had to do it.
Otherwise, when Xiao Chen entered the inner area alone, he would be forced into a passive position when he encountered the high-ranked versions of these Demons.
Time went by; one month soon passed. Only the final two moves of the Dragon Claw Fist remained.
Xiao Chen already learned them but he was still perfecting them in battle.
As for the remaining three Demons, Xiao Chen had not been able to find any of them, making him very depressed. Every day, he would hunt the other types of Demons, accumulating a lot of points.
There were one-hundred-odd black dots on the back of his jade pendant. That meant he had one-hundred-odd points.
The days spent in the scarlet sea were peaceful; nothing surprising happened. Xiao Chen would quickly fly along the scarlet sea, scanning the place with his Spiritual Sense.
“Ah!”
On this particular day, Xiao Chen heard a miserable cry. He frowned when he heard it. The cry sounded very vivid and was clearly from a human.
In the Battlefield, just like how humans hunted Demons, Demons were hunting humans too. Cultivators died daily in this boundless scarlet sea.
In the past one month, Xiao Chen had seen too many of such cases. If there was not too much danger, he would give a hand to these cultivators.