After Xu Ziqing’s initial shock, he slowly contemplated how to deal with the demons, envisioning the scene of battling them in his mind and becoming immersed in thought.
Suddenly, a commotion arose around him. He felt a stir in his heart and opened his eyes.
Not far away, in the Qin Family Army camp, dozens of beams of light erupted, quickly transforming into thick columns of light as wide as bowls, shining upwards towards the sky.
These light columns moved in an orderly fashion, swiftly sweeping across half the sky above. It seemed as though they were… searching for something?
Xu Ziqing watched closely and overheard nearby shen cultivators discussing.
“The Qin Family Army is patrolling; everyone be careful!”
“That Void Breaking Mirror is truly useful. If I had the funds, I’d want to get one as well…”
“You don’t need to envy. We just need to quickly kill more demons; with enough accumulated, it might not be impossible to obtain one.”
“With this item, we would certainly be much safer…”
At that moment, Xu Ziqing realized that these light columns were emitted from a type of Void Breaking Mirror, seemingly very effective for tracking demons.
If that were the case, given his current strength, he could surely obtain one.
As he was thinking this, a change occurred in the sky.
Suddenly, one of the light columns halted at a certain point in the due south. The other light columns immediately rushed over, gathering in that direction.
Then, the sky above suddenly distorted, and a rift abruptly tore open!
Xu Ziqing held his breath.
—Could it be the otherworldly demons?
Next, a claw protruded from the rift, sharp and hook-like, looking extremely fearsome.
That single claw was several feet long, causing a sense of dread at first sight.
Then someone exclaimed:
“It’s a high-level demon!”
“A high-level demon has come to the camp!”
“Thank goodness for the Void Breaking Mirror; otherwise, if it had suddenly appeared, many of our comrades would have suffered!”
“That was close, that was close!”
Hearing this, Xu Ziqing looked even more closely.
At that moment, the demon gradually revealed its true form.
It stood about seven or eight zhang tall, its body a reddish-brown, with a scythe-shaped tumor firmly attached to its bald head that trembled slightly with movement.
Indeed, it was grotesque!
The demon let out a shrill howl, causing a rush of air to ripple outward, sending vibrations that made people’s scalps tingle and their minds tremble!
Xu Ziqing had already been on guard and had calmed himself beforehand, so he wasn’t significantly affected. However, when he glanced over at the nearby shen cultivators, he saw their faces turn ashen, seemingly struggling—indeed, shen cultivators have sharp senses and are closely attuned to nature, focusing on cultivating their yang spirits, making them more susceptible to such demonic sounds.
Perhaps the sound emitted by the demon inherently suppressed shen cultivators…
He didn’t dwell on it, as the troops were also reacting.
The moment the high-level demon appeared, twelve figures soared into the sky from the camp. Each of them rode a solar spirit incarnation, which turned out to be fierce beasts like tigers, bears, lions, and wolves. The beasts stirred the air beneath them and charged into the clouds above.
The momentum was overwhelming, like a tidal wave.
The twelve suns hung high in the sky, illuminating the entire canopy with brilliant, blinding light.
Xu Ziqing could almost feel the surging divine power in the air, forming a powerful “field” that surrounded the high-level demon.
Then, from each fierce beast, several real spirits emerged, quickly lunging forward!
These beasts stood several zhang tall and targeted the high-level demon for their attacks.
However, the high-level demon moved extremely quickly, evading several of the fierce beasts in an instant. Some of the smaller ones managed to latch onto its body, but they couldn’t even pierce its steel-like skin, merely hanging onto its limbs, only to be flung back with a single sweep or kick.
At the same time, the masters of the solar spirit incarnations felt a tightness in their chests and spat out blood!
Despite the fierce postures of these many solar spirit incarnations, they were unable to injure the high-level demon’s flesh, indicating just how solid its skin was. Once they encountered it, if they couldn’t break through that layer, they could only waste their efforts.
Xu Ziqing knew that since the Qin Family Army had lured out the high-level demon, they certainly wouldn’t be defenseless against it.
Sure enough, a lion and a tiger split into two flanks, one leaping upwards and the other charging straight ahead, both rushing in fiercely!
The lion targeted the high-level demon’s concave chest, while the tiger leapt high, aiming to bite the tumor atop its head!
The other fierce beasts surrounded it, each pulling and tearing at it.
This coordination was seamless, clearly a result of extensive combat experience.
Although the high-level demon raised its claws to protect the tumor, its chest was wide open. When it tried to defend that area with its other hand, it became somewhat clumsy due to only being able to use its two legs.
This was another rare opportunity.
Quickly, over a dozen suns burst forth with even more dazzling light, the intense heat nearly scorching people to their melting point.
Xu Ziqing took a step back, releasing his divine consciousness to continue observing the battle.
He saw the soldiers exhaling radiant energy, charging forward and forming a long thread of light in the air—
The light thread immediately wrapped around the high-level demon, binding its two claws. Although this could only hold for a moment, that was sufficient.
In that instant, the beasts charged madly, with the lion and tiger seizing the moment, the tiger biting down hard on the enormous tumor!
At the same time, the giant lion thrust its front paw directly into the concave area of the demon’s chest!
Thus, the giant lion’s mission was accomplished.
Under the double assault, the tumor was forcibly bitten off, and the high-level demon could only fall helplessly to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.
The more than ten soldiers above quickly returned their solar spirits to the suns and jumped down, landing on the ground.
Afterward, this massive corpse was expertly dragged away by many soldiers.
Xu Ziqing watched in amazement at how well the soldiers at the Gathering Origin stage coordinated with each other.
For a high-level demon like this, it would be extremely difficult to handle if it were up to him. However, he differed from those shen cultivators who fought using their solar spirit incarnations. The Small Universe and Rongjin within his Zifu were still growing day by day, and once released, it could potentially trap that demon.
Given Rongjin’s current abilities, it shouldn’t be too hard to bite through the demon’s steel skin… but it would be best for him to come up with a plan for Rongjin to give it a try first. He couldn’t act recklessly.
Having made up his mind, Xu Ziqing approached the tent where he could exchange for the book and asked, “How can I exchange for the Void Mirror?”
The soldier looked Xu Ziqing up and down and said, “If it’s a top-grade spirit stone, it will require three hundred thousand.”
Upon hearing this, Xu Ziqing understood why those shen cultivators also found it difficult to acquire. Although these shen cultivators had gained divine power by comprehending the natural world, divine stones, aside from being circulated, could essentially be likened to spirit stones, allowing shen cultivators to draw from their inner strength. In this Nine Void Battlefield, if one had divine stones in hand, they would typically use them to enhance their strength, so who would have so many left for other uses? Even if it were only one hundred thousand divine stones, it was still a considerable amount.
The Void Mirror was privately refined by various legions; it was fine for the legions to use it themselves, but if someone else wanted to obtain it, they naturally had to spend more, allowing the legions to sustain their soldiers. Otherwise, if resources were insufficient, the legions could not be maintained.
For this reason, ordinary teams or individual shen cultivators would have to accumulate slowly, and it would take quite a long time before they could gather enough divine stones for an exchange.
However, for Xu Ziqing, being able to exchange with spirit stones was quite advantageous. He possessed numerous spirit veins, and even one first-level spirit vein contained millions of top-grade spirit stones. Taking out three hundred thousand would be a bit extravagant, but it wouldn’t be too difficult for him.
To ensure his safety, acquiring the Void Mirror was essential.
With this in mind, Xu Ziqing adjusted his fingers within his sleeve and soon took out a storage ring and handed it to the soldier.
The soldier was momentarily stunned, taking it and asking, “How… how do I open this?”
Xu Ziqing realized that a storage ring couldn’t be opened by anyone who wasn’t a cultivator, so he replied, “May I ask how you take out the spirit stones?”
The soldier understood and was astonished.
This cultivator from the lower realm couldn’t possibly have that many spirit stones, right? He didn’t make a fuss and handed over a cloth bag, saying, “Just put them in here.”
Xu Ziqing took the storage ring and placed it into the bag, giving some instructions.
Soon, countless spirit stones poured out and fell into the bag, quickly filling it up, but it was clear that the bag was a storage item as it didn’t leak.
After filling it up, Xu Ziqing gestured slightly, saying, “Please.”
The soldier’s hand also emitted light as he reached into the bag. After a few breaths, he exclaimed in astonishment, “The quantity is quite good.”
Xu Ziqing smiled slightly, saying, “What about the Void Mirror?”
The soldier didn’t hesitate, immediately handing over an item, saying, “You lower realm cultivators need to embed divine stones on top to use your divine consciousness to operate it.”
Xu Ziqing took it with a smile, examining it; it looked like a very ordinary mirror. He put it away and exchanged for more divine stones and some healing medicine from the soldier before leisurely leaving.
Since there was no one around, nobody noticed that he already had the Void Mirror in hand, but he knew he shouldn’t be too reckless in his future actions.
That day, Xu Ziqing retrieved a tent he had prepared from the storage bracelet and set up several restrictions around it before sitting down to meditate inside.
At present, he was focused on rejuvenating his energy, intending to carefully review the various battlefield scenes he had witnessed during the day, and to think deeply about how he would respond if he were to fight.
Before he knew it, night turned into dawn.
In the morning, Xu Ziqing took out a map, without inviting his companions, and headed directly to a location indicated on it.
Behind him, some early risers saw his figure.
They began to whisper:
“That person is quite bold; with such cultivation, they dare to go out alone?”
“I saw him arrive yesterday; he probably doesn’t know the dangers yet.”
“Hmph, cultivators from the lower realm are often so overconfident!”
“It doesn’t matter; he’s not one of us shen cultivators, and we have no connection with him, so why bother?”
“True, even if he falls, it has nothing to do with us.”
Xu Ziqing overheard these comments but didn’t care much.
He traveled alone because he trusted no one except his shixiong. He wasn’t unaware of the dangers; rather, having seen high-level demons, he felt confident in his ability to escape, which was why he dared to act this way. Besides, he didn’t intend to go too far, and with the Void Mirror in hand, and under ample preparations, he expected no trouble from this experience.
…He always needed to experience things personally to understand the truth. He couldn’t allow fear for his life to stop him from engaging in combat.
If his shixiong were here, he would likely have the same thought.
Translator: Lynn
Translations are not 100% correct. Please let me know if there are typos/mistakes in the chapter.
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