Chapter 76
Chapter 76: Immortal Lord Ning
The fight inside the courtyard raged—but outside, things weren’t any easier.
The disciples maintaining the Devil-Sealing Barrier didn’t have a single Golden Core among them. Yet they were trying to seal in devil qi from a Nascent Soul Stage creature. They grit their teeth, swallowed spirit-restoring pills, and held on until their hands trembled.
Worse, the devil qi stimulated mutated plants in the surrounding streets. Some twisted into lesser Devil Creatures and lunged at the formation lines. Disciples had to split off to clear them, weakening the barrier even further.
Ling Bu Fei stood at the back, watching.
This was the first time he had experienced devil extermination up close. It was also the first time he truly understood how useless he was.
His body held the vast cultivation of the Divine Transformation Stage, but he couldn’t use it. Even his talismans had to be the kind that triggered passively, like a trap springing without its owner.
Could he really do nothing?
A sudden cry cut through the chaos from a house along the street. A disciple shouted, “There’s still a child in there! Who’s going to bring him out?”
Ling Bu Fei lifted his head, voice firm. “I will.”
The disciple turned—and hesitated when he saw who it was. “Young Sect Master, you…”
Ling Bu Fei’s gaze didn’t waver. “Don’t be afraid. I have cultivation in my body. Those small Devil Creatures can’t hurt me.”
The disciple understood at once. Even if Ling Bu Fei couldn’t cast spells, his cultivation foundation was terrifying. A lesser Devil Creature could slam into him and fail to break skin.
And Ling Bu Fei was already pulling a stack of golden talismans from his sleeve.
Defensive talismans didn’t require spiritual power to trigger.
The disciple bowed. “Thank you for your trouble, Young Sect Master.”
Ling Bu Fei didn’t waste time. He tore off a speed talisman and ran toward the crying.
Along the way, when newly formed small Devil Creatures lunged, he dodged if he could. If he couldn’t, he barreled through, golden talisman light flaring like a shield.
Bai Li Xu had kept him at the rear because of the devil qi in his body. Out on the perimeter, the devil qi was thinner. The risk of stirring the devil qi inside him was actually lower here.
He reached the source of the cry and shoved the door open.
A child—three, maybe four—was curled in the corner, eyes wide with terror. A devilized rose bush crawled toward him, thorny vines scraping across the floor.
The child waved a wooden sword wildly. “Go away! Mom! Mom! There’s a monster!”
The rose smelled fresh flesh. A child’s soul was clean and pure—an even better tonic for a Devil Creature.
The vine looped toward the child—
A streak of golden light slammed down.
“Hiss.”
Flame burst from nowhere and devoured the rose bush into ash.
Ling Bu Fei stared at the talisman dissolving in his hand, stunned for two breaths.
Then the child’s small voice came, trembling but brave. “Big brother… are you an immortal?”
Ling Bu Fei couldn’t help smiling.
Something unfamiliar rose in his chest—warm, steady, real.
He crouched and said, “Yes. Don’t be afraid. Big brother will take you out.”
“Mm.”
The child nodded obediently and let Ling Bu Fei lift him up.
Ling Bu Fei carried him out into the street. He was deciding where to place the child safely when a frantic voice cried from the corner, “Bao Er! My Bao Er! Where are you?”
The child turned and shouted back, “Mom! Mom!”
Ling Bu Fei walked over. A woman stood outside the barrier, half-mad with fear, trying to force her way in. The disciple guarding the line was doing his best to stop her without harming her.
“Auntie, you can’t go in,” he said, voice hoarse but patient. “It’s full of Devil Creatures. We’ll find your child. Please wait—”
She didn’t hear him. She only fought.
Then she saw Bao Er.
“Bao Er!” Her face broke. She sobbed and reached out.
The disciple’s shoulders sagged with relief. He looked at Ling Bu Fei with shock and gratitude. “Young Sect Master…”
Ling Bu Fei handed the child over gently. “Is there anything else you need?”
The disciple nodded, expression grim again. “The Devil Creatures appeared too suddenly. When we cleared people out, we might have missed someone. Young Sect Master, if you have time, please help us look for survivors.”
Ling Bu Fei didn’t hesitate. “All right.”
*
Inside the courtyard, Ying Shao Guang dragged in a breath that felt like inhaling fire. His spiritual power was nearly gone. He stuffed spirit-restoring pills into his mouth by the handful.
“Hey,” he snapped between breaths, fending off lashes with his fan. “Bai Li—can you still hold on?”
Bai Li Xu looked worse. His flying sword had been knocked away more than once. Injuries lined his arms and shoulders. He was holding on through sheer will.
“I can,” he said, voice steady.
His eyes remained clear.
Ying Shao Guang couldn’t help feeling something like admiration.
In the past, he had always looked down on Bai Li Xu’s servant background, convincing himself Bai Li Xu only had resources because he clung to Ling Bu Fei.
Now, fighting beside him, Ying Shao Guang saw his strength with his own eyes and felt a flicker of shame at his own prejudice.
“Flowing Moon City is this close,” Ying Shao Guang muttered. “Doesn’t the sect have a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator nearby? Even if they rushed over after it started, they should’ve arrived by now.”
Bai Li Xu slashed through another branch and answered without looking away. “Senior Brother Ying, don’t panic. Even if no elders arrive, we still have a chance.”
A chance?
Ying Shao Guang almost laughed.
Bai Meng Jin had said she had a method and told them to hold on. Bai Li Xu had agreed without hesitation. Ying Shao Guang had agreed, too—because he had seen her destroy the flower in the Devil Creature’s mouth so cleanly.
And then she had disappeared.
“Junior Sister Bai didn’t run off, did she?” he snapped, relying more and more on talismans as his spiritual power failed.
Bai Li Xu wiped sweat from his brow with the back of his wrist. “If you still have energy, Senior Brother Ying, put it into fighting.”
Ying Shao Guang choked on a dry laugh. Fine. Fine. He’d shut up.
Then, abruptly, the air changed.
The devil qi around the Devil Creature thickened, darker and denser, until its human outline blurred.
Ying Shao Guang’s fan felt heavier in his hand. His spine chilled. “Bai Li,” he said sharply, “don’t you feel it? It’s getting worse.”
Bai Li Xu’s eyes widened. He looked up.
“Oh no,” he breathed. “It’s going berserk.”
The Devil Creature roared. Its branches writhed wildly, and buds sprouted—swelling, unfurling into leaves, then into flower buds.
Above Golden Core, when a devil cultivator was enraged, they could go berserk—forcing out the power of a devil heart to push their realm upward.
This creature was already Nascent Soul Stage.
If it rose again—
A howl tore out of the host’s mouth, not quite human. Its body lengthened and swelled, flesh splitting as branches erupted. It crushed a nearby structure as it grew.
Outside, disciples shouted in alarm.
“Look—the Devil Creature got bigger!”
“The devil qi is thicker!”
“The barrier… it can’t hold much longer!”
Devil qi condensed into cloudlike masses. Flower buds bloomed all at once, and white petals—like drifting ribbons—floated through the black haze.
Unnatural and eerie.
“It’s berserking!” the formation leader shouted. “Everyone, be careful! Use all defensive talismans!”
The next moment, a muffled boom shook the street.
Devil qi exploded outward.
Surrounding shops and houses collapsed. Disciples were flung off their feet. The barrier trembled, cracking at the edges.
When the pressure eased by even a sliver, disciples scrambled back into position, blood on their lips, hands shaking as they forced spiritual power back into the lines.
“Back in!” someone shouted. “Hold the line!”
The leader wiped blood from his mouth and roared, “Fellow Daoists, the Devil Creature is here. We can’t retreat! Whether we live or die, we hold!”
They returned, gritted teeth and all, raising the barrier again.
But when they saw Bai Li Xu and Ying Shao Guang blasted out of the courtyard and thrown onto the street, battered and half-spent, despair sharpened in their chests.
Even Senior Brother Ying, the strongest among them, couldn’t hold.
Who could turn this around?
And then—
A faint white light appeared behind the Devil Creature, like starlight piercing a storm.
A second star rose. Then a third, a fourth—
Until seven stars gathered, linked into lines, and radiated a profound, ancient aura.
Ying Shao Guang pushed himself up, shock tearing through his exhaustion. “The Seven-Star Devil-Exterminating Formation?”
Since ancient times, the seven stars had been the pivot of the heavens, dividing yin and yang and restraining evil—one of the greatest banes of devil qi.
Was it her?
In such a short time, had Bai Meng Jin actually set this formation?
Before he could think further, the seven stars blazed brighter, illuminating the night. Under that glow, even the black devil qi thinned.
A streak of sword light flew in from the horizon and cleaved down with a thunderous crash.
That strike borrowed the seven stars’ power. Vast and surging, it felt like mountains pressing down, like tides crashing. It ripped the Devil Creature apart.
The Devil Creature’s howl broke.
Its aura collapsed.
The disciples stared up in stunned silence at the young sword cultivator who arrived with the sword light.
He stood tall, features sharp and handsome, sword qi coiling around him like cold storm wind. For a moment, he looked as if he had stepped straight out of a legendary Sword Pool—tempered, lethal, and untouched.
Someone recognized him and shouted, voice breaking with disbelief, “Immortal Lord Ning! It’s Immortal Lord Ning from the Cinnabar Cloud Palace!”