Chapter 217

Chapter 217: Found You

The Dodder Flower Sprite answered fast: “Yes, but that strand of devil qi is very, very faint, like it was just tainted.”

Devil qi is a dark kind of power; like spiritual qi, it can be used for cultivation. Humans who use devil qi become devil cultivators, and demonic beasts tainted by it turn into devil beasts.

Used well, devil qi can be very strong, but more often it drives people and beasts out of control because they cannot withstand its chilling force.

The Purplegold Serpent before them was clearly the latter; the devil qi had driven it even more mad, and this barrier ward was a product of that strengthened state.

Otherwise, True Lord Gu Ci and the others would never allow a demonic beast that threatens disciples’ lives to remain.

But how could devil qi appear in a secret realm?

Even a toe could guess Bai Mu Mu had done something.

Shen Sang Ruo’s gaze grew heavier. The malevolent spirit on Bai Mu Mu was too strange; if left alone, it might one day harm the entire cultivation world. Bai Mu Mu could not be allowed to remain.

But the most important thing right now was to escape the Purplegold Serpent.

Her thoughts sped as she searched her mind for any person or thing she could use.

On the other side, Ye Huai and the other three launched their own attacks at the Purplegold Serpent. Their strikes landed, but they could not even damage a scale; a demonic beast near late Nascent Soul had a body too tough for Golden Core cultivators to handle.

They only wanted to draw the serpent’s hate onto themselves to buy Shen Sang Ruo a chance to run.

The Purplegold Serpent only flicked its long tail and sent the four of them flying; they slammed into the barrier ward laced with purple lightning, while the serpent never took its eyes off Shen Sang Ruo. It would not stop until she died.

The four staggered up, watching as it coiled to strike again; their faces turned ashen, but they clenched their teeth and attacked anyway; even buying half a heartbeat would help.

Shen Sang Ruo caught a breath and called out to the sprite in her hair: “Little Flower Sprite, if you still do not act, we will all die here.”

She yanked the trembling vine from her hair and tossed it out.

The Dodder Flower Sprite screamed as every vine on its body showed its refusal; if it had a face, two streams of tears would have flown in the air.

“You are mid Nascent Soul; have some backbone,” she said, not understanding how it could be so afraid.

“You do not understand! You are not the one who got beaten,” it wailed; back when it was just a young vine, the Purplegold Serpent had given it a shadow that never faded. “It is near late Nascent Soul now. I am no match for it!”

Shen Sang Ruo pinched the sprite’s “seed” in her hand and threatened in a flat voice: “It seems you do not want your little yellow flower. Which are you more afraid of, it or me?”

The Dodder Flower Sprite tangled itself up in a knot of vines for a heartbeat, then sounded like it had made a noble choice as it cried: “Fine, I will risk it!”

Countless vines burst from its body; green flooded everyone’s sight.

The vines wrapped around the attacking Purplegold Serpent; the thick purple-black body was soon covered with fine green threads that looked weak by comparison, but there were so many of them. The vines seemed endless as they crept over the serpent and spread across the ground.

They bound the serpent tight, and the vine screen blocked the power of its fierce strike.

Charred pieces of vine fell in heaps and covered the ground.

Electric arcs kept flashing from the serpent’s body, turning the vines into afterimages as the sprite’s shriek echoed inside the barrier ward: “It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!”

Bai Mu Mu shot the scene a glance; she had not expected the Dodder Flower Sprite to be of any use to Shen Sang Ruo, and she curled her lip in scorn as she thought: the sprite was only mid Nascent Soul and would not last long against a Purplegold Serpent she had strengthened.

Shen Sang Ruo knew it too; in her sea of consciousness, she kept calling Zhu Miao’s name. Since entering the secret realm, Zhu Miao had been suppressed by some unknown force, but now she had no choice but to call it out.

A black-and-white little lump landed; the small bear looked a bit listless but forced itself to perk up, and the sight made Shen Sang Ruo’s heart ache.

Bai Mu Mu tilted her chin; she knew Shen Sang Ruo’s spirit beast was strong, but she did not take Zhu Miao seriously. To be safe, she had ordered the system to suppress Zhu Miao from the very start of the team trial. How could a little spirit beast oppose a system? This time the system had burned a huge amount of energy; she had even advanced mission points to keep it running.

She looked at Shen Sang Ruo with open mockery and said: “Goodbye forever, Shen Sang Ruo.”

“I am about to fail,” the Dodder Flower Sprite cried; the electricity had turned its voice into a buzz, and it was at its limit.

Zhu Miao’s bead-like eyes met the serpent’s giant vertical pupil; though uncomfortable, the bear stayed calm. The next instant, all the vines on the Purplegold Serpent shattered, and a crushing aura exploded outward.

Zhu Miao raised a plump paw and blocked that aura; in a blink, it was grappling with the Purplegold Serpent.

Even under the system’s suppression, Zhu Miao could barely fight it to a draw.

Shen Sang Ruo caught the falling Dodder Flower Sprite and set it down; its hair-thin vines trailed to the ground as she gave it a meaningful look.

With Zhu Miao holding the serpent back, Ye Huai and the others finally linked up with her. One look passed between them, and they understood; they unleashed everything and attacked together, as if to work with Zhu Miao and cut the Purplegold Serpent down.

Shen Sang Ruo remained on the ground without riding the wind; she swung the Luan Feather Fan at the serpent’s head, dozens of meters high, and a sea of fire roared up.

The flames struck the barrier wall at the clouds and were stopped, so that from far away it looked like a half-sphere fireball.

Bai Mu Mu watched from hiding and said with open contempt: “How reckless. Do you really think you can beat the Purplegold Serpent?”

She licked her teeth and ordered herself coldly: “Kill that spirit beast first. Next is Shen Sang Ruo. Then the other four.”

None of them would escape.

She glanced again at Wen Xuan, who was still crawling toward the fight; by the time he got there, Shen Sang Ruo might die right in front of him, and the thought filled her with hard-to-name joy.

She did not notice a thin vine creeping to her feet.

Shen Sang Ruo’s eyes shifted; the corner of her gaze brushed a certain patch of darkness.

The attack she had aimed at the Purplegold Serpent suddenly changed direction.

The Luan Feather Fan snapped shut and turned into a sharp short sword that shot toward where Bai Mu Mu was hiding.

In Bai Mu Mu’s shrinking pupils, Shen Sang Ruo’s teasing smile and moving lips were reflected as the words reached her like a knife: “Found you.”