Chapter 268: Chapter 164: Precipitous Lead, Daoist Qian Hong’s Bewilderment

Yao Dehai sighed. "Escape Techniques are great and all, but it really depends on the situation." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"If Escape Techniques really allowed you to come and go as you please, wouldn’t everyone be practicing them?"

"Take the Western Wanderer and that Ice Toad of his. Over the years, he’s claimed the lives of countless Cultivators."

"No matter how masterful your Escape Techniques are, once it swallows you, are you going to fly out of its stomach?"

His words immediately made the trio, who had been relatively at ease, grow worried again.

"I’d say it’s not so bad. The Ice Toad just looks big, but it’s not very sturdy."

A voice suddenly rang out from behind them.

"You’d say?"

Yao Dehai immediately turned his head, wanting to see who was so arrogant. "You..."

He blinked, and his voice died in his throat.

The others turned to look as well and saw Xiao Chen standing behind them with a smile, a massive burlap sack in his hand.

The sack was a full ten feet tall and thirty feet across, bulging with whatever was inside.

The nearest Foundation Establishment Cultivator leaped in place, every hair on his body standing on end.

Xiao Chen was no more than three feet away, yet he hadn’t sensed his presence at all before he spoke.

’If a Demon Cultivator had gotten this close,’ he thought, ’ten lives wouldn’t have been enough to save me.’

"Xiao Chen?"

Yao Dehai was flustered. "Does this mean you’ve already encountered the Western Wanderer?"

Xiao Chen nodded. "Yep. He’s right here."

As he spoke, he opened the sack and used his Magical Power to pull out the remains of three Wanderers.

"This headless one is the Northern Wanderer. He was the weakest of the bunch."

"This pile of pieces is the Southern Wanderer. I sliced him up a bit, but he can still be put back together."

"And this last one is the Western Wanderer. I made sure not to damage his head so he’d be easy to recognize."

Xiao Chen laid the three Wanderers on the ground, then pulled another twenty-three corpses from the sack. "These are all the Foundation Establishment Cultivators from the Demon Sect’s invasion force."

"Add the fourteen over there, and that makes an even forty of them. All accounted for."

From the moment he formed his Fake Pill, he had been either hunting Demon Cultivators or on his way to hunt them.

He hadn’t even stopped to rest when passing the Qingyang Spirit Ore mine, all so he could get a head start on claiming all the points.

"Oh, right. The Eastern Wanderer went to Li State. I already took care of him before coming over."

"So, the Four Great Wanderers have all been dealt with. Until a new Demon Cultivator learns the Soul-breaking Needle Secret Technique, that problem is also off the table for now."

"Du, since you’re here, could you help me tally up the points?"

.

The area fell deathly silent.

The silence was so complete, you could hear the others breathing.

A quarter hour ago, they had all been wondering who could have possibly taken out all these Demon Cultivators.

When they had noticed Xiao Chen was missing, some had worried for him. Others had secretly sneered at his overconfidence, while some had admired his courage to face the overwhelming odds.

But no one—not a single person—had imagined that he would single-handedly slaughter the entire invading force of Demon Cultivators.

In that instant, a myriad of gazes fell upon Xiao Chen.

Chang Shunping quickly ran through his clan’s genealogical records in his mind.

’Even the records of their legendary Fake Pill Ancestor didn’t seem to contain such a monumental achievement.’

’This was a force of forty Foundation Establishment Cultivators, with at least three at the Great Perfection stage among them!’

Du Mingjie was in a daze. He occasionally visited the front lines, but he spent most of his time in the rear.

’Excluding Xiao Chen’s results from last month,’ he thought, ’the total number of Demon Cultivator kills I’ve verified over the past year doesn’t even reach forty.’

’That was the total for the entire rear guard, and it was less than what Xiao Chen accomplished in just two days.’

A flash of joy appeared in Yang Zhenghao’s eyes, quickly followed by heartfelt relief.

’When three Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivators had besieged Dongyuan County, he had chosen to flee in the direction of Qingyang.’

’Events had proven that his choice had been absolutely right.’

Yao Dehai’s lips parted, but no sound came out.

His mind was a chaotic mess. To his left, the Ice Toad. To his right, the Eastern Wanderer. Before him, the words "an even forty of them, all accounted for." Behind him, "the Soul-breaking Needle problem is off the table."

In his century-plus of life, he had never witnessed such a scene. He was utterly at a loss for words.

Qiu Qichen, however, was reminded of the incident at Xianghe Market, when Xiao Chen had dealt with Vendor Zhang in a single sword strike.

He thought of the incinerated room and the Early Warning Array that had never gone off.

’If I hadn’t heard Xiao Chen’s name that day, and if I hadn’t just learned about the auction at Thousand Bamboo Tower... I would have certainly held him accountable for injuring someone within the Marketplace, as per its regulations.’

Qiu Qichen glanced at the bodies littering the ground and shuddered.

’Given this man’s penchant for killing, it was a damn good thing things didn’t escalate that day. Otherwise, I’d probably have ended up just like the Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivators sprawled all over the ground.’

Meanwhile, Yang Huai’an, a Demon-slaying Guard, was beginning to suspect he had fallen into an Illusion Array.

’Honestly,’ he thought, ’what’s more plausible? That someone suddenly killed forty Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivators, or that the Demon Cultivators set up an Illusion Array as an ambush?’

’The latter is obviously the more realistic scenario, right?’

With that in mind, Yang Huai’an immediately activated the Ice Heart Spell to try and break the illusion, but it had no effect.

’Something’s wrong. This Illusion Array is a powerful one.’

Relying on his years of experience fighting Demon Cultivators, he decisively bit the tip of his tongue.

A sharp jolt of pain shot through him, but it also brought a moment of clarity to his mind.

Yang Huai’an seized the brief opportunity to observe his true surroundings.

’Huh? That’s not right...’

’Why hasn’t anything changed?’

’Don’t tell me even this method is useless?’

Just as he was wrestling with his thoughts, Xiao Chen looked over curiously. "Yang, is something wrong?"