Returning from the Immortal World

“With your current cultivation level and progress speed, how long will it take to break through to the Nascent Soul Stage?” asked Duanmu Lin without thinking.

“Huh?” Tang Xiu was confused and thought for a moment. “Why do you ask?”

“I ordered Aquababe to send you the measurement rank of demonic beasts, so you should have read it, right?” said Duanmu Lin. “We’ve investigated and assessed that there is a huge demonic beast in the depth of the Himalayas whose strength should be comparable to experts at the Nascent Soul Stage. That’s why I need a powerhouse who can… defeat and kill it. I won’t take a dime out of any demonic beasts’ corpses if you can break through to the Nascent Soul Stage in a short time.”

A smile appeared on the corner of Tang Xiu’s mouth. He was not a normal cultivator since he cultivated in the most profound cultivation art in the Demon Realm, the Heavenly Art of Cosmic Genesis. He was even sure that the expert who created this cultivation art was absolutely the likes of those common Devil Kings in the Demon Realm, and he was very likely a Demonic God who had ascended to the God’s Realm.

Therefore, his current strength was enough to compare to the experts at the Nascent Soul Stage. He was confident that he could kill experts at the early-stage of Nascent Soul. If he were to encounter one at the mid-stage of Nascent Soul, he believed that he’d somehow able to fight him if he unleashed everything he got, though he wouldn’t have a choice but to flee to save his own life if he were to meet those at the late-stage of Nascent Soul.

“Three months. I’d need at least three months to break through to the Nascent Soul Stage. The premise is that I have a large number of demonic beasts’ corpses. By then, I can also land a heavy blow to demonic beasts at Nascent Soul Stage and seriously injured it,” Tang Xiu replied with a fabricated lie intentionally.

“Aren’t you becoming too powerful?” Duanmu Lin exclaimed with amazement. “You only need three months to reach the Nascent Soul Stage? That’s great! Great! If so, then all the demonic beasts’ corpses will be handed to you as long as I can obtain them. I can negotiate with the other cultivation forces to hand as many demonic beasts’ corpses as possible.”

“Thank you, then!”

Tang Xiu let out a vague smile and then hung up. His eyes then shifted to the scenery of ice and snow in the surroundings. This occasion had turned into a godsend opportunity to get treasures instead of being a chore to him now. Although some materials from demonic corpses’ bodies were indeed helpful to his cultivation, it was still a far cry compared to the Demon Cores.

Demon Cores were the quintessence of the demonic beasts themselves, just like Golden Cores to human cultivators. The Golden Core of a human cultivator was like a supreme treasure to demonic beasts. If the latter were to swallow a human cultivator’s Golden Core, their strength would advance by leaps and bounds. After all, a Golden Core was the quintessence of the cultivation of its respective human cultivator—the main source of his or her own power.

“Xue Sha, take these interspatial rings and put all the demonic beasts’ corpses into them. Also, contact Mo Awu, Jin Shi, Ye Shisan, and Hao Lei. Send each of them one interspatial ring and tell them to gather all the Demon Cores and the corpses of demonic beasts for me.” While handing over five interspatial rings to Xue Sha, Tang Xiu issued him his order.

“Understood!”

Xue Sha was temporarily appointed as the vice-captain of the team by Tang Xiu, so he immediately assigned some men to convey his orders. After picking up two people each for Mo Awu’s team and the other three, the assigned people then quickly left.

Tang Xiu then glanced fast around and said, “The smell of blood in this place is too intense. It’s very likely that a lot of demonic beasts will arrive here fast. Everyone, we can’t stay here for long, so let’s leave this place first and hunt some other demonic beasts somewhere else.”

“Why should we leave, Master?” asked Gu Yin with a curious face. “Isn’t it saving us the effort to find them if it attracts the other demonic beasts? Even if we leave, we can still kill some more!”

“No.” Tang Xiu shook his head and explained, “The smell of blood is very attractive to demonic beasts. According to my knowledge about them, demonic beasts can sense the smell of blood beyond a few kilometers away. The powerful ones are even able to smell it from tens of kilometers away. It will be dangerous for us if a massive number of demonic beasts come flocking and surround us.”

Gu Yin immediately understood and nodded with admiration on her face. “You’re right, Master. Let’s set off then!”

The smell of blood was indeed a huge temptation to demonic beasts.

Less than two minutes after Tang Xiu’s team departure, several demonic beasts arrived, carrying with them a stench and foul odor. What made them so violent was that they could see traces of blood on the snow, yet there was no meat and prey left for them.

Hou… Hou…

The howling of these demonic beasts echoed continuously. In just a few minutes, nearly 100 of them had been gathered here. A few of them emitted out an enormous aura that was on par with the aura of cultivators at the Golden Core Stage.

Right at this moment, Tang Xiu was leading the disciples of the Tang Sect as they appeared in a valley dozens of kilometers away. The valley was exposed to the sun with only a few hidden less snowy spots, whereas other spots were just barren with countless stones everywhere.

“Activate!”

After Tang Xiu took cover by a giant boulder seven-plus meters high, his eyes flickered and he let out array disks. Then, he quietly arranged an array in this valley, enough to trap sixty-plus demonic beasts inside. The array would completely isolate the place from the outside world if he was to activate it, and demonic beasts wouldn’t be able to detect it.

“Hunt and kill demonic beasts using this array. But remember, pay attention to your safety!”

Tang Xiu entered the array step by step and issued his order with a serious expression. The array he just arranged didn’t have attacking power and only had two functions. One was to trap demonic beasts, and the other was to isolate auras from leaking out. After he entered this array, he didn’t proactively attack but just observed the figures of the others as they quickly flew towards the demonic beasts. His divine sword, however, slightly rose and hovered above his hand.

Killing these demonic beasts was not his only purpose since he was using them to train his sect’s disciples so as to make them grow faster.

While observing with rapt attention, he occasionally acted whenever a disciple was in a crisis. Although he didn’t kill the demonic beasts straightly, he left it to the disciple to kill them after striking a heavy blow to it. Nevertheless, the person he had to help most often was the ten-years-old Gu Yin, who still had an appalling combat sense and skills, which led her to a perilous situation every so often even despite her mid-stage Golden Core cultivation.

Having gone through a lot of fighting, however, Gu Yin’s practical experience was also progressing rapidly. She was even able to kill two demonic beasts when half of the sixty-plus demonic beasts had been killed, despite the fact that she herself had many wounds, and traces of bloodstain could be seen on the corner of her mouth.

Whoosh…

Tang Xiu instantly appeared at the side of a disciple of his sect. As his sword cleaved the demonic beast into two halves, he hurriedly reached out to support the nearly falling disciple. This particular disciple left him with a deep impression since he was one among the few that rarely needed him to act.

At this time, this disciple had been seriously injured. His back was badly injured and his clothes were drenched by his own blood, while he also suffered a serious internal injury. If Tang Xiu didn’t help him, he would’ve died under the claws of the demonic beasts a moment ago.

“Take this!”

Taking out a Holy Healing pill and handing it over to him, Tang Xiu then straightly grabbed his hand and took him outside of the array to heal.

Puff…

“KILL…”

Blood was splashed to accompany the brutal slaughter, creating a dreadful scene.

The following battle lasted for a long time. But in just nearly half an hour, 12 disciples were gravely injured and Tang Xiu had to escort them out, while the rest finally killed the last demonic beast.

Of the dozens of people, only Tang Xiu was not injured, while the rest were soaked in blood and each had varying degrees of injuries. Some were serious and some only had minor injuries.

Tang Xiu then looked around and saw Xue Sha coming towards him. He nodded to him and ordered. “Collect all the Demon Cores and their corpses. We may have arranged a geomancy array here, but if any demonic beast with higher wisdom comes, it would still be able to detect something amiss with this place. That’s why we need to retreat fast and return to the encampment to cultivate and recuperate.”

“Understood!” Xue Sha nodded and began collecting Demon Cores and demonic beasts’ corpses.

Soon after, Tang Xiu broke the geomancy array and used a spell to wash everyone’s bodies. He then led them back to the periphery of the Himalayas. On the way back, they bumped into several waves of fierce beasts and even had many encounters with other groups of two or three demonic beasts, although they were able to easily clean them up.

Half an hour later.

Two distressed figures suddenly appeared in the valley—Hun Sen and Jiang Shuisheng—whose bodies were now decorated with many wounds. The latter even had a visible bloody wound on his torn back which he, fortunately, had stopped the bleeding and didn’t pose a big problem.

“Goddammit! How the hell does that surnamed Tang move so fast? We’ve been pursuing them and yet we couldn’t even catch up with their shadows until now?!” Hun Sen cursed angrily after spitting out saliva mixed with his blood.

A scowl was also apparent on Jiang Shuisheng’s face. “We can’t say that they are that fast, per se. It’s just this mountain is so damn big that we’ve been pursuing them in the wrong direction several times. But I admit that they do have some abilities. They should’ve killed some demonic beasts given the traces we saw from the places we passed by.”

“Heh, do we kill a fewer number of demonic beasts following them?” Hun Sen sneered. “We killed 16! One of them was even on par with cultivators at the mid-stage of Golden Core. Fortunately, you’re at the Golden Core Stage yourself, while I still have my clan’s divine weapon—otherwise, we’d have died here.”

“True that.” Jiang Shuisheng nodded. “Let’s stop pursuing them, alright? Maybe they’re already in the stomach of those demonic beasts. Anyways, let’s just hurry and find a hidden spot to hide and heal ourselves. Then, we’ll return immediately…”

His speech came to an abrupt stop and a look of panic filled his eyes. He looked at the valley in the distance where dozens of demonic beasts appeared, apparently rushing to the place where the bloody smell fluttered.

‘The smell of blood?!’

‘How can there be the smell of blood here? Did a battle occur here previously? Like, between some humans and demonic beasts?’

‘Was it Tang Xiu?’