Martial Cultivator

The ground beneath the two of them kept sinking, like a collapsing mountain, with falling stones constantly dropping. But the bottom seemed like a bottomless abyss, there was no way of knowing when they would finally reach the bottom.

After Autumn gripped that slender flying sword, she quickly noticed there was no longer anywhere to stand beneath her feet. This demon princess did not panic and quickly thrust out a sword. The clear, cold sword light instantly illuminated the surroundings, only then revealing that the surroundings were all smooth stone walls, akin to a black mirror.

Autumn slashed out with her sword. Though no sword qi surged forth, the flow of qi followed that sword wildly into the distance. In the end, though Chen Chao dodged it, that qi crashed into the stone wall. But the qi failed to cleave the stone wall apart. It merely dissipated slowly.

Autumn furrowed her brows.

Now that she was already a dignified great demon, even a casual strike should have been enough to cut through this stone wall, much less an attack that was not casual.

After delivering his own saber strike, Chen Chao also sensed something strange.

When the two of them were falling from the mountaintop earlier, Chen Chao had already realized that the mountain body was hollow. And if an entire mountain was hollow, Chen Chao did not believe this was naturally formed.

Now, judging from the surroundings, it indeed was not natural. Those stone walls were too smooth, looking no matter how you looked, like they were man-made.

Having seen through this, the problem lay plainly before them.

Something must be hidden within this mountain. Who had gone through the trouble of hollowing out an entire mountain?

Chen Chao was momentarily distracted, but Autumn took the opportunity to thrust out a sword strike.

Chen Chao’s expression turned ugly. After blocking that sword, he directly charged forward and pressed down on Autumn with a saber.

The space here was not large. When Chen Chao raised his saber and pressed forward, Autumn had nowhere to evade. Even lifting her sword could not fully block Chen Chao’s slash. In the end, she was forced against the stone wall. Chen Chao held the saber in both hands, extremely close to Autumn.

That slender flying sword across Autumn’s chest was nearly pressing against her heart. As for her back, when it touched the stone wall, it was cold as ice.

She narrowed her eyes and glanced at Chen Chao.

The lighting here was dim. There seemed to be something peculiar in the space. Even for cultivators like them, it was difficult to see each other’s faces clearly.

Chen Chao could only make out the vague outline of Autumn too, as well as the strange fragrance wafting from her body.

Autumn’s expression remained calm, she just looked at the young martial artist in front of her expressionlessly, showing no panic at all despite being in a disadvantaged position.

Someone like her, even if she was really going to die in the next second, likely would not care much.

Chen Chao’s saber edge was already beside her cheek. A few strands of her hair were sliced by the blade and fluttered down.

As Chen Chao pressed harder, Autumn began sliding downward along the smooth stone wall. Naturally, Chen Chao’s saber slid down with her. At this point, it was already pressing down onto Autumn’s shoulder. In that instant, the blade left a bloodstained line across her shoulder.

Blood soaked Autumn’s clothes at the shoulder area.

Autumn frowned faintly. Pain could not disturb her mind, but she was shocked at how much qi Chen Chao still had. The two had already fought for a long time. If it were any other Nepenthe cultivator, their qi would have been drained long ago. Although Autumn was not quite depleted yet, she did not have much qi left within her body too. Yet somehow, Chen Chao actually still had so much qi in his body.

It was even more than her.

This was not normal.

They kept falling, by now, it was likely over a hundred feet.

Autumn could not break free. She had been at a disadvantage for quite some time already.

At that moment, her eyes finally turned snow-white again. But unlike before, this time they shone like luminous pearls, illuminating the space in front of her in a flash.

It was as if beams of light were shooting out from her eyes at this very moment.

The light stung Chen Chao’s eyes. When his eyes adjusted, he saw that Autumn’s face was already covered in white fur. Even the wound on her shoulder had been hidden beneath a layer of snowy white hair.

Chen Chao was surprised, and his expression grew even more grim. When a demon race cultivator began revealing their true form, it usually meant they were ready to risk their lives.

At times like that, their strength would often jump up a tier.

For ordinary demons, Chen Chao did not know how much stronger they would become when revealing their true form. But Autumn? Chen Chao did not believe she would be weak once she revealed her true form.

After all, she was the most beloved daughter of the demon race’s emperor.

She was even the most outstanding of her entire generation of demon race cultivators.

A low, deep growl rang out.

Autumn’s entire arm was now completely covered in white fur, and the hand that once resembled a human’s had turned into a beast’s paw.

Sharp claws directly gripped the Cloud Mud’s saber blade. Chen Chao was taken aback. Then, with a violent fling, she hurled him, blade and all, into the opposite stone wall.

The tremendous force came so suddenly that Chen Chao could not react in time. He was thrown out before he knew what had happened.

Chen Chao nearly let go of Cloud Mud entirely.

Reeling in pain, Chen Chao barely regained his focus, only to see a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life.

The woman who had originally been considered stunning had not transformed into a massive white tiger, her entire body exuding a terrifying demonic qi.

Had it not been for those completely white eyes, it would have been even more terrifying.

“Fucking hell... she really is a tigress...”

Chen Chao could not help but curse under his breath.

But in the next moment, a tiger paw nearly as large as his own face swiped at him. Chen Chao turned his head to dodge the heavy blow. Sparks instantly burst from the stone wall behind him.

Yet strangely, even so, not even a mark was left on the smooth wall.

Chen Chao did not have time to notice that. The tigress in front of him kept swiping her claws at him.

Chen Chao dodged several times, blocked once with his blade too, but finally failed to avoid a claw strike. A claw pressed onto his shoulder, and in that instant, that sharp tiger claw sank deep into his flesh.

The claw tore downward. First, Chen Chao’s black robe was shredded. Then came the flesh, flying in bloody pieces, deep enough to expose bone.

Pinned against the stone wall, the searing pain left Chen Chao drenched in sweat.

But perhaps neither had expected the fight to flip so suddenly. Just moments ago, Chen Chao held the advantage, and now, he was the one taking a beating passively.

......

......

The two kept falling and fighting at the same time. These two outstanding youngsters of their generation showing all they had in this confined space.

After failing several saber strikes, Chen Chao simply abandoned his saber. He bit down on the back of Cloud Mud’s blade, pulled both his fists into stance, and let his fist intent surge around him.

His next punches did not go for direct confrontation, but smashed against Autumn’s joints. Even so, after a few punches, even Chen Chao was grimacing in pain.

After she revealed her true form, her body was truly too tough. Forget about a Nepenthe martial artist like Chen Chao, even if he crossed another stage to become a martial artist at the end of Nepenthe, he would likely struggle to break through her body in a few punches.

Chen Chao glanced at Autumn, fell silent, and made a plan.

After that, Autumn swung a claw. Chen Chao did not dodge and delivered a punch of his own at the same time. The two clashed again. In the next moment, Chen Chao was slammed against the wall, his wound pulled open, pain intensifying.

But what happened next took Autumn completely off guard. After Chen Chao reached the wall, he did not hesitate, pushing off the wall, and landed squarely on Autumn’s back.

He grabbed the fur at the back of her neck with one hand. Cloud Mud fell from his mouth, and with his other hand, he caught the saber hilt.

Before he could swing his saber, Autumn who was beneath him let out a piercing roar. Her entire body bucked violently, nearly throwing Chen Chao off.

Gritting his teeth, Chen Chao held tight to her neck fur with one hand and slashed down with the other.

Clang!

It sounded like the blade had struck stone or metal. Although some white fur fell, not even a wound appeared on Autumn.

There was not even a single drop of blood.

Chen Chao had no time to sigh. After accumulating his strength, he raised his saber for a second strike.

This time, it cut through. He finally saw a wound on Autumn’s true form.

Chen Chao let out a deep breath. He had been worried that even this second strike would be useless.

But just as he prepared a third saber strike, a sudden chill poured into his mind. It turns out that at this moment, the two of them had finally reached the bottom of the mountain.

And there was actually a frozen lake within this mountain.

Chen Chao’s wound instantly exploded with pain. Under the pain, this young martial artist instinctively let go of Autumn and was swallowed by endless pain.

His wound met the icy water and it was like being plunged into a frozen abyss in mid-summer. Chen Chao’s whole body felt completely powerless.

His consciousness began to fade, but even then, he subconsciously still held tightly to Cloud Mud...

It was unknown how long had passed.

A suffocating feeling rose in Chen Chao’s chest. He suddenly woke and opened his eyes, only to see a very strange sight.

In the middle of the lake stood a tall, snow-white tower.

Chen Chao looked closely. It was not made of ice, but some other material.

But he quickly retracted his gaze and began swimming upward.

When swimming, the movements tore at his wounds. Blood spread into the water like ink.

At last, with a splash, Chen Chao broke the surface, gasping heavily for air.

Enduring the pain, he swam forward and reached the shore. By the time he crawled up with difficulty, Chen Chao whose upper garment had long since been lost, laid on the share gasping for breath.

His chest heaved violently, blood pouring out nonstop at the same time.

Moments later, a woman with torn clothes also crawled out of the lake, similarly drenched in blood.

Chen Chao forced himself to sit up and looked toward her, smiling bitterly.

Autumn looked at the shirtless Chen Chao, looked at the scars all over him, especially the fresh ones, and her expression remained calm.

Facing Chen Chao now, her complexion pale and her situation still looked alright. But in truth, there was a deep wound on her back that was still bleeding nonstop as well.

The two had failed to determine a victor. Instead, they had both ended up badly wounded.