Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 201-Chapter 300)

A strange smile appeared on his face. It seemed like a cruel, vicious smile, like a sorrowful, bitter smile, yet also like a self-deprecating, cold smile. Afterwards, all of it vanished. He recovered his silent composure.

This was the path he had chosen, no hesitation, no regret.

“Alright, go back to sleep!” Li Qingshan placed Milliped down from his shoulder. There would not be Foundation Establishment cultivators venturing underground. With his current strength, he could kill any Qi Practitioner he came across.

“Be careful,” Milliped muttered before wriggling towards his den. His bottom rose and fell as he inched away extremely quickly.

Li Qingshan smiled with ease. He placed his hand over his chest and bowed slightly. “We fight for you!” Afterwards, he nodded to Xiao An. “And for you!”

Afterwards, he straightened himself out and said proudly, “And for me!”

He strode off into the depths of the cavern.

……

The sounds of countless footsteps advanced at a steady and rapid pace.

The disciples of the three sects had already separated underground. They followed their own markers and advanced along their own paths. Often, the groups would have a Qi Practitioner at the sixth layer or higher leading several weaker Qi Practitioners.

This group happened to be under the lead of Liu Fengrui, but his face was sunken. He ignored his junior brothers’ flattery.

The past few days had been very tough for him on the Green Vine mountain. He never thought that bringing back a girl would cause so much trouble. Not only did his seniors and juniors give him the cold shoulder, but even the Green Vine Elder did not treat him kindly.

He was not afraid of receiving the cold shoulder from his seniors and juniors. However, it would be extremely terrifying once he fell out of favour with his master in a small sect like this. He could not help but utterly resent Yu Zijian. He basically hoped that she would die in the ceremony this time, and if there was the opportunity, he would not mind helping out a little so that this did happen.

“Senior brother, up ahead is a daemonic beast’s den. There should be Quartz grass growing in the surroundings, which is a crucial spiritual herb for refining Stone Grain pills.” A disciple of the Green Vine mountain held a small mental map and beamed in joy.

He interrupted Liu Fengrui’s thoughts, who said in displeasure, “Quartz grass isn’t some impressive spiritual herb. We’re still very close to the surface here. If you want good things, we need to venture deeper. A mere daemonic beast hasn’t even condensed a daemon core.”

The disciples were all obsequious to him. If they ventured deeper, then the danger would increase too. Daemons with daemon cores were not that easy to handle. Although daemonic beasts did not have daemon cores, they still possessed hides and bones, which were fantastic materials for forging spiritual artifacts. Their flesh and blood had very great uses too.

“Let’s go and take a look!” Liu Fengrui ordered. He had to gather some additional spiritual herbs in the ceremony this time to save his master’s impression of him.

The cave was utterly pitch-black. The ground advanced quickly. The Brightening talismans limited the impact of the darkness on their vision. With their dexterity, even the twisting caves filled with loose rock failed to stop their advance.

Suddenly, a third layer Qi Practitioner disciple said, “Senior brother, it’s so cold!” He shivered.

Liu Fengrui sensed the coldness in the surroundings as well. Looking back at his junior brothers, all of their faces had paled, and their lips had become blue. Qi Practitioners who possessed innate true qi were immune to the winter cold and summer heat, but at this moment, they felt cold just like regular people.

“This isn’t normal. The records never said it would be so cold here!”

“It wasn’t this cold the last time I was here. The underground caves change often, so maybe something has happened here? Senior brother, should we go somewhere else?’ said an old Qi Practitioner cautiously. He was only at the third layer, so he had to refer to Liu Fengrui as senior brother.

Liu Fengrui looked around. “Master is waiting for us just on the surface. If we retreat before we’ve even run into danger, can we still call ourselves disciples of the Green Vine mountain? Let’s go. It won’t be cold once we move around a bit more. The Quartz grass is right ahead!”

They sprinted through the cave, but the coldness did not decrease at all. Instead, it grew heavier and heavier. Even Liu Fengrui found the cold to be piercing, while the junior brothers behind him found it utterly unbearable. They even slowed down.

“We can’t go on anymore, senior brother. Let’s retreat!”



“Croak, croak!”

Just when Liu Fengrui was about to give the order to retreat, the resonant croak of a frog resounded through the cave.

“There’s a daemonic beast!” Everyone responded. Apart from daemonic beasts, there were no other creatures that could live here.

“We’ll leave once we kill this daemonic beast!” Liu Fengrui rejoiced and advanced forwards with his junior brothers.

Cold mist permeated the darkness. A layer of frost had developed over the grey Quartz grass. An ice-blue frog leapt off a rock. “Croak, croak!”

Liu Fengrui could not help but be disappointed by this. The strength of daemonic beasts usually matched their size. The larger they were, the stronger they were, and the more valuable they were. This frog was so small, so it had clearly just turned from a beast into a daemon.

Suddenly, he thought of something. How could a low level daemonic beast give off such coldness?

“Who’s there?”

A few blurry figures appeared in the cold mist. Liu Fengrui’s eyes narrowed, and he raised his hand, producing a palm strike. Killing other Qi Practitioners over spiritual herbs and daemonic beasts had never been a secret. Underground, humans were even more dangerous than daemons.

The most terrifying part about all this was he actually failed to sense their aura. Clearly, they had hidden it on purpose so that they could launch an ambush on his group, which was why he showed no mercy with his attack.

However, the figures did not move at all. They just let the true qi land on them with a crack. The gust of wind from his attack parted the cold mist, revealing the figures.

Liu Fengrui immediately felt like all of his blood had frozen over. He finally understood why he failed to sense their auras; it was because they had already been reduced to ice statues. Dead people obviously would not give off any auras.

They all wore the uniform of the Pheasant’s Grace mountain. One of them had two tail feathers embroidered on their chest, an inner disciple who had reached the sixth layer. However, they were all dead now, still stuck in the same pose the moment before they had died, trying to wield spiritual artifacts or unleash techniques. Their faces were all frozen with fear, and they all looked in one direction, at the ice-blue frog.

“What kind of daemon…” Frightened, a disciple swung a green, glowing staff at the ice frog.

The ice frog opened its mouth and emitted a white cloud of cold air. The disciple was immediately turned into an ice statue.

As the cold air passed by, his senior and junior brothers behind him immediately followed his steps. The cold air was like thousands of tiny, sharp rays that pierced their protective true qi.

Crack! Crack! The sound of freezing filled the air, like notes of death.

Liu Fengrui summoned his flying sword as he roared out before becoming stuck in that posture forever. One last thought flashed through his head. They were facing no daemonic beast, but an actual daemon, and a powerful one among them. But why would daemons appear at such a shallow level?