Chapter 16: Setting Up the Protective Screen

　　Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation

　　While this was happening, the villagers in Pan Shan Village were scurrying about, making preparations.

　　According to Xu Que’s instructions, they went down to the fields to hunt for snakes in the ditches. Once they caught the snakes, they obtained its blood. Others went to the nearby streams and even more went into the forests to hunt for sparrows.

　　Everyone combined their efforts to carry out the instructions. Before long, they had three fresh trays of blood ready in the village.

　　“Immortal elder Xu instructed us to obtain this blood. But what could the reason possibly be?”

　　“That’s right. These are mere animals’ blood. Can they stop the immortals from attacking us?”

　　“Ai…”

　　The villagers all had looks of worry and anxiety across their faces as they shook their heads and sighed.

　　Xiao Rou raised her hands and replied them sincerely, “Fellow villagers, please don’t worry. Brother Xu Que will definitely protect us.”

　　She raised her head and gazed in the direction behind the mountains. Her heart spoke out, “I believe brother Xu Que.”

　　…

　　Meanwhile, Xu Que was still standing at the top of the mountain but didn’t attempt to antagonize the opposing cultivators. After all that taunting, he was rather tired.

　　He turned his head to look at Pan Shan Village, just below the mountains. His high cultivation skills enabled him to see far ahead at the villagers down below. He could see that they were gathered together in the village and he guessed that they managed to gather the blood of the three different animals.

　　It can also be said that the only ingredient missing at this point was the tiger’s blood. After that, activating the Four Directions Desolation spell would be very easy.

　　Xu Que looked around and gazed upon the mountain across where many immortal cultivators had gathered. He snorted at them before laughing icily, “You guys are trash. Since you don’t dare to fight with me, I shall return back to sleep. Goodbye.”

　　As he finished speaking, he turned around and leapt into the forest.

　　Soon after, he used his Lightning Haste spell once again and hurriedly roamed the forests, trying to find a tiger.

　　The cultivators across looked at him in despair before speaking in a hushed voice.

　　“This person’s cultivation skills are extremely strange. He’s even able to control lightning, which is unheard of.”

　　“His master is definitely someone powerful and yet we’ve never heard of anyone extraordinarily powerful show up of late. Who could it be?”

　　“Why don’t we pretend to pay our respects to his master and visit him? Once we discover who he is, we might be able to make an accurate judgement and act accordingly.”

　　“No, absolutely no!”, elder Liu spoke out once again.

　　He fiddled with his beard and spoke in a soft voice, “His original intentions were to agitate us and lure us to where he was. All of a sudden, he decided to leave. His plan must be to lure us to wherever he’s going. That would be a good excuse for his master to slaughter us. Everyone, please do not fall for it.”

　　“But we can’t just remain here and wait?” Someone frowned and replied.

　　Everyone present reached a deadlock as to how to proceed forward.

　　“Oh, I’ve got an idea.”, an old man exclaimed, causing several people to jump up in shock at his loud voice.

　　“Elder Wang, what do you mean in your sudden outburst?” Another old man revealed an unkind expression as he asked.

　　Elder Wang’s expression was one of horror and shock as he gazed down at Pan Shan Village warily. He then spoke slowly and carefully, “I’ve recalled something. This person’s master could very well be that person…”

　　“Who?” Everyone’s interest was piqued as all looked eager at elder Wang to provide an explanation.

　　Elder Wang then mumbled to himself, “This matter happened more than ten years ago. At that point in time, I happened to be travelling around the world. When I arrived in Ling Nation, I paid a visit to a big sect there. Fortunately, I befriended the sect leader of a sect and he told me a legend.”

　　“Oh?” Everyone asked curiously.

　　Elder Wang continued, “According to this legend, there was a great and powerful being in the cultivation world. His name was Duan Jiu De. This person’s temperament was extremely volatile and enjoyed plundering the treasure coves of other people and sects. When he was in a good mood, he would annihilate the entire sect and all their family members. He was known to be a vile and evil man. However, the problem was that his cultivation level and skills were extremely powerful. Even the Infant Transformation Stage immortals were no match for him.”

　　“What? There’s really such a person in the cultivation world?”

　　When everyone heard this, they were astounded.

　　Everyone knew that there were no lack of such stories, where cultivators resorted to a variety of tricks in order to steal treasured goods. However, as a powerful being, as someone who was even more powerful than immortals in the Infant Transformation Stage, he would be regarded as a senior which commanded respect. How could he do something like this?

　　“If anyone has their doubts, rest assured that this is absolutely true. If it weren’t for the fact that I personally witnessed this Xu Que’s strange temperament and demeanor, added to the fact that he stole treasures from Celestial Sect, I wouldn’t have recalled this story.

　　“Does that mean, this person could be a disciple of that senior Duan?”

　　“Aiya, then it wouldn’t be good for us to offend them!”

　　“But, then again, it’s hard to say. If this Duan Jiu De was really so impressive, he probably wouldn’t come to such a poor village and remain here.”

　　“If not, should we send someone to request for assistance from Celestial Sect?”

　　“No, that won’t do. If Celestial Sect comes, won’t that mean that our reward and prizes wouldn’t be given to us any longer?”

　　“That’s right. In fact, since he stole the treasures belonging to Celestial Sect, they would reclaim the treasures for themselves once they capture him. Then, we wouldn’t be able to get our hands on the treasures.”

　　“That makes sense. No matter what, we can’t come all the way here for nothing huh?”

　　…

　　Just as the immortal cultivators were wildly guessing, Xu Que had already circled half the forested area around Pan Shan Village. Since he had powers which enabled him to do it quickly, it wasn’t exactly because he was hardworking.

　　Halfway to the top of the mountain, there was a creek. He then realized that an old tiger was resting beside it.

　　To put it into perspective, this tiger was extremely different from the tigers which could be found on Earth.

　　It had a huge frame, almost as big as a rhinoceros. It had a long pair of teeth jutting out from the front of his mouth and looked exactly like an animal which had long gone extinct on Earth— the saber-tooth.

　　However, with Xu Que’s current cultivation level, dealing with a tiger like that wasn’t difficult at all.

　　“Whoosh!” The lightning beneath his feet swept across the forest, as the Lightning Haste technique was demonstrated. In the blink of an eye, he appeared behind the that ‘saber-tooth’ tiger. Without further hesitation, he swung his sword down upon upon the back of the tiger.

　　“Kacha!”

　　The sound of bones breaking into fragments could be heard. And that “saber tooth” tiger was vanquished without even knowing what happened.

　　Not wasting anymore time, Xu Que picked up the tiger’s carcass and carried it back to the village.

　　The villagers had been waiting for quite some time for him to show up. The minute they looked towards the forest and saw Xu Que carrying a tiger, everyone was astounded.

　　That moment, Xu Que didn’t have much time to act tough. He hurriedly instructed everyone to drain the tiger of its blood. At the same time, he waved a hand to signal for them to bring the tray of blood from the other three animals and kept it in the storage space within the system.

　　Before long, the blood from the tiger had been drained out as well. Time was of the essence and Xu Que didn’t even have time to linger and make conversation. He hurriedly conjured the Lightning Haste and left in a hurry.

　　It was a race against time. He had to prepare all the necessary enchantments before the group of cultivators decide to enter the village. That was the only way he knew how to ensure their safety.

　　The process of acquiring the blood was surprisingly uneventful.

　　Xu Que returned to the four corners where he had placed the markers earlier. He then poured out the blood of the snake at the eastern front where the blood of the eastern green dragon was required.

　　Blood seeped into the ground as the earth devoured it hungrily. Before long, a red image of a large dragon totem materialized from beneath the ground, above the marker.

　　Xu Que was astounded by this but didn’t have time to admire it. He then hurriedly turned to the location of the black tortoise and poured the blood over the marker as well. Similarly, a large black tortoise totem appeared over the marker.

　　…

　　Before long, he was at the fourth and final marker, pouring the blood of birds down onto the ground. All of a sudden, a huge wave and ripple was sent our within 10 kilometers radius from Pan Shan Village.

　　The second the vermillion sparrow’s blood had congealed on the ground, a loud piercing sound rang out from the skies, similar to the crashing of thunder and lightning.

　　Boom!

　　In the next instant, energy was drawn from all around, including the heavens and earth and coalesced in the air, just above Pan Shan Village. Soon enough, the energy formed a large swirling vortex that was immeasurably deep and was greedily absorbing more energy from the environment.

　　After the vortex had absorbed enough energy, it rapidly transformed into a spherical protective screen that covered the entire village and any area within a ten kilometers radius.

　　Soon after, a bright ray of light blossomed from all directions of the village and shone brightly overhead, like a myriad of stars above.

　　The Four Directions Desolation had been activated!

　　The force which swept through the village and cause tremors were so powerful that it shocked the villagers.

　　All of them looked up with their mouths and eyes gaping wide open as they stared at the lights and protective shield. They had thought that the immortal cultivators had attacked and scared the wits out of them, causing their faces to turn pale. Most of them fell to their knees, begging for the protection of their deities.

　　Xu Que hurriedly rushed back and saw the sight of the villagers kneeling. He then paused in shock and asked, “What are you guys kneeling for? This is the spell which I’ve conjured. Fellow villagers, please rise. Nobody will ever bully or take advantage of you in future.”

　　“Sp-Spell?” The villagers all asked in shock.

　　So this was a protective spell!

　　But… Would such a thin layer of protective light be able to ward off so many immortal cultivators?

　　The villagers looked above at the protective spells in awe. Some had their doubts but didn’t dare to voice them.

　　However, Xiao Rou’s face was one of relief and admiration as she ran over, “Brother Xu Que, are we really safe?”

　　“Of course it’s true. We’re really safe.” Xue Que smiled.

　　Seeing Xiao Rou’s adorable demeanor, he couldn’t help himself and gently pinched her cheeks.

　　Xiao Rou froze in shock as her face blushed a deep shade of red in shyness.

　　Seeing her this shy, Xu Que laughed out loud, “Haha! Fine. All of you wait here and watch how I collect their bones.”

　　“Ah. Brother Xu Que, won’t you stay here with us?” Xiao Rou asked, clearly frightened still.

　　“I will return after I’m done with them. This spell was conjured to protect yourself and the other villagers. Only with you safe will I be able to focus on claiming their lives.”

　　“But… But there are so many of them.” Xiao Rou replied worryingly.

　　“Even if they had more people than they currently have, I will not let them bully the people of our village.” Xu Que spoke out loudly.

　　His selfless demeanor and willingness to risk his safety for the villagers touched everyone present.

　　“Ding! Congratulations to host ‘Xue Que’ for successfully acting tough. The reward is 5 acting tough points.”

　　The system rang out, causing Xu Que to laugh. “Haha! I shall be back soon. Everyone, please don’t worry about me.”

　　As he finished, he called on the Lightning Haste spell and a bolt of lightning wrapped around him, taking him to the peak of the mountain.

　　…

　　At this time, the immortal cultivators had long noticed the ground shaking movements as they looked about frantically for its source.

　　“What’s happening?”

　　“It must be that someone has casted a restricting spell.”

　　“The ripples created by the spell was quite considerable. But upon closer look, the spell looks very average and ordinary, without much strength.”

　　“Yes, that’s right. There’s a layer of light that’s covering the village but looks much weaker than the spell we use to protect our own sect’s mountain.”

　　“It’s just a small hindrance to us.”

　　After everyone had taken a closer look at the spell, they shook their heads in disdain.

　　Only elder Liu remained composed and deep in thought. All of a sudden, he shouted out, “Oh no. We’ve been tricked by that little worm. If there was really a powerful being within Pan Shan Village, why would there be a need for a protective enchantment?”

　　Everyone listened before bursting out into discussion.

　　“That’s right. Besides, such a simple and average spell doesn’t seem like it was casted by a powerful cultivator.”

　　Elder Liu stroked his beard and laughed out loud, “Haha! We were stupid and fell for his scheming tricks. Right now, he must think that he’s clever and thus casted this protective enchantment. However, in doing so, he revealed a flaw in his schemes. Everyone, I dare to promise, there’s no such powerful cultivator in Pan Shan Village. Let’s break the spell!”

　　As he spoke, elder Liu decided to lead the charge in breaking the spell. He had a gallant look on his face as he stepped on his flying sword and flew up into the air. The disciples who were following elder Liu picked up their flying swords and decided to kill their way through as well.

　　Suddenly, a shadow appeared,flying up from Pan Shan Village and resembled a bolt of lightning. One moment, he looked to be some distance away. In the next, he appeared on top of elder Liu in midair.

　　“Eh?” ELder Liu could feel a shadow looming over his head as he looked up ferociously.

　　“Whoosh!” a flash of lightning zoomed past his vision, causing elder Liu to swear out. He knew something wasn’t quite right.

　　However, even before he could react and run away, a pungent smelling pair of feet stepped down hard on his head.