Ch388 – Timely Rescue

　　In a forest of tangled vines.

　　“Senior Martial Brother, we’re no match for them.” A cultivator in a Daoist robe had a bitter expression, and the sword in his hand was already a little disorderly.

　　Leng Jixue calmly rushed behind him and batted away a vine for him. “Steady yourself. Even if you’re no match for them, you still can’t take them lightly. We’ll retreat immediately once we find the right opportunity.”

　　A vine had coiled around another cultivator’s ankle. He didn’t even have time to scream before he was quickly hung upside down by the vines. He was so scared that he screamed loudly, falling into a completely disorderly state.

　　“Senior Martial Brother, save me! Aaaaaaah!”

　　Leng Jixue was currently being besieged by some vines. At this time, he was also overwhelmed and up to his ears in attacks, but he couldn’t just watch his martial brother die. Thus, he bit his lower lip and formed a hand seal, using his palms to cut off a few vine tentacles out of thin air.

　　Immediately afterward, he only hesitated for an instant before he decisively bit his finger and popped out a drop of blood, smearing it on his forehead.

　　In an instant, his cultivation skyrocketed, and he shot out a technique named “Destruction of a Thousand Mountains” from his palm. The vibrating spiritual Qi split the air, and countless vines on both sides were severed, forcing them to retreat one after another.

　　The cultivator who was hung in mid-air also fell to the ground and screamed loudly as he crawled back up, hurriedly retreating.

　　“Go!” Leng Jixue commanded, and the party quickly retreated toward the back.

　　Unfortunately, although they retreated quickly, the vines were faster.

　　One by one, the vines had somehow intertwined together and become “humanoids” whose entire bodies were covered in green moss, with black holes in place of facial features. Vines also coiled and twisted around their lower bodies. One after another, these monsters appeared in the forest, solidly blocking the five people, including Leng Jixue.

　　Leng Jixue’s scalp couldn’t help but feel numb. Most likely, anyone who witnessed this strange scene would have such a feeling.

　　“Senior Martial Brother, what are these things?”

　　“Senior Martial Brother, these monsters can’t be killed at all, and there’s no end to them!”

　　“Senior Martial Brother, when will Huangfu Shixiong come over? Are we going to die here?!”

　　A few young cultivators were about to cry. When they were living in Sky Peak Sect, although they were all favored by the heavens and their cultivations weren’t low, they truly had too little experience in actual combat. During this period of time, their group had lost many people every day, so their psychological defenses were already about to collapse. Now that they were trapped in this forest of vines, they were even more tortured to the point of exhaustion in both mind and spirit, which made them wish they could simply fall to the ground and cry to the heavens.

　　Leng Jixue held the sword. His figure seemed to be a little unstable, but he still gritted his teeth and insisted, “I’ve already sent a message to Ah Jin. Let’s hold on for a while longer; he will come soon.”

　　A cultivator revealed dejectedly, “Senior Martial Brother, we came here secretly without telling Senior Martial Brother Huangfu. One can only enter the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest but cannot leave. Any information inside can’t be transmitted to the outside at all. Senior Martial Brother Huangfu will certainly not receive our request for help.”

　　For a while, blades flashed and swords left behind shadows, clanging together resoundingly.

　　However, these cultivators’ spiritual Qi was almost spent, and many of them had already lost hope, so they weren’t a match at all for the vine people, who never seemed to tire and grew more ferocious the more they fought. They didn’t hold out for long before one of the cultivators was pierced through the throat by a vine and fell on his back with his eyes wide open.

　　“Senior Martial Brother Feng!” Another cultivator screamed with a heart-rending cry, desperately gripping the sword and shouting, “Fuck, I’m going to kill you all!”

　　Leng Jixue also had a chilly expression. Just when he was about to bite his fingertip again and temporarily boost his cultivation, suddenly, a sword that hadn’t yet been drawn out flew over, brushing past his ear to pierce the head of the vine person who was about to come right in front of Leng Jixue.

　　Leng Jixue suddenly turned his head back.

　　He saw a young man in white riding a horse, rushing over from the depths of the forest. His long hair was like ink, fluttering behind him. His face was stunningly beautiful. The expression on his face seemed to always be three-tenths indifferent, three-tenths gentle, and four-tenths inviolable.

　　Lin Xuanzhi leaped up and flew into the middle of these people.

　　He stood beside Leng Jixue and raised his hand to catch the returning Zhige sword. “It’s better if you use less of this skill that borrows lifespan.”

　　With that, he flew and rushed into the vines, cutting off their necks one by one.

　　Leng Jixue stood on the spot. How could Lin Xuanzhi know that he’d been borrowing destiny just now?

　　Even Huangfu Jin didn’t know about such things.

　　However, time waits for no one. Now wasn’t the time to entertain foolish thoughts, so Leng Jixue immediately waved his palm and entered the battle.

　　The ensuing Bei Shitian also drew out his sword, Killing God, slaughtering in all four directions. Along the journey, Bei Shitian had very few chances to draw his sword. Every day, he took the opportunity to scout the road ahead to actively search for those demonic beasts in order to practice his sword. However, he hadn’t reached the hinterland of the demonic forest yet, so none of the enemies he met were strong enough. He could handle them easily, which made Bei Shitian very dissatisfied.

　　Now that he’d finally met such formidable opponents after much difficulty, how could he easily let go of this opportunity?

　　Thus, just as the Sky Peak Sect disciples were shivering and retreating to hide in the back, they saw a black-robed man waving his sword in great excitement as he rushed towards the place with the most vine people, beheading them one by one like cutting radishes. Even if the vine people occasionally whipped out injuries on him, he did not care at all, as if he couldn’t feel any pain–

　　No, when Bei Shitian saw blood, he became even more excited and unafraid of death!

　　Leng Jixue, “……”

　　The other junior martial brothers, “……”

　　Yan Tianhen wasn’t idle either. He relied on the Deceiving Heavens Ring hung on his ear that Lin Xuanzhi especially refined for him and wantonly used his 《Eighteen Hells of the Underworld》, wielding a whip with one hand while using palm techniques with the other hand. A spectral blue flame rampaged through the air, killing Buddhas and demons in its way. Soon it burnt some vine people in the distance to ashes.

　　Seeing this, a Sky Peak Sect disciple couldn’t help gasping, “What kind of skill is this? It’s incredible!”

　　Leng Jixue also caught sight of this scene. In his eyes, however, the flames were a normal reddish-orange, so he answered simply and comprehensively, “It may be a secret fire affinity technique. Indeed, it’s powerful.”

　　Qing Zhu’s weapon was also a vine. He let those purple vines quietly climb out of the ground and lean their heads out, binding the vine people’s body. Then Xiao Linfeng rushed to behead the vine people when they couldn’t move.

　　Yuan Tianwen displayed the Butterfly Transformation Dual Cultivation technique, his broad sword strokes fine and exquisite. His figure was like a butterfly, freely traveling amongst the strange vine humanoids. Duan Yuyang followed, throwing out a lot of talismans which stuck to the heads of the vine people one after another, exploding with bang bang bang sounds. Their cooperation was quite tacit.

　　Ji Yunwei, on the other hand, had a fluffy bird who’d pretended to be dead as soon as they entered the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest on his head. He temporarily contracted with several nearby demonic beasts and commanded the demonic beasts to bite and attack the vine people.

　　With the help of such a group of people, the army of vine people was soon utterly defeated.

　　The few remaining vine people saw that things weren’t good, so they all broke apart one by one, transforming into vines and quickly retreating towards the depths of the forest.

　　It was unwise to chase a cornered enemy. Lin Xuanzhi raised his hand and dispelled Bei Shitian’s urge to pursue them because he hadn’t sated his murderous cravings.

　　Bei Shitian very regretfully flung off the blood on his sword and retreated aside to heal himself.

　　Several Sky Peak Sect disciples were all stunned. It seemed that they had never seen such a fierce cultivator before.

　　Leng Jixue calmed down and came forward, saluting Lin Xuanzhi, “Thank you, Xuanzhi, for your timely rescue. Otherwise, we may not have been able to leave today.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi said, “It was like lifting a finger.”

　　Leng Jixue replied, “I don’t know how to thank you. If there is any need in the future, I, Leng Jixue, will definitely do all I can to help.”

　　“Hey, hey, you only said this to Xuanzhi. That seems a little unkind.” Duan Yuyang blew out a lit talisman, waving it between his fingers. He came over, “So many of us here helped you.”

　　Leng Jixue spoke somewhat apologetically, “I’m sorry, that was not my intention.”

　　Ji Yunwei frowned and came over, “Why are you Sky Peak Sect people here?”

　　Although the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest belonged to the West Continent, in the end, it still belonged to the Ji family. After all, the Ji family had been the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest’s guardian family for generations.

　　Things in the world were precisely this unreasonable. Anyone who wanted to enter the demonic forest should first pay a toll to the Ji family. If people from other sects wanted to enter, they must first report it to the Ji family. Otherwise, they would be breaking into the forest.

　　The several cultivators around Leng Jixue couldn’t help but reveal a bit of embarrassment on their faces.

　　Leng Jixue also showed a bitter smile, “I am truly sorry about this matter. I heard that there was something wrong with the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest, so I wanted to visit it myself. However, my master did not agree, so I had to sneak in. I just didn’t expect it to be so dangerous here. I was too conceited and careless.”

　　“I’m afraid it’s not just that.” Lin Xuanzhi said airily, “You are not such a reckless person. You are cautious and careful. If you only wanted to come by yourself, you would not have dragged your junior martial brothers into the water with you. Fellow Leng, now that the matter has already developed this far, you may as well say whatever you want.” Yan Tianhen felt a little uncomfortable in his heart.

　　Why did Lin Xuanzhi look like he was very familiar with Leng Jixue?

　　The extent of the interactions between them was merely the few times they came across each other during the Hundred Families Gathering.

　　So Yan Tianhen curled his lips, “Were you actually telling the truth? We just saved you, yet you still lied to us. What did you mean by that?”

　　Leng Jixue showed some embarrassment.

　　One of Leng Jixue’s junior martial brothers couldn’t bear to listen to this anymore. He sniffled, “Don’t think that you can say this just because you saved us. We all followed Senior Martial Brother Leng willingly. Even if there was no order from the sect, we are still willing to follow him!”

　　“Xiong Yun.” Leng Jixue was somewhat helpless.

　　“So it was the sect’s order.” Ji Yunwei narrowed his eyes. “Although there is something wrong with the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest, right now, it’s still merely a matter for the aristocratic families to discuss amongst themselves. The severity of the situation has not yet expanded to the sects. Sky Peak Sect is truly well informed and cannot bear loneliness, so much so that they needed to stick their noses here.”

　　Ji Yunwei’s frigid irony and scorching satire sounded extremely harsh to the few people from Sky Peak Sect–

　　“Do you think we want to come to this terrible place?” Xiong Yun’s face and ears were flushed and his eyes were red. “When we first came, there were 22 people in all. After we walked in here, only the four of us have survived. They were all martial brothers who grew up with me together! If the sect hadn’t given us death orders, who would want to court death like this?”

　　“Yeah.” Another Sky Peak Sect disciple also hung his head and sighed, “Everyone knows that the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest is not a good place, and we’re also not familiar with the geography here. After entering, we stumbled into many dangers and finally came all the way here. If we could leave, we would have left long ago.”

　　Leng Jixue’s heart was also filled with bitterness. He thought of those fellow martial brothers who came with him and then looked at the few remaining people before him. He felt a deep sense of guilt and remorse in his heart.

　　Ji Yunwei glanced at Lin Xuanzhi. “With all due respect, although it is true that the closer you are to the edge, the safer you are in the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest, there are still demonic beasts that are lurking or slumbering around, who’d never care about the distinction between the inner or outer forest. It would have been fine if you had communicated with the Ji family in advance. We would have informed you of any danger on the road, including the easiest and safest paths that can reach the depths of the forest. That’s why the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest has the saying ‘trespassers die’.”