Fangxian Heretical Path

Chapter 228 A Nest of Snakes and Rats, Each with Their Own Fate
Although Fang Shu removed the fox fur, he then put on a cloak.

This was done out of caution, to avoid encountering others on the way back and revealing his true appearance.

To Fang Shu's utter surprise, his actions actually worked.

In the desolate frontier region, the wind cuts like a knife.

Fang Shu cast a spell, soaring through the grass with a whoosh.

Just then, he suddenly noticed a dark light soaring in the air ahead, swaying left and right, moving around quite ostentatiously.

Upon seeing this, Fang Shu immediately withdrew his magic.

After looking around, he tore open a talisman, and with a thud, his foot slipped and he fell into the ground. As his body shrank into the ground, the soil and gravel above his head quickly filled in.

In just a few breaths, no trace could be seen on the ground.

This is a Shrinking Earth Concealment Talisman, which allows immortals to hide underground when they encounter danger in the wild. However, they can only stay in one place. It is a relatively common and cost-effective talisman.

Soon, the dark light ahead, about ten feet away, just grazed the spot where Fang Shu was hiding, and flew past without slowing down.

But just as the other party was about to pass by, the dark light in mid-air suddenly turned around.

A beam of dark light immediately shot out from the newcomer, striking the spot where Fang Shu had just been hiding.

A sizzling sound rang out, and the sand and gravel on the ground were immediately corroded, emitting black smoke. The hole where Fang Shu had just been hiding was now completely exposed.

A cold snort rang out from the dark light, and the other party muttered to himself, "A mere trick, yet you dare to fool this immortal."

The dark light in mid-air paused, revealing a cone-shaped face covered in scales. It spoke with a forked tongue and an unconscious hissing sound.

The newcomer was a snake-like immortal who had flown off from the Dragon Girl's ship and was searching the vicinity to prevent anyone from escaping.

After a cold snort, the snake immortal probed the cave with his divine sense, only to find it empty.

This set off its alarm bells: "Something's wrong!"

The snake-like immortal suddenly swung its body in mid-air.

The moment it made a move, it heard a hissing sound in the air, a buzzing and whistling noise, as it suddenly attacked. Luckily, the creature managed to dodge the powerful blow.

But to its surprise, the thing it had dodged turned back in mid-air and suddenly spread out, covering an area of ​​about ten feet, like a net, trying to trap it.

This time, the snake-like immortal was caught off guard and struck squarely. The spiritual light on its body flickered and rippled several times before shattering one by one.

And then pale beads suddenly struck its body, knocking off its scales.

The snake-like immortals shouted loudly.

With a turn of its body, a surge of dark light rose around it, revealing a flying shuttle-shaped magical artifact that hovered and promptly knocked away the remaining pale beads that were rushing towards it.

Having been struck, the beast dared not make any further rash moves, but instead kept its eyes fixed on the direction from which the bead had flown, and shouted fiercely:

"What a treacherous fellow!"

The one who attacked this beast was Fang Shu.

While he was hiding underground, he had a vague feeling that something was wrong, so he quickly cast a spell and used the ability to pass through walls to escape several feet underground.

As he expected, the newcomer was quite skilled; he had already discovered him but pretended not to, intending to brush past him, while in reality he had prepared a spell.

Looking at the appearance of the snake-like immortal, Fang Shu guessed its origin and its intention to roam freely in this place.

His heart tightened, but he wasn't without panic; instead, he suddenly raised his voice and shouted:

“Hey! I am a disciple of the Lushan Witchcraft and Ghost Path. It was clearly you, you reptile, who attacked first. How dare you wrong me?”

He called out with a buzzing sound.

Eighteen flying beads swirled around Fang Shu's body, exuding ghostly energy and terrifying malevolent aura!
Upon seeing this, the snake-like immortal showed a hint of surprise and doubt on his face: "The Witchcraft and Ghostly Path of Lushan?"

It was quite skeptical of Fang Shu's words, but upon closer inspection, it discovered that the magical artifact Fang Shu used was sinister and filled with ghostly energy, which could not be faked. It was indeed similar to the rumored disciples of the Witchcraft and Ghost Path.

After some hesitation, the serpentine immortal's dark aura dissipated, revealing a bitter smile:

"It's a misunderstanding, fellow Daoist. I'm here on orders to question passing immortals and apprehend thieves. May I ask if you've encountered a man and a woman, one of whom is carrying a golden birdcage?"

Fang Shu felt a slight unease and thought to himself, "This is bad luck."

He had already gone in a huge circle, but he still ran into them. It seems that these guys had sent out quite a few people, and they were also carrying powerful magical artifacts for gathering supplies.

"Hey! What a big mouth you've got! Do you think this place is your mountain gate?"

Fang Shu looked disdainful. He stretched out his bare arm, made a hand gesture and chanted a spell. A ghost emerged from the flying bead, exuding a fierce aura, and stared menacingly at the snake-like immortal.

While he was performing his ritual, the snake spirit kept a close eye on Fang Shu. When it saw that Fang Shu's arms were hairless and that he didn't look like a fox demon, but rather a human, it made it clear that he was not a fox demon.

The snake spirits were even more inclined to think that it was better to avoid trouble.

Immediately, the snake demon swiftly turned and retreated about ten feet, shouting, "I'm sorry to have bothered you, fellow Daoist. I need to continue my search, so I won't disturb you any longer."

As soon as he spoke, the fiend rode his dark, magical artifact and fled from the spot.

Fang Shu stood still, slowly putting away his magical artifacts. He stomped his feet angrily before casting a spell and leaving.

After the two of them disappeared from the spot.

The serpentine spirit that had been there suddenly returned. It stared in the direction Fang Shu had left, its eyes narrowed, hissing incessantly.

"Such a dense ghostly aura, even if it's not from the Witchcraft and Ghost Cult, it's probably from the Bone Temple... Never mind, let's just report this matter."

The demon muttered to himself, "Although my cultivation is a kalpa higher than his, it's only a hundred taels of spirit stones. It's not worth risking my life for him."

Before long, a talisman recording the interception and Fang Shu's demeanor and aura rose up and flew towards a hundred miles away.

If Fang Shu were to fly away with this communication talisman, he would discover that the group of snake demons had already moved the entire dragon ship to the border of the Youqiong Kingdom.

They searched high and low, frantically looking for his and Bai Yangyang's whereabouts.

The talisman flew over, and immediately a deity took over the task on the boat.

The Crimson Serpent Immortal, who had previously intercepted Fang Shu and his group, was standing on the ship. When she saw the communication talisman flying back, her expression changed slightly.

However, after listening for a while, the Crimson Serpent Immortal, expressionless, threw the communication talisman back into the incense burner:
"Ghostly artifacts and ghostly immortals seem to be wishful thinking. They have no connection with those who want to harvest death energy on the shore of the Dead Sea."

After a moment's thought, it put Fang Shu's whereabouts out of its mind.

In the past few days, all the crew members on the dragon boat have been on board, and there are also people secretly sent by Fudang Mountain to help them. Within a thousand miles, they are everywhere.

Every day, passing immortals are stopped, and now a ghost immortal has appeared, so it's not a big deal. Among them, the Red Serpent Immortal and his companions have considered whether to arrest all the passing immortals indiscriminately.

Unfortunately, they did their best by sending people to question them. Even with three times the manpower, it would be difficult to arrest them all.

Even so, more than ten battles had taken place in just a few days, with some victories and some defeats, and the snake demons had suffered a loss of manpower.

After all, the immortals who dare to roam in such remote border regions are either seeking refuge here or hunting ferocious beasts; none of them are simple characters.

………………

the other side.

Fang Shu, using the identity of a ghost immortal, successfully escaped the snare set by the snake demons.

He was even more cautious on the journey ahead, and was prepared to strike first if anyone approached him.

Fortunately, after traveling for most of the day, they finally escaped the complete border region and returned to the mortal world.

He never encountered such a blind fool again.

That evening, Fang Shu entered a small town, found an inn, and went inside.

Having hidden himself away amidst the bustling, everyday life of the city, Fang Shu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

This place is far from the Dead Sea and even further from Floating Mountain. With so many mortals providing cover, he should have already escaped danger.

Sure enough, a few more days passed, and no pursuers came looking for them.

This pleased Fang Shuxin.

After some thought, he set up a Gu formation in the inn and took out three drops of dragon blood essence that were attached to the Gu worms from his living creature bag.

Examining the gold and red blood, he muttered to himself, "It seems that the dragon rabbit really didn't tamper with this thing. I was just unlucky to be stopped earlier?"

Even when he obtained this essence blood, Fang Shu was wary of whether there was any hidden trap within it, which is why he resisted the dragon rabbit's orders and did not want to carry this essence blood with him.

Now it seems that perhaps he really did misunderstand that guy. But thinking of that dragon rabbit's foul mouth, Fang Shu put that aside.

It's only three drops of essence blood. If he saves that guy's life, he'll not only drain that foul-mouthed dragon rabbit dry, but he'll at least take away half of its life.

In addition, the rabbit's pelt was quite good, perfect for preparing for the molting technique.

Who knows, this dragon's fur might be of excellent quality, enough to make a piece of leather at the Qi Refining level in one go, giving Fang Shu another identity.

Let's indulge in some daydreaming.

Fang Shu didn't delay any longer. He checked the dragon blood essence again and again, and after confirming that there was nothing wrong with the essence and that it could not kill the Gu worms, he assumed the posture of the "Dragon Whale Nourishing Method".

His legs were intertwined like a tail, and his surging blood and qi ignited on his body like boiling water.

He quickly made incisions in the three dantian points (upper, middle, and lower) of his body with his fingers and smeared the golden-red dragon blood essence into the incisions.

A sharp, stabbing sensation appeared.

When the dragon's blood essence met human blood, it immediately solidified, turning into gemstones that were embedded in his body in a straight line.

Fang Shu immediately began practicing the introductory moves of the martial arts manual in the inn.

Now that such good things have come into my possession, I should naturally make use of them as soon as possible.

It's better to avoid leaving it on your body for too long, as it can cause problems even if there aren't any.

The next two weeks.

Fang Shu canceled his hotel reservation in the town and rented a small courtyard in the town instead, where he devoted himself to rigorous training.

He cultivated the "Dragon Whale Nourishing Technique" with the Qi Refining stage and used the essence blood of the dragon seed to help him. His speed was so fast that he mastered the first level in just half a month and began to learn the second level.

To his surprise, with the help of this body-refining technique, the true energy within his body was also enhanced.

The amount of true energy did not increase much, but its texture became much thicker, and his every move exuded a profound aura, adding a touch of abyss-like quality.

………………

When Fang Shu successfully escaped the encirclement, a tragic incident occurred in Fudang Mountain.

In a secret room, Zhuang, a martial artist, was chained up. His face was blank and his eyes were numb.

That once strong body had become thin, not from starvation or evil magic, but from having excess flesh sliced ​​away piece by piece with a knife.

Suddenly, a monster came in to take over the shift, impatiently shouting, "Did you get anything new out of him today?"

The monster guarding the Zhuang family warrior sighed and muttered:
"This guy has been searched so many times, he's already gone mad. What can we possibly get out of him now? Right now, we're just keeping him alive with ginseng soup so we can report back to the immortals later."

The shift-changing monster glanced at the Zhuang-surnamed martial artist's physique, and a chill ran down his spine. He muttered to himself:
"Everyone else ran away, but this guy ran back to the mountains. Did he really think he could hide by wearing some kind of disguise?"

The other monster, upon hearing this, sighed softly:

"This fellow didn't think he could hide, but he thought that there were rules in the market and that no one would meddle in other people's business."

"Rules?!" A mocking laugh rang out from the changing monster's mouth.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, the handover was completed successfully.

Just as the monster who was working thought it was going to be another boring time, a few hours later, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the secret room.

He suddenly stood up and immediately saw a celestial being with his collarbone pierced and his face aged, being dragged into a secret room like a dead dog and handcuffed to another stake.

"This is..." The demon vaguely felt that the person looked somewhat familiar, and only after brushing aside the person's hair did it recognize them.

It exclaimed in surprise, "Isn't this the famous Pharmacist Sun from the market?"

The monsters who brought the people overheard this and began to discuss it amongst themselves:
"He walked right into our trap!"

"This fellow sneaked back from the foot of the mountain, thinking the heat had died down, and was about to pack his valuables and leave. But before he even left the house, he was caught red-handed."

"When he was arrested, he was still calm and asked us if we had arrested the wrong person. He hadn't done anything wrong, and even said that he knew a lot of great monsters."

It turned out that Master Sun had been hiding outside Fudang Mountain for two or three months. He only knew that Fudang Mountain was calm and the dragon boat had long since left. So he thought of going up the mountain to pack his belongings and take a passing cloud boat in Fudang Mountain to leave Youqiong Kingdom for good.

But little did he know that Fudang Mountain was outwardly relaxed but inwardly cunning, having already colluded with the dragon boat snake demon. As soon as he entered the market, he was targeted by the mountain monsters.

So far.

Apart from Fang Shu and Bai Yangyang who managed to escape, the other three fell into the hands of the monsters of Fudang Mountain and could no longer escape.

(End of this chapter)