Having cultivated myself into an immortal, all I want to do is raise female disciples.

At the bottom of the mountain.

"What a grand spectacle..."

Erhei looked up at the particularly exaggerated Taibai Formation on the mountaintop and couldn't help but exclaim in amazement: "The formation master Taibaiqiu, that legendary figure actually left a trace of his soul in this world. This tenth-order Taibai Formation truly lives up to its name."

"It's a pity that it wasn't the Array Saint himself who was here; otherwise, that crazy woman would probably be no match for him."

"What a pity. This is what they mean by 'the heavens are jealous of talent.'"

call out!

The arrow pierced the air.

An arrow shot from a blind spot at the rear struck Erhei's forehead with terrifying speed.

At this moment, Erhei, suspended in the air, was too lazy to turn around and pay attention to this harmless arrow. The black ink under his feet automatically protected him, forming a pitch-black hand that tightly gripped the spirit arrow.

Erhei slowly turned to the side, glanced at the silver-haired girl hanging on the snow-capped mountain cliff, panting heavily, and said helplessly, "Don't interrupt others when they are expressing their feelings."

Ye Yuchan pouted in dissatisfaction: "Who told you to act so nonchalant? We're all working really hard here, okay?"

"Because you haven't become saints yet, I'm quite relaxed."

Erhei shrugged, then seemed to realize something and lowered his head.

The ground beneath his feet was covered by a surge of pitch-black ink, and in the distance, Gu Xingzhuo, standing atop the cave pavilion, suddenly swung his right hand upwards.

Dozens of sharp swords shot out from the ink beneath Erhei's feet, attacking him from below.

"Ugh."

Erhei shook his head, lifted his right foot, and gently stepped on it.

boom!

The ink on the soles of his feet condensed into a single ink sword, which met Gu Xingzhuo's several sword strikes with unstoppable speed, like a ferocious beast.

Gu Xingzhuo felt a sharp pain in his chest, only to see that all the ink swords he had conjured had been destroyed, turning into useless black liquid that spilled all over the ground.

Erhei didn't even chase after Gu Xingzhuo. Instead, he stared at the white-haired boy with regret and said, "You clearly have excellent literary talent, and even have a literary style quite similar to that of Emperor Wen Xuanlei, but you still haven't become a saint."

"If you had been born earlier, perhaps the direct lineage of the literary path would have fallen to you, helping you to enter the Dao and become a saint."

"but--"

At this point, Erhei abruptly changed the subject.

He glanced at the ink swords that had turned into black liquid, a knowing glint in his eyes.

Erhei's face showed a hint of sympathy as he looked at Gu Xingzhuo, his tone softening slightly: "It seems you and I have both had some painful past experiences."

call out!

The arrows fell from the sky with the force of thunder!

That wasn't just an exaggeration; it truly carried pale golden lightning, as if it were about to cleave the heavens and earth in two, falling with incredible speed like a giant axe.

The target was aimed directly at Erhei's head.

A hint of impatience appeared on Erhei's face. He raised his right hand, and the ink beneath his feet instantly condensed into a black shield, forcefully deflecting the thunderous arrow.

hum~

With a muffled thud, the arrow Ye Yuchan fired exploded in mid-air.

Erhei glared at Ye Yuchan, who was almost at the top of the mountain, and said, "Can't you just calm down and let me chat with my fellow climbers?"

Ye Yuchan felt she was in the right, as her attack was a righteous sneak attack: "We're fighting, you know. Who keeps babbling during a fight?"

Erhei was also unhappy when he heard this: "We who cultivate the Way of Literature are all about comparing our cultural refinement. Even if we have to fight, we'll still talk about scriptures and principles. Even if there's nothing to talk about, our mouths just won't stop, understand?"

Ye Yuchan craned her neck and shouted, "Then why don't you just compose poems and compare your skills?"

Erhei pointed at Gu Xingzhuo and said to Ye Yuchan, "You're supposed to be his junior sister? The Way of Literature isn't just about being literary. The Way of Literature cultivates the spirit, the mind, and the thoughts. What do you know about the Way of Literature, you little brat?"

I got scolded.

Ye Yuchan's lips twitched, thinking to herself, "How come this Demon Lord is so good at talking... I didn't see this kid talking all day long when he was with Yue Jianghan before."

Seeing that Ye Yuchan was speechless after being scolded by him, Erhei rolled his eyes at the girl, and then looked at Gu Xingzhuo in the distance.

At this moment, Gu Xingzhuo stared intently at Erhei and asked in a cold voice, "What did you mean by the unbearable past you just mentioned?"

"Literal meaning."

Erhei spread his hands, adopting the air of someone who's been there: "People can lie, but your writing doesn't lie."

"Your ink contains many things, things you are unwilling to reveal. This should have been the foundation for your literary achievements, but you refuse to express these emotions in your writing..."

Do you know how I became a saint?

Erhei smiled mysteriously and then said, "When I was being chased to my death by the cultivators of the Immortal Capital, I wrote a killing poem."

"I have written my grief over the years, the pain of the destruction of Hidden Dragon Valley, and the nightmares that have tormented me for countless years into a poem of killing."

"The moment of liberation felt truly exhilarating."

"Therefore, I sought the Dao through killing poetry, and thus became a sage."

He stared intently at Gu Xingzhuo, but for some reason, he showed no intention of making a move.

Instead, he asked softly:

"Kid, who are you doing this for...?"

"And what about those who are reluctant to become saints?"

44. Erhei: Am I seeing a ghost?!

"For whom..."

These words, when they reached Gu Xingzhuo's ears, stirred his heart.

He was indeed resentful.

Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that he rarely expresses his emotions; it's become a habit.

The way of literature is the way of expressing emotions, whether it is Emperor Wen's poem of killing, or those melodies that are both stirring and melodious, or those magnificent and beautiful landscape paintings...

Music, chess, calligraphy, and painting—the four arts and crafts.

Every single one of them contains countless emotions; it is an undeniable truth that those without emotion cannot achieve literary success.

Most practitioners of the Way of Literature must cultivate their minds.

Gu Xingzhuo knew what he lacked and why he had been unable to become a saint for so long.

It's not that he can't, but that he won't.

Erhei stared at Gu Xingzhuo, who had suddenly fallen silent, and felt a chill run down his spine. Then, ink began to surge from the soles of his feet.

The oppressive aura of a sage once again appeared at the foot of the mountain, and a mysterious ink-like aura faintly spread throughout the surrounding area.

hostility--

Ye Yuchan and Gu Xingzhuo simultaneously sensed the hostility emanating from Erhei. This demon lord, who had previously been pimping them out and chatting about trivial matters, and who didn't seem like an enemy at all, now seemed to have given up on pointless arguments and instead revealed his scarlet and terrifying fangs.

"That concludes our discussion. It's time to settle things between the two of you."

"Let me make this clear first, I won't hold back from now on."

Erhei glanced back at Ye Yuchan, as if to say that he had deliberately avoided targeting the silver-haired girl before, and laughed, "For the sake of my young lady, please fall here."

"I've got it—"

"When facing a sage, never hesitate."

Erhei glanced meaningfully at Gu Xingzhuo in the distance, and raised his right hand as he said:

"Hesitation leads to defeat."

As soon as he finished speaking...

Ye Yuchan immediately felt a terrifying killing intent coming from above. When she looked up, she saw that the sharp arrow formed from the ink liquid at Erhei's feet was falling from above as if it had pierced through space.

It was so fast that she had no chance of dodging it.

Ye Yuchan hurriedly used her magic weapon, Black Rain, to defend herself, but the terrifying force still knocked the sand sculpture of Yuntian Sect off the mountainside.

shhhhhh!

An arrow pierced the sky.

But those were not arrows shot by Ye Yuchan!

Instead, it was an ink arrow that Erhei deliberately condensed into ink and shot out from the soles of his feet! Its target was the silver-haired girl who was falling.

Ye Yuchan twisted her supple body in mid-air and then fired three arrows.

The pure white spirit arrow collided with three jet-black arrows!

The collision between spiritual energy exploded into ink and sparks, but Ye Yuchan's arrow only managed to hold out for half a second before shattering. Although it was clearly just a sharp arrow formed from ink, it was as sharp and hard as a peerless magic weapon crafted by a master craftsman, and it flew towards Ye Yuchan again.

The white-haired youth appeared like a ghost, standing on an ink brush, rapidly making several strokes in mid-air.

[Royal]

The enormous ink characters condensed into a mysterious shield, blocking Ye Yuchan's path.

Weakening from Ye Yuchan's arrow, the ink arrow's power was greatly diminished, and it naturally could not penetrate the ink-character shield. It was immediately deflected and turned into ink liquid.

Without turning his head, Erhei stomped his right foot, and the ink under his foot instantly transformed into a pitch-black ancient beast, its massive body, nearly twenty or thirty meters long, bursting out of the ink.

The ferocious beast had three heads and six faces. On each head, the face appeared to have been severed by a knife, splitting into left and right sides. Its massive body, like that of a lion, lay prostrate on the ground. Then, it let out a sharp roar and charged towards Gu Xingzhuo in the distance.

Gu Xingzhuo's face was solemn as he looked at the ferocious beast that was pouncing on him, as if facing a formidable enemy. In his deep concentration, he made several hand seals with his left hand.

While chanting incantations, he wielded his ink brush with his right hand, using the void as a canvas, and immediately painted a magnificent landscape painting.

After completing the incantation with his left hand, Gu Xingzhuo's eyes widened, and he suddenly slapped the landscape painting in front of him with his left hand.

hum~

Accompanied by the thunderous sound like ancient bells, the magnificent mountains and rivers stood before Gu Xingzhuo.

The beast's enormous three heads suddenly collided with the endless mountains!