Demon Sword Immortal

A woman in an antique-style long dress is strolling along the road.

She wore a light purple gauze dress, her face was covered with a light veil, her hair was tied up with a hairpin, a four-foot-long sword hung at her waist, and she held an oil-paper umbrella to cover her face. A glimpse of a black silk stocking could be vaguely seen through the hem of her dress.

She should have been an incredibly prominent figure, but it was as if no one noticed her at all; everyone ignored her.

The woman walked to the southern intersection, stood on the other side of the road, looked up at the row of stone steps of the Shinmei Dojo.

"Unbeknownst to us... seventeen years have passed."

"I really have the nerve to visit this place again."

After making a self-deprecating remark, the woman stepped forward, ascended the long steps, and walked onto the bluestone path. She arrived at the gate of the temple and rang the doorbell.

Today was Bai Zhuqing's turn to clean early in the morning. When she heard the doorbell ring, she ran to open the door with a glimmer of hope, only to find that the person standing at the door was not Bai Xiang, but this unfamiliar woman in a purple dress.

"Who are you...?" She tightened the door slightly, looking wary, as if she was about to close it and run away if things got out of hand.

"Excuse me." The woman closed her oil-paper umbrella, revealing a bright smile.

"I'm here to see Bai Shengju...wait?"

Halfway through her sentence, she suddenly reached out with lightning speed, squeezed through the crack in the door, and grabbed Bai Zhuqing's left wrist.

"You! What are you doing?" Bai Zhuqing was frightened and struggled desperately.

"I didn't expect..." The woman immediately let go, and smiled apologetically at Bai Zhuqing's wary gaze.

"Sorry, it was just my professional instincts kicking in. Did I hurt you?"

Before Bai Zhuqing could reply, she took out another business card from her sleeve and handed it over, saying, "But your talent is indeed quite good..."

"Are you interested in coming to Yujing Road?"

Chapter Sixty-Four Emergence

Within the virtual realm, Huang Qian led the way, with Cao Chuan and Bai Xiang close behind, leading the remaining Crimson Dragon Army troops to the previous cave entrance.

It wasn't far; we reached it in just a few hundred meters. But the journey was truly terrifying, as the ground was littered with insect carcasses and bits of flesh.

Most of them came from juvenile cicada beetles, but in a very few places, the remains of humans were covered under the insect corpses.

Are we still outside?

Outside, Liang Wenbo was already unable to protect his students; if they went into the cave, wouldn't they all die?

Huang Qian and Cao Chuan exchanged a glance and unconsciously quickened their pace.

The destructive effect of this sonic wave attack pattern differs greatly between open and confined spaces.

This is something that even a child can naturally understand, let alone an adult—who hasn't put their hand to their mouth and shouted to their friends when they were little? It was all for the sake of building up volume... There are examples of this everywhere in life.

Liang Wenbo couldn't be so unlucky as to not encounter a sonic attack before entering the cave, could he?

If he had ever encountered it even once, he would never have obediently crawled into the hole. Now, all they can do is make a wish in that direction.

However, reality was cruel. Huang Qian was the first to reach the high slope outside the cave entrance. He stood on the slope and looked down, but immediately turned his head away because he couldn't bear it.

Bai Xiang quickly stepped forward and looked down. The first thing that caught his eye was a large pile of insect corpses at the bottom of the pit, mixed with the remains of some Qi University students.

As for the entrance... it was buried by a large amount of collapsed rubble. It is speculated that after the swarm of insects squeezed into the entrance and found that they could not break through Liang Wenbo, they were forced to use 'Divine Roar', which directly caused the entire tunnel to collapse.

This was even worse than they had imagined. The Benling group had already endured the impact of the divine roar and were in a daze, when suddenly they had to face the collapse of the rubble.

They weren't buried alive, were they?

"Hurry up...go and clean it up." Huang Qian waved his hand to direct his subordinates, but his voice sounded weak and listless.

In this situation, even if Liang Wenbo survives, it is inevitable that Ben Ling and his group will suffer heavy casualties.

The nine major powers are known for their arrogance, domineering nature, and unreasonableness.

Not to mention that Chilongdao is still within Qizhou, and the entire Qizhou is the source of students for Benlingdao... If they really blame him afterward, unless the prefectural government is determined to protect Huang Qian, his position as captain is basically over.

Huang Qian originally thought this way. He stood on the hillside, turned his head to look at Bai Xiang beside him, and thought that at least he hadn't gained nothing. He had at least met such a talented person.

Bai Xiang's excellence is, to put it bluntly, the most exaggerated among all the people Huang Qian has ever seen in his long life.

Even if we take hearsay into account, those great sword masters might not necessarily have her potential and talent.

Huang Qian was optimistic about Bai Xiang's future. Now that he was considering the teachings he had received in the forest, he was not entirely pessimistic or hopeless about the future.

Just as I was about to say something, I felt a vibration under my feet.

As a conditioned reflex, Huang Qian jumped away.

Peeking further ahead, he was astonished to see that the depression was sinking like quicksand, taking with it all the remains of the insect corpses, the rubble, and the rescue workers with it!

rustle……

Crash...!

The entire collapse lasted only a dozen seconds. Soon, as the obstacles fell to the bottom of the pit, a passage in the opposite direction... seemingly leading to the depths of the virtual realm, was revealed.

"Is there such a thing?"

Huang Qian yelled and jumped down, disregarding the distance of more than ten meters. After landing, he first helped up the injured soldiers, and then personally explored the rock wall of the cave.

A moment later, Cao Chuan and Bai Xiang came down as well. Huang Qian looked up at the two of them and said, "They should have left quite a few people behind; they've gone deeper into this area..."

“The geological structure here is very strange.” Cao Chuan looked around the cave. “The soil on top is relatively soft, but such a hard cave can be formed below.”

Unreasonable.

Bai Xiang, however, does not think so.

She knew the details of this place; it was originally an artificially created place for raising demons, and everything unreasonable could be attributed to 'artificial'.

“Now that things have come to this, we have no choice but to go all the way.” Huang Qian gritted his teeth. “I plan to take the men and continue inwards. You can choose to stay here.”

"Lord Fang has instructed me to do my utmost to assist Commandant Yu." Cao Chuan shook his head and stepped forward. "There is no reason for me to back down here."

Bai Xiang didn't say anything, but just like Cao Chuan, he took a step forward to show his attitude through his actions.

"Excellent!" Huang Qian was delighted. "I thought I was coming to the south to retire... I never expected to be able to explore the Demon Realm with the two of you!"

He wasn't one for idle chatter, but once he decided to save people, he immediately gathered all the soldiers with mobility and led the team deeper into the cave.

This cave is deeper and larger than the one at the entrance, and the branching paths are much more complicated.

After walking for half an hour, Huang Qian frowned and stared at the rock wall in the middle of a fork in the road, lost in thought.

There was a cross marked on it with white chalk; it was a mark they had made earlier to prevent themselves from going the wrong way.

Seeing this mark now means they've come full circle.

"Then let's switch sides!"

Huang Qian was unconvinced and continued his exploration.

Five minutes later, the group stood at another fork in the road, staring at the markings on the rock face in silence once again.

This won't work.

Cao Chuan frowned.

At first, things were alright. Based on the scattered insect corpses and bloodstains along the way, they were able to identify which way Liang Wenbo's team had gone.

But then the signs disappeared, and the group wandered around aimlessly like headless flies.

Isn't this place a bit too complicated?

This isn't a tunnel, it's an underground palace!

Just then, Bai Xiang, who had been silent in the group, suddenly spoke up.

"Captain."

"Could you let someone who wants to lead the team give it a try?"

Huang Qian glanced at her and nodded in agreement without much hesitation.

It doesn't matter who leads the way... it's all just guesswork, so why not try the 'newbie protection period'?

The "newbie protection period" refers to the fact that in many extremely dangerous or luck-based tasks, newcomers are often more likely to succeed than experienced workers.

This was originally metaphysics, something that was mostly based on hearsay. Huang Qian was forced to rely on this, which shows that he had no other choice.

And so, the team changed its leader, with Bai Xiang at the forefront, leading the others to continue exploring the underground palace.

They walked like this for five minutes.

ten minutes.

fifteen minutes.

We didn't see a single duplicate mark along the way.

Everyone stared at Bai Xiang from behind, their gazes growing increasingly astonished.

Damn it!

Is there really a 'newbie protection period'?

Bai knew they would be suspicious, but it was something that could be explained away as luck, and she didn't intend to reveal the truth.

As for what is the truth—

Naturally, from the moment she entered the tunnel, she vaguely sensed that the arrangement of these winding tunnels looked familiar.

For example, the straight road we just passed was long and wide, and could be understood as a long staircase leading to heaven.

For example, after passing that straight road, there is a narrow and flat straight road at the corner, with a width that is almost the same as a certain bluestone road.

As for the deeper maze-like paths, there are actually hidden patterns within them, which correspond exactly to the corridor-style structure of the Shinmei Dojo. Each path can be found in a module within the architectural layout of the dojo.

Of course, such a corridor-like structure alone is not enough to fill the entire underground palace. However, as long as one is familiar enough with this structure, and is the kind of person who often lives and moves around in this structure, it is not difficult for them to discover that... those tunnel structures that seem unfamiliar at first glance are simply the corridor structure of the Shinmei Dojo reversed.

The same structural diagram, either upside down or flipped, is welded together in a random order.

This is the structural essence of the labyrinthine cave.

Therefore, it's natural that Bai Xiang could lead the way.

And she also understood why Chai Jingyuan and Chai Xuan had visited Shenming Dojo in the first place.

And how did they manage to steal things right under Bai Shengju's nose without anyone noticing?

Chapter Sixty-Five: Fangs

In the darkness, Xu Xi was abruptly awakened by excruciating pain.

When she opened her eyes, all she saw was darkness. It felt like all the bones in her body were broken, and most of her body was stiff and numb. Only waves of intense nerve pain were shooting up her body, and she almost groaned from the pain.

Where am I...? What place is this?

After closing her eyes and adjusting for a while, Xu Xi barely managed to endure the pain. Only then did she have time to open her eyes and force herself to stare into the darkness until, after a few minutes, her eyes adjusted to the dark and she could make out the outlines of objects in the dark.

It is roughly clear that this is an empty cave.

She found herself in a corner of a cave, with some sharp rock protrusions beneath her. Lying on these protrusions for a long time would naturally cause stiffness and pain, so she quickly rolled over and moved to a different spot, her hand reaching for a tall boot.

These are... those tactical boots in military green camouflage?

Was it someone else?

Xu Xi was excited and forgot all about etiquette. She touched the man's face and then his disheveled hair, following the length of his boots.

This height and facial structure... seem to be Xiao Ming.

Xu Xi breathed a sigh of relief upon confirming that Xiao Ming was still alive and breathing under his nose.

This has nothing to do with Xiaoming being the daughter of Liang Qiusheng, a senior member of the dojo. It's purely because... even if Xiaoming is usually a bit willful and speaks harshly... and lacks respect for many of her senior brothers and sisters, including herself, Xu Xi doesn't want her to die here.

Having regained some strength, Xu Xi got up and looked around. She quickly found Hao Chengzhuo, Zhao Xu, and three other disciples, who, like Xiao Ming, had fallen into a coma.

Where is Junior Sister Zheng?

She struggled to explore and search in the darkness, occasionally twitching her nose to sniff.

In my memory, Junior Sister Zheng really liked to dress up... She always put some small decorations on herself, and even when she was training in the wild, she would not forget to spray perfume on her hair. Her scent should be easy to recognize.

I took a sniff and sure enough, I found a familiar scent coming from a certain direction.

Xu Xi immediately reached out and quickly touched Zheng's junior sister 'Zheng Lingying's' face.