Chapter 173: The Skylark in Pursuit

After withstanding two waves of attacks from the soul banner, Chen Luo immediately realized his predicament.

This evil cultivator Lin Feng was stronger than him and possessed a valuable treasure—the soul banner. A direct, brute-force approach might not be enough to take him down.

Don’t engage in a battle of attrition; he’s at Mid Foundation Establishment stage, so his spiritual energy recovers faster than yours.

The feedback from the Core Formation stage brain echoed in his mind.

Use the Aerial Flight Technique to escape. Preserve your strength for future battles.

The suggestion from the adept aerial flight brain seemed prudent, but Chen Luo glanced over it without hesitation. It wasn’t about whether he wanted to leave or not; these two were clearly intent on eliminating him. Fleeing would only put him at greater disadvantage.

Employ the Demonic Heart Art—they won’t understand it.

The simplest solution came from the mummified brain. Chen Luo instantly saw the opening: directly confronting a Mid Foundation Establishment cultivator would be foolish. To triumph, one must strike when the opponent is weakest!

With this goal in mind, Chen Luo swiftly accessed the Foundation Establishment cultivator’s brain.

In an instant, his aura underwent a profound transformation.

Across from him, Lin Feng felt a sudden twitch in his eyelid. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it—though the person before him remained unchanged, the impression he gave had completely shifted.

Chen Luo raised his hand, channeling spiritual energy into his palm. The energy coalesced into a gray incantation symbol, which he directed with a gentle flick of his wrist. His movements were fluid and practiced, as if he had performed this maneuver countless times before. The two opponents across from him could hardly comprehend what had just transpired.

Has he transformed into a spell caster again? What kind of divine ability is he cultivating?!

Lin Feng’s heart raced with unease. With a wave of his hand, he summoned all the banesouls that had been scattered around them, forming an impenetrable barrier around himself.

Buzz!

A circular wave of force radiated from Chen Luo’s fingertips, sweeping outward like a ripple on water. As the incantation dissipated, the world in front of both Lin Feng and his companion began to warp and twist. One by one, ghastly faces came alive, their expressions filled with anguish.

“Lin Feng, you’re truly ruthless. If not for your master rescuing you from that orphanage, you’d be dead by now! I raised you from childhood, yet you dare to betray me for a mere soul banner!”

“Feng-ge, remember when you said you’d always love me? Why must you kill me?”

“Daddy, I’m so scared!”

One by one, twisted figures crawled out from the ground. Among them were many of Lin Feng’s most important relatives—such as his master, Patriarch Yin Ghost, his wife, and daughter. He had thought he’d forgotten these people long ago, but their sudden appearance now shook his icy Dao heart.

“Get lost!” Lin Feng roared in half-mad fury. “All you lot are just wasting space when alive; only dead can you serve your true purpose—to pave my path to immortality. You should feel lucky!”

With that, he waved his soul banner wildly through the air.

Yue Qingping wasn’t much better off.

She found herself back on the night her Yue Clan was annihilated. Her mother had led her and her younger brother away from their home, but as they escaped through the main gate, they encountered a demonic cultivator from the Demonseed Sect. This evil practitioner cultivated the Demon Arts, relishing nothing more than watching others suffer separation and death.

To save themselves from this fiend, she had sold her own brother into his clutches. Even now, she could still hear her brother’s despairing screams as he died—and felt the bone-deep hatred etched into her very soul.

In retrospect, she had always thought her brother hated that evil cultivator from the Demonseed Sect. But now it was clear—her brother’s true hatred was directed at her, his own sister.

“Big sis, I died so horribly.”

“Ping’er, you promised Mother you’d save your little brother. Why did he die while you lived? Why?!” Madam Yue wailed, her voice filled with anguish.

“Ahh!”

Yue Qingping clutched at her head, pulling out a circular talisman from within her sleeve. Without hesitation, she hurled it forward just as Lin Feng’s soul banner swept towards them. The two collided in mid-air, setting off an explosion that reverberated through the air:

BOOM!!

The force of the blast engulfed both combatants instantly, draining their spiritual energy reserves in the blink of an eye. The resulting inferno consumed them entirely.

After a long moment, the two figures tumbled from the lingering smoke and debris. Half of Yue Qingping’s body had been blown away. Lin Feng fared no better; his entire form was charred black and emanating white steam. Even the aura of the soul banner in his hand had grown significantly weaker.

“Heart Demon power?” Lin Feng rasped, his voice hoarse as he stared at Chen Luo across the battlefield. “Are you a descendant of the Heart Demon Ancestor?”

“Heart Demon Ancestor?”

Chen Luo approached and placed his hand on Lin Feng’s head. After that barrage, Lin Feng’s spiritual energy had been nearly depleted, having exhausted himself clearing the area single-handedly.

This encounter renewed Chen Luo’s appreciation for the Demonic Heart Art’s power. While unsuitable as a primary cultivation technique, its effectiveness against enemies was unexpectedly formidable.

“You’ll understand eventually.”

Seeing Chen Luo’s confusion, Lin Feng grinned widely, unwilling to elaborate further. Chen Luo, equally uninterested in pressing for answers, swept his magical sword with a swift motion, severing Lin Feng’s head in one fell swoop.

Retrieve!

The freshly severed head yielded remarkably intact brainwaves.

A surge of dense gray energy flowed into Chen Luo through his arm, instantly revealing seven or eight lingering obsessions.

I must reach Core Formation!

I yearn for just one more bite of Shiniang’s osmanthus cake.

…

The obsessions were scattered, none directly related to cultivation. This left Chen Luo somewhat disappointed, though acquiring a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator’s mind still felt like hitting the jackpot. Earlier, he had also collected Wu Tiande’s brain when venturing out.

After harvesting Lin Feng’s mind, Chen Luo moved on, placing his hand upon Yue Qingping’s deceased head.

Compared to Lin Feng, Yue Qingping had suffered a far more gruesome fate.

Her own talisman had detonated upon her, leaving half of her body obliterated. The left side of her face, including her nose, was charred black—beyond repair.

Read.

As expected, Yue Qingping’s mind offered little of value; Chen Luo couldn’t even discern any lingering obsessions or regrets. With this exercise complete, he carefully stored away Lin Feng’s bag of holding and picked up the nearby soul banner. This magical artifact had made quite an impression on him. Once he’d fully digested Lin Feng’s memories, it would be time to experiment with the banner—a welcome addition that addressed his chronic shortage of effective tools, albeit one requiring practice in its secret manipulation techniques.

After sorting through Lin Feng’s belongings, Chen Luo approached Yue Qingping’s corpse, intending to retrieve her bag of holding as well.

However, before he could touch it, a beam of black light appeared, no thicker than a thumb, snatching away the pouch right under his nose.

“Finders keepers, right? Can’t blame me for taking a bag of holding, can you?”

In the third break room, a lone Foundation Establishment cultivator dressed in black emerged. He extended his palm, controlling the black light to retrieve the storage pouch, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.

He never would have imagined encountering such a windfall.

Moments ago, he was pondering how three individuals might deal with their opponents, only for the situation to resolve itself in the blink of an eye. With the enemies dead and the perpetrator’s spiritual energy nearly depleted, it was the perfect opportunity for him to reap the benefits.

“Are you trying to be the angler who catches the fish?” Chen Luo’s eyes narrowed as he sized up the newcomer.

“Just helping my fellow cultivators alleviate some pressure,” Wang Cangxiao replied smoothly. “I’m Wang Cangxiao, always eager to lend a hand. If you’ve any objections, please keep them to yourself.”

As he spoke, a dense cloud of black mist materialized around Wang Cangxiao. Upon closer inspection, this mist consisted of countless tiny black particles, each one not a speck of gas but a minuscule venomous insect.

It was these very creatures that had allowed him to deceive Wu Tiande’s ambush earlier, positioning himself as the opportunistic angler.

“The items stay, but you’re free to leave.”

Ignoring the man’s blather, Chen Luo spoke up.

“Didn’t you expend quite a bit of spiritual energy killing those three? Are you sure you want to face me?”

Wang Cangxiao’s smile faded as his expression turned cold.

If not for his fear of the heart demon power that might be unleashed by this young man, he would have already launched a sneak attack. His caution stemmed from the involvement of the Demonic Heart Ancestor, which compelled him to employ more gentle methods.

Even though Lin Feng didn’t voice it, Wang Cangxiao understood the unspoken truth.

The most powerful individual in Blackstone City was the Core Formation cultivator known as the Blackstone Ancestor. This fact was widely known among all evil cultivators. However, few were aware that before the rise of the Blackstone Ancestor, this place had been the domain of another Core Formation ancestor—the very same Demonic Heart Ancestor.

This wasn’t much of a secret within Blackstone City’s Foundation Establishment community.

Many had heard the tale: The Blackstone Ancestor had slain the Demonic Heart Ancestor and driven away his disciples and followers. They were mortal enemies.

If Chen Luo truly was the successor of the Demonic Heart Ancestor, entering Blackstone City was akin to throwing a lamb into a den of tigers—he stood no chance of survival.

Chen Luo began to spread his divine sense.

His current state was far from optimal; activating his Core Formation brain demanded significant resources, and its ingrained habits didn’t spare him much spiritual energy either. That one hand of void talisman had consumed more than half of his reserves, leaving his legs still somewhat unsteady. But given the situation before him now, he couldn’t possibly let this person leave.

Lin Feng’s dying mention of ‘Ancestral Demonic Heart’ was undoubtedly a massive pitfall. Without understanding the full extent of it, the best course of action was to nip this in the bud.

If everyone present perished, whether Chen Luo was truly a successor of Ancestral Demonic Heart or not would become irrelevant. With so many brains at his disposal, swapping out just one would resolve this issue effortlessly.

“Mid Foundation Establishment?” Chen Luo mused aloud.

“The power of your divine sense is commendable,” Wang Cangxiao chuckled, making no attempt to conceal his assessment.

He had chosen to step forward precisely to avoid conflict with Chen Luo, as his sole objective on this journey was to obtain Yue Qingping’s black stone secret technique. Now that he’d secured it, naturally, he prepared to depart.

“But…”

In a flash, Chen Luo materialized directly in front of Wang Cangxiao, a first-rank magical sword appearing in his grasp.

Whoosh!

Sword techniques swirled around him as he swept the blade through the air.

Wang Cangxiao met this attack head-on, causing countless black bugs to explode like grains of sand. In the next instant, an endless sea of insects surged back towards Chen Luo.

Neither of them were good people, so since they’d chosen to fight, it would definitely be a fight to the death.

Chen Luo took out a fire talisman from his storage bag and channeled spiritual energy into it.

The talisman exploded instantly.

The flames blocked off the insects’ attack, but one particular poisonous bug ignored the flames and went straight through, slamming right into Chen Luo.

With a thud, his magical robe lit up as the terrible impact sent him flying backward.

In the next second, he saw that a large number of bugs had gathered behind him at some point. These bugs opened their blood-red maws like gluttons, wanting to eat him in a single bite.

“Those magical robes can’t block my bugs.”

Wang Cangxiao’s laughing figure appeared amidst the swarm.

Chen Luo flipped his hand over, summoning a whirlwind-like ball of flame in his palm, then struck at the swarm behind him with a wave of his arm.

“Inferno Spell!”

The fire spell slammed brutally into the cloud of bugs, exploding with a loud noise. In the next moment, Chen Luo burst through the flames.

Wang Cangxiao followed closely behind. His strongest move was that black beetle he raised; all the other bugs were just there to confuse enemies.

“Playing with bugs? I can do that too!”

As Chen Luo fled, his eyes sparkled as he accessed the brain of Shan City’s Insect Control Cultivator from his external memory device. With a single tap on his storage pouch, a brown-green gourd appeared in his hand.