Chapter 267 Devour
Su Emei was stunned for a second, and she looked flurried and helpless. She ducked her head. A while later, she nodded firmly, like a reprimanded cat.
“You’d better heal your injuries first.” Li Ye’s heart softened, so he said in a soft tone. After finishing speaking, he stood up and glanced at the eastern sky deeply. Then, he walked toward Demon Fei’s body.
That day, on Qi Mountain, Wu You blocked the Immortal Killing Sword for him so that her body was destroyed. Li Ye didn’t say anything, but that incident touched him deeply. Today, when he saw Su Emei act on her own to fight Demon Fei to the death, Li Ye couldn’t help but think of Wu You, and he felt a little sad.
When a person chose to become a cultivator, he would encounter lots of challenges and danger, and he would also face lots of difficulties and choices. Li Ye wasn’t a young and inexperienced boy, so he wouldn’t have the thought of an “I’m not powerful enough and if I’m powerful enough, I will keep my woman safe under my protection”. In such a big world, there were always some more powerful people, and everyone had his own way to go.
Even husband and wife couldn’t be together all the time, and they had to face and solve the challenges and difficulties by themselves. The only way to Great Tao was that both of them had to become powerful. And on the way to becoming powerful, blood and tribulations were indispensable. To be the comrades who could fight side by side all the lifetime, that would be a true Taoist couple.
Beyond Li Ye’s expectation, Demon Fei had no magic treasures or Dan Pills, nothing valuable. But obviously, that pair of horns was a treasure.
Li Ye used his Luke Sword to cut the horns, but it couldn’t leave any mark on the horns, with the rank of the Luke Sword. As the medium for Demon Fei to launch techniques, the main function of the horns was to enhance the techniques. In this case, it shouldn’t be hard.
Li Ye picked up the horns and sat down beside Su Emei. While she was healing her injuries, he thought quietly.
The first senior demon caused him so much trouble, so he didn’t know how powerful the coming demons would be. Li Ye suddenly felt that Qi Prefecture was much more terrible than he had imagined, and the strength of the demon clan was far beyond his imagination, even though those Great Sages didn’t come.
But in the entire Pinglu, or in the entire Tang Empire, no cultivators in the human world were more powerful than Li Ye. No one could solve the immediate challenge for him except himself.
Four hours later, Su Emei finished healing her injuries, and most of her injuries recovered. When she saw the two horns that Li Ye put at his feet at will, her eyes turned bright. “Are they Demon Fei’s horns?”
Li Ye nodded. “When Demon Fei changed into a beast, he had the body of an ox, the tail of a snake, and two horns. When he changed into a human being, he used the horns as his Magic Treasure. “After I cut off one of his hands and deprived him of a horn, the power of his territory and techniques dropped a lot. So I suspected that his cultivation was inseparable from this pair of horns.”
Su Emei glanced at Li Ye with appreciation and admiration. She slowly said, “If I remember correctly, Demon Fei’s territory and techniques are tied to this pair of horns. Without his horns, he is the same as a mortal without his weapons. Now that you have this pair of horns, you are likely to learn all Demon Fei’s territory and techniques.”
Li Ye didn’t think about that. He didn’t know much about the demon clan. Hearing Su Emei’s words, he was surprised. “Can it be like that?” While talking, he took the horns in his hands and tried to inject his Spiritual Qi.
Demon Fei’s techniques were not surprising, but when they combined with his terrible territory, they became very powerful. Demon Fei’s territory could annihilate vitality, and the vegetation would die and even the water would evaporate in its coverage area. It could also suppress the attacks of cultivators’ Spiritual Qi and techniques. If Li Ye could master the form of the techniques and use Demon Fei’s territory, that absolutely would be a powerful weapon.
However, after trying twice, Li Ye was a little disappointed. “It’s useless. I can’t feel the Spiritual Qi in the horns.”
Su Emei kindly reminded him. “If you want to use the Magic Treasure of the demon clan, you have to offer sacrifice first.”
Li Ye’s face turned red. He forgot to offer blood sacrifice just now, so it was no wonder that the horns had no reactions. When he was reminded, he felt a bit embarrassed. Fortunately, Li Ye had lived for two lives, and he was brazen-faced, so he no longer thought too much and quickly offered blood sacrifice.
This time, when Li Ye injected his Spiritual Qi into the horns again, they had reactions. The horns spurted out a cloud of smoke, but it was only as big as a flower and had a vast difference from that of Demon Fei. Li Ye was not angry. He patiently tried for a long time. But in the end, the smoke was only as big as a wax gourd, and it only had the shape without spirit. It didn’t have the effect of annihilating vitality.
Putting down the horns, Li Ye sighed. “It seems that it’s not easy for us to use the things of the demon clan. When I used the horns just now, I always felt that there was a barrier between me and them, and I couldn’t communicate with them smoothly, so I couldn’t control them at all.”
Su Emei smiled and said, “Don’t worry. We will have plenty of time to explore them later. The things of the demon clan have their inheritances, so it won’t be easy to use them. But if we can master them, they will be sharp weapons.”
Li Ye nodded. This was the only way at present.
“How to deal with Demon Fei’s body?” Su Emei suddenly asked.
“Bury it.” Li Ye thought for a while. He couldn’t leave it in the wilderness. If people saw it, it would probably cause panic. When the cultivators at the bottom level of the demon clan, who chased Shen Beiwang, died, they turned into ashes, but Demon Fei didn’t. Probably because he had powerful cultivation, the general prohibition was useless to him.
When Li Ye and Su Emei got up to bury Demon Fei, Shen Beiwang finally ran back. When Li Ye fought Demon Fei just now, Li Ye used his Spiritual Qi to send Shen Beiwang out because Shen Beiwang had low cultivation and couldn’t resist the erosion of Demon Fei’s territory. However, the situation was urgent at that time. Li Ye just threw him away at random and didn’t know which remote place he went to so that he just came back now.
The three people came to the side of the hole. Before they buried Demon Fei, Su Emei suddenly frowned. She asked Li Ye to wait for a moment, and then she jumped into the hole. After she went around Demon Fei and observed him for a while, she squatted down and put her hand on his chest in the end.
After she did that, Li Ye felt something was wrong. The remaining Spiritual Qi in Demon Fei’s body, or it should be called Demon Qi, kept converging to his chest, and then it flowed into Su Emei’s meridians through her palm. In Li Ye’s perception, Su Emei’s breath improved rapidly. When she stopped, her cultivation power enhanced greatly, even though Demon Fei’s body had no changes.
Li Ye suddenly thought of a possibility and became stunned. “You can absorb his cultivation power?”
Su Emei flew up to the side of the hole. She looked at Li Ye and nodded seriously. She also felt odd. “When I saw Demon Fei’s body just now, I felt very odd, as if something was attracting me... I haven’t thought of absorbing cultivators’ cultivation power, this kind of thing. Even though I have absorbed his cultivation power, I can’t explain it.”
Li Ye praised her. “You have great luck.”
Speaking of this, Li Ye paused and looked up and down at Su Emei doubtfully. “Don’t tell me that you can absorb the cultivation power of all cultivators in the demon clan, not only Demon Fei. It’s unbelievable!”
Su Emei Looked blank and said, “It’s not true, is it?” After she thought about it seriously, she felt shocked, and she couldn’t help but shiver.
Li Ye didn’t continue to discuss this issue with Su Emei. Guessing was meaningless. When they encountered another demon next time, they would know. If it was true, Li Ye would be jealous of Su Emei. If she really could devour other cultivators’ cultivation power, everyone would be jealous of her, because this was a shortcut to speed up the cultivation.
The key point was that Su Emei was reincarnated from an immortal. Because of the two small fish raised by Chu Nanhuai and because her immortal power continued to awaken, she made rapid progress in cultivation. Now with the ability to absorb the senior demons’ cultivation, her realm was very likely to be improved more quickly than Li Ye’s in the future.
After burying Demon Fei, Li Ye and Su Emei bade goodbye to Shen Beiwang. Before leaving, Li Ye said to Shen Beiwang, “You have done a good job in protecting the village this time. You would rather die than surrender. You didn’t disgrace the Pinglu Army. When you return, you go to find Liu Dazheng directly, and you will follow him in the future.”
Shen Beiwang was overjoyed. It meant that he would have a promising future, so he quickly bowed and said thank you.
When he looked up again, Li Ye and Su Emei had disappeared.
The two people were flying in the air. Su Emei asked Li Ye, “Where shall we go next?”
The demon clan occupied many places in five prefectures of Pinglu, especially in Taoist temples and mountains. It seemed that they wanted to establish their bases on a large scale. They made chaos in villages and small towns, but they didn’t take activities in big cities. Li Ye only knew that the biggest force of the demon clan was in Qi Prefecture, but he didn’t know that the leader of the demon clan, the Son of God, was on Huafuzhu Mountain, so he was not clear where to go this time. He could only investigate while going.
“If I knew this, I should ask Demon Fei where their headquarters was.”
“It was useless to ask. Demon Fei would rather die than surrender, like Shen Beiwang, so we couldn’t get anything out of him.”
“That’s true. When Demon Fei lost one of his hands, he had a chance to run away, but he didn’t even try to do that.”
They soon arrived at Qi Prefecture. Although he didn’t know where the headquarters of the demon clan was, Li Ye didn’t act with no clue. At least, he had the intelligence from the Black Office and the Quanzhen Temple and knew where the scourge of demons was most serious. It wouldn’t be wrong heading for these places.
After entering Qi Prefecture, Li Ye went directly to Ji River. Recently, Liu Zhiyan’s Changhe Gang suffered heavy losses because of the scourge of demons. Several of their cargo ships were attacked by the water demons. Not only did they lose valuable goods, but the cultivators also had many casualties.
Not only the fleet of the Changhe Gang but also the cargo ships of many big caravans stayed at the port and didn’t dare to go down the river.
Trade and goods between Pinglu and the Central Plains were basically suspended, and countless amounts of money were being lost every day. More importantly, the lack of some necessary goods would lead to an increase in prices in Pinglu. This had seriously threatened the basic order in Pinglu. Liu Zhiyan was asking the Black Office for help, and the Inspector General of Qi Prefecture was asking the commissioner for help as well.
Li Ye came to the headquarters of the Changhe Gang outside the Qi Prefecture and saw Liu Zhiyan, whom he had not seen for a long time, from afar.
Although the cargo ships didn’t go down the river, Liu Zhiyan wasn’t idle. Seizing the opportunity, she organized the members to repair and maintain the cargo ships. Liu Zhiyan gave the seamen, who couldn’t have a few days off all year long, a few days off.
In the vast dock, Liu Zhiyan was inspecting the newly built big ships.
The Changhe Gang had been developing all these years and began to get involved in the canal transportation of grain on a large scale. Ships were in great demand, and Liu Zhiyan couldn’t keep herself idle, so she asked the Changhe Gang to build a shipyard. However, the cargo ships, which were built to expand their forces, now had to make up for the losses, because the water demons destroyed many of their ships.
“Big Master, do we need to put off the plan to build new ships? Now that there is a serious scourge of demons in Ji River, our fleet cannot get down the river for a while,” said anxiously a steward of the dockyard.
Liu Zhiyan had a clear attitude. “No. The scourge of demons won’t last long, and the order will soon be restored in Ji River.”
The steward had no confidence in Liu Zhiyan’s remarks. He sighed. “Last time, the Black Office dispatched a cultivator to deal with the water demons, but that master at Level 7 of Qi-refining has not yet come back now... Big Master, since the cultivator at high-level Qi-refining couldn’t fight the water demons, who else can the Black Office invite to solve the scourge of demons? Times are tough, so you should be cautious...”
Liu Zhiyan frowned slightly and stopped. She turned to look at the steward and said seriously, “Don’t forget that Pinglu is under His Highness Prince An’s control, so no matter the demons or the immortals come, they can’t make trouble!”
The steward hurriedly bowed and said yes. He was afraid of her anger because Liu Zhiyan held great prestige in the Changhe Gang. However, the steward didn’t dare to contradict her on the surface, but he didn’t take her words seriously in his heart. “It’s good to have confidence, but we should be sensible. The water demons are obviously powerful, so the mortals can do nothing to them—we haven’t seen demons in the world for a long time. The situation of Pinglu has settled down only for a few years. I’m afraid that it will be chaotic again...”
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