Chapter 196 : Instant Kill on Foundation Establishment
Chapter 196: Instant Kill on Foundation Establishment
"Lin Xinru bowed and said, "I am Lin Xinru — thank you, senior brother, for coming to my aid!""
Seeing the familiar sect robe, Lin Xinru's face had shown gratitude as she bent and made a ritual bow, presenting a pitiful expression.
"Stand down."
Not bothering with the other's affected display, Chen Beiwu slowly drew the bowstring of the Fiend-Bane Bow.
For him, the most important thing now was to finish off the Thorn-Bone King Fish, lest something unexpected happen and it fled back into the sea.
"Chou-Ox — Mountain-Shatter!"
At the moment the bowstring reached its limit and the world’s spiritual mechanism converged, within a radius of ten zhang the spiritual energy behind Chen Beiwu had formed the ghostly image of a furious ox glaring at the heavens, emitting an indescribable sense of oppression.
"Boom!"
The instant the arrow flew, a terrifying blast had shattered the waves within a hundred zhang into droplets.
The fearsome Mountain-Shatter Arrow trailed a crimson-black tail of flame and drove straight into the Thorn-Bone King Fish’s right eye, shattering its scales, exploding the eyeball, and drawing a wretched cry of pain.
Gold Egg’s eyes had narrowed as he activated his gilded body.
In a straight fight, it might have struggled to defeat a late-Foundation beast.
But when it came to defense and raw strength, as a third-tier treasure beast Gold Egg was not afraid of the Thorn-Bone King Fish whose power had been sealed by the Demon-Locking Silk Net; he could even bind and suppress the fish’s frantic struggles.
Chen Beiwu had not paused after firing a single arrow; he swallowed a restorative pill and, under Lin Xinru’s stunned gaze, continued to prepare and loose the most powerful Mountain-Shatter Arrows in succession.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
Though late-Foundation beasts possessed vigorous vitality and formidable defenses, they could not withstand Chen Beiwu’s arrows striking their vital points one after another.
Especially the final three arrows, which tore through the Thorn-Bone King Fish’s eye sockets and punched through the skull into the heart.
Watching the Thorn-Bone King Fish lose blood and gradually cease struggling, Chen Beiwu exhaled a dirty breath and took another pill to recover his mana.
Such strong defense and vitality!
No wonder Lin Xinru’s blood-sacrificed bonded spirit implement had only caused minor wounds when it struck vulnerable parts; it had not been able to harm the Thorn-Bone King Fish in earnest.
He had used the Twelve Yuan-Chen Fiend Bow to urge the Mountain-Shatter Arrows to their utmost; each shot had nearly equaled a mid-Foundation cultivator’s full-power strike, costing three-quarters of the liquid mana in his dantian qi sea.
Even so, he had needed to fire seven arrows in all to take the Thorn-Bone King Fish’s life.
That meant that without pills to replenish mana, without the Demon-Locking Silk Net sealing its demonic power, consciousness, and bodily strength, and without Gold Egg’s physical entanglement to suppress it, in a direct confrontation the Thorn-Bone King Fish — even if it merely stood its ground and did not release any demonic arts — would have forced Chen Beiwu to fire only two arrows before turning to flee with Gold Egg.
"Guu?" (Let go?) Gold Egg had twisted its body, but Chen Beiwu’s gaze stopped it.
Late-Foundation beasts possessed humanlike, even far superior, intelligence; the lack of struggle could well be feigned death.
If Gold Egg had loosened its hold, the Demon-Locking Silk Net alone would not have been able to prevent the Thorn-Bone King Fish from diving into the sea and escaping.
And once the Thorn-Bone King Fish returned to its home ground, even in tatters and with only one breath left, Gold Egg could not have slain it by leaping two minor realms.
"Today I am indebted to you, senior brother; this grace is like being reborn. Xinru swore by her dao-heart that should you one day call upon her, she would not dare refuse."
With the matter settled, Lin Xinru hurriedly stepped back half a pace and solemnly bowed to Chen Beiwu to show her loyalty.
Chen Beiwu ignored Lin Xinru’s words. He took from his storage ring a first-tier formation, [Soul-Locking Array], which he had formed by modifying a Soul-Trapping Stone with the Ten-Thousand-Ghosts Soul-Devouring Array.
Different from the Immortal Alliance’s first-tier forbidden array [Soul-Refining Array], his formation skill was limited; the Soul-Locking Array imitated the Ten-Thousand-Ghosts Soul-Devouring Array and only had the effect of collecting remnant soul fragments. It could not be used against enemies, much less augment its power by using remnant souls.
"Hum!"
As the Soul-Locking Array flared and displayed its power, a vague, illusory second-realm spirit had suddenly risen from within the Thorn-Bone King Fish’s body.
Under the suppression of the Soul-Trapping Stone, that second-realm spirit had not even managed to struggle before it was devoured and collected as a sliver of black light by the array.
At the sight of this, Lin Xinru’s pupils had contracted.
Out of the wolf den and into the tiger’s mouth again.
Including herself, disciples within the sect were actually all practicing demonic arts.
Damn it — when had Mirror-Moon Sect become a heretical demonic sect full of magic cultivators!
At that moment she had noticed Chen Beiwu’s gaze cast upon her; her heart had jumped and she’d put on a pure smile.
"Killing a fellow disciple is a grave crime!" Chen Beiwu had said in a deep voice.
Only after thoroughly dealing with the Thorn-Bone King Fish did he have time to handle this sister-disciple whose heart was like a viper.
As for whether he would kill or spare her, that would depend on her answers.
"What are you talking about, senior brother?" Lin Xinru had shown a look of puzzlement.
"You need not play dumb, junior sister. I saw everything." Chen Beiwu had looked at her with a cold expression. "According to sect law, one who kills a fellow disciple — even if the crime is minor — must be stripped of cultivation and expelled from the sect.
Those whose crimes are severe must be executed on the spot as an example. Junior sister, do you have anything to explain?"
Lin Xinru forced herself to remain composed and said, "I did not kill a fellow disciple; junior sister Zhao Jing died at the hands of the Thorn-Bone King Fish."
After saying that, seeing Chen Beiwu’s indifferent expression and glancing at the golden flooddragon that looked godlike and demonic in the distance, she swallowed and stopped arguing. She dropped to her knees and smashed her forehead on the ground.
"Please spare me, senior brother. Xinru was willing to be your servant, to serve you faithfully."
Saying this, she took a Spirit Beast Pouch from her waist and presented it with both hands. "I have one Black-Veil Fish and I am willing to offer it to you."
Chen Beiwu shook his head.
"Senior brother, I can give all the spirit stones on my person — anything to live and keep my cultivation." Lin Xinru gritted her teeth and offered two storage pouches.
Chen Beiwu’s expression still did not change.
"Can you not show mercy?" Lin Xinru’s pores had oozed mana as she pressed a Foundation-Shattering Seal and pleaded, "If I shattered my dao foundation, senior brother would get nothing!"
The three trials — Foundation-Shattering, Core-Condensing, and Metal-Tempering — were life-and-death thresholds that Foundation cultivators had to pass to ascend to Golden Core True Person.
With insufficient roots, a peak-Foundation cultivator who had not passed the three trials risked death and annihilation with the slightest mistake.
But among those who broke through to Golden Core, there were always a few fortunate peak-Foundation cultivators who scraped by and survived.
Some with extraordinary talent and comprehension had even, through the insight gained at the Foundation-Shattering trial, created a Dao-foundation self-destruction secret art of great power.
This secret art had been refined by the sect’s Golden Core True Persons to allow early-Foundation cultivators, at a critical moment, to shatter their dao foundation and self-detonate — one for one — bringing down opponents far stronger than themselves.
Lin Xinru had no way, by initiating a Foundation-Shattering self-detonation, to gravely wound the Thorn-Bone King Fish, nor could she be certain of killing it under the golden flooddragon’s protection; she was, however, confident she could take the storage artifacts on her person and leave Chen Beiwu with nothing.
At her words Chen Beiwu had smiled calmly. "What made you imagine you could threaten me?"
Lin Xinru’s pupils had shrunk; Chen Beiwu before her had vanished like foam.
"When—!" Lin Xinru had widened her eyes.
In the next instant she had seen a sword of ink-black steel gleam with a faint blue cold light streak past, and a familiar headless corpse had erupted blood and crashed to the ground.
She had realized, at last, that she was already dead!
That had been Lin Xinru’s final thought before death.