When Golden Finger Meets Salted Fish

The elite disciples of the sect didn't earn their reputation for nothing, and with a well-prepared ambush, this battle ended exceptionally quickly.

While Tanming and Tan Xin recited prayers for the deceased with compassionate expressions, Su Hao had already thoroughly examined all the demonic cultivators' corpses. Given the numerous techniques used by demonic cultivators, only after confirming they had truly perished did Su Hao finally relax his tense nerves. He sheathed his sword and looked toward Wen Jin, asking: "Junior Brother Wen, how is it?"

Wen Jin, as a formation master, hadn't directly participated in the battle but had set up formations at the beginning. Now with a composed expression that suggested everything was under control, he nodded to Su Hao and replied: "Rest assured, Senior Brother, no information has leaked out."

While they spoke and cleaned up the battlefield, the little white tiger had already known the outcome before everything concluded—in the system task bar, the "Kill Demonic Cultivators" task had progressed to (7/32), with everyone's kills somehow counted toward her total! With this smooth success, the little white tiger's eyes immediately brightened, almost wishing the 32 would become 132!

Yun Qingyue didn't participate in cleaning up the battlefield. After sheathing her sword, she immediately caught the pouncing Jianbing. Seeing the tip of the little white tiger's curled tail twitching up and down, she knew the cub was in good spirits, but still reminded her: "This time was lucky. Demonic cultivators aren't so easily dealt with."

The little white tiger nodded, taking Senior Sister's words to heart, and her somewhat inflated spirits came back down a bit.

Meanwhile, the others quickly cleaned up the battlefield. After burning the demonic cultivators' corpses, they began to review their previous actions. Overall, it had been a success—they had quickly eliminated a small team of demonic cultivators without anyone getting injured, and seemingly without any information leaking. The only slight imperfection was that their coordination wasn't especially seamless, as that one Nascent Soul had almost slipped through the net.

After Su Hao and the others reviewed the battle and addressed the shortcomings, they felt this action plan was generally feasible. So he immediately made a decision: "Let's go. While the news hasn't leaked out, let's find the next batch of demonic cultivators."

As these words fell, everyone turned their gaze toward Jianbing.

The little white tiger wasn't flustered at all and asked the system inwardly: "System, where is the next batch of demonic cultivators?"

The system, diligently serving as an interactive map, replied: "Host, you don't need to go looking. The next batch of demonic cultivators will arrive in one hour. The batch after that in an hour and a half, and the one after that..."

The little white tiger's eyelids twitched as she listened, suddenly understanding that Wen Jin's formation hadn't successfully blocked the message at all. It was only thanks to the numerous restrictions on the ice plain that the demonic cultivators hadn't arrived already, given cultivators' ability to cover thousands of miles in an instant on flying swords. Not daring to delay, she promptly raised her head and told everyone: "No need to go looking. Several batches of demonic cultivators are heading this way."

Hearing this, Su Hao's brows immediately furrowed, and his previously relaxed expression instantly became serious. He glanced at Wen Jin, who immediately stated with certainty: "My formation had no issues. Those demonic cultivators didn't transmit any messages before they died."

No one doubted Wen Jin. Tanming said: "Perhaps there are life tokens or similar items in the hands of their superiors."

Tanming's guess wasn't wrong, and the demonic cultivators' life tokens were far more complex than those of righteous sects. The latter merely monitored disciples' life and death, while the former could control people's lives. Earlier, that Third Brother had shown a violent temper but hadn't dared act out when the team leader mentioned the Young Master, precisely because his life was in someone else's hands. Beyond that, these demonic cultivator teams reported their movement routes in real-time, so once something happened, it was easy to pinpoint their location.

Now the righteous disciples' elimination operation had clearly been exposed. If not for the system's detection, they might not have noticed in their satisfaction and wouldn't have been surprised to be caught off guard by the arriving demonic cultivators.

Su Hao pondered for a moment, looking toward everyone: "Should we stay or leave now? Do any of you Junior Brothers and Sisters have thoughts?"

Staying would allow them to rest while the enemy labored, perhaps even setting another trap to catch the opponents off guard. But equally, staying might mean facing a continuous onslaught, with batches of demonic cultivators arriving one after another, possibly overwhelming them. Leaving would keep them hidden in the dark, allowing them to set ambushes and defeat the enemy one by one—though time-consuming, it seemed more prudent.

Both choices had advantages and disadvantages, making it difficult to decide.

Bei Luo thought for a moment, then looked at the little white tiger and asked: "Jianbing seems able to detect demonic cultivator movements. Can this sensitivity be maintained continuously?" Seeing the little white tiger nod affirmatively, he said: "Then let's withdraw first."

Everyone was somewhat surprised to hear this, as Bei Luo had a magnanimous temperament and practiced a martial path of pressing forward with unyielding strength. They had thought he would choose to stay and fight the demonic cultivators to the death, achieving everything in one go, but instead, he was the first to decide to retreat?

Bei Luo noticed everyone's gaze and waved his hand: "Don't look at me like that, I'm not stupid. If we were only facing demonic cultivators like just now, I wouldn't fear, but don't forget, among the demonic cultivators who infiltrated the secret realm are masters like the Demonic Monk. Though the Demonic Monk might not be on this ice plain, if we happen to encounter such a person, we might all perish here."

Well, he made a very valid point. So everyone unanimously decided to withdraw and pick the easier targets first.

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The demonic cultivators had been having a tough time lately, not only suffering from the bone-chilling cold while walking on the ice plain but also living in constant trepidation.

Since the first team that ventured deep into the ice plain was ambushed and completely wiped out, bad news had been trickling in continuously. When that team was attacked, nearby demonic cultivators received orders to rush to the scene immediately, but upon arrival, they not only failed to capture anyone but couldn't even collect their comrades' remains—of course, demonic cultivators weren't that particular about such rituals, but the battle traces had been destroyed along with the bodies.

To this day, the demonic cultivators still weren't clear about what exactly had happened to that first team. Had they encountered an ambush by righteous disciples? Or had they unfortunately met head-on and been outmatched? Or perhaps beasts had been involved?

Yes, beasts—among the few remaining traces at the scene, they had discovered animal paw prints...

"Surely we can't be that unlucky. There aren't many spirit beasts on this ice plain; how could they so easily encounter a beast attack?" This small team of demonic cultivators cautiously advanced against the wind and snow, vigilantly observing their surroundings while some muttered idle chatter.

Clearly, more than one person enjoyed gossip, as another responded: "I think so too. The spirit beasts on this ice plain are all quite large, but I heard the paw prints left behind were about the size of ordinary wild animals'. It's probably fake evidence." Then with a sigh: "Don't you think our roles have been reversed? Shouldn't we, the demonic cultivators, be the ones setting ambushes? Those righteous disciples, each so righteously upright—why aren't they confronting us directly?"

The previous speaker laughed upon hearing this, snickering: "They're not stupid."

As they chatted, they suddenly felt a vague trembling in the ground, and the vigilant group immediately halted their steps. The leader listened attentively for a while, then suddenly turned to the group and said: "A herd of spirit beasts is approaching. Everyone, quickly take cover."

The spirit beasts on the ice plain were all troublesome to deal with, having high cultivation levels and thick defenses, but fortunately, if left unprovoked, they wouldn't bother with humans. These demonic cultivators had been on the ice plain for some time and had a good understanding of these beasts' temperaments. Upon hearing this, none panicked but immediately took action to avoid blocking the beasts' path and suffering a merciless trampling.

As they retreated, someone joked: "Do you think these beasts might be driven by those righteous disciples, coming for us?"

The others all laughed. According to the information they had, although there were formation masters and alchemists among their opponents, there were no beast tamers. Not only were the ice plain's spirit beasts difficult to approach, but even if they could be tamed, it wasn't something amateurs could accomplish.

The demonic cultivators joked as they retreated to one side, but after running for a while, they felt something was wrong. Someone couldn't help saying: "Did we run in the wrong direction? Why do I feel the ground trembling more and more violently, and those beasts seem to be getting closer?"

As his words fell, the demonic cultivators to his left and right looked up and could even see clouds of snow dust rising on the distant horizon.

"Not good, those beasts are charging this way!" someone exclaimed in alarm, breaking into a run.

With one person taking the lead, everyone panicked and scattered, running in directions they individually deemed safe. The team leader's shouts couldn't call them back, and indeed, the beast herd was getting closer. In the rolling dust, they could vaguely make out the towering figures of the beasts—they were Frost Rock Rhinoceroses, with tough hides, thick flesh, and tremendous charging power, directly rushing toward them.

The demonic cultivators who saw this clearly felt their scalps tingle and ran even faster, pushing their movement techniques to the limit. However, on the no-fly ice plain, two-legged human cultivators obviously couldn't outrun four-legged spirit beasts, especially when the Frost Rock Rhinoceroses were much larger than human cultivators.

A thunderous "rumble" approached from the distance, making even the solid ice layer of the ground shake...

The stampeding Frost Rock Rhinoceros herd quickly caught up with the scattered fleeing demonic cultivators. One demonic cultivator, in his panic, glanced back and vaguely seemed to see a small creature crouching on the head of the lead Frost Rock Rhinoceros.

But he thought it was his imagination, because the small creature he saw looked like... a cat?