When Golden Finger Meets Salted Fish

The sound of "ding" rang out as Su Hao's sword was effortlessly parried.

Chu Yang remained motionless where he stood, neither raising his hand nor moving his body, yet a figure had appeared before him. This person wore all black, wielded a slender silver sword, and had their face concealed by a black cloth, making their features indiscernible. Their form appeared somewhat delicate, seemingly that of a woman.

Regardless of who this person was or how suddenly they had appeared, by standing in front of Chu Yang, they had clearly declared themselves an enemy. So when Su Hao's attack failed, he immediately rotated his sword and directed it toward the black-clad figure, his technique exquisite and sword energy fierce, the power even three degrees greater than before. Meanwhile, Tanming and Tan Xin, two Buddhist cultivators particularly effective against demonic cultivators, simultaneously attacked Chu Yang, clearly unwilling to let him escape.

Chu Yang's expression remained unchanged as he lightly tapped the ice surface twice with his foot, his figure retreating backward. At the same time, the black-clad figure had once again deflected Su Hao's attack while counterattacking with a slash that tore through his sleeve.

Su Hao was forced back two steps, and beneath his torn sleeve, a trace of blood was faintly visible—clearly, he had suffered a minor setback at the very outset of the encounter. But it didn't end there; after forcing him back with one sword strike, the black-clad figure didn't pause at all, sweeping the slender sword horizontally to block Tanming and Tan Xin. These two Buddhist cultivators were not easy to deal with, yet they were momentarily stopped, unable to break through even with their combined efforts.

Just then, Bei Luo, who had run far away, returned. Seeing the situation, he naturally joined the battle without hesitation. With Su Hao raising his sword to attack again, it became four against one, yet they still couldn't penetrate the black-clad figure's defense!

"Be careful, this person is at Perfect Nascent Soul stage," Tanming warned with a solemn expression, looking at the fresh sword mark on his monk's staff.

Everyone had already suspected this, but hearing it confirmed, their hearts still sank—although the obstacle before them was still at the Nascent Soul stage, not as threatening as the Void Crossing stage Demon Monk, a difference of two or three minor realms was still significant. Normally, one Perfect Nascent Soul cultivator could defeat ten Late Nascent Soul cultivators, let alone that most present were only at Early Nascent Soul, or Middle Nascent Soul without having reached the threshold of Late stage.

In just this moment, everyone considered retreat, truly not expecting such a powerful guardian by Chu Yang's side. But thinking of his identity, it wasn't incomprehensible—after all, there was a fundamental difference between a leading disciple of the righteous path and the Young Master of a demonic sect.

Surely, outside the secret realm, those guarding Chu Yang would be far more than mere Nascent Soul cultivators!

Chu Yang had also heard Tanming's words and gave a cold laugh from outside the battlefield: "Since you know you can't win, why not surrender? Did you really think I was so impatient that I'd come out to send myself to my death?!"

The group remained silent as Su Hao's gaze swept across those engaged in the battle, silently asking if they should retreat. But before anyone could respond, a white figure accompanied by a tiger's roar joined the fray. She let out a fierce growl at the black-clad figure, and golden sword light transformed into sharp blades shooting toward the opponent, creating a piercing sound that was unstoppable.

The black-clad figure raised their sword to meet the attack, and as soon as sword edge touched blade, a slippery force deflected it. Then, with a twist of the slender sword, those sharp blades flew to the side, nearly piercing Wen Jin and the others nearby.

This move was again effortlessly parried by the opponent, but the White Tiger clearly had no intention of easily letting go of this opportunity—she had disliked Chu Yang for a long time, and now with a legitimate chance to eliminate him, even with someone blocking her way, her attacks flowed continuously like water. Combined with the frustration of being hunted down these past days, her strikes showed no mercy.

The black-clad figure once again deflected all these attacks, appearing composed, but by the end, the hand holding the sword began to tremble slightly.

The White Tiger was now level 50, which also counted as Perfect Nascent Soul cultivation, and her combat strength could barely keep up. Although her cultivation time was short and her combat experience couldn't compare to the black-clad figure, her innate advantages as a divine beast were enough to compensate for much. The two were almost evenly matched, and with her as a single tiger joining the battle, the effect was even better than the previous four-person encirclement.

Seeing the situation change, Chu Yang's expression suddenly shifted. When he had infiltrated the Xuanqing Sect, he had taken Peak Master Qingxu of Mount Luoxing as his master. Though his time there was brief, he had coincidentally learned quite a bit of information.

One such piece concerned this White Tiger. The Xuanqing Sect planned to nurture her, and after Divine Lord Zhiming ascended, Jianbing would take over as the sect's guardian divine beast. But a year ago, the White Tiger was clearly just a newborn cub, and divine beasts were famously slow in growth—how did the one before him defy conventional logic so dramatically? Appearing in the secret realm was one thing, but becoming so formidable was quite another.

This was rather troublesome...

Su Hao and the others had already considered retreat, but they hadn't expected Jianbing, who was so young and usually kept a low profile, to be so powerful. Amid their surprise, thoughts of retreat completely vanished.

Leaving the White Tiger to entangle with the black-clad figure, Su Hao and the others redirected their attack toward Chu Yang.

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In the chaotic battle on the Ice Plain, with the initial advantage gained from Wen Jin's formation, the twelve demonic cultivators who had followed Chu Yang had almost no defense. Not to mention those who had directly perished in the formation, the remaining ones were all wounded and in poor condition.

The numerical advantage of the opponents was rapidly negated. In less than half the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, demonic cultivators lay scattered across the ice.

Chu Yang had escaped. Although he considered himself stronger than Su Hao and the others, once his guard was occupied by the White Tiger, faced with the encirclement of four righteous Nascent Soul cultivators, he made the rational choice to avoid risk and preserve himself—he turned and fled toward the canyon. His black-clad guard remained dutiful, somehow managing to block two people even while dealing with the pressing danger from Jianbing.

But that was the limit. Everyone had prepared to trap him like a turtle in a jar, so how could they easily let Chu Yang leave? He had only fled about a hundred steps toward the canyon when he suddenly became alert and stopped.

It was fortunate he stopped quickly, or else a few more steps forward would have led him into another formation.

Having a formation master among the opponents was truly frustrating—one wrong step could lead straight into a trap. Chu Yang couldn't see anything wrong with the ice surface ahead, but with the previous lesson of falling into a formation, he still trusted his intuition. So without a word, he changed direction, decisively running in the opposite direction from the canyon.

Su Hao and Tanming had been briefly blocked by the black-clad figure, and by the time they broke free to give chase, they were already several steps behind. Bei Luo and Tan Xin were pursuing closely, but even they hadn't expected Chu Yang to easily change direction, moving farther and farther from the canyon.

Both momentarily paused in surprise, exchanged a glance, and then resumed the chase.

Su Hao and Tanming were two steps slower, and by the time they freed themselves from the desperate entanglement of the black-clad figure, the three had become distant dots, almost invisible. Seeing this, they considered calling their junior brothers back, concerned that Chu Yang's unhesitating change of direction indicated he planned to seek out the Demon Monk. But the opportunity to eliminate the Young Master of a demonic sect was rare, and they were reluctant to abandon it.

So after a brief hesitation, Su Hao and Tanming also joined the pursuit, while simultaneously using voice transmission to inform the others of this development.

The White Tiger was locked in an intense battle with the black-clad figure when she suddenly heard the voice transmission and was momentarily startled, almost letting her opponent seize an opening—Su Hao and the others had all gone to chase Chu Yang, which inexplicably gave her a sense of urgency, fearing she might be left behind.

Fortunately, this didn't happen. While Su Hao's group of four had indeed gone after Chu Yang, Wen Jin, Bai Xu, and the others didn't join the pursuit after dealing with the remaining demonic cultivators, but instead came to help the White Tiger against the black-clad figure.

Unlike Su Hao and the others' aggressive approach, whether it was Wen Jin the formation master, Bai Xu the pill refiner who could control Strange Fire, or You Yi the Wind Spiritual Root cultivator specializing in ranged attacks, all were excellent at support. They didn't even need to approach directly to employ countless methods to intervene in the battle, providing many advantages to the White Tiger while ensuring their own safety.

For instance, as the black-clad figure fought, they might suddenly step into a small formation, fall into a trap, be disoriented by an explosion, or momentarily distracted by an illusion. When they regained their focus, a massive tiger paw would be right before them.

Gradually, the black-clad figure, originally Chu Yang's trump card, lost their previous composure and slowly revealed signs of decline under the supportive encirclement. The White Tiger seized the opportunity for a tiger pounce, finally pinning down the black-clad figure's shoulders and pressing them to the ground. A fierce pressure came down, and though it lacked the absolute intimidation against beasts, it momentarily suppressed the person until they could barely breathe.

Wen Jin and the others brightened, rushing forward to bind and capture the person alive—though they didn't know the black-clad figure's identity, as Chu Yang's guard who stayed by his side, they clearly knew much information that could be extracted through interrogation.

Just then, the White Tiger heard the system prompting in her mind: "Host, do you want to try killing her?"

The system had been watching the host collect free points for nearly half a year now, and the gains were truly substantial. The system was quite happy every day, occasionally issuing small tasks, but those meager points earned were like mosquito legs, completely incomparable to the points from killing demonic cultivators. Because of this, the system's originally high enthusiasm for tasks couldn't be maintained, and it gradually chose to be a salted fish like its host, winning while lying down.

Under these circumstances, the system's sudden prompt seemed somewhat unusual. The White Tiger continued pinning the person down while sparing a moment to ask: "Why do you say that?"

The system hemmed and hawed for a while before quietly reminding: "Host, have you forgotten? You still have a task that's been incomplete."

The White Tiger was speechless at these words. The system had excitedly issued quite a few tasks to her before. The panel was densely filled with issued tasks, and she could find not just one incomplete task but ten or twenty... Thinking of this, she suddenly realized something was amiss. With a thought, she opened the task panel and immediately saw the demonic cultivator elimination task at the very top.

It wasn't the current one-by-one elimination task, but the previous one stuck at (30/32). Having killed 30 demonic cultivators for nothing, not only did she miss rewards for the last two, but the task still hung there showing incomplete, which couldn't be more irritating to see.

Thinking of this, the White Tiger gazed intently at the black-clad figure under her paw: "You mean, this black-clad person is one of the 1/32 who escaped back then? Then where's the remaining one, is it Chu Yang?"

The system made an exception and gave her an affirmative answer, so the White Tiger decided to happily join the pursuit team.