Immortality Cultivation

"Se... Senior, you must be joking." Old Ghost Zhao forced a dry laugh, cold sweat trickling down his forehead. "We Juniors were just passing through and have absolutely no intention of laying a finger on the secret treasure. Since Senior is interested in this place, we Juniors will take our leave now, take our leave..." As he spoke, he secretly winked at the people behind him, intending to slowly back away.

"Take your leave?" Fang Hao smiled. His smile was very gentle, but his eyes were as cold as frost. "Did I give you permission to leave?"

Old Ghost Zhao and the others froze, their footsteps coming to an immediate halt as their Faces turned deathly pale.

"Se... Senior, we have no grievances or enmity with you..." The Head of the Wang Family said with a trembling voice.

"No grievances or enmity?" Fang Hao tilted his head, pointing at the heavily injured Elder Mo on the ground, and then at Predecessor Li Feng and the others. "Did they have an enmity with me? It seems not. Then tell me, why did I make a move against Elder Mo?"

Everyone was speechless. Why? For the secret treasure, of course! Did that even need to be said?

"So you see," Fang Hao spread his hands in a helpless gesture, "you’ve seen things you shouldn’t have seen and learned secrets you shouldn’t have known. This Red Leaf Valley secret treasure belongs to me now. And I, for one, hate trouble the most and dislike being targeted by others."

His tone remained calm, but the murderous intent in his words caused everyone present, including the heavily injured Elder Mo, to feel a chill rush from the soles of their feet straight to the crowns of their heads!

"You... you want to kill us to keep us silent?!" the red-faced old man from the Qingyang Sect exclaimed in shock and anger.

"Congratulations, you got it right." Fang Hao nodded, the gentle smile on his Face vanishing instantly, replaced by a cold indifference. "Unfortunately, there’s no prize."

The moment his voice fell, the silver-white spider—Lao Jin—which had been hovering at the cave entrance like a cold sculpture, moved!

Its movements were as fast as a phantom; in the eyes of the crowd, they only saw a flash of silver light!

The first target was Elder Mo, who was closest to the cave entrance and the most heavily injured! The silver spider that Lao Jin had transformed into possessed eight metallic legs like eight of the sharpest blades. With a shrill sound of breaking air, it appeared instantly before Elder Mo!

"Vile beast, how dare you!" Elder Mo’s eyes nearly split from rage. He was, after all, a Nascent Soul Cultivator; though heavily injured, his ferocity was triggered at the moment of life and death. He let out a roar, ignoring the agonizing pain in his right shoulder as his left hand slammed against the ground. His body retreated rapidly while he spat out a mouthful of ink-black essence blood that emitted a fishy stench, spraying it onto the Ten Thousand Ghost Banner beside him!

Nourished by the essence blood, the Ten Thousand Ghost Banner glowed with dark light once more. Although it didn’t have its previous might, countless ghostly Faces emerged on the banner’s surface, letting out sharp ghostly wails and transforming into a solid barrier of ghost Qi to block his front! Simultaneously, he performed a hand seal with his left hand, and a Black Bone Shield flew out from his Storage bag, expanding against the wind to protect him!

However, all of this appeared utterly futile before Lao Jin.

*Rip—!*

A sound like tearing silk rang out. The ghost Qi barrier, which condensed Elder Mo’s essence blood and remaining spiritual power, was as fragile as paper before Lao Jin’s metallic claws and was easily torn open! Following that, the high-grade Black Bone Shield was also sliced through by Lao Jin’s forelimbs like cutting through tofu, snapping into two pieces!

Silver light flashed, and blood splattered.

The ferocity and determination on Elder Mo’s Face froze instantly. His eyes widened as he looked down at his chest in disbelief. There, a blood hole the size of a bowl had appeared, piercing through from front to back; one could even see the shattered cliff wall behind him through the hole. His heart, along with half of his chest cavity, had vanished.

"Uh... you..." Elder Mo opened his mouth as if to say something, but only blood foam kept gushing out. The light in his eyes quickly dimmed, his body swayed, and he fell to the ground with a thud, his breath gone. A Nascent Soul Cultivator who once commanded the winds and clouds, an Elder of the Black Fiend Sect, had fallen just like that!

"Elder Mo!" Elder Li let out a roar of grief and indignation, his eyes instantly turning red. With Elder Mo dead, not only had their operation completely failed, but they would also be unable to give an account to the Sect upon their return! He stared fixedly at Fang Hao, his eyes filled with deep-seated hatred. "My Black Fiend Sect will fight you to the death!"

"That’s only if you have the life to go back and report it," Fang Hao said indifferently, giving the order to Lao Jin. "Leave not a single one. Kill them all."

Lao Jin did not hesitate for a moment. After killing Elder Mo, its figure did not pause at all. Silver light flashed again, like the scythe of the Grim Reaper, slashing toward the nearest person, Elder Li!

"Form the array! Block it!" Elder Li was terrified out of his wits. He frantically activated the Black Skull above his head, which spewed out thick ghost Qi, while simultaneously calling his subordinates to form a defensive array. He knew that in a one-on-one fight, no one present could block this terrifying silver-white spider!

Although the Black Fiend Sect Disciples were terrified, they were well-trained. Upon hearing the command, they immediately gathered around Elder Li and propped up the Black Fiend Profound Yin Array once more, with a black light shield protecting them within.

However, before Lao Jin’s absolute speed and sharpness, this hastily formed battle array appeared utterly laughable.

*Swish! Swish! Swish!*

Three condensed silver light beams shot out from Lao Jin’s body almost simultaneously, accurately striking three different nodes of the black light shield!

*Crack!*

The black light shield let out a groan of being overburdened, instantly covered in cracks before shattering with a bang! The dozens of Black Fiend Sect Disciples forming the array all spat out a mouthful of blood, suffering from the backlash; those with weaker cultivation fainted directly.

The silver light, like a shadow of the Grim Reaper, charged into the crowd.

*Puchi! Puchi! Ah—!*

The sounds of blades entering flesh, bones snapping, and deathbed screams instantly blended into one. Lao Jin was like a tiger in a flock of sheep; wherever it passed, severed limbs and broken arms flew, and blood splattered across the ground like spilled ink. Its attacks were concise, efficient, and lethal, without any flashiness; every time it flickered, it inevitably took one or even several lives.

Elder Li’s eyes nearly split as he desperately activated the Black Skull, spewing out hideous ghostly claws formed from ghost Qi to grab at Lao Jin, while simultaneously sacrificing a jet-black Flying Sword to slash at Fang Hao! He knew that to capture the bandits, one must first capture their leader; as long as he killed this green-robed Cultivator, this terrifying Puppet might stop!

"Overestimating yourself." Fang Hao didn’t even look at the incoming black Flying Sword; he simply raised his hand casually and flicked his finger.

A thumb-thick, grayish wisp of Chaos Qi shot out. It reached its target first, accurately striking the tip of the black Flying Sword.

There was no world-shaking explosion. The moment the high-quality black Flying Sword came into contact with the Chaos Qi, it was as if it had met its natural nemesis. The spiritual light on the sword’s body dimmed and dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye. Following that, the sword body made of refined gold actually crumbled into pieces like weathered rock, turning into a cloud of black metallic powder that rustled as it fell!

*Pfft!* Elder Li spat out another mouthful of blood. With his Lifebound Magical Artifact destroyed, his mind suffered a heavy blow. The look in his eyes as he watched Fang Hao was no longer one of hatred, but of boundless fear and despair. To destroy his lifebound Flying Sword with a flick of a finger—what kind of cultivation was this? What kind of Divine Ability was this?

He completely lost the courage to resist and turned around, wanting to flee.

However, a flash of silver light was faster than his turn.

He only felt a chill at his neck, and his vision began to spin. He saw his own headless body still maintaining the posture of turning to flee, with blood gushing from the neck like a fountain. Then, darkness swallowed all of his consciousness.

The two people with the highest cultivation and status on this trip for the Black Fiend Sect, Elder Mo and Elder Li, had perished one after another in less than ten breaths of time!

This scene completely shattered the psychological defenses of everyone else remaining.

"Run!"

"Quickly, run!"

Old Ghost Zhao of the Flowing Cloud Sect, the red-faced old man of the Qingyang Sect, the Head of the Wang Family, and the others now felt their Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering. How could they care about any secret treasure or Face? Each of them only wished their parents had given them two more legs as they pushed their escape lights to the limit, fleeing frantically in all directions! Fellow Disciples, allies—in the Face of life and death, all of it was bullshit!

"Do you think you can escape?" Fang Hao sneered. Since he had decided to kill them to keep them silent, he couldn’t let a single one go; otherwise, the future troubles would be endless.

With a thought, Lao Jin instantly gave up on chasing those scattered Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining small fry (those people would be handled by Lao Jin’s subsequent cleanup program). With a flash of silver light, it disappeared from its spot.

The next moment, it appeared behind Old Ghost Zhao, who was desperately activating a Jade Gall and transforming into a streak of white light to flee toward the horizon.

Old Ghost Zhao felt a cold killing intent lock onto his back, scaring him to the point of his liver and gallbladder splitting. He shrieked, "Senior, have mercy! I am willing to offer everything from the Flowing Cloud Sect..."

*Chī!*

A silver beam of light pierced through the back of his head, forever choking his words of pleading in his throat. This Sect Leader of the Flowing Cloud Sect, a Cultivator at the Late Golden Core Stage, couldn’t even let out a full scream before falling headfirst from the sky.

Following that, the silver light flashed twice more.

Once to catch up with the red-faced Golden Core from the Qingyang Sect, and once to catch up with the Head of the Wang Family. The results were no surprise; before Lao Jin’s terrifying Late Nascent Soul Stage combat power, these Golden Core Cultivators were no different from lambs waiting to be slaughtered. They couldn’t even put up a decent resistance before their lives were easily harvested.

The remaining Loose Cultivator Golden Core and several Foundation Establishment Cultivators also failed to escape. Under Lao Jin’s phantom-like speed, they were soon caught one by one and killed.

The area before Red Maple Cliff turned into an Asura slaughterhouse. Severed limbs and broken arms were everywhere, blood stained the ground a dark red, and the air was thick with the smell of blood. The dozens of Cultivators who were just recently lively and fighting tooth and nail for the secret treasure had now all become cold corpses, lying haphazardly across the ground.

From the moment Fang Hao appeared to the end of the battle, less than half a pillar of incense’s time had passed. One Early Nascent Soul Stage, two Late Golden Core Stage, several Early Golden Core Stage, and dozens of Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining Cultivators were completely wiped out, with not a single survivor.

Fang Hao stood where he was with a calm expression, as if the one-sided massacre just now had nothing to do with him. He hadn’t even moved his feet; he had merely flicked his finger and destroyed a lifebound Flying Sword.

"Lao Jin, clean up the battlefield. Collect all the Storage Pouches, Storage Rings, and any valuable Magical Artifacts and Materials. Dispose of the corpses; don’t leave any traces," Fang Hao ordered indifferently. Even mosquito legs are meat; although these Cultivators’ cultivation wasn’t great, they were at least high-level members of Sects and Families, so their net worth should be quite substantial. Especially that Elder Mo and Predecessor Li Feng; as an Elder and a Deacon of the Black Fiend Sect, there were bound to be plenty of good things in their Storage Rings.