Vessel of Worlds

"Demonic qi!" Andy quickly identified the impurity threaded through the ice energy welling from the passage's depths.

It was the very same as the black mist the Blood Intent Gate's young master had once exuded—too much contact, and it bred that lurching, panicked disquiet in the heart.

This was the classic mark of a cultivator untrained in demonic methods meeting demonic qi in quantity: absorb too much, and at best the inner demons invaded; at worst one lost all intelligence on the spot and fell into a blood-mad monster.

Why should demonic qi hang so thick in this place? Was one of the Demon Gate inside?

Andy pasted on another Yellow Heaven Thick Earth Talisman and wrapped himself beneath it in a thin sheath of purple true qi, admitting not one wisp. As for the Ice-Wind Python, at his earlier instruction it had breathed out a layer of white frost that likewise held the demonic qi at bay—even a beast, steeped too long in that miasma, would lose itself and become a demon-beast.

Moments later, Andy and the python burst into a vast cavern several thousand zhang across, joined, visibly, by several other passages. Hongchen and the two others were inside.

Hongchen was wrapped in layered yellow barriers, a shield pressed close before her and behind, her two flying blades hacking ceaselessly through the air around her body.

The mid-stage ice-rooted girl, Qianqian, had likewise deployed a transparent ice shield and was casting ice spells around herself without pause, building a translucent wall of ice several chi thick to box herself in.

Both fought like women terrified of something striking from arm's reach—layering whole-body defenses over and over.

As for the Song surnamed woman—she lay motionless not far from the two, a hole half a chi wide punched through her chest, as though something had passed clean through her.

The instant Andy appeared, Qianqian and Hongchen cried out together: "Look out!"

"Fifth Brother—there's a demon-thing here! It can't be seen—spiritual sense barely finds it!" Hongchen's stricken face said everything about her terror of the creature.

"It's true! The demonic qi here is thick—it must be some demon-creature. Senior Sister Song fell to its sneak attack!" Qianqian called, even as her hands wove seals, thickening the ice wall layer by layer.

Even as they shouted their warnings, the Ice-Wind Python shrieked—hiss upon hiss—and blasted a gout of white frost at a patch of empty air.

In the frost, a form flickered in and out of sight: a transparent monster four or five chi tall, ape-like in body, three sharp horns crowning its skull!

The transparent beast was closing on Andy at terrifying speed, in utter silence, both razor claws already reaching for him.

The deep yellow barrier of the Yellow Heaven Thick Earth Talisman tore like wet paper before those claws. In the instant before they touched his flesh—clang, clang!—both claws raked across a jet-black shield, gouging furrows a cun deep into its face.

Its strike spent, the beast flickered aside and vanished again before every watching eye.

Had the python not sensed the creature in time and moved of itself to guard its master, forcing the beast visible with its frost, Andy would likely have survived only by burning the Residual Shadow Flash.

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An Ice Demon Imp! Andy cried out inwardly, cold sweat starting. He had read of the creature in one of the Blood Intent Gate young master's slips cataloguing demon-race beasts.

Soundless, shadowless, formless—the Ice Demon Imp in the flesh! And then, past all expectation, a faint, unreadable smile crossed Andy's face—not alarm, but something like delight.

The creature was blindingly fast, its body transparent as nothing, its claws vicious—and above all it excelled at concealment. Though merely a demon-beast of late-stage Foundation Establishment caliber, ordinary cultivators of that rank simply could not fight it; mere survival counted as fortune. Even a Core Formation cultivator without special methods had no answer to an Ice Demon Imp—and might, in one careless moment, fall to its ambush himself.

Andy deployed all thirteen needles and both shields around his body and edged toward Hongchen and Qianqian.

The python abruptly loosed another blast of white frost—this time toward the girl Qianqian. Within the frost the Ice Demon Imp stood revealed, claws already rising against the ice wall that sheltered her.

A sharp crack—the claws tore a hole half a chi wide through the wall. Had Qianqian not thrown her ice shield across that very point in time, she would have shared her senior sister's fate.

Twice now the python had unmasked its ambushes; the creature's hatred swung to the great serpent.

But the python was no slower than it. It gave the beast no such opening, racing endlessly through the cavern, slipping every strike.

And whenever the creature turned back toward the three humans, the python's frost would strip its cover first, giving them warning.

Seizing the moment, Andy drew out a jade-green bottle and tossed it to Hongchen, transmitting gravely: "This is Nine Colds Mystic Nether Water—enough for three or four. While my beast holds the creature, trigger your restriction and leave this space! I'll shield you until it takes!"

The red-dressed girl, startled and overjoyed, caught the bottle and confirmed it with a sweep of spiritual sense—true, every word.

She stored it away and transmitted: "Fifth Brother—aren't you coming out with me?"

"I have other business—this demon-beast first. And staying here, you're the easier target for its ambushes—one more thing for me to guard," Andy replied.

"Then I won't weigh you down. If you can't win—break off early. Do not linger to fight!" Hongchen pressed one more time, then produced the palm-sized restriction disc and began the incantation. Andy moved close beside her, shields and needles weaving an airtight guard around them both.

Python and imp chased each other through the far reaches of the cavern, hundreds of zhang off. Even while dodging, the python kept sweeping its great tail at the creature's body. The Ice Demon Imp attacked swiftly enough, but its own defense was middling—one clean blow from that tail would wound it badly, and it knew it, and feared the serpent accordingly.

In less than half an incense stick's time, Hongchen's restriction neared completion—a film of pale light spread from the disc, wrapping her whole body.

"Fifth Brother—about Big Brother Xi and the Blood Intent Gate's young master, I've guessed the better part of it. The Gate is sending men to Island Five to dig into the matter even now. Be careful." Hongchen smiled faintly as her transmission arrived—then white light flashed, and she was gone from the cavern.

Only Andy and the ice-rooted girl remained—and, still wheeling and striking at each other, the demon-beast and the python.

The girl regarded Andy for a long moment, then said gravely: "For the fellow cultivator to appear here alone—Senior Brother Fang has surely met with the worst."

Andy answered just as gravely: "He has. He died at my hand. But I acted purely in self-defense—the quarrel was none of my seeking."

The girl suddenly smiled. "Setting aside the debt Qianqian has owed you all these years—here and now, in the midst of danger, you neither struck the fallen nor silenced the witness. Instead you have saved Qianqian again and again. A man like that is no cruel killer. And as for what sort of man Senior Brother Fang was—Qianqian had heard things too. I have no reason at all to doubt you."

Andy smiled thinly. "Then nothing could be better." He drew another small green bottle from his robes and tossed it to her. "Here is a bottle of Nine Colds Mystic Nether Water—enough for two. See for yourself, Fairy."

From the moment Andy had handed Hongchen her bottle and she had promptly triggered the restriction and gone, the girl had guessed what the green bottles held—the very goal of her journey. That he would now freely hand one to her as well left her joyful and startled at once.

Then Andy's voice turned low and hard. "The bottle is yours—but I must ask the fairy to swear a binding oath: not one word of what happened here, ever. Otherwise I dare not simply let you leave—and shoulder the risk of your sect's Core Formation seniors marking me for it."

The girl did not seem the sort to commit the folly of informing on him at no gain to herself—but Andy meant to fix the matter beyond doubt, and give her reason to remember it.