9 Lay Low And Stay Hidden

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Black smoke streamed out from the long banner in the old Daoist's hand like a snake. It moved at high speed and surrounded Chen Hu and his fellow officers in the blink of an eye before their bodies.

They were ordinary martial arts practitioners who had only achieved the acquired stage and had not entered the innate stage. It was only natural that they would not be able to withstand spells cast by a cultivator.

Moreover, this old priest was a cultivator of the advanced Foundation Establishment Stage. The extreme power of his moves was far beyond the level of some ordinary martial artists. Hence, as soon as the black smoke entered their bodies, Chen Hu and the others collapsed on the ground rapidly.

The single stream of black smoke zoomed towards Qin Feng and his cousin was tackled down with a spell cast by Qin Yang. Qin Yang had also been practicing advanced cultivation techniques. He had been cultivating a technique inherited by the family clan called the Solar Heaven Mantra—a pure fire-bending cultivation method. Furthermore, it was one of the few cultivation methods the family possessed that could be used to achieve the stage of Gold Core.

Of course, over the past one thousand years, the number of Qin family descendants who have trained using this cultivation method was great. However, not one of them had become a Gold Core immortal. 

Qin Yang could see that the black smoke behind him was about to strike so he pulled Qin Feng firmly with one hand. Without letting Qin Feng go, he casted the Agility spell on his feet to the maximum level. With his other hand, he gestured to cast a spell and by shaking his hand he emitted two bolts of flames. With a loud slam, they collided with the two clumps of black smoke. 

As soon as they collided, ghostly shrieks could be heard. Those clumps of black smoke were actually two evil spirits. These evil spirits were not very strong which was why they disintegrated as soon as they were hit by the flames released by Qin Yang.

"Ho ho, you two are pretty capable," the black-robed priest laughed coldly from behind them. "Since you've destroyed my two evil spirits, I'm going to take your souls as compensation. The souls of cultivators are many times more powerful compared to ordinary ghosts."

As he spoke, he drew closer and closer and looked like he was about to catch up with them. Qin Yang had put all that he had into casting the Agility spell, his body was as swift as a lightning bolt as he raced for his life despite the fact that his running speed on land was no match for the old priest flying speedily across the sky. Moreover, he was also carrying Qin Feng, the dead weight.

It did not take more than two or three breaths' time before the old priest had caught up to them and landed gently on the ground in front of them, blocking their way. Qin Yang silently sighed, it was a shame that as a new and inexperienced cultivator he was unable to fly. Otherwise, without the trees and overgrown shrubs obstructing them, their escape would definitely be much faster. They might have had the chance to find Li Tianchou before they were caught.

The old Daoist priest laughed sinisterly once again and walked up to them smugly. He had only taken a step before he felt a stab of pain coming from his butt region. As he experienced the pain coming from that area, the old priest felt a jolt of embarrassment, "Juniors, since you dared to perform a sneak attack on your Dao senior, I'm going to end your lives!"

The arrow shot by Chen Hu earlier was merely an ordinary Wolf Fang arrow made out of iron and not a specially crafted item used against cultivators. As he was in the midst of celebrating his success in capturing those young men from the Zhao family, the evil cultivator did not expect someone to sneak up and attack him from behind. That was how he got caught unawares and ended up with an arrow in the butt.

If not for the special spells that he had cast over his robe that managed to absorb a large portion of the energy from the arrow, he might have ended up as a meat skewer!

However, it was also because the arrow was not equipped with any spells, hence the defensive spells that he cast on his robe were not triggered. The only thing that stopped the Wolf Fang arrow from shooting through him was the fabric of his robe. Even then, the pain he suffered was excruciating.

In addition to that, the most mortifying part about this was the sheer embarrassment and anger welling up inside him. He was ready to explode in fury. In the close to two-hundred years that he had spent cultivating, when had he ever suffered such humiliation?

Previously, he could not easily settle Zhao Jinglei because that brat possessed several unique and shockingly powerful protective treasures. He could only rely upon the spell formation1 that he had prepared in advance to gradually wear down the protective treasures on his opponent.

As a result, because he was so focused on beating those young men from the Zhao family, in a moment of carelessness, he did not notice that someone had drawn close and almost got shot to pieces. If that news got out, he would be the joke of the century.

When he felt the throbbing fierce pain emanating from between his legs, the old priest did not dare to make any sudden movements and rushed to channel the true essence within him to control the pain. At the same time, he shouted in a rage, "I'm going to capture your souls and torture them for an eternity!"

As he said that, the old priest raised the banner in his hand and swept it towards them, unleashing uncountable plumes of black smoke at them. This time, the clouds of black smoke appeared stronger than the previous ones. Before the black smoke reached them, a continuous piercing and strange whistling sound could be heard, triggering a tingling pain in their ears.

Qin Feng dared not allow the black smoke to enter his body and hurried to transfer the faint spiritual energy inside his dantian into the Warrior Protective Talisman in his hand. In an instant, a blindingly bright ray of golden light appeared and completely enveloped him.

In the blink of an eye, Qin Feng seemed to have an extra layer of unbreakable warrior armor surrounding his body, making him feel incomparably safer. His confidence rose and Qin Feng stepped forward to shield Qin Yang behind him.

After all, they could not escape even if they tried, so all they could do was to stall until Li Tianchou got there. Qin Feng's defensive power at that point had exceeded Qin Yang's. Of course he would have to protect his older cousin. He had to prevent the outcome where Qin Yang died under the hands of that evil cultivator before Li Tianchou even got there.

"Clang clang clang…" the sound of the black smoke colliding with QIn Feng's body rang out. The bright golden light surrounding Qin Feng's body instantly expanded, the rich and intense gold light burned through the clumps of black smoke. After the black smoke had sped away leaving Qin Feng far behind, multiple figures finally materialized. Those figures turned out to be a few ghostly creatures.

Those ghostly beings were struggling to maintain their form. It was clear that they were injured by the gold light emerging from Qin Feng's body. Even though the Warrior Protective Talisman was only a defensive spell and would not attack on its own volition, the evil spirits' attacks triggered the gold light to converge into a counter-attack. That was how the evil spirits sustained their injuries.

"Warrior Protective Talisman?" The old priest sounded a little surprised before his expression turned gleeful once more. He laughed, "Haha, since you can afford to use such a valuable talisman, you must be someone of importance. Just wait till I get you, everything of value on you will belong to me."

Qin Feng smiled when he heard that. That old priest was truly vicious, planning to kill then rob him because he used a talisman. Little did he know that Qin Feng was poor as a church mouse. Apart from the talismans gifted by Li Tianchou, he did not even have a single spirit stone on him.

"Senior, there has been a misunderstanding. I'm actually from a small, insignificant family and I don't have anything of value on me. You'd be better off without me, otherwise, I fear you might regret it." As he spoke, Qin Feng flipped his hand to retrieve the Frozen Ice Sword Talisman. That was the talisman made personally by Li Tianchou.

Li Tianchou was a cultivator of the ninth Foundation Establishment Stage, hence the talisman that he created was pretty powerful as well. If not, he would not have the guts to boast that he could defeat any ordinary cultivator of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

The black-robed old priest standing in front of them was clearly no ordinary cultivator. Even though Qin Feng's family had produced a couple of cultivators of the Foundation Establishment Stage; whether it was his father, family patriarch Qin Guanpao or even Third Granduncle who was stationed to guard the scripture library; none of them would be able to hold a candle to the immeasurable power of this evil cultivator 

According to Qin Feng's estimation, this black-robed old priest was at an advanced level of the Foundation Establishment stage at the very least. Otherwise, there was no way that his aura would be so much stronger than the Qin family patriarch Qin Guanpao who had achieved the sixth Foundation Establishment stage.

Furthermore, the most worrying thing about these evil cultivators was not their cultivation level, but the fact that they trained in the evil cultivation methods.

All evil cultivators were unpredictably devious. They possessed spells that could make one's skin crawl and also many other methods of escaping and preserving one's life. Even if an ordinary cultivator managed to defeat an evil cultivator, it would be difficult to take their life.

Of course, the disciples of powerful sects would be a different matter altogether. The difference between an ordinary cultivator and a true disciple of a powerful sect was like night and day. They were in a class of their own. Similarly, their offensive ability would also be more powerful. Unfortunately, even then, there were only a handful of disciples from these powerful sects that could easily defeat this evil cultivator!

Qin Feng pondered upon the words that his father had imparted to him as he placed the Frozen Ice Sword talisman in front of him. He carefully turned to stare at the black-robed old priest. All he had was this single Attack talisman, once it was activated, he had no other methods of attack left.

Even though that old priest betrayed a hint of greed in his expression, he disappeared and avoided facing Qin Feng's head-on in an instant. He could sense the impressive power of the talisman and knew it was not worth the risk. Even with his level of cultivation, there was a possibility that he would be hurt. Especially with his injury, it was best to be more careful. 

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