You Damn Voldemort

"Hey, Young Master, it's not safe anywhere now. I don't think anyone can protect us. Elder Qin was also seriously injured from last night and is now unconscious."

Big Smart frowned and reported worse news.

The only Connate Guardian of the Song family had fallen!

"Even with the people who are not in Silken City, there aren't many members left in the Song family."

Song Shi gripped the hilt of his saber tightly.

His strength was increasing too slowly. He could not die, but he also could not protect the people around him.

At this moment, Big Smart gritted his teeth. The firelight shone upon his determined expression. "Young Master, I want to take the Connate Pill right now. If I can break through, I can at least fight that demon!"

"I won't object, but you've just perfected the Postnatal realm. Can you continue breaking through? Don't kill yourself when you break through."

Song Shi brought up a vague area that was of concern.

"Yes, perfection in the Postnatal realm is actually the limit of the Postnatal realm. As such, I am qualified to break through to the Connate realm. As for the risk of breaking through, as compared to the temptation of becoming a practitioner in the Connate realm, this is nothing."

Big Smart had a determined expression, as if he was going all out.

"Then go ahead and break through. We'll start after we eat. It's safe here during the day. I'll keep an eye on things at night."

Song Shi threw the meat into the boiling water and agreed with Big Smart on giving it a try.

It was better to have another Connate cultivator by his side than none.

After dinner, Big Smart returned to his room and began to break through.

However, Song Shi did not guard him. He secretly left the manor, passed through Silken City and arrived at the reed marsh by the river.

Something had happened here before and there was no one even in broad daylight.

He walked to the shore and started provoking, "Tentacle Water Monster, I'm here to kill you!"

Nothing happened.

"Maybe this guy won't come out during the day?"

Song Shi shook his head. "That's not right. The monks of Jinyuan Temple died during the day. This means that it can also act ferociously during the day."

"If you don't come out, I'll go into the water to find you!"

This time, he wanted to kill this thing. Regardless of whether the other party attacked or not, he had to go into the water.

Holding his breath, Song Shi wanted to see how long he could do it for.

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed and landed on a rock that was half the height of a person.

There was a sword mark on it, more than a foot deep, almost splitting the stone in half.

The sword mark extended out, and the nearby pebbles were already broken.

Such a mark was definitely not something that an ordinary person could leave behind. Even he knew that he could not do it.

He lowered his body and picked up a broken pebble. The cut was smooth like a mirror.

"What a sharp attack! Could this be the work of the legendary Sword Qi!"

Song Shi's pupils constricted as he continued to observe the surroundings.

Soon, he saw a few black ashes, as if they were formed by burning something long.

He was bewildered. "It's the work of either the experts of the Demon Slayers Division or the Fiend Eradicators. Could the tentacle monster have been killed?"

Looking at the calm water surface, Song Shi's expression changed.

Click, click.

He exerted a little force in his hand and the pebbles turned into powder and fell from his fingertips.

"Whether it's dead or not, let's go down and take a look first."

He leaped and plunged into the water.

The cold river water engulfed him. When he circulated his Nine Yang True Energy, there was no more coldness.

He swam with his legs and held his breath as he dived into the water to search for the tentacle monster.

There was only a ripple on the surface of the river, but it quickly calmed down.

Right when Song Shi went into the water to check if the water monster was dead.

Swoosh!

A beautiful woman in a Daoist robe appeared in the distance.

Her eyes were like distant stars, bright and sharp. Her willowy eyebrows were slender and slightly straight, giving her a heroic aura.

She had an exquisite nose, white teeth and jade-like skin. Her oval face was flawless and her long hair was bound by black silk that fluttered slightly in the wind.

Her green Daoist robe was clean and tidy and there was a Demon Slaying Jade Token hanging on her waist. She was tall and slender and she carried a golden sword on her back. She was like a female sword immortal, who could ride the wind at any time.

At this moment, she stared at the calm surface of the water, her clear eyes filled with doubt.

"Although this Ghost Vine has been injured after I broke a few of its tentacles and is hiding in the water, the water is its home ground. I'm not even confident to approach it there. Is this person jumping into the water trying to court death?"

A clear and light voice that sounded like an oriole came out of her mouth. It was like pearls and jade landing on a plate, a sound that many would enjoy hearing.

"Junior Sister Yiling, what happened?"

Wuchen Zi, whom Song Shi had seen last night, flew over at this moment. He vaguely heard something and asked curiously.

"Senior Brother Wuchen."

Chen Yiling bowed slightly and her bright eyes landed on the river, "A strange person jumped into the water just now. He probably wanted to kill the Ghost Vine."

"What? This is an ancient Ghost Vine here that can harm people. It's a strange thing that can devour souls and control corpses."

When Wuchen Zi heard this, his tone became much higher, and he had a worried expression, "In the cultivation world, only those fellows from the Heavenly Ghost Sect will raise this thing. Could it be that they also want to encroach on Silken City?"

"I don't know. There are only Ghost Vines here. I don't see anyone from the Heavenly Ghost Sect."

But there's a faint power of an array formation beneath. I suspect that there might be a ghostly cultivator's cave abode hidden inside. The Ghost Vine might be the guardian of the cave abode."

Chen Yiling shook her head and voiced her guess, "Before the Ghost Vine reaches the Foundation Establishment realm, its roots won't be able to move around. It doesn't seem like someone specially came to plant the Ghost Vine here."

"Cave abode!"

Wuchen Zi's eyes burned, "If it's really a cave abode, I wonder if there are any cultivators there. If there aren't, we might be able to make a small fortune from it."

"Someone went down just now. But he is definitely not the owner of the cave abode."

Chen Yiling walked towards the river. "He hasn't come out yet. The Array Formation Power below is interfering with my Spiritual Sense. I wonder if he has entered the cave abode or if he is already dead."

"How strong is he?"

Wuchen Zi came back to his senses and frowned slightly.

"He's a martial artist. His abilities are roughly equivalent to the fourth level of Qi Refinement, where there are at most five levels."

Chen Yiling was puzzled, "He seems to know that there are Ghost Vines and cave abodes here. He also noticed the traces of my battle with the Ghost Vines."

"He's probably too greedy. He thought there were some treasures and wanted to take advantage of it. That's why he took the risk to go down."

Wuchen Zi was disdainful, "It's good that he's gone. When he dies and confirms the exact location of the Ghost Vine, we'll go down and explore together."

At that moment, Song Shi kept diving into the river.

The river here was very deep, about 50 feet. If a person fell in and they did not know how to swim, they would basically die.

Logically speaking, even if it was more than ten meters deep, the light would not be too affected.

However, just as he reached the bottom of the river, the light above his head strangely disappeared!

He felt as if he had fallen into the night. If not for his powerful vision, he might not have been able to see anything.

"It's so cold!"

Song Shi felt as if he had entered ice water in winter. The Nine Yang Divine Technique automatically circulated to stop the pervasive cold air from invading.

"This is similar to being enveloped by the power of the big-headed ghost!"

Song Shi put up his guard and looked around sharply.

Other than mud, weeds and rocks, there was nothing else.

"Where's the tentacle monster?"

Just as Song Shi was puzzled, a tentacle suddenly shot out from under his feet and pierced through his heart from bottom to top.

He looked down. Two black-and-gray ghostly faces were watching him impassively.

There were two faces. One looked like a monk and the other seemed to be Dai Dou. They were both squashed together and had been morphed out of shape, looking extremely strange and disgusting.

Due to the fact that the darkened color of the monster's face was similar to the surrounding environment, if it did not launch an attack that would cause the mud to flow, it would have been perfectly disguised by the surroundings and hidden.

"You damn Voldemort!"