Chapter 10: Interception and Assassination

Previously, when Song Yan entered the sect, he did not bring Xiao He with him. At that time, he knew nothing about the world of cultivation and worried that the sect would not tolerate a demon creature. He had not expected that a sect of immortals would even keep spirit beasts and spirit demons, which put his mind at ease.

Now, as he descended the mountain, it was only natural to bring Xiao He along.

Xiao He was a little green snake demon Song Yan encountered in the mountains while gathering herbs with his grandfather as a child. It had just awakened its intelligence, and Song Yan was the first human it had ever met.

His grandfather said Xiao He was a demon.

But he also said, not all demons are evil.

Just as there are villains and criminals among humans, among demons there are also those whose coldness masks a kind heart, who do good and accumulate virtue—“good demons.”

Song Yan thought his grandfather was right.

Xiao He was a good demon.

Yet, when Song Yan thought back now, he wondered how his grandfather had recognized at a glance that Xiao He was a demon…

Inside the thatched cottage, Xiao He wriggled into the bedding Song Yan had just laid out. Her tail hooked the quilt, and a muffled voice came from within, interrupting Song Yan’s thoughts: “Go to sleep, I’m so tired.”

It was March—according to Xiao He, they should still be in hibernation.

“You go ahead and sleep.”

“No! It’s so cold in the bed, it won’t warm up until you lie down.”

Even snakes fear the cold?

“…”

Though she claimed to be sleepy, in fact, the little snake tossed and turned, unable to sleep properly. The thought of Yan Yan taking her out to play filled Xu Youhe with such delight that she simply couldn’t fall asleep.

If Song Yan could sense it, her excitement would have been much like the night before a child’s first school field trip.

Unfortunately, he was completely immersed in cultivating the nameless mnemonic.

Within this space, there were only black and white, resembling the duality of yin and yang. Song Yan, thinking himself clever, named it the “Realm of Two Forms.”

In the span of a single day, his spiritual sense had not yet grown to the level of the Thirteenth Stele, but he had noticed some differences.

As his spiritual sense strengthened, Song Yan seemed to vaguely make out the first few small characters on the stone stele in the realm.

“Five…”

“Star…”

“Pulse…”

“Five-Star Pulse Capture…”

What a curious name.

Song Yan pondered, trying to recall, but he had never heard of it before.

Still, there were only twelve steles—his spiritual sense faltered, and the thirteenth stele expelled him from the Realm of Two Forms.

“Hoo…”

He let out a long breath.

This time, that splitting headache did not return, only a slight mental fatigue.

“Could my spiritual sense have strengthened again?”

Joy filled Song Yan’s heart.

In terms of spiritual power, one could rely on elixirs or spirit-gathering formations for assistance, but there were no real shortcuts for strengthening the spiritual sense.

Or perhaps, this fragment of the Five-Star Pulse Capture was already the shortcut among shortcuts.

Song Yan was content with what he had.

Given this, even if the Realm of Two Forms contained only this fragment for training spiritual sense, he was already fortunate enough.

A powerful spiritual sense would grant him many conveniences; should the Great Dao one day prove unattainable…

Alchemy, forging, arrays, talismans…

At the very least, he would not “starve to death” in the world of cultivation.

“Hmm?”

Song Yan’s thoughts stirred. He retrieved a pale purple spirit talisman from his cosmos pouch.

A faint purple light flickered, and three points of light appeared before his eyes.

Song Yan’s brows knit together.

“I haven’t even started looking for them, and they’ve come to me…”

This purple talisman was not his own. It was a tracking spirit talisman issued by the sect, meant to ensure that these cultivators truly left the Shiliang territory.

Once the mission was complete, it had to be returned. The sect would collect them and have a responsible elder keep them for a few months, after which the traces would all be erased.

“Xiao He, don’t sleep. Come out with me.”

“Mm… huh?”

The little snake, still in the throes of post-excitement, was just about to doze off, but Song Yan shook her awake.

She poked her head out from under the covers, flicked her tongue, and complained, “It’s late at night—where are we going…”

“To punish evildoers.”

“Alright!”

The little snake slipped into his sleeve, and Song Yan rose and left the thatched hut.

…

Atop Lonely Hill, beside the waterfall’s broken cliff.

The mountain wind carried the damp scent of grass and trees, rushing over him.

Song Yan sat cross-legged, a blue-gold longsword suspended across his knees, his fingertip tracing the cold purple spirit talisman in his sleeve.

Three points of light on the purple talisman flickered, glowing in the dark night like fireflies.

“About thirty zhang away…”

A stone’s throw for any cultivator.

His finger lightly brushed the sword’s blade as Song Yan stood up.

“Lu Xiaowei’s protective jade talisman is already shattered. The other two are only at the first stage of Qi Refining…”

“Xiao He, what’s your cultivation level now?”

“I don’t know…” came a drowsy, weak voice from his sleeve. “I’ve never fought a human cultivator before.”

Song Yan didn’t know much about demons either.

But in theory, Xiao He could already take human form—dealing with two cultivators at the first stage of Qi Refining shouldn’t be a problem.

He snapped out the talisman’s fire, and the green snake slithered from his sleeve.

“Yan Yan, you’re already at the fifth stage of Qi Refining. What’s there to be afraid of? You could beat them alone.”

Song Yan shook his head.

“Even a lion uses all its strength to hunt a rabbit. In a cultivator’s duel, a single careless move could mean death and destruction.”

“Besides…”

“The aura on those three—I’ve never sensed it from anyone else.”

“Their cultivation may be low, but there’s a sinister taint to it…”

“Earlier, one of them had a copper bell at his waist. When I got close to Lu Xiaowei, I smelled corpse oil.”

He had learned medicine from his grandfather since childhood, lived two lives, and shown remarkable talent in medicine by the age of eleven or twelve.

With his good relations with Sheng Nian and Constable Ling, he often helped the county coroner examine bodies, so that smell was all too familiar.

“I once read in the sect’s records…”

“Instruments like copper bells are used for certain cultivating arts—nothing but illusions, corpse driving, spirit summoning, soul disturbance…”

“Senior Brother Zhao said that in the days since they arrived, three people from Cloudtop Village disappeared on their way home…”

Song Yan’s expression turned icy.

“Acting so secretively, abducting village women and injuring Constable Ling—if the missing villagers are their doing…”

His eyes narrowed, a dangerous glint flashing within.

“Tonight, here and now, they all die.”

Song Yan was a good and righteous man, but that did not mean he was gentle.

Quite the opposite.

His grandfather had once said that he had a fierce hatred for evil and acted with solitary courage—without learning the arts of cultivation and self-cultivation, such unbending strength would break easily.

Before joining the sect, a notorious outlaw had once come to Shiliang.

That man, acting on a single rumor about the immortal sects, slaughtered all one hundred and twenty-four members of the Qingyuan Lin family in a single night.

That very man died at the hands of Song Yan and Sheng Nian, when they were but two youths.

Song Yan spread his spiritual sense, and every sound and movement in the waterfall valley became clear as day.

Amid the roar of the falls, curses drew closer.

“Senior Brother, if that Song fellow is prepared, then…”

“No matter what, his skill is only mid-stage Qi Refining at best. He hasn’t the spiritual power to wield a magical weapon for long-range attacks, and his spiritual sense is no better than ours.”

“We only hesitated in daylight for fear of alarming him. Now, with the moon dark and the wind high, we’ll just take that constable Sheng and flee. With the treasure our master gave us, what do we have to fear?”

Jingle…

The cultivator with the bell at his waist suddenly stopped, a strange look on his face.

“Senior Brother, why is the ghost bell ringing…”

Bang!

Before the words were out, vines burst from the ground like striking vipers, instantly coiling around his ankles.