The man was quick to react and evaded sideways, but since Taishi was sapient and its master was within one zhang of it, the arrow which had missed its target simply turned around and kept trying to stab him.
“Set the array!” The man dodged and shouted the order at the same time.
The people who could still move gathered quickly then jumped to position, the man who was fighting Shuang Ren also pulled away from him. Shuang Ren rushed forward and picked up his sister, joining Mo Tianliao.
When Shuang Hua had left her brother’s arms, she had placed the magical tool capable of defending against the Soul Subjugating Horn in her brother’s clothes, therefore her beast soul was now somewhat hurt. When she was picked up by her brother, she docilely turned into a fox and shrank into his arms.
The pair of martial brothers shared a look and did not speak.
Mo Tianliao looked at the array set by the group of people and gave a cry of surprise. It was quite ingenious, requiring more than four people as well as six array flags, it worked both as a restraining array and an illusion array.
The scenery in front of their eyes changed, the even ground turning into myriads of spikes, it was like being in the most brutal part of hell, everything was covered in blood. Mo Tianliao took out his flying sword and soared into the air, although this was an illusion, it also used real spiritual force, if he did not evade it, he would be attacked.
Shuang Ren, who was much more agitated than Mo Tianliao, followed him into the air, then gave a loud roar and rushed in a random direction.
Mo Tianliao frowned slightly; the boy must have seen some sort of illusion. This array must be specially designed for Demonic Beasts, so its effect on them was stronger. While Shuang Ren kept wielding his sword against non-existent enemies, Mo Tianliao serenely observed the array. The quickest way to break it would be to find the array’s focal point, of course, there was also another way, namely to destroy the array from the outside.
A rain of fire covered the sky, a Demonic Beast with little sapience would surely panic in this situation. Mo Tianliao blew away the rain of fire with a wave of his hand, the place looked like a wasteland, except for those spikes of black stone stained with blood, everything looked the same, there was nothing special about it.
“Hey!” A clear and melodious voice came from somewhere nearby, Mo Tianliao looked back and his pupils shrank. It was a man dressed in white with snowy hair, his exquisite and handsome face flawless. It was Qingtong.
The man smiled and waved at him, seeing that he did not come forwards, Mo Tianliao felt a little worried and wanted to go to him. Suddenly, sharp spikes appeared from below, piercing the white and bare feet.
“Ah… pain… it hurts…” The thready cries of pain were the sounds that Qingtong would make when his wounded soul pained him.
“Baby!” Even though he knew perfectly well that it was an illusion, Mo Tianliao could not stop feeling distressed, he wanted to launch himself in his direction and embrace him, but the instant he approached, the expression in the illusory Qingtong’s eyes changed. Mo Tianliao jerked back and immediately became furious. He knew where the array’s focal point was, it must be a living being inside the illusion. For a Demonic Beast, it would probably be another beast, the one which was closest to it, for people, it would be the person for whom they cared the most. Only by killing this illusion could the array be broken. How brutal!
Mo Tianliao did not want to do anything to Qingtong, even though he knew full well that he was merely an illusion. He called back Taishi, turned it into a bow and arrow, and shot it in a random direction. He would break the array from the outside! Taishi was pure Tiandi Wisdom, it did not have a soul, naturally it would not be bewitched by the illusion array. In its eyes, this was just some people waving some weird little flags, it was very strange how this made his Master jump up and down in place.
The arrow left the string without any sort of aim, Taishi adjusted its direction on its own, shooting straight towards a flag bearer.
The people who were using the array paid it no mind since it would automatically deviate any normal weapons, it would never hurt–
“Aagh!” Their train of thought had not been completed when a Foundation stage cultivator holding a flag was shot through the Dantian and fell to the ground.
A corner of the illusion array promptly collapsed, the images it projected fell apart. Mo Tianliao recalled the arrow and turned it into a changdao. That illusion of Qingtong had really soured his mood, yesterday’s scenes kept running through his mind, the Demonic Lord was now in a very bad mood, it was time for a massacre.
The tortoiseshell-coloured changdao, blazing with fire qi, made a forceful chop, two Golden Core hunters had to join forces to try and withstand this attack. Shuang Ren also came to his senses and attacked the Foundation stage cultivators.
There was a great difference between Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators, one person against three would be no problem.
How could some run of the mill special weapons withstand the might of a divine weapon? The two broadswords shattered and as if that was not enough the flames on the changdao jumped onto the swords’ grips!
Fire needed to burn wood to spread, even fire condensed from spiritual power was no different, but these cyan flames were too fantastic, they could even burn through copper and iron.
The two quickly discarded the sword pieces left in their hands. “Fellow cultivator, we just hunt in order to make a living, since you want these two foxes, we won’t deprive you of them!” Meaning they would give up, since they preferred losing money to losing their lives.
“These foxes belong to this master in the first place, I don’t need your damn permission!” Mo Tianliao did not care about these people’s cries for mercy, he was determined to kill them.
The people saw that he had murderous intent, escape would be impossible, so they intended to fight for their lives. Mo Tianliao could go one against two with barely any effort. The Golden Core cultivator who had been shot through the chest swallowed half a bottle of medicine and rushed at him with his sword.
The nearby vegetation grew wildly, countless thick vines covered the whole area, surrounding the enemy. At the late period of the Golden Core level, the spiritual power was abundant, enough to accomplish a big move. Finally, Mo Tianliao could let go and really fight. He extracted the vitality from the vines and they quickly withered, becoming dry, then a raging fire ignited them.
“Aagh!” The three people being held by the vines shrieked and immediately tore at them, trying to put out the fire. One of them had a water attribute and attracted some snowmelt.
There were some sizzling sounds and most of the superficial flames were extinguished, but the rest of the glowing cyan flames could not be put out, when the icy water was poured on them, they just burned more and more brightly!
Mo Tianliao seldom used his woodfire to fight enemies, woodfire was a very rare spiritual fire, it was very precious, using it against a Golden Core cultivator was way too conspicuous. But right now, he wanted these people’s lives, and dead men told no tells.
They had dared to use his Xiaozhao in an illusion, he would never forgive them. Just like Ding Ziyu, who had dared to hurt Qingtong with his wrist-guard, they would all be chopped into mincemeat.
Shuang Ren had taken care of the three Foundation stage cultivators, he looked at Mo Tianliao’s blade which was moving fast enough to create countless afterimages, and his expression became troubled. He rushed over and grabbed Mo Tianliao’s hand. “Shixiong, enough!”
Mo Tianliao looked back at him, his dark eyes a sanguinary red. Once he clearly saw who was staying his hand, he shook his head and the red colour disappeared instantly. He saw that the group of people had already died, and frowned slightly. He motioned for Shuang Ren to bring all their storage bags and to destroy the bodies.
There was nothing particularly good in the storage bags, but it was better than nothing, so Mo Tianliao gave it all to Shuang Ren.
The poor white fox was very happy, he wanted to pour everything out and carefully rummage through them on the spot but he was stopped by Mo Tianliao. “Let’s hurry back, Master must be worried.”
“Master is also here?” Shuang Ren’s eyes shone, he immediately put away the storage bags and eagerly followed him.
Mo Tianliao looked at the excitement in Shuang Ren’s face and promptly became annoyed. “Don’t you want to go back to your clan?”
“Don’t worry, I was just going to go back to my clan to temporarily evade the Liuyun Sect’s search for us. Since I found Master again, I will of course accompany Master,” Shuang Ren said with a smile. In his eyes, the Master who had rescued him from those monsters was his god, he did not even dare to look directly at him. As long as he could stay by Master’s side, he would be eternally happy.
Listening to Shuang Ren talking to his sister, going on and on about how handsome and powerful his Master was, Mo Tianliao felt a deep regret for his choices. We should have gone our separate ways. Me and my stupid mouth, what the hell was I thinking when I told him Master was here?! Sick of his prattling shidi, Mo Tianliao “kindly” reminded him of his injury, saying that it would be better for him to turn into a furball and let his shixiong carry him back.
When it came into view, the Crystal Palace was breath-taking, so magnificent and beautiful that both foxes gazed dumbly at it for a while before following Mo Tianliao inside. The interior was warm, as if it were spring, once the glittering and translucent door was closed, it instantly blocked the wind and snow outside.
Mo Tianliao took off his cloak, took out the elk, throwing it into the small kitchen, and ran upstairs. “Baby, look what I brought bac–” Before the words were even finished, Mo Tianliao suddenly froze. The person on the bed seemed to have been woken up by the noise downstairs, he sat up, the fur on his fluffy ears, which had come out again at some point while he was asleep, was all messy, and the snow-coloured inner shirt was half open, exposing his pale chest which was covered in red marks.
Mo Tianliao stood at the top of the stairs, then, without the least hesitation, he threw down the foxes in his hand.
Shuang Ren held his sister and landed firmly, turning into a fox rug.
“What did you bring?” Cold eyes looked in his direction, the ears on top of his head twitching back and forth curiously.
Mo Tianliao walked slowly towards the bed, smiled and stretched out his hand to touch Qingtong’s head. “I brought you some delicious food, so you have to–” Before he could finish speaking, his vision went black and he fell on the bed with a thud.
Unedited, please point out any mistakes
Good news! As soon as the parts become available my brother’s research institution will be sending him a new pc on loan so he can continue to work from home, I’ll be able to use the computer much more often which will mean faster updates!