Chapter 434: Quest (Making up for 17 owed chapters from Mysterious Calamity)
“For the Green Fire Luan to escape, it was most likely a fourth-stage low-grade demon cultivator. . . perhaps even one with very ordinary speed. . . ”
“With my current strength, they would just be sending over puppets for me! ”
“However, I must also consider the possibility that the opponent intentionally let Little Green go to lure me out like a snake from its hole. . . ”
Fang Xi made up his mind: no matter how much the outside world provoked him, his true body would remain on Emerald Island, controlling the ‘Nine-Nethers Profound Wood Grand Array’, never venturing out!
This array, after his continuous study and improvement during this period, was now a bona fide fourth-stage array!
Coupled with his own recent advancement to a fourth-stage array master and Nascent Soul cultivator presiding over it, he wouldn’t fear even a few mid-stage fourth-stage demon cultivators. Even if he encountered a high-grade fourth-stage demon cultivator, he could hold out for a period, buying himself an opportunity to escape.
As long as the tiger didn’t leave its den, no one could do anything to Fang Xi.
As for Soul Transformation cultivators or fifth-stage demon cultivators in the future?
Such cultivators wouldn’t act easily, and Fang Xi, a country bumpkin from a small place, was unlikely to provoke them.
“In any case, I can send my Second Primordial Spirit to test the waters first. . . ”
With this thought, Fang Xi immediately released the Qilin Puppet.
Then, a black light flashed above his head, and his Second Primordial Spirit emerged, forming hand seals with its small hands and letting out a soft cry.
The Second Primordial Spirit instantly transformed into a demonic light and plunged into the Qilin Puppet’s body.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
A cloud of ink-black mist appeared, enveloping the Qilin Puppet’s entire body, accompanied by a crackling sound.
When the demonic wind dispersed, the figure of a green-armored man stood in its place—it was the original demon cultivator!
Fang Xi conjured a water mirror, looked at his reflection, pinched the unfamiliar cheeks, the green horn on his head, and the scales on his body, feeling quite strange: “Is this a demon body? ”
He clenched his fist, and a terrifying power surged through his body. The skin on his palm was incredibly tough, almost surpassing all magical artifacts, and could even slightly contend with spirit treasures. . .
“And this is only a low-grade fourth-stage. . . ”
“No, this demon cultivator called himself from the ‘Five Elements Lin Clan’, which is a kingly race among demons. Those who awaken a portion of true Qilin blood should be several times stronger than average low-grade fourth-stage demon cultivators. . . ”
“Unfortunately, I don’t have any spirit beasts with Qilin bloodline, otherwise, feeding them a few drops of vital essence blood would surely make their cultivation leap forward! ”
Fang Xi examined the demon body, then looked at the somewhat wary Green Fire Luan: “What’s wrong. . . don’t you recognize me? ”
The Green Fire Luan widened its intelligent eyes, approaching Fang Xi, appearing both fearful and somewhat intimate.
“Little Green, let’s go! ”
Fang Xi lightly leaped onto the Green Fire Luan’s back, chuckling: “Let’s go on another patrol. . . ”
This was akin to fishing, and with a straight hook at that. . .
....
“As expected. . . it won’t work. ”
Several hours later.
A fiery light landed around Myriad Islands Lake, scorching the nearby green grass and tree branches, causing them to yellow and curl.
Fang Xi leaped off the Green Fire Luan’s back, sighing.
As demon beasts advanced, they would continuously develop their intelligence.
Upon reaching the fourth-stage transformed great demon level, their intelligence was no different from cultivators. Not only that, they could also cultivate some demon race cultivation methods!
The demon race’s inheritance was quite peculiar; most cultivation methods and divine abilities were hidden within their bloodlines.
Once they advanced to a high enough rank, they would naturally recall them.
Only a small portion of supreme cultivation arts and secret techniques would be specifically preserved in the form of demon-script books, or even inscribed golden cauldrons and oracle bone script.
“This fourth-stage demon cultivator, having failed to capture Little Green before, must have become wary. . . and also, knowing that there’s a human Nascent Soul on Emerald Island in Myriad Islands Lake, who is difficult to deal with in conjunction with a grand array, he hasn’t appeared. He’s been hiding behind the beast tide. . . and now he’s fled thousands of miles away, which is troublesome. ”
Fang Xi was very displeased about having an enemy lurking nearby.
He patted Little Green, arriving at the spot where the transformed demon cultivator had attacked before.
This was a mountainous area, but several peaks had already been leveled by the Green Luan Fire, and residual high temperatures still seemed to linger.
Fang Xi came to a scorched area, formed hand seals, and a bluish-yellow light flashed in his eyes.
He continuously chanted incantations, then pointed at the ground: “Rise! ”
A trace of dark green demonic qi emerged, like a small earthworm, burrowing back and forth in the void.
“Hurry! ”
Fang Xi formed another hand seal, and then helplessly watched as the demonic qi, formed by his demon-seeking secret art, shaped into an arrow pointing at Little Green. . .
After all, Little Green had also unleashed demonic qi here, leaving a strong aura was unavoidable.
“Very strong concealment methods. . . ”
Fang Xi’s expression grew even more solemn as he watched this: “This demon is like me, it must not be left as a hidden danger! ”
He carefully inspected the surroundings, then suddenly patted his storage bag.
A strangely shaped mirror emerged, casting down silvery-white rays of light.
“I just acquired this ‘Demon Mirror’, I didn’t expect it to be useful so soon. ”
Fang Xi murmured, thinking to himself.
He had killed a transformed great demon outside Heavenly Guardian City, earning a vast amount of battle merits. After politely declining the enthusiastic retention of the Eastern Eight Domains’ higher-ups, he exchanged his battle merits for many rare secret arts and treasures.
Among them was an artifact-grade ‘Demon Mirror’!
This mirror was best at detecting demonic qi, and crucially, it had never appeared in the Southern Barrens Cultivation World, so it should have an element of surprise.
Fang Xi unleashed a magic art, which landed on the Demon Mirror.
Rays of silver light instantly fell, reaching up to the heavens and penetrating down to the netherworld, frantically searching for the most minute auras in this area.
Finally, Fang Xi raised an eyebrow, seeing a faint wisp of demonic qi entwined around a withered leaf.
This wisp of demonic qi was truly extremely weak; if it were up to him alone, he might have overlooked it entirely.
Now, however, under the light of the Demon Mirror, it finally revealed itself.
“Though faint, its quality is exceptionally high. It is indeed the demonic qi of a fourth-stage great demon. . . ”
Fang Xi murmured, continuing to cast the demon-seeking secret art towards this wisp of demonic qi.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
This wisp of demonic qi absorbed a large amount of spiritual power and instantly soared, like a jade-green snake, swimming in the void.
Fang Xi pulled out a compass. This compass seemed to be made entirely of white jade, with a golden needle in the center.
Eight runes flashed on the compass’s eight corners, suddenly transforming into a white jade glow, which subtly swept over and swallowed the jade-green snake.
The golden needle in the center of the compass spun wildly for a moment, then finally pointed in one direction.
“Let’s go! ”
Fang Xi let out a long breath and waved his hand.
Little Green immediately transformed into a blue flame, flapped its wings, and vanished into the sky. . .
....
With the Green Fire Luan’s flying speed, traversing three countries was like a stroll.
Below, countless mountains and rivers receded like a scroll, and before long, Fang Xi stopped above a mortal city.
“It’s actually near here? ”
He gazed at the compass, seeing that not far from the city was a barren mountain, and at the bottom of the barren mountain, there seemed to be a pond, enveloped by white mist.
Vaguely, a formation seemed to be set up there!
Seeing this, Fang Xi’s expression grew even stranger: “It even knows to hide around a mortal city, using the human aura to conceal its demonic qi. . . No. . . ordinary cultivators wouldn’t just run into the mortal world for no reason. . . ”
“And. . . it even set up a formation. Although it’s only around third-stage, if this demon set it up, it’s truly remarkable. This is a great demon that knows how to learn. ”
His killing intent surged. He put away the Green Fire Luan, completely suppressed his own aura, and came to the edge of the barren mountain.
For a Nascent Soul, destroying a third-stage formation was a trivial matter.
But to effortlessly break the formation without alerting the demon beast inside was a bit more troublesome.
Fortunately, Fang Xi was a fourth-stage array master, quite knowledgeable in this regard.
“It’s a third-stage ‘Cloud Sea Traceless Array’. . . possessing concealment and defensive effects. Although it’s not integrated with the earth vein qi, it’s still quite extraordinary. . . ”
Black light flickered in his eyes, having already seen through some of the formation’s workings.
Although the mortal realm had no spirit veins, formations could still be set up by burying enough spirit stones at the formation plates and eyes.
This great demon was indeed exceptionally cautious!
Fang Xi scanned the area, then retrieved an array flag and array-laying tools from his storage bag, deploying them throughout the formation.
Silently, he completed the modification and infiltration of this ‘Cloud Sea Traceless Array’.
“Done! ”
Finally, Fang Xi held a formation plate in his hand, a hint of a smile gracing his face.
He arrived before the mist and waved a hand, unleashing a magic art: “Open! ”
The mist on both sides automatically parted, revealing a small opening just wide enough for one person to pass through.
Fang Xi flashed inside, proceeding unimpeded. . .
....
At the bottom of the barren mountain, there was a deep, cold pool.
At this moment, at the edge of the cold pool, a colossal creature slumbered.
This massive creature was an incredibly huge Earth Mountain Turtle, its shell ten zhang in circumference, entirely black, with a mountain-like hump on its back.
Its head was curled within its shell, with only two wisps of emerald demonic qi constantly inhaling and exhaling with its heavy breathing. . .
Suddenly!
The beast stirred as if startled, four massive turtle paws shot out from its shell, like pillars supporting the heavens, propping up its heavy body.
Rumble!
Countless shattered stones and moss rolled down from the mountain-like hump on its back. From the front of its shell, a massive head stretched out, its horns sharp and prominent, resembling the head of a flood dragon!
“Who. . . dares to disturb this old one’s slumber? ”
From the flood dragon-like head came a muffled voice, and a vast demonic qi surged into the sky, accompanied by a wave of Divine Consciousness, sweeping in all directions.
“Strange. . . you were actually startled? ”
A black light flashed, and Fang Xi’s figure emerged from the void: “By common sense, when I broke the formation, I shouldn’t have left any flaws. . . ”
“Dragon Fish True Monarch? ! ”
The colossal fourth-stage turtle demon raised its head, letting out a rumbling sound: “As soon as that little green bird escaped, this old one calculated that you would come knocking one day. . . The reason you were discovered is simple: this formation here is merely a diversion. Hidden deep within the earth is a special type of demon insect that this old one refined. . . ”
“So that’s how it is. . . ”
Fang Xi sighed with emotion.
This fourth-stage ‘Earth Mountain Turtle’ was indeed cunning enough. It hadn’t even fled back to the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range but had casually chosen a desolate wilderness to hide.
With its ‘turtle breath’ ability and the formation’s concealment, if he hadn’t been careful and had gone to the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range, his home might have been raided by it!
The translation maintains the original paragraph structure, respects all HTML tags, and uses the provided glossary terms consistently. Metaphors like "snake from its hole" and "straight hook" are adapted. The general tone of a web novel (power levels, cultivation logic, direct character thoughts) is preserved. Sounds like "Whoosh! " and "Rumble! " are used. Names and terms from the glossary are directly applied.
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