Chapter 82: The Hard-to-Kill Demon

Su Yuan remained in the state of Mind Echo. His consciousness darted between various thoughts, searching for traces of Mistwalker. To his surprise, the old demon had stopped mentioning him. With a hand seal, Su Yuan connected with heaven and earth, using his spiritual sense to commune with the Big Dipper once more. He activated his deduction technique again! After a long search, Su Yuan frowned. "Gone? I can't deduce his location anymore!" His deduction only showed a wisp of black mist vanishing underground. It resembled an earth escape technique! This Mistwalker actually possessed earth escape abilities! Beneath the earth, the starlight of the Big Dipper couldn't easily penetrate, making deduction difficult. Since the other party wasn't mentioning him either, he couldn't use Mind Echo to locate him. Su Yuan fell into deep thought. "He must be severely injured too and can't have gone far. He's probably hiding underground to recover." Su Yuan had no intention of letting this Nascent Soul demon go. "My shortcomings are quite apparent!" He sighed. While the Big Dipper was powerful, it lacked effective means against underground targets—something he'd need to address in the future. With spare cultivation time remaining from [Balanced Rest], he decided not to waste it and began deducing escape techniques. This was another weakness he'd identified—his speed was too slow. Fortunately, this flaw was easier to remedy. Starlight represented extreme speed in this world. Using starry intent as foundation, Seven Stars Flowing Light Steps as base, and referencing various Nascent Soul cultivators' flight techniques, creating a star escape method shouldn't be difficult. Under [Balanced Rest]'s effect, the framework of the escape technique quickly took shape and developed. However, he soon hit a bottleneck in its creation. Without hesitation, he activated [Balanced Rest] three times, sacrificing tenfold duration for heightened comprehension. The bottleneck shattered, allowing him to refine the technique further. Finally, before [Balanced Rest] expired, he successfully created the "Seven Stars Escape Technique." Taking a deep breath, Su Yuan summoned the sixth-grade spiritual treasure Floating Light Pot into his right hand while the Myriad Treasures Qiankun Ding flew into his sleeve. The Nine Stars Linked Pearl Sword glowed as he stepped onto the flying sword, rapidly ascending. Seven stars encircled him like a rising Big Dipper formation, resonating with its celestial counterpart. Su Yuan's figure shot upward at increasing speed—in the blink of an eye, he had pierced the clouds and vanished. Nangong Xianweng, seeing Su Yuan about to leave, changed expression and immediately gave chase to protect him. But by the time he reached midair, Su Yuan had already disappeared. "What... what kind of escape technique is this?" The old immortal stared at the still-bright Big Dipper overhead, utterly astonished. Meanwhile, Su Yuan had already reached the ninth heaven. Locking onto Pig Demon Forest's direction, he plunged back toward earth! A streak of starlight carrying terrifying momentum crashed down from Pig Demon Forest's sky, blasting a massive crater upon impact. "Pah!" A dusty Su Yuan emerged from the hole, spitting out mud. "This technique needs improvement," he remarked, looking skyward. His Seven Stars Escape Technique worked by harnessing the Big Dipper's pull and projection—resulting in strictly vertical movement. Takeoff was rocket-fast, while descent resembled a meteor strike. The problem was, Pig Demon Forest lacked both star formations for positioning and Mind Echo for guidance, causing a slight miscalculation in landing distance and altitude—he couldn't brake in time! Fortunately, his tough hide prevented injury. Soaring up again, Su Yuan identified a direction and flew off. Activating Seven Stars Flowing Light Steps, his figure flickered like starlight across the sky—fast, but nowhere near his escape technique's speed. Soon, he reached Mad Demon's final resting place. With a wave, a storage ring flew into his hand. Su Yuan grinned: "Excellent. Not looting after killing feels unbearable. Finally got it!" Xiao Li's curious voice came from the Floating Light Pot: "Su Yuan, how did you know there was a storage ring here?" Su Yuan laughed: "This is naturally my spoils of war!" The spirit beast sounded puzzled—she hadn't seen him fight here. How could there be spoils? Waving it off, Su Yuan flew to another location—the spot where Mistwalker had vanished. After some thought, he found a rock and sliced it flat with his sword, then inscribed several lines of text before quietly departing. He visited several Pig Demon Forest locations, leaving messages at each, then rocketed skyward, vanishing as a speck of light. Loot collected, exit secured—Su Yuan operated with perfect caution. Three days later. Pig Demon Forest regained its peaceful, original state. Suddenly, a concealed black shadow emerged from underground. Mistwalker checked the skies for ambushes and sighed in relief. "Finally survived. When I return, I'll definitely uncover who leaked our plans! Damn it, there must be a mole!" Cursing, he took a few steps before his spiritual sense detected writing on a nearby boulder. Instinctively, he read: [I, Mistwalker, leaked demonic sect secrets, causing our ruin and heavy losses. I've failed my sect's nurturing—regrets! Deep regrets!] Mistwalker's face darkened like a burnt pot. Such a crude framing attempt—who the hell devised this? Hiding in shadows, he glared at the rock. Undoubtedly, it bore traps—destroying it would summon Nascent Soul hunters. Yet leaving it rankled him. After prolonged observation revealed no formations—just an ordinary rock—his frustration grew. "What vile bastard came up with this? So sneaky!" He mentally cursed the unknown perpetrator to eighteenth-generation damnation. "Hmph! I won't take the bait!" Mistwalker turned away. After some distance, another inscribed rock appeared: [Coward! Trash! Run along now—live to fight another day! Hahaha!] His eyelid twitched—this practically named him! Mistwalker sneered. His concealment surpassed peers—did they think such childish tricks could flush him out? As a venerable Nascent Soul demon, would he be provoked by mere words? Shaking his head disdainfully, he mentally bookmarked this nasty trickster for future vengeance when recovered. Suddenly—a sword light slashed toward him! Forced to reveal his Nascent Soul, Mistwalker barely dodged as a Nascent Soul elder struck, eyes gleaming. "Hah! You really are here!" "Tch! Escape!" Mistwalker transformed into black shadow, fleeing at full speed. With only a Nascent Soul remaining, his power was less than 1%, but soul-form movement could briefly achieve hundredfold velocity without fleshly constraints—enough to evade pursuit. Creating distance, he dissolved into black mist again. His Nascent Soul injuries worsened further, energy reserves depleting. Hiding anxiously, he lamented: "Should've left earlier. Who said the most dangerous place is safest? Got played!" "Should've ignored that damned rock! Such simple tricks actually delayed me—my mental cultivation's insufficient!" He cursed the message-writer again. Suddenly—danger screamed through his senses! Before reacting, terrifying spear energy pierced the earth, impaling his Nascent Soul! "Divine Ability: Soul Mist Transformation!" His Nascent Soul dispersed, a portion vanishing entirely before reforming. Without pause, he activated soul escape, tunneling frantically underground. Despite multiple relocations, attacks kept finding him as if tracked. His Nascent Soul weakened continuously—Mistwalker realized death neared. Before dying, he desperately wanted to know who had betrayed their plans and authored those damned messages! Emerging at another spot, he froze seeing another boulder inscribed: [No escape above or below—this humble Daoist Tianxing invites you to die!] "What? Tianxing?" Shockwaves rocked him as multiple attacks vaporized his Nascent Soul completely. A ring clattered to the ground. Several Nascent Soul cultivators appeared, expressions odd. "What an undignified death." "This counts as Ancestor Su's spoils—let's return it." They retrieved the ring for Seven Extremes Sect. Much later, at Mistwalker's original hiding spot, black mist coalesced into his degraded Nascent Soul—no, it had regressed to a mere Golden Core! Yet he lived! Staring at the slanderous first rock, he sneered: "Didn't expect this, did you? I had a golden cicada escape plan!" Suddenly—overwhelming pressure immobilized his ravaged Golden Core form, suppressing his power below 1%. The Big Dipper blazed above as starlight transformed into swords raining down. BOOM! The ground erupted in a massive crater. Starlight lingered momentarily, ensuring Mistwalker's complete annihilation before dissipating.