Chapter 137: Bluff

Chapter 137: Bluffing

"Ah Hua..."

The Tiger King walked back and saw Huayuan sitting there as usual, along with a little tiger cultivator whose eyes were swollen from crying and who looked utterly disheveled.

The sun was setting in the west. Ah Hua, who had followed him since childhood, didn't stand up to greet him or laugh with him as usual. The Tiger King stood beside him, both gazing toward the sunset until the sun disappeared on the other side of the great pit.

He placed his hand on Huayuan's head and extinguished the last bit of his consciousness.

The faint heartbeat ceased.

Shang Yunduo grabbed Elder Juhu's back and burst into tears.

Tiger King: "Did he leave any last words for you?"

Shang Yunduo, fighting back his sobs, handed over the storage pouch that Elder Juhu had given him and the spirit beast pouch he had taken from a Core Formation elder of the Black Abyss Clan.

The Tiger King opened it, looked it over, chuckled, and then sighed. "What a huge loss..."

"What did your little tiger give you? A Spirit Rhino?" King Xuanying landed across from him and shot Shang Yunduo a glare. "Can't you stop crying like you're about to die?"

Elder Heiyuan also said, "That spirit beast pouch seems to be from our clan."

Shang Yunduo wiped his tears and began tattling: "Great King, they just tried to take my things! They forced me to hand them over!"

Tiger King: "Oh?"

King Xuanying clicked his tongue. "Do you think I would stoop to bullying a junior like you over a few Spirit Rhinos?"

They were mostly dead ones, with only two alive. He had already taken a look at them earlier.

Was something so trivial worth him making a move? "Did you think holding a clump of fire would let you pull off a self-detonation like King Lingxi did in front of me?! If I hadn't been here keeping watch for your Great King, you would have been swallowed up without a trace long ago, you fool."

He snorted and cast a meaningful glance at Elder Heiyuan.

Elder Heiyuan laughed. "You wrong me. I had no intention of bullying a junior. I only wanted to retrieve something that belongs to our clan." But King Xuanying had just gotten a few Spirit Rhinos from another brat. Since he had live ones, he didn't care about the dead ones, and he wanted to curry favor with the Tiger King by watching over the junior, so he kept him from taking the items back.

Shang Yunduo thought to himself, *Pfft, you're all birds of a feather!*

If Elder Juhu hadn't held out long enough, and if the Tiger King hadn't seen him before leaving and told him to wait, who knows if he would still be alive? They had been scared to kill him because they couldn't explain it to the Tiger King!

As for not taking his things, it was because they didn't want the other to gain an advantage!

The Tiger King naturally saw through it all. He swaggeringly put the items away. "Kid, do these belong to you or them?"

Shang Yunduo: "I took them!"

The Tiger King laughed heartily. "Did you hear that? No matter who they belonged to before, once you take them, they're mine!"

Elder Heiyuan's mouth twitched. He had also taken a few Spirit Rhinos from elsewhere, so he didn't absolutely need these. What he really wanted now was something else. He sighed and put on a troubled expression. "Very well. But today's losses are too great. I won't be able to explain it to my Great King when I return. Forget the Spirit Rhinos. Tiger King, can you keep our agreement and give me the corpses of those Blood Qilin Clan members?"

Tiger King: "What Blood Qilin Clan? I don't know anything about them. Didn't they all get blown to ashes by King Lingxi? Go ask him for them. That King Lingxi really went too far—destroying even those who helped him."

Elder Heiyuan: "..."

He knew perfectly well that almost all of those Blood Qilin Clan members had been killed by the Tiger King's trusted subordinate, Huayuan, the Giant Tiger.

That junior had probably just handed over the storage pouch containing the Blood Qilin corpses.

Elder Heiyuan: "Is there really no room for negotiation?"

The Tiger King said impatiently, "What room for negotiation! No room at all! I've got a belly full of fire—do you want a taste?!"

Elder Heiyuan: "..."

The Tiger King collected Huayuan's corpse and tossed out a large sack. He grabbed Shang Yunduo and threw him onto the wind-filled sack. "Let's go!"

Now they were alone, but Shang Yunduo dared not move or speak.

The Tiger King was clearly agitated, so Shang Yunduo dared not even make a sound.

He didn't dare ask where they were going.

He sat there in complete silence until his injuries began to flare up, making him tremble with pain. Shang Yunduo only dared to cautiously swallow a Baleful Blood Pill.

The strong medicinal energy surged, but he didn't dare circulate his spiritual power to suppress it.

He was about to tough it out when he suddenly heard the Tiger King say, "You're not from the Tiger Clan, are you?"

Shang Yunduo choked on his breath, coughing and spitting out some blood.

"What's there to fear? A mere Spirit Nurturing stage cultivator like you—do you think I'd bother eating you?"

Shang Yunduo hurriedly wiped the blood from his mouth, as if afraid of dirtying the sack.

Seeing that he was still trembling, whether from fear or pain, the Tiger King sighed. "Such a coward, yet you still dared to guard Ah Hua and bluff two Transformation stage cultivators. Hah, he didn't misjudge you."

Shang Yunduo: "..."

The Tiger King was silent for a long while before saying, "Since he trusted you and you didn't let him down, I won't bother asking who you really are. There's a city ahead. I'll drop you off there. After that, you can go wherever you want."

Shang Yunduo quickly nodded. "Thank you."

The sack suddenly accelerated and arrived outside the city in an instant.

So the speed just now had probably been deliberately slow so he could say those things.

The Tiger King set him down and tossed him a storage pouch. "Go on."

Shang Yunduo was stunned. "Thank you, Great King."

The Tiger King had already turned to leave, but he turned back, looked him over, and smiled. "If you can make it to Core Formation, come find me in the Tiger Clan. I'll allow you to follow me. But not now—you're too weak. Cultivate well, half-demon boy!"

Shang Yunduo stared in shock at his figure, which vanished in an instant.

Half-demon boy?

Half-demon?

Was he a half-demon again?

Whatever. Being a half-demon was better than being discovered as a human.

Shang Yunduo's tense nerves relaxed, and his legs went weak. He almost collapsed to the ground.

Now he urgently needed to find a place to rest.

He gritted his teeth, tucked away the storage pouch, forced himself to enter the city, and found an inn to stay in. He set up formations to block sound and prying eyes, grabbed a handful of pills, and quickly circulated his energy to heal his injuries.

He could only rest for one night, and he had to go back early the next morning.

Dead or alive, he had to find the body—he refused to believe Pei Jie had died so inexplicably.

As dawn broke, Shang Yunduo left the city and ran into a deserted forest, where he released his flying ship, activated its stealth array, and raced at full speed toward Lingxi Valley.

He no longer cared if other demon cultivators discovered him.

If Pei Jie was not dead but severely injured, every moment he delayed put Pei Jie in more danger.

When Tiger King took him away, the Transformation stage cultivators of the Black Abyss Clan and King Xuanying hadn’t left yet—what if they found Pei Jie?

He flew nonstop for two days and two nights, finally returning on the morning of the third day.

The devastated Lingxi Valley looked even worse than before, likely ransacked again in the past two days.

Shang Yunduo hurried to the spot he had left from. Fortunately, this area seemed undisturbed, except for the body of the dead Core Formation cultivator from the Black Abyss Clan, which had been taken away.

He swept the surroundings with his Spiritual Sense and detected no other demon cultivators. Then, from his storage pouch, he pulled out a large wooden board to use as a rake and began digging in the area where Pei Jie might have been, pushing aside the sand and searching over and over.

“Senior…” Shang Yunduo called out as he dug, “Senior…”

Nothing. Still nothing. Not a single trace—not even the Illusion Art could reveal anything.

“Senior…”

He dug from morning till night. Looking at the pitted and scarred ground he had created, Shang Yunduo threw down the plank, now worn down, and shouted: “Pei Jie! Pei Jie!”

“Are you asleep?!”

“Pei Jie!”

His voice echoed across the empty pit. Then someone spoke: “Who is Pei Jie?”

?!

Shang Yunduo spun around, his skin crawling.

He had kept his Spiritual Sense extended, yet he completely failed to detect when another person had appeared nearby.

A familiar swarm of “insects” gradually coalesced before him—a black robe that completely concealed the figure within.

The Chaos Clan!

Shang Yunduo instantly surrounded himself with fire.

Which one was this?

Core Formation?

No, the body shape was wrong. The three Qi Condensation and two Core Formation Chaos Clan members who had come to the competition didn’t look like this. This was…

Transformation stage?!

Wasn’t he supposed to be dead?

Hadn’t Tiger King and another Demon King already killed him twice?

Shang Yunduo warily backed away.

“Pei Jie… that sounds like a human name. I’ve heard it somewhere…” King Hundun scrutinized Shang Yunduo. “I remember your aura. You’re the one who killed my clan’s junior member, aren’t you?”

Shang Yunduo: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

King Hundun laughed heartily: “Didn’t you leave with Tiger King? Why are you back?”

Shang Yunduo: “You’d better leave now. Once our king gets here, you won’t be able to escape.”

King Hundun: “Your king? Let me guess—Tiger King realized you’re not from the Tiger Clan and dumped you halfway?”

Shang Yunduo: “…”

King Hundun: “Are you a half-demon? Have dealings with humans?”

Shang Yunduo: “What business is it of yours who I am?! So many Transformation stage cultivators want you dead—why aren’t you running?”

King Hundun: “Hahaha! Not bad. But before I go… I’ll eat you first!”

He vanished abruptly and reappeared right in front of Shang Yunduo, like a ghost, only his upper body visible. Shang Yunduo’s hair stood on end. His flames surged violently, but they couldn’t burn away those clones—most of them burst through the flames and kept lunging at him.

Shang Yunduo quickly threw up a shield to knock away the clones that were about to bite his skin. His arm stung—some had still managed to pierce through the flames and bite him.

Before he could check the rest of his body, he was already surrounded by these ant-like clones.

They were completely different from the Qi Condensation ones—these clones were smaller but could devour his spiritual power!

“Such pure spiritual power, too bad it’s not a Wood Spirit Root.”

Even while eating, it's complaining about the taste?!

Shang Yunduo compressed his flames into a tight fiery armor around his body, raising the heat to the max. He held his breath and burst out of the layers of clones, then quickly flew some distance away.

King Hundun’s expression shifted slightly. “I underestimated you.”

Shang Yunduo flew a few dozen meters away. “I overestimated you. After getting thrashed twice by two Demon Kings, you’re putting on a Core Formation act—it’s all bluff, isn’t it?”

King Hundun: “Bluffing? Hah, you seem better at bluffing than me.”

As he spoke, his body dispersed into an insect swarm that chased after Shang Yunduo.

Shang Yunduo’s expression shifted, and he turned to run.

His guess was right—King Hundun, hunted by two Demon Kings and forced to use a life-saving escape, had suffered a severe cultivation drop, now nowhere near Core Formation.

But Shang Yunduo was also injured by King Lingxi’s self-destruction. Though he was far enough away to avoid fatal damage and had taken pills in time to survive, he’d never had a chance to properly recover. He was carrying a stack of internal and external injuries, held together only by sheer willpower. Now, relying on pills to outlast the Chaos King in a battle of attrition—who would die first? But unlike in the arena, he wasn’t facing a Qi Condensation Chaos Clan member—he was facing a former Transformation stage cultivator whose cultivation had regressed to Qi Condensation. Their combat experience was night and day!

He had a living example right next to him: Pei Jie.

But Shang Yunduo had no intention of truly fleeing.

Pei Jie was still here.

He would come back sooner or later.

Rather than gamble on when King Hundun would leave, he might as well fight now.

If he couldn’t rescue Pei Jie… then he didn’t want to live either. They could die together!

Shang Yunduo pulled out his formation plate and began forming seals at lightning speed.

"Array?" Chaos King looked up at the falling Sealing Array. "You're not a half-demon—you're a human?"

Shang Yunduo: "And so what if I am?"

Chaos King: "You think a mere Four Symbols Array can trap me?"

Shang Yunduo: "I don't plan to trap you—just trap you for a little while, that's enough!"

He pulled out all his Explosive Fire Talismans. He refused to believe there was wood that wasn't afraid of fire.

If once wasn't enough, then twice. If twice wasn't enough, then three times.

He had over a hundred Explosive Fire Talismans, plus the Seven Baleful Fire. He didn't believe he couldn't burn a Nourishing Spirit stage Chaos Clan member to death.

No matter how powerful, he was only at the Nourishing Spirit stage now!

Boom—

Over a hundred Explosive Fire Talismans detonated together, blasting the already loose sand and gravel into a cloud of dust.

Shang Yunduo acted too fast. The formation plate he had traded from Ji Kuang was good enough too. From setting up the array to the explosion, it took mere moments. Chaos King dodged as quickly as he could, but still a small portion of his clones were caught in the blast.

"You really are a human!"

It was extremely rare for a Nourishing Spirit stage demon cultivator to unleash such a wide range of fire in an instant.

Yet it still wasn't enough.

Shang Yunduo had spread the fire to its maximum range, but still couldn't burn him to death.

However, the fire and the explosion had at least forced him into a small area beyond the flames' reach!

Shang Yunduo charged into the fire, rapidly closing in, and burned the insect-like clones with the Seven Baleful Fire.

Almost there—if he could just concentrate the fire a bit more, he could burn the clones to death. But it was just that little bit short. The clones that could withstand the burning began devouring his spiritual power from the edge of the flames.

Shang Yunduo was caught in a dilemma.

To burn them to death, he would have to shrink the fire's range to increase the temperature, but if he shrank it, they would definitely escape again.

What should he do?

The Four Symbols Array could only trap him temporarily. Before all the Explosive Fire Talismans had even exploded, they might chew their way out.

The main body?

Where was his main body?

Chaos King's main body was far harder to detect than the previous Nourishing Spirit stage Chaos Clan members.

Perhaps he had to first burn all the plants buried under the sand and gravel.

Would the drum lute's sound work?

At least his current drum lute music had no lethal effect on Pei Jie.

Forget it—Shang Yunduo pulled out the drum lute and decided to try it first!

He would test Startle Kill on him directly!

He had just plucked one note when a voice suddenly appeared in his mind: "Silverwing Butterfly."

Author's Note:

The elders' words still echoed: Set fire!

Yunduo (desperate version): Trash! Great King! You and Flying Owl are both trash!!!