Chapter 8: To Kill and to Save

  Ling Sheng's spirit was fully focused, his eyebrows were stern and his eyes were icy cold. He swept his right hand across his waist and flung out a flying knife.

  Just as he threw out the flying knife, his two fingers burst with blood, and his face turned pale in an instant.

  With a whooshing sound, the flying knife transformed into a silver gleam, pointing directly at the man's brow.

  "Welcome."

  The man smiled slightly, and the life-bound Gu insect moved with his heart. With a flick of its tail, it deflected the flying knife, which lost its momentum and was thrown far away, finally falling to the ground.

  Whoosh!

  The man's face changed greatly, and he only saw that the flying knife from before was followed by another flying knife. The two flying knives formed a straight line, and even with his exceptional eyesight, he could only see the first flying knife in front of him, but not the more sinister dark knife behind it.

  As expected, the flying knife behind swept past the tail of the Benming Gu insect, passing over the insect and nailing itself into the man's brow.

  At the same time, Ling Sheng fell to the ground, and the white long snake rubbed against his back and passed by, falling in front of him.

  The man is dead, and the white long worms have lost control, dispersing in all directions.

  Ling Sheng stood up, patted his clothes, tore off a piece of cloth, and wrapped it around the two fingers that had been severed and were bleeding. He muttered to himself: "One flying knife can't kill you, but two will do?"

  Those two flying knives, one in front and one behind, seemed to be combined into one, which was quite a remarkable feat.

  Ling Sheng's body had already condensed the sword dan, and if he wanted to break through, he would have to let the sword dan open up his aperture. Once the sword dan's aperture was opened, it would be considered a breakthrough in cultivating qi, entering the realm of controlling qi. At that time, he would be able to release his sword energy from his body, shattering the air and killing people.

  This flying knife technique was originally a move of the sword energy, because Ling Sheng had an ingenious idea, and thus had this use. Two flying knives came out at the same time, in fact it is the move of sending out two sword energies.

  However, to release two sword auras requires the Sword Dan Cave to open two orifices, but Ling Sheng has not opened any. This move is extremely damaging to his body. Originally, releasing one flying knife was already difficult, and releasing two would require him to harm his own body. If he were to release three at once, he wouldn't even think about breaking through the air-restricting cultivation in the future.

  "The flying knife technique is not yet sophisticated. If the sword dan had opened a hole, it would have been possible to emit the sword energy from the body and destroy that wasp, why did it end up hurting both people?" Ling Sheng sighed quietly.

  "What? Where's that cicada?"

  Ling Sheng looked down four times, but surprisingly, he didn't see any trace of that worm.

  "It's all up to me to take care of it, and one bug won't make a difference."

  Ling Sheng searched the man's body and found several bottles and a book.

  The cover of the book had four large characters written on it: "Guǐ Shén Mì Diǎn".

  Under the cover, there were a few sentences, Ling Sheng glanced at them briefly and felt they were quite arrogant.

  Not seeking immortality nor asking about Tao, not cultivating true nature nor cultivating fate, but only seeking a magical spell to kill the gods, this divine power is at my disposal.

  "These few sentences are quite arrogant and domineering." Ling Sheng said: "Not seeking longevity, not cultivating one's nature, not seeking longevity, not cultivating one's nature..."

  A cultivator's cultivation is all about achieving longevity; as for magical powers and divine abilities, they are secondary.

  No wonder this person, with just a Qi-refining realm, can have so many methods. It turns out that he comes from a sect that specializes in martial arts and does not seek immortality. According to Ling Sheng's estimation, this person's methods are not bad, unless there is a high-ranking cultivator who intervenes, otherwise, the others will surely die. As for Ling Sheng himself, he is one of the few exceptions.

  "In fact, my 'Jian Qi Tong Xuan Pian' also belongs to the killing and fighting path, but it also includes cultivation practice, both of which are present. Compared to the Qing Wang Shen Jiao's cultivation method, it is much more brilliant."

  After thinking for a moment, Ling Sheng no longer delayed, rolled up his things, tied them into a bundle and carried it on his back, and continued on his way.

  Before leaving, he glanced at the man's corpse and shook his head slightly. If this guy had focused on sneaking up, he would have definitely succeeded. Unfortunately, he didn't know what madness had taken hold of him, pretending to be profound and alerting others, ultimately burning himself in the fire.

  Finally, after inquiring repeatedly, Ling Sheng found a disciple of Kongming Xianshan on an open land near the city.

  "Big Brother!"

  Ling Sheng took a glance and saw an old man with dark skin, his heart racing wildly as he rushed forward to check on him. He felt for the old man's breath and realized that he had stopped breathing, causing Ling Sheng's heart to sink halfway.

  Ling Sheng hastily pulled out those bottles, one by one checked the names of the medicines, finally found the antidote, hurriedly poured out a grain, fed the old man to take it down, and pressed against the many beneficial acupoints on the old man's body, the force and skill were quite clever, and also used true energy.

  After probing, Ling Sheng's heart slightly calmed down. The old man was after all a cultivator, and the flow of energy within his body still flowed, maintaining his vitality.

  After the rescue, Ling Sheng glanced around and found that more than a dozen disciples of Kongming Xianshan had all been poisoned by Gu, their faces were pale, their lips were black, and there was no breath on their bodies. However, these people have not died yet.

  It seems that the man from the Qing Wang Cult deliberately let them taste the pain of the Gu poison, so he did not make a killing move, but instead let them struggle in the painful invasion of the Gu poison until they finally died.

  At this time, these people have reached the last moment, and they are at a dead end.

  Hei Xian's cultivation had reached a critical point, but he was instead severely infested with Gu worms and on the brink of death. If Ling Sheng had arrived three minutes later, his brother would have been dead without a doubt.

  Fortunately, Ling Sheng had the antidote in his hand. Otherwise, even if he arrived on time, he would have been powerless to do anything but watch as Hei Xi's life slipped away before his eyes.

  The detox pill seemed to have taken effect, and Ling Sheng's acupuncture also had a significant impact. Before long, Hei Xi came to.

  "Senior brother, don't speak, you're deeply poisoned. Although the toxins have been gradually eliminated, your body's vital energy has been damaged. If you don't nourish it, a shortened lifespan is the least of your worries. I fear that even your cultivation will regress, and the true energy you've bitterly cultivated will dissipate completely, causing you to fall out of the Refining Qi stage and no longer be a cultivator." Ling Sheng hastily said.

  "Save them first." Hei Xisha said hoarsely.

  "Never mind, I'll save you first," Ling Sheng said.

  Hei Xi wanted to speak but hesitated, and knowing his master brother's personality all too well, he ultimately let out a sigh.

  "This is a 500-year-old ginseng, a great tonic. You take it." Ling Sheng took out a piece of ginseng, which was the same one that Shi Changlao had given to Su Bai. "Although you said that emptiness cannot be supplemented, your true energy is circulating and can digest the medicinal properties."

  Hei Xi nodded, despite being puzzled about the origin of the Ling Shen, and still took the slice of ginseng cut out by Ling Sheng's flying knife.

  "Alright, go save him." Hei Xi's expression slightly improved.

  Ling Sheng carefully looked around and made sure he was fine before getting up to rescue others.

  Although they are both from Qingming Xianshan, and also from the outer gate, because of that thing a few years ago, only Hei Xi Shixiong is willing to get close to him. The rest of the people despise Ling Sheng, taking two steps closer would make them feel dirty themselves, let alone talk about fellow disciple sentiment.

  It would only take a dozen or so antidotes to save their lives, which isn't too great of a cost. Ling Sheng wouldn't be stingy with these few pellets he had obtained from someone else.

  More than ten people were present. Ling Sheng and others took out more than ten detoxification pills, fed them to the ten people, and the remaining three people only glanced at it once and didn't look again.

  "You, why didn't you save him?" a disciple who had just come to asked.

  Ling Sheng glanced at him lightly and didn't respond, but instead saw Hei Xi's gaze and respectfully said: "Senior brother, it's not that I'm stingy with these three elixir pills, but rather they can't be saved."

  "What?"