Chapter Fifty: The Witch Departs, Black Mountain Symbol Soldier

  Two mournful cries rose and fell within the space of three to five breaths, then two ferocious beasts suddenly emerged from the foot of the mountain. One was a tiger about three to five zhang in size, and the other was a leopard about one zhang in size.

  These two ferocious beasts suddenly underwent some sort of transformation, their bodies swelling violently as a pair of beastly eyes emitted endless red light, white sticky liquid dripping from their mouths as they clawed and bit at the female Qi practitioner.

  In Wang Guang's eyes, the two ferocious beasts were instantly turned into minced meat by the white aura emitted from the female Qi practitioner's body. But what happened next left him utterly astonished.

  When the two fierce beasts appeared around the female Qi practitioner, she looked extremely fearful. She flipped over and stood up, grabbed the white bone banner from her private place with one hand, shook it out of thin air, and a black smoke came out to wrap the eighteen demon gods together and took them back into the banner.

  Eighteen Pearl Petals lost the support of the Demon God, and instantly dissipated into thin air. However, before Wang Guang's Red Copper Sand and Hei Shan Dao Ren's Mountain Peak Treasure could fall, this female Qi Refiner had already shattered her severed arm, spewing out a bloody glow that enveloped her body as she departed like lightning.

  "What a fierce beast." Only after Wang Guang came to his senses and picked up the red copper sand did he realize that when the tiger pounced just now, it had bitten off one of the white bone demon's legs. The white bone demon's body was as hard as steel, and even the heavy red copper sand weighing tens of thousands of catties could only leave a faint mark on it. And yet, this fierce beast of a tiger could bite off its leg with one mouthful - how could Wang Guang not be shocked in his heart?

  "I want this fierce tiger." King Guang's heart moved, and he gathered the molten gold claw divine ability to grab that fierce tiger, but unexpectedly, that fierce tiger didn't pay attention to King Guang at all. It just roared with the leopard again and chased after the female cultivator who was escaping once more.

  The Golden Claw's divine grasp was on the waist of the fierce tiger, and all that could be heard was a loud "pa" sound. The golden claw shattered, and the fierce tiger seemed to have vanished into thin air without leaving any trace behind.

  "Whoa! Where did these two fierce beasts come from? They're not demons, but they're many times stronger than demons. Luckily they don't pose a threat to us, or else it would be us who'd be running away." The black-robed Taoist muttered, taking a deep breath.

  The king furrowed his brow and pondered for a moment, somewhat uncertain: "The demoness chased me on the road, met two Taoist priests playing chess. Those two Taoist priests had fierce tigers and leopards by their side, but those two Taoist priests should have been slaughtered by this demoness, how did these two ferocious beasts survive? And still so fierce?"

  "The secret method of the Qi world is worth tens of millions, but it's a pity that those two Taoists were not satisfied with their death and used the secret method to let these two fierce beasts take revenge for them." A black mountain Taoist said uncertainly on the side: "Forget it! The female demon has escaped, we can't catch up with her. I think it's better to rest here for a while and find a good way to deal with the female demon's next sneak attack."

  Wang Guang nodded but didn't speak. After the two set up a simple seal and spell array, they began to meditate and cultivate their energy, only recovering from their exhaustion after a long time.

  "Benefactor of the Infinite Heaven! Black Mountain Daoist friend helped me greatly today, what task do you have that needs to be done? If it's something that requires my assistance, I absolutely won't decline in the slightest." After recovering, Wang Guang brushed off the dust and bowed his head in respect, having risen with a heart of gratitude.

  "There's nothing much to do, just doing some things for the Crown Prince, so you don't need to help for now." The black-robed Taoist beside him turned his eyes and said in a low voice. "We are all actually under the Crown Prince's patronage. The other day, I'm not sure what kind of misunderstanding was triggered, but today it can be considered that both sides have let it pass. I don't want you to repay me for what happened earlier, and you shouldn't harbor resentment in your heart about us letting the demon girl escape that day. What do you think?"

  "On that day, you were performing your duty as a tribute, but I was not. Today, you helped me, and this kindness should be repaid." Wang Guang shook his head with a bitter smile: "I originally wanted to become a Qi Practitioner, but didn't expect to be delayed by this demon girl. Who knows when the next opportunity will come?"

  "Hehe! There are plenty of opportunities, as long as your enemy doesn't leave the Tianyu Imperial Court, you'll have a chance." Hei Shan Dao Ren saw Wang Guang reveal his reason for leaving the city, and after a moment's thought, he also revealed his own reason: "A few days ago, the Crown Prince gathered some people and asked us to help train them into talisman soldiers. Today, I'm going to go practice with those talisman soldiers. If you're interested, fellow Daoist, you can come with me to watch."

  "Fu Bing? Wasn't he the cavalryman who was with you in the Imperial City that day?" Wang Guang asked in a low voice, furrowing his brow.

  "Haha! Can they be considered real Spirit Soldiers? They're just decorations made of piled up weapons and armor. Compared to true Spirit Soldiers, those in the Imperial City are nothing but a mere facade." Hei Shan Dao Ren shook his head with a loud laugh. Seeing Wang Guang's confusion, he proceeded to give him a detailed introduction to Spirit Soldiers.

  All the way forward, Wang Guang listened to Heishan Dao's introduction, and only then did he truly understand what Fu Bing was. The other party's words were dozens of times more detailed than what he had learned from reading books in the sect.

  It turned out that the talisman soldiers had existed since ancient times, and it was said that at that time, the ones who controlled the talisman soldiers were a group of extremely powerful and evil beings. At that time, the talisman soldiers' bodies shook with a height of thousands of meters. Throwing mountains, tearing apart the earth and sky, spewing out fierce fire and poisonous smoke, soaring between heaven and earth, devouring flesh and blood to repair their own injuries, hunting down the strong to increase their own strength, all these were just child's play for those talisman soldiers. Moreover, at that time, the talisman soldiers were nothing but cannon fodder under the evil beings' command.

  In the distant past, countless existences fell, numerous powerful divine abilities and Daoist techniques were lost. Now, only some incomplete cultivation methods remain, causing innumerable later generations to frantically fight over them.

  Although many schools have been lost and incomplete, the method of refining the symbol soldier has been completely passed down for some reason. After being modified by countless top geniuses, the ancient era's symbol soldier refining gradually had new changes. Eventually formed the current symbol soldier.

  "Boundless Heaven Venerable! Fellow Daoist is indeed talented, I am in the Grand Sect but didn't know that Symbolic Soldiers had such a past, thank you for enlightening me." After listening to the other's explanation, Wang Guang sincerely bowed his head and paid respects to express gratitude.

  "Ah! I'm not a great talent or anything, it's just that when I first started out, I came from a small sect that happened to be very familiar with the Symbol Soldiers. That's how I know about their past." Hei Shan Dao Ren pointed vaguely at a mountain range in front of them, his expression somewhat perplexed: "Once we cross over this mountain range, we'll arrive at the training grounds of the Symbol Soldiers. At that time, you can see for yourself just how ruthless and intense the true Symbol Soldiers' training is."

  "Ferocious? Only those who have wallowed in the bloody depths of the mundane world can be considered ferocious. In this cultivation world, no one has ever been more ferocious." Wang Guang thought to himself without speaking up.

  As soon as the two of them crossed over the mountain range in front of them, a gigantic canyon appeared before Wang Guang. The canyon was filled with an extremely thick and pungent smell of blood, which had condensed into red clouds using some sort of mysterious method. The wronged souls within the bloody clouds were tumbling about, occasionally letting out mournful wails that sent shivers down one's spine.

  "Boundless Heaven Venerable! These are treasures, if I were to take the refining method of the treasure, I can absolutely refine a low-grade treasure!" Looking at the blood clouds churning before his eyes, Wang Guang couldn't help but inhale a breath of cold air. How much bloody aura would it take to condense into these blood clouds?

  "Haha! Although it's a treasure, but it doesn't belong to us. Everything here is controlled by me and a few fellow Taoists, but we can't use these things at will. They all belong to a large sect, if we take away even half of them, once discovered, we'll suffer a lot of physical pain, not to mention losing our lives." Hei Shan Dao Ren let out a strange laugh, but Wang Guang didn't see any smile on his face, only a ferocious and resentful expression.

  "Hmm!" Extremely reluctant, he swept a glance at the blood clouds, but in his heart, Wang Guang was thinking about how to put these things into his own treasure pouch for storage.

  Carefully bypassing the blood cloud, he landed on a thick stone pillar above the canyon. It was only then that Wang Guang saw the scene in the canyon clearly.

  Within a radius of over ten miles, the ground was covered with deep pits of uniform size. The pits were filled to the brim with blood water, and upon closer inspection, white skulls could be seen floating up and down in the bloody liquid. Around the pool of blood, countless robust men lay naked on the ground, either sprawled out or sitting cross-legged, resting.

  A shrill, ear-piercing whistle echoed through the canyon, and in an instant, all the men who had been resting on the ground stood up and began to slaughter each other. In just a short moment, a large number of men died. With another whistle, the slaughter stopped immediately.

  The corpses were thrown into the blood pool by the survivors, regardless of whether they were injured or not. All of them jumped into the blood pool and soaked for a while. In this blood pool, they grabbed the bloody flesh inside and stuffed it randomly into their mouths to fill their hunger.

  After a short while, a large number of women appeared in the valley. They followed these men and then left. As they did, some lewd and evil aura emanated from their bodies, which was absorbed by the bloody clouds above. The clouds then rained down red raindrops into the valley.

  "Boundless Heaven Venerate! If you say this is bloody and cruel, in my humble opinion, it's just that." King Guang bowed his head and shouted, but he didn't take the so-called cruelty before him seriously.

  "In my opinion, this is already the most ruthless." The black mountain Taoist looked at Wang Guang with a strange expression, and after hearing Wang Guang's previous words, his heart beat faster.

  "Ha! Mutual slaughter is just a selection of the strongest, you take me to see how these symbol soldiers are cultivated. If I'm interested in the future, I can also try to refine some symbol soldiers for use." He thought back to when he was in the imperial city and those symbol soldiers made him struggle with his own Dharma form.

  "Alright! Fellow Taoist, your idea isn't bad. As we are supported by the imperial court, we can't avoid going to the battlefield and fighting against others. Without the help of talismans, we often fall into a disadvantageous position. If you're willing to teach me a set of techniques for refining magical artifacts, I'll pass on our sect's secret method for refining talismans in return. This way, it's an exchange between us two. What do you think, fellow Taoist?" Black Mountain Taoist's eyes rolled around, and he began to plot.