C23 They Were All Rookies!!

On Dragon Bay Island, towering sword trees pierced the sky, while the underbrush beneath them reached dozens of feet in height. Upon entering the island from above, Lin Xuan's right hand spontaneously ignited with a scorching white flame, radiating immense power. A few meters from him, he conjured a white flame chain nearly ten feet long.

"Spiritual Energy: -200!"

With a swoosh, Lin Xuan could distinctly hear the sound of metal chains grinding together. His spiritual sense had grown to rival that of someone in the middle stage of Qi Refining, a testament to his profound abilities.

Moreover, his innate talent for illusions made detecting hidden demonic presences almost too easy.

"I've found one!"

As Lin Xuan glided a hundred feet from the stout branches, he detected a concealed aura within a bush under a towering tree.

"Illusion Technique Giant Needle!"

With a mere thought, Lin Xuan unleashed a torrent of spiritual sense. Steps in front of him, a nearly ten-foot-long black giant needle materialized in an instant. With the force of thunder, it plunged downward, ensnaring the demon lurking in the underbrush.

"What!"

Below, a startled cry echoed from the dense bushes as Lin Xuan made his decisive move overhead.

Concealed within the foliage was a middle-aged man with a monkey's tail and patches of yellow fur on his arms and neck, clearly a yellow-furred monkey spirit. Fear gripped him as he glimpsed the colossal black needle descending from the heavens, and he instinctively tried to flee.

But it was too late.

The giant needle crashed into the bushes, pinning the monkey spirit to the ground, its tip piercing through the creature's forehead. Darkness swiftly engulfed its consciousness.

After a brief struggle, it lay still, lifeless.

From his perch on the branches, Lin Xuan descended swiftly to hover above the bushes. The Fire Chain coiled around his right hand lashed out like a whip, incinerating the monkey spirit's hiding place in an instant.

Puchi!

The Fire Chain made quick work of severing the monkey's head. Swiftly, Lin Xuan retrieved the storage bag from the creature's waist and placed the severed head inside.

Next, Lin Xuan executed the Thousand Illusion Swallowing Spirit Spell.

He parted his lips slightly.

Boom!

In an instant, a fearsome force of devouring erupted from Lin Xuan's mouth, engulfing the yellow-furred monkey before him. A rich, visible stream of blood energy flowed from the monkey's wound, coalescing into a column of blood energy vapor.

Lin Xuan began his feast.

"Blood energy +30!"

"Blood energy +56!"

"Blood energy +44!"

"Spiritual energy +5!"

...

Moments later, the once robust body of the headless yellow monkey monster had been drained to a desiccated husk, a ghastly sight of skin and bones.

In total, it had yielded 140 points of blood energy to Lin Xuan, with a mere 11 points of spiritual energy.

"Phew!"

Lin Xuan expelled a breath of stale air. Astonishingly, the vast majority of the ingested blood energy had been consumed by his body's ravenous bones and flesh, akin to a bottomless pit.

Lin Xuan then lifted his gaze, surveying the gloomy forest ahead. Stepping forward, the Fire Chain on his right arm undulated like a white spirit snake brought to life.

"Found another!"

After leaping hundreds of feet, Lin Xuan detected a faint presence beneath a pile of thick, decaying leaves in a clearing of the forest.

"Go!"

He launched the Fire Chain from his grasp.

Huala!

The chain sliced through the air, and beneath the onslaught of the heat wave, the leaves ignited. Within moments, a great blaze erupted, sending a towering plume of smoke skyward, like a beacon in the desert, piercing the forest canopy.

It was as if a flare had been sent up to mark the path.

Roar!

From within the inferno, a pitiful howl emerged.

Bang!

Followed by a dull thud, the howling tapered off. After a few more breaths, a white specter darted from the tumultuous Fire Wave.

A Demon Clan Cultivator was found with his neck bound.

Yet,

his entire body had been scorched by intense flames, leaving him charred from head to toe.

"Swallowing Spirit!"

Lin Xuan, standing to the side, suddenly opened his mouth, invoking the Thousand Illusion Swallowing Spirit Spell to its utmost. Within moments, the blackened Demon Clan Cultivator was reduced to a lifeless husk.

"Blood Qi +134!"

...

Without a second thought, Lin Xuan decapitated the scorched, unrecognizable corpse and stowed the head in his storage bag.

Generally speaking,

these Demon Clan Cultivators at the Qi Refining Stage were mostly novices, at the first or second level, with little access to cultivation techniques and scarce resources for practice.

The meager, flawed Spirit Stones found on the Eagle Demon and Wolf Demon were a testament to the dire poverty of these solitary practitioners.

Regarding...

The other Demon Clan Cultivators, in the mid to late Qi Refining Stage, their eagerness to join the Jade Water Hall was likely a bid to find a Demon Clan power to support them!

Swoosh!

Afterward,

Lin Xuan abruptly looked up, his senses alert.

Within a hundred meters, he could faintly detect nearly ten formidable presences converging on his location at breakneck speed.

"It seems they've been drawn by the column of smoke!"

Lin Xuan glanced at the towering plume of Black Light.

"Perfect, no need to waste time hunting in the forest. If they're all coming, then let them all meet their end together!"

"Ultra-Strong Armor!"

Instantly,

Lin Xuan's thoughts triggered his innate ability without any gestures, and it consumed very little spiritual energy!

Once the ultra-strong armor was in place,

a surge of metallic black light enveloped Lin Xuan's body.

Clang! Clang!

He tapped his right hand against his left arm, the sound of metal striking metal ringing out clear and pleasant.

His defenses were now so formidable,

that not even an ordinary late-stage Qi Refining cultivator could breach them!

Lin Xuan pondered his current defensive strength.

It's so formidable that probably even an average cultivator at the later stages of Qi Refining wouldn't be able to break through it!

Just then—

Huala!

In that instant, a sudden rustling of leaves erupted from the bushes to Lin Xuan's right!