Chapter Sixty-Five: An Unexpected Delight

“You’re courting death!”

The woman in the black gauze dress erupted in fury, all traces of allure vanished. She was transformed into a murderous demoness, her long hair whipping wildly as she charged at Xu Zhe.

“Alas, it was only a single Profound Soul Thorn. Is this really necessary?”

Xu Zhe shook his head and sighed. Spiritual energy surged within him, and his body was already shrouded in righteous qi.

He unleashed a Divine Breaker Strike.

With a swing of his fist, a violent gale erupted.

“Ignorant fool, what do you know? That was the Immortal Devouring Thorn! I went through untold hardships to obtain it, and now you’ve destroyed it!” the woman screamed, nearly hysterical.

Xu Zhe could only feel helpless.

Profound Soul Thorn—so they called it the Immortal Devouring Thorn. Did they truly believe this little trinket could devour immortals?

Besides, in the Demon Sect of the Heavenly Domain, even the lowest Golden Core disciples each had a bunch of Profound Soul Thorns to throw as hidden weapons.

Yet she treated a single Profound Soul Thorn as a priceless treasure.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The woman formed a series of incantations, each powered by spiritual energy, unleashing a barrage that surged overwhelmingly towards Xu Zhe.

It was simple and violent—not so much an attempt to kill as to vent her anger.

With his Golden Body cultivation, Xu Zhe feared only that the woman might have a second Profound Soul Thorn; otherwise, he was utterly unafraid of her spells, dispersing each with a single punch.

He began to understand why the woman regarded the Profound Soul Thorn as a supreme treasure. Judging from her attack methods, she seemed utterly ignorant of killing techniques, relying solely on spiritual energy transformed into brute force for reckless attacks.

“Xu Zhe, is raw physical strength all you’re capable of?” The woman gritted her teeth, furious that her spells couldn’t harm him in the slightest.

“You wish to witness my techniques?” Xu Zhe raised an eyebrow, surprised.

This was the first time anyone had made such a request.

But if a fight could be ended quickly with fists, why waste time on elaborate spells? Spell duels were a needless delay.

“Heh, you? You’re just at the Foundation Establishment stage. Besides that Fire Lotus of yours, what other techniques could you possibly have? Relying on brute force alone—how crude and uncultured.” Suddenly, the woman’s taunts grew biting and illogical, bordering on mad ravings.

This left Xu Zhe completely taken aback. How had this woman, so enchanting just moments before, changed so drastically?

“Don’t think that because you killed that early Nascent Soul cultivator from Jade Pool you can ignore the gulf between cultivations. If that Jade Pool woman hadn’t been as stupid as a pig, exposing a flaw in her Four Symbols Sword Array and suffering a backlash, do you really think you’d have had a chance to kill her?”

She continued her tirade, her spells growing ever denser.

“I see,” Xu Zhe murmured, suddenly enlightened.

This woman must have witnessed his battle with the woman surnamed Zheng from Jade Pool. Fearing that he’d spot the flaw in her killing techniques as well, she simply refrained from using them, relying instead on raw spiritual power.

But… things weren’t quite that simple.

Xu Zhe narrowed his eyes. As the woman’s attacks grew more intense, he began to notice a pattern. Though the barrage seemed chaotic, some of the spiritual energy was deliberately missing its mark, striking the ground to his sides, front, and rear.

“You’re trying to distract me, laying a killing trap,” he said, his eyes locked on hers.

“You’ve only just realized? Too late!” The woman sneered, flicking her slender hand to summon a square jade disk.

Her storage ring glowed briefly, releasing several streaks of light that turned into yellow talisman papers, which hovered before her.

“Coiling Dragon Explosive Flame Array, arise!” she shouted, slapping the talismans onto the jade disk.

Boom!

The ground beneath Xu Zhe’s feet shook violently as enormous pythons burst from the earth, their bodies coiling and overlapping, trapping him in the center and squeezing with tremendous force.

The cold, razor-sharp scales scraped across his body as the snakes writhed, sending a shower of sparks into the air.

“Coiling Dragon, Explosive Flame!” the woman cried, forming another seal and tapping the jade disk as if placing a chess piece.

The disk vibrated sharply.

In an instant, the great snakes turned crimson, searing heat radiating through their scales into Xu Zhe.

Rumble—

All the snakes exploded simultaneously in a deafening roar.

A sea of fire engulfed Xu Zhe, flames raging and scattering embers everywhere.

Xu Zhe was blasted into the air by the shockwave, his body enveloped in fire, which scorched him relentlessly.

“I told you—the difference in cultivation can’t be bridged by flesh alone…” The woman smirked, her words dying in her throat as her expression froze.

In midair, the flames on Xu Zhe’s body vanished at a visible rate.

He hung suspended, black hair streaming in the wind, lightning flickering in his eyes like a demon king descended. A vast and terrifying aura surged from him, its pressure so intense the woman felt suffocated.

“Impossible! Even a Nascent Soul cultivator would be gravely wounded by that array. How can you be unscathed, with only your righteous qi shield broken?” she shouted, her face twisted in disbelief.

In the next instant, Xu Zhe’s figure blurred, becoming a shadow. Before the woman could blink, his fist was already crashing toward her face.

Boom!

A shockwave rippled out from the ground.

The woman was sent flying but seemed almost suspended in the air. Xu Zhe’s speed had reached its peak; his form was now only an indistinct afterimage. Only the dull, rhythmic thuds—and the occasional sharp crack—emerged from her body.

Flesh met fist, blow after blow, followed by the sound of bones shattering.

Finally, with a thunderous crash, the woman slammed into the ground. Every bone in her body was broken, her flesh battered and bloody. She teetered on the brink of death.

Her mind was a buzzing chaos, awash with terror.

No matter how she tried, she could not accept her utter defeat.

She’d believed herself prepared for Xu Zhe’s strength, having learned from the death of the woman surnamed Zheng from Jade Pool.

But she had never expected that Xu Zhe’s power, now revealed, would be even more terrifying than when he’d fought Zheng.

She simply could not accept it. Who on earth could have imagined that a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator, who had already slain a Nascent Soul expert across realms, still hadn’t shown his full strength?

Where was the justice in that?

“You’re fortunate. Lately, I’ve had nothing weighing on my mind, so I was able to keep my composure and restrain my full power throughout the fight. That’s the only reason you’re still alive,” Xu Zhe said, approaching her with a look of relief.

“…”

A flush of red briefly returned to the woman’s pale face—a final flicker of vitality.

Then—

She coughed up a mouthful of blood, her complexion even paler, her breath much weaker than before.

She truly was at death’s door.

“S-spare me. I’ll swear fealty to you,” she pleaded weakly, eyes clouded with unwillingness.

“I don’t need anyone’s fealty. Just answer a few questions and I won’t kill you,” Xu Zhe replied calmly.

The woman no longer had the strength to speak, but she blinked rapidly, signaling her willingness to answer.

“The Profound Soul Thorn—forget it, the Immortal Devouring Thorn. How did you come by it?” Xu Zhe asked, deeply concerned as it related to the passage to the Heavenly Domain.

“I… I served the Holy Master for ten years… gave him everything… he rewarded me…” the woman gasped, her words broken.

Xu Zhe frowned, not understanding.

Served for ten years? Gave him everything? What did that have to do with martial arts?

But with his keen intelligence, he quickly deduced the core message: the original owner of the Profound Soul Thorn was this so-called Holy Master she mentioned.

“Who is your Holy Master? And how did he obtain the Immortal Devouring Thorn?” Xu Zhe pressed.

“Holy Master… Hou… Hou Saitian… from… from the Stoneflame Secret Realm, found it in the River of Burial…”

“Hou Saitian? You’re from the Shenhou Hall?” Xu Zhe asked, testing her.

“Odd changes stay, even changes don’t. The Monkey Hall feasts on banquets,” the woman recited with difficulty.

But the code phrase left Xu Zhe confused.

Odd changes stay, even changes don’t. The Monkey Hall feasts on… banquets? Was that their ideal?

“So you’re here on behalf of Shenhou Hall to kill me? Yet your techniques…” Xu Zhe was surprised. He’d expected someone from Li Xunhuang’s side, or perhaps an assassin organization, but it turned out she was from Shenhou Hall.

Yet the techniques she used bore no resemblance to Sword Sweeps the Eight Wastelands.

“No… no. I came for the River of Burial… encountered you… wanted to test…”

“To test if you could kill me?” Xu Zhe guessed the rest, losing patience. “Where is the River of Burial?”

…

The woman’s eyes remained open, her mouth slightly parted, but no breath escaped her lips.

Dead?

Xu Zhe paused, then slapped his own forehead.

He’d been careless—he’d forgotten to give her some healing medicine first.

“The River of Burial… So the people from Shenhou Hall obtained the Profound Soul Thorn from this so-called River of Burial?” Xu Zhe frowned.

According to her, she too had come for the River of Burial within the Stoneflame Secret Realm. Clearly, there were treasures to be found there.

But where was this River of Burial?

And why did it contain items unique to the Demon Sect of the Heavenly Domain?

Xu Zhe turned to gaze at the rippling void.

Suddenly, as if struck by a thought, his expression became strange.

The Profound Soul Thorn—could it have simply fallen from the passage to the Heavenly Domain?

Considering that Li Xunhuang’s group was heading toward the passage, Xu Zhe grew increasingly convinced of his guess.

With this in mind, he decided to set out and investigate.

But looking down at the woman’s corpse, Xu Zhe hesitated.

Would burying her while she was still warm harm the land?

“Forget it. You answered quite a few questions, after all.”

Xu Zhe buried her on the spot.

He also removed her storage ring, lest it contain anything dangerous that might corrupt the earth if buried.

Which, of course, meant he had to check the ring’s contents.

As soon as his divine sense entered, Xu Zhe was stunned.

So many… toys.

“No, wait—that jade slip… is that the Shenhou Hall’s ‘Sword Sweeps the Eight Wastelands’?”

Xu Zhe sensed a surge of spiritual energy resonating with his own righteous qi.

At once, he withdrew the jade slip and scanned it with his divine sense.

Sure enough, it was the very killing technique missing from his Righteous Qi Demon-Sealing Sutra—‘Sword Sweeps the Eight Wastelands.’

A smile broke across Xu Zhe’s face—an unexpected windfall.

He quickly perused the technique.

He mastered it at once.

…