Chapter 403: Chapter 403

403: Chapter 390: Silver Scorpion 403: Chapter 390: Silver Scorpion Ning Feiyan narrowed her eyes, looking at the fresh blood dripping from Baili An’s palm, and chuckled, “Who would have thought the young lord possessed such skills, not only able to control the Tree Demon but also to strengthen the body of the Demon Vine.

Such prowess in Demon Control is truly awe-inspiring; it seems I was the one overestimating myself within the Wandao Immortal Alliance.

However, the young lord is quite ruthless, to think a mere mistake has cost him his life, and now you might carelessly abandon me as well.”

“You flatter me, elder Ning,” Baili An did not entertain her probing, glancing briefly across the cultivators pulled from the raging darkness.

They each had a lifeless expression, huddled with their knees to their chests, staring blankly with bloodshot eyes, saliva continuously dripping from their mouths, as though they had been struck by some soul-separating technique.

Ning Feiyan’s languid voice rang out again, “This truly is a wonder; I thought the Bronze Gate was a vicious creature that devoured without leaving a trace.

It turns out that those who fall into the darkness can still be retrieved unscathed.

This is eye-opening indeed.”

Baili An glanced at the woman who remained stoic amidst the chaos.

Even as they approached an extreme crisis, with the giant serpent revealing itself, she showed no hint of fright or concern, seeming instead to thoroughly enjoy their current predicament.

He directly controlled the Demon Vine, pulling a cognizant cultivator close to him.

That person was Baili Xianxian.

In the moment of crisis, the Demon Tamers of the Wandao Immortal Alliance did not favor him for his status as Young Master; they retracted the Demon Vine from him just the same, allowing him to be swallowed by the dark tide.

But since being pulled up a short time ago, there was a warmly glowing, gentle jade hanging around his neck, radiating a warm light with some sort of holy Buddhist nature, seemingly preserving his soul from dispersal.

Although Baili Xianxian was pale and terrified, his eyes remained lucid.

Who knows what kind of torment he endured in the darkness?

His clothes were intact, but his skin seemed to have been buried under frozen snow for hundreds of years, pale, icy, teeth chattering and his whole body rigid.

Baili An looked at him and asked, “Did you see anything in that expanse of darkness?”

Although it was also his first encounter with the Bronze Gate, he knew all too well that opening it for less than a day had brought forth the serpent from ancient legends, signaling that something was amiss.

He did not believe that all this was without someone scheming in the shadows.

Baili Xianxian was taken aback by the question, fear intensifying in his eyes.

He shook his head furiously, stammering, “I don’t know!

I don’t know anything!”

He was not soul-struck, but he’d clearly been frightened out of his wits.

“Baili Xianxian,” Baili An enunciated his name deliberately, unfazed, his dark eyes were impassive yet bright, “If you don’t want to remain a pawn in someone else’s hands, then stop being so spineless.”

Baili Xianxian stiffened, his hands clutching his own hair slowly fell to his sides, and the trembling of his body calmed by sheer willpower.

He bit his chattering teeth and whispered, “It was too dark there, cold all around, the aura of that world was completely different from ours, as if many cold and terrifying consciousnesses were biting and not letting go, much like the Heavenly Demons from the God Demon illustrations, shrouded in great darkness.

I couldn’t see them or my companions, but…

inside, I saw Bi Ping—”

“Bi Ping?” Baili An’s eyes narrowed, his heart’s disconnected beads seeming to be slowly strung together on a thin thread.

Baili Xianxian muttered distractedly, “I thought he was just arrogant, but turns out he’s insane.

He went down there willingly; he had a Lamp Melt Grass in his hand, the Lamp Melt Grass from the Second Realm of Ghost Mountain.

It can break through all the darkness in this world.

I don’t know what he’s looking for down there, but he went down by himself!”

Baili Xianxian thought it was madness, and deeply disturbing, “Bi Ping was looking at us from deep below.

He could really see us!

He was sneering, that madman!

I really don’t know if he’s been possessed by a Demon and lost his mind, to do such a thing.”

In the distance, the serpent hidden in darkness, its eyes extinguished, disappeared.

Yet its aura gave Baili An an even closer, more dangerous feeling.

It was an indefinable sensation, a cold, slippery presence that seemed to coil around his very heart.

Ning Feiyan is of the Demon Clan.

This was a conclusion and fact she had already deduced.

And while Bi Ping seemed wildly ferocious, he was actually a man with deep cunning, intentionally stirring up strife and creating chaos, causing the righteous cultivators to be distrusting and suspicious of each other.

Despite their large numbers and substantial cultivation, their defenses could easily be breached.

Now, Bi Ping reappeared in a place he should not be able to.

It was not difficult to infer that there was definitely a connection between him and Ning Feiyan.

But if Ning Feiyan, of the Demon Clan, aimed for the Bronze Gate, why didn’t she follow Bi Ping into the darkness in search of the Demon Lord?

Why would she provoke the taboo serpent beneath the Bronze Gate?

What was her real objective?

That subtle and critical point, like an invisible thread, was perceptible but elusive.

At this moment, he had already activated the power of the blood river.

Merely resisting the demonic thoughts eroding his Sea of Consciousness from the Mohe was extremely draining, and after several swift deductions, his complexion became paler.

With too few clues at hand, the gaze of death lurking in the darkness felt like it could materialize into tangible, terrifying murderous intent at any moment.

Baili An’s gaze hardened, like a flash of lightning toward Baili Xianxian, questioning again, “The Bi Ping you saw in the darkness, aside from the Lamp Melt Grass, was he carrying something else?”

Baili Xianxian’s distraught demeanor was forcibly pulled into focus by his stern, almost cruel, stare, and after reflecting seriously for a moment, his eyes suddenly brightened, “I remember now, he also had a handkerchief, a very familiar handkerchief, it was—”

Before he could finish his sentence, a vicious wind, different from the stillness of the dark, came hurtling towards them, and the flash of a blade shone momentarily in the darkness before being swallowed by a blood light.

A small, curved blade penetrated Baili Xianxian’s chest.

Blood spread from the purple Sect Robe on his chest, the deep red revealing just the tip of a cold blade.

The blade was hooked like the stinger of a Silver Scorpion.

It was a weapon well-suited for assassination.

The Jade Pendant hanging on Baili Xianxian’s chest shattered upon impact.

The wound was small, yet the blood gushed out quickly, and a piercing pain exploded from within his chest.

As a corpse demon, Baili An had exceedingly keen senses, but at the moment of assassination, he had failed to detect any presence at all.

The bloodied blade tip swiftly withdrew, and Baili Xianxian, in agony, spat out a mouthful of blood, his collapsing body caught by Baili An.

He turned his head with difficulty, looking shockingly at the woman clad in a Sect Robe cloak.

A silver-white metallic mask smeared with blotches of blood, her appearance was inexplicably detached and bloody.

The one who struck him was none other than the assassin Hong Zhuang, from his own Wandao Immortal Alliance.