Heishan Laomu noticed that Bai Feng was merely holding her at swordpoint, so she became wary of the black snake demon. She knew that Shui Miao and his group were afraid of her elder sister, Lady Bai, so she seized this lifeline and threatened, “You fools don’t know about my relationship with Lady Bai, and I won’t blame you for that. But if you treat me like this, my sister definitely won’t let you off! If you know what’s good for you, release me immediately, apologize, give me some Yin Holy Spirits, and maybe I’ll put in a good word for you to spare you from being utterly destroyed.”
How annoying! Shui Miao coldly glanced at Heishan Laomu without saying a word, and continued to spread his divine consciousness to sense his surroundings.
However, within the range of his perception, there was no trace of Lady Bai’s soul.
“Brother, what should we do?”
Bai Feng didn’t know how to decide, so she handed over all authority to Shui Miao.
“Cursed!” Heishan Laomu threatened again, “You fools, I’m giving you only ten seconds—release me now or I’ll make you regret it! Even if my younger sister wants to kill you, I won’t plead on your behalf!”
“Rather than letting Bai Feng kill her, I should act myself. Whatever the consequences, I’ll bear them alone!” After quickly weighing his options, Shui Miao immediately turned around and told Bai Feng to lower her sword. Then, suddenly, he drew his curved blade and stabbed it into Heishan Laomu’s demon soul. Startled, the black snake demon quickly dodged aside, shouting, “Old hag, you dare stab my Bai Sister with a blade? I’ll make sure you never recover!” As he spoke, Shui Miao swung his curved blade wildly, chopping Heishan Laomu’s demon soul into over a dozen pieces.
Heishan Laomu’s demon soul was powerful; even if ordinary weapons sliced her soul into countless fragments, she could still reassemble herself, suffering only minor injuries. Since demon souls were inherently intangible, only destroying her demon core could truly kill Heishan Laomu. Coincidentally, one of Shui Miao’s wild slashes sliced straight through her demon core, splitting it in two!
Instantly, her demonic energy scattered, and Heishan Laomu’s soul disintegrated, turning into a wisp of green mist that vanished into the air.
The black snake demon quickly inhaled the dissipating demonic energy greedily, puffing up his belly. For a snake demon, consuming other demons’ energy was the best way to enhance his cultivation. Though he had only cultivated for a hundred years, his strength was no less than Bai Feng’s—precisely because he had devoured many demon souls.
Seeing this, Shui Miao felt a deep unease. He sensed that the black snake demon was different—an outsider. Once he grew strong enough, he might pose a threat to Shui Miao himself.
Because of this feeling, Shui Miao decided to help Bai Feng improve her cultivation to balance him.
“Sister, did you think I did this out of fear of implicating you?” Bai Feng was somewhat shocked, not expecting Shui Miao to be so considerate of her.
Shui Miao exhaled and reached out to take Bai Feng’s hand. With a grasp, he used his immortal energy to draw her into the Holy Yuan Ring, simultaneously sending her a mental message: “Bai Sister, don’t think too much. I’ll handle many things myself. Now listen to my plan—stay inside the Holy Yuan Ring and cultivate using all kinds of holy spiritual energy to quickly enhance your power. Later, you’ll help me counterbalance the black snake demon. We can even go together to the Immortal Realm and establish our own immortal sect. So, just focus on cultivating. I’m a person with great fortune—I won’t be in danger, so you don’t need to worry.”
After saying this, Shui Miao immediately activated his immortal energy, transferring all the treasures in this underground vault, including stone beds and benches—everything movable—into the Holy Yuan Ring. First, because the Holy Yuan Ring was vast enough, and all these items were valuable; second, with the gold and jewels from the treasure vault, he wouldn’t have to worry about money in the future.
Bai Feng thought for a moment and realized that it was indeed time to urgently improve her cultivation, especially her Yang-type spiritual energy. Without strengthening it, she wouldn’t even be able to survive in the Immortal Realm. Thus, she flew to the stone bed, sat cross-legged, first relayed the information she had obtained from Heishan Laomu to Shui Miao, and then focused on her cultivation.
“Master, where did you take Bai Sister?” The black snake demon, with his belly swollen, stared at Shui Miao in shock.
Shui Miao shook his head coldly, “She disappointed me too much. Even dealing with Heishan Laomu was too difficult for her, forcing me to intervene personally. Plus, she’s the apprentice of the thousand-year-old ghost, Lady Bai—I must be cautious. So I locked her inside the ring, keeping her out of our affairs to avoid more trouble for myself.” Then he approached the black snake demon, gently patted his shoulder, and sighed, “Xiao Hei, you were sent by the Yin Deity to help me. From now on, I can only rely on you. Don’t let me down. Later, you can transform into my form and cooperate with several major bosses of the Haihai Merchants’ Guild, building temples and gathering offerings. In the future, I’ll take you to the Immortal Realm to purchase immortal mountains and establish our sect.”
As he spoke, Shui Miao’s mind flickered, transferring some of the various Holy Yuan Spirits from his realm into the Holy Yuan Ring.
After experiencing many things, Shui Miao’s mind had gradually matured, and he had begun to try his hand at political scheming and strategy.
The black snake demon never expected Shui Miao to value him so highly, even promising to take him to the Immortal Realm to buy mountains and establish a sect. Overcome with emotion, he immediately knelt on one knee before Shui Miao, clenched his fists, and swore, “Master values me so much—I hereby swear to heaven that from this day forward, I will follow you with unwavering loyalty. If I ever betray you, may heaven and earth curse me, and may I suffer a terrible fate!”
The black snake demon swore a solemn oath, which greatly surprised Shui Miao.
Shui Miao quickly helped him up. Regardless of whether the oath was sincere, Shui Miao decided to further strengthen their relationship. “Xiao Hei, for saying such words, I’m deeply moved and also ashamed. I’m not particularly talented myself, yet you call me Master. If you truly regard me as a friend, let’s address each other as brothers. Since you’re older, how about you become my elder brother from now on?”
“No, no, no, Master! I’ve sworn to the Yin Deity that you are my Master, and that fact can never change. Plus, Master treats me so well—it’s only right that I give my life for you!” The black snake demon earnestly refused. He knew he lacked the strength to be Shui Miao’s elder brother, and the Yin Deity wouldn’t approve either.
Another oath!
Suddenly, Shui Miao felt that this black snake demon seemed to love swearing oaths. If someone treated oaths lightly, casually making promises, could his words truly be trusted?
Considering this, Shui Miao still felt the black snake demon couldn’t be fully trusted.
Thus, Shui Miao said no more and returned his soul to Jing Shui Village, into the room where Xiao Tudou was sleeping.
As soon as his soul re-entered his body and he opened his eyes, many ghosts suddenly appeared in the room. They were Zhang Yuan from Lingyin Temple and a large group of Taoist priests holding long swords.
“What does this mean?”
Shui Miao immediately furrowed his brow, never expecting that his elder brother Zhang Yuan would actually oppose him.
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