Chapter 194

: The Little Swindler’s Escape
Translator: 
Myriea_ActiasLuna 
 Editor: 
Nou
The stone tortoise felt something wasn’t right, and its voice rose higher as it commanded,
Come back, little brat!
Fang Xing abruptly began to laugh before patting the golden crow, and the golden crow—instantly understanding what Fang Xing intended—spread out his wings and took off into the air while Fang Xing hastily jumped onto his back.
One person, one crow, the speed of the two was as fast as lightning as they flew towards the grand hall’s exit. With the current flying abilities of the golden crow, a single flap of his wings caused gusts of wind to appear beneath him, and they immediately flew a hundred feet forward with a swoosh 
.
Although the stone tortoise was a little surprised, it didn’t panic.
Little bastard, wanting to rebel after having signed the blood contract?
It let out a cold laugh and seeped its Spirit Sense into the jade talisman.
As my servant, you shall be unable to escape me for all eternity. Little bastard, come back and kneel before me!
The tortoise coldly sent out its command through the jade talisman, and invisible forces were set forth to devour the owner of the blood essence. The stone tortoise sneered, waiting for that brat to come back and express regret in front of it.
However, after quite a while, the stone tortoise felt something was not right. The boy hadn’t gone far—if he was going to return, he would have been back by now.
Unless the brat has lied to me?
The stone tortoise quickly checked the jade talisman, and he was still able to feel that the blood essence within the talisman was no different from the boy’s, yet he was unable to control it for some reason. The tortoise grew agitated and inspected it more closely until he finally found something peculiar: as it so happened, this drop of blood essence had been contaminated by a strange aura of impurity. Although it came from the same origin, it was no longer of the same physical form….

Little bastard child, you dare to lie even to this saint! Waaaagh, I want to take your life!
the stone tortoise angrily yelled out before immediately activating the formation of the entire immortal’s hall.
Despite its efforts, the tortoise wasn’t able to see where Fang Xing was anymore, and since it had been here for many years and had just awakened, its Spirit Sense was quite damaged and couldn’t extend over the entire grand hall. As a result, it was only able to activate the formation to the best of its ability to try to keep the boy inside. It was like pushing down a bunch of rocks while only knowing an enemy was at the foot of the hill somewhere; even without knowing the precise location, at least one would hit the target.
Once that was finished, the stone tortoise still hadn’t done enough to vent its anger and poured its Spirit Sense throughout the formation.
Forbidden Yin Ghost Thrall, destroy all living things….

—
As the golden crow flew off at an extraordinary speed, he didn’t forget to turn and ask,
What did you just do back there?
In his mind, this had all been too strange. He’d clearly seen Fang Xing drip his own blood essence onto the jade talisman to sign the contract, yet Fang Xing wasn’t afraid of the stone tortoise at all and had even dared to take the stuff and run. This was decidedly not normal.

Haha, some setbacks have silver linings…. The injury passageway is ten feet to the left,
Fang Xing proudly laughed, not forgetting to point the golden crow in the right direction.
When Fang Xing said he was going to consider the proposal, he had actually gone into his Sea of Consciousness to discuss the situation with the Peng King. He hadn’t been assured even after Chen Xuanhua helped to seal the ninth demon, and he’d entered his Sea of Consciousness numerous times on the way from Chufung to Bohai to discuss possible solutions with the Peng King. After all, although this old man deserved some beatings, he was still quite knowledgeable.
Under the
beating
of the True Samadhi Fire, the Peng King had racked his mind to think of ways to help Fang Xing resolve this ninth demon. Since the demon had been formed from Fang Xing himself, getting free from this demon was no easy matter, and the possible options were all rejected due to either difficulty or danger.
A solution hadn’t been found, but the process had left Fang Xing with quite a thorough understanding as to the nature of this demon. Due to the curse, the demon had already become a unique existence within Fang Xing’s Sea of Consciousness. The demon and Fang Xing’s True Spirit shared the same origin, hence why the True Samadhi Fire—an existence that could refine everything within his Sea of Consciousness—could not refine this demon. At the same time, this demon was different from Fang Xing’s True Spirit because of the curse, and so it had become another spirit itself.
Simply put, it shared the same origin as Fang Xing’s True Spirit, yet it did not belong to his True Spirit.
The Peng King had once been burned so much by Fang Xing that he’d loudly cursed,
Little bastard, who asked you to leave behind a Soul Lantern without thinking it through first? And now after provoking trouble, you’ve come here to give me trouble, too. I—your grandpa—quit; just kill me instead….

Fang Xing had hurriedly tried to smooth things over.
I didn’t know any better back then! I’ll make sure not to leave behind Soul Lanterns anymore in the future!


Why not?
the Peng King replied.
Leave all you can! Leaving it behind when you shouldn’t, but then becoming scared of leaving it behind when you can now leave all you like? If this demon isn’t gone in the future, you’ll be able to leave Soul Lanterns anytime you like—all you have to do is give out the essence of the demon….

After further questions, Fang Xing finally realized the Peng King had discovered a use for such a bizarre occurrence. One of the most simple of uses was to cheat sects by leaving behind Soul Lanterns using precisely this spirit. It had the same origin as Fang Xing, after all, making it difficult for others to tell the difference, but if they tried to control Fang Xing, the force would only strike out at the demon….
With this assurance, Fang Xing had dared to sign the stone tortoise’s blood contract.
Boom 
….
The formation within the Qingqiu Tomb began to turn while Fang Xing and the golden crow both pushed their skills to the limits to escape. Fang Xing focused on the incredibly fast alterations in the eight passageways and passed them on to the crow, while the golden crow did his best to flee while calculating the best way out. At times, they wouldn’t even worry about finding the safest passage, just as long as it wasn’t the passageway of death.
Fortunately, this formation was rotating aimlessly instead of deliberately working to suppress them, giving them a legitimate chance amidst the chaos. In spite of all the dangers, they were eventually able to arrive at the edges of the formation.
At that moment, a white silhouette suddenly appeared in front of them, floating in the air.
The Forbidden Yin Ghost Thrall!
Neither of the pair knew when this ghost thrall had gotten near them, but its presence gradually became stronger.
Fang Xing yelled out,
Sht! Quick, dodge—

Before he’d even finished speaking, the white silhouette shuddered and clawed viciously towards them. In that moment, the strange yet chillingly terrifying aura completely washed over the crow and Fang Xing.
The golden crow’s reflexes could be considered quite fast, and he’d quickly tilted his spread wings to narrowly pass by the ghost thrall’s side. As the ghost thrall’s hand missed, its messy black hair rose up into the air, revealing the face that had always been hidden before: beautiful to the extreme, yet distinctly pale, with blank eyes and a complete lack of life. Her speed was as fast as lightning, and she immediately twisted her hand back towards the golden crow once more. Faced with such an extraordinary speed, the golden crow had no chance to escape it at all.

Puppet spirits, go!
Fang Xing yelled, sending the remaining five puppets of the Puppet Array towards the ghost thrall all at once.
The golden crow chose to trust Fang Xing. Without looking at the ghost thrall at all, he shut his eyes and dashed directly forward.
Woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh 
….
All five of the puppets were thrust towards the ghost thrall, and they were captured one after another in its hands.
Boom boom boom boom boom 
….
As soon as a puppet touched those thin, pale hands of the ghost, the puppet would immediately burst into flames. Five fires were lit up in an instant one after the other, which ultimately ended up blocking this attack.
The Six Puppet Array that had been hanging from Fang Xing’s waist suddenly shattered into pieces as its Qi flowed out and it was utterly ruined. The Puppet Array had fortunately given them an opportunity, and the golden crow had taken it to escape past the ghost thrall.
Since the ghost thrall hadn’t caught what it’d intended, however, its expressionless body suddenly turned around and floated towards the golden crow in chase.
Even its speed at chasing was incredible!

Go faster, go faster….
Fang Xing sent out Flying Swords and talismans of all sorts, wildly attacking without pause to try to stop the ghost thrall while urging the golden crow to fly faster.

I’m going, I’m going….
The golden crow truthfully didn’t need Fang Xing to urge him along; he’d been using everything he could, to the point his tongue had even dropped outside his beak like a dog. Despite this, the ghost thrall was still behind them and inching closer every second.
Suddenly, white silhouettes began to flicker nonstop right in front of their escape route. One, two, three four… in front of them, surrounding them, a countless number of ghost thralls appeared. With so many of them densely packed together, the golden crow could only let out a loud, mournful cry, and he nearly decided to smash his head against the wall to end his life himself.
They’d never imagined this! They couldn’t even escape from a single ghost thrall, so how could so many more suddenly appear? This was ensuring their death!
There was an army chasing from behind, another waiting in the front, and both sides were unsafe as well. They had been completely encircled.
Fang Xing’s eyes grew serious.
Goldy, get ready…
he yelled out before taking a jade talisman and holding it tightly in his hand.
The Ten Mile Teleportation Talisman.
As nearly a hundred of these ghost thralls started to rush towards them from all sides, Fang Xing let out a thunderous howl and activated the Ten Mile Teleportation Talisman.
The air flashed and rippled as both Fang Xing and the golden crow disappeared.
The hundred of so ghost thralls had moved forward in a rush, but their actions immediately halted once their prey had disappeared. Despite their quick motions, none of them had actually collided with each other, and they came to an abrupt stop before floating into the air with their empty gazes sweeping in all directions.
It didn’t take long before they once again discovered the presence of Fang Xing and the golden crow, and they moved in unison to start the chase once more.
After using the Ten Mile Teleportation Talisman, the pair had arrived at the first passage they’d entered. There seemed to be some form of restriction within this cave estate that suppressed the power of the Ten Mile Teleportation Talisman. Originally, even within a miniature realm like the Thousand Cliff, it had shown enough power to teleport its user over ten miles away, but this time it had only managed three hundred or so feet.
Since the golden crow had just escaped death, he didn’t dare to complain about anything else. He saw the entrance of the cave ahead, and—overcome with joy—he let out a loud cry. Not caring if he ended up as tired as a dead dog, he released all of the remaining energy he had to dash towards the outside while those expressionless ghost thralls drew closer and closer behind them. The distance shrank every second; three hundred feet… two hundred and fifty feet… two hundred feet….
With a swoosh 
, the golden crow finally reached the cave entrance and flew directly downwards.
This was the precise moment the plump Daoist had just finished giving his offering. He eagerly looked up with a face full of hope, waiting for something to fall down….