Chapter 13: Counterattack

A figure dressed in grey hemp robes and wearing a bamboo hat was rushing quickly through the forest. Their body was slightly distorted due to the high speed, and a light grey protective barrier had opened around them.

This was all the information the web of the 'Three-Headed Spider with Double Pupils' could capture.

According to Li Changshou's observation, this person possessed strong movement techniques. The long saber at their waist appeared to be a deadly weapon, and their entire being exuded a fierce aura, suggesting they were accustomed to a life of violence.

Taking a light breath, Li Changshou circulated his spiritual energy, and his rushing speed suddenly increased.

A moment later, the pursuer from the side also accelerated, slightly adjusting their charging angle. Their target was undoubtedly Li Changshou.

The opponent's cultivation was initially estimated to be at the sixth or seventh stage of the Void Return realm, but they might have concealed some of their true power. A secondary assessment placed them around the sixth stage of the Dao-Reaching realm.

Since the opponent was pursuing him using movement techniques rather than the more efficient aerial flight, the chance of them already being an immortal was extremely low.

Li Changshou frowned; he had indeed gotten himself involved in something strange.

How should he handle this situation?

Li Changshou's first reaction was to use an escape spell and flee, but he quickly realized that he had been under surveillance for the past two days. The opponent must have some means of tracking him.

If he escaped this time, the opponent would still relentlessly try to attack him, and he would be in even greater danger.

In the forest about five *li* ahead, there was a clearing filled with poisonous weeds but no trees.

Li Changshou let out a soft hum in his heart. He clasped two small paper figurines in his right hand, and his spiritual energy quietly gathered in his right palm.

"The Five Elements circulate, profound virtue brings forth life, the heavy and turbid are unobstructed, Earth takes its place in the center!"

A slight ripple appeared on the grey-white ground ahead. Li Changshou once again used Earth Escape, but after his figure sank into the earth, his right hand glowed brightly.

The person pursuing Li Changshou from the side frowned and snorted coldly. Sensing the aura rapidly moving through the earth, they changed direction again, increased their speed, and rapidly gave chase.

A moment later, Li Changshou emerged from a patch of poisonous weeds. He shook his body, shedding the poisonous soil and a few venomous insects, then raised his hand to replace a few miasma-warding talismans on himself before preparing to rush forward again.

Just then, a sword hum suddenly echoed from the side!

A flash of cold light, even faster than the sword hum, slashed directly at Li Changshou's neck!

Li Changshou spun around abruptly, but there was no time to react. The slender magical saber struck his neck, and his head flew directly backward!

A wisp of grey smoke twisted gently, and the Qi Refiner, wearing a bamboo hat and grey robes, materialized behind Li Changshou. The front brim of the bamboo hat lifted, revealing a faint cold smile on their lips.

"As expected, just a Spirit Transformation cultivator. That was effortless... You!"

His words suddenly stopped as he abruptly looked down at his feet.

The beheaded 'Li Changshou' had actually raised a hand and grabbed the person's ankle!

The 'assassin' reacted very quickly, immediately trying to retreat, but his vision suddenly blurred. All strength seemed to drain from his body; his spiritual power and vital energy became incredibly sluggish, completely unable to circulate!

At this moment, the assassin saw a small, open flask on the belt of the corpse holding his ankle below.

He had fallen into a trap!

The person bit the tip of his tongue with all his might, hoping to regain consciousness, but at that moment, he lacked even the strength to bite through it. His vision was growing increasingly hazy!

Self-developed sedative: Soft Immortal Powder.

Just then, a streak of light flew and hovered above the assassin's head. It was a peculiar paper umbrella embedded with various spirit stones.

The paper umbrella gently spun, and the embedded spirit stones scattered outwards. An isolation formation, fifteen *zhang* in diameter, appeared out of nowhere, using the precious umbrella as its core, instantly cutting off this area from the outside world!

Self-developed magical treasure: Heaven-Shifting Treasure Umbrella.

Li Changshou slowly emerged from the ground. He raised his right hand, and three paper figurines expanded in the wind, with two muffled sounds, they all transformed into Li Changshou's likeness and rushed forward.

Daoist spell: Paper-cut Transformation.

Before the paper figurines reached the assassin, Li Changshou had already raised a bronze crossbow in his left hand. He pulled the trigger without hesitation, and a wooden arrow shot out, precisely piercing the assassin's glabella!

The bamboo hat flew upwards, revealing a somewhat grim, gaunt face.

The short arrow was embedded up to its fletching in the assassin's forehead, causing the light in his eyes to quickly fade.

"You..."

The assassin let out a final roar of rage, but it was still weak and powerless. And just as his mouth opened, the three paper figurine clones had already arrived—

Paper Figurine One thrust out three long nails, directly piercing the assassin's upper, middle, and lower Dantians, locking his three souls and fixing his seven spirits!

Paper Figurine Two continuously formed hand seals with both hands and opened its mouth to spew out a stream of pale white flames. These flames completely enveloped the assassin. The assassin's physical body was directly ignited by the white flames, melting rapidly like a snowman meeting an endless stream of boiling water.

He didn't even manage to let out a single scream...

Paper Figurine Three chanted incantations, using a soul-suppressing and ghost-exterminating spell, forming ripples in front of it that instantly dispersed the illusory figures appearing within the white flames!

By this point, the assassin's soul and spirit were utterly scattered, with only a small pile of remnants being consumed by the white flames.

Li Changshou still felt uneasy. He threw out a thumb-sized spiritual pearl, which gently spun, absorbing faint, pale green glows, leaving not a single trace of the opponent's lingering soul.

Carrying the bronze crossbow, Li Changshou walked a few steps forward and cautiously held the spiritual pearl. By now, the white flames had extinguished, leaving only a small pile of charred ashes, half a saber blade, and a small ring on the ground.

The three paper figurine clones simultaneously sat down cross-legged and began to rapidly chant scriptures.

One paper figurine chanted the Daoist Scripture of Salvation, one chanted the widely spread Rebirth Incantation of the Western Sect, and one chanted the Daoist 'Calamity Dispersion and Blessing Prayer'.

Li Changshou casually drew the jade ring into his palm. He wasn't in a hurry to remove its restrictions, simply wrapping it in layers of spiritual power and tossing it into his backup storage artifact, the 'Heaven-Class No. 4'.

Afterwards, he stared at the spiritual pearl for a few moments, a look of understanding on his face. He walked around the three paper figurines and began to use the Earth Escape technique.

Once the three paper figurines swiftly finished chanting their respective scriptures, faint ripples appeared on the ground. Li Changshou waved his long sleeve, and the small pile of ashes left by the assassin drifted away with the wind.

The three paper figurines leaped up, transforming into three palm-sized paper sheets in mid-air, and flying back into Li Changshou's sleeve.

The umbrella retracted, the spirit stones returning to its surface, and the grand formation instantly dissipated.

Li Changshou formed a sword-finger gesture with his left hand, and a wisp of sword energy surged forth, piercing through the poisonous mist above and accurately striking a black beetle. The beetle was instantly blasted into smithereens...

This series of actions was practically seamless, as if rehearsed countless times before.

Li Changshou then turned his head to glance at the ground, which had returned to normal. He gently pointed at the headless paper figurine, directly igniting the paper, leaving not a single trace behind.

Taking a step, Li Changshou's figure sank into the ground, quietly vanishing from sight.

Alas, crafting a paper figurine also takes a lot of effort...

However, with this guy's 'family fortune' as compensation, it wasn't a total loss.

Li Changshou saw many memory fragments in the remnant souls collected by the spiritual pearl, and consequently learned the group's objective and their entire plan.

The assassin who attacked him was named 'Thorn Dove'. His cultivation was at the second stage of the Dao-Reaching realm, and he was a Qi Refiner hired with spirit stones, specializing in dirty work.

The reason he came to ambush Li Changshou was for the communication talisman on his person. They wanted to use the talisman to lure Aunt-Master Jiu away, drawing her to this location.

Once Aunt-Master Jiu arrived at his location, this group would immediately attack Liu Yan'er and Wang Qi, then use them as bait to lure Aunt-Master Jiu into a trapping formation. And their true target was the Sixth Princess of that certain kingdom—

Youqin Xuan'ya.

But this group wasn't trying to kill Youqin Xuan'ya. Such an elaborate scheme seemed to be for some even more sordid purpose.

Based on the information from this 'assassin's' memory fragments, the mastermind behind it seemed to be his fellow disciple Yuan Qing, or some secular force behind Yuan Qing.

Li Changshou curled his lip, muttering inwardly, 'Indeed, one cannot judge a book by its cover; most "warm men" are just an illusion.'

But none of this concerned him.

The opponent went to such lengths to lure Aunt-Master Jiu into a trapping formation, clearly because they dared not confront her directly. So Li Changshou didn't need to worry about the safety of a True Immortal realm expert...

A gentle breeze blew, and the poisonous miasma returned. The clearing once again became tranquil, the poisonous weeds swaying gently. Aside from another small pile of poisonous weeds burned to ashes, no other trace remained.

No one would have guessed that a not-so-intense 'life-and-death battle' had occurred here moments ago.

A moment later, only the gentle rustling of the wind remained here, as if humming a certain tune...

'Killed you in the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, and even scattered your ashes!'

***

On a beach on the shore of the East Sea, hundreds of disciples were engaged in a fierce battle with shrimp demons continuously emerging from the sea.

In a corner of the battlefield, a few young Qi Refinement disciples were hiding behind a reef, chanting incantations and activating magical artifacts, aiding the senior brothers and sisters charging ahead. However, their gazes were all drawn to the graceful figure standing nearby.

Lan Ling'e held a small porcelain bottle in her hand, lightly scattering a fine powder forward. Then she blew a puff of spiritual energy from her small mouth, and the powder instantly swirled towards more than ten charging shrimp demons.

These already not-very-intelligent shrimp demons instantly became limp, collapsing one by one onto the ground, foaming at the mouth and their eyes rolling wildly...

Ling'e gracefully flew out with a short sword, delivering individual killing blows with extremely precise aim, directly piercing their demonic souls, yet her movements were full of immortal grace.

Soon, she turned and floated back to where she had stood, awaiting the next wave of sea creatures, completely unaware that she had become the subject of observation for many fellow disciples.

'The poisonous powders Senior Brother refines are simply too effective.'

'I wonder if Senior Brother is safe now. Northern Continent is so dangerous; they say even a single insect there can kill an immortal.'

'Sigh... that annoying Senior Brother always tells me to be more steady, yet he goes off on adventures himself.'

'And he didn't even bring his clever and brave little junior sister!'

The more Ling'e thought, the angrier she became, when a shadow suddenly appeared in front of her...

"Junior Sister Ling'e, watch out!"

"Move quickly!"

Suddenly, several anxious shouts reached her ears. Ling'e instinctively looked up, only to see seven or eight shrimp demons already rushing towards her, with more than ten gleaming pincer-blades chopping down at her head!

There were also various holes in the ground; these shrimp demons had launched a surprise attack from underground!

In a flash of lightning, Ling'e let out a soft cry and casually pulled a porcelain bottle from her sleeve and threw it. Her Senior Brother's voice also echoed in her mind...

'If you encounter an emergency or a troublesome enemy, just throw this bottle.'

*Splat!*

The porcelain bottle shattered amidst the group of shrimp demons. A stream of green smoke emerged from within, enveloping the shrimp demons in an instant.

The next moment, the shrimp demons hovered in mid-air.

With a gust of sea breeze, the hard-shelled bodies of these shrimp demons dissipated into thin air, directly transforming into countless colorful bubbles filling the sky, drifting gently with the wind...

Lan Ling'e let out a long sigh of relief, but then noticed that the atmosphere around her was somewhat strange.

She turned her head to look, only to see several senior brothers and sisters who had rushed towards her standing stiffly not far away. Each of them wore a very peculiar expression.

"Hmm?" Ling'e blinked lightly.

With a *clank*, a male Spirit Transformation disciple's long sword fell to his feet. He quickly bent down to pick it up.

"Junior Sister Ling'e, please carry on. You're busy."

"We were just passing by... just passing by..."