Chapter 45

Actually, it can't be said that Xuankong is completely brainless.

It's just that cultivators originally emphasize a pure and innocent heart, lively and free from any taint. He had been confined on Mount Laoshan for nearly twenty years, so naturally his personality became somewhat repressed. Now that he had come down the mountain, he first encountered a series of fierce battles.

Seeing the four True Lords of the Jingming Dao turn to ashes in an instant greatly affected Xuankong's psyche.

His predecessors indeed lived a life on the edge of the blade, but they only dealt with small knives, sticks, and cold weapons, and at most, pistols. How could they have seen such methods that turned people into ashes?

He was not originally a stubborn and foolish person; he had just become somewhat rule-bound after reading Daoist texts for over a decade.

For a moment, his heart was moved, and he somewhat recovered his playful nature from his previous life.

Listening to the breathing of the person in the next room gradually become steady, Xuankong finally sighed in relief. How could he be as careless and reckless as he appeared? It was just that he didn't want to reveal his weakness to others, so he pretended to be nonchalant and deliberately made jokes to reassure his junior brother.

Walking into the guest room reserved by Wang Qi, Xuankong sat by the table and waited for a while until he heard his junior brother fall asleep, then he got up from the chair.

When he stood up, he used a bit too much force and felt a burst of stars before his eyes, and his head ached severely.

Xuankong smiled bitterly, "I never thought that after practicing Qi for twenty years, I still couldn't match those ancient demons." He pondered, in a world full of hidden dragons and tigers, how could his future disciples and followers possibly stand up to these thousand-year-old demons?

Not to mention subduing demons and eliminating evil, just protecting oneself would be a challenge.

There must be a way.

Xuankong stopped, standing still, his eyes moving over the immortal sword at his waist. He remembered that in the future, there seemed to be a transitional period between Qi practitioners and cultivators, the era of sword immortals, which the predecessors thought was just a story made up by web novel writers.

He never imagined that in this world, if he really wanted to create his own cultivation system, he would need such purely offensive sword immortals to protect it.

He shook his head, feeling dry and thirsty, and dared not think further.

The most urgent task now was to recover from his internal injuries. Otherwise, if he couldn't protect his own life, how could he have time to think about future development? Xuankong thought this, took a few steps with difficulty, and almost fell to the ground.

He didn't see that on the windowsill, a small yellow-furred fox was peeping inside with its eyes wide open.

Seeing Xuankong almost fall, it quickly covered its mouth with its front paws and thought to itself, "Ah, his internal injuries are so severe?"

Xuankong hurriedly supported himself on the table, his face pale, not expecting that the excessive use of his spirit had caused such damage to his soul. As for the internal injuries to his body, they were not too serious, but for the physicians of this world, there was no medicine to treat them.

However, for a Qi practitioner who had cultivated to the Dao, it would only take a couple of days of rest to recover.

What was truly life-threatening was the shock to his soul and the severe depletion of his true essence.

Xuankong sighed inwardly, took a few steps with difficulty, and stumbled to the bed, sitting down. He formed the hand seals and sat cross-legged. He forcibly drew a breath of true essence from his Purple Mansion Golden Pill, and began to circulate it through his nearly dried-up extraordinary meridians.

What was usually a simple task now felt like a torture.

When Xuankong used the Thunder Technique in the midst of his battle with the Spirit Beneficent Immortal, it had already caused multiple injuries to his internal meridians. Later, when his true essence was depleted, he forcibly extracted the true dragon power from the White Dragon's pearl to activate the Twelve Celestial Constellations Array, which further aggravated his injuries.

The battle was exhilarating, but the aftermath was the time for reckoning.

Xuankong placed his arms slightly on his chest, mentally visualizing the Thunder God's form to stabilize his soul, and quickly directed the true essence to his heart to protect the already overburdened heart meridian. At this moment, there was no choice; it was time to pay the debt. Xuankong smiled bitterly and gritted his teeth, persisting in circulating the true essence.

It wasn't until the third watch of the night that the originally chaotic true essence finally returned to the Purple Mansion under Xuankong's guidance. The Golden Pill, receiving this true essence, reignited the pill fire, burning away all the hidden injuries in his body.

However, as he had calculated, the damage to his extraordinary meridians still required more time to heal, and Xuankong would not be able to fully engage in battle for at least half a month.

But that was fine; after all, it wasn't every day that one would encounter a thousand-year-old centipede demon like Cihang Pudu.

The yellow-furred fox, perched on the windowsill, was unaware of the passage of time, tears welling in her eyes as she watched Xuankong mend his meridians. Since she had gained consciousness, no one had ever been so good to her. Only Xuankong had helped her selflessly and protected her.

The little fox didn't think about anything else, just watched Xuankong, her eyes filled with boundless thoughts.

She was still innocent, and it would take a long time for her to understand what this look meant, but by then, much had already changed. Xuankong closed his eyes, his face turning from pale to red, and he formed the Thunder Technique hand seal, pointing it at the sky.

A streak of lightning entered through the window and struck Xuankong.

With the assistance of the Primordial Thunder Technique, Xuankong opened his eyes, emitting a beam of light several feet long. A mouthful of dark, clotted blood spewed out, landing on the ground. The Primordial Thunder Technique was the natural nemesis of all demons, and the little fox was startled and quickly scurried back to Wang Qi's room, avoiding being discovered by Xuankong.

This mouthful of blood was the injured blood in Xuankong's body, and after spitting it out, he indeed felt much lighter. Xuankong smoothly guided the true essence in his body to circulate and return to its place, took a deep breath, and stood up from the bed, touching his head and smiling bitterly, "This time, I almost lost my life. I can't afford to do such foolish things again."

Reflecting on himself, if he hadn't argued with the Spirit Beneficent Immortal, he wouldn't have fought all the way to Bianjing City and alarmed the old demon Cihang Pudu.

If he hadn't alarmed Cihang Pudu and the Giant Eagle Mingwang, he wouldn't have suffered such internal injuries.

Shaking his head, he poured himself a cup of tea, drank it to quench his thirst, and then sat back on the bed. This time, he didn't need to laboriously circulate the true essence; he just needed to adjust his breathing and sit quietly to practice Qi until dawn.

This human world was truly terrifying. Just by using his divine sense, Xuankong detected at least dozens of bloody auras rising into the sky. Clearly, some street heroes were fighting to the death, and among these bloody auras, countless demons and ghosts were lurking, drooling as they watched.

In the darkness, some strange and bizarre creatures slowly appeared.

These demons, taking advantage of the cover of night, roamed the city without restraint, clearly hunting for food within their territories. For example, the inn where Xuankong and Wang Qi were staying belonged to the territory of a rat demon in the city. Upon returning from hunting, it saw the lightning swirling above the inn and, out of curiosity, approached Xuankong's room.