Demonic Aura
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Morning light pierced the vapor rising from the spirit spring and fell upon the golden vines coiled around Shen Yi’s fingertips.
He lowered his head and studied the veins in his palm, stained a jade-green by the spirit leyline. The spiritual power that had lain dormant in his dantian for days suddenly surged like boiling water. This body, which had teetered on the brink of collapse after the bloody battle, had actually broken through to the mid stage of Qi Condensation by absorbing the leyline’s energy.
“System notification: Spirit-Plant Symbiosis Mode activated.”
The instant the mechanical voice thundered through his sea of consciousness, Shen Yi suddenly understood the patterns on the vines wrapped around Night Shadow.
Those golden veins were unmistakably the Nine-Turn Golden Wheat he had planted three days earlier. At that moment, they were greedily drinking in the spiritual energy buried deep within the earth.
Night Shadow’s mask shattered beneath the vines’ strangling grip, revealing half a face as pale as paper.
He suddenly curled his blood-red lips into a smile. His bound palm slammed against his own chest.
“With my essence blood, I summon the Demon Sovereign into the mortal realm!”
The ground exploded, sending five fountains of blood into the air. The black-robed men who had already begun to scatter screamed as they transformed into clouds of crimson mist.
The demonic energy around Night Shadow surged violently in Shen Yi’s pupils. The broken sword that had been embedded in the center of the formation began to tremble with a dragon’s roar, then shot toward the space between his brows amid a downpour of blood.
“Brother Shen, look out!”
Gao Yao’s cry was torn apart by the raging wind.
As Shen Yi leaned backward to evade the blade, he caught sight of the golden markings in the girl’s hair. They had spread all the way to her heart, forming a strange resonance with the blood-colored formation Night Shadow had summoned.
“So that was your plan.”
Shen Yi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and suddenly pressed his bloodstained index finger against the root of the vines.
A rumble rose from deep within the earth. Eighteen ears of wheat wrapped in spiritual soil burst from the ground and formed a simple Eight Trigrams array in midair.
The instant Night Shadow’s broken sword struck the wheat array, the entire ground of the Newcomer Village suddenly glowed with azure light.
Looking at the planting progress bar flashing wildly across the system interface, Shen Yi suddenly understood. The seven hundred and twenty spirit seeds he had buried at the village entrance over the past three days had all been stimulated by the leyline’s energy and formed an array.
“Fierce Wind, the southeast position—the Wind Trigram!”
Shen Yi’s roar jolted the burly man hiding behind the ruins awake.
The dust-covered hunter seized a bronze hoe and flung the last half-jar of spirit wine toward the center of the formation.
The wine ignited the instant it met the wind, transforming into the phantom of an Azure Dragon that coiled around Night Shadow’s left leg.
Villagers poured in from every direction, carrying hoes and sickles. They knew nothing of immortal arts, but relying on the instincts of farmers, they drove Night Shadow toward the killing array Shen Yi had laid.
Even the white-haired village chief used his cane to hook a Binding Immortal Vine, snaring two black-robed men who attempted a sneak attack.
“How dare insects defy me!”
Night Shadow shattered the vines around his body, yet black blood seeped from all seven apertures of his face.
The shadow beneath his feet suddenly twisted into a three-headed hound. Each head clamped a blood-colored talisman in its jaws as it lunged toward the spirit spring.
Shen Yi saw it clearly. The patterns on the three talismans were identical to the lotus mark over Gao Yao’s heart.
The Divine Farmer’s Mirror in the system inventory suddenly turned its own pages. On the yellowed paper, a burning wheat-stalk totem emerged.
Struck by inspiration, Shen Yi thrust half of the broken sword into the spirit spring. The clear water instantly turned crimson-gold.
The wheat ears that had soaked in the spring suddenly burst open. Amid a thousand golden rays, a swarm of locusts carrying sparks flew forth.
“Fighting poison with poison?”
Night Shadow’s mocking laugh suddenly changed in tone.
The demonic hounds he had summoned were devoured until only skeletons remained, while the blood-colored talismans turned to ash amid the sparks from the wheat.
Seizing the opportunity, Shen Yi leaped to the center of the formation. Iris seeds slipped from his sleeve and blossomed in the blood-soaked earth, forming whirlpools of ink-black color.
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When the seventh morning star disappeared into the clouds, Night Shadow’s black brocade robe had been reduced to tatters.
He stared at the faint lotus phantom hovering in Shen Yi’s palm and suddenly burst into mad laughter.
“What a worthy heir of the Divine Farmer! Pity you can protect the leyline, but you cannot protect—”
Before he could finish, the black-robed leader suddenly detonated his dantian.
The spiritual barrier Shen Yi had raised was corroded by demonic energy until cracks spread across it. Just as it was about to shatter, a thread of moonlight repaired it. The golden markings in Gao Yao’s hair had spread across her entire body at some unknown point, weaving themselves into a robe of moonlight around her.
“Yao’er, don’t move!”
Shen Yi’s warning froze the girl in place.
He stared at the lotus pattern blooming fully over Gao Yao’s heart and finally understood the meaning of the system notification: “Symbiotic Spirit Body.”
The leyline’s spiritual energy suddenly formed a vortex, enveloping the two of them in an azure cocoon of light.
The remnants of Night Shadow’s demonic energy howled and slammed against the cocoon from outside, but it could never break through that barrier, thin as a cicada’s wing.
When the first rooster crow split the dawn, the crisp sound of wheat stalks shooting upward came from within the cocoon. Three ink-dark irises quietly blossomed upon Shen Yi’s bloodstained robe.
The broken sword had left Shen Yi’s tiger’s mouth numb, while the Eight Trigrams array formed from the Nine-Turn Golden Wheat shed a rustling shower of golden dust in the wake of Night Shadow’s self-detonation.
Gao Yao’s robe of moonlight, trailing several iris petals, drifted before his eyes. The lotus mark between her brows flickered brightly and dimly in rhythm with the trembling leyline.
“Brother Shen, thirty paces southeast!”
Gao Yao suddenly raised her hand and hurled a jade hairpin.
The instant its tip pierced the soil, Shen Yi saw that it had been buried beside the Drunken Dragon Grass planted three days earlier. The spirit plant, which should have been emerald green, had now turned translucent amber, its roots entwined with the black blood scattered by Night Shadow.
The Divine Farmer’s Mirror suddenly flew out of the system inventory and hovered above the two of them.
Its yellowed pages flipped rapidly before stopping at a totem depicting twin wheat stalks.
Struck by inspiration, Shen Yi bit his fingertip and drew a blood sigil across the page.
“With my essence blood, I summon all spirits to their places!”
The spirit fields within a radius of ten miles trembled at once. The spirit plants contaminated by demonic energy suddenly changed direction.
The three-headed demonic hound summoned by Night Shadow was about to pounce upon the villagers when wildly growing Drunken Dragon Grass wrapped around its neck. Amber fluid seeping from the leaves corroded the demonic energy into wisps of green smoke.
“You dare use my blood against me?”
Night Shadow wiped the blood from his lips. Beneath his black brocade robe, hundreds upon hundreds of thorned vines suddenly burst forth.
Shen Yi’s pupils contracted. Those vines were unmistakably the forbidden immortal art known as Heart-Eating Thorn. Every spike gleamed with the same golden markings as the lotus over Gao Yao’s heart.
Gao Yao suddenly groaned and collapsed to the ground. The lotus pattern beneath her collar spread along her blood vessels.
Shen Yi thrust the broken sword into the earth before him. The spirit spring lifted by the blade’s edge formed a water mirror in midair. Reflected within it was a faint twin-lotus blooming over Night Shadow’s chest, resonating with Gao Yao’s mark.
“A Symbiotic Curse?”
Shen Yi finally understood the bloody warning in the system notification.
He spun aside to evade the thrusting Heart-Eating Thorns. Wheat seeds slipped from his sleeve and landed precisely in every villager’s pocket.
The old village chief was the first to react. Trembling, he drew out a wheat seed and pressed it against his chest. Suddenly, azure light blazed from his cloudy eyes.
Night Shadow’s mocking smile froze upon his lips.
The wheat seeds, infused with the villagers’ breath, suddenly split open. Tender shoots pierced through the golden patterns on the Heart-Eating Thorns, transforming the forbidden art into pure spiritual energy.
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Seizing the opportunity, Shen Yi stepped upon the wheat ears and leaped into the air. As his bloodstained robe brushed past Gao Yao’s hair, he quietly slipped half an iris petal into her palm.
“You think you’ve already won?”
Night Shadow suddenly tore open the front of his robe, revealing a blood-colored lotus writhing over his heart.
The leyline beneath the entire Newcomer Village trembled violently. The spirit spring began to flow backward, while the spirit plants the villagers had just planted withered before their eyes.
A searing pain suddenly erupted in Shen Yi’s dantian, and the system interface flashed wildly with red light.
Clenching his teeth against the agony of his tearing meridians, he grabbed the wine jar Fierce Wind hurled to him and drank deeply.
The instant the spirit wine mixed with spring water slid down his throat, the planting progress bar that had lain dormant for days finally filled completely.
“Ding! Hidden quest triggered: Prove the Dao Through Agriculture.”
As the mechanical voice rang out, the wine jar in Shen Yi’s hand transformed into a bronze plow.
Staggering, he threw himself toward the center of the formation. Wherever the farming tool carved across the earth, thorned vines sprang up automatically. They were none other than the Heart-Eating Thorns Night Shadow had just unleashed.
Night Shadow’s pupils contracted sharply. He tried to form a hand seal, only to discover that he had been fixed in place.
The reversed Heart-Eating Thorns wrapped around the vital points of his entire body. When their tips pierced his skin, they began returning spiritual energy to him instead.
The lotus mark over Gao Yao’s heart suddenly shed its blood-red hue and transformed into pure golden radiance, which sank into the leyline.
“Returning your own attack against you. How do you like that?”
Shen Yi rose to his feet, leaning on the plow, half an iris petal still caught between his fingers.
The demonic energy around Night Shadow was being purified. He stared at the ink-dark irises blooming on Shen Yi’s robe and suddenly let out a shrill, despairing howl.
When the last wisp of black smoke dissolved into the morning light, Shen Yi’s bronze plow clattered to the ground.
The villagers surged in from every direction, raising their farming tools. The old village chief lifted Night Shadow’s tattered black robe with his cane, while Fierce Wind smashed open the final jar of spirit wine buried for ten years.
“That’s my boy! You’ve got some damn courage!”
Fierce Wind’s laughter shook the remaining snow from the eaves.
Gao Yao stumbled into Shen Yi’s arms, her fingers still clutching the iris petal that had saved her life.
The golden markings in the girl’s hair had already faded. Only the lotus over her heart gave off a faint glow when Shen Yi drew near.
Shen Yi was just about to raise his hand and stroke Gao Yao’s long hair when he suddenly caught sight of a red dot remaining on the system interface.
The instant he forcibly opened it, the newest annotation revealed by the Divine Farmer’s Mirror sent a chill through his entire body:
“The Symbiotic Lotus Seal remains. Beware the night of the full moon.”
Beyond the cheering crowd, the last trace of demonic energy quietly seeped away through a fissure in the leyline.
Holding the girl tightly in his arms, Shen Yi gazed at the silver moon gradually nearing fullness on the horizon. A bitterness rose in his throat that even the spirit wine could not suppress.
The lotus mark over Gao Yao’s heart grew faintly hot against his palm, as though silently counting down to something.
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