Chapter 193 The Holy Maiden of the Cloudy Sacred Traces

Deep within a dense forest at this moment, ancient trees towered into the sky, their thick canopies slicing the daylight into fragments and casting mottled, dappled shadows.

This place was far removed from the biting cold of the Far North Ice Plains and the clamor of the collision between Buddha and Demon; only the occasional screech of unknown insects added to the profound silence.

Mu Changge sat cross-legged beneath an ancient giant tree that required several people to encircle, his body shrouded in a faint layer of devouring power.

His complexion was no longer as pale as paper as it had been before, having regained some color, but traces of lingering exhaustion and pain remained between his brows.

The terrifying wound on his ribcage, scorched by Liao Chen's Buddha Power, had mostly healed by now, but the burning pain in his Meridians from the conflict between the Buddha and Devilish Qi still required some time to slowly reconcile.

"Hoo..." He slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and opened his eyes, a deep, dark glint flashing through his pupils and vanishing.

Thanks to the ample Medicinal Pill supply in his storage ring, as well as the few "Fellow Daoist" he "accidentally" encountered along the way who "kindly" helped accelerate his recovery (their cultivation and Qi/blood had already become nourishment for the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art), his injuries had recovered to sixty or seventy percent; at least now, he could engage in battle without hindrance.

However, forcibly devouring the cultivation and Qi/blood of others to heal was ultimately somewhat impure, requiring time to calm down and refine completely, but right now, time was the most extravagant luxury.

Not far in front of him, two figures lay prone.

On the left was a young monk wearing ordinary monk robes; his face, originally quite decent, now looked as if he had been drained dry, nothing but skin and bones, his expression frozen with terror and unwillingness.

Without a trace of breath, it was clear he had been dead for quite some time.

The monk robes on his body were stained with dust and faint dark red; he was one of the Disciple of Mount Sumeru who had been ordered to search for and hunt down Mu Changge, only to unfortunately run into him while he was "foraging" to heal.

On the right was a woman.

She knelt limply on the ground, her figure trembling slightly from fear; her light cyan gauze dress with cloud patterns was torn in many places and covered in mud, yet one could still tell its material was extraordinary; she was a Disciple of Yunmiao Holy Trace.

The woman's appearance was truly top-tier, with willow-leaf eyebrows and almond eyes, and fair skin, but at this moment, her face had lost all color, pale as paper, with tears mixed with faint traces of blood carving dirty streaks down her cheeks.

She hunched over, and due to fear and her previous struggles, her collar was slightly disarrayed; from Mu Changge's overlooking angle, that deep, ravine-like cleavage and the breathtaking sight beneath were presented almost without reservation in the dim forest light.

However, toward such scenery, Mu Changge merely swept a flat glance, as if admiring an inanimate piece of porcelain; deep within his eyes, there was only frozen indifference and precise calculation, without a ripple of emotion.

While pondering, he casually rested his right hand on the woman's head; beneath his palm, a faint, weak devouring power circulated, ready to be unleashed.

The woman's body was rigid, even her trembling had almost ceased, leaving only desperate whimpers and uncontrollable shivering.

Mu Changge did not look at this "scenery" and pleading so close at hand; his gaze passed through the gaps in the dense leaves and cast itself far toward the sky of the Far North.

There, the originally gloomy sky was currently being rendered and torn apart by two completely different yet equally massive forces.

On one side was the monstrous Devilish Qi, thick as ink, rolling with dark red blood light, and filled with endless resentment and violence; on the other side was the vast Buddha Power, solemn and dignified, containing the will to purify and suppress.

Even separated by such a great distance, the terrifying spiritual power fluctuations and the humming of the battle collisions still rolled over like muffled thunder, shaking this forest.

Gold light and Demon light intertwined, annihilated, and erupted into blinding halos, illuminating that stretch of the sky with flickering uncertainty, as if it were a doomsday battlefield.

"They've started fighting... truly lively." The corners of Mu Changge's mouth slowly curled into a cold and complex arc; in that smile, there was the mockery of a scheme succeeding, the composure of watching a tiger fight from the mountain, and a trace of playful appreciation for the chess pieces performing with all their might.

"Saint, my good Senior Brother... you must properly enjoy this 'generous gift' from the Buddha Sect, and accompany them... to play to your heart's content."

He whispered to himself, his voice light and slow, yet carrying an indifference that seemed to manipulate fate.

Seemingly sensing the subtle power fluctuations from the hand on her head, the Yunmiao Holy Trace female Disciple kneeling on the ground shuddered violently, waking from her stupor regarding the terrifying battlefield in the distance.

She lifted her teary eyes in a panic, looking up at Mu Changge's profile, half-bright and half-dark under the mottled light and shadow, the last glimmer of hope in her eyes burning into a desperate plea.

"Fellow... Fellow Daoist... Young Master!" Her voice was hoarse and broken, filled with sobbing, incoherent.

"Spare... spare my life! You... you want to know everything about Senior Sister Saintess, I... I have told you all! Without reservation! I beg you... spare my life! I swear I will never leak today's events! I... I can swear a Heart Demon oath!"

She struggled to kowtow, but was easily pinned by the palm Mu Changge pressed on her head; she could only blink her teary eyes desperately, attempting to trade the most humble posture for a glimmer of survival.

The scenery at her chest became even more dazzling due to her movements, but she could no longer care about such things.

Mu Changge finally slowly withdrew his gaze from the distance, landing on the fair face before him, tear-streaked and full of pity and fear; his eyes were calm and waveless, like a deep abyss or cold pool, reflecting not a shred of pity.

"Mm, you are indeed very cooperative." Mu Changge spoke softly, his voice even counting as gentle, as if evaluating something insignificant.

The hand pressed on the woman's head gently, as if soothing her, smoothed down her soft hair with a slow stroke.

The woman's body stiffened, and then an unbelievable light of surprise burst forth in her eyes, as if she had grabbed the last straw, and she hurriedly nodded: "Yes, yes, yes! Young Master is wise! I..."

However, her words came to an abrupt end.

Because Mu Changge leaned down slightly, approaching her ear, and spoke softly in that same gentle tone, yet one that made people's marrow turn cold: "Don't be nervous... take a deep breath, dizziness is normal."

"Wha...?" The woman was dazed, not yet understanding the meaning of these sudden, almost caring, yet incomparably eerie words.

The next moment, the palm that had originally just been stroking her head suddenly pressed down! Within his palm, the devouring power that had been hidden and not released erupted with a roar!

A deep, dark, black vortex that seemed to be able to swallow all light instantly formed in his palm, erupting with a terrifying suction force, firmly attaching to the woman's crown.

"Argh—!!!"

The woman only had time to emit an extremely short, shrill scream before her eyes bulged violently; all her terror, pleading, and even the remaining vitality froze in an instant, then were completely swallowed by endless pain and emptiness.

Her fair face lost its color at a speed visible to the naked eye, becoming gray and shriveled; her plump, alluring body, like a punctured balloon, rapidly withered and shriveled down; her voluptuous curves collapsed in the blink of an eye, and her smooth skin became covered in wrinkles, losing all luster.

Her light cyan Yunmiao Holy Trace dress now hung emptily over a dried-up corpse that was rapidly losing moisture, essence, Qi/blood, and even its soul.

Within just a few breaths, a fresh, beautiful, and attractive female cultivator had turned into a hideous, pink-tinted skeleton curled on the ground, maintaining her kneeling posture.

The last trace of vitality mixed with her meager cultivation turned into a wisp of pure energy, greedily swallowed by the black vortex, flowing along Mu Changge's arm Meridians into his body, rapidly nourishing his not-yet-fully-healed injuries and replenishing his consumed spiritual power.

Mu Changge withdrew his palm without expression, the black vortex in his palm quietly dissipating as if it had never appeared; he shook his hand, as if wanting to shake off non-existent dust, his gaze not even lingering for a second on the freshly minted skeleton.

He slowly straightened up, once again casting his gaze toward that distant battlefield, still roaring and brilliant with light; the collision between Buddha Power and Devilish Qi seemed to have entered a white-hot stage, with even more violent fluctuations clearly perceptible even from here.

"They are fighting so fiercely..." He whispered to himself, his tone as flat as if evaluating fireworks that had nothing to do with him, "I hope you can both suffer heavy losses, or better yet... perish together."

Immediately, his gaze shifted, casting toward another direction in the forest, which was the area he had tortured out of this female Disciple earlier, where the Yunmiao Holy Trace Saintess had gone.

According to what that female Disciple said, their Senior Sister Saintess seemed to have come specifically to this ancient ruin.

"Yunmiao Holy Trace's Saintess... Saintess Ling Xiyue?" A glint of interest flashed in Mu Changge's eyes as he whispered the name he had scraped from the female Disciple's memory.

"It is said that her appearance is peerless (although very few Disciples within the Sect have seen her), and her nature is cold and aloof, like the moon in the Nine Heavens, untainted by dust?"

The cold arc at the corners of his mouth rose again, this time carrying an excitement and cruelty like a hunter discovering prey worth chasing.

"Moon in the Nine Heavens? Untainted by dust?" He chuckled, the laughter sounding exceptionally clear and cold in the silent forest, "I would like to see just what this Saintess looks like."

As his voice fell, his mind moved slightly.

"Hum—"

A low, clangorous sword hum rang out, and that heavy, thick, and broad greatsword appeared out of thin air beneath his feet; the sword body was ancient and unadorned, yet possessed a heavy, mountain-like solidity.

Because his injuries had not yet healed, he wanted to heal while flying; controlling this life-bound sword to fly, while not reaching Peak speed, could maximize the saving of spiritual power consumption and was as steady as a rock.

Mu Changge stepped out, landing lightly on the broad sword body; the black greatsword swayed slightly, then steadily supported him.

Mu Changge cast one last glance at the gorgeous and cruel "fireworks" in the Far North sky, then swept over the two silent corpses at his feet, his eyes indifferent, without a ripple.

The black greatsword carried him, turning into a streak of black light that was not fast but extremely steady, silently skimming over the treetops, and flew toward the depths of the forest, in the direction the Yunmiao Holy Trace Saintess had headed, unhurriedly flying away.

His figure soon merged into the heavy tree shadows and the rising twilight, disappearing from sight...