Gateway of Immortality

"Be careful, Senior Qin. There’s not only evil spirits here but also a humanoid Cloud Beast, as powerful as a Foundation Building cultivator, lurking in the shadows and waiting to ambush. Daoist Chai was nearly seriously injured by its surprise attack."

The cultivator surnamed Ning stayed vigilant, transmitting this warning to Qin Sang.

Upon hearing this, Qin Sang finally understood. A few evil spirits alone wouldn’t have been enough to trap Ning and Chai. It was their efforts to counter the humanoid Cloud Beast that delayed their escape, drawing in more and more evil spirits and leaving them stranded here.

Humanoid Cloud Beasts were rare creatures—formed when a cultivator’s spirit was contaminated by a Cloud Beast essence, transforming them into a Cloud Beast. Sometimes this transformation occurred even if the cultivator hadn’t died, with the Cloud Beast essence taking over at the brink of death. All humanoid Cloud Beasts were difficult to deal with, often as strong as the cultivator was in life, if not stronger. Some could even use the artifacts their host had wielded.

With his spiritual consciousness restricted, Qin Sang couldn’t probe the surroundings fully, and he hadn’t detected any signs of the humanoid Cloud Beast within the Yan Luo Array of Ten Directions. It was well-hidden indeed.

"Daoists, you should retreat and tend to your wounds first, then join Daoist Yunqiong as soon as possible." Qin Sang signaled to them with a glance, turning his back as if defenseless to escort them out.

After just a few steps, a chilling gust of energy surged from behind with astonishing speed, aiming straight for Qin Sang’s back.

Qin Sang smirked inwardly, swiftly commanding the ebony sword to thrust behind him. A burst of sword qi shot out, extending several feet, hitting the dark figure directly.

Boom!

Swish!

The ebony sword swiftly followed, its sword light splitting into two streams of sword qi that formed a sword array. The dark figure had barely risen from the ground, attempting to retreat into the shadows again, but was caught within the array.

"Hurry!"

At Qin Sang’s urging, Daoists Ning and Chai dared not hesitate. Staying would only burden him, so they flew off without looking back. Once they were gone, Qin Sang summoned the malevolent corpse hidden nearby.

Using the Thousand-Mechanism Sword Array in tandem with the malevolent corpse, Qin Sang firmly trapped the humanoid Cloud Beast. He then checked the Yan Luo Array of Ten Directions to confirm that the evil spirits posed no threat before he finally examined the humanoid Cloud Beast more closely.

It was vaguely human-shaped, but barely so—like a dried corpse, its skin clung tightly to its bones, or rather, it looked like a skeleton with a thin layer of skin stretched over it.

Qin Sang’s gaze shifted to the Cloud Beast’s arm.

Around its wrist was a grayish-white metal bracelet, an artifact likely used by this person in life. The bracelet was damaged, with several large cracks, barely held together. It seemed as if a light touch could break it.

Seeing the bracelet, Qin Sang felt a stir in his heart. He moved quickly to the side of the Yan Luo Array of Ten Directions, seized an evil spirit, and sensed its connection with the bracelet. As he suspected, the evil spirits were closely linked to it.

"A damaged soul-refinement demonic artifact?" Qin Sang murmured, now understanding.

No wonder the Yan Luo Banner of Ten Directions could devour the evil spirits so easily without any resistance.

It seemed the demonic artifact was damaged, significantly weakening its control over the evil spirits. Additionally, the Cloud Beast, being what it was, lacked the intelligence it once had as a cultivator. Once the evil spirits were consumed, it didn’t know how to use the artifact to counterattack.

With this insight, Qin Sang was confident that the evil spirits were no longer a threat. However, the bracelet artifact was a valuable find. By having the Yan Luo Banner of Ten Directions devour all the evil spirits within the bracelet, its power could undoubtedly increase by another level.

This discovery also illuminated a promising path forward for Qin Sang.

He wondered if other demonic artifacts shared this characteristic. Since the Yan Luo Banner of Ten Directions could increase its power by directly devouring demonic artifacts, there was no need to go to extremes of killing and refining souls; it would be enough to consume soul-refinement demonic artifacts from other demonic cultivators. ṝΑℕỔ𝐁Ɛ𝓢@@novelbin@@

Intact demonic artifacts were bound to be costly and hard to come by, so collecting damaged ones might be easier—after all, what he needed were the evil spirits and malevolent entities trapped within.

At this thought, a glimmer of joy appeared on Qin Sang’s face. He immediately focused his energy, attacking the humanoid Cloud Beast with the ebony sword in swift, relentless strikes. Sword qi surged fiercely, targeting the beast’s wrist until he finally severed its arm.

The humanoid Cloud Beast roared in fury.

With a loud clang, the bracelet fell to the ground, rolling some distance away. The Cloud Beast leaped to retrieve it, only to be forced back by a heavy punch from the malevolent corpse. Qin Sang used his spiritual power to create a large hand, seizing the bracelet and drawing it toward him.

Inspecting it carefully, Qin Sang noted that the bracelet wasn’t entirely broken, retaining some residual power. He gathered his spiritual consciousness, forcefully invaded the bracelet, erased its previous owner’s imprint, and claimed it as his own.

"Absorb!"

With a wave of his hand, the bracelet flew into the air, spinning rapidly as strands of grayish-white qi emanated from it, pulling in the evil spirits roaming around. These spirits let out reluctant cries, yet were all swiftly drawn into the bracelet.

Just then, a commotion of hurried footsteps sounded from behind, followed by the voice of the cultivator surnamed Ning. "Senior Mu, Senior Yunqiong, Senior Qin is just ahead…"

"I hear him!" Mu Yifeng shouted loudly, "Junior Brother Qin, don’t let that humanoid Cloud Beast escape. I’m coming to assist you!"

Qin Sang frowned slightly, pouring spiritual power wildly into the bracelet to activate the demonic artifact fully, drawing in all the evil spirits, and then called back the Yan Luo Banner of Ten Directions into his Mustard Seed Pouch.

After a brief hesitation, Qin Sang decided not to retract the malevolent corpse. Instead, he commanded it to continue advancing, staying within the range of his perception.

In a flash, Mu Yifeng arrived, moving like a mass of blazing crimson fire, warding off the corrosive demonic qi.

Seeing that Qin Sang was skillfully manipulating his sword qi to suppress the humanoid Cloud Beast, making victory only a matter of time, Mu Yifeng relaxed and swiftly summoned his divine blade to assist Qin Sang. "I was worried that Junior Brother Qin might struggle with those ghostly things, but it seems I worried for nothing."

"Thank you for your concern, Senior Brother Mu."

As they spoke, Ascetic Yunqiong and the others arrived right behind them. Qin Sang glanced around, noting only six people—one less than before. Noticing this, he looked at Mu Yifeng.

Mu Yifeng sighed. "Daoist Kuangli also encountered a humanoid Cloud Beast and, unfortunately, was killed before I could rescue him…"

Qin Sang nodded. Though he seemed to handle the humanoid Cloud Beast easily, it was a formidable opponent for Qi Refining cultivators. It was fortunate that Daoists Ning and Chai had survived at all.

Losing only one member, their group still consisted of eight. Even if Yin Xingge had met with disaster, they didn’t need to worry about being trapped here.

"Why are there so many humanoid Cloud Beasts all of a sudden?"

Qin Sang asked with a frown, "Any news of Daoist Yin?"

"None!"

Mu Yifeng shook his head, then spoke in a low tone to Qin Sang, "We now have enough people to activate the Star Disk. What do you think, Junior Brother Qin—should we attempt a rescue or withdraw?"