Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy

  On decisiveness, few people could be compared to Wang Lu. At the moment when Liu Xian was about to cut his own throat, Primal Chaos Heaven Splitting Sword Qi broke out of his finger.

  However, unlike the surrounding people, the sword qi did not point at the sword in Liu Xian's hand but at the big river under his feet.

  There was a big explosion sound. The river water splashed up into the sky as the sword qi wreaked havoc, and many fish and shrimps met cruel death. And at the bottom of the river, the angry roar of the beast came.

  The head of the team, Ouyang Shang, who had a tacit understanding with Wang Lu, shouted loudly, "Go!"

  This shout was powered by the true qi of the golden core. The shocking effect was no less than that of a lion's roar. The sound wave spread in all directions, suppressing the roar from the giant beast at the bottom of the river, and causing huge waves on the river. Even the cultivators of Spirit Sword Sect above the river also had their mind and soul shook, and the magical power in their body couldn't help but surge up. Even more, their body seemed to be sucked by an external force to follow Ouyang Shang.

  The next moment, feeling the provocation intent, the beasts at the bottom of the river completely erupted out of their sleep. A deep blue ice cone soared up from the river as a huge spine enveloped and froze everyone within it. At the critical time, Wang Lu activated his Non-Phase Sword while Ouyang Shang launched his Earth Shrink Technique at the same time, bumping with the ice cone head on.

  After a dull 'bang' sound, the two were flung to the sky by the recoil force, but the freezing of the ice cone was suspended for a moment. The rest of the people no longer dared to hesitate to escape. Under the deterrent of the behemoth at the bottom of the river, any entanglement and hesitation were immediately swept away. Only the will to survive occupied everything.

  The next moment, behind the crowd, a straight to the sky ice cone finally condensed fully. The fish in the river and the birds in the sky were all frozen in icicles, and their vitality disappeared! If the spine of this ice cone was tilted slightly, the cultivators of Spirit Sword Sect would not be spared either.

  The crisis had not ended, however. The beast's attack had been blocked, but as the ruler of this great river, the giant beast had countless of underlings. At this time, they began to make their move to interfere with the actions of the disciples of Spirit Sword Sect.

  Some spun on the river to form a whirlpool, some covered the sky in a thick fog, others bombarded them with long-range attacks, and some simply jumped out of the water and intercepted them.

  Although these underlings were just lackeys in this great river, many actually had amazing strength. Among them, several blue crabs had already successfully formed an inner core, meaning that they already had the strength of a Jindan Stage cultivator!

  At this time, Ouyang Shang and Wang Lu were still focused on the giant beast and thus had no time for distraction. While the rest of the team members were elites, they just didn't have the kind of assaulter who could lead the team out of trouble. There were more than a hundred people in the golden generation, but very rarely were there accomplished attackers among them.

  "Everyone… Follow me!"

  At the critical moment, Liu Xian roared. Bathed in golden light, his body's magical power surged up astonishingly.

  "You… You're burning your innate vitality!" Besides him, Xie Mingxian was amazed. "After just reaching Xudan Stage, you rashly used your innate vitality…"

  "It's my atonement!" Liu Xian roared and then the flying sword in his hand turned into a golden bridge that led to the front. Where the bridge was facing, all the monsters were swept away. Several blue crabs swayed and were forced to stand their ground.

  "Everyone keep up!" Xie Mingxian no longer hesitated. He also burned his innate vitality to help Liu Xian so that the golden bridge became more solid.

  Then, the rest of them quickly followed, strengthening the bridge with their own strength and then rushed forward along the bridge, no one could stop them!

  —


  The team sped to the other side of the great river at the fastest speed. During this time, no one was free to have distracting thought and thought about other things. All they could think of was strengthening the golden bridge so that the monsters from the river could not approach…


  Liu Xian's golden bridge, which was formed by burning his innate vitality, had a strong anti-monster effect. After being strengthened by the joint effort of the other team members, it became even more indestructible. A few big crabs with giant claws tried to strike it, and each hit had the power that was enough to break a mountain, but it did not break. Only the giant beast had the ability to break the golden bridge, but for some reason, it never made its move again.

  The great river was wide, but it still has an end. After an unknown amount of time, the golden bridge finally arrived at the river bank. When it came to the shore, it was no longer within the power sphere of the great river, so the underlings had to reluctantly turn back. Their attention was now turned toward the two people who were still hovering over the river.

  Wang Lu and Ouyang Shang never kept up with the golden bridge. Not because they had great confidence, but because of the giant beast at the bottom of the river, which only they could resist, barely, for one or two times. Thus, they had to stay behind. Of course, although neither of them had the confidence to win, they had enough means to deter the opponent from launching a full-scale war.

  Wang Lu put away his Non-Phase Sword Art and activated the Primal Chaos Heaven Splitting Sword Qi to the max. The two sword qi filled the air and smashed the space, as if ripping apart the yin and yang. Ouyang Shang also activated his spiritual treasure level flying sword in front of his chest. His sword was like the wave, where it passed, water vapor seemed to appear as if a drought had come. Ouyang Shang was naturally close to the earth, with soil base Heavenly Spirit Root body. This should be a good defensive trait, but after transforming his ability, he became the natural enemy of aquatic creatures—drought.

  The two of them gave up their defense and assumed the full offensive stance. They might, in fact, be defeated if the huge river beast really wanted to fight, but before that, they could give their opponent a serious injury that could not be healed forever. This was not due to how solid their cultivation base was, but due to the supreme effect of the immortal level method of Primal Chaos Heaven Splitting Sword Qi. Immortal level method was the accumulation and crystallization of the thousands of years of tireless effort of human cultivators seeking the path to immortality, which was also the basic reason why human cultivators ruled the world. And for such an opponent, there were not many monsters that were willing to fight it.

  It was hard for monsters to become immortal. For the huge river beast to become so powerful, it had to spend thousands of years of cultivation and pass countless disasters. On the other hand, human cultivators often would achieve the same cultivation base in a hundred years. Thus, unless it was necessary, they were rarely willing to fight the human cultivators in a life and death fight.

  In the end, the beast at the bottom of the river did not choose to make its move, but instead just left the two of them. After that, Wang Lu and Ouyang Shang hovered over the river at a high altitude for a while. After seeing that the situation had been settled, they finally followed the team and crossed the river to take a break at the river bank.

  When they landed, the two of them swayed and, as if by prior agreement, threw up black blood—that was the price for facing the ice cone head on. However, after vomiting blood, the two men's countenance turned reddish. Apparently, they had completely suppressed their injury.

  However, right now, the focus of the team was not the two of them. The others had gathered around in a circle, with Liu Xian sitting cross-legged in the middle.

  Seeing the arrival of Ouyang Shang, they consciously opened up a way for him. Ouyang Shang didn't say much. After walking a few steps forward, he came up to Liu Xian then put his hand on top of the latter's head. Using the method of anointing the head with the purest cream, Ouyang Shang helped Liu Xian straighten out the irascible Void Core power inside the latter's Jade Mansion, and used the pure immortal spirit qi from inside his Golden Core to complement the innate vitality deficit.

  After a while, Liu Xian, showed a slight improvement in his complexion. He took a deep breath, stood up, and then gave a salute to his Senior Brother.

  Ouyang Shang nodded, and then looked around at everyone else. "Do you guys understand?"

  Xie Mingxian and the others nodded, and then looked at Wang Lu with gratitude. Liu Xian, in particular, made a deep bow that he almost prostrated himself on the ground.

  Just now on the great river, Liu Xian was unlucky to be controlled by the demon race and attacked Wang Wu. After he got control of his body back, he was faced with the collapsing trust situation.

  Was a person who once been controlled by a demon still trustworthy? Or in other words, how to prove that he was him, and not the demon in disguise?

  This was actually an unsolvable problem because previously, the disguise of Li Xi was flawless, and he was unable to prove his innocence. Thus, Wang Lu took the matter to his own hand by providing them with the opportunity.

  Simply speaking, it was by fighting with their lives.

  The thing called trust was originally not purely rational. Trying to justify it with rationality would only make one fall into the trap. But the simplest way was to use blood and feeling.

  When people saw that Liu Xian, at the risk of dying, determined to burn his innate vitality to strengthen the golden bridge, their big doubts eventually disappeared—the members of the golden generation had deep emotional bond, so they only needed a chance to rebuild the trust.

  Wang Lu provided this chance at the fastest speed, and Liu Xian did not disappoint by immediately seizing this chance. And now, people have forgotten Liu Xian's past of being controlled by the demon and accepted him back as their brothers.

  Of course, strictly speaking, there were many seemingly far-fetched things in this. For example, the aim of Wang Lu's action was too deliberate. Liu Xian's action was likely to be just a camouflage, but was there any difference? Since the demon could control Liu Xian without anyone knowing it, anyone else could also be controlled. Blind suspicion was pointless, so as long as the feelings were justified, that was enough.

  The purpose of the demon in making this move was to destroy the trust among the members of the golden generation, while the mission of Spirit Sword Sect's cultivators was to protect this trust. This round's confrontation obviously went to Spirit Sword Sect. At the same time, if the demon had no new tricks, the next round of confrontation would still be won by the disciples of Spirit Sword Sect.

  After reorganizing the team, Ouyang Shang said, "The distance to the Blessed Fountain is very close, so we all must work hard, we will not rest until we arrive there."

  One day later, the team arrived at Blessed Fountain.

  —


  More than half of the golden generation had gathered in the base at Blessed Fountain. Since both Wang Donghua and Shen Yiwen died in the Ghost Weeping Forest, Ouyang Shang had sent a letter to Blessed Fountain from the temporary base outside Ghost Weeping Forest, asking them to find a way to contact everyone else to gather at Blessed Fountain as soon as possible.

  For an opponent that could appear and disappear mysteriously and have unpredictable means, it was impossible to let the disciples of Spirit Sword Sect continue to act independently in the Savage Land, no matter how radical their training policy was.

  After arriving at Blessed Fountain base, the first thing that Ouyang Shang asked was, "Is there a reply from the sect?"

  The two Junior Brothers who returned to the sect several days ago to request for reinforcement should have their result, regardless whether they succeeded or not…


  Yang Fei who came to greet him had expected that his Big Brother would raise this very question—he already had a smile plastered on his face.

  "Master has replied, the reinforcement will arrive in three days!"

  Contained within that smiling face was the confidence in already having the victory at hand.