Talisman Emperor

The sky of Firecrow Town at dawn was still completely overcast.

When Chen Xi arrived at the Firecrow Tavern, Qi Yin was already waiting in full gear, and he still had the pitch black longbow that was suffused with a dim sheen, causing him to seem brave and stalwart.

There were another 10 plus villains of Firecrow Town following behind him. All these people wanted to go along with Qi Yin to gather materials in Gloom Forest. They either wanted to hunt demon beasts to extract their fur and bones, or to gather spirit materials and excavate spirit ores.

The group departed before long.

Gloom Forest was situated behind Firecrow Town, and it was boundlessly vast, with tall and ancient trees. These ancient trees were extremely thick to the point of requiring seven or eight people to join hands around it, and the crown of the tree was over 300m away from the ground.

Every single tree within the forest was enormous like this, but the distance between trees was extremely spacious, and the ground was covered in a thick layer of rotten leaves. If one were to stomp on it with force, their entire bodies would be buried within these leaves. This wasn’t because there was a swamp beneath, but because the layer of rotten leaves on the ground was too thick.

Due to the forest being too vast and luxuriant, sunlight was incapable of passing through the thick layer of leaves, causing one to be walking in darkness within it, and the dancing shadows of the trees seemed to be slightly terrifying.

Qi Ying walked in the lead, whereas Chen Xi silently followed close behind. The group of people remained silent, causing the atmosphere in the group to seem extremely oppressive, and only the sounds of demon beast roars could be heard in the distance, adding a ferocious and terrifying aura to the atmosphere.

As they moved deeper into the forest, the expressions of everyone became vigilant as they stayed on alert towards their surroundings. In this way, the group’s speed of advancement naturally reduced greatly.

According to Chen Xi’s knowledge, they’d already left the outer area of Gloom Forest and had started moving towards its depths.

There weren’t any accidents that happened all along the way here, and on the contrary, the entire forest was very quiet, deathly silent. Not to mention demon beasts, they didn’t even notice a single ant.

Something’s amiss!

Chen Xi’s chilly eyes flowed with bright lights as he looked at Qi Yin’s robust figure ahead, and he fell into deep contemplation.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Suddenly, a peculiar howling sound tore apart the deathly silent atmosphere. They seemed to have suddenly drilled out from within the cracks in the rocks, and this sudden occurrence was pressing towards them with an exceedingly swift speed.

There was no need to say a word, and everyone had already stopped moving before vigilantly taking precautions.

“Watch out! They’re Azure Shuttle Swallows!” One of the villains cried out in a loud voice that was filled with terror. The expressions of everyone went slightly fearful in unison as well, and they instantly withdrew defensive Magic Treasures of various colors as if they were facing a formidable enemy.

As soon as the person’s voice finished reverberating in the air, over 10 fine and sharp azure blades of lights that were like arrows shot out explosively from every direction!

These azure colored blades of light were so swift they were like bolts of lightning as they tore through the sky and emitted sharp howls that pierced the ear drums, and the killing intent that assaulted their faces was piercingly cold like blades!

Pu! Pu!

The defensive Magic Treasures of two villains were easily penetrated like paper by the azure blades of light. Instantly, two fountains of blood sprayed out from their chests!

“AH!!” The miserable shrill cries of the two villains reverberated in the forest.

The others were shocked with terror, but they didn’t have time to care about anything else. Their defensive Magic Treasures had similarly suffered attacks and were shaking intensely as they emitted deafening bangs, and they were on the verge of shattering.

It wasn’t difficult to imagine that if another wave of attack were to arrive, they would be unable to escape the fate of being penetrated by the azure colored blades of lights and would perish!

Chen Xi stayed at the back of the group, so he suffered the least attacks, and he avoided them with a slight dodge, causing him to seem extremely at ease. At this moment, he’d seen it clearly as well, those numerous azure colored blades of light were actually a group of azure colored swallows.

The Azure Shuttle Swallows were completely light blue and had physiques that were flat like shuttles, and they were merely the size of a palm with their wings unfolded. Supposedly, a trace of the bloodline of the primordial beast, Driftshadow Sparrow, flowed within this demon beast, and it possessed a speed that was swift like a bolt of lightning as it came and went like the wind.

Besides possessing a physique that was like a sharp shuttle, its attacks were matchlessly sharp like a shuttle as well, and when combined with its speed that was like a bolt of lightning, the attacks it exploded out with were extremely terrifying.

Due to its extremely swift speed, and its fine and small physique that was like a shuttle, the Azure Shuttle Swallow was called a natural born assassin of the forest. It was extremely adept in sudden assaults and moved out in groups, causing its prey to usually be already penetrated and killed before they noticed it.

After failing in their attack, the Azure Shuttle Swallows obviously revealed the intention to retreat. They’d never imagined that these defensive Magic Treasures would be so solid, and their movements couldn’t help but become slightly sluggish because of their attacks that were blocked.

Every single one of these villains from Firecrow Town possessed abundant combat experience, and when they saw their companions die miserably before them, they felt shocked and enraged in their hearts. At this moment, when they saw the Azure Shuttle Swallows reveal a trace exhaustion, they didn’t hesitate in the slightest to attack ferociously at once.

They knew very well that if they didn’t seize the opportunity when the Azure Shuttle Swallows were exhausted, then once the Azure Shuttle Swallows recovered their previous speed that was like freely flowing shadows, their chances of victory would be extremely low, and there was even a chance they would be wiped out.

Sword lights, blade qi, spear images… Various fierce attacks sprayed out like a storm.

In this dangerous forest, everyone detested demon beasts like Azure Shuttle Swallows that possessed tiny physiques and dominated in speed. Because in this environment, a person would forever be unable to freely advance and retreat like the Azure Shuttle Swallows. Moreover, once their attack failed, they would flee instantly before waiting for an opportunity to launch a surprise attack once more, causing them to be extremely troublesome and annoying.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Five Azure Shuttle Swallows were struck and exploded into a few balls of bloody mist in midair. Compared to their attacks, the Azure Shuttle Swallows had extremely terrible defensive abilities, and they would basically be unable to survive once struck by an attack.

For the sake of avoiding being harassed and taken by surprise by these Azure Shuttle Swallows on the following part of the journey, these villains were determined to completely exterminate this group of Azure Shuttle Swallows, and they didn’t hold back in the slightest. Various attacks shot out explosively, causing the thick and enormous trees in the nearby 300m to be chopped at the center and pieces of wood to scatter into the air, and the scene seemed to be extremely chaotic.

Amidst this chaos, Chen Xi’s gaze had always been locked onto Qi Yin, and he was like an outsider that remained indifferent to everything that was happening in his surroundings and utterly didn’t make a move against the Azure Shuttle Swallows.

At this moment, Qi Yin had already removed the longbow from his back as his arms that were bulging with muscles spread open to draw his bow fully like a full moon, and with a shake of the bowstring, a shapeless arrow shot out. Every single arrow he shot was precise, ruthless, and annihilated an Azure Shuttle Swallow, and it revealed his extremely formidable cultivation in archery.

Qi Yin’s body was moving during the process of shooting arrows as well, and he seemed to intentionally yet unintentionally flash towards the distance.

When Qi Yin was about to completely leave the group, a figure charged out abruptly like a ghost to flash directly towards him, and with a raise of the hand, the figure had already held onto the back of his clothes before bringing him back into the group.

“What’re you doing? This is a battle! It isn’t the time to cause trouble!” Being caught off guard and dragged back caused Qi Yin to be instantly shocked in his heart, and he felt a chill run down his spine. But his expression instantly became composed when he realized who’d grabbed him.

The figure was precisely Chen Xi, and the corners of his mouth were suffused with a trace of coldness as his eyes became icy cold. “This is a battle indeed. But compared to these Azure Shuttle Swallows, you’re much more detestable.”

Qi Yin’s face sank. “What’re you saying?”

“Actually, I’d already noticed you were lying since last night. With the intelligence of the Blacksun Pavilion, they would absolutely not allow an outsider to know of their plans, yet allow the outside to live. This is extremely unusual. Since you were able to survive, it undoubtedly proved a single thing. Your identity is probably not just one of the five great villains of Firecrow Town, and you’re probably an assassin the Blacksun Pavilion embedded in Firecrow Town. Am I right?” asked Chen Xi indifferently.

His hand tightly gripped Qi Yin’s throat, yet his eyes were sweeping the surroundings. His line of sight didn’t stop at the group of people that were still battling the Azure Shuttle Swallows and instead looked towards the depths of the forest, and he seemed to have noticed something.

Panic appeared for an instant in Qi Yin’s eyes before it became extremely calm, and he said indifferently, “You’re right. But, you’ve already fallen into a tight encirclement now, and you’re dead even if you kill me now.”

A trace of icy cold ridicule suffused the corners of Chen Xi’s lips. “I’ll only know later if I’m able to survive. But, do you believe it if I say you’ll surely die now?”

Qi Yin kept silent and revealed an appearance of being resigned to his fate.

“Can you tell me something before your death?” Chen Xi asked. He seemed to not be anxious to kill Qi Yin, and he seemed to be waiting for something instead.

“Speak.”

“Is there any reward for killing assassins from your Blacksun Pavilion?”

“No.”

“The lives of the assassins of your Blacksun Pavilion are really worthless. But this bow isn’t bad. This ought to be a Shaman Treasure that’s been by your side for many years, right?” Chen Xi raised his hand to grab the pitch black longbow over to his side. It was cold to the touch, and it was unusually heavy to the point it was actually more than 5,000kg in weight. Moreover, a trace of ancient and desolate Shaman Energy faintly coiled around it, causing it to seem mysterious and mighty.

A Shaman Treasure was a weapon utilized by body refiners. Unlike the Magic Treasures used by qi refiners, the refining of Shaman Treasures was extremely difficult. Moreover, it could only be refined by the body refiner itself.

Because there was only a single material to refine Shaman Treasures, the corpse of an Ancient Fiendgod. The bones, teeth, meridians, nails, and even the hair and eyes of an Ancient Fiendgod could be refined into a Shaman Treasure, and only the corpse and bones of an Ancient Fiendgod could fuse with the Shaman Energy and exert a might similar to the might of a Magic Treasure.

Moreover, every single Shaman Treasure had to be fed and nurtured with the body refiner’s own Blood Essence and had to be ceaselessly tempered with Shaman Energy to remove the impurities within it. Only in this way would the Shaman Treasure attain a state of being completely fused with the body refiner and be commanded at will.

But the corpses of Ancient Fiendgods were extremely rare in the Darchu Dynasty, and it was even to the extent of being rarer than Immortal Artifacts. It was precisely because of this that 99% of the body refiners in the world didn’t possess a Shaman Treasure to use at all, and it was obvious how precious a Shaman Treasure was from this.

Of course, even if they didn’t possess a Shaman Treasure, a body refiner would still be able to completely crush qi refiners at a similar cultivation by relying on their bodies that were comparable to Magic Treasures.

Qi Yin’s expression finally went grim. He wasn’t sad about his Shaman Treasure, and it was instead Chen Xi’s words that had completely shattered the last trace of hope in his heart.

He’s always been utilizing the longbow with True Essence earlier, so the might revealed by it was less than 1% of its might, and he’d done it for the sake of concealing his identity as a body refiner. Thus, after he was grabbed by Chen Xi, he wasn’t worried about anything. A body refiner was capable of re-growing limbs, and so long as his head and heart weren’t injured, he would be able to recover to his previous state in a moment.

However, he noticed he was wrong now. Chen Xi was able to recognize a Shaman Treasure, so Chen Xi naturally knew that he was a body refiner, so how could Chen Xi not know where his weak point was when killing him?

“Can you spare my life? I’ll exchange for my life with an archery type Divine Ability, and this Starruin Bow is yours as well. How about it?” said Qi Yin with a low voice.

“Don’t all the assassins of Blacksun Pavilion take their own lives after failing a mission? Why’re you so afraid of death?” Chen Xi replied with a question.

“Everyone is afraid of death, and it’s precisely because we’re afraid of death that we work hard to live, right?” Qi Yin stared fixedly at Chen Xi with a frank expression, and he entirely didn’t feel that being afraid of death was an embarrassing thing.

Chen Xi neither agreed nor disagreed, and he was just about to speak when he abruptly noticed something, causing cold lights to overflow from his eyes, and then he shattered Qi Yin’s heart with a strike of his palm under Qi Yin’s shocked and terrified gaze.

“You…are so ruthless!” Blood spilled out from the corners of Qi Yin’s mouth as his gaze revealed deep hatred, and then his gaze quickly dimmed down as his body fell to the ground.

“I want to live as well, so you must die.” Chen Xi shook his head and casually took the storage Magic Treasure in Qi Yin’s possession, and he didn’t even spare a glance at it before abruptly tapping the tip of his foot on the ground, causing him to seem like a wisp of smoke as he instantly drilled into the forest and vanished.

Meanwhile, the other villains had completely exterminated the Azure Shuttle Swallows and hadn’t even had the chance to heave a sigh of relief when they noticed to their shock that Qi Yin was actually dead on the ground!

They couldn’t be blamed for only noticing it now. The attacks of the Azure Shuttle Swallows were too fierce, and with their strengths, they utterly didn’t dare divert their attention in the slightest. Moreover, Chen Xi and Qi Yin were standing at the back of the group, so it was difficult for them to notice it even if they wanted to.

“Shit! That maleficent existence is gone. Could it be that he killed Qi Yin?” Someone noticed Chen Xi has disappeared and shouted out in alarm, causing the others to instantly react to this, and their expressions became exceedingly unsightly.

Without Qi Yin leading the way, how would they travel in this dangerous forest that was like a maze?

Rustle~ Rustle~

A wave of a subtle sound of the wind resounded out as the wind blew and caused the rotten leaves on the ground to move.

Subsequently, over 10 figures that had their faces covered with black cloths suddenly appeared in the field of vision of the numerous villains, and they appeared soundlessly like spirits!