MJWCATFPITWOC Chapter 25
by VolareLi Juemu was ejected like a slingshot, crashing headfirst into the barrier. Fu Lingxuan followed closely behind, and the others entered in single file, gradually closing in on the Demon Beast.
Sure enough, Li Juemu was the first to be thrown out. He screamed as he brushed past the four who continued forward. Only then did he understand what Shen Yucheng and the others meant by “you go first.”
“I hate you guys!”
After Li Yuan was ejected, Shen Yucheng was forced out when he was only a meter away from the Demon Beast. Suddenly, he heard a shout from behind, “Brother!”
Li Juemu knelt on the ground, holding a bundle of black cloth in his arms. Shen Yucheng landed and went forward to check. The bundle suddenly wriggled, and a small, chubby hand reached out, followed by a smooth, fair body. The cloth slipped off the child’s head, and the child looked up to meet Shen Yucheng’s eyes.
It was a miniature version of Li Yuan’s face, looking at him blankly.
Li Juemu sniffled, audibly sucking his snot back up. He turned the child, who looked to be only five years old, around to face him and blinked, “Where did you hide my brother?”
The child didn’t seem to understand and struggled wildly in Li Juemu’s arms.
Li Juemu’s forehead broke out in sweat, “Hey, don’t move.”
The next second, the child began to cry even louder.
Shen Yucheng flicked Li Juemu on the forehead and noticed that the child was raising both hands, pointing at Fu Lingxuan.
Fu Lingxuan watched as Li Yuan shrank, his expression grave and his brow furrowed, as if he was pondering something. He didn’t notice that Shen Yucheng had handed the child to him.
“What are you doing? I’m not taking this thing.” Fu Lingxuan looked at the miniature Li Yuan in his arms, his face extremely unpleasant. He pushed him away, wanting to keep as much distance as possible.
On the contrary, Little Li Yuan happily grabbed Fu Lingxuan’s clothes as soon as he touched him, clutching them tightly with his little fists, refusing to let go no matter how Fu Lingxuan tried to pull him off.
Li Juemu looked at Little Li Yuan dejectedly, “Why did my brother turn into this?”
At this question, a flash of insight crossed Fu Lingxuan’s mind, and the doubts he had just had were completely resolved. He suddenly said to Mo Yifeng inside the barrier, “Get out of there! This Demon Beast’s ability isn’t spatial transfer!”
However, it was too late. Mo Yifeng was already confronting the Demon Beast with his sword.
Shen Yucheng asked, “What do you mean?”
“We thought the Demon Beast’s ability to send people three meters away from its range was a spatial skill, but it’s actually time reversal.” Fu Lingxuan watched as Mo Yifeng swung his sword at the Demon Beast several times. “The fact that the gravel Li Yuan threw in at the beginning came back intact, and the state we were in when we were ejected several times, led us to mistakenly believe it was a transfer ability.”
Shen Yucheng looked at Li Yuan in his arms. So, the gravel wasn’t transferred out, but rather reverted to the state before it was thrown through time reversal.
This time, Li Juemu understood, “Then why is only my brother turning into this?”
Mo Yifeng was finally blasted back by the Demon Beast.
Fu Lingxuan averted his gaze, “There are two possibilities. One is that it hasn’t been able to precisely control the degree of time reversal, and Li Yuan unfortunately encountered a direct reversion to his childhood form. The second is that this kind of large-scale reversion has a limited number of times, such as triggering a large reversion every ten reversions.”
Li Juemu was confused.
“You just need to know that the risk of dealing with this monster now is much higher. It’s no longer just being transferred out, but the possibility of turning into this.” Shen Yucheng pointed at Little Li Yuan and said, “It’s even possible to turn into an infant, or even die.”
Li Juemu’s heart skipped a beat. Mo Yifeng heard their conversation and took off the golden tassel hanging from his waist, “Its large-scale reversion should be random.”
The tassel in his hand was no longer a fine strand of braids, but a bundle of coarse, uneven golden yarn, the way it looked before it was made into a tassel.
Just now, before he was moved out, he had an epiphany and withdrew from the Demon Beast’s range of ability in advance. However, the tassel swayed with his movements and was affected by time reversal the moment it left the barrier, reverting to this state.
In this case, defeating this Demon Beast would no longer be an ordinary difficulty, and it might cost lives.
Li Juemu worried, “Then can my brother recover?” He couldn’t imagine what the family would think if they brought back a direct descendant who was more than ten years younger after a trip to the secret realm.
“I don’t know, but everything depends on killing this thing first.” Fu Lingxuan casually coaxed Little Li Yuan, placing him on a safe stone in the back.
Mo Yifeng threw away the tassel, “I just left a cut on the Demon Beast’s chest. If we focus on that area, it should be fatal. In a moment, I—”
“In a moment, Little Brother Li will be the main attacker,” Fu Lingxuan interrupted. “Little Brother Li’s full-strength sword and saber attack will be much more effective than your little sword.”
Mo Yifeng stared at him, “I’m fine.”
“Is that so?” Shen Yucheng had long seen that Mo Yifeng was covered in tattered wounds, and his left hand had not been raised from beginning to end, as if he had suffered a serious injury. Shen Yucheng gently nudged his arm with his elbow. Although Mo Yifeng’s expression didn’t change, his complexion visibly paled.
Shen Yucheng and Fu Lingxuan both looked as if they were saying “I knew it,” and arranged for the burden that was holding them back to stay behind.
“I’m fine.” Mo Yifeng clenched his left arm and was about to protest, but he was met with a stern look from his senior brother and junior brother, and he immediately shut up.
Shen Yucheng put his arm around Li Juemu’s shoulders and leaned in with a rogue aura, like an experienced con man dragging an ignorant teenager into a back alley, his eyes full of cunning. Li Juemu couldn’t help but shudder, “Brother Shen, I’m scared.”
“Be good, just do as I say, and you won’t be afraid.”
Fu Lingxuan stood aside, “…” Why are you so skilled?
.
Shen Yucheng bent down and picked up dozens of pieces of gravel on the ground, wrapped them with golden silk, and cast an knowing glance at Li Juemu and Mo Yifeng. Then, he threw the stones into the barrier. The golden silk was like a tangled mess, making it difficult to distinguish the order in which the stones entered.
Originally, time reversal would bring the risk of reversing people, but thinking of the situation when Li Yuan initially used stones to test it, he had a flash of inspiration and found a way to break it.
After all the stones were sent in, two figures wielding swords quickly rushed in. Fu Lingxuan could cast a black array outside the barrier to fix the Demon Beast in place, making it unable to defend against the sword strikes.
Li Juemu flew to the front of the Demon Beast like lightning and slashed heavily at the wound. However, the black array was not enough to completely restrict the Demon Beast’s movements. The Demon Beast raised its hand to block, and the sword and saber collided head-on with the hard stone, making a “clang” sound that echoed in the cave. Mo Yifeng sidestepped and added a slash.
The Demon Beast’s ability began to activate, and the gravel gradually flew out, some even shattering directly. With half of the stones disappearing, they didn’t have much time left. Li Juemu could only leave a shallow wound on the Demon Beast’s chest, while Mo Yifeng stabbed several times at its waist with all his might.
Strange.
Shen Yucheng observed the entire situation from the outside. It stood to reason that the difference in cultivation between Li Juemu and Mo Yifeng was not that great at this time, so why was it difficult for Li Juemu to cause substantial damage to the Demon Beast?
Only a dozen or so stones remained. Li Juemu seemed to have given his all, removing his defenses and raising his sword to cut off the Demon Beast’s arm. However, the Demon Beast seemed to have anticipated this and protected its chest in advance.
“Don’t!” Shen Yucheng shouted anxiously. Seeing this scene, he finally understood.
The sword and saber collided head-on with the stone arm. The tremendous impact caused Li Juemu to release his grip on the hilt, and the sword and saber were thrust back into the ground.
The Demon Beast seized the opportunity to use its hand as a spear to stab at Li Juemu in the air. At the critical moment, Mo Yifeng used his sword to block it, but Li Juemu, due to his initial Golden Core cultivation, had never faced such a fierce battle head-on. The moment he lost his sword and saber, he became dizzy due to the impact of the sword energy.
The battlefield was not like a martial arts competition; there was no such thing as a pause. A slight carelessness could lead to being separated from one’s head.
Mo Yifeng’s left arm was impacted, and he gritted his teeth, “Li Juemu!”
Fu Lingxuan’s expression was grave. He withdrew the black array and was about to use the orange array to bring Li Juemu back when suddenly, the floating teenager in the air opened his eyes and summoned the sword and saber on the ground.
Mo Yifeng was stunned. He saw that Li Juemu’s expression was calm, and he changed his usual state after getting the sword and saber. He launched an attack from the side, and the Demon Beast was startled. Unfortunately, this pause made it impossible for him to catch up with Li Juemu’s rhythm.
He struck dozens of times in a row, each time succeeding by exploiting the openings that the Demon Beast revealed by being tricked by feints. The teenager’s sword and saber flowed with golden light, and spiritual power was continuously flowing. Each strike was countered with double the spiritual power.
The Demon Beast was in a panic for a while, and each time it tried to block, it was predicted by Li Juemu. The situation quickly reversed.
Although Fu Lingxuan was not a sword cultivator, he watched Li Juemu’s continuous attack and felt as if he had become a different person, as if he were a little familiar.
The gravel was ejected as scheduled, until the last piece disappeared. Inside the barrier, the teenager’s sword was deeply embedded in the Demon Beast’s chest. A crisp sound came from the cave, “ding,” as if something had broken. The time reversal barrier opened from the top and dissipated.
The Demon Beast stopped moving. Mo Yifeng looked at the golden color on Li Juemu’s sword and saber as it flowed and dissipated like water droplets. He instinctively looked at Shen Yucheng and saw that the other party was kneeling on one knee, panting heavily.
Li Juemu then landed and fainted with his eyes closed.
Fu Lingxuan stared at Shen Yucheng, deeply remembering this scene in his heart.
Shen Yucheng’s guess was indeed correct. Li Juemu was simple and didn’t have Mo Yifeng’s unpredictable sword style. The Demon Beast had figured out Li Juemu’s single attack routine in the previous few offensives and defenses, which is why it fell into a predicament of being unable to deliver a fatal blow.
He adjusted his breathing. Fortunately, he had a little foresight before the attack and touched Li Juemu for five seconds. Otherwise, if Li Juemu had fainted inside the barrier, he would probably be drinking soup on the Bridge of Helplessness at this moment.
However, this consumed more spiritual power than he had imagined, and his sweat had soaked his entire body. As expected, mortals were different from cultivators.
Mo Yifeng didn’t know when he had walked in front of him, blocking Fu Lingxuan’s line of sight. Shen Yucheng looked up and saw that the other party’s expression was not good, and his gaze fell on his clenched fist.
Shen Yucheng: “?” What? Excited again?
He thought that Mo Yifeng was excited because he had used the Puppet Dao, but the next second he was gently picked up, and Mo Yifeng put him on the stone beside him with one hand.
Shen Yucheng was annoyed for a while. How old was he? He was actually being princess-carried.
Just as he was about to scold, he heard Mo Yifeng whisper in his ear, “Thank you for your hard work.”
The voice was soft, and only the two of them could hear it.
Shen Yucheng’s anger disappeared instantly, and he sat stupidly on the stone, with Little Li Yuan lying next to him.
Looking at Mo Yifeng’s distant back, he was the one being manipulated, right?
Mo Yifeng returned to the Demon Beast, his hand still holding the warmth from Shen Yucheng’s body that was almost the same as his own. He remembered waking up in the inn that day and seeing the empty space on the side of the bed.
It really was you, Brother Yucheng.
[Ling Danbo Realm—Scales Reversing Beast (Nascent Soul Ranking First) has been slain]
[Slayer:]
[Lingfeng Sect—Fu Lingxuan, Mo Yifeng, Shen Yucheng]
[Dingxu Sect—Li Yuan, Li Juemu]
[Updated Sect Ranking: First: Lingfeng Sect, Second: Qionghua Sect, Third: Dingxu Sect]