The scene before their eyes left the descendants of gods and demons dumbstruck, speechless for a long time. Dragon Whale, Black Horse and Flame Bird were top experts in the sea, among that tiny handful who stood at the peak.
Yet those three powerful descendants of gods and demons had been torn apart with ease by the bewitching and alluring female on the deck. Their tough fleshly defences, their enviable vitality and brute strength, were no match for three of her tails.
In the prolonged silence, Island Master Nulang’s brow twitched slightly. He knew that the Nine-tailed Fox was one realm above him, second rank in the grading used by humans.
But he hadn’t expected the ruler of the Wanyao Kingdom to be this strong.
A descendant of gods and demons like the Black Horse, comparable to third rank, was truly no more than stinking rotten fish before her, while the Dragon Whale was merely a somewhat stronger prawn.
Then what about me?
At that thought, Nulang’s expression grew complicated. When he looked at Xu Qi’an, who was seemingly also second rank, it became even more complicated.
“There are experts of this level overseas too? A newly ascended descendant of gods and demons?”
“Clearly not. At her level, it would’ve been impossible for her to remain unknown before advancing.”
The hundred-odd descendants of gods and demons scattered about quickly exchanged words amidst their shock. They had guessed the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox’s realm.
After all, any existence capable of killing the Black Horse and Dragon Whale so easily definitely wasn’t in the same realm as them.
While the onlooking descendants of gods and demons were filled with thoughts, the silver-haired demoness’s fox tails absorbed and devoured the essence blood from the corpse chunks of the Black Horse and Flame Bird in gulps, like leeches sucking blood.
Above the sea and in the sky, the primordial spirits of the Black Horse and the Flame Bird roared in fury. Their chunks of flesh writhed madly, trying to reassemble, but as their vitality waned and their essence drained away, they could only helplessly turn into dead meat.
Their fleshly bodies had died completely.
The Dragon Whale’s corpse fragments never floated back up, but the seawater stained red slowly faded during this process, until it returned to clear azure waves.
By then, all nine fox tails had turned fully red, scarlet in colour.
“She’s a Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox, a descendant of the Qingqiu Fox. It’s said that this bloodline established a Wanyao Kingdom on the Jiuzhou continent. They’re one of the very few descendants of gods and demons that weren’t driven out of Jiuzhou by the Daoist Venerable.”
“No wonder, no wonder she slaughtered the Black Horse and Dragon Whale as easily as dogs.”
At last, someone recognised the Nine-tailed Fox.
The ruler of the Wanyao Kingdom had gone to sea several times. Though she hadn’t deliberately stirred up trouble or made waves, there were still some rumours about her overseas, just not many.
The Nine-tailed Fox let out a breath, her face full of satisfaction, and said with a smile,
“I’ll store their essence blood for you. Later I’ll refine it into blood pills for you. Mm, if you can’t wait, you can suck my tail.”
She blinked ambiguously.
It took a little time to refine the essence blood of beyond-mortal beings into blood pills. She had struck too heavily just now, so in order to keep the essence blood from dissipating, she had chosen to store it in her fox tails.
“Tail?”
Xu Qi’an looked disgusted. He glanced at her bright red little mouth and said with a grin,
“Can you change the location?”
The man and the fox chatted as though no one else was there, paying no heed at all to the descendants of gods and demons around them.
The Nine-tailed Fox looked “greatly shocked”, raised a hand to cover her pert buttocks, and said in mock alarm,
“What are you thinking? Not here!”
What am I thinking? Xu Qi’an didn’t react at first, then immediately understood that the fox spirit was teasing him again, and felt a surge of annoyance.
Never had any woman dared mock and tease him again and again like this.
He was always the one in control, one hand Shen Gongbao, the other fermented tofu.1
At that moment, the ship had already sailed to the edge of Gods and Demons island, less than a hundred feet from the shoreline. Island Master Nulang’s expression changed slightly as he warned,
“Don’t get too close. You’ll be tainted by the aura inside the island.”
Xu Qi’an exerted a slight force through the soles of his feet, and the ship obediently came to a halt. As he examined the thin mist enveloping the island, he asked,
“How was Moyu infected?”
Island Master Nulang said in a low voice,
“It touched the mist.”
Xu Qi’an pondered for a moment, then looked at the Nine-tailed Fox and said,
“I’ll do it.”
He was a first-rank martial artist, with essence, qi and spirit fused into one. That trait gave him, in a sense, an ability akin to being immune to all magic. Outside power found it very difficult to forcibly merge into his body.
The silver-haired demoness didn’t insist on showing off. She gave a slight nod.
Xu Qi’an took two steps forward and walked off the deck. His action made the descendants of gods and demons in the distance stare blankly.
They could tell that the ruler of the Wanyao Kingdom from the Jiuzhou continent meant to enter the island, but they hadn’t expected a male who seemed to be human to be the first to approach Gods and Demons island.
Many of the overseas descendants of gods and demons had never seen a real human.
A cannon fodder sent to test the danger?
As thoughts flashed through the minds of the various gods and demons, Xu Qi’an stepped through the air until he reached the edge of the shoreline, already within inches of the barrier formed by the thin mist.
He stretched out a finger and tried to touch the mist.
Buzz!
The instant his finger touched it, the slowly drifting mist trembled violently. Immediately after, strands of mist, like maggots clinging to bone, surged towards Xu Qi’an. First, strange and incomplete patterns were “drawn” onto his finger, then his palm…
As the mist invaded, Xu Qi’an’s mind shook with a bang, and many memories suddenly appeared within it. They seemed branded deep into his genes, instincts carried from birth.
Like using two feet to walk, using two hands to pick things up, except that the memories that had appeared out of nowhere were of how to manipulate natural elements such as wind, rain and lightning.
Innate divine abilities… this mist really could forcibly grant a living being abilities that didn’t belong to it…I Xu Qi’an sensed his spirit gradually collapsing, his genes being forcibly altered.
If it had been the Nine-tailed Fox, even if she could forcibly expel the “gift” of the mist from her body, she’d still have suffered greatly.
But Xu Qi’an wouldn’t. He was a first-rank martial artist, a foul and hard rock.
“Look, that’s what happens when you touch the barrier.”
“Only that great one can resist the erosion of the mist. Once you’re tainted by that aura, you’ll go mad. This fellow’s finished.”
Several descendants of gods and demons who had come to Guixu long ago shared their experience with the later arrivals.
“Are you alright?”
At the bow, the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox looked at Xu Qi’an’s hands, her brows faintly knit.
“I’m fine!”
Xu Qi’an gave a grunt, brought his palms together, and abruptly drove them into the mist, like a blade stabbing into a hard barrier.
Xu Qi’an’s palms pierced the barrier condensed from mist, and his arms spread outward, tearing it open bit by bit.
There was no sound at all, but at that moment, the mist over the whole island trembled under the heavy impact.
The mist frantically gathered towards the intruding object, trying to assimilate him and erode him, but the patterns that climbed onto the palms of the first-rank martial artist often hadn’t even had time to take shape before they were evaporated and dispelled by an even stronger force.
“Argh…”
Xu Qi’an’s muscles swelled all over his body, and blood mist sprayed from his pores.
Blood Sacrifice!
The mist barrier was forced wider open once more. Through that opening, the scene inside the island was no longer hazy, but clearly reflected in the eyes of the three descendants of gods and demons on the deck.
The mist covering the whole island was no longer merely trembling, it was boiling completely, like muddied currents being violently stirred.
Seeing that the opening had been torn wide enough, the silver-haired demoness said to the Mermaid Queen and Island Master Nulang behind her,
“You needn’t come with us. Wait outside.”
The two descendants of gods and demons had an intense “desire” for Gods and Demons island, a desire born of instinct, but reason told them that if they entered, death was probably all that awaited them.
After they nodded, the silver-haired demoness leapt up gracefully and slipped through the opening.
Xu Qi’an turned sideways slightly and also went in.
The mist surged like water and filled in the torn opening.
The descendants of gods and demons in the distance stood there woodenly, their expressions seeming frozen.
After a long while, the beyond-mortal descendant of gods and demons whose true form was a clam murmured in a low voice,
“Who exactly… was that man…?”
On the deck, Island Master Nulang turned his head stiffly and looked at the Mermaid Queen. In a voice full of shock and aching regret, he said,
“You, you already knew his cultivation?”
Thinking back now on the Mermaid Queen’s eagerness to please him throughout the journey, he suddenly realised he had been far too slow-witted.
Such a powerful being, and I actually missed my chance to curry favour with him. I barely even spoke to him.
…
On Gods and Demons island, in a silent stretch of wilderness.
Desolation, whose enormous body was like a mountain, stood there motionless. Only after quite a while did he slowly take half a step forward.
“I… hate… this place… This is… Time’s… spiritual essence…”
The deep, sonorous voice spoke “slowly”.
The flow of time in this region was extremely strange, more than ten times slower than in the real world.
Any living creature that entered it would need more than ten times the time outside for every single step it took.
“Time… what sort of… being… was it?”
An equally slow voice asked. It came from the Jianzheng.
“If… among the gods and demons… of the ancient age… there was one… most troublesome… impossible to kill… then it was… Time.
“Its spiritual essence… turned everything… in… comparably… slow…”
Desolation spent a full quarter of an hour answering the Jianzheng.
In the real world, that sentence could have been finished within ten breaths.
“I really… can’t stand… the speed… you speak at…”
the Jianzheng sighed.
“And… you also made me… think of… my disciple…”
At that moment, the human-faced sheep head lifted slightly and slowly raised itself to take a glance:
“Some…one… has… come… in…”
The Jianzheng asked curiously:
“Out at sea… there’s… still… an expert?”
Desolation did not respond. He changed direction, slowly turned round, and headed back the way he had come.
After a very, very long time, he finally left that “slow” region and returned to a world where time flowed normally.
“Stop playing dumb.”
A fierce glint flashed in Desolation’s golden pupils as he sneered:
“In the present Jiuzhou, apart from Xu Qi’an, the only one who can tear through the barrier by brute force is that half-step Martial God from the Southern Marches.
“My guess is Xu Qi’an. The half-step Martial God won’t leave the Southern Marches. He has to keep the Buddhist sect in check.”
At that moment, he saw a butterfly formed from thin mist flutter over and lightly settle on one of the long horns, precisely the one sealing the Jianzheng.
Desolation breathed out gently, blowing the butterfly apart into mist and making it vanish.
“I know that as the gatekeeper, you’ll have special means here, but don’t try tricks in front of me.”
Desolation snorted coldly. “It’s just as well that Xu Qi’an’s come. Overseas, he can’t use the power of all living beings. I can kill him, devour his essence blood, and strengthen my physique.”
As for returning to his peak, what he needed was the spiritual essence of gods and demons, not a martial artist’s qi and blood.
…
Xu Qi’an stood on the “beach”. As far as his eyes could see, there was only black, barren land. No plants, no animals, just utter stillness.
When he looked up, he saw thin mist slowly surging across the sky.
The nine-tailed fox stretched out a fair little hand, fell silent for a few seconds, then said:
“There aren’t any natural elements here at all, including earth spirit!”
She had just tried to summon yin and yang, the five elements, earth, wind, water, and fire, but every attempt had failed.
Then what are we standing on if not earth? Xu Qi’an frowned, looked around, and said:
“I can’t see any footprints left by Desolation…”
Judging from what he had seen back then, the monster on the seabed was as huge as a mountain. If a creature of that size moved normally, it would definitely leave traces.
Unless it had travelled on the wind.
“Don’t move for now. I’ll have the puppet scout ahead first.”
He gave the suggestion with steady caution, then flicked his sleeve and sent out the black river dragon.
“Awoo…”
The black river dragon shot up into the sky, baring fangs and brandishing claws, surging upwards in high spirits.
And then… it suddenly split apart section by section, falling in clumps with pattering thuds right in front of Xu Qi’an and the nine-tailed fox.
What’s this supposed to be, a live demonstration of “I’ve cracked apart”? Xu Qi’an muttered inwardly, his expression growing grave as he said:
“There’s something strange in the air!”
The black river dragon was beyond-mortal, and among its innate divine powers was “defence”, yet the moment it went up it was torn into pieces. That invisible danger possessed terrifying sharpness.
Just then, the nine-tailed fox hissed. A bead of blood emerged from one of her fair, slender fingers.
“Less than three feet in front of me…”
Before she finished speaking, Xu Qi’an threw a punch. A sound like a zither string snapping rang out in mid-air.
The nine-tailed fox reached out with a finger to probe again and found that the terrifying sharp edge had already vanished.
“Zither strings? Spider silk?”
She gave a cautious guess.
Xu Qi’an did not answer. He drew the restored black river dragon back into his sleeve and silently walked forwards.
This time, he took the lead. Along the way, he was cut countless times by invisible things. After walking more than a hundred feet, his robes had already been sliced into tatters.
White marks lined the powerful body of a first rank martial artist.
Following behind that vulgar martial man, the nine-tailed fox was in enough of a leisurely mood to tease him:
“Oh my, turn round and let this Queen see. What exactly does that thing look like, the one that made Yeji so besotted?”
“I’m afraid if I turn round, I’ll send you flying with a sweep,” Xu Qi’an said irritably.
The further they walked, the higher the temperature rose and the drier the air became. By the time Xu Qi’an saw a stretch of magma appear ahead, he had gone a long while without being cut by any invisible sharp objects.
The nine-tailed heavenly fox stood shoulder to shoulder with him. As far as the eye could see, the land had vanished. Magma stretched like an ocean, occasionally spitting out scorching tongues of flame.
“Tss!”
The nine-tailed fox spread her palm, and an exaggerated tongue of flame spurted out, startling even herself.
“This place is filled entirely with the power of fire spirit. I only cast a minor spell, yet it produced something of this scale.”
She was astonished.
Stroking his chin, Xu Qi’an pondered and said:
“I have an idea!”
The nine-tailed heavenly fox had already made a guess herself, but she still turned her head to listen.
Xu Qi’an said:
“Outside the island, we saw the figures of ancient gods and demons, but after entering we couldn’t see them any more. Could it be that they were illusions condensed from the spiritual essence those gods and demons left behind?
“This place is one of the battlefields of the ancient gods and demons, filled with the powers they left behind after death. What we encountered just now belonged to the spiritual essence of that six-armed giant, while what we’re seeing now belongs to another god or demon.
“What I can’t figure out is why the spiritual essence outside is incomplete and chaotic, while inside the island it’s so clearly divided.”
The silver-haired demoness explained:
“The stronger the spiritual essence, the stronger its repulsion to external forces. So such clear division is only natural. As for those outside, they’re probably formed from the powers of scattered spiritual essence blending together. That also explains why descendants of gods and demons who become tainted by them gain spiritual essence that is incomplete and chaotic.”
“That makes sense!” Xu Qi’an nodded in agreement and sighed.
“This place is paradise for Desolation. Gods and Demons island had only just appeared, and Desolation came at once. It wants to use this place to return to its peak. That only makes me more certain of my earlier guess.
“It may even have taken the Jianzheng sightseeing around the South Sea for quite a while, playing while it waited for Gods and Demons island to appear.”
The latter sentence was a joke made to amuse himself in bitterness.
After speaking, Xu Qi’an did not ride the wind, but tentatively stepped into the magma.
“Hiss…”
He first drew in a sharp breath, feeling the terrifying heat and intense pain.
Then he said with delighted surprise:
“The magma has an excellent tempering effect on the body. It can make skin and flesh tougher. If you soak in it long enough, your resistance to fire will grow stronger. Coming in?”
The nine-tailed fox curled her lips.
“You soak in it yourself.”
Xu Qi’an gave an “oh”, then waded through the magma while taking the chance to temper his physique.
Suddenly, he raised a hand. His qi condensed into a giant hand and grabbed towards the nine-tailed fox in the air.
She seemed to have been prepared all along. Without warning, she shot upwards, neatly avoiding the giant hand’s grasp.
She looked down from above, the corner of her mouth lifting.
“Your grand-aunt here was crossing blades and playing power games before you were even born. The moment you opened your mouth just now, I knew what you were planning.”
You want a look at her body? Pah, keep dreaming!
“How boring,” Xu Qi’an muttered, and kept walking.
Just as he was about to wade through this region, Xu Qi’an froze and said:
“I think I’ve stepped on something…”
I don’t get the reference either ↩
Comments for this chapter. You will need a GitHub account. Please follow all terms and conditions of GitHub issues and maintain etiquette in the comments. Cookies are required for this functionality.
If you want to talk with other readers about Nightwatchers (or other cultivation type books) you can join our cultivation groupreading discord server!
I also have a Kofi, which for legal reasons is definitely for supporting my digital art only (promise!): ko-fi.com/yanxin ... plus I guess server space isn't free, and I don't want to put ads/trackers... ever, so thank you if you do!