In my twilight years of cultivating, I became a Supreme Daoist of the Longevity Path

Chapter 28: 025: I Manage the Killing, the Ground Manages the Burial (Asking for 3k monthly tickets to keep reading) _1 Chapter 28: 025: I Manage the Killing, the Ground Manages the Burial (Asking for 3k monthly tickets to keep reading) _1 Despite his annoyance, Chen Dengming explained, “You’ve mistaken me for someone else.

I’m not the person you’re looking for.

I’m just an innocent passerby.”
The two cultivators outside the forest, a man and a woman, were taken aback.

By the sound of his voice, it didn’t seem likely to them that he was the person they were after.

However, changing one’s voice was straightforward and could be achieved even by non-cultivators.

The man in the blue robe said coldly, “Friend, whether you are Jiang Qiang or not, to avoid misunderstanding, please come out and explain.

We are not unreasonable people.”
With a sigh, Chen Dengming knocked on the Blood Centipede Gu in his ear canal, alerting it to stand by.

Meanwhile, the Snake Gu from his sleeve shot out, and he cautiously walked out of the forest, frowning at the female cultivator who had a fireball floating beside her.

“As I told you, I’m not the person you’re looking for.

Is there really any need for this standoff?” he said.

The female cultivator with triangular eyes frowned at Chen Dengming’s appearance, exchanging a glance with the male cultivator.

They both saw a touch of surprise in each other’s eyes.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on 𝑛𝗈𝘃𝘨𝗼.co

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His appearance didn’t match that of the Jiang Qiang they were pursuing, and the fact that he was still wearing a mask was a bit strange.

The blue-robed male cultivator stared at Chen Dengming.

His gaze lingered on the hilt of the broken sword on Chen’s back, and suspiciously said, “Take off your mask.”
“One is at the first level of Qi cultivation, the other one is…

at the second level…”
Chen Dengming carefully gauged the spiritual might of the two cultivators and the distance between them.

Although dissatisfied, he did as he was told.

He wore the mask to avoid being identified by cultivators patrolling Hutong Street.

But now, he had been in hiding for more than three months, with a full beard covering his face.

Even if the neighbours had reported his appearance to the cultivators on Hutong Street, they would hardly recognize him now.

And most importantly, he was a cultivator, not an ordinary person.

Chen Dengming took off his mask before their eyes.

Both the male and female cultivator scrutinized him closely.

The male cultivator’s eyes flashed with surprise before he broke out in a smile, “It seems we had indeed mistaken you for someone else.

We apologize for the misunderstanding.”
The female cultivator slightly nodded and loosened up, ready to cancel her fireball.

Just then, she heard a barely audible secret hint from her companion.

Her eyebrows furrowed and she suddenly hurled the fireball she’d been holding.

Three distinctly different energies intermingled.

With his extensive battle experience, Chen Dengming’s body jolted forward at the very instant that the female cultivator released her fireball, expertly dodging the attack.

Boom!

The side of the ground shook, and intense heat burst forth along with flames.

Chen Dengming’s face turned bronze, and he rushed out from the edge of the fire.

The broken sword on his back was drawn out by the movement of his back muscles.

“Swish!”
Accompanied by the vibrant sword light dancing like a dragon or snake, an overwhelming killing aura burst forth, bringing with it zhang-long Broadsword Qi, striking directly towards the male cultivator who hastily summoned a spiritual shield.

“Bang!”
The formidable Broadsword Qi filled with spiritual energy ripped through the rapidly spinning spiritual shield almost instantly.

“What?!”
The male cultivator tensed up, his hairs stood on end, and he hurriedly formed a gesture in shock.

A magical artifact imbued with spiritual light rose in front of him and shattered the sword light with a ‘clang’.

The man heaved a sigh of relief and was about to flare up in anger at Chen Dengming only to meet Chen Dengming’s eyes that blazed with an even more intense killing aura.

Before he could react, he felt a numbing sensation in his ankle and heard a ‘buzz’ passing by his ear.

His neck suddenly felt intense pain.

“Ah!

– Die!”
He shouted and pointed a finger.

“Whoosh!”
The magical artifact, flashing with spiritual light, shot forward carrying a sharp surge of Qi.

Chen Dengming, judging the action by the sound, envisioned a gap and blocked it with his broken sword almost simultaneously.

“Clang!”
The broken sword shattered into fragments, cutting and ripping Chen Dengming’s palm.

The Diamond Vajra Zen Dharma, which relied on spiritual energy, fell short in sustaining against it.

But, almost simultaneously, the male cultivator fell to the ground, his body convulsing wildly, black blood pouring from his orifices.

“Mu Lang!”
During this lightning-quick exchange, the triangular-eyed female cultivator saw her partner fall.

She immediately screamed out loud, her eyes filled with rage and murderous intent as she stared at Chen Dengming.

She quickly formed a seal, her surrounding spiritual might quickly increasing.

However, just as she was forming the seal, Chen Dengming’s eyes turned icy cold.

He flicked his finger.

A spiralling thrust of Qi, faster than lightning, struck her arm, even before she could complete her seal.

“Bang!”
With a blood splatter, the broken arm hit the ground.

The intense pain immediately struck her nerves, causing her face to contort in a scream.

But before she could close her mouth, a shadow flashed.

The Blood Centipede Gu instantly rushed into her mouth.

Her eyes bulged, her face turned black, and she collapsed onto the ground.

“Phew!—”
Chen Dengming heavily gasped for air, immediately went over to check, and confirmed that the male cultivator was dead.

He kicked away the dimly glowing magical artifact next to the man and breathed a sigh of relief.

Now, his forehead and back were covered in sweat, his lips dry, and his hands, either from injury or contraction, were shaking uncontrollably, blood flowing out.

He glanced at his palms.

In the Diamond Vajra Zen Dharma state, his palms had been cut open, the wounds deep enough to see the bones.

In parts of the back of his hand, even some thin fat was visible, the blood vessels cut open.

As soon as he stopped using the Diamond Vajra Zen Dharma, blood quickly flooded the area, and spiritual energy wreaked havoc on the wounds.

He quickly channeled his spiritual energy into his hands, dispelled the remaining spiritual energy, and used acupuncture techniques to stop his bleeding.

The fight had started quickly and ended just as fast.

Although it seemed like he had easily won the fight, any little mistake could have led to his death.

Then his pursuit of immortality would have been for nothing.

“Thankfully, I had the sense not to stand still reciting hand seals and casting the Fireball Technique against them.”
Looking at the broken blade pieces scattered around, Chen Dengming felt a mix of relief, cautiousness, and a cold chill down his spine.

Luckily, he had been quick to execute the Qingqiu Mad Dragon sword attack in combination with his Gu worm, taking his adversaries by surprise with the swift and fierce attack.

Otherwise, had he countered them with the Big Fireball Skill, which he had just learned, he would have probably been killed by their magic artifacts before he could even recite the hand seals.

In fact, when the female cultivator started reciting hand seals to cast the Big Fireball Skill, he didn’t hesitate for a second and interrupted her using the Finger Flicking Skill instinctively.

All of this comes with battle experience and habit.

However, battling adversaries purely based on martial arts, though quick and decisive, would only work amongst lower-rank cultivators.

No matter how strong one’s martial arts are, they will always be merely a technique that approaches the Dao.

They will never be as profound and mysterious as cultivating the Dao.

That’s because martial arts cannot tap into nature’s spiritual energy and it drains one’s energy too quickly while being only moderately powerful.

Even his strongest move, the Qingqiu Mad Dragon, was barely enough to break the enemy’s Spiritual Shield Skill.

It already drained about 60% of his total spiritual energy.

Along with the other martial arts techniques he executed just now, he was almost out of spiritual energy.

“If that male cultivator had been prepared and used his magic artifact to block the attack right away, my only option would have been to turn tail and run…

but even that wouldn’t necessarily guarantee my survival.”
Chen Dengming clenched his teeth, kicked the corpse of the female cultivator to extract the Blood Centipede Gu from it, and shook his head.

“You reckless fools never learn!

I just want to live a long life and avoid trouble where I can.

Not everyone is so eager to throw their lives away.”
He vowed to himself.

“I must quickly master the Dao techniques like the Fireball Skill to the point where I can instantly execute them.

They consume less spiritual energy while having more devastating power!”
What he didn’t realize was that the Escaping World Sect, Miaoyin Sect, and various other sects had joined forces to hold the Ascension Convention in the martial arts-oriented Nanxun Kingdom precisely because they recognized the potential of martial arts.

Among these sects, there were influential figures who wanted to explore this realm and train some martial arts practitioners who could rival sword cultivators.

But this exploration was a mere branch in the long course of the Dao of immortality.

Its significance could fade away at any time, and the Ascension Convention might not be organized ever again.

“Rustle–”
At this point, the Blood Centipede Gu crawled out of the female cultivator’s body and started to fly.

Chen Dengming frowned and flicked the Blood Centipede Gu to serve as a warning.

This Blood Centipede Gu had an exceedingly strong killing instinct and a voracious bloodlust.

Once it started battling, it would hardly stop until it smelled blood.

He had initially planned on sparing the female cultivator to learn why she attacked him.

Maybe he could have even persuaded her to join her significant other in death.

Unfortunately, she had been poisoned to death by the Blood Centipede Gu before he could even question her.

Suddenly, Chen Dengming felt his previously relaxed body tense again, his spiritual might surged, and the wind and sand around him blew his clothes around.

He instantly turned to look at a figure standing on a slope far to his left.

Almost simultaneously, a tall, skinny figure appeared on the slope.

The figure emitted a faint spiritual force.

The cultivator on the slope spotted Chen Dengming and seemed puzzled.

He quickly examined the two dead cultivators on the ground and recoiled in terror.

Looking almost youthful and vigilant, he immediately retreated and said from a distance,
“Please, fellow Taoist, these two were bounty hunters who were chasing me.

I didn’t anticipate they would clash with you.

I didn’t mean to cause trouble.

Please accept this spirit stone as my apology.”
With that, the cultivator on the slope took out a spirit stone, threw it on the ground, stepped back quickly, activated a talisman, and quickly distanced himself.

Throughout the incident, Chen Dengming watched the cultivator’s every move, not relaxing until the cultivator activated the Godspeed Talisman and disappeared into the distance.

If the cultivator had chosen to attack instead, it would have been troublesome for him.

After all, he only had a little spiritual energy left.

It was a good thing the cultivator had been so timid.

“He must have offended some people in the gathering area to have a bounty on his head…”
Chen Dengming pondered, looking again at the two dead cultivators, a man, and a woman, on the ground.

Only then did he realize why they had attacked him in the first place.

As bounty hunters, they must have recognized his features from the bounty posters.

They had chosen to attack him for the reward, confident they could kill him and add to their unlawful gain.

However, their plans had backfired this time.

“You can’t avoid all dangers forever…”
Chen Dengming let out a sigh, bent down to search the corpses, and collected his spoils of war.

This recent experience served as another warning for him: sometimes, trouble is unavoidable–even those who seek to avoid it will find reckless fools bringing it right to their doorsteps.

Having spent a considerable time in the martial world, he had already experienced situations like this many times and was used to them.

While his nature was quiet and accommodating, it did not mean he was weak or too honest.

When it was time to act, he wouldn’t hesitate, regardless of who the enemy was.

No one would be spared.

The ‘Madness’ of the ‘Mad Blade’ was embodied in the moment of attack!

Having collected all the spoils of war and the low-grade spirit stone ‘entrance fee’ from the slope, Chen Dengming quickly left the area.

As for the corpses of the male and female cultivators, he didn’t bother to deal with them.

The same old rule applied.

He was only responsible for killing, and Mother Nature took care of the burial.

The bodies were returned to the earth.

In some novels, the characters would usually use the Fireball Technique to destroy the bodies completely–it seemed sleek and eco-friendly.

But didn’t the Fireball Technique consume spiritual energy as well?

He was running low on spiritual energy and couldn’t afford to waste it.

…