Song Jixing glanced at Huo Ling'er who had fainted beside her and WenRen He whose strength was severely depleted.
The unknown threat had not been lifted, so instead of leaving with the two of them, it was safer to remain here.
Song Jixing took a step forward and said, "Senior WenRen, I'll leave an array here for you. I'll come back for you two later."
WenRen He nodded without saying much.
-
Following the same method, Song Jixing opened a passage through the underground and flew out.
The sun had already set, and there was still a faint golden glow in the west.
Song Jixing looked at a giant pit in the ground, seemingly blasted open by her junior martial brother using talisman papers.
Traces of blood remained at the bottom of the pit, the demonic cultivator must have been injured.
But there were no signs of Feng Juechen or the demonic cultivator.
Lin Mingshu crawled up from the icy snow, looked at the indistinct figure in the deep blue night sky, and shouted hoarsely, "Over there in the north!"
Feng Juechen chased after the direction that person had fled.
Song Jixing hurriedly rode her sword to follow.
At this moment, Feng Juechen was chasing after the demonic cultivator across the icy plains, both running at an extremely fast pace, like crazed leopards on the frozen tundra.
If this were a track and field event, all the spectators and coaches would surely go wild for the two of them.
But there were no spectators, no tracks.
As the demonic cultivator in the lead sensed Song Jixing approaching on her sword, he gritted his teeth harder.
His cultivation was no match for Song Jixing riding her sword!
Now, he could only resort to a dangerous ploy!
Just as Song Jixing was about to catch up to the two, the figure in front suddenly stopped, and a grayish-white mist exploded around him.
Song Jixing's spiritual sense could not penetrate this fog, and when she tried to dispel it with a talisman, it was as ineffective as a gentle breeze against solid rock.
When the fog dissipated, there were two identical Feng Juechens standing there! Even their clothes and shoes were exactly the same.
Confused, Song Jixing descended from her sword.
Rumor had it that demonic cultivators from the Cultivation World often used heavenly tricks to impersonate righteous cultivators and infiltrate sects, but this was the first time she had witnessed such a ploy.
Before the fog cleared, Feng Juechen had keenly noticed the demonic cultivator inserting something into his own brow. He had thought it was some lethal weapon, never expecting the demonic cultivator to transform into his exact likeness.
And instinctively, Feng Juechen felt it was more than just appearances that were identical.
"Senior Sister!" Feng Juechen frowned.
As he spoke, the other "Feng Juechen" looked at him with a slight grimace. "What exactly are you trying to do?"
Song Jixing had last seen a scene like this with the Monkey King Sun Wukong and the Six-Eared Macaque, but unfortunately, she was no Buddha.
After a moment of contemplation, Song Jixing said, "I suppose next you'll want to prove which one of you is my junior brother?"
The Feng Juechen on the left spoke, "Senior Sister, he's doing this to buy time. He must have a backup plan."
The Feng Juechen on the right followed, "Senior Sister, why don't we each strike a sword blow?"
Song Jixing: ...
While one sword strike each could hit the demonic cultivator, if something happened to her junior brother, she wouldn't know how to explain it to her master. So Song Jixing could only say regretfully, "The spiritual energy here is unusable for us. If anything happens to you, junior brother, I would be uneasy."
So it was better to present some evidence.
"Senior Sister, the first gift I gave you after joining the sect was a spiritual herb," one of the Feng Juechens said first.
The other quickly followed, "Senior Sister, we swept the Siguo Cliff together."
Could even memories be replicated so perfectly?
The two Feng Juechens exchanged a glance, their expressions not ideal.
The demonic cultivator's tricks had reached such an extent.
As Song Jixing marveled at this, she was also a bit perplexed. Her spiritual sense explored the two, but they were identical, even their auras perfectly synchronized.
It must have been some kind of heavenly treasure used to steal one's appearance.
Her own cultivation level seemed to fall short.
As the two kept trading statements about Song Jixing and Feng Juechen's past, the real Feng Juechen closed his mouth, realizing reminiscing would not work.
"Enough of that, you should say something that would convince me you're my junior brother!" Song Jixing pondered.
The one on the right calmly said, "Senior Sister, if you and I were at the same level of cultivation, you would be no match for me."
The one on the left quickly followed, "Senior Sister, after I joined our master's sect, you didn't seem to like me very much. Was it because you were afraid I would take Master's affection from you?"
Song Jixing: ...
She suddenly felt that exchanging sword strikes was quite reasonable.
Song Jixing immediately summoned her sword and slashed at the one on the right.
The sharp sword light flew towards Feng Juechen, nearly reaching his neck before swiftly turning and shooting towards the left Feng Juechen instead.
The sword pierced through his chest, and fresh red blood splattered onto the pristine white snow.
The left Feng Juechen fell painfully to the ground, clutching the bleeding wound on his chest as he looked at Song Jixing in bewilderment. "Senior Sister, why? Why can't you recognize me!"
Song Jixing: "You demonic cultivators simply don't understand feelings, do you?"
If she regarded her master as a father figure, then to her, Feng Juechen was like a younger brother.
While their relationship was not particularly close, after years of interaction, they would not dwell on issues of parental love. After all, they were not children anymore, so why would they compare who their father loved more?
Let alone bring up such grievances at a critical moment like this.
Feng Juechen stepped forward, glancing at Song Jixing and the fallen figure that had been his likeness.
"The demonic cultivator's treasure is quite formidable," Feng Juechen said calmly.
Song Jixing looked at the fallen "Feng Juechen." Even as he lay dying, he still wore Feng Juechen's face. If not for his rapidly fading life force, Song Jixing would have thought she struck the wrong person.
If it had been her junior brother, he would not have died so quickly and would have struggled a bit more to leave some parting words.
However, constantly seeing her junior brother's form was quite vexing.
Song Jixing cast another talisman, shattering the physical body of the "Feng Juechen." Like sand scattered by the wind, the figure vanished without a trace.
All that remained was a wooden human figurine about ten inches tall. Its limbs and face were uncarved, just smooth cylindrical shapes, with a crack across its chest.
Song Jixing picked up the figurine and examined it.
That her strike at the level of Golden Core Great Perfection had only caused a crack meant a lot. This figurine had to be at least at the Divine Transformation stage, otherwise there would have been more than just a crack.
Since the demonic cultivator had reached the Divine Transformation stage, his cultivation was at least at that level.
In the Cultivation World, it was very difficult for cultivators to use treasures beyond their current level. It would be like a person who could only lift 5kg suddenly trying to lift 60kg. Cultivation was even harder than weight-lifting, and if he did manage to use it, he would likely suffer severe injuries afterwards.
Song Jixing didn't know if that was the case for the demonic cultivator.
Although she didn't capture him, there were still gains.
