The Cannon Fodder Female Supporting Character Captured the Villainous Demon Venerable - Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Escaping Several Thousand Li.

Mo Xun hadn’t forgotten that Yun Wushang knew how to draw the Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman.

One Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman allowed one to travel a thousand li instantly.

Even if she redeemed all her rewards at once, increasing her movement speed by 3000%, she would only gain the qualifications to race against a Mahayana stage cultivator. She might not be able to outrun Yun Wushang, who could draw the Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman.

Over the past half-month, watching her reward points increase and the day she would run away approaching, Mo Xun scoured the Array Formation Compendium and the Pill Recipe Compendium but couldn’t find any method that could compete with the Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman. In the end, she could only bite the bullet and ask Yun Wushang: “Wushang, would you teach me how to draw the Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman?”

Yun Wushang was leaning fully relaxed in Mo Xun’s arms. Her body was a little tired, but she hadn’t lost her ability to think.

In fact, she had been waiting for Mo Xun to ask her to teach her how to draw talismans. She knew that if Mo Xun was truly interested in talismans, she would never give up easily, but… why the Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman?

“Why?” Yun Wushang asked directly.

Mo Xun had already prepared her answer: “My cultivation is complete, and I’m preparing to advance to the Integration stage. With the help of the Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman, I can suffer less pain during the tribulation.”

Yun Wushang replied: “With me here, even if you stand still, I won’t let the heavenly lightning harm you in the slightest.”

Mo Xun: “But…”

“Enough,” Yun Wushang interrupted her, lowered her head, and sighed, “I’ll teach you.”

Mo Xun looked at her in surprise, wondering why she had suddenly changed her mind.

Yun Wushang admitted that she felt uneasy when she agreed, but even if Mo Xun successfully broke through to the Integration stage, her escape technique would still be vastly inferior to her own Mahayana stage technique. Even if Mo Xun mastered the method for drawing the Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman, it would be impossible for her to escape her side.

Moreover… if Mo Xun truly intended to escape, rather than letting her find a way herself, it was better to teach her personally, so that she would feel somewhat indebted when she fled.

Thinking this, Yun Wushang raised her hand, used her demonic qi to retrieve the storage pouch from her robe nearby, and took out a stack of blank talisman paper.

“A talisman is similar to an array. It only needs to arrange energy according to a certain structure to exert extraordinary power,” Yun Wushang picked up a talisman paper, released her demonic qi, first condensed several symbols arranged on the same plane in front of the paper, and then moved these symbols onto the paper, leaving behind a trace of water. “You are an immortal cultivator, arranging spiritual energy to draw the power of the Dao of Heaven. I am a demonic cultivator, arranging demonic qi to draw the power of Chaos. The energy flows are different, but the effect is the same.”

The water mark on the talisman paper quickly disappeared, but the demonic qi on it did not.

Although there was not a single character, it was no longer a blank talisman paper, but a talisman containing energy.

Mo Xun understood it at a glance: “The power of a talisman is determined by the energy arranged on it, and has nothing to do with the handwriting.”

“Exactly,” Yun Wushang picked up a brush and wrote the four characters “Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness” in a flowing style on the talisman paper, adding, “Beginners condense the energy in their body at the tip of the brush. The energy is arranged according to how they draw. For advanced talisman masters, the energy is one thing, and the characters are another. I write the characters merely for aesthetic purposes.”

Mo Xun was startled, then burst out laughing.

Yun Wushang’s serious look when saying the words “merely for aesthetic purposes” was truly… excessively adorable.

“Indeed, with your beautiful handwriting, you naturally have to seize every opportunity to show it off,” Mo Xun said while smiling.

Yun Wushang gave a light snort and slapped a blank talisman paper onto Mo Xun’s shoulder: “I’ve taught you. It’s your turn.”

“Oh, come on.” Mo Xun picked the blank talisman paper off her shoulder, looking helpless. “Although I’m very smart, I don’t have a photographic memory. You only drew it once, and I only remember the outline.”

Despite what she said, Mo Xun had already conceptualized how much energy was needed to draw a Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman. It was a little more than she imagined, but even she, who hadn’t broken through to the Integration stage yet, could completely afford it. Drawing twenty sheets a day, she could save a hundred in five days.

Yun Wushang didn’t speak, but she took another blank talisman paper. This time, she completed the entire talisman using black ink.

Mo Xun watched her movements quietly, thinking that she would soon be separated from her for a while, and she did feel some reluctance.

Mo Xun: System, System, why can’t you conjure a protective artifact out of thin air?

System: A Five-Grade protective artifact is worth 100,000 spirit stones. If the Host can provide this money, you can find a trustworthy person to buy it and send it to Chu Jiuqu.

Mo Xun: So expensive. That’s why I wanted to refine it myself.

Mo Xun’s spirit stones and demon crystals combined did not exceed ten thousand right now.

However, she was going to have to attend an auction eventually. After all, she had refined a pile of pills she couldn’t use. It would be too much of a loss not to trade them for spirit stones.

Yun Wushang finished drawing the Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman and handed it to Mo Xun.

Mo Xun took it and studied it intently for half a day.

She first memorized the appearance of the entire talisman, wrote it out a few times from memory to ensure accuracy, and then began drawing with spiritual qi.

Her first attempt was successful. Excitedly, she wrote the four characters “Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness” on it.

Because Yun Wushang had constantly mocked her handwriting as being comparable to a child’s, this time she wrote as sloppily as possible and showed it to Yun Wushang.

Yun Wushang: “…There’s no need to be so self-deprecating.”

Mo Xun: “…I told you that you wouldn’t be able to understand if I wrote too fast.”

Five days later, having prepared a large number of Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talismans, Mo Xun began her seclusion to break through.

System: The core of breaking through from Nascent Soul to Integration is the “Gathering of Three Flowers at the Summit and the Alignment of Five Qi to the Origin.” The Three Flowers refer to “Essence, Qi, and Spirit,” and the Five Qi refer to the “Heart, Liver, Spleen, Lungs, and Kidneys,” which correspond to the five elements of “Fire, Wood, Earth, Metal, and Water,” respectively. This means the Host needs to separately condense spiritual qi of the five elements and integrate them with the Host’s Nascent Soul to transform it into the Primordial Spirit.

Mo Xun: But I have Water and Wood Dual Spiritual Roots. How do I condense spiritual qi of the five elements?

System: It’s very simple. Water generates Wood, Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, and Earth generates Metal. Cycle through them all, and the Five Qi will be aligned to the Origin.

Mo Xun: Yun Wushang has an Ice Single Spiritual Root. How did she break through to the Integration stage back then?

System: The Ice Spiritual Root is a mutation of the Water Spiritual Root. Turning ice into water allows one to obtain Water spiritual qi.

Mo Xun: Oh right, I was being foolish.

System: Host, please concentrate on advancing to Integration. Stop thinking about Yun Wushang.

Mo Xun: That’s a rare thing to hear from you.

Mo Xun grumbled inwardly, took out a pile of Integration Pills from her storage pouch, and swallowed them one after another.

Having prepared fully, she began her advancement to the Integration stage.

The first step: condensing the Five Qi.

Mo Xun followed the System’s instructions, using her spiritual roots as the source to generate and condense the five spiritual qi elements in a balanced manner within her dantian.

The second step: union of the spirit and soul.

Mo Xun carefully controlled the fusion of the five spiritual qi elements with her Nascent Soul, transforming it into her Primordial Spirit.

During this process, she saw “Yun Wushang,” which was not surprising.

More accurately, it was the Heart Demon taking on Yun Wushang’s appearance.

“Mo Xun, having been together for days, seeing each other constantly, you should know by now that I am a person who dares to love and hate,” the Heart Demon came and sat beside Mo Xun, raising a hand and intimately hooking it around her neck.

“I love you, so I allow you to touch every part of my body, and I even taught you the Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman. I hate you, so I want you to suffer unbearable pain.”

At this point, the Heart Demon suddenly gripped Mo Xun’s throat and sharply said: “Mo Xun, if you dare to leave me for half a step, I will definitely make you regret it!”

Mo Xun had already released her mental domain. At this moment, her emotions, protected by the mental domain and the Integration Pills, were as stable as a windless lake surface.

Lust, fear, greed, and arrogance were all unable to disrupt her state of mind.

The only thing that could make her momentarily lose her composure was regret.

So this time, the Heart Demon specifically targeted her regret.

Heart Demon: “You will lose me forever, both my body and my love. Do you regret it?”

Mo Xun: If you truly loved me, you wouldn’t stop me from doing something beneficial and harmless to myself, unless, to you, I’m just an obedient plaything. What is there to regret about getting rid of the status of a plaything?

Heart Demon: “If I, having lost you, become self-destructive, willingly degenerate, and become someone else’s plaything. Do you regret it?”

Mo Xun: If you were that kind of person, you wouldn’t be the Yun Wushang I like. The one I like would choose to find me, kill me, kill everyone who made her unhappy, and then continue her demonic cultivation. What is there to regret about losing someone who doesn’t love me?

Heart Demon: “If I am ambushed and killed by a cultivator from the Tianshan Immortal Sect while searching for you—you didn’t mean to kill me, but I died because of you. Do you regret it?”

Mo Xun: Whoever kills you, I will kill them. I did nothing wrong. The person who killed you is wrong. Since I am not at fault, what is there to regret?

The Heart Demon laughed wildly, then said: “But in that case, you will lose me forever, when you originally had the chance not to lose me.”

Mo Xun: Everyone dies eventually. People die every day at the hospitals where I practiced and worked. Death is normal for humans. I am a cultivator, but I am also human. Since it is perfectly normal, then…

Mo Xun stopped halfway through her internal monologue, then smiled: You reminded me. Before I leave, I should prepare more life-saving pills for Yun Wushang. With her strong survival instinct and these pills, she will definitely be fine.

Heart Demon: “…”

The grip on Mo Xun’s throat disappeared. The black robe on the Heart Demon dissipated like ash, revealing a snow-white color.

The white-robed Yun Wushang looked at Mo Xun, saying nothing and doing nothing, merely accompanying her silently.

This Yun Wushang was not a Heart Demon but a part of her mental domain, her Dao Heart.

The moment she saw her, Mo Xun suddenly felt a cool qi wash over her internal organs. Her body became several times lighter in an instant. Her divine sense spread out, easily covering the entire Demonic Realm.

The spiritual qi of heaven and earth surged into her body naturally, without needing to be deliberately absorbed, as if it had been a part of her power from the beginning.

With just a thought, her Primordial Spirit left her body, soaring up to the Ninth Heaven, taking in the vast scenery of the Demonic Realm.

At that moment, the exhilaration of being above all living beings and the loneliness of no longer being accepted by them surged into her heart simultaneously.

Mo Xun clearly realized that she was a “god.”

Although she still had a long way to go to become a True Immortal, to the vast majority of people, including most cultivators, she was now an existence that commanded reverence.

System: Congratulations to the Host for successfully breaking through to the Integration stage! Lifespan, cultivation speed, physical strength, and divine sense strength have all been further enhanced!

Mo Xun opened her eyes. The scenery before her hadn’t changed at all, yet she felt it was completely different. Perhaps it was because her perception had been further strengthened, and she noticed many things she hadn’t noticed before.

For example, the temperature in the secret chamber was much lower than outside, constantly emitting cold qi.

For example, the bottom of the bathing pool near the cave entrance was inlaid with a large piece of smooth, cool-to-the-touch white jade, constantly purifying the water quality.

Was Yun Wushang’s world always like this?

As soon as she thought of Yun Wushang, Yun Wushang’s calm voice sounded in her ear: “Congratulations. How does it feel?”

Mo Xun turned her head to meet her gaze and couldn’t help but curve her lips into a smile: “Not bad.”

Yun Wushang stood up from the stone bed: “Prepare to undergo tribulation.”

Mo Xun acknowledged with an “Mm,” followed suit, and then asked: “Are we undergoing tribulation right here in the Demonic Realm? Won’t that be problematic?”

Yun Wushang: “What’s problematic about it?”

Mo Xun: “What if it harms the demons under your command…”

Yun Wushang: “Then that is the tribulation they were destined to face.”

Mo Xun laughed, saying no more.

Breaking through from Nascent Soul to Integration requires enduring the Six-Nine Heavenly Tribulation.

Under normal circumstances, the intensity of the heavenly tribulation is slightly higher than the cultivator’s strength but not by much. However, Mo Xun’s Integration Tribulation was comparable to the Void Refinement stage.

Meiyan originally wanted to get closer to watch the fun, but she was only shaken by the air currents stirred up when the third wave of lightning struck, leaving half her body numb. Terrified, she quickly fled.

Meanwhile, Yun Wushang, after expending a talisman to deploy the Wushang Array, sat cross-legged on an ice chair condensed from demonic qi, closing her eyes to rest.

Mo Xun stood beside her, watching Meiyan’s scurrying back, and suddenly realized: “Is my heavenly tribulation stronger than the average cultivator’s?”

Yun Wushang heard this and didn’t even open her eyes: “Your cultivation speed is extraordinary. Isn’t it normal for your heavenly tribulation to be unusual?”

“But isn’t it a bit excessive for a heavenly tribulation that even a Void Refinement stage demon fears to strike me, who is only at the Integration stage?” Mo Xun thought of her last tribulation experience and felt genuinely frightened: “If there wasn’t a cultivator with a higher realm than mine nearby, wouldn’t I have been struck to ashes?”

“Yes,” Yun Wushang answered without courtesy. “Therefore, if you want to catch up to my realm, you cannot do without my help during tribulation.”

Mo Xun first agreed with an “Mm,” and after a while, asked: “Are there any similar cases in the past? I mean… has anyone else undergone a heavenly tribulation like this? Like Patriarch Xunji.”

“I don’t know,” Yun Wushang replied readily. “I know very little about Patriarch Xunji, and I’ve never heard of anyone’s heavenly tribulation being an entire realm higher than the person undergoing the tribulation. However, there is a saying that the heavenly tribulation is not a test from the Dao of Heaven for cultivators, but a punishment for those who defy heaven. To seize the spiritual qi of heaven and earth to achieve one’s immortal body violates the Dao of Heaven, so the Dao of Heaven sends down the heavenly tribulation to punish the sinner. Instead of asking me why your heavenly tribulation is like this, why don’t you think about what kind of heaven-defying deeds you might have committed?”

Mo Xun: I think the most heaven-defying thing I’ve done is sleeping with you. Everything else followed the rules of this world… Wait, could it be because of the System?

Mo Xun thought that while her cultivation of techniques, study of arrays, refinement of pills, and advancement of realm all followed the rules of this world, the abilities the System gave her were definite cheats. Was she being subjected to such a heavenly tribulation because of the System’s existence?

The System heard her internal query and argued innocently: The Host was born with Dual Spiritual Roots of Water and Wood, awakened the abilities of healing and fire control because she was born in an area abundant with wood spiritual qi, and possessed powerful divine sense and comprehension due to her exceptional talent, making her cultivation efficiency far higher than ordinary people. Where is the defiance of heaven?

Mo Xun: Then how do you explain 100% evasion and a 3000% movement speed increase?

System: The latter is because the Host’s array formation talent is so high that she comprehended space. The former is not the time to explain to the Host. In any case, it has nothing to do with the intensity of the Host’s heavenly tribulation. Please stop guessing wildly!

Mo Xun: So, what is the reason my heavenly tribulation is stronger than the average person’s?

The System spoke a lot but didn’t get to the point. Did Mo Xun want to know how to rationalize her cheat? She wanted to know why the Dao of Heaven was treating her this way. If it wasn’t angry about her having a cheat, then why?

However, the System didn’t reply. The System started playing dead.

After a while, the last bolt of heavenly lightning struck. Nothing happened. The tribulation cloud flashed and rumbled for a moment, eventually dispersing grumblingly, revealing the already not-so-clear sky of the Demonic Realm.

As Yun Wushang had said, none of the 54 bolts of the Integration Tribulation lightning could harm Mo Xun in the slightest.

Mo Xun felt her light body and immense spiritual qi, looked at Yun Wushang who was still elegantly sitting beside her, and couldn’t bring herself to say what she needed to say next.

“Let’s go back,” Yun Wushang stood up, shattered the ice chair, and flew toward her cave dwelling.

Mo Xun wanted to speak but stopped herself, ultimately following her back to the cave in silence first.

It wasn’t until nightfall that Mo Xun tentatively spoke: “Wushang, there’s something I need to get your consent for.”

“What is it?” Yun Wushang sat on the edge of the bed, her posture as dignified as when she was still at the Shuiyue Immortal Sect.

After resuming her Demonic Venerable identity, whether walking on the ground or flying in the air, her every gesture carried a sense of freedom and unrestraint. However, when she sat or lay down, she always gave a feeling of docility.

Mo Xun struggled for another half-day before speaking: “Can you allow me to refine artifacts?”

This wasn’t the first time she had asked Yun Wushang for permission to refine artifacts, but this time, her word choice and tone were quite submissive.

However, even so, Yun Wushang’s answer did not change at all: “No.”

Mo Xun sighed in disappointment: “Why, exactly?”

Yun Wushang: “I’ve already told you the reason. I don’t want to repeat it.”

Mo Xun: “…When is your next seclusion?”

Yun Wushang stared at her in silence for a while before replying: “No more seclusion. I told you, if you want to catch up to my realm, you cannot do without my help. So, I will not enter seclusion again until you reach the Mahayana stage.”

Yun Wushang finished speaking, slightly pursing her lips.

Mo Xun had just asked if she could refine artifacts, and immediately followed up by asking about her seclusion. Her intentions were obvious.

Mo Xun gave a wry smile, turned her gaze elsewhere, but didn’t give up talking to Yun Wushang: “Wushang, how about we make a bet? Just for fun.”

Yun Wushang: “What bet?”

Mo Xun: “If I can escape from your side for three days, you will allow me to refine artifacts. Conversely, I will stay by your side for the rest of my life and go nowhere else.”

The bet sounded favorable to Yun Wushang, but Yun Wushang didn’t hesitate long before giving her answer: “I won’t bet with you.”

Although their realms were vastly different, and their mastery of escape techniques was worlds apart, for some reason… Yun Wushang just didn’t dare to bet.

“Do you… truly hate me refining artifacts that much?” Mo Xun turned her gaze back to Yun Wushang’s face. This time, her eyes held a hint of sadness.

Yun Wushang lowered her gaze, unable to meet her eyes, and replied in as calm a tone as possible: “Yes. I allow you to study any spell, refine any pill, kill anyone, but only artifact refining… I despise artifact refiners, so I don’t want to despise you.”

Mo Xun: “If I hated killing, would you promise me not to kill anyone ever again? Even the artifact refiner you hate?”

Yun Wushang: “…No.”

Mo Xun: “Then by what right do you forbid me from refining artifacts?”

Yun Wushang: “…”

Mo Xun waited for a long time, trying to get an answer from Yun Wushang.

But for as long as she waited, Yun Wushang remained silent.

Finally, Mo Xun’s patience vanished in her silence.

Mo Xun: System, redeem all rewards for me.

System: Okay. The Host’s movement speed has been increased by 3000%, and the Host has comprehended the Space Folding Technique. You can now compete with the Mahayana stage escape technique with your Integration stage body. The Host’s spiritual qi fire control has been raised to the highest level, and the flame quality is Nine-Grade High!

Mo Xun walked up to Yun Wushang, lowered her head, gently kissed her cheek, and then whispered in her ear: “Wushang, I have to go out for something. I’ll be back in a while. I will definitely come back.”

Yun Wushang abruptly raised her hand, trying to grab Mo Xun’s collar.

However, Mo Xun had anticipated this, quickly retreated, and lightly evaded her hand.

In Mo Xun’s view, Yun Wushang was glaring at her fiercely with red-rimmed eyes, as if they were back at the time of their first meeting, when she had kicked her into the water.

If Yun Wushang had yielded now, even just saying, “Let me consider it,” Mo Xun would have softened and stayed.

However, Yun Wushang’s next action was to conjure the iron cage that had once imprisoned Mo Xun.

Mo Xun let out a “Ha” of laughter, violently released her spiritual qi, shattering the cage into pieces, then turned and used the Space Folding Technique to fly a thousand li away!

The Space Folding Technique, simply put, is “the shortest distance between two points is overlapping them.”

If you draw two points on a piece of paper, the shortest distance is not a straight line but folding the paper so the two points overlap, jumping directly from one point to the other.

Mo Xun, being at the Nascent Soul stage, could not comprehend its intricacies, no matter how high her array formation talent was. However, at the Integration stage, she grasped it completely on her first use.

It was as if… the System knew from the beginning that she would redeem this reward after advancing to Integration.

Mo Xun was always the type to either not do something, or if she did, she wouldn’t regret it.

So, after escaping a thousand li, she no longer hesitated. She quickly took out a Gale Pill and a Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman from her storage pouch, swallowed a pill, used a talisman, and escaped several thousand li further!

However, Yun Wushang also had Gale Pills and Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talismans.

The Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talismans were, of course, drawn by herself. Where did the Gale Pills come from? Mo Xun had refined them on the day she returned from her tribulation. She refined a full ten bottles for her, each filled with twenty pills, totaling two hundred pills, saying that with these, if she encountered Tianshan Immortal Sect cultivators again, she could escape to the ends of the earth.

Yun Wushang swallowed a Gale Pill without hesitation, stuck a Thousand-Mile Divine Swiftness Talisman on herself, and instantly chased after her for several thousand li!

In this way, the two continued—one escaping for several thousand li, the other chasing for several thousand li—one in front, one behind, neither stopping, relentlessly for three full days.

Three days later, realizing she couldn’t shake off Yun Wushang no matter what, Mo Xun started to sweat.

Mo Xun: “…System, you didn’t tell me her divine sense range was this large!”

System: Mahayana stage, what did you expect?