Life as a Rogue Cultivator

Chapter 309:

Liu Xiaolou had gone up Wulong Mountain when he was just eight years old. He grew up there, shaped by the people around him, and later spent more than ten years holding the place together on his own, fighting who knows how many battles. So when the ambush came out of nowhere, he reacted far faster than any pampered young master from a noble family. He took a simple step forward and the arrow missed. As he spun around, the Three-Mystery Sword was already flying from his hand, slicing toward the attacker.While the arrow’s fletching was still quivering in the dirt, the Three-Mystery Sword had already streaked behind a peach tree and cut through nothing but air.

Liu Xiaolou narrowed his eyes. There was no one behind the tree. If this had been before he reached Foundation Establishment, he might’ve thought his flying sword had missed. But in the instant the arrow was loosed, his spiritual sense had caught the faintest trace of movement. He was certain the attacker was there.

The Three-Mystery Sword had struck empty space, but its five streaks of sword-light suddenly split off, spreading out in all directions like vines. Two of them caught on something. And the other three wrapped around it right away, quickly revealing a person.

Only then did Liu Xiaolou finally get a clear look at his attacker. The man was wearing soft armor and hiding behind the tree, blending in so perfectly with his surroundings that, if the sword-light hadn’t wrapped around him, there would’ve been no way to spot him with the naked eye.

The sword-light scraped across the soft armor with a harsh, letting out an awful grinding screech that made your teeth ache just hearing it. But no matter how many times it struck, it couldn’t break through. After a few twists and turns, the man wrenched himself free and vanished back into the woods.

Not only was the enemy at the Foundation Establishment stage, he was also wearing soft armor that could hide his body. This was a seriously dangerous opponent.

Liu Xiaolou focused all his attention on everything happening within about thirty feet around him. After reaching Foundation Establishment, this was the widest range his spiritual sense could cover in such fine detail.

But that soft armor was clearly something special. It could actually block and interfere with spiritual sense to a certain extent.

Liu Xiaolou drove the Three-Mystery Sword back and forth through the spot where the enemy had just slipped away, then sent out five strands of sword-light to probe in every direction. There was nothing. He widened the search, slashing until trees all around him snapped and fell, leaves raining down to the ground.

All at once, a cold glint flashed from behind and to the side. The movement caught the corner of Liu Xiaolou’s eye. Another long arrow was already on its way.

At some point, the enemy had retreated beyond thirty feet.

Liu Xiaolou had not yet mastered the true flying-sword technique. The Three-Mystery Sword wasn’t a real flying sword, and at this distance he couldn’t trace the arrow’s path and chase it down. He tried to intercept the arrow in a rush, but couldn’t even catch its tail.

The arrow was upon him in the blink of an eye. With no other choice, Liu Xiaolou hastily threw out an item, the high-grade artifact he had always relied on to stay alive: the Glass Shield. Seized from Tianmu Mountain, it was a truly fine piece of work. In an instant, it burst forth with a waterfall of shimmering, glassy light. With a sharp clang, it stopped the arrow dead, sparing him from an extremely painful outcome.

Liu Xiaolou lunged forward. Even though he couldn’t see his opponent, he estimated the general area where the enemy was hiding and flung out the Abyssal Blackstone Formation Disk, sealing that entire patch of ground inside a formation.

The moment the formation finished deploying, he pulled the disk back. There was no other reason for it. The formation had closed on empty space. The enemy wasn’t inside.

Right after that, the two long arrows the enemy had fired earlier suddenly tore themselves free, one from the mud and the other from a tree trunk, and shot back toward Liu Xiaolou. Sensing the danger, he circulated his true qi, forcefully propelling himself upward. He leapt over twenty feet into the air, landing lightly on the treetop and swaying gently in the wind.

The two arrows missed, crossing past each other. Then their tips snapped upward, curving sharply as they turned and streaked toward Liu Xiaolou on the treetop.

This was the mark of a true, fully nurtured artifact, one that had been refined and raised within the wielder’s Qi Sea, perfectly attuned to its master and responding like an extension of the body. Whether arrows or some other weapon, artifacts like these were commonly known as “flying swords.”

Liu Xiaolou dropped from the treetop. Before hitting the ground, he skimmed low through the air like a bird, then slipped behind a pile of jagged rocks.

At the same time, he put on the Jade Pendant Concealment. It could not hide his body the way his enemy could, but masking his aura was still better than nothing. At the very least, it would make it harder for the enemy’s arrows to find their mark.

And if the enemy was far enough away, and his move was quick and sneaky enough this time, maybe he could slip past the enemy’s sight altogether.

Unfortunately, his movements were still clearly visible to the enemy. The two long arrows had landed apart, each settling into the fork of a tree. Their fletching still quivered slightly, arrowheads aimed steadily at the pile of rubble, ready to fire again at any moment.

By this point in the fight, Liu Xiaolou had more or less figured it out. His opponent was definitely not a disciple of the Qingyuan Sect. Like Liu Xiaolou himself, the enemy was deliberately holding back, careful not to unleash too much power and draw the sect’s attention.

Since that was the case…

Liu Xiaolou took out his Bone Flute and blew a controlled note. A cluster of shimmering light drifted out of the flute. It quickly took the shape of a leopard. And in the blink of an eye, it solidified into a real, spiritual leopard.

Of course, at its core it was still a leopard phantom. It was just that after Liu Xiaolou reached Foundation Establishment, the once-intangible form had condensed into a solid manifestation. Aside from the shift from insubstantial to real, it had also gained more of the abilities a spiritual leopard was supposed to have... like hunting through dense forest.

The idea had only just occurred to Liu Xiaolou. Since he could not pinpoint where the enemy was hiding, why not let the spiritual leopard try? He had raised this beast for six years already. It was time to see what it was really worth.

The spiritual leopard immediately leapt onto the tallest locust tree nearby and began sniffing the air in all directions.

The enemy clearly realized that something was wrong. Two long arrows shot straight toward the spiritual leopard in the tree. With a flick of its long tail, the leopard swatted one arrow away, but the other was too fast to dodge. Just as it was about to pierce its belly, a yellow parasol suddenly opened beside it, blocking the arrow.

It was the Yellow Sand Parasol, a mid-grade magical artifact Liu Xiaolou had just seized from a Qingyuan Sect disciple. Even though the arrow had struck it hard enough to dull its color, the yellow already darkening with hints of black, it had still managed to block the shot. But the enemy’s strength was on full display in that single arrow. The power of his true qi and the speed of the shot were unmistakable. As he held the parasol open, Liu Xiaolou knew all too well that it could stop, at most, two more arrows before it shattered.

The leopard leapt off the locust tree, diving down toward the left.

Liu Xiaolou followed right behind. In just two breaths, he closed the more than thirty-foot gap and rushed toward a normal dirt mound.

The mound suddenly moved. It was the enemy, hiding there all along.

The leopard had already pounced right in front of the enemy when a halo of light spread out in all directions. Liu Xiaolou felt the dim forest grow even darker. With a pained whimper, the leopard seemed to have been injured on both front paws by some magical weapon. It sprang back, landing behind Liu Xiaolou, and stared warily ahead where the enemy now looked like a blurry, mottled shadow in the gloom.

The enemy must be carrying some kind of treasure, like a Glass Shield. And it seemed to have even more counterattack abilities than the Glazed Shield.

But none of that mattered. All that mattered was flushing the person out.

Liu Xiaolou did not hesitate. He went straight for his ultimate move. He sent out the Abyssal Blackstone Formation Disk, instantly trapping the enemy inside.

Once inside the formation, the mottled shadow immediately began to shift and vanish.

First, he appeared inside a pavilion, his body blending perfectly with it. Look again, and the railings were railings, the benches were benches, the pillars were pillars... just a little thicker than usual. Anyone who didn’t know would easily be fooled.

Then he flipped out of the pavilion and slipped into the bamboo grove. After being rerefined and upgraded, the grove now had dozens of tall, dense green bamboos, forming a proper thicket. Once he went in, the forest seemed to gain extra bamboo shoots, branches, and leaves…

That soft armor was really something. Its ability to hide the wearer was incredible, truly impressive, and downright enviable. But the formation was under Liu Xiaolou’s control, and no matter how the enemy shifted, there was nowhere to hide. It was all just enough to make Liu Xiaolou smile.

After hiding in the bamboo grove for a short while, the man finally realized what was going on. He sighed, then stepped out into the open.

Looking up, he shouted, “It’s just a minor formation. Do you really think it can stop me? Watch me break it!”

Liu Xiaolou didn’t bother responding. He focused all his attention on controlling the formation.

This was the first time he had ever used a formation to trap a Foundation Establishment cultivator. From their brief exchange earlier, he could tell that this man’s true qi was far deeper and stronger than his own. Even if the man was not at the mid stage, he was at least a veteran who had been there for over ten years. Compared to someone like that, Liu Xiaolou did not dare let his guard down for even a moment.