In just a few exchanges, the young scholar’s chest was pierced by Mo Fan’s fist, and then he was swallowed whole in one gulp.
Feeling the abundant spiritual energy nourishing his body, Mo Fan couldn’t help but take a deep breath.
With a casual gesture, dozens of bamboo slips scattered on the ground flew into Mo Fan’s hand.
Looking at these bamboo slips, Mo Fan fell into thought.
He noticed a complex runic script on each slip, but this script was quite different from human writing, making it impossible for him to decipher.
“It seems these bamboo slips can become magical tools because of these runes,” Mo Fan murmured to himself. With a stir of his mind, he spat out a black brush and a piece of clear yellow talisman paper.
These two items belonged to the young scholar. The black brush was a high-grade magical tool, capable of unleashing sharp energy when activated, somewhat akin to the sword energy of a sword cultivator.
As for the yellow talisman paper, it was merely a special type of paper imbued with faint spiritual energy.
Under Mo Fan’s demonic power, a bamboo slip floated before him. He then took the magical brush and began copying the runes onto the yellow talisman paper.
After tracing the runes several times to ensure he had memorised them, Mo Fan spat out a small round jade box. Under his demonic power, the lid slowly opened, revealing a bright red substance like cinnabar inside.
Taking a deep breath, Mo Fan dipped the brush in the cinnabar and began writing on the yellow talisman paper.
But after completing the rune, the paper showed no reaction. As his demonic power surged, the entire sheet burst into flames, turning to ash in an instant.
“Could it be that demonic power won’t work?” Mo Fan frowned, then spat out another blank talisman paper. This time, he used spiritual energy to activate it, but the result was the same; the paper burned again.
“What went wrong?” Mo Fan felt helpless, unable to understand why the paper kept burning. For now, he put the items away.
“It seems I should find someone to learn about these runes when I have time. If I succeed, won’t I have another way to fight my enemies?” Mo Fan thought to himself, genuinely interested in talismans.
After all, he had witnessed the miraculous abilities of various talismans, especially the Thunderfire Talisman and the Demon-Suppressing Talisman, which left a deep impression on him.
Of course, the main reason was that Mo Fan wanted to study the way of runes to unravel the mystery of the four runic characters on the golden coin in his mind.
Even now, he still didn’t know what those four characters meant.
They were likely these mysterious runes!
“That demon is below!” Suddenly, a sharp shout came from above Mo Fan, prompting him to look up.
Through the gaps in the dense foliage, Mo Fan vaguely saw a cultivator standing on a flying sword, with a palm-sized bird perched on his shoulder.
At that moment, the bird was staring at him with piercing eyes.
“Damn it, I forgot these cultivators have spiritual beasts at their command!” Mo Fan’s heart sank, realising his whereabouts were completely exposed.
With spiritual beasts like that bird observing from above, hiding his aura was useless; he would still be detected by the cultivators.
“It looks like I can’t go to the Broken Temple Market!” Mo Fan sighed helplessly, turning around. His body surged with demonic energy, transforming into a cloud of black mist as he fled swiftly backward.
The Broken Temple Market was hundreds of miles from Black Wind Mountain. Now that his position was exposed, he likely wouldn’t have time to escape there.
After some thought, Mo Fan decided to return to the Hundred Thousand Mountains, using the Black Water River to shake off his pursuers.
He figured that after his earlier schemes, the water demons of the Black Water River must have a grudge against these human cultivators. Leading his pursuers there again might yield unexpected results.
Knowing his whereabouts were likely exposed, Mo Fan fled without hesitation.
Sure enough, as he escaped, a large group of cultivators from the Book and Sword Alliance quickly gathered behind him, including dozens of Foundation Establishment cultivators.
This sight made Mo Fan’s scalp tingle, and he felt a surge of relief.
If he hadn’t turned to flee immediately and had even the slightest impulse to fight the cultivator above, he might have ended up like Zhu Xianfeng by now.
“Demon, where do you think you’re going?”
“I didn’t expect this demon mountain to still hide a fish that slipped through the net!”
“Where did this toad demon come from? How come we’ve never heard of such a demon general in Black Wind Mountain before?”
“Who cares where it came from? Senior Brother Qin has ordered us to kill this toad demon!”
Behind Mo Fan, the cultivators chattered, showing no rush to capture him. Their eyes gleamed with mockery, as if playing a game of cat and mouse.
“Damn it, it’s that Qin guy causing trouble again!” Mo Fan cursed inwardly. “But where did the Book and Sword Alliance get so many Foundation Establishment cultivators? No wonder the human race can establish a foothold in the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Just the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators shows their strength, far beyond what Black Wind Mountain and other demon mountains can match!”
Mo Fan’s heart grew wary. Seeing the bigger picture, he began to understand why the demon race had been suppressed by the human race to this extent.
In all of Black Wind Mountain, the number of demon generals could be counted on one hand. Including himself and the Diamond he had devoured, there were only six.
Yet the Foundation Establishment cultivators chasing him now numbered twenty or thirty.
The fact that Black Wind Mountain had stood firm for so many years without being wiped out by the human race showed it had some tricks up its sleeve.
“I wonder if the water demons in the Black Water River can hold up against this wave,” Mo Fan muttered to himself, feeling uncertain. The sheer number of pursuers was overwhelming; even in normal times, this force could easily destroy Black Wind Mountain.
Of course, that was assuming Zhu Xianfeng wasn’t at Black Wind Mountain.
A hundred miles was a distance Mo Fan could cover in the time it took two incense sticks to burn.
Looking at the murky, vast river, Mo Fan dove in without hesitation.
“Don’t let that demon escape!” The scholar cultivators of the Great River Sect changed their expressions, quickly forming hand seals to create protective shields around themselves before diving into the riverbed.
The disciples of the Bixiao Sect, seeing this, exchanged glances, unsure whether to continue chasing into the river.
“With our friends from the Great River Sect chasing in the water, we’ll patrol above the river. If that demon is forced to the surface, we’ll cast spells together to take it down!” A more experienced Bixiao Sect disciple spoke, leading the sword cultivators to patrol above the water.
As for Mo Fan, once he entered the Black Water River, he moved like a fish in water.
Being a toad demon, his affinity for water was naturally strong. Now that his cultivation had broken through to the Demon General realm, his adaptability underwater was even greater. Not long after diving in, he shook off all his pursuers.
“Such dense demonic energy!” After confirming he had lost the cultivators behind him, Mo Fan planned to quickly escape the Black Water River and head deeper into the Hundred Thousand Mountains. But at that moment, he sensed an extremely dense demonic energy ahead.
After a moment’s thought, Mo Fan transformed into a human-headed toad, releasing a bit of his demonic energy, and swam toward it.
Soon, an underwater cave mansion appeared in his sight.
On either side of the cave were two enormous creatures lying in wait, as if guarding it.
“Such huge river shrimps!” Looking at the shrimps, each over a zhang long, Mo Fan couldn’t help but swallow hard. To him, they looked like a delicious feast.
“Where did this wild demon come from? Don’t you know this is General Ao’s cave mansion?” Mo Fan’s appearance naturally drew the attention of the two giant river shrimps. One of them let out a low shout, its voice causing the water to tremble and ripple outward.
Unfazed, Mo Fan cried out in feigned panic, “Sirs, bad news! The two-legged monsters are attacking!”
