Chapter 192: Prime Minister Turtle

The immense strength of a supercharged blow from the Immortal's Destruction took down both the octopus spirit king and the ancient turtle commanding it. It lay splayed on the ground, blood frothing from its mouth, so badly injured it was incapable of moving.

Only then did the ancient turtle notice that everyone was trapped in the illusory realm. The twenty octopus spirits stood stiff like wooden carvings.

"So you are the Prime Minister Turtle, after all?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

He tossed a talisman toward the turtle, and an ordinary shot from the Immortal's Destruction rained down.

"I won't let you go, Xiao Nanfeng!" the ancient turtle screamed.

Suddenly, its body self-destructed in a wave of energy, deflecting the Immortal's Destruction.

"Did it commit suicide? No—it's running away. Stop right there!" Xiao Nanfeng thundered.

The dust of the explosion cleared to reveal the turtle's uninjured head, which shot into the air and flew away. It moved so rapidly that Xiao Nanfeng was unable to keep up, and quickly escaped beyond the perimeter of the fog.

Xiao Nanfeng frowned. "Just how many techniques does this turtle have for escaping?"

The twenty Spiritsong-realm octopus spirits suddenly deflated, their spiritual avatars having been torn apart by the malicious ghosts of the Ghosts' Parade. They were now in deep comas.

"Deactivate the formation," Xiao Nanfeng commanded.

The disciples controlling the formation from afar immediately stopped what they were doing, and the other disciples swiftly woke up.

The Taiqing disciples charged forward and killed the paralyzed octopus spirits, then cheered.

As the fog retreated again, shouts could be heard from the neighboring islands.

"The octopus spirit king is dead? That was a Wingform-realm spirit!"

"Except for that turtle's head that flew away, all the other invaders were killed!"

Upon hearing the cheers from afar, the forces that had gathered to seize Xiao Nanfeng's Immortal's Destruction were shocked to see what he had accomplished. Even so, they didn't retreat. They had more or less guessed what had happened: Xiao Nanfeng had taken advantage of the draconic vein to kill the octopus spirit king. The cultivators grew even more enamored with the Immortal's Destruction.

Xiao Nanfeng looked at the neighboring islands and called out, "Fellow cultivators!"

His voice spread across the islands as the cultivators perked up.

"I know why you have gathered here, and I know you've seen what happened to the spirits that attempted to attack me. I, Xiao Nanfeng, will not show mercy to any invaders," he announced coldly.

The hidden cultivators glanced disdainfully at Xiao Nanfeng, ignoring his threat.

"On account of the fact that none of you have done anything yet, I'm willing to let you all go free. Otherwise, if you intend to challenge me, I won't stop until I've taken you down."

The hidden cultivators' scorn all deepened. Xiao Nanfeng's threat was meaningless to them; none of them took it seriously.

"Senior Brother, who are you talking to?" a Taiqing disciple asked.

"Wait and see," Xiao Nanfeng replied calmly.

The disciples waited patiently, as did the hidden cultivators on the distant islands. Two monks hidden on one island whispered to one another.

"Senior Brother, this Xiao Nanfeng's an arrogant sort, isn't he?"

"Arrogant cultivators are those that face the most gruesome deaths. They only have three Spiritsong-realm cultivators among them, and their arrogance stems from the formation they possess. I don't believe that Xiao Nanfeng and his posse will remain on that island—and the moment they leave the formation, we'll strike together. Our tripartite alliance has eight Spiritsong-realm cultivators in all. They won't be able to hold out against us," the other monk replied, smiling coldly.

"What if they remain in the formation and turtle up?"

"That's why I had our junior brother return to the monastery to summon our master. Our master's a Wingform-realm cultivator, and he'd easily be able to take down Xiao Nanfeng. We'd be able to ignore the alliance and claim the Immortal's Destruction for ourselves, too."

"So Xiao Nanfeng's doomed regardless of whether he leaves the island or not?"

"That's right. We'll take him down today, one way or another!"

Just then, the two monks suddenly felt a presence by their backs. They sweated as two whitemist specters shot into their body, causing them to freeze.

A blade slashed past their necks, sending two heads flying.

You Jiu had appeared behind him, a legendary assassin trained in the skills of his trade. It was trivial for him to take down two cultivators of the same realm who weren't paying attention to their surroundings.

You Jiu stored the two bodies and headed toward the next island.

Two hours later, a scream from a distant island caused the remaining cultivators to blanch.

"What's the matter, Junior Brother?" one cultivator called out.

However, no one responded on the island where his junior brother had been. He immediately flew toward the source of the disturbance to check it out.

Simultaneously, Xiao Nanfeng commanded, "Croak, Warble, strike now."

The two toad spirits soared into the air toward the distant islands.

"Quick, everyone! Take down these two bastards first!" the cultivator who had exposed himself shouted.

However, only two cultivators appeared to intercept Croak and Warble. They slashed at the two toad spirits, but were unable to break through their sturdy defense. The two spirits spat out a mouthful of poisonous fog that forced the two cultivators back.

Zhao Yuanjiao shot into the air and gave chase.

"Where's everyone else? Show yourselves! What happened to cooperating?"

"Come on, show yourselves!" the fighting cultivators shouted, but no one else emerged from the neighboring islands. The three of them were forced to take on Zhao Yuanjiao, Croak, and Warble by themselves.

With a resounding crash, the fighting began in earnest.

"Where's everyone else? Why are there only three Spiritsong-realm cultivators?"

"Are they lying in wait until the fighting is over?"

The Taiqing disciples seemed flummoxed at what was going on.

"Alright, that's enough. Everyone, embark on the ships. We'll leave immediately." Xiao Nanfeng smiled. He was certain that You Jiu had taken care of the rest of the cultivators.

Although the disciples remained worried, they trusted in Xiao Nanfeng and obeyed his commands. The ships sailed back into the sea.

In the end, the three Spiritsong-realm cultivators were unable to evade defeat and death. Croak, Warble, and Zhao Yuanjiao killed them all.

As the ships vanished into the distance, a few hours later, two strong auras appeared around Bloodkill Island.

"Where are they? Didn't you say they were here?" one radiant monk asked.

"I don't know where my senior brothers went either, Master. Look! I can prove that I was telling the truth. The draconic vein on Bloodkill Island has been excavated!" one monk said.

The radiant monk was staring at the scene in a perplexed fashion when two more strong auras appeared.

"Wingform-realm?" the radiant monk exclaimed in surprise.

"So I wasn't the only one who went back to fetch my master. The other forces' cultivators did, too!" the other monk gasped.

The two strong cultivators glared at each other, but their prey had long since vanished.

Under Xiao Nanfeng's command, the ships sailed toward the octopus spirits' lair.

Meanwhile, Xiao Nanfeng returned to his cabin for secluded cultivation.

As he glanced at the spiritbeast inner cores before him, Xiao Nanfeng smiled wryly. "It would be difficult to distill these cores into spiritual power—I suppose I should attempt to improve my cultivation."

He swallowed the inner core of the octopus spirit king, but it was insufficient to break through. After that, he swallowed all twenty inner cores of the Spiritsong-realm octopus spirits as well.

Six hours later, Xiao Nanfeng's body creaked as a tremendous wave of energy emanated from it. He opened his eyes wide.

"The eighth stage of Ascension!"