Chapter Fifty-Seven: A Parade of Phantoms

"The fool of the Ning family does not deserve the Soul Devouring Sword," the Black Witch Priest's eyes flickered with a mad gleam. Black death energy rose from beneath his feet, swiftly enveloping both himself and Yu Youwei. Feeling a powerful corrosive force at the tip of his sword, Ning Baixia instinctively withdrew it. The Black Witch Priest seized the moment to retreat, dragging Yu Youwei with him.

The black aura that even Ning Baixia feared had no effect on Yu Youwei whatsoever. Radiant beams of blue and red surged across her skin, rendering the black energy powerless, while the Black Witch Priest, his attention wholly focused on Ning Baixia, utterly ignored her and was oblivious to her actions.

The black mist, imbued with soul-corroding power, twisted around them. Any external attack would be eroded away, and those that managed to pierce through and strike his body would be blocked by his black robes. The Black Witch Priest could never have imagined that Yu Youwei possessed the twin swords of Scarlet and Azure—such high-grade magical treasures.

"You are even less worthy of wielding that sword," Yu Youwei thought, and the twin swords erupted, shooting through the Black Witch Priest's head. She followed up by slapping on a high-level thunder talisman.

With a resounding boom, the talisman exploded, a bright violet sphere obscuring the traces of the twin swords. Yu Youwei struck the Black Witch Priest's back with her palm, and her figure swiftly withdrew to a distance.

Ning Baixia, poised for action, had not expected Yu Youwei's counterattack to be so fierce—it nearly caused his own power to backfire. Suppressing his turbulent breath, he asked in disbelief, "You killed him?"

"It was an accident. His attention was drawn by you, so I ambushed him with a high-level thunder talisman—pure luck." Using the thunder talisman was meant to conceal the power of the twin swords; otherwise, if anyone knew that a novice like her possessed a treasure capable of killing high-level cultivators, Yu Youwei knew she would not live long.

Ning Baixia was skeptical. The idea that a single high-level talisman could take down a Golden Core cultivator was absurd, and given that Yu Youwei had a divine beast as her companion, he strongly suspected she was hiding her true strength. Yet, he did not realize she truly had no hidden power; after all, she was only fourteen years old. Her late father, for reasons unknown, had left the Frost Sword to her rather than his legitimate daughter, and now, with the addition of the Scarlet Flame Sword, her strength soared.

Without probing further, Ning Baixia changed the topic. "You let yourself be captured on purpose, didn't you?"

"Bingfeng Xiang was present. I couldn't let her learn what the Black Witches planned for Mo Fei. It wasn't convenient to kill her, so I had to resort to this strategy." Having been dragged so far by a foul-smelling Black Witch, Yu Youwei felt as though her whole body reeked, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

To Ning Baixia, her expression at that moment was utterly adorable, and the memory of holding her in his arms tingled through his body, stirring a tension in his lower abdomen. Though guilt immediately washed over him, making his icy face even colder, his true emotions betrayed themselves through his eyes, prompting Yu Youwei's own expression to stiffen.

"Let's go back. We still don't know how Mo Fei is," Yu Youwei said coldly.

Without a word, Ning Baixia turned and sped southeast.

The moment they left, the corpse of the Black Witch Priest began to mutate. Black mist surged from his headless neck, transforming into a swarm of black bats that took flight, pursuing them.

Hearing the unusual sound behind them, Ning Baixia and Yu Youwei looked up almost simultaneously, seeing a dense mass of black bats descending. Each bat bore a straw-like proboscis nearly twice the length of its body.

"Soul-devouring ghost bats—how unlucky!" Yu Youwei gave a bitter smile.

Gripping the Immortal Slayer Sword, Ning Baixia's expression was grim. "Indeed, soul-devouring ghost bats. Legend has it that a thousand years ago, a Black Witch with a swarm of these wiped out a mid-level cultivation clan. We can't let them reach Jiangning Prefecture. You must leave at once."

"They've scented my blood. Escape is impossible. Let's join forces to destroy this swarm. You focus on attacking, I'll collect the demon crystals," Yu Youwei replied with a frown. It was a woman's nature to hate snakes and bugs, and she preferred to avoid such hideous creatures. Yet, if the ghost bats' demon crystals weren't shattered in a single blow, even if chopped into bits, they could resurrect and multiply—each division producing ten more, each split advancing their rank. More troublesome than indestructible cockroaches.

Without further argument, Ning Baixia plunged into the bat swarm.

As though released from millennia of suppressed hunger for flesh and blood, the swarm went mad as Ning Baixia charged in. Countless proboscises stabbed at his body. Sword light flashed, and bats near him fell like dates shaken from a tree, but the rest pressed forward relentlessly, pursuing him through the forest in relentless circles.

Within the bat corpses, star-like demon crystals sparkled. Yu Youwei, shielded by twin beams of blue and red sword light, followed behind, collecting the demon crystals. Each flash of sword light reduced the swarm; those whose crystals were taken could not resurrect or multiply.

"This trip was worth it after all!" she laughed, her greed shining through.

The largest of the bats, the Bat King, had developed intelligence. Snapping out of its frenzy, it suddenly broke away from the swarm and lunged at Yu Youwei.

In a flash, Yu Youwei's outstretched hand went numb, feeling time pause for several moments. She distinctly heard the sharp proboscis pierce her flesh, reaching bone. The Scarlet Flame Sword erupted in a blood-red beam, shooting into the Bat King's body, while the Frost Sword unleashed a blue glow into the wound at her shoulder.

With a thunderous bang, the Bat King's corpse exploded, revealing a walnut-sized demon crystal. Before Yu Youwei could reach for it, the Scarlet Flame Sword unleashed another beam and shattered the crystal. The wound on her shoulder was sealed by blue light.

"Such a huge demon crystal, gone with a single blast," Yu Youwei said with a wry smile. The Bat King's crystal was at least fifth grade and extremely valuable, but the violent Scarlet Flame Sword had destroyed it. Still, it had acted because she was injured, so she had little cause for complaint.

When the Bat King broke from the swarm, Ning Baixia sensed something but was trapped, unable to break free. He had not seen how Yu Youwei killed the Bat King. By the time he dealt with the remaining bats and caught up, he found Yu Youwei had already finished it off, and he asked in astonishment, "You weren't hurt?"

The cowardly Little White Bear darted out from the grass, ignoring whether Yu Youwei was injured, and rushed to snatch up demon crystals, crunching them noisily like beans.

"You wish I were hurt?" Yu Youwei rolled her eyes, kicked aside the bear, and gathered the remaining crystals. "Let's get out of here before something even stranger shows up."

"You were wounded by the Bat King's proboscis—how are you unharmed?" Ning Baixia was even more shocked when he saw the wound on her shoulder.

Little White Bear, sulking after losing his treat, snapped, "My master may be a bit unlucky and a bit dumb, but she's immune to all poisons. That paltry ghost bat's corpse poison couldn't possibly harm her!"

"You even know that?" Ning Baixia asked in surprise.

"This pretty boy is after me—let's just get rid of him," Little White Bear snarled, eyeing Ning Baixia with bandit-like menace.