Chapter 163: Soul-Swallowing Centipede-Worm

Just as a cold sweat soaked through the back of Jiang Min's garments, those aggressive vines of spiritual energy did not deliver a fatal blow. Instead, they instantly bound her limbs, freezing her body, her spiritual energy, and even the divine sense emanating from her form into complete immobility. How could she possibly muster a counterattack?

This was the insurmountable chasm between a Foundation Establishment cultivator and a Golden Core cultivator.

A natural moat!

No stratagem could ever bridge it; the distance was as vast as that between heaven and earth. Even if she unleashed an offensive spiritual treasure, its might—though perhaps adequate against another Foundation Establishment cultivator—would appear as feeble as a toddler's tantrum before a Golden Core master.

Even that Soul-Devouring Banner, had she invoked a Golden Core spirit using her own heart's blood as a sacrifice, would have left her grievously wounded and required considerable time and effort to execute, rendering it useless in a sudden emergency, let alone for thorough refinement. Even though her divine sense far surpassed that of her peers in the same realm, she was, after all, only at the Foundation Establishment stage. To forcibly refine the banner and control a Golden Core spirit would inevitably result in a fatal backlash.

Unless she resorted to the peach branch and fought this monster to the death.

At that moment.

The white-haired old crone, having restrained Jiang Min's limbs with the spiritual vines, did not kill her immediately. Instead, she drifted toward her on the wind, raised a hand, and snatched away the Nine-Sun Pagoda—which had also been entangled by the vines—erasing its refining mark and storing it within her own cosmos bag.

After scrutinizing Jiang Min for a moment, she murmured, "With such formidable divine sense and spiritual cultivation, it would be a pity to kill you outright."

She raised her palm.

As spiritual light surged, a slender giant worm, roughly three feet long, materialized. This bizarre creature was entirely transparent, seemingly encased in nothing more than a thin, translucent membrane. Beneath this skin, dizzying flickers of faint light flowed continuously. Countless feelanders rippled along both sides of its body, undulating rhythmically like a thousand-legged centipede.

"The Soul-Swallowing Ciliate!"

Jiang Min's expression hardened.

This rare and vicious creature fed exclusively on the living souls of sentient beings. Those whose souls were devoured were left as nothing more than walking corpses, their spirits entirely obliterated without hope of reincarnation.

Pointing two fingers at Jiang Min, the old crone spoke in a low snarl, "Go!"

The Soul-Swallowing Ciliate instantly dissolved into an afterimage, opened its translucent, blood-gushing maw, and lunged to devour Jiang Min.

"Senior, save me!"

Though harboring no real hope, Jiang Min cried out inwardly. At the same time, a fierce determination flashed in her eyes. As her thoughts shifted slightly, the peach branch concealed within her palm stirred eagerly, preparing to shoot forth and intercept the worm. Even if she could not kill this old witch, she would at least have her worm devoured! Having swallowed numerous demon cores over the past four years, the peach branch had grown considerably stronger, yet she had never truly tested its ultimate capabilities.

Suddenly, however, a blinding radiance erupted from her body. The brilliance surged outward, sweeping her—along with the Soul-Swallowing Ciliate—into its vortex, before vanishing into thin air, escaping the bind of the vines entirely.

"What?!"

The old crone's casual and serene expression underwent a drastic shift.

How could a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator vanish into thin air right before her eyes?

"Could she possess an exceedingly precious Earth-Shrinking Taoist Talisman? Did she activate the talisman to fold space and depart? No, that's not it... My connection with the Soul-Swallowing Ciliate has been completely severed. It would take at least the means of a Nascent Soul cultivator to sever my bond with the demonic worm this swiftly."

The old crone was gripped by doubt and apprehension.

Though she considered numerous possibilities, she never once suspected a portable pocket dimension. After all, communicating with a pocket dimension required a stable spatial node for transit; without a bearing node, how could anyone slip into an entirely separate realm out of nowhere?

Unable to deduce the truth, the white-haired old crone altered the illusory visage she had projected to Jiang Min, revealing her true appearance.

"Establishing the Five-Ghost Mountain-Sealing Formation takes precedence. I shall leave a puppet to guard this place. If there are any anomalies, I will return to deal with them."

With a wave of her hand, a slender figure materialized before her. It was a young woman of gentle and refined appearance, dressed in black robes and standing with graceful poise. However, an ominous, dark red mark stained the center of her brow, and her eyes were completely hollow and devoid of spirit, resembling those of a walking corpse. The fact that she could levitate in mid-air revealed her to be yet another powerful cultivator at the Golden Core stage.

"Keep watch here. Report to me immediately should any irregularities occur," the white-haired old crone commanded coldly before flashing away to hunt down her next ill-fated cultivator to serve as formation material.

The Golden Core puppet hung suspended above the sea of clouds with vacant eyes, completely motionless.

After a short while.

A tiny, tender new leaf drifted lazily on the sea of clouds, brushing past the Golden Core puppet before floating toward the distance.

The puppet's eyes suddenly shifted with mechanical stiffness, tracking the tiny green leaf. A trace of faint, almost imperceptible divine sense seemed to cling to the foliage. To the eyes of a Golden Core master, however, even the most minuscule wisp of divine sense stood out as brightly as a torch in the night.

Swish!

She flicked her wrist, unleashing a blade of biting wind that shredded the leaf into powder and completely obliterated the attached divine sense. A fleeting look of bewilderment flickered across the puppet's refined face, only to instantly vanish, leaving her expression once more blank and expressionless.

...

The Pocket Heaven within the Palm.

Jiang Min sat cross-legged within the mineral cave at the bottom of the lake.

Her long eyelashes drooped slightly, a contemplative gleam hiding in the depths of her eyes.

Her escape was, ultimately, the result of the senior immortal's timely assistance.

That brush with life and death had truly made her realize that a Foundation Establishment cultivation base was utterly negligible before a Golden Core master. Between the two realms lay an uncrossable chasm.

Of course, she was not entirely without trump cards to save her life.

The tiny fragment of a withered peach branch she had accidentally picked up years ago had absorbed a massive quantity of demon cores over the years, accumulating boundless demonic energy. Its strength had long since soared, even nurturing a naturally formed, mysterious nascent elixir embryo. Though Jiang Min had never truly tested the peach branch's current might, it was undoubtedly far superior to what it had been a few years ago.

After hiding within the Pocket Heaven for a short while, Jiang Min attached a faint thread of divine sense to a peach leaf and floated it out of the dimensional realm to scout the outside world.

To her surprise, she discovered that a Golden Core cultivator was still lingering at the spot where she had vanished. This cultivator's aura was not as formidable as that of the white-haired old crone, lingering only around the early Golden Core stage, yet there was an indescribable, eerie quality to her. Most likely, she had been left behind by the old crone.

The peach leaf and her divine sense were eventually pulverized together by the Golden Core cultivator. However, she caught a glimpse of a blood-red array teeming with monstrous resentful Qi enveloping several towering mountains not far away. It was evident that someone was utilizing the souls and flesh of living beings as sacrifices to set up such a malevolent formation.

"So when I passed through this region, I was purely suffering an unprovoked disaster, treated as mere material for an array."

"Yet a Golden Core cultivator is still guarding the outside. How am I to slip past her and make my escape... No, I cannot leave. That malevolent array is positioned too close; if I manifest outside, the formation master could close the distance instantly. I simply cannot go out right now."

Jiang Min frowned slightly.

Was she truly trapped within the dimensional world, unable to leave?

Under the current circumstances, stepping outside meant certain death.

"It is a pity that the spiritual treasure was seized by that old witch. Still, if the Nine-Sun Pagoda hadn't blocked her sneak attack, I fear my chest would have been pierced long ago."

Jiang Min pondered, her eyes narrowing with a chilling glint.

"However... while I lost the Nine-Sun Pagoda, that old witch also lost her Soul-Swallowing Ciliate. If digesting that creature truly allows my divine sense to grow, it won't be a complete loss."

She turned her gaze forward.

A towering peach tree was currently rooted deeply within the extreme-yang spiritual mine. The trunk, thick enough for two people to embrace, bulged with a massive, distinct lump that was still writhing frantically, attempting to break free.

The giant creature swallowed whole by the peach tree was none other than the very demonic worm that had sought to devour her soul just moments before—

The Soul-Swallowing Ciliate!