Choice (I)

Meng Qi was ready when she turned around. She hadn’t gotten off the cliff yet, but the silver medical knife was already in her hand. For cultivators, the distance between her and Ji Wujiong’s cliffs was not wide. It was an easy pass in normal circumstances, unless the fissure was filled with devil aura waves attacking anyone who tried to cross.

Seemingly perceiving Meng Qi’s intention, the waves intensified in their rage. One after another, they slammed into the cliff frantically. The earth-shaking momentum seemed to be about to knock down the entire cliff at any moment.

Meng Qi stopped on the edge of the cliff. She now had more than ten times more aura in her body. With a thought of her mind, a sliver of aura flown out via the tip of her silver knife as she drew an array on the ground. Meng Qi had already clasping a handful of spirit stones in her left hand. Once she finished drawing, a flick of her fingers sent eight ninth-grade spirit stones to fly toward the array without delay.

In the blink of an eye, the array activated.

Amidst the soft light, a group of ghost puppets emerged from the ground. The little white figures received Meng Qi’s order and rushed towards the cliff.

The ghost puppets overlapped each other. In an instant, they formed a bridge connecting the cliff on Meng Qi’s side with Ji Wujiong’s.

“Huh?” The woman’s gentle voice rang again, “You actually…” She seemed to sigh softly: “Why do you do this?”

Meng Qi did not reply. As soon as the ghost puppets began to form the bridge, she had already rushed forward and stood on the edge of the cliff. She was only one step away from the bridge made from dozens of small ghost puppets. It looked narrow and flimsy. Even if only one person crossed, the bridge looked very dangerous.

More and more ghost puppets emerged from the ground. Some began to climb onto Meng Qi, protecting her body like a makeshift armor.

Unlike previous times with the stones or the box Meng Qi threw, the huge waves from the black sea didn’t attack the bridge at all. On the contrary, the devil aura seemed to be gentle towards the ghost puppets. After Meng Qi summoned them, the huge waves that were hitting the cliff suddenly became quieter.

Meng Qi took a deep breath. She was actually making a bet here. In the beginning, she had no idea what kind of devil aura filled the sea. But the Senior’s words made her realize that this should be Ji Wujiong’s heart demon1. Those devil aura would swallow everything, but they might treat those of the same origin kindly.

Meng Qi decided to use Ji Wujiong’s array and summoned these ghost puppets. Sure enough, her bet was paid off. Those devil aura didn’t attack the ghost puppets.

Meng Qi took a deep breath and tightened the grip on her knife.

“Young Daoist.” The woman’s voice called again, “If you don’t cross, the cliff is the only safe place. Once you leave it, the devil aura will gain a chance to break through the barrier around the cliff.” She paused and then continued: “At that time, you will end up accompanying him to perish here.”

“Thank you, Senior.” Meng Qi bowed respectfully once again. She then turned her gaze to the opposite cliff, where the black-robed young man was lying motionless. Meng Qi herself was actually not sure whether the choice she made at this time was correct or not. However, she knew one thing for sure: even given a hundred chances, she would still refuse to leave alone.

Therefore, there was no need to hesitate!

Meng Qi clenched her knife tightly and began to sprint. The little ghost puppets protected her layer by layer, while a rickety narrow bridge was the only support under her feet.

The moment Meng Qi stepped out of the cliff, the sea of devil aura suddenly regained their fierceness and became frantic again. The huge waves were beating against the sky. The gloomy wind roared, making a sharp and piercing sound. Even the black clouds in the sky were spinning up quickly, as if about to smash down the next moment.

There was another peculiar movement in the middle of the black sea, just about to gush out to the surface. A huge ancient fierce beast seemed to be hiding there, and the entire sea of devil aura was stirred around it.

As the sea rose higher and higher, the black devil aura finally saw through the cover and immediately rushed towards Meng Qi. The ghost puppets guarding Meng Qi were instantly melted by the devil aura and turned into light smoke clouds before disappearing completely.

Meng Qi held her breath and hid her aura as much as possible as she kept dashing forward. The distance between the two cliffs was originally not long, and her speed had improved much after breaking through into the Golden Core stage. In just a few steps, Meng Qi would arrive on Ji Wujiong’s side of the cliff.

A wave of devil aura suddenly swept up, touching the small bridge formed from Meng Qi’s ghost puppets. The ghost puppets immediately melted. They were replaced by black devil aura, and the entire bridge shook violently.

The wave of devil aura turned its head and directly rushed towards Meng Qi.

Meng Qi had her silver knife ready in her hand. She had briefly practiced the Yinyue Sword Technique, but was still not familiar with it. At this moment, however, she had no other choice. The silver medical knife drew a cross in the air and attacked the incoming devil aura.

A red light flashed on the pitch-black aura — it seemed that Meng Qi’s attack had successfully harmed it. The devil aura retreated suddenly, almost falling back into the black sea below. But in the next instant, it rushed out again, this time with even greater momentum. It quickly rolled upwards and pulled the silver medical knife in Meng Qi’s hand.

“Ah——” She shouted.Heart demon(心魔 xīnmó) sometimes translated as ‘internal demon’ is cultivators’ negative emotions and other mental barriers which hinder their training/cultivation. In some cases, heart demon can even attack the cultivators from the inside, and failure to adequately resist them may result in Qi Deviation