As she continued to share details about Nascent Soul teleportation, the sword let out a hymn and sped up.
Tianlong listened to her experience with blood trailing through his lips. With the sword energy raging through his body, his muscles were being torn and regenerating simultaneously.
Every time it would regenerate, it would become even more firm than before.
Having practised both Qi Refining and Body Refining techniques, Tianlong had refined his body to such a degree there were almost no more impurities in him.
Even if they were, he couldn't get rid of them with his current cultivation base.
But now that his body was invaded by the sword energy, he found that it had still room for improvement.
Most likely, it was searching for the impurities in his body. Unable to find any, it started to shred his muscle tissues and forcefully strengthen them.
Tianlong was pleasantly surprised that after cycling through his body multiple times, some of the sword energy had fused with his flesh.
It caused a sword intent to manifest around him which was similar yet different from Long Qianmei.
'The spiritual energy inside this sword is a tonic for me. It would even enhance my swordplay!' With this thought in mind, he no longer passively received the sword energy but started to actively absorb it.
Even if he felt that all of his internal organs were going to become minced meat, he didn't stop his absorption.
After all, he had gone through much more excruciating pain while refining the Seven petalled Lotus and Undying Tree's vine.
This much Pain was something that he could handle fairly well.
In addition, he could change his form into smoke and stop the process whenever it got really dangerous.
"Once I reached Nascent Soul realm in the past, I too used this short distance teleportation to move around. However, there was no way I could keep up with your father with just that… Unwilling to be left behind, I took inspiration from spatial magic and created unique Sword teleportation of my own!"
At that moment, the statue of the palace dressed woman in the illusionary sea glowed with a red light. For the first time in decades, it showed signs of movement.
With a movement of her finger, the sea of fire tumbled. As the waves of crimson flames rolled over, howls and piercing screams resounded from it.
Her movements seemed to have stimulated the black roots in her body. Instantly, they rushed towards her forehead and tried to seal her again.
Just as Tianlong was going to help her, Long Qianmei firmly shook her head. "I'll do this myself."
Since she refused him, Tianlong couldn't do anything. He momentarily slowed down his absorption and kept a watch over her with a vigilant expression. If he saw even the slightest hint of danger, he would immediately act.
In front of his eyes, he saw his mother starting to rapidly wither. The more the female statue moved from her position, the stronger the vines reacted. With the black centipede-like veins crawling under her skin, she looked absolutely horrifying.
Her smooth skin wrinkled while she kept losing body mass. In few short moments, she looked like an old woman. Nevertheless, her back remained straight like a sword and the eyes glowed with the same intensity.
If anything, she looked even more evil.
With a peal vicious laughter, she made straightened her fingers and chopped in front of herself. Spatial distortions appeared in front of her that made it look as if the area was a puddle of water.
Before these ripples could vanish, replicating her actions, the statue made a similar raised her sword and chopped down. An immense sword intent raged out and caused a huge ripping sound. It was as if a thin membrane had been forcefully pierced by something.
The area around the sword was covered by multi-coloured brilliance giving off an impression that he had entered a new passage altogether.
With Tianlong's intelligence, he figured out what she had just the did. But the more he thought of the possibility, the more ridiculous it sounded. 'Did she just cut apart space?!'
He didn't ask and neither did she answer.
Her focus was entirely on the flying sword which was travelling in that multi-coloured passage while tearing through space. If one looked closely enough, one would find that the scenery of the outside world rapidly flashing through brilliant light until they became an indistinguishable blur.
With every passing moment, her speed increased more and more. Even though Long Qianmei looked like an old woman right now, Tianlong was excited because he could feel her aura breaking through.
It was slowly turning into the presence of a Nascent Soul cultivator!
He had met many Nascent Soul old monsters in his previous trips and even witnessed their battle, there was no way he could mistake their presence!
"Rats of the Ju Clan, it seems you were looking for me?!"
As Long Qianmei suddenly spoke, Tianlong knew that he had reached their destination.
Looking downwards, he saw a group of wooden buildings in front of a mountain creek.
Apart from the cracking sounds from the small bonfire outside, there was no sound in the area.
Due to winter, the creek had frozen over and the crickets were hibernating.
Under the moonlight, it looked like a peaceful settlement.
Upon reaching the place, Long Qianmei completely let loose her killing intent. The flying sword beneath her shrank and appeared in her hands.
With a simple movement of hers, she hacked towards the hut. A massive sword intent erupted from her which turned into a blood-red sword arc.
"Who dares!"
The instant she attacked, an enraged roar came from one of the houses.
A red-skinned, bare-chested man with a horn in his forehead rushed out to intercept the attack.
Seeing the sword slash, he clapped his arms and let out a roar. His bright yellow eyes glowed with an unprecedented brightness as a hundred-metres long sword's shadow appeared behind him.
With a sharp whistle, the sword rushed in towards the blood-red arc. Meanwhile, the man let out a stream of fire along with his roar to burn his opponent to ashes.
"You should've obediently remained hidden like the rat you are. But instead of treasuring your life, you just had to court death didn't you?"
As her words echoed out, the sea of fire behind her rapidly expanded. It stretched out and engulfed the other person's flame.
At the same time, the blood-red sword arc clashed with the illusory sword and rendered it to pieces.
Rip!
"Aargh!" Loud tearing sounds echoed out and the earth shook. The man consecutively spat out three mouthfuls of blood and flew back hundreds of metres back.
Growling with a ferocious expression, he tightly held his left arm. The attack had not only destroyed the sword shadow but also heavily injured him.
"It's you!!" The man spat out another mouthful of blood and unsteadily stood up. There was an expression of horror all over his face.
"Leader!" Worried sounds rang out as more people emerged from the other buildings. Red-skin, Bright Yellow eyes and a single horn in the forehead. All of them had the same features.
The man stood up with an unsteady gait. "I'm alright…" Although he assured them, everyone could see that his chest was bloodied and his left arm was almost dismembered.
One of the females looked at the figure of the old woman and narrowed her eyes. As for Tianlong, although he had an evil air around himself, he was just too weak. He was completely ignored by them.
"That... That's the Sword Fiend!" One of them cried out in fear.
"What? This senile woman is that wretch who killed my son and husband?!" A middle-aged looking woman asked in a trembling voice.
Under the effect of the vines, Long Qianmei had turned extremely skinny and looked like an old woman. Going by looks only, no one would be able to recognise her.
However, the sea of fire and those cold eyes gave her identity away.
Looking at Long Qianmei with a hateful glare, the woman screamed, "Do you know that ever since the day you massacred my clan, I have dreamed every day of ripping out your head and washing the graves of my son and husband with your blood!"
"Fiend, return my sister's life!"
"You wretch, why did you kill my father?"
Hateful curses filled with sorrow came out of all the clansmen's mouths. All of their words were filled with rancour. However, despite their hate, their fear towards her was even more evident.
The leader's eyes glowed with unprecedented brightness as he saw his mortal enemy. He had planned for years to kill her but could never take the final action due to the presence of Yun Dingxing.
His strength and status were like mountains pressing on his shoulder.
When he imagined how he had got into a dispute with this she-devil, his emotions would be thrown into disarray.
The Ju Clan was once a renowned cultivation clan in a rank 4 cultivation country. Their clan was famous for the bloodline ability that allowed them to refine powerful treasures.
In the past, he had seen Long Qianmei using her terrifying swordplay to slay hundreds of enemies. Under the might of her sword and incinerating flames, none could escape.
Mesmerised by the flames and her sword, he tried to kill her and refine her flames for himself.
Unfortunately for him, even with most of her spiritual energy spent and badly injured, she wasn't someone whom he could match against.
Even at a death's door, a lion could easily kill a dog! Its majesty wasn't something the latter could provoke!
In the end, he ended up running away like a defeated dog.
However, as one of the clan's most talented, how could he bear such humiliation?
He gave promises to various people and bought out multiple of the clan's elders to kill her.
That reckless action of his sealed the fate of his clan forever.
One female, one sword. They became the doom of his family.
Only with the sacrifice of all others in the clan were a handful of people able to successfully escape from the massacre.
They could only bury their grief and madness deep in their heart and hide from her. Otherwise, a vicious woman like her wouldn't rest until their entire bloodline was wiped out!
Their opponent was strong. Even though some of them possessed a cultivation base higher than her, she could easily butcher them!
It was only after they got the news that she was injured, they felt that their chance had come. Many of them wanted to give her the same pain that he felt while she murdered all of their clansmen.
However, his hopes of finding her were lost when he couldn't locate her with his divination. No matter what he tried, he just couldn't find her.
Now it looked like they no longer had to look for her.