Chapter 143: Ambushing the Sister Duo

"Could Senior Brother Li suspect that those demonic mosquitoes are not solitary? Or that whoever brought them into Lingtian Canyon harbors ulterior motives?"

Opposite the black-haired middle-aged man sat a young and graceful woman in white. Her eyebrows were curved like slender willows, and her oval face possessed an ethereal beauty. Hearing his words, she could not help parting her rosy lips to ask.

"Junior Brother Li, Junior Sister Yun, your concerns are not unfounded. We might as well have Nephew Qin dispatch a few capable disciples to go in and root out whoever is causing this trouble."

Relations between the Lingtian Sect and the Extreme Demon Sect were growing increasingly tense, and with only a few centuries left in his own lifespan, his master plan could no longer be delayed. The elderly man pondered for a moment before giving this instruction.

Xiao Wenzi was unaware that his actions had already drawn the attention of the Lingtian Sect's upper echelons.

However, he knew very well that without relying on talismans to conceal his aura and presence, he would never be able to approach cultivators of the same realm without being detected.

The youth surnamed Zhou was, after all, at the Great Circle of Qi Condensation. As long as the man raised his protective spiritual barrier, a sneak attack stood a high chance of failing. Furthermore, once dragged into a protracted battle, it would inevitably alert everyone in the encampment.

Therefore, while closing in using the Demonic Swiftness Art, he directly lashed out with his blade-like wings to target the identity jade talisman hanging at the man's waist.

The cover of the night forest provided excellent concealment, and coupled with the fact that the youth surnamed Zhou was busy relieving himself, the single strike succeeded instantly.

"What on earth is going on with Zhou Tong? You keep watch; I'll go take a look."

The commotion in the woods had been far too brief to arouse the suspicion of the other two on-watch youths.

After waiting for quite a while without seeing him return, the youth at the thirteenth layer of Qi Condensation finally grew somewhat suspicious. Calling out to his companion, he cautiously made his way toward the woods.

Having dealt with the youth surnamed Zhou, Xiao Wenzi had quietly crept closer to the encampment. Seeing the thirteenth-layer youth heading toward the trees, a surge of joy washed over him, and he silently flew toward the sole remaining twelfth-layer youth.

"Hmm? Not here? What's wrong with Zhou Tong?"

The forest still carried the pungent scent of urine, but Zhou Tong was nowhere to be found. The young man furrowed his brow, and right as he muttered to himself in confusion, the youth standing guard by the encampment suddenly felt his hair stand on end.

The sense of crisis originated from behind him. He instinctively sidestepped with heightened vigilance, trying to erect a protective spiritual barrier for defense, but it was already too late.

Hugging the ground, Xiao Wenzi had crept stealthily to the edge of the camp. He knew that no matter how well he restrained his aura, drawing near would inevitably risk detection.

Consequently, he directly activated the Demonic Body Frenzy Art, followed closely by the Demonic Shadow Art and the Demonic Swiftness Art. In the blink of an eye, he bridged a distance of several zhang.

The moment he closed in on the youth's back, Xiao Wenzi thrust his sharp proboscis viciously forward.

His proboscis was now a full three inches long, hard as a steel needle. It easily pierced the man's garments, plunging deep into his skin and blood vessels as paralytic venom was injected directly into his body.

Xiao Wenzi's paralytic venom was virtually infallible against opponents of the same realm. Moreover, having now unleashed the Demonic Body Frenzy Art, his cultivation realm approached the half-step Foundation Establishment stage. The youth was instantly overwhelmed by waves of dizziness and stood frozen in place, utterly immobilized.

Because Xiao Wenzi's sneak attack had been executed in one fluid motion without any fierce struggle between them, the young men and women meditating cross-legged inside their tents remained completely unaware.

In truth, it was not that they lacked vigilance; rather, once cultivators entered a state of meditative breathing, their minds became completely focused inward. Furthermore, none of them could have anticipated that even Zhou Tong, who was at the Great Circle, would be unable to send out an effective early warning.

Having broken through to the twelfth layer of the Demonic Qi realm, his body was now roughly the size of a grown man's fist, and Xiao Wenzi's blood-sugging speed was astonishingly fast. In a mere instant, he had already harvested several system coins.

Therefore, when the youth who had gone searching for Zhou Tong returned empty-handed a short while later, Xiao Wenzi had already accumulated enough system coins to purchase both the Demonic Concealment Talisman and the Invisibility Talisman.

He could not let that fellow ruin his plans. Hearing the approaching footsteps from afar, Xiao Wenzi immediately halted his feeding, activated a talisman, and melted into invisibility.

"Zhou Tong seems to be in trouble. We need to inform Senior Brother Feng, Sister Lian, and the others."

The youth hurried toward the encampment while shouting to the companion standing rigidly motionless ahead of him.

However, before he could even reach the camp, a large mosquito materialized out of thin air directly behind him. Followed by a sharp pain at the nape of his neck, his consciousness faded into blackness.

Having cleared away this nuisance, Xiao Wenzi flew back into the camp and resumed his rapid feeding on the youth's blood to exchange for more system coins.

As time slowly drifted by, sensing that the youth had grown extremely weak from massive blood loss, he once again activated the Invisibility Talisman and Demonic Concealment Talisman, gliding silently toward the tents.

The remaining three members of this twelfth-tier squad consisted of two men and one woman.

The two young men were relatively straightforward, each occupying a tent by himself. However, the young woman of unknown name was sharing a tent with another female of similar appearance, who appeared to be her elder sister.

To avoid alerting the enemy, Xiao Wenzi decided to target the two youths first before figuring out how to deal with the pair of sisters.

The young men's tents were small, but small gaps existed in the fabric, allowing Xiao Wenzi to slip inside with ease. He quietly closed in on his target and thrust his proboscis forward in a sneak attack.

The youth, who looked to be only seventeen or eighteen years old, had no time to comprehend the situation before his body was paralyzed and rendered immobile.

A few minutes later, Xiao Wenzi departed the tent and glided toward another one not far away.

Employing the exact same tactic, the youth at the peak of the twelfth layer fell victim just as unawares, losing a massive quantity of his life's blood.

Inside a pink tent, two maidens in white were seated cross-legged on straw meditation mats, wisps of spiritual energy swirling about their forms.

Xiao Wenzi slipped in silently, immediately catching the faint fragrance of a woman's body. Truth be told, though the two white-clad maidens before him might not match Chu Xin'er in looks, they were nonetheless fresh and alluring.

Yet he felt not a shred of chivalry, heading straight for the older, fuller-figured woman.

Bolstered by the middle-grade Demonic Concealment Talisman and Invisibility Talisman, even an ordinary early Foundation Establishment cultivator would find her hard to detect. Although the maiden—who was at the Great Circle of Qi Condensation—sensed a disturbance in the air at the very last moment and snapped her pretty eyes open in alarm, it was already too late.

"Little Sister, quickly..."

To avoid disturbing each other's meditation, the sisters sat spaced apart. Before an itching pain struck her shoulder and half her body was rapidly overwhelmed by dizziness and paralysis, the white-clad woman mustered all her remaining strength to warn her companion.

Yet her voice sounded weak and breathlessness choked off her words halfway through.

"Sister, what is it?"

The younger sister was ordinarily a vigilant person as well. Hearing her sister's warning, she instantly halted her meditation and looked up, only to see a large mosquito hurtling directly toward her. Out of sheer habit, the girl reached out a hand to swat at it.

Xiao Wenzi was a total stranger to these sisters, bearing no personal grudges against them; ambushing them was purely for the sake of consuming blood to exchange for system coins.

Consequently, faced with the maiden's swipe, he did not brandish his sharp claws or unleash his wing-blades. Boosted by the Demonic Swiftness Art, he instantly dodged her hand and lunged straight toward her chest.

"Damn it, this mosquito is terrifying! Why isn't Sister helping me?"

Youthful and lacking in genuine combat experience, the girl failed to notice the white-clad sister's abnormal state the moment her chest was pierced by the bite, nor did she raise a protective spiritual barrier—a fatal oversight that sealed her tragic fate.