Chapter 158 How Is This Possible?

"Indeed, it has recovered."

After eliminating Xue Panyun, Xiao Wenzi turned his inner vision toward his Qi sea. The Demonic Flame Cauldron had once again transformed into its fiery tripod shape, and he let out a long sigh of relief inwardly.

The Demonic Flame Cauldron was something existing somewhere between a secret technique and a magical treasure. Even though he had cultivated it bit by bit, Xiao Wenzi had still feared that if he detonated himself and was reborn, the cauldron might cease to exist. That would have truly been troublesome, wasting a vast amount of arduous effort.

Fortunately, as long as it was not an external object, the system could resurrect it to a pristine state following a self-detonation. This opened up numerous possibilities for his tactics, and joy filled Xiao Wenzi's heart.

Meanwhile, a hundred meters away on the other side, Zhou Peng and the others, who were busy mining spiritual stones, sensed something and looked over, though the sound had been heavily muffled by the thick rock walls.

Preoccupied entirely with extracting spiritual stones, they only now noticed that Xue Panyun was nowhere to be seen. Sensing that something was amiss, several young men gathered around Zhou Peng, asking with expressions of concern, "What is going on? Where is Senior Brother Xue?"

"There seems to be movement over that way. Let's go take a look. Junior Brother Xue might have run into trouble. Everyone, stay alert and be careful."

Zhou Peng waved his hand to issue instructions, his face grave and solemn. As he spoke, he was already the first to dash into the rock wall where Xiao Wenzi was located.

Having dealt with Xue Panyun's remnant soul, Xiao Wenzi did not rush to collect his storage pouch, because the enemy's recent cry for help had made it clear to him that there was more than one adversary.

Giving a cold chuckle, Xiao Wenzi flew directly to the chest of Xue Panyun's corpse and burrowed inside through the charred, bloody hole.

Not long after, four earthy-yellow beams of light appeared one after another within the newly blasted crevice in the rock wall. Upon seeing Xue Panyun's miserable state, one of them couldn't help exclaiming, "It's Senior Brother Xue! He's dead. Who on earth did this?"

As he spoke, the young man's divine sense swept back and forth continuously, though most of his attention remained focused on the rock wall ahead.

In his view, this space blasted open by the explosion was extremely cramped, and apart from some rubble, it was entirely clear at a glance; it was utterly impossible for an enemy to hide here.

Sharing the exact same thought were Zhou Peng and the other two youths. Zhou Peng's divine sense was the strongest among them, and he quickly discovered the small hole in the rock wall that Xiao Wenzi had battered out.

A passage narrower than a fist could not possibly accommodate large demonic beasts passing through. It was rumored that certain mineral veins harbored Spirit-Devouring Snakes and Spirit-Devouring Mice that specialized in consuming spiritual stones.

Whether it was Spirit-Devouring Mice or Spirit-Devouring Snakes, any single one of them was nothing to fuss over, but these creatures loved to live in colonies. Could it be that Xue Panyun had the extreme misfortune of running into such a terrifying existence?

At this thought, Zhou Peng furrowed his brow deeply and said in a low voice, "Junior Brothers, look over here..."

Hearing Zhou Peng's speculation about the Spirit-Devouring Snakes, all three youths turned pale. They had no desire to provoke those terrifying creatures notorious for living in colonies.

Consequently, someone simply proposed taking Xue Panyun's corpse and returning immediately to report the news to the sect, or at the very least, waiting until a large group of experts could be assembled before coming back to investigate.

Prejudiced by his initial assumption, and lacking the meticulous nature of people like Yang Hong and Wang Lingfei, Zhou Peng agreed without much further consideration.

"Hmm? What is this?"

Just as Zhou Peng instructed his junior brother to pry Xue Panyun's mangled corpse out from the rock wall, intending to store it in a pouch and leave immediately, he sensitively noticed that the chest of the corpse before him was rapidly expanding.

A jolt of shock went through his heart. Could the killer who had slain Senior Brother Xue actually be hidden inside his body?

Boom~~

Zhou Peng realized something was wrong, but before he could even issue a warning, the mangled corpse of Xue Panyun gripped by the young man exploded.

Amidst flying flesh and blood, save for Zhou Peng who had managed to raise his protective spiritual light in time, the bodies of the three caught-off-guard youths were blasted backward like cannonballs, slamming heavily into the rock wall and letting out piercing screams.

The most miserable of all was the youth who had intended to take Xue Panyun's corpse with him. His chest was reduced to a bloody mess, his bright red heart visible amidst shattered, stark-white bones, and his lower abdomen was pierced straight through by several broken rib fragments.

His injuries were far too severe. To say nothing of a youth merely at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, even a Golden Core expert would have no choice left other than resorting to奪舍 (body possession).

The other two were in an equally wretched state. The protective earth-escape talisman light shields they had cast around themselves shattered and dissolved, and their heavily injured bodies were embedded in the rock wall with pain akin to being torn apart bone from bone.

Because this space was far too confined, although Zhou Peng had erected his protective spiritual light in time, before he could dash into the rock wall, the earth-escape talisman shield had already been blasted to pieces.

His protective spiritual light twisted and vibrated, leaving Zhou Peng's face somewhat pale, yet compared to the three youths, he was incomparably fortunate.

"Senior Brother Zhou! Save us! Senior Brother Zhou, help us!"

The young man's remnant soul flew out from his body, crying out in terror as it fled toward Zhou Peng. The other two youths felt a pain so intense their bodies felt dismantled, unable to free themselves from the rock wall for the time being, and could only cry out for help.

*Self-detonation... Could it be that everything was done by that vixen? There are no Spirit-Devouring Snakes at all; I should have thought of this sooner.*

Ignoring the cries for help from the youths, Zhou Peng muttered with a gloomy expression.

From the death of Wei Suo to the present Xue Panyun, along with the narrow space covered in dense cracks at the scene, all signs indicated that this was not something that could be caused by ordinary combat.

Furthermore, according to the clues provided by Xu Lingzi and the others, the demonic mosquitoes kept by Chu Xin'er were capable of self-detonation. At this thought, Zhou Peng expanded his divine sense to its absolute limit, remaining constantly vigilant against any movement around him.

Suddenly, his pupils contracted as he looked ahead, where a large mosquito was materializing out of thin air.

"This~~ How can this be?"

Zhou Peng was shaken to his core. He saw it very clearly: the demonic mosquito in front of him had appeared out of thin air, without even the faintest trace of aura prior to it.

Raising such an unorthodox demonic mosquito was one thing, but to have it ambush enemies in such an elusive manner—what on earth was that vixen's background?

Up until this very moment, even though Xu Lingzi and the others had told him that Xiao Wenzi could conceal himself for surprise attacks, Zhou Peng had never connected him with that abnormal freak who could resurrect from the dead.

Amidst Zhou Peng's shock, Xiao Wenzi, having resurrected at the cost of a red heart, had already figured out the situation. Regretting that he hadn't managed to wipe out all the enemies at once, his movements nonetheless lacked the slightest hesitation.

Flapping his wings, two semi-transparent wing-blade techniques slashed directly toward the young man's remnant soul.

"Senior Brother Zhou, save me!"

Lacking a physical body, how could the young man possibly withstand Xiao Wenzi's assault? He desperately lunged toward Zhou Peng while shouting loudly for help.

"Hmph~~ You audacious beast!"

How could Zhou Peng stand idly by and watch the young man be destroyed body and soul, especially since the other's remnant soul was already close by? With a cold snort, he waved his hand to release two sword Qi beams, intercepting the edge of the wing-blades with speed to spare.

*Clang, clang!* The sharp edges of the wing-blade technique shattered, and the sword Qi also dimmed significantly in spiritual light, yet it continued unhindered toward Xiao Wenzi.

Clearly, Zhou Peng's sword Qi was superior; after all, he was at the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage, while Xiao Wenzi was only at the thirteenth layer of the Demonic Qi realm.

The sword Qi struck the demonic mosquito's body, but not a single drop of blood sprayed. Zhou Peng's pupils contracted as he looked at Xiao Wenzi, who had split into four, his face filled with utter disbelief.

In truth, during this period, Xiao Wenzi had already preliminarily mastered the Myriad Illusion Demonic Shadow Escape, capable of branching out eight or nine illusory clones even with the Demonic Shadow technique.

The reason he had only transformed into four was, firstly, that the space here was far too cramped, and secondly, it served to conceal his trump card while lulling the enemy into a false sense of security.