We bear people have power

The silver sword light, graceful as a dragon, completely enveloped the ugly old man. A scream rang out, and a streak of blood appeared within the silver sword light.

After the sword light dissipated, a gleaming silver flying sword appeared on the ground, pinning a severed arm to the earth. The ugly old man had vanished without a trace, and there was nothing unusual about the surroundings. If it weren't for the familiar-looking arm, one would have thought he had never been there.

The arm pinned by the flying sword rapidly decayed, its flesh and blood dissipating until it turned into a piece of grayish-black bone. At that moment, a huge black shadow descended from the sky.

Yingcao looked over and saw a giant brown bear. Compared to this giant bear, the tiger, the king of the mountains, was like a kitten.

Yingcao exclaimed in surprise, "You... why did your color change?!"

The giant bear blinked and said helplessly, "Lingxiu, have you scared yourself silly?"

Yingcao then realized that what was in front of her was indeed a bear, not the panda she remembered.

The brown bear turned its head and called out to its back, "Master, is Lingxiu scared out of her wits?"

At this moment, Yingcao noticed that there was a person sitting on the back of the brown bear, a Taoist nun dressed in a Taoist robe, but with an extremely beautiful appearance.

With a wave of her hand, the silver flying sword on the ground returned to her hand.

“Lingxiu…you are not Lingxiu.” The nun glanced at Yingcao and immediately noticed something was wrong.

They looked the same, but their expressions and auras were completely different.

Although it was well concealed, the little girl in front of us was a ghost, not a human.

The disciples of Fangcun Mountain had soul lamps remaining in the Three Star Cave; these lamps went out upon their death. Lingxiu's soul lamp was intact, so naturally nothing unexpected happened.

The little girl before her astonished the Daoist nun; there were no two people in the world who looked so alike. Even twins would have differences visible to a cultivator, yet this little ghost girl was exactly the same as Lingxiu.

“Young lady, I am Gongsun Jing, a disciple of the Xieyue Sanxing Cave from Lingtai Fangcun Mountain. Who are you?” the Daoist nun asked.

Yingcao hesitated for a moment, then said, "I am a disciple of Judge Cui Yu of the Underworld. I happened to encounter an evil cultivator here who was harming people. I thought I could handle it, but I underestimated my opponent. I am truly grateful for your help, Fairy."

The brown bear grinned and said, "So polite and well-mannered, no wonder you're not Lingxiu."

"If Lingxiu heard you say that, she probably wouldn't have a good month," Gongsun Jing said with a smile.

Yingcao looked at the person and the beast and felt that she didn't recognize the person they were talking about, but they had some connection to her.

"Judge Cui's disciple is indeed extraordinary, daring to confront this Golden Core evil cultivator alone. I just pinned him down with the Silver Dragon Sword, intending to cut off his escape route before eliminating him. But I didn't expect him to be so resolute, cutting off his arm to escape. What a pity," Gongsun Jing sighed.

The Silver Dragon Sword and the Sword Immortal's inheritance that Gongsun Jing obtained from the Sword Immortal's cave actually belonged to the Fangcun Mountain lineage. Through his own exploration, he had already cultivated them to the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage. Coupled with the sharpness of the pair of Silver Dragon Swords, even ordinary Golden Core demons were no match for him. After becoming a disciple of Patriarch Bodhi, Gongsun Jing received guidance on the Inverted Five Elements Sword Technique, making his swordsmanship even more refined and his foundation even more solid.

However, Patriarch Bodhi said to Gongsun Jing, "You lost half of your soul before you entered the Dao, so you have no hope of achieving the Golden Core in this life. If you want to seek the Great Dao, go to the place where you obtained the sword technique inheritance and find that half of your soul."

Gongsun Jing was filled with doubt after hearing this.

Losing half of one's soul? Ordinary people would go crazy or become stupid if they lost one or both of their souls, so how could someone with half of their soul still be alive and kicking and cultivate to this level?

However, Bodhi Patriarch would not joke with him, so Gongsun Jing could only follow his instructions and head to the place where he had received the sword technique inheritance.

Passing through Changzi County, she unexpectedly encountered such a scene. She could clearly see from the sky that this evil cultivator was harming people with his practice. He should have been beheaded by the Silver Dragon Sword, but unexpectedly, this evil cultivator was quite powerful and managed to escape.

What surprised Gongsun Jing even more was that she would encounter a female ghost who looked exactly like Lingxiu.

"Thank you for your help, Fairy. But if this evil cultivator doesn't die, there are even more powerful ones out there. I hope you can help me kill this evil cultivator," Yingcao pleaded.

"It's my duty, but this evil cultivator is cunning. He ran away so fast that I don't know how to find him," Gongsun Jing said helplessly.

“I do have an idea,” Yingcao said to Gongsun Jing.

The little girl walked up to the tiger. Just now, the king of the mountains had been interrogated by Yingcao, which had provoked the ugly old evil cultivator. A fierce battle ensued, but the tiger didn't run away; it simply lay obediently on the ground.

Seeing Yingcao approaching, he dared not move an inch.

“I know you were coerced by that evil cultivator, but the killing and soul-stealing were indeed your doing. Evil thoughts, evil deeds, and evil consequences—you were involved in the latter two, so you are naturally guilty. Therefore, you had better help us find that evil cultivator in order to atone for your sins.”

The tiger nodded quickly and then ran off in one direction.

Yingcao quickly turned to Gongsun Jing and said, "This tiger has been controlled by evil cultivators with magic, so it can sense where the evil cultivators are."

Gongsun Jing nodded and said to Yingcao, "Come on, let's chase after them together."

Yingcao naturally wouldn't refuse. With a light leap, she jumped onto the brown bear's back. The movement was incredibly practiced, as if she had tried it a thousand times.

Upon seeing this, Gongsun Jing's expression changed again, because she had seen this action countless times; it was exactly the same as Lingxiu's action of jumping onto the panda's back.

"This little girl must have some connection with Lingxiu." Gongsun Jing felt more and more that there must be something fishy going on.

The tiger ran extremely fast through the mountains. This king of the mountains was actually close to gaining sentience and becoming a demon, otherwise it wouldn't have caught the eye of that evil cultivator.

Fortunately, Gongsun Jing's mount, Xiongshan Jun, was a Golden Core demon, and he could easily keep up with the tiger even while carrying the two of them.

After trekking for about a day and a night, and almost out of Changzi County, they finally arrived at a pool of water.

The tiger stopped at the edge of the pool and roared at the water, indicating that the evil cultivator was hiding inside.

Gongsun Jing said to Xiong Shanjun, "Go and drive that evil cultivator out."

"Master, I can't swim," Xiong Shanjun said aggrievedly.

"When you were stealing fish at Fangcun Mountain, why didn't you say you couldn't swim? Go and come back quickly, don't waste time," Gongsun Jing ordered.

Xiongshan sighed and jumped directly into the pool.

Water splashed ten feet high; Lord Xiongshan was making a grand display to scare people out. But this evil cultivator seemed to be as docile as a tortoise, showing no intention of showing himself.

Xiong Shanjun swam underwater for a long time before finally finding the location of the evil cultivator's cave.

"Damn it, you made me soak in the water for so long! I'll tear this cave down!" Xiong Shanjun transformed into a giant bear the size of a small mountain and slammed his paw at the cave's entrance.

The evil cultivators seemed to have been operating here for only a short time, having set up a simple illusion array, yet it was no match for Xiong Shanjun's immense power. With a single strike, waves surged back, mountains crumbled and rocks shattered, directly smashing the cave entrance.

In this way, the evil cultivator could no longer hide.

The ugly old man transformed into a streak of blood and rushed onto the surface of the pool.

"So-called righteous people must also be exterminated?" the ugly old man said with a fierce expression.

He was missing his right arm, his face was completely bloodless, and he looked extremely disheveled.

“A person full of sins should naturally be killed by everyone,” Yingcao said calmly.

"How dare a mere brat utter such arrogant words? Mortals hunt wild beasts, tigers prey on rabbits—heaven and earth are indifferent. The strong are respected; this is the way of heaven. So-called sins are nothing but rules set by you underworld beings yourselves," the ugly old man roared.

“You stubborn fool, I’ll reason with you in the underworld. Now, please, fairy, take action and kill this evil cultivator who disregards human life,” Yingcao said to Gongsun Jing.

Gongsun Jing felt a chill run down her spine. Looking at Yingcao's still calm face, she thought to herself, "This child has such a strong bloodthirstiness."

Despite her surprise, Gongsun Jing had no liking for cultivators who used human lives to practice evil arts. She drew her Silver Dragon Sword, which transformed into two silver celestial dragons and flew towards the evil cultivator.

The ugly old man had witnessed the power of the flying sword and knew he was no match for it.

In this life-or-death moment, the ugly old man resorted to his last resort. He spat out a golden pill stained with blood, which met the pair of silver dragon swords.

The ugly old man knew that he was at the bottom among Golden Core cultivators, while the man in front of him was the most orthodox sword cultivator in the blessed land. Even if he had not yet reached the Golden Core stage, he could easily defeat him.

The ugly old man is a typical rogue cultivator at the Golden Core stage, having cultivated to this point through an incomplete cultivation technique he obtained by chance. His foundation is weak, and his magical power is mixed; he only survived the Golden Core tribulation by sheer luck. However, having no hope of reaching a higher level in this lifetime, he has turned his attention to cultivating unorthodox techniques.

Attempting to improve one's cultivation through opportunistic means only makes the already limited opportunities even more remote.

His golden core was tainted by evil magic and filthy blood; it was clearly not a good thing.

The more chaotic the golden elixir, the less progress it can make. However, if it is thrown away as a magic weapon, it has the miraculous effect of defiling other people's treasures.

He had used the corrupting power of this golden core to cause losses to righteous cultivators more than once before, corrupting their magic weapons and gaining a great advantage in battles.

However, he encountered a direct disciple of the Bodhi Patriarch of Fangcun Mountain.

Patriarch Bodhi was proficient in all the arts under heaven, so how could his disciples be influenced by such evil magic? The Silver Dragon Sword itself was of extraordinary quality, and after being reforged by Patriarch Bodhi, it had become a first-rate magical treasure in the world.

The two silver dragons collided squarely with the filthy golden elixir, and with a gentle twist, pulverized it into powder. The ugly old man didn't even have time to unleash the magical power contained within before he vanished into nothingness.

The golden elixir shattered, and the ugly old man, as if struck by a heavy blow, fell directly into the pool.

Seeing the opportunity, Xiong Shanjun flew over and swallowed the ugly old man whole.

The old man was a bit old and ugly, but he was still a Golden Core cultivator, and his flesh was much chewier than ordinary meat. Xiong Shanjun hadn't eaten a human in a long time, so he couldn't be picky about food now.

At this moment, Yingcao took out the Soul-Locking Chain and swung it at Xiong Shanjun. The giant brown bear was startled, wondering why this brat had attacked without a word.

Before he could react, the soul-locking chain had already wrapped around his body, but it seemed to have no effect at all, as if it were an illusion, and it directly sank into his body.

Yingcao pulled out the Soul-Locking Chain and dragged out an ugly, one-armed old man, who turned out to be the soul of that evil cultivator.

With his golden core shattered and his physical body gone, this evil cultivator could no longer break free from the bindings of the soul-locking chains.

Yingcao showed no pride, but said to the old man, "You say that so-called sins are determined by the underworld, so I will take you to see who set the rules."