Chapter 7: Timing Is Everything (Especially When You're Useless)
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The growl rose again, deeper this time—ancient, guttural, and filled with the weight of something that had not spoken in a century.
A shadow slithered along the edge of the basin.
Then the earth cracked.
With a hiss of steam and a roar that rattled leaves from trees, the ground erupted.
A massive claw burst free, obsidian black and veined with crimson. Then another. A monstrous form pulled itself from the pit—scaled and hunched, with fangs longer than swords and eyes that burned like molten gold.
It was a demon beast, and it did not belong in the mortal realm.
Its spine was plated with bone, and between its shoulders, like a warped gemstone embedded in its flesh, glowed a pulsating shard—jagged, dark red, and throbbing with corrupted qi.
Jin Xian stumbled back. "That's a Bloodbone Devourer! It's supposed to be extinct!"
Qi Wei's grip on his sword tightened. "This thing's qi signature… it's at peak Golden Core."
"So powerful," Qi Feng muttered with amusement. Flicking dirt off his sleeve, he glanced at Qi Wei and deliberately provoked him. "Elder Brother, with your mid-Golden Core cultivation, what are the chances you'd win against it? Ten percent? Maybe twenty?"
"Qi Feng," Qi Wei snapped, "either shut up or draw your weapon."
"I didn't bring one," Qi Feng said, yawning. "I thought this was a scavenger hunt, not a war."
A thunderous roar shook the basin.
Then the Bloodbone Devourer lunged.
Qi Wei sprang forward, sword flashing in a blazing arc, his qi flaring outward in a storm of gold and crimson. Jin Xian followed close behind, hands weaving intricate sigils midair, summoning radiant chains of spirit light that wrapped around the beast's limbs.
The clearing erupted into chaos.
The demon's tail lashed like a whip, tearing through a tree with a single swipe. Qi Wei met it blade-to-claw, deflecting a deadly strike and retaliating with precision. Sparks flew. Jin Xian's chains held for a moment—but only a moment—before snapping with a thunderous crack.
Qi Feng watched from a nearby stone, one leg folded over the other. "They're holding up surprisingly well," he muttered. "Didn't think my brother had the coordination to dodge."
Qi Wei landed a solid blow across the demon's flank, black blood hissing against the ground. But the victory was short-lived. With a guttural howl, the beast twisted and slammed its massive tail into Jin Xian.
"JIN XIAN!" Qi Wei shouted—was that concern, or terror? If something happened to Jin Xian now, he'd be left to face the Bloodbone Devourer alone… and with how utterly useless his younger brother was, Qi Wei was really terrified.
The impact hurled Jin Xian across the clearing like a rag doll. He crashed into a tree, bark exploding outward as he collapsed at its base, motionless.
Qi Wei turned to help—but the hesitation proved fatal.
The demon struck again, one colossal claw smashing through his guard and slamming him into the ground with bone-crunching force. Qi Wei gasped, pinned, barely conscious.
Qi Feng sighed, as though this were merely an inconvenience. "And here we are again," he muttered. "Surrounded by idiots."
Qi Wei, dazed and bloodied, screamed, "Qi Feng! You arrogant bastard—are you really just going to stand there and watch us die?!"
"I mean," Qi Feng said, examining his fingernails, "it's a very dramatic scene. Would be rude to interrupt."
"WE ARE DYING!"
Qi Feng tilted his head toward Jin Xian's crumpled form, then at the advancing beast. The demon's gaze locked onto him now, sniffing the air, jaws slack with smoke and saliva. It stalked toward him slowly, as if savoring the idea of this final morsel.
He tilted his head.
It wasn't that Qi Feng wasn't afraid.
After all, standing before a towering, blood-stained demon—its flesh armored with jagged bone, its breath thick with the scent of decay—would rattle anyone. Especially in a mere six-foot-two mortal body with only a Foundation Establishment-level cultivation to his name.
But Qi Feng was not just anyone.
He was the Demon God reborn—older than dynasties, more stubborn than mountains. He had crushed beasts that swallowed suns and strangled spirits that could bend fate.
So no, he couldn't allow himself to tremble before a measly century-old Bloodbone Devourer Demon.
He sighed, lips twitching in mild disdain. Tsk. Even its name sounds like it's trying too hard.
Very calmly, as if plucking a snack from his sleeve, Qi Feng reached into his robe.
Qi Wei's eyes snapped to him. "What are you doing?" he hissed, panic seeping into his voice. "This thing's about to kill us!"
But Qi Feng didn't reply. He had long mastered the art of ignoring complaints—the way one ignores the wailing of ex-lovers and the howling of stray dogs.
Instead, he pulled out a strip of yellow talisman paper.
Old. Brittle. Darkened at the edges with age. And yet it pulsed with a deep, malignant energy—like something ancient trapped beneath its surface was waiting to be unleashed.
Qi Wei stiffened. Jin Xian's gaze sharpened.
Qi Feng held the talisman between two fingers, letting the mist curl around it. He whispered words in a tongue forgotten by the living, syllables that bent the air around him. Then, without hesitation, he bit down on his thumb, drawing a bead of blood. With swift, fluid strokes, he traced arcane markings across the talisman—symbols that shimmered red for a breath before sinking into the parchment like dying embers.
The glade seemed to hold its breath.
And then he threw it.
The talisman sliced through the mist, a streak of yellow and crimson, and struck the Bloodbone Devourer in the chest.
There was a beat of silence in dark misty valley.
The Bloodbone Devourer demon froze in his place and then—the air imploded.
A vortex of raw energy burst outward, sucking the mist into the demon's body before erupting in a deafening crack. Black lightning arced from the talisman's core, chaining itself through the creature's limbs like shackles forged by the heavens. The Bloodbone Devourer let out a sound no mortal throat could mimic—a warped howl that twisted into a gurgling shriek as its armored flesh began to splinter.
Flames—black as pitch and rimmed in crimson—crawled along its body, devouring not just meat and bone, but something deeper. Its soul.
Qi Wei was thrown backward by the blast, crashing against a moss-covered boulder with a pained grunt. Jin Xian barely stayed on her feet, the hems of her robe flaring from the force of the shockwave.
And in the eye of the storm stood Qi Feng, robes fluttering in the pressure, his expression bored.
The demon buckled, its massive form crashing to its knees. Glowing veins of ancient script spread from the talisman, searing their way across its chest like divine branding.
Qi Feng became annoyed with the high-pitched screaming. "Honestly, does it have to scream so much. Tsk, just die already."
The demon's body convulsed one final time before it collapsed forward with a thunderous crash, kicking up a wave of dust and golden ash.
Silence fell over the glade.
And just like that, the demon God Qi Feng killed the Peak level Golden Core Bloodbone Devourer Demon with a flick of his sleeves... Cough cough, a tlisman. With the flick of a talisman.
Qi Wei groaned, dragging himself upright, his face pale. "What… in the nine hells… was that?"
Jin Xian didn't speak but her eyes held the same confusion as Qi Wei.
Qi Feng rolled his shoulders, cracking his neck. "A very old trick. One-time use. Sadly." He turned toward the corpse. "Hope it was worth it."
Qi Wei stared at him, stunned. "You had that this whole time?"
"I was waiting for the right moment," Qi Feng said, brushing soot off his sleeve.
"Right moment? He nearly KILLED us!"
"Aren't you two just a little banged up here and there? Why make it sound like I'm some kind of monster who enjoyed watching you both get beaten to pulp by that giant demon?"
Qi Wei and Jin Xian turned to look at him, their eyes clearly saying, "Swear on your non-existent lover that you didn't enjoy watching us get beaten to a pulp!"