In a Fantasy World as Cannon Fodder, I Got Entangled with the Heroine - Chapter 23

Chapter 23: What Do You Think? I Only Have One Beast

Translation by: Weebsread👹

The very next instant—

The woman's eyes widened in absolute horror as Jiang Qian crushed a villager’s skull in his right hand.  

Blood and fragments of bone and brain splattered violently across the earth.

Jiang Qian flicked the gore from his fingers, a cold sneer twisting his lips. “What? Did you really think I wouldn’t see through you? The lot of you—corrupted by the demonic path. Not even human anymore.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Spare me the act. I know exactly what you are. There’s no point pretending you’re mere puppets under someone else’s control.”

Even as he spoke, the villagers continued to shamble toward him, eyes vacant, faces blank.

“Still hiding? Fine. Don’t blame me for what happens next.”

With that, Jiang Qian vanished, reappearing in their midst. In a blur of motion, he seized a villager in each hand.

A heartbeat later, more than a dozen broken bodies lay at his feet.

…  

…  

Unfazed, Jiang Qian hefted a severed head in his right hand, tossing it lightly toward the woman. “A present for you.”

With a flick of her wrist, the woman sliced the head neatly in two.

She’d never imagined Jiang Qian would slaughter these villagers so ruthlessly—without a hint of hesitation.

“He’s a monster! I don’t want immortality anymore—I don’t want anything to do with this!”

“Help! Please, I just want to live!”

“I never wanted to cultivate! I just want to survive!”

The villagers’ act finally crumbled. Their calm facades shattered into panic, and they scrambled in every direction, desperate to escape.

Jiang Qian’s voice rang out, cold and implacable: “Kill them all.”

“Jiang Qian…” Jiang Zixuan turned to him, disbelief etched on her face.

“Thousandfold Frost, Seal the Land!”  

Bai Piaoxue didn’t hesitate. With a decisive gesture, she unleashed her art.

In a single breath, all of Guxi Village was swallowed by frost. Every villager who tried to flee was frozen solid on the spot.

With a gentle tap of her foot, Bai Piaoxue shattered the ice sculptures—villagers frozen in terror—into glittering shards.

When it was done, she strode over to Jiang Qian. “Jiang Qian, it’s finished. Not one left.”

Jiang Qian nodded, a glint of satisfaction in his eyes. “Impressive. Didn’t expect you to master the Thousandfold Frost Art to this degree in just one night.”

He truly was surprised. In only one night, Bai Piaoxue had achieved such control over the art—her talent was undeniable. If she survived what was to come, she would surely become a force to be reckoned with.

At his praise, Bai Piaoxue’s face brightened with a delighted grin. “Hee hee, it was nothing really.”

The observing woman was stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered, her stare hardening to venom. “Kill them!”

Her command unleashed the Bian Sect disciples, who surged forward at her word.

“Phoenix Fist!”  

With a clear cry, Jiang Zixuan’s right hand clenched into a fist, flames coiling around her knuckles.

In an instant, the icy air twisted with heat. The frost on the ground melted, pooling into water.

Jiang Zixuan’s punch tore through the air, blazing like a newborn fire phoenix—radiant, scorching, unstoppable.

The flaming fist streaked toward the Bian Sect disciples with blinding speed.

“What the hell kind of move is that?!”

“Since when did Azure Mountain Sect have such freakish prodigies?”

“I’m out of here—sorry, brothers, but you’re on your own!”

The onlookers, overwhelmed by her power, dropped all thought of resistance. Panic seized them—they turned and fled without a second thought.

“Roooaaar—!”

Then the Northwind Ice Wolf moved. In a blur of fangs and icy breath, it pounced upon the fleeing disciples, chewing through them one by one.

Moments later, only the Bian Sect woman was left standing.

Jiang Qian settled astride the Northwind Ice Wolf, barely sparing the woman a glance as he lifted his eyes to the thick black cloud swirling overhead.

Still not coming down?

His wariness was utterly focused on the Nascent Soul stage cultivator lurking behind the clouds.

Meanwhile, Jiang Zixuan’s flaming fist bore down on the last woman.

A fire phoenix shrieked, splitting the skies as it dived, eyes burning, toward its target.

“Pianhua Seven-Star Palm!” the woman screamed, lunging forward with a desperate palm strike.

But in the face of Jiang Zixuan’s might, her attack was like glass before a hurricane. The fire phoenix shredded her defense, talons bared.

Suddenly—a bolt of lightning crashed down from the black clouds, splitting the fire phoenix apart in a burst of blinding light.

Jiang Zixuan’s pupils contracted, and she instinctively leapt back, her gaze shooting up to the roiling sky. “There’s someone up there!”

Bai Piaoxue saw it too—her surprise quickly steeling into readiness as she shifted into a battle stance.

Jiang Qian, though, showed no sign of alarm. He remained calm, his tone almost bored. “So, you’ve finally decided to show yourself?”

The woman, her face washed in the afterglow of lightning, suddenly burst into wild, hysterical laughter. “The Sect Master’s seclusion is over! You’re all dead—every last one of you!”

No sooner had she spoken than the black clouds above twisted violently, thunder writhing within like raging dragons.

A bolt of lightning struck the ground, kicking up a storm of dust and grit.

As the dust swirled and settled, a man slowly emerged: a middle-aged figure in blood-red robes, a stylized Bianhua flower embroidered between his brows.

He surveyed the carnage below, expression cold and indifferent. Finally, he turned to the woman and spoke, voice as chill as winter steel. “Where are the sacrifices? Didn’t I say I’d need them as soon as I emerged?”

She dropped to her knees, voice trembling. “The sacrifices were ready, but… but—”

“But what?”  

He wrapped a hand around her jaw, his eyes ice-cold.

Just one look sent a chill through her marrow—all she could feel was bottomless, glacial terror.

“They… they killed them! The Azure Mountain Sect disciples!” she stammered, frantic, finger pointing at Jiang Qian and his party.

A moment later, her head spun one hundred eighty degrees.  

The man tossed her corpse aside, as carelessly as throwing away trash.

He then turned his gaze on Jiang Qian and the others. Seeing Bai Piaoxue and Jiang Zixuan, a hungry, twisted smile took shape. “Two Sacred Physiques… If I devour you both, I’ll break through to the Soul Departure Stage—maybe even reach Divided Spirit Realm!”

Greed shimmered in his eyes.  

Jiang Qian, still seated atop the Northwind Ice Wolf, urged his mount forward to shield the two women. He met the middle-aged man’s gaze with the hint of a lazy smirk. “You’re no spring chicken yourself. Maybe stop drooling over young girls—you ever think about picking on someone your own age?”

“Oh? You’ve managed to tame a Northwind Ice Wolf? Your beast-taming talents aren’t bad.”  

The man looked intrigued. “But do you really think a Fifth Rank beast is enough to face me?”

Even as he spoke, a crushing pressure swept out, blanketing all of Guxi Village—the stifling might of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Jiang Zixuan and Bai Piaoxue both gasped in shock, blurting out, “Nascent Soul stage!”

“Hahaha! That’s right.” The man’s gaze grew mocking. “You really believe a single Fifth Rank beast is enough to challenge me?”

But Jiang Qian only smiled, calm and faintly amused. “One beast? Did I ever say I only had one?”

He brought his fingers to his lips and let out a sharp, piercing whistle—  

Whoooosh!

TL Note:

- Bianhua flower: Also known as the Red Spider Lily, a flower associated with death and the afterlife in Chinese folklore. The mark signifies allegiance to the Bian’an Sect.