Feng Ling genuinely froze for a single moment.
He instinctively turned toward the source of the voice.
In that split second, a flash of cold light shot out from afar. By the time it neared Feng Ling, he realized a kitchen knife was stabbing toward his back.
Feng Ling had no choice but to immediately command his skulls to block the kitchen knife.
“Boom!”
The skull spirits he had unleashed collided with the kitchen knife, yet the knife actually managed to hold them at bay!
The yellow sand floating in the air was blown back by a powerful vortex thousands of meters ahead, carving out a clear path.
When Feng Ling focused his eyes, his dark pupils trembled.
“You.”
“So you look down on a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator...”
Where the yellow sand parted, a figure in green robes emerged. As she stepped into the air, visible ripples stirred in the surrounding space, willingly forming steps to pave her path.
“Then let's see if you can take one move from me.”
Behind her materialized a massive gilded halo, featuring four Rings of Destiny that revolved with images of the sun, moon, mountains, and rivers, as if the entire world lay beneath her feet.
The woman's eyes were cold and ruthless, aloof like a divine goddess descending upon the realm, yet the bloodlust in the depths of her gaze made anyone who met her eyes feel as though they were staring into a sea of blood and mountains of corpses.
She looked like a deity, but was in truth an irredeemable demon.
“Bang!”
The rapidly flying kitchen knife violently parted the skulls' malignant aura, chopping the floating Nine Underworlds Reincarnation Banner squarely in two!
“Crash!”
It shattered, scattering like a rain of flowers as the boundless resentful spirits within were utterly obliterated in a single strike.
“Boom!”
The collision generated a massive shockwave that swept through the surroundings like an overwhelming tide, shattering rocks and trees and causing a massive rumble on the ground.
Feng Ling dropped down in an instant, dodging the shockwave.
“Like I said, I don't like looking up at people.”
The woman raised her right hand. Hold On twirled in midair, transforming in the blink of an eye into a long, slender sword that emanated red and black mist. It naturally settled into her palm.
“You aren't Wen Li!”
“Who are you?!”
Feng Ling was shaken by her aura. This was not the cultivation of Foundation Establishment, nor was it Soul Formation. He had only seen an aura like this once before, on the Second Elder of the Nine Corpses Palace in the Central Province.
That had been early-stage Tribulation Transcendence, yet the aura on her was even stronger than that!
Wen Li, who had previously been thrown to the ground by the shockwave, was now holding Hold On.
The earlier explosion had been the sound of the Supreme Grade immortal sword shattering completely.
Seeing that she did not speak—or even form hand seals with her hands—she simply raised her sword and moved toward him, her figure vanishing from the spot in a flash.
“Think you can run?”
A crimson flash gleamed in “Wen Li's” eyes, and her figure disappeared in the next instant.
...
At the same time, high above the sacred altar forbidden ground of the Divine Ruins Temple in the Central Province...
A vast starry sky intertwined with the Milky Way, where countless stray meteorites spun rapidly. It was as if this place transcended the Linggang Immortal Realm and connected to a far grander world.
“Rumble!!!”
“Boom!!!”
Tens of thousands of white and purple lightning bolts, meandering like dragons, struck down from above. They illuminated the dark purple and blue starry sky like bright day. There was even dark red lightning, radiating a pressure that seemed capable of destroying the entire Linggang Immortal Realm in an instant.
A hooded, white-robed cultivator on guard duty gasped in astonishment. “What's happening? Is someone about to undergo a tribulation?”
Another white-robed cultivator sitting nearby in meditation had a face illuminated by the bright light of the lightning, his eyes filled with wonder.
“No, this doesn't look like a lightning tribulation for ascension.”
“Boom!”
“Bang—”
In the next instant, those lightning bolts struck the stray meteorites, blasting them apart. Splintered pieces fell like burning shooting stars across the sky, hurtling wildly toward every corner of the Central Province.
“Not good! Quick, send out the order to activate the defensive array to stop the meteorites from crashing down!”
...
Feng Ling, who had teleported thousands of miles away, had never fled in such a pathetic state in his life, nor had any battle ever filled his heart with such trembling terror.
He shifted another thousand miles away.
“Bang!”
Yet in the next second, a sword beam tore through space and abruptly appeared behind him.
“Shhhk!”
Feng Ling looked down in utter disbelief at the sword tip protruding from his abdomen.
Blood stained his moon-white robes. He could not utter a single word, his eyes wide with horror.
“A Soul Formation cultivator who can't even take a single strike from me... dying is a waste for you.”
These words mocked what Feng Ling had sneered at Wen Li earlier: “For a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator to force this move out of me, your death will not be in vain.”
Standing behind him, Wen Li pulled out her sword and kicked his back.
Feng Ling plummeted straight down from high above.
“Bang!”
He crashed into the ground, forming a crater. Dust mixed with his blood, leaving him looking thoroughly battered and filthy.
Hold On shifted from a long sword back into a hairpin, affectionately rubbing against Wen Li's cheek.
“Stop playing around. Carry me somewhere safe in a moment.”
Hold On immediately tucked itself back into her hair.
Wen Li walked over, looking down with cold condescension at the despair and terror in Feng Ling's eyes. She slammed her foot onto his pierced abdomen and pressed down hard. Blood oozed out, yet not a single drop touched her.
“Hand over your Soul Blood and be my slave forever.”
“Ugh!”
Feng Ling's face turned deathly pale, blood surging up the sides of his neck.
She did not care whether Feng Ling was willing or not. Reaching out her hand in the next second, a drop of blood suddenly coalesced at his forehead and flew into her palm.
This was a cultivator's Soul Blood. Once possessed by another, a single thought could instantly bring about death and shatter the soul.
Feng Ling's eyes bulged, but he dared not resist in the slightest. He immediately suppressed his hatred, submitting completely under Wen Li's foot.
“Feng Ling is willing to lay down his life for Master.”
Wen Li cast him a look of utter disgust, as if looking at a dog, and spat a single word: “Get lost.”
“Yes, Master!”
Disregarding his severe injuries, Feng Ling scrambled up like a stray dog and scrambled away on all fours, not even daring to retrieve his red umbrella.
Drops of blood from his clothes and hair left a trail on the ground.
He understood that if he weren't still useful, that previous sword strike would have taken his head instead.
Right now, he was the ant.
Once he was far away, the earth-shattering aura surrounding Wen Li instantly vanished, and she collapsed unconscious to the ground.
Hold On immediately transformed into a massive sword, catching her and quickly carrying her far away from the area.
Barely fifteen minutes later.
Cultivators from all around rushed toward this stretch of land to investigate.
“These are the marks of a battle between Soul Formation cultivators.”
“No, one side was Soul Formation, but the other... I can't even tell!”
“When did anyone above Soul Formation ever appear in the Western Province? Could someone from the Central Province have visited?”
“Huh, isn't this umbrella... the weapon of Feng Ling from Jiuyin Island?”
“He is an early-stage Soul Formation cultivator, yet someone forced him to abandon his natal magic treasure and flee! Hss... I must report this to the Old Ancestor of the Lingjian Sect. I shall take my leave first. Farewell!”
“We shall take our leave as well!”
A group of Nascent Soul old monsters hurriedly rushed home to deliver the news. If people from the Central Province hadn't descended, then a formidable figure must have emerged in the Western Province. Such a person either had to be befriended or identified early to be avoided.
Otherwise, their sects would face destruction!
...
Rate on N.U.
