"Who goes there?"
Yanleizi barked, his expression flickering between shock and doubt.
Luo Chen paused briefly, his gaze falling upon the strangely concave valley below.
Xiangkong Valley!
Wang Yuan was right inside.
He smiled faintly. "Luo Chen of the Luotian Association greets Fellow Daoist Yanleizi!"
The Luotian Association?
Yanleizi started, then immediately realized who he was.
Wang Yuan was the Hall Master of the Luotian Association's Scripture Transmission Hall, rumored to share deep ties with President Luo Chen as intimate friends who had supported one another ever since their days of humble obscurity.
"You came for Wang Yuan?"
As Yanleizi spoke, he retrieved a small hammer from his storage bag.
Luo Chen's gaze shifted to the small hammer.
"Indeed! How about dismantling the grand formation so we can shake hands and make peace?"
"For a guild president, how can you be so naive?" Yanleizi sneered. "Do you truly not know that Ku Chan bears a blood feud against Wang Yuan for the murder of his son? They are locked in a fight to the death!"
A blood feud for a son?
Luo Chen was taken aback.
Right at that moment, wisps of thunder and fire flared from the small hammer in Yanleizi's hand.
"I have long heard that the president of the Luotian Association is a master of fire methods, renowned by the fine moniker of Fire Spirit Lord. In addition to thunder arts, I too have some modest insights into fire spells. Why doesn't Fellow Daoist offer me some guidance?"
Luo Chen's brow arched.
Then he nodded.
"Since you insist, I shall oblige."
"Conveniently, I also wanted—"
Halfway through the sentence, Yanleizi's mind convulsed, terror surging from the depths of his soul.
Across from him, Luo Chen was slowly raising his longsword toward the sky.
And the earthquake that had been rattling the ground earlier had inexplicably ceased with his movement.
At this moment, how could Yanleizi fail to realize that Luo Chen had already been covertly gathering power for a spell?
"Despicable!"
Bellowing in fury, he struck his hammer into empty air, sending a bolt of lightning streaking toward Luo Chen.
Faced with this strike, Luo Chen paid it no heed.
Inhaling deeply, he channeled all his spiritual power into the Mystic Fire Sword.
The next instant!
The longsword slashed down with savage force!
BOOM!
Shifting from absolute stillness into violent motion, a deafening roar erupted in an instant.
Sensing mortal danger, Yanleizi mounted his flying sword and shot skyward.
Yet it was already too late.
A colossal shockwave rolled forward, overturning mountains and seas.
Yanleizi's body was tossed high into the sky like a battered leather ball.
Layer after layer of silvery-white protective barriers surged from his body, only to be repeatedly washed over, rattled, and ultimately obliterated by the terrifying blast wave.
Only when the lingering force gradually subsided did he barely manage to steady himself in midair.
"Pfft!"
A mouthful of blood could no longer be suppressed, spraying forth as he bent over coughing.
He looked down, his eyes widening in sheer, breathless horror.
The mountains had collapsed!
The rocky strata of the mountain ranges encircling Xiangkong Valley for five li had caved in simultaneously!
Incalculable power converged with the Thunder Prison Grand Formation at its center.
The most dazzling eruption had already passed.
Now, all that could be seen were surges of boiling magma pouring in from every direction, flowing toward the buried Xiangkong Valley.
Gulp!
Yanleizi's throat visibly bobbed.
In a hoarse, trembling voice, he asked, "What spell is this?"
Luo Chen smiled faintly, standing motionless where he was, letting the scorching waves wash over his face.
What spell?
Naturally, it was the peak Tier 2 fire attack spell—Landslide!
And though named Tier 2, Luo Chen had trained its three prerequisite arts to Great Perfection, and Landslide itself had likewise reached Great Perfection.
Coupled with the Mystic Fire Sword's amplifying might for fire spells, the power of this spell had long surpassed Tier 2 and was not inferior to a Tier 3 offensive spell!
In fact, ordinary Tier 3 spells could not even match such destructive force.
Had he deliberately targeted Yanleizi, the instant Landslide erupted would have been enough to obliterate him!
Even with a defensive magic treasure, the terrifying concussive and collapsing force would have shaken him to death.
It was merely that Luo Chen had another objective; Yanleizi had only been injured by the aftershocks.
Yanleizi, of course, understood that he had not been the primary target.
Yet even so, it had left him gravely wounded; it was unimaginable what the consequences would have been had it been directed specifically at him.
Under his questioning, Luo Chen offered no reply.
Instead, Luo Chen lowered his gaze, studying the mountains beneath his feet with genuine surprise.
The Ninth Peak was truly bizarre!
He had covertly prepared for a long time and pushed the spell to its absolute limit, yet he had only managed to demolish a portion of the mountain mass.
Even so, it had achieved his purpose.
The mountains collapsed, the earth sank, the external environment shifted, accompanied by endless explosive shockwaves.
The Thunder Prison Grand Formation was broken!
Of the three people inside, whether the other two survived, he did not know.
But Wang Yuan would definitely survive.
Such was his absolute faith in Wang Yuan!
And now...
Luo Chen pursed his lips, his smile fading as he looked up. His chilling gaze fell squarely onto Yanleizi.
Though his gaze was angled upward from below, the immense pressure bearing down on Yanleizi made it feel as if a colossal titan were looking down on him.
"What are you going to do?" Yanleizi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, glaring venomously at him.
Luo Chen merely smiled faintly. "Fellow Daoist, watch your back!"
Yanleizi froze, then sneered.
"Still trying to trick me?"
"That spell just now must have drained every drop of your spiritual power!"
"You're standing stock-still right now probably to recover your breath. Behind me? What could possibly be behind me?"
Just as he sneered and prepared to strike Luo Chen down, a deafening roar descended from above.
He jerked his head up.
A raging dragon of thunder was crashing down amid rumbling booms.
A thunderstorm!
Paralyzed with terror, he had no time to react.
Crack!
A bolt of lightning struck him from the sky, bathing him in boundless silvery-white radiance.
A jade pendant on his body automatically lit up, absorbing the strike. Not only that, the small hammer in his hand was siphoning in the surrounding lightning.
Yet that was all it could do!
The next instant, Yanleizi struggled to turn his head.
Where Luo Chen had stood, only an afterimage remained.
The sound of rapid vibrations hummed through the air.
Powerless to resist any further, he could only cry out, "Fellow Daoist, I am the son of a Core Formation—"
Squelch!
Yanleizi stared in disbelief at his midsection.
A sword tip had pierced clean through his chest!
The next moment, behind him, Luo Chen's wings vibrated, and his fingers swiftly wove a hand seal.
"Spin!"
With a low shout, the Mystic Fire Sword rotated violently.
Countless fire meteors erupted from it.
In merely a breath, his torso was incinerated to ash.
The jade pendant he wore attempted to radiate silvery-white light once more.
However, having blocked the might of the Landslide followed by the heaven's thunder, its power was already waning; it could only emit a partial halo, shielding Yanleizi's severed head.
Within three zhang, Luo Chen frowned slightly.
"A Core Formation method similar to Fairy Jueqing's Profound Ice Talisman?"
A fierce glint flashed across his eyes as he drove the Mystic Fire Sword forward once more.
Protected within the pendant's light, the severed head wore a look of pure horror.
Retreating frantically, he pleaded, "Fellow Daoist Luo, don't drive me to extinction!"
"Spare my life, and I will reward you handsomely!"
Clang!
The Mystic Fire Sword struck the silvery-white light, yet failed to pierce it.
Luo Chen snorted coldly and spat from his mouth.
The sword pill emerged, instantly transforming into an expansive net of sword light that strangled in from all directions.
Yanleizi's soul nearly leaped from his body. "You cannot kill me! My father is Di Wanyun, an elder of the Flame Alliance! If you kill me, he will never let you off!"
Luo Chen acted as if he had heard nothing.
He simply manipulated the net of sword light to block every path of retreat.
Reaching out, he beckoned the Mystic Fire Sword back into his hand.
How could he possibly go soft now?
Once he decided to act, showing mercy was entirely out of the question.
Especially since he had already destroyed the man's body, leaving behind only a head.
Even if Yanleizi survived, reforming a fleshly vessel that perfectly aligned with his body would be nearly impossible, effectively severing his path of cultivation.
Under such circumstances, Yanleizi would never let him off!
And the father behind him—that so-called Core Formation elder of the Flame Alliance—would be even less inclined to forgive him!
In this world, whether in conduct or action, one had to be ruthless!
Gripping the Mystic Fire Sword, Luo Chen manifested fire meteor after fire meteor at the blade's tip.
Flying Fireflies was a minor technique he had mastered back in the Qi Refinement stage.
For a long time, it had rarely found a use.
Yet that did not mean it was useless!
By now, he had already seen through the flaw of that jade pendant.
It could withstand burst attacks and possessed tremendous protective power—likely only slightly inferior to the Profound Ice Talisman Fairy Jueqing had given him—with the advantage of being activatable multiple times.
Yet its drawback was just as glaring.
It had a lengthy cooldown between activations!
Under continuous bombardment, openings would inevitably surface.
Compared to heavy techniques like the Blazing Sun Art, the ceaseless stream of Flying Fireflies was far better suited to this situation.
With a shift of intent, he swung the longsword.
Stream after stream of fire meteors streaked toward the silvery-white barrier.
Despair tore through the very depths of Yanleizi's soul.
In his ears rang the screeching grind of the sword light net carving away; before his eyes flew an endless swarm of fire meteors.
This man truly intended to slaughter him!
Watching the silvery-white light grow increasingly faint under the onslaught of fire meteors and sword light, the despair in his eyes reached its absolute peak.
Then, a flash of madness took over.
"If you won't let me live, don't think you'll have it easy either!"
With those words, he shut his eyes.
The next instant, the entire head burst into flames without any external spark!
A generation's master of thunder arts, whose reputation struck fear on the battlefield and demanded extreme caution, had fallen without ever unleashing a single proper attack against Luo Chen.
And thus he perished!
Yet in the following breath, a flame sigil suddenly drifted out from the wisps of blue smoke, flying straight toward Luo Chen.
Luo Chen's expression shifted slightly.
"A curse technique?"
With a cold snort, his wings fluttered as he pulled back continuously.
Within a few breaths, he had put a vast distance between himself and Xiangkong Valley.
At such a distance, that supposed curse should—
"No!"
Luo Chen slapped a hand against his forehead; a searing heat lingered upon his brow.
Faintly, it felt as though it were burning his divine soul.
Without hesitation, he cast the Water Mirror Art and peered closely into the reflection.
Upon his handsome face, besides a grim, dark countenance, a small flame danced upon his forehead.
"Damn it, what trick is this?"
"Why couldn't I shake it off even from so far away?"
"A fire method? A divine soul secret art? Or something else entirely?"
Questions rushed through his mind, his face darkening until it was practically dripping with gloom!
Right at this moment, the sound of shattered boulders hurtling through the air echoed from the direction of Xiangkong Valley.
For the moment, Luo Chen had to disregard the flame sigil on his brow and flew toward the valley.
Before he even reached Xiangkong Valley, the scene came into view.
A battered, disheveled figure was waving a jade ruler in his hands, fleeing for his life.
Behind him, Wang Yuan's black hair billowed, his dark eyes sharp and cold. Clad in what appeared to be a set of ancient armor, he strode forward in relentless pursuit.
From time to time, he would unleash streaks of the Blood God Tribulation Finger.
Though the figure dodged and defended frantically, several bloody beams that he managed to evade eerily curved back around.
In just a few moments, the fleeing cultivator's body was riddled with holes, blood pouring out in torrents.
His aura plummeted to an absolute nadir.
Thud!
Having depleted all his strength, the man crashed to the ground.
He collapsed onto one knee, clutching his chest, gasping raggedly for breath.
Only then did Wang Yuan finally stay his hand.
With a few swift shifts in midair, Luo Chen landed beside him.
"Are you alright?"
"Won't die!"
Wang Yuan caught his breath as the ancient armor faded from his body. Retrieving a coarse linen robe, he casually draped it over his shoulders.
Luo Chen nodded.
Wang Yuan was injured, and heavily so.
Yet since he said he wouldn't die, it meant nothing fatal had occurred.
The priority now was not catching up.
Luo Chen lowered his head and looked at the man on the ground.
At that moment, the man raised his head as well, glaring furiously at Luo Chen and Wang Yuan.
Looking at his face, Luo Chen felt a faint sense of familiarity.
He hesitated before asking, "You are Ku Chan?"
The old man remained silent, merely glaring at them with venomous eyes.
Luo Chen frowned. "We bear no deep hatred or grudge against you; on the battlefield, we were merely serving our respective masters. Leaving aside that you killed so many of our Luotian Association's cultivators, why did you pursue Wang Yuan so recklessly?"
"No deep grudge? Hahaha..."
Ku Chan sounded as if he had heard the greatest joke in the world.
Disregarding his grievous injuries, he burst into loud laughter.
Yet as he laughed, the agony in his chest forced him into a violent coughing fit.
"Cough, cough..."
As he hacked, frothy blood spilled from his lips, faintly flecked with bits of shredded organs.
Luo Chen was still puzzled.
Beside him, Wang Yuan pursed his lips and said coldly, "We actually do share a deep grudge with him! The kind where only one walks away!"
"Oh?"
"Huo Quan, isn't that right?"
On the ground, Ku Chan snapped his head up, his venomous eyes boring into the two men.
"The murder of my son is an irreconcilable enmity!"
The moment he heard the name "Huo Quan," Luo Chen's mouth twitched.
He finally understood why the old man looked vaguely familiar.
The man had a son named Huo Hu!
They had met back in Taishan Market, and later captured him during the Battle of Gaoling Plain. As for his ultimate fate...
Luo Chen's gaze shifted to Wang Yuan's back.
Concealed beneath the coarse linen, his broad back was hidden from view, but in those days, a Blood Fiend Spirit Seizing Array had been inscribed across it!
Luo Chen had thought the matter had ended with the destruction of Red Toad Mountain.
He had never imagined that a venomous viper had remained coiled in the shadows all along.
Huo Quan did not even look at Luo Chen, his venomous stare fixed solely on Wang Yuan.
"If you had merely killed him, so be it! But you stole his Dao foundation, devoured his flesh, bones, and essence blood, not even granting him the chance to reincarnate!"
"With demonic conduct like yours, even if I fail to slay you today, the mighty figures of the Jade Cauldron Domain will never let you off!"
Luo Chen's expression tightened.
The matter of seizing a Dao foundation through blood fiends was an absolute secret. How could he know of it in such precise detail?
As if sensing Luo Chen's confusion, Wang Yuan remarked flatly, "The Flame Alliance possesses a bloodline resonance technique. Huo Quan was an inner disciple of the Flame Alliance in his earlier years and knew the art. At close range, he could perceive everything Huo Hu endured from what resides within me."
Luo Chen came to an immediate realization.
He had heard whispers of such secret arts before.
None could cast them save upon blood kin of the closest degree.
"If I hadn't been injured back then by the Tier 3 demonic beast, the Three-Legged River-Swallowing Toad, I would have slaughtered you long ago," Huo Quan rasped with burning hatred.
"By the time I nursed my wounds and stabilized my late Foundation Establishment cultivation, I learned you had latched onto a Core Formation great sect. That name of 'Danchenzi' even weighed heavily upon countless young talents of Jade Cauldron."
"With my abilities, infiltrating Tianlan to assassinate you was naturally impossible."
"Heaven had mercy—the civil war between the two Nascent Soul sects of the Jade Cauldron Domain granted me this chance."
"I intended to slaughter every cultivator of the Luotian Association on the battlefield, suppress and execute Wang Yuan, and then lure you, Luo Chen, into the open... Yet I never imagined that at the very first step, I would fall short."
"Infuriating! If only Yang Wei hadn't been so lacking in formation mastery—"
As he rambled on, Luo Chen's brows furrowed. With a flash of his sword pill, it shot toward the old man.
Too much drivel!
This place was unsafe to linger; there was no time for reminiscing.
Yet the moment the sword pill launched, a jade ruler swatted it away.
Ku Chan Huo Quan inhaled deeply, his entire frame puffing up like a bloated toad.
He lunged toward Luo Chen and Wang Yuan.
The jade ruler behind him was driven to its utmost limit, manifesting a hundred zhang in size as it slammed down with crushing force.
Mutual destruction!
A suicidal detonation!
Yet watching this, Wang Yuan merely sneered.
He extended his right hand and clenched it into a fist.
A savage squeeze!
Boom!
From several zhang away, Huo Quan exploded into a shower of blood amid overwhelming grievance.
Losing its master's control, the jade ruler spun through the air and dropped cleanly into Luo Chen's hand.
"Brother Wang, this method of yours is a bit too brutal," Luo Chen remarked helplessly. He still had to clean up the battlefield afterward.
Raining blood everywhere would only add so much extra work!
The corner of Wang Yuan's mouth twitched.
He had witnessed firsthand how Luo Chen dealt with Yanleizi earlier.
How was that any less brutal or violent?
Hacking at a severed head with a sword, then roasting it with fire.
"This is merely an application of neutralizing force. From the moment he took my first Blood God Tribulation Finger, this fate was already inescapable."
Wang Yuan spoke indifferently, his eyes drifting to the center of Luo Chen's forehead.
"What is that?"
Luo Chen forced a smile. "No matter, just a parting trick left by Yanleizi. For now it doesn't feel dangerous; once we get back, I'll find a way to deal with it."
Seeing his attitude, Wang Yuan did not press further.
Luo Chen casually asked about the formation master's fate.
The answer was dead.
Not even bones remained!
Buffeted internally by the backlash of the shattered formation and bombed externally by the Landslide spell, save for a magic treasure formation disk that miraculously survived, the man had perished entirely, submerged beneath the magma.
Luo Chen let out a sigh of relief and stowed the formation disk away.
An intact formation disk was a rare find; upon returning, he could hand it over to Min Longyu, which would surely elevate his capabilities to the next level.
Yet now was not the time to divide spoils.
Moving across the battlefield, Luo Chen cast the Cleansing Art repeatedly, doing his best to erase every trace of their aura.
As for the devastated terrain left by the collapsing mountains and cleft earth, that was not something he could easily restore.
While he busied himself with the cleanup, he noticed Wang Yuan had returned to where Xiangkong Valley had once been.
The tall figure stood there, hesitation lingering in his eyes.
"Brother Wang, what's wrong?"
Wang Yuan said uncertainly, "Luo Chen, there seems to be a door down below?"
Chapter 379