Suddenly!
Madam You Sha's seductive figure shuddered, and the dazed look in her eyes abruptly cleared.
"Something is wrong!"
"Fellow Daoist Lianyun, wake up at once!"
Helian Yun jolted, his wits returning at her sharp cry.
Up in the air, Luo Chen let out a muffled grunt.
He looked at Madam You Sha in surprise. She had actually seen through his Mind Beguilement Art.
Just moments ago, he had clashed head-on against Xiao Sanren's soul. Shielded by the Lanke Black Chess Piece, he had unleashed his Great Perfection-level Soul Intimidation Art and Perfection-level Mind Beguilement Art without restraint, striking the heaviest blow right where the man was strongest.
After reaping such results, Luo Chen had grown even more confident in his soul attacks.
In comparison, Madam You Sha and Helian Yun's soul strength was clearly inferior to Xiao Sanren's.
Moreover, he was riding the momentum of instantly killing one of them to overbearingly intimidate the other two.
Under such circumstances, unleashing the Mind Beguilement Art had actually yielded no result.
In fact, he had even suffered a slight backlash.
"I truly underestimated you, wench."
Amid Bai Meiling's worry, Luo Chen rubbed his temples.
Hearing his words, cold sweat poured down Helian Yun. It was they who had truly underestimated Luo Chen far too much.
Or rather, he had concealed himself so thoroughly that even Xiao Sanren had been deceived.
Wench?
Madam You Sha gritted her silver teeth. "Attack together! Today, either he dies or we perish. Fellow Daoist Lianyun, neither of us has any way out!"
The moment the words left her mouth,
she flung her hands outward, and the vermilion silk wrapped around her waist expanded abruptly.
Before long, it spanned several tens of feet across, encircling Luo Chen and Bai Meiling in its center.
"Tricks like this are useless against me!"
Luo Chen shouted coldly, his figure bursting forward, intending to shoot out before the silk could close in.
Yet no matter how fast his speed was, against an enemy on guard, he had nowhere to hide.
Luo Chen's heart skipped a beat, and his left hand traced a circle.
An azure, glass-like light barrier instantly blocked the space before him.
*Chih!*
Within the light barrier, a streak of dark light was slowly drilling through.
It was none other than the Armor-Piercing Nail!
Helian Yun took a deep breath and released another nail.
The Qi-Piercing Nail!
The Qi-Piercing Nail followed closely behind, plunging into the glass barrier, and the second-rank top-tier water-attribute defensive spell—already at Great Perfection—collapsed and shattered.
This bizarre scene made Luo Chen's expression shift slightly.
With the defensive spell broken, the first streak of dark light arrived before Luo Chen in an instant, poised to bore into his body.
"Let's see if your Armor-Piercing Nail can breach my protective qi armor!"
*Roar!*
A low roar sounded, like the furious bellow of an ancient demon beast from the depths of the wild mountains.
Layer upon layer of qi armor stacked up densely.
Even though the Armor-Piercing Nail tore forward like splitting bamboo, blocked by these endless layers of qi armor, it was finally forced to a halt.
Madam You Sha controlled the Amber Vermilion Silk to tighten its encirclement, determined to trap Luo Chen inside.
The moment Luo Chen's vast, snow-white protective qi armor appeared, realization struck her like a thunderbolt, and she understood what Xiao Sanren had meant when he howled "It's you!" before he died.
"It really is you!"
"Just as well—every debt has its debtor. Pay with your life for my husband!"
She spoke with venomous hatred. Only now did she, who had previously seemed completely indifferent to Ming Sha's death, reveal her true feelings.
The reason Ming Sha had died in the Deity Transformation ruins back then...
While their greed for opportunities was part of it, being gravely injured by Luo Chen's palm strike in the ruined palace beforehand was a major factor.
Now, their enemy had delivered himself right to them; it was time for vengeance!
Luo Chen did not care in the slightest about her venomous words.
What he cared about was Helian Yun!
Evidently, Helian Yun had more than just these tricks up his sleeve.
The soul-breaking nails numbered three in total!
While he resisted both the Armor-Piercing and Qi-Piercing Nails,
the final nail was finally released.
The Soul Breaking Nail!
The moment this treasure flew forth, it shot toward Luo Chen's glabella with lightning speed.
Yet before it could pierce Luo Chen's soul,
a halo of black light emerged from within Luo Chen's body.
Dense and impenetrable, it held the nail firmly at bay.
Seeing this black halo, Helian Yun's pupils contracted, and his face changed drastically.
"A soul defensive magic treasure!"
Hearing those words,
Madam You Sha's heart shook violently, and she instinctively cried out:
"Come back!"
Yet it was already too late.
Luo Chen frowned, sensing an anomaly upon his body.
Very quickly, he discovered where the anomaly came from.
A translucent silhouette pierced into his body, about to burrow into his sea of consciousness.
At the same time, an arrogant voice rang out:
"Such a physique, such cultivation—perfect for my new vessel to possess! And your remaining faction, your Dao companion, I'll take them all—"
Yet this arrogant voice cut off abruptly halfway through.
Replacing it was a terrified shriek.
"Aaaagh!!!"
Luo Chen's expression darkened, and the soul inside his sea of consciousness transformed into spiritual sense, surging out violently.
Like a monstrous tidal wave, it instantly drowned that translucent soul.
As his spiritual sense swept back inward, Luo Chen's expression was grim to the extreme.
Ignoring Helian Yun, who was recalling the three nails, he glared fixedly at Madam You Sha.
"Possession!"
"You truly calculated well!"
He finally understood why Madam You Sha had shown no grief whatsoever over the death of her Dao companion, Ming Sha.
He also understood why Madam You Sha, despite having an ordinary soul, could break free of his Mind Beguilement Art immediately.
It turned out Ming Sha was not dead at all.
Or rather, his body had perished, but his soul had survived.
Instead, he had used some method to lodge himself within his Dao companion, waiting for an opportunity to possess someone.
And he, Luo Chen, was evidently the ideal vessel!
Yet they never anticipated that he possessed a soul defensive magic treasure—the Lanke Black Chess Piece.
Methods of possession were strange and varied, defying categorization.
Yet change though they might, the core remained the same: one had to enter a cultivator's sea of consciousness and devour the opponent's soul to take over the body.
Unfortunately...
Ming Sha had not even entered the sea of consciousness before being barred outside by the defensive halo of the Lanke Black Chess Piece.
Furthermore, without his own sea of consciousness to support him, fighting on foreign ground, he was directly crushed by Luo Chen's inherently stronger, violently unleashed soul.
And this time!
Ming Sha had truly and thoroughly perished, his Dao extinguished!
With her Dao companion truly gone, Madam You Sha's face twisted into sheer despair and agony.
Throwing all caution to the wind, she caused the Amber Vermilion Silk to flare with speckles of red light, spraying a torrential rain of blood brimming with fiendish qi.
Luo Chen snorted coldly, and a red glow flared from him as well.
The Blazing Fire Miasma surged forth!
Over the past nine years, he had cultivated the Blazing Fire Miasma to the Master stage, achieving great accomplishment.
One result was that he was no longer confined to using it in his Heavenly Roc True Form.
In human form, he could unleash this demonic art just as easily.
Surging earth fire fiend qi swept in every direction.
The fiendish qi within the bloody rain was of a higher rank, yet its quality suffered from being mixed with too much blood of living beings—much of which had only been devoured recently and had yet to be refined.
How could such an impure substance suppress Luo Chen's Blazing Fire Miasma?
The moment they collided, plumes of white smoke billowed forth.
In the relentless mutual attrition, both eroded into nothingness.
Seizing this opening, Luo Chen leapt clear of the Amber Vermilion Silk's encirclement.
Turning into a streak of white light, he pounced straight toward Madam You Sha.
His incredible speed scared her out of her wits.
Especially when she caught sight of Helian Yun already fleeing toward the cavern exit out of the corner of her eye.
Clearly, Helian Yun was terrified and had resolved to abandon the battle entirely.
"Then let's die together!"
Madness surfaced on Madam You Sha's face. The Amber Vermilion Silk, which she had refined to ninety percent completion, abruptly expanded to its absolute limit, stretching a hundred zhang across and blanketing the entire subterranean cavern.
"Detonate!"
As Luo Chen severed her head with a single sword strike, slaying Madam You Sha, what met him was a ferocious explosion.
Not only the self-destruction of the magic treasure, but also the collapse of the underground cavern.
...
*Rumble!*
Deafening explosions thundered from behind, accompanied by rolling shockwaves billowing through the tunnel.
The pressure made the aged figure tremble as he fled.
His heart, too, shook with terror.
"A physique as formidable as a wild demon beast's."
"Spiritual power so vast it surpasses ordinary late Foundation Establishment grand cultivators."
"And what was thought to be his weakest link, his soul, is actually protected by a soul defensive magic treasure."
"How was I so possessed by folly to provoke such a monstrous foe!"
Helian Yun was racked with panic.
The moment Luo Chen revealed the Lanke Black Chess Piece, Helian Yun knew the man had virtually no weakness among Foundation Establishment cultivators!
Such an adversary was simply beyond their ability to deal with.
He finally understood why Luo Chen had been able to come and go as he pleased, dominating every great battle he engaged in.
How laughable that greed had blinded him, making him actively provoke Luo Chen just for a slightly higher chance of Core Formation.
If only he had followed Fu Jiusheng's example and left calmly, he could not only pursue the Golden Core Grand Dao, but also forge good karma with Luo Chen.
Wouldn't he have gained a powerful ally in the cultivation world for the future?
"I was wrong!"
"This time, I was truly mistaken!"
Consumed by regret, Helian Yun fled at top speed.
A path that originally took two days to traverse would take no more than an incense stick's time to escape under his reckless dash.
Alongside the remorse brought on by avarice, a shred of hope lingered in his heart.
*You Sha must have triggered some devastating technique before dying; otherwise, there wouldn't be such a commotion.*
*The mountains shake and the ground heaves without pause.*
*Perhaps Luo Chen was heavily injured in there too, and I...*
Suddenly!
His figure paused, a brief impulse stirring once more.
Yet, watching massive slabs of rock falling from the tunnel walls, he ultimately severed the urge to turn back.
"Get out first!"
"If Luo Chen is dead, so be it."
"If he's still alive, I can see how things stand from the outside. Maybe I can still pick up the scraps."
Just as he muttered to himself...
A rumbling sound echoed from behind once again.
Only this time!
It was completely different from the sound of the earlier explosion.
It was someone violently carving a path, rushing toward the outside world.
And among the people he knew, the only one capable of such an act was Luo Chen.
"Dammit!"
"He isn't dead!"
He cursed vehemently and sped up, charging outward.
Behind him, the rumbling grew closer and closer, carrying Luo Chen's chilling voice:
"Old scoundrel Lianyun, where do you think you're running!"
Even as he spoke, a ferocious wave of spiritual energy crashed forth.
Helian Yun whipped his head around. In his field of view, a massive brownish-yellow handprint pushed forward with unstoppable momentum.
Everywhere it passed, rock and stone could not impede its power, nor could the terrain confine its shape.
Violent and overbearing, it possessed an aura capable of suppressing all things.
It was precisely the third-rank spell Luo Chen had only recently initiated into—the Innate Qi Great Handprint!
Confronted by this strike, Helian Yun gritted his teeth and formed a hand seal.
A flying sword shot forth.
*Pfft!*
A hole was abruptly punctured right through the center of the giant handprint.
With this hole, its power was no longer as concentrated.
The remaining palm force crashed fully against Helian Yun.
Yet he merely let out a muffled grunt, a ripple of shimmering light flashing across his body; evidently, he had suffered no serious injury.
Instead!
Borrowing the force of this blow, he retreated even faster.
Inside the mountain cavern tunnel.
Luo Chen, running forward, keenly detected this with his spiritual sense.
For some reason, that fleeting shimmer of light felt somewhat familiar to him.
Yet Helian Yun had used the palm's force to flee even faster, leaving Luo Chen no time to verify it.
Coincidentally, his palm strike had cleared the tunnel, leaving the path wide open.
A pair of illusory wings appeared on his back.
A flash of fire!
*Whoosh!*
The next moment, Luo Chen appeared several tens of feet away.
This was his fastest movement speed without revealing his Heavenly Roc True Form.
Luo Chen was confident that even pitted against the Five Elements escape techniques, he would not fall short in the least.
No matter how fast Helian Yun was, where could he run?
In merely several tens of breaths, Luo Chen's exceptional eyesight caught sight of Helian Yun's back.
"Old scoundrel, accept your death!"
Flicking his fingers repeatedly, streaks of Fireball Arts shot forth continuously like instant casts.
Not to kill, but to delay.
Yet against attacks of this caliber, Helian Yun paid no heed at all, acting as if he hadn't even seen them.
When the fireballs struck him, water-like light gleamed before they vanished without a sound.
Luo Chen's brow rose, and the Lieyun Wings fluttered once more.
By now, the distance between him and Helian Yun had shrunk to only a hundred zhang.
"Earthen Mountain Art!"
"Entanglement Art!"
Two first-rank spells were instantly cast once more, blocking Helian Yun's path.
The old man roared furiously.
"Get lost!"
The flying sword in his hand slashed repeatedly, destroying the obstacles formed by both spells with overwhelming force.
Even so, these actions ultimately slowed his momentum.
In the next moment, the Profound Fire Sword tore through the air.
Without looking back, Helian Yun also unleashed his flying sword to block the Profound Fire Sword.
Catching sight of Luo Chen drawing closer and closer out of the corner of his eye,
he formed seals with both hands!
"Detonate!"
"Detonate!"
"Detonate!"
Three shouts rang out in succession.
Three talismans were abruptly activated in the tunnel.
Facing this sudden assault, Luo Chen took a deep breath, reforming his battered qi armor, and charged recklessly straight through.
After surging forward several yards, his brow twitched.
He forcibly slammed right into the solid rock of the mountain wall, evading the trap ahead in the tunnel.
It was a second-rank earth-attribute Black Swamp Formation laid out with a simple formation plate.
Had he been trapped inside, even Luo Chen's speed would have been reduced to a mere tenth or two.
Though inside the bedrock, Luo Chen's steps did not halt in the slightest.
His pair of bare hands shifted into eagle talons, clawing outward repeatedly.
*Chih! Chih! Chih!*
Large chunks of solid rock were ripped away, and bolstered by powerful surges of spiritual energy, he carved out a brand-new tunnel.
Even so, while he could advance like this, his speed was still too slow.
After a short while, sensing he had bypassed the range of the Black Swamp Formation, Luo Chen punched through the mountain wall and returned to the original natural tunnel.
At this moment...
The gap between him and Helian Yun had widened once more.
"Let's see how long you can run!"
A fierce glint flashed in Luo Chen's eyes as he recalled the Profound Fire Sword and bolted forward in pursuit.
Chapter 445