Fu Qinglan stared blankly at Luo Chen's resolute profile, entirely caught off guard.
This was the first time she had ever seen him act so domineering.
Nor had she expected him to turn hostile so suddenly upon entering the grotto-heaven, especially toward a close friend of hers.
At first, anger had flared within her.
How could he usurp her role as master and act against her wishes?
Yet, amid his sharp rebukes, she couldn't help but ask herself:
*Should I yield?*
Luo Chen knew nothing of her inner turmoil.
He only knew that having accepted a commission, he was bound to see it through faithfully!
He had already gained immense advantages in his dealings with Fu Chaosheng, with every condition tilted heavily in his favor.
Even back then, Luo Chen had resolved not to treat this duty lightly.
Subsequently, Fu Chaosheng had gifted him pills and Withered Source Fire Marrow; even though Fu Chaosheng hadn't managed to secure him the official status of a Star Gate Guest Elder, he had practically done everything within his power.
Such being the case, Luo Chen had all the more reason to give his utmost in this Dao Protecting endeavor!
In the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven, fourth-rank mirage beasts were elusive and concealed themselves deeply, making every mirage core exceptionally difficult to hunt.
Furthermore, Luo Chen did not want to linger in this grotto-heaven for too long. Gathering enough mirage cores sooner would help Fu Qinglan complete her cultivation sooner, and allow him to leave sooner as well.
Thus, it was out of the question for him to forfeit one delivered right to his doorstep!
Luo Chen did not care what Fu Qinglan thought of him. Even after they left, her grandfather Fu Chaosheng would almost certainly support his actions.
Therefore, Luo Chen's approach for the remainder of their journey in the grotto-heaven was already set in stone.
Unlike his usual style of minding his own business and staying out of others' way, he would hunt mirage beasts and seize mirage cores as much as possible, stopping at nothing even if it meant clashing with others.
Starting right here, right now!
Behind him, the crimson chain formed by the Hunyuan Cauldron flew toward him, binding the mirage core.
His right hand formed an incantation seal, primed and ready to strike.
Meanwhile, his left fingers flexed and bent in a dazzling blur, weaving seal after seal.
A torrent of dharmic power surged from within his body.
Opposite him!
Witnessing this, and especially seeing Fu Qinglan's silence, Lin Jingtang laughed out of sheer fury.
"Good! Good! Good!"
"Since you want to fight, I, Lin, have no reason to fear you!"
Before his voice had even faded, he saw Luo Chen's hands cross, fusing two seals into one, before his right hand pushed steadily forward.
A calm, unassuming azure palm print flew out along with the thrust of his right hand.
"You dare flaunt such petty tricks?"
Lin Jingtang sneered, sweeping his wide sleeve to scatter the palm print.
Yet an astonishing scene unfolded.
The palm print remained completely steady. Not only was it not dispersed, but as it sped forward, it ballooned wildly in size.
Lin Jingtang frowned, his mind instantly settling on a plan.
*I will block this strike first, then counterattack!*
Without hesitation, the golden great bell soared up and inverted over him, sheltering him beneath it.
The next instant, the azure palm print collided with the golden great bell.
*Clang!*
A resonant, heavy chime rang out.
The corners of Lin Jingtang's mouth curled slightly; his counterattack was to begin now.
This bell was named the Panic Bell—inspiring panic and trepidation.
Beyond its formidable defensive power, the chimes it emitted would unknowingly ensnare an enemy. Throwing one's composure into disarray was the least of it; it could even shatter their soul.
With this technique alone, even though he was not a disciple of the Tianyuan Dao Sect, his name was widely renowned within it.
*The Clan Head has treated me generously; how could I let him down? Just as Desolate Hermit Luo Chen said, within this Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven, I cannot back down on anything concerning Xiao Fan!*
In a flash of thought, he moved to draw the longsword strapped across his back.
However—
"Wait!"
Lin Jingtang's expression changed drastically. He felt that the azure handprint held off by the Panic Bell showed no signs of dissipating. Instead, its force surged relentlessly, growing heavier and heavier.
His body began to buckle under the titanic weight, forcing him backward.
Through the hazy, boiling spiritual energy, he vaguely glimpsed the indifferent face of the middle-aged man. Had the man truly remained completely unaffected by the chime of the Panic Bell?
*Rumble!*
The colossal azure handprint swept up the surrounding world's spiritual energy, piling on force with frenzied momentum.
It pressed down upon the figure enclosed within the golden bell's shadow, driving him back step after step.
Ten paces, a hundred paces, a thousand paces... ten li, a hundred li...
Wherever it passed, winds were torn asunder, clouds were ripped apart, the earth quaked, and mountains and rivers were left in absolute shambles.
A vast deluge of spiritual energy poured into the azure handprint like swallows returning to their nest, whipping up a tempest of spiritual energy in the void.
Meanwhile, the target of the assault was pushed back like a falling star, propelled hundreds of li away until he became a black speck invisible to the naked eye.
"Its power hasn't waned at all; it keeps surging without end... How can this be!"
Lin Jingtang's eyes felt ready to burst with rage. He could no longer afford to hold back.
He struck both palms outward against the interior of the golden bell.
One strike, two strikes, three strikes...
Countless afterimages coalesced into a single palm strike.
"Break!"
With a ferocious roar, the Panic Bell shuddered violently.
*Clang!*
A terrifying tolling instantly erupted as golden light rippled outward like waves.
The azure handprint pressing upon the bell fractured and dissipated inch by inch.
At last, the winds subsided, the clouds settled, and the storm of spiritual energy, stripped of its core, drifted aimlessly down onto the earth.
A figure emerged from within, hair disheveled and face pale.
He looked down at the shrunken golden bell in his palm. Upon it were two distinct palm prints.
One on the inside, one on the outside.
The one on the outside was the imprint left by Luo Chen.
In that desperate moment, he had realized that as long as neither of them died, that palm strike would keep absorbing the world's spiritual energy and growing stronger. His only choice had been to mobilize every drop of his dharmic power and unleash his most potent strike to smash it before it reached its peak.
Yet the price was that, being inside the bell, he had endured a tremendous backlash.
Had the bell not been his lifebound True Artifact equipped with an innate self-preservation function, both his physical body and divine soul would have suffered grievous wounds.
Suddenly, he snapped his head up and roared:
"Desolate Hermit!"
Towering fury transformed into rolling sound waves that surged back along the path he had come.
Yet a figure stepped forward to block him.
"Xiao Fan?"
Lin Bufan shook his head at him. "We have only just entered the grotto-heaven, and there will be plenty of opportunities ahead. There is no need to act out of impulse."
"But..."
"The Desolate Hermit is very strong! Though he took the initiative this time and caught you off guard, I can sense that his strength is as deep as an abyss. That palm strike is far from his only method. If you were to fight him to the death, even a victory would be a pyrrhic one at best. If that happens, how would we retain enough strength to contend for the mirage cores later?"
Lin Bufan spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully to spare Lin Jingtang's pride as much as possible.
In truth, while observing the battle earlier, the impression Luo Chen had given him was far more terrifying.
In particular, when Luo Chen channeled that technique, there had been another restrained power coiled inside his body.
Once that seal was unleashed, Lin Jingtang would likely have possessed no means of resisting at all, able to do no more than cling to his True Artifact, the Panic Bell, to barely preserve his life.
And that was assuming the other party possessed no True Artifact of his own.
If Luo Chen possessed a True Artifact of comparable grade, Lin Jingtang's fate would have been...
The ferocity on Lin Jingtang's face subsided somewhat, yet indignation still smoldered within him.
"We were the ones who discovered that mirage core first, and I exerted immense effort to force it out."
Lin Bufan shook his head. "It is merely a single mirage core. With my perception, locating another fourth-rank mirage beast will not be difficult. Having had this experience, we will simply prepare in advance next time to secure the core. Consider this one... my final gift to Sister Qinglan."
*The final gift?*
Lin Jingtang arched an eyebrow.
Even so, before departing, he cast another resentful glance back toward Luo Chen's direction.
Clearly, he had etched the humiliation of that single palm strike deep into his heart.
...
*Whoosh...*
A gust of wind blew against his face as Luo Chen slowly withdrew his right hand, his expression brimming with satisfaction.
This had been his first time unleashing the full might of the Qingyang Great Handprint since ascending to the Nascent Soul realm, and the result was nothing short of a pleasant surprise.
The Qingyang Great Handprint had originated from the Innate Qi Great Handprint.
The Innate Qi Great Handprint was originally a third-rank spell with ordinary power that was hardly remarkable.
After he pursued ultimate perfection and converted it to the fire attribute, its lethality had surpassed that of typical third-rank spells.
Once cultivated to Great Perfection, it was even comparable to common fourth-rank spells.
Under normal circumstances, the spell's potential would have been entirely exhausted at that stage, offering only modest assistance to Luo Chen after his breakthrough to the Nascent Soul realm.
However, perceiving the unique ability of Nascent Soul cultivators to manipulate the world's spiritual energy, he had merged the Spirit Subjugation Seal into it.
Thus, the Qingyang Great Handprint had undergone yet another evolution.
When unleashed with full power, if an opponent was careless and failed to shatter it immediately, it would continuously grow stronger until it loomed over them like an impending avalanche, crushing them like Mount Tai!
*A pity that Lin Jingtang chose to retreat on his own. Otherwise, I would have liked to test my other techniques on him.*
Luo Chen felt a twinge of regret.
If Fu Qinglan beside him had known his thoughts, she would likely have been stunned speechless.
Using a formidable expert of the same cultivation realm to test moves?
Just what kind of terrifying capability was required to possess such effortless confidence?
Yet Luo Chen possessed precisely that confidence.
All along, his opponents had almost always been older than him and higher in cultivation realm, often across an entire major realm or several minor realms.
In this Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven competition, although enemies abounded, Luo Chen was not worried in the slightest.
All of the Dao Protectors were restricted by the rule that they must have advanced to the Nascent Soul realm within the past hundred years.
In other words, every Dao Protector was of a realm comparable to Luo Chen's.
They were either at the first layer of the Nascent Soul realm, or at most the second layer; practically no gap in cultivation existed between them.
And in a battle against peers of the same realm, Luo Chen feared no one!
Had he not spared Fu Qinglan's feelings, he was ninety percent certain that pursuing Lin Jingtang and unleashing other methods would have left the man grievously wounded!
With the Hunyuan Cauldron's support, the man's Nascent Soul would not have escaped even if it tried.
*Knowing when to retreat shows you have some sense!*
Luo Chen gave a faint snort and glanced to his side.
"Let's go!"
Fu Qinglan stared at him blankly, failing to register his words for a moment.
Only when she saw Luo Chen's brow furrow did she scramble to ask, "What did you say?"
Luo Chen's brow furrowed even deeper.
"Let's go. The commotion here was too great and will draw others. We shouldn't linger."
"Oh, right."
Fu Qinglan hurried after Luo Chen's footsteps, yet looking at his back, the shock in her heart refused to subside.
A single move!
With just one move, he had blasted the renowned Lin Jingtang hundreds of li away!
Such a display shocked her far more than his quiet, effortless defeat of Qi Xiongcheng had.
She could not help asking herself: *Will I be able to wield such power in the future?*
*Were the early Nascent Soul senior brothers in the sect this formidable?*
Scouring her memories, it seemed only a select few could barely rival Luo Chen's demeanor just now.
...
Mountains clustered in layers, and ancient trees reached into the sky.
With a few flashes of sword light, a simple cave dwelling was carved out.
Luo Chen stopped his hands with satisfaction.
"This will do. While no particularly concentrated spiritual veins can be found in the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven, the scenery here is at least pleasant."
Fu Qinglan nodded.
It was more than pleasant. Looking down from the protruding rock on the mountainside, vast stretches of ancient trees formed an unbroken primordial forest.
In the distance, lofty peaks of varying shapes rose sharply from the earth, thrusting into the heavens like sharp swords.
Stars twinkled brightly in the night sky, their scattered light casting a dreamlike glow across the land.
However...
She glanced back. The newly excavated cave dwelling was small, barely large enough for one person to cultivate.
Luo Chen's words dispelled her confusion right on cue.
"Go ahead and refine the mirage core to cultivate inside; I will guard you from outside."
Then Luo Chen shifted the subject.
"Go adjust your breath first. Let me study that mirage core for a bit, and I will hand it to you tomorrow morning."
"Very well. Thank you for your trouble, Brother Luo."
Fu Qinglan walked inside.
Once she had departed, Luo Chen willed a lustrous white, perfectly round bead to appear in his palm.
Unlike the third-rank mirage core from earlier that resembled a date pit, this fourth-rank core possessed no rough markings on its surface, appearing remarkably smooth.
Yet the dense, condensed clouds of qi swirling around it were enough to prove its extraordinary nature.
"Is this cloud qi the power of the Mirage Dragon?"
Luo Chen examined it closely, finding it difficult to determine where to begin.
He knew that the Nascent Soul true disciples of the Tianyuan Dao Sect who entered the grotto-heaven possessed unique techniques to refine the mirage dragon power, methods that were never shared with outside Dao Protectors like him.
Still, could relying solely on these clouds of qi truly allow one to comprehend the true intent of laws and pave the way to Soul Formation?
Luo Chen was filled with doubts.
He released his divine sense to probe the mirage core, but blocked by the dense mirage dragon power, he was completely unable to penetrate deeply.
Luo Chen frowned, then a sudden thought struck him.
A brilliant spiritual light shone in his eyes. Beyond that, source power surged into his eye sockets, flashing with a deep crimson radiance.
Penetrating from the surface inward, he faintly detected something dynamic and lively within.
"Huh?"
In his surprise, another white pill appeared in Luo Chen's hand.
It was precisely the Heavenly Mechanism Pill gifted to him by the Alchemy Saint prior to his ascension.
The instant the Heavenly Mechanism Pill appeared, the sealed fourth-rank mirage core in his hand suddenly grew restless, showing every sign of wanting to pounce toward the pill.
Luo Chen pressed his lips together.
*I didn't see wrong. Wrapped beneath that massive amount of mirage dragon power, this core contains a trace of spiritual opportunity! It shares the exact same origin as the spiritual opportunity used as the primary material for the Heavenly Mechanism Pill refined by the Alchemy Saint!*
*Could it be that the spiritual opportunities the Tianyuan Sect Master intercepted back then were cast into this Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven?*
*Fu Qinglan and the other true disciples aren't absorbing mirage dragon power at all—they are absorbing these spiritual opportunities to comprehend the true intent of laws!*
*Spiritual opportunities... world consciousness... true intent of laws...*
His gaze shifted continuously between the white mirage core and the white Heavenly Mechanism Pill, his eyes darting as a plan faintly took shape in his mind.
Chapter 752