"Defeated foe?"
The instant those four words fell upon his ears, Lin Jingtang's face flushed violently crimson.
That most unbearable memory surged back like a tidal wave!
He had not come from prominent origins, and no one even knew who his parents were, yet his journey of cultivation was something he took immense pride in.
Adopted by the Patriarch of the Lin Family and nurtured like a biological son, he had displayed extraordinary talent early on.
Even though he had never joined the Tianyuan Dao Sect, many people persistently compared him to the peers within the sect.
He had lived up to their hopes, advancing from Qi Refinement to Foundation Establishment, and at last attaining the Nascent Soul realm!
That day had been the happiest of his entire life. The Lin Family had held a grand Nascent Soul ceremony in his honor. Many allied humble clans and noble houses had come to offer congratulations, and even quite a few peers from the Dao Sect had arrived to witness the occasion.
He knew very well that the Lin Family Patriarch had arranged all of this so that he would exert himself for Lin Bufan in his most crucial trial, but he had welcomed it gladly.
In his heart, he had long resolved to do everything in his power to protect Lin Bufan and repay the Lin Family's immense kindness.
And he had possessed the confidence to do so!
Yet all of that had been cast into shadow by that single palm strike from Luo Chen when they had first entered the grotto-heaven!
That palm had sent him flying a hundred li backwards and inflicted serious injuries.
And that palm had been nothing more than a casual swat from his opponent!
For Lin Jingtang, who had always viewed himself as an equal to the true disciples of Tianyuan, this was impossible to bear.
If he was not even a match for a rogue cultivator, how could he talk of standing alongside Tianyuan's true disciples beneath the azure sky?
Had Lin Bufan's Dao path not taken precedence—preventing him from acting on rash impulse—he would have sought to wash away that humiliation long ago.
Originally, he had suppressed that fury.
Yet now...
"Seeking death?"
Lin Jingtang grinned savagely, threads of blood smeared across his gleaming white teeth making him look terrifying.
"Even if I die, I'll drag you down to hell with me!"
His fractured Nascent Soul actually surged directly out of his purple mansion, laying itself bare in broad daylight under everyone's watchful eyes.
Those tender, diminutive arms came down upon the vastly disproportionate golden bell, and without the slightest hesitation, he dove straight downward.
To crush Luo Chen to death!
*Rumble!*
With just this one blow, the mountain beneath Luo Chen collapsed and shattered completely.
Yet beyond everyone's expectations, Luo Chen remained quietly suspended in midair, completely unaffected.
Seeing this, Lin Jingtang, who had already reached the foot of the mountain, froze in shock.
With his vast experience, however, he quickly realized what had happened.
His strike had missed, hitting only the space beside his opponent.
And the cause of it all lay in the ghostlike phantom illusions that had abruptly surfaced around Luo Chen as their paths crossed a moment ago.
*An illusion technique that can affect divine sense?*
Someone answered his silent doubt.
A grave look appeared on Qi Xiongcheng's face as he flew to Shi Ju's side.
"It's that technique again! But what's different is that he can still cast it despite being in the midst of an epiphany. That means he has definitely practiced either a soul-splitting technique or cultivated a second Nascent Soul!"
"A second Nascent Soul?" Shi Ju shook his head. How could a wild rogue cultivator like Luo Chen possess such an esoteric, profound art?
"It's a soul-splitting technique! Didn't you notice his earlier attacks were primarily sneak attacks, unlike his previous sweeping, grand manner? That proves he can't mobilize the massive mana in his Nascent Soul right now, much less draw upon the world's spiritual qi."
A soul-splitting technique and a second Nascent Soul were starkly different.
The former was merely a severed portion of one's divine soul. While it shared the exact same consciousness and behavioral logic as the main body, it was still fundamentally nothing more than a divine soul.
Being able to execute soul techniques and barely channel a wisp of mana was already a testament to Luo Chen's profound attainment in soul refinement.
A second Nascent Soul, however, was practically equivalent to a cultivator's second life!
A complete Nascent Soul with a complete divine soul, if paired with a suitable physical body, could form the fabled incarnation outside the body!
Such an incarnation was far beyond what puppet avatars or mana clones could compare to.
Perhaps only the authentic Blood God Child of the legendary Yuan Demon Sect could barely rival it, yet even that was only a tenuous comparison; after all, a Blood God Child was ultimately not formed from a cultivator's original Nascent Soul.
Once a cultivator mastered such a secret technique, they effectively possessed an identical clone of themselves. In battle, linked by telepathic communion and seamless coordination, they could achieve results far greater than the sum of their parts, amplifying their combat power several times over!
At that moment, the conversation between Shi Ju and Qi Xiongcheng was completely unshielded, brazenly resounding across the surrounding wilderness and reaching Lin Jingtang's ears.
The miniature Nascent Soul, with a gaping hole torn through its chest, was hit by an overwhelming fury that eclipsed its sudden realization!
He had actually been ambushed earlier by a mere split soul.
Now, his physical body was severely battered, his purple mansion shattered, and his Nascent Soul itself teetered on the verge of collapse.
Such utter, disgraceful humiliation had to be avenged!
Ignoring the distant Lin Bufan's frantic shouts and pleas, Lin Jingtang—his mind completely clouded by hatred and rage—kicked out with a small foot against the great bell.
The Panic Bell soared into the sky, hovering over Luo Chen.
Lin Jingtang formed hand seals, and the mana that was already continuously draining away now surged out like a breached river dam.
His figure began to shrink and disintegrate, yet his eyes shone with peerless madness.
"Grow!"
"Grow!"
"Grow!"
The golden bell expanded frantically: ten zhang, fifty zhang, seventy zhang, all the way to a colossal hundred zhang!
Like an immense cauldron lid, or an umbrella propping up the heavens, it completely covered a hundred-zhang radius around Luo Chen.
No matter how uncanny or exquisite his soul techniques were, how could he possibly escape under such vast coverage?
The Panic Bell came crashing down.
In the distance, Fu Qinglan disregarded her injuries and surged into the sky, her sword and leaf speeding ahead of her.
Yet having received Shi Ju's prompt, Wang Yifu and Qi Xiongcheng moved to intercept the two weapons, while Shi Ju stepped in front of Fu Qinglan himself.
"Out of my way!" Fu Qinglan barked fiercely, unleashing a palm strike.
Calm and unhurried, Shi Ju waved his folding fan to parry the strike, a cold sneer playing across his lips.
"You really think too much of yourself!"
With his free left hand, he rapidly pinched a hand seal, moving so swiftly that thunder seemed to rumble in the blink of an eye.
*Crack!*
Fu Qinglan was struck as if by lightning and plunged toward the earth.
By the time she stood back up, dense silver-white electric arcs crackled across her robes.
With a muffled grunt, she summoned her verdant green mana to instantly dispel the electricity.
Her eyes flickered with suspicion and uncertainty.
Was he not a pure Nine Yang Body? Why could he also wield lightning techniques?
"You can't save him," Shi Ju's mocking laughter drifted into her ears.
Fu Qinglan looked up. The golden bell had fully descended, trapping Luo Chen's figure within.
Lin Jingtang's Nascent Soul floated slowly upward, disregarding its shattered state as he continuously formed seals and incanted spells.
Under his casting, the Panic Bell began to ring with jarring reverberations.
Even from far away, well outside the center of the attack, Fu Qinglan felt the sickening illusion of her divine soul trembling and her flesh unraveling.
Lin Jingtang was trying to vibrate Luo Chen to death within!
A chill gripped Fu Qinglan's heart.
Glancing around, she saw the trio of Shi Ju poised for battle, the two Gu clan members watching like tigers eyeing prey, and high in the nine heavens, the faint silhouette of a white eagle anxiously beating its wings.
Everything had passed the point of salvation.
In the end, she had failed to protect him safely as he had once protected her.
If that was the case, then at least he should preserve his life!
Urging her mana to the limit and vibrating her divine soul, Fu Qinglan shouted fiercely, "Luo Chen, activate the illusory chess piece!"
As soon as those words rang out, everyone's expressions changed slightly.
Activating the illusory chess piece meant directly leaving the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven. With the abilities of the cultivators present, none could prevent the machinations of a Soul Formation grandmaster.
Were they truly going to watch helplessly as Luo Chen departed safe and sound?
He possessed a split soul; even if his primary soul remained in deep contemplation, the split soul could still activate the chess piece.
Shi Ju's expression shifted erratically. If that happened, their efforts would truly come to nothing.
Wang Yifu was even more furious. Not only would they fail to kill Luo Chen, but Fu Qinglan had also successfully comprehended law true intent; how could he ever avenge his fallen clan member now?
Lin Bufan, on the other hand, let out a quiet sigh of relief. If Luo Chen truly left, Jingtang would surely stop pushing himself to the brink. As long as his Nascent Soul returned to his body and he departed the grotto-heaven to return to the Mountain Sea Realm, the mighty experts of the Tianyuan Dao Sect might still be able to preserve his Nascent Soul realm.
Over by the side, Gu Yuan shook his head, the interest that had just been piqued dying away.
This show was coming to an anticlimactic end!
Perhaps Luo Chen's only real loss would be having his epiphany cut short.
Yet Lin Jingtang, one of the central figures, thought differently from all of them.
"Think you can leave? It won't be that easy!"
With a single thought—and amidst Lin Bufan's horrified cry—the lower half of Lin Jingtang's Nascent Soul abruptly collapsed, turning into a torrent of mana that poured into the Panic Bell.
"Disperse for me!"
*Dong!*
The sound of the great bell reverberated through the realm!
Under such an attack, any cultivator inside was bound to perish; even if they held a trump card like an illusory chess piece, the utter chaos wrought upon their mind would leave them no time to activate it.
Right at that moment.
"You really want me dead, don't you?"
A low, raspy voice echoed faintly.
Amidst everyone's astonishment, the crimson tip of a sword pierced through the top of the great bell.
*Skrrrt!*
Harsh, grating shrieks rang out ceaselessly.
Under Lin Jingtang's terrified gaze, that sword seemed to thrust directly into his own heart, slicing open his natal magic treasure inch by inch, carving through the Panic Bell bit by bit.
Until...
"Open!"
With a sharp crack, the great bell cleaved into two.
A man holding a blood sword, treading upon a gray cauldron, and clad in black profound armor appeared before everyone's eyes.
His pitch-black hair drifted behind him, dancing like dark vipers in the biting, icy wind.
His fair skin was smooth as curd, completely devoid of the weathered wrinkles of his former middle-aged appearance.
Only his eyes, sweeping across the gathered crowd, resembled bottomless, freezing pools that mirrored the terror residing in everyone's hearts.
The moment he appeared, he made his move.
The blood sword slashed diagonally!
Lin Jingtang, whose divine soul was already racked with agonizing pain from the destruction of his natal magic treasure, had no strength to resist this strike.
Even though he had panicked and attempted to trigger his illusory chess piece, it was already too late.
The sword descended, and half of his Nascent Soul, along with his divine soul, shattered in an instant.
Only his mangled remains disappeared along with a swirling vortex.
Meanwhile, Luo Chen stamped his foot down.
From the gray cauldron beneath him, nine crimson chains shot out simultaneously, sweeping straight toward Shi Ju's side.
Shi Ju frowned, and the earlier scene replayed itself.
Flames flared, his body dissipating inch by inch, and when he reappeared, he was already beside Qi Xiongcheng and Wang Yifu.
Glancing sideways, he saw the nine crimson chains wrapped around Fu Qinglan as they pulled her back toward Luo Chen.
"Hmph!"
Without so much as looking at the others, Luo Chen glanced down at Fu Qinglan, whose robes were stained with blood.
"Having already grasped source power, how did you still end up in such a sorry state?"
A flush of shame rose on Fu Qinglan's face.
In the end, she was simply unsuited for battle. Even though she had grasped a higher echelon of power, she lacked combat experience and had no suitable arts to drive that power, reducing her to wielding it in the crudest fashion.
Still, the outcome was good!
Her objective for this journey had been achieved, and Luo Chen was largely unscathed. The only regret was...
"I failed to protect you and caused your epiphany to be interrupted. It is this little sister's incompetence. But it's fine now; as long as we activate our illusory chess pieces to leave this realm, our mission will be complete."
*Epiphany interrupted?*
Luo Chen chuckled softly.
He offered no explanation to Fu Qinglan, turning his gaze toward the surrounding cultivators instead.
"Leaving is inevitable, but before leaving, I would like to borrow all of you to test the new method I have comprehended, bringing closure to that unfinished battle back at Three Rainbows Falls."
At these words, everyone was shaken.
He wasn't fleeing, but wanted to fight instead?
Was he enraged because they had disrupted his opportunity?
"Give your life for my Wang family's true disciple!" Wang Yifu roared, charging toward Luo Chen with bamboo staff in hand.
Qi Xiongcheng said nothing, following closely behind.
Suspicion and hesitation flickered through Shi Ju's eyes, but since his opponent was offering this chance, he could not possibly retreat.
Drawing a deep breath, he charged toward Luo Chen in a three-pronged encirclement.
Seeing this, Fu Qinglan's expression cooled, and she moved to raise her Autumn Water sword once more, only for a wisp of Luo Chen's mana to gently press it down.
"You won't let me fight?" Fu Qinglan asked, puzzled.
She acknowledged that Luo Chen was powerful, but a single person's strength had its limits.
She had comprehended the Wood source, yet she had been no match for the trio's joint assault, and Shi Ju clearly showed signs of concealing hidden methods he had yet to employ.
Did Luo Chen truly have such confidence?
Watching the enemies closing in from three directions, Luo Chen remained unmoved, shifting his gaze toward Gu Yuan, Gu Chen, and Lin Bufan in the distance.
"And you?"
Having witnessed Lin Jingtang's demise with his own eyes, Lin Bufan was consumed by grief and fury, yet his extraordinary perception warned him of the terrifying threat lurking within Luo Chen.
Gritting his teeth, he gave no answer, his body retreating swiftly instead.
Watching this, Fu Qinglan wore a complex expression, softly murmuring, "Little Lin..."
As for Gu Yuan, he exchanged a glance with Gu Chen, and both nodded in tacit understanding.
Since their opponent had been able to enter an epiphany while protecting Fu Qinglan, there was a high probability he had consumed that Heavenly Mechanism Pill.
Regardless of what he had comprehended, he had certainly gained something.
Just like the "new method" he had spoken of.
"I still have a clan mission to attend to, so I will not cross swords with you, Fellow Daoist. Once outside, we can share wine and chat at our leisure," Gu Yuan said with a smile, slowly backing away with Gu Chen.
A look of regret crossed Luo Chen's face, but his interest quickly rekindled.
In the sky, the white eagle that had been circling for so long finally could not hold back, swooping down toward Luo Chen.
"Just in time!"
"Three men and one beast are more than enough to test my new art!"
Though he spoke of testing his blade, he put the Yuan Tu sword away, and even swallowed the Hunyuan Cauldron back into his belly.
Luo Chen stood quietly in the void, slowly raising his right hand, pressing his fingers together like a sword, and bringing them gradually downward.
The moment his finger descended, the winds and clouds in the sky underwent an abrupt transformation!
Vast expanses of cloud and mist tore apart, and boundless gales swept through, threatening to invert the sky.
A torrential sea of spiritual qi flooded in from all directions.
The snow mountain that had collapsed in the previous battle had gathered into an ocean of melted snow, and beneath Luo Chen's descending finger, that ocean began to boil.
Everything between heaven and earth fell into restless turmoil!
The three cultivators charging toward Luo Chen suddenly felt the mana within their bodies churning uncontrollably.
In their field of vision, Luo Chen's aura surged wildly. His figure seemed to transform into a blazing sun, brilliant and dazzling beyond what the eye could bear. It also seemed to turn into a towering tree that bridged heaven and earth, unfurling a lush canopy that blotted out the sky!
Nurtured by numerous clan heritages since childhood, Shi Ju showed utter disbelief in his eyes the moment this anomaly appeared.
*Could he have comprehended law true intent as well?*
The moment that thought surfaced, he abandoned any notion of concealing his trump cards.
His right hand held the folding fan, while a rattle-drum appeared in his left.
In the next instant, the folding fan unfolded, unleashing a rolling torrent of flames.
The rattle-drum shook, its two bells striking the drum surface to loose arcs of lightning.
Under Shi Ju's frenzied gaze, lightning and flames merged together into a unified surge of fiery lightning, from which an aura of destruction erupted.
Not only him, but the other two also realized something was deeply wrong.
Wang Yifu halted abruptly, planting his bamboo staff upright in the air. One vibrant green bamboo after another sprouted from the void, forming a bamboo grove that enveloped him.
Qi Xiongcheng drew on the entirety of his mana, the black blade in his hand vibrating violently as it transformed into a colossal saber beam hundreds of zhang long, cutting toward Luo Chen ahead of the rest.
Facing these assaults, Luo Chen made no other movement, still steadily pressing his finger forward.
From his lips, a soft chant escaped.
"Wither-Bloom!"
Chapter 766