Clash in the Valley of Longevity

It felt as if he were locking gazes with Mr. Bai's deep, fathomless eyes. Li Fan's heart stopped dead in his chest. *Just as I thought! The very first thing he wants after returning to life is to seize True Reversion.* Judging others by his own nature, Li Fan felt his spiritual intuition screaming frantic warnings. At the thought of an expert whose power was practically the sum of countless Dao Integration experts stacked together coming straight for him, a suffocating pressure bore down like dark storm clouds engulfing a city, leaving him barely able to breathe. Exhaling a long breath, he forced himself to calm down. The crystal of the Dao Transformation Stone spun at full tilt within his mind as he ran through his preparations, searching for any oversight. Yet he also knew that in the face of such a colossal disparity in power, all schemes ultimately hinged on luck! *My life cannot end here!* Poised at the boundary of life and death without True Reversion to fall back upon, Li Fan actually found his tension gradually draining away, replaced by absolute clarity. Every stray thought vanished. He calmly deliberated over possible countermeasures. *Though I've lost the shared-body resonance with Sacred Embryo Xu Bai, that "loss" might be merely a one-way shield.* *I can't rule out the possibility that Mr. Bai can still sense what is happening here through avatar Xu Bai or even the corruption within the original body.* *Therefore, the first step must be to sacrifice avatar Xu Bai, cutting off or at least weakening the link between him and me.* *Otherwise, any plan of mine will be completely transparent to him.* *And next...* Frowning deeply, Li Fan deduced and evaluated every contingency while waiting for Mr. Bai's arrival. Yet Mr. Bai seemed to be taking considerably longer to reach him than anticipated. A full incense stick of time passed, and still there was no sign of him. *Could he have gone after Dongfang Yao to eliminate the threat of the Legacy Phantoms first?* With a thought, Li Fan checked, only to find both Dongfang Yao and the Legacy Phantoms intact. *Then where did he go?* Doubt flickered in his mind. Soon, however, a likely possibility occurred to him. With Mr. Bai's present strength, he could easily tear through the constraints of space and arrive at the Valley of Longevity with a single teleportation. Yet one could not forget that the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable was watching the Xuanhuang Realm from high above the vault of heaven. Such a conspicuous display would be tantamount to giving himself away. Therefore, Mr. Bai had likely opted for an approach that drew as little attention as possible: "walking slowly." Of course, "walking slowly" was only slow relative to instantaneous teleportation. "In any case, he should be here soon," Li Fan murmured, sitting upright at the center of the cultivation chamber. Meanwhile, avatar Xu Bai quietly made his way to the entrance of the Valley of Longevity. Li Fan's speculation was proven correct. Before long, the sealed spatial passage abruptly opened. The Medicine King Sect disciples on guard duty were startled. When they stepped forward to inspect it, however, no one was there. Just as they were scratching their heads in bewilderment, a figure appeared inside the Valley of Longevity. Before the figure could even settle his stance or utter a single word, thousands of streams of black baleful qi erupted with a roar like a swarm of insects, transforming into a sky full of flying swords that slashed toward Mr. Bai! Every single strike packed enough power to severely wound a Dao Integration cultivator! "Yushan?!" Liu San's shocked cry rang out. Those countless blades of black fiendish qi had been unleashed by Jiang Yushan. It was her signature technique: the Ethereal Indeterminate Sword! Indeterminate sword intent, steeped in boundless baleful energy—a single wisp of it could easily obliterate body and soul alike. Under normal circumstances, releasing a thousand sword intents at once was Jiang Yushan's absolute limit. Yet right now, she was clearly pushing far beyond the load she could bear. Wounds burst open across her body, and blood seeped from her skin and even the corners of her eyes. Such injuries might mean little to a cultivator of the new method, but to one following the old method, they were already grave. Yet Jiang Yushan paid them no heed. The endless blades of black baleful qi slashed relentlessly, fighting to the death! Though Liu San had no idea who this mysterious intruder was, seeing Jiang Yushan fight with such reckless abandon, how could he sit by and watch? "Fang Zaiji!" he roared, snapping old Fang out of his absorption in artifact forging. At the same time, Liu San thrust both palms forward, unleashing flashes of green radiance. One beam of green light surged into Jiang Yushan to mend her wounds, while the other instantly split into thousands of threads meant to snare Mr. Bai. Before the green threads even reached Mr. Bai, a black warhammer the size of a hill materialized above his head, ready to crash down with crushing force. An ambush by the three Dao Integration elders of the Medicine King Sect was Li Fan's opening move. Jiang Yushan had struck first precisely because she was under the influence of the second Truth Enticement Fruit she had consumed earlier, carrying out the relentless, fight-to-the-death assault Xu Bai had instructed her to mount. And once Jiang Yushan was locked in combat, Liu San could not possibly stand idly by, making it highly probable that Fang Zaiji would join the fray as well. A single Truth Enticement Fruit was enough to mobilize three Dao Integration experts. Though the three Dao Integration cultivators of the Medicine King Sect were somewhat weaker than new method Dao Integration experts, their combined might remained formidable. Yet Mr. Bai appeared to have anticipated their coordinated attack. A gentle smile touched his lips. With a flicker, he vanished from within the encirclement of baleful energy, green threads, and the black hammer. Moving at a speed beyond the perception of anyone present, he appeared beside Liu San and the others in turn. Extending his right index finger, he tapped each of them lightly. The three Dao Integration experts instantly froze on the spot, as if stripped of all power, and drifted gently downward toward the earth. Only then did Mr. Bai look toward the lingering, about-to-detonate Dao Integration strikes suspended in midair. He clenched his right hand gently. The surging fluctuations of those divine abilities were drawn into his palm like tangled threads. Then, without any apparent effort to dispel them, a small orb brimming with terrifying energy sank from his palm directly into his body. Liu San and the others were unhurt. Landing safely on the ground, they stared blankly at Mr. Bai, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Sect Master Xu Bai's avatar. To subdue them so effortlessly with a mere gesture... Such power far exceeded anything they could conceive. *A Longevity Heavenly Venerable? But why does he look identical to the Sect Master's avatar?* Innumerable doubts flooded their minds. Before they could ponder further, however, another upheaval shook the scene. A massive metal smelting furnace hurtled out of nowhere, rocketing toward Mr. Bai at blinding speed. Fine cracks already webbed its surface. The instant it drew near Mr. Bai, it exploded with a deafening blast. Fragments flew in all directions, only to be swallowed mid-flight by a twisting, expanding mass of demonic beast flesh and blood. *Roar!* A colossal sphere of flesh, its surface churning with the ferocious countenances of ten thousand beasts, surged forward. Countless eyeballs burned with boundless malice and destructive frenzy. From the very moment of its birth, the first thing it saw was Mr. Bai. The Di Yi Beast let out a bizarre, guttural roar and crashed heedlessly toward him. In an instant, innumerable tentacles sprouted from its mass, each lashing forward, trailing dense demonic qi!