The clear, limpid sunlight covered forty meters, banishing the darkness and all foul, sinister filth—including spiritual power of every attribute. The Ninth Elder felt as though her body was being roasted over a bonfire. Her spiritual power was compressed within her flesh, unable to project outward; any skill requiring a massive condensation of spiritual power was impossible to unleash.
She scoffed coldly, swept up the scroll from the ground, and drifted into the distance like a trail of black smoke.
It was merely forty or fifty meters across. A few breaths would be enough to escape the domain of shining sunlight. Once freed from the suppression of divine sun power, the scroll could summon the First Elder's phantom.
By then, if Yuanshi Tianzun insisted on forcing a kill, it would be an egg striking a stone.
Zhang Yuanqing lowered his knees slightly. Amidst the cracking of the concrete pavement, he transformed into a golden rainbow and pursued the Ninth Elder, keeping her enveloped within the domain of Sunrise.
Next, he condensed divine sun power into a great bow. Golden light erupted from his fingertips, shooting forth with a shrill whistle.
The instant the arrow flew, Zhang Yuanqing nullified the mode of "an object moving through space," causing the glittering golden shaft to strike directly into the center of the graceful woman's back.
The Ninth Elder shrieked. Golden flames surged over her smoky form, instantly swallowing her.
Yet in the next second, the black smoke billowed like viscous sewage, smothering the golden flames. The graceful woman's aura merely dipped slightly; she was not injured.
Zhang Yuanqing was taken aback. Given the tyrannical might of divine sun power, even a Dominator of the same level should have been wounded by a direct hit while stripped of defensive skills.
Without slowing down, the Ninth Elder drifted forward in a graceful, undulating glide and chuckled:
"Did you think relying on the Blazing Sun God of War and Sunrise would let you suppress every enemy? Yuanshi Tianzun, you're far too young! Every figure who becomes a Dominator is a chosen prodigy. How could we be killed so easily? You have simply encountered far too few Dominators."
In her early years, she had obtained a secret manual passed down from ancient cultivators in an S-rank Spirit Realm dungeon: *Inner Demon Body-Transforming Divine Skill*.
When practiced to a profound level, this manual allowed one's body to remain in an energetic state indefinitely, ignoring physical attacks and heavily negating energy-based strikes. So long as her spiritual power was not depleted, she would never die.
This effectively functioned as a passive skill that even Sunrise could not suppress. Compared to powerful props, the *Inner Demon Body-Transforming Divine Skill* was the Ninth Elder's greatest reliance.
Once again, Zhang Yuanqing nullified the rule of "an object moving through space." Appearing in front of the graceful woman in a manner akin to teleportation, he raised both hands as pure, limpid golden light gushed forth, condensing into a broadsword.
The Ninth Elder immediately veered, attempting to break out to the left. But as a Blazing Sun God of War—ranking in the second echelon of close-quarters combat—if Zhang Yuanqing let her escape from point-blank range, he might as well bash his head against a piece of tofu and die.
The golden broadsword cleaved down ruthlessly.
In an instant, the Ninth Elder was split in two, turning into two wisps of undulating black smoke that reformed in the distance.
Her laughter was seductive yet piercing:
"Wet-behind-the-ears brat, you can't kill me! Why doesn't your grandaunt stand still and let you hack away?"
Her voice sounded sweet, yet Zhang Yuanqing's teeth itched inexplicably with irritation. An uncontrollable surge of fury rose to his head. She was stoking his wrath, attempting to manipulate his emotions.
—Manipulating and provoking a target's emotions relied primarily on mental power.
Zhang Yuanqing jeered, "Old hag, you've lived all these years only to run in terror from a brat who just became a Dominator. Why don't *you* go bash your head against a piece of tofu?"
The graceful woman was instantly infuriated, feeling her character and dignity deeply insulted, as if she had to stop and fight him to the death to reclaim her lost pride.
Yet the moment the anger welled up, the Ninth Elder dissolved it into nothingness and kept fleeing.
All the while, she continued taunting Yuanshi Tianzun with sharp words, mocking the members of the Wuhen Hotel and ridiculing Master Wuhen, trying to kindle his fury and drive him to vent his power recklessly.
Sunrise and Blazing Sun God of War were immensely taxing on spiritual power; Yuanshi Tianzun had only just become a Day Wanderer and could not keep them up for long.
The moment he faltered, she would instantly summon the First Elder's phantom. When that happened, no matter how many companions he had, all of them would die.
The Ninth Elder did not believe Yuanshi Tianzun possessed a Level 9 Dominator on his team. If he did, the one who entered her dreamscape earlier would have been that Level 9 Dominator, not Yuanshi Tianzun.
And she would have been killed instantly without any room to resist.
Zhang Yuanqing appeared thoroughly provoked. He condensed the longbow once more and fired a second arrow, then a third...
The pursuit dragged on as one chased and the other fled. The Ninth Elder was repeatedly struck by arrows, but each time she churned her black smoke to extinguish the golden flames.
The auras of both combatants plummeted rapidly.
At last, the golden blazing sun above Zhang Yuanqing's head slowly dimmed and disappeared, dispelling his Blazing Sun God of War form. His divine sun power had been heavily depleted, no longer sufficient to sustain two major active skills.
By this time, the Ninth Elder's aura had weakened to its absolute nadir; a few more arrows, and she would no longer be able to maintain her smoky form.
Yet she cared nothing for that. She shrieked, "Yuanshi Tianzun, await your death!"
With that, she opened her inventory, pulled out the scroll once more, and flung it into the air with all her might.
The scroll unfurled midair, its spiritual patterns lighting up one by one. Light refracted across the sky, manifesting the myriad phenomena of the cosmos.
That terrifying figure whose mere aura inspired dread began to condense once more—
Suddenly, a whistling scream tore through the night sky as a dark shadow came whirling in at high speed.
It was a waist-high pointed metal stele, its surface etched with arcane, intricate inscriptions.
The pointed metal stele abruptly hovered above the scroll. With a low hum, it radiated invisible ripples.
The incantations on the scroll went out one after another. The cosmic illusions in the sky vanished, and before that terrifying figure could even descend, it dissolved back into nothingness.
The corners of Zhang Yuanqing's mouth curled into a smile. "Finally!"
The pointed metal stele was Xiahou Aotian's reward for clearing the killing trial, named the "Forbidden Artifact Sky Stele." A prop belonging to the Scholar class, it disabled all props and formations within a certain radius.
Zhang Yuanqing looked at the graceful woman, whose face had drastically drained of color, and said:
"Playing around with you for so long was just to drain your spiritual power. Otherwise, that smoky transformation of yours would have been quite a nuisance.
"I've noticed that you people from evil classes always tend to overlook Stargazers. Stargazers might lack overwhelming offensive power, but when a Stargazer sets out to hunt you, you'd best not think about fighting back. Running is your only correct choice."
As he spoke, he withdrew the Form and Spirit Annihilation Blade.
At the sight of it, the graceful woman's pupils constricted violently. Without hesitation, she cast Dream Shuttle, bizarre and kaleidoscopic dreams surfacing before her eyes.
She randomly chose one and leapt toward it, but the dream she selected suddenly shattered into fragments. Her body turned semi-transparent for a fraction of a second before snapping back to reality due to the failed entry.
With Yuanshi Tianzun present, her chances of fleeing through dreams were zero.
With the lustrous black short blade in his left hand, Zhang Yuanqing's right hand took on a deep, obsidian sheen as he made a grasping gesture toward the smoke. His shoulder suddenly sank; he failed to haul it out on the first try.
The Form and Spirit Annihilation Blade was a Level 7 prop; against a Dominator of the same level—and an Illusionist at that—it was no longer as effortlessly unstoppable as it used to be.
Resisting the soul-snatching force, the Ninth Elder madly squeezed every drop of spiritual power from her body, transforming into a sinuous dragon of mist that darted toward the distance.
*Bang!*
The speeding black mist slammed into a wall of wind and was bounced back.
Zhang Yuanqing finally wrenched out the projection of the Ninth Elder's spirit body and slashed down, annihilating it on the spot.
The Ninth Elder let out a shrill shriek loaded with a Mental Strike. Xiahou Aotian, Deng Jingguo, and Sophia, who were sealing off the surroundings, felt excruciating pain pierce their brains, warm blood trickling from their nostrils.
Among the residents of the nearby neighborhoods, some suffered mental breakdowns, some fell unconscious, and some died on the spot. Everyone's Morality Points plummeted.
Seizing the opening, the Ninth Elder opened her inventory and donned a black robe painted with twisted ghostly faces.
*Bang!*
Her body burst apart, transforming into dense swarms of bared-fang ghostly silhouettes that blotted out the sky.
These ghost silhouettes made no attempt to attack the enemy; instead, they scattered in every direction, fleeing in a frenzied rush.
A Dominator-grade prop—the Robe of a Hundred Ghosts and a Thousand Faces.
In offense, this prop could unleash a hundred ghosts to devour the enemy; in retreat, it allowed one to blend among the spectral horde to escape. It was the Ninth Elder's life-saving trump card.
*Rumble!*
Thunder rolled across the night sky. Forked, twisted bolts of lightning crawled across the heavens, weaving a net of lightning that fell like a canopy. The fleeing wisps of thick smoke darted around like fish trapped in a net, frantically trying to escape, but upon touching the lightning web, they dissolved into blue puffs of smoke.
Lightning specifically countered evil spirits and vengeful ghosts, second only to divine sun power.
As the net of lightning tightened, the sky full of ghostly faces vanished into thin air, and the Ninth Elder's figure stood revealed amidst the lightning.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
Forked bolts of lightning struck the graceful woman's crown in rapid succession. The black smoke around her body billowed furiously in an effort to ward off the lightning, but after enduring only two or three strikes, it was completely exhausted.
Her body locked rigid amidst the lightning, her pupils losing focus.
*Whoosh—*
A dense volley of wind blades followed seamlessly, lopping off the graceful woman's head and limbs, hacking her into pieces. The severed parts plummeted alongside the robe painted with ghostly faces.
A near-solid silhouette darted out from the butchered flesh, swept up the robe, and plunged swiftly toward the residential buildings.
She intended to sow chaos and flee amid the turmoil.
How could Zhang Yuanqing let her have her way? He snapped his fingers with a crisp *snap*, blocking the Ninth Elder's path.
"Yuanshi Tianzun!" the graceful woman screeched. "Then let us die together!"
Her primordial spirit burst into blazing flames, her mental power surging toward Zhang Yuanqing like a raging tide.
Although Night Wanderers countered spiritual bodies, the explosive power of a Dominator burning her primordial spirit was enough to inflict grievous injury upon a Day Wanderer of the same level.
Zhang Yuanqing unhurriedly opened his inventory, drew out the Companion Spirit Moon, and affixed it to his forehead. Instantly, vine-like patterns crawled across half of his face, and yin qi billowed out like thick smoke. His eye sockets turned pitch-black as ink, his aura shifting into something both wicked and noble, like a monarch of the dark night, a sovereign of hell.
He raised his hand. Taking lunar power as ink and the void as paper, he swiftly traced nine spirit-quelling talismans.
With a flick of his finger!
The nine talismans crashed into the Ninth Elder's form one after the other. With every talisman that struck, her aura withered by a degree. When all nine had driven into the raging tide, the graceful woman's primordial spirit had dwindled to a frail wisp of smoke, flickering and teetering on the verge of dissipation.
Zhang Yuanqing inhaled forcefully. Lunar power swirled into a churning vortex, drawing the Ninth Elder straight into his belly.
A Dominator-grade spirit servant obtained! He patted his belly in delight. A normal Day Wanderer would have had no choice but to opt for mutual destruction, channeling divine sun power to purify the opponent.
He, however, was different. Once he wore the Companion Spirit Moon, he was a Dominator who majored in the Taiyin path. Coupled with the talisman-drawing techniques learned from Sect Master Chunyang's memories, it was difficult for the Ninth Elder to die even if she wanted to in her primordial spirit state.
On the other side, Xiahou Aotian pulled a large megaphone from his inventory and pressed the switch.
Melodious singing drifted from the megaphone, floating across the night. Among the surrounding residents, those who had passed out fell into peaceful sleep, those who had suffered mental breakdowns regained their sanity, and those whose heads had throbbed with splitting pain found relief.
Xiahou Aotian placed the megaphone on the ground, then raised his hand and flashed an OK gesture.
In the next second, a gale surged beneath their feet, lifting him up into the clouds.
Zhang Yuanqing and Deng Jingguo were likewise buoyed by a gust of wind, soaring straight up and speeding away.
Although the descent of the First Elder of the Southern Sect had been interrupted, his true body was undoubtedly already on the way. Lingering here would be courting death.
As for the megaphone playing the Palace Master's singing, it was an expendable item cobbled together for this mission and held little value. Even if it were a genuine prop, a crafting master wouldn't care.
With Sophia's assistance, the four-person team flew like supersonic fighter jets, rumbling across over a hundred li in a single breath, so fast that Xiahou Aotian's hairline was blown back several centimeters.
Sophia touched down in the rural outskirts far from the city. Looking at Zhang Yuanqing, she asked:
"Time to head to the second battlefield. Which city is your avatar in?"
Only then did she notice the solemn expression on Yuanshi Tianzun's face.
"What's wrong?" Sophia asked with a frown.
"I can't sense my avatar's location," Zhang Yuanqing replied, shaking his head. "He may have been eliminated, or cut off."
"I'll call and ask." Xiahou Aotian took out his phone and dialed Demon Eye Heavenly King's number.
Ten-odd seconds later, he lowered the phone and frowned. "No signal."
There was no signal on Demon Eye Heavenly King's end.
Deng Jingguo analyzed, "They must be inside some barrier, cut off from the outside world."
Xiahou Aotian's expression darkened. After thinking earnestly for a moment, his face suddenly warped:
"Not good!"
***
Mirror World.
The moment Zhang Yuanqing finished speaking, he noticed Demon Eye scrutinizing him as though looking at a complete idiot.
"What?" he asked, puzzled. "Does my analysis not make sense?"
"No, it makes sense—it makes plenty of sense. You might really have found Ling Tuo's weakness, but..." Demon Eye Heavenly King grabbed Zhang Yuanqing by the collar and roared angrily:
"What does that have to do with you tricking us into coming here? If Ling Tuo stationed this many people to lie in wait in the dreamscape, it means he's confident he can finish us off! What gave you the illusion that 'we can take them on'?!"
The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter, Xiao Yuan, and Lady JoJo also looked at him with grim expressions.
Although their team had a demigod looking out for them in secret, the enemy would surely have a demigod stepping in to keep them in check. Once those forces canceled each other out, the team would still have to fight for their lives on their own.
Never mind that the enemy's overall combat strength appeared weaker than their own; since Ling Tuo had observed the team's movements and arranged forces to meet them, it showed he was certain he could deal with them.
The avatar Zhang Yuanqing froze. Upon discovering an enemy ambush in the dreamscape, he should have voluntarily sacrificed himself to end the mission, rather than pulling out the teleportation platform to summon Demon Eye and the others.
"I... how could I make such an elementary mistake?" the avatar muttered in remorse.
In the distance, the Third Elder—robed in black with a head of greying hair—smiled and said, "This isn't a mistake on your part. I simply stimulated your arrogance. Your mistake lies in the fact that, as a fellow Illusionist who has only just advanced to Dominator, wherever did you find the courage to barge into my dreamscape?"
Chapter 824