A wisp of gloom finally crept over Xiao Yongling’s serene countenance. The Mount Dongyu manifested from spiritual opportunity in the clouds shifted forward slowly, suppressing the flow of magic power and dampening the might of the halberd. The longsword in his hand shone with brilliant radiance as he stepped forward to meet the blow head-on.
Years ago, the Xiao family ancestor Xiao Xianyou had perished in the overseas lands; even the Xiao family’s marking spells had proven useless. Relying on past ties, the Xiao family had pleaded desperately with a Real Person of the Ziyan Gate, who could only use a divination spell to project the illusory image of a metal ring. They searched and inquired everywhere, but to no avail.
Decades later, Real Person Yuanwu had made several appearances, and his magical artifact was precisely a metal ring. The Xiao family did not dare question him, yet deep down they harbored suspicion. Now, Tang Shedu’s words were practically grinding the Xiao family’s face into the dirt.
These thinly veiled words were even more cutting than taunting the Li family over Li Chijing guarding the Southern Border. As previously agreed that Xiao Yongling would hold off Tang Shedu, Xiao Yongling simply channeled his immortal foundation and gripped his sword to block him with all his might.
Meanwhile, at Tu Longjian’s spiritual sense transmission, the black-and-red token finally erupted with a torrential gray blaze, baking the defensive shields until they hissed and crackled. With one hand shaped like a lotus to withstand Tu Longjian’s golden hammer, Yu Muxian gestured with his other hand to recall those shields.
With the golden shields pulled back, the surging flames immediately rushed toward him. Tu Longjian’s brow twitched, and a thought flashed through his spiritual sense:
*Knock out his golden cymbals first! With that thing on him, Senior Yuanjiao cannot get close! He comes from a family of sword immortals—he must have talisman swords on hand!*
With a transmission of his will, the flames surged violently, angling slightly upward and sweeping toward Yu Muxian.
Yu Muxian scrutinized it closely, already clear in his mind:
*“Bading Combined Fire! It cuts life short and saps longevity, dissolves artifacts and purges evil, primarily ruling over dissolution and burning into nothingness. Within the grotto-heaven, yin and yang are balanced—I shall counter it with mansion water.”*
He flicked a jade vial from his sleeve, switching to a different incantation mudra—pressing beneath the ring finger for Ren and beneath the middle finger for Gui—and swept his sleeve forcefully, sending out a ripple of pale blue radiance.
A drop of jade dew spilled from the vial in midair, clashing and reacting with the glow to explosively transform into a torrent of seawater that poured down from above. As the Bading Combined Fire collided upward from below, Yu Muxian cast his spell with practiced ease, seemingly seizing the full advantage of the array’s symbolic imagery.
Yet this gray flame was Bading Combined Fire after all; it still incinerated the seawater completely. A rather precious spiritual item had thus been spent merely to parry a single attack.
*Mu fire… Combined Fire… Why are they both things that smelt metal!*
Yu Muxian’s palm went numb, his hand unable to hold the seal. The lotus petals around him were instantly scattered like willow catkins in the wind. Channeling the balance of yin and yang through his immortal foundation, Tu Longjian seized the momentum to shatter his spell in one blow, sending a tremor of alarm through Yu Muxian’s heart.
Tu Longjian swung his golden hammer back. Flames lifted beneath his feet as he finally stopped concealing his immortal foundation. Stirring his Mu Fiendfire, trails of fiendish fire ignited upon the golden hammer.
The flames were dark at the center and misty at the edges, like viewing flowers through fog, each whorl spinning independently as they drifted beside him. As soon as this fire appeared, yin and yang in the surrounding area fluctuated wildly, yang waxing as yin waned. The lotus on Yu Muxian flickered faintly, and a strike from the golden hammer arrived instantly.
He had only just twitched his fingers when Tu Longjian’s second hammer strike followed in close succession, slamming straight toward the Heavenly Gold Cymbals atop his head.
*Boom!*
Yu Muxian’s face paled slightly. The Heavenly Gold Cymbals above his head were shattered to pieces, dispersing into streams of light. He channeled his spell to command his golden diamond shuttles to block Tu Longjian, yet his expression changed once more.
Before him, Tu Longjian was cloaked in bright fire, sending a cluster of golden artifacts flying dozens of paces back with a single blow. The golden hammer swung up and down, battering those artifacts in all directions with an overwhelming, unstoppable force.
Yu Muxian’s nine diamond shuttles rushed over, clashing against Tu Longjian’s golden hammer. For a moment, bolstered by the Purple Palace spirit artifact Halting Warfare, they managed to hold the line.
Yet the situation left him no time to ponder. He could only scramble to fend off Tu Longjian’s onslaught. When he peered with his spiritual sense, the two Purple Palace spirit artifacts in midair were already locked in an inseparable struggle, seemingly determined to fight to the finish.
The Bading Combined Fire Token required no conscious control, relentlessly spewing gray flames that surged like a gray river. The golden ring Halting Warfare spun continuously in the air, drawing the gray flames into itself like a great whale swallowing water, its body already glowing faintly red from the heat.
Within the golden ring, gold and red lights flashed alternately, puffing out plumes of black smoke from time to time. The two spirit artifacts had long broken free of their masters' direct control, grappling fiercely against each other.
In an instant, gold and fire collided within the ring in an intense tumult, belching dense smoke as molten gold and fire flowed and gold-red sparks scattered wildly. Several mouthfuls of thick smoke puffed out in succession, scorching Yu Muxian’s feather robe until it turned faintly red.
A faint ache throbbed in his spiritual sense. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw the gray Combined Fire rapidly approaching from behind once more, and he instantly made his choice.
Halting Warfare was already feeling the strain, having taken more than a dozen arrows with astral radiance coursing through the ring. Yu Muxian turned the trick to his own ends, lowering the spirit artifact to suppress the Combined Fire.
Several streaks of golden light tore through the air, only to be drawn into the ring by Halting Warfare, ringing out with sharp clangs that sounded exceptionally grating amid the stalemate.
Yu Muxian showed no hesitation. The golden ring in the sky spun rapidly, intercepting each of the golden beams that streaked across the sky like shooting stars. Li Xuanfeng had already had a golden arrow captured; the ones he fired now were arrows condensed from Gengjin qi, which wore down incessantly within the golden ring.
His ploy was executed brilliantly: grinding the Combined Fire and Gengjin against each other inside the ring to mutual exhaustion. Forming an incantation seal, he recalled the six golden shields to defend against Li Xuanfeng instead.
*Li Xuanfeng can no longer harm me, and the Heavenly Gold Cymbals can’t locate him anyway. I might as well discard them… to save the effort of sustaining the spell.*
*Now it all depends on whether the Six Gold Spirit Disks can hold Li Xuanfeng off firmly!*
Over on Tang Shedu’s side, after more than a dozen rounds of rapid close-quarters combat, Xiao Yongling had already coughed up blood, holding out solely by virtue of his magic power. Tang Shedu, on the other hand, appeared completely at ease, even finding leisure from time to time to look around.
Yu Muxian knew full well that Xiao Yongling was no match for Tang Shedu. As long as they stalled, victory would certainly belong to their side.
Meeting Yu Muxian’s gaze, Tang Shedu realized he could delay no longer. Inverting the halberd in his hand, a white radiance lit up. The face of Xiao Yongling before him shifted. Tang Shedu cast him a cold glance, and the halberd that had thus far only swept and thrust was finally raised high, a dazzling beam of brilliance rising from its blade.
“Played enough!”
Tang Shedu’s armor shone brilliantly. Yet Xiao Yongling suddenly looked up, neither dodging nor raising his sword to defend; circulating his magic power, he pressed his hand against the jade hook in his sleeve.
A verdant radiance rose, forming a barrier. At the same time, a loud buzz rang in Yu Muxian’s ears—Tu Longjian had already battered aside all nine artifacts and was swinging his hammer straight at his face.
Floating in front of Yu Muxian was a short sword. Seemingly ordinary, it was a compact diamond shape, its hilt carved with two lines, drifting gently in the air.
*Dispel Cloud!*
Alarm bells sounded frantically in Yu Muxian's mind, and he finally flicked his sleeve, hurling something out.
That object left only a tiny speck of white light in the air before vanishing completely. Opposite him, Tu Longjian let out a muffled grunt; the bright fire on his golden hammer was instantly snuffed out, and the weapon flew from his grip.
Tu Longjian turned pale, knocked back dozens of paces before the sound of a blade entering flesh finally echoed through the air. Swallowing the blood rising in his mouth, he swept his spiritual sense and saw it clearly.
For now, Yu Muxian paid no heed to Tu Longjian swinging his hammer, reaching out instead to summon back the golden ring Halting Warfare. As Tu Longjian caught his breath slightly, Yu Muxian across from him was hurriedly recalling the golden ring. Halting Warfare reluctantly backed away two inches, when a barrage of booming roars abruptly erupted.
A violent collision boomed out. Yu Muxian felt a heavy force strike from his flank; the defensive shield covering his side shuddered slightly, seemingly without much commotion.
The shield paused for a breath before clattering loudly as a cracked line slowly appeared across its back. Yu Muxian lowered his gaze, puzzled:
*“That shouldn't be… Though that attack is extraordinarily sharp, it shouldn't crack a Six Gold Spirit Disk in a single blow…”*
Worse still, the piercing buzz rang out in his ears again, pain stabbing through his ears as though blood were about to leak out. Yu Muxian stepped back, erecting the six golden shields.
Yu Muxian’s face paled slightly. A series of crisp cracking sounds burst from the six round shields around him. The dark arrow pierced clean through all six magical artifacts, striking his feather robe with a flurry of metallic clatter.
He had barely caught his breath when blood began dripping down from his chin, his hands twitching from tension. With his spells and artifacts tied down and unable to aid him, sheer terror finally seized his heart, and a thought echoed through his mind:
*I miscalculated! This grotto-heaven still has a lower realm!*
Pain struck everyone’s ears, blood seeping from them, as a beam of golden light that connected heaven and earth rose from beneath the cloud sea.
That golden light carried monumental momentum, so dazzling that it felt like knives scraping across their faces and dulled their six senses. Tu Longjian froze slightly, but Yu Muxian halted abruptly as a white radiance suddenly erupted from his body.
*Boom!*
By the time the golden light appeared in their sight, it had already reached the heavens and vanished into the boundless night sky. Across the grotto-heaven, cultivators raised their heads one after another, gazing in shock at that brilliance.
The feather robe on Yu Muxian fluttered down like willow catkins, revealing his thin undergarment. A round hole had appeared in his chest—the golden light had entered through his abdomen and exited behind his neck.
Not a single drop of blood came from the hole; through it, one could clearly see the twinkling night sky behind him. His high-bridged nose, handsome face, and frail body were covered in gashes large and small, agape like countless tiny baby mouths, with faint array patterns showing on his bare skin.
Before him stood five or six shields formed of spells, all riddled with cracks and each bearing a round hole, only now beginning to dissolve into drifting white light as if belatedly reacting.
His habitual caution and years of seclusion, living with Yuanwu as his hypothetical enemy, had saved his life. He had placed dozens of Foundation Establishment talismans upon his chest, meticulously etching array patterns year after year, solely to withstand that single strike during a life-or-death flight.
He never imagined that instead of being spent against Yuanwu, it would save his life in this crisis. In that split second, dozens of talismans accumulated over years activated together, constraining and weakening that golden beam to preserve his life.
Yu Muxian snapped his eyes open. His two pupils had been split into four lobes, finally weeping trails of bloody tears. An array mark lit up between his brows, and the corner of his mouth curved upward.
At this moment, the pain wracking his body was excruciating, but having endured blades and swords traversing his meridians day after day, he did not find it much of a hindrance. Bolstered by his jade buckle, he swiftly swallowed several precious herbs, weeping tears of blood as he stared coldly at the others.
Yu Muxian’s body slowly knit together like mud, his four-split eyeballs merging back into one. Strands of flowing light welled up from his Shengyang Mansion, and four talismans flew from his sleeve, turning into a protective light barrier that enveloped him.
Wiping the blood trickling from his ears, Yu Muxian felt no relief despite his shields' remarkable performance; instead, his heart sank to rock bottom. Sweeping his spiritual sense, he was slightly startled.
Yu Muxian stood quietly in the air, several talismans burned to cinders floating slowly downward like dust beside him.
Glancing around, Yu Muxian knew the crisis had passed. Yet he was cautious by nature; even with several Foundation Establishment defensive shields guarding him, he still pinched the talismans and channeled a thread of magic power, preparing to unleash them—when he suddenly froze.
Just three feet beside him, the clouds and mist abruptly parted, revealing a middle-aged man standing quietly, pressing a sword to his chest, its blue-white radiance so dense it looked ready to drip at any moment.
In the grotto-heaven, the stars dimmed, and from the layered pale gray clouds rose a blue-white crescent moon.
A gentle breeze swept across heaven and earth. The treasured sword at Xiao Yongling’s waist rattled and leaped excitedly, as though eager to spring from its scabbard at any second.
Across the peaks, clouds, and halls of the grotto-heaven, the green blades at the waists of cultivator after cultivator began trembling, clanging as they strained to draw themselves. Pensively, they raised their heads:
“What is…”
“Buzz, buzz, buzz…”
“Junior Brother!!”
Tang Shedu let out a hoarse, desperate shriek. He had just taken a step back when the emerald-green radiance that had guarded Xiao Yongling suddenly surged, shifting from defense to offense and assailing Tang Shedu from all sides.
His shriek had barely formed in his throat when the middle-aged man drew his sword.
*Slash!*
In an instant, the weapons in everyone’s hands buzzed in unison. The cloud sea receded like an ebbing tide. The Mount Dongyu that Xiao Yongling had used to suppress the sky disintegrated into ash in a flash, the Combined Fire dispersed, and the golden ring leaped back.
Xiao Yongling’s face was deathly pale, the weakest among them all; he had sustained heavy injuries in order to stall Tang Shedu. Tu Longjian looked grim, clutching the wound on his abdomen in silence, seemingly hesitating over something.
His magic power mingled with blood qi, and though Yu Muxian appeared uninjured on the surface, he was already as fragile as a porcelain doll. Tang Shedu, clad in golden armor and wearing a face full of chagrin, was already standing before him, halberd in hand.
*Snap…*
Yu Muxian showed not the slightest hint of gratitude; instead, his voice was freezing cold:
“Has Senior Brother played enough? If I were to die here, let’s see how Master torments you.”
Tang Shedu, normally imperious to the extreme, broke out in a cold sweat at these words. In a panic, he pulled several talismans from his storage bag and shoved them into his junior brother Yu Muxian’s hands. White lines surfaced across his face as he stared gravely at the figures before them.
Chapter 467