By normal logic, such a wicked technique did indeed seem like something Daoist Buyu would teach, but Meng Jingzhou still felt that Lu Yang was not telling the truth.
"The Sect Master really said that?" Meng Jingzhou eyed Lu Yang suspiciously.
Lu Yang was quite displeased by Meng Jingzhou's skepticism. He was clearly telling the truth. "If I'm lying to you, may I take two extra lightning strikes when I undergo heavenly tribulation, all right?"
Lu Yang figured that since he had already survived the Qiantian Tribulation—the foremost of Soul Formation-grade heavenly tribulations—while still in the Nascent Soul stage, crossing tribulations now that he was at the Soul Formation stage would be a total breeze, completely effortless.
Meng Jingzhou rolled his eyes. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Lu Yang vanish into thin air without the slightest warning, giving him quite a fright.
"Where did he go? Did he actually get struck by retribution?"
* * *
Deep in a desolate mountain range somewhere in Great Xia, three figures darted and shifted in fierce combat. Mountains shifted, and heaven and earth seemed turned upside down.
Boom—
The two weaker figures were sent flying, crashing through a mountain before slamming against the cliff face of another mountain behind it.
"Senior Sister Lan Ting, are you alright?" Man Gu grimaced as he crawled out of the cliff, asking with concern. Thick-skinned and hardy, taking a hit like this was no big deal to him, but the same might not be true for Senior Sister Lan Ting.
Wrapped in her sashes, Lan Ting crawled out of the neighboring cliff. The sashes had absorbed most of the impact, sparing her from severe injuries.
"Ignorant juniors, did you truly think reaching early Soul Formation would allow you to leap ranks and challenge me?" Their opponent looked at them coldly, radiating the aura of early Body Integration.
This was the first time Man Gu and Lan Ting had engaged in a serious battle with a Body Integration stage cultivator. With their combat strength, they were indeed qualified to challenge someone at early Body Integration—provided the opponent did not invoke a [Rule].
At first, joining forces had given them the upper hand, but once their opponent brought a [Rule] into play, the tide of battle turned instantly, leaving them thoroughly battered.
"We don't seem to be a match for him. What do we do?"
After advancing to the Soul Formation stage, Man Gu went to the Mission Hall to take on his first mission, which concerned clues about the Emotionless Cult. Upon reaching the mission site, he happened to cross paths with Lan Ting, who had also come to investigate.
Working together, they had actually followed the trail of breadcrumbs to uncover traces of the Emotionless Cult, leading them right to this Emotionless Cult elder.
The only problem was that, apparently, the two of them couldn't beat him.
With the Emotionless Cult elder right before them, if they ran now, finding him again in the future would be next to impossible.
"Fight!" Lan Ting gritted her teeth.
Man Gu was just as decisive. Fight it was. He sent a voice transmission to Lan Ting: "Senior Sister Lan Ting, please stall this Emotionless Cult elder for a moment. I have a method that can call upon the past power of a Barbarian ancestor to descend into my Primordial Soul. It might just turn the tables."
"All right!" Choosing to trust Man Gu, Lan Ting charged straight forward.
"Courting death, little brats." The Emotionless Cult elder held a bone saber whose hilt was crafted from countless tiny skulls; every swing produced a ghostly wail that was profoundly chilling.
Lan Ting did not dare clash head-on with the Emotionless Cult elder. Her azure sashes fluttered, overcoming hardness with softness as they wrapped around his arm, deflecting the trajectory of his blade!
Lan Ting's movements were light and nimble, resembling a fairy dancing gracefully in the Moon Palace, leaving the Emotionless Cult elder unable to bring his strength to bear.
"Hereby I establish the [Rule: The bone saber cuts all things]!"
A peculiar force coated the bone saber's surface, instantly slicing Lan Ting's sashes to ribbons. Free of the annoying sashes, the Emotionless Cult elder slashed directly at Lan Ting!
Man Gu brought forth his Primordial Soul, rubbing his hands vigorously and chanting under his breath. Now that he had reached the Soul Formation stage, the unpredictability of summoning ancestral power during the Nascent Soul stage was no longer an issue.
"May the immortals bless me! Man Gu respectfully welcomes the Barbarian clan's mightiest ancestor!"
Man Gu's Primordial Soul shifted as a brilliant, milky-white radiance flashed, and a formidable power descended from the heavens, pouring into his Primordial Soul!
The Barbarian ancestor snapped his head up and teleported directly before the Emotionless Cult elder.
Clang—
Sword in hand, the Barbarian ancestor blocked the bone saber that was supposed to cut through all things!
Lan Ting stared in disbelief at the Barbarian ancestor who had just saved her, completely dumbfounded. "Senior Brother Lu Yang, when did you become a Barbarian ancestor?"
Man Gu was equally flabbergasted. How had his Primordial Soul turned directly into Senior Brother Lu Yang?
"Huh?" Lu Yang was thoroughly mystified, entirely at a loss. He had just been hoodwinking Meng Jingzhou, so how in the world had he ended up here in the blink of an eye?
The moment he arrived, he had seen Lan Ting in danger, so he had had no choice but to strike first and ask questions later.
"Never mind all that for now. Who is this guy?" Lu Yang asked. The man reeked of murderous intent; this clearly wasn't a friendly spar.
"An elder of the Emotionless Cult!"
"Then we take care of him first before worrying about anything else!"
Empowered by the [Rule], the bone saber was unimaginably sharp; anything in its path would be cleaved in two.
Except for the Green Blade Sword.
The Green Blade Sword was an immortal sword, not something a mere Body Integration cultivator could damage with a rule.
"Die!"
Murderous intent flashed in Lu Yang's eyes as well. Against the Emotionless Cult, there was no need to hold back—so long as a soul remained intact at the end, that would be enough.
"Take my strike!"
The Emotionless Cult elder looked upon Lu Yang's sword strike with contempt. Completely ordinary. *You think you can wound me with a strike like that?*
Crack—Squirt—
The bone saber was actually sheared right in two by the blow. Its power barely diminished, the strike slammed into the Emotionless Cult elder!
A sword wound ran from the Emotionless Cult elder's left shoulder all the way down to his right waist, dripping with blood!
Lu Yang was quite surprised himself; the force behind that blow exceeded even his own expectations.
Ever since arriving here, he had felt an extra power that did not belong to him, making him several notches stronger than at his peak!
Caught completely off guard by this turn of events, the Emotionless Cult elder tried to pull back and use a [Rule] to heal his wounds. But Lu Yang had witnessed countless battles between high-level cultivators—he had seen battles between immortals more than once—and knew full well what the elder was trying to do.
How could he possibly give him the chance!
Lu Yang rapidly closed the distance with the Emotionless Cult elder and slashed out with an identical strike. Alarmed, the elder had no time to invoke a rule and hurriedly channeled his strength to block.
Yet this strike turned out to be unexpectedly ordinary.
Just when he thought it was over, Lu Yang spat out Three-Flavor True Fire, spraying it straight onto his face!
"Aaargh!" The Three-Flavor True Fire burned relentlessly across his face. Screaming in agony, he was forced to divert his power to suppress the true fire.
Lu Yang thrust and slashed in rapid succession, his unadorned sword moves concealing Return of Ten Thousand Swords to the Origin, battering the Emotionless Cult elder so thoroughly that defense became impossible.
"Blood Sea of Vengeful Heavens!" the Emotionless Cult elder snarled under his breath. A monstrous sea of blood surged behind him, where countless ghosts and living souls tumbled and wailed, stretching out innumerable arms in an attempt to drag Lu Yang into the bloody abyss!
Lu Yang pointed his sword at the Emotionless Cult elder and shouted sternly, "Kneel!"
Incredibly, the Emotionless Cult elder could not resist. With a thud, he dropped to his knees, his technique interrupted, and the monstrous sea of blood behind him vanished as well!
Slash—
A flash of sword light blazed at the pinnacle of speed, leaving an ultra-fine line of blood across the Emotionless Cult elder's neck.
Blood erupted, and the elder's head flew through the air, hitting the ground and tumbling over and over until it came to rest right by Lu Yang's feet.
Lu Yang sheathed his sword and looked at Man Gu and Lan Ting.
"So, can someone explain what in the world just happened?"
Chapter 1009