Daoist Qinglong leaned forward slightly, his eyes shifting as a touch of seriousness surfaced in his otherwise emotionless gaze.
—If he had still intended to spare the young cultivator's life a moment ago, after seeing her array of highly distinguished magic treasures, Daoist Qinglong had now firmly resolved to silence her forever.
A young cultivator with an ordinary background and no lineage, yet carrying so many extraordinary treasures, could only mean one of two things.
First, she had apprenticed under an incredibly formidable master who held her in extremely high regard, even sparing no resources to nurture her.
To have so many pills and magic treasures protecting her at merely the Foundation Establishment stage meant this minor cultivator was definitely not without a master, contrary to her claims.
Whether it was the Qingjing Sect or the Wuwei Sect did not matter.
Second, she herself possessed heaven-defying luck and a powerful destiny, putting heavenly treasures and fortuitous opportunities easily within her reach.
If he provoked the former and her sect sought revenge, the future trouble would be endless; she had to be killed.
If he provoked the latter and she achieved great cultivation in the future, seeking vengeance, the future trouble would be endless; she had to be killed.
Daoist Qinglong's brow twitched slightly as he truly looked at this minor cultivator for the first time. After a long moment, he retrieved another fiery-red pill and casually tossed it into the air.
This pill possessed a tyrannical aura, seemingly even more powerful than the Hundred Ghosts Heart Demon Pill from before. The moment it appeared, Nan Zhi felt the surrounding air temperature spike several times over as a surging wave of heat rushed toward her face!
“Fwoosh— fwoosh—”
The pill swayed, spitting out two orange fire pythons of extremely high temperature. Flames erupted everywhere, carrying a fierce, scorching intent. Wherever the two entwined serpents passed, even the boulders and yellow sand on the ground began to burn.
“Clang! Clang! Clang!”
Nan Zhi hastily retreated. The Bronze Shield before her rose from the ground, expanding into a two-zhang-tall bronze barrier that firmly shielded her.
Heat surged as the fire pythons exhaled deeply, spitting out two plumes of slightly purplish-red flames. The pill fire was truly formidable; the moment the rocky mountains touched these flames, they melted into viscous magma, slowly flowing toward the hollows of the ground.
The surrounding air vaporized, leaving not a trace of moisture. Her throat felt incredibly parched, as if she would be scorched dry in the next second. Even the mist of the Mirage Pearl Nan Zhi used to conceal her figure was burned away completely!
Nan Zhi's figure was fully exposed in midair.
The Five Elements Techniques!
She immediately chanted a spell to summon two water dragons to fight back, but she did not expect this fire to be the pill fire Daoist Qinglong used for alchemy. Ordinary water could not extinguish it; instead, it only fueled the flames!
“Fwoosh!!”
The purple pill fire suddenly shot up, attempting to completely surround Nan Zhi. She immediately raised her small shield to resist, but a corner of the Bronze Shield was melted, cracking open!
Bronze Shield, destroyed!
The gap between Foundation Establishment and Nascent Soul was not something that could be bridged by the sheer quantity of magic treasures!
Nan Zhi rode the wind and fled for several li, but the fire pursued her the entire way. Wherever it passed, pavilions and towers were burned to ruins, leaving a devastating mess!
Reaching a certain spot, Nan Zhi suddenly noticed the fire behind her weakening. Her eyes lit up. She spun around abruptly and threw the Purple Bamboo Dragon-Carved Brush Pot in her hand!
The brush pot gradually expanded as a Five Elements spiritual energy formation descended from the sky, firmly trapping one of the fire pythons. Before the python could break free, she suddenly threw a Thunder Bomb. The greedy fire python indeed reared its head to swallow it!
In the next instant, Nan Zhi had already appeared a hundred zhang away, holding her shield, standing atop the phantom image of the Demon Suppression Tower!
“Boom!”
“Boom, boom, boom!”
“Boom!”
The Thunder Bomb was immensely powerful. The pill hosting the fire pythons was blown to pieces, and both pythons exploded, taking the Purple Bamboo Dragon-Carved Brush Pot down with them as it was completely destroyed!
Purple Bamboo Dragon-Carved Brush Pot, destroyed!
Before Nan Zhi could even catch her breath, a shadow suddenly loomed overhead. She looked up to see Daoist Qinglong standing proudly in the air, his gaze turning colder by the second:
“You dare harm Xia Niang, brat? You truly deserve to die.”
A massive, invisible hand materialized across the sky, locking firmly onto Nan Zhi. Her scalp tingled with dread, but pinned down by his divine sense, she could not move at all!
As the giant hand closed in, the magic treasures on Nan Zhi's body began to shatter one by one—
Eight-Treasure Necklace Shirt, destroyed!
Bronze Soul-Chasing Bell, destroyed!
Defense jade rings, shattered!
“Bang!”
“Crack!”
“Thud!”
With her magic treasures destroyed, the young female cultivator let out a muffled groan. Blood stained the corners of her lips, and tiny red spots of blood seeped from the corners of her eyes, nostrils, and behind her ears. Yet, under the immense pressure, she gritted her teeth and refused to bow her head.
“You deliberately lured that fire python to chase you just now because you wanted to find the formation eye of this Two-Form Inversion Formation.
You actually have a brain, guessing my purpose in using Junior Brother Mo to set up this formation, hoping to break it to trigger a trial of heavenly lightning and use the power of the Heavenly Dao to kill me.”
Daoist Qinglong paused his gripping motion for a moment, making no attempt to hide the mockery on his face:
“But unfortunately, you fell short at the last step. Let me teach you a lesson today: the gap in our cultivation can never be bridged by magic treasures. This Venerable crushing you to death is as simple as crushing an ant.”
He paused, his gaze cold, seemingly wanting to mock her a few more times, when he heard someone cry out:
“Master, I beg of you, spare Fellow Daoist Nan's life! Do not accumulate any more killing karma!”
Both turned their heads, only to see Shen Luohe in the bamboo pavilion, holding his folding fan against Immortal Danxia's neck. His eyes were filled with complex emotions, his voice grief-stricken:
“Master, stop persisting in your delusions! In her current state, it would be more merciful for Danxia Fairy to die!
With Master Mo dead, the Qingjing Sect will surely sense it. Going against the natural order and defying heaven to change fate will only lead to eternal damnation!
Fellow Daoist Nan is a close friend to Xijian and me. I deceived her and traded her life for Xijian's survival, which is already a betrayal. I absolutely cannot stand by and watch her die before my eyes!”
“You dare threaten your master?”
A flash of grief crossed Daoist Qinglong's eyes, but he quickly ground his teeth and spat:
“Rebellious disciple! Do you truly think I couldn't see through your petty little schemes?! I merely turned a blind eye to them!
The Great Dao is not solitary, yet you now defy your master for an outsider. Have you truly forgotten the kindness I have shown you in the past?!”
Shen Luohe was merely at the Qi Refinement stage. Holding a hostage before a Nascent Soul cultivator was nothing short of a joke.
Qinglong merely let out a cold snort and exhaled. A flurry of bamboo leaves transformed into sword qi and rained down, piercing through Shen Luohe's limbs one by one, pinning him firmly to a massive boulder.
“Master! I dare not forget your great kindness for even a single day. But since childhood, you taught Xijian and me that cultivators must guard their original intentions and not let themselves be trapped by heart demons!”
Not a single patch of intact skin remained on Shen Luohe's body. Covered in bloody holes, tears and snot streamed down his face, mixed with blood:
“I was truly weak, knowing only how to flee and lacking the courage to expose your actions to the world. But I refuse to continue helping you perpetrate evil. I have failed my master above, and I have no face to meet my friend below. It is better that I die.”
Qinglong raised his eyes, expressionless. With a wave of his hand, a bamboo leaf pierced through Shen Luohe's right chest, leaving a fist-sized wound.
An opportunity!
“!”
Nan Zhi pulled back her divine sense and witnessed this very scene. Without a second thought, she threw two Thunder Bombs. Taking advantage of the moment Daoist Qinglong was distracted, she used her golden cicada shedding its skin technique, substituting herself with a paper figure, and spun around to dash toward Immortal Danxia in the bamboo pavilion!
“You brat!”
Qinglong roared in fury. Though he seemed to take a leisurely step, he shrank the earth to inches, appearing in the bamboo pavilion in the blink of an eye. He reached out, grabbed the neck of the green-clothed female cultivator, and twisted it hard—
The aura of the Foundation Establishment cultivator vanished instantly, and she slumped limply to the ground in the next second. Qinglong immediately sensed something was wrong. He looked closer, only to see a paper figure with red cheeks and red lips lying on the ground.
Another paper figure!
Oh no!
Qinglong suddenly realized something and snapped his head up. Toward the Demon Suppression Tower inside the monastery, Nan Zhi stood with both hands raised high, holding a plump, rosy, infant corpse-like artifact, slamming it heavily down onto a specific spot!
Crack...
It was a barely audible sound, yet it caused Daoist Qinglong's expression to change completely.
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