Just as the righteous disciples' despair was about to drown their final shred of sanity like an icy tide—
“Cough, cough... Cough, cough, cough...”
A burst of pain-wracked coughing drifted from the edge of the deep crater Shi Yan had crashed into.
Immediately after, a bloodstained hand gripped the rim of the pit, knuckles turning white from strain. Beneath everyone's disbelieving gazes, Shi Yan painstakingly crawled out from the rubble, inch by inch.
His clothes were tattered and smeared with blood and grime, a distinct indentation visible across his chest. Bloody foam kept bubbling from the corners of his mouth, and every breath rattled heavily, betraying severe injuries. Yet his eyes, ablaze with an unyielding fire, shone brighter than ever before!
Almost simultaneously, Shang Shuyi staggered to her feet on the other side, supported by Ling Qingyu.
Shang Shuyi's face was as pale as paper and her aura erratic. The hands she raised to cast healing techniques trembled faintly, yet she still forced her spine straight.
Ling Qingyu was in no better shape; the webbing between the thumb and forefinger of her sword hand had torn open, blood trickling down the hilt, yet the icy resolve in her gaze hadn't diminished in the slightest.
Though severely wounded, the three newly established prodigies had not lost an ounce of their will to fight!
“Junior Brothers and Sisters!” Shang Shuyi drew a sharp breath. Though weak, her voice carried a strange, soothing power. Her hands formed seals as faint, verdant ripples of light spread outward—a Return to Origin technique intended to dispel the haze of terror gripping their hearts.
“Do not lose faith! Sense it carefully! The rules of this secret realm are unique; it is absolutely impossible for a true Nascent Soul cultivator to descend here! They... they must have used some secret art or relied on a special magic treasure to temporarily wield such might! Their true realm right now is by no means Nascent Soul!”
Her words cast a sliver of light into the dark abyss of despair.
“That's right!” Shi Yan violently wiped the blood from his lips. His voice was hoarse yet burning hot as he glared up at the demon clan Elders in midair and roared, “Old bastards! Playing the devil! If you were really Nascent Soul, why didn't that palm strike turn this granddaddy of yours into ash right then and there?! Cough, cough...” A violent fit of coughing cut him off, but the battle fire in his eyes only burned hotter.
Ling Qingyu said nothing. She simply picked up her longsword lying nearby. Though the blade trembled slightly, it remained leveled at the demon clan, declaring her stance through action alone.
Among the demon clan ranks, a woman Elder from Soul Lost Ridge let out a shrill, grating, sinister cackle upon hearing this, her voice laced with an unnerving, demonic charm: “Hehe... The brats actually have some eyes on them. So what if we aren't Nascent Soul?”
She cast a disdainful sweep over the three barely holding on below and the flustered righteous disciples, her scarlet tongue licking her lips as if savoring her prey's dying struggles.
“Crushing you without lifting a finger versus using a tiny bit of effort to stomp you to death—to ants like you, is there any difference in the end?”
With that, she casually hooked a finger.
Spurt—!
The halo of the Mind-Focusing Technique Shang Shuyi was halfway through casting shattered instantly, snuffed out as if throttled by an invisible force! Her delicate body jerked violently as she coughed up another mouthful of blood, swaying on her feet as the last vestige of color drained from her face.
“Senior Sister Shang!” Ling Qingyu beside her hurriedly supported her.
Shang Shuyi gripped Ling Qingyu's arm tightly, her nails digging almost into the flesh. Looking at Ling Qingyu and Shi Yan, her voice was low and hurried, laced with unquestionable resolve: “You two... no matter what, we must hold them back! Buy time... for Young Manor Lord Su!”
Shi Yan and Ling Qingyu exchanged a glance, seeing that same determination reflected in each other's eyes.
They both understood that against formidable foes who were at least Late Foundation Establishment—perhaps even in the Pseudo-Golden Core realm—fighting head-on meant certain death. Right now, their sole variable was Su Yi, who had always remained an enigma and repeatedly wrought unforeseen miracles!
“Hahaha! Demon clan dogs! Is this all you've got? Bullying others with your realm? Come on! Fight your Grandpa Shi Yan for another three hundred rounds! See if I don't burn off all your beards!” Shi Yan was the first to let out an earth-shaking roar, throwing a punch with all his might.
Infected by the trio's death-defying valor, the remaining righteous disciples managed to rally a sliver of their shattered morale. One by one, they gripped their weapons tightly. Though fear still lingered, they no longer completely lost the will to resist as they had moments before.
Seeing this, the demon clan Elders wore even deeper sneers. The woman Elder from Soul Lost Ridge scoffed, “Deathbed struggles—nothing more than a laughable joke!”
Yet right at that moment, a flicker of shrewdness and urgency flashed through Fang Xiu's eyes as he silently observed. He immediately stepped forward and bowed toward the leading black-robed Elder: “Elder! We cannot let them drag this out any longer!”
He pointed toward Su Yi, who still sat cross-legged with closed eyes on the distant spirit platform, his aura steady as if isolated from the outside world. Fang Xiu's tone grew urgent. “That Su Yi is still establishing his foundation! These fools know they are no match, yet they deliberately provoke us. They clearly intend to stall for time and pin their hopes on that kid!
“That brat is full of cunning tricks and has repeatedly ruined our clan's plans before. If we truly allow him to complete his Foundation Establishment smoothly, I fear an unexpected turn may occur! Please strike swiftly with thunderous might, Elder, and eliminate this threat once and for all!”
“Tsk, Fang Xiu, why are you so cowardly? Are you telling me to be wary of a brat establishing his foundation?”
The Elder from Remnant Sword Prison was somewhat displeased; Fang Xiu made it sound as if Su Yi could turn the tides of battle merely by succeeding in his Foundation Establishment.
However, the Demon Theft Nest Elder beside him took the words to heart. “Fang Xiu has a point. That fellow dealt my Demon Theft Nest heavy losses during the last Foundation Establishment secret realm, and now he has even caused Deng Nie's demise.
“His life is mine!”
Before his voice finished fading, the Demon Theft Nest Elder's figure blurred into an eerie beam of light that nearly blended with the shadows. Piercing through the defensive line barely held by Shi Yan and the others below in an instant, he appeared directly upon the spirit platform where Su Yi was!
“Old thief! In your dreams!” Shi Yan's eyes nearly split open with fury. Disregarding his injuries, he forcibly mobilized his remaining spiritual power to unleash a blazing fist wind, attempting to intercept him.
“Hmph, an ant trying to shake a tree!” The Remnant Sword Prison Elder in the sky waved his hand casually. A solid, condensed black sword astral caught up from behind, effortlessly shattering Shi Yan's fist wind. Its remaining shockwave slammed Shi Yan back into the previous crater with brutal force, sending clouds of dust billowing into the air; this time, even the sounds of his struggling grew faint.
Almost at the same time, the woman Elder from Soul Lost Ridge chuckled and flicked her fingers. Two invisible ripples of soul power darted out like venomous serpents, striking Ling Qingyu and Shang Shuyi below with pinpoint accuracy.
Struck as if by a sledgehammer, the two could no longer keep their barely standing bodies upright. Letting out muffled groans, both collapsed limply to the ground, utterly pinned down by that eerie soul power, incapable of lifting even a single finger.
Despair doused the hearts of all the righteous disciples like ice water once again. Before true powerhouses, their three newly established Senior Brother and Senior Sisters were so utterly fragile!
Meanwhile, upon the spirit platform.
The Demon Theft Nest Elder hovered before Su Yi, sweeping his eyes over the boy sitting cross-legged with closed eyes. He soon noticed something amiss.
“Strange...” He frowned slightly. “There are no fluctuations of absorbing spirit source around him, and his aura is still at Qi Condensation...”
He probed carefully, confirming that what radiated from Su Yi was indeed a pure Qi Condensation fluctuation, not the surging and unstable spiritual power of someone who had just broken through to Foundation Establishment.
This dispelled the last trace of doubt in his heart, replaced by utter contempt.
“Heh, putting on airs! You haven't even completed your Foundation Establishment. Knowing doom was upon you, did you just give up struggling altogether?”
The Demon Theft Nest Elder sneered. Although his true realm was suppressed to the peak of Foundation Establishment after using the secret art—failing to reach the anticipated Pseudo-Golden Core stage—crushing a Qi Condensation junior was, in his eyes, simpler than stepping on an ant.
Grinning savagely, he raised his withered claw. Ghostly green demon fire danced upon his fingertips, radiating a vicious aura capable of corroding divine souls as he pressed it slowly toward Su Yi's crown.
However, the fear he anticipated never came.
The very instant those fingertips wreathed in ghostly green demon fire were about to graze the top of Su Yi's head—
Su Yi, who had kept his eyes closed this entire time, snapped them open!
At the same moment, an illusory interface glowing with a faint blue light, visible only to Su Yi, materialized clearly before his eyes:
【Cultivation Allocation Successful】
A majestic spiritual pressure—vast, pure, and several times denser than the Foundation Establishments of Shi Yan, Ling Qingyu, and Shang Shuyi combined—erupted violently from within Su Yi like a volcano dormant for ten thousand years!
“What?!” The savage grin on the face of the Demon Theft Nest Elder, inches away, froze instantly, morphing into utmost horror and disbelief!
He wanted to pull back his hand, wanted to retreat, wanted to defend... but it was too late!
Su Yi didn't even make any complex movement; he merely brought two fingers together like a sword and swept casually upward.
Chi—!
A dazzling bolt of lightning, condensed to the absolute limit like a heavenly spear of divine retribution, burst forth from his fingertips. Striking faster than thought, it instantly pierced through the claw the Demon Theft Nest Elder was pressing down with and drilled through the center of his forehead!
Time seemed to freeze at this very moment.
The Demon Theft Nest Elder remained in his forward-leaning posture, the sheer horror on his face permanently frozen. His lips parted as if to say something, but the soul fire flickering within his eyes had already snuffed out.
The ghostly green demon fire swirling around his body collapsed and annihilated instantly, as though meeting its natural nemesis.
In the next breath, his body was like a weathered sand sculpture, crumbling inch by inch starting from the forehead pierced by lightning, reducing into the finest ash that scattered into the air.
Both body and soul utterly destroyed!
A demon clan Elder who had deployed a secret art to possess Peak Foundation Establishment combat power had actually been killed in a single strike by Su Yi, who had "just established his foundation"!
At the exact moment the Demon Theft Nest Elder disintegrated into ash, a violent purple thunderbolt radiating glorious heavenly majesty soared into the sky from the spirit platform like a sky-tearing thunder dragon. Its might was so immense that it even caused the very space of the secret realm to tremble!
Outside, the Remnant Sword Prison Elder and the woman Elder from Soul Lost Ridge, who were just preparing to deliver a fatal blow to the defenseless Shang Shuyi and Ling Qingyu, froze in their tracks, paralyzed by this sudden, terrifying thunderous might, and whipped their heads around in shock.
They looked right in time to see the sky-piercing raging thunder—and at its source, the calm youth in green robes slowly lowering his fingers, enveloped in faint arcs of lightning and a majestic spiritual pressure that sent shivers deep into their hearts.
“Finally took the bait. That's one down.”
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