Chapter 466: Standoff Between the Two Sides, Fierce Battle Against a Nascent Soul |
At the same moment—
Using the positioning artifact, the Holy Son of the Spider Heart Sect, Holy Son Faguang, who had caught up to Ying Ziming, paused for a moment when he sensed the four Golden Core cultivators who had fled with Wei Tu now dispersing and fleeing in separate directions.
By logic, unless Wei Tu was in serious danger, he should’ve retreated to Yuanjun Island with those four Golden Core cultivators from the Blood Flood Dragon Merchant Guild. Yet now, they'd disbanded halfway like they'd already given up on aiding Jinglei Island. They clearly had no intention of regrouping with Ying Ziming.
"Wei Tu just recently joined the Blood Flood Dragon Merchant Guild. He probably doesn’t feel much loyalty to them," said the old sect master Gu with a calm analysis. "Most likely, after seeing how bad the situation was, he ditched the baggage and ran first."
He guessed that the escape technique Wei Tu used earlier probably consumed too much spiritual power and wasn’t sustainable, so Wei Tu acted out of caution. Of course, there was another possibility—Wei Tu might've been wary of being tracked while staying with the four Golden Core cultivators, so he disbanded the group to minimize the risk.
This explanation also matched the judgment both he and Holy Son Faguang had about Wei Tu’s personality and capabilities.
Ying Ziming, the seasoned member of the Blood Flood Dragon Merchant Guild—they’d already collected detailed intel on him. They knew his abilities were just average among Nascent Soul cultivators. He wasn’t known for any outstanding divine abilities or secret techniques.
So in their eyes, the reason Wei Tu and Ying Ziming could detect and dodge their ambush must’ve had a lot to do with Wei Tu, the new guy.
Keen senses and cautious actions—that was the impression Wei Tu had left on them after their first encounter.
After all, it would never cross their minds that Wei Tu had disbanded the support team not to escape, but simply so he could turn back more conveniently for a sneak attack—not because of fear, but out of greed.
After all, who in their right mind would be so greedy they’d risk their life, charge back into danger alone, and try to fish in troubled waters?
Even though the defenses at Jinglei Island’s branch were weakened after both of them left, the place was still solid as iron and hard to shake. Never mind the fourth-rank defensive formation inside the island—just Yan Gongcheng and the others were enough to keep intruders at bay.
"Let’s deal with Ying Ziming first. As for Wei Tu… we’ll kill him another time if the chance comes."
With that, Holy Son Faguang sped up and cut off Ying Ziming and the three Golden Core cultivators behind him. Then he removed the robe from his body and flung it upward.
In an instant, the gray robe expanded with the wind, forming a massive, complex six-sided formation diagram hundreds of meters wide, hovering right above Ying Ziming and his group.
"Xuan Spider Robe?!" Ying Ziming’s face changed drastically.
The Xuan Spider Robe was a well-known mid-grade fourth-rank artifact of the Spider Heart Sect, combining a trap array and a killing array in one. For a Nascent Soul cultivator in the early stage, entering that array meant certain death—there was no way to escape.
'Once this robe lands, I’m dead for sure. I have to escape now and forget about the others.'
Resolute in his mind, Ying Ziming didn’t even glance at the three Golden Core cultivators behind him. He bit his tongue, spat out a mouthful of essence blood, and transformed into a blood shadow, attempting to flee before the array closed.
However, old sect master Gu outside the formation had already anticipated his move. His lips curled into a cold smile, and he flicked his sleeve, scattering countless tiny pebbles into the air before casting a spell with one hand.
In a flash, a yellowish sand mist rose outside the Xuan Spider Robe’s array. The swirling mist made the scattered grains of sand expand into boulder-sized stones spinning rapidly through the air.
Clang!
A thunderous bang echoed.
Inside the sand mist, the blood shadow form of Ying Ziming reappeared, smashed by one of the giant stones and flung violently back into the formation created by the Xuan Spider Robe.
"Puwa!" Blood sprayed from Ying Ziming’s mouth as pain surged through his body.
"Ten-Thousand Sand Stones from the Divine Stone Sect?!" he exclaimed, horrified as he recognized the method old sect master Gu had used.
He never imagined that Holy Son Faguang and old sect master Gu would go this far just to kill him.
First the Xuan Spider Robe—a lethal artifact—and now the Ten-Thousand Sand Stones, a secret treasure refined through generations of accumulation in the Divine Stone Sect.
He could barely handle just one of those. Now with both, and the two Nascent Soul cultivators waiting outside the formation ready to strike—his odds were slim to none.
"I’ve got no choice."
Ying Ziming’s expression turned fierce. He muttered a few incantations, then took out a faint golden talisman from his sleeve and stuffed it into his mouth.
The next second, dazzling golden light burst from his back, forming the shape of a majestic azure bird. As the light faded, a pair of green-feathered wings emerged behind him.
The pale green wings spread wide, nearly 10 feet across. With a few violent flaps, Ying Ziming vanished once more.
By the time Holy Son Faguang and old sect master Gu’s divine sense locked onto Ying Ziming’s position, they found him already halfway through the sand mist.
Just another half breath, and he’d completely escape the formation.
"Burning ancestral blood? Ying Ziming’s actually from a True Spirit bloodline family? He hid that deep," old sect master Gu raised his brow. Clearly, Ying Ziming’s trump card was giving him some trouble.
Still, it wasn’t out of his expectations. After all, any cultivator who made it to the Nascent Soul stage surely had a few tricks up their sleeve. Killing one wasn’t going to be easy.
"The Ten-Thousand Sand Stones aren't that easy to get through!" old sect master Gu snorted coldly. He flipped his palm and tossed five thumb-sized yellow stones into the sand mist.
In an instant, the five stones expanded with the wind like the ones before, turning into massive boulders that crashed toward Ying Ziming within the mist.
But unlike the previous ones, these five yellow boulders were inscribed with rows of blood-red runes. As Ying Ziming dodged them, the runes extended into fine red chains that linked end to end, surrounding him.
Ying Ziming had plenty of combat experience. He knew that once those five boulders closed in, his escape route would be completely sealed.
He flapped his wings and soared upward dozens of feet, trying to exit the stone formation.
But just then, the other stones in the mist all gathered together like meteors and smashed toward him. Their force was overwhelming and couldn’t be blocked.
Seeing this, Ying Ziming was forced to fall back and return to his original position.
At that moment, the Xuan Spider Robe also fully descended, transforming into a circular crystalline wall that tightly trapped Ying Ziming and the remaining three Golden Core cultivators inside.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
The crystal wall squirmed, releasing waves of brightly colored spiders. Their mouths sprayed fine spider silk that shot straight at Ying Ziming and the others.
…
While Ying Ziming was trapped inside the massive formation created by the Xuan Spider Robe, Wei Tu, who had plans of snatching treasure from the jaws of a tiger, used the forbidden-light aura of the “Barrier-Breaking Treasure Mirror” to break through Jinglei Island’s fourth-rank defensive formation and sneak inside.
"A Golden Core cultivator… tracking artifact… left Jinglei Island half a day ago…"
Wei Tu placed one hand on the head of a Golden Core cultivator from the Spider Heart Sect, extracting detailed intel about the island directly from his memory.
Moments later, he wore a thoughtful expression. Then, as if he’d made up his mind, he teleported and flew deeper into the island.
Before sneaking into Jinglei Island, he had already scouted the place several times through the divine sense of Ancestor Chìlóng. Only after confirming that Holy Son Faguang and old sect master Gu had both left their ambush did he dare make his move.
Fortunately, his gamble paid off.
There was indeed a traitor within the Blood Flood Dragon Merchant Guild who had leaked his and Ying Ziming’s whereabouts.
And the two who had used the tracking artifact—Holy Son Faguang and old sect master Gu—hadn’t resisted the temptation and gone after them.
Now, only one Nascent Soul cultivator, Yan Gongcheng, remained inside Jinglei Island’s branch stronghold. No one else at that realm.
A heaven-sent opportunity!
If any two among Holy Son Faguang, old sect master Gu, and Yan Gongcheng teamed up, he wouldn't stand a chance. Let alone kill one for profit.
But going up against just one of them, especially while prepared, killing was no longer that hard.
Right now, with both body and dharma Nascent Soul dual cultivation, dealing with an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator wasn’t nearly as difficult as when he fought Master Hongjing before.
Besides, according to the intel, Yan Gongcheng was the weakest among the three.
'As for Brother Ziming, he should be fine. He’s a veteran Nascent Soul cultivator after all. Even facing Holy Son Faguang and old sect master Gu, escaping shouldn’t be hard.'
Thinking that, Wei Tu shook his head, not too concerned.
In his eyes, the only ones truly in danger on this Jinglei Island mission were the few Golden Core cultivators who came along.
But he’d already done his part. He didn’t abandon them from the start.
As for trying to rescue those Golden Core cultivators now… he wasn’t that kind of bleeding-heart hero.
After all, to him, they were just strangers. He’d only gotten to know them a bit during the trip here.
Before long, Wei Tu arrived near a cave residence on the island.
Using the same trick again, he concealed his aura, then pulled out the Barrier-Breaking Treasure Mirror to break through the formation guarding the cave.
"Who’s there?" The moment the formation was breached, Yan Gongcheng—who had been meditating inside—sensed something.
Just as he finished speaking, a burst of fierce fist force slammed through the air straight at his face, sending his snowy-white beard flying wildly.
"Fourth-stage body cultivator?!"
Yan Gongcheng’s face twisted in shock. He quickly leapt backward and pulled out a small turtle-shell shield, holding it in front of him to block the incoming blow.
But in less than half a breath, the turtle shield dimmed under the impact and cracked all over.
"It’s you?" Using that brief moment of breathing room, Yan Gongcheng finally saw clearly that the figure who ambushed him in a flash of green was none other than Wei Tu, the honored guest elder sent by the main guild to support him.
He never expected that Wei Tu was a dual cultivator in both body and dharma and that his combat power was this fierce.
But clearly, Wei Tu wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries. As soon as he saw the turtle shield break, his blood surged wildly. His speed jumped again, and he charged toward Yan Gongcheng with an even fiercer assault.
The tighter the space, the better the advantage for a body cultivator.
If Yan Gongcheng got the chance to escape the cave, killing him would become far more time-consuming.
Fractured Life Hand!
Wei Tu’s palms suddenly burst into brilliant light, turning into dozens of flowing palm shadows. Within a distance of 10 steps, he launched a barrage of palm strikes.
Fractured Life Hand—famed throughout the cultivation world of Great Cang as a martial technique of the Heavenly Maiden Sect. Easy to learn, hard to master.
But after hundreds of years of training, Wei Tu's mastery of the move rivaled even the top experts of the Heavenly Maiden Sect.
"You think killing me is that easy?"
Yan Gongcheng wasn’t trash either. He slapped on two defensive talismans, blocking Wei Tu’s onslaught.
At the same time, he quickly formed hand seals and began chanting obscure spells.
As the shield talismans shattered under Wei Tu’s strikes, a wave of black demonic flames burst out from Yan Gongcheng’s body, wrapping around him completely.
These black flames were fierce. The moment Wei Tu got close, it felt like he was inside a furnace. His spiritual power dried up, his flesh threatened to burn.
He could sense an overwhelming, life-threatening danger from these flames.
"Cheap tricks!" Wei Tu calmed his breath. Surrounded by the black fire, he didn’t flinch or dodge. His face settled into quiet confidence.
Just as the black flames were about to reach his skin, a faint gray aura suddenly emerged around him.
Under this layer of gray radiance, the flames recoiled the instant they made contact, as if there was something on Wei Tu’s body they dared not touch.
It was as if control over the flames had shifted to him in that moment.
"Impossible! This Nine Yin Mother-Child Flame is a divine ability I’ve refined for 700 years. It’s never failed in battle. How can it not even touch his body?"
Yan Gongcheng looked completely stunned.
The Nine Yin Mother-Child Flame wasn’t the strongest divine ability in the cultivation world, but after 700 years of refinement, its power could incinerate almost anything.
At least in the early Nascent Soul realm, no one had ever resisted it.
Yet today, against Wei Tu’s gray aura, it was completely useless. It felt like those 700 years of refinement had been a joke.
"If the Nine Yin Mother-Child Flame won’t work… I don’t believe even the Sacred Ancestor’s remains can be stopped!"
Yan Gongcheng slapped his chest hard with both palms and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. The blood splashed onto a pair of eerie skeletal claws that had appeared out of nowhere.
As soon as the claws touched the blood, they grew skin and flesh, gulping down the blood like living creatures.
In no time, they turned into a pair of pale, delicate jade-like hands, soft and slender like a beauty’s.
"Another creepy demonic artifact?"
Seeing this, Wei Tu immediately remembered the black fingerbone he had once encountered.
It had absorbed the blood of the Wind Cleaving Eagle bit by bit, growing stronger just like this.
Thinking of that, Wei Tu didn’t dare waste a second. He slapped his storage pouch and summoned the yang corpse of the Yin-Yang Corpse Demon to his side, charging forward again with it.
As a martial cultivator, Wei Tu had long since mastered all kinds of combat arts.
Now, using the yang corpse like a one-legged bronze puppet weapon felt completely natural to him.
The next moment—
Just as Wei Tu's strike was about to land, Yan Gongcheng’s blood-offering claws finally moved. Like the black fingerbone from before, they had instant shifting power.
With a sudden blur, they appeared behind Wei Tu. The fingers curled into claws, sharp like blades, and slashed at his abdomen.
But Wei Tu had learned from past experience.
He was already prepared. He lifted the yang corpse’s arms behind him, overlapping them as a shield.
Clang!
The claws slammed into the yang corpse.
The blow was terrifying. Even with a mid-fourth stage body, the yang corpse’s arm bones were pierced clean through.
But the claw’s momentum stopped there.
Seeing the opportunity, Wei Tu made the yang corpse open its mouth and spew out chilling corpse qi, dousing the claws in cold mist.
Then he flicked his sleeve and fired out his Yuan Zhong divine light, completely wrapping the claws in it.
Without pause, Wei Tu lunged forward again, charging straight at Yan Gongcheng.
Now, Yan Gongcheng had exhausted all his trump cards. He had nothing left to block Wei Tu’s attacks.
"No!" A few moves later, his face twisted in despair. He slapped his forehead, trying to eject his Nascent Soul and flee.
But unfortunately…
Wei Tu had chosen to fight inside the cave, which was surrounded by formations.
The place was like a cage.
The moment his escape was delayed, Wei Tu struck again, snatching his Nascent Soul just like he had done with Master Hongjing before.