Chapter 1127: Another Haul
The black lightning ceased its descent, and the dark clouds above Yi Xuan dissipated, appearing as quickly as they vanished.
Yang Haoran flickered, appearing directly before Yi Xuan. Immediately, a whistling sound cut through the air as Black Lightning and Remnant Moon, his two Soul Armaments, returned to his side, burrowing back into their swirling masses of Yin Qi.
Yang Haoran looked at Yi Xuan before him, a smile on his face. He said nothing, merely shaking his head with a slight grin.
Yang Haoran's arrival brought a flicker of change to Yi Xuan's glazed expression. He struggled to utter something, but then a crimson line suddenly appeared across his neck, like a thin, blood-red collar.
The wound split open, blood gushed forth, and Yi Xuan toppled straight down. His body hit the ground, his head separating from his torso.
Yang Haoran stood directly before Yi Xuan, yet the spurting blood did not touch him, for a wave of Yin Qi shielded him completely.
After Yi Xuan's corpse hit the ground, it twitched faintly a few times before falling still. Yang Haoran's gaze fell upon Yi Xuan's body, then shifted to his right hand, which still clutched a talisman.
Although he couldn't see the talisman's full appearance or determine its specific type, Yang Haoran, himself a Talisman Master, recognized it as a Gold Talisman at a glance.
For any Talisman Master, talismans were their strongest means, and Yi Xuan was no exception. As a Gold Talisman Master, upon discovering his strength was far inferior to Yang Haoran's, he naturally sought to retrieve a Gold Talisman to counter Yang Haoran. After all, this was his most potent technique; even if it couldn't kill Yang Haoran, securing a chance to live would still be good.
However, Yang Haoran gave him no such opportunity. Faced with Black Lightning's relentless assault, he found it difficult to find a moment to retrieve the Gold Talisman. If he forcibly drew the talisman, ignoring Black Lightning's attack, he knew he would die even faster.
Therefore, he chose to evade Black Lightning's furious offense while simultaneously seeking the fastest possible chance to pull out a Gold Talisman.
Alas, he had only just pulled the Gold Talisman from his independent space when Black Lightning struck his body. Once paralyzed, he had no time to implement any other effective countermeasures before Remnant Moon, with lightning-fast speed, pierced through his neck. He never even got to activate this precious Gold Talisman before his death, which is why it remained clutched in his hand at that moment.
That this Gold Talisman remained unused was, of course, a good thing for Yang Haoran. It wasn't that he feared the talisman would pose a significant threat to him if Yi Xuan had successfully activated it; rather, he simply considered that since it hadn't been used, it naturally became his, Yang Haoran's, personal possession.
Gold Talismans were incredibly precious; even Gold Talisman Masters wouldn't use them lightly, as each one was hard-won. For Yang Haoran to pick up a Gold Talisman, it was certainly a stroke of good fortune.
Furthermore, this Gold Talisman was something Yi Xuan had pulled out at his very last moment of crisis. From this alone, it was evident that this Gold Talisman might very well have been the most formidable one in Yi Xuan's possession.
Just as Yang Haoran was about to take the Gold Talisman from Yi Xuan's hand to examine its type, a rift suddenly tore open in the space above Yi Xuan's corpse, from which a large quantity of items cascaded down.
This sight deepened the smile on Yang Haoran's face.
"Heh heh, I didn't expect to have ruptured your independent space. My apologies, truly."
In just a few breaths, no more items fell from the spatial rift, and a small mountain of various objects had accumulated beside Yi Xuan's corpse.
Yi Xuan was not only a Gold Talisman Master but also the head of the Talisman Cult in Gu Mo City. His collection would naturally be extensive and of high quality, a fact Yang Haoran firmly believed. Hence, he was in excellent spirits, for this was no small income for him.
If it were any other time, he might have inspected these items, keeping the valuable ones, organizing them, and directly destroying any worthless personal effects to avoid taking up space.
But the situation was different now; he had many other matters to attend to. He didn't have the leisure to waste time on this, so instead of examining Yi Xuan's collection one by one, he simply swept his hand, stowing all the items into his independent space without missing a single one.
As for the talisman clutched in Yi Xuan's hand, he also took it. He only needed a glance to recognize it as a defensive Gold Talisman.
With just this Gold Talisman, Yang Haoran could roughly deduce Yi Xuan's thoughts at the time. Yi Xuan surely intended to use this Gold Talisman to protect his physical body, then find a way to escape. As for whether Yi Xuan would have used this talisman to directly confront him, Yang Haoran felt that given the circumstances, Yi Xuan simply didn't possess that kind of courage.
"Although you've left me with quite a few things, there's one more item I absolutely must take, for it is precisely what I most desired from you."
Yang Haoran spoke with a smile, then extracted the Talisman Master Power Seed from Yi Xuan's body. This was truly what he most wanted to obtain from Yi Xuan, as this item was the quickest path for him to enhance his own Talisman Master power.
After putting away Yi Xuan's Talisman Master Power Seed, Yang Haoran forcefully condensed and extracted Yi Xuan's soul. He didn't care whether this method would harm Yi Xuan's soul; in any case, the soul's ultimate fate was to be refined into a Soul Pill by him, so whether it was damaged or not made no difference to him.
With everything that needed to be collected now secured, Yang Haoran prepared to destroy Yi Xuan's corpse, then open the restrictive barrier and deal with those fools outside who were practically seeking death.
However, just as he was about to dispose of Yi Xuan's body, he hesitated.
"If I just destroy his corpse like this, it seems a bit wasteful. This body still holds some value."
At this moment, Yang Haoran was pondering another question: what kind of trouble would follow his killing of Yi Xuan.
Yi Xuan had already stepped into the Gold Talisman Master realm. Whether the higher-ups of the Talisman Cult were aware of this, Yang Haoran currently didn't know; he would only find out when he dealt with Yi Xuan's soul later.
If someone among the Talisman Cult's upper echelons already knew Yi Xuan had entered the Gold Talisman Master realm, then that person would undoubtedly value Yi Xuan highly. After all, the status of a Gold Talisman Master within the entire Talisman Cult was extremely elevated. If he killed one of their Gold Talisman Masters, the other party certainly wouldn't let the matter rest. Even if the Talisman Cult was in the wrong today, they might not dare to openly confront him, but they would definitely cause trouble for him in the shadows.
Even if no one among the Talisman Cult's higher-ups knew Yi Xuan had entered the Gold Talisman Master realm, once they learned he was killed by Yang Haoran, it was still highly probable to attract significant trouble. After all, Yi Xuan was the head of the Talisman Cult in Gu Mo City; if he killed Yi Xuan, how could the other party maintain their 'face' without causing him some trouble?
Therefore, regardless of whether the Talisman Cult's high command knew Yi Xuan had broken through to the Gold Talisman Master realm, since he had killed Yi Xuan, he would inevitably incur some trouble.
Of course, if it were Yang Haoran lying there, dead with unseeing eyes, instead of Yi Xuan, the outcome would be the same. The Underworld Office would likewise not let the matter rest and would certainly seek trouble with the Talisman Cult.
Trying to deny responsibility for this was definitely unrealistic, as he had deployed a restrictive barrier, enveloping both himself and Yi Xuan. Thousands upon thousands of eyes had witnessed this scene. Now that he had emerged from the barrier and Yi Xuan had not, it was obvious that Yi Xuan had been killed by him. The absence of a body naturally meant it had been destroyed, so this debt could not be disavowed.
If some troubles were unavoidable, one could only choose to face them. However, if trouble could be avoided, Yang Haoran naturally wished to avert it; he certainly didn't want to be constantly plagued by issues.
And as for how to resolve this current problem and avoid future troubles, a rather good method had already formed in his mind when he decided against destroying Yi Xuan's corpse. If he used this move well, not only could he prevent future troubles from finding him, but he might even be able to turn the tables!
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