The frost-white sword light pressed down again.
The nearest corpse puppet raised its arm, blood energy surging wildly, condensing into a dark red barrier.
The sword light arrived in an instant, striking the barrier with a piercing crack.
The next moment, the dark red blood barrier was torn apart by frost energy.
The corpse puppet let out a furious roar as its entire arm was cleanly severed.
The vast gap in cultivation made the corpse puppet’s once-proud body as fragile as thin paper.
Even so, they showed no sign of retreat.
Blood energy coiled around the shoulder, beginning to repair the wounded corpse puppet’s flesh.
All three corpse puppets let out simultaneous howls, pushing through the residual sword energy to charge at Lu Hanyi.
Lu Hanyi’s eyes darkened slightly.
Zhaoxue swept across, sending sword energy flying.
Spiritual power rolled through the ruins like a cold tide, forcibly driving the corpse puppets back several zhang.
As the light slowly dissipated, the entire field was draped in pale frost.
The three corpse puppets were likewise covered in a frost shell, their movements unnaturally sluggish.
A trace of blood seeped from the corner of Lu Hanyi’s lips.
Sealing Xu Ning’s spiritual power earlier had already aggravated the old injuries in her meridians.
Now, forcibly channeling Zhaoxue sent that searing pain surging through her once more.
Lu Hanyi raised a hand to wipe away the bloodstain, her gaze settling on the flesh of those corpse puppets.
Her sword energy could sever their bodies, but it couldn’t truly cripple them.
As one side waned and the other waxed, the drain on her was too great.
Inside the guest room, Xu Ning sat up, bracing himself against the bed’s edge.
He had noticed that dense black aura as well.
Yesterday, it had been…
The green spiritual power just sealed deep within his meridians began to grow restless again.
Xu Ning managed to step out of the guest room.
The moment he crossed the threshold, he was drawn by the commotion in the distance.
The scene before him was like immortals locked in battle.
Frost energy and blood light clashed back and forth, half the sky dyed in flickering brightness and shadow.
Occasionally, sword energy shot skyward,
like the fleeting, vast sword light that had once appeared in Green Pond Town.
The sword energy tore through the clouds overhead, only to be swallowed an instant later by surging black aura.
Hearing the familiar ring of the sword, Xu Ning’s thoughts churned.
Something major must have happened.
But what could he possibly do?
As he hesitated, footsteps approached from the side.
Sun Buping emerged from the end of the corridor.
His head was lowered, half his body barely supported by the wall.
Blood pooled across the floor.
“Brother Sun?!”
Xu Ning’s heart sank like a stone.
He rushed forward to support him.
Sun Buping pressed nearly all his weight onto Xu Ning’s arm.
He raised his eyes with difficulty, his lips moving a few times.
“Run…”
“Run now, you…”
Before he could finish, a dull thud sounded from behind them.
Xu Ning turned around to see a tall figure walking toward them.
Tu Lian stopped a few zhang away, its gaze landing on Xu Ning’s face.
The oppressive aura of mid Foundation Establishment pressed down on him.
Xu Ning felt as if an invisible hand was strangling his throat, making even breathing agonizingly difficult.
Its gaze lingered only for a moment.
Then Tu Lian looked away.
A mortal who had just completed Qi Introduction wasn’t worth even a fraction of its attention.
Sun Buping swayed, then suddenly reached out and grabbed Xu Ning’s sleeve.
The motion seemed hurried, yet his grip was firm.
“Come with me.”
He was still coughing blood as he spoke, but his steps had already turned toward the guest room at the side of the corridor.
It was the room he had stayed in last night.
Xu Ning was about to speak when he saw half a bloodstained yellow talisman clutched between Sun Buping’s fingers.
His heart stirred, and he fled with Sun Buping.
Tu Lian followed immediately.
Certain that Sun Buping was already spent, it stepped into the corridor at a leisurely pace, trailing them toward the guest room.
Sun Buping kicked open the door and shoved Xu Ning inside.
The moment the door bolt fell, a heavy impact slammed against the door panels.
The entire room shook.
Dust rained down from the beams, and the window paper cracked in several places.
Xu Ning steadied himself against the table’s corner, barely keeping his balance.
The room was dark.
With the door shut, only a thin sliver of grayish light leaked through the window crack.
The layout of this guest room was probably identical to his, but right now he couldn’t tell what it originally looked like.
There was a faint bitter, scorched smell in the air.
Xu Ning pressed his fingers against the table’s edge and felt a fine layer of ash.
He glanced down.
Sun Buping leaned back against the door and slowly slid down to sit.
Blood was seeping from his body endlessly, yet the hand gripping his blade remained steady on his knee.
Xu Ning looked at him, his voice growing heavy.
“Brother Sun, what do you plan to do?”
Sun Buping pulled at the corner of his mouth.
“No way around it. I can’t beat it.”
Xu Ning’s brows knitted tight.
Sun Buping pointed at the window and gasped out:
“When it comes in, I’ll hold it off for a while.”
“You can still escape through the window now.”
“Go find Lady Lu, cough!—”
He couldn’t help but cough a few times, blood-flecked spittle splattering across his collar.
“Maybe… you’ll still live.”
Before Xu Ning could speak, the footsteps outside the door had already stopped.
The next moment, a grayish-white hand pressed against the door.
Boom!
The door panel burst apart on the spot.
Wood splinters flew everywhere, the door bolt sent hurtling through the air.
Sun Buping was thrown aside by the shockwave, his shoulder and back slamming heavily into the wall.
Tu Lian stepped into the room.
Several yellow and white talisman papers flew up from the ground, then burst into violent flames.
The talismans transformed into several thick threads of spiritual light, swiftly wrapping around Tu Lian’s legs.
It merely took half a step forward.
Crack.
The talisman threads snapped.
The fire scorched its grayish-white flesh, leaving only a few burns.
Sun Buping’s gaze darkened.
He knew he couldn’t kill it.
But the fact that those high-grade Binding Spirit Talismans had done absolutely nothing was hard for him to accept.
Tu Lian’s gaze swept across the room, finally settling back on Sun Buping.
“Son of the Sun family.”
“Is this all you prepared?”
Sun Buping rose, gripping the table’s edge, his left hand clenching the short blade.
“That’s enough!”
The moment the words left his mouth, he lunged forward.
The short blade slashed toward Tu Lian’s throat, the residual spiritual power on the edge compressed into a dark green gleam.
Tu Lian didn’t dodge.
It raised a hand and caught the blade, its five fingers clamping down, the grinding sound of iron and stone exploding through the room.
Sun Buping’s wrist dropped sharply.
Before he could pull the blade back, Tu Lian’s other hand slammed into his chest.
Bang!
Sun Buping flew backward, crashing through the wooden table before smashing heavily into the wall.
Dust shook loose from the wall.
He slid to the ground, coughing up a massive mouthful of blood.
This time, he couldn’t push himself back up.
Tu Lian walked toward him step by step, looking down at him from above.
“The Sun family.”
Its stiff lips slowly peeled open into a grin.
“Still this useless.”
“Women can’t hold the line, and the men just lie there waiting to die.”
Sun Buping’s fingers clawed into the floor, but he could no longer lift his head to cast a hateful glare at his enemy.
Xu Ning watched him.
This quiet, solitary cultivator who had barely spoken the whole journey now couldn’t even stand, yet still clung desperately to that short blade in his hand.
The contempt in that fiend’s words had trampled everything he had into the mud.
His meridians still ached, but Xu Ning slowly straightened himself up.
He stared coldly at Tu Lian, all his usual gentleness gone.
“Something already dead—how dare it judge the living?”
Tu Lian’s steps halted.
It slowly turned its head, fixing Xu Ning with an icy stare.
Being rebuked to its face by a mortal enraged it more than Sun Buping’s short blade ever could.
It said nothing more.
The next instant, Tu Lian’s hand shot toward Xu Ning’s head.
The Foundation Establishment corpse puppet’s speed erupted without warning, the few paces of distance erased in an instant.
That icy hand was already pressing toward Xu Ning’s face.
Half an inch more, and it would crush his skull.
At that very moment, the seal on Xu Ning’s wrist blazed to life.
The sealed spiritual power, as if finally finding a vent, violently burst through the sword-energy barrier.
Torrential spiritual power poured out.
No technique, no order.
The purest flood of spiritual energy, carrying the vitality of green, slammed into Tu Lian with brute force.
Boom!
Tu Lian was sent flying on the spot, crashing heavily into the courtyard.
Xu Ning was drained of all strength as well.
His whole body slid down along the wall, his shoulder and back striking the base, unable to lift his hand again for a long while.
The room suddenly fell silent.
Splintered wood and dust were still drifting down, the wide-open door looking almost comical.
Sun Buping stared blankly at the scene, then suddenly laughed between coughs of blood.
“Never thought…”
His voice was broken and intermittent, but the laughter couldn’t be held back.
“Brother Xu, so you were hiding your strength all along.”
“If Luo Zhao finds out, cough, cough… his face will probably turn green.”
Xu Ning tilted his head back, gasping for breath, and smiled bitterly: “I wasn’t hiding anything.”
He had some idea where the spiritual power in his body came from, but he didn’t dare dwell on it.
“Now then, Brother Sun.”
“You deliberately dragged me into this room. Surely you’re not saying you had no preparations at all?”
The smile on Sun Buping’s face faded.
He was silent for a moment before speaking in a low voice:
“I do.”
Xu Ning was about to ask more when a dull thud suddenly sounded from the courtyard.
Tu Lian had risen to its feet again.
But its wounds were no longer closing as swiftly as before.
Residual green spiritual light pressed between the cracked, rotting flesh, suppressing the blood energy that tried to surge back together.
The aura around Tu Lian grew more and more savage.
The oppressive might of mid Foundation Establishment rolled outward, rattling the bricks and beams of the courtyard violently.
“You… should… die!”
The roar hadn’t faded before Tu Lian stepped forward.
A violent wave of air exploded outward, tearing the entire roof into the sky.
The walls collapsed completely, dust wrapping around shattered tiles and splintered wood as it scattered in every direction.
The dim room suddenly became very bright.
Xu Ning and Sun Buping’s figures were fully exposed among the collapsed beams.
Tu Lian struck without hesitation.
But the moment it stepped into the room, the green light remaining on its chest suddenly flickered.
Spiritual power seeped into the cracked wound, burrowing deep into the rotting flesh like fine roots.
Tu Lian’s swinging arm suddenly froze mid-motion.
It lowered its head to look at its chest, its stiff face showing hesitation for the first time.
Tu Lian’s hands clawed at its own head.
“Haah… ugh aaah!”
Tu Lian screamed, a deep terror surfacing in those dead, empty eyes.
“Don’t refine me…”
“I’m not dead yet…”
“Master…”
“I’m not dead yet aaah!”