The big man gripped his broad-backed saber with both hands.
Blazing flames instantly ignited along the blade, and the surrounding air distorted from the intense heat.
He let out a loud roar and leaped high into the air.
The saber, carrying a violent and gale-force wind, hacked straight down toward the top of Luo Qingchen’s head.
With this strike, the power of the early Core Formation stage erupted without reservation.
Luo Qingchen stood her ground, not even blinking.
She leaned her body back half a step.
Her back and heels pressed right against the translucent yellow light curtain of the “Drawing a Prison” formation.
The saber energy crashed down with a boom.
No blood splattered.
The moment the violent, flaming saber energy touched the edge of the light curtain, it was entirely absorbed by the formation patterns.
The light curtain merely flickered slightly, its color becoming a shade deeper.
Luo Qingchen was completely unharmed.
She even raised her hand to cover her mouth as she let out a wide yawn.
Inside the light curtain.
Ling Xiyue’s originally frost-cold face instantly changed.
She gripped the Green Scale Sword so hard her knuckles turned white.
“Luo Qingchen! Don’t try to be a hero!”
Her cold voice echoed directly in Luo Qingchen’s mind via a divine sense transmission.
“Open the formation and retreat behind me!”
Xiao Bai was jumping up and down in anxiety beside her.
*Woof!* “You heartless wretch!”
“You already ran away, so what did you come back for!”
“You’d better just die out there, so you don’t end up dragging Lord Dog down with you!”
Luo Qingchen completely ignored the transmissions in her head.
She flipped her wrist.
The Azure Light Bracelet emitted a crisp mechanical clicking sound.
*Clack, clack.*
The bracelet instantly disassembled and restructured itself.
A streamlined longbow, deep green in color, appeared in her hand.
It was an Earth-grade peak-tier spiritual tool, the Sky-Ripping Bow.
Luo Qingchen gripped the bow with her left hand and hooked the bowstring—condensed from spatial spiritual energy—with her right.
She poured her middle Foundation Establishment stage spiritual energy into it without holding back.
She pulled back with force.
*Hum!*
The violent power of wind and thunder surged through the Canyon.
The surrounding air was compressed to the extreme, letting out a piercing sonic boom.
The terrifying pressure emanating from the Sky-Ripping Bow forced the Foundation Establishment cultivators in front to retreat several steps.
Their faces turned pale as they stared deathly at the bow in Luo Qingchen’s hand.
The big man and the Tianyin Gate female cultivator also halted their movements.
An Earth-grade peak-tier spiritual tool!
Just what was this girl’s background?
Luo Qingchen did not condense a spiritual energy arrow.
Instead, she freed up two fingers and fished out a Yellow-grade spiritual sword from her storage bag.
With nimble hands, she took the dozen or so storage bags she had just stolen and tied them firmly to the sword’s hilt with a tattered strip of cloth.
Then, she notched the broken iron sword onto the bowstring.
The tip of the sword was not aimed at the big man.
Nor was it aimed at anyone else.
Instead, she aimed directly toward the outer perimeter of the Canyon, deep into the dense forest where the demonic beasts were most concentrated.
Everyone was stunned.
‘What is this girl doing?’
Luo Qingchen grinned.
She released her fingers.
*Bang!*
A piercing sonic boom erupted.
The broken iron sword, carrying the entire life savings of over ten cultivators, turned into a streak of light like a falling star.
It instantly broke through the clouds and vanished past the horizon.
Its speed was so fast that even the divine sense of a Core Formation stage cultivator could not capture it.
The entire area fell into a deathly silence.
The wind blew through the Canyon, swirling a few fallen leaves.
“My storage bag!”
A Foundation Establishment cultivator was the first to react.
He let out a scream, turned around, and bolted toward the direction the sword had flown.
The remaining Foundation Establishment cultivators also grew bloodshot eyes.
That was the wealth they had accumulated over half a lifetime!
A group of people scrambled to rush out, one after another.
The big man and the female cultivator’s faces turned ashen.
The big man raised his saber and glared at Luo Qingchen.
“I’m going to slaughter you first!”
Luo Qingchen crossed her arms and leaned against the light curtain with a cold laugh.
“Kill me?”
“I’m standing right here in this formation. You just took a swing; did you even break my defense?”
She pointed a finger at the big man and the woman.
“This formation… even if you two joined forces and hacked at it for three days and three nights, you still wouldn’t break it.”
“However…”
Luo Qingchen intentionally dragged out her words.
“If you delay any longer…”
“Those subordinates who just ran out might have already picked up your storage bags.”
“The entire net worth of Core Formation big shots.”
“They will surely sigh and say, ‘Thank you for nature’s bounty.'”
“Then, they’ll just take your belongings and fly far, far away.”
The expressions of the big man and the female cultivator changed drastically.
The two quickly looked at each other.
In the world of cultivation, there was no such thing as trust.
They knew the character of their subordinates better than anyone else.
If those people truly got their hands on Core Formation stage storage bags, they would definitely run faster than rabbits and then swear to the death that they never saw them.
“You little brat, you just wait!”
The big man gnashed his teeth as he cursed.
“Next time we meet, I will definitely grind your bones to ash!”
Having said that, the big man put away his saber, turned into a streak of light, and desperately chased toward the dense forest.
The female cultivator didn’t even have time to leave a parting threat before she followed close behind.
In the blink of an eye, the dozen or so cultivators who had been surrounding them were completely gone.
The crisis was resolved.
Luo Qingchen let out a long, heavy breath.
Her back was already drenched in cold sweat.
If she had miscalculated even a single step just now, she would currently be nothing more than a pile of mush.
She turned around to face the translucent yellow light curtain.
Her mind raced with calculations.
‘How am I supposed to explain the fact that I abandoned Ling Xiyue and ran away half a month ago?’
‘I can’t just say I grew a conscience and came back.’
‘That would be too embarrassing.’
Luo Qingchen put away the Sky-Ripping Bow.
She placed her hands on her hips.
Through the light curtain, she began to lecture Ling Xiyue with a barrage of criticism.
“Senior Sister!”
“Are you a pig?”
“Do sword cultivators only know how to hack with swords?”
“A brain is a good thing to have. Why didn’t you bring yours when you left the house?”
“I clearly left a secret door in this formation before I left!”
“As long as you find the weak point and give it a light strike, the formation will break!”
“But you… you’ve been hacking away inside for half a month!”
“Don’t you know this formation gets stronger as it’s attacked?”
Inside the cave dwelling.
Ling Xiyue put away her Green Scale Sword.
She didn’t argue.
She looked at Luo Qingchen coldly through the light curtain.
“Where is the secret door?”
Her voice was calm, revealing no hint of joy or anger.
Luo Qingchen felt a secret surge of joy.
‘This silly woman really is easy to fool.’
She gestured triumphantly in the air with her finger.
“Watch closely.”
“Attack the formation from the inside with force, then feel for a spot that becomes exceptionally fragile. Strike it quickly, and the formation will break itself.”
Ling Xiyue did as she was told.
Her middle Core Formation stage spiritual energy flowed rapidly along the Green Scale Sword.
*Buzz.*
The formation emitted a light chime as it was attacked.
Immediately after, a fluctuation at a weak point appeared.
The location appeared right outside the light curtain.
Directly under Luo Qingchen’s feet.
The air suddenly went still.
The wind stopped.
Even Xiao Bai stopped barking to say disdainfully, “We discovered on the very first day that the formation’s weak point can only be broken from the outside.”
“The person inside can’t get out at all. You really have some wicked methods, you wretch.”
The lie was ruthlessly exposed.
The smugness on Luo Qingchen’s face instantly froze.
The corners of her mouth twitched twice.
Across the light curtain of the cave dwelling, Ling Xiyue’s divine sense landed on the weak point beneath Luo Qingchen’s feet.
Then, she slowly looked up, meeting Luo Qingchen’s eyes.
“Continue.”
“What other… ‘secret doors’ did you leave?”
Those few words were even colder than the sword energy from before.
Luo Qingchen’s face turned bright red.
She stuttered and stammered for a long time, unable to speak.
“Well, you see…”
“The path of formations is indeed ever-changing. I am ashamed of my inferiority. It seems I must practice diligently in the future.”
She hurriedly lifted her foot.
She stomped down hard on the formation core.
*Crack.*
The core shattered.
The translucent yellow light curtain instantly collapsed, turning into specks of spiritual light that vanished into the air.
Reclaiming the Array Flags would take too much time, and they had to move quickly, so she could only sacrifice this set of flags.
As the “Drawing a Prison” formation was lifted.
The moment the light curtain vanished.
Luo Qingchen met Ling Xiyue’s murderous gaze.
‘Not good!’