He Shu had stored up her strength and now erupted.
Upon newly opening her dantian, she was already a third-layer Qi Refining cultivator.
Shen Qingci and Bai Liuli successively transmitted their congratulations.
He Shu was high-spirited at this moment.
After she had settled her mood, she transmitted to the two of them, “This place is not suitable for lingering. Bai Liuli, you are at the peak of Golden Core. The current rift is still too small for you. Let us first find a place to hide.”
“Alright!”
The two answered in unison, decisive and crisp.
Technique—”Sword Traversing the Eight Directions”
Shen Qingci executed the sword-path movement technique, carrying the two of them as they rapidly fled far from the world-membrane rift.
White light flashed past, and the crowd hurriedly dodged aside.
Blood beasts blocked the white light and obstructed the path ahead, then were shredded by the white light into a ground of fragments.
Outside, the True Yang Palace hovered above the immortal city.
This massive immortal-engineering structure blotted out the sky and screened the sun, intercepting the light and casting down a vast swath of shadow.
Beside the True Yang Palace, the Wind-Rain Pavilion also stood quietly.
Its size was not large, resembling an ordinary pavilion.
One Void Refinement immortal-engineering construct and one quasi-Void Refinement immortal-engineering construct, their auras surging mighty and vast, suppressed the entire field.
The Master of the Wind-Rain Pavilion remained inside the Wind-Rain Pavilion, observing every stir of wind and grass outside through a light screen.
The Wind-Rain Pavilion was a Space Path immortal-engineering construct, built with one Void Refinement treasure and two Soul Transformation treasures as its skeleton.
The whole employed many Void Refinement precious materials.
Ordinarily speaking, immortal-engineering creations integrated offense and defense, composed of at least two treasures of the same grade, one for attack and one for defense, in order to avoid obvious shortcomings.
But the Wind-Rain Pavilion possessed only a single Void Refinement treasure, and so was merely quasi-Void Refinement, completely incomparable to the True Yang Palace formed from five Void Refinement treasures.
Technique—”Catching Wind and Shadows”
The Master of the Wind-Rain Pavilion activated the reconnaissance methods of the Wind-Rain Pavilion.
Any stir of wind or grass occurring within a radius of a thousand li was seen by the Master of the Wind-Rain Pavilion.
“The Thousand-Li Flourishing Rivers and Mountains Painting has already been refined nine-tenths by Hen Xiu. Only the Five Light Mountain region is desperately guarded by the Grief Valley City Lord and is extremely difficult to erode.”
The Master of the Wind-Rain Pavilion said this as he transmitted to Lin Bufan.
“Fellow Daoist Lin, the Grief Valley City Lord has currently stabilized his footing, but after all he is only Nascent Soul, which has an essential difference from Hen Xiu at the Soul Transformation realm. If he is thoroughly defeated, allowing the Thousand-Li Flourishing Rivers and Mountains Painting to be refined by Hen Xiu and completely destroying the wager, the reputation of your Lin family will not be preserved.”
This wager had been hosted by Lin Bufan with the Lin family’s reputation as guarantee.
Naturally he could not remain uninvolved.
“Mm, Fellow Daoist speaks reasonably.”
“Very well then. We four parties shall temporarily cease hostilities and assist the Grief Valley City Lord.”
Lin Bufan produced a jade slip with a flip of his palm, as if taking an object from empty air.
“Go!”
He pushed with one hand, and a spell wrapped the jade slip, shooting in as fast as lightning along the world-membrane rift into the painted grotto-heaven.
With Lin Bufan taking the lead, the other three tacitly ceased fire and employed various methods to transmit messages to their agents.
Inside the painted grotto-heaven, the four Void Refinement agents successively received the ceasefire orders.
Thus, under the astonished gaze of the Grief Valley City Lord, Ye Wuyin and Lin Youliang, who had originally been at daggers drawn, suddenly stopped fighting and instead turned to help him confront Hen Xiu.
“This… have I fallen under an illusion art? How did these two suddenly form a united front?”
The Grief Valley City Lord pondered over and over without understanding.
Before he could recover, something even more shocking occurred.
At the edge of his field of vision, a massive foot-shadow as huge as a mountain came flying in a kick, emitting a Nascent Soul-level Strength Path aura.
Technique—”Gangster Big Foot”
“Hahahaha! Grief Valley City Lord, this old lady has come to help you!”
Wang Cuihua had ordinary looks and a somewhat plump figure.
She was dressed as a peasant woman, appearing like a mortal.
But she walked upon the air, accompanied by rumbling sonic booms, and was unexpectedly also of late-stage Nascent Soul cultivation.
She mainly cultivated the Strength Path.
Originally she had been an ordinary farm village woman, but she had unexpectedly obtained a cultivator’s inheritance, and from then on her fate had transformed.
She had cultivated all the way to Nascent Soul cultivation.
Her temperament was fiery and unrestrained, and people had given her the nickname “Second Aunt Wang.”
Hen Xiu rapidly dodged, yet was still kicked squarely by the Gangster Big Foot.
This strike was powerful and heavy.
Hen Xiu was blasted flying several hundred steps away.
His mask shattered by half, revealing the countenance he had always concealed.
Wang Cuihua pressed the victory without reducing speed.
Several large foot-shadows were kicked out by her in succession, striking Hen Xiu one after another.
Hen Xiu was kicked dizzy and disoriented by the large foot-shadows.
Before he could even think, he was surrounded and attacked by the Grief Valley City Lord, Lin Youliang, and Ye Wuyin.
“Second Aunt Wang is still of such a temperament. This one admires you.”
The Grief Valley City Lord had finally become the one occupying the upper hand and hurriedly offered thanks to Wang Cuihua.
“Ah hahahaha! Grief Valley City Lord, you being able to hold out this long under a Soul Transformation cultivator is also not ordinary. Your Soul Path divine ability can summon twelve Nascent Soul soul beasts. Just this combat power alone far surpasses the likes of us.”
Wang Cuihua’s first impression was that of someone poor at socializing, but one must not judge a person by appearance.
Her eloquence was also not ordinary.
“We continue fighting! Being able to leap realms and slay a Soul Transformation cultivator, this glory is enough for this old lady to boast in front of those old fossils for several hundred years.”
The four surrounded and attacked Hen Xiu.
All sorts of spells smashed toward his body like raindrops.
Hen Xiu’s two fists could hardly match four hands.
He still summoned his natal treasure, the “Blood Pool,” before he stabilized the situation.
The Blood Pool divided into several long rivers of fresh blood, blocking the fierce combined offensive of the four great Nascent Souls for Hen Xiu.
Hen Xiu continuously poured immortal essence into the Blood Pool.
The blood-flow long rivers divided from the Blood Pool, under his control, plunged toward the earth.
On the ground, the fresh blood of humans and blood beasts had already dyed the great earth red.
Corpses were visible everywhere.
The target of the blood-flow long rivers was precisely this ground full of fresh blood.
As the blood rivers swept past, countless corpses instantly vanished, transforming into nourishment that enlarged the scale of the blood rivers.
“Blood Path cultivation brings disaster upon all living beings….. Hen Xiu, you have changed……”
The Grief Valley City Lord’s gaze was complex.
His attacks landing upon the blood rivers were like striking cotton, unable to raise even a sliver of wind or wave.
Hen Xiu found the Grief Valley City Lord’s words merely laughable.
His voice was hoarse as he opened his mouth to speak.
“Old thief of Grief Valley, what essential difference is there between you and me? It is merely that you are more high-sounding and dignified. At this stage, you still speak of sentiment?”
“……Hehe. From the moment you first made a move against me back then, Hen Xiu was already dead!”
No emotion could be heard in Hen Xiu’s tone, only causing one to speculate about the past between him and the Grief Valley City Lord, as well as their grudges and enmities.
Hen Xiu shook both hands.
The blood rivers divided once more, from four streams into eight, transforming into eight blood axes that chopped toward the four people.
Not only the blood axes, the blood mist filling the heavens inside the painted grotto-heaven was also mobilized by Hen Xiu.
Under Hen Xiu’s full-powered strike, the four Nascent Souls were thoroughly entangled and could no longer form an obstruction!
The four were all entangled, yet in Hen Xiu’s heart there was not a trace of joy.
The Blood Pool was certainly powerful, but it was not invincible.
Its shortcoming was extremely obvious: the consumption of immortal essence was enormous.
Hen Xiu could not maintain it for too long.
He dared not waste time.
His figure rapidly plunged downward, heading straight toward Five Light Mountain, which served as the core of the grotto-heaven.
The painting spirit was hidden within Five Light Mountain.
Hen Xiu had already refined nine-tenths of the heaven and earth and could sense the location of the painting spirit very clearly.
He shattered the mountain-body rocks and seized the painting spirit in one grab.
Strands and wisps of immortal essence were dispatched from within his body and poured into the painting spirit’s body.
The painting spirit struggled with all its might, yet could only watch helplessly as it was eroded and refined.
“No!”
The Grief Valley City Lord’s voice was desolate.
He roared aloud, yet was unable to stop Hen Xiu.
He could only watch helplessly as Hen Xiu was about to thoroughly refine the painting spirit and become the new master of the grotto-heaven.
A sliver of a successful smile hung at the corner of Hen Xiu’s mouth.
But just when the refinement progress had only the final half-tenth remaining, his pupils abruptly contracted!