"Qin Huangtian!!"
An Xiyue spat the name, syllable by venomous syllable. Her fists clenched so tightly her nails drew blood beneath the skin. An ocean of hatred and murderous intent churned in her eyes. This man was the one she dreamt of tearing limb from limb. Every fiber of her being screamed to charge, to fight him to the death right then and there. But the sliver of rationality she clung to screamed louder: It would be suicide. Charging meant only her death, leaving him utterly unscathed.
Back near the Hundred-Legged Blood Octopus, the distance had been too great; she hadn't recognized her pursuer as Qin Huangtian. Seeing him materialize now, shock warred with primal fear within her.
Qin Huangtian, however, showed no surprise upon seeing An Xiyue. He hovered tens of meters away, looking down on her with cold disdain. A faint, mocking smile touched his lips. "Niece An. You've led me on quite the chase..."
"..." An Xiyue remained silent, her jaw clenched so tightly her teeth might crack. She stared at him, unblinking, radiating pure hatred. Her right hand moved subtly behind her back. A flicker of movement, and a deep blue talisman appeared in her grasp.
Qin Huangtian gave her a condescending glance but swiftly dismissed her. His gaze shifted to the distant swirl of seven-colored light, now condensed to only a few meters across. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Last time we met, you were merely at the eighth level of Golden Core. To reach Nascent Soul in barely half a year... truly astonishing." His voice hardened, dripping with malice. "A pity... that your genius ends here today!"
Qin Huangtian had nursed a grudge against Lin Feng since the Five Cities Tournament, blaming him for 'humiliating' his son. Encountering him now within the Blue Moon Sect ruins ignited that fury anew. Killing Lin Feng served two purposes: silencing a witness and seizing the treasures he undoubtedly possessed, like the strange flame. Lin Feng's advancement to Nascent Soul was surprising, but not intimidating. A fledgling Nascent Soul brat, Qin Huangtian thought derisively. Even with powerful artifacts like that flame, he's leagues below my ninth-level strength!
Qin Huangtian had no patience for games. Even as his words hung in the air, his killing intent erupted, raw and unrestrained. His right hand snapped up. The dark golden Vajra Pestle materialized before him. He aimed it directly at the swirling light where Lin Feng was consolidating his nascent soul.
"No!" On the ground, An Xiyue gasped in horror and desperation. Gritting her teeth, she unleashed every shred of her true essence. Her hidden right arm whipped forward. The deep blue talisman in her hand erupted with blinding radiance, transforming into a beam of jade-blue light over a hundred feet long, streaking towards Qin Huangtian!
"Hmm?" Qin Huangtian arched an eyebrow, mildly surprised. He glanced sideways at An Xiyue, utterly unruffled. His left hand formed a seal and slapped outwards into the empty air beside him. Whoosh! The air rippled violently. Countless specks of golden light coalesced instantaneously, forming a massive, pillar-sized phantom image – an exact replica of the Vajra Pestle hovering before him! This phantom shot forward like lightning, intercepting An Xiyue's azure beam in mid-air. BOOM!! A deafening explosion ripped through the valley. Both attacks shattered against each other, dissipating into motes of fading energy.
"A mere mid-grade Tier Four talisman? You thought that could touch me?" Qin Huangtian scoffed, effortlessly nullifying An Xiyue's strongest trump card. His right hand was already in motion. The dark golden Vajra Pestle shot forward like a bolt, piercing into the swirling mass of seven-colored light a thousand meters away in the blink of an eye!
"Disastrous!!" An Xiyue's face drained of color. Her last desperate gambit had failed utterly. Her heart hammered against her ribs as she stared fixedly at Lin Feng's location.
CLANG!!!
A resounding metallic clash erupted from within the colored light! The swirling radiance churned violently, contracting inward at an accelerated rate. Simultaneously, the Vajra Pestle was violently repelled, vibrating wildly as it flew backwards.
A flicker of surprise crossed Qin Huangtian's eyes. He waved his hand, recalling the pestle to hover above his head. His brow furrowed as he watched a figure gradually materialize within the receding light. Suspended before this figure was a flying sword shimmering with crimson-silver light, emitting a low, resonant hum.
"Qin Huangtian!" Lin Feng stood tall, wisps of colorful energy still swirling around him. His expression was grave as he locked eyes with the man floating in the distance. Recognition sparked within him, tinged with wariness.
His gaze flickered briefly towards An Xiyue and Xiaoqiu. Seeing them unharmed brought a flicker of relief. His focus snapped back to Qin Huangtian. Lin Feng's mind raced, assessing the immediate threat and formulating countermeasures.
Fresh from surviving the tribulation, his nascent soul newly formed, Lin Feng had intended to delve deeper into the cultivation insights left by the two Void Refinement experts, hoping to solidify his newfound power. Qin Huangtian's untimely arrival was profoundly unwelcome. The direct attack left no room for doubt – hostility was declared. Battle was inevitable.
Facing a ninth-level Nascent Soul expert? Honestly, Lin Feng wasn't confident. Half a day ago, escape would have been his only option. But now, solidified as a Nascent Soul cultivator himself… perhaps he could fight.
"Futile resistance... Die!"
Qin Huangtian granted him no time for contemplation. After a brief, contemptuous assessment, he attacked again. The Vajra Pestle rocketed forth once more. Simultaneously, his left hand traced a complex pattern in the air. Golden light flared brilliantly from his palm. A phantom image of a massive golden chain materialized, extending infinitely like a coiling serpent. In an instant, it multiplied, weaving and crisscrossing to form an immense, sky-blanketing net of chains! This entangling net followed hot on the heels of the Vajra Pestle, sweeping down to engulf Lin Feng completely.
Qin Huangtian, unleashing his full power now, projected an aura of terrifying might far exceeding his earlier casual strike. Facing such overwhelming force, Lin Feng knew blocking head-on was suicide. He prepared to intercept the Vajra Pestle with his Crimson Soul Flying Sword while simultaneously attempting to dodge out of the net's crushing embrace. But suddenly, a spark of insight – both alien and deeply familiar – flashed through his mind.
In that split second of realization, Lin Feng's eyes blazed with sharp focus. The true essence within his body surged violently. The swirling colors around him contracted abruptly, then flared outwards again – but now solely as a vibrant cyan radiance! A fierce gale whipped up from the ground around him, his robes snapping violently in the wind.
In that instant, Lin Feng seemed to merge with the wind itself. He lifted his right foot, preparing to leap skyward.
"Swish!!" Yet, at that precise moment, the Vajra Pestle struck first. It pierced through Lin Feng's chest the instant his feet left the ground!
"Ahhh!!" A scream of pure terror tore from An Xiyue's throat. But then, her eyes widened in disbelief. The expected spray of blood didn't come. The figure skewered by the pestle merely distorted, then dissolved into scattered wisps of cyan light.
—An afterimage!
"Hmph! Parlor tricks!" Qin Huangtian snorted derisively, already tracking Lin Feng's true movement even as An Xiyue processed the shock. His contemptuous gaze snapped to the side, catching sight of Lin Feng's figure materializing unexpectedly in the air dozens of meters away. Instead of recalling the pestle, Qin Huangtian clenched his left fist downward. The massive net of golden chains in the sky shifted direction, rushing to ensnare Lin Feng!
From a distance, it seemed as though Lin Feng, while dodging the pestle, had flown straight into the waiting chains' embrace.
Lin Feng's expression remained unnervingly calm. As he ascended, the fluctuations of his true essence intensified further. He didn't pause. Planting his foot on empty air, he lunged again! A cyan flash enveloped him, seeming to create a momentary afterimage. Flicker! In the next instant, the afterimage split. Two identical Lin Fengs shot outwards in opposite directions! But it didn't stop. Each figure, after darting a dozen meters, flickered once more – and split again! Now there were four! Four figures, streaking towards four different points of the compass. Before anyone could discern any difference between them... Flicker! Flicker! Flicker! Flicker! Four became eight!
The sight left An Xiyue, watching from afar, utterly dumbfounded. The eight figures were indistinguishable, flawless copies. No ordinary illusion technique could achieve this... it surpassed mere phantom images.
Even Qin Huangtian visibly faltered for a split second. His powerful spiritual sense swept out instantly, probing the eight figures. Impossible! Shock jolted through him. His probing sense couldn't distinguish the real one! Each figure seemed surrounded by an invisible vortex of wind that deflected his spiritual scan!
Though startled, his reflexes didn't fail him. His left hand clenched violently in the air. The net of chains erupted with blinding golden light, contracting with terrifying speed to envelop all eight figures – if he couldn't find the real one, he'd crush them all! CRUNCH! SCRAPE! The golden chains twisted and constricted violently, like a colossal grinding machine. All eight figures were simultaneously torn apart!
But the fragments weren't flesh and blood. They were shards of light – every single one of them was a phantom!
"What?!" Genuine shock, laced with a trace of alarm, flashed across Qin Huangtian's face. His head snapped upwards, searching higher. There, hovering a hundred meters above the area his net had covered, was another figure. Lin Feng! He hadn't sensed him escape at all!
"Heh. Parlor tricks, you say?" Lin Feng looked down from his vantage point, a spark of exhilaration in his eyes as he met Qin Huangtian's astonished gaze. He murmured, almost to himself, "Then... how about this?"
Before the words fully faded, a brilliant blue light erupted from his body! His right hand swept outwards in a graceful arc before him. As he did so, sapphire radiance coalesced violently in the air above. In the blink of an eye, it formed a crescent moon over a hundred feet wide, glowing with an intense, cold light!
And there, silhouetted perfectly against the center of this newly formed blue moon, was the figure of Qin Huangtian far below!