Xu Linglong narrowed her eyes slightly and gave Yuyang Daozi a couple of glances.
By all logic, Yuyang Daozi's cultivation was lower than Chu Xingchen's.
Whether killing or capturing first, the priority target should have been him.
But this man was wearing nearly half of Taodao Sect's finest spiritual treasures.
He undoubtedly had plenty of emergency teleportation talismans on him as well.
Capturing him would be far more difficult than capturing Chu Xingchen.
Chu Xingchen thought he had seized an opening, but hadn't she done the same to him?
Xu Linglong tightened her grip on the pitch-black long sword in her hand.
Today she would see exactly what this Chu Xingchen was made of — this man whose fortune was blurry and indeterminate, like primordial chaos itself.
"Shifting Moon, Parting Shadows."
Xu Linglong's voice remained warm and eager.
She raised her black sword and slashed through the air toward Chu Xingchen from a distance.
As the sword rose, a pitch-black moon appeared behind Xu Linglong, blotting out the sky.
As the sword fell, the dark moon erupted with aurora light, transforming into an endless tide of black current that surged toward him.
Chu Xingchen's eyes lifted slightly.
He raised Wanban and called out.
"Great Law of Luoyu!"
Righteous energy surged from the tip of Wanban's blade, spiraling forward to tear into the black current.
But the black current didn't behave like ordinary spiritual energy.
Normally, righteous energy would either obliterate such power or scatter it completely.
This black current had an unusual structure — when struck by the righteous energy, it splattered outward in all directions instead of dispersing.
In moments, the entire surroundings were drenched in black current.
Yuyang Daozi pressed forward as well, his spiritual treasure flashing like thunder.
His voice rang out coldly.
"Divine Art — Nine Heavens Thunder!"
Crimson thunder carrying an aura of destruction crashed down toward Xu Linglong.
Though Yuyang Daozi had not yet reached the Body Integration realm, his cultivation was at peak Nascent Soul.
Disciples of the Eighteen Immortal Gates could fight one full realm above ordinary cultivators in the Central State.
This was especially true for carefully nurtured core disciples.
This strike carried the power of a peak Nascent Soul cultivator's ultimate technique.
Xu Linglong couldn't afford to treat it as a mere Nascent Soul attack.
Her eyes flared with purple light.
Black current surged from her left hand, coiling around the crimson thunder.
The seemingly clumsy and weak black current actually managed to catch the Nine Heavens Thunder head-on, holding it at bay for a moment.
The purple in Xu Linglong's eyes brightened as she stared directly at Yuyang Daozi.
At the same instant, the violet Supreme Spiritual Robe on Yuyang Daozi stirred, and a mysterious aura rippled outward.
The purple in Xu Linglong's eyes rapidly faded.
She gave a cold snort, and the black current from her left hand wavered for a moment.
Yuyang Daozi's face remained the picture of righteous composure.
The thunder in his hand grew even more powerful, as if he had no idea what Xu Linglong had just attempted.
Perhaps he knew — he simply didn't care.
Yuyang Daozi had worn this Supreme Spiritual Robe at all times ever since sparring with Chu Xingchen.
It was specifically to guard against one or two elite cultivators who specialized in wicked illusion arts.
After all, without reaching the Mahayana realm, one's divine sense and perception hadn't peaked.
Dealing with extremely potent illusions remained somewhat troublesome.
This was what you might call learning from experience.
Xu Linglong shot a frosty glare at Yuyang Daozi.
For the time being, there wasn't much she could do against him in his full set of divine equipment.
Her eyes flashed with purple light once more as her gaze shifted to Chu Xingchen.
Chu Xingchen genuinely didn't have any of the treasured protective artifacts that top sects treated as priceless heirlooms.
Nor was there any strange light glowing around him.
And he met her gaze with complete composure.
A flicker of delight passed through Xu Linglong's heart — this kid was unexpectedly a fool...
In that instant, Xu Linglong's thoughts ground to a halt.
Her vision flipped completely upside down.
Peach blossom trees covered the mountains as far as the eye could see.
Where Chu Xingchen had been standing, a massive peach tree now grew.
Beneath it, a man and a woman leaned against each other intimately.
Xu Linglong's divine sense was still extended outward and had not been disrupted by any illusion.
She could still clearly perceive her actual surroundings.
Without a doubt — from a single glance, the one who had fallen under an illusion was none other than herself.
A smile appeared on Xu Linglong's face.
How interesting.
She narrowed her eyes, and the purple light within them flared brighter.
The peach blossoms before her dissolved and vanished completely.
"You really do know a bit of everything, don't you? And you're quite skilled at it too." Amusement dripped from Xu Linglong's every word.
"You're definitely tricky. But luck is on my side today. If I let you live much longer, I might not get another chance."
A brilliant blue light erupted from the Wanban in Chu Xingchen's hand.
A stream of water cascaded from the heavens, winding around his body.
"I have a suggestion for you."
"Oh?" Xu Linglong's black current spread frantically in all directions. She chuckled lightly. "Do you have some dying last words you'd like to share?"
Chu Xingchen raised Wanban, and the falling heavenly water slowly condensed around the blade.
"Save the big talk for after you've won. Otherwise you just end up looking like a clown."
"Ying Ling Great Law — The Highest Good Is Like Water!"
Yuyang Daozi halted his charge and stopped gathering power for Nine Heavens Thunder.
He allowed the black current Xu Linglong controlled to wash toward him.
But every last trace of the black current was blocked by Yuyang Daozi's layers of protective talismans and artifacts.
Yuyang Daozi formed a hand seal, and his spiritual energy surged skyward.
He called out.
"Divine Art — Nothing Forbidden!"
As his words fell, a beam of golden light shone down upon Chu Xingchen as he raised his sword to strike.
The azure water coiling around Wanban was now flecked with scattered gold.
Chu Xingchen's expression remained calm as he brought Wanban down.
All things fell silent.
Sword intent surged.
A thread of incredibly thin yet dazzlingly bright azure light flashed outward.
Beneath that azure light, the space here finally couldn't withstand the clash any longer.
It began to collapse and disintegrate, dissolving into pure, boundless black.
The smile on Xu Linglong's face faded as she let out a soft sigh.
If she didn't use some real skills, she probably wouldn't be able to endure this strike.
Yuyang Daozi's divine arts were a major problem as well.
If she were facing almost any other core disciple — even one at the Body Integration realm — things might have gone better for her.
This amplification ability of his was truly astonishing.
The strange black inscriptions that had been confined to Xu Linglong's hands slowly began circulating across her entire body.
Her eyes turned fully purple, and her pupils shifted to a pale pink.
The warmth vanished from her face, replaced by cold indifference.
The black long sword in her hand dissolved into flowing black current.
In an instant, it reformed into a bizarrely shaped black bow.
Xu Linglong drew the bow without an arrow.
Black current climbed upward along the bowstring.
She pinched the bowstring tightly with her fingertips, and a strange black blood seeped out, merging into the weapon.
Facing the azure light that arrived in the blink of an eye.
Xu Linglong released the bowstring!
A beam of black light carrying an extremely eerie aura shot forward.
Xu Linglong wasn't the least bit worried about whether this seemingly feeble black light could block the terrifyingly oppressive sword descending upon her.
Her face was calm, her tone relaxed.
"That was just a warm-up and you're already feeling confident? Now a new round begins. I hope your mouth stays as hard as it just was."
Chu Xingchen reached up and removed his mask, revealing a smiling face that seemed to carry a hint of disdain.
The two beams of light collided head-on.
Before the shockwave could even spread, this pocket of space collapsed entirely.
The annihilation of the space silently absorbed much of the destructive energy, but some still spilled outward.
Even just the overflow alone was enough to blast the unremarkable mountain near Jiaxi Town into a massive crater.
The three of them stood suspended in midair.
Chu Xingchen glanced around at the devastation and spoke with a grin.
"You're right — a new round has only just begun. Let's see if your mouth stays as stubborn as ever."
His words fell.
Countless streams of spiritual energy carved through the heavens above and the earth below, forming layer upon layer of densely packed array formations.
[
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