The formation deployed by the cultivators of Xuanqing Palace was already capable of contending against an Overlord-class demon beast.
To them, the strength displayed by Lu Ye at that moment was no less than that of those fabled Overlord-class demon beasts.
Standing twenty zhang apart, the atmosphere was tense, with a murderous aura subtly surging.
Standing in his original spot, Lu Ye suddenly turned around and swung his saber, severing a ghost cultivator who had silently approached him and was about to strike. The blade’s light flashed by, cutting the ghost cultivator cleanly into two halves.
In the moments before his death, his eyes were filled with disbelief, unable to understand how he had betrayed his presence.
The might of this single slash deterred other hidden ghost cultivators from acting rashly again; the perceptiveness of Lu Yiye from the Righteous Blood Sect seemed excessively powerful. For ghost cultivators, attempting to ambush him was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
Moreover, that slash seemed like a signal. Following the death of that ghost cultivator, a shouted "Kill" suddenly erupted from the ranks of the Xuanqing Palace cultivators.
In the next instant, a deluge of magic and spells, along with controlled weapons, bombarded Lu Ye’s position, dense and fast as a torrential downpour.
Boosted by the Move-Like-The-Wind Spirit Runes, Lu Ye swiftly advanced while dodging one attack after another. Within the sight of the Xuanqing Palace group of cultivators, Lu Ye’s figure was as agile as a fish in water. Most of the magic and controlled weapons they launched missed, hitting empty air, and the few that did make contact were blocked by the spirit runes that Lu Yiye had activated. Find adventures at Freewebnovel
In a brief three breaths’ time, he had already closed the twenty zhang.
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Facing Lu Ye was a physique cultivator holding a spirit artifact big shield upright in front of him. His blood Qi and spirit force surged together in an indomitable stance reminiscent of the Vajra Indestructible.
Lu Ye’s right arm, holding the saber, suddenly swelled, rich blood Qi gathering towards it. He aimed at the opponent’s spirit artifact big shield and hacked down with his saber.
A Single Flash!
Under the shocked gazes of everyone, the big shield with nine prohibitions directly shattered, breaking into pieces that scattered all around. The protective role it was supposed to serve failed to manifest even in the slightest. Furthermore, the Boulder Mountain Saber continued its motion, felling the physique cultivator behind the big shield to the ground.
With the fall of this physique cultivator, a small gap appeared in the stringent formation of Xuanqing Palace.
Lu Ye’s figure charged through this gap into the crowd like a tiger descending the mountain, his controlled weapon swirling around him, with his Boulder Mountain Saber continuously chopping down.
When he was at Level 8 in cultivation, he had once entered the residence of a Ten Thousand Demons Ridge faction, only to be beaten into a humiliating retreat, scurrying away in disarray.
But now, his cultivation had progressed to Level 9, and he had also been baptized three times by the Heaven’s Augury, significantly stronger than before.
At this moment, Lu Ye possessed the capability to annihilate a sect on his own.
If he weren’t that confident, why would he have dared to charge into the residence of Xuanqing Palace?
Single-handedly facing so many enemies, the best strategy was to break into their ranks. Though this approach might lead to being surrounded and thus seemed perilously risky, it also better allowed him to control the situation, limiting the number of enemies that could attack him at the same time, effectively restraining them.
Conversely, maintaining a distance would avoid encirclement, but once distance was created, everyone could attack him using controlled weapons or spells, which would only worsen the situation.
Charging into their ranks, he was surrounded on all sides, yet only seven or eight people could attack Lu Ye at the same time, and all were within close combat range. Lu Ye did not need to worry about disturbances from controlled weapons or spells.
With each enemy killed, a few more wounds would appear on his body. Fortunately, Lu Ye’s physical strength was sufficient; though the wounds looked severe, they were merely superficial. He always protected his vital parts with Defense Spirit Runes.
The scene turned into chaos.
Perched on Lu Ye’s shoulder, Amber occasionally let out tiger roars. Each roar ensured misfortune for a group of people.
In this chaotic situation, a delicate figure silently emerged from behind the Xuanqing Palace cultivators. It was Yiyi.
When Lu Ye broke into the residence of Xuanqing Palace and killed the first few cultivators he encountered, Yiyi had darted out of Amber and hidden underground.
By this time, she emerged, unnoticed by any Xuanqing Palace cultivator.
In her hand, she held a scroll-like treasure, none other than the Nine Worlds map bestowed by Madam Yun.
Soundlessly approaching several of the bewildered Xuanqing Palace cultivators from behind, while Lu Ye was mass-killing and drawing everyone’s attention, she draped the Nine Worlds map over those people. In an instant, several cultivators disappeared without a trace, while inside the map, several ink figures appeared, each with an expression of shock, clearly clueless about what had happened to them.
The Nine Worlds map was a spirit treasure-level artifact, always managed and used by Yiyi. Although Yiyi’s current strength only allowed her to unleash a fraction of its power, it was already enough to deal with cultivators of the Spirit Stream Realm.
After capturing those people, Yiyi immediately dove deep into the ground, burrowing dozens of zhang downward.
With her current strength and even though she controlled the Nine Worlds map, it was still difficult for her alone to kill those people. Moreover, she couldn’t trap others for too long—not because the Nine Worlds map wasn’t powerful but because her strength was still insufficient.
If her strength were sufficient, she could control the life and death of any enemy captured within the Nine Worlds map, killing them inexplicably with just a thought.
Since she couldn’t trap her enemies for long nor easily kill them, the only option was to release them.
Thus, after burrowing to a position dozens of zhang deep, Yiyi activated the power of the Nine Worlds map and released the people she had captured…
Those cultivators didn’t utter a single sound; they died explosively on the spot.
At such a depth, surrounded by immense pressure from the earth, how could cultivators of the Spirit Stream Realm withstand it?
Only Yiyi, a non-corporeal spiritual body, could freely move through the ground.
She charged out again, replicating her previous actions!
The cultivators of Xuanqing Palace were petrified!
Originally, Lu Ye’s solo intrusion into their residence to kill had made them feel belittled and insulted, filling their hearts with endless rage.
But at this moment, they realized that he truly had such capabilities.
In just less than the time of a single cup of tea, more than thirty of their eighty-plus people had died. Even the physique cultivators wielding spiritual artifact big shields couldn’t block his ferocious strikes. Shields and bodies were cleaved in two.
What puzzled them even more was that many others had silently disappeared without a trace; no one knew where they had gone, yet they were gone.
Of the eighty-plus people, only less than thirty remained. The plaza before the Heaven’s Augury Hall was a river of blood and a mountain of corpses, with the slaughter blooming amidst the blood and bodies.
The killer, drenched in blood, was like a mad demon. He hadn’t spoken a single word or uttered a sound from beginning to end, engaged solely in the act of killing, seemingly determined to exterminate the entire Xuanqing Palace!
So many had already perished, and those few surviving Xuanqing Palace cultivators were scared witless.
"Retreat to Nine Provinces!"
Finally, someone unable to take it any longer shouted loudly.
The followers quickly gathered.
The surviving Xuanqing Palace cultivators fought as they retreated, running toward the Heaven’s Augury Hall. One by one, they disappeared in front of the Heaven’s Augury Pillar.
However, during this process, several more fell under his blade.
Only when Lu Ye could no longer see any Xuanqing Palace cultivators within his field of vision did he finally stop moving.
Yiyi emerged from underground, looked around, and exclaimed in shock, "Where are they?"
Using the Nine Worlds map and her unique Spiritual Body, she had been continuously transporting enemies away, only to find they had suddenly disappeared, leaving only numerous corpses on the battlefield.
"They ran."
Lu Ye shook off the blood from his Boulder Mountain Saber and sheathed it.
"Such a pity."
She had thought that this time she could eliminate all the people of Xuanqing Palace. It turned out some had still escaped, but the number was probably not large.
Fifty miles away from the Xuanqing Palace residence, numerous figures hurrying at high speed were led by none other than Governor Situ Han of the Three Saints Sanctuary, followed by other elite cultivators from the Sanctuary.
The Three Saints Sanctuary bordered the Xuanqing Palace residence. This generation of Spirit Stream Realm cultivators from the Sanctuary didn’t have many notable figures, and their overall strength was weak, so they were often bullied by Xuanqing Palace and the other two forces from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge.
This was why the Three Saints Sanctuary initially wanted Lu Ye to join their residence for cultivation, hoping to also attract Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan to help ease the awkward situation of their residence. However, both Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan had been promoted and had moved to Cloud River.
The matter of letting Lu Ye join their cultivation had thus fallen through.
Moreover, when the residence of the Three Saints Sanctuary was last attacked, several nearby forces from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge had greatly participated, especially Xuanqing Palace. As old neighbors, the grievances between them were too numerous to recount.
Now, even though the residence of the Three Saints Sanctuary had been rebuilt, it lacked merits, and thus the nature’s spiritual energy available within the residence and its surrounding area was much less than before.
So, upon receiving Lu Ye’s message, Situ Han immediately mobilized nearly half of his forces, heading furiously towards Xuanqing Palace’s residence to coordinate with Lu Ye and avenge past grievances.
Following behind Situ Han, the group of cultivators were all eager for action, brimming with a murderous aura.
"Junior Sister Phong," Situ Han suddenly spoke.
"Yes?" Standing behind him, Phong Yue quickly responded. Phong Yue was now at Level 9 of cultivation. Moreover, with the help of the Three Saints Sanctuary, she had gathered enough merit to purchase a Heaven Rank technique and felt it wouldn’t be long before she could advance to 7th Heaven.
"Where is Brother Yiye now?" Situ Han asked.
"Let me check," said Phong Yue, hurriedly sending a message to Lu Ye to inquire about the situation.
Moments later, her expression turned strange, "Fifth Brother says he’s currently inside Xuanqing Palace’s residence."
Upon hearing this, Situ Han’s face slightly changed, "Brother Yiye is so impatient; has he already started killing inside?"
After a brief moment of thought, he channeled his spirit force and shouted, "My fellow brothers and sisters, Fellow Daoist Yiye has already charged into Xuanqing Palace’s residence and might now be surrounded by enemies. Let’s speed up and go support him!"
"Yes!" the cultivators answered loudly; the next moment, everyone’s speed increased markedly.
An incense stick’s time later, dozens of people led by Situ Han hurried to the outside of Xuanqing Palace’s residence, but upon looking over, the protective array of Xuanqing Palace was already operational, extending from a certain direction into the residence, the ground strewn with corpses and blood.
Is this... over? Situ Han was somewhat stunned.