Han Yi, suspended in mid-air with a dazed expression, suddenly snapped awake. A cold glint flashed in his eyes.
In an instant, his figure blurred. The Soul-Severing Pill he had raised to his lips touched only an afterimage.
Not good.
The three cultivators surrounding him felt their hearts pound.
The Bearded Man instantly hurled his broad black blade. Instead of slashing downward, the blade shimmered, releasing dozens of illusory blades that rained down around Han Yi, forming a ten-meter radius cage.
The swirling blades coalesced into a shimmering Blade Shadow Barrier, a wall of lethal shadows.
But as fast as the Bearded Man was, Han Yi was faster.
The moment his Divine Soul had transformed into a towering pagoda within his Sea of Consciousness, he had broken free. In that Kshana, he knew exactly what he needed to do.
The other two Mid-Foundation Establishment cultivators were secondary targets. The true threat lay in the mysterious Black-Robed Female Cultivator.
With a mere wave of her hand, she had plunged his Divine Soul into a dazed stupor.
It looked like a Soul Technique, but Han Yi knew better. He had thoroughly researched all the techniques of the world, and only one possibility remained for a silent, soul-targeting method that wasn't a Soul Technique.
Southern Border, Shamanic Art.
This was not the traditional Shamanic Art practiced by the ancestral human tribes of the True Dawn Grand Void Heaven, which revered the Shaman God and sought to unlock the power of the Witchcraft Path. While the Southern Border also called their practices "Shamanic Art," their faith lay not with the Shaman God, but with Evil Gods.
Cultivators who emerged from the Southern Border wielding such arts were known by another name: Evil Witches.
Each Evil Witch was a nightmare for ordinary cultivators, as one never knew what vile spells they might unleash, capable of claiming lives silently and without warning.
The Black-Robed Female Cultivator before Han Yi was undoubtedly an Evil Witch.
Having confirmed this, Han Yi marked her as a mortal enemy.
As the Soul-Severing Pill hurtled toward him, he swiftly dodged, sidestepping over twenty meters. With a flick of two fingers, a surge of Blacklight erupted from his Storage Ring, illuminating the area with dazzling intensity.
The Black Light Broken Sword.
Simultaneously, within his Sea of Consciousness, the Ninefold Soul Tower stood unshaken, enduring the strange fluctuations without succumbing to the earlier disorientation.
By the time his afterimage vanished and the Blade Shadow Barrier materialized around his original position, the Blacklight sword was already upon the Evil Witch.
The slash of the Black Light Broken Sword was impossibly fast, a mere tremor that left a scratch across the void. The scratch's beginning and end points appeared simultaneously, with no discernible sequence.
The slash originated three meters in front of the Black-Robed Evil Witch and terminated ten meters behind her.
At that very moment, Han Yi, now outside the Blade Shadow Barrier, felt a sudden chill in his heart. Instead of relief, he was seized by a primal dread.
Though the Black Light Broken Sword's slash had pierced the Black-Robed Evil Witch, his gut-wrenching premonition persisted, growing even more intense.
His fears proved justified.
In mid-air, the female cultivator Evil Witch, shrouded in her black cloak, convulsed violently. Her body dissolved into a wisp of black smoke, which collapsed inward, condensing instantly into a palm-sized stone figurine.
Crack.
A fissure suddenly appeared on the stone figurine's head, spiderwebbing downward across its torso and limbs. In an instant, the entire figurine shattered into fine gravel, the fragments scattering with the wind.
As the stone figurine disintegrated, a figure identical to the Black-Robed Evil Witch materialized a hundred meters away, appearing out of thin air.
Southern Border Evil Art: Substitute Death Technique.
"Damn it!"
The voice emerging from the cloak was no longer calm, but seething with intense resentment.
A withered arm, its skin crisscrossed with wrinkles like the gnarled trunk of a dead tree, extended from the cloak.
But this time, Han Yi was prepared. The moment the Black-Robed Evil Witch unleashed her sinister Substitute Death Technique, he executed three countermeasures simultaneously.
First, within his Sea of Consciousness Space, the Ninefold Soul Tower trembled violently. A massive surge of Divine Sense erupted from the tower, so potent that even the witch's eerie energy couldn't block it. The Divine Sense surged outward, enveloping the Black Light Broken Sword just as it completed its strike.
Instantly, the Broken Sword surged to triple the speed of sound, shattering the sound barrier.
From the Broken Sword's perspective, the air thickened into a viscous barrier, its resistance intensifying exponentially. The space it cleaved through was no longer empty; it had gained substance. Concentric rings of varying density rippled outward from the sword's path.
Boom!
The thunderous crack of impact echoed as the Broken Sword slammed into the Evil Witch.
Might makes right; one sword shatters myriad methods.
Even the most bizarre Shamanic Art would be futile against the eruption of Han Yi's Divine Sense.
Second, Han Yi pushed his Light Body Technique to its absolute limit, transforming into a fleeting afterimage. With a subtle flicker, he appeared beside the Yinjiu Youth, a second Top-Grade Magic Artifact already materialized in his hand:
The Fire Mist Sword.
This artifact was one of the Top-Grade Magic Artifacts freely chosen by newly promoted Elders of the Profound Pill Sect.
However, unlike the Green Ripple Sword, treasured by Golden Core cultivators, or the Black Light Broken Sword, a spirit sword that had fallen from Magic Treasure status and lost its Spirituality, the Fire Mist Sword was utterly unremarkable.
Yet, at this moment, it was perfect. Ninety-nine percent of Han Yi's Divine Sense was already focused on the Black Light Broken Sword, unleashing the strongest attack he could muster without resorting to a Magic Treasure.
It wasn't that he hesitated to use a Magic Treasure. His Storage Ring contained both the Golden Light Shuttle and the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword, both Magic Treasures. But using either would leave him with only a single strike.
With three opponents, including the sinister Evil Witch capable of using the Southern Border Substitute Death Technique, Han Yi dared not gamble everything on a single move.
The Fire Mist Sword trembled slightly, shedding sparks like embers.
Li Fire Sword Manual.
Han Yi had practiced this sword manual for a long time, yet he rarely used it. Relying solely on his Sword Control Technique, he already possessed sufficient speed and power to shatter myriad methods with a single, swift strike—simple and efficient.
However, with only ten percent of his Divine Sense available, Han Yi chose to unleash this sword technique at this critical moment.
Third, with his free hand, he pressed down into the void. Mana roared, and Windfire ignited and spread across the void.
The wind fueled the fire, intertwining to form a crimson Fire Phoenix Shield enveloped by a wall of wind.
The wind within this barrier seemed to solidify, layering upon itself like sheets of paper. A single layer would be insignificant, but a hundred layers, a thousand layers... the sheer volume triggered a qualitative shift, creating an utterly terrifying resistance.
Han Yi now stood before the Yinjiu Youth, facing him while his back was turned to the Female Cultivator Evil Witch. To his side were dozens of fading blade shadows, remnants of earlier strikes, behind which loomed the burly man with a thick beard and a broad black blade.
From above, it appeared as if Han Yi was simultaneously confronting three enemies.
Before his finger snap could fade...
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The first thunderous explosion was the sound of the Black Light Broken Sword shattering the air as it moved. A streak of black light flashed, and the sword had already materialized behind the Female Cultivator Evil Witch.
The female cultivator shuddered violently, dissolving once more into black smoke. Before the smoke could collapse and coalesce, a second deafening explosion reverberated through the air.
This time, it was a wave of sword light crashing against the Fire Phoenix Shield. The shield, reinforced with three layers of fire and three layers of wind barriers, shattered through four layers, leaving the final two trembling violently but intact.
The third explosion erupted as the Li Fire Sword Light collided with the Yinjiu Youth's Magic Artifact.
The Yinjiu Youth's artifact was a long whip, half black and half white, its material indiscernible. With a flick, the whip met the sword light unleashed by Han Yi, creating a continuous series of deafening explosions.
Yet the sky rained down Li Fire Sword Light like falling stars, each strike transforming into countless luminous streams hurtling downward.
"What?!"
The Yinjiu Youth, Chao Tianzong, recoiled in shock. His whip managed to block less than thirty percent of the incoming sword light, leaving the remaining seventy percent poised to strike.
In desperation, he hurled a Spirit Talisman into the air. The talisman ignited, transforming into a massive, ten-meter-wide black barrier of light.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Sword light slammed into the barrier, showering sparks across the landscape.
"Watch out!"
A panicked shout came from Guang Jinglong, the bearded burly man dozens of meters away. Chao Tianzong caught only a glimpse of the man's frantic warning from the corner of his eye.
Chao Tianzong saw sheer terror on the man's face, his eyes reflecting two figures.
Two?
Why two?
The question had barely formed in his mind when his pupils constricted violently. Before he could process it, his vision spun wildly. In the next instant, he indeed saw two figures.
One stood in mid-air, feet planted on an ordinary magic artifact, a long whip coiled in his hand.
The second figure was indistinct, a blur of motion too swift to discern clearly.
But...
The figure wielding the whip was headless, the severed neck smooth and bloodless.
That's me?
Am I dead?
The thought abruptly ceased, his consciousness drowning in darkness.
From Guang Jinglong's perspective, Han Yi pressed a hand against the void. A pale crimson sword materialized in his other hand. With a simple thrust, a fiery red sword light materialized. The light flickered, then shattered into countless blazing strands that surged toward Chao Tianzong.
Simultaneously, Guang Jinglong's second blade strike failed to shatter Chao Tianzong's Windfire Shield. Yet the Heaven's Will Sect cultivator, who had been facing three opponents, seized the momentum of the descending sword light, his figure blurring as he closed the distance with lightning speed. Guang Jinglong's warning came too late. With a single, swift stroke, Chao Tianzong's head was severed.
Fast, precise, merciless.
Too fast. The speed at which the technique materialized defied his understanding of Mid-Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Precise. The defensive spell perfectly anticipated his every move, rendering his own attacks utterly predictable.
Ruthless. A single, decisive strike severed Chao Tianzong's head without hesitation or pause.
In the next instant, Han Yi's body shuddered. The cultivator who had beheaded Chao Tianzong turned his gaze toward him, and when their eyes met, Han Yi saw an unwavering intent to kill.
Between life and death lies profound terror.
Faced with imminent doom, some succumb to fear, others to panic. But Han Yi merely roared, his killing intent surging violently.
"Kill!"
In that instant, his body swelled dramatically. His already impressive height of nearly 1.9 meters shot up by another 20 centimeters, surpassing 2.1 meters.
His expanding physique strained his inner armor to its limits, threatening to burst it open.
Veins bulged like coiled serpents along his arms, a testament to the terrifying power surging within.
A horrifying aura of raw flesh and blood erupted from his being.
Han Yi's gaze flickered slightly, his narrowed eyes already discerning the man's true identity.
A Body Refiner.
Or, more precisely, a Spirit-Body Dual Cultivator.
The last Spirit-Body Dual Cultivator Han Yi had encountered was the Halberd-Wielding Youth he had slain in the Myriad Demon Mountain Range, suspected to be a descendant of a Duke-Marquis of Great Qian.
This Bearded Man was only the second such opponent Han Yi had faced.
Still, what did it matter that he was a Spirit-Body Dual Cultivator? Han Yi had killed cultivators of even higher cultivation realms before.
Speaking of which, from the moment Han Yi broke free from the bizarre Shamanic Art, to the instant he slashed at the Female Cultivator Evil Witch with his sword—only for her to evade death using the Substitute Death Art—to when he fought three enemies simultaneously, killing one of them, no more than two breaths had passed.
At this very moment, the Yinjiu Youth's severed head was still tumbling through the air, and his headless corpse was still falling, far from hitting the ground.
Han Yi exchanged a glance with the Bearded Man, now empowered by Body Refinement, before turning his attention back to the crucial battlefield. What he saw made his pupils contract sharply.
The Black Light Broken Sword, now channeling ninety percent of his Divine Sense, had unleashed a cataclysmic burst of speed and power. Even Late Foundation Establishment cultivators might struggle to react, let alone those at the Mid-Foundation Establishment stage.
As before, no matter how many Dao Techniques or Shamanic Arts the Black-Robed Evil Witch employed, Han Yi's sword effortlessly shattered them, piercing straight through her.
But this time...
Just as Han Yi glanced over, the black mist had reached its peak concentration. The coalesced shadow revealed itself as a small wooden figurine, which cracked audibly into splinters and crumbled to the ground.
Meanwhile, the stone fragments from the earlier shattered stone figurine were still in mid-air, yet to hit the ground.
Within the span of two breaths, the Substitute Death Art had been triggered twice. The Black-Robed Evil Witch was consumed by utter terror.
After decades of cultivation, reaching the Mid-Foundation Establishment stage, she had painstakingly mastered only two Substitute Death Arts through Shamanic Arts. These arts were akin to having three lives, but she never imagined that within mere breaths, her decades of effort would be reduced to nothing.
If she were struck again, she would have no third Substitute Death Art to protect her.
Death awaited her.
Her opponent was far too strong.
With this realization, she prepared to activate her Escape Technique, intending to return to the Immortal Boat above and flee far away.
But...
Standing several dozen meters away, Han Yi's eyes gleamed with cold intent. The Black-Robed Evil Witch was proficient in malevolent shamanic arts, and if she escaped, who knew what bizarre spells she might unleash next?
There's no point in guarding against a thief for a thousand days.
A surge of murderous intent filled Han Yi's eyes as he raised his hand and struck the void.
Instantly, countless flames materialized in the sky above, each one perfectly round and flawless. The fiery blossoms converged, swarming toward the Black-Robed Evil Witch in a fiery torrent.
At the same moment, Han Yi's figure blurred. Instead of attacking the Bearded Man—Guang Jinglong—he leaped upward, pursuing the Black-Robed Evil Witch as she attempted to flee.
To Guang Jinglong, this move was a blatant display of contempt.
With a furious roar, Guang Jinglong charged forward. He retracted the Magic Artifact that had been supporting his levitation into his Storage Pouch, leaving his foot to tread upon empty air.
Boom!
The void trembled violently. The air beneath his foot exploded, the force of the blast keeping him suspended.
He took another step.
Boom!
Third step, fourth step...
Each stride faster than the last, Guang Jinglong sprinted through the Void with terrifying physical power. The broad black blade in his hand dragged behind him, carving a fleeting arc of blacklight across the void.
The blacklight's terminus: Han Yi.
But Han Yi paid it no heed. Instead, he surged toward the Black-Robed Evil Witch.
At that moment, observers from the periphery witnessed spirit flames coalescing high above, forming a barrier over the Black-Robed Evil Witch's head. The witch tossed half a turtle shell into the air; it flipped and transformed into a decaying spirit turtle.
The spirit flames crashed upon the phantom creature. The spirit turtle let out a silent roar as it devoured the flames, obliterating them completely.
The Black-Robed Evil Witch passed through the phantom turtle.
Below and behind her, Han Yi flashed forward in pursuit, murderous intent churning in his eyes. Two fingers pointed like a sword, he manipulated the Black Light Broken Sword—now dozens of meters away—to reverse its trajectory and surge upward again.
Faster, faster, faster.
To Han Yi's side and rear, a terrifying figure dragged a broad black blade as he sprinted through the Void. Each step shook the void violently, unleashing concentric shockwaves that blasted downward like artillery strikes. These concussive blasts propelled him relentlessly upward, fueling his chase.
Caught in the middle of the fray, Han Yi's eyes flashed with ferocity as he hurled a Yin Thunder Talisman. Though only a First-Tier Spirit Talisman, it had always proven effective against Qi Refining cultivators.
But at that moment, the charging Bearded Man unleashed a punch that shattered the descending Yin Thunder in mid-air. Crackling lightning danced within his fist, now twice its original size, illuminating his face contorted into a savage, demonic grimace.
Han Yi wasn't surprised.
He hadn't expected the Yin Thunder Talisman to achieve much, its sole purpose being to momentarily hinder his pursuers. His gaze remained fixed on the Black-Robed Evil Witch, who was about to escape onto the Immortal Boat.
In the next instant, the Soul Tower within his Sea of Consciousness trembled violently as he squeezed out every last drop of his Divine Sense.
The Blacklight surrounding him surged again, pushing his speed to its absolute peak.
Thwack.
A bolt of Blacklight pierced through the Black-Robed Evil Witch and slammed into the hovering Immortal Boat, lodging halfway into the hull and vibrating violently.
Only ten meters separated the Black-Robed Evil Witch from the Immortal Boat. Her body convulsed violently, but the force of her momentum carried her forward. However, her speed had plummeted.
This time, the sound of the sword artifact tearing through flesh was undeniably real.
Han Yi turned, his body still rising from inertia. Looking down, he saw the Bearded Man, momentarily stalled by the Yin Thunder Talisman, now less than ten meters below. The oppressive aura emanating from the man's broad black blade sent a wave of pressure through Han Yi's senses.
A savage grin spread across Han Yi's face as he drew a pale violet longsword from his Storage Pouch. The name "Kunwu" was inscribed on one side of the blade, while seven recessed grooves, resembling a cluster of violet stars, adorned the other.
The Seven Stars Kunwu Sword—a Magic Treasure bestowed by the Great Qian Emperor Monarch.
As mana surged into the sword artifact, the seven star-shaped depressions on the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword instantly blazed with violet light, coalescing into the shape of a celestial ladle.
In that fleeting moment, Han Yi's Spirit Sea felt utterly drained, and his Physical Body trembled violently. Yet the murderous intent in his eyes remained as unwavering as ever.
The Seven Stars Kunwu Sword slipped from his grasp and plunged downward, its initial descent seemingly devoid of power.
But...
To Guang Jinglong, who was closing in for the kill, the world dissolved into a single overwhelming vision: a colossal, Heaven-Piercing Giant Sword, impossibly massive and filling his entire field of view, hurtling straight toward him.
His face froze in a grotesque grimace, his pupils quivering. Only one thought raced through his mind:
A Magic Treasure?
That bastard actually dared to unleash a Magic Treasure?!