Chapter 1667: Battlefield Shift (Part Four)

The Nascent Soul cultivator fighting Bai Rou had just summoned his shield when the green light arrived. The shield hadn’t fully expanded yet. He had no choice but to thrust the pale white flame in his hand forward, hoping his refined heaven-and-earth fire would suppress the green light.

But at the moment of contact, the energy at the core of the green light exploded. That power didn’t just come from high-grade spirit stones; it had been magnified by the final cycle of the Canopus Big Dipper Array. The Nascent Soul cultivator was instantly blasted backward.

“Pfft!”

He sprayed out a large mouthful of blood, having been injured instantly. This was Bai Rou’s goal—to injure him and cripple his combat power. But the result was far beyond that. The blow caused the magical power within his body to lose balance. He could no longer suppress the pale white fire in his hand the moment it touched the green light.

“No!”

The Nascent Soul cultivator let out a terrified scream. The fire in his hand expanded in front of him. His entire person was engulfed in a flash, and his voice was cut short. In the void where he had stood, there was nothing left. Even his storage artifacts had been reduced to ash.

The heaven-and-earth fire possessed its own intelligence, but because it had been refined until only a shred of consciousness remained, it had been forced to obey. The moment the cultivator died, the feeling of being bound vanished. Sensing the powerful auras all around it, the fire instinctively felt fear. With a flicker, it flew toward the horizon.

Everyone was locked in battle. Bai Rou, the closest to the fire, had already fallen. No one was left to stop it. With a single wobble, the fire vanished into the sky.

Li Yan, who was flying back, suddenly changed expression. Although he was still quite a distance from the Ghost-Severing Sect, he could sense several Spirit Transformation auras stirring the world. The source of those auras was the direction of the sect, and the spatial laws there were fluctuating violently.

‘Who has attacked the Ghost-Severing Sect!’

Li Yan felt his heart race—a very bad omen. The Heart-Entwined Twin Symbiote Gu also suddenly opened its eyes. Li Yan knew that even if he flew at full speed, it would take some time to get back. Without hesitation, he reached up and tore a rift in the sky. The moment the spatial crack appeared, he dove in.

Only by traveling through the chaotic flow could he return in the shortest time possible. However, he hadn’t placed any Sandstar King Stones there when he left the sect. Thus, he couldn’t pinpoint his location in the void; he only had a vague sense of direction and distance.

But at this moment, he could sense the position of the other Heart-Entwined Twin Symbiote Gu. This gave him a clear target. He believed Zhao Min was inside the sect. Li Yan immediately activated the Five Elements Chaotic Wind and used his Divine Sense to detect dangers in the chaotic flow, pushing his speed to his absolute limit.

As the sensation of the Twin Symbiote Gu grew closer, he tore space again and stepped out. His positioning was slightly off, but a quick sweep of his Divine Sense revealed that the surroundings were familiar. The spatial fluctuations ahead were turbulent. Li Yan sensed many Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation cultivators, including several familiar auras.

There was Zhao Min, and his masters—their auras were fluctuating wildly. Why was Gong Chenying’s aura there as well? She was actually inside the Ghost-Severing Sect. These people were unleashing heaven-shaking momentum, the result of unreserved Nascent Soul attacks. The battle had clearly reached its most intense stage.

Li Yan didn’t want his arrival to scare off the enemies. His eyes flashed with savage light as he completely suppressed his aura. He didn’t care what had happened; his masters were fighting for their lives. Nothing good could come of this. Furthermore, among the four Spirit Transformation auras, he sensed a familiar one—the Chimera Emissary, Gu Jiuqi.

They had forced the Chimera Emissary to reveal himself!

Just as Li Yan stepped out of the void, he heard a furious roar that sounded like a dragon and an elephant. The voice was filled with rage and a hint of grief.

“Zi Kun!”

Li Yan immediately felt an even more familiar connection. This was the long-lost link to his heart. He had refined the two beasts; as long as they were nearby, he could sense them. Zi Kun’s aura was clear, but Qianji’s aura was faint and distant, as if it existed both in and out of this world.

It wasn’t just Li Yan who felt it. Zhao Min also suddenly looked in a certain direction. Near her heart, the Heart-Entwined Twin Symbiote Gu gave a sharp twitch. Li Yan had arrived too quickly. Because he had been too far away and Zhao Min had been fully immersed in the battle—especially after Li Zhaoyan was attacked—she hadn’t had room for other thoughts. Even when the Gu began to react, she hadn’t noticed.

But now, Zhao Min’s heart skipped a beat. As she looked up, a figure suddenly appeared in the sky. The figure arrived so fast that no one else noticed, not even Gu Jiuqi, who was still locked in a life-or-death struggle.

Just as Zhao Min looked up, an icy voice rang out.

“Where did you thieves come from, hmph!”

Li Yan’s figure materialized just as Li Wuyi and Yan Longzi’s group finished off the desperate Nascent Soul enemy and moved to surround the others near Zhao Min. They knew they were effectively committing suicide by trying to swarm the enemy. Many more would die. They weren’t like Zhao Min or Gong Chenying; they didn’t have the strength of the late-stage Nascent Soul. They had seen that even with such tough bodies, the two women were being beaten back, their blood staining the sky. If they went over, they might not even be able to defend themselves, let alone attack.

“Kill him!”

Yan Longzi had already charged forward. He had lost his usual mildness, his words turning boorish. When people like him were gentle, it was a sign of their self-control. In truth, his hands were stained with blood; otherwise, he wouldn’t have become the Sect Master. In a real fight, life and death didn’t matter—killing the opponent was everything.

As Yan Longzi pounced, a voice from the sky drowned out all the explosions.

“Chime!”

The initial-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator fighting Wei Zhongran and the others was being targeted by Gong Chenying’s spear. He waved a sleeve, and the Red-Whisk Crimson Dragon Spear began to vibrate violently ten feet from his body. He had just blasted back the other three. To his shock, his strike hadn’t sent the short-haired woman flying this time. A blurred image of a beast appeared above Gong Chenying’s head—it was the peerless savage beast, the Qiongqi. It stomped violently on the void.

Rumble!

The local space shuddered. Simultaneously, Gong Chenying’s blood boiled, and steam rose from her head. Her internal organs were heavily injured. She pushed the Red Lotus Burning Fire Scripture and the Qiongqi Purgatory Technique to their absolute limits. She knew the consequences of her Senior Brother and the others coming over. She had to injure the opponent. She seized the opening created by the others’ attacks.

As the Qiongqi phantom stomped, the spear’s vibrations were quelled. Gong Chenying suddenly let go of the shaft. Her hair fluttered as she leapt into the air, her knees turning into a blur as she slammed them repeatedly against the butt of the spear.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

At that moment, the icy voice rang out, startling the Spirit Transformation master.

“Squelch! Squelch!”

Two sounds rang out almost at the same time. First, his head flew off, a fountain of blood shooting into the sky. Then, at his heart, the Crimson Dragon Spear—bolstered by Gong Chenying’s knee strikes—pierced through as his resistance weakened. It burst through his back, dragging a line of red against the sun.

The Nascent Soul within him closed its eyes instantly. The moment that voice rang out, his spirit had been extinguished and his defenses had vanished. Li Yan had killed him with a single blow. With a sweep of his Divine Sense, he had chosen his target. His grasp of the battlefield was incredibly sharp. Gu Jiuqi could hold his own, but this man posed too much of a threat to the Ghost-Severing Sect disciples. He wouldn’t allow his own negligence to cause regrets.

As his voice echoed, Li Yan unceremoniously unleashed the Soul-Severing Strike. The Spirit Transformation cultivator died in an instant. What was Li Yan best at? Sneak attacks and assassinations. Against such a cultivator, he needed no preparation. Li Yan killed him the same moment he appeared, and then he immediately turned to strike toward Gu Jiuqi’s position.

The master’s head was severed and his heart pierced; he fell without a sound. Most people hadn’t even seen who had arrived.

“Chime! Chime!”

Two streaks of dark light shot out. The two cultivators fighting Gu Jiuqi were currently holding the upper hand. But Gu Jiuqi was desperately stalling them, preventing them from attacking anyone else. They were furious—their opponent was just a late-stage Spirit Transformation master; why was he so difficult?

The sudden icy voice startled the three of them. Even with their profound cultivation, they hadn’t sensed a stranger’s arrival. The two invading masters found the voice unfamiliar—it wasn’t the grey-robed elder.

‘Do they have a hidden helper?’ This thought occurred to both of them. Earlier, the grey-robed elder had been interrupted by a mysterious figure, and now it was happening again. They grew tense, thinking the elder had met with disaster, but they realized this voice was entirely new.

To their horror, a quick sweep of their Divine Sense revealed that their companion hadn’t even lasted a single exchange. What terrified them was that in that single breath, their companion had lost all life force, as if he had suffered a sudden, total death. Even his Nascent Soul had lost its aura without any reaction.

The late-stage Spirit Transformation master reacted faster. Sensing something was wrong, a chill ran down his back. Without warning, he threw a ball of green light at Gu Jiuqi. It only stalled him for a second, but it allowed the master to flicker away toward the side.

“You…” The mid-stage Spirit Transformation master also had the urge to flee, but seeing his companion already moving, he was filled with shock and rage.

At that moment, two streaks of dark light arrived before each of them. One man turned to face the light head-on, while the other light arrived behind the second man.

Gu Jiuqi reacted with extreme speed. He sensed a familiar aura from the newcomer; after all, he had lived at Little Bamboo Peak for a long time and remembered Li Yan’s aura. Especially since Li Yan had killed a Spirit Transformation master the moment he arrived, Gu Jiuqi knew a powerful helper had come even without seeing his face. Seeing the two try to flee, he wouldn’t let them succeed. He held a giant banner that expanded like a red cloud, sweeping toward them. Simultaneously, he dodged the green light thrown at him.

Gu Jiuqi’s strike couldn’t kill them, but he was the Chimera Emissary. He could stall the two and prevent them from attacking. Thus, even if they could escape, it wouldn’t be easy.

The two masters defended against Gu Jiuqi while trying to break through Li Yan’s side. They both wobbled to dodge the red cloud banner. But Li Yan’s Sunflower Water Divergence Stings had already reached them. Currently, the stings had taken the form of two flying swords. The two masters summoned their artifacts to meet the attack. They believed that as long as they blocked this strike, they could escape.

But something they never expected happened. The moment their artifacts touched his, they felt as if their souls had been suddenly pierced by a sharp needle.

“Ah!” Both let out screams of agony.

Li Yan hadn’t used soul arts this time. Gu Jiuqi was here, and his true body was a cultivator from the Immortal Spirit Realm. Li Yan didn’t know what techniques Gu Jiuqi practiced, but his understanding of the laws was superior. If they fought together, their power and senses would intertwine. Li Yan was afraid the other would sense abnormal soul-power fluctuations.

The Sunflower Water Divergence Stings were different. As a technique, they didn’t emit soul-power fluctuations, yet they could still attack the soul. This was a secret art of the Sunflower Water Immortal Sect. Gu Jiuqi shouldn’t be able to tell, especially since Li Yan had disguised them as small swords.

Since Li Yan intended to kill, he wouldn’t give them a chance to breathe. As they screamed, the red cloud of Gu Jiuqi’s banner reached them. Because their souls had been pierced, their bodies stiffened. Li Yan was even faster. Once he attacked, if the first blow didn’t kill, the subsequent attacks would follow like a relentless river.

Li Yan’s figure blurred.

“Leave them alive for soul searching!” Gu Jiuqi cried out as he saw Li Yan’s figure vanish.

He hadn’t expected those two artifacts to be so powerful. The two enemies had been affected instantly, their escape stalled. What shocked him even more was Li Yan’s speed; even his Divine Sense couldn’t keep up.

“Thump! Thump!”

The moment Gu Jiuqi spoke, the distance was so short. Li Yan had seen the blood and wounds on Zhao Min and the others, and his heart was filled with earth-shattering rage. He held nothing back in his attacks against the two masters, striking like a violent storm.

At such a short distance, he still used Phoenix Soaring the Heavens. One could see how much the injuries of his family had infuriated him. The moment their souls were pierced, their consciousness and magical power were severely affected. Li Yan flickered past the two. Two muffled sounds echoed, almost at the same time as Gu Jiuqi’s voice.

Then, Li Yan’s figure solidified again, and he looked at Gu Jiuqi with an expression of daze.