High-level Half-Saint Shows His Might

"Yao Ling, I beg you, make a move and save Xiao Yan—and save me too!" Upon hearing that name, Xun'er cast all dignity aside and pleaded through her sobs.

"Heh, what a joke. What kind of nonsense did you spout a few days ago?" Yao Ling sneered and made as if to leave, though killing intent surged in her heart. The two people sent by the Hun Clan were no pushovers. They had actually used the remnant souls within the Heavenly Tomb to set such an ambush. If she did not kill them and eliminate future trouble, they might cause problems later.

"I was wrong. Please, for the sake of our past friendship, save his life!" Xun'er hurriedly said.

"Miss Yao Ling, I advise you to assess the situation and leave as soon as possible." Seeing this, Hun Ya threatened, "An Elementary Half-Saint is not weak, but saving someone in front of so many of us will not be easy."

Before entering the Heavenly Tomb, he had carefully studied Yao Ling's information and was certain that she was merely an Elementary Half-Saint, with an unstable realm at that. Such strength was formidable, but if his dozen or so Eight-star Dou Zun experts truly went all out, she would not be impossible to deal with.

"Who told you I was an Elementary Half-Saint?" Yao Ling smiled lightly and casually struck at Hun Ya with her palm. Hun Ya's expression changed. Just as he tried to dodge, he discovered that he could not move at all. Seeing this, Hun Gua sighed softly, leaped forward, and caught the palm strike. Yet he himself was blasted a thousand zhang away, crashing into the ground and unable to move.

"A High-level Half-Saint? How is that possible?" Hun Li roared, unable to conceal his shock. To rise from a low-level Half-Saint to a High-level Half-Saint in mere months—such advancement was simply unbelievable!

"Kaiyang Ten Thousand Spears Art!"

A thousand golden spears emerged from the void and shot through the air toward Hun Li, Hun Ya, and the others. Hun Li and Hun Ya's Clan Marks flashed as their speed rose to the utmost limit, allowing them to narrowly evade the spears. The remaining energy bodies frantically unleashed all manner of Dou Techniques to block them, but each was struck by at least several spears. One energy body was even pierced clean through by a spear!

"Hun Li, Hun Ya, you two are the Hun Clan's seeds. Leave first. We can hold them off for a little while longer," Elder Hun Gua said in a deep voice. He had already died once. He had lingered on in this Heavenly Tomb until today solely to wait for an opportunity to contribute once more to the Hun Clan. Now, it was time for him to do his part.

"Understood. Take care, Elder." The two of them gave a brief cupped-fist salute before swiftly retreating. At a time like this, everyone fled for themselves when disaster struck.

"Gu Xun'er, you protect Xiao Yan. Do not let him be injured again," Yao Ling said coldly without even looking at Xun'er. "Leave these energy bodies to me."

She had only recently advanced to the High-level Half-Saint realm, and her cultivation had yet to stabilize. If those dozen or so Eight-star Dou Zun energy bodies joined forces and desperately unleashed Dou Techniques to stop her, she could not completely ignore them. A moment of carelessness might even leave her seriously injured. After weighing the pros and cons, she gave up pursuing the two men.

"Kaiyang Sacred Fire Box!"

These two Dou Techniques bearing the name Kaiyang originated from a series of Heavenly Grade Dou Techniques created by the Yao Clan's ancestor, who drew upon the power of the Big Dipper. They were divided into three realms: Kaiyang, Yaoguang, and Xuanhua. The Kaiyang realm corresponded to low-level Heavenly Grade, Yaoguang to mid-level Heavenly Grade, and Xuanhua to high-level Heavenly Grade. Even as a High-level Half-Saint, she could only wield the Dou Techniques of the Kaiyang realm with ease.

In only a few breaths, a longbow radiating golden light appeared in Yao Ling's hand. She drew the bow and nocked arrows, dodging the various Dou Techniques desperately unleashed by the dozen or so energy bodies while firing back through every opening. Each arrow that tore through the air turned an energy body into an energy core. Within only a few minutes, all those energy bodies had become energy cores. As for her, only her wrist had suffered a slight scrape when she failed to dodge in time.

"Yao Ling, don't continue chasing them. Saving Xiao Yan is more important. Your Yao Clan is best at saving lives and healing the wounded." Yao Ling had intended to continue her pursuit and put Hun Ya and Hun Li to death, but Xun'er blocked her way and pleaded bitterly.

Slap! A red handprint appeared on Xun'er's face. She forcibly held back her tears and waited for Yao Ling's anger.

"Gu Xun'er, you should use your brain before you speak. Do not think that because you are the Gu Clan's Saintess, you can throw your weight around and do whatever you please. Your Gu Clan may be powerful, but my Yao Clan is not one to be bullied at your whim!" Yao Ling said coldly. As she spoke, she tore off all of Xiao Yan's clothes and applied medicinal ointment to his wounds.

"Yes, yes, Sister is right to reprimand me." Xun'er did not dare say more and could only nod repeatedly. "Xun'er wishes to ask Sister: with your strength, shouldn't you have reached the Heavenly Tomb, Third Layer long ago to cultivate? Why have you only just arrived here, even a step later than us?"

"Gu Xun'er, do you think everyone is like you two, enjoying your little world together while leisurely killing monsters and leveling up?" Still angered, Yao Ling snapped. "First, I took that boy from my Yao Clan to cultivate on the first layer. Before leaving, I even spent time setting up a life-saving formation for him. Then, on the second layer, I took advantage of the abundant natural energy to refine a pill. All these trivial matters delayed me by who knows how much time."

"Didn't that child come with you?" Xun'er did not dare argue and merely followed along with Yao Ling's words.

"He had only just entered the Six-Star Dou Zun realm. Bringing him to the second layer was truly a little too risky." After venting her complaints, Yao Ling saw that Xun'er's attitude was sincere and that she neither fought back nor argued, so more than half her anger dissipated. "Silly girl, stop standing there like an idiot. Hurry and help me apply all this ointment to Xiao Yan's wounds. If you are too slow, it will affect his future cultivation."

As she spoke, Yao Ling handed several tubes of strangely fragrant ointment to Xun'er. She then poured more than twenty pills from the Medicine Gourd hanging at her waist and fed them into Xiao Yan's mouth in batches, using Dou Qi to help the unconscious Xiao Yan swallow them. Xun'er did not dare slack off and applied the medicine to Xiao Yan's wounds as Yao Ling instructed.

Although she was not an alchemist, she was the treasured daughter of the Gu Clan and had seen much of the world. She was extremely familiar with pill grades. Those twenty-odd pills were all Eighth-grade Pills, and six of them were even Eighth-grade Eight-color pills. Using so many pills at once was a lavish expenditure even within the Gu Clan.

"Your sister here is now a Ninth-grade Treasure Pill Grandmaster. These Eighth-grade Pills are not worth much. If you want some, I can give you a few," Yao Ling teased when she saw the astonishment on Xun'er's face. "The most valuable pills among them are merely those two Eighth-grade Eight-color Eight Desolations Life-Returning Pills. If I wanted to refine them, it would not even take a day."

"A Ninth-grade Treasure Pill Grandmaster?" Xun'er said in shock. The Gu Clan had only two alchemists of such rank, both hidden Supreme Elders of immense seniority. She found it difficult to imagine that Yao Ling, who was around her age, had already reached such a realm.

"Mm. So refining these Eighth-grade Pills takes no effort at all." Although Yao Ling knew that if she truly refined those Ninth-grade Treasure Pills capable of drawing Black Demon Lightning on her own, her success rate would not exceed forty percent, she still followed Xun'er's lead. She had no intention of showing weakness before Xun'er.

"Sister is amazing. Xun'er admires you. This time, the two of us truly owe Sister our lives." Xun'er spoke awkwardly. After this incident, her hostility toward Yao Ling had nearly vanished without a trace. If Yao Ling had not saved them this time, the two of them would certainly have died in the Heavenly Tomb.

"Hmph, it is good that you know." Yao Ling spoke sullenly. "We have done everything external help can do. Next, it will depend on whether he can pull through on his own. No matter how anxious we are, it will be useless. Just wait."

With that, Yao Ling began to meditate and stabilize her realm. This bout of real combat had condensed her Dou Qi somewhat and greatly helped stabilize the scattered Dou Qi caused by her overly rapid advancement. Seeing this, Xun'er began guarding Yao Ling. Within the perilous Heavenly Tomb, entering a meditative state completely cut off from the outside world alone was extremely dangerous. Fortunately, Xun'er could serve as Yao Ling's eyes.

After a month passed like this, Xiao Yan finally slowly opened his eyes.