"Who exactly are you?"
Tu Xiong's face was filled with shock as he shouted angrily.
This thief disguised as Deputy Commander Jia was truly formidable. Even under their combined assault, he had broken through the city gate with such ease!
His swordsmanship was so fierce—could he be some wandering martial artist?
He and the two Youdao Division Daoists chased after him.
Yet outside the city wall, the "thief" abruptly halted, turned, and looked coldly at them. His aura swiftly shifted, revealing his true face.
Handsome as jade, his Daoist robes billowing—wasn't he the gifted disciple of Lingbao Temple who had rushed here at dusk yesterday to "throw away his life"?
Just as Deputy Commander Jia had said, this boy had concealed his cultivation. So capable, both wise and brave—wasn't he precisely one of Lingbao Temple's genius elite disciples?
"Tu Xiong, Youdao Division, your evil deeds have been exposed!"
"Helping a tiger devour men, colluding with ghosts, deceiving those above and below, and conspiring with Jia Song to blood-sacrifice the entire town's ten thousand citizens—do you know your crimes?"
Li Qingyun's black hair streamed in the wind, authority on his handsome face as he shouted with righteous fury.
His voice contained threads of thunderous intent, like muffled thunder rolling across the night sky before dawn—clear and stirring, rumbling without end!
"Shut up!"
Tu Xiong was greatly alarmed and shouted, trying to drown out Li Qingyun's voice.
The two young Youdao Division Daoists, however, wore shifting expressions. Their footsteps quietly stopped, their faces conflicted and hesitant.
"Kill him quickly! Otherwise, if Jia Song triggers the Corpse Poison Curse, we'll surely succumb to the poison and die, only to become poisoned corpses at his disposal after death!"
"Besides, things have already come to this. We can only blame Zhou Gang for being useless, blind to talent, and stubbornly self-righteous."
Tu Xiong roared at the two young Daoists, "Do we still have a way out now?"
The young Youdao Division Daoists let out helpless sighs, and the hesitation in their eyes turned vicious once more.
The three attacked again, giving it their all, crazed in appearance.
Fireballs danced through the air!
Talismans exploded!
Blade light ran red as blood!
A bolt of lightning fell, exploding into a net and annihilating the six or seven clusters of flame that came rumbling down upon him.
Li Qingyun's Thunder Seal Technique had already begun to show the subtle charm of using four ounces to move a thousand pounds. Whether in his comprehension of spells or his ingenious use of his own spiritual power, he faintly formed an overwhelming suppression over those two government-appointed Daoists!
It even left the two young Daoists somewhat stunned by his brilliance!
"Stubbornly refusing to repent!"
Li Qingyun tapped the ground with his foot and darted away again to evade, while a streak of golden talisman light flew from his sleeve!
He activated the Azure Blood Talisman!
At once, golden light blazed forth.
A radiant golden pillar shot into the heavens, illuminating even the dark night sky.
Its mighty presence shook the air. Azure Blood Talisman patterns trembled within it, carrying Zhou Gang's remorse and hatred before death, along with information about Yinshan Town's plight. It fled away with the light, transmitting hundreds, even thousands of miles in an instant!
"Th-this is a golden talisman! Li Qingyun, you're going to get us killed..."
Tu Xiong and the two Youdao Division Daoists were terrified beyond measure, falling into despair.
Behind them, dozens of armored soldiers wielding crossbows surged out like a crimson tide, rushing over with killing intent. At the sight of that golden light shooting into the sky, they too froze.
Though no one recognized it as an Azure Blood Talisman, once that golden light rose into the heavens, it could likely alert people hundreds of miles away.
Should an expert of the Dao Foundation Realm or even the Opening Mansion Realm arrive, whether Jia Song or people like them—forced into it though they were, yet still helping a tiger devour men—would all meet a grim end!
Under Jia Song's threats and temptations, the plot to conceal Yinshan Town's inexplicable fall for so long had ultimately come to nothing!
"You truly deserve to die!"
Tu Xiong bit through his lip until blood seeped out, staring fixedly at Li Qingyun, the instigator of it all.
"Attack! Surround and kill this bastard for this inspector!"
With a sweep of his hand, the dozens of armored soldiers behind him immediately fired their crossbows.
Dense talisman arrows instantly swept over like a gray shadow flying across the night sky, covering dozens of meters around Li Qingyun!
These soldiers were well trained and highly practiced, using methods meant for demons and ghosts to snipe Li Qingyun!
In an instant, Li Qingyun's hairs stood on end as he sensed an intense threat.
He erupted into motion at once. His spiritual awareness caught the direction where the rain of arrows was thinner, and he suddenly shot to one side.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
At the same time, the bronze shortsword in his hand danced into a ball of cold light. It swept, circled, cleaved, and struck, somehow blocking most of the arrows!
Whoosh! One arrow flashed with talisman light and narrowly grazed past the hair by his ear.
His movement technique was limited; in the end, he could not deal with such concentrated attacks.
"If I had mastered a defensive spell now, or possessed a protective artifact, this would be much easier..."
Li Qingyun's thoughts raced, yet his movements were not hindered in the slightest. He accelerated again, his body already shifting beyond this wave of arrows.
"Where do you think you're going?!"
But the two Daoists suddenly shouted sharply. Three or four fire talismans flew straight at Li Qingyun, who had only just evaded the arrow rain.
They meant to seal off his room to dodge and create an opening for the second wave of arrows to blanket him!
Li Qingyun felt the thick malice directed at him.
"Courting death! Do you really think I only know how to evade and defend?"
His brows rose sharply as his cold gaze flashed like lightning. He looked through the air at the two young Youdao Division Daoists and saw their twisted faces, full of jealousy and despair!
"Summon Thunder and Lightning—Lightning, come!"
Rumble! His fingers blurred like phantoms as six thunder seals formed in an instant.
Two streaks of lightning flashed across the night sky, one before the other, the latter launched first yet arriving ahead, like electric ropes falling from the heavens as they struck the two Daoists in an instant.
"How is this possible? Aren't you Qi Refining Layer One?"
The two Daoists turned pale with shock. Instinctively, they surged their spiritual power and slapped protective talismans over their heads, hoping to block this fearsome thunder spell.
But the protective talisman light collapsed at the first touch. Though its might was halved, the lightning did not disperse and still struck their bodies.
"Ah!"
Scorched smoke rose and their skin blackened. The two Daoists screamed as they fell crookedly to the ground, twitching.
Both Daoists had cultivation around the second layer of Qi Refining. When pursuing Li Qingyun just now, they had been utterly reckless, believing they could take him down in moments.
After all, Li Qingyun had only displayed Qi Refining Layer One.
Even if he was possibly a genius elite disciple of Lingbao Temple, the gap between cultivation realms was still an uncrossable chasm.
Especially since thunder spells had always been powerful and costly. At Qi Refining Layer One, he could launch three or four at most, right?
When he had broken through the gate just now, Li Qingyun had already unleashed two bolts of lightning, displaying the exquisitely subtle technique of transforming lightning into a net. Then he had blocked a wave of talisman arrows. His spiritual power should have been nearly exhausted!
Who would have thought that Li Qingyun had concealed his cultivation? He was, in truth, at the third layer of Qi Refining.
He fired two bolts of lightning in succession, their power even greater, catching them completely off guard!
The two young Youdao Division Daoists were immediately severely wounded and lost their ability to fight.
"Fire!"
Yet before Li Qingyun could rejoice, Inspector Tu's savage shout rang out from the air.
Tu Xiong's eyes were vicious, Blood Fiend Qi swirling around his body as he charged forward with his blade, like a fierce tiger descending the mountain.
He swore to kill Li Qingyun!
"Jia Song is working with the guardian god of my Tushan Village. I, and the nearly thousand people in the village behind me, have no way left to retreat!"
Tu Xiong thought, "There's still time. As long as we blood-sacrifice the entire town before the rescue alerted by the golden talisman pillar arrives, the guardian god may break through to the Opening Mansion Realm, while Jia Song is also highly likely to break through to the Dao Foundation Realm!"
"Then we can naturally stop whoever comes and calmly withdraw into Great Yin Mountain..."
At present, risking his life to kill this Lingbao Temple disciple before him, who had ruined the grand plan, was the most urgent matter!
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