Is This Your Limit?

Xiang Pichi rode along the route marked on the map.

Along the way, he encountered several Spirit Beasts, but his Qi Refining Realm divine sense detected them in advance. He cleared them out first and arrived outside the tribe inhabited by the Black-Skinned Barbarians without wasting much time.

"Sure enough, it's safe. There aren't even any Qi Refining Realm ferocious beasts along this route."

His divine sense swept across the area. There was no threat anywhere in the entire barbarian tribe, and he saw the very thing he wanted most.

"It's actually a Spirit Lake! The lake water is rich in spiritual energy—even mortals can use it to irrigate Spirit Fields!"

Xiang Pichi was overjoyed.

With the water from this Spirit Lake, he had no need to cast the Spirit Rain Art at all!

He could simply have mortals fetch water from the lake to irrigate the fields, and the results would be even better than the Spirit Rain Art.

It saved both time and effort.

Cultivators with spiritual roots were hard to find, but there were plenty of mortals willing to work for him.

As for these uncivilized Black-Skinned Barbarians, he could kill them all and bury them in the ground as fertilizer.

He held his head high and urged his horse onward, looking at the wary Black-Skinned Barbarians as though they were a swarm of ants.

For a Qi Refining Stage cultivator to kill Body Tempering Realm mortals was no different from slaughtering dogs.

He raised a hand, and earth-yellow spiritual energy appeared around it, as though he had put on an oversized glove made of spiritual power.

He lightly clenched his hand.

"Earth Puppet."

The stones and clods of earth on the ground squirmed into shape, transforming into a burly Earth Puppet over three meters tall that strode toward the barbarian tribe.

Bang!

The Earth Puppet sent the nearest Black-Skinned Barbarian flying with a single punch.

That Body Tempering Fifth Layer Black-Skinned Barbarian flew like a cannonball, smashing straight through a wooden house before crashing into a tree and finally stopping. He coughed up blood and fell unconscious.

This Earth Puppet was actually as strong as a Half-Step Innate Grandmaster Realm expert!

Its huge body felt no pain and inspired terror!

More terrifying than one Half-Step Innate Earth Puppet were three Earth Puppets!

Xiang Pichi clenched his hand again, and two more Earth Puppets rose from the ground in succession.

The three towering Earth Puppets rolled toward the tribe like bulldozers, their pressure overwhelming!

A bloody massacre was about to begin.

But the first Earth Puppet charging ahead stepped on something unknown.

A burst of violent fire spiritual energy exploded beneath its foot.

Boom!

The violent impact blasted away its left leg. The Earth Puppet's massive body toppled crookedly to the ground, losing its ability to move.

"Array stones?"

Xiang Pichi sharply spotted the array stone beneath the Earth Puppet's foot.

"How could these barbarians have—this is bad!"

Xiang Pichi urged his horse backward, but five array stones behind him lit up.

"Five-Element Lost-Path Array!"

Clusters of mist appeared out of thin air, trapping Xiang Pichi where he stood. He lost his physical sight, while the array disrupted his divine sense. The Spirit Horse was startled and paced anxiously in place.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two huge earth-yellow hands of spiritual energy smashed out, but they struck no one. Instead, they snapped a thick tree in half.

"What terrifying power. If we took that blow, we'd be seriously injured."

From an apparently empty wooden house, Yang Shi and Jiang Xiaobai emerged wearing masks.

The concealed array behind them slowly lost its spiritual power.

"His divine sense is being disrupted by the array, but it won't hold him for long. Attack quickly! Xiao Bai, it's up to you!"

Xiao Bai pulled over a hundred attack talismans from her bag, most of which rivaled the full-force strike of a high-level Embryonic Breath Stage cultivator.

"Watch me smash him to death!"

"Wooden Spear Talisman!"

The talisman was activated by spiritual power, forming a green spear as wood-element spiritual energy surged through it.

This was a pure wood-element attack spell, something nearly every wood-element Rogue Cultivator knew.

Its power was somewhat inferior to fireballs, fire arrows, and golden swords of the same level, but its brilliance lay in one thing—it specifically countered earth-element cultivators.

"Earth Armor Technique!"

Spiritual power wrapped around the soil and formed a sturdy layer of earth armor around Xiang Pichi, making his body appear much more imposing and somewhat similar to an Earth Puppet.

Xiang Pichi was not skilled in arrays. For the moment, he could not break through the maze array laid down by the many array stones, so he could only use his magic power to protect himself first.

"Heh. We earth-element cultivators excel most at defense. How long can your maze array trap me?"

He had figured it out. The people who had set up this array were not strong enough and did not dare confront him head-on. Otherwise, they could have easily slain him with a single sword strike. Why go to such great lengths?

Pfft!

A green spear shot straight out of the mist and pierced into his earth armor, punching a large hole through it before being stopped by his protective spiritual power.

"Hm? A wood-element cultivator. Though you counter me, what can an Embryonic Breath Stage cultivator possibly do? Once my Earth Puppets break the array—"

Boom! Boom!

Outside, the two intact Earth Puppets were blown into cripples one after another by array stones.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Three Wooden Spear Techniques emerged from the mist, punching three more holes into the armor. The Earth Armor Technique shattered with a crash.

Xiang Pichi wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, furious beyond measure.

"Enough!"

"Earth Sovereign Divine Arms!"

Boom!

Two enormous earth-element arms burst out from the array, ruthlessly smashing the five array stones into fragments. The Five-Element Lost-Path Array immediately collapsed.

Xiang Pichi stood where he was, two massive thick-earth arms extending three meters behind him. When they swung, they were like small mountains crashing together.

More hidden array stones lay on the ground. As the two giant hands swept over them, they tore up the earth and blew it apart in midair.

Xiang Pichi's rage-twisted face, paired with the savage earth arms behind him, was exceptionally terrifying!

Those divine arms formed from spiritual power, earth, and stone rose high into the air, making Xiang Pichi seem like one of the Gods and Devils!

"A pack of ants dared to ambush me?"

"Who exactly are you?"

Yet Yang Shi and the other three did not panic in the slightest before the erupting Qi Refining cultivator, as if they had expected this all along.

"Rotten Wood Poison Powder!"

The three talismans in Jiang Xiaobai's hand ignited, firing out vast amounts of poisonous powder.

Boom!

The specks of green poison powder covered an enormous area. Xiang Pichi had nowhere to dodge to either side and could only charge through it head-on.

The Earth Sovereign Spiritual Art he cultivated excelled at using the surrounding environment to defeat enemies, not at long-range attacks.

Wood-element poison arts completely countered his Earth Sovereign Divine Arms. Though their raw power was inferior, they still corroded away a layer of spiritual power and rock from the arms, shrinking them by a full circle.

Jiang Xiaobai retreated while continuously flinging out Wooden Spear Techniques.

She tossed talismans out as if they cost nothing.

But because the vast majority were Embryonic Breath Stage talismans, they could not pose much of a threat to Xiang Pichi.

His divine arms swung through the air, scattering the wooden spears. These spells could only steadily drain his spiritual power.

However, a yellow gemstone surfaced over Xiang Pichi's chest, radiating waves of light. Pure earth spiritual energy rapidly poured into his body, restoring his recent injuries and expenditure.

"Hahaha! So what if you have many talismans? You're nothing but chickens and dogs made of clay!"

"I'd like to see who gave you the guts to ambush a Qi Refining cultivator!"

The earth arms behind him swung as his own hands donned gauntlets of earth spiritual energy.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

A vast amount of spiritual power surged out, summoning three more Earth Puppets!

The three puppets advanced together with his true body. Jiang Xiaobai threw out even more talismans, but they could only slow him down and consume his spiritual power. They could not inflict effective damage.

And once the Earth Puppets got close, they would completely lose the initiative.

Seeing this, Yang Shi directly flung out three array stones.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The array stones landed on the Earth Puppets and exploded immediately, blasting open their chests and sending them reeling in all directions.

Clearly, these things could not compare to those two earth arms in toughness.

"Puppet Fusion!"

Yellow light blazed from Xiang Pichi's hand as earth spiritual energy poured into the three damaged Earth Puppets, as though strands of spiritual power connected to their bodies.

The three puppets walked together. Once their bodies pressed tightly against one another, they fused into a huge mass of rock and soil. After shifting across the ground, they grew into a puppet giant over four meters tall!

Roar!

Red light shone from the Earth Puppet's eyes. It opened its savage maw and spat out a large number of stones.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Yang Shi drew his sword and stood before Jiang Xiaobai, rapidly shattering the incoming stones.

Xiang Pichi's face had turned slightly pale. Supporting two earth-element spells that only Qi Refining Stage cultivators could use was already his strongest state. If the Earth Essence Stone had not continuously replenished his earth spiritual energy, he would have been unable to sustain it at all.

Still, when he saw the talismans covering Jiang Xiaobai's body, his scalp went numb.

He had to end this quickly!

Otherwise, sooner or later, these talismans would drain him to death.

What decent person brought over a hundred talismans into a spell battle?

Did talismans not cost money?

But it no longer mattered. The moment he unleashed these two great spells, victory and defeat had already been decided.

A cruel smile spread across his face as he prepared to torture these two ants properly.

Yang Shi looked at the two great earth spells before him and asked calmly:

"Is this your limit?"