Halo Floating Light Innate Overlord Qi

"Let's go?"

Yan Nanqiu was so angered by Lu Feng's words that he laughed. Turning to the two men beside him, he said, "Did I hear that right? He actually dared to tell us to leave?"

The two men sneered in turn. "He must not be seeing the situation clearly."

"I think he's lost his mind!"

A trace of embarrassment showed on Chu Youwei's face. They were clearly the ones being surrounded and cornered—what right did they have to tell others to leave? And he even acted as though he were being magnanimous and letting the matter slide?

Xue Zier had initially felt embarrassed for Lu Feng as well, but seeing how calm he remained, her extensive experience in judging people suddenly made her realize that things might not be so simple.

Lu Feng looked at Yan Nanqiu and the others, who were utterly oblivious and had no sense of the danger they were in, then sighed helplessly. With a flick of his hand, he struck the curtain of fire before him.

A thread-like attack condensed from beast fire abruptly broke away from the fiery curtain. Like an arrow feather trailing a long tail, it shot straight toward Yan Nanqiu and the other two.

"Careful!" The man standing to Yan Nanqiu's left hurriedly activated the Protective Armor on his right arm. It unfolded into a shield before Yan Nanqiu.

Yet in the next instant, the shield, sturdy enough to rank at the Earth Grade, was effortlessly pierced and burned through by that line of fire. The remaining force nearly burned the man's entire arm to ashes.

The smile on Yan Nanqiu's face froze the instant he witnessed Lu Feng's method, turning exceptionally grim and solemn.

His arrogance, his confidence in surrounding and confronting them, had all rested upon what he believed was overwhelming strength. He had thought Lu Feng's group had no way of dealing with them.

But this casually fired blaze was enough to shatter the deadlock with ease. With such terrifying flames, they might not even have a chance to escape.

The situation had indeed never been on their side.

When Yan Nanqiu and the other two recalled Lu Feng's earlier words now, there was not the slightest trace of mockery left in them. Lu Feng truly had the confidence to say he would let them leave.

Yan Nanqiu glared viciously at Lu Feng. He had never imagined that a mere Auxiliary Array could be manipulated into such a thing in Lu Feng's hands. He only attributed it to the power of an array left behind from that era. Even an ordinary Auxiliary Array possessed such dreadful might; he never once considered that this method might be Lu Feng's own capability.

In his eyes, even he, an array master of the Earth Soul Realm, could not accomplish such a feat. There was no way a Martial Master of the Five Elements Realm could do it. The array disc of this Auxiliary Array had to be inherently extraordinary.

Little did he know that Lu Feng's move had little to do with the Xihe Heavenly Sun Array itself. From beginning to end, Lu Feng had only used the array to release a small amount of beast fire and maintain the curtain of flames.

His ability to fire that line of flame mainly came from the Extreme Star Sky Evolution Art, together with the concealed suppression and guidance of his powerful Fire Essence Qi.

The flicking motion Lu Feng made with his hand was merely a deception. What truly caused a fiery line of attack to erupt from the curtain was a small, concealed cluster of spiritual energy condensed in his palm. It was a line of fire drawn forth by the small spiritual energy cluster he launched through the Extreme Star Sky Evolution Art, not by the array itself.

Such a method could only be used at close range. If the distance were any greater, he would need to increase the force of the spiritual energy cluster. Then it would no longer be able to draw a line of fire along with it, but would directly punch through the wall of flames, exposing the trick.

Of course, given his current identity and strength, it was difficult for him to launch it much farther anyway.

Yan Nanqiu naturally did not know this. Not only him—even Chu Youwei and Xue Zier, standing nearby, attributed this method to the array itself and harbored no suspicion toward Lu Feng whatsoever.

Yan Nanqiu glared resentfully at Lu Feng's side. Though he hated Xue Zier to the bone, the circumstances and his fear of Lu Feng's methods left him with no choice but to consider retreat.

Just as he was about to grab his bag and flee, Xue Zier suddenly called out.

"Leave my bundle behind!"

Yan Nanqiu swept her a cold glance, kicked the purple bundle on the ground toward her, then picked up his own bundle and prepared to leave.

Xue Zier stepped forward and caught it, then imperiously stopped them. "You can leave, but those three bundles of yours stay! Consider them compensation for plotting to harm me!"

Yan Nanqiu halted abruptly and roared furiously at Lu Feng, "Lin Family brat, are you really going to help this demoness and make an enemy of my Exquisite Pavilion?"

Xue Zier said disdainfully, "Yan Nanqiu, do you have no shame? You were the one who attacked Young Master Lin and tried to kill him earlier. Now that you're at someone else's mercy, you start talking about whether he wants to be your enemy? How hypocritical can you be?"

She then turned to Lu Feng. "Young Master Lin, these three are no good people. If you let them go, they will never spare you afterward. Better to kill them now while you have the chance. No one will know, and I guarantee I will not spread word of it. All their treasures can be yours as well. That Yan fellow has a volume of Weapon Forging Insights from Master Ouye himself! If news of it spread, it would be enough to overturn the entire path of weapon forging in the outside world! With it, it would be as easy as turning over one's hand for your Lin Family to return to the ranks of noble clans."

Lu Feng's expression changed abruptly. He had originally disdained making trouble for minor figures like Yan Nanqiu, but the words Weapon Forging Insights stirred his heart.

After weighing the gains and losses, killing intent filled Lu Feng's eyes. Just as he was about to act, a burst of cold laughter sounded from the Air Vent.

Immediately afterward, a graceful figure leaped down and entered the Stone Chamber.

It was none other than Ji Lanxin!

But her appearance now was far inferior to when they had first met. Perhaps her clothes had been damaged along the way, for she had changed into a simple, fitted long robe, shedding that flamboyant splendor. Though her exquisite cloudlike hairdo remained, the ends of her hair bore a hint of disorder.

Not long after she landed, Miao Ying and Wei Yuan entered one after another, arriving at her side.

Compared to Ji Lanxin's appearance, the two of them did not seem to have changed much outwardly. They merely each carried several additional small bundles. Yet Lu Feng noticed that Wei Yuan was no longer carrying that bundle of rare and precious swords, and even Miao Ying's own sword had vanished without a trace.

Lu Feng's face could not help turning cold. He did not care about the other swords, but Lin Xiaowan's Nightspring Nether could not simply be lost like this!

Ji Lanxin approached Yan Nanqiu with a cold face, shot him a resentful glare, then held out her hand. "Give me the Weapon Forging Insights she mentioned!"

Yan Nanqiu hesitated for an instant. When he saw Ji Lanxin's hateful gaze and disheveled hair, a flash of guilt passed through his eyes. Somewhat sheepishly, he pulled a tome wrapped in specially treated leather from his robes.

Ji Lanxin spread open the leather. Seeing the four roughly scrawled words "Weapon Forging Insights" and the densely written text beneath them, she was immediately delighted. She softly warned Yan Nanqiu, "Consider this your compensation to me!"

Yan Nanqiu's face stiffened. Though unwilling, he did not reveal the slightest sign of it.

"Young Miss Ji!" Lu Feng fixed Ji Lanxin with an icy stare and demanded, "Where are the swords you took from us earlier?"

Ji Lanxin gave Lu Feng a stiff-faced glance and sneered. "Those were not your swords. When a certain someone was kneeling earlier, he publicly declared that they were resources of my Ji Family. Since that is the case, what business is it of yours where I threw them? Even if I tossed them into the Lava Pit, it would have nothing to do with you."

Xue Zier leaned close to Lu Feng's ear and said somewhat awkwardly, "Young Master Lin, I know where those swords are."

The anger on Lu Feng's face, brought on by Ji Lanxin's words, abruptly froze. He looked at Xue Zier in surprise, only to find when he turned back that she had practically leaned against his ear, nearly face to face with him. He hurriedly shifted half a step away.

Seeing Lu Feng's reaction, Xue Zier's lips curved into a seductive smile. She softly added, "When I lured that Old Man away earlier and set a tiger luring the mountain scheme in motion, I hid the swords he had set aside. If you want them, Young Master, I can go recover them with you later."

Lu Feng secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Though Xue Zier had spoken quietly, Wei Yuan's strength was no ordinary thing. He caught every word, and immediately flew into a rage. "So it was you who lured this old man away and tricked my Young Miss into that hidden chamber?"

At the words "hidden chamber," Ji Lanxin's expression immediately became rather unnatural. Gritting her teeth, she said to Wei Yuan, "Kill them for me! Don't leave a single one alive!"

Lu Feng and Chu Youwei's faces both tightened. Neither understood the source of Ji Lanxin's fury. Even if their relationship was poor, they belonged to forces around Profound Gold City, and with Ji Zhi's connection between them, she should not have so readily harbored murderous intent.

Or was this killing intent... because of Xue Zier?

There was no time to think deeply. After Wei Yuan failed to persuade her and was rebuked instead, he accepted the order with a dark expression and stepped forward.

Lu Feng raised his hand and fired three lines of flame in succession, trying to halt Wei Yuan's advance.

Yet the instant those fiery lines touched Wei Yuan, they were scattered far away by the strange qi surrounding his body.

More precisely, "scattered" was not the right word. It was more like the lines of flame had struck rapidly flowing currents of spiritual energy and were forcibly deflected from their paths.

Lu Feng's gaze sharpened as he vaguely discerned the peculiarity of the qi around Wei Yuan. It was not a defensive barrier formed from a large mass of spiritual energy like a shield, but Protective Qi formed by countless threads of spiritual energy circling his body at extreme speed.

The instant Lu Feng's fired lines of flame touched Wei Yuan's Protective Qi, the streamlike spiritual energy circling it diverted them into the pools on either side, sending up waves of hissing sounds.

Halo Floating Light, Innate Overlord Qi!

Xue Zier's face tightened as she cried out in shock, "You're Floating Light, ranked forty-fourth on the Heavenly Rankings?"

When she saw Wei Yuan's lips curl into a cold, contemptuous smile as though acknowledging it, Xue Zier's heart trembled.

She had thought this unremarkable old man was merely an ordinary guard at Ji Lanxin's side. She never imagined he possessed such strength and status!

Feeling the pressure and killing intent radiating from Wei Yuan as he advanced, Xue Zier's face turned ashen.

Now that she had recognized Wei Yuan's identity, Xue Zier no longer held any hope of surviving.

Outside Giant Sword Mountain, where space was unstable, she might still have had some chance of escape. But within Giant Sword Mountain, in an environment far more solid than the outside world, facing someone like Wei Yuan, she did not even have the courage to run.