The three probationary disciples Hu Li had brought immediately turned their weapons on him and lunged as one.
Despair filled Hu Li's face. Suddenly, he gritted his teeth and roared, "You want me dead? Then I'll make sure you don't get off easy!"
Before his shout had even faded, he crushed the Magnetic Core Bead sewn onto his chest.
A tremendous blast erupted. Even someone as powerful as Xu Yi couldn't stop it in time.
Hu Li was blown to pieces on the spot. The three probationary disciples closest to him suffered only minor injuries.
Xu Yi, Yue Ziling, and Mu Guangming were farther away, protected by their spiritual shields; they weren't harmed in the slightest.
But the terrifying blast wave swept into the flower fields, snapping and crushing all the Lengjia flowers across the roughly ten acres Mu Guangming had been watching over.
Petals filled the sky, and the shockwave rolled like a sea. Everyone stared at one another.
Even Yue Ziling's face was heavy with concern.
With a scene like this unfolding before them, this turn of events would be difficult to explain.
Just then, Buddhist chanting suddenly rose from the mountain.
As the chanting began, the bright moon in the sky seemed like a jade beauty whose face had been veiled, suddenly lifting the gauzy curtain.
The moonlight burst forth. The Lengjia flowers covering the mountain slopes suddenly bloomed like stars being lit, spreading from near to far, radiant with holiness and sublime beauty.
Accompanied by the sacred, almost Buddhist chant, the whole scene took on an ethereal air.
The moon shifted, its light moving across the slopes. When it turned toward where Xu Yi and the others stood, they were swallowed in darkness, a glaring patch amid the mountain's radiance.
Just then, commotion erupted on the