Above the sea.
A slightly slender figure stood atop the clouds.
He looked at Huanglong Zhenren with an amused expression.
"We meet again."
When Huanglong Zhenren got a clear look at him, his pupils contracted, and he froze on the spot.
"It's you?"
For a moment, the sight seemed unreal.
That face was both unfamiliar and familiar to him.
It was unfamiliar because he had only seen it once.
It was familiar because the other man had left a deep impression on him.
Lu Changsheng!
The Xuanling Fruit incident was the greatest humiliation Huanglong Zhenren had suffered since beginning his cultivation.
He had wanted to find Lu Changsheng and tear him limb from limb every waking moment.
Yet Chijingzi had spent decades trying to divine his whereabouts, without success.
Huanglong Zhenren had no idea where to look for him.
And now Lu Changsheng had appeared right before him?!
His brief stunned silence gave way to wild elation.
He'd searched high and low, only to find him without even trying!
"How dare you show your face in front of me!"
Huanglong Zhenren gritted his teeth.
"What a joke. Why wouldn't I dare?"
"I should be thanking you for killing the Yin Yang Twin Flood Dragons for me."
Lu Changsheng knew exactly how to get under someone's skin.
On his way here, he'd still been wondering how he could kill the Yin Yang Twin Flood Dragons and obtain their dragon cores.
But sometimes, arriving at just the right moment was better than arriving early.
Lu Changsheng had arrived just as Huanglong Zhenren struck the Yin Flood Dragon and grievously wounded it.
So he had concealed himself and waited for Huanglong Zhenren to finish off the Yin Yang Twin Flood Dragons before making his move.
That way, he'd also avoid giving the dragons a chance to use some desperate last resort.
Now that he had the dragon cores, all that remained was to deal with Huanglong Zhenren.
Those two remarks completely broke Huanglong Zhenren's composure.
"You're asking for death!"
"This time, I won't let you escape!"
Huanglong Zhenren's face twisted with viciousness as he produced a talisman.
That's right—this was the Attack Talisman Yuanshi had given him earlier.
The talisman had originally been intended for use against Xuan Jun. But the moment he saw Lu Changsheng, Huanglong Zhenren decided to use it.
He had now reached the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm, but Lu Changsheng's Ling Yun Jian was a Xiantian Lingbao. Even if Lu Changsheng couldn't bring out its full power, it still posed a threat.
To make sure he killed Lu Changsheng with a single strike and gave him no chance to escape,
he used the means Yuanshi had given him.
As for what he would use against Xuan Jun after spending the talisman, that was no concern.
The dragon cores could suppress Xuan Jun, for one thing. And even if Xuan Jun had some means of escaping their suppression, Huanglong Zhenren had other options.
Besides, Lu Changsheng had a Xiantian Lingbao.
It wasn't Chijingzi who had found Lu Changsheng. Once Huanglong Zhenren killed him, Ling Yun Jian would belong to him!
With a Xiantian Lingbao in hand, how could he possibly lose to Xuan Jun?
As Huanglong Zhenren activated the talisman, its lines of script blazed with golden light.
Lu Changsheng's expression darkened.
He hadn't been surprised that Huanglong Zhenren had reached the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm.
After all, Huanglong Zhenren had neither a magic treasure nor any formidable Divine Abilities and Sorcery.
A "blank slate" Taiyi Golden Immortal like him wasn't that difficult to deal with.
But now, Lu Changsheng sensed a deadly threat in the golden light of the talisman.
And Huanglong Zhenren gave him little time to react.
In the span of a single breath, the talisman burned to ash. A golden dragon roared out of the light.
Lu Changsheng couldn't dodge in time and was swallowed head-on.
Huanglong Zhenren let out a vicious laugh.
"I don't know who you really are."
"But anyone who dares to oppose me is doomed to die!"
As he spoke, he walked toward Lu Changsheng, ready to claim his spoils.
But after just one step, he realized something was wrong.
The talisman's power gradually weakened, and the golden dragon slowly faded away.
Yet Lu Changsheng was still standing there.
His eyes were full of amusement.
"Doomed to die?"
"Doesn't look that way."
Huanglong Zhenren stood frozen like a block of wood.
"T-That's impossible!"
Though East Emperor Taiyi's restrictions had limited the power of Yuanshi's talisman, it should still have been more than enough to kill an ordinary Taiyi Golden Immortal.
Lu Changsheng had taken the attack head-on. Why wasn't he dead?
Wait!
Huanglong Zhenren's gaze shifted, fixing on Lu Changsheng's left hand.
A pearl had appeared in his palm at some point.
The pearl was perfectly round and smooth, its surface shimmering with five-colored light.
But its Spiritual Light had grown extremely dim, as if it were about to go out.
What truly shocked Huanglong Zhenren was the aura radiating from the pearl.
It was much weaker than Ling Yun Jian, but there was no mistaking it.
A Xiantian Lingbao!
Huanglong Zhenren stared in utter disbelief.
Lu Changsheng actually had two Xiantian Lingbao!
"That was a pretty good talisman."
"But do you have another one?"
Lu Changsheng said coolly.
He might have appeared calm, but inside, he was rattled.
He truly hadn't expected Huanglong Zhenren to have another trick like that.
If the Spirit Capturing Pearl hadn't absorbed some Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy over the past while, allowing it to block the strike, he might really have fallen to Huanglong Zhenren.
And he could feel that the pearl didn't have much Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy stored inside it.
If the talisman's power had been just a little stronger, the Spirit Capturing Pearl wouldn't have been able to stop the strike.
It seemed he couldn't rely too much on what he knew about Honghuang.
Now that he had calmed down, Huanglong Zhenren was filled with regret.
He had acted rashly!
Though Lu Changsheng had used a Xiantian Lingbao to block the talisman's killing strike,
for some reason, the power of that treasure seemed to have been completely spent.
If he had known Lu Changsheng had another Xiantian Lingbao, he wouldn't have used the talisman so soon.
But there was no undoing what was done.
He could only think of it as trading one talisman for Lu Changsheng's Defensive Lingbao.
He still had the advantage in this fight. It would simply take more effort to finish Lu Changsheng off.
"Why would I need another talisman to deal with a mere little Heavenly Immortal like you?"
He only had to watch out for Lu Changsheng's Ling Yun Jian.
Huanglong Zhenren raised both arms. His immense magical power formed several Spirit Swords behind him.
Then he swept his right hand, sending a round of Sword Rain slashing toward Lu Changsheng.
So what if Lu Changsheng had Ling Yun Jian?
Huanglong Zhenren's Taiyi Golden Immortal cultivation far surpassed Lu Changsheng's Heavenly Immortal realm.
His words also put Lu Changsheng's mind at ease.
As long as there wasn't a second talisman, that was fine.
"Are you sure you haven't gotten something wrong?"
"Who told you I was a Heavenly Immortal?"
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