Night had deepened, and Listening Thunder Abode was shrouded in silence, with only the rustling of mountain winds through the pine forest.
Mo Yuan sat cross-legged in the meditation chamber, the Myriad Year Warm Jade on his chest radiating a gentle glow that nourished his body and mind.
His battle with Luo Li had drained him greatly, and he had later forcibly broken through the illusion array. Though he had won, his organs and meridians had all been shaken. He needed time to regulate his breathing and recover.
However, just as his mind settled and he guided the gentle spiritual energy to repair his hidden injuries while splitting off a thread of divine sense to slowly refine that wisp of Innate Dao Rhyme, an extremely subtle yet bone-piercing sense of danger suddenly stabbed into his sea of consciousness like a poisoned needle!
It was not a fluctuation of spiritual energy, but pure malicious intent locked onto his soul!
Someone was attacking him! The target was directly his soul!
Mo Yuan's eyes snapped open, violet-gold lightning flashing through them before vanishing.
He did not even have time to rise before his thoughts connected completely with the Soul Cleansing Banner in his sea of consciousness!
"Buzz—!"
A clear radiance, limpid as water yet incomparably resilient, erupted from within him and instantly enveloped his entire body.
Fine golden runes flowed faintly across the barrier, exuding a tranquil, peaceful, yet inviolably majestic aura.
It was the soul-protecting power of the Purity Domain that the Soul Cleansing Banner possessed after advancing to a High-Grade Magic Item!
Almost at the exact instant the radiant barrier formed!
"Hiss!"
An invisible and formless black soul spike, vicious as a poisonous serpent from the Nine Netherworlds, slammed fiercely into the radiant barrier!
There was no earthshaking crash, only an eerie grinding sound that set one's teeth on edge, as if a soul were being torn apart.
The radiant barrier rippled violently, and the golden runes on its surface flickered in and out. The soul spike actually bored an inch deep into it! But it was ultimately stopped!
Mo Yuan felt a sharp pain in his sea of consciousness, as though steel needles had pierced it. Had the Soul Cleansing Banner not protected him in time, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
He was both shocked and enraged. The enemy's methods were vicious, directly attacking his soul. They clearly intended either to kill him in one blow or cripple his foundation!
"Hmm? You actually possess such a soul-defense magic item?"
A surprised voice came from outside the courtyard, then turned ruthless. "Attack together and break it!"
Three black-clad figures passed through the courtyard walls like ghosts—not physically, but through some sort of escape technique—and surrounded Mo Yuan's meditation chamber in a triangular formation.
The leader held a black earthen jar, its mouth glowing faintly as it locked onto Mo Yuan. The man on the left gripped a pitch-black dagger in each hand, their blades wrapped in soul-devouring black energy. The man on the right drifted about erratically, chanting under his breath as though preparing a more powerful soul-attacking spell.
All three possessed the aura of the ninth level of Qi Refinement! Their cultivation arts shared the same origin, sinister and eerie, identical to those of the Black Fiend Sect, yet seemingly even purer and more ancient!
"Assassins from the Netherworld organization!" Mo Yuan instantly understood.
As expected, they had launched a fatal sneak attack while he was weak and his vigilance had slightly relaxed after the fierce battle!
"You reacted quickly enough! Let's see how long you can hold out!"
The assassin holding the jar snorted coldly and activated his spiritual power. Another, more condensed black soul arrow shot from the jar.
At the same time, the other two moved. The daggers slashed out two crossing arcs of black blade light at the radiant barrier, while the chanting assassin thrust both palms forward, sending an invisible soul shockwave surging over like a tide!
The combined attack of the three was far more powerful than before!
Mo Yuan's expression turned grave. He had recovered only thirty to forty percent of his spiritual power, and forcibly using lightning arts or spear techniques would greatly weaken their might. Yet he remained calm in the face of danger, his Primordial Comprehension spinning madly under the threat of death!
He did not choose to meet their attack head-on. Instead, he divided his focus in two! On one side, he maintained the Soul Cleansing Banner's Purity Domain with all his strength, condensing the clear radiance into a denser barrier that firmly protected his sea of consciousness and vital points.
On the other side, he formed a hand seal. What he invoked was not his own spiritual power, but the earth beneath his feet—the earth vein energy of Stone Bamboo Shoot Mountain!
Earth Vein Dragon Seeking Art!
Though it was only an incomplete volume, with the home-field advantage of Stone Bamboo Shoot Mountain and the Myriad Year Warm Jade on his chest amplifying his perception of spiritual power, he actually managed to draw forth a faint yet heavy and majestic wisp of earth energy!
"Earth vein, rise!"
He shouted softly, and the floor of the meditation chamber suddenly shook. Several hard stone bamboo shoots burst upward like earth dragons turning over, not attacking the three assassins but cleverly blocking the space between them and the meditation chamber, disrupting their attack paths and positions!
"Boom! Boom!"
Most of the black soul arrow and blade light struck the suddenly rising stone bamboo shoots and exploded apart. Only some residual force hit the radiant barrier, causing it to sway but failing to break through.
The soul shockwave was also weakened by more than half by the heavy earth energy.
"Hmph! Petty tricks!"
The jar-wielding assassin's gaze turned cold. He had clearly not expected Mo Yuan to use an earth vein technique to interfere even under such circumstances.
He was about to activate the jar again and unleash a stronger killing move.
At that moment, a fierce glint flashed through Mo Yuan's eyes!
Defense had never been his style! Especially when his opponents specialized in soul attacks!
His strongest means of counterattack happened to target the soul as well!
"Soul Cleansing Banner, seize!"
He stopped defending passively and instead actively activated the High-Grade Magic Item Soul Cleansing Banner within his sea of consciousness.
The clear radiance surrounding him suddenly expanded. It was no longer merely a protective barrier, but transformed into a rotating vortex of clear light that emitted tremendous suction and swept toward the three assassins.
From the vortex's center came faint sounds of tranquil, liberating Buddhist chants, while the spiritual radiance of Purity Bamboo gleamed within!
This clear radiance was harmless to living beings and could even calm the mind. But to cultivators of sinister arts—especially those skilled in soul attacks, whose soul power was inevitably tainted with yin-fiend energy—it possessed an extremely powerful suppressive and purifying effect. The vortex's suction targeted the soul directly.
"What?! This magic item..."
The three assassins' expressions changed drastically. They felt their soul power being faintly drawn away, even showing signs of being stripped from their bodies.
The sinister cultivation arts they were circulating were also heavily suppressed, like snow and ice beneath the blazing sun!
The chanting assassin in particular suffered the greatest impact. His incantation was abruptly cut off, and he grunted as the backlash of his soul power made black blood spill from the corner of his mouth!
"This is bad! There's something strange about that banner! Destroy him first!" The jar-wielding assassin made a swift decision. No longer attempting to seize Mo Yuan's soul, he aimed the jar at him, gathering dark light at its mouth as he prepared to unleash some powerful physical or energy attack.
The other two also endured the discomfort in their soul power and charged again with their blades raised!
An opening!
At the instant their formation fell into slight chaos and their attacks shifted!
Mo Yuan moved!
The little spiritual power remaining in his body erupted at once, fused with the aura of Geng Metal Thunderous Evil as he pushed the Ghost Shadow Footwork to its limit.
His figure became lightning that tore through the night. Rather than retreating, he charged directly at the chanting assassin whose aura had become the most unstable after suffering backlash!
At the same time, the Thunder Dragon Evil-Slaying Spear was already in his hand.
Though he lacked sufficient spiritual power to unleash a powerful spear art, the Thunder Dragon Soul Essence and thunderous power contained within the spear itself were naturally suppressive against sinister things!
"Die!"
His speed was extreme. Almost the instant the clear-radiance vortex began interfering with them, Mo Yuan had already closed in on the chanting assassin.
With an unstoppable resolve, the Thunder Dragon Evil-Slaying Spear became a streak of violet lightning and stabbed straight at his throat!
The assassin's soul power had backlashed, slowing his movements. He had no time to react at all!
"Pfft!"
The spear tip pierced through his protective fiendish aura without resistance and punched through his throat! Thunderous power erupted, instantly destroying his life force!
A single fatal strike!
"Third brother!" The other two assassins' eyes nearly split with rage!
The jar-wielding assassin finally unleashed his attack. A condensed black beam shot from the mouth of the jar, carrying an aura of corrosion and destruction as it blasted toward Mo Yuan's back!
The dual blades of the other assassin had also reached him!
Mo Yuan's old strength was spent, while new strength had yet to arise. With his back turned to the attacks, he was about to be struck!
At the critical moment, he made an extremely bold decision.
He completely abandoned his defense behind him, pouring all his remaining spiritual power and mental force into the Soul Cleansing Banner and activating its strongest power of deliverance, targeting the blade-wielding assassin directly!
"Deliverance!"
The clear-radiance vortex suddenly contracted, concentrating all its power at one point like an invisible heavy hammer that smashed fiercely into the blade-wielding assassin's soul.
The assassin felt as though an enormous bell had exploded within his mind. Countless tranquil and peaceful thoughts flooded in, instantly washing away the killing intent and savagery in his heart. His eyes turned blank, and his movements paused!
That brief pause!
Mo Yuan twisted sharply, narrowly avoiding the vital parts of his back by a hair's breadth, but the black beam still grazed his left shoulder!
"Sizzle!"
The Daoist robe on his left shoulder instantly turned to ash, while his skin and flesh were corroded and scorched to the bone. The pain drilled straight into his heart!
Yet he borrowed the force of the impact to dart forward, then spun back and thrust his spear. The Thunder Dragon Evil-Slaying Spear shot out like a venomous dragon emerging from its lair, piercing toward the heart of the blade-wielding assassin, whose movements had stalled under the interference of the deliverance power!
"Pfft!"
Another strike through the heart! Thunderous power instantly obliterated his soul!
In the blink of an eye, two of the three ninth-level Qi Refinement assassins were dead!
Only the leader holding the jar remained! He watched his two companions die in a flash of lightning, and fear finally rose in his heart.
He had not expected the target to retain such terrifying counterattacking ability and such a bizarre magic item in this state!
"Retreat!" Without the slightest hesitation, he crushed an escape talisman, his body about to dissolve into black smoke!
"Trying to leave? Stay!"
Mo Yuan endured the agonizing pain in his left shoulder and the dizziness brought on by spiritual power depletion. He poured his final trace of strength, along with a shred of insight brought by the Innate Dao Rhyme he had been refining, into the Soul Cleansing Banner!
"Purity Domain, seal!"
Clear radiance spread outward once more. This time, it did not form a vortex but a massive transparent dome filled with flowing runes, instantly enveloping the entire small courtyard.
The black smoke the assassin had transformed into slammed into the radiant barrier as though striking a copper wall and iron rampart, and he was violently bounced back. His escape technique had been broken!
"Impossible!" The assassin leader's face turned deathly pale, and despair finally appeared in his eyes.
Leaning on the Thunder Dragon Evil-Slaying Spear, Mo Yuan's face was white as paper. Blood dripped continuously from his arm and left shoulder, and his aura had weakened to the extreme, yet his eyes were cold as ten-thousand-year ice as he walked toward the man step by step.
"Tell me, who sent you? What exactly is the relationship between Netherworld and the Black Fiend Sect?"
The assassin leader looked at Mo Yuan approaching step by step, then at his companions' corpses on the ground. A fierce and resolute expression flashed across his face as he suddenly gritted his teeth. "Don't even think about it! Netherworld... forever!"
The spiritual power within him instantly began flowing in reverse, and his body swelled as though being inflated!
"Trying to self-destruct?" Mo Yuan's pupils contracted. He no longer had the strength to stop him.
At that critical moment, a brilliant golden bolt of lightning descended from the sky like heavenly punishment, striking the assassin leader directly on the head!
"Boom!"
After the lightning faded, the assassin leader's charred body stood frozen in place. His swollen spiritual power had been instantly dispersed by the supremely yang lightning, and he was already dead.
Uncle Nine's—Lin Jiu's—figure appeared in the courtyard. His face was ashen, and the terrifying pressure of a Foundation Establishment Earth Master radiated from his body. He had clearly been alerted by the battle's fluctuations and arrived in time.
He looked at the devastated courtyard and his disciple, covered in blood and swaying on the verge of collapse yet still standing. His eyes were filled with lingering fear and towering rage.
"Netherworld... Black Fiend Sect... Good! Very good!" Uncle Nine's voice was ice-cold and piercing. "You dare assassinate the foremost talent of Maoshan? Do you truly think Maoshan has no one left?!"
He strode forward and supported Mo Yuan, sending pure Foundation Establishment spiritual power into his body to stabilize his injuries and suppress the corrosive black energy.
Mo Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. As the tension holding up his mind loosened, waves of dizziness assailed him.
"Master... they... were targeting me..." he said weakly.
"I know."
Uncle Nine looked at his disciple's pale face, both heartbroken and furious. "Heal your injuries first. This matter is not over!"
His gaze, sharp as a sword, swept toward the dark night sky beyond the courtyard.
Within Maoshan, and even throughout the entire cultivation world, hidden currents surged because of Mo Yuan's sudden rise. What happened tonight was only the beginning.
After this battle, Mo Yuan also fully understood that possessing a treasure invited disaster. The road ahead was destined to be accompanied by slaughter and danger.
He had to become stronger faster, strong enough to crush every conspiracy and assassination attempt!
The fourth floor of the Scripture Pavilion and the Foundation Establishment realm would be the key to his next step.
Before you continue