A Ruthless Strike

Half an hour later, Chen Lin arrived at the outer region of the Demon Prison.

The region was vast. Chen Lin pressed the jade slip bearing a map of the area surrounding the Demon Prison to his forehead. After a few breaths, he opened his eyes, picked out the right direction again, and headed toward the place marked Yin Sand Ridge.

Yin Sand Ridge was actually a low hill, covered in black sandstone with bare rocks jutting out. It was extremely easy to find.

When Chen Lin arrived, he quickly spotted Situ Kong sitting cross-legged on a patch of open ground.

Beside Situ Kong sat a man and a woman, both cross-legged and meditating with their eyes closed. Chen Lin's gaze flickered. He knew these two were probably the others assigned to the mission alongside Situ Kong.

When Chen Lin arrived, all three sensed him and opened their eyes at the same time, rising to their feet.

"Brother Chen, you finally made it."

Seeing Chen Lin, Situ Kong looked relieved and nodded slightly in greeting.

Chen Lin strode over and cupped his fist toward Situ Kong. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Brother Situ. This is my first time here, and I'm unfamiliar with the route, so I lost some time. I hope you'll forgive me."

"You're too polite, Brother Chen. We only just arrived ourselves." Situ Kong waved a hand, then gestured to the two people beside him and smiled at Chen Lin. "Let me introduce them. These two fellow cultivators are Fellow Daoist Liu Han of the Wither-Prosper Pulse and Fellow Daoist Han Shuitong of the Crane Dance Pulse..."

"Daoist Situ, is this the helper you brought in?"

Before Situ Kong could finish, a voice interrupted him.

The man beside Situ Kong gave a cold snort and sized Chen Lin up with his chilly eyes. Without the slightest courtesy, he said, "I thought you'd brought someone at the Peak Xiantian Realm to help us. At the very least, I expected an expert in the Late Xiantian Stage. But this is just someone in the early Xiantian stage... Hmph. Are you sure he won't just hold us back?"

"Hmm?"

Chen Lin narrowed his eyes and glanced over at the man beside Situ Kong, sizing up the one called Liu Han.

The man looked as if he had spent years away from the sun. His face was pallid, his body as thin as a bamboo stalk, yet his arms were unnaturally long. Now he stared at Chen Lin with a sinister gaze, his undisguised contempt plain to see.

The woman standing beside him, Han Shuitong, merely smiled without speaking. But the detached disdain in her eyes made it clear that she, too, doubted Chen Lin's strength.

"Daoist Liu, Brother Chen was very hard to persuade. He's far stronger than he appears, so would you do me the favor of giving him a chance?"

Situ Kong's expression shifted. Clearly, he hadn't expected Liu Han to target Chen Lin right off the bat. He quickly tried to smooth things over with a laugh.

"Hmph. I can give you that much, but for the sake of completing the mission, weaklings like him should be kicked off the team as soon as possible!"

The man called Liu Han had ice-cold eyes and a sneer tugging at his lips.

"It seems you have a problem with me."

Chen Lin smiled faintly at the man.

"Save your breath! You're nothing but an early-stage Xiantian ant. What right do you have to demand a share of the Yin Corpse Fire Seed? Daoist Situ was obviously fooled by you. Let me see what you're really made of!"

Suddenly, the man moved.

His long, grayish-white hand was webbed with clearly visible blue veins. His narrow, blackened fingernails radiated a bone-chilling killing intent that seemed to snuff out all life. His fingers curled like hooks as a foul, nauseating stench spread, and he lunged for Chen Lin's chest.

The attack was so murderous that before it even reached Chen Lin, he felt as if his chest had been pierced.

"Stop!"

Situ Kong's expression changed. He tried to intervene, but it was already too late. He could only shout at Chen Lin, "That's the Corpse Poison Hand of the Wither-Prosper Pulse! One touch will poison you. Be careful, Brother Chen!"

A faint red glimmer flashed deep in Chen Lin's pupils and vanished. With no time to think, he gave a cold snort and abruptly unleashed his Dragon-Elephant Power, throwing a punch straight at the man's chest without the slightest hesitation!

Roar!

Dragons roared and elephants trumpeted, shaking the soul and seizing the spirit. The punch carried a fierce, domineering gale, whipping up waves of air as it surged forward, unstoppable!

"What domineering power!"

The contempt on Liu Han's face vanished in an instant. Feeling the force of the punch, he knew there was no way to block it!

The man reacted quickly. Knowing it was too late to withdraw his hand, he immediately slapped the Storage Bag at his waist with his other hand. A bizarre pair of daggers, each with six hooks along its sides, suddenly appeared in his palm. They gleamed with a deep, cold, inky light and flashed toward Chen Lin's neck.

At such close range, Chen Lin had no time to dodge!

"A Dharma Artifact?! Brother Liu, stop!"

Situ Kong's face suddenly changed, and he shouted.

"You're trying to kill me!"

Chen Lin's face turned completely cold. His Advanced Perception gave him an acute sense of danger. He instinctively leaned sharply backward, but still felt a faint chill at his neck.

"You're asking for death!"

Killing intent flashed in Chen Lin's eyes. As he leaned back, he changed the direction of his punch without hesitation and swung it sharply upward, smashing toward the man's wrist!

Liu Han truly was a Peak Xiantian expert. At the last possible moment, he managed to turn the dagger sideways and brace it against his wrist, while swiftly retreating.

"Bang!"

The fierce punch slammed into the blade. Though Liu Han had retreated, the force still made him grunt. The dagger flew from his hand, and he was hurled backward as well. Only after stopping in midair did he halt his retreat.

Liu Han's face was grim. Floating in midair, he stared fixedly at Chen Lin, his eyes filled with killing intent, humiliation, and shock. The arm holding the dagger trembled slightly. The sharp pain that kept coming from his wrist left him unable to believe he had actually suffered a loss at the hands of an unknown nobody in the early Xiantian stage!

"Brother Liu, wasn't using a Dharma Artifact a bit much?"

Situ Kong's expression was unpleasant as he stepped between them. Though he criticized Liu Han for striking so ruthlessly, Chen Lin saw through him: Situ Kong clearly didn't want them to keep fighting.

Chen Lin remained expressionless. He touched the bloody mark on his neck, licked the corner of his mouth, and looked up at the somewhat disheveled figure in midair. A cold, sinister killing intent flashed quickly through his eyes.

This flying technique was simply the result of a cultivator reaching the mid-Xiantian stage and gaining a certain degree of control over the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. By aligning his own spiritual energy with that of heaven and earth, he could briefly rise and fly, but not remain in the air for long, as it consumed too much spiritual energy.

Still, although Chen Lin couldn't do much to his opponent, the other man couldn't easily do anything to Chen Lin, either.

"Very good."

Liu Han beckoned, retrieved the dagger that had flown from his hand, and put it back into his Storage Bag. He slowly descended to the ground, his expression gloomy. But now a trace of wariness had crept into his gaze when he looked at Chen Lin.

He seemed unwilling to fight Chen Lin again, but at the same time, he couldn't bring himself to apologize to an unknown nobody in the early Xiantian stage. So he said with obvious reluctance, "Your strength isn't bad. At least you're not useless. You can come with us to complete the mission, but the Demon Prison is full of danger. Don't expect me to save you if trouble finds you."

"That's none of your concern." Chen Lin replied with a cold sneer, showing no courtesy at all.

Liu Han snorted coldly, concealing the viciousness in his eyes. He shot Chen Lin a cold look, then said nothing more.

"Haha, they say you don't know a man until you've fought him. Let's put this behind us." Seeing that the two had stopped fighting, Situ Kong finally breathed a sigh of relief and laughed. "It's getting late. We'd better enter the Demon Prison and complete the mission."

The other three naturally had no objections. Even Han Shuitong now seemed to acknowledge Chen Lin's strength. Her gaze was no longer detached, and from time to time she smiled at him in greeting.

The entrance to the Demon Prison was a deep tunnel about the size of a cave. An elder of the Myriad Demon Sect had been stationed there for years.

At the tunnel entrance stood a simple dwelling about the size of a stone hut. An ugly old man sat cross-legged nearby. Sensing someone approaching, he immediately opened his eyes, their gaze sharp as lightning, and looked over coldly.

"Your identity tokens."

The old man looked at Chen Lin and the others and spoke in a frigid tone.

Chen Lin could sense that the old man was unfathomably powerful. It seemed as though he could kill him with a single glance. His heart tightened, and he and the other three obediently took a token from their Storage Bags and handed them over.

These served as proof of identity. Each was a low-grade Dharma Artifact bearing information about its disciple.

"Fine. Get inside, and don't disturb my cultivation." The old man gave the tokens a cursory glance, confirming that they belonged to disciples of the Myriad Demon Sect. Then he casually flicked them back and impatiently waved them away.

The four didn't dare show the slightest displeasure. They took their tokens, bowed slightly, and entered the Demon Prison.