Your Divine Ability... Is Nothing Special

The violent trembling of the ground continued.

The earth on both sides of the official road cracked wider and wider, and countless remnant-soul yin soldiers crawled out along the fissures.

The first to surge forth were the souls of ordinary soldiers, clad in rust-covered leather armor and wielding broken halberds and shattered spears;

Close behind came heavily armored yin generals. They feared neither death nor harm; so long as the yin energy in the earth veins beneath their feet did not run dry, fresh yin soldiers would rise from underground in the blink of an eye—unceasing, endless.

This was Wang Defa's grandmaster divine ability: taking the earth veins as its root and the remnant souls gathered on an ancient battlefield as its material, he had forcibly created a yin-soldier battlefield of his own.

Yan Tao had just cleaved apart a yin soldier, but before he could draw another breath, even more surged forward.

"This can't go on!" He retreated to Meng Yao's side, his voice breathless. "The yin soldiers are reborn through the earth veins—we can't kill them all! Wang Defa clearly intends to wear us down until we die!"

The wound on Meng Yao's shoulder split open again. Gritting her teeth, she swept her sword aside to clear the yin soldiers rushing in from the flank. "We have to find where his real body is! Otherwise, we won't last the time it takes an incense stick to burn!"

Lin Yue had already used more than half her talismans, firing Evil-Repelling Talismans one after another.

Wang Lei clutched his few remaining talismans as he guarded the flank, activating Bedrock Force to endure a yin soldier's blow head-on.

The defensive line formed by the four standing back-to-back shrank step by step. The howls of the yin soldiers blanketed heaven and earth. Everyone knew that if this continued, their only end would be to exhaust their protective qi and be torn to shreds by the yin soldiers on the official road.

Inside a cave deep in the dense forest, Wang Defa stood at the center of the formation. Intricate Baleful Qi Gathering Array patterns were carved beneath his feet, while three ghostly green yin-soul lamps slowly revolved at his side.

Most of his divine soul had dispersed outward, guiding the yin energy of the earth veins and countless remnant souls. His face was pale, yet he looked as though victory was already in his grasp.

"Fight me?" he sneered softly. "The earth-vein yin soldiers are inexhaustible. Let's see how long you can hold out. Once your protective qi is depleted, not only will the Baleful Gathering Crystal Core be mine—even you will all be mine."

He had even already made his plans. Once he captured Xu Jin, he would refine that body, born with heavenly yang fire, into a top-grade baleful corpse. At that point, let alone the western outskirts, even Red-Browed Old Monster might not be his match.

In midair, Xu Jin swept down another fan-shaped curtain of sword light, instantly reducing more than a dozen yin soldiers to flying ash.

[Slain yin soldiers, obtained Demon Fragments ×3]

So few? Not even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth.

Xu Jin frowned as rainbow light faintly rippled beneath his feet.

This would not do. As long as the earth-vein yin energy remained unbroken, the yin soldiers could never be killed cleanly.

Wang Defa clearly intended to drag them to death through attrition. The strength of a creation grandmaster had never been direct combat, but borrowing the situation to grind others down.

Continuing to lock horns with these earth-vein yin soldiers was purely a waste of time.

Black light suddenly flared in his eyes. His gaze pierced through layer upon layer of black Sha Qi and soul-guiding illusions, sweeping over the entire ancient battlefield.

The pervasive yin balefulness, the wandering remnant souls, the illusory afterimages that blurred truth and falsehood—none could hide from the Yin-Soul Eye.

The source of all yin energy and the endpoint of the divine-soul guidance all converged upon a cave deep within the forest.

Found it.

"Yan Tao, hold the formation!"

Xu Jin's voice pierced through the black Sha Qi and reached the four on the official road.

Before anyone could react, crimson-gold rainbow light around him surged wildly. His whole body transformed into a golden rainbow, slicing through the dark mist as he shot straight toward the cave in the forest.

He was astonishingly fast. As the rainbow light brushed past the dense trees along the way, their branches and leaves were instantly scorched black and curled up. Even the forest's frigid yin chill was scattered by more than half.

Hearing the commotion, the Black-Wind Twin Fiends guarding the forest perimeter sprang into action. Two figures shot out from behind the trees, one from the left and one from the right.

Yan Sha on the left wore Poisoned Yin Claws, while Li Sha on the right wielded a long bone whip. Both were experts at the middle to late stages of the Intent Comprehension realm, and they coordinated seamlessly, sealing off every path above and below.

"You're courting death!" Li Sha roared, lashing his bone whip at the golden rainbow with a gust of yin wind. Several resentful souls coiled around the whip, letting out shrill wails.

Yet they did not even touch the corner of Xu Jin's robe.

Two streaks of white light flashed from within the golden rainbow, one rising and one falling to meet the claw shadows and whip shadow.

Sizzle—slash—

The Poisoned Yin Claws instantly melted beneath the yang fire, and the long bone whip snapped in two. The two sword lights did not slow in the slightest, piercing straight through the pair's hearts.

Two muffled impacts sounded almost at the same time. The Black-Wind Twin Fiends did not even finish their screams before crimson-gold flames engulfed them. In no more than a blink, they followed Yan Kun's path, burned down to nothing but charred husks.

From blocking the road to dying, it had taken only a single breath.

The golden rainbow did not slow, crashing directly into the cave entrance.

Boom!

The Baleful Qi Gathering Array flags arranged at the entrance instantly shattered. Xu Jin withdrew the rainbow light and stepped into the cave.

Wang Defa's expression changed drastically. He had never imagined that his opponent could see through his soul-guiding illusion—and kill his way to the formation's core so quickly!

Most of his divine soul was currently outside controlling the array. In his haste, he could not retrieve it at all, and he could not even display thirty percent of his full strength.

"You... how did you find this place?!" Wang Defa cried out in shock and fury, fiercely gritting his teeth as he forcibly recalled part of his divine soul.

Ignoring the pain of the backlash, he spat out a half-human-height baleful corpse from his sleeve.

This baleful corpse had been refined from his own younger brother's body. Clad in Darksteel Black Armor, it was the masterpiece he had spent decades painstakingly creating. An ordinary Intent Comprehension cultivator could not break its defense at all.

The baleful corpse roared as it lunged at Xu Jin. At the same time, Wang Defa thrust out his left palm, blasting a dense palm force of yin balefulness laced with corpse poison straight at him.

This was the strongest trump card he could produce in his haste.

Xu Jin flicked his fingers, and sword light rose. Molten-Gold Sword Aura slashed toward the baleful corpse.

Sizzle—

The Darksteel Black Armor, said to be impervious to blades and spears, was like rotten wood before the Molten-Gold Sword Aura. Crimson-gold yang fire instantly burned through the armor, spreading from its chest all the way to its head.

The baleful corpse's stiff movements suddenly froze. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a puddle of charred black residue.

The sword aura's remaining force did not diminish as it collided with the yin-baleful palm force. Like boiling water poured over snow, the yin balefulness instantly dissolved completely, leaving not even the slightest aftershock.

"Impossible!" Wang Defa cried out, stumbling back a step.

That was his prized personal baleful corpse! It could even withstand several moves head-on from an ordinary early-stage grandmaster, yet it could not block even a single attack from Xu Jin?

Xu Jin did not stop walking. In a few steps, he closed in.

His sword light thrust forward.

Slash.

The sharp flying sword pierced straight through Wang Defa's chest.

Wang Defa's back slammed heavily into the stone wall. He stared fixedly at Xu Jin, his eyes filled with unwillingness and venom, along with a flicker of incredulous disbelief. "I, a dignified grandmaster... how could I lose to a mere trainee like you..."

He had cultivated bitterly for decades before finally touching the threshold of grandmasterhood. With his divine ability, he had risen to a high position within the Profound Yin Hall, and he had always taken greatest pride in his soul-refining, baleful-gathering arts.

Yet in the end, he had fallen at the hands of an obscure trainee demon slayer. Even his proudest divine ability had been utterly unable to withstand a single blow.

Xu Jin slowly walked forward. His tone was calm, yet full of arrogance and contempt, as though he were evaluating a worthless piece of trash.

"Your divine ability... is nothing special."

Wang Defa's eyes flew wide open. The final breath in his chest was choked back by those words.

His throat rattled. In the end, he could not utter another word. His head tilted to one side, and his breath was gone for good.