"Enough!"
Ling Zhao had finally reached the end of his patience and cut him off with a fierce shout. Tan Yin's confession, every word dripping blood, nearly naked in its honesty, made each syllable feel like a challenge to the authority Ling Zhao had struggled to uphold, a trampling of his secret, burning hopes.
A flash of viciousness passed through his eyes. The anger and jealousy he had kept suppressed finally erupted. Spiritual power surged around him, and he struck a palm at Tan Yin without regard for anything else! The palm wind was razor-sharp, aimed straight for Tan Yin's heart meridian!
He was truly enraged. He had actually dealt a killing blow at Tan Yin, whose cultivation had been completely destroyed!
Yet just as that palm, wrapped in violent spiritual power, was about to touch Tan Yin's chest, a fleeting clarity and struggle flashed through Ling Zhao's eyes—he realized what he was doing. In that flash of lightning and spark, he forcibly reversed his spiritual power and withdrew most of his strength!
"Careful!"
Almost at the same moment, the figure who had remained silent with his back to them, seemingly detached from it all, abruptly turned around! Wang Rong did not even have time to rise fully. Driven almost entirely by instinct, he flicked his wrist, and a defensive talisman stone he had been clutching tightly in his palm, glowing with faint spiritual light, activated at once!
"Hummm—!"
A supple yet solid shield of light appeared before Tan Yin in an instant, barely blocking Ling Zhao's furious strike, though its killing intent had already been restrained. The shield shook violently, sending ripples spreading outward in rings, but in the end, it held firm and protected Tan Yin behind it.
The faint shockwave from their colliding spiritual power spread out,