I Said It—None of You Goes Off Alone!

Lin Yuan rushed out of the command tent just as a patrolling soldier passed by outside.

"Have you seen Senior Brother Li Xingba?"

The soldier froze at the question.

"The Immortal Elder left the camp a moment ago."

"Which direction?"

"Southeast."

Lin Yuan's face darkened completely.

The Four Sages of Nine-Dragon Island were all quite formidable.

Their biggest problem was also remarkably consistent.

They had guts.

And hot tempers.

If they felt they could handle something themselves, they could not be bothered to call for help.

He had only told them yesterday afternoon not to pursue anyone alone.

Yet Li Xingba had gone out by himself that very night.

It was as though he had taken Lin Yuan's warning as a daily check-in—once he had heard it, the task was complete.

Lin Yuan had no time to look for Wen Zhong.

The Qingxuan Sword shot straight out.

He rode the sword out of the camp.

"Senior Brother Li!"

The battlefield beneath the night sky was deathly silent.

The Killing Intent left behind by the day's battle had yet to dissipate, clearly interfering with his Innate Spiritual Perception.

Lin Yuan could only follow the lingering traces of Li Xingba's aura.

After flying dozens of li.

The roar of colliding spiritual power finally came from afar.

Found him!

Lin Yuan pushed his speed to the limit.

By the time he crossed a barren mountain, the battle ahead had already reached its most dangerous point.

Li Xingba was trapped between two immortals.

One of them was close to Li Xingba in cultivation.

The other's aura was distinctly stronger.

Worst of all, a formation had been prepared in advance around them, sealing off every route of retreat.

"Just as expected, it's this same trick again!"

Lin Yuan's expression turned black.

Pick them off one by one.

Wang Mo had not taken the bait yesterday.

He had stopped Gao Yougan during the day as well.

Then they turned around at night and hooked Li Xingba instead.

These people were truly persistent.

Their whole approach was this: as long as the hoe was swung often enough, sooner or later it would dig up an immortal from the Intercepting Sect.

"Senior Brother Li!"

Lin Yuan roared.

Li Xingba was being suppressed by a flying sword. The moment he heard the voice, his expression changed sharply.

"Junior Brother?"

"Who told you to come here?!"

"I should be asking you that!"

Lin Yuan had already charged to the edge of the formation.

"I just told you this afternoon not to run off alone!"

"And you went out by yourself that very night!"

"Are you in your rebellious phase or something?!"

Li Xingba was stunned by the scolding.

"I discovered someone from West Qi spying outside the camp. I only meant to come out and take a look..."

"And that look landed you right inside a formation?"

"..."

Li Xingba had no answer.

It was true.

At first, he had only detected a suspicious aura.

He pursued it for more than ten li.

The other party had always kept just close enough to tempt him, yet far enough to evade him.

By the time Li Xingba realized what was happening, he had already entered a prearranged formation.

Unfortunately, his realization had come a little too late.

"Forget that for now!"

Li Xingba shouted.

"Get out of here!"

"There's a Peak Profound Immortal on their side!"

Lin Yuan's steps only quickened.

"I'm already here."

"If I leave now, wouldn't this trip have been for nothing?"

Li Xingba nearly died of anger.

What time was this for jokes?

The gray-robed Daoist suppressing Li Xingba also noticed Lin Yuan.

"It's that brat again."

Their plan during the day had failed because Lin Yuan had warned Gao Yougan in advance.

And now he had delivered himself to their doorstep.

Perfect.

"Kill him first!"

The other immortal's hand seals changed in an instant.

A dark golden nail flew out of the night without warning.

It was incredibly fast.

Its target was not Lin Yuan.

It was still Li Xingba!

This was the true killing move.

The enemy had deliberately shouted, "Kill Lin Yuan first," to make Li Xingba instinctively lose focus.

Yet Lin Yuan's Innate Spiritual Perception had already issued a frantic warning before the nail appeared.

"Senior Brother, duck!"

Lin Yuan had no time to explain.

He had not yet mastered Wind-Thunder Escape.

Relying only on sword flight, he could not catch up to the nail's speed either.

He could only predict its path in advance and slam into Li Xingba from the side.

Bang!

Lin Yuan's shoulder violently knocked Li Xingba aside.

The dark golden nail grazed past Li Xingba's ear.

But it struck Lin Yuan's left shoulder dead-on!

Pfft!

Blood burst into the air.

Lin Yuan's body jolted violently.

His entire left arm went numb in an instant.

The nail also contained a sharp stream of spiritual power specially meant to erode immortal bodies, drilling madly into him.

This was the first time he had truly been wounded since obtaining the Blackstone Dao Body.

Li Xingba's eyes instantly reddened.

"Junior Brother!"

"Don't shout!"

Lin Yuan's right hand had already grasped the Qingxuan Sword.

Pain was pain.

But he was still alive.

That meant he could still fight.

The enemy clearly had not expected Lin Yuan to be able to move after taking that hit.

The gray-robed Daoist was about to follow up with a palm strike.

But within his Innate Spiritual Perception, a fleeting opening appeared at the man's right side.

Lin Yuan did not hesitate in the slightest.

The Qingxuan Sword left his hand.

"Go!"

Whoosh!

The sharpness of a high-grade postnatal spirit treasure erupted fully at that moment.

The gray-robed Daoist hurriedly twisted aside.

But he was still half a beat too slow.

Sword light swept across his waist.

A great spray of blood flew out.

Though it did not heavily injure him, it had genuinely wounded a powerful enemy far above Lin Yuan's realm.

"Courting death!"

The man flew into a rage out of humiliation.

A giant palm of spiritual power pressed down upon Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan's left shoulder was severely wounded.

He could not evade it at all.

The Thick Earth Sword flew out.

The Blackstone Dao Body operated at full force.

He prepared to take the blow head-on.

Just as the giant palm was about to fall.

An angry shout suddenly rang out from afar.

"How dare you!"

Boom!

Lightning tore through the night sky.

Wen Zhong had arrived!

At the same time.

Wang Mo, Yang Sen, and Gao Yougan streaked in from another direction as three beams of escaping light.

Before Gao Yougan had even landed, his attack had already smashed into the formation.

"You dare ambush my brother!"

"Today, I'll tear you all apart!"

The three Sages of Kowloon Island joined forces.

With Wen Zhong holding the field.

The situation reversed in an instant.

The expressions of the two immortals who had been besieging Li Xingba changed drastically.

Especially the Peak Profound Immortal.

He had no intention of continuing the fight to the death.

He raised a hand and detonated the formation disk.

A vast burst of chaotic spiritual light exploded outward.

Taking advantage of the blocked vision, they swiftly fled.

Wang Mo wanted to give chase.

But the moment he moved, he forcibly stopped himself.

He turned back and glanced at Lin Yuan.

Then he remembered how Lin Yuan had nearly turned the words "don't chase alone" into a tightening headband curse over the past two days.

Finally, he gritted his teeth.

"Don't chase!"

"Check Junior Brother's injuries first!"

Hearing that, Lin Yuan instead let out a sigh of relief.

It seemed Senior Brother Wang had finally filled his experience bar.

Wen Zhong had already come to Lin Yuan's side.

He reached out and pressed a hand to his left shoulder.

His brow immediately furrowed.

"Lock-Meridian Nail."

"It was made specifically to pierce protective immortal radiance. Once it wounded someone, it could seal their meridians as well."

"Your body is tough enough that the nail didn't go all the way in."

"On an ordinary Heavenly Immortal, half the shoulder would have been crippled."

Lin Yuan's face had gone somewhat pale.

"Senior Brother."

"This isn't the time to praise me."

"It hurts."

Wen Zhong was so angry he laughed.

"You know it hurts too?"

"I do."

"If you knew, why did you still throw yourself into it?"

Lin Yuan pointed at Li Xingba.

"If I hadn't."

"The nail would have been in his head."

Li Xingba stood beside them, his expression exceptionally ugly.

Only when he saw that Lin Yuan still had the mood to joke did he relax slightly.

After Wen Zhong pulled out the Lock-Meridian Nail and sealed Lin Yuan's wound.

Li Xingba finally spoke.

"Junior Brother."

"Today, I was in the wrong."

"I..."

Lin Yuan cut him off directly.

"Senior Brother Li."

"If you truly think you were wrong, don't run off by yourself next time."

"Don't wait until the day my legs break from running before standing over my grave and saying you should have known."

Li Xingba's mouth twitched.

They were clearly very serious words.

Yet coming from Lin Yuan's mouth, they somehow sounded strange.

Still, he nodded solemnly.

"It won't happen again."

Then he turned to look at Wang Mo and the other two.

"From today onward."

"Whoever brings up Junior Brother Lin's cultivation again, I'll be the first to fall out with him."

Gao Yougan laughed. "Like you even need to say it?"

Yang Sen nodded as well.

Wang Mo was even more direct.

"This kid is one of us now."

"If anyone touches him."

"They'll have to ask whether the four of us agree first."

Lin Yuan leaned off to one side.

Just as he was about to tease them a little.

A long-absent tremor suddenly came from the depths of his consciousness.

[Detected: predetermined death node has completely shifted.]

[Target: Wang Mo.]

Lin Yuan's gaze sharpened.

The system had finally begun its settlement.

[In the original death calamity, Wang Mo pursued first, separated from the other three, and was ambushed and slain by the enemy.]

[Two consecutive key pursuit nodes have been altered. The predetermined time of death has already been passed.]

[Fate defied successfully!]

[Inheriting target's strongest ability...]

Lin Yuan's breathing paused slightly.

The next moment.

An incomparably violent, tyrannical battle intent surged straight into his consciousness!

[Congratulations, Host, for obtaining—Supreme Clarity Battle Intent!]

Lin Yuan's face, pale from his injury, suddenly took on a strange expression.

Wang Mo was right beside him.

Alive and well.

Still cursing Li Xingba for having no brains.

Yet the system had already told him clearly.

At this point in the original timeline.

Wang Mo should already have been dead.

Lin Yuan looked at his senior brothers.

For the first time, an exceptionally clear feeling truly arose within him.

History—

Had begun to change.

"Junior Brother?"

Wen Zhong noticed something was wrong with Lin Yuan's expression.

"Does your wound hurt again?"

Lin Yuan slowly shook his head.

"I'm fine."

Yet the battle intent that had just appeared within him had already begun to resonate with the Supreme Clarity Method he had learned before.

He lowered his head and looked at his right hand.

Suddenly, he wanted to try a sword strike.