The ingenious use of the [Iron Chain Baleful Force]

Li Huixi actually hadn't sworn. How strange.

Zhang Yuan smiled toward the pavilion.

Come to think of it, he was rather surprised to find Li Huixi and Li Zhongshuang here too. They certainly had extensive connections, even getting to meet a Golden Core True Lord of the Chu Clan.

True Lord Xuanqing Tianhua glanced at Li Huixi, a thought stirring in his mind.

What's going on? Why hasn't he lost his temper?

Normally, the tangible giant hand of the Azure Sky Dust-Stained Realm's Heaven-and-Earth Lesser Monarch should have come slapping down the moment Zhang Yuan finished speaking.

Strange, truly strange... Never mind. Better put this matter behind us before Li Huixi loses his temper.

True Lord Xuanqing Tianhua hurriedly said, "I won't make things difficult for you. I see you're at fourth-turn qi refining. As it happens, a junior in my clan is also at fourth-turn qi refining. If you can defeat her, I will give you the [Linked-Chain Baleful Force]."

Zhang Yuan's eyes brightened slightly. He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I'll follow your arrangements, True Lord."

Although fighting someone head-on wasn't how a cautious cultivator ought to operate, it was still better than having someone play matchmaker and pair him off at random. If he had to fight, then so be it.

True Lord Xuanqing Tianhua smiled and nodded, then said to Chu Miaofu, "Fetch Xiwen."

"Yes."

Chu Miaofu left and returned a short while later with a slender, graceful young woman.

Chu Xiwen, a Perfected Being at fourth-turn qi refining.

She was the younger sister of Chu Xiyin, the eighth-turn qi refining cultivator who had fought Xiao Yuanjun earlier.

"Greetings, Ancestor." Chu Xiwen looked at the ancestor in the pavilion and bowed, feeling somewhat nervous.

The True Lord Xuanqing Tianhua before her had emerged from their branch eight hundred years ago, making him her direct ancestor. Yet ever since her birth, she had only known his name and had never met him.

True Lords tended to be elusive. Very few in the clan had been fortunate enough to meet him; even some Foundation-Building Heavenly Beings in the clan might never have seen him. Yet now she, at only fourth-turn qi refining, was meeting him. It was impossible not to feel nervous.

"Mm." True Lord Xuanqing Tianhua nodded.

Chu Xiwen turned and fixed her gaze on Zhang Yuan, looking him up and down. The nervousness in her eyes gave way to arrogance.

[Heavenly Being Miaoyou] had already explained why she had been summoned: as long as she defeated the Third Princess's Consort, who was at fourth-turn qi refining, she would have a chance to catch the True Lord's eye and receive substantial support from the lineage in her future cultivation.

This was her chance to surpass her elder sister Chu Xiyin in one stroke!

Truthfully, she had been a little nervous at first. He was the Third Princess's Consort, after all, so he probably wasn't weak. It could very well be a bitter battle.

But the moment she saw Zhang Yuan, her nervousness vanished entirely.

I thought the Third Princess's Consort would be a scion of some aristocratic clan. To think he's someone from the Outer Heavens instead. Doesn't that make this victory mine for the taking?

The difference between people of the Azure Sky Dust-Stained Realm and those from the Outer Heavens was quite obvious. Leaving aside their differing roots and origins, his bearing alone made it clear that Zhang Yuan was neither an aristocratic clan scion of the Azure Sky Dust-Stained Realm nor a rural rogue cultivator. Since he was neither, he could only have come from the Outer Heavens.

Chu Xiwen stood tall and proud. "A mere outsider from the Outer Heavens like you is no match for a scion of our Chu Clan. If you have any self-awareness left, admit defeat."

Zhang Yuan raised an eyebrow.

What did people from the Outer Heavens ever do to you?

This Western Bian Chu really takes discrimination against people from the Outer Heavens to another level.

Seeing how poor Chu Xiwen's attitude was, Zhang Yuan couldn't be bothered with pleasantries either. "Let our skills do the talking."

He was determined to obtain the [Linked-Chain Baleful Force]. There was no way he would admit defeat without even fighting.

Chu Xiwen's brows drew together.

She hadn't told Zhang Yuan to surrender to spare his dignity, but because she feared dirtying her own hands. Since when had people from the Outer Heavens become worthy of fighting a scion of the Chu Clan, one of the Azure Sky Dust-Stained Realm's Five Surnames and Seven Houses?

"Hmph. Incorrigible fool."

Chu Xiwen snorted coldly. Without further hesitation, she unleashed a fearsome attack.

Light radiated from Chu Xiwen's body. With a raise of her hand, a hazy, seven-colored divine light shot straight toward Zhang Yuan.

Zhang Yuan's pupils contracted slightly. He shifted his body and narrowly avoided the divine light. The stone tiles beneath his feet were destroyed, leaving a pit two meters wide and three meters deep.

As the divine light dispersed, the surrounding objects slowly eroded away.

Xiao Yuanjun lightly swept her Daoist robe, clear qi circulating around her. The divine light that dissolved everything was instantly kept at bay.

"This divine ability is rather interesting." Xiao Yuanjun performed a brief calculation with her fingers.

[Myriad Forms Creation Divine Light].

A divine ability composed of the [Spirit-Devouring Baleful Force], [Heavenly Light Baleful Force], and [Myriad Forms Heavenly Dipper], it could erode the creative essence of all things and devour the spirituality of living beings. Even the slightest contact could threaten one's life.

She certainly lived up to her aristocratic clan background. At only fourth-turn qi refining, she had already refined a heavenly dipper, greatly increasing her divine ability's power.

Zhang Yuan frowned and glanced at the spot the divine light had struck.

She really isn't holding back at all.

This is a little tricky.

With a thought, Zhang Yuan conjured a Golden Carriage in his palm. He flung it into the air, where it turned from illusory to solid and hurtled toward Chu Xiwen.

"An outsider's paltry tricks." Contempt filled Chu Xiwen's eyes. With a casual sweep of divine light, she annihilated the oncoming Golden Carriage, eroding it into nothingness.

She had seen through it. Zhang Yuan's divine ability specialized in speed and had little killing power. It posed no threat to her whatsoever. Even if she stood still and let the Golden Carriage ram her, nothing would happen.

She had already won this battle. Against a mere outsider from the Outer Heavens, she wouldn't even need thirty percent of her strength.

But just then—

The clink of a chain suddenly rang out. Chu Xiwen frowned slightly and looked down to find an iron chain fastened around her ankle. At its other end stood Zhang Yuan.

It wasn't a divine ability, but the imago of the [Iron Chain Baleful Force].

Confusion filled Chu Xiwen's eyes. She couldn't understand what Zhang Yuan was trying to do.

The vast majority of heavenly dipper and earthly baleful forces were essentially powerless unless refined, proportioned, and condensed into divine abilities. What use was there in Zhang Yuan binding her with the [Iron Chain Baleful Force] now?

Was he hoping to pull her to the ground with the chain?

Chu Xiwen looked up and found Zhang Yuan grinning at her. He condensed a palm-sized Golden Carriage in his hand and gently tapped it against his own knee.

At once, the imagos of three earthly baleful forces dispersed.

Nothing happened to Zhang Yuan, but intense pain shot through Chu Xiwen's knee. It buckled involuntarily, sending her down onto one knee.

Since he couldn't hit his opponent, and her divine light would sweep away his [Golden Chariot], he might as well hit himself.

The imago of the [Iron Chain Baleful Force] could link people's states.

Aristocratic clan scions really have no sense of vigilance. She let me succeed so easily. If she'd paid even a little attention to her feet, this wouldn't have happened.

"How dare you humiliate me!"

Chu Xiwen was furious. With an enraged glare, she condensed divine light in her hand again and immediately blasted it toward Zhang Yuan.

The divine light was blindingly fast, striking Zhang Yuan in an instant.

Chu Xiwen froze, then delight surged through her.

He couldn't react in time. It hit?!

But before she could celebrate for long, a sudden burst of agonizing pain came from her hand. She opened it and looked. Her once slender, delicate hand was now a mangled mess of flesh and blood.

"Hiss... That hurts a little." Zhang Yuan's voice reached her.

Chu Xiwen looked up, dumbfounded.

Zhang Yuan, who had just been struck, stood in place completely unharmed. What was more, he held a hazy mass of seven-colored divine light in his hand.