Emperor Tianyi Diagram

According to the Galaxy Alliance's classification, Whirling Illumination was the realm after Qi Refinement.

Converted to their system, it was indeed equivalent to the tenth layer of Qi Refinement.

Moreover, when Li Yu entered Whirling Illumination, he had used Taiyi Starshine as his core, making his divine sense purer and more resilient. Unlike Ying Ruomu, whose divine sense had been forcibly elevated after his breakthrough.

When their divine senses collided, it was like an untrained fighter meeting a fully armed regular army. Ying Ruomu crumbled at the first clash.

Had they faced each other head-on in a straightforward contest of spells, with the power of his Spirit Artifact supporting him, Li Yu might not have been able to kill him so easily.

All that could be said was that Ying Ruomu's allotted fortune had run dry.

Li Yu unceremoniously took the Pure Heart Lotus and the storage pouch at the corpse's waist.

Just then, a fierce roar erupted from a sword blade. A beam of golden light extended from the Bronze Sword in Ying Feiyun's hand nearby, becoming an enormous blade that cleaved through the air toward Li Yu.

Qin Jian and Xu Wei thrust out their swords simultaneously, forming an intersecting cross that intercepted the blade in midair.

But the enraged Ying Feiyun now unleashed his true strength. The Bronze Sword in his hand blazed with brilliant golden radiance. Under its reinforcement, the enormous blade's edge acquired a layer of searing light, like a great sword cleaving the heavens. In a single breath, it cut through both Qin Jian's and Xu Wei's sword light.

Boom!

The golden blade cleaved down onto Li Yu's head. Its tremendous power even parted the sea, exposing the seabed and reefs below.

The blade's parting of the sea raised a huge wave that even swept toward Luo Guan nearby.

Qin Jian and Xu Wei paled in alarm and were about to rush over to save him, only to discover that Li Yu had shifted onto that reef. With a gentle sweep of his sleeve, he dispersed the surging waves.

"You killed a member of my Ying Clan. Today, you will surely die." Ying Feiyun raised the Golden Light Sword in his hand. Ignoring Qin Jian and Xu Wei now, he fixed his icy gaze on Li Yu.

"I merely cleaned house for my sect. But your Ying Clan-is it looking to make enemies of both the Five Lotus Sect and the Mount Lao Sword Sect?"

Although Li Yu had easily killed Ying Ruomu, he did not think he could take down Ying Feiyun by the same means, so he immediately tied himself to the Mount Lao Sword Sect.

"Thank you for saving us, fellow Daoist!" Two streaks of sword light flashed past. Qin Jian and Xu Wei reined in their True Essence and landed beside Li Yu, first offering their thanks.

Xu Wei checked Luo Guan's vital signs, her expression extremely grave.

Even if he could be saved, he probably would never be able to cultivate again.

Qin Jian's expression darkened, but he also knew that if they wanted to return alive today, they had to deal with Ying Feiyun. Even if they could not defeat him, they at least had to hold him off.

Sword in hand, he faced Ying Feiyun across the distance and warned Li Yu, "Be careful, fellow Daoist. This man is at the eleventh layer of Qi Refinement and practices the Golden Light Sword Thunder Art. He has used his sword techniques several times, so I can roughly make out their patterns, but he has yet to reveal the foundations of his lightning arts. You must be careful."

Qin Jian had already sent a Flying Sword Talisman to notify his master. Although traveling from Haо City to the Thunderclap Domain would take even a Foundation Establishment Cultivator several days without sleep or rest, he believed that since his master had let the three of them come here with the Five Lotus Sect disciples, he must have arranged a contingency.

Perhaps they could hold out until help arrived.

During their earlier clash, Qin Jian had discovered that Ying Feiyun was stronger than him. If not for his profound swordsmanship and his desperate use of a True Essence-Boosting Pill, he would probably have been defeated long ago.

By now, Qin Jian was also something of an arrow at the end of its flight.

He could only place his hopes in Li Yu being another expert who had concealed his strength.

"The eleventh layer of Qi Refinement?" Hearing Qin Jian's words, Ying Feiyun sneered. "It seems our earlier exchange gave you the wrong impression."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ying Feiyun's spiritual energy surged violently. Centered on him, ripples spread endlessly across the sea beneath his feet, as though he meant to overturn this entire stretch of ocean.

Within Li Yu's Taiyi Starshine vision, the quantity of Ying Feiyun's spiritual energy suddenly doubled from what it had been at the outset.

With a bitter smile, he told Qin Jian beside him, "Fellow Daoist, he seems to be at the twelfth layer of Qi Refinement!"

Qin Jian's face turned pale.

As an inner disciple of the Mount Lao Sword Sect, he naturally knew the weight carried by the twelfth layer of Qi Refinement. It meant more than merely being a seed for the Primordial Spirit realm. With a spiritual aid for Foundation Establishment, the chances of successfully establishing his foundation would even exceed fifty percent.

"Fellow Daoist, with a realm like yours, why not enter seclusion and establish your foundation? Why seek your own death instead by killing a disciple of Mount Lao?" Qin Jian felt that even the three of them together could not defeat Ying Feiyun now. He wanted to persuade him not to sever his own future.

After all, although the Gaotao Ying Clan was a great immortal clan in the Eastern Lands, second only to the Rizhao Hao Clan, it still could not compare to a great Daoist sect like the Mount Lao Sword Sect.

If even one of them survived today and word spread, the Mount Lao Sword Sect would certainly not let the matter rest.

"The twelfth layer of Qi Refinement is not the end of this realm. Above it lies the thirteenth layer, and that is the key to whether one can become an immortal. If I kill you here today, someone in Haо City will produce evidence that Luo Guan of the Mount Lao Sword Sect hired rogue cultivators to rob a Five Lotus Sect disciple of a supreme-grade Pearl Spirit. Even your corpses will become evidence that Luo Guan brought fellow disciples here to cut out the weeds by their roots after his deeds were exposed." Perhaps believing victory was already in his grasp, Ying Feiyun revealed the truth.

"The thirteenth layer of Qi Refinement?" Qin Jian was stunned at first, then sighed. "It seems your Ying Clan has also been taken in by the Tianyi Sect and wants to take a look at that Emperor Tianyi Diagram."

Li Yu listened in utter bewilderment, not understanding what the thirteenth layer of Qi Refinement had to do with the Emperor Tianyi Diagram.

"Fellow Daoist, the Tianyi Sect claims to possess an Emperor Tianyi Diagram, the essence Emperor Tianyi derived when he studied that Map of Mountains and Seas left behind by the Tianxia Dynasty. It contains the supreme mysteries of becoming an immortal and attaining Divine Transformation. A cultivator at the twelfth layer of Qi Refinement need only look at it once to see the path to the thirteenth layer best suited to them, laying the foundation for the pinnacle of the immortal Dao." Seeing Li Yu's expression and recalling that, as an outer disciple, he could not possibly know these things, Qin Jian hurriedly explained.

Qin Jian hesitated, then added, "The Tianyi Sect previously sent letters to the ten great sects of the Eastern Lands. So long as they join its uprising, it is willing to unveil the Emperor Tianyi Diagram at Kunlun."

Hearing this, Li Yu suddenly understood.

No wonder Song Lingxi had reminded him that he could follow Yin Ya to Kunlun. For outer disciples like them, this truly was an extraordinary opportunity.

"Fellow Daoist, this man is powerful. If there really is nothing we can do, the three of us should each flee for our lives." Just then, Qin Jian suddenly said this.

Hearing that, Li Yu cursed inwardly. This brat has no decency at all.

He had just killed Ying Ruomu. If they split up and ran,

Ying Feiyun would definitely pursue him.