"Heh heh... little beauty of the Covering Moon Sect, little girl of Spirit Beast Mountain, surrender quietly, and I might grant you a swift death!" The False Core elder of the Shadow Killer Sect let out a sinister laugh like a night owl. His withered claws swept out, sending several black finger blasts, condensed almost to solidity, tearing through the air toward Nangong Wan and Han Yunzhi with a chill that corroded souls and dissolved bones! Even space warped slightly in their wake, revealing the terrifying power of a False Core cultivator!
Nangong Wan's face was frosty. Her delicate fingers tapped rapidly, and the crystalline jade ruler floating before her released cool moonlight, forming a curtain of light around her. "Moonlight Wall!" The finger blasts struck the barrier with a series of hisses. It rippled violently but held firm. Her other hand formed a seal, conjuring several ice spikes that shot back with a bone-piercing chill!
The little snow-white fox on Han Yunzhi's shoulder let out a shrill cry and spat out a cloud of pink mist. As the mist spread, the False Core elder's movements actually faltered, and his eyes briefly glazed over! This was the little fox's innate divine ability, Soul-Dazing Illusory Mist! Seizing the chance, Han Yunzhi sent a pair of Emerald Green Rings flying from her sleeve, spinning toward the elder's feet!
"Paltry tricks!" The elder snorted. His powerful spiritual sense instantly shook off the illusory mist's influence. He stamped both feet, raising two earthen walls to block the rings. Yet the two women's joint efforts had stalled him for an instant, slowing his assault.
In that flash of lightning, a barely visible phantom slipped soundlessly from the shadow of a massive pillar behind his flank, like a ghost! It was the Fiend Shadow Clone Han Li had formed! Holding a phantom Shadow Blade, the clone thrust straight at the elder's back!
"Hmm? Another rat?" The elder's keen spiritual sense detected it instantly, and he struck back at the clone with his palm! The fierce force of his strike could split mountains and shatter stone!
Yet the clone neither dodged nor evaded. It let the palm blast pass through its body, while the phantom Shadow Blade continued forward without slowing!
"A phantom?" The elder froze.
In the instant his attention wavered, the true killing blow descended!
Han Li's real body, which had remained concealed nearby, moved! Combining Shadowless Escape with Shadow Step, he pushed his speed to the limit and appeared in the blind spot on the elder's left as though he had teleported! The true Shadow Blade pulsed with the icy glow of Pseudo Core Flame as it swept silently toward the elder's neck! Timing, angle, speed-every detail was exquisitely precise!
"You dare, brat!" The elder's face drained of color. He had never imagined that a Foundation Establishment Late Stage boy could possess such uncanny movement and assassination techniques! In his haste, he jerked backward, while the spiritual light of the armor beneath his robes blazed!
Riiip!
The Shadow Blade scraped across the armor's spiritual light with an ear-piercing screech! The corrosive power of Pseudo Core Flame erupted, instantly dimming that light! Though the strike failed to kill him outright, the fierce blade energy still left a bone-deep gash across his neck! Blood sprayed!
"Aah!" The elder roared in pain, shocked and furious!
"Now!" Nangong Wan's beautiful eyes lit up. How could she let such a perfect opportunity slip away? Her jade ruler shone brilliantly, transforming into a sky-shaking streak of light that shot straight toward the elder's heart! Han Yunzhi's Emerald Green Rings abruptly tightened as well, closing around his legs!
Nangong Wan's full-powered strike came from the front, Han Yunzhi's magical treasures bound him below, and Han Li's uncanny dagger lurked at his side like a tiger watching its prey! The False Core elder was instantly driven into a desperate corner!
"You're courting death!" The elder flew into an utter rage, unleashing the full power of his False Core cultivation! Terrifying spiritual pressure swept outward! He spat out a mouthful of blood essence, which transformed into a hideous, blood-red ghost head and rushed toward the jade ruler's streak of light! At the same time, he violently jolted his feet, forcibly breaking free of the Emerald Green Rings!
Boom!
The blood-red ghost head and the jade ruler's streak of light annihilated each other! The elder seized the chance to retreat at speed. Though he avoided a fatal blow to the heart, the jade ruler's residual force swept across his left shoulder, leaving it a mangled mess of flesh and blood!
His hair disheveled, looking like a man possessed, he fixed a deadly stare on Han Li. "You little bastard! I'll rip out your soul and refine your spirit!"
Han Li said nothing. His gaze was cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice as he melted into the shadows once more, waiting for an opening. He exchanged a glance with Nangong Wan and Han Yunzhi. Though none spoke, a brief understanding formed among them.
Elsewhere, the melee inside the great hall had reached fever pitch. Feng Yue blazed with golden light as he clashed head-on with a Black Fiend Cult guard at Foundation Establishment Great Perfection. Every punch struck flesh, forcing his opponent steadily backward! The green-robed elder's Demon Python coiled around another guard, spewing poisonous mist! The sinister young man of the Ghost King Sect waved his Ten-Thousand-Soul Banner, locked in an evenly matched struggle with a Shadow Killer Sect assassin. Dugu Jian became one with his sword, sword energy sweeping in every direction as he fought the last Black Fiend Cult guard alone without yielding an inch.
The Black Fiend Cult's young master, however, ignored the slaughter around him. With two trusted followers, he was attacking the restrictions surrounding the three gates of light deep within the hall with all his might! He seemed to possess a special method, for the restrictions' glow was dimming at a speed visible to the naked eye!
"We can't let him succeed!" Nangong Wan cried sharply. She raised her jade ruler again, sending a slash of moonlight toward the Black Fiend Cult's young master's back!
"Hmph! A mere Foundation Establishment cultivator dares obstruct me?" Without even turning his head, the Black Fiend Cult's young master struck backward. A pitch-black seal treasure swelled in the wind until it was the size of a small mountain, easily blocking the moonlight slash! His cultivation had actually reached the False Core realm as well, and his magical treasure was astonishingly powerful!
Han Li's gaze flickered. He knew he had to eliminate the formidable enemy before him as quickly as possible. Otherwise, once the Black Fiend Cult's young master opened the gates of light and obtained the inheritance, the consequences would be unimaginable!
His thoughts raced, and he secretly transmitted his voice to Nangong Wan. "Martial Aunt Nangong, help me hold him for one breath!"
Though Nangong Wan did not know what Han Li intended, the situation was critical, and she nodded without hesitation. Her delicate fingers flicked repeatedly, conjuring several chains of crystalline ice that wound toward the Shadow Killer Sect elder! Han Yunzhi also urged her little fox to release Soul-Dazing Illusory Mist once more!
"Annoying ants!" Furious, the elder shattered the chains with his palm and guarded his spiritual sense tightly against the illusory mist.
In that fleeting instant of interference!
The Profound Fiend Asura Art surged wildly within Han Li, and the Profound Fiend True Core in his dantian spun faster than ever before! Rather than attacking the elder, he formed a complex, ancient seal with both hands-it was Fiend-Burning Art, an extremely perilous secret technique from Venerable Xuan Gu's inheritance! By burning his innate fiendish energy, he could briefly unleash power far beyond his own realm!
Boom!
A terrifying aura comparable to the early False Core stage erupted from Han Li! His face paled, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes remained sharp as blades!
"Profound Fiend... Soul-Slaying Finger!"
With a low roar, he held his fingers together like a sword and pointed through the air at the Shadow Killer Sect elder's brow! This strike condensed all the power he had gained by burning his fiendish energy, imbued with his understanding of the Profound Fiend Asura Art and all his murderous fiendish energy! Space rippled in its wake as a dark-red beam, condensed to the utmost, crossed the distance between them in an instant like a ray of death!
The elder had just shattered the chains when he sensed a mortal threat descending! His pupils contracted sharply, and he frantically activated every defensive measure he possessed! A Bone Shield and his inner armor flashed wildly with spiritual light!
Yet the Profound Fiend Soul-Slaying Finger specialized in piercing defenses of the soul!
Pfft!
Like a red-hot branding iron plunging into butter, the dark-red finger blast easily pierced the spiritual light of the Bone Shield and inner armor, striking the elder precisely between the brows!
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
The elder stood rigid, his eyes filled with disbelief, terror, and despair. His sea of consciousness had been utterly shredded by the overwhelmingly tyrannical soul-slaying power of profound fiend power!
"Im... possible..." He forced out the words with difficulty. Then his eyes dimmed, his aura vanished in an instant, and his corpse toppled stiffly backward.
The Shadow Killer Sect's False Core elder had fallen!
[Ding! Killed an early False Core cultivator above your realm! Plundered a portion of his cultivation essence and soul origin! Profound Fiend True Core tempered. Cultivation increased to the pinnacle of Foundation Establishment Late Stage! Spiritual sense greatly strengthened! Obtained a fragment of the incomplete cultivation method "Shadow Killer Secret Tome." Slaughter Points +15,000!]
A vast surge of energy flooded Han Li's body, and his aura soared. With the system's assistance, his injuries rapidly healed! Yet using Fiend-Burning Art had also severely depleted his vitality, leaving him unable to use the technique again in the near future.
One strike had slain his enemy, shocking everyone present!
Everyone locked in fierce combat, whether Feng Yue, the green-robed elder, or the Black Fiend Cult's young master, turned toward Han Li in horror! A Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivator had slain a False Core opponent against the odds! What kind of fighting prowess was this?!
Nangong Wan and Han Yunzhi also stared with their beautiful eyes wide, filled with shock.
"Bastard! You dared kill an elder of my Shadow Killer Sect!" The other Shadow Killer Sect assassin, who was fighting the Ghost King Sect cultivator, saw what had happened and flew into such a fury that his eyes nearly split. Abandoning his opponent, he transformed into a black shadow and lunged toward Han Li!
"Your opponent is me!" The sinister young man of the Ghost King Sect laughed savagely, sweeping his Ten-Thousand-Soul Banner toward the assassin.
Han Li forced himself to draw a breath, suppressing the churning blood and energy within him. Holding the Shadow Blade across his body, he coldly regarded the last Shadow Killer Sect assassin and the ashen-faced young master of the Black Fiend Cult.
Han Li's earth-shattering finger strike had reversed the situation within the hall in an instant!
"Good, good, good! To think the Seven Mysteries Sect produced someone like you!" The Black Fiend Cult's young master laughed in his fury, his eyes brimming with venom. "Once I obtain the inheritance, I'll grind your bones to dust and scatter your ashes!"
Holding nothing back any longer, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of blood essence onto the black seal. Dark light blazed from it, and its bombardment of the restrictions abruptly accelerated! The gate of light was already on the verge of collapse!
"Stop him!" Feng Yue roared, driving his opponent back with a punch before charging toward the gate of light.
Everyone came to their senses. At this moment, the Black Fiend Cult's young master was the greatest threat!
The melee escalated once more as everyone, without prior agreement, poured their attacks onto the Black Fiend Cult's young master and his guards!
Han Li swallowed several pills and exchanged a glance with Nangong Wan and Han Yunzhi. The three joined forces once again, attacking the Black Fiend Cult's young master!
The final struggle was upon them! Just what opportunities and dangers lay hidden beyond that gate of light?
Before you continue