Divine Light

In the blink of an eye, Lin Yun had spent seven days with the Wu Family. Aside from the two days he had spent refining Jade Talismans, he had not been sitting idle.

Since the day of his departure from the Heavenly South was drawing near, he needed to make arrangements for the merchant associations that collected five-metal raw materials for him. He therefore asked the Wu Family to send messengers to notify his merchant associations, ordering them to immediately escort their stockpiles of five-metal raw materials from every region to the Yue Capital.

The Yue Capital lay in the center of the Yue Kingdom, with convenient transport links that made it easy for merchants from different regions to gather there within a short time.

Lin Yun estimated that by the time he finished dealing with the Wu Family's affairs, his merchant associations would have gathered all the five-metal raw materials in the Yue Capital. He could then head there to collect this final shipment.

At present, the Seven Sects were locked in a fierce war with the Demonic Path, and the Black Fiend Sect would likely be wiped out by Han Li soon. Lin Yun therefore was not worried that gathering so many five-metal raw materials in one place would attract attention from various factions. Besides, he was preparing to flee anyway.

Another half month passed in a flash. By then, the Wu Family had disposed of almost all its holdings, with only one Jade Mine left for which they had yet to find a buyer.

That night, Lin Yun was meditating when he suddenly heard faint voices coming from the joined Voice-and-Image Transmission Talismans beside him.

"Is that the family? I heard they're descendants of an elder from Yellow Maple Valley."

"That's the place. Heh heh... The whole family's gathered together. We can catch them all in one net."

Hearing the voices, Lin Yun immediately opened his eyes. A sharp gleam flashed through them as he murmured, "They're finally here."

He promptly summoned the Clearvoid Invisible Sword, merged with its invisible sword light, and silently vanished from the room.

In a dense forest ten li outside the Lin Family Old Residence.

Two men in pale green robes stood together, conversing in low voices.

Neither wore any obvious insignia of the Six Demonic Path Sects. However, watching them release a swarm of tiny spirit snakes from their Spirit Beast Bags and direct them toward the Wu Family made it clear that they were probably disciples of the Spirit Controlling Sect.

The spirit snakes were black all over, with triangular heads and red eyes the size of mung beans. Their tongues flickered constantly, and they looked extremely venomous, yet they were only the size of chopsticks and could easily escape notice. If these spirit snakes were allowed to roam free, they would inevitably throw Jade Mountain City into chaos.

Not far from the two men, Lin Yun stood on the branch of a tall tree, concealed by the Clearvoid Invisible Sword. He silently watched the two Spirit Controlling Sect disciples as they concentrated on directing their spirit snakes.

"Two mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators. Unfortunately, they're from the Spirit Controlling Sect. These pet-keeping fellows never have anything good on them," Lin Yun murmured.

Lin Yun had killed quite a few Spirit Controlling Sect disciples on the Golden Drum Plain Battlefield. Aside from improving their own cultivation, their greatest expense was raising spirit pets.

And as everyone knew, keeping pets cost a fortune, so every one of these Spirit Controlling Sect disciples was poor enough to make the soul tremble.

Their spirit pets were their most valuable possessions, but the pets and their Spirit Controlling Sect masters generally shared prosperity and ruin alike. Once a disciple died, his spirit pets would almost always die at the same time.

Of course, there were exceptions. Some Spirit Controlling Sect disciples were quite wealthy, and their spirit pets were high-grade creatures worthy of a place on the Strange Insect Ranking. Moreover, their spirit insects would not die when their masters did.

But such people were almost never seen on the Golden Drum Plains. Even when he occasionally encountered one or two, they had Core Formation cultivators nearby, leaving him no opening to strike.

"Since these two aren't cannon fodder from the Golden Drum Plain Battlefield, hopefully they'll have something good on them."

Lin Yun murmured to himself, formed a hand seal, and pointed. A short while later, the spiritual energy within several li slowly drained away, while a hazy, indistinct mass of five-colored light appeared above his head.

Within the mass of light, five divine radiances-azure, crimson, black, white, and yellow-could vaguely be seen rotating in reverse and striking against one another. This was none other than the peerless divine ability recorded in the He Sha Marvelous Book-the Great Five-Element Extinction Divine Light!

The disturbance caused by the surging spiritual energy immediately drew the attention of the two Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Spirit Controlling Sect.

Lin Yun did not direct the Great Five-Element Extinction Divine Light at the two cultivators. Instead, he guided it toward the spirit snakes under their control.

The Great Five-Element Extinction Divine Light reversed the circulation of the five elements, making them overcome and annihilate one another. Wherever its radiance passed, all vitality was extinguished. Even magical treasures and spiritual materials could easily be broken down and pulverized.

Naturally, Lin Yun had no intention of destroying whatever valuables the two Foundation Establishment cultivators might be carrying along with them.

"My snakes!"

One of them suddenly saw the ghastly sight of his spirit snakes' flesh dissolving beneath the divine light and could not help crying out in anguish.

"Watch out, junior brother!"

The other reacted swiftly, hurriedly taking out a bowl-shaped magical artifact and placing it above his head. The artifact immediately emitted an earthen-yellow radiance that formed a barrier, shielding both men securely as he scanned their surroundings warily.

Rather than immediately dealing with the two men who had withdrawn into their turtle shells, Lin Yun privately assessed the Great Five-Element Extinction Divine Light he had unleashed.

My Great Five-Element Extinction Divine Light doesn't possess even a sliver of the true divine light's power. A casual strike from the real thing could reduce all space within several li to primordial chaos. I'm still a long way off!

To cultivate the complete Great Five-Element Extinction Divine Light, he still needed to refine Five-Element Origin into the divine light and cultivate innate five-element primordial qi. Circulated forward, it would form the Five-Element Restriction; circulated in reverse, it would become the Extinction Divine Light.

As for the Extinction Divine Scripture, Lin Yun had only just reached the point where he could reverse the circulation of five elements essence qi to wear away the five elements.

And although it doesn't consume much of my magical power, the Mortal Realm's spiritual energy conditions mean it takes me nearly half a quarter-hour to build up a single burst of divine light. Obviously, I can't do that in a normal fight, so I can only use it for ambushes. That makes it far too limited. Still, if I could turn the divine light into talismans...

In Lin Yun's eyes, talismans in this mortal world closely resembled spell scrolls in a world of magic: both sealed spells onto paper. That was what had given him the idea of sealing the Great Five-Element Extinction Divine Light into talismans beforehand.

There were many difficulties involved, however. Lin Yun shook his head and tucked the idea away, intending to try it in the future. For now, he needed to deal with those two Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Spirit Controlling Sect hiding in their turtle shells.

Lin Yun abruptly appeared before the two cultivators. Before they could even wonder where he had come from, they instinctively exclaimed, "The Formless Escape Technique! What's your relationship with Old Monster Qiong?!"

Lin Yun's expression immediately darkened, and he snapped, "Ignorant fools! You two deserve this calamity!"

A sudden chill gripped their hearts at his words. Though they did not know where the killing intent came from, they worked together in perfect unison, pouring magical power into the bowl-shaped artifact to reinforce its earthen-yellow barrier. At the same time, they quietly released several spirit insects, preparing to ambush Lin Yun.

Lin Yun naturally noticed their little tricks, but he paid them no heed.

For the Clearvoid Invisible Sword had already emerged silently from the void, appearing inside the earthen-yellow barrier. Without substance or form, like lightning and frost, it showed no sword light and uttered no whistle. There was no trace to follow, no shape to perceive-as though a cold blade had sprung from the void itself, slashing down without a sound.

The two men felt only a slight chill at their necks before their heads shot into the sky, two fountains of blood spraying more than a zhang high.

With a clang, the bowl-shaped artifact lost the support of their magical power. Its earthen-yellow barrier instantly vanished, and it fell to the ground. The spirit insects they had released abruptly stiffened upon their masters' deaths, not a trace of life remaining in them.

"I really am devious..." Lin Yun sighed softly at his own actions, then walked over to collect his spoils.

To ensure that nothing could go wrong, he had even stationed the White Bone Divine Demon beneath their feet. Unfortunately, two sword strikes had settled everything.

"Poor wretches after all. Only this top-grade bowl-shaped magical artifact is worth a look."

A short while later, after muttering those words, Lin Yun silently vanished from the spot.