The man in white appeared above the Talisman-Clad Army's camp like a wisp of blue smoke, the disheveled white hair scattered across his face stirring gently.
A flicker of disdain and understanding passed through Wei Wuchen's faintly crimson eyes. Then he flew straight toward Mount Yuekong, passing over the silent camp of the Talisman-Clad Army, which seemed not to have noticed him at all.
Several sword cultivators of the Liu Clan Immortal Armor Soldiers sat drinking and laughing in a courtyard. From the two rooms on the left came the anguished sobs and cries of two castrated boys... interspersed with men's delighted laughter.
A junior officer of the Immortal Armor Soldiers, having finished venting his desires, threw on his clothes and brought back a jar of fine wine. Just as he was about to invite his disheveled comrades to drink, he suddenly realized that the entire courtyard had fallen eerily silent!
Crack! The wine jar, split in two, crashed to the ground. As the wine spread, it suddenly turned murky and dark red.
The six or seven Liu Clan Sword Cultivators in the courtyard, along with the fellow holding the wine jar, each bore what looked like a long line drawn down from the crown of his head with a vermilion brush. Then foul blood began to flow. Every one of them had been silently cleaved in half by invisible sword qi, their mutilated bodies collapsing to the ground.
The two cultivators inside the rooms and the two pitiful boys, already tortured until their intestines were torn and their bellies ruptured, also died without a sound. All of them... had their souls scattered into oblivion.
With a thunderous eruption, as though a handful of ice and snow had been thrown into a pan of boiling oil, the Mountain-Guarding Formation of Mount Yuekong suddenly sprang into action. Five Liu Clan cultivators soared into the sky. Their leader was actually a terrifying cultivator at the pinnacle of the seventh realm who had kept his strength deeply concealed!
The entire formation had locked onto the man in white inside the little courtyard. The Liu Clan's Seventh Realm cultivator grinned savagely and said, "Wei Wuchen, I, Liu Yang, have been waiting for you for a long time!"
Clad in white, his white hair hanging loose, Wei Wuchen raised his crimson eyes toward the mountain. The five Liu Clan cultivators seethed with murderous intent, and three hundred Immortal Armor Soldiers had already formed ranks.
And atop the towering stone stele of the Immortals, standing high amid the clouds and mist, a pair of cold eyes seemed to be calmly scrutinizing him, like a true dragon looking down from on high and mocking an ant that did not know its own limits...
North of the Capital City, at the Jinhu Immortal Abode, Liu Xian'er stood on the pavilion's terrace in astonishment, staring dumbfounded at the figure beside the distant lakeshore.
In the lamplight, that figure seemed somewhat ethereal and unreal. His bearing and presence were utterly different from those of the man in her memories.
Yet Liu Xian'er knew perfectly well... this was the mortal who had dared draw his sword against an Immortal Venerable for her! This was the man who had loved her deeply, only to have her tear the skin from his face while he was still alive!
This was the man whose entire lineage her Liu Clan had seized the opportunity to annihilate-Wei Wuchen!
Wei Wuchen stepped forward, planting one foot upon Koi Lake. Layer after layer of invisible ripples spread outward.
Ripples spread across the water, and the lotus leaves began to sway. Then Wei Wuchen simply walked forward, stepping calmly across the surface toward the pavilion of the immortal abode on the island at the lake's center.
"You can ignore the Immortals Barrier? How can you..." Liu Xian'er was overcome with horror and involuntarily took a step back. By then, the figure in white was already standing before the jade steps of the Jinhu Immortal Abode.
Liu Xian'er felt cold all over. Had Wei Wuchen truly become powerful enough to break straight through the Immortals Barrier?
His trail had clearly appeared on Mount Yuekong, hundreds of miles away! Her father had already hurried there to prepare a covert attack, and the Immortal Venerable had descended upon Mount Yuekong as well!
Wei Wuchen was trapped in a certain-death snare. Escape should have been impossible, let alone fighting his way all the way to the Jinhu Immortal Abode!
Wei Wuchen lifted his face beneath his loose white hair. His bright eyes rested on Liu Xian'er, whose exquisite curves showed faintly through her sheer gauze, and he said softly, "Looking at you now, you're no different from the rotten flesh peddled in brothels. I thought far too highly of you back then..."
A breeze stirred his disheveled white hair, revealing a refined, composed face of such extraordinary beauty that it could have captivated every woman beneath heaven...
Liu Xian'er cried out, "You restored your face? No, this is only a manifestation of your three souls! You-you actually severed your three souls from your seven po? So it's only your seven po controlling your flesh on Mount Yuekong? You-you madman! Even if you come here and kill me, what good will it do? In two hours, your souls will scatter, and you'll never be reborn! You madman, why didn't you hide in the Wild Spirit Land? You... an Immortals Sacred Beast guards this place. You can't possibly kill me!"
"You stopped being worth my concern long ago! Nothing but a plaything beneath an immortal's crotch... I came today only for Mingxin and the others! Hand over the Heart-Piercing Curse Anchor that bastard hid away..."
"In your dreams!" Liu Xian'er instantly pushed off the ground and floated back into the Jinhu Immortal Abode, no longer caring that her nearly naked body was exposed beneath the sheer gauze.
At the same time, a dazzling golden manifestation of an auspicious qilin suddenly appeared atop the glazed roof tiles of the Jinhu Immortal Abode. It glared fiercely at the handsome man below the pavilion and let out a majestic roar that only a soul-body could hear!
Wei Wuchen's Three Souls body suddenly blazed with brilliance, hazy rays of light radiating in every direction! Fighting spirit and killing intent flashed in his eyes. Then, accompanied by a ringing sword cry, he swept toward the qilin crouched atop the Jinhu Immortal Abode in a streak of light like a bolt of white silk!
"To be slain by the Wei Family's Dustless Sword is a blessing for a mere qilin remnant soul like you, you immortal's vile beast!" Wei Wuchen's severed Three Souls body bore the Dustless Sword, the famed ancestral blade of Great Jin's Wei Clan, and brought it down upon the head of the qilin manifestation guarding the immortal's Treasure Pavilion!
On Mount Yuekong, beneath the Immortals Investiture Stele, Liu Yang, the Liu Clan's Seventh Realm cultivator whose left arm had been severed, stared in shocked agony at the mutilated body lying before the stele!
The man in white lay faceup beneath the stele, both legs severed, his body covered in countless horrifying wounds!
His loose white hair exposed a hideous face of bloody flesh, its skin long since torn away. A sword was driven deep into the crown of his head... his aura was faint and disordered. Clearly, the man in white had already begun to lose his souls and was dying before their eyes.
"Wei Wuchen... to think you could raise your cultivation to the ninth realm before dying and slay three great cultivators of our Mount Zhilin! You certainly are ruthless... a pity that the Liu Clan of Mount Zhlin held your entire life firmly in its grasp! Once you die today, your Wei Clan will vanish like smoke for good! Hmph..."
The disfigured, dying man in white ignored Liu Yang entirely. His crimson eyes held only a trace of mockery as he stared straight into the clouds and mist above the massive stele!
There, that mocking, contemptuous gaze still watched him calmly, watched this ant struggle at death's door, watched coldly as he killed three Liu Clan cultivators!
It watched him fall grievously wounded before this stone stele... watched him fail, even unto death, to chip so much as a corner from it.
Suddenly, a hint of puzzlement flashed within the clouds above the stele! Two lightning-like beams of divine light shot down, scrutinizing the mutilated body on the ground!
"Hmm? Only your seven po remain to control your shell? What method is this? Where have your three souls gone?"
All at once, a violent surge of spiritual energy erupted from the direction of the Jinhu Immortal Abode, hundreds of miles away north of the Capital City! A snow-white streak of sword light soared into the sky...
"That is-that is the Wei Family's Dustless Sword? You actually severed your three souls and attached them to that sword to ambush Liu Xian'er!"
A faint mocking smile seemed to appear on the mutilated body's hideous face! From a mouth that had long since lost its lips came a few words: "That whore stopped being worth drawing my sword for long ago. It's your Treasure Pavilion... hahahaha..."
The Immortal Venerable atop the stele focused his gaze and flew into a towering rage! In an instant, a vast surge of spiritual energy dispersed the clouds and mist, and fierce killing intent rolled downward. Wei Wuchen's mutilated body, still laughing on the ground, was instantly torn apart and reduced to dust. His battered seven po were extinguished along with it!
The Liu Clan cultivators kneeling and trembling on the ground, and the Liu Clan Ancestor hiding in the distance drenched in cold sweat, caught sight of a Five-Colored Rainbow shooting into the sky amid rolling, furious roars. In a flash, it sped straight toward the Jinhu Immortal Abode north of the Capital City...
Meanwhile, on the top floor of the Jinhu Immortal Abode's pavilion, the wail of the qilin's remnant soul had yet to fade completely, and the entire roof had already been utterly destroyed.
Liu Xian'er's sheer gauze had long since turned to dust. Naked and utterly bedraggled, she lay beside an overturned display shelf, her eyes filled with panic and fear!
Trembling, Liu Xian'er pleaded mournfully, "Wei Wuchen... Wuchen... I had no choice, but I know my sins are unforgivable... I wronged you. I only beg for a swift death..."
Wei Wuchen did not even glance at her. He merely raised his hand in silence and shattered a black wooden cabinet shimmering with clear light, staring at the seven or eight Immortals Heart-Piercing Curse Jade Talismans that tumbled onto the floor.
Wei Wuchen narrowed his eyes and spotted a familiar trace of aura entwined around one jade talisman. He let out a breath of relief, formed a Sword Art seal with both hands, and instantly unleashed sword light once more!
Liu Xian'er wailed incessantly, only to see the crisscrossing sword light destroy nothing but the seven or eight Heart-Piercing Curse jade talismans on the floor...
A furious roar rolled through the air! Making no effort to conceal his identity or movements, the Immortal Venerable descended from the sky upon a streak of five-colored light. His grand, majestic voice rang out clearly: "Wei Wuchen! You wretched ant! You dare destroy my private collection? Die..."
Wei Wuchen, whose three souls had already fused with the Dustless Sword, raised his head. A mocking smile appeared on his incomparably handsome face. "Only today have I seen your true form for the first time! What a disappointment for a mere mortal like me. So this is all a so-called immortal amounts to... I still have one sword strike left. Let me make your heart ache properly!"
Dazzling, brilliant sword light rose again, destroying the hundred-odd Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and rare spirit herbs stored in the Treasure Pavilion. It also detonated more than a dozen talismans flashing with golden light. Finally, with a resounding sword cry, it charged fearlessly toward the white-robed immortal descending from the sky in a fury that pierced the heavens!
A terrifying series of explosions echoed within the Jinhu Immortal Abode's Immortals Barrier. The pavilion was almost completely destroyed. The lake churned, every fish, shrimp, and crab within it perished, and the egrets and other creatures dwelling there scattered with mournful cries.
The enraged white-robed immortal shattered that brilliant sword qi in midair, destroying the Three Souls manifestation along with it until nothing remained!
The Dustless Sword, renowned throughout the Four Seas, suddenly revealed its true form in a blaze of radiant light. Its incomparably sharp tip still pointed straight at the Immortal Venerable!
Enraged, the Immortal Venerable struck with bitter hatred, flicking a finger. Overwhelming immortal power instantly broke the Dustless Sword in two, and it fell into the lake with a low, mournful cry...
Thousands of miles away, Master Ming, who was curled up in that bamboo chair, suddenly opened his eyes wide!
Wisps of faintly visible black energy actually drifted out of Master Ming's forehead. He sat up and looked toward the Capital City, hot tears pouring from his eyes...
"You hopeless fool! You shameless bastard... you fucking did it! You hopeless fool..."