Wang Erniu, standing nearby, grew worried and hurriedly spoke.
"Big Brother, let me go instead!"
Zhou Xun shook his head.
"No one but your sister-in-law can do this!" He then laid out his plan.
Lin Xue'e looked extremely similar to Lin Xueying. She would temporarily disguise herself as Lin Xueying, run out of the cave, and flee into the distance, drawing their attention.
Once those four Mid-Stage Qi Condensation cultivators had all passed the cave in pursuit, Zhou Xun and Wang Erniu would suddenly strike from behind.
With a surprise attack, they would surely succeed in one stroke.
But this plan was rather risky for Lin Xue'e.
If those cultivators all attacked, Lin Xue'e might very well perish.
"Erniu, let me go. Even if we hide in the cave, how safe can we be? We might as well fight!" Lin Xue'e made her decision at once, gave a brief instruction, and immediately rushed out.
Meanwhile, the monkey-faced youth and the long-faced man were extremely tense as they searched carefully.
Suddenly, a white figure darted out before their eyes and ran into the distance.
Looking closely, they saw it was a woman. As she rushed away, she even looked back once.
By her appearance, wasn't she the very woman they had been pursuing?
Without hesitation, the long-faced man raised his half-mystic tool shield, covering himself tightly from head to toe.
Then he shouted toward the rear.
"I found her! I found Miss Lin! She ran ahead!"
As soon as he spoke, the four Mid-Stage Qi Condensation cultivators behind him, along with the other searching cultivators, all converged.
They were extremely fast, crossing more than ten zhang in the blink of an eye.
In mere moments, several figures swept past the cave.
Blocked by the dense vines, and with all their attention fixed on the white figure in the distance, none of them noticed Zhou Xun and Wang Erniu just several zhang away.
At this moment, the four Mid-Stage Qi Condensation cultivators also arrived and leaped past.
"Now!" Zhou Xun's hand, raised for so long, came crashing down.
He immediately activated the Goldfly Twin Blades he had long been gripping in his hand.
Two golden afterimages shot forth, slicing through the vines at the cave entrance and flashing like lightning into the square-faced middle-aged man at the rear, who was at the Qi Condensation Fifth Level.
The two afterimages followed one another end to end, piercing straight through the man's neck.
A faint pfft sounded.
The man's head flew high into the air, while his body continued rushing forward for over two zhang before crashing heavily to the ground.
As Zhou Xun charged out, Wang Erniu was no slower. Holding an eight-sided Han sword Mystic Tool, he viciously slashed at a pockmarked man beside him.
Caught completely off guard and without the slightest defense, the man was beheaded by Wang Erniu's sword and died instantly.
This sudden upheaval left the people opposite them pale with shock.
"Who's there?!"
At that moment, Zhou Xun also rushed out of the cave.
A handsome, refined face appeared before them. Wei Shangren's face was filled with astonishment, followed by gritted teeth.
"Zhou Xun!"
Wei Shangren had never imagined he would encounter Zhou Xun here. He immediately burst into laughter.
"There is a road to heaven, yet you refuse to take it; there are no gates to hell, yet you charge right in!"
He immediately ordered the people beside him.
"Get him! Kill him!"
No one moved. They all turned their gazes toward Wei Shangli, for they were following Wei Shangli's lead on this journey.
Wei Shangli frowned deeply, then nodded. With a wave of his hand, the group of cultivators surrounded and attacked.
Seeing this, Zhou Xun immediately retreated, widening the distance between them.
For him, using Divine Sense Manipulation to control his tools from afar was the best tactic.
At the same time, he took out a mid-grade Golden Shield Talisman and activated it at his waist.
In an instant, a golden barrier enveloped him.
Then, with a movement of his divine sense, the Goldfly Twin Blades that had just achieved success rose into the air once more and shot toward the cultivators closing in on him.
The Goldfly Twin Blades had been refined according to the methods for a high-grade Mystic Tool. Only because something had gone wrong midway had their grade fallen to mid-grade.
Yet the materials used throughout were genuinely of high-grade quality.
The Half-Mystic Tools in the hands of these early-stage Qi Condensation cultivators were simply no match for Zhou Xun's even in a single exchange.
The moment the golden blades struck their shields, the shields were pierced through like paper.
The cultivators hiding behind those shields were killed in a single blow.
In just a few breaths, three cultivators had fallen.
The remaining people were so frightened that they all stopped in their tracks.
"Divine Sense Manipulation! Th-this is a Late-Stage Qi Condensation cultivator!" Everyone's faces changed in shock. The bearded man, one of only three Mid-Stage Qi Condensation cultivators present, cried out in alarm.
That shout instantly sent panic through the crowd.
Compared with the early and middle stages, Late-Stage Qi Condensation cultivators possessed mana of far greater quality.
More importantly, Late-Stage Qi Condensation cultivators developed divine sense. They could imprint Mystic Tools with divine sense and wield them through manipulation, appearing and vanishing like ghosts, impossible to guard against.
It was like a blow from an entirely higher dimension.
This was also the most obvious hallmark of a Qi Condensation cultivator.
Thus, in the Cultivation World, once cultivators broke into Late-Stage Qi Condensation, they could often fight several mid-stage cultivators at once without falling into a disadvantage.
The Wei brothers were likewise filled with suspicion and shock.
When Zhou Xun had attacked earlier, their eyes had been fixed on the white female figure in the distance, and they had not seen the exact scene of Zhou Xun's killing.
Otherwise, they likely would not have rashly ordered everyone to surround him.
"Big Brother, Zhou Xun only has a Medium Spiritual Root. How could he reach Late-Stage Qi Condensation in just three years?" Wei Shangren's face was full of disbelief.
He had personally learned of Zhou Xun's spiritual root aptitude from his third brother.
Even an Earth Spiritual Root could not progress at such speed!
There had to be something strange about this!
Wei Shangli quickly thought it through. He absolutely did not believe Zhou Xun possessed such high cultivation.
So he spoke.
"I know this man. Three years ago, he had only just broken through to the third level of Qi Condensation. It is absolutely impossible for him to be a late-stage cultivator. Rest assured, everyone!"
But how could anyone present listen to him now? They had seen Zhou Xun's ferocity with their own eyes.
He had killed three of their companions in just a few breaths. There were only so many of them to begin with—how many such attacks could they withstand?
"The wind is tight—run!"
So they turned and fled without hesitation.
These people had originally been gang members, their fighting spirit weak. The reason they had pursued Miss Lin before,
was because she was already at the end of her tether, coupled with the lure of enormous benefits.
Now that they had encountered a vicious man like Zhou Xun, fleeing for their lives naturally came first.
"B-Big Brother, this—" Wei Shangren panicked at the sight.
"Go!" Wei Shangli's expression darkened. Without hesitation, he activated the mid-grade talisman in his hand—the Ice Spike Talisman.
He hurled it toward Zhou Xun.
More than a dozen ice spikes condensed in midair and plunged straight down toward Zhou Xun.
Zhou Xun had no choice but to dodge backward. At the same time, he activated a low-grade defensive shield and held it before him.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Clear, ringing sounds echoed out.
More than a dozen ice spikes struck the outermost golden barrier.
All the ice spikes were blocked, but the power of that barrier was also completely exhausted.
By then, Wei Shangli had already fled far away.
As he unleashed the Ice Spike Talisman, Wei Shangli also took out a high-grade Flight Talisman and activated it without hesitation.
Before you continue