The Qingtong- masked man's pupils contracted sharply as he stared intently at the milky-white flame in Lin Fan's palm.
Purifying Lotus Immortal Flame!
The flames were small, yet they resembled burning white lotuses, swaying gently in the night breeze.
The firelight illuminated half of his terrified face beneath the mask. His lips trembled slightly, like a frozen snake. "You... how did you get this thing in your hand?"
"What, are you afraid of it?"
Lin Fan tossed the ball of flame in his hand, as if playing with a barely hot marble. "Looks like this thing really is your nemesis."
"Boom!"
The Qingtong- masked man suddenly activated the jet-black bone bell in his hand. The bell trembled violently, emitting a rapid and piercing tinkling sound, like a death knell.
The surrounding dark puppets seemed to have had their cores removed.
It began to crumble inch by inch, turning into wisps of black smoke that converged towards him, trying to envelop his figure and disappear into the shadows.
He even gave up the bone bell in his hand.
He hurled it fiercely at Lin Fan, then turned and transformed into a black shadow, rushing towards the wasteland behind him at a speed as fast as a wisp of smoke being blown away by the wind.
"You run pretty fast."
Lin Fan looked at the bone bell that was hurtling towards him, reached out and caught it, enveloping the bell in Chaos Qi and casually putting it into his storage ring.
Then he looked up at the dark figure rapidly disappearing into the distance, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.
He flicked his wrist, and the ball of Purifying Lotus Immortal Flame at his fingertip suddenly expanded, like a white fire serpent slicing through the night sky, precisely catching up with the dark figure.
The moment the fire snake fell, there was no roar, no explosion, only a soft sound like paper being ignited.
"You... you have no idea... who you're going against..."
His voice grew weaker and weaker, like an echo from a distant place, " The Emperor Pass... the waters of the Emperor Pass... are much deeper than you imagine..."
The dark figure paused in mid-air for a moment, then burst into flames from head to toe, inch by inch, like a painting being ignited from the edges, quickly turning to ashes.
He enveloped the bone bell in Chaos Qi and stored it in his storage ring. The small, milky-white flame flickered in the night wind before slowly extinguishing, as if it had just completed a precise, targeted elimination.
[Ding! The host used the Purifying Lotus Immortal Flame to incinerate the Dark Quasi-Emperor level vanguard, deterring those lurking in the shadows. This is consistent with villainous behavior. 400,000 Villain Points have been awarded!]
[Ding! Host has acquired the Dark Artifact [ Blood-Patterned Bone Bell ] x1, and gained 200,000 Villain Points!]
[Ding! The Purifying Lotus Immortal Flame has awakened, increasing current purification efficiency and enhancing its effectiveness against Dark Matter by 15%.]
Lin Fan glanced at the panel but didn't react much.
This is slightly less than when the Jin Clan elders were killed, indicating that the Qingtong- masked man is not ranked too high in the hierarchy of the forces behind him.
He lowered his head, took out the bone bell from his storage ring, and examined it carefully in his palm.
The bone bell was small, entirely black, and its surface was covered with fine, dark red patterns. Under the moonlight, it gleamed with a very faint blood-red sheen, as if it had been soaked in some kind of liquid countless times.
A faint, sweet, and slightly fishy scent seeped out from deep within the patterns, exactly the same as the smell he had detected in the Mysterious Pass Ancient Road.
He activated his Double Pupils, and a purple-gold light flickered slightly deep within his pupils. The dark red patterns became clearer in his eyes, as if magnified countless times.
The pattern of the texture is extremely regular.
Every stroke is perfectly connected, as if it had been meticulously sculpted more than once, carrying a precision that is extremely difficult to imitate.
Moreover, this sense of orderliness was unlike any other dark artifact he had ever seen.
Lin Fan remained silent for a moment.
A slight smile played on his lips as he muttered to himself, "Interesting... People inside the Emperor Pass can even forge something like this?"
He casually put the bone bell into his storage ring, patted off non-existent dust from his robes, and started walking towards the Emperor Pass again.
This thing will be of great use once we reach the Emperor Pass.
Lin Fan casually turned off the control panel, walked back to the fire, flipped the already roasted meat over, and took a bite.
"Hmm, it's alright, not completely cold yet."
at the same time.
North of Emperor Pass.
The eerie green flame flickered violently twice, like a lamp teetering on the verge of collapse in the wind.
The man in black robes sat in the main seat, with a shattered dark blue life tablet lying on the stone table in front of him. It was completely broken, as if it had been cracked from the inside, with even the edges curled up.
The hall remained quiet for a long time.
The gray-robed monk knelt below, not daring to raise his head. Cold sweat dripped from his forehead onto the stone slab, making a very soft sound.
"Failed again?"
The man in black robes spoke, his voice neither loud nor soft, yet carrying a chilling killing intent that made the entire palace feel oppressive.
The gray-robed cultivator whispered, "Lord Qingtong... has fallen."
The black-robed man's voice carried a chilling undertone. " Guimian, dead too?"
The gray-robed cultivator said in a trembling voice, "They're all dead... The entire dark army was wiped out. Lord Guimian was killed on the spot; he couldn't even escape."
The man in the black robe stopped pointing.
The air inside the hall seemed to have lost its warmth, becoming as quiet as an ice cellar.
He slowly stood up, and the terrifying dark law around him surged for a moment like an oil sea that had been ignited, before he forcibly suppressed it back.
" Purifying Lotus Immortal Flame..."
His voice was hoarse, carrying an extremely suppressed gloom, "That something like this would actually appear in the hands of a junior... no wonder Guimian fell into his hands."
"The Immortal Flame, wasn't it destroyed long ago...? Why is it still in his hands?"
Without waiting for the gray-robed cultivator's reply, he strode out of the hall and stood in the void in front of the hall's gate. His dark red gaze pierced through layers of gray mist, looking towards the direction of the Emperor Pass city gate.
"It seems I must make the trip myself."
He took a step.
He turned and took a step towards the palace gate. "Since the men we sent couldn't kill him, I'll go myself."
The gray-robed cultivator abruptly raised his head, his pupils shrinking sharply. "My lord, you're personally taking action? This... won't this expose us?"
" The Immortal Seed is more important than anything else." The man in black robes didn't turn around. "No matter how skilled he is, he's just a junior at the Mid-Stage Quasi-Emperor. If I take action personally, he won't escape."
He stepped out of the palace gate, his footsteps landing on the suspended stone steps outside the palace. A dark law condensed around him, forming a thin layer of light, like a solidified shadow.
He took a step.
Then he stopped.
A sword light landed a hundred feet in front of him.
The sword light was not dazzling; in fact, it could be described as gentle, like a silver thread washed by moonlight.
But its landing point was incredibly precise... it landed exactly between the man in black robes and the Emperor Pass Gate.
The man in the black robe stopped in his tracks.
He raised his head and looked towards the source of the sword light.
A figure in white appeared out of nowhere in the void outside the hall. He was tall and straight, with an ancient longsword hanging at his waist. His face was handsome, and there was a faint smile on his lips.