Xiang Yun stood shoulder to shoulder with Ling Qingzhu and looked at her with a smile. "Looks like it's just the two of us left this time."
Ling Qingzhu glanced at Xiang Yun and said softly, "Did Hall Master Hong teach you to be so overbearing?"
"Hey, my master didn't teach me that. It's just the rule of this continent: the law of the jungle, where the weak are meat and the strong do the eating."
"Isn't the Yuan Sect so overbearing because they have three Samsara Stage experts?"
Xiang Yun spoke naturally, glancing at Ling Qingzhu.
"That makes you the odd one out. All you have to do is reveal your identity, and these people will roll as far away as they can."
"That Wang Yan even looked at you with those disgusting eyes. Only people from the Nine Heavens Taiqing Palace like you could put up with it."
Ling Qingzhu said calmly, "If someone else's gaze could make me angry, what would be the point of my cultivation?"
She had naturally noticed that Wang Yan's gaze was full of lust, but to her, who had practiced the Supreme Induction Art for years,
it was no more than a gentle breeze brushing her face.
"Fine. Now we can compete fairly. We've fought so many times before, and you've always lost to me. So, according to our old rules,
"the loser has to agree to a condition set by the other, as long as it doesn't go against their own heart."
"Who says I always lost? You lost to me that time in the Form Creation Realm." A trace of embarrassed anger flashed through Ling Qingzhu's crystal-like eyes beneath her veil.
"That was just once, and you even used an Earth-grade Spirit Treasure. What was I supposed to do?"
Xiang Yun was speechless. His gaze then fell on the light barrier, and he said, "Let's not fight this time. Whoever gets the greatest opportunity in this Ancient Tomb Mansion wins. How about it?"
Ling Qingzhu thought for a moment and said, "All right!"
"Then let's break the formation!"
Ling Qingzhu raised her slender hand, and a petal detached itself from the Green Lotus beneath her feet.
Enveloped in a dense azure glow, the petal silently swept toward the distant seal.
Compared with Ling Qingzhu's silent attack, Xiang Yun's was rather more spectacular.
Vast purple Origin Energy once again soared into the sky, forming a giant claw like the one from before, but this time it was visibly more solid.
Long strands of snowy white fur could be clearly seen extending back from the claw.
"White Tiger Claw!"
As Xiang Yun's claw drew near,
the sky there began to warp.
Immediately afterward, a barrier of light slowly materialized, with patterns spreading across its surface.
Boom! Boom!
The claw slammed straight into the barrier, its sharp, violently raging Origin Energy relentlessly assailing the enormous shield.
The purple Origin Energy was extraordinarily domineering.
Even the power left behind by a Nirvana Realm expert seemed to give it a wide berth. The barrier flickered, as though its connection were faulty.
Under the claw's pounding, however, it quickly dimmed and teetered on the verge of collapse. Xiang Yun was just about to strike again
when the petal Ling Qingzhu had sent out silently arrived and slammed straight into the barrier.
Purple and azure light surged wildly across it, and a series of faint, crisp sounds came from the screen of light.
Crack! Crack!
"As expected of an Earth-grade Spirit Treasure. Its power really is boundless."
Xiang Yun raised his swordlike brows. The first time he had lost to Ling Qingzhu, he had only recently entered the Form Creation Realm.
And Ling Qingzhu,
to settle the score for her previous losses to him, had actually brought out the Azure Sky Lotus before she had fully refined it and forcibly activated it with a secret method, blasting him away and thereby defeating him.
But she had also suffered a backlash from the Azure Sky Lotus. Xiang Yun had heard that the palace master of the Nine Heavens Taiqing Palace had helped her recover with medicinal pills.
Ling Qingzhu rolled her eyes at Xiang Yun. How many times was this guy going to bring it up? Hadn't she just relied on the Azure Sky Lotus to beat him once?
He had been talking about it since the Form Creation Realm, all the way up to their current Creation Realm.
Besides, what's wrong with me using a Spirit Treasure?
Don't you have one...
Oh, right.
People from the Primordial Hall believe in their own bodies from the moment they begin cultivating and don't use Spirit Treasures.
He really is a barbarian.
Bang!
Just as Xiang Yun finished speaking, the light barrier suddenly exploded with a bang.
An immensely powerful storm swept out across the sky.
"Go!"
The gale failed to budge Ling Qingzhu or Xiang Yun.
The instant the barrier shattered, the two of them transformed into streaks of rainbow light and shot through the stone gate at the same time.
In an instant, Xiang Yun felt a pressure descend upon him. It was the pressure left behind by a Nirvana Realm expert.
Even in death, a tiger retained its majesty.
Though so many years had passed, it still lingered.
But to him, that was all it was.
I have a Tyrant Body. Why should I fear him?
It would be one thing if he were a living Nirvana Realm expert, but he's dead and still dares to act so arrogantly?
In an instant, he stirred the Origin Energy within him, and a supremely sovereign, supremely domineering presence scattered the pressure.
Domineering?
Could it be more domineering than the Heavenly Tyrant Body?
By then, Ling Qingzhu had transformed into a streak of azure light and was racing madly toward the depths.
Anyone who had experience running dungeons knew that the greatest prize in a ruin was usually found at its deepest point.
"You're pretty quick! You really are a little glutton!"
Xiang Yun chuckled, finding it a little funny when he thought of what would happen afterward.
But he couldn't afford to fall too far behind.
The next moment, a muffled crack of bones came from between Xiang Yun's shoulder blades.
First, a line of blinding purple-gold cracks burst open on either side of his spine.
Then two enormous phoenix wings unfurled with a snap, their feathers layered one upon another, each seemingly forged from supreme immortal gold.
With a sweep of his wings, he turned into a streak of purple light and followed close behind her.
The purple and azure lights intertwined wildly in the passage, with the occasional violent collision ringing out.
Each collision sent ripples of purple and azure Origin Energy sweeping outward.
"Do you think we're still in the Form Creation Realm? Even with an Earth-grade Spirit Treasure comparable to a Nirvana Realm expert, can you really defeat me?"
Xiang Yun's voice carried a teasing note.
"You!"
Ling Qingzhu's furious voice rang out. Before long, the purple light overtook the azure light and surged ahead.
The azure light accelerated again, trying to catch up, but was struck from time to time by a flash of purple light and fell behind.
The two raced through the passage without pause. Even the Talisman Puppets left there couldn't slow either of them down in the slightest.
Boom-!
A Talisman Puppet that had just tried to block them was smashed to pieces by a terrifying, boundless force, and a slightly puzzled voice echoed out.
"What was that? There are speed bumps here too?"
In an instant,
the two of them rushed through a light barrier, and a boundless sea of fire appeared before their eyes.
Crimson filled heaven and earth, and a wave of scorching heat rushed at them. Even Ling Qingzhu stopped the Azure Sky Lotus and frowned. "The Illusory Formation of Illusion and Reality?"
This sea of fire was half illusion, half reality.
Even Ling Qingzhu, who excelled at formations, couldn't immediately tell where the true path of escape lay.
If they couldn't find the way out, the sea of fire would drain their Origin Energy sooner or later, leaving them no choice but to retreat.
"Isn't the Nine Heavens Taiqing Palace best at formations? Why don't you hurry up and break it?"
"I don't suppose you'd sneak off on your own just to beat me, would you?"
Xiang Yun looked at the sea of fire around them, but showed no particular reaction to it.
Ling Qingzhu still needed Origin Energy to defend herself, but for him, his body alone was enough to withstand the sea of fire.