A Leisurely Stroll

The old man lowered his head and stared at the sliver of rosy light seeping from beneath his robes. His lips moved, but no sound came out.

The next instant, rosy light erupted simultaneously from his seven orifices, pores, and fingertips, like hundreds upon hundreds of light serpents coursing through his body. His body rapidly turned transparent in the rosy light, his flesh becoming crystalline like colored glass. Then it shattered with a crash, turning into rainbow-colored fragments that filled the sky and scattered on the wind.

The crimson token, having lost its master, fell to the ground with a crisp clink.

Only three breaths had passed between Su Yao's appearance and the old man's death.

The members of the Lu Household did not even have time to cry out in shock.

Lu Shang was the first to react. He darted out from the side, forming seals with both hands as the witch markings on his back swam like tadpoles. A pitch-black spear formed from witch talismans tore through the air, heading straight for Su Yao's face.

Su Yao sneered and casually swung the Zhengji Sword. Rosy light slashed out like a bolt of silk, splitting the witch spear down the middle.

The instant the witch talismans shattered, black mist burst forth, only to be completely blocked by the rosy light around Su Yao.

"Is that all you've got?"

Before Su Yao's voice had faded, he had already turned into a streak of rosy light and lunged straight at Lu Shang!

"Shang'er, watch out!"

A short distance away, a middle-aged woman shouted and slammed down the ancient seal in her hand. A pillar of crimson fire erupted from it, cutting across the space between Su Yao and Lu Shang.

The pillar of fire was as thick as a tree that took two people to encircle, its scorching flames churning.

Without slowing, Su Yao sent the rosy light of Draped in Rosy Radiance surging outward and forced his way straight into the pillar of fire.

Rosy light collided with crimson flames with a hiss, raising great clouds of white mist.

In just one breath, Su Yao burst out the other side of the pillar of fire, completely unharmed.

Su Yao looked at the middle-aged woman and scoffed:

"My founding patriarch once also held a lesser position in Blazing Fire. He entered Samadhi True Fire in a body of rosy light and emerged unharmed. To me, ordinary Blazing Fire is nothing but mortal fire!"

Before his voice faded, he appeared in front of Lu Shang. He swept Zhengji across, unleashing Glow Ashes once more. Another strand of rainbow light, fine as a hair, shot straight at Lu Shang!

It all happened in the flash of lightning and the strike of flint. Lu Shang's eyes widened, but he had no time to dodge.

Clang!

A golden round shield appeared in front of Lu Shang, just in time to block the rainbow light. Ripples spread across its surface, and Lu Shang used the impact to fly backward, swiftly putting distance between himself and Su Yao.

"A protective Spirit Artifact? You do have a few good things," Su Yao said mockingly.

Seeing this, the middle-aged woman shook the ancient seal repeatedly, sending three pillars of fire crashing toward Su Yao at once. They intertwined in the air to form a net, sealing off his escape to either side. The other Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Lu Household came to their senses and joined the attack. Flying swords, talismans, and Witch Techniques came bearing down, blotting out the sky: flying swords like rain, talismans like locusts, and ghostly figures formed from Witch Techniques howling as they pounced.

Su Yao scoffed and pushed his Immortal Foundation, Draped in Rosy Radiance, to its limits. His cloak of rosy light suddenly expanded, enveloping him completely.

The attacks struck the rosy light like clay oxen entering the sea, raising only layers of ripples. The occasional flying sword pierced half an inch into it, only to be flung away, its blade humming and trembling.

"Just you lot?"

He held Zhengji across his body and ran two fingers of his left hand along the blade. The next moment, morning clouds and a golden palace appeared!

In an instant, the sky above became dawn, with ten thousand rays of rosy light and a majestic golden palace.

Su Yao cried, "By decree!" The morning clouds and golden palace collapsed with a roar, turning into countless multicolored threads of rosy rain that fell in a deluge, blotting out the sky.

In just three breaths, seven people had fallen, turning into flames, tortoise shells, and other such things.

"Form the array!"

The middle-aged woman holding the ancient seal shouted.

Before her voice had faded, the dozen or more remaining Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Lu Household swiftly gathered around her!

No, it would be more accurate to say they gathered around the ancient seal in her hand!

Their Law Power poured out like a tide, weaving together into a dark red net of light.

Su Yao looked over:

"Interesting!"

The power of the array erupted. Within a hundred-zhang radius of Su Yao, crimson flames soared into the sky, forming a sea of fire. Waves of heat churned, warping even the air.

He had not expected this combined-attack array of the Lu Household to be rather interesting. Though they clearly did not all cultivate the same lineage, they could actually use that seal to concentrate their Law Power in one place.

Flames surged skyward and bore down on Su Yao.

Su Yao flashed aside and sent a Lu Household member flying with a Law Technique as that person tried to pick up the token and seize control of the grand array.

He put the token away. By then, it was too late to dodge, nor was there any need to.

The vast sea of fire descended. Su Yao stood within it, rosy light and Li Fire flickering between his brows.

He drew a deep breath and activated the Law Technique Southern Emperor Profound Light and the Immortal Foundation Draped in Rosy Radiance at once. Rosy light and Li Fire intertwined, forming a crimson-gold shield over his body.

"Fire?" The corners of Su Yao's mouth rose. "I cultivate Rainbow Clouds, which favors fire and abhors water. Attacking me with fire is courting death!"

With that, he did not retreat, but instead walked toward the depths of the sea of fire. With every step he took, the flames beneath his feet parted of their own accord, as though they had seen their sovereign, not daring to come the slightest bit closer.

The middle-aged woman went pale with shock. She finally understood that the man before her surpassed them in every respect: his cultivation, his Cultivation Method, and the grade of his Law Techniques.

Let alone the Lu Household, even in the witch tribe she came from, no one could compare with the man before her.

She looked at Lu Shang:

"Shang'er, run! Go find your maternal grandfather."

Having spoken, she looked at the Lu Household members around her while Su Yao was still in the sea of fire:

"As long as Shang'er lives, the Lu Household has a sliver of hope..."

The Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Lu Household around her understood. Even those who hesitated the longest did so for only a moment before nodding.

Seeing this, the woman shed two streams of tears. Though she had married into the Lu Household, she had spent more than two hundred years there, living alongside these people day and night. How could she not have grown attached to them?

She formed Hand Seals, and the many Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Lu Household gave up resisting. The woman murmured:

"Ancestral spirits above, I offer your blood descendants as sacrifice.

Let flesh and bone become ash, let their souls be the guide.

Seize their cultivation, take their essence.

Burn their bodies, forge my edge."

The moment the incantation ended, the flames around the woman turned into witch markings that blazed with light, creeping and spreading over her like living things.

Of the dozen or so Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Lu Household around her, some looked indifferent, some turned pale with shock, and some tried to struggle, only to find that their bodies no longer obeyed them.

Their Law Power flowed like water through a breached dike, gathering in the woman along the witch markings. Immediately afterward, their insights into cultivation, their combat experience, and the profound principles of every Law Technique they had learned in their lives were also drawn out, turning into dim threads of light that entered her body.

The cultivators' bodies shriveled at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the light faded from their eyes. In just three breaths, they became gray-white husks, falling one after another and crumbling into dust.

The woman raised both hands high, condensing a fist-sized sphere of dark red light between her palms. Countless twisted runes drifted across its surface, as though vengeful souls were howling and struggling within it. It gave off a suffocating air of destruction.

The two streams of tears at the corners of her eyes turned to tears of blood. Her lips moved, as though she had a thousand things to say, but in the end they became only a barely audible murmur:

"Shang'er, go..."

The next instant, she thrust the sphere of light in her hands toward Su Yao.

The moment it left her hands, the sphere of light gave a heart-rending shriek like a primordial savage beast breaking free of confinement. Trailing a long, dark red tail, it shot straight toward Su Yao!