"This has become quite tricky," Ji Yuan said, his brow furrowed.
The original plan was to divert everything towards the Prefect, thereby distancing themselves from the Qian family. They would then leverage the imperial court's power to instill fear in the Divine Profound Sect, forcing them to abandon the matter. After all, no matter how arrogant and overbearing these individuals were, they would never dare to lay hands on an imperial official. If they were foolish enough to commit such an act, the annihilation of the Divine Profound Sect would only be a matter of time.
Two immensely powerful beings, hailed as divine figures, along with nine cultivators who had formed Golden Cores, possessed the strength to dominate an entire prefecture. However, in the face of the entire Great Yu Dynasty, they were incapable of stirring up significant trouble.
But who would have expected the Divine Profound Sect to bypass the deliberate clues they had left behind, bypassing the Prefect's mansion entirely, and instead directly confront the Bright Heart Pavilion? Moreover, they had specifically targeted Qian Nishang!
"Do you find something amiss with this situation?" After a long silence, Qian Nishang asked, noticing the doubt on his face.
Ji Yuan nodded slightly. The situation indeed seemed suspicious to him. There was no reason for them to ignore the deliberately placed clues and directly target the Bright Heart Pavilion. Suddenly, an idea surfaced in his mind; if this were the case, then everything would make sense.
However, just as he was about to voice his thoughts, a wave of killing intent washed over them, causing the expressions of both individuals in the carriage to change. Under this killing intent, Qian Nishang immediately flicked her sleeves, and streams of light shot out, transforming into a silk ribbon and a light veil beside them.
Almost simultaneously, a beam of sword light tore through the carriage and, with lightning speed, struck a light veil.
*Boom!!!*
A surge of potent energy erupted, sending a large number of pedestrians and stalls flying!
"Who dares to commit violence within the prefectural city?" Qian Nishang, pulling Ji Yuan back several yards, shouted as soon as they landed.
Both their expressions had turned extremely grim. Under that initial sword light, one of Qian Nishang's light veil artifacts was damaged, nearly being cleaved in two. Even the surrounding civilians, caught in the backlash of this attack, were fortunate if they only suffered broken bones; the less fortunate died on the spot! At a glance, no less than twenty to thirty pedestrians had met their demise, and seven or eight had been blown away by the energy, their heads smashed or necks broken.
Ji Yuan, with a somber expression, looked out and saw a man in black, sword in hand, standing on the street tens of feet away, his body surging with potent spiritual energy. At the same time, three more figures in black appeared, positioned on the rooftops to their left and right, and on the street behind them. Four waves of killing intent swept towards them, chilling to the bone!
Without a second thought, the two knew that these four newly appeared figures in black must be the members of the Divine Profound Sect who had left the Bright Heart Pavilion earlier. The overbearing spiritual energy emanating from them was the best proof; in the current Guanxia City, no other faction could simultaneously field four cultivators of the second realm practicing the same domineering techniques!
In the next breath, the four figures in black, without a word, transformed into streaks of afterimages and surged towards the pair!
"Attack freely; I will handle our defense!" Ji Yuan commanded, shaking his sleeve. Three copper coins fell to the ground, forming a triangle that enclosed both of them. In an instant, the three copper coins emitted a radiant glow, and the accumulated spiritual energy within them gushed out, forming a semi-transparent barrier adorned with faint runes. Simultaneously, he tapped his mountain and river pouch, and a stream of light shot out, hovering above his head and transforming into a seven-story, sky-blue pagoda. With a thought, light descended from the pagoda, enveloping them both!
On the other side, Qian Nishang vibrated her sleeves, and lifelike lightning butterflies flew out, splitting into four streams and heading towards the rapidly approaching four black-clad figures. At the same time, she tapped her brow, retrieved a jade hammer no larger than an inch, and held it in her palm, ready to strike at any moment.
"Four Absolute Killing Formation!" one of the black-clad figures suddenly shouted.
The four stopped simultaneously, standing several yards away from the pair. They then tossed their long swords into the air, and fierce killing intent descended like a mountain. The four long swords hovered high in the sky, their spiritual energies surging, transforming into hundreds of sharp sword qi that poured down like a celestial river.
A cold glint flashed in Qian Nishang's eyes. With a thought, dozens of lightning butterflies soared into the sky, their wings fluttering and emitting flashes of lightning. In the next moment, the dozens of lightning butterflies self-detonated, transforming into a heavy curtain of intertwined lightning that blocked above their heads. However, under the onslaught of the crisscrossing sword qi, this curtain of lightning could not hold for long. After merely one or two breaths, it shattered with a roar.
Seeing this, Qian Nishang showed no panic. She did not attempt to resist further but instead used her spiritual energy to support the jade hammer in front of her, her hands rapidly forming seals as she orderly channeled the spiritual energy within her body.
Moments later, hundreds of sword qi poured down, like a celestial river, engulfing the figures of the two! The four black-clad figures, seeing this, each formed a hand seal, their spiritual energies surging into the four long swords above. With the infusion of potent spiritual energy, wave after wave of sword qi descended, as if intending to drive the pair into the deepest depths of hell!
However, after a few breaths, the expressions of the four changed, and fierce killing intent surged.
"Change formation! Kill!" The hand seals of the four instantly shifted. The four long swords in the sky stopped releasing sword qi. After a rotation, they began to descend, their edges pointed downwards!
As the sword qi ceased to pour down, the overwhelming sword qi that had shrouded Ji Yuan and Qian Nishang like a celestial river dissipated after three to four breaths, revealing the scene that had been obscured. The two were enveloped by a barrier of light. The ground around them had been scraped several inches deep by the sword qi, yet they remained unharmed. Even the spiritual energy contained within the three copper coins had only been depleted by more than half.
Now, as the four long swords began to descend, Ji Yuan let out a shout. He lifted his hands towards the sky, channeling the vital energy within him frantically into the seven-story pagoda he held aloft. A layer of sky-blue light swept out from the small pagoda, rising upwards like a celestial curtain. In an instant, the four long swords stopped on the curtain, and instead of a deafening impact, waves of spiritual energy rolled outwards like tides.
The four black-clad figures grunted. No matter how much spiritual energy they poured in, their swords could not descend even a fraction. Instead, they were lifted by this curtain, continuously ascending. The seven-story pagoda, beneath the celestial curtain, radiated light and slowly rotated, autonomously drawing in spiritual energy from heaven and earth. Not only did it cease to consume Ji Yuan's vital energy, but it even began to reciprocate, restoring all his previous expenditures. This was something he had not anticipated; the pagoda's current power far surpassed its pre-refinement and re-casting state.
In mere moments, he understood why. The pagoda had just been reforged, and it still contained a portion of Mo Zigui's spiritual energy. It was this spiritual energy that allowed the pagoda to unleash a portion of its power!
Suddenly, Ji Yuan felt a surge of spiritual energy beside him. He reached out and summoned the pagoda back, holding it in his palm once more. As the pagoda returned, the sky-blue celestial curtain dissipated, and the four long swords descended with the force of wind and thunder!
"Break!" At this moment, Qian Nishang let out a sudden shout. In front of her, as she completed her final hand seal, a jade hammer suddenly expanded several times its size and shot upwards like a stream of light. Simultaneously, a terrifying pressure, like that of a blazing sun, arose. Supreme authority descended upon the mortal realm as if an immortal god were about to enact an act of world destruction!
In the blink of an eye, the four long swords melted like snow, leaving not even a speck of residue behind! The four black-clad figures seemed struck by lightning, their artifacts destroyed, forcing them to retreat more than ten steps, coughing up large amounts of blood as if they had suffered severe backlash. They looked up at the stream of light ascending into the sky, despair flickering in their eyes. The four black-clad figures now had none of their previous killing intent or arrogance. Under the overwhelming pressure, they could not even control their trembling bodies!
"You dare to unleash the might of a treasure within the city. Do you wish to suffer the burning of karmic fire, or be held accountable by the imperial court?" A stern voice called out from the darkness, its gender and location indistinguishable.
Ji Yuan sneered inwardly. "Now you fear? What were you doing earlier? Weren't the Divine Profound Sect members so arrogant? Let's see if this dominance can withstand the burning of karmic fire!"
Qian Nishang, on his side, had also become resolute. Disregarding her merit, she would unleash the full power of this extremely high-quality artifact! Once fully revived, even with her peak second-realm cultivation, she could unleash an attack comparable to a Golden Core cultivator! This... was the fundamental reason why treasures far surpassed magical artifacts! Even if a magical artifact was refined with all its restrictions, the power it could unleash was extremely limited. However, a treasure could be considered a Golden Core cultivator in itself. As long as sufficient price was paid to fully revive it, it could unleash corresponding power! Furthermore, once fully revived, unless controlled by a Golden Core cultivator, it was almost impossible to disperse the accumulated power. It could only be fully unleashed before the treasure would return to dormancy. Therefore, Qian Nishang was now in a position where she had to act!
"Sin?" she roared, pointing at a black-clad figure in front of her. It was this person who had attacked in the street earlier, his residual attack affecting twenty to thirty civilians and causing the deaths of seven or eight!
As if sensing his master's anger, the fully revived jade hammer in the sky erupted with countless dazzling rays of light, transforming into a meteor that plummeted rapidly from the sky! In broad daylight, a meteor whose radiance illuminated more than half the prefectural city streaked across the sky, its sun-like pressure bearing down like a mountain!
"Prefect of Luoxia Prefecture, are you going to watch your citizens suffer utter destruction because of this?" The voice from the darkness spoke again, but this time, it lacked its former coldness, revealing a hint of panic.
However, as its voice boomed through the sky, there was no response, as if everyone in the city was waiting for disaster to strike. Seeing this, a furious roar suddenly sounded, and a middle-aged man abruptly appeared in mid-air, facing the meteor that was radiating infinite, dazzling light.