However, Cai Lian moved even faster. With the Shifting Form Exchange unique to Mystic Ancestor powerhouses, she vaulted over the airspace above the great hall and landed squarely at the entrance, blocking the path.
“Get out of the way!”
Lin He’s body surged with mystic power as his Five-Star Mystic Lord cultivation erupted in full. He drew the power of heaven and earth from the surroundings, converging it toward himself!
Yet this was utterly worthless in the face of a Three-Star Mystic Ancestor who possessed the Snake God Bloodline.
The Sovereign Lady, dressed in a colorful skirt with a slender waist, extended her glistening white jade hand from those rainbow-hued narrow sleeves. With a casual wave, the gathered power of heaven and earth dissipated in an instant.
Mystic Ancestor powerhouses could suppress a Mystic Lord’s command over the power of heaven and earth!
Deprived of that augmentation, a Mystic Lord’s might was nothing to speak of. Cai Lian followed up with a slap from afar. A massive colorful palm print materialized out of thin air and sent Lin He flying like one might swat a mosquito. He smashed into a massive pillar inside the hall, his body embedding deep within it amid a blur of shredded flesh and blood.
The remaining two Demon Exterminator Envoys stared in shock.
They had already gleaned the women’s strength from the Reflecting Light Mirror. Anyone capable of handling the Heavenly Gu Elder’s Divine Soul Incarnation was no ordinary opponent. But they never imagined her aura would belong to a mere Three-Star Mystic Ancestor.
Even Yan Zhen jumped in surprise. Cai Lian might always put on that haughty air, but she was always so gentle around him. He’d nearly forgotten just how terrifying she could be when she got fierce.
Remembering all the teasing and flirting he’d done before, Yan Zhen wiped away a cold bead of sweat in secret. Good thing she hadn’t truly lost her temper. Otherwise, if she slapped him into a wall like that, he’d never dig himself out. Talk about embarrassing.
But the fight was far from over.
Lin He, still embedded in the wall, crushed his Protective Talisman. Once again, the Heavenly Gu Elder’s Divine Soul Incarnation descended.
As a Seventh-Tier Pill Refiner and a powerhouse of the Divine Soul True Realm, his incarnation was as substantial as his true body. He was clad like some frontier shaman, leaning on a staff topped with a skeletal warrior. His aged eyes gleamed wolf-green.
Taking in the scene before him, how could the Heavenly Gu Elder fail to understand? His pawn had failed him yet again—and to the exact same group!
“You all… very good!”
“V-Venerable…”
Lin He forced out the words, only for the Heavenly Gu Elder to press down from afar, snuffing his life completely. Then, the elder possessed the corpse.
Lin He’s body burst into eerie blue flames. The blood coating it evaporated in a flash, and moments later, every wound had vanished.
But this was no mere healing. The body had been refined into a Gu Corpse.
Roasted by those eerie blue flames, the wall slowly melted away. Lin He—or more precisely, the Heavenly Gu Elder—stepped forth. His aura exploded outward, rocketing from Five-Star Mystic Lord straight to Nine-Star Mystic Ancestor, stopping just short of Mystic Venerable.
Such was the might of the Divine Soul True Realm.
Shrouded in eerie blue flames, the Heavenly Gu Elder swept his gaze across the hall. He focused intently on Cai Lian, Yi Xian’er, Yun Xiu, and Long Ying before speaking in chilling tones.
“All of you, die for this old man!”
Cai Lian showed no fear whatsoever.
“Looks like the lesson from a few days ago didn’t stick. A puny Mystic Venerable like you, daring to prance around in front of this Sovereign over and over!”
Genuine contempt shone in the Sovereign Lady’s eyes.
She wasted no more words and charged forward.
The Heavenly Gu Elder countered with a palm strike. Eerie blue flames roared forth like crashing tidal waves.
Extreme Flame List #50, the Taiyin Primordial Fire, was the polar opposite of #49, the Solar Essence Flame. Their yin-yang fusion formed #8, the Xuan Huang Dual Qi Flame.
Later, after cleaning up the Heavenly Gu Elder, Yan Zhen would claim both the Taiyin Primordial Fire and the Solar Essence Flame, synthesizing the Xuan Huang Dual Qi Flame.
Any Extreme Flame in the top fifty could threaten even High-Star Mystic Ancestors.
However, as a yin-attributed flame, the Taiyin Primordial Fire posed far less danger to Cai Lian, whose bloodline shared that same yin nature.
With a wave of her hand, snakes of multicolored mystic power coalesced around her. They coiled protectively, mouths gaping to spew yin-attributed toxic breath that ground away at the encroaching Taiyin Primordial Fire.
“Naive!”
The Heavenly Gu Elder poured on even more power, but space rippled at his flank. The Loli Dragon Girl materialized from nowhere, her tiny fist deceptively soft-looking yet brimming with horrific force as it hurtled toward him.
He flinched in alarm, yanking back his assault and scrambling sideways in a pathetic dodge. He barely evaded the blow.
He hadn’t noticed it before—this little loli wielded Spatial Power?
Long Ying pressed her attack without pause after missing.
The Heavenly Gu Elder unleashed a wave of Taiyin Primordial Fire to engulf her.
Before it could connect, a torrent of pitch-black Baleful Qi surged in, shielding her.
Yi Xian’er’s white hair whipped wildly as her hands clawed forth. Her nails were long, black, and razor-sharp, conjuring images of some white-haired witch.
The Taiyin Primordial Fire, wrapped in Baleful Qi, froze solid into black ice. It plummeted from the air and shattered across the floor.
Yun Xiu seized the opening, thrusting her sword. A beam of sword light pierced straight through the Heavenly Gu Elder’s shoulder.
But in his current Gu Corpse form, the injury was trivial.
“Is that the best you’ve got?”
The Heavenly Gu Elder sneered. Boom! His Taiyin Primordial Fire detonated in a ferocious blast. The hall’s temperature plunged, as if plunged into the depths of a winter storm.
“A pack of arrogant little girls who know nothing of the heavens. Become this old man’s puppets, all of you!”
The flames birthed countless bugs trailing wisps of fire, swarming toward the four women.
Their faces grew grave. None dared slack off. Mystic power flared to shield their bodies.
Those bugs carried the Taiyin Primordial Fire’s innate corrosive might, and they were endless in number. For the moment, the women found themselves pushed back.
They did possess a killing move—a Saint Mystic Technique—but deploying it came at a steep price. Best avoided if possible.
Bang!
The four women shattered the hall’s roof and soared free of the insect horde.
The Heavenly Gu Elder snorted and gave chase without mercy.
Yan Zhen watched no longer. He held nothing back, closing his eyes and channeling through the Beautiful Female Master as his conduit to commune with the Fire Refining Starry Sky.
The Crystal Pendant blazed with radiant light. Yan Zhen’s entire bearing transformed—his eyes serene and devoid of emotion.
He kicked off the ground and ascended on beams of starlight. Once in position, he thrust out his hand, palm splayed wide and aimed squarely at the Heavenly Gu Elder.
To everyone’s astonishment, the Taiyin Primordial Fire cloaking the Heavenly Gu Elder visibly dimmed before winking out entirely.
The bugs, stripped of their flame augmentation, lost all corrosiveness. They slammed into the women’s protective mystic power barriers and burst apart, killing themselves on impact.
“What?!”
The Heavenly Gu Elder’s face twisted in horror. His Taiyin Primordial Fire had suddenly gone rogue. He didn’t understand how, but he knew it stemmed from this Yan Zhen who had just barged into the fray.
“You brat again! This old man will have your life!”
But the four women instantly shielded their husband. Just like a few days prior, they thrashed the Heavenly Gu Elder—who could no longer wield his Taiyin Primordial Fire—with total inevitability.
A quarter-hour later, the Heavenly Gu Elder ditched the Gu Corpse and bolted. Long Ying’s dragon roar left him dazed and reeling, and Cai Lian’s toxic breath corroded him into oblivion.
He didn’t even have time to spit a threat.
