“I’ve made a fool of myself in front of you, Senior. I only recently formed my Golden Core and unintentionally heard that an Yin energy spiritual vein had appeared here, so I came specifically to try my luck. Could it be that Senior is here for the same reason?” Zhang Ling hurriedly and carefully responded to the question.
“You don't need to be nervous. I'm just asking for directions. After I'm done asking, I will naturally let you leave.”
“Thank you, Senior. This junior will answer everything I know without holding back. Senior, just fly one or two miles in this direction and you will see an underground fissure. That fissure is extremely deep, as much as ten thousand feet. The Yin spiritual vein is below.”
Zhang Ling pointed in a direction, hoping that this old monster would leave quickly after asking his questions, but he vaguely felt that this person would not keep his promise. At the same time, he quietly began circulating his cultivation technique.
“Good, since you've been down there, do you know if there are any other cultivators in the spiritual vein?”
“As far as this junior knows, there are seven or eight Core Formation cultivators inside. Among them are the four major families on this island, and…”
Zhang Ling was in the middle of answering the person's question, but before he could finish, he suddenly saw the cloak on the figure sway slightly, and a green light shot towards him.
His expression immediately changed drastically. He quickly circulated his cultivation technique, and a bright yellow light shone from his body as he retreated several feet. At the same time, a flash of light appeared from his sleeve, and a blue, translucent flying sword met the green light, attempting to intercept the attack.
There was a crisp clang, and the blue flying sword let out a wail the moment it came into contact with the green light, lasting only a breath or two before shattering into two pieces with a crisp crack.
At this moment, Zhang Ling didn't have time to feel sorry for the destruction of his magic weapon. The spiritual power throughout his body surged and flowed entirely into his hands. As he cast a spell, three small, earth-yellow shields formed around him.
The three shields instantly overlapped in front of him, transforming into a giant shield blocking his path.
The green light flashed and struck the shield. The spiritual light on the shield instantly dimmed, and then the shield also shattered into pieces with a crack.
Zhang Ling seemed to know that the shield wouldn't hold. The instant the giant shield formed, he retreated another distance.
He stomped heavily on the ground with both feet, and with a rustling sound of earth breaking, five or six earthen rocks, each about ten feet high, immediately rose from the ground, blocking his path.
But these earthen walls were instantly disintegrated in the face of the green light, pierced with large holes, and the spiritual energy in the green light was only slightly weakened.
The green light swirled once and then shot straight towards Zhang Ling's face again.
In this life-or-death moment, Zhang Ling rapidly made hand seals, and a dozen thick, black-green vines burst out from the ground where he stood.
Each of these vines was a full five or six feet long, like tentacles, instantly wrapping around him, blocking the incoming green light.
After a series of low, crisp sounds, these vines were all cut in half, the cuts perfectly smooth, as if they had been cut by some sharp weapon.
The green light flashed a few times and then struck Zhang Ling, but it was blocked by a layer of golden shield on his body. Sizzling sounds of metal clashing erupted before Zhang Ling's eyes.
Only then did Zhang Ling see clearly that the green light was not a magic weapon, but an attack spell formed by some kind of secret technique. Its shape was like a sharp wooden thorn, and it was currently stuck on his shield.
Fortunately, after this series of defenses, the spiritual energy on the green light had been almost completely exhausted, and it was now being blocked by the golden shield around him.
Zhang Ling, having temporarily withstood this attack, hurriedly shouted, “Senior, why are you attacking? Everything this junior said earlier was true, not a single lie. If Senior wants to go to the Yin energy spiritual vein, this junior is willing to lead the way.”
“Hehe, no need. Just die peacefully. Blame yourself for appearing here.”
The cloaked figure in the sky stretched out an arm, and several scarlet spiritual lights condensed in his withered hand. These spiritual lights rapidly gathered in the center to form a giant scarlet fireball.
The scarlet fireball bubbled as if boiling. From the fireball's center, scarlet fire crows shot out, and after a series of light cries, hundreds of fire crows condensed, flapping towards Zhang Ling.
At this moment, Zhang Ling was still resisting the previous green light attack and couldn't break free. He was instantly surrounded by countless fire crows.
Looking at the dense, red flames around him, Zhang Ling's expression turned extremely ugly. He quickly made hand seals, and countless black-green vines burst out from the ground again, surrounding him to form a layer of defense.
The figure standing in the sky coldly snorted. Instantly, countless fire crows fell towards Zhang Ling like shooting stars.
Rumbling sounds continued to come, and after a few breaths, the area where Zhang Ling was located turned into a sea of fire.
After a dozen breaths, the area within thirty feet of the original location was turned into scorched earth. The ground was pitted and uneven, and large areas of earth and stone were directly melted into magma.
The cloaked person only glanced at Zhang Ling's original position, where there was a large tree burning with fire.
In his eyes, the burning tree was only made up of a dozen thick vines. At this moment, the vine tree was burned through, and there was no trace of life inside. The aura of that young man had also disappeared, and he had obviously been killed by him.
The cloaked person turned his gaze towards the direction Zhang Ling had pointed earlier. A layer of green spiritual light appeared on his body, wrapping himself and turning into a遁光 (遁光 is a term for escaping light) and flew towards that direction.
As for killing Zhang Ling, his mood did not fluctuate in the slightest. Such an act of casually killing a cultivator was just a casual act for a Nascent Soul level cultivator.
After the cloaked person left, the place returned to calm. It wasn't until half a cup of tea later, when the fire on the ground was about to disappear, that the vine tree burning with flames had turned pitch black.
A gust of breeze blew, and the vine tree turned into a pile of gray-black dust and fell to the ground.
Suddenly, a faint ray of blue light flashed from the dust, and a small gourd the size of a fist disappeared.
The small blue gourd went towards the distance close to the ground, and soon arrived at a pile of无人 (unmanned) rocks, stopped under a huge rock, and then the gourd flashed with spiritual light and turned into a huge gourd ten feet high.
A cloud of blue mist emerged from the mouth of the gourd, revealing Zhang Ling's figure. At this moment, he was kneeling on the ground, covered in scorch marks, and wisps of green smoke were still coming from his body.
Cough cough!
Zhang Ling coughed lightly a few times. He was now badly injured, and his complexion improved a lot after spitting out a mouthful of turbid air.
“Cough, that old guy almost killed me.”
Zhang Ling gloomily took out a white porcelain bottle from his arms, poured out a few pills and swallowed them.
The moment that cloaked person made his move, he knew that he had no chance of winning. He had originally planned to fight to the death, but when he saw the cloaked person use a fire-attribute attack. Zhang Ling had a flash of inspiration and used dozens of vines to cover himself and hid in the Two Instruments Gourd, which is how he deceived everyone and escaped the calamity.
