"Not good!"
Yuu Mingzi cried out.
He hadn’t expected this. Not only had his attempt to recruit Lü Zhong failed, but it had instead helped him achieve Mind Illumination and see his true nature, triggering his breakthrough to the Divinity Transformation stage.
Now, the Thunder Tribulation was imminent, with less than a hundred breaths of time remaining.
’What should I do?’
Kill!
As if rehearsed, all nine of them attacked in unison.
Their attacks were coordinated, with a clear primary and secondary focus.
The three from the Talisman Palace struck first. They each produced a Talisman: one was a Forbidden Sky Talisman, the second a Delayed Spirit Talisman, and the third a Weakening God Talisman. They respectively had the effects of disabling Escape Skills, slowing Magical Power, and weakening the Divine Soul.
Each one was a secret of the Talisman Palace. Outsiders might only ever see one, and only a great enemy of Central Earth would be worthy of experiencing all three.
Affected by the three Talismans, Lü Zhong’s heart tightened!
However, he showed not the slightest hint of panic, for his preparations had been exceptionally thorough.
Lü Zhong responded immediately. He first summoned the Flood Dragon Spirit Banner to defend himself. He then ordered the distant Floating Fortress to attack the three from the Talisman Palace. From his sleeve, eighteen figures flew out—all of them Combat Incarnations prepared for this very battle—and he sent them to hold off the Gui Miao Sect.
At the same time, a layer of Purple Gold Flame ignited across his body.
For a moment, a purple aura surged toward the heavens!
Lü Zhong was an expert in the Talisman Dao, a master in his own right. Though he didn’t know exactly what Talismans had been used, he understood their underlying principles. They all operated on a few common concepts, and the methods to break them shared similarities. By refining their power, he could disrupt or weaken the Talismans’ effects.
Almost instantly, Spiritual Light flickered around him, and he could feel the effect slowing his Magical Power begin to weaken. His Divine Soul, which had been coated in a gray sheen, became as bright as ever.
The only thing that remained unchanged was the "frozen" space around him, which still felt solid.
The Forbidden Sky Talisman was still in effect.
Lü Zhong didn’t have many ways to counter such a large-scale Spirit Talisman. Fortunately, while its power was astonishing, its effect also faded very quickly. It would be useless in just a few breaths.
As Lü Zhong was dealing with this, the Immortal Sect’s side attacked again.
This time, it was the Gui Miao Sect.
They combined their efforts, ultimately producing a three-colored flame that swept toward Lü Zhong.
A cool sensation washed over him, but Lü Zhong felt no discomfort. ’Strange,’ he thought, and quickly assessed his condition. He was shocked to find that the Spiritual Light of his Flood Dragon Spirit Banner had receded, rendering it completely immobile.
It turned out the three-colored light was specifically meant to counter the Flood Dragon Spirit Banner.
Seeing the Flood Dragon Spirit Banner restrained, Fang Daohua cupped his hands toward Yuu Mingzi.
"The Flood Dragon Spirit Banner has been disabled! Please, Fellow Daoist, strike now and deliver the final blow!"
Yuu Mingzi stepped forward, his expression impassive. He lightly raised his wide sleeve, revealing a broken, blood-colored arrow. Only the fletched half of the shaft was visible; the arrowhead was missing. Then, he pointed at Lü Zhong from afar, and the broken arrow vanished in a flash.
In an instant, the broken arrow appeared before Lü Zhong, stopping about ten feet from his chest.
At almost the exact same moment, a sharp pain shot through his heart, as if it had been pierced.
’It’s not an illusion!’
Lü Zhong’s gaze dropped, and his heart filled with horror. Where his chest had been empty a moment ago, the other half of the broken arrow had appeared, somehow already piercing through his heart. He had no idea what Divine Wondrous power this half-arrow possessed to have appeared so bizarrely and run him through.
"Fellow Daoist Lü, how do you feel now?
"The taste of this Female and Male Blood Arrow isn’t pleasant, is it?"
"What a pity. If you had just been willing to submit, you wouldn’t be suffering like this. One wrong step leads to another! Your great crime has already implicated your family. It is too late for regrets, Fellow Daoist Lü. They will soon die because of you!"
Yuu Mingzi watched Lü Zhong, who had an arrow in his chest and was bleeding profusely. He secretly intensified his control over the "Male Arrow," forcing its venomous power to seep deeper, all while taunting him with a smirk to distract him.
PFFT!
Hearing this, Lü Zhong emotionlessly pulled the arrowhead from his chest, gripping it tightly to prevent it from flying away. Purple lightning crackled in his palm as he forcefully refined the Male Arrow, reducing it to ashes.
"Hmph, a moment of bravado!"
"Pulling it out will only make you die faster!"
Yuu Mingzi hadn’t expected this. He had assumed Lü Zhong would be concerned for his heart and try to suppress the arrow with Magical Power, but instead, he had just pulled it out directly. Then, Yuu Mingzi’s gaze fell thoughtfully upon Lü Zhong’s body. Seeing the wound healing at a rapid pace, his expression changed, and he cried out in shock:
"A Pure Spirit Body!"
No wonder!
’He is no longer a being of flesh and blood, so his heart is naturally no longer a vital point.’
’So what if it was pierced?’
’He can simply use a bit of Magical Power to form a new one.’
Yuu Mingzi had read extensively in the secret archives of the Celestial Origin Immortal Palace, so he naturally knew the characteristics of a Pure Spirit Body.
’A miscalculation.’
His heart sank.
Fortunately, this exchange had taken less than ten breaths.
’There’s still a chance!’
With all nine members of the Immortal Sect present, they certainly wouldn’t have played all their trump cards in one go.
But when Yuu Mingzi looked over, he saw that both the Gui Miao Sect and the Talisman Palace were already tied down.
The Gui Miao Sect was under attack by the Incarnations and couldn’t spare any attention. The Talisman Palace wasn’t faring much better; facing the terrifying firepower of the Floating Fortress, they didn’t dare take the hits head-on and could only continuously dodge.
Yuu Mingzi wasn’t surprised that the Incarnations could suppress Great Cultivators through sheer numbers.
The Outer Body Incarnation Skill was just that formidable.
Back when they had besieged and killed the Ten Thousand Transformations Divine Monarch, the Immortal Sect had deployed four people. One of them was already at the Mid-stage Divinity Transformation, and each wielded a Spirit Treasure. Even with such a massive advantage, they had paid the price of one dead and one injured to finally slay the Ten Thousand Transformations Divine Monarch.
What surprised him was the Floating Fortress.
’Technology and the Immortal Dao, blended together... can it really be this powerful? It’s just a mere Iron Ball, yet it can suppress three Great Cultivators. No, that can’t be right. There must be some secret. Otherwise, with the strength of the Red Earth civilization, they could at best kill Core Formation cultivators. They would be helpless against a Nascent Soul.’