CH 133.1

“I’m honored to welcome Jing-laozu to Lurking Ghost Sect!”

Although Jing Yue saw no one, he knew it was Han Guang, the sect leader of Lurking Ghost Sect, by the voice. The other party had obviously guessed his identity from his actions just now. As for why Han Guang could prevent him from entering Haotian Realm, there was only one possibility—he had fallen into Han Guang’s domain.

As a Tribulation Passage powerhouse, Han Guang could trap him in a domain he created without Jing Yue’s knowing.

Jing Yue was stunned and felt a gust of wind blowing toward him. Next to him, Qin Yanzhi pulled out Taiqing and slashed his sword at the wind!

“So Qin-zhenjun is here too. Taiqing is a good sword indeed. Why don’t you give it to me?”

The hall trembled violently, and Han Guang's tremendous energy pressure bore down. Taiqing was suspended midway through its flight and could no longer move forward. Wei Zhentu, who had the lowest cultivation base, couldn't even move an inch. If he relaxed even a little, he would fall to the ground.

Ruan Jiu was worried and wanted to help, but Wei Zhentu gritted his teeth and shook his head, not letting himself fall.

Not wanting to drag them down, Wei Zhentu lowered his eyes and observed calmly.

In Han Guang’s domain, he was the one in control. Although not like a god who created the world, the domain of a Tribulation Passage was also comparable to a self-created world, and everyone's strength would be suppressed by Han Guang.

To break the domain, one must first kill this Tribulation Passage powerhouse, but Jing Yue didn’t think he was capable of doing that. Besides, he had his comrades here, as well as Qin Yanzhi.

The only thing he could do was to find a way to tear the domain open. Even if it was only a tiny crack, even only for a moment, as long as the news was sent out, it was not a loss even if everyone perished here!

But a domain was unlike a formation where the eye of the formation could be found. The domain of a Tribulation Passage was extremely balanced with no weak points at all.

Since there was no way to start, they could only rely on themselves to create the opportunity.

Jing Yue looked around when suddenly, a transmitted voice reached him. “Northwest, stone mountain.”

He was startled and realized it was Wei Zhentu's voice. Seeing that Jing Yue didn't understand, the latter repeated, “The mountain protection barrier, the Green Dragon position.”

Jing Yue immediately understood Wei Zhentu’s meaning. Since they couldn't find the flaws in the domain, they would simply use the mountain protection barrier to attack the domain. When they were in Four Elephants Villa back then, they similarly made use of Blood Corpse-laomo’s ability to break the villa’s formation.

Although they couldn’t trigger the mountain protection barrier, if they concentrated on destroying this formation, it would definitely retaliate. At that time, they could continue to trigger changes in the formation.

Although they were the targets that the formation was supposed to attack, with the power of the great array, Han Guang's domain was bound to be disrupted!

To survive in a crisis and stand after a fall, there were bound to be opportunities!

He nodded slightly. At this moment, Han Guang made another move, and the demonic elder also attacked Jing Yue at the same time.

Without thinking, Jing Yue threw out the Soul Ingesting Mirror that contained Kang Xi. This mirror could not only capture people but also block a blow with the flesh and soul of the person it had captured.

With a crack, the mirror shattered, and Kang Xi’s life inside the mirror also ended at the same time.

No one knew what Kang Xi was thinking in his last moments, and no one cared.

Taking advantage of the pause, Jing Yue quickly flew to the stone mountain outside the hall and transmitted his voice to Qin Yanzhi.

The latter had a plan but remained motionless, and summoned Taiqing’s sword soul instead. With the enhancement of the sword soul, Taiqing sword that was suspended in midair seemed to have received a boost of life. It broke through the roof of the hall with unstoppable speed and a beam of light shot down from the hole in the roof. A red-robed figure was faintly visible in the light and shadows.

Han Guang sneered and smacked his palms down. A huge invisible palm condensed in the air and slammed down on Taiqing sword.

Taiqing sword suddenly disappeared as if it had been crushed into dust, but in just a breath, a sharp sword tip slowly appeared at the back of Han Guang’s head. Little by little, the true face was revealed, and stabbed him sharply!

Han Guang's eyes darkened slightly and he blocked with his hand. The cold sword brushed his fingertip and left a trail of blood.

But immediately after, Han Guang grabbed with five fingers and directly took Taiqing into his hands, and was just about to break it in half.

Clang!

Another invisible sword energy pierced his palm!

Taiqing took this opportunity to break into several pieces and the invisible sword energy also dissipated and disappeared into Taiqing's sword body. The broken sword pieces merged into a sword halfway and returned to Qin Yanzhi's hand but a bit of dark appeared on the body of the sword, like an ink stain.

“Sword soul! You actually have two sword souls!”

Han Guang was startled before he laughed aloud. “As expected of the sword cultivating genius of the millennium, you actually have two sword souls. If not for the fact that you’re just a Heavenly Grotto and your sword souls have just formed, who in the cultivation world could be your opponent?”

“However, today marks the end for you!”

Like the red glow of the sunset, a red shadow flashed in front of Qin Yanzhi.

Qin Yanzhi quickly retreated. He had created a way out for Jing Yue with his sword just now. Ruan Jiu and Wei Zhentu had joined forces to kill the elder Heavenly Grotto and now followed Jing Yue to the stone mountain.

But he had to remain here to block the pursuit, even if it was only for a moment.

Qin Yanzhi held the long sword tightly and sensed the power of the sword souls from Taiqing and Daoyi. Dark black lines gradually crept up his exposed skin like an ancient spell, which spread from his neck to his fair cheeks, and eventually, his eyes became pure black.

Before Han Guang's attacking hand touched Qin Yanzhi, he felt a sharp pain in his fingertips as if he had been pricked by thousands of needles. It was not just the power of sword energy!

What the hell? Han Guang was taken aback.

But if Jing Yue was here, he would know that the black lines were formed by the malefic energy of the Nine Heavens Rift, and all the malefic energy absorbed by Qin Yanzhi back then was now under his full control.

Dark light swept across and silence loomed.

Small gravel began to fall before the hall collapsed suddenly. Amid the billowing dust and smoke, Han Guang's right sleeve robe was torn into pieces and there was a deep wound on his arm.

There was black energy in the wound, which made this superficial injury impossible to heal. Even though he was a Tribulation Passage powerhouse, he was helpless in the face of malefic energy from the Nine Heavens Rift.

The malefic energy constantly eroded his flesh, and the wound on his arm was gradually expanding. Han Guang could only reluctantly cut off his arm.

A broken arm could be regenerated, but if the black energy invaded his body, he would lose more than one arm.

The mockery and arrogance in Han Guang’s eyes finally disappeared. He glared at Qin Yanzhi fixedly for a while and remained motionless.

At this time, Jing Yue and the others had already rushed to the stone mountain. Suddenly, he felt a gust of wind blowing from the back of his head. Jing Yue dodged and ducked, and thousands of silver threads pierced through the air like sharp arrows, piercing deeply into the boulder in front of him.

A smear of blood was also left on Jing Yue’s face.

The newcomer was the only Return to Void demonic cultivator of Lurking Ghost Sect. Jing Yue vaguely remembered that the other party was called Jiu Sha, and his skill in wielding the Buddhist whisk was quite formidable.

When the righteous Dao raided Lurking Ghost Sect half a year ago, this person wasn’t around. This was Jing Yue’s first confrontation with him.

Jiu Sha made no further pursuit but bent his arm to retract the Buddhist whisk before swiping out at Jing Yue again.

Within the horizon, a small piece of space suddenly disappeared, leaving behind a large area of ​​black, destructive darkness without life or death.

Jiu Sha shook the whisk again. Jing Yue relied on his intuition of the danger to create a clone and used the clone to teleport. As soon as he moved away, he felt a huge suction force that tried to pull him away from where he was standing. His clone was already caught up in it and Jing Yue lost all contact with the clone.

He quickly activated a rock talisman to make his body as heavy as a rock and managed to stop himself from being sucked away.

Jing Yue found that the space just now had folded and overlapped. It turned out that Jiu Sha’s whisk could swipe away a small piece of space and smash the space at him.

After a cultivator opened the heavenly grotto, their control over the power of space would become increasingly proficient with the improvement of their cultivation. However, this was the first time Jing Yue came across someone who could move the space directly.

He took Jiu Sha more seriously now, and at the same time, he noticed that Wei Zhentu and Ruan Jiu had caught up.

Jing Yue immediately transmitted his voice to the two. “Go to the stone mountain. I’ll stop Jiu Sha for the time being.”

Ruan Jiu, “But…”

Jing Yue, “Protect Wei-daoyou. As long as we can send the news out, we win.”

Ruan Jiu gritted his teeth. “Okay!”

At this time, Jiu Sha also noticed the two of them. He repeated his old tricks and swept another piece of space at them, but Jing Yue refused to let him get away with it. He tried his best to urge his Amethyst core and kept chanting incantations under his breath.

Jiu Sha didn’t take Jing Yue seriously at all. He knew that the other party was very strong and possessed astonishing talent, but he was just an Amethyst Abode.

Suddenly, however, he found that the other two cultivators had turned into shadows. When he sent the space crashing toward them, it only caused a ripple like a small wave on the water.

No, it wasn’t just the two cultivators. Everything around him became unreal as if shrouded in fog.

Jing Yue also disappeared from his sight.

“Petty tricks!” Jiu Sha snorted coldly and the whisk in his hand pounced in all directions like thousands of small snakes.

Suddenly, a silver thread trembled slightly and a sneer appeared on the corner of Jiu Sha's mouth. He moved quickly and grabbed with five fingers, but only caught a piece of fabric.

He saw a figure slowly disappear into thin air.

“You run fast enough!” Jiu Sha stared coldly in the direction where the figure escaped. “I never expected the Laozu of Frostcloud Sect to run away like a street rat.”

The figure ignored him. Jiu Sha frowned and continued to concentrate on his senses.

Soon, another silver thread vibrated, and Jiu Sha rushed over faster than the last time, but unfortunately, he still didn't catch anyone.

However, about 10 feet away from Jiu Sha, Jing Yue kept tweaking chants with a pale face, while the blue phoenix with puffed cheeks in his arms kept replenishing him with vitality.

In fact, the figure that Jiu Sha saw was not Jing Yue at all. Everything Jiu Sha saw was just an illusion.

The Art of Ten Desolate Universe was a heaven-grade technique. At Heavenly Grotto level, there was a move called the Water Reflection Technique, which could create illusions that were not that easy to see through. At the Tribulation Passage level, the illusion could even seem real. With illusion in reality and reality in the illusion, it could easily catch the opponent off guard.

However, Jing Yue was only an Amethyst Abode now. If not for blue phoenix’s help, he could hardly hold out until now.

But he couldn’t hang on much longer. This higher-level technique consumed too much of his spiritual energy, and secondly, Jiu Sha would probably find out the truth soon.

Jing Yue was anxious and glanced at the stone mountain, which was comprised of several small peaks, with the highest peak about a hundred feet high. There was no one on the mountain. Ruan Jiu and Wei Zhentu were still a short distance away because they encountered some obstacles along the way.