Above the Cloud Sea, Liu Xin voluntarily conceded, "If my two junior brothers are willing to put aside our grudges and make peace with me, I am prepared to offer a Superior Daoist Scripture as a gift."
"At this point? Are you joking?"
Lü Yang laughed when he heard this. "Senior Brother Liu, we're all disciples of the Stain Sect. Why bother putting on airs? Things have already reached a life-and-death stage between us."
"..."
Liu Xin said nothing, but his face sank.
Because Lü Yang was right. At this moment, the ones truly unwilling to reconcile were not Lü Yang and Xiao Shiye at all, but Liu Xin and Qingchen.
The reason was simple: the rules of the Stain Sect.
"Although, as long as no one finds out, the rules of the Sect are nothing but a paper tiger, conversely, once they are discovered, those rules become absolute."
Lü Yang sneered. "People like you have surely set ambushes and robbed fellow disciples before. No one happened to uncover it back then. But now, as long as I walk out of here and go to the Law Enforcement Hall to report you, the truth will come out. Senior Brother Liu, you're almost guaranteed to die."
"Junior brother, you jest."
Liu Xin's face twitched. "You and I can sign a magic contract, agreeing never to speak of today's events. That way I, as your senior brother, can at least be at ease…."
"Really?" Lü Yang countered.
...Of course it was fake.
Only the dead were truly trustworthy.
"Qingchen!"
At Liu Xin's low call, the always-silent Qingchen finally spoke. Her red lips parted as she uttered a single soft word:
"Open!"
Before the word fully fell, the surrounding Cloud Sea shifted dramatically, rising into towering peaks that encircled Lü Yang and Xiao Shiye.
It was another array!
"Do you really think I'm afraid of your Heavenfiend Lifeblood Offering Radiance?" Liu Xin even recognized Lü Yang's techniques. He sneered and produced a flag that unfurled in the wind. "Perfect timing. My 'Primal Qi Myriad-Soul Banner' still lacks a principal spirit. Today, I'll offer you to the banner…."
"Go!"
Before Liu Xin could finish, Lü Yang had already merged with his Sword Pill and charged forward, a tide of blood-tinged aura sweeping out. The sight made Liu Xin swallow the rest of his mockery.
"Return of Spirits!"
With a Daoist hand seal, Liu Xin shook the Myriad-Soul Banner. Two wisps of white Qi swirled out, gradually forming human shapes.
Lü Yang did not slow. His sword came down in a clean arc.
Under Liu Xin's command, the two figures gathered their Qi and met the strike head-on, only to be shattered instantly by the Sword Qi with a thunderous boom.
Liu Xin, originally intending to join forces with the two banner spirits, immediately retreated when he saw this.
"Qingchen, move!"
Fairy Qingchen, her expression solemn, removed a Phoenix Tail Hairpin from her hair and hurled it. It transformed into a streak of golden light aimed straight for Lü Yang's brow.
But before the Phoenix Tail Hairpin could reach him, another Mythical Light appeared out of thin air and intercepted it. It was Xiao Shiye.
Not stopping there, Xiao Shiye shook his sleeves and launched more than ten artifacts at once. Their quality varied, but every one of them radiated intense Mythical Light—and without exception, each erupted in midair right after activation.
"Boom!"
The exploding radiance flared like a cluster of miniature suns, blasting apart Qingchen's hairpin and nearly collapsing the array entirely.
The display left the other three twitching at the corners of their eyes.
Xiao Shiye lacked Lü Yang's overwhelming methods, but his battle approach was simple and effective.
Throw artifacts. Let them explode. Done.
The spectacle made Liu Xin's already gloomy expression darken further. He decisively waved the Myriad-Soul Banner, summoning dozens of banner spirits in an instant.
These were trophies he had accumulated over years of ambushing fellow disciples.
"All of you, reinforce the array."
The banner spirits immediately moved into position around the array, strengthening its power.
Seeing this, Qingchen let out a quiet breath. She produced a small flag and shook it vigorously. The towering peaks manifested by the array shifted and interlocked, sealing every direction while shielding her and Liu Xin from Lü Yang's sword light.
Liu Xin smiled with satisfaction and shook the Myriad-Soul Banner again.
This Banner was something he had acquired during a fortunate encounter, along with the "Manual of Primal Qi." It had been his greatest reliance in combat throughout his cultivation.
The banner was said to hold one principal soul, two protectors, and three corpse gods.
The saying went: Dao begets One, One begets Two, Two begets Three, and Three begets all things. Only when these six positions were filled, together with ten thousand souls, could the artifact reach perfection.
It sounded simple, but even after years of painstaking refinement, Liu Xin had never succeeded. Gathering ten thousand souls could be accomplished by slaughtering a mortal city, but the six key positions remained elusive. He had not even completed the three corpse gods, much less the protectors.
Even so, the artifact's power was formidable.
"Kill them!"
Liu Xin shook the banner, releasing a tide of ten thousand souls—different from the banner spirits with cultivation. These were resentful ghosts born from mortal grievances.
Their quality was poor, but their sheer numbers were overwhelming.
At his command, they surged like a black tidal wave, engulfing Lü Yang in an instant.
Most importantly, these fierce ghosts had no physical bodies. Lü Yang's Heavenfiend Lifeblood Offering Radiance could not affect them at all.
Even so, Lü Yang remained unafraid.
The Heavenfiend Lifeblood Offering Radiance was his strongest method, but not his only one. With the Sword Pill cultivated, his Supreme Heaven Sword Mastery was equally devastating.
With a single focused thought, Lü Yang split his Sword Pill into hundreds of sword lights. He moved fluidly among them, never clashing head-on with the ghosts or banner spirits. When they advanced, he withdrew; when they slowed, he struck. He harried them from every angle, wearing them down with hit-and-run precision.
This was the true advantage of a Sword Cultivator.
Strike once and withdraw thousands of miles; return from another angle; exhaust the enemy until the perfect opening appeared, then deliver the killing blow.
Before long, the swarm of fierce ghosts was scattered and utterly destroyed.
On the other side, Xiao Shiye was also giving his all, detonating several superior artifacts in succession. The explosions sent shockwaves rippling through the Grand array, making its already-unstable structure fluctuate wildly.
Seeing the tide turn against them, Qingchen glanced nervously at Liu Xin. "Senior brother…."
"Don't worry. If I'm calm, you should be too."
Liu Xin remained composed. Xiao Shiye was one thing, but he refused to believe Lü Yang could maintain his Sword Technique indefinitely without depleting his Qi.
This was a part of his plan.
He would first exhaust the opponent using expendable banner spirits, and once the enemy reached their limit, he would unleash his trump card to secure absolute victory.
In truth, he didn't want to use that trump card unless absolutely necessary. That particular banner spirit was too valuable—and its former identity too sensitive. If anyone witnessed it, he could not allow them to live. Even a whisper of it could doom him to eternal torment.
"Alas, nothing ventured, nothing gained."
After a moment of hesitation, Liu Xin finally raised the banner and bowed respectfully. "A formidable enemy stands before us. To break this deadlock, I respectfully request Senior Brother to take action."