Chapter 748: The Child of Destiny's Calamity, Young Master Shen's Smile
'As expected...'
Qin Yuan's disembodied soul registered Shen Anyu's words, and a cold dread washed over him, sinking him into a bottomless abyss. The failed assassination attempt had indeed put his target on high alert. But Qin Yuan had never anticipated this level of cunning. Shen Anyu hadn't just been vigilant; he had been a predator, lurking patiently in the shadows, waiting for the one and only perfect moment to strike.
If Qin Yuan hadn't been momentarily distracted at the precise instant he commanded the Xiantian Spirit Corpse, Shen Anyu would never have succeeded in a single, decisive blow. A second sooner or a second later, and the outcome would have been entirely different.
'What a terrifying enemy,'Qin Yuan's soul seethed.'No wonder I fell into his hands in my past life. But in this life, Shen Anyu, you haven't even begun to walk the Immortal Path. You know nothing of its deep mysteries.'
A sneer formed in his thoughts. He wasn't completely dead yet.
"Perhaps it's this," Shen Anyu murmured to himself, his thought process aligning perfectly with his next action. "It's the only thing on his body that feels special."
As he spoke, a white jade ring on the index finger of Qin Yuan's left hand slid off and fell neatly into Shen Anyu's waiting palm.
A good adventurer always loots the body. It was a time-honored tradition.
Qin Yuan: "..."
[Ding! The Child of Destiny, Qin Yuan, is consumed by fury! Plundering +9999 Destiny Value!]
Watching Shen Anyu clutch the Storage Ring—his inheritance from the Ancient Corpse Refining Sect—Qin Yuan's soul let out a silent, venomous curse.
That ring contained the vast majority of his wealth. It held the elixirs and rare treasures left behind by the sect, along with a collection of its ancient texts—everything except the Celestial Corpse Refining Divine Method itself.
'Fortunately... fortunately, Shen Anyu is just a mortal,'Qin Yuan desperately rationalized.'He has no Divine Sense. He can't bypass the restrictions on the Storage Ring, nor can he comprehend its true purpose.'He watched as Shen Anyu turned the simple-looking ring over and over in his hand, a sneer of disdain forming in his non-existent features.'What a bountiful harvest! This was an absolute win!' Shen Anyu fought to keep his expression neutral, barely managing to suppress the triumphant grin that threatened to split his face.
This was an enormous win.
Within this unassuming ring lay all the treasures Qin Yuan, the so-called Child of Destiny, had plundered from the Ancient Corpse Refining Sect's legacy: true spirit elixirs and the keys to the Immortal Path.
There were one hundred bottles of Qi Nourishing Pills, top-grade elixirs for the Qi Refining Stage. For cultivators at that level, they were among the best pills available, very useful for accelerating cultivation and achieving breakthroughs.
There were ten Foundation Establishment Pills, treasures that desperate cultivators would risk life and limb for in forbidden lands, the essential catalyst for breaking through from the Qi Refining Stage to the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Beyond those were more than ten bottles of various spirit elixirs tailored for the Foundation Establishment Stage, each one worth a fortune.
There was even a genuine Spirit Tool!
The rest of the contents included ancient texts, cultivation manuals, spare robes, and other miscellaneous items.
It was no exaggeration to say that this tiny Storage Ring held a value so immense it defied mortal comprehension, far exceeding a hundred trillion in worldly currency.
For this alone, Shen Anyu felt the God-Tier Replication Card had been well worth the price. These spirit elixirs were exactly what he needed. The mortal world's lack of spiritual energy and resources had been a constant bottleneck, causing his immortal cultivation to lag far behind his martial arts progress. But with this trove of pills, breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Stage would no longer be a distant dream.
Unfortunately, there were no Spirit Stones. This was to be expected. The Ancient Corpse Refining Sect's inheritance had been sealed for at least two thousand years, dating back to the pre-Qin era. Spirit elixirs would have been preserved with complex sealing spells to prevent their essence from dissipating, but common Spirit Stones wouldn't have received such treatment. In ancient times, spiritual energy was abundant, and Spirit Stones were hardly a rarity. The elixirs were always the true prize.
'Qin Yuan, you truly are a treasure-delivering child,'Shen Anyu thought, his gaze falling upon Qin Yuan's corpse. He found the sight indescribably pleasing, and the corners of his mouth were now twitching with a joy more difficult to suppress than the recoil on a fully automatic rifle.'Now is the time!'
At that very moment, Qin Yuan's soul secretly activated the Celestial Corpse Refining Divine Method, pouring his will into his connection with the Xiantian Spirit Corpse, Yaoyao.
Boom!
The bronze coffin reacted instantly. Illusory white lotuses flickered into existence around it as a deafening creak echoed from the void itself. The heavy lid began to shift, grinding open to reveal a finger-width gap. A sliver of bright moonlight pierced the darkness, illuminating the flawless, peerless face of the Xiantian Spirit Corpse, Yaoyao, within.
"Something's wrong!" Wu Shenyun's mind, which had been racing with schemes to turn the tables on Shen Anyu, snapped back to the present. A suspicious blush had just been creeping onto her beautiful face, but the sudden return of that terrifying aura made her phoenix eyes sharpen instantly.
Could someone still be controlling this horrifying corpse from the shadows? Or was the man she thought dead not truly gone?
Wu Shenyun reacted without a moment's hesitation. Her jade hand shot up, and with a surge of immense power, she unleashed a palm strike that vaporized Qin Yuan's corpse, turning it to scattered dust on the wind.
Qin Yuan: "Damn it all..."
But his soul remained, dormant and hidden, having already infiltrated the earth below. He was unharmed.
The terrifying aura from the coffin only grew stronger.
'Shen Anyu, Wu Shenyun, you are both dead!' Watching the Xiantian Spirit Corpse Yaoyao about to break free and unleash her divine might, Qin Yuan's soul was alight with ecstatic anticipation.
Wu Shenyun looked anxiously toward Shen Anyu.
The surviving powerhouses of the Shaman God Cult were frozen in terror, the memory of the peerless young girl and the divine might of the heavenly lightning seared into their minds.
But Shen Anyu was not flustered in the slightest. Instead, a faint smile graced his handsome face. He gently stomped his foot.
"Suppress!"
His soft command exploded like a clap of summer thunder.
A scene that stunned everyone into silence unfolded.
Invisible Telekinesis became visible to the naked eye, a shimmering distortion that warped the very air as it enveloped the bronze coffin. The lid, which had been grinding open, slowly and inexorably began to close. The peerless young girl, who was on the verge of breaking out, was forcibly pushed back down.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
The bronze coffin trembled violently, shaking as if an underwater volcano was about to erupt, straining with the force of millions of tons.
But Shen Anyu simply pressed his palm down through the air. With that single, effortless gesture, the peerless young girl was forced back into the bronze coffin.
The aftershocks of the struggle raged in every direction. The ground shook violently, the tremors visible to the naked eye as if a great dragon were turning over in its sleep beneath them. It was an earthquake of at least a five or six on the Richter scale.
"Hiss..."
Seeing this, everyone—from Wu Shenyun and the remaining Shaman God Cult experts to Qin Yuan's soul hidden deep underground—drew a sharp, cold breath. They were shocked utterly speechless.
How could that terrifyingly powerful girl, a being of such immense strength, be suppressed and pushed back by Shen Anyu?
'Impossible... Absolutely impossible...'
Qin Yuan's soul trembled violently, flickering like a candle flame in a gale.
He, more than anyone, knew the terrifying power of the Xiantian Spirit Corpse, Yaoyao. She possessed strength comparable to a hundred Quasi-Core Formation Stage cultivators combined, an invincible existence below the Golden Core Stage.
How could Shen Anyu possibly possess the power to suppress Yaoyao and force her back into the coffin?
But the scene before him was an obvious fact. Had... had Yaoyao been severely injured during the lightning tribulation?
It was the only plausible explanation Qin Yuan could grasp. Shen Anyu couldn't possibly be stronger than Yaoyao.
In reality, Qin Yuan's guess was half-correct. Shen Anyu's current strength was indeed not a match for Yaoyao's. However, Yaoyao had not been severely injured by the tribulation. The key was that Shen Anyu was simultaneously suppressing her with his own power while interfering with Qin Yuan's control through his own mastery of the Celestial Corpse Refining Divine Method. That was how he was able to force her back.
'This Xiantian Spirit Corpse has terrifying potential,'Shen Anyu chuckled inwardly.'But now, it's mine.'
With a final, satisfied glance at his new acquisition, he turned and led Wu Shenyun and the others away from the scene.
Only Qin Yuan's soul was left behind in the cold, dark earth, wanting to cry but having no tears.
It was all gone. The Storage Ring was gone. The Xiantian Spirit Corpse, Yaoyao, was gone. And his physical body had been destroyed.
He had come here intending to subdue Wu Shenyun and claim his prize. Instead, he had lost everything. It was a catastrophic, soul-crushing defeat.
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