A sudden, immense pressure bore down from behind, accompanied by Basha’s shout. Turning, Ye Qin was startled to see four cultivators simultaneously launching an attack against him.

Ye Qin slapped his storage pouch, and a pair of massive snow-white wings sprouted from his back. With a powerful beat—Whoosh!—he materialized fifty zhang away, successfully evading the initial assault.

The spot where he had just stood was instantly struck by a streak of cyan sword light, a slash of azure arc, a talisman paper erupting in ferocious flames, and a colossal meteorite, all colliding at once and exploding in a cascade of multicolored light.

Ye Qin glanced back, a cold sweat breaking out. He was forced to deploy his most vital, life-saving skill.

The four Foundation Establishment cultivators pursuing him had each unleashed a magical artifact, only to strike empty air. Their eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as they simultaneously cried out, "Void-Leap Flash!"

As Foundation Establishment cultivators, they were acutely aware of the fearsome nature of the top-tier Wind-element spell, the "Void-Leap Flash." Although it only allowed instantaneous movement over fifty zhang, it was more than enough for a Foundation Establishment cultivator to maneuver, drastically increasing their agility.

They would never give up on killing Ye Qin; they continuously hurled artifacts and spells, relentlessly bombarding him.

This was no longer just about silencing a witness; it was about salvaging their honor. Six cultivators, spanning the mid and early stages of Foundation Establishment, had ganged up to pursue a single early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, yet not only had they failed to kill him, but they had already lost two of their own. If this news spread, they would never be able to show their faces in the Cultivation World again.

Ye Qin internally lamented his plight; he was now utilizing almost everything usable in his storage pouch.

He constantly poured large gulps of spirit wine down his throat to sustain his rapidly depleting magical energy. To counter the attacks of the four, the mana he expended was clearly far greater than theirs. Were it not for the vast supply of spirit wine, he would surely have run out of power and perished long before reaching the Northern Qi Kingdom.

If Basha, Daoist Zheng, and the other two knew he carried such a massive quantity of Earth Spirit Wine, they would be utterly devastated. They lacked the sheer volume of spirit wine needed to replenish their mana reserves to match his consumption.

Ye Qin had another thick stack of spare talisman papers in his storage pouch. For the sake of survival, he could only toss them backward without regard for cost, raining them down upon his pursuers.

A continuous succession of rumbles and explosions echoed behind him—a string of fireballs, ice cones, and wind blades—straining to slow down the four men’s pursuit. Alas, the talismans in his hand were mostly low or mid-tier; at best, they could cause minor annoyances for the four behind him, failing entirely to inflict any real injury.

However, the true trump card Ye Qin held, the one that genuinely terrified the four, was the bronze bell shielding his side. This ancient bronze bell possessed an incredibly domineering stunning capability, able to instantly incapacitate a Foundation Establishment cultivator for a brief moment.

Naturally, a low-grade magical artifact could not maintain the dizziness for long. After approximately one breath's time, an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator could clear the dizzy sensation through the circulation of internal power and regain consciousness. The higher the cultivation base, the stronger the resistance to the stun. Against a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, this dizzying effect was almost negligible.

The four relentlessly pursued. Ye Qin suddenly summoned the Soul-Capturing Bell, unleashing an unexpected strike against the relentless group behind him. Instantly, three of them were knocked unconscious and plummeted toward the ground. Only Basha, who was lagging slightly behind, avoided being completely stunned, though his limbs went numb and weak from the impact.

Ye Qin rejoiced at seizing the opportunity. With a sweep of his hand, a stream of green light lashed out toward the four, slicing forward—Pfft!—a spray of blood erupted. Bart, the closest to him, was instantly cleaved in two. Bart, along with his flying sword, plummeted hundreds of zhang into the earth below.

In this brief span, the five of them had fought and flown, covering a distance of several dozen li.

The area where their battle raged was directly above the military encampment of the Northern Qi Kingdom. Thousands of mortal soldiers of Northern Qi were maintaining the defensive lines through the night, guarding against a stealth attack from the Great Zhou armies.

The soldiers suddenly noticed several dazzling beams of light appearing in the dim sky, continuously spewing flames, yellow, and blue lights, almost illuminating the entire heavens. These lights chased each other frantically overhead until one suddenly crashed downward, causing them to stare in stunned disbelief.

"Immortals! The Immortals are fighting!"

The entire camp erupted. Countless soldiers clamored, rushing toward the spot where the Immortal had fallen. Perhaps they could find an item left behind by the Immortal—a rare, worldly treasure. If they presented such a treasure to the Northern Qi court, they could gain wealth beyond measure that would last their entire lives.

Just as Ye Qin cut down Bart and prepared to deliver a finishing blow to the remaining three, Basha had fully recovered from his weakness. He roared and unleashed a spell; several massive boulders materialized out of thin air and hurtled toward Ye Qin, slamming into his green flying sword and knocking it violently off course.

This brief delay allowed Daoist Zheng and Daoist Qian to quickly regain awareness, each controlling their artifacts to resume the chase against Ye Qin.

Ye Qin inwardly cursed his bad luck and continued his aerial escape.

A surge of feverish avarice burned in the eyes of Basha and his companions. The Bat Wings and the Bronze Bell—these two Spirit Artifact and Magical Artifacts, if used well, were formidable. Even for the sake of these two items alone, they had ample reason to continue the chase.

However powerful a magical artifact might be, after being used a few times, its weaknesses would eventually be exposed.

This Bronze Bell artifact was no exception.

The three soon discovered that the Bronze Bell could only stun cultivators facing the direction of the bell’s mouth; those positioned elsewhere experienced a greatly diminished, ineffective tremor, failing to become stunned. If they spread out and encircled him from three different directions, they would not be hit simultaneously. If any one of them were caught, the other two could immediately press the attack and entangle Ye Qin, ensuring he had absolutely no opportunity to kill any of them.

Indeed, with the profound and extensive combat experience of Basha, Daoist Zheng, and the others, they quickly identified the weakness of the bell artifact and devised a countermeasure with incredible speed.

Yet, even after discovering the Bronze Bell's vulnerability, they remained helpless against Ye Qin.

On the contrary, the more they fought, the more alarmed they became. On one hand, an intense, fanatical greed drove them; on the other, despair threatened to overwhelm them, urging them to turn tail and flee. The reason was simple: Ye Qin possessed not only a rare Bronze Bell capable of stunning opponents but also a top-tier Spirit Artifact, the Bat Wings, which enabled the use of the "Void-Leap Flash."

Individually, neither item was overwhelmingly powerful, but combined, their effect was astonishingly potent.

This combination allowed Ye Qin, with a beat of his wings, to instantly appear anywhere within fifty zhang of the sky, and coupled with the Bronze Bell’s stun, it rendered opponents instantly combat-ineffective. What followed was essentially a massacre. This pairing of artifacts was, quite frankly, terrifying. In the hundreds of zhang of the heavens, nothing could obstruct Ye Qin's murderous intent.

"Ah—!" Accompanied by a scream, this time it was Cultivator Qian who suffered misfortune. He had maintained a slight distance from Basha and Daoist Zheng, and Ye Qin seized a momentary gap, instantly teleporting behind him and piercing clean through his abdomen.

Daoist Zheng finally felt a knot of dread tighten in his chest, regretting his rash involvement in this pursuit. Of the six Foundation Establishment cultivators who had come to the border spirit stone caves, four had already perished at the hands of Cultivator Ye Qin; for him and Basha now to kill him seemed almost impossible.

To survive the pursuit of six Foundation Establishment cultivators and manage to eliminate four of them—a feat of such strength was absolutely rare and commanded awe. It was worth noting that the Wulong Sect possessed only slightly over thirty Foundation Establishment cultivators, far fewer than major cultivation sects like the Azure Pill Sect or the Beast Spirit Sect. This single Cultivator Ye Qin, almost single-handedly, had eliminated a tenth of the Wulong Sect's strength. Such a harbinger of doom should not be provoked lightly.

The Wulong Sect dared not engage in open conflict with the great immortal sects of the Spirit Mist Cultivation World; thus, they resorted to instigating the Lü and Zhou clans, hoping to incite them into mutual slaughter. They even aimed to provoke the Azure Pill Sect, the Beast Spirit Sect, and other cultivation sects into fighting so the Wulong Sect could profit from the chaos.

The Wulong Sect was equally unwilling to make an enemy of a powerful harbinger of doom like this Cultivator Ye Qin, whose true identity they had not even ascertained. To create such a formidable foe so blindly was sheer foolishness.

This thought sparked a powerful desire to retreat in Daoist Zheng. Without even greeting Basha, he turned and fled. If they could not kill Cultivator Ye Qin, their plans concerning Northern Qi and Great Zhou would certainly be exposed. He had no need to remain here; he must retreat quickly, return to report to the Wulong Sect Master, and plan for the long term. As for Basha, a protector from the Three Sacred Gates of the Sky Dome Plain, his life or death was none of his concern. Letting Basha tie down Cultivator Ye Qin would buy him time to escape.

As Daoist Zheng fled, Basha cursed him as a piece of trash a few times, but he certainly did not wish to continue chasing Ye Qin alone. He immediately turned and fled in another direction, avoiding a one-on-one confrontation with Ye Qin. The aerial battle they had just fought had filled him with deep apprehension, shattering his confidence. To kill this harbinger of doom, the Three Sacred Gates would need to dispatch at least ten protectors of his caliber.

When Ye Qin saw Daoist Zheng and Basha suddenly abandon the chase and flee, he finally let out a sigh of relief. His magical energy was rapidly dwindling; he truly did not know how much longer he could maintain such an intense level of attack.

Since they had left, he had no intention of pursuing the remaining two. First, he needed to escape to a safe location to recover his mana. The memory of being besieged by several Foundation Establishment cultivators sent shivers down his spine.

Ye Qin transformed into a streak of green escape light and vanished into the skies above the Northern Qi Kingdom.

Simultaneously, he did not forget to use sound transmission talismans to separately inform Yan Xuan of the Lü family and Zhou Yan, the Vice Clan Leader of the Zhou family, detailing exactly what had transpired that night. His goal was to prevent any armed conflict between the two clans. Furthermore, he instructed Yan Xuan to use a specific method to send a message to Sect Master Wu of the Azure Pill Sect, reporting the presence of outside cultivators attempting to incite internal strife among the Spirit Mist cultivators.

As for how the Lü and Zhou families would handle the small spirit stone mine at the border, or how the Azure Pill Sect and Beast Spirit Sect would respond to the invasion by cultivators from the Chaotic Lands, the Sky Dome Plain, and the Ten Thousand Moon Lake—that was no longer his concern.

By tracking Zhou Xing and Daoist Zheng, he had inadvertently uncovered vital intelligence, providing a huge favor to the Lü family, and had given the Azure Pill Sect sufficient reassurance.

For the remaining three years of his trial period, he intended to operate independently, focusing entirely on strengthening his own power.

Although Ye Qin had never participated in a major war, he was acutely aware of the brutality of large-scale cultivator battles.

The ancient texts housed within the Azure Pill Sect recorded several ancient wars where cultivators from various realms engaged in savage slaughter. After each major conflict, thousands or tens of thousands of cultivators perished, requiring millennia to recover foundational vitality.

Some cultivation realms had even vanished forever in the bloodletting.

No wars between cultivators had occurred among the Spirit Mist, Sky Dome Plain, and Ten Thousand Moon Lake cultivation worlds for thousands of years. In the last calamitous immortal war, the Immortal Fate Hall of the Spirit Mist Cultivation World had once been destroyed by cultivators from the Sky Dome Plain, and numerous Spirit Mist cultivation sects were wiped out entirely.

Ye Qin had read extensively, and he deeply feared the prospect of a full-scale cultivator war.

If a brutal war were to erupt, all factions would mobilize large contingents of Golden Core and Foundation Establishment cultivators to participate. He, as an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, would likely only serve as cannon fodder on the front lines, risking instant death with any slight misstep.

He reasoned it was far better to use this opportunity while out on his trial, away from the Azure Pill Sect headquarters, to deliberately avoid the conflict and focus entirely on bolstering his own strength. (To be continued. For the unfolding events, please log on to m for more chapters, support the author, and support legitimate reading!)