The savage island rogue cultivator squad leader, peak Golden Core ninth layer cultivation, high-grade fire-element Nascent Soul magical artifact. This level of strength is absolutely beyond the capability of a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator to resist; only a late-stage Golden Core cultivator could possibly contend with him.
Even I, I probably would need the Grand Five Elements Sword Formation to withstand such an overbearing attack!" Ye Qin's mind raced like lightning. Having traveled from the Mountain Range of Skeletons all the way to the foot of Desolate Spirit City, after nearly half a day, the damaged meridians in his body had largely recovered, allowing him to now fully deploy spells and unleash the Grand Five Elements Sword Formation.
"However, even though I can now activate the Grand Five Elements Sword Formation, I might not necessarily need to use it. The strength I possess is not just limited to my personal cultivation level; I also have the Bone-Rotting Crocodile Skeleton Demon, which possesses the strength of a seventh-layer Golden Core, enough to neutralize seventy to eighty percent of this savage island rogue cultivator squad leader's combat power." Ye Qin sneered internally, waving his hand to toss out the spirit beast pouch at his waist, releasing the Golden Core Skeleton Demon.
The Golden Core Skeleton Demon had already healed its injuries within the spirit beast pouch and recovered a large portion of its corpse Qi. It appeared in front of Ye Qin in mid-air, its massive skeletal crocodile body twisting briefly before slamming onto the ground.
Then, its giant maw suddenly gaped open. "Pfft!" A column of foul, viscous corpse fluid, dark as ink, shot out like a black beam of light, hurtling towards the flaming magical blade being aggressively attacked by Wei Chouhai.
This corpse fluid was one of the Bone-Rotting Crocodile's strongest offensive measures, the residual waste from its cultivation by absorbing countless quantities of corpse Qi—utterly repulsive. An ordinary magical artifact that touched even a single drop would immediately be reduced to scrap.
Normally, this corpse fluid was stored within the hollow cavities of every single one of its bones. This fierce expulsion nearly depleted one-tenth of the corpse Qi stored within its body.
As the dense black corpse fluid contacted the fierce blaze radiating around the Flaming Magical Blade, the two elements clashed violently—water and fire inherently incompatible—producing harsh hissing sounds. The flames burned the corpse fluid, transforming it into wisps of grey smoke.
The corpse fluid was visibly diminishing at a rapid pace, but the intense flames emitted by the Flaming Magical Blade were consumed even faster. In the blink of an eye, the surging radiance of the flames erupting from the blade was entirely neutralized by the corpse fluid.
The Flaming Magical Blade's glow dimmed significantly, possessing almost no power left. By this time, the stream of corpse fluid had also been completely incinerated by the flames.
Ye Qin had, at this moment, already unfurled a Nascent Soul Flying Sword glowing with yellow light, sending forth the Yellow Heaven Thick Dust Sword to meet the Flaming Magical Blade. Witnessing this scene, he couldn't help but feel a degree of surprise and confusion.
"How is the power of the corpse fluid spat out by the Skeleton Demon even a few points stronger than anticipated?!" It must be remembered that the seventh-layer Golden Core Bone-Rotting Crocodile was significantly weaker than the ninth-layer Golden Core savage island rogue cultivator captain. His thoughts spun rapidly, and he suddenly recalled that within this Ghost Fog Great Formation, cultivators suffered suppression on the circulation of their internal magic power due to the formation’s influence, resulting in a nearly ten percent reduction in strength.
Thus, the savage island rogue cultivator captain could only exert the power of an eighth-layer Golden Core. However, the Golden Core Bone-Rotting Crocodile Puppet, the Skeleton Demon, benefited immensely, experiencing a power surge of nearly ten percent, enabling it to similarly exert the strength of an eighth-layer Golden Core.
With this dip and rise, the Bone-Rotting Crocodile's actual combat strength had become extremely close to that of the savage island rogue cultivator captain. "My full-power strike actually failed to achieve its objective, neutralized by this damned Skeleton Demon!
Return!" Wei Chouhai's face drastically changed, his heart sinking in bitterness. He had already recognized this Bone-Rotting Crocodile Skeleton Demon—it was the same one that had fought to a stalemate against Old Ancestor Green Robe’s ninth-rank Bone-Transforming Serpent Skeleton Demon.
This Skeleton Demon was no easy opponent. The high-grade Nascent Soul Magical Artifact, the Flaming Magical Blade, dimmed and rapidly shrank as he waved his hand to recall it.
"What should I do now? One Skeleton Demon is already difficult enough to deal with.
That green-robed cultivator hasn't even made a move yet; even Old Ancestor Green Robe couldn't eliminate this thing! If we can't break through, and the treasure-seeking cultivators from behind catch up, we are finished." Thinking of this, the savage island rogue cultivator squad leader felt even greater vexation and regret.
If it weren't for his greed for merit, constantly tailing and pursuing those few treasure-seeking cultivators, he wouldn't have ended up facing two waves of ambushes in such quick succession, falling into an encirclement. All of this unfolded in the flicker of an eye.
"Daoist Brother Zhu, Daoist Brother Yang, intercept them! Don't let this group of rogue cultivators escape!" Cultivator Pang reacted just as swiftly, shouting loudly, unleashing his Nascent Soul Magical Artifact, the Seven Treasures Canopy Umbrella, to fully block another charging savage island rogue cultivator.
Daoists Zhu and Yang engaged one rogue cultivator each. Meanwhile, Huangfu Bing'er and the Wang uncle and nephew pair jointly intercepted the last rogue cultivator.
Their side, although slightly inferior in individual strength, had superior numbers. Intercepting these few hastily fleeing savage island rogue cultivators was effortlessly achievable.
In truth, Cultivator Pang and the others had not initially intended to use their full strength, but with the appearance of Sun Xing's group, the treasure-seeking cultivators had gained an absolute upper hand—a golden opportunity to beat a dog that had already fallen into the water. Ye Qin manipulated the Yellow Heaven Thick Dust Sword, pointing it forward, standing coldly in place.
The Golden Core Skeleton Demon, enveloped in rolling black corpse Qi, lunged towards Wei Chouhai with its crocodile jaws wide open. Wei Chouhai was fiercely pinned down by the Bone-Rotting Crocodile Skeleton Demon's relentless assault, unable to break free, grinding his teeth in fury.
Not only was he struggling mightily against the Crocodile's fierce offensive, but he also had to reserve some strength to guard against a sudden strike from Ye Qin. That luminous Yellow Heaven Thick Dust Sword was fully charging its power, yet held back from launching, posing a severe threat to his safety.
In this brief moment, Sun Xing led a group of over a dozen treasure-seeking cultivators, encircling and closing in from behind, launching a coordinated assault on the rogue cultivator squad. Dozens of top-tier and Nascent Soul magical artifacts erupted like a torrential downpour, bursting forth with streams of multi-colored light, flying over with terrifying momentum.
"Ah!" Several screams rang out. In a blink, two weaker savage island rogue cultivators perished.
The magical artifacts and storage bags they dropped were immediately snatched up by the eager treasure-seeking cultivators. Wei Chouhai fell into complete despair.
With fierce resolve and a terrifying expression, he roared in anger, "Even if I die, I will never let you go! Self-destruct my physical body!" As his words fell, he brought a hand-knife down upon his own head while simultaneously activating the secret art to detonate his physical form.
Splash, blood sprayed forth. A dazzling, brilliant light burst out from his severed head—it was Wei Chouhai's Nascent Soul escaping.
The normal method of Nascent Soul emergence was too slow; only this method of 'Shattering Release' (Bing Jie) could grant the fastest escape. This ball of light shot out and instantly fled into the ghost fog with incredible speed, covering several hundred zhang in an instant.
"Boom!" At this moment, Wei Chouhai's Golden Core ninth-layer cultivator body exploded, shattering and blasting outwards with terrifying power, spraying bloody fragments of mist across a hundred zhang radius. This bloody mist contained immense destructive force, comparable to a massive Thunder Tribulation strike, enough to severely injure a cultivator of the same realm.
The other two savage island rogue cultivators looked utterly bleak, knowing they could not escape the combined assault of the treasure-seeking cultivators. They also performed the Shattering Release, detonating their physical bodies.
"Not good! Scatter quickly!" The treasure-seeking cultivators, who had been focused on snatching artifacts and wealth, suddenly cried out in alarm and rapidly retreated backward.
Those who were too slow to flee were engulfed by the bloody mist, their defensive magical artifacts and protective shields immediately cracked, causing them to spit blood. A violent surge of wind tore up the black spiritual grasses, rocks, and deadwood on the ground, carving out a massive pit under the surging mist of blood and gore.
The power of the three self-destructions, though immense, did not inflict much harm on the treasure-seeking cultivators. After all, very few cultivators engaged in close-quarters combat, leaving sufficient buffer space and time for evasion.
Unless cultivators were densely packed and unable to dodge, self-destruction rarely achieved mutual annihilation. Even Ye Qin, who was relatively close, saw the danger and quickly protected himself with his flying sword, flashing backward to retreat; he sustained no major harm.
Only the Bone-Rotting Crocodile was left smoking and looking utterly wretched from the blast. However, Wei Chouhai's physical self-destruction was not aimed at mutual annihilation with the cultivators, but merely to force back the surrounding attackers to create an opportunity for his Nascent Soul to escape.
In combat between cultivators, the contest is often decided in an instant of life or death. "Quickly intercept their Nascent Souls!
Don't let them escape, or there will be endless trouble later!" Seeing the three balls of Nascent Soul light break free from their bodies and attempt to flee towards the ghost fog, Sun Xing, who reacted fastest, immediately controlled the Wutu Formation Banner, sweeping it towards the nearest savage island rogue cultivator Nascent Soul. That rogue cultivator Nascent Soul, having just left its body, had no time to evade and was mercilessly enveloped by the Wutu Formation Banner, a Nascent Soul artifact.
Before it could even utter a sound, it disintegrated into ashes—its Nascent Soul destroyed. Simultaneously, another ball of Nascent Soul was trapped by a massive hundred-zhang magical net cast from mid-air.
It struggled and thrashed, trying frantically to escape, before being twisted by a flying sword and reduced to dust. But Wei Chouhai's Nascent Soul fled too quickly; in an instant, it vanished into the ghost fog.
The speed of a fleeing Nascent Soul is incredibly fast, and the ghost fog provided ample concealment. The cultivators casting their flying swords and artifacts to pursue were too late, forced to watch helplessly as Wei Chouhai's Nascent Soul plunged into the ghost fog and rapidly disappeared.
The cultivators cursed profusely but were helpless. .......
Within the ghost fog, Wei Chouhai’s ball of Nascent Soul traveled at high speed. Although the ghost fog provided cover for its escape, the dense mist severely corroded its Nascent Soul.
It had to expend large amounts of vital energy to resist the fog's erosion. In just half an hour, it plummeted from the ninth layer of Golden Core strength down to the eighth.
Whether the remaining vital energy would sustain it until it could reach Old Ancestor Green Robe was uncertain. As Wei Chouhai’s Nascent Soul hurtled forward, suffering acute corrosion from the ghost fog, agonizing, hateful, and vengeful screams echoed mournfully in the mist.
"I will repay this debt a hundredfold! Once I report to the Old Ancestor, none of you will escape...!" .......
Sun Xing and the other treasure-seeking cultivators exchanged glances, their faces grave, yet resigned. "Leaving one savage island rogue cultivator's Nascent Soul alive is always a hidden danger.
If it doesn't perish in the ghost fog, it might lure Old Ancestor Green Robe here—that would be a huge problem!" "This dreadful place is unpredictable and fraught with danger. Having one more Old Ancestor Green Robe of the Savage Island is just adding one more debt to the pile.
Although he is an Infant Transformation Ancestor, killing us within this Ghost Fog Great Formation won't be easy either!" "Old Ancestor Green Robe will need several hours, perhaps longer, to reach this place after receiving the news. We should not delay; it’s best to swiftly search this area for treasures!" All five savage island rogue cultivators were dead.
Most of the storage bags they carried vanished in the explosions, leaving only a few damaged Nascent Soul magical artifacts, which were snatched up by the quick-handed treasure-seeking cultivators. Sun Xing scanned the clamoring treasure-seeking cultivators, frowning slightly, then shifted his expression, bowing towards Ye Qin and Cultivator Pang's group, laughing heartily, "Daoist Ye, Daoist Pang!
It greatly pleases Sun to see Daoists arrive safely at the foot of Desolate Spirit City. With this treasure hunt, cooperating together will increase our chances of success by several tens of percent!"