Cao Zhilan stood quietly outside the palace, not rushing to enter, but instead smiling faintly at Shi Yan, who was peeking out from behind a stone pillar, her gaze rather meaningful.

Pan Zhe and his group, seeing that Cao Zhilan had arrived, dared not delay, and quickly quickened their pace, soon appearing behind her.

Nearly a hundred warriors of the Dìwèi realm formed neat lines, standing behind Pan Zhe, Gu Linglong, Xie Kui, and Li Guanjing respectively, coldly observing the ruined palace clusters ahead, seemingly waiting for something in silence.

“Hiding to launch a sneak attack?” Cao Zhilan chuckled softly and shook her head, raising her slender hand slightly. Streaks of bright blue crystalline light shot out from her delicate fingers, striking toward the Yang family warriors hiding within the ruined palaces.

Yang Mu and the others, concealed in the shadows, looked surprised. Under the bombardment of those bright blue crystalline lights, they were forced to move from their hiding spots, their positions all exposed.

Shi Yan’s expression changed slightly.

This exquisitely beautiful woman seemed far more troublesome than a warrior of the Nièpán realm. In the Abyss Battlefield, spiritual power is restricted, and even vision is greatly affected. Even a warrior of the Niècháo realm would find it difficult to map out every surrounding life fluctuation into their consciousness here.

Yet, this woman, still fifty meters from the palace, seemed to possess a celestial eye, pinpointing every hidden Yang family warrior one by one. Single-handedly, she had foiled Shi Yan and the others' planned surprise assault.

“No need to hide; it’s useless. I know your exact locations,” Cao Zhilan smiled lightly, continuously waving her hands, shooting out more crystalline light, forcing the Yang family warriors to shift and reveal themselves one after another.

Pan Zhe smiled indifferently, stepped forward, and stood shoulder to shoulder with Cao Zhilan. He nodded toward Yang Mu not far away. “Meeting again so soon, hehe. This time you can’t rely on demonic beasts to block us. I wonder if you can still survive this trial.”

“If I recall correctly, we weren’t the ones fleeing in disarray before, were we?” Yang Mu touched his head in astonishment and looked at Yang Ke. “I haven’t misremembered, have I? It wasn’t us who jumped into the sea, right?”

Yang Qi sneered coldly, “Big Brother, perhaps you’ve forgotten. Some people actually think they won previously.”

Facing pursuers whose numbers doubled their own, Yang Mu and Yang Qi remained unruffled, even having the leisure to mock Pan Zhe and the others, seemingly unconcerned by the crisis at hand.

Pan Zhe, Zhai Guanjing, Gu Linglong, and the others immediately had grim expressions.

“Well, everyone who should be out is out. Isn't this much better?” Cao Zhilan smiled, turning back to glance at Pan Zhe and the others, full of confidence. “You can go in and accomplish your objective this time. Rest assured, there won't be any more messy traps to tire you out.” With that, Cao Zhilan let out a sudden, sharp whistle.

The clear, melodious whistle echoed, and at the moment it sounded, her delicate figure shot toward Shi Yan like a bolt of lightning.

Simultaneously, circles of blue halos seemed to fly out from her body. These blue halos spun rapidly within the palaces like hula hoops, purposefully heading towards the Cíjìng Yùchǎng (Magnetic Field Domain) that Shi Yan had condensed.

Within the blue halos, there was an extremely distinct spiritual fluctuation. Each blue halo seemed to carry Cao Zhilan’s mental intent. As soon as these blue halos entered those Cíjìng Yùchǎng, they immediately rippled with brilliant blue light, which soon saturated the domains.

The Cíjìng Yùchǎng, normally invisible to the naked eye, were immediately revealed due to the infusion of blue light.

When the blue halos fell into the domains, the blue light they released did not affect the operation of the magnetic field domains. However, the presence of this blue light pinpointed the locations of the domains, allowing Pan Zhe and the others to know the trap's position so they could evade it in advance.

Cao Zhilan did not remind them, but Pan Zhe and the others could clearly see the trap secretly laid by Shi Yan from the positions where the blue lights hovered.

The Cíjìng Yùchǎng were thus rendered ineffective.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Amidst the whistle, Cao Zhilan shot toward Shi Yan like an electric spark. In an instant, her delicate figure materialized in front of him.

“Heavenly Spirit Restraint!” Cao Zhilan cried out, and a blue light shield, condensed from dense Heaven and Earth spiritual energy, suddenly descended upon Shi Yan’s head.

Tiānlíng Shù (Heavenly Spirit Restraint) is a Mortal-grade martial skill that can utilize the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth to form a restraint, directly sealing the enemy. As long as the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth exists, this restraint will not dissipate.

With her cultivation at the third layer of the Dìwèi realm, Cao Zhilan was confident that even Yang Mu could be trapped by her Tiānlíng Shù for a while.

“Not very difficult,” Cao Zhilan chuckled softly, looking at Shi Yan’s figure inside the blue light shield, and shook her head, slightly disappointed. “I thought you might have some tricks up your sleeve, but it seems you are nothing special. Truly dull.”

“What are you muttering to yourself?” Shi Yan snorted coldly.

“Hmm?” Cao Zhilan’s bright eyes lit up, and she looked at Shi Yan outside the blue light shield with some excitement. Then, she quickly looked back at the shield and was shocked to find that the Shi Yan originally inside was gradually fading, disappearing bit by bit.

“An afterimage?” Cao Zhilan’s pretty face couldn't help but show a hint of a smile. She nodded. “You do have some ability; you weren't captured instantly. Very good, very good. This is more interesting.”

“Yang Mu, you can’t run!” Pan Zhe shouted sharply, holding his feather fan and engaging Yang Mu in battle.

The Dìwèi realm warriors flooding in from outside the palace quickly found opponents, forming a ring that vaguely surrounded the Yang family warriors, closing in rapidly.

Yang Mu, Yang Qi, and the others dealt with their opponents while quietly retreating towards the area behind the palace where the gray clouds were dense.

The moment Cao Zhilan had called out their exact locations, Yang Mu had already decided to withdraw. The instant his figure appeared, he had signaled everyone to retreat toward the area where the Meteorite Array was located.

Li Feng’er and the others understood the situation and knew they shouldn't get bogged down in a desperate fight. Following Yang Mu’s intentions, they all moved toward that location.

“Pan Zhe, you were never my match before... and it’s the same now,” Yang Mu laughed heartily from that side, displaying a reckless disregard for death. Amidst the siege of numerous warriors, a devastatingly explosive aura erupted from him. His giant sword pressed down like an overwhelming force, creating continuous explosions and roars that battered those dense warriors into disarray.

Possessing the Undying Martial Spirit, Yang Mu had no fear of being seriously injured, and he intentionally used his own physical damage to kill the attackers.

Soon, Yang Mu had several wounds, some of which were deep enough to expose bone, looking extremely severe.

At the cost of severe physical damage, Yang Mu managed to kill three warriors of the first layer of the Dìwèi realm in that instant—and this was while enduring Pan Zhe’s attacks.

Yang Qi and Yang Xue were similar to Yang Mu. Relying on their fearlessness of injury, they often ignored being scratched while fighting their pursuers, trading physical wounds for the chance to slay their attackers.

“Shi Yan! Let’s see how you escape this time!” Gu Linglong coldly shouted, and a divine sword whistled out. This sword was strangely shaped like a pagoda and carried an intensely bone-chilling coldness.

Shi Yan’s gaze was calm; he did not look at the ice-cold divine sword shot by Gu Linglong, but instead stared at Cao Zhilan as if facing a formidable foe.

After her initial strike, Cao Zhilan did not attack again but observed the situation in the field with interest, watching Pan Zhe and the others subtly surround Yang Mu and his group, and watching the Yang family warriors retreat in an orderly fashion toward the Meteorite Array.

Cao Zhilan did not press the attack, but Shi Yan dared not relax. This woman, at the third layer of the Dìwèi realm, possessed unfathomably deep cultivation and extremely sharp spiritual intuition. Shi Yan didn't know how much fiercer her next move would be; he had already activated his Negative Force.

The moment Gu Linglong’s ice-cold divine sword rushed toward him, Shi Yan guessed her intention.

In the previous battle, the recoil force of Gu Linglong’s seven divine swords had surged into his body but was completely incinerated by the flames of the Ten Thousand Year Earth Core Fire.

As the master of the divine swords, Gu Linglong naturally knew about the scorching fire energy within Shi Yan’s body. Thus, this time, she didn't launch all seven swords at once; instead, she concentrated the power within her, separately activating this ice-cold divine sword imbued with chilling energy, intending to use the coldness from this sword to counteract the fire energy within Shi Yan’s body.

The ice-cold divine sword tore through the air.

Shi Yan’s expression was cold; he took no action. Only when he sensed the bone-piercing chill did a cold, mocking smile suddenly appear on his lips.

“Boom!”

He raised a hand, condensed the Negative Force, and the Death Seal shot out abruptly.

The Death Seal slammed into the ice-cold divine sword. The Negative Force, several times more violent than in the previous battle, burst forth, actually blasting the ice-cold divine sword away.

Gu Linglong’s delicate body trembled, and her face suddenly paled slightly. Her eyes were extremely surprised, but after the shock, she smiled. “Let’s see how you deal with that cold energy this time!”

The moment the Death Seal struck the divine sword, the bone-chilling cold energy within the sword took the opportunity to surge out and penetrate Shi Yan’s body.

Gu Linglong’s true goal was to use the coldness of this ice-cold divine sword to freeze Shi Yan’s body stiff!

Cao Zhilan chuckled softly and looked at Shi Yan with some interest. “Cold energy enters the body. How do you plan to cope?”

“Why should I cope?” Shi Yan frowned, glancing at Gu Linglong from a distance, and mocked, “Didn't that idiot Gu Jiange tell you that I was sealed by the Profound Ice Cold Flame for three years? If the cold energy of the Profound Ice Cold Flame couldn't deal with me, do you think the coldness from your ice-cold divine sword is stronger than the power of the Profound Ice Cold Flame?” Gu Linglong’s expression changed drastically.

“Retreat!”

Just then, Yang Mu suddenly roared. The light within his giant sword flared brightly, and streaks of extremely sharp sword radiance accurately shot toward Pan Zhe’s group.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Yang family warriors under Yang Mu’s command immediately stepped into the Meteorite Array.

“Let’s go,” Kama waved his hand and called out loudly, “Young Master Yan, it’s time to leave.”

“You all go first!”

Shi Yan’s expression suddenly changed, his body’s pores seeming to stand erect, his eyes fixed intently on Cao Zhilan.