The five-colored spiritual light was dazzling, streaking across the night sky like a falling star, carrying a heavy pressure as it swept forward.
Senior Sister’s attack was more straightforward, with dark purple demonic energy clinging to the pitch-black Imprisoning Demon Sword.
She struck with all her might, unleashing a fierce killing intent.
The two attacks, one bright and one dark, intertwined, merging spirit and demon.
The dazzling light and hidden currents emitted an unstoppable aura of destruction, vast and overwhelming, like a collapsing mountain.
The Hunyuan Cauldron was a high-grade earth-level artifact, extremely sturdy, even able to withstand some heaven-level weapons.
However, the Phantom God and the Imprisoning Demon Sword were different.
Although both were heaven-level, one was made from the bones of a divine being, capable of crushing ordinary magical tools with sheer power.
The other was a supreme divine weapon, capable of shaking the heavens and earth with a mere gesture.
Combined, even the incredibly sturdy Hunyuan Cauldron couldn’t withstand them.
In just an instant, the ancient and heavy cauldron shattered, completely exposing Cheng Ze’s unresponsive primordial spirit.
The Hunyuan Cauldron wasn’t Cheng Ze’s life-bound artifact, but it was recognized by him through blood.
When the artifact was destroyed, it immediately backfired on its owner.
Cheng Ze’s consciousness was still in a daze when he was hit by the residual power of the divine weapon’s attack and the backlash from the artifact, causing his primordial spirit to be injured, and his body to feel excruciating pain as if pierced by thousands of arrows.
A sense of unprecedented crisis arose in his heart.
Terrified, Cheng Ze immediately abandoned his physical body, using a secret technique to escape, trying to flee as far as possible.
However, his primordial spirit was already injured, and with the Dust Umbrella delaying his perception, his reaction was half a beat slower.
Before the secret technique could be completed, his fragile primordial spirit was firmly grasped by Wen Fei, unable to escape!
“Quick! Get the Guiyi Order!” Wen Fei shouted urgently upon succeeding.
The previous attack was so powerful that it must have alerted the guards and Feng Yuan.
If they arrived, it would be difficult to leave!
Zhou Qin didn’t dare delay, immediately pulling out the Xumi Mustard Seed from Cheng Ze’s body, using the Dust Umbrella’s power to forcibly break the restriction while Cheng Ze was severely injured.
She was lucky, obtaining the Guiyi Order with the first treasure she grabbed, not wasting any time.
However, using the Dust Umbrella to attack inevitably led to neglect, and when she successfully broke the restriction, she relaxed her control over Cheng Ze’s consciousness.
Cheng Ze seized the opportunity, burning his essence blood without hesitation, trying to escape.
His actions were too sudden, ruthless, and decisive, catching Wen Fei off guard.
By the time she reacted, Cheng Ze’s primordial spirit had already slipped from her grasp.
“Not good! Retreat quickly!” Wen Fei was shocked, immediately leading everyone to retreat swiftly.
They were still within the City Lord’s Mansion, and the opponent surely had other countermeasures.
If they delayed any longer… it would be endless trouble!
Her reaction was quick, almost immediately understanding the stakes as Cheng Ze escaped, urgently activating the Star Shift Technique to leave the City Lord’s Mansion.
Tang Muxi and Zhou Qin followed closely, not daring to delay, fleeing straight to the outer city, with their spells and talismans ready, determined to leave Qixuan quickly.
However, they hadn’t accounted for the fact that there were actually two protective arrays for the city!
After successfully escaping the City Lord’s Mansion, they headed towards the inner city gate.
Once through, they would reach the area where mortals lived.
But before they could leave quickly, the entire inner city suddenly trembled.
The ground shook, buildings quaked, and eight blazing hot fire chains erupted from the dim sky, firmly sealing the entire inner city!
The fire chains burst from the deep earth, their power surging.
Upon appearing, they emitted an incredibly scorching and fierce fire flow.
Despite it being the coldest month of winter, the entire inner city became unbearably hot, with occasional eruptions of high-temperature lava from the ground.
It was the earth veins!
“Be careful!” Jiang Yin quickly moved Tang Muxi behind her as lava erupted at her feet.
The scorching magma slid past her face, nearly scorching her skin.
Tang Muxi held her breath, still shaken, “Thank you, Senior Sister…”
If the lava had touched her, she would have been reduced to charred bones on the spot.
“This power… it’s the city’s protective array!” Wen Mingyu gritted her teeth, “How is this possible? The array was clearly destroyed! Why is it activating?”
Jiang Yin’s expression was solemn, “It was damaged, but the earth veins weren’t completely polluted.
The outer city’s array is already paralyzed and hasn’t activated.
This one only covers the inner city, so it must be… the second one!”
The last three words were almost squeezed out through clenched teeth.
Tang Muxi was terrified, not expecting her words to become a prophecy.
As soon as she finished speaking, a figure slowly flew out from the distant sky behind them.
When they spoke, it was with an extremely venomous voice.
“Zhou Qin! You truly deserve to die! Last time, your mother stopped me, and I couldn’t act.
Today…” Cheng Ze was furious, his overwhelming hatred nearly consuming his reason, “I will tear you to pieces!”
“Kill! Leave no one alive!” He waved his hand, and over a dozen Nascent Soul cultivators moved out, flying towards them like shooting stars.
In just a moment, they were upon them.
“My lord, you mustn’t!” Feng Yuan was somewhat panicked when he saw those Nascent Soul cultivators unleash their killing moves, “That’s the daughter of the Palace Master!”
However, Cheng Ze’s primordial spirit was damaged, his cultivation plummeted, and he had long lost his reason.
Hearing this, he mercilessly grabbed Feng Yuan’s neck, the force so great it seemed he wanted to snap it on the spot, “Palace Master? Ha! Just a dying person! If you want to accompany her, I can send you on your way anytime!”
Feng Yuan couldn’t breathe, his face flushed red.
Seeing the faint redness in Cheng Ze’s eyes, he dared not defy him any longer.
Cheng Ze sneered, casually tossing him aside.
The dozen or so Nascent Soul cultivators arrived in an instant, using all their strength, clearly a fight to the death.
Jiang Yin and the others dared not be careless, immediately summoning their life-bound artifacts to face them head-on.
Although Jiang Yin’s cultivation was only at the Nascent Soul stage, she wielded the divine Imprisoning Demon Sword, able to contend with two or three Nascent Soul cultivators simultaneously without falling behind.
Coupled with Tang Muxi’s Phantom God and Wen Fei, a former Tribulation Transcendence cultivator, the three of them worked together, easily handling eight Nascent Soul cultivators.
However, this surprise attack was for the sake of convenience, with only five people participating.
Xu Qingwan and Lin Anjing were all outside the city to provide support, and even Bai Ling wasn’t with them.
Despite their extraordinary strength, facing nearly three times their number of cultivators, they were powerless.
In just a quarter of an hour, all of them were more or less injured, exhausted.
Wen Mingyu was the worst off, without a heaven-level artifact.
Although she was a princess with the bloodline of the Azure Luan, she was still young, with shallow cultivation and strength.
Facing the siege of multiple Nascent Soul cultivators, she quickly became overwhelmed.
If not for her aunt’s repeated assistance, she would have been cut down long ago.
“We can’t stay here; we need to leave quickly!” Zhou Qin panted, her expression more serious than ever.
Everyone knew that fleeing was the best strategy, but now they were already struggling to avoid attacks, with no time to break the protective array and escape the inner city.
In the distance, Cheng Ze’s severely damaged primordial spirit immediately took a protective pill, meditated to recover, and upon opening his eyes, saw them all in a sorry state, unable to resist mocking, “A bunch of rabble, thinking they can leave safely after injuring me!”
His gaze swept over, noticing the dense demonic aura on Jiang Yin, snorting coldly as he glanced at Feng Yuan, then withdrew his gaze and spoke again to the group, “Hand over the Guiyi Order! Except for the princess and the demon remnants, the rest can escape death!”
“You!” Tang Muxi, given a chance to catch her breath as the cultivators’ attacks gradually slackened due to his words, was about to curse back when Jiang Yin stopped her.
“Senior Sister?” Tang Muxi was puzzled.
—Did you bring the earth-level talisman?
Jiang Yin secretly communicated with her through their contract.
Tang Muxi was stunned, then nodded quietly.
—Listen to my instructions later and be ready to activate it at any time!
Tang Muxi knew that Senior Sister had thought of a way to escape, and though she wanted to ask for more details, Jiang Yin said no more, only giving her a reassuring look.
She slowly lowered her weapon, walked over to Zhou Qin, and reached out to take the Xumi Mustard Seed.
Inside was the Guiyi Order, and Zhou Qin was reluctant to give it to her, fearing she would actually return it.
It was only after Wen Fei spoke up to persuade her that she reluctantly let go.
Their actions were open and unhidden, and Cheng Ze immediately saw the Xumi Mustard Seed, his eyes burning, but he could only clench his fists and pretend not to care.
The Xumi Mustard Seed contained Cheng Ze’s lifetime savings, countless treasures.
Besides the Guiyi Order, the most important was the Liyun Flower.
He had been searching for a way to break through to the Integration stage in recent years, and the Liyun Flower was his only hope.
Without it, advancing would be nearly impossible.
“Is the City Lord talking about this?” Jiang Yin spoke with a faint smile.
Cheng Ze feigned indifference, “Yes, hand it over, and your junior sister will be unharmed.”
Just moments ago, it was about escaping death, but now he changed his tune to say they would be safe.
Jiang Yin didn’t know the details, but she keenly sensed the urgency in Cheng Ze’s words, vaguely understanding the importance of the Xumi Mustard Seed.
Her mind raced, and suddenly she erupted, summoning the menacing Imprisoning Demon Sword, unexpectedly slashing towards the Xumi Mustard Seed.
Cheng Ze didn’t expect her to act so recklessly, disregarding the lives of her friends and family.
Seeing the mustard seed about to be destroyed, his hope for a breakthrough slipping away, he panicked and shouted, “No!”
As if responding to his words, at the critical moment, the domineering blade suddenly stopped, just a hair’s breadth from the mustard seed.
Jiang Yin smirked, “Is the City Lord so anxious because there’s something very important in the mustard seed? I suppose it’s not just the Guiyi Order.”
Cheng Ze’s eyes flashed with anger as he finally realized she was doing it on purpose.
He couldn’t be bothered to hide it anymore and sneered, “The demons of the Demon Realm are truly treacherous, daring to toy with me.
Yes, the Sumeru Mustard Seed contains my life’s treasures and is extremely valuable, but don’t forget that all of your lives are in my hands! With just one command, none of you will survive today!”
As his words fell, the surrounding Nascent Soul cultivators stepped forward again, seemingly echoing Cheng Ze’s words.
However, no matter how ruthless Cheng Ze was, he was still a bit naive compared to the former Demon Lord.
Jiang Yin listened without being moved at all and simply said, “Whether I hand it over or not, the City Lord wants me dead.
Since I can’t escape either way, why should I fear you?”
At this point, her voice suddenly turned fierce, “Disband the protective formation and open the city gates, or even if I die today, I’ll destroy the Mustard Seed and take you down with me!” Her expression was ferocious, truly resembling a desperate outlaw.
