However, Chen Yi could no longer concern himself with such matters. For now, he had to wait for the main gate to close; leaving was not an option.

Amid these turbulent thoughts.

Bzzzz!

Amidst the howling gale, the sharp sound of a hook and chain whizzing through the air pierced the silence!

Bam!

Chen Yi twisted his blade to cut the incoming attack. The deafening hum blasted outward, and with his cultivation realm plummeting, he was forced back over thirty feet. By the time he landed, the weapon in his hand—Unwavering Thought—was still trembling incessantly.

In the suffocating darkness of the narrow valley, the shadowy visage of the Daoist of Yin Mountain slowly emerged, his hooked chain swinging lightly in hand, his smile cruel and bone-chilling:

"It seems your strength is completely drained. Good, good, good—heaven is truly on my side!"

He spoke the word "good" three times in succession, and with each utterance, thick waves of malevolent energy spread outward.

The arrival of this foe was not benign.

Chen Yi's face darkened. He had thought that after Du Wei's death, there would be no other threats. He hadn't anticipated that the Court of Justice had prepared a final gambit.

Yet at this moment, he had been struck by the ash-gray energy from the earlier shockwave, causing his cultivation realm to plummet.

Before Chen Yi could ponder further, the Daoist of Yin Mountain struck again.

A fierce gust of wind erupted as the Daoist unleashed his Ten-Thousand Souls Banner. Waves of malevolent energy surged outward, releasing clusters of demonic spirits—ghosts nurtured by the Daoist over years.

A massive monstrous ghost hefted a spiked wolf-tooth club and swung it straight at Chen Yi!

Dust and debris flew everywhere as Chen Yi twisted his body sharply, narrowly evading the strike. Yet at that moment, a man-eating ghost lunged at him from the left, its butcher's knife glinting with a frosty light, aiming to sever his arm for a feast!

Twisting his form, Chen Yi used the energy of qi to deflect the cold edge of the blade, letting it graze past his chest. The man-eating ghost raised its knife for another swing but caught sight of a sword stabbing directly toward it.

Bam!

Accompanied by radiant waves of Buddha Light, the man-eating ghost dissipated instantly into malevolent energy.

The Daoist of Yin Mountain let out a surprised "Hmm?":

"You have Buddha Light protecting you? Truly exceptional."

As his words fell, the corners of his mouth curled even higher instead of retreating.

The harder the prey was to kill, the more it proved the martial artist's extraordinary physique—and the greater their innate lifespan.

Lifespan had two forms: the lifespan gained from tempering one's physique and consuming Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures was called innate lifespan, while lifespan attained through cultivation, spiritual breathing, and inner training was termed acquired lifespan.

Humans are born destined to experience birth, aging, sickness, and death, and the pursuit of immortality through cultivation inherently defies the natural order. Thus, the greater one's acquired lifespan, the more perilous their tribulation becomes.

The Daoist of Yin Mountain's cultivation path inherently relied on wicked arts like the Ten-Thousand Souls Banner and the Blood Burning Technique, making tribulation even harder to overcome. Adding another layer of tribulation would render immortality an impossible dream. For this reason, he preferred harvesting a martial artist's lifespan over the female crown's.

Watching Chen Yi weave and dart amidst the ghostly spirits, the Daoist took his time, allowing the ghosts he had raised over the years to exhaust the last vestiges of Chen Yi's strength.

The Daoist of Yin Mountain, a master of scheming and survival, resisted striking prematurely. Even though he currently had a sixty percent chance of landing a decisive blow, he preferred to wait for a guaranteed victory.

What was the rush, when Chen Yi was burning through his energy ceaselessly, while he could stand firm and conserve his stamina?

The Daoist's elongated fingers toyed with the hooked soul-chain, his fingertips sliding over its scythe-like blade as if caressing a lover's spine.

Like a hunter awaiting his prey to collapse from exhaustion.

Boom!

A thunderous blast erupted in the distance.

The Daoist glanced sideways, spotting a Golden Body Dharma of the Zen Buddhist Sect—ethereal and unsteady, on the verge of collapse.

Within the shimmering apparition was the battered figure of Master Jin Quan.

He appeared to have been struck down from the sea of clouds, now hurtling in this direction.

A ragged, enraged shout followed closely behind:

"Damn your ancestor, Daoist! You tricked this monk—the female crown is the big prize, and the martial artist is just scraps!"

The Daoist of Yin Mountain's pupils constricted sharply as his gaze lifted toward the sea of clouds. Lightning and true fire rained down from the horizon, crashing relentlessly upon Master Jin Quan, scorching and electrocuting him until his Golden Body began to disintegrate piece by piece.

Amid the storm above the sea of clouds, the female crown seemed to have noticed the Daoist's presence.

She swung her sword downward.

Rippling sword winds scattered several currents of malevolent energy, its relentless force barreling straight toward him!

The Daoist hastily summoned malevolent energy in defense and rolled aside in a frantic bid to escape. Barely surviving the sword wind's assault, the reduced blade had nevertheless carved terrifying fissures several feet deep into the ground.

With his original form destabilized, the ghosts controlled by the Ten-Thousand Souls Banner grew slower, granting the suffocatingly beleaguered Chen Yi an opportunity to rally. His blade danced, his sword point flicked, and his energy surged steadily back to life.

The Daoist of Yin Mountain steadied his stance, his eyes dark and calculating.

With the situation abruptly changing, hesitation was no longer permissible.

"Master Jin Quan must last one incense stick longer,"

The Daoist bellowed into the wind:

"This man's lifespan—I will claim it without fail!"

Master Jin Quan, recalling the deal he'd previously struck with the Daoist, inwardly cursed his misfortune. Upon entering the valley earlier and seeing the sea of clouds converge, he'd assumed the female crown was merely in the early stages of the Golden Core realm. But fighting her had revealed her cultivation lay in the later Nascent Soul stage; regret now consumed him.

Yet at this juncture, retreat was utterly impossible. His face twisted in pale rage, but he gathered his energy, chanting Buddhist scriptures from Yellow Mountain Temple. Upon landing heavily, he stomped forward to charge at the Goddess reigning over the sea of clouds again.

The Zen Buddhist Sect's Golden Body Dharma, though faltering precariously, was sufficient to buy some time for a drawn-out clash.

Meanwhile, the Daoist of Yin Mountain, now abandoning patience entirely, unleashed all his malevolent energy in a single violent burst. It rushed toward Chen Yi like thousands of chains.

Although Chen Yi raised his blade and sword, cutting chain after chain, there were tens of thousands of them. After severing several hundred, his strength began waning, and his movements slowed noticeably.

The scythe of the hooked soul-chain seized the moment!

Piercing the air with a sound like a mournful cry, the blackened blade traced a ghastly line across the ground, accelerating viciously toward Chen Yi's chest!

Chen Yi raised his sword to block.

Just as metal was about to clash with metal, the Daoist's face lit up with triumph. The scythe blade unexpectedly shifted an inch, bypassing Chen Yi's sword and plunging directly into his chest.

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