Chapter 1763: Ling Urn Immortal

Immediately after, Rainbow unleashed three consecutive explosions in one go, each blast driving it like a wedge three points deeper into the green shield.

The green shield finally gave way, shattering with a pop.

But the rainbow light had also exhausted its energy and had to fly back to its master.

As for the three green-furred Suanni, they charged down the stone steps outside the mine entrance, disappearing from everyone's sight, but no sound of conflict followed.

Soon after, a person ascended the steps, dressed in a long robe and a tall hat, with a dignified appearance. It was none other than Elder Liu.

The Heavenly Palace cultivators immediately gripped their weapons, but couldn't understand why the three Suanni, despite being face-to-face with the enemy, had not engaged in combat. Only the short man, immediately extending his divine sense, understood clearly:

The Suanni had indeed charged forward, but they had lunged into empty space, falling straight off the cliff.

Elder Liu swept his sleeve, and only then did others realize that the space in front of him had been distorted. The Suanni had appeared to lunge forward, but were in fact misled into jumping directly off the cliff.

Elder Liu extended a hand, righting the twisted space again, before walking forward.

Seeing this move, the short man's expression also turned serious.

Only He Lingchuan and others knew that Elder Liu was not using spatial magic, but was secretly channeling the Spirit Immortal Brush to directly alter the surrounding scenery using perspective techniques. This consumed less true energy but achieved the same effect.

"Fugui Shield? You've stolen the Bucket Immortal's skin!" He ignored the cultivators directly in front of him, looking only at the short man at the cave entrance. "Who are you, imposter? I do not slay nameless sky demons with my sword."

The short man's appearance did somewhat resemble a bucket, but the true owner of the body actually called himself "Spirit Urn Immortal." He spoke in a deep, resonant voice: "Zhaoyou God, under Reverend Miaozhan."

As he announced himself, he clenched his right hand into a fist and violently thrust it forward.

He was short and had short arms, and seemed to be punching the air, but a giant fist of green light suddenly materialized directly above Elder Liu. Its fingers alone were twice the thickness of Elder Liu's waist, and it slammed down hard on his forehead.

This was nothing short of a mountain falling on someone's head. If it hit, not to mention splitting his skull, the person would be flattened into a meat patty.

This was Spirit Urn Immortal's signature divine ability, "Seeing the Great in the Small." He was naturally short, and even after becoming an immortal, he didn't grow, which is why the divine abilities he developed were terrifying. Attacks he made with his physical body were amplified and enhanced through the magnifying effect of this ability. Elder Liu, of course, had to dodge instantly. But Zhaoyou God's assault was like a furious storm; in just a single breath, he launched thirty to forty punches, and the small open space at the mine entrance was now utterly pulverized.

Given the scale of the attack, the cave entrance should have collapsed long ago. This level of bombardment was like direct cannon fire, a rapid succession of blasts—what cliff face could withstand it? Yet, Zhaoyou God wielded his power with precision; as long as an attack didn't hit a person, it would withdraw upon touching the ground, causing no terrible destruction.

As a result, dust and smoke inevitably filled the area.

After dozens of punches, Elder Liu's figure had disappeared. Zhaoyou God didn't believe he could be defeated so easily, so he made a few gestures to his subordinates.

The area on the mining mountain was narrow; he had only brought seven or eight people. These cultivators received the command, quickly moved to various corners, and slapped their magical artifacts onto the ground.

This formation was called the Condensing Abyss Formation. Once formed, enemies within the formation would be slowed down, as if trapped in quicksand, struggling even to walk.

Their movements were swift, without any wasted motion, showing their usual high level of training. However, just as one of them took out a formation artifact and before he could press it to the ground, a blade suddenly emerged from his neck!

This strike was truly sudden. He himself felt a chill on the back of his neck, and blood splattered before his eyes.

Was this his own blood?

He Lingchuan kicked him in the back, kicking him off the Floating Life Blade, sending him directly crashing into Zhaoyou God. Then, with a backhand movement, he threw the blade towards the second person diagonally opposite!

Previously, they had received the blessing of the Haoyuan Golden Mirror, allowing them to become invisible right under the enemy's nose. Elder Liu's appearance was to attract Zhaoyou God's attention, while He Lingchuan and Dong Rui came directly from the mining shack, sneaking up from behind to launch a surprise attack.

In a fight to the death, who cares about fairness? He Lingchuan aimed to kill as many as he could within the given time.

A cultivator standing at the edge of the cliff looked up and saw it. Just as he was about to shout a warning, his waist arched backward, and he was sent flying off the cliff, like a baseball hit by a bat.

Despite his posture appearing as if he were soaring through clouds, in reality, several of his ribs were shattered by the immense force, his heart and lungs crushed, and his chest was pressed directly against his back.

The man was flattened thin.

The formation artifact he was holding was snatched by a small hand before he was sent flying, swung twice in that hand, and then used like a pot lid to smash another cultivator.

The one capable of such an act was, of course, the Ghost Ape. But to others, it was completely incongruous, because the Ghost Ape looked like a young boy, thirteen or fourteen years old, with slightly buck teeth, who liked to squint and wink when looking at people, and would scratch his ears and cheeks after hitting someone.

This time, upon passing through the mirror, He Lingchuan and Dong Rui, while invisible, also coincidentally changed their faces. They adopted the appearance of village farmers—ordinary-looking, with dark skin, becoming practically invisible if they stood in the dark.

Farmers.

Even their clothes had turned into coarse peasant robes, making them look exactly like the adult residents of Yu Village!

He Lingchuan and Dong Rui were fine, but the Ghost Ape, who was sitting on Dong Rui's shoulder at the time, was also transformed by the illusion.

"This divine ability is great!" Dong Rui hadn't made a move and was still invisible. He gleefully touched his face, "I can even change faces for fun when I'm bored."

If there's a next time, he'd turn into a handsome man, so that every time they went out, girls' eyes wouldn't only be on He Lingchuan.

However, this was just a simple illusion that could last for a maximum of five hours.

Due to their interference, the Condensing Abyss Formation failed to materialize, falling short at the last step. This wasn't a large-scale battle formation, and losing even two key points would prevent it from activating.

He Lingchuan's Floating Life Blade had also reached the third person.

This person reacted extremely quickly. Sensing a flash of cold light, he immediately leaped to the left, not even bothering with the formation artifact in his hand, and raised his hand to fire a shuttle-shaped projectile at He Lingchuan in retaliation.

This flying shuttle looked no different from a sewing shuttle, but upon being launched, it transformed from one into three, attacking in a 'person' formation and at varying speeds.

With a "ding," the Floating Life Blade missed, striking the rock wall behind him.

Many magical artifacts have a self-returning feature, and this person was also cautious, extending his divine sense to monitor behind him.

However, after receiving a full baptism from the Emperor's Flowing Sap, the Floating Life Blade's "guaranteed hit" characteristic had expanded further. If the first aerial strike was dodged by the enemy, its return speed would instantly increase by two or three times.

He Lingchuan's current blade-throwing speed was already as swift as lightning, and doubling that speed on top of it truly left no way out for anyone. This enemy clearly felt something was wrong, but his body simply couldn't react in time!

With a soft "whoosh," another blade pierced a throat.

Even the angle and position of the throat puncture were exactly the same as the previous victim!

In just three breaths, three of the seven Heavenly Palace cultivators present were gone.

The fourth person was just bending down when he heard a soft "thunk" behind him, and immediately rolled on the ground. But as he got up, he saw a blur in front of him, unsure what had come, and then felt a chill in his chest—

His heart had been pierced. This time, it wasn't a hidden weapon.

As soon as that shadow picked up the formation artifact from the ground, it was slammed to the ground by a punch from Zhaoyou God, with a squeak, which made He Lingchuan's eyebrow twitch.

This was, of course, Dong Rui's Bat Demonic Puppet.

However, with Dong Rui's recent repeated adjustments, this little thing was like a piece of elastic rubber, which might be dented or flattened when struck violently, its internal organs even pushed aside, but it would then restore itself.

Now it "pulled" itself out of the shallow pit, flapped its wings and flew to He Lingchuan, handing the formation artifact to him.

He Lingchuan rolled his eyes.

The reason the Bat Demonic Puppet didn't take it back to its master was because Dong Rui was afraid of exposing himself.

"Oh? This is the formation core." He then proceeded to adjust it.

Meanwhile, after Zhaoyou God flattened the Bat Demonic Puppet, he couldn't spare a hand to pursue, because his battle with Elder Liu had also entered a fierce stage, and he couldn't spare any extra concentration to deal with He Lingchuan and the others.

Fighting in this confined space, both sides, by unspoken agreement, abandoned their grand divine abilities.

Elder Liu wore wide robes and large sleeves, which naturally made his movements less convenient than those with short-sleeved attire. That was because he didn't need to rely entirely on agile movement techniques to dodge his opponent's attacks, like He Lingchuan and the Ghost Ape, but instead used the divine ability "Mirror Vestige."

Simply put, his movement method was very similar to teleportation, leaving a mirror image behind to confuse the enemy.

This mirror image was sometimes just a faint phantom, but sometimes possessed real attacking power! Even if Zhaoyou God suspected it was fake, he still had to give it his full attention.

However, the "Mirror Vestige" divine ability also had some limitations: first, the main body's movement distance could not exceed seven chi per instance, and the ability could only be used again after the previous mirror image disappeared.

The faster the enemy pierced through a mirror image, the faster Elder Liu's movement became, making him dazzlingly quick. If Zhaoyou God ignored a mirror image, it would disappear on its own after one breath.

He Lingchuan now saw clearly that the flying rainbow Elder Liu had unleashed earlier was a brass demon-subduing vajra, and now, when swung, it also whistled through the air.

These ancient immortals seemed to really like demon-subduing vajras, perhaps it felt especially good to smash people with them. From a bystander's perspective, watching the two immortals fight was actually a bit comical, because Spirit Urn Immortal, possessed by Zhaoyou God, was very short, while Elder Liu was very tall. When he raised his long vajra and struck furiously, it looked very much like a father beating his son.

Zhaoyou God's body certainly lived up to the "Urn" in its name. Every time he couldn't dodge a vajra strike, he would retract his neck, and a layer of green illusory armor would rise all over his body, which was what Elder Liu had previously called the "Fugui Armor." Elder Liu's demon-subduing vajra couldn't break through this layer of turtle armor, but only sent him spinning away like a top.

The opponent would spin in mid-air and then accelerate back, just like the Floating Life Blade.

After several such repetitions, Elder Liu became a little exasperated. The opponent was not the original owner of the body, yet had mastered the essence of the "Turtle Retreat Technique," single-mindedly engaging him in a drawn-out battle.