Chapter 1444: Painful Victory

The Skeleton General in the great hall had his left eye socket pierced by a magical artifact. He was already a Moon-tier cultivator with compromised strength. Furthermore, he had been wounded by the sword storm he previously unleashed, which considerably weakened him. Now, channeling this peculiar strange fire also consumed a significant amount of his energy.

After these repeated losses, the Skeleton General, despite his Moon-tier foundation, likely couldn't exert much of his power.

In contrast, the trio's vital energies remained connected, maintaining an unbroken formation. Although Lu Ye appeared to be fighting the Skeleton General alone, he was, in fact, continuously leveraging the power of the other two, making it far from a single-handed battle.

A continuous series of clanging sounds filled the air as the Pan Shan Saber repeatedly clashed with the giant sword. Each impact was deafening, sending sparks flying. Though there was a significant size disparity between the combatants, their actual strength was not as disparate.

While Lu Ye grappled with the Skeleton General, Poke and Ghost were not idle. Poke continued to swing his fishing line, employing various strange supportive abilities. Ghost, lacking such diverse tricks, engaged the Skeleton General directly alongside Lu Ye. Her movements were as elusive as a phantom, and each appearance drew a significant portion of the Skeleton General's attention.

Ghostly fires drifted around, periodically converging under the Skeleton General's command, attempting to trouble the trio. However, each time, Lu Ye would deliberately collide with these ghostly fires, using the power of his Talent Tree to absorb and devour them.

After a brief skirmish, Lu Ye sent a spiritual message and abruptly pulled back. He needed a moment to recover!

Among the powerful enemies he had encountered so far, the Skeleton General was second only to Qin Yuandai. However, when he slew Qin Yuandai, Lu Ye had relied on the power of a red talisman, feeling no resistance from her and thus never truly knowing her full strength.

The Skeleton General before him, however, was a formidable, tangible opponent whose strength surpassed his own, yet not so overwhelmingly as to cause despair.

For a weapon master, such an opponent was the most suitable and satisfying for honing skills.

Engaging in close-quarters combat with such a powerful enemy was also the most effective way to temper oneself.

Lu Ye's fighting spirit was high, and he felt invigorated. However, after such prolonged clashes, his right hand, clutching the saber, trembled uncontrollably, and his arm was a bloody mess, showing signs of torn flesh.

Fortunately, having reached the mid-Constellation stage, his flesh and blood essence had been tempered to its peak, allowing him to recover quickly with just a brief respite.

As Lu Ye pulled back, only Poke and Ghost remained to engage the Skeleton General. Poke fared better, keeping his distance and employing his peculiar techniques. Ghost, however, was in dire straits. While it had seemed effortless watching Fa Wuzun confront the Skeleton General, stepping into the fray herself was a terrifying experience, making her feel as though one foot were already in the gates of hell, with the constant risk of falling.

This wasn't solely due to the gap in her strength compared to Lu Ye, but also because her ghost cultivator faction was ill-suited for direct confrontation. Her methods had always been covert and stealthy.

She couldn't help but cry out, "Fa Wuzun, quickly, help me!"

After several shouts, Fa Wuzun remained unresponsive, watching her from afar as if observing a play. Changing her tactic, she then called out, "Daddy Fa, please save me!"

When life and death were at stake, dignity no longer mattered.

Poke's eye twitched. He inwardly cursed himself for having such a shameless friend and secretly resolved to sever all ties with her permanently after this ordeal.

Lu Ye charged forward again, not because Ghost had called him "Daddy," but because Ghost would indeed be in grave danger if he didn't re-enter the fray.

With the trio's formation, even the loss of one member could lead to defeat in this battle. Having progressed so far, he could not allow such an outcome.

With Lu Ye resuming his role as the main combatant, Ghost finally breathed a sigh of relief and quickly retreated to rest. The intense battle raged on, but the scales of victory were slowly tilting in favor of the trio. As time passed, the cracks on the Skeleton General's bones became increasingly numerous and dense. Lu Ye, who faced him directly, felt it most acutely: the Skeleton General's strength was slowly diminishing!

Then, at one critical moment, as Lu Ye unleashed a saber strike, the Skeleton General failed to block in time, and one of his leg bones snapped with a loud crack!

His towering figure lurched violently, almost collapsing to the ground. Though he managed to regain his balance, he had now completely lost the advantage in his fight against Lu Ye.

The snapping of a leg bone was the catalyst that directly triggered the Skeleton General's complete collapse.

Shortly after the first leg bone was broken, Lu Ye seized the opportunity and severed the Skeleton General's other leg bone, followed by his sword-wielding right arm!

At this point, the Skeleton General had little capacity left to resist, becoming utterly like a fish on a chopping block.

He was clearly filled with defiance; the ghostly fire in his right eye socket pulsed fiercely, and the ghostly fires drifting within the great hall suddenly began to pulsate violently in response.

A dangerous aura began to undulate.

Sensing the danger, Lu Ye was about to withdraw, but the Skeleton General, now missing two legs and an arm, clung stubbornly to him.

In the next instant, the ghostly fires drifting within the great hall rapidly converged towards them, and the aura emanating from these fires became even more violent and perilous.

Lu Ye attempted to construct a void spiritual pattern for instant teleportation, but having done so repeatedly, the Skeleton General had clearly caught on. At that moment, a ball of ghostly fire landed on the artifact Lu Ye had previously prepared. Under the ghostly fire's burning, the spiritual power remaining in the artifact instantly dissipated.

Without spiritual power stored in the artifact, he could not construct the void spiritual pattern to teleport. In haste, Lu Ye braced himself and frantically began constructing sacred guardian spiritual patterns for protection.

Balls of ghostly fire drifted towards him, then exploded in rapid succession.

A continuous series of booming sounds echoed, flames shot skyward, and the figures of both Lu Ye and the Skeleton General vanished from sight.

Poke and Ghost watched anxiously, simultaneously using their interconnected vital energies to ascertain Lu Ye's well-being. Although they hadn't interacted much with Fa Wuzun before, this was a challenging life-or-death battle.

Cultivators often forge deep friendships in such battles, and mutual trust and bonds are gradually formed in this manner.

Although today's battle involved a three-person formation, Fa Wuzun was undeniably the primary force. It was he who shattered the Skeleton General's sword storm and disregarded his ghostly fires. Without Fa Wuzun, even the current top-ranked individual on the accumulation list could not have achieved such a feat.

Ghost had initially invited Fa Wuzun merely to leverage the power of his formation disk. However, only after this battle did she realize that inviting him was the wisest and only path to victory.

With victory now in sight, neither she nor Poke could accept Fa Wuzun's death. Fortunately, they could still sense his vital energy.

The chaotic energies gradually subsided, revealing a figure standing amidst the area previously engulfed in flames. Covered in dust and grime, who else could it be but Fa Wuzun?

Before him lay a pile of shattered bones, clearly belonging to the Skeleton General. Only the skull remained somewhat intact, and the ghostly fire in its right eye socket had not yet fully extinguished, though it had become extremely dim.

As Poke and Ghost looked over, they witnessed the ghostly fire slowly extinguishing. Lu Ye then lifted his foot and stomped down; with a crunch, the still relatively intact skull shattered into pieces. He then slumped to the ground, took out a healing pill, and placed it in his mouth.

Although the power of his Talent Tree could ward off the corrosive effects of the eerie ghostly fires, it could not block the impact of the final explosion. In his haste, he had constructed over a dozen layers of sacred guardian spiritual patterns for protection, but they were all breached, and he himself sustained significant injuries.

At this moment, he was covered in blood and gore, his tattered clothes sticking to his wounds, and his internal organs felt somewhat dislocated.

Poke retracted his fishing rod and rushed over with Ghost to check on him. Only after confirming he was not in serious danger did they breathe a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, an enormous ray of mystical light descended from the heavens.

Victory in such exclusive scenarios also yielded mystical light rewards and accumulation points, with the rewards being more generous than those from typical scenarios.

Had this not been the case, Ghost would not have gone to the trouble of recruiting help. A mere short blade treasure would not have warranted such immense effort from her, especially since she had initially assessed it as only a spiritual artifact.

The trio each occupied a corner of the great hall, beginning to refine the mystical light while simultaneously resting and healing their injuries.

If he had been alone, Lu Ye would have refined the mystical light swiftly. However, with Poke and Ghost present, he couldn't reveal his secret of rapid refinement, so he could only proceed at a normal cultivation pace.

Three days passed swiftly. Lu Ye noticed that Ghost had already completed her refinement and was now clearing the battlefield.

She picked up the short blade from the Skeleton General's left eye socket, her face breaking into a wide grin. She then briefly examined the Skeleton General's giant sword before setting it down. Immediately afterward, she began searching the great hall.

As a skilled ghost cultivator, treasure hunting was an innate instinct, especially for someone as impoverished as her. Even a single spirit jade in the great hall would not escape her meticulous search.

An hour later, Lu Ye and Poke completed their refinement. The trio then regrouped.

Ghost, holding the short blade, cleared her throat and announced, "I'm taking this item; it's useless to you anyway. I won't be sharing the other things!"

This was primarily because her intelligence had been flawed, almost leading the trio to their doom, so she voluntarily took a smaller share of the benefits.

She then pointed to the giant sword on the ground. "This magical artifact is for Fa Wuzun. He contributed the most, so he rightly deserves more."

Poke nodded, indicating he had no objections.

Lu Ye accepted without ceremony, placing the giant sword into his storage ring. Though he couldn't wield this magical artifact, he could at least sell it.

Of course, he wasn't currently lacking spirit jade, so it was highly probable he would let his Sword Gourd devour it. He was curious to see what power the sword qi generated by the Sword Gourd would possess after consuming a magical artifact.

Finally, Ghost pointed to the two piles of storage rings before them. "For these two piles, each of you can choose one. Whether it's good or bad depends entirely on your luck!"