The chase headed unerringly straight toward Spider Mountain.
This raised Wang Yu's suspicions. Had a disciple of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect obtained this opportunity? Or perhaps... was it the Five Yin Peak leader in disguise? Both possibilities seemed equally plausible.
By a twist of fate, the pursuit came to an abrupt halt in the very gorge where Wang Yu had ambushed and slain the group of rogue disciples days before. Scattered shards of ice and dark stains of blood still marred the ground, silent testament to the violent end met there.
"Halt!"
"You have nowhere left to run!"
Two Foundation Establishment cultivators had one figure cornered, blocking him from the front and rear, pinning him in the narrow midsection of the gorge.
The trapped man saw no alternative. He removed the artifact that had concealed his features and aura, revealing a cultivation base firmly at the fourth level of Foundation Establishment. "Fellow Daoists," he declared sternly, "I am a deacon of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect. This place is under the jurisdiction of Spider Mountain. Do you truly wish to fight to the death?"
The two pursuers hesitated. They had no desire to provoke the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect's wrath, but they were caught in a dilemma, unwilling to relinquish a prize like a Third-Rank Flood Dragon inner core.
"Hah! You stole that core from right under our noses, sealed in its Spirit-Blocking Stone casing. You think you can just walk away now? On what grounds!"
Wang Yu, who had just reached the gorge's rim, heard these words and felt a jolt of fierce excitement.
*A Third-Rank Flood Dragon inner core?!*
*Hisss—*
Such a treasure… even a Core Formation expert would move heaven and earth to obtain it. Truly, rare treasures stir the heart.
The Foundation Establishment cultivator from Five Yin Peak, having swiftly assessed the situation, scowled thunderously. This was *his* destiny, and he would never yield.
Two mere early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators were not enough to make him back down.
"Hah, your sophistry is meaningless! I initially considered sparing you for the effort it took to reach this stage, but since you have no regard for your lives, I will send you on your way!"
With a wave of his right hand, his human-height, low-grade second-tier artifact—the **Thousand Ghost Banner**—suddenly trembled to life. A Yin mist boiled forth, blighting the sky and blotting out the sun, as if transforming the entire gorge into a netherworld.
The two brothers reacted instantly. Shielding themselves with barriers of True Qi, they each summoned a second-tier spear and thrust them forward.
A dense volley of hundreds of spear-shaped attacks, each over ten feet long and formed of solidified True Qi, shot forth like a lethal rain.
The fight was on!
Wang Yu, observing from the shadows, pushed the Night Concealment Charm to its absolute limit, slowing his breathing until it was nearly undetectable. Though this art was only upper-grade, at its Perfected stage it could hide him from the spiritual sense of Foundation Establishment experts—so long as he made not a sound.
High above the gorge.
The hundreds of True Qi spears pierced through the sinister ghostly domain. Shafts of sunlight speared down through the torn mist, making the Five Yin Peak cultivator's expression darken further.
"Five Ghosts Great Malice Art: Lament of Lingering Attachment!"
Swarms of pitch-black ghostly skulls converged, forming five macabre structures resembling towers of bleached bones. Their jawbones clacked open and shut, producing invisible waves of sound that felt like a suona horn blaring directly into the ears.
The sharp, wretched sound of clinging resentment seemed to drill directly into the brain, causing the Niwan Palace to tremble and vision to swim with black spots.
It was a spiritual sense-based sonic attack, a art Wang Yu had never witnessed, nor was he familiar with the second-tier inheritance of the Five Yin Peak.
The two brothers, caught head-on by the assault, suffered terribly. They clutched their heads, howling in agony.
Seizing the opening, the besieged cultivator allowed himself a triumphant smirk. He shook the Thousand Ghost Banner, its cloth wrapping tightly around the pole to form a formidable greatspear.
Trailing a plume of dissipating black smoke, he shot toward one of the brothers. The cold gleam at the spear's tip promised an injury far worse than a simple puncture.
At this critical moment, an object resembling a storage pouch at the brothers' waists flashed with spiritual light. Two spirit beasts leaped out—creatures resembling leopards, but with single horns upon their heads and fur blazing like living fire.
"Spirit beasts protecting their masters..."
"And they're second-rank, early-stage spirit beasts! You practice the Beast Taming path?!"
Just as the Gu Path cultivators had their Lifebound Gu and Ghost Subjugation specialists their Lifebound Spirits, those who walked the Beast Taming path naturally possessed Lifebound Spirit Beasts, creatures bound to their very lives.
The Five Yin Peak cultivator's face tightened into a grim mask. His confidence in handling two early Foundation Establishment opponents had been over seventy percent. But adding two Foundation Establishment-level demon beasts into the fray...
The outcome was now dangerously uncertain.
The initial surprise attack had nearly claimed the brothers' lives, proving how vital information was in battles between equals.
Now that they had weathered the Lament of Lingering Attachment, the momentum shifted dramatically.
"Brother, you defend with the Soul-Stabilizing Bell! I'll lead the attack!"
"Understood!"
Seeing the brothers and the two Horned Flame Leopards closing in, the five bone towers swiftly dissolved. The individual skulls swarmed behind the Five Yin Peak cultivator, coalescing into a single, massive skeletal head.
It gaped wide and spat a dense hail of nail-like bone spikes, trying to slow the enemy's advance.
He suddenly bellowed, "There is only one Flood Dragon core, but two of you brothers! Tell me, if you succeed, which of you will keep it? The elder? Or the younger? Hahahaha~!"
The face of the charging older brother twitched.
"A cheap trick to divide us! Pay it no mind!"
"I know! How we split the spoils is our affair, you old bastard! None of your concern!"
"Horned Flame Leopards, attack!" the younger brother roared.
At his command, crimson fire erupted around the two spirit beasts. Their speed doubled, transforming them into streaks of blazing light that weaved effortlessly through the storm of bone spikes.
They flanked the Five Yin Peak cultivator from behind, opening their maws to unleash twin torrents of searing flame. The intense heat warped the very air.
*WHOOSH—CRACKLE!*
The flames slammed into a bronze mirror—another of his low-grade second-tier artifacts. As a deacon of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect, his resources far surpassed those of a typical rogue cultivator.
The mirror absorbed the fiery onslaught, its surface shimmering before reversing direction. Instantly, it fired a condensed pillar of fire that slammed the older brother, who was charging from the front, directly into the ground.
This 'divert and return' tactic was truly astonishing.
"Damn it!" the younger brother swore.
Seeing a direct approach was futile, his hands flew through a series of seals. "Savage Spirit Empowerment!"
His Horned Flame Leopard's aura skyrocketed. Flames around its claws surged to a height of three feet, and its body swelled to three times its original size. It launched a ferocious claw-swipe at the Five Yin Peak cultivator.
The fiery claw-arcs sent the bronze mirror flying and smashed ruthlessly into the swarm of ghostly skulls, throwing the formation into chaos.
The cultivator met the beast's claws with his banner-spear, holding his own in close combat against the enraged spirit beast—a testament to his well-honed weapon skills.
In the blink of an eye, several more exchanges took place.
Then, the younger brother formed another seal. Five or six talismans flew from his storage pouch, arranging themselves in a pentagram. Five bolts of brilliant blue lightning shot forth from them.
The lightning shattered the cultivator's protective True Qi barrier. At the same time, the older brother, covered in dirt and grime, hauled himself out of the crater in the ground. Without a word, he too cast Savage Spirit Empowerment.
Now facing two empowered Horned Flame Leopards simultaneously, the Five Yin Peak cultivator began to accumulate wounds. His once-pristine robes were shredded into tatters, and he was forced to constantly fend off searing flames, his demeanor growing increasingly frantic.
"Damn it all!"
**(End of Chapter)**