Thud!

The finger pierced through Tang Jie’s leg, leaving a large hole behind.

Tang Jie didn’t seem to sense it, continuing to loudly laugh. “As expected, you still don’t dare to kill me? No, no, no, you don’t need to explain. I know that it’s not that you don’t dare, but that you’re reluctant to. You want to slowly torment me before killing me. But while the Karmic Cycle Finger deals a lot of damage, the pain it inflicts is far less than that of the Jail Demon Flame, so I basically didn’t feel anything this time!”

He continued to heartily laugh as the Jail Demon Flame burned his body. He was in so much pain that his entire body was shaking, but he continued to loudly laugh.

Lan Yu was so angry that he started trembling, but he still admitted, “You’re right. I’m truly reluctant to kill you. I need to slice you apart piece by piece, mince you up, and then feed you to the dogs!”

He thrust out his finger again, creating a hole in Tang Jie’s other leg.

He then rushed forward and grabbed Tang Jie. He threw him into the sky and followed up with his fists, punching Tang Jie several dozen times.

He was not a body refiner, so the power of these punches on Tang Jie was limited. They were, however, intensely humiliating.

Tang Jie crashed to the ground, and then Lan Yu kicked him and sent him rolling on the ground. He stomped on Tang Jie’s face and shouted, “Come on, Tang Jie! Don’t you still have plenty of tricks? What of your Four-Nine True Words or mind paralysis technique? Your Formless Golden Body? Your peerless divine strength? Don’t just lie there like a dead dog. Take out all the trump cards you have!”

He had imagined his battle with Tang Jie countless times.

He had believed that Tang Jie would endure many more techniques before he would finally fall under the torment of the Jail Demon Flame. But to his surprise, only a single spark had been enough to render Tang Jie powerless.

Lan Yu was deeply displeased.

As a cultivator, how could he have so little tenacity and will!?

Even if the pain were ten times or one hundred times worse, how could he give up so easily?

Lan Yu found himself dissatisfied with Tang Jie’s “incompetence”.

From a certain perspective, losing to this sort of opponent was a humiliation for himself.

Tang Jie groaned and croaked out, “The Four-Nine True Words are fast, but they’re only good against large numbers of weaker opponents, and the mind paralysis technique only works on the unprepared. It doesn’t work on you now that you’re ready for it. The Jail Demon Flame isn’t powerful because of its damage, but because of the pain. This pain paralyzes the nerves, so I can’t gather the focus to cast spells, nor can I exert any strength. Neither my Formless Golden Body nor my divine strength can do anything… What sort of trump cards do I have left to fight against you?”

Lan Yu was taken aback.

“So this is really all you were capable of? A little pain was enough to make you incapable of focusing… haha! Haha! Trash, useless trash! I can’t believe I lost to you once. In the end, you only succeeded through your schemes!”

Tang Jie gritted his teeth. “What’s so strange about that? Since I started cultivating, I’ve never had a direct battle to the death. Before battle, I’ll plan and scheme to ensure my victory, weakening my enemy before fighting them. That’s why I haven’t experienced much pain and my willpower is lacking. The Jail Demon Flame is my counter!”

Lan Yu was stunned by what he was hearing. “Is that how it is? In the end, you really are nothing but trash.”

Over these last six years, he had always felt humiliated by the defeat he had suffered at Tang Jie’s hand, and he was so set on defeating Tang Jie that he had tortured himself.

When he suddenly discovered that the target of his revenge was such a piece of “trash”, he couldn’t help but feel an incomparable disappointment.

He looked at Tang Jie and muttered, “How can trash like this be my lifelong rival? It seems that I was wrong about you, so die!”

He chopped his hand down.

There was no mercy in this strike. He planned to execute Tang Jie.

As the hand chopped down, there was a sharp cry of, “Watch my blade!”

A shining blade suddenly flew out of the distance.

Lan Yu hastily turned his chop into a thrust of his palm, striking the approaching dagger as he shouted, “Who’s there?”

A dark silhouette rushed out. It was a person clothed and masked entirely in black. This person waved their hand, and a red light threatened to engulf Lan Yu.

With no other choice, Lan Yu hastily retreated. The moment he backed away, the person in black rushed up to Tang Jie, and Lan Yu knew that he was in trouble.

Sure enough, the person in black took out a talisman and stuck it onto Tang Jie, saying, “You got off easy this time.”

The person threw Tang Jie out, and the talisman swiftly carried him away.

“Bastard!”

Lan Yu was stunned and enraged. He had never imagined that someone would intervene at this moment. It had to be understood that he and Tang Jie had been fighting with absolutely nothing around them. For this dark silhouette to have gotten so close without being noticed meant that they were extremely skilled in the art of concealment.

In his rage, he attacked with full power, thrusting his hands below him. “Snow Frost Mist, rise!”

With this roar, the water in the Buyao Aqueduct below began to splash about and rise like steam. In a flash, it turned into walls of water vapor.

Before mastering the Jail Demon Flame, Lan Yu had been the best at manipulating wind walls. He had managed to turn the Wind Wall spell into a caging technique, even an offensive spell.

In the Immortal Fortune Conference, he had used this method to kill Li Zhiping.

Now, he was able to condense water vapor into walls, making the spell art even stronger.

The roiling water vapor walls converged on the person in black. “Scoundrel, die!”

Shockingly, as the vapor walls encroached, the person in black twisted their body in various ways, as agile as a snake. Assuming several postures that a normal person was incapable of making, the mysterious assailant managed to squeeze their way through a small gap in the vapor walls.

Lan Yu was stunned. “The Spirit Snake movement technique? The Thousand Illusion spell? Shit, so it’s you, you scoundrel!”

As Lan Yu roared, that person in black somersaulted backward several times, treating the air as if it was solid ground. And then they let out a melodious laugh.

The person in black tore off the black scarf, revealing the face of a heroic-looking woman. “Hey, Senior Brother Lan, long time no see.”

“Wang Yun…” Lan Yu clenched his fists, spitting out the name through clenched teeth.

“Oh my! Senior Brother Lan, this tone of yours almost makes it seem like you want to eat me?” Wang Yun giggled. Her body continued to writhe like a snake, enchanting and alluring.

Lan Yu hastily closed his eyes and barked, “The women of Heart Severing Pavilion have cut off all their emotions, so how did they produce a temptress like you? Talk! Why did you save Tang Jie? What’s his relationship to you? What are you trying to do here?”

“Senior Brother Lan, you asked so many questions at once, so how do you expect me to answer them?” Wang Yun giggled.

She took several steps toward Lan Yu while moving her hips, and Lan Yu backed away as if a snake was approaching.

While other people might not know, he knew very well that this girl was just like her big brother. Her true expertise was in close combat. But while Wang Juemie was known for his formidable strength, she was known for assassination in close quarters. If he allowed her to get closer, Lan Yu wasn’t sure that he could deal with her.

But Lan Yu knew that this woman held no ill intent toward him. Otherwise, the earlier ambush would have come without a warning. It was clear that she had come to save Tang Jie rather than to kill Lan Yu.

Even so, the flames of anger still burned in Lan Yu’s heart. “You saved my enemy. If you don’t give me an explanation, don’t blame me for not showing Wang Juemie any face. The Seven Absolutions Sect and Horizon Ocean Pavilion are brotherly sects. I’m afraid you won’t be able to bear the sin of your actions causing our two sects to turn against each other.”

Wang Yun covered her mouth and laughed. “Senior Brother Lan, what are you saying? I’m a disciple of Horizon Ocean Pavilion, so how can I represent the Seven Absolutions Sect? Moreover, even disciples of the same sect occasionally turn against each other. While the Seven Absolutions Sect and Horizon Ocean Pavilion might be allies, it’s not like everyone gets along with each other, right? The two of us are merely disciples, so there’s no reason for the two sects to turn against each other just because of us.”

The woman’s sharp tongue left Lan Yu speechless from anger.

Wang Yun continued, “Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing you. I don’t have any relationship with Tang Jie, but my big brother wants this man. He said that Tang Jie must die at his hand.”

Lan Yu’s complexion improved a little. “Wang Juemie wants to kill Tang Jie? Then why hasn’t he done anything?”

Wang Yun replied, “Tang Jie has a deal with the Seven Absolutions Sect. He is providing some extremely rare resources. Until these goods arrive, no one is allowed to kill him.”

“What sort of rare resources?”

Wang Yun shiftily looked around. “I shouldn’t be answering this question, but… since you’re Tang Jie’s bane, I’ll tell you. It’s a thousand-year Whitefiend Lotus!”

“‘A thousand-year Whitefiend Lotus’?” Lan Yu cried out. “That’s not possible!”

Wang Yun laughed. “Whether you believe it or not, it’s a fact. How do you think Tang Jie with his five-cycle-Jade-Gate aptitude was able to reach Nine Revolutions in only ten years? As for what you make of this information, that’s up to you, Senior Brother Lan!”

Wang Yun disappeared in a flash.

Lan Yu floated in the air for some time before finally saying, “Godhead Palace… Tang Jiye… I see.”

After thinking some more, he suddenly threw his head back and laughed, shouting, “Tang Jie, this is suicide!”

He flew off in another direction.

Not long after he left, Wang Yun reappeared.

Looking in the direction Lan Yu had left, Wang Yun coldly chuckled. She took out a talisman and wrote, “The message has been delivered.”

The talisman was set ablaze, dissolving into spiritual light.

Wang Yun muttered to herself, “‘Genius’? Nothing more than an idiot being used by another. He’s far from my big brother’s level!”

She turned and flew away, really leaving this time.

Several dozen kilometers from the summit of Mount Buyao, Tang Jie sat cross-legged in a cloud. The cloud completely concealed him, but it did not conceal the ray of light issuing from the vertical eye in the center of his forehead.

This light pierced through the clouds and allowed him to see all that transpired for quite a distance.

Seems like the Wang siblings are meddling in Tang Jie’s business. And it seems like Tang Jie was plotting something again.