Xu Qing had no idea if these people were at all connected to the old man he had just killed. Their clothing didn’t provide any clues. Whether it was the seven people rushing toward him, or the middle-aged man with the three palaces, he didn’t recognize any of them. That said, he didn’t get the sense that they were working with the old man. It seemed more like they had just been lying in wait for him here. Most likely, they had been waiting to make sure he didn’t have any dao protectors before finally making a move. To do that, they must have had a way to keep tabs on him. And only people from the coalition would be capable of getting information like that. Given his disguise, there was no way any outsider would know about his mission and destination.

Did the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect sell information about me? he thought as he backed up.

Though he was fast enough to keep distance between himself and the seven pursuers, there was no way he could move faster than someone in the three-palace level.

“Think you can get away?” the three-palace cultivator said in a sinister voice. Then he moved so quickly Xu Qing could hardly track his movement. Bursting with killing intent, he appeared right in front of Xu Qing.

In that moment of crisis, Xu Qing’s Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown appeared, creating a protective power that formed a barrier between him and the three-palace cultivator. A boom rang out, and blood oozed out of the corners of Xu Qing’s mouth. Though he could at least defend himself against three-palace power, he would sustain injuries doing so.

The difference between the levels of power was just too great. Xu Qing’s pupils constricted as, without the slightest hesitation, he started fleeing at top speed.

The three-palace cultivator hovered in place, coldly watching him retreat. He made no attempt to give chase, and instead scanned the area to confirm whether or not Xu Qing had a dao protector.

The others, in contrast, chased after him with avarice in their eyes. The pursuers all had extraordinary cultivation bases, all of them being Gold Core experts with heavenly palaces. Five of them had one palace, and the remaining two had two palaces. The power of their magical techniques caused the ground to quake, and the noise caused ripples and distortions in the air. The shockwaves caused the surrounding mountainous landscape to crumble.

Being beset by so many attacks, Xu Qing’s hands flew into incantation gestures, which caused streams of water vapor to transform into roaring sea beasts. As the booms rang out, Xu Qing coughed up a mouthful of blood, and his eyes filled with killing intent. He was facing a lot of opponents, and each one of them was extraordinary. There was obviously no way he could fight back against all of them at the same time.

All he could do was defend himself and try to get away as quickly as possible. Already, he looked a bit broken-down. The defenses provided by the Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown were quivering under the assault of so many magical techniques.

From a distance, it was possible to see terrifying fluctuations spreading out, the power of the Gold Core level creating a deadly encirclement that slowly surrounded Xu Qing. His expression was very unsightly as he unleashed the Ninefold Tsumani, creating massive wave after wave that spread out in all directions.

Except, right then, a piercing sound shot forth from the three-palace Gold Core cultivator.

He approached Xu Qing, radiating a threatening air, surrounded by dazzling light that made him seem almost holy. And yet, his eyes still flickered with suspicion.

“You really don’t have a dao protector?”

Just then, Xu Qing looked up, his eyes wild, and shouted, “Master! Master, help!!”

The moment the words left his mouth, his enemies’ faces fell, and they turned to look in the direction he had just shouted. Xu Qing took advantage of that moment to push his cultivation base as hard as he could, and burst away at top speed. He also produced his dharmaskiff, giving him an even bigger boost. Tapping into its godliness, he became a bright beam of light.

“Are you kidding me?” the three-palace cultivator sneered. And yet, he still didn’t give chase. ．𝚌ｏ𝚖

All of a sudden, ripples erupted in front of the fleeing Xu Qing, and a massive illusory hand appeared, which smashed into his dharmaskiff.

A boom rang out as the dharmaskiff self-detonated. And yet, it didn’t completely explode. Xu Qing quickly shifted directions and started fleeing again.

The giant hand disappeared, and in its place appeared a ruddy-faced daoist priest in a black robe. Shockingly, he was also a three-palace cultivator. He also hovered there, suspiciously looking around, and didn’t chase Xu Qing.

Yet again, ripples appeared in front of Xu Qing. This time a huge face appeared. It had no hair, and its eyes were completely bloodshot as it viciously opened its mouth and tried to bite Xu Qing’s dharmaskiff.

A boom rang out as the dharmaskiff yet again unleashed the power of self-detonation. Heart sinking with regret, Xu Qing put it away, gritted his teeth, and started fleeing in a new direction.

Another enemy showed his face. This time it was a burly, middle-aged man who appeared right in his path. Grinning viciously, he released the power of three heavenly palaces to crush down on Xu Qing.

Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing’s mouth as the Supreme-Limitless Crown’s defenses rippled violently. Now that Xu Qing was incapable of fleeing, the original three-palace middle-aged man approached him.

At the moment, Xu Qing was surrounded by four cultivators who were all in the three-palace level.

Meanwhile, dozens of rogue cultivators flew toward him from various areas nearby. Astonishingly, all of them had been hiding in the nation of Thinking of Eyes.

Xu Qing’s face turned grim as he looked around. Suddenly, he produced an entropic teleportation talisman and crushed it. Instantly, the power of teleportation surged out, and Xu Qing vanished.

Surprisingly, none of the Gold Core experts rushed away to try to find him. The greed and killing intent on their faces disappeared, and then, in an even more shocking development, they began to turn blurry from head to toe. Only a moment later, they disappeared as if they had been erased from existence.

Everything went silent. About an hour later, one area of the ground suddenly started to ripple. Then, a pock-faced old man appeared in that spot, clad in a green daoist robe. After studying his surroundings carefully, his eyes began to shine.

It was all an illusion, but those attacks were real. Based on everything that happened, it seems that Xu Qing really doesn’t have a dao protector following him around. But why is he so brazen as to go around alone without protection? That said, he did leave under disguise. If I hadn’t known he was coming here, it would have been difficult to lock onto his position.

After some more thought, the old man vanished.

Meanwhile, in the wilderness some distance away, Xu Qing materialized. As soon as he appeared, he coughed up a mouthful of blood, then took out a jade slip to send a voice message to the sect.

Before he could, the ground beneath him sank down, revealing a massive mouth that opened to devour him.

Face falling, he flew up into the sky. Rumbling sounds echoed beneath him as the gigantic mouth started moving up, revealing a huge giant, fully 3,000 meters tall.

Xu Qing backed up at top speed. However, in the blink of an eye, the air behind him rippled as the pock-faced old man appeared. As he took a step forward, five heavenly palaces materialized behind him, creating an immense force of pressure that weighed down on Xu Qing.

Xu Qing shivered as blood erupted from his mouth and his defenses vibrated wildly. Without any hesitation, he pulled out another entropic teleportation talisman and prepared to crush it.

But then, a calm voice echoed out from behind him.

“Be sealed!”

Instantly, a huge golden spell formation appeared in the dome of heaven, which crushed down violently on everything in the area.

Xu Qing’s teleportation failed, suppressed out of existence by that force from above. He had no way to fly either, and thus began sinking down toward the ground. Face pale, he looked up at the golden formation to see a red-robed boy sitting cross-legged atop it. Shockingly, five heavenly palaces hovered above him.

As the formation rotated, cracking sounds rang out from inside Xu Qing. The defenses from the Supreme-Limitless Crown wavered, and he dropped closer to the ground. Then, a boom echoed out as he landed down below.

Suddenly, innumerable strands of black hair appeared around him, wrapping him up. At the same time, a corrosive force began to seep into the defenses of the Supreme-Limitless Crown.

As Xu Qing’s defenses dissolved, the boy looked at the green-robed man and the giant, and said, “There really isn’t a dao protector. The rest of you were being too cautious. Besides, even if he did have a dao protector, we’re all just here in clone form. Worst case scenario, we lose our clones. Who cares? Ah, whatever. In the end, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to accomplish our mission no matter what happens. Even if Seven Blood Eyes is on a little fishing expedition, we’re ready for that.”

He performed an incantation gesture, and majestic power erupted from him, creating an exterminating force that descended directly toward Xu Qing.

Right during that moment of extreme crisis, an irritated voice echoed out.

“Three people? That’s it? And you’re all clones? Talk about boring!”

Master Seventh stepped out of nowhere right in front of Xu Qing. He flicked his sleeve, and the hair surrounding Xu Qing disintegrated. He turned to look at the giant, whose face fell. Then the giant’s body trembled, and before it could even try to fight back, it exploded. Next, Master Seventh looked at the pock-faced old man. The old man shivered, and a moment later, collapsed into ashes. Finally was the boy, whose eyes were as wide as saucers. When Master Seventh looked at him, he vibrated for a moment before exploding into a blood rain. All of them were wiped out of existence by Master Seventh’s mere gaze.

Xu Qing no longer looked grim-faced like before. His expression was back to normal, and his wounds vanished. As he looked up into the sky, he heard Master Seventh continuing to speak.

“I can understand it, though,” he said coolly. “We’re not dealing with idiots, after all. But even though they came as clones, do they really think that means they can get away scot-free?”

He made a grasping motion in the direction where the giant had exploded. The air there distorted, as though time itself were flowing differently. The chunks of flesh and blood flew back together, once again forming into the shape of a giant, whose eyes shone with terror and disbelief.

“You….”

Before he could finish speaking, Master Seventh chopped his hand down!

A twang rang out like the sound of a taut thread being severed. Then, shockingly, an actual thread appeared on the giant’s head, almost like silk. The thread was collapsing, starting from the giant’s head, and moving in a specific direction. As the giant stood there agape, a bloodcurdling scream rang out from nowhere. Then the giant slumped. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and he screamed miserably as his body collapsed into pieces.

This time, the body vanished into nothing. What was more, the true body of the clone, wherever it was hiding, had also been wiped out of existence by Master Seventh’s secret magic.

Xu Qing’s eyes went wide. If a clone had five heavenly palaces, he had to wonder about the cultivation base of the true body. Presumably, it had to be in the Nascent Soul level.

As Xu Qing wondered about that, Master Seventh turned his attention to the pock-faced old man. The same thing happened.

When the old man formed anew, his face fell and he screamed, “Forgive me, Master Seventh! I can—”

Before he could say anything more, Master Seventh waved his hand sharply to collect the man’s soul.

As Xu Qing watched that happen with regret, he tentatively said, “Master, is there any chance you could give me some of those souls to imprison in my dharma apertures?”

“Hunters hunt for themselves. I’m not responsible for giving you prey. I’ll give you weapons and abilities. Nothing more.”

He pinched his fingers together, and a thread appeared, coming out of the old man’s head. As it collapsed, another miserable scream rang out. The true form and the clone collapsed together, and were then gathered up by Master Seventh. Next, Master Seventh flicked his sleeve, and the blood where the boy had exploded gathered together. The boy appeared, his face full of extreme terror.

“How could someone in Spirit Trove do something like this? How could you trace a clone back to its true form? W-what… what is your real cultivation base?”

He backed up and waved his hands out in front of him, causing a host of flowing spell formations to spring up. Then he fled. However, Master Seventh just waved his hand, causing the boy’s true form to collapse. His clone also vanished, collected up by Master Seventh.

When Xu Qing realized he wasn’t going to get a single one of the souls, he thought back to what the Captain had said back at that immortal hot spring, about Master being soft-hearted. Trying to sound wronged like the Captain had, Xu Qing said, “Master, my dharmaskiff self-detonated twice in a row! I also used two entropic teleportation talismans!”

Master Seventh smiled mysteriously at him, then nodded. “Since you put it that way, I suppose I should make it up to you.”

He waved his hand, and the vanishing clone of the boy shivered, and a discarnate soul flew out. Master Seventh grabbed it, crushed it into fifty-nine fragments of soul power, and then pushed it into Xu Qing.

Xu Qing shivered as the fifty-nine fragments of soul power, which were equivalent to the soul of a Gold Core cultivator with one heavenly palace, rushed to dozens of his dharma apertures, causing their flames to burn even brighter.