After Lu Qing swept up every treasure in the vault, he imdiately shot outward.
Yet the mont he erged, he sensed over a dozen overwhelming auras already descending into the inner city, streaking toward him with incredible speed.
“Back so soon, are they?”
Lu Qing gave a soft chuckle, then let his aura shift again. His form blurred and vanished, perfectly lting into the surroundings. Like a wandering ghost, he slipped away in utter silence.
Barely three breaths after he left Huixing Peak, more than a dozen figures descended. Nascent Soul power surged forth in violent waves, sealing the entire mountain in unyielding force.
“Where did he go?”
The Nascent Soul perceptions of the Gongshu Clan’s patriarchs were peerless. In re monts, they scoured every inch of Huixing Peak.
But no intruder could be found. The only sight before the vault was a heap of unconscious guards.
The vault doors hung wide open, its formations unraveled and useless. Yet the shadowy assassin was nowhere to be seen.
“No!”
The second branch’s patriarch rushed inside, only to find an empty vault. Not a single item remained. His vision darkened with fury.
Though the most precious treasures were under his personal watch, this vault still contained countless valuables. The Spirit Stones alone amounted to more than half the reserves of his branch.
Now, with everything stolen in one sweep, how could he not be driven to rage and despair?
“Father, that thief must still be in the inner city! We cannot allow him to escape!”
He stord out, shouting toward the white-haired, child-faced elder.
“Of course. If he truly fled, what face would our Gongshu Clan have left!”
The clan’s current patriarch, a Nascent Soul Fifth Tribulation expert, looked grim. When had the Gongshu Clan ever been toyed with in such a fashion?
At once, he withdrew a massive formation disk, broad as a millstone, its surface carved with ancient runes.
“Father, you’re going to use the Zhou Tian Formation Disk?”
The others paled instantly. Clearly, this artifact was anything but ordinary.
“That assassin’s cultivation is no re trifle. He must carry a powerful spiritual artifact capable of concealing aura and hiding tracks. Otherwise, he could never have slipped past our Nascent Soul senses. Without the Zhou Tian Formation Disk, finding him will be near impossible.”
“But the ancestors decreed that each use of the Zhou Tian Formation Disk drains the star power accumulated by the Zhou Tian Grand Array. Unless the clan faces true peril, it must not be activated lightly.”
“This is peril enough!” the white-haired patriarch snapped. “If this thief escapes, our Gongshu Clan will be utterly humiliated. Even our ranking among the Thirty-Six High Clans will suffer!”
That declaration made the others tremble, silencing further objections.
Clan ranking ant everything to the Thirty-Six High Clans—it was tied to secrets too weighty to ignore.
With no more resistance, the patriarch poured his will into the formation disk.
The array stirred. A terrifying fluctuation rippled outward.
All across the inner city, beams of starlight erupted from every peak, linking into the massive do of light above.
In an instant, space within the inner city thickened dozens of tis over. The glowing barrier of the grand formation solidified into a terrifying fortress. Its might was enough to make even a high Tribulation Nascent Soul shudder.
Only then did the patriarch exhale in relief.
He suspected the intruder might even carry an artifact designed to unravel formations. Otherwise, how could he have breached the inner city’s defenses unnoticed?
But with the Zhou Tian Formation Disk fully engaged, consuming their foundation to unleash the Zhou Tian Star Array’s full power, the inner city was now impregnable. No matter what treasures the thief carried, he would not leave silently.
rging his mind with the disk, the patriarch perceived the array as clearly as his own hand. And there—he spotted it.
A faint aura, so well hidden it almost blended with the grand array’s pulse, was racing toward the city wall.
“Found you, thief!”
His eyes glead with killing intent. With a thought, a pillar of starlight slamd down from the heavens toward that aura.
The power rivaled a full strike from a Nascent Soul Second Tribulation cultivator. And that was with most of the array’s strength held back to avoid devastating the city. At full power, the Zhou Tian Star Array was far beyond this.
Boom!
The earth shuddered. Half a mile of ground was blasted into ruin.
From the wreckage, a battered figure was forced into the open.
“There! Don’t let him get away!”
The Gongshu patriarchs roared, surging forward. Their Nascent Soul might smothered the sky, seeking to crush the assassin into submission.
“So, I couldn’t hide it after all…”
Suspended midair, Lu Qing gave a bitter smile.
He had only copied the inner city’s formation; he hadn’t yet unraveled its secrets. In rging his aura, a tiny flaw remained. And that was enough.
“But catching
won’t be so easy.”
As the Nascent Soul patriarchs lunged like wolves, Lu Qing’s gaze grew calm.
The Li Huo Cauldron stirred within him, deflecting their oppressive force. The five Five Elents Pearls and his Divine Soul Talisman blazed within his brow, shielding his soul from harm.
For the first ti, he unleashed his true strength.
His Flawless Golden Core roared to life, propelling him into a dazzling streak of light.
At the sa ti, a breeze of azure radiance flowed from his Qiankun One Qi Bag, cloaking him in the power of a wind-elent artifact. His speed surged, nearly matching the Nascent Soul patriarchs chasing behind.
That sudden burst left his pursuers dumbstruck.
“Golden Core aura?”
“This assassin… is only Golden Core?”
“Impossible!”
The revelation staggered them. The mysterious figure who had toyed with them all along turned out to be no more than a Golden Core cultivator.
That mont of shock was all Lu Qing needed.
He was already less than a hundred yards from the city wall. With his speed unleashed, he crashed straight toward the blinding barrier.
“He’s mad!”
Even Nascent Soul experts would not dare to touch the array now that it was fully activated. And this re Golden Core cultivator dared to hurl himself into it?
“Die!”
The white-haired patriarch sneered coldly, amplifying the barrier’s power several tis over.
“Even a top-grade spiritual artifact won’t save you!”
But just as they thought Lu Qing was dood, the impossible occurred.
From within his streak of light, a hand seal flew forth and struck the barrier.
The entire wall of light froze—just for an instant.
But in that instant, Lu Qing streaked through unscathed.
Not a scratch touched him.
“What?!”
Every Gongshu patriarch cried out in disbelief.
Even the clan patriarch nearly bulged his eyes from their sockets.
“Father!”
The others arrived at the wall, staring at the terrifying barrier. None dared to follow.
“Silence! I know!”
The patriarch’s face darkened as he tried to withdraw the array’s power. But once fully awakened, even with the disk as its core, it would take over ten breaths to subdue. By then, the thief would be long gone.
His fury seethed. Through the array, his voice thundered across the entire city:
“All Nascent Soul cultivators in the outer city, hear ! Whoever stops that streak of light will be greatly rewarded!”
The outer city erupted.
“That was the Patriarch’s voice!”
“Quick, stop that light!”
“Do not let him escape!”
“Seize him, and the Patriarch’s rewards are ours!”
In a flash, dozens of Nascent Soul auras burst skyward, streaking toward Lu Qing to block his path.
“Those who block … die!”
Lu Qing’s eyes turned cold. Though most of the outer city’s cultivators were only early Nascent Soul, their sheer numbers could overwhelm even him. If they delayed him until the patriarchs arrived, it would be true disaster.
Murderous resolve flooded him.
A sword appeared in his hand.
This was no ordinary weapon—it was a spiritual Flying Sword, seized in his battle atop the Sacred Tianxu Mountain, reforged until none could recognize its origin.
With the sword in hand, his Flawless Golden Core blazed.
Even his terrifying fleshly strength, refined through the Heavenly Witch Body of Ten Thousand Tribulations, poured into his core, rging with his cultivation.
Perfect Golden Core—the ability to rge and convert at will. His fleshly power beca pure spiritual force, magnifying his strength beyond limit.
In that instant, his power transcended a boundary, touching upon the mysterious Tenth Transformation he had already deduced.
A single slash erupted.
Sword light blazed, radiant and destructive, a force to cleave heavens and shatter earth.
One Nascent Soul cultivator had just taken flight, joy gleaming in his eyes. Before he could react, the sword light split him cleanly in two.
The light did not falter. It carved through two more Nascent Soul cultivators behind him.
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