A frivolous voice echoed within this barrier.
Even though the person had not yet appeared, the poisonous spiritual energy spreading from Du Mei Zhenren instantly withered all plants within several hundred meters.
Lin Xinyi saw this and felt even more panicked, completely unable to think of any countermeasure.
Nevertheless, Lin Xinyi simply smiled faintly and slowly took out her spiritual treasure from her storage space.
“What? A dignified Nascent Soul cultivator only now sees through that it was just a substitution talisman~”
Facing such a powerful enemy, Lin Xinyi, despite knowing what she was about to face, did not lower her pride.
The opponent is Nascent Soul, and I am also Nascent Soul.
Why should I hide from them?
“Master, your body can’t handle any more strain. It’s better to avoid their edge and hide behind your disciple. Let your disciple…”
“No need…”
Qin Huaiyin’s body was already riddled with holes.
The corrosion of the poison plus the forced delay earlier had left her internal injuries like a flickering candle in the wind.
The one who needed protection now was none other than Lin Xinyi.
“Master, the poison has entered my body and is incurable. I will rush forward and self-detonate my core to buy you a path to escape…”
“If you die, then what meaning is there in my return?”
Watching the figure slowly approaching from afar, Lin Xinyi felt increasingly unwilling.
Bai Qianqian had repeatedly tortured her, yet she had never yielded.
Now it was just a minor character acting recklessly by taking advantage of realm suppression, and she actually wanted to flee.
The more Lin Xinyi thought about it, the angrier she became.
She yanked off her jade hairpin and threw it to the ground, pulled off the red string from her wrist, tied up her hair that fell to her shoulders, and a cold smile slowly appeared on her lips.
“You tell your master to avoid her edge, but why doesn’t she avoid mine?”
When Qin Huaiyin heard these words, she was momentarily stunned.
It was as if she saw the frivolous and proud Lin Xinyi from that day under the tree.
Even Qin Huaiyin herself didn’t notice the blush that had appeared on her jade-like face.
Lin Xinyi drew the long sword in her hand, changed her stance, and shielded Qin Huaiyin behind her.
Although it was merely a facade, she also burst out with the same Nascent Soul aura.
Du Mei Zhenren, who had been irritated at being toyed with, immediately became alert when she saw the other suddenly charging at her.
For some reason, Lin Xinyi in front of her felt different from before.
Nevertheless, Du Mei Zhenren did not think the other had any chance of victory.
“You don’t think putting on a show can scare me, do you~”
A hint of disdain appeared in Du Mei Zhenren’s eyes.
Immediately, the twelve natal artifacts behind her shot out like pythons, followed closely by her proud spirit beast, the Emerald Spirit Flower Python.
“I hope you don’t die too quickly, because I still want to peel off that pretty face of yours~”
Du Mei Zhenren lightly raised her finger, and a giant python over ten meters long coiled out from her side, quickly slithering towards Lin Xinyi.
Everywhere the python passed left a long trail of corrosion.
[Emerald Spirit Flower Python]
[Awakened Spirit Beast]
[Foundation Establishment Late Stage]
Lin Xinyi saw the python charging at her.
She didn’t expect that this woman, on an undercover mission, would still bring her spirit beast.
Without hesitation, Lin Xinyi reached into her storage space.
[Explosion Talisman] [Qi Gathering Talisman]
“What spirit beast? Just a beast…”
Instantly, the surrounding air coalesced into a small wind blade that flew towards the python, followed by the Explosion Talisman that detonated on impact, raising a cloud of dust.
For a moment, the artifacts and spirit beast lost their target and all stopped in place.
“Using such desperate little tricks? I can find you with just my divine sense~”
Faced with the loss of her target, Du Mei Zhenren did not appear flustered.
She just smiled coldly, thinking the other was merely putting up a dying struggle.
As her Nascent Soul divine sense spread out, no matter how Lin Xinyi resisted, she was just an ant.
However, when her divine sense expanded, Du Mei Zhenren was dumbfounded.
Within the entire barrier, she detected no trace of Lin Xinyi.
It was as if she had vanished.
“What’s going on? Where is that woman?”
Facing Lin Xinyi’s sudden disappearance, Du Mei Zhenren felt a hint of panic for the first time.
Her divine sense should have covered every corner of this barrier.
Yet now, an unstable cultivator had vanished right under her nose.
This infuriated Du Mei Zhenren.
She waved her sleeve, and the dust that had just been raised was blown away.
But when the dust cleared, there was only Qin Huaiyin standing in the distance.
“Hahaha, I thought that woman was up to something. After all that, she’s just abandoned her disciple and run away again~”
Seeing this, Du Mei Zhenren thought Lin Xinyi was repeating her old trick of using her disciple to buy time to escape.
As soon as this thought appeared, Du Mei Zhenren wanted to kill Qin Huaiyin, take her head, and make Lin Xinyi know the consequences of mocking her.
But as she took a step, she suddenly sensed something wrong.
Her spirit beast would not respond.
“What’s going on?”
Realizing the problem, Du Mei Zhenren turned around and saw her Emerald Spirit Flower Python lying motionless not far away, still in the posture of advancing.
“You beast, lying here, why don’t you return to the spirit beast space?”
After calling for a long time with no response from the beast space, she slowly walked over and was stunned by what she saw.
A long sword had pierced through the python from below, and a long bloody line was cut across its back.
Seeing her carefully nurtured spirit beast killed like this, Du Mei Zhenren’s eyes twitched with anger.
“Lin Xinyi!!!”
Du Mei Zhenren kicked over the python’s body.
The deep pit underneath was obviously Lin Xinyi’s handiwork.
She had burrowed underground to avoid her divine sense.
[Earth Travel Talisman]
“Die!”
Before Du Mei Zhenren could recover from her rage, the ground suddenly split open with a crack, and Lin Xinyi’s body emerged, stabbing upward with a blade.
“I knew you were waiting for me here…”
Facing Lin Xinyi’s ambush, Du Mei Zhenren was not flustered.
She just smiled coldly and grabbed Lin Xinyi’s wrist holding the blade.
At the same time, the twelve natal artifacts floating behind her shot out simultaneously.
In the blink of an eye, Lin Xinyi, whose wrist was caught, was pierced through by the twelve natal artifacts, her body suddenly riddled with dozens of holes.
Just when she thought Lin Xinyi was surely dead, the person in her hand suddenly vanished.
Then Du Mei Zhenren frowned slightly.
Another tattered substitution talisman fluttered down with the wind.
Du Mei Zhenren realized this was also a trap and immediately turned to look at Qin Huaiyin’s position.
“No, that woman’s disciple is still…”
Seeing Qin Huaiyin still standing there, before Du Mei Zhenren could react, her foot suddenly sank.
The ground at her location instantly turned into quicksand, and Du Mei Zhenren was sucked in.
“This is the killing move?”
Du Mei Zhenren’s eyes widened.
Before she could react as her body was half submerged, another figure appeared behind her.
Lin Xinyi, blade in hand, struck in one smooth motion, the blade grazing across her neck.
The process was so fluid that even Du Mei Zhenren herself didn’t react.
“Success?”
Just when she thought her ambush had succeeded, Lin Xinyi saw that only half the blade remained in her hand.
Her heart sank.
She realized that no matter how perfect the plan, the gap in strength made even injuring the opponent a luxury.
“Elder Lin, your body is in such a bad state, yet you’ve pushed me to this extent. I suppose I should praise you~”
After saying this, Du Mei Zhenren’s aura suddenly exploded.
In an instant, she leaped out of the trap.
Lin Xinyi’s swift attack had only left a faint white scratch on her neck.
“If you were still at your original mid-Nascent Soul cultivation, that one move alone would have killed me for sure~”
“But unfortunately, you are not. After mocking me repeatedly and killing my spirit beast, Elder Lin, it’s time for you to depart~”
Du Mei Zhenren’s face was extremely ugly.
She had thought this would be an easy job seeing the other’s unstable cultivation, but she hadn’t expected to be delayed until now, and even lose her spirit beast.
Seeing the opponent escape, Lin Xinyi’s hand, holding the dagger, barely moved.
Du Mei Zhenren immediately slashed at her, because too much time had already been wasted.
She couldn’t delay any longer or something might go wrong.
If killing Lin Xinyi earlier was a job, now it was personal.
As the blade in Du Mei Zhenren’s hand flashed by, Lin Xinyi didn’t even have time to react before her head rolled to the ground.
“Honestly, she delayed me for so long. After killing her, I can disguise myself as Elder Lin…”
Du Mei Zhenren intended to turn around and dispose of the other’s disciple.
But when she turned, Qin Huaiyin was standing there motionless, dazed.
Du Mei Zhenren thought she was scared stiff and threw her flying blade at her.
But when the blade struck, Du Mei Zhenren was dumbfounded again.
The feeling was all too familiar.
A breeze blew, and another substitution talisman fluttered to the ground.
“Another… another substitution talisman?! She sacrificed herself just to give her disciple a chance to escape?”
Du Mei Zhenren’s mouth twitched.
But then she suddenly realized something.
She turned and saw the corpse still lying there, but the headless body had no blood flowing out.
Looking closer, she found a pile of gears scattered outside.
“This… this is a Thousand Mechanisms Puppet!!”
Realizing she had been toyed with again, Du Mei Zhenren could no longer hold back.
At this moment, the distant barrier gave a sensation of being touched.
Du Mei Zhenren understood that everything just now was to force her to waste time.
She had been made a fool of again.
As the barrier was touched, Lin Xinyi was already extremely weak.
The constant use of talismans had drained her like never before.
Her body felt hollow, unable to squeeze out even a drop of spiritual power.
‘The puppet has been seen through too? Heaven is destroying me…’
Lin Xinyi looked at the barrier-breaking talisman stuck to the barrier.
She could only place Qin Huaiyin, whom she was holding, under a nearby tree.
Once again, she overdrew her blood essence to activate the barrier-breaking talisman, hoping it would break quickly, even if it was just a small hole.
But sometimes despair comes faster than hope.
Lin Xinyi suddenly sensed a crisis and immediately dodged to the side.
The next moment, a powerful pressure enveloped the area.
“Elder Lin, are you a rat or something?…”
Having been toyed with repeatedly, Du Mei Zhenren didn’t want to waste any more words.
Seeing her ambush fail, she charged directly, a pair of sharp claws appearing in her hands.
If even a scratch touched Lin Xinyi, she would instantly turn into blood.
Lin Xinyi wanted to escape and struggle again, but her empty spiritual power wouldn’t allow any more effort.
‘Damn it, I’m really going to die at the hands of such a small fry… I’m so unwilling…’
Du Mei Zhenren moved like a breeze, instantly appearing before Lin Xinyi.
Seeing her sitting weakly by the barrier, she unleashed her claws and the twelve natal artifacts at the same time, aiming to leave no trace of her.
“Die! Lin Xinyi!”
Just as Du Mei Zhenren was about to pierce Lin Xinyi’s heart, she suddenly widened her eyes.
A flash of a different color passed before her, and in an instant, as if she were a disposable item, she was punched flying.
“What were you just trying to do to my only friend…”