Mo Feng, standing behind, was completely dumbfounded.
He caught it?
He actually caught a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s strike with one hand?
And look at his movement—it was so effortless!
He didn’t even bend his waist!
This kind of ultimate control over power… could it be… the long-lost divine ability of the Nine Heavens Sect—’Great Skill Without Artifice’?
It must be!
Mo Feng roared wildly in his heart.
This Lin Yue must be the illegitimate son of some Grand Elder, coming down the mountain to temper his state of mind.
I actually wanted him to move bricks before?
I really deserve to die!
Mo Feng wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes becoming extremely determined.
“Junior Brother Lin, I’ll support you. Feel free to go all out!”
Lin Yue’s face was full of question marks.
Support?
Brother, the way you look right now, it’d be great if you just don’t cause trouble for me.
“Steward Mo, you should step back a bit. This thing has quite a bit of aftershock. It’d be bad if it damaged your purple robe.”
As Lin Yue spoke, he gripped the middle section of the heavy sword.
His gaze gradually deepened.
Within his Sea of Consciousness, the Karmic Ledger violently flipped to a new page:
“Task: Make Zhao Wu ‘doubt his life’ within three moves without exposing demonic energy.”
“Reward: Unlock the heavy sword’s exclusive special effect—’Profound Magnetic Gravity Field’. Failure Penalty: Chu Wanning will sense the token is damaged and use it as a pretext to forcibly take you as her ‘personal attendant’.”
‘Tch, to avoid becoming a male concubine, it seems I have to get a little serious.’
“Such big talk! Turn into bloody water for me!”
Zhao Wu was thoroughly enraged.
He bit the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of vital blood onto his long blade.
Blood light surged brilliantly, transforming into a ferocious blood python that carried a foul stench corroding the air as it roared and charged towards Lin Yue.
“Blood Fiend Python Slaughter!”
Lin Yue stood in place, his right foot suddenly taking half a step back.
The bluestone slabs on the ground, unable to withstand this instantaneously erupting force, instantly turned into fine dust.
He didn’t swing the great sword to slash at the blood python.
Instead, he leveled the heavy sword and then, with an extremely slow, extremely heavy rhythm, gave the air in front of him a fierce slap.
“Heavy Sword Third Form—Mountain Quake!”
Bzzzzzzz—!!!
A deep, vibrating sound, so low it could stop a heart, instantly blanketed the entire canyon.
In that moment, Mo Feng felt he wasn’t standing on solid ground, but on a sieve that was shaking violently.
The air seemed to become solid.
Under that vibrating frequency, the ferocious blood python hadn’t even gotten within five zhang of Lin Yue before it began to violently disintegrate.
First, its eyeballs shattered, then its scales flew off.
Finally.
The entire blood python, condensed from a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s vital blood, was actually shaken into the most primitive spiritual energy particles mid-air by that invisible vibrational force field, dissipating without a trace.
“This… what kind of sword technique is this?!”
Zhao Wu’s eyes widened in terror as he tried to retreat.
But he realized it was too late.
The aftershocks of the vibration traveled through the air and reached his body.
Pfft!
Zhao Wu spat out a mouthful of blood.
He felt all the bones in his body creaking.
His proud Foundation Establishment protective spiritual energy, in the face of that high-frequency vibration, was like a fragile sheet of thin paper.
“It’s not over yet.”
Lin Yue took a step forward, his figure so fast it left afterimages.
He had already appeared in front of Zhao Wu.
The pitch-black iron pillar, with a sharp whistling sound, gently tapped Zhao Wu’s chest.
There was no bone-shattering impact as one might imagine.
Lin Yue’s strike was as gentle as dusting off an old friend he hadn’t seen in years.
But at the moment of contact, Zhao Wu’s entire body suddenly trembled violently.
It was the heavy sword’s force directly penetrating the surface, causing resonance within his internal organs.
“Brother Zhao, being an assassin who doesn’t eat steamed buns, and a traitor who doesn’t use his brain.”
Lin Yue leaned close to his ear, whispering in a voice only the two of them could hear: “This jade token, since I dared to take it, this debt, you can’t repay.”
Zhao Wu’s eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets.
He wanted to beg for mercy, but his throat was full of shattered blood clots; he couldn’t utter a single word.
“Go on, return to your Blood Fiend Sect, tell your master.”
Lin Yue withdrew the heavy sword, casually patting Zhao Wu’s cheek:
“In the future, when sending people over, remember to bring some decent gifts. This kind of ‘fake Foundation Establishment’ really kills the mood.”
After saying this, Lin Yue casually waved his hand.
Zhao Wu’s entire body flew out like a kite with its string cut, flying dozens of zhang away, heavily crashing into the canyon’s stone wall, then sliding down to the ground like a lump of mud.
He wasn’t dead.
But because his internal organs had been cracked by the vibrations, he would never have the possibility of advancing further in this lifetime.
Destroying a genius’s future is often more painful for them than killing them.
Inside the canyon.
Deathly silence.
The outer sect disciples who had followed Mo Feng all stood with their mouths agape, even forgetting to breathe.
Mo Feng was even more dumbstruck.
He looked at Lin Yue’s slender back, then at the Foundation Establishment traitor on the ground who had been instantly defeated with one move.
His brain had completely crashed.
Three moves?
No, if you count that casual flick, Lin Yue only used two!
And that power… that calmness that treated Foundation Establishment like ants…
He must have sealed his cultivation!
He’s definitely a secret inspector sent down by the Sect Master!
“Steward Mo, as for the cleanup work, I’ll trouble you with it.”
Lin Yue turned around, reverting to that boneless posture again.
He carried the iron pillar, swaying over to Mo Feng’s side, and said shamelessly:
“That Zhao Wu’s storage pouch should have quite a few good things. Since you led us to repel the strong enemy, the spoils naturally belong to you. However… on the report after returning to the mountain, could you write that I was so cowardly I hid under the carriage the whole time?”
Mo Feng jolted, quickly cupping his hands in salute, his tone extremely humble:
“Junior Brother Lin… Sir Lin! Please don’t joke. If not for your mighty display today, we’d probably all be dead here. That Zhao Wu’s storage pouch, you should keep it, you keep it…”
“Ah, Steward Mo, you’re too polite.”
Lin Yue forcibly stuffed the storage pouch into Mo Feng’s arms.
“I’m a person who just wants to live a peaceful life, I don’t want to show off. You understand what I mean, right?”
Mo Feng looked at the “meaningful” look in Lin Yue’s eyes, suddenly puffing out his chest:
“I understand! I understand! Sir Lin wants to experience the hardships and joys of the mortal world, unwilling to have your secluded cultivation disturbed! I will definitely report truthfully—I’ll say today we encountered Zhao Wu, I, Mo, resisted desperately, and in the end, Zhao Wu was severely injured and fled. Junior Brother Lin… due to excessive fright, slept in the carriage the entire time!”
Lin Yue patted Mo Feng’s shoulder, looking pleased:
“Steward Mo, your awareness, really, you have a boundless future in the Nine Heavens Sect.”
The convoy set off again.
Lin Yue lay on the swaying carriage roof, hands behind his head, watching the blue sky and white clouds.
In his Sea of Consciousness, the ledger made a pleased sound:
“Task complete. ‘Profound Magnetic Gravity Field’ unlocked. Zhao Wu’s karma settled. Evaluation: The way you are now, you look exactly like a soft rice man who swaggers around relying on his wife’s (Chu Wanning) reputation.”
‘Eating soft rice with a tough attitude, that’s the real skill,’ Lin Yue mentally retorted.
And at that moment.
On the thousand-ren sheer cliff above Dragon’s Mouth Gorge.
A figure in green was holding that black cloth bundle, quietly looking down at the convoy below.
Mu Qingzhu looked at the young man on the carriage roof chewing on a dog’s tail grass, a flash of deep confusion in her eyes.
“That vibration…”
She touched the hilt of the sword in her embrace.
“Even I might not be able to withstand it.”
She originally thought Lin Yue was a “lucky one” who needed a reminder.
Now it seemed.
He was the most unfathomable player in this game.
“Since you’re this strong…”
Mu Qingzhu’s figure gradually blurred.
“Then this ‘Nine Revolutions Soul-Seizing Pill’, I won’t block it for you.”
She vanished.
As if she had never appeared.
On the carriage roof, Lin Yue suddenly opened his eyes, looking in that direction, a faint, elusive smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
“Miss, peeping requires a fee.”
He rolled over and went back to sleep.
At the same time, Nine Heavens Sect, Inner Sect Main Peak.
Chu Wanning was kneeling under an ancient pine, a pure white jade zither placed before her.
Her mind was somewhat unsettled.
Her fingertips brushed the strings, but produced a slightly dry, crisp sound.
“Wanning, your heart is unsettled.”
An aged yet gentle voice came from behind the ancient pine.
Chu Wanning lowered her head, looking at her empty waist: “Master, I gave the jade token… to someone.”
“Oh?” The figure behind the pine clearly paused. “To which family’s talented youth?”
“The outer sect, a brick mover.”
Chu Wanning’s mind conjured the image of Lin Yue chewing on a sugar-coated hawthorn stick.
Her originally cool gaze actually held a few ripples she herself hadn’t noticed.
“He said… if hawthorns aren’t sour, then they lose their soul.”
A long silence from behind the pine.
Finally, it turned into a helpless sigh:
“In that case, then let him come to the upcoming Ten Thousand Swords Grand Ceremony as well.”
Chu Wanning slightly bowed her head:
“Yes.”