When Xia Lingshuang regained her ability to move and rejoined the battle, the scene before her left her astonished.
The Xue Zun, who just moments ago had seemed to dominate heaven and earth with unrivaled arrogance, had now fallen completely into the disadvantage.
The sky-filling Blood Sea had vanished, and the towering Blood Pillar was nowhere to be seen.
He couldn’t even immediately regenerate the arm that Wu Yan had cut off.
However, what shocked Xia Lingshuang even more was Wu Yan’s current cultivation level.
Not long ago, when she had fought alongside Xia Lingshuang against Xue Zun, Wu Yan’s cultivation had only been at the Golden Core Stage, seemingly on the verge of breaking through to the Nascent Soul Stage.
But now, Wu Yan was single-handedly trouncing Xue Zun before her very eyes. There was no way her cultivation was merely Golden Core Stage!
“Wu Yan…”
A tingling sensation spread across her throat, causing Xia Lingshuang’s voice to come out nine parts hoarse.
Hearing her voice, Wu Yan turned around to look at Xia Lingshuang.
Only then did Xia Lingshuang see Wu Yan’s current condition clearly.
Most of her hair had been dyed a crimson red, and her usually calm face now looked somewhat pale.
Only her ink-black eyes still sparkled with vitality.
Just as Wu Yan turned around, a flicker of desperation passed through Xue Zun’s eyes.
In an instant, his Magic Power condensed into a Long Spear that shot toward Wu Yan’s heart.
“Watch out!”
Before Xia Lingshuang’s words even faded, Wu Yan, as if she had eyes on the back of her head, swung her hand back without even turning around.
A blue-gray sword arc mingled with Moonlight Essence, slicing through space.
After swallowing the spear, it immediately appeared before Xue Zun.
Under Xue Zun’s incredulous gaze, his body was split in two from head to tail.
His intestines burst forth, still convulsing in the pool of blood.
Wu Yan walked over to Xia Lingshuang and examined her.
“Are you alright, Master?”
“I’m fine.”
Looking at Wu Yan’s tattered Daoist robes and the bloodstains still on her face, Xia Lingshuang asked:
“What happened to your cultivation?”
Wu Yan didn’t answer.
She merely raised her left hand, and cold-white Spiritual Power flowed through the air into Xia Lingshuang’s body.
After just one circulation cycle, Xia Lingshuang could feel her wounds healing remarkably fast.
And most importantly, Xia Lingshuang could sense that the cultivation barrier that had long stood before her was now showing signs of loosening.
“Wu Yan, what exactly…”
“Master, I need your help.”
The pure Spiritual Power continued to pour into Xia Lingshuang’s body without stop.
Wu Yan’s voice now carried no warmth, much like the person she had been when she first arrived in this world.
“That attack just now still couldn’t destroy Xue Zun.”
Sensing that Xia Lingshuang had reached her limit for absorbing Spiritual Power, Wu Yan stopped.
“Although I hate to admit it, I still can’t completely kill him right now. Master, I hope to join forces with you and end the grudge between Piaomiao Sect and him once and for all.”
Xia Lingshuang naturally understood what Wu Yan was doing.
She wanted Xia Lingshuang to “take over” this credit.
Although Xia Lingshuang was nominally the current Sect Master of Piaomiao Sect, in reality, whether within or outside the sect, there would always be a group of people who didn’t accept her position.
But if Xia Lingshuang could personally slay Xue Zun today, things would be different.
The two walked side by side toward Xue Zun, who was still on the ground, wriggling the two halves of his body and forcibly piecing himself back together.
Moonlight fell upon the two of them like a thin veil draped over their shoulders.
After barely managing to piece his body together, Xue Zun struggled to his feet with a cold sneer on his face.
“Heh, so what if I was betrayed? So what if your cultivation skyrocketed? As long as my Blood Demon Body remains, you’ll never be able to kill me in this lifetime!”
“I will always have a day to make a comeback! Once isn’t enough, I’ll do it twice! Twice isn’t enough, four times! One day, I will raze Piaomiao Sect to the ground and kill everyone here!”
Indeed, he had mastered the Blood Demon Body twenty years ago.
That was exactly why, during the trial back then, they had chosen to imprison him instead.
Even now, eliminating Xue Zun would likely require at least the Great Perfection Stage’s cultivation.
But cultivators at the Great Perfection Stage had long since vanished without a trace.
Even if a few still lived, they were old monsters of the Five Great Sects who couldn’t easily leave seclusion.
They wouldn’t intervene in such matters unless it happened to them personally.
So what could be done now?
“Master, can you freeze him for me?”
Wu Yan’s clear, cold voice sounded in her ear.
Xia Lingshuang turned her head and saw Wu Yan looking up slightly, her gaze fixed on the round moon hanging high in the sky.
Tonight’s moon was exceptionally round.
If Xia Lingshuang remembered correctly, this should be the fullest moon in the past twenty years.
Right, today seemed to be the Mid-Autumn Festival.
“I can.”
In the blink of an eye, Xia Lingshuang turned her attention back.
“Then I’ll leave it to you, Master.”
After saying this, Wu Yan closed her eyes, seemingly circulating some technique.
Xia Lingshuang naturally didn’t stay idle.
Xue Zun had been beaten by Wu Yan to the point of having no ability to resist, so Xia Lingshuang merely raised Shuang Hua.
The Spiritual Power Wu Yan had transmitted just now circulated through Xia Lingshuang’s body once, and Shuang Hua’s blade erupted with a blindingly dazzling light.
The surrounding temperature plummeted instantly, and frost even began to form.
“Shuang Hua — Freeze!”
Xue Zun was immediately frozen in place, unable to move, though his consciousness could still observe his surroundings.
That Wu Yan was truly remarkable, able to raise her cultivation all the way to the Body Integration Stage.
But this should be her limit.
He’d like to see how the two of them could possibly kill him.
‘Hm? What’s going on? Is it getting brighter around here?’
Trapped in the ice, Xue Zun suddenly noticed something off.
Xia Lingshuang also noticed that the moon seemed to have grown even brighter.
Wu Yan was off to the side, brandishing the sword in her hand.
With each swing of her sword, a strand of Moonlight Essence would fall into her body.
As her movements grew faster and more fluid, the Moonlight Essence she absorbed increased as well.
In the end, a torrential surge of Moonlight Essence gushed forth as if answering some call, rushing eagerly into Wu Yan’s body.
The dense, almost turbid silver-white Light Pillar stirred intense unease in Xue Zun’s heart.
He began to struggle wildly.
However, no matter how hard he tried, he could only barely shatter the ice above his head.
“Wait! Don’t kill me yet! I have a lot of information! I can tell you everything, as long as you spare my life!”
It was too late.
The Light Pillar enveloping Wu Yan was like a great river spanning eternity, transcending time and space.
The commotion was so immense that every disciple of Piaomiao Sect couldn’t help but turn their gaze toward that Light Pillar.
“That’s the Main Peak!”
“Is that Sect Master Xia?!”
“Thank goodness, Piaomiao Sect is saved!”
Xuanjizi let out a sigh of relief.
Although he didn’t know why the Demonic Cultivator who had been blocking them and holding the upper hand had chosen to simply leave, at least now they were safe.
“We need to hurry to Piaomiao Sect to provide support!”
“The ones blocking us were only a fraction of their forces. The main force is at Piaomiao Sect right now. We must get there as quickly as possible!”
Just as Xuanjizi was about to rally everyone to move out, a terrifying pressure suddenly came from the direction of Piaomiao Sect, pressing down on everyone so heavily that they could barely breathe.
Above Qingshan City, Gan Mu, who had been beaten to the brink of death by Shen Qingzhou and the others, was rescued by a woman in red who swung her Long Whip.
Shen Qingzhou was about to lead the group forward when she noticed that the Moonlight Essence in the moon seemed to be continuously gathering toward a certain fixed direction.
Then came that dazzling silver-white Light Pillar.
Shen Qingzhou’s expression turned serious, and she murmured to herself:
“This aura…”
“The Great Perfection Stage.”