In the pitch-black cave, the spatial teleportation array lit up with a series of abnormal white lights, dense runes connecting to form the Great Dao of Space.
Xu Mu, holding the array disk, stood in the center of the formation, cautiously moving his steps.
For every command from Qi Long, he had to confirm it repeatedly before acting. The Great Dao of Space was profound and unfathomable; he didn't want to be sucked into an alternate dimension!
Time passed quickly. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Xu Mu was already drenched in sweat, his spiritual energy depleted by more than half.
The spatial formation before him had only one final crack remaining.
"Hold on a little longer, it'll be fixed soon!"
"I can't hold on anymore!" Zuo Mingqiu, gripping the collar of the old man from the Demon Extermination Division, retreated rapidly to ten meters in front of the formation.
Then, he leaned on the New Sun Sword and knelt on one knee, his voice hoarse and weak.
"My spiritual energy is completely depleted."
The old man from the Demon Extermination Division endured the searing pain, stuffing his intestines back into his abdomen, and then bandaged the wound with cloth strips torn from his sleeve, soaked in blood.
But the bleeding continued.
He had no less than twenty such wounds all over his body.
"Don't mind me anymore. I can still self-detonate my divine soul!" The old man leaned on the nearby rocks, forcing himself to stand up, and said intermittently, indistinctly.
"If you could self-detonate, you would have done so long ago. Why wait until now?" Mei Chuan's spiritual body gradually condensed from a puff of green smoke, her demonic core floating at its center, continuously supplying her with energy.
As she reshaped her body, she taunted the old man, "Old man, cornered, you still try to scare me with this trick."
"I, the valley master, am young and beautiful, and my appearance never fades. Do you really take me for a three-year-old child?"
Upon hearing this, the old man forced a strained smile.
"If you're not afraid, why don't you dare to come and try?"
The green smoke converged, and Mei Chuan's half-human, half-demon body began to take on a solid form, her features gradually becoming clear.
She chuckled mockingly.
"Even with a one in ten thousand chance, I still won't give you this opportunity!"
Seeing this, the old man fell into despair.
Zuo Mingqiu was also very helpless. Given the current situation, Mei Chuan's spiritual body would condense again within five breaths, and her combat power would recover to the initial stage of the fifth level.
Just moments ago, he and the old man had cooperated, using the joint techniques of the Daoist sect and the Demon Extermination Division, and with the aid of the New Sun Sword, they had suppressed Mei Chuan from the inside out, scattering her countless times, but they couldn't kill her.
This was because her demonic core was too hard.
Even his strongest sword strike, combined with the Five Thunders True Law, could only leave a shallow, uneven scratch on it. As long as the demonic core remained unbroken, Mei Chuan could reform her physical body an infinite number of times.
In the end, Mei Chuan didn't die, but their spiritual energy was completely depleted.
"The gap in cultivation realms is still too vast."
Zuo Mingqiu sighed faintly. Even if he were half a realm higher, a Lord of the fourth level, he wouldn't feel this powerless.
Not to mention killing Mei Chuan, he could at least have bought more time until Xu Mu finished repairing the array!
"Five seconds left!"
Xu Mu shouted loudly.
"You have no more chances!"
Mei Chuan completed her physical condensation and shrieked as she lunged forward.
Zuo Mingqiu's face turned pale. At this moment, he had no ability to resist.
The old man from the Demon Extermination Division was also powerless. He could only use his last ounce of strength to leap forward, using his body to buy Xu Mu time.
Qi Long's eyes were bloodshot, and he also forced himself to stand up from the ground, ready to sacrifice his life to block Mei Chuan.
Even so, they might not be able to stop her. Mei Chuan possessed the power of a Domain Lord at the fifth level. Killing two ordinary people with no cultivation would take less than a breath.
At this moment, the only one capable of acting was Xu Mu.
But he was repairing the array.
So, who would stop Mei Chuan?
"—Whoosh!"
A smooth streak of white sword energy, like a swimming fish, shot from the cave entrance towards Mei Chuan's demonic core. Immediately after, a spotless, light, and cold sword fiercely stabbed into Mei Chuan's grayish-green demonic core.
—Clang!
With a clear sound like striking metal, the fish-like sword bent and was then sent flying by the demonic energy Mei Chuan unleashed. However, she also cried out in pain, her newly formed physical body almost dissipating. She was forced to land on the ground.
Mei Chuan turned her head and shouted, "Who is it!"
Sun Tong, holding the White Fish Immortal Sword and clutching his chest, stood up from the ground, his eyes filled with fear yet determination, and shouted at Mei Chuan, "It's me!"
"Master, I've come to save you!"
Zuo Mingqiu frowned upon hearing this and coldly ordered, "Who is your master? You are older than I am. This is none of your business. Get out quickly!"
Sun Tong, however, ignored him and charged at Mei Chuan, roaring with his sword. Mei Chuan, seeing that the newcomer was merely a ghost of the third realm, casually struck him, sending him flying dozens of meters away. He crashed heavily against the rock wall, spitting out large mouthfuls of blood.
"Pfft!"
Sun Tong lost his combat ability and lay on the ground. From the time he stabbed Mei Chuan's demonic core until now, only two breaths had passed.
Xu Mu's array was not yet repaired.
Therefore, he had to stand up.
Sun Tong used the White Fish to prop himself up, and with strength he didn't know he had, he suddenly straightened his body and then unleashed a flawless, transparent sword energy towards Mei Chuan's demonic core.
Mei Chuan completely ignored him, her face contorted into a sinister grin as she charged towards Xu Mu and the others. Sun Tong's sword energy only made her movements falter slightly.
Seeing this, Sun Tong's face turned ashen.
This was already his full strength, but it was still not enough time.
"Stop!"
The old man from the Demon Extermination Division, holding a dark gold dagger, fiercely stabbed towards Mei Chuan. However, he had no spiritual energy left. Mei Chuan didn't even need to make a special move; she simply swept past with her demonic energy, and the old man was sent flying dozens of meters away, incidentally knocking over Qi Long, who was trying to make a desperate move.
Two breaths remained until the array was repaired.
Only Zuo Mingqiu stood between Mei Chuan and the others.
But he couldn't stop Mei Chuan.
"There's no other way!" Seeing this, Xu Mu painfully put down the array crack he was about to fully mend. He instantly gripped his saber and rushed to Zuo Mingqiu's side, slashing down with his saber.
Mei Chuan's face was ferocious. Of course, she knew Xu Mu had defeated her disciple Li Zao, but so what? She was a Domain Lord of the fifth level. In a head-on confrontation, she could kill him with a single blow!
—Clang!
Mei Chuan's scaled palm collided with Xu Mu's hunting saber. Their eyes met across the distance, and time seemed to freeze.
Xu Mu saw Mei Chuan's strange vertical pupils.
Mei Chuan saw Xu Mu's eyes, which had a hint of gray-white.
Why were this human's eyes changing color?
Before Mei Chuan could ponder this question, a fierce, intense pain erupted from her lower abdomen. Countless subtle cracking sounds echoed, like the shell of an egg.
Mei Chuan seemed to guess something, her vertical pupils constricting to the extreme. She retreated with all her might, and in doing so, her right arm was severed by Xu Mu's saber.
—Ah!
Mei Chuan's spiritual body let out a tragic scream. She clutched her lower abdomen with her left hand, staggered back a few steps, and then tripped over a small stone.
Seeing this, the gray-white color in Xu Mu's eyes rapidly receded. In the Heavenly Palace of his Sea of Consciousness, the furious roar of the gray-white pupil sounded, "If you haven't figured out how to let me out, don't knock on the Heavenly Palace door. I'm cultivating!"
Xu Mu looked at Mei Chuan, who had fallen to the ground, with astonishment and mumbled sheepishly.
"It's not like a turning point didn't appear."
"What's going on!"
Mei Chuan's condition left Zuo Mingqiu and the others stunned. Qi Long, lying on the ground and pinned by the old man, could only turn his eyeballs, but he had seen everything that had just happened.
Mei Chuan charged forward.
Xu Mu met her with his saber.
Then Mei Chuan was sent flying backward, her arm severed, yet she clutched her abdomen and tripped over a stone.
Was Xu Mu that powerful?
Xu Mu looked at Mei Chuan, who was howling in pain, clutching her abdomen, her demonic energy rapidly dissipating, and exclaimed, "It must be her true form! Something has happened to her true form!"
—Who!
Mei Chuan shrieked. Her demonic energy was rapidly vanishing, and her cultivation level plummeted, from Domain Lord to Lord, then to the third level, the second level... In the end, she didn't even have the strength to wail, lying on the ground like a corpse, her spiritual body infinitely close to transparency.
In her lower abdomen lay her shattered grayish-green demonic core.
Mei Chuan was a dual cultivator of human and demon. Therefore, her heart and demonic core were equally important. If one body died, the other would also die. This was why she had instructed Li Zao to guard her physical body.
So, who had pierced her heart?
A clamor erupted outside the cave, followed by a surging tide that rushed in and arrived at the near-dead Mei Chuan in a flash.
Xu Mu, who had resumed repairing the last crack in the formation, exclaimed upon seeing the newcomers, "It's Li Zao! Sun Tong, quickly stop her!"
"No need." Zuo Mingqiu looked at Li Zao with a pale face and said calmly, "Mei Chuan was killed by her."
The mountain suddenly fell silent.
Sun Tong, holding the White Fish, stood shoulder to shoulder with Zuo Mingqiu, unsure whether to act.
"Rebellious... rebellious disciple." Mei Chuan's spiritual body gradually dissipated. She opened her mouth with difficulty, like a fish dying of thirst.
"Why..."
Li Zao looked at Mei Chuan, who was lying on the ground, on the verge of death, with pity. She squatted down and gently stroked her aged face, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes and dripping onto Mei Chuan's transparent form.
Her voice was hoarse as she looked at Mei Chuan and said.
"Since childhood, you taught me to cultivate. When you told me to kill, I killed. When you told me to pretend to be a beggar and join the Moon God Sect, I did. I was there for six years. After I helped you annex the Moon God Sect and kill the elders and friends who had taken care of me for six years, you then made me the prospective valley master of Plum Blossom Valley, to marry the Third Prince as a concubine and steal the imperial family's dragon fortune."
"Master, your heart is truly too venomous. I don't want to live like that anymore."
Li Zao said with tears streaming down her face, and then, holding the Black Tide Sword, she brutally smashed Mei Chuan's demonic core.
"Crack!"
The demonic core exploded, shards scattering more than five meters away.
Mei Chuan's eyes widened, unable to utter her last words before her soul completely departed.
Qi Long, lying on the ground, saw this scene and tears immediately streamed from his eyes. He couldn't help but laugh heartily, "Hahaha! Mei Chuan, Mei Chuan, you wicked woman! You harmed countless people in your life, only to be killed by your own disciple in the end. How satisfying, how satisfying! Hahaha!"
"You, a scoundrel colluding with the Xia, today we shall avenge Valley Master Mei!"
At the cave entrance, An Jin roared and charged out.
Behind him were all the sword cultivators present. Their momentum was immense, and their gazes were filled with greed and madness.
"The formation in the cave is broken, and even two people came in unharmed. I only realize now that I was quite foolish!" An Jin looked at the fragments on the ground, then at Qi Long lying on the ground and the dead Mei Chuan, and then at Xu Mu, who was squatting on the ground doing something furtively. He then let out a triumphant laugh again.
"Fortunately, it's not too late!"
"Repaired!"
At this moment, Xu Mu shouted, holding the array disk and the array hub, and immediately activated the spatial teleportation array. The runes inscribed on the ground instantly lit up, and a profound power was generated.
"Pull them two and leave quickly!" Zuo Mingqiu stepped onto the array in one stride, and Sun Tong was quick to react, pulling the Demon Extermination Division elder, who had fainted from excessive blood loss, and Qi Long into the array.
At the last moment, Li Zao also stepped onto the array.
"Let's go together."
She stood on the array and said indifferently. Then, she turned around, showing her back to Zuo Mingqiu and Xu Mu. Raising the sword named Black Tide, she unleashed a tsunami of sword energy condensed from cold plum blossoms towards the front.
"Boom!"
A group of sword cultivators, with looks of terror on their faces, rushed into this tsunami of sword energy without hesitation, desperately trying to step into the teleportation array, but in the end, they could only helplessly drift in this tsunami.
An Jin's figure paused in mid-air for a moment, then, at the cost of spitting out blood, he burst through. However, at this moment, the spatial teleportation array had already completed its operation, and the soaring white light blazed to its extreme.
"No!"
An Jin cried out in horror, half his body pushing into the white light.
But the next second, the white light disappeared.
His feet landed on the extinguished Dao runes.
Before him, Xu Mu and the others were nowhere to be seen!