In danger

Long Chen and the Evil Path Elder both let out a shout at the same time, the energy within their bodies surging out like a raging sea, both trying to use their Spiritual Qi to blast the other away.

This was an extremely critical moment; seizing the initiative was essential. Whoever faltered and was forced back first would face a storm of attacks from the other, leading to defeat and death.

Therefore, this strike was a matter of life and death, so both of them erupted with all their might, holding nothing back.

"Boom, boom, boom…"

As the two erupted with their full power, space trembled and the earth cracked. Unable to withstand their terrifying strength, the ground began to sink, and a massive crater appeared beneath their feet.

This crater continued to expand as their power increased, and within a few breaths, it had spread over a radius of several dozen miles.

"Boom!"

With an explosive sound, the two retreated simultaneously, having fought to a standstill; neither was able to suppress the other.

The entire battlefield, friend and foe alike, fell into a daze; Long Chen's power had shocked everyone.

"Kill!"

Long Chen let out a violent roar that shook the heavens. With the Evil Slayer in his hand carrying an unstoppable Aura, he charged straight at the Evil Path Elder. This time, Long Chen took the initiative.

The key was that he had no choice but to take the initiative. While the full-body Fengfu Battle Body was terrifyingly powerful, its consumption was equally terrifying.

Even with the divine ring supporting him, it was a case of expenses exceeding income. He wouldn't be able to hold on for long before his Spiritual Qi was completely exhausted.

This was also the most helpless part for Long Chen; he was powerful, but he lacked endurance.

Long Chen knew that unless he opened the Jade Balance Star, there was no way to alleviate this situation, so he could only endure it for now.

Therefore, Long Chen had to unleash his full power and kill this old Evil Path ghost before his Spiritual Qi ran out; otherwise, he would be the one to die.

Long Chen couldn't count on anyone else to save him, because if he had that thought and adopted a stalling tactic, losing his sharp edge, this terrifyingly powerful Evil Path Elder would kill him within a few moves.

What made Long Chen maddest was that at this moment, the will deep within his Soul began to interfere with him again, making him harbor the intention to kill the Evil Path Elder.

To make a small, insignificant Blood Condensation Realm rookie like him go and kill a Bone Forging Realm old monster who didn't know how many years he had lived—wasn't that just bullying?

But even if it was bullying, Long Chen had to do it. He had no way back; he could only move forward.

The Evil Slayer carried boundless power as it slashed fiercely at the Evil Path Elder. The three moves were like a single technique, flowing as smoothly as a great river.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

Three consecutive explosions rang out, and to the Evil Path Elder's horror, Long Chen's three moves possessed a strange overlapping effect.

After the first strike, the second strike carried the residual power of the first, making it even more powerful. The third strike carried the residual power of the first two, like overlapping ocean waves, with a force capable of swallowing the sky.

The Evil Path Elder was forced to retreat continuously. After being pushed back by the first strike, he was suppressed by Long Chen's Aura and instantly forced into a disadvantage.

The subsequent two strikes were even more violent, especially the third. The Evil Path Elder could no longer withstand that overwhelming force and was finally blasted flying.

Long Chen was waiting for this exact moment. After the third slash, he poured every bit of his remaining strength into the Evil Slayer. A hundred-foot blade shadow shot into the sky, like the blade of a Heavenly God, carrying the will to shatter the firmament as it slashed down from the air!

"Heaven Splitting!"

One slash shook the heavens, causing the universe to tremble. This was currently Long Chen's strongest strike, draining the last of his remaining Spiritual Qi.

Because Long Chen realized that if he didn't trigger Heaven Splitting now, even if he swung his blade one more time, his remaining Spiritual Qi wouldn't be enough to activate it, so success or failure depended on this one move.

This strike was one of Long Chen's entire body and Soul. It carried his unstoppable will and the determination to sacrifice himself for victory—there was no retreat, only life or death.

The moment Long Chen's blade slashed down, the Evil Path Elder's expression changed drastically. His eyes were filled with shock. In that instant, every hair on his body stood on end, and an extremely intense threat of death filled his heart.

Most importantly, he had been blown away by Long Chen's third strike, leaving him unable to dodge or borrow force, because just as his feet were about to touch the ground, the long blade slashed down. Every calculation was meticulous.

Mid-air, he had nowhere to borrow force. Seeing the blade slash through the heavens and earth, locking onto him, the Evil Path Elder let out a sharp cry, concentrating all his power into his right hand.

In an instant, that right hand turned pitch black as iron, as if dyed with ink, while the rest of his body dimmed. He had extracted all his power and concentrated it into that one punch.

"Ink Yin Ghost Claw!"

The Evil Path Elder roared, his claw, hard as black iron, slapping fiercely against Long Chen's Evil Slayer.

When Long Chen's Evil Slayer collided with the Evil Path Elder's ghost claw, the whole world went silent, as if the heavens and earth had lost their sound.

"Boom!"

After the silence, an explosive sound arrived. The force capable of splitting mountains and shattering peaks erupted. The earth shattered, dust flew, and a crater was blasted out of the surrounding dozens of miles by the terrifying power.

When the dust slowly dispersed, people were shocked to find that at the bottom of the giant crater, two figures were facing each other several miles apart.

Long Chen lay on the ground, the Evil Slayer stuck beside him. His clothes were shattered, his hair was messy, and there was a large patch of blood on his chest. He lay on the ground, breathing frantically.

His body was still trembling continuously; that was a phenomenon that only occurred after overdrawing his physical stamina. The previous strike had exhausted all his energy—not just his Spiritual Qi, but his Physical Body strength as well.

Long Chen felt as if he were about to die. He had no strength left in his body, not even enough to move a finger.

Now, he could only look with difficulty at the Evil Path Elder, but upon seeing that figure still standing there, Long Chen's pupils couldn't help but shrink.

The Evil Path Elder was still standing there, but his old face was as pale as paper, and his eyes were full of shock, staring at his own arm in disbelief.

His entire right arm was gone. Under Long Chen's terrifying strike, his right arm, which had gathered a lifetime of cultivation, had been unable to withstand Long Chen's power and had exploded into pieces.

This left him both shocked and enraged. As a "Eight-Sacrifice" Bone Forging Realm expert, the bones of that arm were his Sacrificial Bones—an existence that could not regenerate. No Medicinal Pill could restore it, which meant he would be a cripple from now on.

"Brat, I will grind your bones to dust!"

The Evil Path Elder was overcome with rage. Ignoring the severe internal injuries in his body, he rushed toward Long Chen and kicked at him.

"Bang!"

Long Chen was unable to move his entire body. He watched helplessly as the old Evil Path man's foot kicked toward him, but he had no way to stop it. He was kicked directly in the lower abdomen, and his whole body flew backward, sliding along the ground.

"Pfft…"

The Evil Path Elder's kick was delivered with hatred. If it had been an ordinary core Disciple, they would have been kicked to pieces.

But even for Long Chen, without Spiritual Qi to protect his body, he still vomited blood from the kick. He slid and rolled along the ground for several hundred feet before stopping.

After stopping, he vomited two more large mouthfuls of blood. Long Chen felt as if his whole body were falling apart.

"Die!"

After kicking Long Chen away, the Evil Path Elder rushed over rapidly and kicked at him again. This time, the kick was aimed straight at Long Chen's face. If this strike landed, Long Chen's head would explode, and he would surely die.

"Thousand Wood Shield!"

Just as the Evil Path Elder kicked, the earth in front of Long Chen exploded. A dozen wooden stakes appeared, rapidly weaving into a wooden shield.

"Bang!"

The wooden shield, which was a zhang tall, was shattered by the Evil Path Elder's kick. However, after the wooden shield shattered, Long Chen was no longer behind it.

Looking up, a young girl was crouching on the ground in the distance, holding a person in her arms. That person was Long Chen.

The girl was Chu Yao. It turned out she had been fighting that Evil Path Derivative Daoist with all her might. The Derivative Daoist had been struggling to support himself under Chu Yao's attacks but was unable to take her down in a short time.

Later, hearing Elder Tu Fang's order, she was shocked to find Long Chen engaged in a fierce battle with a powerful Evil Path Elder, so she immediately stopped holding anything back and directly activated her Origin power.

Wood-element Cultivators were like large trees themselves, and their Origin power was like their tree roots.

The roots were the source of all power, but once this power was extracted, it would cause their cultivation to stagnate in the short term, and there was also the danger of damaging their Foundation.

One had to know that once the Foundation was damaged, it was very likely to affect future advancements, so the Origin power was extremely important to Wood Cultivators.

But seeing Long Chen in danger, Chu Yao no longer had any reservations. She extracted her Origin power and added it to her Wood power.

When the Origin power was injected into the Wood power, golden runes lit up on the wooden stakes Chu Yao had summoned.

After those golden runes lit up, the wooden stakes Chu Yao summoned instantly became incomparably sturdy, like metal.

Hundreds of golden stakes attacked the Derivative Daoist simultaneously. Even a powerful Derivative Daoist couldn't hold on; that terrifying power directly shredded him.

Chu Yao had just killed that Derivative Daoist when Long Chen and the Evil Path Elder had a violent collision, which had sent her, who wanted to come and support, flying.

When Chu Yao rushed over again, she happened to catch up just as Long Chen was in danger, summoning the wooden shield to block that strike.

However, Chu Yao knew the terror of the Evil Path Elder and knew she was not enough to stop him, so she didn't use her Origin power, but instead used ordinary Wood power.

While blocking the Evil Path Elder's strike, she used her Wood power to pull Long Chen to her side, pressing her jade hand onto Long Chen's shoulder to heal him with her life force.

"How dare you obstruct this old man! Go to hell!"

The old Evil Path man, seeing Chu Yao healing Long Chen, was furious and charged at the two of them.

"Old ghost, you go to hell!"

Suddenly, a loud roar came. Gu Yang was the first to rush toward the old Evil Path man, throwing a punch.

"Six Yang Fist!"

The moment Gu Yang threw his punch, two other attacks arrived simultaneously.

"Sorrowful Wind Slash!"

"Ice Break!"

It was Tang Waner and Ye Zhiqiu who had arrived. Both attacked at the same time, and the three of them launched three attacks, all aimed at the old Evil Path man.

"Ants, get lost!"

The old Evil Path man roared, throwing a punch. Tang Waner and Ye Zhiqiu's wind blades and ice blades shattered instantly.

Gu Yang was sent flying by that terrifying power, one of his arms broken into seven or eight sections.

Tang Waner and Ye Zhiqiu were shocked and hurriedly condensed their weapons again, rushing over once more. They had to buy time for Long Chen to recover.

"Get lost!"

The Evil Path Elder's hand turned ink-black and he slapped out. The wind force surged, unstoppable. The two were directly blown away, vomiting blood. They were far too inferior to the Evil Path Elder.

"Since you want to die, I will grant your wish."

The Evil Path Elder let out a strange, cackling laugh. Stretching out his large hand, he reached straight for Tang Waner's snow-white neck.

However, just as his claws were about to touch Tang Waner's neck, a sharp attack slashed straight at his arm.