Chương 184: Chapter 73: The Earth-Shaking Bell Slays the Enemy and the Siege

"So, you saw through my identity long ago? You cruel little darling... to think you deceived me so thoroughly! I was prepared to share a night of passion with you, to become a pair of fleeting lovers, yet you struck such a vicious blow without a hint of mercy. You truly are a heartless man." Ning Wushang's lips suddenly curled upward, her eyes flashing with a venomous spite even as she maintained a facade of aggrieved sorrow.

"To punish you, I shall devour every last bit of you until nothing remains." As she spoke, a burst of sanguine light erupted from her left arm. With a sickening crack, the limb detached and rapidly withered into a desiccated husk. Simultaneously, however, the horrific wound on her chest began to seal itself. Within a few breaths, her flesh had mended perfectly, as if she had never been touched.

"To force me into using the Great Tail-Severing Survival Art... little darling, do you really think you can escape me now?" She rose slowly to her feet. Though she was now missing an arm and her complexion was somewhat pale, the powerful fluctuations of spiritual energy within her remained undiminished and formidable. Reyn's brow furrowed, his expression darkening into a cold, murderous sneer.

"I did not expect you to possess such a life-saving secret art. But I wonder—if I kill you several times over, will you still be able to crawl back from the grave?"

"If you want to kill me, little darling, let's see if you have the capability." Malice flared in Ning Wushang's phoenix-like eyes. She slapped her forehead, summoning a pink artifact shaped like a man's phallus, which manifested before her.

"Look closely, darling. This is the True Fire Yang-Root, a treasure that only the core female disciples of our Yin-Yang Joy Sect can refine. I usually use it to pass the time when I am lonely. Tee-hee... but do not underestimate it. It contains the ultimate aphrodisiac, distilled from the Profound Yin Fluid of women through our sect's secret methods. It is colorless and odorless—no cultivator below the Golden Core stage can possibly resist its allure."

"Using it is a significant drain on my essence, but if I can consume you, the loss will be well worth it." Disgust flickered in Reyn's eyes. He slapped his storage bag, and the Earth-Shaking Bell was instantly summoned. Though it had not yet been refined with his heart's blood, the artifact swelled under the surge of his spiritual power until it was the size of two men, descending toward Ning Wushang like a falling mountain.

"My heartless little darling, using such a massive thing to hit a poor girl? I'm so scared!" Ning Wushang gasped, covering her mouth in mock horror, but her eyes remained icy. She showed no trace of genuine panic. With a flick of her slender hand, she tossed the phallic artifact forward. A colorless, odorless gas billowed out, saturating the entire cave in less than half a breath.

"I forgot to tell you, darling—my aphrodisiac doesn't just incite lust; it ignores all spiritual shields. Once it enters a cultivator's body, the victim becomes instantly limp, unable to circulate even a shred of spiritual power." A mocking sneer played on her lips as she spoke. As her voice fell, Reyn's expression shifted dramatically. The spiritual fluctuations around him vanished, and the light on the Earth-Shaking Bell flickered wildly, its power seemingly halved in an instant.

Ning Wushang's eyes gleamed with triumph. She beckoned with her hand, manifesting a giant pink palm of spiritual energy to seize the bell. She giggled, "I'll be taking this treasure of yours for now, darling." But at that exact moment, a cold, sharp light flashed in the depths of Reyn's eyes. The Earth-Shaking Bell suddenly erupted with a brilliant yellow radiance and slammed down with crushing force, trapping Ning Wushang beneath its heavy frame! Hum! Hum! Hum!

Three earth-shattering reverberations thundered from within the bell like claps of divine lightning. The entire cave shuddered violently under the weight of the sonic assault. Reyn looked on with cold indifference; with the Golden Seal in his possession, he was immune to every toxin and poison in the world! With a wave of his hand, the Earth-Shaking Bell shrank back to its original size and flew into his storage bag.

Ning Wushang lay collapsed on the ground, her eyes wide with lingering shock but devoid of any light. Her life force had been completely extinguished. The Earth-Shaking Bell, a pure Earth-attribute artifact, possessed the innate technique: Soul-Shattering Hum. When activated, its three consecutive rings would obliterate the soul of any being below the Golden Core stage. As the head disciple of the Yin-Yang Joy Sect, Ning Wushang possessed many bizarre and sinister arts.

Reyn had managed to kill her so easily only because she had been overconfident, leaving her soul vulnerable to the bell's sudden, devastating strike. Reyn shook his head slowly. He beckoned with his hand, pulling her storage bag into his grasp. After breaking the restrictions with a surge of power, his Divine Sense swept inside. A moment later, a small green jade sword appeared in his hand, causing a look of genuine joy to cross his face. At this point, he possessed four Mu Jade Swords.

If he could safely carry them out of the Trial Realm, he would earn the right to cultivate beside the Mu Family's Nascent Soul ancestor, Mu Daguang, for three years. Such a monumental opportunity was more than enough to ensure his successful Foundation Establishment! This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. After a moment of visible hesitation, Reyn slowly shook his head, his features clouding with a deep, contemplative shadow.

"I hold four of the Mu Jade Swords in my possession now," he murmured to himself, his voice a low rasp in the quiet of the cave.

"However, one of them is a relic lost over a thousand years ago. If I were to simply hand it over to the Mu family, I might receive a handsome bounty, but compared to the legacy of the Azure Jade Palace itself, such rewards are as insignificant as dust against a mountain. The disparity is simply heaven and earth." His eyes narrowed as he calculated the risks.

"If I can somehow gather all nine Mu Jade Swords, it would be ideal; the Azure Jade Palace would automatically recognize me as its rightful master. Even if I cannot complete the set, I must seize at least one more. Under no circumstances can the Mu family cultivators learn that the ninth sword is in my hands. If they find out, any future chance of claiming the Palace will be utterly extinguished." Reyn's mind raced, dissecting the situation with cold, clinical precision until a definitive plan took root.

With a swift flick of his wrist, he retrieved a specialized square box from his storage bag and placed the Mu Jade Sword inside. The box was designed to sever the spiritual resonance between the blades, effectively cloaking its presence. While the sudden disappearance of several sword signatures would undoubtedly put other cultivators on high alert, it would, at the very least, buy Reyn some much-needed peace before the final deadline arrived.

He allowed his Divine Sense to sweep through the rest of the storage bag's contents. After briskly filtering through various feminine sundries, his attention was immediately arrested by several magic treasures. One, in particular, stood out: a defensive artifact, pitch-black as a moonless night and shaped like a broad lotus leaf. When he channeled his spiritual essence into it, the artifact thrummed with a heavy, reliable power.

After a brief trial, he confirmed that its defensive capabilities reached the tier of a High-grade Magic Treasure. Currently, Reyn possessed the Heaven-Turning Seal and the Extinction Bow as devastating offensive tools, but he had been sorely lacking in high-tier protection. This lotus-leaf treasure was the perfect piece to mend that vulnerability in his arsenal.

Furthermore, the bag contained a staggering hoard of wealth: over a hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones and more than a thousand mid-grade spirit stones. Having already amassed a considerable fortune, Reyn didn't linger on the sight, transferring the stones into his dedicated treasury bag with practiced ease. Then, his Divine Sense brushed against a particular jade slip: the Great Tail-Severing Survival Art. Reyn's eyes ignited with a sharp, predatory light.

He hadn't expected to find such a rare technique within this bag. He vividly recalled the moment he had caught Ning Wushang off-guard, using the Geng-gold sword qi from his ring to inflict a near-fatal wound. Yet, by invoking this very technique, she had managed to instantaneously reverse a death-blow and maintain nearly her full combat effectiveness.

In the desperate, razor-thin margins of life-and-death combat, such a secret art could flip the script entirely, allowing one to slay an unsuspecting foe or escape the clutches of an otherwise invincible enemy. After confirming the profound efficacy of the technique, Reyn immersed his consciousness into the slip. Moments later, once the mnemonic was etched indelibly into his mind, he released a burst of spiritual energy from his palm, shattering the jade slip into fine powder.

Like the Symbiotic Dao Scripture he had looted from the desiccated corpse earlier, this was a life-saving trump card. It was a power meant for his hands alone; he would give it no chance to circulate back into the world. As for the remaining items, Reyn organized them quickly. Aside from a small vial containing mysterious pink pills—which he tucked away with extreme caution—the rest were unceremoniously dumped into his general alchemy bag. His gaze finally settled on the cooling corpse of Ning Wushang.

After a brief pause, he tapped his storage bag and summoned the Extinction Bow. Without a hint of sentiment, he drove the bow's limb deep into her chest. The woman's body began to shrivel at a visible, sickening speed. Within breaths, she was reduced to a blackened, gnarled husk, looking more like a piece of ancient, withered wood than a human being. The Extinction Bow, having gorged itself on her life essence, took on a slightly more somber hue, though its spiritual signature remained otherwise unchanged.

Reyn gripped the bow, a flicker of dark anticipation crossing his face. Ning Wushang's cultivation had reached the very peak of the Mid-Foundation Establishment stage; he couldn't help but wonder just how devastating the Extinction Pagoda Arrow forged from her essence would truly be. He swept the cave one last time, noting the three other dried corpses in the corner. With a casual flick of his finger, he sent out a series of fireballs that reduced all four bodies to ash.

Then, wrapped in a streak of azure light, he vanished into the lightless depths of the dense forest....

"Xing Tianxie, if you do not surrender the Mu Jade Sword this instant, do not blame us for being merciless!" On a desolate stretch of rolling hills, over a dozen cultivators had formed a tight, hostile perimeter around Xing Tianxie of the Pomie Sect. Their eyes were filled with naked greed and malice. The one leading the confrontation was a scrawny, monkey-faced cultivator with darting, shifty eyes, dressed in the distinctive robes of the Dragon-Tiger Sect from Quanzhou.

Emboldened by their leader's words, the surrounding mob tightened the circle, their gazes turning increasingly sinister and sharp. Xing Tianxie's face was as cold as a stagnant pool, his heart overflowing with a frigid, murderous intent as he scanned the crowd. If he hadn't accidentally stumbled into the territory of a Tier 3 Mid-grade Black-Wind Python and been relentlessly hunted by the beast, he wouldn't be in this state.

He had exhausted his primary trump cards and sustained significant internal injuries just to survive that encounter. Now, he found himself cornered by a pack of opportunistic curs. It was truly a case of the tiger being bullied by dogs in the plains, or the dragon being mocked by shrimp in the shallows! Initially, only three or four had dared to follow him, but as he fought and retreated, the commotion had only drawn more vultures to the fray, leading to this total encirclement.

Though he had just moments ago severely wounded one of his pursuers—forcing the man to crush his Trial Stone and flee the realm in terror—the effort had exacerbated his own wounds. He was reaching the limit of his endurance. If he continued to resist with force, there was a very real possibility he would fall here today. Hearing the monkey-faced cultivator's demand, Xing Tianxie raised his eyes. His gaze was as sharp as a whetted blade, sliding slowly across the man's face.

"If I surrender the Mu Jade Sword," he said, his voice low and rasping like winter wind over stone, "I will have the absolute certainty of leaving this Trial Realm alive. And when that happens, my Pomie Sect will ensure that your Dragon-Tiger Sect never knows another day of peace!" The sheer, icy venom in his voice sent a shiver through the crowd, suddenly reminding them exactly who they were dealing with: the head disciple of the Pomie Sect and its future leader.

To cross him today was to invite a lifetime of looking over their shoulders.