Chương 45: Escaping the Predicament

The presence of the Ghost-Corpse Sovereign, a monster at the late Golden Core stage, was already a nightmare beyond their ability to withstand. Now, with the sudden addition of the Skeletal Guards, the situation had turned utterly lethal. The slightly plump Daoist and the old woman exchanged a single glance, their eyes reflecting a harrowing mixture of despair and unreconciled bitterness.

Even though their personal fortunes were far deeper than those of an average Golden Core cultivator, their reserves of magic treasures, medicinal pills, and talismans were now almost entirely depleted. They had reached the absolute end of their rope.

"I, Liu, have pursued the Dao for over three hundred years. My life has been a relentless cycle of slaughter and calculated schemes just to survive until today," the plump Daoist growled, his face suddenly flushing with an unnatural, eerie crimson. His dim, lifeless eyes flared with a brilliance like the final radiance of a dying ember. His robes billowed without wind, snapping and crackling with violent energy as his aura began a frantic, explosive climb, only stabilizing once it reached the mid-Golden Core stage.

"My old friends have long since turned to dust. To have lived this long is enough. Today, even if I must die, I will drag you into the abyss with me!" Feeling the surge of spiritual power—far more potent than anything he had commanded in his prime—a sense of intoxicating strength filled his heart, yet his expression remained one of profound misery. By shattering his Golden Core and burning his Primordial Spirit, he had gained immense power for a fleeting moment.

However, once that spiritual energy dissipated and his divine sense was consumed, his soul would vanish entirely. He was effectively forfeiting his right to enter the cycle of reincarnation.

"Daoist Honghua, though I now possess the strength of the mid-Golden Core stage, I am still no match for this monstrosity alone. If you try to flee now, you will find no escape from death," Liu said tonelessly. With his spiritual pressure erupting like a volcano, he transformed into a streak of light and charged directly at the Ghost-Corpse Sovereign.

"So be it. This old woman only had a few decades of longevity remaining anyway," the old woman, Honghua, muttered to herself. Her injuries were severe, and she had already exhausted more than half of her essence blood.

"My remaining years are already forfeit; I will never see the day the Longevity-Extending Pill is completed." Her eyes gradually filled with a venomous, localized hatred.

"Monster! If not for your interference, I would have already claimed the spirit pills hidden here by the Demon Sovereign. I could have extended my life and bolstered my cultivation—I might have even had a twenty percent chance to break through to the Nascent Soul realm! You destroyed everything. Today, I cast aside this lingering breath of life to ensure you perish with me!" Infinite cold light erupted from Honghua's eyes as void-black flames suddenly flickered across her skin.

Her features contorted in extreme agony. This was the Void Fire, a secret art of ghost cultivation that burned the very soul to extract power. As the flames settled, her aura surged upward with terrifying speed, her gaze growing increasingly murderous.

"Daoist Liu, I shall assist you!" Boom! A clash between one late Golden Core and two temporary mid-Golden Core combatants erupted. Both humans had shattered their cores and ignited their souls to trade for this power. The resulting collision of spiritual energies sent violent ripples through the void, causing the very space around them to warp and distort.

"Master, they have fallen exactly into your design. What is our next move?" Chu Dian asked, a feverish excitement dancing in his eyes. Through the shimmering light screen above them, he could see every detail of the carnage unfolding outside. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Wait," the woman replied, her voice carrying a rare trace of anticipation that she quickly suppressed with a deep breath. After being imprisoned for endless eons, she was at the final threshold of breaking her seal. At this moment, she would slay the Buddha if he blocked her path and slaughter the Gods if they dared to interfere. Reyn, sitting cross-legged just outside the restrictive barrier, slowly opened his eyes.

A faint ethereal glow flickered across his delicate features before fading into a calm, steady expression. His dark eyes were as deep and boundless as the night sky. Thanks to the medicinal pills, both his spiritual energy and divine sense had been restored to their peak condition. Rising slowly, Reyn began to circulate his spiritual power, his gaze sharpening as he focused on the path ahead.

Though he remained ignorant of the specific events outside, he had clearly felt the sudden eruption of those three titanic auras. The sheer magnitude of their power—capable of collapsing heavens and shattering the earth with a mere wave of a hand—sent a chill of apprehension through his heart.

"Though the harvest this time was bountiful, whether I can leave this place alive is still a matter of fate," Reyn whispered. In his left hand, he gripped dozens of low-grade talismans; in his right, he held the three high-grade talismans he had looted from the black-robed man at the Small Hillside Market. He hoped these would buy him enough of a window to escape. Boom! At that exact moment, a thunderous impact shook the area.

Even with Reyn's current level of divine sense, the shockwave left his vision swimming and his head spinning. Crack! A crisp snapping sound echoed nearby. The restrictive barrier, hammered by the external battle, had finally buckled, tearing open a jagged fissure just wide enough for a single person to pass through. The gap was already beginning to shrink, threatening to seal itself within moments. Reyn's pupils dilated.

Without a second thought, he ignited his light escape, shrinking his form as he shot through the closing crack like an arrow. Boom! Boom! Boom! Before he could even register the relief of escaping his confinement, a howling wave of spiritual pressure crashed into him. The sheer weight of it made Reyn's chest tighten painfully; his vision went black, and he nearly coughed up a mouthful of essence blood.

Terrified, Reyn hurriedly layered several spiritual energy shields around himself and summoned his defensive spirit tool. Only then did the crushing weight become bearable. Looking ahead, he saw three figures wreathed in terrifying radiance, locked in a frenzied struggle several hundred meters away. Despite the distance, the aftershocks of their battle caused Reyn's face to pale. He knew that even a stray spark from that conflict would be enough to leave him critically wounded.

"I cannot stay here. I must go!" Reyn's mind raced. Seeing that the three powerhouses were too occupied to notice a 'small shrimp' like him, he carefully maintained his light escape, trying to slip away as inconspicuously as possible.

"Hmm?" The old woman, Honghua, frowned slightly. Her previous exchange with the Ghost-Corpse Sovereign had accidentally blasted open a hidden sanctuary. While she didn't know what was inside, the faint, drifting aroma of medicinal herbs coming from the fissure made her heart leap.

"If there truly are spirit medicines in there, perhaps I won't have to fall today!" she thought with sudden joy. Noticing that Daoist Liu seemed unaware of the discovery, she felt a surge of relief. However, her divine sense immediately detected Reyn attempting to flee. Her brow furrowed, and she casually flicked her wrist, sending out an inconspicuous mudra. A casual strike from a Golden Core cultivator was enough to instantaneously annihilate even a late-stage Foundation Establishment practitioner.

She intended to erase Reyn simply to ensure no witnesses remained. As he fled, an overwhelming sense of impending doom washed over Reyn. He spun around, only to see a pitch-black, ghostly claw descending toward him with the force of a falling mountain.

"It's over!" A sense of utter powerlessness filled Reyn's heart. An attack from a Golden Core cultivator was something that could kill him a dozen times over before he could even blink. But in that moment of certain death, a faint, cold voice echoed through the air: "To offend this Sovereign... your life can only be claimed by me!" The voice was as cold as ice and utterly indifferent to the world. Space itself suddenly buckled and twisted.

In the heartbeat before the ghostly claw could connect, Reyn's figure vanished into thin air.