Chapter 102
Five or six ice spikes rapidly pierced out from the ice wall and in the blink of an eye skewered that man into a blood gourd.
This was his battlefield.
The ice coffin prison, formed by exhausting most of his spiritual power, was not only meant to prevent their escape but also gave Wang Yu a significant advantage in battle.
“Old Ninth!”
The burly man with a beard glared ferociously. Two streaks of spiritual light flew out from his waist and landed in his hands, turning into a pair of golden melon hammers each the size of a head.
Judging by his physique, he had likely cultivated some secret arts or techniques of body refinement. Without hesitation, he charged forward at the front.
The others also formed hand seals, casting spiritual prints. Waves of five-element spells surged over: fireballs, earth spikes, water arrows, wood vines, golden blades.
This group indeed had a complex mixture of attributes.
Wang Yu tapped the ice surface with the tip of his toes, rapidly pulling out trails of afterimages. Using the mystery of Illusory Step, he evaded large numbers of spells. With a shake of his figure, he split into ten phantoms.
They spread out in different directions as his hand seals shifted. Ice Sword Technique: Ox-Hair Needle.
This was the very first perfected spell he had mastered on his path of cultivation. Even though it was only a mid-grade first-rank technique, Wang Yu had long since cultivated it to the point of divine mastery.
From the initial ten swords, to transforming into a hundred small swords, to merging into a giant sword three zhang long, and now innovating once again, transforming into countless crystalline needles as fine as ox hair.
The ten phantoms increased this base quantity tenfold.
The overwhelming hail of ice needles swept down, covering nearly every corner of the ice coffin prison. The ambushers’ expressions grew grim.
They truly had not expected Wang Yu to be this difficult to deal with.
The burly man with the beard swung his golden melon hammers a few times and discovered that most of the ice needles were illusions. He immediately shouted.
“Use wide-range defensive spells. Magical artifacts as well. Most of these are false.”
“Is that so.”
Wang Yu chuckled lightly. The four phantoms standing inverted at the corners of the ice coffin prison shifted their hand seals, raising two fingers to their lips.
Flame Spitting Technique: Cold Flame.
Surging flames abruptly expanded several zhang tall. Four terrifying fireballs completely covered the prison, yet the air grew colder still.
Three people were burned alive, screaming miserably.
“The one at the upper left is real. Attack!”
Two cultivators at Qi Refining ninth layer and Qi Refining eighth layer leapt forward at the same time.
“Golden Hammer Technique.”
“Whirlpool Water Blade.”
The golden melon hammers in the bearded man’s hands suddenly expanded by two circles, crashing down toward Wang Yu’s true body with great momentum. The other man shot out three spiraling water blades while airborne.
This time Wang Yu did not evade. He patted his chest, activating the Black Fiend Armor Pattern.
Soul-Devouring Evil Armor Technique.
Billows of black mist-like ghostly qi surged out, completely covering him. His left arm, the corpse arm of divine strength, thrust forward and collided with the golden hammers.
Under the shocked eyes of the burly man, Wang Yu sent a punch flying, knocking away the pair of high-grade magical hammers. The whirlpool water blades struck only faint white marks on the Black Fiend Armor before being deflected.
“How is this possible.”
“Could it be a second-rank defensive technique at great completion.”
Regardless of their disbelief, Wang Yu’s right arm swelled in muscle, four dragon tendons appearing as his strike left a shadow in the air.
One punch shattered the protective spiritual light of the Qi Refining eighth layer cultivator and pierced straight into his chest.
His fingers crushed the heart in his palm. Then he landed on the ice below, pressed both palms together, and suddenly struck the ground.
With a massive outpouring of spiritual power, the entire ice coffin prison trembled. Dense ice spikes grew and intertwined. In the blink of an eye there was no place left to stand within the prison.
Corpses and severed limbs lay everywhere. Several bodies were impaled on ice spikes, blood soaking into the crystals until the entire area was dyed red, resembling blooming flowers of fresh blood. It carried a strange beauty.
The bearded man’s eyes bulged with fury.
“No!”
Out of more than ten people, only he was left. Gritting his teeth, he said, “I do not believe you have that much spiritual power to waste. You are only at the eighth level of Qi Refining.”
Wang Yu gave a contemptuous smile.
The effect of supreme-grade pills, how could someone like this possibly understand?
Although the man was at the ninth level of Qi Refining, he was merely an outer sect disciple. This meant he was a loose cultivator who had joined the sect in recent years. Otherwise, he should have long advanced to the inner sect. His methods were shallow and his strength insufficient.
Even fighting three to five of his kind was effortless.
“It is your turn.”
Beneath the Black Fiend Armor, Wang Yu’s expression could not be seen clearly. Although this strange art mainly defended against spiritual sense attacks, in actual use its basic defense was still very strong.
It was only a little short of reaching second-rank, which would require devouring more living souls, or slowly grinding through the idle slot.
Unfortunately, the Soul-Devouring Demonic Armor Technique was ranked very low in Wang Yu’s priorities.
“Do you really think I am afraid of you? I have roamed the Crimson Kite Demonic Domain for eighty years. Without hidden trump cards I would have died long ago.”
“Spirit Explosion Art. Ah ah ah ah!”
This seemed to be a secret art that temporarily increased strength.
After the bearded man activated it, his aura surged violently. However, the grade of this secret art was not high. It was impossible for him to cross the chasm to Foundation Establishment, and the temporary strength it gave also had strict limits.
“Nothing more than this.”
Wang Yu summoned the Golden Whip. Its broad, leaf-shaped golden blades clattered and extended, swiftly binding the man tightly. With a forceful swing of his left arm, he tossed him about like a sandbag.
The icicles of the Ice Coffin Prison were smashed again and again. In less than three breaths, the man was hurled into a mangled pile of flesh by Wang Yu’s corpse arm infused with divine power.
The aura of life had long dissipated.
Shaking his head, Wang Yu withdrew his spiritual power. The Ice Coffin Cage fell to the ground and shattered into fragments of ice.
With spiritual threads, he searched through the cracks. Fourteen corpses lay neatly, and there were also fourteen storage pouches.
After inspecting them with his spiritual sense.
The harvest came to sixteen thousand spirit stones, of which eight thousand belonged to the bearded man. There were five superior-grade artifacts, twelve medium-grade artifacts, several pills, several talismans, and a pile of miscellaneous items.
These things could be sold for seven to eight thousand spirit stones. In particular, those artifacts, even though second-hand artifacts would depreciate, they could still sell for one-third of their original price.
Adding the value of the corpses, this single battle brought him more than twenty thousand spirit stones in assets, equivalent to a year’s effort in the past.
“Robbery brings golden belts. The wisdom of the forebears is something we cannot compare to.”
Of course, this was also related to Wang Yu’s own strength. Other cultivators at the eighth level of Qi Refining did not have his power to deal with such a large group of people.
Plundering another’s lifetime accumulation, how could wealth not increase quickly? Especially since the bearded man was clearly saving spirit stones, otherwise such a profit would not have been possible.
After quickly tidying up the battlefield, he chose a flying sword–style flight artifact from the spoils. This item was much faster than the Black Silk and was a basic type of artifact specifically designed for Qi Refining cultivators to use for travel. It was just right for Wang Yu to upgrade his equipment.
Thus.
By the time dawn was breaking, Wang Yu finally arrived at Heart-Erosion City.
This city had a permanent population of several hundred thousand, with cultivators and mortals living together, but with an obvious hierarchy. Many hundred-meter-tall pillars stood in the city.
At the top of each was a square pavilion platform, and almost all the cultivator auras came from within these.