Cultivation: I Have a Golden Talisman

The words had barely faded.

A long, drawn-out sword cry echoed between heaven and earth.

The miniature Flying Sword drifted out slowly, then erupted into an indescribable, sky-shattering beam of sword light that shot down in an instant.

A bone-chilling Sword Aura, powerful enough to rip the sky and split the earth, instantly broke free. It charged forth like a primeval beast from the Nine Netherworld, savagely cleaving down upon the Fire Crow Array!

BOOM!

Sword light and scorching flames exploded, consuming half the sky.

Fang Cheng’s entire vision was filled with a brilliant Sword Aura that seemed capable of destroying all in its path.

The beam of sword light struck precisely at the crack that had previously been torn open in the Fire Crow Array.

The speed of the strike was otherworldly. Even with the power of his Divine Sense, Fang Cheng only perceived a fleeting streak of light.

CRACK!

The Fire Crow Array was cleaved in two, brutally torn asunder.

A fine, clean crack appeared on the Fire Crow Gourd within the Celestial Palace, splitting it perfectly in two.

"A Tier Three Flying Sword!!"

In the Celestial Palace, looks of shock appeared on the faces of Earth Punishment and the other Elders.

It wasn’t just the sudden appearance of a Tier Three Flying Sword that shocked them. What was even more horrifying were the Divine Techniques and Magical Power imbued within it, which far surpassed what they imagined possible for someone in the Life Soul Realm.

The Flame God Palace had two Life Soul Realm Elders—the legendary Celestial Elders—but neither of them had ever inspired such terror.

The vast Celestial Palace collapsed with a thunderous roar.

The flames in the sky vanished and the Fire Crows were annihilated. Starlight cascaded down, and a murderous aura filled the heavens.

Cai Li seized the opportunity with perfect timing. As the Fire Crow Array shattered, she moved to trap the Flame God Palace Elders with the Seven Kills Array.

Elder Earth Punishment’s gaze swept across the scene. "Things have come to this," he bellowed. "Everyone, scatter!"

With a deceptively casual flick of his hand, he condensed an intensely powerful ball of golden flame and sent it flying toward the Seven Kills Array.

It was like a dazzling, miniature sun, and it slammed into the curtain of starlight.

Ancient Flame Runes flickered into existence, and the world was instantly drained of color.

BOOM!

Following a cataclysmic explosion, a halo of incredibly scorching golden light appeared in the sky.

The terrifying heat warped the very air for thousands of feet, creating bizarre phantoms as if opening a gateway to another dimension.

Then, violent golden flames erupted outwards in cascading waves.

The Sword Auras roiled within the starlight, but the blast punched a hole right through them.

The Flame God Palace Elders all cast the Fire Crow Escape Technique, transforming into innumerable Fire Crows. They plunged into the flames, using the chaos to escape the perimeter of the Seven Kills Array.

Cai Li barked a command.

The starlight filling the sky abruptly shattered, and an infinite number of sword lights rippled out like water, covering the entire firmament.

The Seven Kills Array dissolved. As the starlight faded, Fang Cheng and the others were revealed.

At the same time, the countless sword lights shredded the Fire Crows. Ten figures tumbled out of the air in a sorry state, their auras drastically weakened.

"Kill!"

Cai Li’s figure blurred, transforming into a streak of sword light as she shot toward Earth Punishment.

Huang Shen, Xiao Qi, Feng Ziang, and the rest also made their moves, intercepting the other Flame God Palace Elders.

But a rope shimmering with golden light shot out even faster, beating them to it.

The golden rope, over a hundred zhang long, was as fast as lightning—only a fraction slower than Cai Li’s sword light.

One end of the rope instantly wrapped around a Flame God Palace Elder, while the other snaked through the air and ensnared another.

These two had the strongest auras of the group, both at the Mid-stage Life Talisman Cultivation level.

In the next instant.

A streak of sword light flashed through the air with casual grace.

The two Profound Elders, caught off guard by a domineering Magical Artifact like the Immortal Binding Rope, were just about to resist the invisible force binding them. But their vision blurred, a sword light flashed past, and they were decapitated in one clean strike.

Two heads slid from their necks at almost the exact same moment.

A brief silence fell over the sky.

Every Life Talisman Cultivator present either saw or sensed what had just happened.

Two Profound Elders from the Flame God Palace... Though they had been wounded by the Seven Kills Array, they shouldn’t have been so weak as to be cut down, one after the other, by an Early-stage Life Talisman Cultivator.

It was utterly unbelievable.

Earth Punishment let out a furious roar. His Profound Gold Sword Aura flared, and he prepared to charge Fang Cheng for a fight to the death.

But a cold, desolate Sword Aura held him fast.

Cai Li’s Sword Light Division split into a thousand beams, forming a Sword Array that trapped Earth Punishment inside.

The third form of the Netherworld Sword Technique: Nether Diagram.

Huang Shen clicked his tongue. After a brief pause, his sword light shot toward the seven remaining Yellow Elders.

Xiao Qi followed close behind.

The others in their group blocked the Flame God Palace Elders’ escape routes, closing in for the kill.

Fang Cheng recalled the Immortal Binding Rope. After taking the two Profound Elders’ storage bags, he released his Li Hen Demon Light and swiftly refined their corpses.

The Resentment Demon Bead in his Qi Sea trembled lightly, releasing a gush of pure Spiritual Qi.

Meanwhile, Cai Li and Earth Punishment were locked in a fierce battle. Both were experts in the art of killing among those in the Life Talisman Realm. Within their respective sects, they were considered top-tier masters, second only to those in the Life Soul Realm.

It was a battle of equals, and for the moment, neither could gain the upper hand.

Fang Cheng held the Immortal Binding Rope, his eyes fixed on their duel.

Cai Li, apparently guessing his thoughts, suddenly intensified her assault. Her sword light blazed as she attacked with all her might, holding nothing back in a life-or-death gamble.

As for Elder Earth Punishment, despite possessing many powerful Divine Techniques, he was now forced onto the defensive.

The slightest mistake, one failure to block her sword light, would mean decapitation.

He had no opening to unleash his own grand and powerful Divine Techniques.

In all his years, Earth Punishment had fought countless battles, but only against Sword Cultivators had he ever felt so stifled.

Suddenly, the rope radiating golden light shot into the fray, coiling toward him.

He knew how strange this artifact was—three of the Flame God Palace’s Profound Elders had already fallen to it. Wary, he let out a low growl and frantically channeled his Magical Power, preparing to unleash a fire technique to scour the area and repel the Immortal Binding Rope.

In that exact moment, an opening appeared.

In that tiny opening, Cai Li’s Flying Sword twisted like a dragon, thinning into a thread of light. With a soft shimmer, it pierced through Earth Punishment’s Protective Spiritual Light and shot into his mouth!

Earth Punishment instantly knew something was terribly wrong. His face froze, and he stood rooted to the spot.

"Fellow Daoist, spar—"

Before he could finish, countless sword lights erupted from within him, shredding the Qi Sea and Life Talisman that contained the Flame God Palace Elder’s entire life’s accumulation of Magical Power.

Thus, a master of his generation fell.

Cai Li recalled her Flying Sword and turned to Fang Cheng. "You can deal with his corpse," she said.

Her meaning was clear: Earth Punishment’s storage bag was his for the taking.

Fang Cheng’s heart leaped with joy. He gave a slight nod, stepped forward to take Earth Punishment’s storage bag, then with a wave of his sleeve, he cast the Li Hen Demon Light to envelop and refine the corpse.

This man’s Cultivation was far greater than the Mad Daoist’s from all those years ago; Fang Cheng could even feel some resistance as he refined the body.

Meanwhile, Huang Shen and the others had killed the remaining Flame God Palace Elders. They divided the storage bags and used their own methods to destroy the corpses, leaving no trace behind.

A short while later, the Li Hen Demon Light shuddered and dissipated into the void. Not a trace of Earth Punishment remained in the world.

The group looked up at the chaotic Spiritual Qi churning in the sky, a shared, weary sigh passing between them.

This battle had gone much more smoothly than they had expected.

Huang Shen looked at Cai Li and smiled. "Senior Sister, I can’t believe you borrowed the Master’s own Lifebound Flying Sword. It seems his strength has improved immensely; he must be on the verge of breaking through to the Life Soul Realm."

Cai Li nodded but didn’t reply to his comment. Instead, she said gravely, "We can’t linger here. We can’t take the True Flame Spirit Pool, but we can’t leave it for the Flame God Palace either. We’ll find the Haihan Feng Family, go underground to retrieve the True Fire, and then destroy the Spirit Pool."

This place is too far from the Abyssal Marsh. It would be unrealistic for the Yinluo Sect to control the True Flame Spirit Pool and cultivate a continuous supply of True Fire.

We can’t expect a Supreme Elder or the Peak Master of Demon Lion Peak to personally stand guard here, after all.

In contrast, the Flame God Palace is based in the Hanhai Desert and would obviously care more about the long-term value of the True Flame Spirit Pool. Using it to cultivate an endless supply of True Fire to strengthen their sect—that is the Righteous Path to power.

Unfortunately for the Flame God Palace, they miscalculated. They never expected the Yinluo Sect to be so ruthless and ferocious, breaking their Fire Crow Array with such overwhelming force.

The group descended to the Oasis and found the survivors of the Haihan Feng Family inside a magnificent grand hall.

Over a hundred Cultivators from this branch of the Feng Family had their Magical Power sealed by a Flame God Palace Secret Technique, leaving them trapped in the hall.

A few of them had been made an example of—nailed to the walls of the great hall as a warning to the others.

If the Yinluo Sect hadn’t arrived, the Flame God Palace Elders would likely still be underground studying the True Flame Spirit Pool, with only two or three of them left to stand guard in the Celestial Palace.

Seeing his clansmen’s suffering, Feng Ziang couldn’t help but sigh as he stepped forward to release them from their restraints.

...