Chapter 428: Starting the Counterattack

Yan Yunlan saw her like that, frowned slightly, paid no attention, and directly squatted down, thrusting the cone-shaped spiritual artifact into the ground.

Hum!

The cone-shaped spiritual artifact quickly sank into the ground.

Lu Xiangxiang saw this, a flash of coldness crossed her eyes.

"What are you doing?"

Yan Yunlan stood up, her expression cold, and said: "Daoist Lu, what I'm doing seems none of your business."

After a pause, Yan Yunlan continued: "If Fellow Daoist Lu has nothing else, please leave. Otherwise, don't blame me for being merciless."

In her hand she condensed a long sword, her whole body exuding the aura of mid‑Nascent Soul Realm power.

Meanwhile, Lu Xiangxiang's cultivation is only at the peak of late Golden Core Realm.

Therefore, Yan Yunlan did not regard Lu Xiangxiang as a formidable opponent.

Lu Xiangxiang lowered her eyes, her voice slightly low: "I'm leaving now."

At the instant she turned away, several white dots welled up from her fingertips.

Lu Xiangxiang walked forward.

Yan Yunlan only relaxed after seeing her walk away.

She squatted down, guarding the spot where the cone‑shaped spiritual artifact lay.

What Yan Yunlan did not notice was that several white dots suddenly appeared behind her and then gradually seeped into the wound on her neck.

Yan Yunlan felt a faint prickling pain at her neck; she touched it and her fingers were stained red with blood.

She immediately applied gold wound medicine to the injury.

Moments later, she found the wound growing increasingly painful.

She touched it and found the blood was black, mixed with bits of rotting flesh.

Yan Yunlan's face changed in shock.

What is happening?!

Could it be that Lu Xiang's sword is smeared with poison?!

She was greatly alarmed and quickly took the detox pill refined by her own Second Senior Sister, Feng Xuanji.

After taking it, not only did it not improve, but the wound grew ever itchier, making her want to scratch it.

Yan Yunlan panicked, she suddenly rose, intending to find her Second Senior Sister Feng Xuanji, but after two steps her footsteps halted.

She lowered her gaze to the cone‑shaped spiritual artifact embedded in the ground.

No!

She cannot leave!

The Second Senior Sister entrusted her with such an important task; she cannot let the task fail because of her own injury.

Moreover, every task concerns the life and death of all of them.

Yan Yunlan returned to her original position.

The wound on her neck was unbearably itchy, and she finally could not help but scratch it.

She scratched until flesh and blood were a blur, a horrifying sight.

Black blood trickled down her neck.

Yan Yunlan's eyes reddened from pain; with her blood‑stained hand she pulled various detox pills and healing wound pills from her storage space and gulped them down.

After swallowing a few mouthfuls, she suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood.

The pills came up with it as well.

At this moment Yan Yunlan's face was ashen, she looked terrifying, her whole body trembling uncontrollably, and she couldn't help whispering: "Eldest Senior Brother… Second Senior Sister… Fifth Senior Brother…"

She writhed on the ground from the pain.

"Father… Mother…"

Her voice attracted the Death Spirit Beasts.

One after another, Death Spirit Beasts eyed her hungrily and closed in.

Yan Yunlan sensed the approaching danger, forced herself to stand, and quickly set up a defensive barrier on the cone‑shaped spiritual artifact.

Then she raised her sword to fend off the beasts' encirclement.

Yan Yunlan slew dozens of Death Spirit Beasts with sword after sword.

But because her dodging was somewhat sluggish, the Death Spirit Beasts tore at many parts of her, and she is now almost covered in blood.

Her vision gradually blurred.

Realizing she could barely hold on, she instinctively shouted: "Second Senior Sister, save me!"

Her voice was shrill, almost echoing throughout the area.

Meanwhile, the instant Feng Xuanji heard the sound, her heart lurched and a strong sense of unease surged.

She rushed toward Yan Yunlan's direction at top speed.

From afar she saw a Death Spirit Beast gnawing at Yan Yunlan's calf, while Yan Yunlan herself was drenched in blood, a bloody blur.

Feng Xuanji's pupils contracted slightly.

"Yunlan——"

She let out a hysterical cry.

As she rushed at full speed toward Yan Yunlan, suddenly a long arrow shot through the air with a "swish", piercing straight through Yan Yunlan's head.

This scene froze Feng Xuanji; she wanted to shout but could not make a sound.

The others who had rushed over also saw this, their faces showing shock.

Dongfangxiu was the fastest to pursue the direction from which the arrow had been shot.

Feng Xuanji rushed over, slew several Undead Beasts with a single sword, then caught the falling Yan Yunlan in her arms.

"Master..."

Yan Yunlan kept spurting fresh blood from her mouth, staining Feng Xuanji's purple robes red.

She died.

"Yunlan, Yunlan..." Feng Xuanji burst into tears, she held Yan Yunlan tightly in her arms, her body trembled uncontrollably, tears instantly blurred her vision, her throat felt as if something were blocking it.

Her heart ached to the extreme, a sweet-salty taste rose in her throat, and she immediately spat out a mouthful of blood.

Seeing this, everyone's faces showed reluctance, their hearts filled with complex emotions.

Dongfangxiu went after the archer, but saw only a white strip of cloth.

When he returned, he truthfully told everyone what he had seen.

Ao Jiayu said coldly, "Who could be so vicious!"

Ao Jiayu went to console Feng Xuanji, saying, "Feng fellow cultivator, now is not the time to grieve. Yan fellow cultivator's neck shows signs of corrosive poison; in my view, someone must have deliberately poisoned Yan fellow cultivator. Since Yan fellow cultivator clearly knew that person, they didn't want her to live, so they shot her to silence her."

Hearing this, Feng Xuanji bit her lip, held back her tears, then laid Yan Yunlan's corpse flat on the ground.

She took a deep breath and began to examine Yan Yunlan's wounds.

"This is no ordinary poison," Feng Xuanji said, her face grim.

Even she, an alchemist, could not tell what poison this was.

Feng Xuanji suppressed her grief and, as calmly as possible, said, "You're right; the murderer must be someone Yunlan knew."

She would surely find the murderer and avenge Yunlan!

Feng Xuanji looked up at Dongfangxiu and asked, "Is that person male or female?"

Dongfangxiu replied, "I only saw a white strip of cloth; I can't tell whether the archer was male or female. However, that white cloth seems to have a gardenia pattern."

Upon hearing this, Feng Xuanji turned her gaze back to Yan Yunlan.

She clenched her fists tightly, and tears blurred her vision once again.

…

Elsewhere.

Yuan Yao and Cang Li walked along the walls of the ruined city.

Every so often, she would stop and cast a formation seal.

During this, many Undead Beasts swarmed toward them.

Yuan Yao and Cang Li were both injured.

Soon they reached the endpoint, which was originally the starting point.

Yuan Yao took a deep breath, then fired a signal flare into the sky.

With a bang, brilliant fireworks exploded in the sky.

At that moment.

All the young cultivators in the ruined city looked toward the direction where the fireworks burst.

Meanwhile, Bian Chen and Yu Jing crashed heavily to the ground, nearly every bone in their bodies broken, their spiritual power completely exhausted, unable to rise.

Bian Chen's left hand was abnormally twisted, hanging limp.

Now, only the blood-soaked Xie Zixu and Qian Yunzhou still stood before Wei Yueze.

In fact, Xie Zixu and Qian Yunzhou were both severely wounded, but they knew they could not fall, for if they did, it would mean only a dead end.

At that moment, Wei Yueze also noticed the fireworks blooming, and he slightly narrowed his eyes.