Chapter 160: Critical Moment

Ye Liuyun saw this False Holy Artifact and suddenly thought that he still had a River‑and‑Mountain Cauldron in his hand; if he gave this Cauldron to Qiong Qi, gave this False Holy Artifact to Bai Hu, and gave the Stone Shield to Shi Yuan, perhaps he could still have a bout with that elder.

This was also the only sliver of hope he had recently worked out.

Immediately, he handed the items to Bai Hu and Shi Yuan. The River‑and‑Mountain Cauldron could be kept until the last moment; if Qiong Qi cannot breakthrough, giving it to him later would not be too late.

As for him and Lei Ming, taking anything was no longer useful.

Several Monster Beasts also sensed the seriousness of the situation, carefully took the items, and then returned to cultivation. Especially Bai Hu, who also asked Ye Liuyun for two drops of dragon blood.

He thought that even if he could not breakthrough to the Yuan Dan Realm, he should still try his best to hold off that elder and buy Ye Liuyun time to escape.

After they left, Ye Liuyun let Lei Ming enter his Storage Ring early to cultivate.

Lei Ming knew Ye Liuyun wanted to protect her, but she wanted to stay with Ye Liuyun.

Ye Liuyun smiled and comforted her: "Don't worry, I have plenty of tricks! With you, I'd actually run slower. Didn't you say you'd do whatever I say from now on? You've already forgotten that?"

In the end Lei Ming couldn't argue with Ye Liuyun, and reluctantly entered Ye Liuyun's Storage Ring.

After arranging everything, Ye Liuyun felt at ease.

He went to Qiong Qi's residence to take a look; the aura there was already almost on par with a saint of the Yuan Dan Realm. He figured that even if he later couldn't defeat that elder, it wouldn't be far off, and handing him the River‑and‑Mountain Cauldron then should allow a showdown.

After checking the Spirit Stone reserves of the Formation, he returned to calmly cultivate.

The last bit still wouldn't breakthrough, and he didn't know why.

So he devoted all his Divine Soul Power to solving this problem, no longer caring about the outside situation.

In the end he concluded that perhaps his Qi Sea wall wasn't sturdy enough. He had rebuilt all his Meridians, cultivated his Physical Body to the seventh layer of Immortal Overlord Body, and that might be his only weak point.

Although his Qi Sea was more resilient than ordinary people's, his True Essence quantity and quality were also far greater. The lingering failure to breakthrough might be because the Qi Sea needs reconstruction.

Thus, he carefully began reconstructing the outer wall of his Qi Sea, while continuously stretching it to expand the Qi Sea a bit more.

Ye Liuyun worked all night at full effort, re‑refining the entire outer wall of the Qi Sea. Now he could feel the outer wall is incredibly sturdy, able to withstand massive impact.

But just as he was about to continue rebuilding the inner wall of the Qi Sea, the Grand Hall began to tremble.

"Looks like the Formation can't hold any longer!"

Ye Liuyun's expression turned grim as he rose and walked out. Bai Hu and Shi Yuan also stopped cultivating and came out.

"Wait outside Qiong Qi's house!" Ye Liuyun said, bringing the two of them to wait outside Qiong Qi's house.

Ye Liuyun felt carefully and thought Qiong Qi's aura was noticeably weaker than yesterday.

"Did Qiong Qi encounter a cultivation problem?" he didn't say it out loud, lest Bai Hu and Shi Yuan worry.

He asked Bai Hu: "Bai Hu, how's your progress?"

Bai Hu shook his head helplessly. "Much harder than I imagined; probably will need ten days to half a month to succeed."

"Hmm! Breaking through the Yuan Dan Realm is certainly not that easy, otherwise why are saints so few! Don't rush, solidify your foundation." Ye Liuyun kept comforting Bai Hu.

The tremor of the Grand Hall grew ever more obvious; each shake flung the stones on the ground into the air.

"Shi Yuan, what about you?" Ye Liuyun continued chatting nonchalantly with the two.

"I've broken through to the Ninth Sea Transformation, but reaching the Yuan Dan Realm still needs some time!" Shi Yuan replied.

"Alright! Those Spirit Stones, don't be stingy; when you run out, ask me—I have plenty here!"

Ye Liuyun hadn't expected Shi Yuan to breakthrough so quickly. It seemed he had been working hard these days.

"Boom, boom," the Grand Hall's shaking grew louder, and Ye Liuyun and the others were almost losing their footing.

The soldiers outside the siege also noticed the Defense Array weakening, so their attacks grew more vigorous.

Ye Liuyun also took out the River‑and‑Mountain Cauldron, preparing to rush in and hand the Cauldron to Qiong Qi as soon as the great array collapsed.

He felt Qiong Qi's aura was fading faster.

His heart sank. "It's over, Qiong Qi's breakthrough has been cut off! Looks like we have to fight to the death!"

He quietly removed his Storage Ring, planning to toss it out amid the chaos later, giving Lei Ming a sliver of hope.

"Boom—" a massive roar, the entire Grand Hall kept shaking.

Ye Liuyun and the others barely managed to stay upright. They knew the great array had been breached.

The final boom was the sound of the remaining energy of the array collapsing.

The soldiers outside also began cheering.

Ye Liuyun turned to rush toward Qiong Qi's room, only to find Qiong Qi's door suddenly open!

"You brat, not coming out to die?" the elder saint shouted from outside.

At the same time, his oppressive aura swept over, piercing straight into the Grand Hall.

Ye Liuyun flung the River‑and‑Mountain Cauldron at Qiong Qi. "Take this!"

But Qiong Qi merely hummed, instantly dispersing the elder's aura. He then took the Cauldron back and returned it to Ye Liuyun.

"Now it's my turn to unleash the Emperor's might!"

Before his words finished, his figure vanished, exiting the Grand Hall directly.

Ye Liuyun and Bai Hu were stunned, then erupted into joy.

"Qiong Qi broke through! He succeeded!" Ye Liuyun shouted, then charged outward.

"We'll follow, slay all those scraps outside!" Bai Hu and Shi Yuan rushed outward as well.

They hadn't reached the doorway when they heard the booming sounds outside. The aftershock of the saints' clash shook the Grand Hall violently.

Soldiers who couldn't dodge were instantly torn to pieces by the battle's aftershock.

Shi Yuan immediately handed his Stone Shield to Ye Liuyun, fearing he'd be hit by the shock. Bai Hu also returned the False Holy Artifact Longsword. He wasn't very skilled with weapons anyway. Now that Qiong Qi was there, he didn't need to risk fighting the saint.

Then the three of them surged forward together.

In mid‑air, they saw Qiong Qi and the elder already engaged in combat.

Every palm of Qiong Qi unleashed towering flames, truly worthy of the former Fire Emperor. He never shifted to his true form, yet he battered the elder back step by step.

Ye Liuyun instantly drew the Demon Slaying Sword, slashing at the leading Leader.

Shi Yuan and Bai Hu also vented the pent-up frustration of these days onto these soldiers.

Under their attack, these soldiers were like ants, dying in swaths, without even the strength to fight back.

Ye Liuyun is also Yi Dao, directly splitting that Leader in half, then harvesting these soldiers' lives piece by piece. While swinging his blade, he also attacked with the Soul Sword; each strike directly extinguished the souls of fifty soldiers.

Moreover, he now doesn't need to retract the Soul Sword before attacking again; instead, he controls the Soul Sword to attack one person, then immediately go on to attack the next.

His speed in killing these Great Zhou soldiers is not slower than that of Bai Hu and Shi Yuan.

After the soldiers were cleared out, Ye Liuyun remembered that old man's disciple, grabbed him again, directly absorbed his bloodline power into the whale-blood-colored crystal ball, then killed him with a single blow.

The disciple favored by the Sage naturally has formidable bloodline power. Ye Liuyun felt that his bloodline power seemed even richer than Xiao Mubai's.