Chapter 360

The scorching flames transformed into the shape of a phoenix, sweeping toward Runsheng. In the darkness, one could seemingly hear the cry of a phoenix.

Back in the corridor, the old thing behind the stone gate had initially used a technique of equal distribution to incinerate everyone, which was why Runsheng could easily defend against it then. But now, facing this individually targeted attack that had been building up momentum, Runsheng dared not lower his guard.

He clenched his right fist, his Qi gates gradually opening. The gullies on his body flowed with accelerated speed, and immediately after, blood mist spewed from the Qi gates; what flowed through the gullies was also fresh blood.

This was the strongest punch Runsheng could deliver in his normal state, second only to having all his Qi gates fully open.

The fist collided with the fire phoenix; the fresh blood transformed into a barrier, and the shockwaves rolled outward.

However, after this fire phoenix was shattered, it instantly transformed into countless smaller fire birds, continuing to charge toward Runsheng.

The distance was too close, and Runsheng was in the gap between breaths, leaving him no time to react.

One by one, the fire birds slammed into Runsheng. Runsheng let out a muffled groan as fist-sized charred marks appeared all over his body.

On the Daoist's side, a man holding twin blades also stepped out from the group and walked toward Runsheng.

He dared not sprint, fearing that if he went too fast, he would be caught in the collateral damage of his own boss's flames.

He walked over slowly to deliver the final blow and then retrieve the gourd from beside the opponent's charred corpse.

As someone who only trained his physique, his fighting style often had to be very particular. His greatest advantage lay in close-quarters combat whenever possible, while his greatest disadvantage was Runsheng being bombarded by the opponent's prepared technique from a great distance this time.

Li Jun was no ordinary River Walker. This advantage allowed him to hold the upper hand firmly, and from here on, Runsheng would remain in a state of passive suppression.

However, Runsheng standing there carelessly waiting to be bombarded from the very beginning was precisely to open up an opportunity.

A domain unfolded from behind Runsheng, and with extreme speed, it encompassed Runsheng and the surrounding area.

The speed of the arrogant fire birds all became sluggish. Runsheng, having managed to catch his breath, swung his fists continuously, beating them to pieces batch after batch.

As for the injuries on his body, they were not light, but they were not critical either.

Chen Xiyuan leaped forward, arriving above Runsheng's head.

Runsheng supported her with one hand, catching one of her feet, and then pushed upward, allowing Chen Xiyuan to successfully borrow the force to soar into the air.

The speed was not too astonishing, because without the angle and force guidance from Xiaoyuan, Runsheng dared not exert too much power.

But this was enough. Li Jun on the opposite side was also in a stage of calming his breath after just casting a technique; Chen Xiyuan seized this gap.

Immediately, Runsheng gripped his palm in the air, and the Yellow River Shovel on the ground was sucked into his hand as he charged toward the man with the twin blades.

Originally, Li Jun had been surprised that Runsheng could disperse his fire phoenix, but he was not panicked, because he believed the subsequent changes in his technique would severely injure that man.

But when Chen Xiyuan's figure appeared, fear was revealed in Li Jun's eyes.

He was not only present at the siege at the museum that day, but he had also personally participated in it, so he was very clear about the terror of this woman from the Chen family before him.

Unless the old thing took action, it would be hard to find a few in the younger generation who could rival her in a normal one-on-one fight.

"Retreat!"

This order was delivered with absolute decisiveness.

However, Chen Xiyuan was like a falling cannonball, ignoring Li Jun and ignoring Li Jun's subordinates around him, plunging straight into their midst.

After landing, a middle-aged man brandished a demon-subduing staff to strike at her, and there was also a lean man whose figure was ghostly, attempting to close in for an assassination.

But whether it was the shadow of the staff or the figure, in the eyes of Chen Xiyuan at this moment, they were all a bit slow.

The emerald flute in her hand first pushed aside the staff in front of her, then swept out with artistic ease, releasing a dark green light that struck the blurry figure. Afterward, her already fast speed increased further, and she arrived directly in front of Li Jun, smashing the flute down onto his head.

"Snap."

The middle-aged man holding the staff staggered, while the lean man flew backward.

Li Jun's head exploded directly.

Yet there was no blood splattering; instead, it was filled with strips of cloth and paper scraps.

Chen Xiyuan locked her gaze onto a spot again, took a stride, and raised the emerald flute in her hand once more.

The vision in that area distorted for a moment. Li Jun, knowing he had been spotted, lowered the Daoist sleeve that had previously covered his face, and while retreating, he said:

"Miss Chen, regarding the matter of that day, please allow this poor Daoist to apologize and offer compensation!"

Chen Xiyuan spoke while chasing and closing the distance: "I accept your apology; I do not need your compensation."

"Miss Chen truly has the demeanor of the Long Wang's gate; this poor Daoist admires you!"

Chen Xiyuan: "I want you to experience once what you inflicted upon me that day. Afterward, I will also apologize to you!"

Li Jun: "..."

The man with the staff and the lean figure attempted to strike again, trying to help their boss block Chen Xiyuan's pursuit.

As a result, one was blocked by Lin Shu You, and the other was blocked by Tan Wenbin.

Lin Shu You's twin maces lashed out fiercely at the man with the staff, forcing the opponent to parry with all his might.

Tan Wenbin's side was even simpler; no matter how exquisite the opponent's movement technique was, it could not escape his five-sense perception. He was too lazy to risk his life to finish the opponent off quickly at this moment anyway; as long as he kept the opponent from being able to free up his hands, he could just toy with him.

It was mainly because the Chen external team was too fierce, so fierce that his side only needed to act as cheerleaders.

Once the Chen external team finished off that Daoist, they could turn back to help him clean up the one in front of him; that would be a simple matter.

Soldier against soldier, general against general—only by being clear about one's own positioning could one better save costs.

Turning his head inadvertently, Tan Wenbin discovered that A-You next door was fighting quite intensely, looking as if he wished he could trade injuries with the opponent just to kill him as quickly as possible.

Tan Wenbin could only shout in his heart: "A-You, take it easy. You haven't fully recovered since you inserted the talisman needles."

Lin Shu You: "Oh!"

Lin Shu You immediately slowed his offensive, and the man with the staff was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

But when he saw his boss being chased and running by that woman, his heart was suddenly filled with gloom, and then it was his turn to start swinging the demon-subduing staff recklessly to launch attacks.

Lin Shu You did not take the bait, only responding perfunctorily. When he sensed the opponent wanted to break contact, he would press forward again, making it impossible for the opponent to get away.

It was the same for Runsheng. Although he had the absolute advantage against the man with the twin blades, he was not in a hurry.

When it came to being thrifty and living a frugal life while out and about, Tan Wenbin couldn't compare to Runsheng, not to mention that he now had another person who would "constantly lecture" him. Now, Runsheng was even calculating when burning paper.

An advantageous situation required the tactics of an advantageous situation. Fighting in a way that wasn't cost-effective was a disrespect to the advantage established in the early stages.

Li Zhuiyuan gave no commands; in this situation, there was absolutely no need for commands.

Chen Xiyuan alone could suppress the opponent's entire team; his own people only needed to beat the drums on the sidelines.

Li Zhuiyuan walked alone. When he passed the position where Runsheng had previously been, he picked up the gourd from the scorched earth, blew on it, and wiped it.

Even white magma could not destroy it; no matter how strong the previous technique was, it could not cause it any damage.

The youth held the gourd and continued to walk around the battle circle. He walked onto the steps, where a Daoist nun was lying.

There were ten bloody claw marks on the Daoist nun's chest, and her abdomen had been sliced open; the fresh blood had not yet fully stopped, and she was in a state of critically severe injury.

Furthermore, a compass in the Daoist nun's hand and the small wooden sticks with carved patterns scattered in front of her indicated her identity as a formation master.

Seeing the youth walking toward her, deep wariness was revealed in the Daoist nun's eyes.

"You..."

Li Zhuiyuan picked up a small wooden stick and asked while toying with it in his hand:

"Did you make this yourself, or did you bring it out from home?"

The Daoist nun's eyes revealed confusion, and after hesitating for a moment, she answered: "Bestowed by my Master."

Li Zhuiyuan: "So, you don't know mechanism arts?"

Daoist nun: "I... do not."

Li Zhuiyuan nodded: "Then your Master has quite a few ideas."

These small wooden sticks were products manufactured under the concept of mechanism arts. When setting up a formation, one could rely on this advantage to greatly increase efficiency.

Although it was very simple for Li Zhuiyuan to set up temporary formations now, he still dared not throw away the physical small formation flags, carrying them in his bag every time.

The former only pursued simplicity and efficiency, but when it came to actual strength and stability, one still had to rely on formation flags as support.

Li Zhuiyuan had grasped this line of thinking.

After this wave ended and he returned, he planned to take his small black formation flags... forget it, he might as well renovate all the gear of the big guys.

The reason mechanism arts were a niche path in the Jianghu was, firstly, like formations, they were hard to learn, and secondly, it wasn't that they weren't suitable for combat.

They were very suitable for combat; for instance, Zhou Yunfan could control his own maid puppet to directly blast that short, fat old man into a state of severe injury.

It was expensive.

So expensive that even a genius in mechanism arts like Zhou Yunfan, after being expelled from the Zhou family, had to rely on marrying into the Ding family to obtain the resources needed for progress.

Li Zhuiyuan was also very poor now. Although he had picked up quite a few things since coming to Luoyang, those were all implements; after all, no one would bring a warehouse when River Walking.

The truckload of materials Zhao brought back from Jiujiang last time had basically all been used in the construction of the Daoist field.

He was truly lacking materials in his hands now; relying on A-Li to fetch spirit tablets of various materials could only be a drop in the bucket.

Fortunately, there were two more enemies this time.

Go to the Zhou family first; the problem of the mechanism materials needed this time would definitely be solved. After finishing with the Zhou family, go to the Ding family; then, the next time he wanted to do something, he wouldn't be financially strapped.

Actually, telling the old lady and having Qin Shu and Liu Yi go would be simpler, but the problem was that if Qin Shu and Liu Yi went to raid the house, those things couldn't be given to him.

It would be equivalent to adding some insignificant things to the Qin and Liu family ancestral homes, which were already unimaginably wealthy.

So, revenge was something one had to do personally.

He could call Zhao Yi; this guy used to be very rich, but now he was also poor.

He could also call Chen Xiyuan; she was easy to fool.

Most importantly, she was filthy rich and wouldn't look down on those things, so there was no need to give her a cut.

The Daoist nun looked at the youth's profile, wanting to speak several times but stopping.

She didn't know what this mysterious youth was thinking about now; was he thinking about how to kill her?

At the moment, her boss was being chased and beaten, and her three companions were also entangled and unable to free themselves, which meant she had absolutely no one to protect her now.

"Bang!"

Li Jun was caught up to by Chen Xiyuan and then sent flying by a strike of the flute.

After seeing this scene, the Daoist nun finally gathered her courage and asked:

"Can you... spare my life?"

Li Zhuiyuan nodded: "I can."

A smile appeared on the Daoist nun's face, which had become pale due to excessive blood loss:

"Thank you."

Li Zhuiyuan dropped the small wooden stick and picked up the gourd again to toy with it.

It should be because the distance to the Daoist was close enough; even without inserting incense, he could feel the slight trembling emitted by this gourd.

The youth pinched out karmic fire with his fingertips and flicked it a few times onto the surface of the gourd, then opened the Yin-Walking. This time, he saw special patterns emerging on the surface of the gourd.

After memorizing these patterns, Li Zhuiyuan ended the Yin-Walking. He spread his right palm; first, blood mist permeated, and then it condensed into blood lines, simulating the dynamics of the patterns on the gourd to conduct analysis.

Chen Xiyuan was right; the grade of this gourd was indeed very high.

It was just that there seemed to be a contradiction here. The Bixia Sect gave the nourishing object inside the gourd to their own River Walker, yet kept the gourd in the sect; this certainly couldn't be because they could predict this wave in advance.

Then it could only be that once the nourishing object left this gourd, at least until that River Walking ended, the nourishing object could not be put back into the gourd.

Once put in, it couldn't come out?

Or was it that every time the nourishing object was removed and put back, it required a long period of time?

Looking at it this way, this thing seemed a bit like a chicken rib.

He was only lacking things now; after the River Walking ended, he would be wealthier than Chen Xiyuan. Implements that couldn't show results in the short term, no matter how precious, had no meaning to him.

Unless he could solve this crux.

That would require first seeing what exactly this nourishing object was, and whether it was worth him racking his brain for this uncertainty.

Li Jun was now incomparably miserable; even though he used various techniques and means, he could not change his current situation.

Under Chen Xiyuan's offensive, even running away and hiding had become a luxury.

If his four subordinates were all in front of him and could cooperate well, perhaps he could still struggle for a while. Now that his subordinates had all been split up, he had been in a sorry state from the very beginning.

However, he still hadn't used the nourishing object; he should be planning to keep it as a final resort, seeking a chance to escape death.

Li Zhuiyuan supported his chin with his palm; it seemed he would have to wait a little longer.

Daoist nun: "My sect once offended the Bixia Sect. Later, I used the price of being willing to worship Li Jun as a Long Wang follower and River Walk with him to let the Bixia Sect let my sect go."

Li Zhuiyuan had no interest in such matters and did not respond.

Daoist nun: "I helped him reach this step; I have done everything I should have done. I feel I have a clear conscience; what do you think?"

Li Zhuiyuan remained silent, seemingly not having heard at all.

The Daoist nun sighed to herself: "I want to live; I don't want to die. I am still young, and I still have my formation Dao that I want to pursue."

Li Zhuiyuan was still watching that side intently; Chen Xiyuan was preparing to make the final three-step suppression. When that time came, Li Jun would have no choice but to make a final desperate struggle.

The Daoist nun smiled miserably and said: "Looking at it this way, my being ambushed and severely injured by that old cat demon was actually a stroke of luck. As my Master said, this world is truly..."

"Hum!"

All the small wooden sticks on the ground first stood up, splicing into a small grandmaster chair. The Daoist nun threw the compass in her hand forward, and after the compass landed on the small grandmaster chair, they embedded into each other.

A formation capable of covering this entire area took shape instantly!

At the same time, the fresh blood on the ground beside the Daoist nun automatically drew a circle, forming an Asura Blood Fiend Formation. The formation eye was the Daoist nun herself, and blood-colored vines rushed out from the wound on the Daoist nun's abdomen, strangling toward Li Zhuiyuan who was sitting right beside her.

And the Daoist nun's entire face instantly turned from pale to greenish. The original severe injury could have been recovered from with rest, but now, she was almost using her own life to launch this surprise attack.

The Daoist nun's companions sensed the appearance of the formation above their heads and immediately felt their morale boosted, preparing to seize the gap of this ebb and flow to launch a new offensive at all costs, so as to break free from their opponents' entanglement and support their boss.

Tan Wenbin and Runsheng also sensed the formation appearing above their heads, but they did not have the slightest panic, and were even too lazy to be a bit more serious about it.

Because they had long seen Brother Xiaoyuan sitting right beside that Daoist nun; they didn't believe anyone could set up a formation under Brother Xiaoyuan's nose.

The blood-colored vines encountered resistance just as they were about to touch the youth. A circle of black formation patterns appeared around the youth, and karmic fire rose, wrapping the blood-colored vines and dyeing them black.

The Daoist nun opened her eyes in astonishment, her face filled with disbelief.

The youth before her hadn't even turned his head to look at her because of her sneak attack; he just raised his left hand and pointed at the location where she was.

The black vines retreated, fiercely piercing through the Daoist nun's body and lifting her entire person up from the steps, like a sacrificial offering placed on an altar.

And the compass rotating on that small grandmaster chair in front, after a brief pause, began to reverse.

The ebb and flow that the Daoist nun's three companions had anticipated did not appear, but they had already risked everything, and as a result, it was not their opponents who were suppressed by the formation, but themselves.

This sudden change of being forcibly dragged down after such momentum caused all three of them to expose major flaws.

There was no help for it; they trusted their companion too much and followed past experience too closely.