Chapter 625: Fishing the Void

"Thank you, thank you!"

"Thank you, Dragon Crawl Daoist!"

"Dragon Crawl Daoist, you're truly a good person!"

Ao Ji smiled, uglier than crying.

He Pingsheng spoke again: "I can spare the two of you, but… you must do something for me!"

Ao Ban asked: "May I ask, Daoist, what task do you require?"

He Pingsheng pointed his hand toward the woman on the ground wearing a black Daoist robe.

Bing Yi.

At this moment, Bing Yi lay sprawled on the ground, her expression unreadable.

But He Pingsheng knew she wasn't dead.

Whether she had truly been poisoned into unconsciousness by the spiritual sense toxin, he didn't know.

"Cough… cough…" He Pingsheng looked at Ao Ban, a Nascent Soul cultivator at the twelfth layer, and said: "You… go down and strip her bare. Leave not a single stitch on her body!"

"Huh?"

Beside him, Ao Ban, Ao Ji, and Hao Cang nearly turned to stone!

No way?

Are you really that perverted? Do you even have this kind of fetish?

"This… this… this… this is terribly inappropriate!" Ao Ban's face twisted in agony: "Daoist, this act is a grave violation of decency!"

It's not about decency.

Ao Ban wasn't foolish—he knew exactly what He Pingsheng intended.

He was testing whether the woman below was truly dead.

If she wasn't dead, she'd never allow someone to strip her clothes—she'd reveal herself.

But now… you want me to be the sacrificial lamb?

He Pingsheng sneered: "I gave you a chance. I'll ask you one last time: go, or die?"

Ao Ban shook his head: "Daoist, I cannot do this. I'd rather…"

Pfft…

Before Ao Ban finished speaking, a black spear instantly pierced through his body.

He hadn't even seen when He Pingsheng moved.

And when the attack came, there was no spiritual fluctuation—just a single strike, straight through.

He had no time to react.

Boom…

Inside Ao Ban's body, the black spear erupted with countless Dao techniques and celestial spiritual energy, instantly destroying his five viscera, six bowels, meridians, and dantian.

Even his crystal Nascent Soul was torn apart outright.

Ao Ban, dead!

That's how brutal it was.

"This… this… this… Ninth Elder…" Ao Ji's heart ached, but he dared not cry out loudly.

He Pingsheng yanked the spear free with a wet sound and turned to Ao Ji: "Now it's your turn… strip her bare, or die."

"Fine, I'll do it!"

Ao Ji was now utterly terrified.

He feared that if he refused, He Pingsheng would kill him on the spot.

Without a single breath's delay, Ao Ji appeared beside the black-robed Bing Yi and reached out to strip her clothes.

The woman lying on the ground pretending to be dead realized she could no longer feign it—she flicked her jade hand, and with a sharp crack, instantly obliterated the Long Jiao.

Ao Ji, dead!

The Long Jiao clan lost two great cultivators in an instant.

"Hehehe…" He Pingsheng chuckled: "Senior Bing Yi… you're truly alive… and quite good at pretending!"

As he spoke, he pulled out a purple-red rod.

Hong Meng Zi Jin.

"Next, if you can withstand this technique, I'll spare your life!"

Boom… boom… boom…

He Pingsheng's magic power surged into the Hong Meng Zi Jin.

The one-zhang-long rod instantly expanded to a hundred zhang, and He Pingsheng swung it with all his might.

"Strike!"

Technique: Heaven's Mechanism Thirteen Strokes.

In an instant, thirteen strokes were unleashed.

The thirteen strokes merged into one, slamming toward Bing Yi on the ground.

Bing Yi had already reached her limit.

She had held out against the spiritual sense poison this long only to wait for an opportunity to ambush He Pingsheng.

But now, the ambush failed, and she had no strength left to resist.

"He Pingsheng… you're truly deceitful!"

"Hehe…"

"Rest assured… I won't let you live!"

"The Divine Emperor won't let you live!"

"You're doomed!"

He Pingsheng ignored her—the rod struck the ground.

Bing Yi made no defense—she had lost all capacity to defend herself.

She could only watch helplessly as the colossal rod, wreathed in boundless energy storms, engulfed her body.

Dust rose from the earth.

Radiating from Bing Yi's position, eight massive fissures stretched for a thousand li in every direction.

The nearest ground was shattered into fragments; countless churning rivers of crimson magma erupted from beneath.

As for Bing Yi's body, it had been vaporized outright by the strike.

Only two exquisitely crafted rings—one blue, one red—flew into the void, caught by He Pingsheng's hand.

"Congratulations, Young Master!" Old Servant Hao Cang bowed: "Congratulations, Young Master, you now possess the power to fight a Void Refinement cultivator!"

"Congratulations, Young Master, you've slain a Void Refinement!"

He Pingsheng shook his head: "Killing a Void Refinement isn't that simple."

"Though Bing Yi is dead, she still has a spiritual avatar!"

"When the body dies, the soul-nuance reawakens in the avatar. Once one reaches Void Refinement, it becomes exceedingly difficult to truly kill them!"

That was true!

As long as your avatar and body aren't destroyed simultaneously, you won't die.

"Take the two Long Jiao's rings. Let's go back and see what's happened," He Pingsheng glanced toward the direction they'd come from and shot off as a streak of light.

Hao Cang collected the two Long Jiao rings and followed closely behind He Pingsheng.

Qiao Huizhu had likely reached the Imperial Palace entrance by now.

He couldn't let her wait too long.

Two streaks of light pierced the void!

Soon, He Pingsheng frowned.

He looked down at a massive mountain range beside a shimmering lake and said: "Hao Cang… when we came this way, there was no lake here, was there?"

"Do you remember?"

Hao Cang shook his head: "Indeed, there wasn't… perhaps we took a wrong route."

He Pingsheng was speechless: wrong route?

How could that be?

I followed the trail of our original spiritual traces back.

Maybe I didn't notice it when I came?

Fine… forget it!

But He Pingsheng soon went numb.

Because after flying past this mountain range, another massive mountain appeared ahead.

Beside it, another identical lake.

The lake shimmered, reflecting blinding sunlight; in one corner, an old man with white hair seemed to be fishing.

Keep flying!

Still the same: mountain, lake, fishing elder.

He Pingsheng suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

Clearly, he hadn't just missed it on the way here—he'd been trapped inside a void crafted by immense spiritual power.

This spatial technique and mastery of spatial laws…

Hisssss!

Just thinking about it makes one feel terrified.

"Stop!" He Pingsheng waved his hand, and the two halted, gazing at the old man fishing by the distant lake: "Let's go take a look…"

If they don't want us to pass, even if we flew here for ten thousand years, we still couldn't get through.

"Young Master!" Hao Yun's face turned pale: "Could it be that Fire God Emperor?"

Hearing Hao Yun's words, He Pingsheng shuddered: Fuck…

Body Integration?