The Xie Mansion was completely unaware that someone had just snuck inside.
But Chu Lingguang did not make any rash moves after entering.
He didn’t know how to enter the secret chamber. If he tried to force his way in by smashing through the floor, he would alert the other three True Martial Realm experts. Even if he could kill them in an instant, it would still give Xie Xiaohuan an opening.
「An hour later.」
Xie Xiaohuan’s butler, seemingly on urgent business, came to report. As he activated the mechanism to the secret chamber, Chu Lingguang finally saw the entrance.
He slipped in after him.
"Master, the Prince has urgent business with you. He asks that you go to the Prince’s Mansion immediately."
The butler said, standing outside a stone door within the secret chamber.
’This guy seems to be in secluded cultivation. If not for the strength of my Sea of Consciousness Power, I never would have been able to find him,’ Chu Lingguang thought.
He discovered that the stone used to build the chamber was unusual. Even he would need some time to break through it, and if he alerted Xie Xiaohuan, killing him would be far from easy.
Fortunately, the butler’s words presented an opportunity.
Since Prince Andre was summoning Xie Xiaohuan, he would have no choice but to come out.
"I understand. Have the three gentlemen accompany me."
Xie Xiaohuan’s voice came from behind the stone door.
"I will make the arrangements at once."
The butler left to summon the three True Martial Realm experts.
HUMMM!
The stone door opened.
Xie Xiaohuan was fully armed.
His aptitude was ordinary—otherwise, Guo Xiaotian would never have needed to leak the Day and Night Breathing Technique to him. Yet, by some unknown means, he had actually managed to reach the True Martial Realm.
Chu Lingguang was very surprised.
He vaguely remembered that when he’d seen Xie Xiaohuan in the Aika Tribe, the man had only been at the Qi Sea Realm, his cultivation long having hit a bottleneck.
’How did he break through to the True Martial Realm?’
Moreover, he now carried a bizarre aura.
’A vine?’
Just then, Chu Lingguang was surprised to discover a writhing vine wrapped around Xie Xiaohuan’s arm. One end of it seemed to have pierced into the flesh.
’Could it be...?’
A dreadful thought surfaced in Chu Lingguang’s mind.
"Hm?"
Xie Xiaohuan frowned.
The vine on his wrist throbbed violently.
It was as if it were about to burst out of his body.
His expression changed in an instant, and he turned, about to retreat into the secret chamber.
It was as if he had sensed an intruder.
’I’ve been discovered.’
Chu Lingguang realized what had happened.
With no more time for stealth, he shot forward. Before Xie Xiaohuan could get back into the secret chamber, he unleashed a ranged Thrust.
The force of this Thrust shot straight for Xie Xiaohuan’s internal organs.
Xie Xiaohuan’s body froze.
He felt as if a palm had struck him square in the back.
The vine on his wrist shot out like a green arrow, snaking toward Chu Lingguang to entangle him.
Chu Lingguang flipped his palms, forming two vortexes that absorbed and pulverized the vine. Then, just as the stone door was about to seal shut, he threw a punch with all his might at Xie Xiaohuan’s forehead.
"It’s you!"
Xie Xiaohuan’s eyes flew open wide.
He recognized Chu Lingguang in an instant.
He never thought Chu Lingguang would actually dare to come kill him. ’If he’s here, then Guo Wei must be here as well!’
Faced with Chu Lingguang’s punch, he defended with all his might.
He crossed his fists before his head, releasing the power of a six-layered Dharma Aspect and his Qi Sea Gang Shield as he watched the stone door rapidly closing.
’As long as I can hide in the secret chamber, even if Chu Lingguang manages to force his way in, the others outside will have enough time to rescue me.’
However, the force of Chu Lingguang’s punch was far beyond Xie Xiaohuan’s imagination.
Both of his arms were instantly shattered.
His Dharma Aspect and Qi Sea Gang Shield shattered in an instant.
Chu Lingguang’s fist, which had been aimed at his forehead, instead seized him by the neck, and just before the stone door sealed shut, he dragged him out of the chamber.
CRACK!
He then swiftly and cleanly snapped Xie Xiaohuan’s neck, ripped the head from his shoulders, and immediately bolted for the ground floor.
SPLAT!
Several fragments of the vine had splattered onto Chu Lingguang’s arm and were now writhing as they began to fuse back together.
Chu Lingguang could hear a heartbeat coming from them.
The three hundred fourteen remaining responses within his body flickered erratically, as if being drawn out, on the verge of awakening new streams of power within him.
"Who’s there!"
The three True Martial Realm experts on the ground floor finally sensed that an intruder had broken into the Xie Mansion.
In an instant, they formed a pincer attack.
A dense net of sword light descended upon the exit of the secret chamber.
BOOM!
Carrying Xie Xiaohuan’s head, Chu Lingguang shattered the net of sword light with a single punch and launched himself out of the Xie Mansion.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Countless arrow shafts rained down on him.
He threw out two blasts of Vortex Power from his palms, catching all the incoming arrow shafts and reflecting them back at the Archers.
At the same time, he saw that the vine he had pulverized with his Qi Vortex Power had re-formed on his arm. It was now an even smaller vine, and it was trying to burrow into his flesh.
’What in the world is this thing?’ Chu Lingguang had no clue.
He tried to shake it off.
Unfortunately, though the vine was tiny, it was wrapped tightly around his wrist. He could only block it for now with his Dharma Aspect and Qi Sea Gang Shield.
Added to that was his own astonishing physical defense.
For the moment, the vine could only coil around his wrist, unable to pierce his skin and enter his arm.
"Hya!"
Chu Lingguang shot out of the Xie Mansion, mounted a Han Gao Steed, and unleashed his Consciousness Manipulation Power, charging for the gates of Xie Family Castle.
FWOOSH—BANG!
Suddenly, a signal flare shot into the sky.
"Close the gates! Hurry!"
"The Patriarch has been attacked!"
The commander of the Xie Family Castle guards cried out in alarm.
The red-lacquered gates, over ten meters high, were being pushed shut by a group of soldiers who had awakened Dragon Elephant Power.
Large battalions of troops were massing at the exit.
BOOM!
However, the instant the red-lacquered gates sealed shut, they exploded, blasted through by a terrifying wave of Potential Power. A figure with crimson eyes, riding a Turkic-bred Han Gao Steed, charged out from within Xie Family Castle at a ghostly speed, making a beeline for the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
Hanging from the man’s waist was a head with wide, staring eyes. It belonged to none other than Xie Xiaohuan.
"Giddyup!"
Chu Lingguang galloped recklessly toward the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
He would slay gods and buddhas alike if they dared stand in his way.
The vine had not yet burrowed into his wrist, but it was tightening like a golden circlet. Chu Lingguang couldn’t control it. Using all his strength, he tore it from his wrist and flung it far away.
But the vine shot right back.
Chu Lingguang immediately threw out a blast of Vortex Power—a terrifying vortex formed from thirty-nine streams of Qi Vortex Power—which instantly pulverized the vine into a cloud of green mist.
Chu Lingguang and his horse burst out of the green mist.
The green specks dotting his body began to emit a faint emerald light. The light slowly gathered at his waist, as if weaving itself into a brand-new vine.
A moment later, the sound of the vine’s heartbeat made Chu Lingguang realize that a new vine, as thin as a strand of hair, was constricting his waist.