The foggy saber was shattered by Liou Yuan. Without the support of the saber, Liou Tao’s body hung in midair, unable to dodge.
Seeing Liou Yuan rushing to kill him, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and form hand seals, controlling the chains in the sky to defend.
However, the chains that once could obstruct Liou Yuan were now as fragile as paper under the impact of the azure glow.
"Hah!" Liou Yuan shouted, throwing just a single punch.
The abundant vitality mixed with the punch’s gust surged, and all the fog chains blocking Liou Yuan were broken, without hindering him in the slightest.
In an instant, he was within a zhang of Liou Tao, his momentum like a rainbow, black hair fluttering, as he delivered a punch from midair towards Liou Tao.
"Die!"
Bang! A vast surge of blood energy erupted from Liou Yuan’s fist, like a bloom of blood-colored waves exploding in the void.
Liou Tao bit the tip of his tongue, spitting out a mouthful of blood, using his vital essence to command all the fog to converge before him, forming a gray high wall.
The high wall stood in front of Liou Tao, attempting to block Liou Yuan’s overwhelming momentum.
Clang! The blood waves exploded against the fog wall.
The blood and gray fog energies intertwined, engulfing the figures of Liou Yuan and Liou Tao.
After a brief pause, the fog wall shattered.
Liou Tao’s figure was once again sent flying backward, blood gushing from his mouth and nose.
His body was already damaged, his entire left arm severed at the shoulder.
Behind him, Liou Yuan landed steadily, blood energy surging around him, seeming unstoppable like a demon god.
Liou Yuan now held Liou Tao’s severed arm in his hand, which he had forcibly torn from Liou Tao’s body.
"After two years, is this all you’ve improved?"
With purple light in his eyes and blood energy swirling around, Liou Yuan sneered at Liou Tao, tossing the severed arm to the ground and stomping his foot.
With the support of Treading Flowing Waves, he soared into the sky as an azure glow, again charging to kill Liou Tao.
He was determined to end him today in this canyon.
Suddenly, an unexpected event occurred.
As Liou Yuan swung another punch, intending to use his blood energy to kill from the skies.
The heavily injured Liou Tao, now missing an arm, reached into his robe with his remaining hand and pulled out a talisman.
Just as Liou Yuan’s Blood Absorption Skill was about to make contact with him.
Liou Tao gave Liou Yuan a venomous glare, crushing the talisman.
Whoosh! Liou Tao, covered in blood, was suddenly wrapped in a green energy.
Transformed into a green light, he vanished like a mountain breeze from where he stood.
Liou Yuan’s punch naturally struck empty air, blasting a huge crater in the ground where Liou Tao had once stood.
"Foundation Establishment Talisman!" Liou Yuan narrowed his eyes, his vision in the Qi Cultivation Realm now exceptional, instantly recognizing the talisman’s level.
Realizing something was amiss, he fully activated Treading Flowing Waves, aiming to kill Liou Tao in the gap before the talisman could fully take him out of the canyon.
Unfortunately, he was a step too late.
The green wind that Liou Tao had become flickered just once, and he was already beyond the canyon’s bounds, flickering again and already miles away.
In a few rapid flashes, within only a few breaths, he was beyond the range of Liou Yuan’s Evil Eyes.
Disappearing into the desolate, dark, eroded land.
"The Liou Family of Xiang Mountain is indeed wealthy, using a Foundation Establishment Talisman for a junior’s protection."
Liou Yuan could only watch helplessly as Liou Tao disappeared into the distant dark land, shouting a few unwilling curses.
"But can you really escape with such severe injuries?"
"You wait for me, young master will find you sooner or later."
After cursing, Liou Yuan could only obediently deactivate the power of his Evil Eyes, allowing the purple spiritual power to revert to pure white spiritual power.
The successive battles had consumed his spiritual power tremendously.
Especially activating his Evil Eyes, which seemingly elevated Liou Yuan’s power to the Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer, his momentum like a rainbow.
But his spiritual power was almost utterly depleted after those few attacks.
"The consumption of spiritual power by the Evil Eyes remains terrifying," Liou Yuan muttered, recalling the few attacks he had launched using the Evil Eyes.
This was still him activating those peculiar pupils on the foundation of the Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer, enabling those overpowering attacks.
If he were at the Qi Cultivation Fourth Layer, he might only have the strength for one strike before his spiritual power was exhausted.
Even so, after Liou Yuan deactivated the Evil Eyes’ power and the purple spiritual power in him slowly faded, reverting inside the Evil Eyes.
The remaining spiritual power in him was less than one-fifth.
The Evil Eyes were indeed Liou Yuan’s ultimate trump card.
But it was a card used only in desperate situations. If he couldn’t kill his opponent while the Evil Eyes were active, he would also fall into a passive state due to depleted spiritual power.
However, Liou Tao’s demonstrated strength was such that Liou Yuan couldn’t afford to worry about these things.
The Small Success realm C-level skills were too sharp; without the Evil Eyes, Liou Yuan found it hard to win the battle.
Thinking of this, Liou Yuan glanced once more in the direction of Liou Tao’s departure, eyes filled with killing intent.
"Liou Tao cannot be left alive; he must be killed."
In just two years, Liou Tao had grown to this point.
Such a potential enemy was something Liou Yuan could never let rest easy.
"If this person doesn’t die, he’ll become the greatest threat to big brother and me in the future."
Liou Yuan’s killing intent had risen; he couldn’t just let it go.
All his cultivation plans were put aside; now he was focused only on one thing, hunting down Liou Tao.
"In two months, the Liou Family’s Foundation Establishment cultivators won’t be able to enter the Erosion Land."
"Miss this chance, and it’ll be difficult to kill him."
Because Liou Tao had fled with serious injuries, the dense gray fog that had filled the canyon under the influence of his Cloud Manipulation Skill had dissipated.
Revealing the barren, reddish-brown land at the canyon’s bottom.
Along with the canyon’s entrance stands the Refined Gold Breaking Mountain Array.
When Liou Yuan looked at the Refined Gold Breaking Mountain Array again, the power of the array and cultivation technique had stopped.
Within the array’s range.
The Liou Family’s Body Cultivator at Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer lay in the center of the array, covered in dense blood holes, already lifeless.
Liou Yuan’s Sword Rain Curtain Stealth, paired with Treading Flowing Waves’ speed for a sneak attack, completely cut off any chance of survival for this Body Cultivator.
Critical injuries made it impossible even for a Body Cultivator to withstand the Refined Gold Breaking Mountain Array for too long, being killed by it was almost certain.
"Heh, killing someone at Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer, even for the Liou Family, counts as a loss."
Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer is already late-stage Qi cultivation; even in the Outer Sect of Five Extremes Mountain, it holds considerable status.
It is a rare force beneath Foundation Establishment in the outside world, sufficient to suppress a city and county.
Xu Xiang, the City Lord of Yanhe City, is also at Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer.
Liou Yuan walked to the Body Cultivator’s corpse and picked up his storage bag.
Inside were nearly thirty Stone Skills stone beads and over a hundred Star Stones.
Aside from that, they were all worthless miscellaneous items and jade scrolls of the skills cultivated by the Body Cultivator.
Liou Yuan, with his C-level Skill Blood Imperial Spell, naturally looked down upon these skills and didn’t touch them.
He only took the stone beads and Star Stones and then dug a pit to bury the Body Cultivator’s corpse.
Now, Liou Yuan has sixty-seven Stone Skills.
After cleaning the battlefield, Liou Yuan picked up his Canglan Sword, which Liou Tao had sealed with the silver magical artifact spirit ring, from the ground.
Because Liou Tao had fled with serious injuries.
The silver ring magical artifact, lacking a continuous supply of spiritual power, fell off the Canglan Sword, and Liou Yuan pocketed it.
"Everyone’s eyeing this sword of mine, and doesn’t think about it, if it weren’t for my many tactics, I’d be dead eight hundred times."
Liou Yuan mocked Liou Tao while putting the silver ring magical artifact into the storage bag.
This type of magical artifact is highly targeted, with almost no use in ordinary scenarios, he can only keep it for emergencies.
After these deeds, Liou Yuan’s spiritual power somewhat recovered.
Revitalized, Liou Yuan glanced back at the Refined Gold Breaking Mountain Array, not reclaiming the array disc.
"Let it be stationed here."
With these words, Liou Yuan’s form flickered, deploying Treading Flowing Waves, transforming into a stream of light and rushing toward the place where Liou Tao had recently fled.
"Even a Foundation Establishment talisman has its limits."
"Liou Tao, you can’t escape this disaster."
In the darkness, Liou Yuan’s frigid voice echoed.
The lifeless reddish-brown mountains towered in the Erosion Land, and the earth had only bare red soil and stones without a sign of green.
Those jagged rocky mountains, in the darkness like giant beasts baring fangs, poised to devour at any moment.
Everything here resembles remnants left after years of merciless torment, emitting a despairing atmosphere in this cold, dark world.
An azure streak sped across the land from afar, strikingly visible in the dark world.
Soon the moving streak of light veered, settling in a small area surrounded by clusters of red stones.
Stopping at a position, revealing Liou Yuan’s cold face beneath the streak.
Slowly bending down, his eyes fixed on the stone surface before him, where a stain of scarlet liquid remained.
Liou Yuan, with keen senses and extraordinary smell, could detect the scent of blood from afar.
He extended his hand, using his fingers to touch the blood stain, bringing it to his nose and sniffing it, then grinned smugly.
"The blood stain hasn’t dried; Liou Tao, that boy, should be not far away."
Liou Tao had been wounded by Liou Yuan using the Canglan Sword, which bore the Sushui Sword Aura’s scent.
Being Liou Yuan’s power, he could easily sense the presence of his sword aura in the blood, confirming that this blood was left by Liou Tao.
After verifying the origin of the bloodstain, Liou Yuan stood upright, using his Evil Eyes to survey the surroundings.
Completely silent, no wind, no insect cries, only ceaseless darkness and chilling cold closely intertwined.
Soon, Liou Yuan spotted another bloodstain on the ground two hundred yards away.
Following the residual bloodstains, he roughly determined Liou Tao’s direction, then employed Treading Flowing Waves, transforming into a stream of light and pursuing.
"Liou Tao, hit by my Blood Absorption Skill, severely wounded, I haven’t stopped chasing for two days, leaving him no time to heal."
"Once I catch him, I can surely cut him down."
"I refuse to believe he has a second Foundation Establishment talisman."
Liou Yuan thought viciously.