Chapter 160: A Golden Core Is Not Something You Can Kill Just Because You Want To

Lu Yanchang departed from Xianyun Sect just a short while after Fei Chengji.

Fei Chengji was returning to his own sect without any pressing matters, and now that they had left Xianyun Sect, it was much more convenient to converse. As he traveled leisurely, he meticulously questioned Zhang Yu about what he had witnessed within the secret realm.

The moon had already risen, illuminating the night sky like water. The firmament resembled a tranquil painting with vast expanses of empty space, making the sudden flash of a flying magical treasure particularly conspicuous.

Consequently, although Lu Yanchang was merely riding a dilapidated artifact, by pursuing at full speed, he caught sight of the master and disciple pair from afar within half an hour.

Lu Yanchang did not pause to consider that Fei Chengji's cultivation level was several stages higher than his own, nor did he wonder what might happen if he could not defeat him. He only felt an intense, burning agitation that desperately needed an outlet, and this master and disciple happened to be suitable candidates.

However, when it came to fighting, Lu Yanchang was never a reckless hothead. Figuring that Fei Chengji was at least a Golden Core perfection stage cultivator and not to be underestimated, and knowing that the two did not recognize him, he realized he could launch a surprise attack to gain the upper hand. He restrained his killing intent and called out from behind, "The two ahead, wait for me."

As his magical artifact gradually closed the distance, Fei Chengji already sensed a formidable aura approaching from behind.

While Golden Core cultivators were somewhat commonplace within major sects, across the entire Daoist cultivation realm, they were far from so numerous that one would casually bump into one while traveling on the road. Hearing the summons, Fei Chengji halted his flying treasure, looked back to confirm that he indeed did not recognize this person, and said coldly, "Fellow Daoist, what is your business with me?"

In terms of cultivation, he was several stages higher than the other party; in terms of background, he belonged to a prestigious major sect. Therefore, Fei Chengji's demeanor naturally carried a hint of faint arrogance. To be honest, had he not seen that the newcomer was a Golden Core cultivator, he wouldn't even have bothered to reply.

To his surprise, the newcomer was even more arrogant than he was. When looking at people, his eyes practically reached the top of his head, and his words were dripping with condescension: "Are the two of you from the Danya Sect? Which elder's lineage do you belong to? What are your names?"

Inquiring about one's master and lineage right off the bat—logically, only someone of high status and senior generation would have such confidence. Fei Chengji sized up Lu Yanchang, momentarily unable to fathom the other's background, and his tone softened slightly when he spoke again: "My surname is Fei, given name Chengji, and this is my junior disciple. My master is Mu Fengshan, the Sect Master of the Danya Sect. May I ask who Your Excellency is?"

Fei Chengji waited to hear the other party drop the name of some prominent and powerful backer, completely unaware that Lu Yanchang had asked those two questions firstly out of fear that he might have targeted the wrong people and wished to verify their names, and secondly as an opportunity to close the distance.

He narrowed his eyes. Deliberately refusing to answer Fei Chengji, he said, "That's just fine then. You two are the exact ones I'm looking for. Did you just return from Xianyun Sect?"

While speaking, he had already drawn close enough to his targets, and his "Heart-Clearing Sword" technique was fully prepared. Seeing Fei Chengji opposite him freeze for a moment, his expression turning vigilant, Lu Yanchang did not hesitate. He raised his hand, and a blindingly snow-white beam of light shot forth.

Beside him, Zhang Yu opened his mouth to cry out. Before his scream could even escape, this beam of light—faster than lightning—struck the center of Fei Chengji's brow, silently cleaving his body in two.

Lu Yanchang felt a surge of relief, the thought *'So this Golden Core perfection stage is nothing special after all'* just beginning to form in his mind, when he abruptly realized something was wrong. His lethal trump card had felt as though it had cleaved through a piece of withered wood. Not only had it been far too smooth, but not a single drop of blood had splashed out. How could this be?

Lu Yanchang's hairs stood on end as he retreated swiftly. At that moment, the soil beneath his feet churned, and a massive cyan python burst from the earth. Its tail whipped around violently, generating a sharp gale as it lashed toward Lu Yanchang's legs. Simultaneously, dozens of long spears materialized out of thin air, descending like a torrential storm to stab at Lu Yanchang from all directions, vowing to pierce him straight through.

By this time, Zhang Yu's terrified, blood-curdling scream finally rang out, sounding almost as if it were meant for Lu Yanchang.

Thrown into a flurry of motion, Lu Yanchang reacted instantly. The giant cyan python was actually a wood-elemental incantation manifested into a vine-type technique, possessing such flexibility and strength that it whipped its head and thrashed its tail in mid-air to hunt and tear at its prey. It was the first time Lu Yanchang had ever witnessed such a thing, to say nothing of the sharp spears accompanying it. Anyone else would likely have fallen victim to it on the spot.

Fortunately, Lu Yanchang's background was vastly different from ordinary Golden Core cultivators. As an expert who had achieved Dao through martial arts, his mastery over physical evasion was second to none.

With his vital essence circulating, Lu Yanchang continuously shifted his footing, dodging left and right, always managing to thread his way through the narrow gaps between the long spears and the giant python.

For Lu Yanchang, this relied entirely on bodily instinct; waiting for his eyes to see and his mind to react would undoubtedly have been too late.

As a spectator, Zhang Yu gradually felt his eyes spinning and his heart pounding with shock. This man had been trapped within his master's ultimate technique, the "Dragon-Walking Array," yet he had managed to hold out for so long. What kind of cultivation technique was this?

The footwork Lu Yanchang was currently employing was called "Carefree Wandering," a technique whose status in the hearts of martial artists was no less than that of the "Accumulated Purity Scripture" in the eyes of Daoist cultivators.

Having undergone rigorous tempering in the Demon-Suppressing Prison, if Lu Yanchang were to return to the martial world now, solely based on his martial arts prowess, acquiring a title such as "Invincible Throughout the World" or "Martial Sage" would be as easy as turning over his hand. Moreover, he had figured out that while Daoist cultivation techniques borrowed the laws of heaven and earth via five-element vital essence and possessed far greater destructive power than martial arts relying on internal and external physical prowess, precisely because of their ability to manipulate wind and rain at will, they were inherently inferior to martial arts when it came to minute precision.

His martial arts mastery was particularly effective at dealing with the control-oriented wood-elemental techniques. Therefore, although he had momentarily fallen into Fei Chengji's fierce spell array and appeared to be in danger, he remained completely unscathed.

Regardless of how astonished Zhang Yu was, amidst his busy maneuvers, Lu Yanchang finally managed to figure out what had happened just moments ago: the figure cleaved by his "Heart-Clearing Sword" had not been Fei Chengji himself, but rather a pitch-black piece of wood. That wood was about seven feet long and shaped entirely like a human. At that moment, it lay on the ground split in two, while Fei Chengji was nowhere to be found.

Lu Yanchang cursed inwardly; this fellow surnamed Fei was afraid of death—the one he had slain with a single strike was merely a substitute puppet.

Where was he hiding now? The darkness made things inconvenient, but theoretically, Fei Chengji was still continuously casting spells, so finding him shouldn't be too difficult. Yet, when Lu Yanchang formed the hand seal for the "Heart-Clearing Sword" and swept his divine sense around, he found nothing at all.

Lu Yanchang felt a surge of secret anxiety. He finally experienced the inconvenience of lagging behind by several cultivation stages; this fellow surnamed Fei must possess a magical treasure designed for concealment. However, if he himself were also at the Golden Core perfection stage, he would never have fallen into such an embarrassing predicament.

How could he continue the fight if he couldn't even find his target? Despite holding the "Heart-Clearing Sword," he couldn't possibly use a butcher's cleaver to slaughter a chicken and unleash it on the foolishly standing boy nearby, could he?

With his anger rising, Lu Yanchang spotted an opening and flicked his feet lightly. His body flashed away like a butterfly flitting through flowers, and pressing down with the weight of a mountain of gold-elemental vital essence in his palm, he instantly suppressed Zhang Yu. Lifting the youth onto his back, he turned and sped off into the distance without looking back.

This was yet another martial arts technique: *Su Qin Carrying the Sword*.

The cyan python crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up a high cloud of sand and gravel. Amidst the billowing dust emerged a figure—none other than Fei Chengji, whose face was somewhat pale.

He stared at Lu Yanchang's retreating back with a wrathful expression, wanting to wave his hand and unleash a spell at him, but his disciple Zhang Yu was currently serving as a human flesh shield on the man's back. When he thought of shifting his position to intercept, the man was already forming hand seals—strikingly the very same technique that had destroyed his substitute puppet moments before.

During this brief moment of hesitation, the man carrying Zhang Yu had already fled beyond sight.

Fei Chengji was practically speechless. He swung his arm fiercely, slamming a heavy wave of magic power into a nearby boulder. This fight had been utterly baffling—the man had strutted up proudly, asked a single question, and immediately started swinging, only to snatch Zhang Yu away at the end. Heaven knows what this was all about.

He would catch up with this fellow and settle the score properly. Fei Chengji took two heavy breaths, calmed his mind, and gave chase from behind.

However, after pursuing for only a short distance, Fei Chengji discovered that while it had been easy for the other man to chase him earlier—since he had been flying leisurely in the sky as an obvious target—trying to turn the tables and track that person down presented a genuine challenge.

This was all his own fault for not hurrying earlier. Up until now, they had not yet left the mountain ranges spanning hundreds of miles around the Xianyun Sect. Once that man plunged into the deep, complex terrain of the remote mountains with Zhang Yu in the dead of night, even with the aid of tracking spells, searching him out within a short time was no easy task.

Having shaken off Fei Chengji and captured Zhang Yu alive, Lu Yanchang felt no sense of joy.

He casually tossed Zhang Yu down in a wind-sheltered ravine, gazing at him as if looking at a pile of garbage, before finally speaking coldly after a long moment, "Give it to me straight. What exactly happened in the Xianyun Sect's secret realm?"

Hearing this, Zhang Yu felt a sense of bewilderment. This person had suddenly jumped out, meddle in their affairs, and start fighting without a word—all because of the Xianyun Sect's secret realm? Yet he had neither offended anyone nor reaped any benefits while inside the secret realm.

Could there be some misunderstanding?

Hope suddenly surged within Zhang Yu, reviving his spirits slightly as he began recounting the events of the secret realm from the beginning.

Unaware of the background of the person who had captured him, aside from concealing the fact that he had previously tipped off Pu Pingping, he recounted everything else honestly, even detailing the events inside the cave—which he hadn't witnessed personally—based on the account Qiu Feng had given after exiting the secret realm.

As he spoke, Zhang Yu secretly used his divine sense to gauge the other's expression. Lu Yanchang's face remained perpetually grim, and unable to glean any clues, Zhang Yu could only hope that by dragging this out, his master Fei Chengji might arrive in time to rescue him.

This was a pitch-black, barren ravine where moonlight could not penetrate. It was baffling why this man had chosen such a place to hide, but since his master was exceptionally skilled in tracking, he should be arriving soon, right?

Just as this thought crossed his mind, the man opposite him stood up and said, "We're changing locations. Once dawn breaks, I'll deal with your master." He then warned him sternly, "Behave yourself. I happen to love arson and murder, and the moment I see someone courting death, my hands start itching."

At this moment, Fei Chengji had already reached a nearby mountaintop, searching for the enemy's whereabouts using a tracking spell. As he cast the technique, he pondered the identity of this uninvited gatecrasher who had ambushed them halfway.

Meanwhile, Hongjian had also tracked them all the way from behind. Catching sight of the dark silhouette on the mountaintop from afar, she prudently concealed her tracks, despite failing to recognize who it was, and slowly drew closer.