Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 302 - 295: Get Rid of (Part 2)

Chapter 302: Chapter 295: Get Rid of (Part 2)

He methodically eliminated all possible factors that could have caused this effect, and soon, he pinpointed something he had always overlooked and undervalued.

Evasion Attribute!

"If it isn’t any of those, then it must be the effect of this attribute," he mused.

The situation was grim now, and there was no time to verify this; it would have to wait until later.

The three presences above continued to fly around, clearly convinced that he was right there.

"I must think of a way."

Focusing for a moment, he quickly pulled out a pre-prepared Array Plate from his Storage Bag.

Having dared to come alone to challenge the Heaven’s Will Saber, he naturally made thorough preparations, considering all scenarios in advance and using Formation Talismans with blood as the medium to engrave several Array Plates that might come in handy.

He embedded a piece of Spirit Jade into the middle level Array Plate.

Carefully, he buried the Array Plate where he stood, then moved to a different position to continue extracting another Array Plate, embedding Spirit Jade, and burying it into the ground.

A few digs of his finger allowed him to easily excavate a large hole enough to bury the Array Plate, and with a casual sweep, he restored the earth to its original state. The strength used was just right.

These Array Plates, the culmination of his efforts over the past two days, whether successful or not, now depended on his application.

He quickly buried five successive Array Plates, forming a large circular array.

Lin Xin hid on the perimeter of the Formation, and formed Hand Seals.

The Formation faintly released a trace of aura.

Swoosh Swoosh!

In an instant, three streaks of light shot over, hovering above the array formation.

"It’s here! There was a slight leakage of aura just now," the noble lady said sternly.

"It somewhat seems like he is deliberately luring us here."

"With his current state, what tricks can he still play? The effect of the second Dao Seeking cloud smoke is not that easy to remove!" the long-bearded elder spoke indifferently.

"Even if he gets his hands on the Cave Heaven Divine Talisman, it’s still inside the storage crystal of Heaven’s Will Saber, lacking time to refine and remove the seal. Even if he gets it, he won’t be able to take out anything as long as we relentlessly pursue him and don’t give him time to unravel it," Que Yue scanned below as he spoke.

"It is an honor indeed for someone of my humble Foundation Establishment level to have three True Monarchs devise such strategies against me," Lin Xin’s figure suddenly emerged from below, accompanied by billowing grey smoke. His figure was faintly visible within the mist, his face indiscernible.

Snap!

The moment he appeared, three streaks of light zapped to his position like lightning.

A loud boom sounded, creating a deep pit several meters deep in the ground, slowly emitting green smoke.

"Heretics should be vanquished by everyone!" the noble lady stated coldly.

"My lady, whether I am a heretic or not, it is unlikely that you three would give up on the Cave Heaven Divine Talisman...."

Another figure emerged from the other side, seemingly unaffected by the previous attack.

Elsewhere in the woods, Lin Xin slowly appeared, sensing the trio being tied up by the phantom array from afar. While keeping them engaged in conversation, he swiftly moved away from that area.

The illusion array that deceived three top-tier cultivators was created by stacking over a hundred ordinary, high-level illusion arrays, creating a solid phantom with an aura similar to a real person.

But since it could only be supported by Spirit Jade, naturally, its duration was very short—barely half a stick of incense. Thus, he had to make the most of this time to distance himself as far as possible.

Soon, the area where the phantom was located suddenly exploded, sending a red light streaking far in another direction.

The three streaks of light chased relentlessly behind.

This was the final effect of that Formation, turning all the spiritual energy into a beam of light escaping into the distance, moving faster than his physical body could, since it was just an insubstantial phantom after all.

Glancing back at the four streaks of light fleeing from the area, Lin Xin carefully sensed his surroundings and, finding no one else around, turned and flew towards the Naxi direction.

The Immortal-Slaughter Alliance would certainly not let this go, so it was crucial to open the Storage Crystal as soon as possible and refine the Cave Heaven Divine Talisman—that was the righteous path.

As long as he could have his own Cave Heaven, he was determined not to die from a miscalculation or oversight, as was the fate of Heaven’s Will Saber at the end.

In fact, had he not traded blow for blow with injuries, but had engaged in a standard, slow duel, Heaven’s Will Saber could have easily won. Once the details of his capabilities were clear, there would definitely be no chance for injury trade-offs.

However, this also somewhat demonstrated that the Cave Heaven Divine Talisman did not have as strong escape capabilities as imagined. If Heaven’s Will Saber could have hidden in the Cave Heaven before dying, all his techniques for trading blows would have been useless.

Yet he vaguely felt that Heaven’s Will Saber’s final gaze was somewhat strange, appears stunned, leading him to some confusion.

*************************

Bang!

A palm imprint was fiercely smashed onto a black jade stone table.

"What!!? The Cave Heaven Divine Talisman was stolen?!!"

In a deep mountain near Naxi, within a cave mansion.

An elder with a lofty crown and a lean face stared hard at the three people bowing their heads before him.

These three were none other than Que Yue and the other two True Monarchs who were chasing Lin Xin.

"You personally went to supervise and assist, and this is the result you bring back to me?!" The old man, dressed in a moon-white Taoist robe with a palm-sized red and blue Taiji diagram on his cuff, was slowly rotating, releasing a red and blue glow.

"True Monarch, please calm your anger. Initially, we used a Golden Talisman that prohibited the Heaven’s Will Saber from escaping into the Cave Heaven, forcing it to fight desperately. However, we did not anticipate that the challenging Demonic Cultivator would act so swiftly at the last moment... We also did not foresee such a rapid change, thus the outcome was decided. So in the end..." the noblewoman said lowering her head in shame.

"Interesting!" True Monarch’s eyes, sharp as a hawk’s, slowly swept over the three people before him. "All three of you Daoist Masters are about to seek the Dao, and yet you couldn’t even capture a young fellow who’s not even a Daoist Master, and you were played by the illusion formation he used."

"That person’s mastery over the Formation Path is extremely high. He actually managed to layer and enhance a common formation to the extent that it could deceive with illusions. We were... were..." Que Yue explained helplessly. He took out a fragment of an Array Plate, something they found after they came to their senses and turned back.

Taking the fragment, True Monarch just glanced at it briefly, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. He felt slightly less annoyed.

"The three of you are after all the masters of a sect; you couldn’t even see through some mere formation talismans. How can I have any confidence in entrusting you with important matters in the future?"

"The path of a True Monarch is the path of the strongest! Us juniors really do not know, how can the Cave Heaven Divine Talisman possibly aid a True Monarch?" Que Yue asked in a low voice. This was something the other two Daoist Masters were also puzzled about.

True Monarch was already an old monster at the Scenic Level, cultivating the path of the strongest, relying on neither external objects nor magical treasures, but on his own innate Elemental Energy. This Elemental Energy, refined through his arduous cultivation over seven hundred and seventy-seven years, collecting and smelting the innate metallic elemental energy from the depths of the ocean and repeatedly forging it, had finally achieved supreme power through a fortuitous opportunity.

Whenever faced with an enemy, he could spit out a turn, faster than lightning and indestructible. Even other old monsters at the Scenic Level, if they didn’t have special treasures or divine skills, would only manage to temporarily avoid his edge.

True Monarch Huang Yuan’s reputation was well-known among the old cultivators near Naxi. However, he had rarely taken action in recent years, so his reputation among the newcomers was not conspicuous.

"You don’t need to worry about this," True Monarch Huang Yuan said without further explanation.

"According to our judgments, the cultivator who stole the Cave Heaven Divine Talisman has a cultivation base and combat strength even lower than ours. Initially suppressed completely by the Heaven’s Will Saber, but later he managed to withstand injuries with his bizarre recovery ability, making sudden attacks and even not fearing being pierced through essential spots, leading to the Heaven’s Will Saber’s carelessness and his eventual success," said the noblewoman in defense.

"Correct. In one-on-one combat, as long as we keep our distance, that person isn’t to be feared. If it weren’t for our Golden Talisman restricting the Heaven’s Will Saber from fleeing, he wouldn’t have won so easily," the bearded old man nodded. "Later he used a Phantom Formation to shake us off, using formation fluctuations to cover up the tracking of spiritual energy fluctuations, indeed showing his true capabilities."

"What is to be done next, to retrieve the Cave Heaven Divine Talisman? If you three are not up to the task, I will have to replace you with other Daoist Masters," True Monarch Huang Yuan put down the fragment of the Array Plate.

"Find this person and persuade him to join our Immortal-Demonic Alliance; his mastery of formation talismans... is certainly extraordinary!" he concluded, issuing an order after a moment’s thought.

"If he really doesn’t want to, only then may you kill him."

"We will obey the True Monarch’s command," the three Daoist Masters said in unison, their respect evident as all three had been continuously guided and elevated by True Monarch Huang Yuan; their relationship was not of master and disciple, but it was close."

********************

On the outskirts of the bustling district of Naxi, there is an area where ordinary residents and the poorer people of Jianghu spend their late years.

The buildings here are ancient, and the streets mostly have calligraphy shops and tea houses for performing arts, with customers mostly being elderly.

On the streets, the passersby were mainly elderly and children, and peddlers selling candied hawthorns and sugar figurines were everywhere to be seen.

At a small stall selling glutinous rice balls.

A dark-faced man with a curved saber hanging at his waist, strong as an ox, was slowly eating the small glutinous rice balls in front of him.

Next to him, a woman was carefully feeding her son, cooing to him in a local dialect that was difficult to understand.

The child, with his mouth full of sticky rice paste, looked around restlessly, clearly distracted.

This caused the dark-faced man to occasionally glance at the child, a hint of envy in his eyes.

Smack.

A tall, middle-aged man suddenly sat down opposite the dark-faced man.

"Shopkeeper, bring a bowl of the sesame ones, make it ten," the man called out to the stall owner.

"Right away."

The dark-faced man looked at the middle-aged man across from him, gratitude in his eyes.

"Here’s what you asked for," he said, removing a bundle he had been carrying on his back all along, placing it next to the table and pushing it towards the other man.

The other man slowly accepted the bundle, touching it.

"Also, the notebook, your father’s belongings, I’d like to see them too."

"No problem. It’s all stuff I can’t understand, no harm in giving it to you," the dark-faced man replied indifferently.

"How does it feel, having taken your revenge?" the middle-aged man asked with a smile.

The dark-faced man shook his head. "Empty. I can’t seem to muster any enthusiasm for anything."

"In life, there are joys and sorrows, anger and fear. But the scariest feeling is emptiness," the middle-aged man said calmly. "Emptiness is the absence of pursuits and goals. Drifting through life aimlessly, if you cannot quickly find the motivation to move forward, you will soon fall into a rut of having no desires, feeling that life is completely uninteresting."

"What should I do then?" the dark-faced man asked, a trace of distress in his eyes.

"That’s up to you, what you want, what kind of person you want to become," the middle-aged man smiled. "The life you desire is unknown to others. You have to find it yourself."

"Thank you for your advice, sir," the dark-faced man said, bowing in gratitude after thinking it over.

"Let’s go, we should not delay. We must move quickly. The Immortal-Demonic Alliance will soon trace this to you. Once this matter is concluded, you must leave immediately," the middle-aged man said earnestly.

"As long as I’m not caught red-handed, with my core identity, I don’t need to worry too much about the Immortal-Demonic Alliance coming after me directly. But it’s different for you; you are just a peripheral member."

"I understand!" the dark-faced man nodded. "Then please come with me, sir!"