Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 374 - 368 Halfway 1

Chapter 374: Chapter 368 Halfway 1

Boom!!!

The white jade smoke dragon collided furiously with the cyan-green phoenix. They fought fiercely.

Behind the two massive creatures, standing respectively, were Wei Fengjue and Second Qing Girl.

Their robes were wildly whipped about by the air currents, tumbling and rolling.

From the palm of one, a great amount of white smoke and cloud vapor surged forth.

From between the brows of the other, a jade-like emerald green fluorescence shone brightly.

"It’s truly unexpected," Wei Fengjue stated calmly, staring at Second Qing Girl opposite him, "that your Qinghuang Divine Intent Technique has also broken through to the Ninth Layer."

"Aren’t you the same?" Second Qing Girl replied indifferently, her bare hand seizing something, and suddenly in her hand appeared a cyan-black Jade Ruyi.

"Both of us have already reached the Yuan Jing’s Solidification Realm, continuing like this is meaningless."

"So, what does your highness suggest?" Wei Fengjue appeared not to be in a hurry.

"My Qinghuang Illusionary Image has reached the Qingjue Divine Intent Stage. If you can withstand this strike from me, I will withdraw on my own this time." Second Qing Girl held the Ruyi levelly, and from the tip of the Ruyi, a large amount of tiny runes, like black ants, surged out densely covering her arm and body.

The runes, like black ants, became more and more numerous, more and more dense, and in just a moment, they completely covered her from head to toe.

Initially still fairly composed, Wei Fengjue, upon seeing this scene, gradually grew more solemn.

Slowly emerging behind him was the enormous head of a smoke dragon, its dragon eyes glowing a dark red.

The surrounding tunnel walls began to crack under the terrifying spiritual pressure, revealing the golden yellow liquid of the Sun Spring outside.

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

Gently landing on the ground.

Lin Xin’s longsword circled back, gently sheathing it.

Picking up a severed hand he was holding—more precisely, two palms joined together—he examined them carefully.

Eerily, no blood flowed from the severed palms, and through the wound, he could see something dark red pulsating deep inside.

"Indeed... it really is this."

He quietly placed the pale severed hand in front of him, gently kissing the deformed junction.

Hiss...

Threads of dark red light, like flowing water, were drawn in from the severed hand into his lips.

The light continued for more than ten breaths before slowly fading away.

Casually tossing the severed hand aside.

A flush of excitement crossed Lin Xin’s face as he licked his lips.

"Is this what they have always been smuggling?"

He glanced behind him; the passage there was dark, revealing nothing.

A smile appeared on his face as Lin Xin stepped towards the right fork.

Just as he had left less than two seconds ago, a white-robed elder suddenly appeared where he had just been looking, his expression grave as he passed by.

Right turn.

Left turn.

Pause.

Left turn.

Pause for three breaths.

Left turn.

Speed up for five breaths.

Lin Xin was playing a game of hide and seek with the searching experts of the Wei Family, moving with precision like a fitting gear. With each advance, each pause, he perfectly avoided the dense presence of the Wei Family.

Most of these men were expressionless puppet corpses, not living people, but there were also no less than three Yuan Jing elders. None of them could sense or see even a trace of him.

He had just stepped forward into a bend.

Right behind him, a white-robed elder zipped past.

As he moved forward, a clear map of the entire Underground Palace came to mind.

"I have now reached the Eighth Layer, only seven layers left to go straight out. Ahead, the densest area has two points. One is a crossroads, surrounded by connected inspection magic artifacts."

"The second is the most easily guarded sole passage; it’s the only way I came in. No matter which side I turn from, I must pass through there. If I were them, I would definitely station people to guard there, one of the vital points of the Underground Palace."

Lin Xin understood this in his mind.

His pace quickened, as he skillfully dodged the Wei Family’s search, his movements precise and delicate, and astonishingly, he avoided all detection under the detection senses of several Yuan Jing elders.

Heading towards the exit at the top of the tunnel, his pace was neither fast nor slow, yet he carried an air of unhurried confidence.

Until he was almost at that crossroads.

"... People are fickle, mountains and seas are firm, among the overturning, what can endure through the ages?"

A voice, like singing yet also like a sigh, came from ahead.

Lin Xin slowly stopped his steps, looking towards the front.

There indeed was someone guarding the junction. Unknown when, a blue-robed, brocade-dressed young master appeared, holding a white paper fan and looking elegantly in this direction.

This young master smiled, his features handsome; one could tell at a glance that he was a woman dressed as a man. A head of black hair was tied up high behind him. Like Lin Xin, he also had a longsword hanging at his waist, but its scabbard was jade white.

What was most astonishing was that beneath his feet was a giant turtle. Its body was dark blue, its limbs robust, but it had two heads—a strange turtle.

"Someone indeed has come." The blue-robed young master smiled radiantly at Lin Xin. "I was invited here just as a precaution, yet I didn’t expect someone would truly appear."

Lin Xin touched his own human skin mask, pulling out a weird smile.

"I’m just wandering around here, but it seems you are waiting for someone, so I’ll leave you be," he said.

He directly tried to walk past the man in the blue robe.

"Of course, I am waiting for someone," the gentleman with the folding fan retorted, his gaze intently fixed on Lin Xin. "It might not necessarily be you, but breaking through won’t be so easy."

Lin Xin ignored him and suddenly his figure split into three, charging towards the gentleman from three sides, casting three black shadows.

The shadows behind that person suddenly merged into one.

Shik!

Only then did the sound slowly spread.

The speed seemed not fast, but it all occurred in an instant, not even a blink, and Lin Xin had already passed him, reaching the passage behind.

The gentleman was caught off guard, his complexion changed instantly. He turned around and viciously raised his hand, but halfway through, he suddenly dropped it.

Just hesitating for that moment, Lin Xin was no longer visible in front of him. Even his sensing ability disappeared without a trace.

"Such high speed..." He murmured, retracting his hand. The invisible spiritual light within it slowly withdrew.

"Never mind, the person is probably an opponent of the Wei family. I wasn’t planning to intervene anyway. I’m just here to assist in retrieving something. Better not complicate things further," he reasoned.

He then restored his usual calm demeanor.

But what he never expected was that the person he just let go was key to stealing the item he was to retrieve.

Like a black electrical arc, Lin Xin darted through the passages, each leap propelling him forward by more than ten meters. A few leaps were so swift that one couldn’t even blink, he just flashed by. His speed had reached an unimaginable level.

In his eyes, the entire passage seemed blurred, with only dense dark brown on either side - a mix of countless dyes without texture or trace, only two twisting masses.

The only clarity was the continuously flickering specific images ahead.

The terrifying speed and the equally terrifying instinct for avoidance allowed Lin Xin to enjoy running with his eyes closed, not relying on sight, but on preemptive movement.

If someone could look at the Underground Palace from above,

they would see a black line from the Fifth Layer to the Fourth Layer crossing hundreds of meters in just a few moves directly reaching the Fourth Layer,

then the Third Layer,

the Second Layer...

the First Layer....

In his rapid motion, Lin Xin suddenly drew his sword and held it up vertically.

Clang!!!

An earthquake-like force spread at the entrance of the passage.

A semi-transparent white wall, appearing out of nowhere, blocked the exit.

Behind the wall stood a black-robed, masked man, looking at Lin Xin with folded hands.

Lin Xin’s figure blurred for a moment, finally snapping out of that strange state and looking at his sword blade. The Red Flower Sword had just collided with an extremely hard Yuan Jing force field; the rule-based power and high-speed force collided, forcing him out of that state.

"Unexpectedly, someone managed to break through the defense to this extent." The black-robed man, his aura diffusing, was precisely the black-robed man who was almost able to catch up after Lin Xin had snatched the Evil God’s embryo.

"If it weren’t for the many hands and disturbances interfering, preventing timely communication, do you think you could really have made it here?"

He appeared not to recognize Lin Xin.

Yet Lin Xin recognized him, his face revealing a trace of helplessness.

"At this point, it seems unavoidable not to fight."

"Are you from the Yuan Dou Demon Sect or Jade Pure Dao?" the black-robed man slowly drew his sword.

"Take a guess." Lin Xin suddenly flashed a sly smile, then his body burst open and dispersed into wisps of demonic Qi.

"Condense!"

The black-robed man uttered softly.

Suddenly, everything within the passage instantly contracted—air, pebbles, dust, even the moss on the walls—all gathering in front of him into a dense black sphere.

Woosh, the sphere scattered instantly, turning to dust.

"Gone? Or just an illusion?" he muttered, his expression changing slightly. The opponent seemed more cunning than he had anticipated. "Such mastery of Formation Talisman techniques... When did he switch from his actual body to an illusion..."

He could sense that the other’s presence in his own Yuan Jing was extremely indistinct; it was a peculiar sensation, as if that person’s existence was no more noticeable than a piece of ordinary stone, not at all like a human.

"There are techniques that can conceal presence against Yuan Jing?"

His eyes darkened.

"Has he returned? Or is he trying to trick me into leaving? Could this tunnel be the only exit? Not good! Maybe he’s aiming somewhere else!"

The black-clothed man was about to continue his vigil but suddenly realized this.

Then, suddenly a very familiar aura emerged from the distant passage, exactly what he had been standing here to intercept.

"I can’t let him escape!"

Whoosh!

In an instant, he dashed from his spot towards the direction of the aura.

Just as he left, a red line as quick as lightning shot out from a side tunnel opening.

"Drawing the tiger away from the mountain?!!"

Enraged, the black-robed man tried to redirect himself, but it was too late. He could only watch helplessly as Lin Xin dashed out of the passage.

He released his Yuan Jing force field with all his might, but he was still a moment too slow, or perhaps it wasn’t a matter of speed at all, but rather that the opponent had just perfectly ended up where his Yuan Jing could not reach, missing by a mere fraction.

Even though he was the adversary, he couldn’t help but praise the precision.

Returning to the exit, he watched the fleeing black dot almost disappear from sight, sighed, and finally sat down cross-legged, pulling out a diamond-shaped blood-red crystal and crushing it.