Everything on the island was entirely unusual for Mo Liuqi.

This was an island full of controversies. If you say it was vibrant, there were only ten exotic chrysanthemums on the island.

If you say there was a lack of vitality, the air on the island was clean and fresh, even purer than that in those remote forests.

Mo Liuqi slowly walked by the lake. A warm, soft wind blew over, blowing his clothes. He suddenly felt refreshed.

"Beiluo… Lake Island."

Mo Liuqi slowly took the gemmed hairpin with beads off his hair. The cheap beads on the hairpin were oscillating while he was doing that.

Mo Liuqi gently caressed the name on the hairpin and then tightly grasped it.

Zhu, hold on. I promise I will go and see you alive, Mo Liuqi mumbled to himself.

In the distance…

With the sword box made of fragrant rosewood on his back, Jing Yue was lazily looking at Mo Liuqi.

Mo Liuqi was an a.s.sa.s.sin from the Mo Clan, ranked second among all a.s.sa.s.sins in the world. He was so powerful that even Jing Yue would not be a match for him.

However…

Was Jing Yue worried?

He was not worried at all, because a teenager that could be compared to the giants from the Hundred Schools was sitting right behind him.

It would be all right if Mo Liuqi were smart enough, but if he were not…

At the thought of the Young Master's bad temper, Jing Yue involuntarily wanted to whistle, to express how much he would enjoy the show.

Mo Liuqi was not bothered by Jing Yue. He looked into the distance.

There, less than a mile away, a black-robed figure was sitting cross-legged, with a dreadful butcher's knife placed on his knees.

About a mile and a half behind the figure was a woman in a white dress, also sitting cross-legged. She looked as if she was communicating with the universe.

Squinting, Mo Liuqi vaguely felt there was an energy that felt like a small snake in the air. Drawn by those two people, it was flowing into his body and acc.u.mulating in his Qi Core.

Mo Liuqi recalled Lu Fan's requirement for him. He had to achieve the Third Stage Qi Core in one day; otherwise… Otherwise only his head would be able to meet Zhu.

Thinking of this, Mo Liuqi got nervous.

He certainly did not want Zhu to see his head drenched in blood, so to survive, he must achieve the Third Stage Qi Core Realm.

"What stage is his Qi Core Realm?"

Mo Liuqi felt his head aching.

He looked back at Jing Yue, who gave him a big sunny grin.

Mo Liuqi turned his head back with a blank face…

How stupid he looked… His energy was not even as strong as Mo Liuqi's. And nothing seemed special about him at all. Mo Liuqi figured he had better ask that butcher for help instead.

Later, after jumping on his tiptoes, Mo Liuqi flew to Nie Changqing at high speed.

******

On the Hidden Dragon Ridge…

Outside of the Immortal Palace…

The war cries were deafening.

Tantai Xuan's red cape was fluttering in the wind. As soon as he waved the command flag in his hand, a large troop charged out towards the Immortal Palace.

Standing behind Tantai Xuan, Mo Ju's feelings were complicated.

Tantai Xuan was quite bold to give the order to ally with the Mayors of all counties and direct the large troop to attack the Immortal Palace.

However, Mo Ju always had a hunch that something terrible would happen.

Waving his feather fan and with his silk kerchief blowing in the wind, he was keeping a close eye on the Immortal Palace.

Mo Ju had to admit Tantai Xuan was right. Even as strong as Xiang Shaoyun was, he would be defeated, facing an army of 10,000 soldiers.

However…

Could humans really fight with immortals?

Despite a large number of people, an immortal was still an immortal.

Bang!

When the first soldier, motivated by the reward of 10,000 silver taels, who kept charging with a burning red face, was less than four miles away from the Immortal Palace, he felt himself under immense pressure. He could not help but bend his body and kneel on the ground. Even the ground cracked.

The other soldiers caught up with him.

There were so many of them that they looked like ants moving in groups.

However, each one of them was forced to kneel on the ground by the pressure from the Immortal Palace.

Some soldiers kept charging, stepping on the soldiers' bodies before them.

Those soldiers who came a little later showed excited faces because they found the pressure from the Immortal Palace was decreasing as more and more of them approached.

Holding the command flag, Tantai Xuan was watching, his eyes blazing with resolution.

He saw one soldier and then another, waving their long knives, break through the obstruction four miles away from the Immortal Palace and go farther.

His face lit up with joy.

"As I expected… There is nothing that an army of 10,000 soldiers cannot conquer. If there is, we'll just send an army of 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers!"

"I don't believe we can't go into the Immortal Palace at the cost of so many lives!"

Tantai Xuan's eyes were ablaze like torches. He raised the flag high.

Behind Tantai Xuan…

An elite team formed by first-cla.s.s martial arts cultivators set out.

Mo Ju was shocked. So Tantai Xuan was serious. He even sent the martial arts cultivator team he spent so much resources training.

In terms of individual ability, this team might not be a match for Grandmasters. However, on the battlefield, each of them was an excellent weapon to get rid of those Grandmasters!

There were twenty members on the team. All of them were first-cla.s.s martial arts cultivators handpicked by Tantai Xuan.

The twenty people, wearing high-quality armor, were running at high speed through the mountains.

They were less than four miles away from the Immortal Palace.

However, they were shocked.

The immense pressure within the four-mile range around the Immortal Palace had decreased as more people arrived.

This pressure was like a limited water source. The more people share, the less they received.

"Go! Break through the Immortal Gate!"

The leader of the team roared in a profound voice. Despite the pressure, he charged forward.

Three miles left, two miles, one mile left…

They saw the mysterious giant Immortal Gate of the underground palace shrouded in a seven-colored glow!

They untied the sticks from their backs. Then the twenty people tied their sticks together, turning them into a long thick pillar.

"Go!"

The leader growled in a deep voice.

Ten of them lifted the pillar, and the other ten stayed close to protect them. They started to charge again. There was only less than one mile left. And their target was the Immortal Gate, which was tightly shut.

Four miles away…

Tantai Xuan's red cape was blowing in the wind. He threw the flag to Mo Ju.

With a whiz, he unsheathed the long sword he had been carrying at the waist.

"The immortal… not so great!"

Tantai Xuan smiled in a low voice.

Then, he jumped down. Protected by his bodyguards, he charged towards the Immortal Gate.

The county Mayors nearby were also eager to follow him.

All of a sudden…

Everyone was slightly shocked.

They found it suddenly went dark.

Looking up, they saw that somehow the sky, which had been sunny and clear, was covered by dark clouds. It felt threatening. If those dark clouds were over a city, the city would fall apart from their pressure.

It was suffocating.

Four miles away from the Immortal Palace, the army of 10,000 soldiers suddenly paused. The excitement on their faces faded.

Tantai Xuan's elite team also suddenly felt cold energy spreading in their bodies from their soles…

Around the Immortal Palace, a pale blue airflow was moving ceaselessly.

The next moment…

It rippled and spread abruptly.

The members of the elite team all shuddered. They had planned to knock the Immortal Gate open with the pillar, but at the moment, they froze.

Puff!

All twenty people spit out blood.

They fell on the ground and could not get to their feet anymore.

Their eyeb.a.l.l.s were almost popping out of their sockets. However, at this moment, over the Immortal Palace…

The pale blue airflows were a.s.sembling. They turned into a hand hovering over a chessboard, holding a gla.s.s chess piece.

Everyone heard a loud voice.

"Heaven and earth are ruthless and treat the myriad creatures as chess pieces."

The voice vanished.

The chess piece was placed on the chessboard.

"Pah."

This crack was the only sound left in the world.

Then…

Tantai Xuan's elite team roared in despair and fear.

In an instant, the pressure increased in intensity. Under such pressure, their bodies immediately exploded…

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Four miles away from the Immortal Palace,

All the soldiers and all the martial arts cultivators…

Bang!

Then all of them were erased from the world like melted ice. The crimson red color on the ground and the pungent smell of blood were the only remainder.

The immortal erased human lives with a chess piece. A mere thought or a simple word from him was enough to make people rise or fall.

Tantai Xuan almost went beyond that four-mile boundary. However…

Before that, within the four-mile range around the Immortal Gate, the army of almost 20,000 and the elite team he had spent so much resources to train were erased in a second.

What was left was only splas.h.i.+ng blood, staining the ground in front of the Immortal Palace red as far as four miles.

It was as terrible as h.e.l.l.

Half of Tantai Xuan's body was stained with blood. He was shaking like a leaf.

By then, there was only shock and fear in his eyes, reflecting the four-mile land covered with blood.

His knees felt weak. Pah-tah. He knelt down.

******

In the front chamber of the Immortal Palace…

Xiang Shaoyun, waving his s.h.i.+eld and ax, killed the last small ghost in the front chamber. His Qi became more vigorous, and his blood flowed faster. His Qi Core was running at high speed, taking in the Spirit Qi. However, the Spirit Qi went into his body and dispersed after only one circulation.

"d.a.m.n it!"

Xiao Shaoyun threw the s.h.i.+eld on the ground hard.

Due to the lack of immortal cultivation methods, his transformation rate for Spirit Qi was extremely low. And as time went by, it would be more and more difficult to refine Spirit Qi.

He killed all the small ghosts in the entire front chamber, but he failed to refine any of the Spirit Qi.

All of a sudden, Xiang Shaoyun looked back.

Frowning, he looked towards the exit of the Immortal Palace, as if some horrible thing was happening outside.

Li Sansi and Mo Shougui also detected something.

At that particular moment, they felt extremely cold.

"Did those people outside… Did they do anything stupid?" Mo Shougui said, squinting.

An a.s.sumption came up in his head.

"Even Xiang Shaoyun, Li Sansi, and I can't bear the pressure within two miles away from the Immortal Palace… If average martial arts cultivators tried to approach, that's almost courting death."

Xiang Shaoyun looked back. However, why would others' life or death have anything to do with him?

He laid his eyes on the stone door of the middle chamber.

Since there were no immortal cultivation methods in the front chamber, he supposed they might be in the middle chamber where the coffin was placed.

Xiang Shaoyun put his s.h.i.+eld and ax on his strong back. Then he walked up to the stone door of the middle chamber, which was tightly shut.

He raised his hands and pressed them against the stone door.

All of a sudden…

His pupils contracted.

The stone door was suddenly broken. Dust and smoke rose from the explosion.

Xiang Shaoyun took one step back, staring at the door.

In the middle chamber, rows of white candles lit up automatically. Their dark green flames illuminated the whole chamber.

Li Sansi, Mo Shougui, and Kong Nanfei sucked the air through their gritted teeth. They herded together.

They were all staring at that middle chamber.

However, they saw…

They saw the dust disappear.

The chamber was illuminated by some dark green candle flames.

In the coffin placed in the middle chamber, they saw the figure of a skinny Daoist priest turning his head slowly.

A pair of eyes shone by the dark green candle flames…

Emitting a green light, the eyes were staring at them.