Hum.

Black energy rippled from Lu Yun, sending the Lu immortals flying backward before they could approach.

Feinie landed and stood calmly before Lu Yun, guarding him with her diminutive body. Her gaze was as steely as the sword throwing off black luminescence in her hand.

“Empyrean immortal?! You can’t really be just an empyrean immortal!” An incredulous Lu Qingxun threw up another mouthful of blood. He was a peak august immortal, half a step from ascending to golden immortal. How could an empyrean immortal knock him to the ground with a single slap?!

“Kill them,” Lu Yun commanded, casting a frosty gaze over the Lu immortals.

Swoosh.

A faint white dragon impression flashed behind Feinie as she readied her sword. Her weapon created seventeen duplicates of itself that lunged at the Lu immortals, brandishing fangs and claws like dragons.

“Nineteen Cerulean Sword Dragons!!” Lu Qingxun stared blankly at the seventeen dragons of sword energy. “This is a sword technique that was lost for thousands of years. How do you know it?! All of you, move out of the way!” the Lu elder roared as a strange, cyan light emitted from his body. An ancient beast seemed to have awakened within him.

Aghast at the changes in their elder, the Lu immortals hurriedly moved away.

“The sword technique recorded in the ancient texts consists of nineteen swords. You’re only manifesting seventeen, which means your technique is incomplete. There is a weak point to be found!” Lu Qingxun’s frail, wizened body that looked like it would scatter into a pile of bones at any second suddenly became hearty and strong as bluish-black fur grew out of his shriveled skin.

“Take the woman alive and acquire the method of Nineteen Cerulean Sword Dragons!” Lu Qingxun howled like a beast before pouncing on Feinie with his arms extended. His aura had become more than three times as powerful as before.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Seventeen rays of sword energy knocked the behemoth away, but failed to leave any visible wounds on the old man’s body. A trace of gravity floated into Feinie’s expression.

Roar!

With a prolonged cry, Lu Qingxun leapt at Feinie, using his giant body as a weapon.

“This is a physical combat art. He’s sacrificed the power of an immortal in exchange for greater physical strength!” Lu Yun stood behind Feinie and whispered, “Don’t fight him head on.”

He recalled such combat arts from Xuanxi’s memory. Once activated, the combat art channeled an immortal’s energy to enhance their body, making it invincible against weapons. It was designed to counter immortal and flying swords.

In this state, however, the user wouldn’t be able to use any of their arts.

Feinie nodded. She turned into a flash of shadow and ran circles around Lu Qingxun, refraining from using the Formation Orb. There were unwanted eyes and minds looking in on their battle, which was why she had quickly put the Formation Orb away after destroying the formation.

There was no lack of keen eyes in the world of immortals. If the Formation Orb was discovered, Lu Yun would likely never be able to leave the province for the rest of his life.

Lacking the treasure, Feinie set up formations with her footsteps, leaving patterns on the ground. She didn’t need spirit stones or crystals; she was the Formation King of the immortal world, after all, a title she’d earned with her skill five thousand years ago. For her, anything and everything could be used to set up formations.

Lu Qingxun had turned into a beast with his physical art and was tangling with Feinie, while the other Lu immortals had targeted Lu Yun. They were single-mindedly focused on killing Lu Yun. Only the young man’s blood would cleanse the clan of the humiliation they’d suffered!

Swoosh!

Sword energy drove into the ground before the immortals as Yuying dropped down from the air, her soft hair slightly tousled. Seven swords circled around her, acting as an unbreakable barrier between Lu Yun and harm.

On an exhale, Lu Yun used his death art to connect the realms of yin and yang and a bloodcorpse dashed out of the Gates of the Abyss. One by one, the Lu immortals collapsed with all of their blood and life essence drained, their faces frozen in a state of eternal shock.

“What the hell is that?!” Lu Qingxun’s expression twisted when he saw the crimson shadow.

……

Some corner in Dusk City.

A rippling mirror reflected the image of the situation inside the governor’s manor.

“Can you tell what the crimson shadow is?” asked a middle-aged man clad in a golden outfit, his eyebrows slightly furrowed.

“Sir, I can sense death energy, corpse energy, and a trace of ghost energy from the figure.” An old man with a goatee considered the mirror closely before concluding with great confidence, “It should be some kind of zombie from an ancient tomb.”

“A zombie?” The man in gold widened his eyes in disbelief. “The governor can control the zombies in ancient tombs?!”

“Nothing is strange in the world of immortals. This subordinate once saw a strange man in Exalted Major who could manipulate zombies to fight for him. The governor must’ve discovered some unusual heritage.” The old man made a thoughtful noise. “Moreover, the woman in white next to him is Pill Fairy Yuying, the eighth governor of Dusk from twelve hundred years ago.”

The man in gold paused. “Pill Fairy Yuying? Isn’t she dead?”

The goateed elder shook his head. “No one knows for sure, but she’s alive now and at the peak of true immortal. She must’ve survived the heavenly tribulations a thousand years ago, but severe injuries forced her to fake her own death to give her time to recover.”

“That makes sense.” The man in gold nodded, accepting the explanation. “That also explains why the governor can walk the path of cultivation.”

“As for the woman in black....” The old man frowned. “She must be somebody, but I can’t identify her.”

“That doesn't matter, she’s just an empyrean immortal.” The man in gold smiled faintly. “So the governor’s trump card is a strange zombie. Determining that is enough, we’ll sell this information to the Lu Clan. It’s high time to be on friendly terms with them.

“They suffered a tremendous blow that almost ended their line a hundred years ago. However, the Lu Clan regained their position at the top of Nephrite Major in only a short century and crushed their enemies in return. The depth of their foundations makes them a worthy ally.”

“Let’s go,” he said to the goateed old man.

The old man nodded and put away the mirror with a wave of the hand, then the two vanished inside the city, riding two swords.

……

“They’ve put away their surveilling treasure, sir,” Yuying transmitted to Lu Yun.

“We can stop pulling our punches, then,” Lu Yun said coolly.

Feinie nodded and her fingers swiftly flew through three hundred sixty-five hand seals. Beams of black light shot out of the ruins of the manor, tearing the insane Lu Qingxun apart. His beast-like head rolled to Lu Yun’s feet.

“You’ve turned your back on your lineage and forgotten your ancestors!” The spirit within the head continued growling as Lu Qingxun’s eyes bored into Lu Yun. “Traitor!”