Chapter 48: The Might of Thunderbolt

“The Demonization Talisman! So you had prepared this method all along!”

Seeing Ye Jingyun’s transformation, Yu Yuehai finally lost his relaxed demeanor, his expression turning solemn.

“This talisman is not easy to refine. It seems you have been preparing for a long time; I have underestimated you.”

He tapped his storage bag, finally retrieving his pitch-black flying sword.

“Then let me see if you can escape from my hands after turning into a demon!”

As he spoke, Yu Yuehai pinched a hand seal, and the flying sword transformed into a black snake, slithering and swaying as it coiled toward Ye Jingyun’s neck.

With blood-red eyes, Ye Jingyun let out a non-human roar. She did not dodge at all; instead, she struck out with a massive, scale-covered hand to swat the sword away, then opened her maw full of fangs and lunged to bite Yu Yuehai!

Not daring to meet the attack head-on, Yu Yuehai’s figure blurred, creating three afterimages, and he reappeared three yards away in the next instant.

Then, he recalled his flying sword, tapped his storage bag again, and pulled out a brass mirror. He waved it toward Ye Jingyun, causing a peculiar talismanic seal to emit from the mirror's surface, which struck Ye Jingyun’s mutated head like a teleporting strike.

Ye Jingyun’s massive body froze. She roared and struggled incessantly, yet she could not break the suppression of the talismanic seal.

“Hmph, even if you have calculated everything, so what!”

Seeing Ye Jingyun’s beast-like appearance, Yu Yuehai snorted coldly. His flying sword expanded by over three feet, slashing forward with terrifying fluctuations.

However, he did not aim for a vital spot; after all, he still intended to use her living soul to refine medicinal pills, so he chose her shoulder.

“Roar!”

As the sword light drew near, Ye Jingyun let out a wild roar, her body expanding once more. A burst of black light erupted, causing the seal on her brow to flicker and then shatter violently. She did not dodge, but instead took the sword strike head-on, lunging forward and slamming into Yu Yuehai, sending him flying!

The direction of the impact was precisely behind Chen Lin.

Chen Lin had been watching the battlefield intently. Seeing this, he did not hesitate; he mobilized his nameless sword qi to strike out from his body, knocking the talisman off his brow away.

Once he regained his mobility, he immediately tapped his storage bag, holding a "Thunderbolt No. 4"—which was even larger than a soccer ball—in both hands.

“Go to hell!”

He first cast a Vajra Shield spell on himself, then used every ounce of strength he possessed, pouring all his mana into his hands, and hurled the Thunderbolt No. 4!

Without even waiting to see the effect, he immediately slapped an Earth Escape Talisman onto himself. Once he had confirmed his position, his body slipped into the ground with a *whoosh*.

Using Earth Escape for the first time, Chen Lin felt an intense pressure on his body, as if he were swimming through water.

However, he had no time to experience it; he simply kept accelerating and took the opportunity to detonate another Vajra Talisman.

Before he had traveled far, a massive explosion rang out. The surrounding soil vibrated violently, and immediately after, the position where he had been was upended by a powerful shockwave.

Simultaneously, the Six Ding Profound Armor Talisman on his chest shattered, forming a shimmering, flowing suit of armor around his body.

Chen Lin felt as though his internal organs had been shaken out of place, and he could not help but spray out a mouthful of blood.

Yet, he burst into fits of laughter!

“Hahaha... with this kind of power, let's see if you can stay alive!”

Previously, he had worried that his self-created method of stacking Thunderbolt Beads would be ineffective since he hadn't tested it, but now it seemed his innate ability was indeed reliable!

Laughing even as he was thrown to the ground, Chen Lin flipped himself up and looked toward the direction of the explosion.

He was instantly dumbfounded!

*Holy crap, this power is too much!*

Looking at the massive crater blasted in the distance and the ground around it that had been plowed clean, even he felt a sense of dread.

Under an explosion like that, Yu Yuehai, who was at the epicenter, shouldn't have survived, right?

Chen Lin’s eyes burned with fervor.

Those five clan leaders and Yu Yuehai were all Foundation Establishment cultivators. If their storage bags weren't destroyed by the blast, the contents would surely be astonishing.

Setting aside everything else, even Yu Yuehai’s alchemy furnace alone made his heart race.

Then there was that yellow mirror and the man's black flying sword—both were excellent treasures.

His body moved, intending to rush over and investigate.

“No!”

Just as he took a step, Chen Lin stopped in his tracks.

“Although Thunderbolt No. 4 is powerful, this is the cultivation world after all. I can't think with the mindset of my previous life. Staying alive is the priority; what good are treasures if I'm dead!”

After a moment of hesitation, Chen Lin finally suppressed his greed and turned to run away at full speed!

The entire mountain hollow fell into silence.

A moment later, a mound of earth in the large crater moved, and a figure rose from within.

It was Yu Yuehai.

He was in an extremely wretched state. Not only was he covered in blood, but one of his arms had vanished, leaving white bone exposed beneath his shoulder.

Compared to his physical injuries, his face was even more terrifying; his features were twisted to one side, and he was consumed by absolute rage.

“Heh, fine, fine, fine... I never expected that I, Yu Yuehai, who spends my days hunting geese, would end up having my eye pecked by one. Once I find you, I'll make you taste my true methods!”

As he cursed through gritted teeth, he looked toward the position where the five clan leaders had been, and his expression grew even more grim.

There were no clan leaders left; there was only a patch of blasted earth. He didn't know if those old fellows had been blown to bits or buried alive.

He had planned meticulously for years, and just as success was within reach, everything had been destroyed in an instant. Trying to gather five Foundation Establishment cultivators representing all five elements again would be harder than ascending to heaven.

“I will kill you!”

Yu Yuehai could no longer maintain his composed demeanor, letting out a non-human roar.

At that moment, a streak of golden light suddenly appeared, shooting straight toward his chest.

The golden light was incredibly fast; he had no time to dodge. The talismanic artifacts and passive defenses on his body had all been used up in the previous explosion.

In his desperation, he could only cast a second-tier defensive spell, the Spirit Shield, forming a barrier outside his body.

However, the Spirit Shield failed to block the golden light in the slightest, being pierced through as easily as paper. The golden light passed through his body and flew out from his back.

“Pfft!”

Yu Yuehai spat out a mouthful of blood, swayed in horror, and collapsed to the ground.

The area fell into silence once again.

After a long while, a figure struggled to stand up from the other side of the pit.

It was Ye Jingyun.

Her body had returned to its normal size, but the abnormalities on her person had not vanished, and her injuries were even more tragic than Yu Yuehai's.

She did not check her wounds first; instead, she glanced at the fine scales on her skin, revealing a look of disgust.

The reason she had been so reluctant to use the Demonization Talisman was that the mutation caused by this talisman was permanent; she would have to maintain this monstrous appearance for the rest of her life.

However, she had finally killed Yu Yuehai; a grudge held for years had been settled in a single day.

She looked with heartache at the talisman that had turned to ash in her hand. This talisman was a Talisman Treasure left to her by her father, which originally could have been used three times; to kill Yu Yuehai, she had released its entire power at once.

At the same time, she felt immensely lucky. If she hadn't been the furthest from the explosion, and if the demonization hadn't vastly increased her defense and provided her with defensive artifacts, she likely would have been blown into meat scraps.

“A bunch of old foxes, each more sinister than the last!”

Ye Jingyun glanced around, and seeing no sign of Chen Lin, she couldn't help but mutter a complaint.

She hadn't expected that the one laughing last would actually be the person with the weakest strength.