Chapter 140: The Law-Breaking Strike

Frowning slightly and taking a couple of steps in place, Geng Yulou suddenly felt his expression shift. A hint of a smile curled the corner of his mouth as he slowly walked toward a corner, muttering, "I was wondering why I couldn't find the supreme nether-spirit grass. So it was hidden here with Miss Yu. What is this, Miss Yu? Are you still planning to conceal yourself? Your spirit corpse has already been exposed!"

"This fellow, Hu San, only became a spirit corpse recently after all, so he still retains a trace of human nature. Tsk, tsk, Miss Yu, I'm afraid you never expected this, did you?"

Geng Yulou skirted around a pile of rubble and stopped before a small mound of earth. Through the cracks in the stones beside the mound, a large male hand protruded, twitching and fumbling continuously as if moving without pattern, or perhaps as though the person trapped within was desperate to claw his way out.

Through the gaps in the bricks and stones, a man dressed in a bright red bridegroom's wedding robe was faintly visible. Having lurked in the Yu family for so long, Geng Yulou certainly recognized his identity. In fact, the very first moment he caught sight of the wedding robe from afar, he had already guessed who was inside. Who else could it be if not Hu San, who had been refined into a living corpse?

With a slight flick of his sleeve, Geng Yulou completely overturned the earth mound, revealing Hu San's noticeably stiff body beneath.

"Come on out, Miss Yu. If you don't show yourself now, I won't be polite anymore."

Geng Yulou kicked Hu San aside, gazing with keen interest into the large hole beneath him, a playful expression on his face.

Yet that expression came and went as quickly as it had appeared. Just as Hu San stood up, Geng Yulou was still saying, "You surely don't think you can stand against me with a mere spirit corpse that hasn't even reached the first level of Qi Gathering?"

The next instant, however, when Hu San executed a cultivation formula and dragged Geng Yulou's figure abruptly into a void of emptiness, Geng Yulou could no longer smile.

An array! And a high-grade array at that!

Given Geng Yulou's experience and insight, he naturally recognized the peculiarity of his current location at a glance.

"Could there be some other formidable expert in hiding here?"

As this thought flashed through his mind, a flash of bright light flickered around Geng Yulou, and he prepared to activate the talisman stored within his spatial stone.

Before he could act, however, the surrounding void abruptly shifted. Endless black winds converged, and a dark shadow seemed to step forth from an infinite expanse of space and time, or perhaps retrace its steps from the future.

Countless black winds slowly sank into the dark shadow, and the shadow slowly descended behind the black winds. In short, at that moment, Geng Yulou felt his mind descend into utter chaos, as if every rightful order had been inverted.

Immediately afterward, a flash of black light cut across his eyes, and the dark shadow lunged directly at him.

"Courting death!"

With a cold laugh, countless black dragons instantly manifested around Geng Yulou's body. Roaring fiercely, the dragons completely enveloped his form, forming a suit of pure black armor.

Geng Yulou possessed immense confidence in his Black Dragon Protection technique. Based on his understanding of formations, he believed that once he withstood this single blow, he could afford to slowly toy with his opponent until death.

Moments later, though, Geng Yulou could no longer smile. His proud Black Dragon Protection technique had failed to produce any effect whatsoever under the impact of the opponent's dark shadow, shattering into nothingness upon impact like a fragile bubble.

By the time he attempted to move again, the dark shadow had already closed in before him, brandishing a fist shimmering with azure light. At that instant, Geng Yulou experienced the bizarre sensation that the entire space was collapsing toward this single fist as its center.

Boom!

The azure fist slammed fiercely into Geng Yulou's physical body. Before he even had time to utter a dying scream, his entire frame was beaten into a paste of flesh and blood.

Immediately afterward, a pitch-black phantom abruptly burst forth from the shattered remains of flesh, wrapping around the spatial stone embedded within the gore and attempting to flee into the distance.

"Even that couldn't kill you?"

A faint tone of surprise reverberated through the space, but swiftly followed by another fist wreathed in azure primordial Qi, which smashed down viciously.

The moment these azure primordial Qi currents made contact with the pitch-black phantom, they hissed like fire meeting water, immediately eliciting Geng Yulou's frantic and furious roar: "A Wu shaman?!"

The pitch-black phantom rolled violently, accidentally exposing a corner of the spatial stone it had wrapped up. In the next instant, a massive fist struck squarely upon the spatial stone.

Crack!

With a sharp snapping sound, to the utter astonishment of both man and phantom, the spatial stone—which ought to have been exceptionally sturdy—shattered directly. Countless scattered items within it began to fly about in chaotic disorder.

With a flick of his thought, Hu San lunged forward, swiftly gathering that small handful of lotus soil into his own spatial stone, followed closely by Old Master Yu's offensive black iron ruler, tucking them safely away.

By this time, the dark shadow formed by Geng Yulou had entirely converged, swallowing up every remaining item before shifting slightly and vanishing completely without a trace.

Only a single voice echoed through the sky: "Damned Wu shaman brat, you've ruined your grandfather's grand plan, but mark my words, you cannot escape! Of all things, you should never, ever have taken that lotus soil."

"Alas! He still managed to get away!"

Accompanied by a sigh, the dark shadow abruptly solidified. Who else could it be if not Hu San?

In his hand, he cradled a small, heavily cracked disc. The extent of the fractures suggested that the slightest touch would cause it to crumble completely into dust—this was naturally the Black Wind Array Disc.

The primary reason Hu San had been able to repel Geng Yulou here was due to the array disc's ultimate, decisive spell-breaking strike. Of course, the most crucial factor was likely that this body was merely one of Geng Yulou's avatars—and an avatar cultivated through the method of possession at that, leaving its physical form exceptionally fragile and vulnerable to destruction. Otherwise, the outcome of the battle would have remained uncertain.

Recognizing this, Hu San had carried out his strategy accordingly. Yet he had not anticipated that even by combining the spell-breaking strike and the bird-strike technique, he still would fail to trap Geng Yulou.

These mysterious practitioners of the Dao of Momentum instilled a deep sense of caution in Hu San. If his suspicions were correct, these individuals cultivated by gathering the collective momentum of multitudes, and each of them was likely accustomed to lording over others. Geng Yulou, in particular, was the ruler of a nation.

Compared to this, the fact that the spatial stone had disintegrated under his single strike was easy to account for. After pondering briefly, Hu San arrived at a conclusion: amidst the terrifying self-detonation earlier, Old Master Yu's spatial stone had already suffered catastrophic impacts, bringing it to the verge of collapse. Combined with his own full-powered punch, it had naturally shattered the artifact completely.

The mere thought of the treasures contained within Old Master Yu's spatial stone made Hu San's heart ache with regret. If he had managed to detain Geng Yulou this time, his subsequent cultivation journey would undoubtedly have been far smoother. Unlike now, where out of countless treasures he had only managed to secure the lotus soil and the black ruler. While these were hardly mediocre, they paled in comparison to Geng Yulou's total harvest.

Of course, the importance of the lotus soil was unquestionable; yet for Hu San, its value arguably fell short of the dragon-carved golden token Old Master Yu had produced at the very end. In truth, he would have preferred that golden token, but unfortunately, it lay far beyond his reach.

Shaking his head with a trace of helplessness, Hu San dared not linger any longer. The events here were simply too monumental; once word leaked out, they would trigger an immense tempest—one that would extend far beyond mortals, causing ripples even within the immortal cultivation world.

After all, Hu San had heard Old Master Yu speak of the origins of the lotus soil, and this item was by no means an unowned treasure!

Consequently, Hu San first dug up the white bone skeleton from beneath the debris. After a brief inspection, he discovered that its material was indeed extraordinary, suffering virtually no damage despite the massive shockwave.

Stowing the bone battle-slave away, Hu San then retrieved Old Master Yu's natal spirit corpse. Once fully refined, this artifact had transformed into a true zombie and could be safely stored within a spatial stone.

Although the master of a natal spirit corpse had perished, making it impossible for others to refine it anew as a spirit corpse, controlling it as an ordinary zombie still yielded formidable combat power—retaining at least eighty percent of its original strength. A blade-and-arrow-proof zombie of the fourth level of Qi Gathering like this remained immensely useful to Hu San; even if he chose not to use it himself, he could trade it to someone else.

Even though he currently lacked techniques for controlling corpses, such methods were hardly rare, and he would surely acquire one eventually.

After pacing around the island a few more times and confirming that no other treasures remained, Hu San turned and left. The Nine-Yin Blood Fiend Array had already been shattered, and following the prolonged battle, most of the pooled blood within it had drained away. While it might have posed an impassable chasm to ordinary martial artists, to Hu San, a single leap was all it took to cross.

Along the bank of the pond, Hu San discovered Yu Ning, planted diagonally into the soil like a giant radish.

Fearing that his very first refined spirit corpse had been ruined, Hu San pulled her out and discovered that, aside from a few scraped patches of skin on her face and a couple of bumps on her head, she had sustained no other injuries.

Knowing precisely how precious a supreme-grade spirit corpse was, Hu San naturally could not leave her behind. After simply wiping the dirt from her head, he hurried away, taking her with him.

Meanwhile, far away in the Kingdom of Mingling, within a pitch-black grand hall, a sudden gust of wind rose, and a plume of dark mist abruptly descended. The mist then merged directly into the body of a figure sitting cross-legged in meditation upon a bed.

Crack, snap!

Countless shattered fragments rained down like a violent storm, leaving the chamber in utter disarray.

Yet the yellow-robed figure upon the bed paid no heed. Instead, his brow furrowed deeply as he sighed internally: "To think that two avatars were destroyed, and yet the enterprise failed at the very last step. How am I to report this to the Master?"

"What kind of background does that Wu shaman possess? No matter. At such a critical juncture, it is best not to invite extraneous complications. Old man Yu had deep ties with the Wuling Sect; with him dead, the Wuling Sect will certainly not let the matter rest easily. If this attracts the Wuling Sect's attention and disrupts the Master's plans, the consequences will be more than I can bear."

"As for the lotus soil, I can inquire about its whereabouts elsewhere in due time!"

Murmuring softly, the yellow-robed figure closed his eyes once more and resumed his silent meditation. Had Hu San been present at that moment, he would undoubtedly have recognized that this person looked identical to Geng Yulou in every single detail.