Luo Chen had been right all along.
Back when he first attended the Precious Dragon Black Market, the market's owner had tried to earn his goodwill by offering him a piece of valuable advice through a gatekeeper surnamed Wang. Among the warnings was a list of locations where raiding cultivators were most likely to ambush people after the black market closed. These included North Street’s Third Alley, Seven-Star Hill, the Mass Graveyard, and the main road leading back into the inner city.
Luo Chen himself had once witnessed an ambush on North Street’s Third Alley, where Qiu Bai had targeted the Sima trio.
Instinctively, he had chosen this area as his ambush site. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t prepared for the other locations as well.
When Luo Chen and Wang Yuan arrived, they saw three black-clad, masked cultivators launching an assault against a lone black-robed cultivator. Their shouts and battle cries were mixed with the blinding flashes of spirit light, creating a chaotic scene.
"Black robe, disguised voice... yes, it's him."
"My Blood Qi Sensing confirms it too," Wang Yuan added, reaffirming their target.
Luo Chen watched the battle for a moment before his brows furrowed.
"Liu Qiang isn’t teaming up with Zhou Yuanli? His strength isn’t even at the ninth stage of Qi-Refining. Even with three eighth stage cultivators attacking together, they still can’t force this person to reveal his trump card."
He turned to Wang Yuan. "Brother Wang, I’ll have to trouble you with this one."
With a sudden whoosh, the night wind whipped against a coarse linen robe, causing it to flutter wildly. In an instant, a heavy black-iron staff appeared in Wang Yuan’s broad palm.
Nodding slightly at Luo Chen, Wang Yuan charged forward in a flash.
"This hill is mine, this tree was planted by me! If you want to pass, leave behind your toll—or your life!" A rough, disguised voice boomed across the battlefield.
Then, in a sudden explosion of movement, a massive, earth-shattering staff [1] shadow came crashing down.
Luo Chen’s mouth twitched. Brother Wang sure has a sense of humor...
But what he found amusing was far from a joke to the others. At the sight of the overwhelming staff strike, one of the masked figures—Liu Qiang—paled instantly.
"Retreat!"
Without hesitation, the three Battle Hall cultivators from Luo Tian Society abandoned their formation and withdrew, leaving the black-robed cultivator alone to face Wang Yuan’s devastating strike.
The black-robed cultivator’s expression twisted in shock. Without delay, they summoned an enchanted artifact—a silk handkerchief.
"Damn Dahe cultivators! So unreasonable!" The previous disguised, juvenile voice vanished, replaced by a clear, feminine tone.
As the tremendous staff strike descended, the silk handkerchief wrapped around it gently, absorbing the full force and dissipating its momentum completely. A fierce gust of wind blew past, sweeping away the black robe, revealing a well-defined, curvaceous figure beneath.
"Oh?"
Wang Yuan let out a faint hum of intrigue—not at the revelation of a female cultivator, but at her exceptional combat instinct. Even though this black-iron staff wasn’t his preferred supreme-grade enchanted blade, as a Grandmaster of the Dao of Martial Arts, he was proficient in all eighteen types of weaponry.
His strike had been unyielding and ferocious. It was meant to force her to reveal the blood talisman in her possession. Yet, she had instantly reacted with the perfect counter.
Softness overcoming hardness [2]
But that was as far as her resistance would go.
With two fingers, Wang Yuan shifted his grip toward the end of the staff, tapping lightly as the weapon twisted and flicked in his hands. The iron staff wove through the air, shifting unpredictably, as he continued his relentless pursuit.
“Marshalling the Mountains and Rivers!”
In an instant, the long staff transformed into dozens of shadowy strikes, overwhelming the sky as they stabbed forward. Each shadow carried the might of a ninth stage Qi-Refining cultivator.
The black-robed female cultivator's expression changed drastically. Her enchanted handkerchief shot to her side, forming a protective barrier around her. Not only that, but the crystalline longsword in her hand released a flurry of snowflakes. Each snowflake met a staff shadow with precise timing.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The snowflakes shattered, dispersing bursts of energy.
The female cultivator seemed on the verge of collapse, yet each explosion of a snowflake meant another staff shadow had vanished. She had managed to block them all.
Wang Yuan’s eyes lit up. Ever since he had reached the second stage of physical refinement, he hadn’t gained many new techniques. However, his previously mastered techniques had grown significantly in power.
Yet this woman had managed to withstand them all. And she had countered them in the most precise way possible.
What a shame... Wang Yuan sighed inwardly, then extended his hand, grasping the long staff in the void.
"Converge!"
In the next moment, all the shattered staff shadows seemed to rewind through time, reforming as they coalesced. Under the eerie control of his energy, they continued to merge.
A massive staff, dozens of zhang long, stood towering over the night sky of Seven-Star Hill.
The black-robed female cultivator watched in horror, her scalp tingling, as a deep sense of dread crept over her.
"What kind of technique is this?!"
She had no time to think. A blood talisman suddenly appeared in her hand.
"You forced me to do this!"
She poured her spirit power into the talisman, and without wind, it ignited on its own. A dazzling crimson glow radiated from it, mesmerizing and sinister. A rich fragrance, reminiscent of orchids and musk, spread from within.
The scent momentarily dazed the female cultivator. When she snapped back to her senses, a massive blood-red palm was already descending toward the towering staff.
Boom!!!
The deafening explosion echoed for ten li. The brilliant light illuminated the entire night sky, visible even a hundred li away.
Within the explosion, an enraged voice roared.
"Fu Family’s blood talisman—damn it!"
When the light finally faded, Seven-Star Hill, once a notorious haven for raiding cultivators in Dahe Market, had been razed to the ground.