Chapter 8: A Single Shot Pierces the Sky!

  The black-robed leader emerged from the residual waves of the Sky Splitting Seal, his body somewhat disheveled, with a thread of blood hanging from the corner of his mouth. In his hand was a ball of white light that shone brightly, about the size of a palm, and it was a white object that seemed to be made up of shiny scales like those of a fish.

  "Can't even die from this?" Ling Wu Xiong was shocked and gritted his teeth in secret.

  "What a pity, the power of the Heaven Splitting Seal, you haven't even brought out one tenth of it!" The leader of the black-clad group sneered viciously, urging on his mysterious energy, and fiercely swung out the white shards in his hand. His eyes turned scarlet as he roared, "You stinky brat, come and take my life!"

  Zhang Kuang's loud laughter, accompanied by the sound of surrounding rocks shattering, a sharp metallic collision sound rose, and Bai Mang suddenly appeared, carrying an unstoppable force, breaking through the encirclement, rushing towards Ling Wu Shuang who was standing in mid-air!

  "Presumptuous little brat, today I'll let you know what it means to be overconfident!" The black-clothed leader's arrogant laughter continued, fortunately he was prepared!

  "Boom!"

  A sharp, ear-piercing roar rose up.

  "What kind of power is this!" Ling Wu's pupils suddenly constricted, trying to urge on the mysterious force, but his body was completely unable to move, and even the flames on his back quivered slightly, yet couldn't budge an inch!

  "Boom——"

  A palm-sized fish scale fragment turned into a white light, as if a meteorite from outside the sky had fallen and exploded on Ling Wusuo's body.

  "Boom——"

  Shattered and gone, a formless arc of light waves formed in the air, rapidly expanding outward. The towering ancient trees within several days' journey were all bent and pressed down, those closer by were even crushed into powder along with the rocks, emitting a crackling sound.

  "Crack——"

  Such a loud noise would explode and shatter the bones at the center of the blast, sounding as if flesh was being pierced through, completely covering everything up.

  The leader of the black-clothed men had bloodstains on his face, and upon seeing this, he finally let out a sigh of relief. "Damn that little brat."

  If it weren't for his quick reaction, taking out the high-ranking god's energy fragment, he would have been killed by the Heaven Splitting Seal. He lived a whole life, if he were to die at the hands of a young whippersnapper, wouldn't that be laughable?!

  "What a waste of such a good body" The leader of the black clothes swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva, and fiercely spat out, "I actually underestimated you"

  This kid won't die, today's death will be his, it seems he still underestimated the people here, from now on he needs to be more careful.

  There was a smell of scorching in the air, and the night wind gradually dispersed the dust and grass clippings. However, at this moment, a sudden curse that made one's teeth ache rang out, startling the black-clothed leader into stumbling in mid-air, almost falling down. "Old thing, if I don't kill you today, my old man won't believe me, Ling!"

  "What!" The leader of the black-clad group's eyes suddenly widened, staring at the slowly emerging figure in mid-air as if he had seen a ghost.

  "Th...!" He was so shocked that his mouth was wide open, and he didn't even care about the curse words anymore. After finally confirming it wasn't just his illusion, he let out a voiceless scream, "No, this can't be possible!"

  This energy fragment is already close to a king-level existence, how can it not be solved by a sub-god level junior! The black-clothed leader's eyes were completely red, and he didn't dare believe what he saw.

  "Hmm—"

  The residual energy fluctuations and dust particles around, as if swept away by a pair of large hands, revealing the starry night sky and two tall figures hovering in the air.

  A silver armor-clad figure had appeared beside the black-robed youth with the fiery wings on his back, and no one knew when it happened.

  "The...!" The black-robed leader was stunned, his consciousness swept over and he keenly discovered the figure with a silver-white body, without any signs of life fluctuations. He immediately reacted, furious to the point of almost biting his teeth to pieces, "It's actually a puppet!"

  This kid's hands actually have a puppet, and it's even a divine-level puppet!

  Ling Wusuo's face was very dark, a true black color, and his hair was also somewhat disheveled, probably because he had never been so bedraggled before.

  This energy explosion, although mostly blocked by the Death God puppet, also affected her to some extent, but fortunately, it was only a superficial wound and did not affect the fundamentals.

  The Death God Puppet was silver-white all over, standing expressionlessly beside Ling Wu Xuan's body, but its body had cracked open with spider web-like marks. The crisp crackling sound just now also came from its body. Even the divine body that had been tempered by the Chaotic Fire was injured to such an extent. If it had directly hit Ling Wu Xuan's body, the severity of the injury could be imagined.

  "It's really a big mistake" Ling Wu Xuan gritted her teeth and muttered to herself, she was now about 70-80% certain that these people were definitely not from the Star Continent.

  In their hands, the trump card for survival is indeed extraordinary, and I must pay attention to it afterwards.

  "You detestable little brat, remember this! Today you're lucky, I'll spare your life for now!" The leader of the black-clothed group shouted loudly after rolling his eyes, and then turned around and ran away!

  Ling Wu's Heaven Splitting Seal just now was truly and utterly, heavily smashing onto the black-clothed leader's body, severely injuring him to the point where he almost directly lost his life, if not for pulling out a lifesaving item in the last second, he would have probably already died on the spot.

  At this time, he had no support in his hands, and the cunning him would not collide with Ling Wushuang, so he could only take advantage of the situation to open a road.

  "Now that you want to leave, isn't it a bit too late?" Ling Wushuang burst out laughing coldly, staring at the black-clothed leader who was quickly fleeing towards the mountain forest. Her divine sense locked on, and the Flame Spear hovering beside her rapidly spun around before being grasped in her hand, raised high, and swung with a flourish!

  "Go!"

  "Whoosh——"

  A fierce flame spear transformed into a crimson light beam, chasing directly towards the direction where the black-clothed man was fleeing.

  The black-clothed leader felt the sound of breaking air behind him, as if a thorn was on his back, and his whole body trembled. He turned around with a ferocious face and roared at Ling Wu Shuang, "No, you can't move me! Do you know who I am?"

  "I don't care who you are!"

  A cold voice was heard, followed by a loud "plop", the black-clothed leader's body stiffened in mid-air, his eyes wide open as if they were about to split apart. He slowly lowered his head to look at his chest, where a bright red light had accurately and mercilessly pierced through his heart!

  The fiery spear revealed its outline, and the powerful force had not completely dissipated, propelling his body to rapidly fly backwards.

  "Clang!"

  With a final clang, the gun tip was inserted into the mountain stone, and the black-clothed leader, who was on his last breath, was killed by Ling Wushuang with one shot on the cliff wall, completely losing all signs of life!

  The surroundings were in a state of complete devastation, with the mountain forests almost flattened by this battle.

  Ling Wushuang let out a breath of relief, but suddenly furrowed his brow. His keen senses immediately detected several auras rapidly approaching from that direction. One of them was even more powerful than the black-robed leader in front of him.

  "Hurry up and leave, it must be someone from the Holy City who was attracted by the noise." Ling Wusuo snapped his fingers and shot out a string of chaotic flames, which engulfed the corpse that had been pierced by the spear, turning it into a wisp of cyan smoke in an instant.

  No matter whether it was the people from the Holy Hall or the accomplices of this line, they were all troublesome to deal with. At this time, it was not suitable to get entangled too much, so Ling Wushuang made a decisive choice to retreat.

  "It's almost time, it's almost here" Ling Wu Xiang looked around, identified the direction, and with a slight vibration of the fire wings behind him, transformed into a flowing light that pierced into the dense forest, disappearing from sight in an instant.

  In the air filled with smoke and flames, only a beautiful arc of fire color was left, with lingering shadows that vanished in an instant.

  It was just a few minutes after Ling Wusuo left, more than ten black figures emerged from the treetops of the mountain forest, stepping on the wind, and it could be seen that they were all top-notch masters.

  They arrived at an incredible speed, and in the blink of an eye, they appeared from the horizon, in this region that had become exceptionally devastated due to the intense battle.

  "Your Majesty, the aura here is one of our people!" After investigating the surroundings, someone in the group let out a cold and low angry roar, "Who is it, dare to move against our people?"

  Among the crowd, the leader had a square face, a sturdy and powerful build, wearing a deep brown Taoist robe, looking like he was in his fifties. He scanned the surroundings with his grey eyebrows furrowed together like two steel whips.

  "There are signs of divine-level energy fragments shattering here, go take a look around" Feeling the aura around him, the leader's heart surged with a bad premonition. Divine-level energy fragments, those were life-saving things! If it wasn't for being at the end of his rope, how could Third Brother have shattered them?!

  "Your Majesty!"

  At this moment, a terrified shout came from afar. The leader's eyes turned cold and his body disappeared on the spot. In the blink of an eye, he reappeared at the edge of a nearby cliff. What entered his eyes was a sight that made his eyes widen in shock. This is...

  One of them stepped forward with a gloomy expression and said, "The Third Master may have met with misfortune."

  In the air, there are residual traces of energy fragments, and around it, except for leaving this thing behind, even the corpses have disappeared.

  "Who did it!" The leader roared, his eyes blazing with a fierce red glow. This was unmistakably the aura of Third Brother. The object on the ground was sky blue in color, but as soon as the leader picked it up, it instantly turned into a pile of white sand that flowed out from his fingertips.

  "How detestable! It's even damaged this!" The leader's forehead bulged with blue veins as he saw such emotions.

  Among the crowd of onlookers, one person stepped forward with a bow and added, "Perhaps Lord Chenfeng has escaped as well."

  If the people in the holy city were to see this, they would definitely be shocked, because this person is the high and mighty Elder Zhai of the Holy Temple, but now facing this group of people, he is respectful to the point of being somewhat flattering.

  "Give you three days, if can't find out who did it, then you don't need to show up again." The leader's glance made Zhai Lao's whole body chill, as if a bucket of cold water was poured over his head, almost making him faint on the spot.

  "Yes, yes!" Old man Zhai's forehead was covered in cold sweat, but he could only grit his teeth and repeatedly nod in agreement.

  The leader stepped forward, his sleeves fluttering behind him, his sharp eyes scanning the surroundings, a hint of gloom and anger flashing in his eyes. If it was someone from this region who did it, even if it meant destroying their entire family, he would avenge his third brother. If it was another power that had arrived, then he could only report back to the master.

  But now the most important thing is to find out who did it!

  In the upper sky, the clear light is faintly visible.

  On the second day, a great battle in the Qingyun Mountain Range attracted many people and caused a stir within the Holy City.

  "Some people were shocked and said, 'Do you know? It's said that last night, a divine-level battle broke out at the Qing Shan screen barrier outside the city. The entire area of several miles around was turned into ruins, it's really terrifying.'"

  Someone echoed in agreement, "That's right, I was just at the city gate. Such a loud noise that can split mountains and rocks, it's not something a saint can do, probably only a divine being can burst out"

  "Haven't you heard? It seems that several elders of the Holy Temple were killed, and it's not clear who did it. The inspection at the city gate today has been tightened up a lot." Someone whispered, afraid of getting into trouble.

  ……

  Today is the first day of the Genius Selection Tournament, and most people in the Holy City are gathering towards the direction of the Sacred Palace.

  "What's going on?" Cai Yi listened to the conversations of the people around her.

  Bai Lian smiled gently and explained, "It's said that something big happened outside the Qing Shan screen." After finishing speaking, Bai Lian looked at the black-robed youth beside him and casually asked, "By the way, Jun Ling, where did you go last night?"

  This guy, pretending to be the ancient Xi Taishang Laojun who took a stroll in the Holy Lake for a whole night, and even at dawn, it's said that there was a large group of people soaking in the Holy Lake. If Gu Xi finds out that Jun Ling fooled him, it would be hilarious.

  Cai Yi seemed to have thought of this too, her pretty face slightly twisted.

  Ling Wushuang withdrew his gaze, which had been scanning the surroundings, and smiled ambiguously, "Nothing's up, the scenery in Holy City is pretty good, it's a great time for romance. I just strolled around, gazed at the stars and moon, and happened to exchange thoughts on life and ideals with some people."

  Bai Lian's mouth twitched slightly, and he didn't know why, but he always felt that the commotion of the green hills was related to this guy. However, Bai Lian thought about it again and felt that it wasn't right, shook his head and chuckled, then didn't think about it anymore.

  "Hurry up, the selection match is about to start!" After Cai Yi urged, the fiery figure disappeared from the crowd in the blink of an eye, and it was unknown where he had run off to.

  Bai Lian looked at the disappearing back of Cai Yi and smiled helplessly, then turned to look at the person beside him and said: "However, Jun Ling, you don't need to rush, in the preliminary round, you don't have to participate, that token in your hand is a special privilege that allows you to directly enter the top 20"

  Those who are eligible to participate in the selection have a sacred order, and the holy temple has set up special sacred orders for some monsters to exist, so that they can avoid trouble. People with such tokens can directly enter a certain ranking.

  Only seven tokens can enter the top 100, and the one in Ling Wushuang's hand is a special one. There are only two of them. With it, you can directly enter the top 20 of the selection match, and also have many privileges.

  However, Mu Shi Qing was also generous. A hint of sarcasm flashed in Bai Lan's gentle eyes, but he had no idea what Mu Shi Qing was planning!

  Ling Wushuang rubbed his chin with two fingers, hinting at something as he chuckled and continued: "This is called, can't bear to part with the child, can't catch the wolf"

  Her eyes gleamed with a deep and mysterious light, she slowly lifted her feet and walked towards the direction of the Holy Palace.

  Bai Lian was slightly stunned, then shook her head and smiled, following closely behind.

  The holy lake sparkles with microwave ripples, under the gentle sunlight, refracting dazzling light, surrounded by swaying willows, in the center of the lake, a palace made of ice and jade rises, reflecting sacred light in the water.

  A white jade embankment connects the palace on the distant lake surface, where crowds of people are bustling about, their faces filled with excitement and eagerness, as if they have embarked on a journey to attain enlightenment. Yet, unbeknownst to them, beneath the seemingly pure white lotus flowers often lies a stinky and murky swamp!

  The pure jade stone carved palace gate opened, heavily guarded, and everyone entered with the sacred order in hand. Ling Wu Xiang also entered unimpeded this time.

  "The holy temple is indeed magnificent" Ling Wu Xiang walked slowly, unable to help but click his tongue in admiration.

  Five steps a floor, ten steps a pavilion, all made of the finest monochromatic stone carvings. Especially in the distance, the white nine-story pagoda rises like a divine needle from the earth, shining with auspicious light even in broad daylight, standing out among the high and low jade buildings.

  "This is the White Tower, it's said that one day of cultivation inside is equivalent to ten days outside." The crowd around couldn't help but let out envious and admiring gasps.

  At last, Ling Wusuo withdrew his measuring gaze and handed over the token in his hand.

  Several guards looked her up and down, inside and out, before handing the token back to her. Although their attitude was not as cold as before, it couldn't be described as enthusiastic either. Maintaining the usual haughtiness of a Holy Temple disciple, they waved their hand and said: "Follow us."

  Ling Wu's eyebrows slightly raised, what's going on?

  Bai Lan and Cai Yi exchanged a glance, wanting to follow up, but were stopped by someone who raised their hand, "Young Master Bai Lan and Miss Cai Yi, please return."

  "You're stopping me?" Cai Yi's eyes widened in shock as she pointed at the tip of her nose, with an expression that seemed to say "Are you kidding me?"

  As direct disciples of the Holy Hall, they are qualified to enter and exit freely except for a few restricted areas within the Holy Palace.

  "Miss Color Clothes, I'm really sorry, but Mr. Mu specifically instructed us to be stricter these days, so please don't make it difficult for us." The words of the few people seemed respectful, but were actually lukewarm and somewhat impatient.

  "You——"

  "Cai Yi" Bai Lan reached out and grabbed Cai Yi, signaling her not to make any sudden moves. Inside and outside, almost everyone was a follower of the Holy Maiden Bai Qian and Gu Xi. Moreover, with their master not by their side, if something happened, it would be troublesome.

  Cai Yi pursed her lips and furrowed her eyebrows, "But Jun Ling..."

  Ling Wushuang gave them a reassuring glance, "It's okay"

  Mu Shiqing is a person of Saintess Bai Qian's, he must be taking action, she wants to see what kind of tricks he is up to.

  "Alright then..." Bai Lan and Cai Yi exchanged a glance, nodded almost imperceptibly, and turned to head down the passageway in the other direction.

  Ling Wushuang's red lips curled up slightly as she followed the guards, winding her way through the palace corridors for what felt like an eternity before finally seeing the master.

  A majestic figure of a man with a tiger's back and bear's waist stood in front of the row of temple guards, his expression stern as if giving orders. Upon seeing Ling Wushuang, he paused for a moment before regaining composure, and a smile suddenly appeared on his muscular face. He took a few steps forward and warmly greeted him, saying: "Young friend Ling, I've been waiting for you for a long time!"

  This little guy is a promising good baby, even if he can't stay, if he is presented, it's still a great achievement!

  Ling Wushuang smiled calmly, her clear eyes cold and sharp, hiding a secret, "Lord Mu is too polite"

  Mo Shi Qing let out a loud laugh, stretched out his hand to pat Ling Wu Shuang's shoulder, but she dodged it without leaving any trace. He didn't get angry and continued to say: "From now on, we're all our own people, don't be polite, Little Friend Ling."