Chapter Twenty-One: Shangqing Sect, Chen Pengfei

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Two days later!

The Mo Family Mine!

After two days of calm, Mo Xuan had assumed that the Chen Family would not make a move for the time being. He had never expected things to take such an abrupt turn.

They seemed to know his whereabouts very well.

That morning, at the appointed time of Mo Xuan and Meng Yao’s meeting, Mo Xuan was on his way to the mine when he unexpectedly encountered an ambush.

Nearly twenty assassins surrounded him completely, among them two Spirit-Gathering Realm cultivators.

“Seriously? Who fights like this?”

Mo Xuan did not panic in the face of the situation, though he was more than a little annoyed. If he had known this would happen, he would never have allowed Lan Bing to leave. But by now, regret was useless.

These killers were highly trained, and every one of them was stronger than Mo Xuan. There was no other choice. He had to run.

Without wasting time entangling himself with them, Mo Xuan immediately unleashed his Zero Domain and fled.

Yet everything he did was observed by a man concealed atop a nearby tree trunk. The man curled his lips into a grin.

“So that’s how it is.”

His movements had been extraordinarily well hidden, and Mo Xuan had not sensed him at all.

What Mo Xuan had been worried about had happened after all. The Chen Family had clearly not given up. By now, a large number of cultivators had surrounded the mine.

When Mo Xuan arrived, the place was already in ruins. Blood stained the ground, and corpses lay everywhere. Some belonged to the Mo Family, while others were from the Chen Family. Yet it appeared that no cultivators above the Earth-Soul Realm had been sent here, which was deeply suspicious.

“How many guards from the Mo Family are still here?”

Following the marks left behind, Mo Xuan found the few surviving Mo Family cultivators and hurriedly questioned them.

“Young Master, everyone else is dead except for us…”

Zhao Hu and the Mo Family disciples behind him were all overcome with grief.

“Good work. I will protect every one of you.”

Mo Xuan patted them on the shoulders and said in a solemn voice, “Leave through the secret passage first. We are abandoning this place for now.”

“But this is…”

The Mo Family disciples were unwilling to leave just like that.

“Listen to me. There can only be hope while we are alive. These material possessions are nothing. If they are lost, then let them be.”

Mo Xuan insisted that they leave.

At last, Mo Xuan asked whether Meng Yao had come. He learned that she had arrived early that morning and entered almost without waiting at all.

“That girl really is incredibly free-spirited. She could not even be bothered to wait. What a sigh.”

Mo Xuan knew that Lin Mengyao’s identity was far from ordinary. Perhaps she had thought he would only hold her back, which was why she had gone in so early.

“Well, well. There is actually another passage here. Ha ha!”

Just as the group was preparing to withdraw, a white figure appeared atop a huge red crystal in the distance.

The man had white hair and wore white robes, giving him an eerie appearance. Mo Xuan had not sensed him in the slightest.

“Who are you?”

Mo Xuan stepped in front of the others, shielding them as they retreated while remaining highly vigilant.

“Chen Pengfei of the Shangqing Sect.”

What?

The Shangqing Sect was one of the seven great sects of the Hongmeng Continent. As for Chen Pengfei, he was said to be the greatest genius the Chen Family had produced in several hundred years.

Mo Xuan had heard of his reputation long ago. Despite his young age, he possessed strength approaching that of a Chen Family elder and had even been chosen by the Shangqing Sect as a direct disciple. It was said that he was now only one step away from the Third Earth Realm.

“So that’s the reason.”

Mo Xuan now understood. The Chen Family’s ability to disrupt the balance of power in Luochuan City was evidently tied to this matter.

“You are quite impressive. You are nothing like the good-for-nothing described in the rumors.”

Chen Pengfei’s brows drew tightly together, and he did not dare lower his guard in the slightest. “I really cannot understand what you are thinking. You were driven out of your family, so why not live your own life in peace? Why insist on meddling in everyone else’s affairs?”

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“What I choose to do is my business. It has nothing to do with you,” Mo Xuan replied.

“In that case, you can only die—”

The instant he finished speaking, Chen Pengfei’s gaze sharpened, and a powerful surge of spiritual energy crashed violently toward Mo Xuan.

This was the first time Mo Xuan had faced such overwhelming pressure relying solely on his own strength.

After a single exchange, his face turned deathly pale. He staggered backward several steps and nearly collapsed.

Chen Pengfei’s expression changed with surprise.

“You really do have some ability.”

If not for the Seven Hearts Spirit Art, Mo Xuan would have had no power to fight back at all. He had originally intended to use the Zero Domain, but he knew that technique would be effective against ordinary cultivators at best. Against Chen Pengfei, it would probably have to strike with absolute precision. There was no point in wasting it.

Although he was a full realm weaker, Mo Xuan still had confidence that he could fight. He only needed the right opportunity.

Chen Pengfei showed no courtesy whatsoever. He launched one powerful attack after another, leaving Mo Xuan with no choice but to endure them passively. Yet Chen Pengfei could not understand why Mo Xuan’s movements were so agile. Even against attacks covering a wide area, Mo Xuan somehow managed to evade them each time without suffering any real harm.

More importantly, Mo Xuan was only at the eighth level of the Spirit-Sealing Realm. Why did his spiritual energy seem so inexhaustible?

A faint smile rose on Chen Pengfei’s face.

“In that case, then…”

Chen Pengfei summoned his Primordial Spirit, which took the form of a white tiger. His spirit enveloped his entire body, and with the addition of his formidable martial arts techniques, he left claw marks and fractures across every rock and red crystal ore he passed.

Mo Xuan was still suppressed by the difference in level. In the end, one of the tiger’s claws struck him head-on. The clothes across his chest were torn apart, and the surface of his skin split open, leaking thin streams of blood.

Mo Xuan’s strength astonished even the man before him. One could say that even a cultivator of the same level, facing such a series of powerful attacks, would never have ended up in this condition.

Mo Xuan himself understood that he owed it entirely to the endurance provided by his cultivation art. Although it could not grant him victory, it made him extraordinarily tenacious. Even against an opponent a major realm higher, he could still remain undefeated.

At that moment, he finally understood the deeper meaning behind Lan Bing’s words. If he had chosen to increase his strength through cultivation techniques back then, he would have lost this astonishing endurance entirely. In the face of his current opponent, he would have possessed no power to retaliate and would never have been able to hold out this long.

Yet Mo Xuan still had not fallen.

Chen Pengfei could see that although Mo Xuan was injured, he was nowhere near defeat.

“Damn it! I refuse to believe this!”

As though his pride had suffered a blow, Chen Pengfei unleashed his full strength.

A secret technique!

And a silver spear!

His strength instantly surged to the third level of the Earth-Soul Realm. With the addition of a silver spear of considerable rank, his battle prowess was likely comparable to that of a fifth-level Earth-Soul Realm cultivator.

Mo Xuan seized his opportunity. Chen Pengfei’s unceasing attacks had prevented him from gathering power, but now the opening he needed had finally appeared.

At his fastest speed, Mo Xuan transformed the Seven Hearts Spirit Art into its second state. Before Chen Pengfei had finished gathering his strength, Mo Xuan launched a sudden attack.

“Chaos Blades, converge!”

The two short blades crossed as he moved, gathering the spiritual energy around him. When he drew close, he slashed straight across.

Chen Pengfei had never expected that Mo Xuan, already at the end of his strength, could still counterattack. The strike directly interrupted his assault.

Yet a sinister smile appeared on his face.

“You have successfully aroused my interest. It is your honor that you have forced me to use this technique. Haah…”

“Not good!”

Mo Xuan clearly understood the gap between them and immediately leapt backward.

White light began to gather around Chen Pengfei. His eyes turned a deep white, and a faintly luminous domain formed around him.

It resembled Mo Xuan’s Zero Domain, but it was not the same. It was evidently another special ability.

Mo Xuan’s first reaction was to escape the white area, but the domain he had released was simply too vast.

The instant he was enveloped by it, Mo Xuan froze in midair, still caught in the posture of leaping backward.

A Stillness Domain!

“Perhaps.”

Mo Xuan had originally been reluctant to use the Zero Domain, but it seemed there was no other choice now. Although his own strength was insufficient, the domain should at least not be much weaker than this one.

“Zero Domain, open!”

A dark current of energy spread outward from Mo Xuan’s body. Everywhere it passed seemed to lose its color. When it collided with the white Stillness Domain, the two domains became locked in a stalemate.

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It seemed both of them had cultivated a form of sealing technique. That was the thought that arose simultaneously in their minds.

The result, however, was obvious: Mo Xuan’s domain was stronger.

“Damn it!”

For the first time, Chen Pengfei’s expression became truly ugly. At first, he had assumed that Mo Xuan’s domain was not especially powerful. Now he realized that he had grossly underestimated it.

At that moment, he was filled with murderous intent. Whatever happened, he could not allow Mo Xuan to leave this place alive.

Mo Xuan, on the other hand, only wanted to leave as quickly as possible. He had no desire to continue entangling himself with Chen Pengfei.

Yet at that very moment, the mine collapsed.

The tremendous shaking tore the mountain apart. Rocks and red crystals shattered and came tumbling down.

A furious roar erupted from the depths.

An utterly terrifying aura surged outward like an ocean tide, making it difficult to breathe.

“What is happening?”

Whether they were the Chen Family disciples surrounding the mine from outside or the people trapped within, everyone was caught off guard. What in the world was that thing?

“Not good!”

Relying on his powerful soul force, Mo Xuan sensed the dangerous aura. Without another thought for the battle before him, he rushed straight toward the depths.

Seeing this, Chen Pengfei abandoned his earlier intention. He was not a fool; he naturally would not throw his life away. The interior was clearly extremely dangerous.

He turned and left.

“He is practically courting death. That saves me the trouble of killing him myself. Heh!”

Mo Xuan continually dodged the falling debris as he gradually descended toward the bottom of the mine.

To be honest, the Mo Family had always wanted to solve the mystery surrounding this mine, but they had never possessed the strength to do so.

The deeper one went, the stronger the fire elemental power contained within the surrounding red crystals became. For that reason, the Mo Family had only mined the energy-bearing ores near the outer sections.

Now that Mo Xuan was close to the depths, everything before him was a blazing crimson. Intense fiery radiance spread endlessly into the distance.

Crimson crystals were embedded in the rock walls on either side, forming a brilliant passageway.

Then, from the depths, a pillar of flame suddenly shot outward. It stretched all the way from the mine’s interior through the entrance, finally blooming and splitting apart at its terminus. From that point, the flames scattered in every direction like a waterfall of fire.

The fiery waterfall transformed into a barrier of energy that enclosed the entire mine. Everyone who had failed to escape in time was trapped inside.

Seeing this, the white-haired woman who had been waiting outside for Lin Mengyao could no longer remain calm. She hurriedly attempted to enter, only to discover that even she could not break through the barrier.

Inside the mine—

Mo Xuan was suffering terribly. His entire body felt as though it had been torn apart, and the pain was unbearable. Yet his heart held only one thought: no matter what happened, he could not abandon Meng Yao.

Although he did not actually know Lin Mengyao at present, the deepest voice within him told him that he could go—and that he had to go.

But he was still far too weak. He could do nothing at all. Faced with the blazing terrain before him, hot as molten lava, he felt utterly powerless and pitiful.

“Is there really nothing I can do?”

Mo Xuan knelt on the ground. By then, he no longer had the strength to move forward.

“Why? Why did I agree to this?”

If he had known that something like this would happen here, he would never have agreed, no matter what.

“No. What else can I do?”

The guilt in Mo Xuan’s heart surged into his sea of consciousness like an endless tide.