Meanwhile, those enemies who had already shown signs of defeat seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack. The intervention of Nascent Soul stage cultivators gave them tremendous confidence and greatly increased their strength.
In battles between experts, many magical artifacts no longer possess the power to harm their opponents; what matters is their true strength.
In such battles, the sword cultivators can unleash their full potential, followed by the Fuyuan Sect's magic cultivators and the Yuxing Sect's beast tamers who stand a little further away. The Langya Sect's weapon cultivators try to stay at the forefront and use high-level magic weapons to defend themselves when the opponent's attacks become too intense.
The cultivators of the Hidden Sect had no chance to set up formations here; they could only attack using talismans, which consumed a great deal of their energy.
With the addition of a Nascent Soul cultivator, the hard-won advantage vanished.
Seeing that two more Nascent Soul stage cultivators were injured, Shi Mingxiu gritted his teeth, suddenly cried out, "Ouch!" and then clutched his chest, retreating several steps before finally stopping, with a trickle of blood spilling from his mouth.
In that instant, he faintly heard a cold snort, as if someone was very dissatisfied with his performance.
Upon hearing this cold snort, Shi Mingxiu's face revealed a barely perceptible smile.
He did it on purpose! Otherwise, Master Lin would have been out of the question for who knows how long, and even more cultivators would have been injured.
A flash of light appeared, its shape resembling a sword aura, yet far more condensed than ordinary sword auras. In the blink of an eye, it had reached its target. With a deafening boom, the sword aura exploded beside the Void Refinement Realm cultivator.
The cultivators standing there were completely unprepared for the fact that the Five Sects had such a hidden figure. They were caught off guard and hit by the blast. More than a dozen cultivators were blown away, and two Nascent Soul cultivators even collapsed on the spot, seriously injured.
Behind them, the sturdy partition wall finally collapsed, becoming part of the ruins.
Behind the collapsed wall, a downward passage was exposed to everyone's view without any obstruction. Dark steps stretched downwards, with a section destroyed at the ground level.
Seeing that their own strong reinforcements had arrived, the cultivators of the five sects were immediately invigorated and launched a swift counterattack. The two heavily injured Nascent Soul cultivators who had fallen to the ground were immediately killed on the spot.
At that moment, a long whistle sounded from somewhere. Upon hearing the whistle, the new members quickly retreated and disappeared into the passageway.
"Chase after him?" Qi Ran wanted to chase after him as soon as he saw the person disappear into the passage.
"Wait a minute," Lin Daozi said, stopping them. "We don't know if there's an ambush underground. We shouldn't act rashly."
Qi Ran said anxiously, "We finally made it this far, are we just going to watch them escape?"
A cunning rabbit has three burrows; since this is their main base, there must be more than one exit.
"Let's scout ahead first," Lin Daozi called out. "Shi Xuan."
"They're here!" Shi Xuan saw that the enemy had retreated and he had returned to his master's side.
Do you still have any of your potent bursting pills?
"Yes!" Shi Xuan immediately took out two bottles from his storage space and handed them to Lin Daozi, saying, "Master, please use them as you like. There's as much of this stuff as you need."
Zeng Mo is now the one refining these potent explosive pills. When Zeng Mo first learned how to make these pills, he was extremely excited and refined a large batch day and night, which is now just sitting there collecting dust.
Lin Daozi took the potent explosive pills, took out two, and threw them into the entrance of the passage as spiritual energy flowed into them.
Then a pure metallic sword aura arrived in the same direction as the Exploding Pill.
With a deafening roar, a huge crater was blasted into the original passage, and a crack was cleaved out by the sword energy.
Lin Daozi did not stop, continuing along the crack that had been created. He used the Exploding Pills in conjunction with his sword energy without stopping, using up all the two large bottles of potent Exploding Pills that Shi Xuan had handed over before finally stopping his attack.
At this point, the entrance to the underground palace had been reduced to ruins. While the deeper parts of the palace remained untouched, the area in front of it was essentially destroyed.
Lin Daozi had already blasted a mile-long passage along it, and there, he reopened the passage leading to the underground palace.
This time, the passage had no steps; the blasted debris piled up into a ramp, leading a long way down into the depths of the underground.
Once you get here, most of the traps and mechanisms have been buried, so it's a good time to go in.
Shi Xuan was still manipulating the two puppet figures, letting the puppets enter first.
Just then, a refined voice came from afar: "Fellow Daoist Shi Xuan, how have you been?"
The voice grew louder as it approached, and soon it was Zhu Yi, the city lord of Yunzhong City, who had previously crossed paths with Shi Xuan.
Shi Xuan smiled and cupped his hands in greeting, saying, "Congratulations, City Lord."
Zhu Yi looked at the devastation and frowned slightly, saying, "This is..."
Shi Xuan's puppet had already reached the entrance. She turned back to look at Zhu Yi and replied, "Lord Zhu, we still have important matters to attend to. We will settle accounts with you regarding the damage caused to Yunzhong City after the matter is resolved. We will definitely come to apologize in person later."
"Such a large-scale operation, what is the purpose?" Zhu Yi was not angry about the damage they had caused. Looking at the huge crater, he asked with concern, "After all, I am the city lord of Cloud City. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"No need for help." At this moment, Shi Xuan had already followed the puppet to the entrance of the underground palace. Lin Daozi, Shi Mingxiu and others were with her, and they did not stop because of the arrival of the city lord.
Zhu Yi took two steps forward to catch up with Shi Xuan and said, "I didn't expect there to be an underground palace here. I, the city lord, didn't even know. I'll go down with you and find out what's going on."
“No need,” Shi Xuan refused decisively, turning his head and walking forward without looking back, saying as he went, “If the city lord is interested, he can come in and see as much as he wants after this matter is over, but there’s no need for this time.”
Zhu Yi did not stop. He followed Shi Xuan for two more steps and was about to enter the passage.
Shi Xuan suddenly stopped and turned around, saying seriously, "Why does City Lord Zhu insist on following us? Is it because you already know the location of the underground palace and are covering it up for them?!"
Shi Xuan's tone was somewhat stern, and his usually smiling face turned serious and solemn.
These words were truly blunt and showed no mercy, causing Zhu Yi to freeze in shock. After a moment, his face flushed red with obvious confusion, he asked, "Fellow Daoist Shi, what makes you say this? As the city lord of this place, I merely..."
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