Chương 111: Chapter 2: Risking It All, Seeking a Sliver of Life

Astride the flying disk, Reyn's brow was knitted in a tight, shadowed furrow, his expression a mask of grim determination. Yet, beneath that mask, his eyes remained unnervingly calm—like the obsidian waters of a sunless abyss, cold and devoid of ripples. Trapped in the narrow gap between life and death, Reyn did not panic. Instead, he forced his mind into a state of absolute clarity. While his hands frantically manipulated the disk to squeeze out every ounce of speed, his brain whirred like a complex machine.

"That old dog Ming Diao is a Golden Core cultivator; his flight speed cannot be this pathetic," Reyn thought, his gaze sharpening.

"He's trailing behind me at a leisurely pace, clearly playing a game of cat and mouse. He wants me to suffer, to feel the slow burn of despair before he delivers the killing blow. He has no idea that his arrogance is the only thing giving me a fighting chance." Despite his cold internal calculations, Reyn's voice rang out with a pathetic, trembling desperation.

"Senior Ming Diao! Regarding that day... I truly did not mean to harm Senior Brother Ming Diao! My heart is consumed by guilt. I cannot sleep, tossing and turning every night in regret. I beg of you, for the sake of my sincere repentance, could you find it in your heart to grant me a path of survival?" Ancestor Ming Diao felt a surge of sadistic satisfaction at the boy's whimpering. However, his face remained a mask of icy mockery. Begging was not enough.

He wanted Reyn to endure every agony imaginable before grinding his bones to dust and refining his soul. Only then would his hatred be appeased.

"Little mongrel, the moment you shattered my great-grandson's Dantian, you should have foreseen this end," Ming Diao sneered, his voice carrying through the wind like a death knell.

"But do not worry. I won't let you die so easily. I will capture you and refine your spirit for forty-nine days, ensuring you feel every shred of pain until your soul dissipates, forever barred from the cycle of reincarnation!"

"Old monster Ming Diao! If you kill me, Sect Master Qingxiaozi and my Master, Dan Chenzi, will never let you go!" Reyn shrieked, his voice cracking with a fear that seemed all too real, the desperate howl of a cornered animal.

"They will hunt you down! They will make you pay with your life!"

"Hmph! Even if they knew, do you think my Qingyan Sect fears the Xuanxiao Sect?" Ming Diao's expression flickered for a moment before settling back into a cold grin.

"Our sects are evenly matched. If we truly fought to the death, others like Xuan Qing would only swoop in to reap the benefits. Qingxiaozi is a cunning old fox; he would never commit such a strategic blunder for a mere disciple. No, even if I kill you today, the Xuanxiao Sect will not breathe a word of it. They will bury this scandal deep to save their own face!"

"You're lying!!" Reyn's roar of fury echoed back, fueling Ming Diao's amusement. The more the boy suffered, the more the old man enjoyed the chase. Moments later, the gap between them closed to a mere twenty zhang. Reyn poured his spiritual power into the disk, causing it to erupt in a brilliant green radiance, yet he could not widen the distance by even an inch.

"Ah! Die! Just die already!" Reyn's mental state seemed to shatter completely. In a fit of perceived madness, the green light of the disk sputtered to a halt. He spun around, frantically hurling a torrential rain of over a hundred high-grade talismans toward his pursuer. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! A series of deafening explosions rocked the sky as the talismans detonated in a chaotic frenzy of fire and lightning. Reyn didn't stop until his hands were empty.

As the turbulent aftershocks of the magic began to settle, Ancestor Ming Diao stepped calmly through the smoke, his protective barrier shimmering.

"If these petty tricks are all you have, you are truly pathetic. Such sparks cannot even scratch me." Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Reyn froze, his eyes filling with an overwhelming terror. Then, with a sudden, jerky motion, he struck a series of hand seals.

"Strike!" With that sharp command, a streak of blinding golden light flashed through the air. Ancestor Ming Diao's expression finally turned solemn. He slapped his forehead, summoning a magic treasure—a square, earthen-yellow seal. As he infused it with his Golden Core essence, the artifact expanded instantly, swelling until it resembled a small, floating mountain dozens of zhang wide.

"Go!" Ming Diao waved his sleeve, and the Heaven-Turning Sealbegan to spin violently, radiating thick layers of amber light as it smashed down toward a seemingly empty point in the air. CLANG! The massive seal shuddered violently as it collided with the golden streak. A thunderous boom rippled across the sky, vibrating through the very atmosphere. Ming Diao's face paled. He beckoned with his hand, and the Heaven-Turning Sealshrunk back to his palm.

His heart ached as he inspected the artifact; a tiny hole, no thicker than an embroidery needle but over three inches deep, had been bored into its side. This treasure was incredibly precious to him. With a pained look, he tucked it back into his storage bag. Opposite him, the Golden Needle Dan Treasure Reyn had unleashed trembled. Its ethereal form shattered like a soap bubble, completely spent. Reyn's eyes flashed with a momentary pang of loss before being replaced by renewed panic.

The green light on his disk flared again as he resumed his desperate flight.

"What a powerful Dan Treasure. To think a mere fragment of a Primordial Cultivator's weapon could damage my Heaven-Turning Sealso severely," Ming Diao muttered, shock flickering in his eyes. Seeing Reyn flee again, his lips curled into a murderous sneer.

"Now that your Dan Treasure is destroyed, the game is over!" As the words left his mouth, the murderous intent he had been suppressing erupted like a volcano. It manifested as invisible blades, shredding the surrounding air. Within a hundred-meter radius above him, the clouds swirled and the winds howled in a sudden, violent tempest.

"No! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" Reyn screamed in terror, throwing out dozens more high-grade talismans in a frantic, disorganized defense.

"Hmph! Little mongrel, it seems you are truly out of options. I'm done playing with you!" Ming Diao laughed coldly. Ignoring the incoming talismans, he transformed into a streak of light and charged directly through the barrage! At that exact moment, the frantic green light around Reyn vanished. His face, previously twisted in fear, became as cold and sharp as a glacier. There was no trace of panic left in his eyes.

"Detonate!" He barked the command. Hidden among the swarm of ordinary talismans was a single, thumb-sized black pill. It exploded instantly, releasing a dense, obsidian miasma. The black fog expanded with unnatural speed, covering a hundred-zhang radius in heartbeats, yet strangely, it did not dissipate further, lingering like a solid wall of darkness.

"Damn it! This fog is toxic!" Ming Diao's voice, now filled with alarm and rage, erupted from within the cloud. He had inhaled only a tiny amount before sealing his breath, but his True Essence already felt sluggish, and a sharp, needle-like pain began to stab at his brain.

"What kind of poison is this? How can it be this potent?" Ming Diao's heart hammered against his ribs. Fighting through the growing nausea, his escape light flickered wildly as he tried to burst out of the black mist.

"Vile brat! To use such a treacherous scheme! When I get out, I will make you beg for the sweet release of death!" he roared internally. Finally, a glimmer of light appeared ahead—the edge of the fog. But before the joy of escape could take root, he saw Reyn standing right at the exit, arm raised like an executioner's blade.

"Get back in there!" Reyn roared. A small sword in Reyn's hand expanded instantly into a ten-meter-long blade of light, hacking down directly at Ming Diao's head.

"Little bastard! Even poisoned, a Golden Core is not something a gnat like you can touch! Die!" Ming Diao bellowed, thrusting his hand forward as several arcs of sword-qi, condensed from his remaining power, surged out to meet the strike.