Chapter 675: This is Elder Xiao's Burial Ground

Chapter 675: Chapter 542: This is Elder Xiao’s Burial Ground

Jin’an’s brow furrowed. With a decisive swing of his long sword, he brutally severed his own arm at the shoulder!

Seizing the rare opening, Xiao Mo shot backward, rapidly putting distance between himself and his attackers.

“Xiao Mo! Don’t even think about escaping!” Jin’an’s eyes burned with fury as he charged after Xiao Mo, intent on killing him.

Jin’an raised a hand, forming seals for his Techniques. In an instant, eight layers of an abstruse, profound Array materialized above Xiao Mo’s head, emitting a heart-pounding glow.

The eight-layered Array spun rapidly in the air. A massive pillar of light then descended from the heavens, blasting down toward Xiao Mo!

Xiao Mo didn’t dodge, allowing the pillar of light to envelop him completely.

Just as Jin’an thought his attack had succeeded, Xiao Mo’s figure dissolved into thousands of withered yellow leaves that scattered on the wind.

The instant the leaves reconverged in midair to form Xiao Mo, Xin Xiao’er tore through the void once more, her dagger glinting as she slashed viciously at his waist.

Xiao Mo rapidly chanted his Techniques.

In a flash, twin Yin Yang fish materialized at his fingertips.

The black and white Dao-rhythms intertwined.

Xiao Mo extended two fingers and deftly caught the tip of Xin Xiao’er’s dagger.

Vicious Sword Qi rippled out from the dagger but failed to harm Xiao Mo in the slightest; it was completely neutralized by the twin Yin Yang fish.

Meanwhile, Song Cultivator produced a seemingly ordinary clay bowl from his robes.

With a flick of his wrist, the clay bowl flew into the air. It grew larger and larger, expanding until it blotted out the sky as it descended.

“Suppress!” Song Cultivator thrust his palm downward, and the massive bowl shot straight down to trap Xiao Mo.

Unable to dodge in time, Xiao Mo was trapped squarely beneath it.

The bowl slammed down, carrying him with it. It shattered a mountaintop before crashing heavily onto the ground, kicking up a dust cloud hundreds of feet high.

Song Cultivator waved his hand, gently sweeping away the billowing dust.

A massive, seemingly bottomless crater had been gouged into the landscape of the painting scroll.

“I have two Lifebound Magical Treasures.”

Song Cultivator stood with his hands clasped behind his back, a hint of smugness in his voice.

“Aside from this River and Mountain Painting Scroll, there is this clay bowl, the ‘Heaven-Melting Bowl.’ It’s a supreme treasure I acquired from an ancient ruin. Even a Nascent Soul Realm Cultivator trapped by this Magical Treasure will be reduced to a puddle of blood within an hour!”

However, his words had barely left his lips when the Heaven-Melting Bowl began to vibrate violently, emitting a low hum.

“This is bad! Everyone, help me stabilize the Heaven-Melting Bowl!” Song Cultivator’s expression changed. He turned to the others and yelled.

“Right!” Jin’an and the others answered in unison. They quickly positioned themselves at the bowl’s edge, channeling their Spiritual Power to hold the enormous vessel steady.

But after only a quarter of an hour, the Heaven-Melting Bowl began to shake violently again. The tremors grew stronger and stronger, and fine cracks started to spiderweb across its surface.

‘Damn it!’ A terrible premonition seized Song Cultivator, and he abruptly spat out a mouthful of blood.

With a loud CRACK, the Heaven-Melting Bowl shattered, and Xiao Mo shot out as a streak of light.

The Candle Dragon and the Kun Peng, both formed from the Yin Yang River, lunged toward Chen Jue and Song Cultivator with overwhelming power.

Song Cultivator hastily chanted his Techniques. An Array rapidly expanded from his position, layer after spinning layer materializing to block the Kun Peng’s advance.

“All things in heaven and earth exist within the mind. Does the mind exist, or the object? Does the object possess substance, or does the mind give it form?”

Xiao Mo stood between heaven and earth, his robes fluttering, his voice as clear as a mountain spring.

With a flick of his finger, fine threads of condensed Spiritual Power crisscrossed the sky, forming a massive chessboard that spanned heaven and earth.

Song Cultivator looked up at the sky, his heart roiling with emotion. He couldn’t calm himself for a long time.

‘He just broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm,’ he thought. ‘By all rights, his foundation should be unstable, his Realm unconsolidated. Capturing him should have been effortless for us.’

‘But now, we’re locked in a stalemate, trading blows back and forth.’

‘If we let him continue cultivating at this rate, his future accomplishments will be unimaginable.’

The more he thought about it, the more resolute Song Cultivator and the others became in their decision to kill Xiao Mo.

This was no longer just about the Tushan Grand Elder’s command.

If Xiao Mo were to one day reach the Jade Realm, the Immortal Realm, or even the Ascension Realm, how could he possibly forget the day they tried to kill him?

‘When that day comes, we will surely die at his hands.’

“The strategists of old once said that all living beings can be pieces on a board.” Xiao Mo’s voice was clear and distant, echoing between heaven and earth. It carried the calm composure of one looking down upon the mortal world. “Gentlemen, why don’t you play a game of chess with me?”

Before his voice faded, Xiao Mo flicked his finger again. A black stone landed firmly on the invisible chessboard of Dao-rhythm.

The moment Xiao Mo placed the stone, the sky within the painting scroll changed dramatically. Dark clouds churned, and a majestic, ink-black mountain descended from above, pressing down on the group with crushing force.

Xin Xiao’er shot forward. With a vicious flash of her blade, she sliced the massive mountain cleanly in two, as if it were tofu.

From between the two halves of the sundered mountain, Xin Xiao’er’s minuscule figure shot out like a gnat, slashing at Xiao Mo.

At that moment, a white stone landed on the chessboard of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Power.

Xiao Mo placed another black stone. The stacked clouds in the scroll suddenly condensed, forming a colossal Buddha’s palm that blotted out the sky as it descended upon Xin Xiao’er.

Another white stone landed on the board.

Jin’an bit his fingertip, letting a drop of blood fall as he summoned his Lifebound Magical Artifact, the Startling Thunder Hammer.

The Startling Thunder Hammer was instantly wreathed in lightning, electric serpents crackling around it with a deafening roar.

“Die, you brat Xiao Mo!” Jin’an gripped the Startling Thunder Hammer, leaped into the air, and poured all his Spiritual Power into the weapon, bringing it crashing down toward Xiao Mo’s head.

“Such a grand and righteous Magical Artifact, yet it fell into Elder Jin’an’s hands. What a pity.” Xiao Mo held a black stone condensed from Spiritual Power and placed it gently on the board.

As the stone clicked into place, the Candle Dragon coiled upward, letting out a deafening roar as it met the full force of the hammer. It then rammed its head straight into Jin’an.

Jin’an was sent flying backward. He smashed through several mountain peaks before crashing to the ground, carving a trench several miles long.

However, Xiao Mo also felt a sweet, metallic taste in his throat and couldn’t stop himself from spitting out a mouthful of blood.

Meanwhile, the giant Buddha’s palm made of clouds was slashed to pieces by Xin Xiao’er’s vicious blade.

She sliced her palm open with her Long Saber and began to burn her own Essence Blood. With a single step, she charged toward Xiao Mo once more.

Every attack from Xin Xiao’er and the others was like a white stone landing on the invisible chessboard.

Yet, whenever Xiao Mo calmly placed a black stone, water would splash up from the Yin Yang River, acting as a personal guardian that neutralized their every assault.

Blood continued to trickle from the corner of Xiao Mo’s mouth, and his face grew ashen, but his expression remained as placid as still water, showing not a hint of panic.

“Stop getting bogged down! We need to finish him quickly before something unexpected happens!”

Song Cultivator shouted to the others, his voice thick with anxiety.

He could tell that Xiao Mo was using the battle to fuel his own growth.

The man was using this intense fight against them to familiarize himself with the Nascent Soul Realm, solidifying his foundation inch by inch.

Elsewhere, seeing the other Elders unable to defeat Xiao Mo after so long, Chen Jue knew it was time to use his trump card.

He took out the Talisman, rapidly chanted its incantation, and hurled it toward Xiao Mo!

The Talisman burst into flames, and the majestic Dharma Aspect of a Nine-tailed Celestial Fox materialized in the air, its oppressive aura flooding the area.

However, the Secret Realm Law seeped through the painting scroll and suppressed the Dharma Aspect.

‘I didn’t expect this Secret Realm to be able to suppress even a Spiritual Power projection.’

Jin’an sighed inwardly, his expression complex.

Jin’an knew that the Talisman Elder Hongxia had given Chen Jue contained the full force of one of her attacks.

However, due to the influence of the Secret Realm Law, the attack’s power could not exceed the limits of the Jade Realm.

Still, the attack’s power was equivalent to Nascent Soul Realm Perfection, which should be more than enough.

The Dharma Aspect of the Nine-tailed Celestial Fox raised its head, a ball of snow-white, freezing energy gathering in its mouth.

BOOM!

In the next instant, a beam of frigid white light shot toward Xiao Mo.

Everything in its path instantly froze solid, covered in a thick layer of ice.