Even among the heretical sects, the Heartless Sect stood out for its bizarre and eerie cultivation methods. The sect upheld the belief in "Heaven's Way: diminish the excess to replenish the lacking."
Its core philosophy was: to gain something, you must first give something in return. Cultivators had to surrender a part of their own body—an organ, for instance—before they could acquire a corresponding power.
Using secret techniques, they would dissolve organs like the heart or liver, extracting from them the purest innate vital qi to boost their cultivation. Yet their physical function would not be lost. The organs weren't truly gone, but transformed into something that could continue functioning—and more importantly, generate vital qi continuously.
Xin Jizi, though an elder, was only above average by Heartless Sect standards. Even after seven or eight centuries of cultivation, though all his internal organs had been dissolved and rendered for power, his control over flesh, bones, and blood remained superficial. He had not yet achieved complete internal-external harmony and had no overwhelming edge in cultivation.
Daoist Minglan, known mainly within his sect for managing internal affairs, was not particularly strong—clearly weaker than Xin Jizi. However, Lin Ge was still standing behind him.
Even if Lin Ge had stagnated for a century, with his power declining rather than growing, his foundation was deep. With the two of them working in concert, Xin Jizi might not win.
Suddenly, flames flared violently—only to vanish just as quickly. It was Yue Mingfeng's sword qi, slicing through the sky and dispersing Xin Jizi's two blasts of heartfire. He dropped down in front of the disciples and shouted: "Form the formation!"
Everyone except Li Xun moved immediately. They spread out around him, occupying the celestial compass positions, swords drawn and brimming with sword qi.
It was a Celestial Star Formation—seemed loosely arranged, but its subtle mechanics allowed seamless cohesion for those versed in the Clear Heart Sword Sect's techniques.
An effortless yet potent formation for group combat—rare in the Tongxuan Realm, where solo duels dominated. For weaker disciples, it was a lifeline against stronger foes.
Now, with over twenty Heartless Sect members lurking nearby, outnumbering them, if they didn't form the defensive formation, they would be slaughtered.
Yue Mingfeng stood at the formation's center—the main celestial position. Beside him was Li Xun. As commander of the formation, Yue Mingfeng not only had to direct its flow but also intercept particularly dangerous enemies.
As expected, not long after the formation was complete, shrill sword cries rang out from above. A dozen figures streaked in from all directions, howling wildly. Before they even arrived, the air was already filled with the Heartless Sect's unique Heart-Transforming Flame—a blinding sea of white.
Without waiting for Yue Mingfeng's orders, the disciples knew what to do. Sword qi surged together in a sweeping arc, shredding the incoming flames to bits.
Yue Mingfeng turned to Li Xun. "Are you familiar with this formation?" he asked him.
Li Xun blinked. "This is my first time seeing it, but-"
Yue Mingfeng nodded. "Got it. The formation must keep moving—just stay close to me. If you can't manage, speak up!"
With that, he drew his sword and lifted it high. Hundreds of blades of green sword qi shot skyward—each sharp enough to split the clouds. This was the sect's Thousandfold Barrier sword art, and though it differed in form, it shared a spirit with Li Xun's own Shadowed Bamboo, Rising Mist technique. Of course, the mastery shown here was far beyond anything Li Xun could yet hope to reach.
The sword tore across the air, scattering the encircling Heartless disciples. Though no one was injured, it bought the formation breathing room.
Yue Mingfeng seized the moment and bellowed: "Rise!"
All sixteen disciples took to the air in unison. Among them, only Li Xun had to use the Sword-Stepping Technique to fly, which left him almost entirely defenseless in the sky.
Yue Mingfeng, though mostly focused on the enemy, kept the corner of his eye on Li Xun. Seeing him manage decently well for now, he relaxed—slightly.
In his mind, he thought: With the formation protecting him, Li Xun should be safe enough. As long as Lin Ge and Daoist Minglan can deal with Xin Jizi, things will soon turn in our favor...
Boom!
A thunderous roar shook the earth. The ground burst apart with a terrible crack, rocks and soil blasting upward in a violent eruption.
The explosion caught everyone off guard. Even Yue Mingfeng had no warning. Though the flying debris wasn't deadly, the billowing dust cloud engulfed a wide area. As darkness fell over their vision, everyone instinctively drew their swords to protect themselves—at the cost of breaking the formation.
Yue Mingfeng's heart dropped. His first thought was for the weakest among them: Li Xun.
And those damned three dragon pearls!
"Not good!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Yue Mingfeng caught a flash—someone shot up from underground like a bolt of lightning. He didn't even need to think. Sword energy flew out, blocking the figure, while his other hand instinctively reached back to grab Li Xun.
But he grabbed nothing but air!
With the person he was supposed to protect gone, the Celestial Star Formation shattered on the spot.
...
The moment the earth cracked open beneath him, Li Xun knew something was seriously wrong. His first instinct was to yell for help—but before he could even get a word out, pain shot up from his ankle. It felt like a steel clamp had latched onto him—someone had grabbed him, hard.
Then, a surge of foreign true breath forced its way into his body, slamming through dozens of his meridians in an instant, locking them down. His limbs went limp, and he fell headfirst, completely helpless—couldn't even twitch, let alone fight back.
The gap between him and a real expert… was still way too big.
In that moment of being subdued, Li Xun's mind went completely blank. It was the first time he'd ever been caught without even the chance to strike back. But just a second later, his thoughts snapped back into place—and one loud thought echoed in his head:
Dying without a fight? That's not who I am.
At the same time, thanks to a mix of instinct and deduction, the scene around him began to piece itself together in his mind like a painting.
Li Xun suddenly realized: those Heartless Sect disciples around them were just the first layer of distraction. The one who had burst through the ground making all that noise? That was the second layer. The real killer move had been another person hiding deep underground all along. Once Yue Mingfeng was lured into reacting, the real assailant had quietly surfaced and grabbed him without a sound.
Yeah, things looked bad. Really bad.
But not hopeless.
In the swirling dust and chaos of battle, everyone was tied up—but Yue Mingfeng still seemed to have a slight edge in cultivation. As for himself, Li Xun was currently locked in a one-on-one, which, for now, meant things wouldn't get worse. And most importantly…
He had his trump card.
Just as that thought flashed through his head, a sudden warmth bloomed at the top of his head. The Phoenix Feather Needle, which he'd been using as a simple hairpin, sent a surge of heat down into his Niwan Palace (upper dantian), spreading through all his meridians.
Li Xun's heart lit up with joy—the Phoenix Feather Needle's protection had kicked in.
This was one of the hidden functions he'd recently discovered. The needle wasn't just a fancy trinket—it could neutralize invading true breath. Well, maybe not neutralize… the heat it released had a melting, purifying effect, eroding any foreign energy it touched. Given enough time, it could eat away at even the most stubborn meridian-locking techniques.
That warmth rushed through his body, and everywhere it passed, the hostile true breath vanished—like snow melting in boiling water.
Li Xun didn't hesitate. His golden core flared to life, and the flying sword Azure Jade, which had been falling with him, traced a sharp arc just above the ground.
From total paralysis to explosive counterattack—it all happened in a flash. The guy who'd grabbed his ankle never saw it coming.
The sword twisted mid-air, and with a dull grunt, warm blood splashed across Li Xun's leg. His captor instinctively recoiled, and just like that, the pressure vanished—Li Xun's body felt light again.
No time to think. He didn't care what he'd hit or if it was fatal. True breath burst through his body as he twisted in the air, pulling himself a few feet away. Azure Jade gave a low hum as it flew back into his hand, and using that momentum, he surged even higher.
A low, raspy roar suddenly rang out beneath him. A wave of scorching wind brushed past his feet, close enough to make him break out in a cold sweat.
No time to relax.
He flicked Azure Jade, and several pale green sword lights fanned out in front of him, forming a barely visible misty veil. It was the Shadowed Bamboo, Rising Mist technique—a defensive move that created a light barrier: Azure Smoke Screen.
A faint blue-green mist drifted through the dust and flying rubble—barely visible in the chaos. But the wave of Mingxin Sword Sect's signature true breath rolling off it? That stood out clearer than any lighthouse on a stormy night.
This move of Li Xun's was a massive gamble. If the enemies reached him before his allies did, he wouldn't stand a chance.
Luckily, he bet right.
From above came Yue Mingfeng's shout: "Grab my hand!"
Li Xun didn't hesitate. His left hand shot up like lightning—and the next moment, Yue Mingfeng seized it and flung him skyward, hurling him straight out of the dusty battlefield below.
Down below, swords clashed and muffled grunts rang out—someone had definitely taken a hit, though it wasn't clear who.
Li Xun's upward momentum soon ran out, but he caught his breath midair and kicked back into swordflight, rising again under his own power.
His sudden movement threw the whole situation into turmoil. The thick haze of dust and smoke below—ripped open by waves of sword qi and bursts of inner fire—was shredded like paper. Dozens of sword lights shot up into the sky again, converging around Li Xun's position like moths to a flame.
"Give me the pearls!" Yue Mingfeng's voice rang out again. He had blood at the corner of his mouth, looking beat-up, but his sword light was still the fastest on the field. He'd already figured out what this whole mess was about, and he wasn't about to die for a few stupid baubles. Better to lose the pearls than lose his life.
Li Xun understood that better than anyone. Without a moment's pause, he whipped out the three Demon Flood Dragon Pearls and, with a flash of blue-green light, hurled them high into the sky.
And this—this was where Li Xun showed his smarts.
If he'd tossed the pearls directly to Yue Mingfeng, even if the man caught them, he'd have been wide open to an incoming strike—and that might've dragged Li Xun himself back into the fight. That would've been suicidal.
But by throwing the pearls upward instead, it gave Yue Mingfeng—whose sword speed was top-tier—the best chance to intercept them while staying mobile. With a bit of luck, those two Heartless Sect goons chasing him wouldn't even get close.
The Demon Flood Dragon Pearls didn't shine like full moons or light up the night like luminous pearls, but they still gave off a faint glow—plenty bright against the pitch-black sky.
That single throw pulled Li Xun right out of the jaws of death. He scanned the area—nearly every gaze on the battlefield had turned upward, locked on the soaring pearls.
He wasn't about to waste the opening. Guiding his sword in a wide arc, he skimmed past several pairs of locked-in fighters, steering way clear of the battlefield's center.
With the Celestial Star Formation now in ruins, this was hands-down the smartest move he could've made.
Above, the pearls flashed only twice before Yue Mingfeng snatched them cleanly out of the air and tucked them into his robe. The two Heartless Sect experts tailing him? Still stuck down below, breathing nothing but dust.
Yue Mingfeng silently gave Li Xun some credit—sharp move, kid—before pulling into a high-speed arc, sword energy bursting around him in a roar as he dove back into the fray.
Meanwhile, Li Xun let himself breathe for a second. For now, everyone was locked in one-on-one fights. Even the likes of Qi Bi had corralled three opponents at once—no one had time to mess with him. That meant he could finally step back and take in the bigger picture.
The chaotic melee wasn't the real focus.
The key fight—the one that would decide it all—was happening between Minglan and Xin Jizi.
Right now, Minglan was clearly getting outmatched. The difference in cultivation was too much—and Lin Ge, who might've helped, didn't look like he was planning to lift a finger.
Xin Jizi, on the other hand, was totally at ease. Against someone like Minglan, who was a level below him, he didn't even need to go all out. He cultivated the Heartless Sect's Life Qi Seven Bodies technique, specializing in the Heart System form—where the heart became the core node of all inner true breath.
The heart belongs to fire—and from that fire comes the Heartflame, coursing through the body as a unique form of true breath. Its power? Absolutely deadly.
What made it truly terrifying, though, was this: if the Heartflame managed to invade an opponent's body, it would begin burning away their heart from the inside, refining it into a pure stream of Vital Qi—which then flowed straight into the user to absorb.
That was exactly why Minglan didn't dare go on the offensive. He was dead cautious of Xin Jizi's Heartflame, and for good reason. So most of the time, he stuck to defense, layering it tight like an iron fortress. He was holding on by sheer will, but for now, Xin Jizi couldn't break through.
Especially with Lin Ge just standing off to the side, head bowed and eyes half-closed, showing no intention of stepping in.
Of course, Xin Jizi didn't buy that act for a second. Even a hundred years ago, Lin Ge had a fairly good reputation. And now after so much time had passed —especially after that incident, who knew what kind of person he'd become?
Xin Jizi had too many doubts to go all in. Truth was, he was still waiting for good news from the other side of the battlefield. But the moment he saw that flash in the sky—when the Demon Flood Dragon Pearls vanished from sight—he nearly crushed his teeth in rage.
That flash meant one thing: the pearls had changed hands. And if that was the case, the odds of getting them back were close to zero.
Xin Jizi was furious. His attacks turned savage in an instant.
He and Minglan were now separated by several dozen zhang, but the force behind his strikes only grew fiercer. Under his control, the Heartflame had turned nearly white-hot, so intense it was almost transparent. He launched several consecutive waves of attacks, each one more reckless than the last.
The Heartflame's heat was no joke. Anything it touched—wood, stone, flesh—ignited instantly.
Earlier, Xin Jizi had kept the flame's aura restrained, but now he let it blaze freely. Three long-range strikes—"Bang! Bang! Bang!"—exploded across the battlefield like ghostfire erupting from the underworld. Minglan was blasted backward, stumbling with each hit, while the surrounding terrain—hundreds of zhang in every direction—was set ablaze.
That last move pulled Lin Ge into the fray.
Xin Jizi had been watching him closely, and this flame burst was a test as much as an attack. But Lin Ge didn't flinch. He didn't speak. He didn't move. He simply let out a shimmer of sword qi that extinguished every stray spark daring to approach him.
That made Xin Jizi's eye twitch.