The righteous path punishes Heaven

Chapter 85 Conflict

Ren Jixing followed the crowd into the Immortal Ruins, but when she spread her divine sense to explore the surroundings, she sensed an extremely familiar aura.

She turned her head sharply and immediately saw a handsome young man dressed in white close-fitting clothes following closely behind her. It was Zhang Yunling.

"Junior brother?!" Ren Jixing's face lit up with excitement. He grabbed Zhang Yunling's wrist and asked anxiously, "Where have you been these past few days? Your senior brother was really worried about you!"

Zhang Yunling raised her index finger to her lips to make a shushing gesture, and whispered to Ren Jixing, "Senior Sister, I originally wanted to act alone, but now it seems that this Immortal Ruins is indeed very dangerous, and the inheritance map is in the hands of the Pei family. The best choice is to go with the main group now and wait for the right opportunity to leave."

Ren Jixing nodded slightly and said no more. Her slender hand tightly grasped Zhang Yunling's broad hand, and she pulled him forward together.

Zhang Yunling's attention was entirely focused on the surrounding ruins, so she didn't notice Ren Jixing's hand as the two of them followed the crowd toward the center of the Immortal Ruins.

From a distance, shrouded in dense azure immortal energy, only a large, blurry black shadow could be seen at the center of the Immortal Ruins. Only upon closer inspection could one discern that it was actually a colossal corpse, resembling a giant.

"Is this the corpse of a fallen immortal...?" Zhang Yunling stopped exploring his surroundings and focused his attention on the enormous body.

The corpse lay flat on the ground, measuring over ten meters in length and three or four meters in height. It was completely black, as if it had been burned, and its appearance was obscured except for its outline.

Strangely, when everyone finally managed to get close to the corpse, a strange spatial fluctuation suddenly appeared, and that mysterious power began to teleport away the cultivators who approached the corpse one by one.

"What's going on?!" Someone shouted, and was immediately carried away by the spatial force, disappearing from the spot.

Zhang Yunling recognized the man's face; it was Zhu Yi, the eldest disciple of the inner sect of Sanqing Mountain. The spatial distortion came so suddenly that even elders with Nascent Soul cultivation were inevitably teleported by it. Zhang Yunling had no choice but to offer no resistance and was brought into the spatial vortex along with Ren Jixing.

During this process, Zhang Yunling felt that his body seemed to resonate with the power contained in this spatial vortex. He used his divine sense to examine his body and immediately discovered that his physical body and meridians, which had been improved after he comprehended the One Qi Transformation into Three Pure Ones, were gradually covered with a light blue color from their original white.

"Could it be that the power of the Great Dao contained within the Qi Transformation into Three Pure Ones technique resonated with this immortal corpse?" Zhang Yunling wondered to himself.

After a brief period of dizziness, everyone was transported to a vast valley. No vegetation grew there, only dark, sheer cliffs, but eerie sounds like the calls of pheasants occasionally emanated from within the valley.

Zhang Yunling looked around. The cultivators around him were all dressed in different clothes. There were black Quanzhen Taoist robes and dark green Sanqing Mountain Taoist robes, but what caught his attention the most was a group of cultivators wearing brown Taoist robes.

Zhang Yunling rarely saw cultivators wearing robes of this color, but this time, upon entering the Immortal Ruins, the number of cultivators wearing these brown robes was clearly the largest.

Another person he kept an eye on was Zhu Yi of Sanqing Mountain. However, Zhu Yi soon turned his attention to the Quanzhen Sect and discovered Zhang Yunling's presence.

The two had a grudge against each other in the Xuanxu Ancient Realm. Although the Quanzhen Sect later showed mercy and allowed Sanqing Mountain to escape from the destroyed Xuanxu Ancient Realm, Zhu Yi's beloved Daoist partner died at Zhang Yunling's hands.

Although he cannot openly seek revenge now, this is the Immortal Ruins, a place where various clans and forces vie for fortune. Zhu Yi can use this blatant reason to conceal his true intentions.

Furthermore, Li Hongbin, the second elder of Sanqing Mountain, died at the hands of the Netherworld Ghost Monster of the Quanzhen Sect. If the other party brings up the Xuanxu Ancient Realm, he can use the death of the elder to refute it.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yi clenched his fists, forced a smile, and walked towards Zhang Yunling. He said very politely, "Eh? Aren't these fellow Daoists from the Quanzhen Sect? It's such a coincidence to meet you here, hahaha!"

Zhang Yunling didn't speak. He had already judged from Zhu Yi's various subtle expressions that the other party was definitely up to no good. His hands behind his back were already secretly gathering the True Yang Finger, ready to respond to any sudden situation.

Zhu Yi then turned to Zhang Yunling and continued his clumsy acting: "Oh? Brother Yunling? You actually came too? Hahaha, that's great! We hit it off immediately in the Xuanxu Ancient Realm. We thought that since we young cultivators had met, we should have a good exchange of skills, but we were hindered by the natural disaster. Alas, what a pity."

Hearing this, Zhang Yunling continued, "Alas, it is indeed a pity. However, it is truly fate that we met again during this trip to the Immortal Ruins. How about we have a good spar this time, so that we can become friends and our two sects can have less war and more warmth? What do you think?"

In fact, Zhang Yunling had his own reasons for choosing to accept the challenge. Since entering the Golden Core stage, he had not had many serious battles, which greatly hindered his future strength improvement.

This is a perfect opportunity to test my current strength. Moreover, with the Quanzhen Sect as my backer, the opposing Sanqing Mountain will not dare to make any rash moves.

Seeing that the other party had fallen into the trap, Zhu Yi decided to save himself the trouble of talking and directly accepted the challenge: "Alright! Brother Yun Ling is so straightforward, let's have a fight today to make friends! Please!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Yi took the first step forward, and at the same time, his cultivation spread out, and his soaring aura directly transformed into a wave of energy, which quickly rushed towards Zhang Yunling.

Seeing this, Ren Jixing was about to make a move to defend, and Ming Shan's expression also changed, but Zhang Yunling reached out to stop her. At the same time, he took a step forward, and his golden core quickly circulated, forcefully blocking the attack.

The other cultivators around were used to this scene and none of them chose to intervene; they all adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

Zhu Yi's lips curled up as he locked his divine sense onto Zhang Yunling. Upon learning that the other party had advanced to the early stage of the Golden Core realm, the fighting spirit in his eyes intensified. His dark, muscular body tauted, veins bulging, as if brimming with explosive power.

"Now his physical cultivation has actually reached the Golden Core Perfection stage..." Zhang Yunling pondered a countermeasure in his heart. He had also combined physical cultivation with physical cultivation before, but after entering the Golden Core stage, his physical cultivation was entangled in various complicated matters and remained at the Foundation Establishment Perfection stage, without simultaneously advancing to the early Golden Core stage.

Sensing the divine sense probing from Zhu Yi, he followed suit and probed the other party, only to discover the terrifying strength of the other party's dual cultivation of body and qi.

After a brief silence, Zhu Yi launched another attack. He made hand seals with both hands, unleashing two different techniques simultaneously. With a powerful stomp of his foot, Zhu Yi shouted, "Black Tortoise Fist!"

"He really is a close-combat specialist, humph!" Zhang Yunling had already anticipated that Zhu Yi, a cultivator who focused on physical cultivation, was most adept at close combat, so he had made preparations long ago.

Zhang Yunling's figure vanished into the ground like a ghost, and then immediately appeared behind Zhu Yi. His right hand, which had been gathering power for a long time, swiftly struck out with the True Yang Finger, pointing at Zhu Yi's neck, the junction of the spine. If it caused a fatal injury, it could directly render the opponent incapacitated.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Yi had a backup plan. He called out the name of the Xuanwu Fist technique to mislead Zhang Yunling's judgment. Although close combat was indeed his specialty, he had spent a lot of time studying spiritual energy techniques in preparation for this battle in the Immortal Ruins.

At that very moment, as Xuanwu Fist missed its target, his left-hand technique finally manifested. The blue aura wrapped around his wrist suddenly burst forth, revealing itself to be the high-level inner sect technique of Sanqing Mountain: Ice Soul Condensation!

Facing the True Yang Finger that was about to strike a vital point, Zhu Yi remained calm. He didn't even move his body. Instead, he raised his left arm, allowing the light of the spell to completely envelop Zhang Yunling. Instantly, an extremely cold aura spread out, and even the air was condensed into white mist by the sudden low temperature, which diffused and spread around.

Starting from Zhang Yunling's index finger, pieces of light blue ice crystals froze him, enveloping his entire body in just two or three breaths, turning him into a crystal-clear ice sculpture.

The ice crystals didn't stop spreading; instead, they continued to expand. The cultivators watching from all around were startled and quickly retreated. The ice only stopped slowly after it had frozen all the rocky ground within a radius of several meters.

Zhu Yi withdrew his Ice Soul Condensation Technique, ignoring everyone around him, and turned to look at Zhang Yunling, who was frozen into a block of ice. He no longer bothered to conceal the killing intent in his eyes, and his face turned extremely cold. He raised his right Xuanwu Fist, ready to press his advantage and settle the score for the tragic death of his Daoist partner years ago.