Five or six icicles shot out from the ice wall, impaling the man in an instant, turning him into a bloody sieve.
This was his domain!
The Ice Coffin prison, which had consumed most of his spiritual power, was not just to prevent their escape; it also significantly enhanced Wang Yu's combat effectiveness.
"Ninth Brother!"
The burly man with the thick beard glared viciously at him. Two beams of spiritual light flew from his waist into his hands, materializing into a pair of golden melon hammers, each the size of a human head. Given his physique, he likely cultivated some body-refining secret art or technique. He led the charge, rushing forward.
The others swiftly formed hand seals, unleashing a torrent of elemental spells—fireballs, earthen spikes, water arrows, wooden vines, metal blades…
This group had quite a diverse array of attributes.
Wang Yu's toes tapped rapidly on the icy surface, creating a series of afterimages as he used the mysteries of the Phantom Step to evade the barrage of spells. With a shudder of his form, he split into ten phantom duplicates.
Positioned across various directions, their hand seals shifted in unison.
Ice Sword Art: Ox-Hair Needles!
As the first perfected technique he had mastered since embarking on the path of cultivation, even though it was only mid-grade, Wang Yu had long since elevated its application to a sublime level. From the initial ten swords, to transforming into a hundred small swords, then merging into a single giant three-zhang blade, he had now innovated once more, shaping it into millions of fine, ox-hair-like icy needles.
The ten phantom duplicates multiplied this base quantity tenfold.
A sky-blotting wave of ice needles shot forth, covering almost every corner of the Ice Coffin prison. The faces of the ambushers tightened with strain. They truly hadn't expected Wang Yu to be this difficult to deal with.
The burly man swung his golden hammers a few times, realizing most of the needles were illusions, and hastily shouted, "Use area-of-effect defensive spells or artifacts! Most of these are fake!"
"Oh, really?" Wang Yu chuckled lightly.
The phantom duplicates positioned at the four upper corners of the ice prison shifted their hand seals, raising two fingers before their lips.
Spit Flame Art: Cold Flame!
Billowing flames abruptly expanded to several zhang in height. Four terrifying fireballs now completely covered the entire prison. The temperature in the air dropped even further.
Yet, three of the ambushers were engulfed in the flames, letting out piercing, agonized screams.
"The one in the upper left corner is the real one! Attack!" The ninth-level and eighth-level Qi Refining cultivators leaped into action simultaneously.
"Golden Hammer Technique!"
"Whirling Water Blades!"
The burly man's golden melon hammers suddenly enlarged, smashing down towards Wang Yu's true body with immense force. The other cultivator, while mid-air, shot three spinning water blades.
This time, Wang Yu did not dodge. He lightly tapped his chest, activating the Black Evil Armor pattern.
Soul-Devouring Evil Armor Art!
Black mist-like spectral energy surged from the armor pattern, completely enveloping Wang Yu. His left arm, the Divine Strength Corpse Arm, punched forward, meeting the golden hammers head-on.
To the burly man's utter horror, the single punch sent his top-grade hammer artifacts flying. The whirling water blades launched by the other attacker merely left white marks on the Black Evil Armor before being deflected.
"Impossible!"
"Could it be… a second-tier defensive art? And mastered to the great completion stage?!"
Regardless of their thoughts, the muscles in Wang Yu's right arm swelled, four dragon tendons visible as it tore through the air, leaving an afterimage.
His fist shattered the eighth-level cultivator's protective spiritual light, plunging deep into his chest cavity.
He crushed the heart within his grasp, then landed on the ice below. Bringing his hands together, he slammed them violently onto the ground.
As a massive amount of spiritual power was consumed, the entire Ice Coffin prison trembled. Dense thickets of icicles grew and interlaced, until, in the blink of an eye, there was not a single place left to stand within the vast cage.
Severed limbs and mangled corpses littered the ground, a few bodies hung impaled on the icicles. Blood soaked the ice crystals, turning entire sections a deep crimson, like blooming flowers of blood, revealing a strange, macabre beauty.
The burly man's eyes nearly burst from their sockets.
"NO!!!"
Out of over ten men, he was the only one left. Gnashing his teeth, he spat, "I refuse to believe you have that much spiritual power to squander! You're only at the eighth level of Qi Refining yourself!"
Wang Yu responded with a contemptuous smile.
The efficacy of top-grade pills was something far beyond this man's comprehension.
Although his opponent was at the ninth level of Qi Refining, he was merely an Outer Sect disciple, indicating he was a loose cultivator who had only joined the sect in recent years. Otherwise, he would have been promoted to the Inner Sect long ago. His methods were paltry, his strength lacking.
Dealing with three to five of his kind would be effortless.
"Your turn."
Beneath the Black Evil Armor, Wang Yu's expression was unreadable. While this strange art primarily defended against spiritual sense attacks, its basic defensive capabilities were remarkably strong in practical application. It was just a hair's breadth away from reaching the second tier, which would require devouring more living souls or grinding it out slowly through his storage slots.
Unfortunately, the Soul-Devouring Evil Armor Art ranked very low on Wang Yu's list of priorities.
"You think I'm afraid of you? I've roamed the Scarlet Kite Demon Domain for eighty years! I'd have died long ago without a trump card!"
"Spirit Detonation Art! Raaaaaagh!"
This seemed to be a secret technique that temporarily boosted one's power.
After the burly man executed it, his aura surged dramatically. However, the grade of this technique was inferior, making it difficult for him to bridge the chasm to the Foundation Establishment stage. Temporarily borrowed strength had its limits.
"Is that all?"
Wang Yu summoned the Golden Blade Whip. The blade segments, shaped like fleshy leaves, clattered as they extended, swiftly binding the man tightly. His left arm exerted force, flinging the man around like a sandbag.
The icicles within the Ice Coffin prison shattered continuously under the impacts. In less than three breaths, the man was pummeled into a pulp by the Divine Strength Corpse Arm, his life force long extinguished.
Shaking his head, Wang Yu dispersed his spiritual power. The Ice Coffin prison rapidly collapsed to the ground, becoming a field of shattered ice.
Threads of spiritual power extended, searching through the debris. Fourteen corpses lay neatly arranged, along with fourteen storage pouches.
A quick inventory with his spiritual sense revealed the spoils: sixteen thousand spirit stones—eight thousand from the burly man alone—five top-grade magical artifacts, twelve mid-grade artifacts, assorted pills, talismans… and a pile of miscellaneous items.
These items could fetch another seven or eight thousand, especially the artifacts. While second-hand artifacts suffered some depreciation, they could still sell for about a third of their original price.
Combined with the value of the corpses, this single encounter had netted him assets worth over twenty thousand spirit stones, rivaling an entire year of his previous efforts.
"Murder, arson, a golden belt… The wisdom of the ancients is truly beyond our reach~"
Of course, this was also due to Wang Yu's strength. Other eighth-level Qi Refining cultivators lacked his capability to handle such a large group single-handedly.
Plundering the accumulated wealth of a lifetime—how could one's riches not grow swiftly? Furthermore, it was clear the burly man had been hoarding spirit stones, otherwise the gains wouldn't have been this substantial.
After hastily cleaning up the battlefield, he selected a flying sword-type artifact from the loot. It was far faster than the Black Silk and represented a standard model of transportation artifact designed specifically for Qi Refining cultivators, perfectly suited for Wang Yu's upgrade.
Thus, as dawn approached, Wang Yu finally arrived at Eroding Heart City.
The city had a permanent population of several hundred thousand, with cultivators and mortals living together, though a clear hierarchy was evident. The city was dotted with numerous hundred-meter-tall pillars, their summits holding square pavilion platforms. The auras of cultivators were concentrated almost entirely within these structures.