The Inheritance in Hand

Fortunately, Pan Yin, who hailed from a noble clan, still possessed a few tricks. She had covered her face with a veil beforehand, which successfully shielded her from Dou Hong's mental attack.

She then manifested a brown iron cage in her palm, channeling her spiritual power into the spiritual artifact until it instantly expanded several times over.

"Go!"

Pan Yin gave a soft shout. The iron cage flashed through the air, dropping squarely over Dou Hong's head and trapping him within.

This iron cage artifact would lose its efficacy after a single use, but it was exceptionally sturdy.

Dou Hong's pupils contracted. He flexed his bulging muscles and slammed against the bars several times, but failed to break free.

By this time, the other cultivators had regained their wits. They began unleashing their respective spiritual arts, raining attacks down upon the caged Dou Hong.

"Hahaha! Such trivial arts are completely useless against me!"

Dou Hong roared, exerting his brute strength. The scales across his body swelled to twice their size as he curled into a tight ball. The cultivators' techniques struck the hardened scales, shattering and deflecting in all directions.

Yet, the sheer advantage of numbers began to show.

Though they could not truly wound the snake monster, such a dense, unrelenting offensive managed to pin it in place.

Whoosh-

After the crowd sustained the barrage for a short while, the teleportation formation at the exit of the Hidden Cache flickered to life once more.

"The exit is open!"

"Hurry, run!"

At the sight of the formation, the cultivators fled for their lives toward it, no longer caring about what became of the snake monster.

"Sister, we must leave as well!"

"But Fellow Daoist Yang..."

Pan Yin glanced back toward the forest. Yang Linghu had taken a direct hit from the snake monster's ambush earlier; he was undoubtedly grievously wounded.

"Sister, do not hesitate! Without everyone's spiritual arts holding it back, that iron cage won't last much longer!"

Pan Yin's expression twisted in conflict. Finally, she gritted her teeth and silently muttered, Fellow Daoist, please do not blame me. With that, she led the Pan family cultivators and bolted toward the formation.

As the Pan family departed, the iron cage instantly lost its power and shattered.

The cultivators who were a step too slow found themselves in dire straits. Dou Hong immediately blocked the path to the formation, unleashing his clones to begin a frenzied slaughter.

Of those trapped behind, only a handful of lucky individuals managed to slip through the chaos. The remaining eighty-odd cultivators all met gruesome deaths.

A crimson bloody aura filled the air as Dou Hong recalled his clones.

He opened his massive maw, devouring the fresh flesh and blood while savoring the sublime sensation of his rising cultivation.

By the time he had picked the bones of every cultivator clean, his realm had reached the peak of the sixth level of Qi Gathering.

Feeling the surging, thick power within his meridians, he broke into a savage grin.

"Just a bit more... If I can just consume one more person!"

At this moment, he stood a mere hair's breadth away from the late stage of Qi Gathering.

Dou Hong turned his gaze toward a particular stretch of the woods-the exact direction where he had sent Yang Linghu flying earlier. A faint, lingering cultivator's aura still drifted from that spot.

Having borne the full brunt of his ambush, Yang Linghu was certainly on the verge of death.

Dou Hong thought with venomous malice, You are the one who kept ruining my plans! Today, I will ensure you suffer the agony of being skinned and swallowed alive!

With a few bounds, he entered the thicket and quickly located the unconscious Yang Linghu.

Spying the long trail of blood dragged across the ground, the monster felt no suspicion whatsoever. He opened his massive maw and lowered his head close.

"I shall start from your legs, just like the other one. I want you to watch yourself being devoured piece by piece, and listen to your own despairing wails!"

His physical mutation, coupled with the excessive slaughter, had warped Dou Hong's mind into something entirely pathological; he craved the sadistic pleasure of tormenting his prey.

Yet in the very next instant, the supposedly comatose Yang Linghu abruptly snapped his eyes open.

The moment his spiritual power circulated, his right arm swelled to twice its size, coated in a faint layer of gray ripples!

Brute Force Art, Fifth Layer! Martial Qi Enhancement!

A full-powered punch erupted, striking Dou Hong squarely on the back of his head and leaving his mind in a momentary daze.

Seizing this fleeting window, Yang Linghu lunged forward until they were practically nose-to-nose. A brilliant spiritual light flared from a talisman in his hand.

At such close proximity, even though Dou Hong realized what was coming, he had absolutely no time to evade.

The fierce, unmatched cutting force of the talisman slammed into the crown of his skull.

"Crack!"

The agonizing sensation of fracturing bone and tearing flesh shot straight to his brain. His entire skull caved inward from the center. His facial features and neck suffered horrific trauma, stifling even the chance to scream.

Yang Linghu pressed the advantage, refusing to give the monster a single breath to recover as he unleashed a second Mountain-Splitting Talisman.

This particular Mountain-Splitting Talisman was of Good quality, packing a strike equivalent to an eighth-level Qi Gathering cultivator!

Dou Hong had never imagined that death would arrive so abruptly.

Only a moment ago, he had been immersed in the ecstasy of his impending breakthrough; now, his life force was violently cut short.

As the cutting force sliced horizontally through his throat, a fleeting vision flashed before his eyes-his deceased friend, followed by the countesses faces of the cultivators he had murdered and devoured...

"Thud!"

The massive head tumbled to the earth. Yang Linghu followed with another punch, reducing it to fragmented shards.

Back when Dou Hong had first ambushed him, Yang Linghu had managed to activate a Fine-quality Spirit Shield Talisman at the critical threshold. The splattered blood and the crimson trail on the ground were nothing more than a ruse, created by deliberately tearing open an old wound on his back.

The distance of invocation heavily affected the lethality of a Mountain-Splitting Talisman.

To guarantee a fatal blow against Dou Hong, he had bided his time without moving a muscle, feigning a deep coma.

Ever since he witnessed that Carefree Sect disciple who had been eaten half-alive, Yang Linghu knew for certain that Dou Hong would seek him out to vent his malice.

As the monster's life force completely dissipated, the snake scales peeling away from Dou Hong's corpse, revealing his original human form.

A manual containing the inheritance-the Black Snake Cloud-Swallowing Art-dropped to the ground.

Yang Linghu retrieved the text. Flipping through a few pages, the truth became clear to him.

This cultivator had lacked the inherent attributes required to cultivate this technique, which had driven him down a depraved, heretical path.

"Your desperation for the Dao is understandable, but to commit such atrocities and incur such heavy karmic slaughter for the sake of a heretical art means you truly deserved this end."

With those words, Yang Linghu tossed out several Fire Talismans, reducing Dou Hong's corpse to ash.

He then consumed the Spring-Returning Pill provided by his clan, allowing his injured arm to mend by seventy to eighty percent.

With the threat dealt with, the Hidden Cache was finally secure. He made his way back to the cold pool to retrieve Zhao Qi and Liang Yi.

The calamity of the Black Snake Hidden Cache had drawn to a close.

Meanwhile, over at the Mayfly Treasure Ground, the exit had also opened on this day.

Having successfully obtained the treasure ground's inheritance, Yang Lingrui did not seek out the Feng family. Instead, he donned a fresh set of robes, concealed his face, and departed the grounds immediately.

Xie Chuan and Lu Lianshun followed shortly after, emerging alongside the main crowd. The three of them reunited at their designated rendezvous point.

The two elders had kept Yang Lingrui's instructions close to heart, strictly confining their search to the Safe Zone within the treasure ground.

Though the spiritual materials found there were low in tier and lacked high market value, the area was safe and free from conflict.

The pair had spent over ten days gathering a massive bounty, completely filling two Storage Bags with low-tier spiritual materials.

The Yang family currently lacked deep reserves, and these materials were exactly what they needed to replenish the clan's stores.

"You two have worked hard."

"It was nothing. Compared to Young Master Lingrui, our efforts hardly qualify as hardship."

Yang Lingrui nodded. "Let us move. Brother Hu should have wrapped things up on his end as well. We shall meet in Yanxia and return home together!"

Shortly after the trio departed, the entrance to the Mayfly Treasure Ground grew raucous.

The guardian cultivator from Lone Moon Mountain had initially arrived with an aggressive posture, but upon learning of Wang Weiming's atrocious conduct within the treasure ground, he instantly lost all moral high ground.

"Hmph! Fellow Daoist, that brat of yours slaughtered two of my clan's guards!"

"To sow such chaos within the treasure ground, his death was merely a case of karmic retribution!"

"Fellow Daoist, it is time you gave the rest of us a proper explanation!"

Beset by the verbal assaults of the crowd, the Lone Moon Mountain guardian's face turned a mottled shade of blue and purple. He knew he was in the wrong and could find no words to rebut them.

It was only when a distant transmission talisman flared that he eagerly opened it, as if receiving a royal pardon.

"Fellow Daoists, my Sect has issued a decree. We shall no longer pursue the matter of this disciple's death. If anyone wishes to demand an explanation, you are welcome to visit Lone Moon Mountain to discuss it!"

Leaving behind those words, his figure dissolved into a wisp of green smoke, swiftly fleeing the scene.

After days of searching, Feng Lingyue finally located Feng Linghua near the perimeter of the Illusion Formation.

At the time, the girl was being besieged by a group of cultivators whose minds had been broken by the formation.

With a single utterance of the word "Sever," Feng Lingyue utilized her word-spirit art to strike the crazed cultivators dead. She then escorted Feng Linghua back to a secure zone, refraining from venturing deeper into the treasure ground.

Though this expedition had cost the Feng family four guards at the sixth level of Qi Gathering and yielded no Mayfly Essence, Feng Lingyue remained unbothered.

In her eyes, providing Feng Linghua with such a trial was harvest enough.

After this ordeal, her sister would surely mature significantly.

Upon exiting the treasure ground, Feng Linghua kept rising onto her tiptoes, peering frantically into the crowd. "Sister, did you catch sight of Young Master Lin?"

"He..."

Feng Lingyue knit her brows. When the Illusion Formation had initially activated, her heart had been consumed entirely by her sister's safety; she had possessed no leisure to care whether Yang Lingrui lived or died.

Given Yang Lingrui's meager cultivation realm, he had likely perished within the depths of the Illusion Formation.

However, to soothe her sister, she replied softly, "Rest assured, the blessed are naturally protected by Heaven. Young Master Lin likely left the treasure ground ahead of us. Perhaps you two will cross paths again in the future."

Since the boy was almost certainly dead, there was no harm in speaking kindly of him.

In any case, once her sister entered the academy next year and witnessed the truly brilliant elites of that institution, she would gradually let this passing acquaintance fade from her mind.

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