The late Divine Transformation man in black robes fixed a cold stare on Wei Yunxi. Surprise flickered in his eyes, then turned to naked greed.
The golden body armor on Wei Yunxi had manifested. It had taken the brunt of that killing blow for her. Wei Yunxi raised a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of her lips, then let out a chilly laugh.
"You finally showed yourself."
The evil cultivator sneered. "Wei Yunxi, your courage has shrunk. You do not even dare use your own face."
Wei Yunxi merely curled her lips. The Glazed Jade Mask dissolved, revealing her true features. In any case, the moment she summoned the Seven Stars Soul-Shattering Staff, her identity would be exposed.
"No wonder you walked out of the Shanhe Scroll alive. You are stuffed with treasures. A pity, because this time they will all be mine." He licked his lips. The certainty in his eyes was impossible to miss.
"Heh. That depends on whether you have the ability." Wei Yunxi slammed the Seven Stars Soul-Shattering Staff against the ground. Violet lightning erupted from her in every direction. The sharpest bolt speared straight for the man.
He did not flinch. Wielding a paired set of Hunyuan Hammers, he smashed them into the ground. Bands of ashen-black lightning collided with the violet arcs. The two vast powers crashed together, shattering the protective formation the evil cultivators had set up. In the next breath, countless raging currents of the Polar Extreme Wind Zone surged toward them.
Wei Yunxi knew that first exchange would not seriously harm him. Her goal was to destroy the barrier, so both sides would be impeded by the polar winds. With her wind spiritual root, she would hold a slight edge.
The instant the barrier broke, she swept her sleeve and whisked the four unconscious cultivators into her robe, then slipped into the extreme winds.
"Hmph. Think you can run that easily?"
The man snorted and plunged after her, relentlessly snapping at her heels.
Their exchange had stirred the middle zone into even greater fury. Yun Chen, Han Lian, and Xun Kun all sensed it and sprinted toward the strongest fluctuations.
Elsewhere, several Nascent Soul cultivators who were still struggling through the middle zone halted, frowning toward the source of that violent surge.
Wei Yunxi flitted through the storm with the ease of willow catkins riding a breeze. Thanks to her wind root, she always found the gaps between the wild gusts, brushing past the edges of the currents to slip through. In moments, she opened a temporary gap on the man behind her.
Li Li had already retreated into the spirit beast pouch. That sneak attack had startled it as well, but it had still caught a glimpse of the assailant, and now transmitted to Wei Yunxi, "Zūnzhě, the one who struck you is an evil cultivator. His soul is so black it has gone green. Who knows how many lives he has ruined. If you can, kill him."
Drifting through the gale, Wei Yunxi replied, "I will do my best. I will send you back into the space first."
With a thought, she returned Li Li to the mountain within her space.
In the next breath, she halted. Borrowing the force of the polar winds, she unfurled her Wind and Snow Domain. She had widened the distance precisely to deploy the domain. If she released it too directly, the enemy might not bite. His cultivation surpassed hers, and the chance he would evade was high.
If she missed, he would never give her a second opening. So she played the fleeing prey, drawing him on, then, under the cover of the gales, sealed the domain and let him rush in of his own accord.
His speed was not slow. In less than three breaths he closed in again, hammers raised. A bolt of black lightning hacked at Wei Yunxi's back. This time, it struck true. The bolt pierced through her body. The arriving hammer followed an instant later and smashed the figure to pieces.
The man's brows knit. He was certain he had shattered not Wei Yunxi, but an illusion. "Damn," he muttered, and turned to vanish. Yet in the next instant, gales laced with white snowflakes forced him back into view.
Wei Yunxi's Wind and Snow Domain had sealed completely, penning him inside.
Wei Yunxi herself did not notice that as the domain snapped shut, a tiny cyan mote clinging to a strand of wind slipped into the domain as well.
Confirming her foe was trapped, Wei Yunxi produced a short bamboo tube and drank its contents in one gulp. The clone she had used as bait had been smashed, and the backlash had wounded her. After caging her enemy, the first order of business was to heal. Warm wood-aspect spiritual power smoothed away the damage. Then she gripped the Seven Stars Soul-Shattering Staff and stepped before him.
The evil cultivator stared venomously at Wei Yunxi and laughed coldly. "Wei Yunxi, do you think your domain can hold me?"
Wei Yunxi arched a brow. "Who said this Zūnzhě wants to hold you. This Zūnzhě wants to kill you."
She brought the Seven Stars Soul-Shattering Staff down hard. A colossal shadow of the staff crashed with it, threaded through with razor-fine metal force. The attack power doubled. The wind and snow around the evil cultivator turned frenzied, and Mystic Frost Needles hid within the storm, stabbing his protective barrier without pause.
He hurled one Hunyuan Hammer to meet the descending staff and swung the other in a brutal arc to blast apart the raging wind and snow. He had no time to gloat. Darkness washed over his vision. His sea of consciousness had been struck.
That one stutter of an instant was enough. Wei Yunxi flickered, almost teleporting to his front. Her fist, sheathed in Mystic Thunder Violet Flame, slammed into his protective barrier. This time she used ten tenths of her strength. Against an evil cultivator, holding back did not exist. Every strike was full force. That was the lesson of ten years of war.
His barrier shattered with a crack. Right after came the snap of breaking bone. Zi Yan took the opening, darted into his body, and began burning both flesh and soul.
"Ahhh!"
Unable to hold on, he lost control of the Hunyuan Hammers and collapsed. Wisps of ashen smoke leaked from his body. He had not imagined he would lose.
Wei Yunxi pressed her palm over his crown the next instant. She intended to soul search him, to see whether any more high-tier evil cultivators had entered the polar winds.
"Wei Yunxi, you cannot stop the Evil God's return."
He grinned a twisted smile and detonated his soul.
Wei Yunxi blinked aside and, at the same time, swiftly withdrew her Wind and Snow Domain.
Without a soul and without protection, his body was shredded in an instant by the raging gale, ground to nothing.
"Hmph. You got off light."
Wei Yunxi tossed a pill into her mouth to make up for the expenditure of the battle. The evil cultivator's last words kept circling in her mind. "You cannot stop the Evil God's return." It was the most valuable piece of information she had gained in all her clashes with evil cultivators so far.
Following the tug of the red cord, Xun Kun arrived at Wei Yunxi's side. He sensed that the polar winds around them were even more violent and restless than before, as if they meant to grind everything to dust.
"Ran Xi, are you okay?"
"I am fine. A Divine Transformation evil cultivator ambushed me just now."