Beneath the cliff, clouds and mist churned violently. A blurry figure burst out from the fog, transforming into a beam of escaping light that shot straight into the sky.
"There's nothing down there… I've been tricked!" The voice was low, barely containing explosive rage.
The figure landed on the cliff top. His black robe flapped loudly in the wind, dust and debris spraying from under his feet. His spiritual pressure had not yet dissipated, causing the mountain rocks to tremble slightly.
The black-robed man stood still, his expression like still water, his face so dark it seemed as if ink might drip from it.
His gaze swept forward. Ahead, in the valley where the mist had not yet fully dispersed, among the scattered rocks, a figure stood silently.
The figure was lean and straight, like a sword or a pine.
Beside him, two corpses lay sprawled, their blood still wet, their bodies still giving off warmth.
The black-robed man's gaze sharpened. He looked around at the cliff walls, seeing sword marks crisscrossed and mottled.
"Seven Swords Splitting the Clouds…" he murmured, his voice carrying a hint of disbelief. "Junior Brother Liang used his ultimate technique, enough to sweep aside any Foundation Establishment cultivator, yet… he still died at this person's hands?"
"This person is completely unfamiliar, and I see no sect markings. Could he be a hidden Golden Core expert from some sect?"
In an instant, thoughts surged through the black-robed man's mind, but his expression gradually calmed.
He was not eager to fight an unfamiliar Golden Core cultivator.
So he spoke slowly, his voice still indifferent: "May I ask which sect you belong to, and why did you kill my junior brothers?"
Mu Yun did not move, his expression unchanged. He only said: "The two of them set up an ambush here. I was just passing by and was stopped for questioning. They struck first, and when they could not defeat me, I killed them."
The black-robed man stared at him for a moment, then suddenly noticed the wisp of blue smoke slowly drifting toward this spot, eventually swirling several zhang above Mu Yun's head.
That was the residual trace of the Soul-Tracking Incense.
His gaze turned abruptly cold, his voice lowering slowly.
"What a 'passerby'…"
The black-robed man spoke softly, but his eyes had already turned as cold as ice.
He slowly stepped forward half a pace, his voice low, each word sharp as a blade: "Half a month ago, a junior brother of mine fell in this place. The three of us tracked him here. The blue smoke led us, and sure enough, it settled above your head."
His gaze swept over Mu Yun's body, seeing the blue smoke lingering without dispersing. A cold smile curled at the corner of his lips. "Heh… all three died by your hand. Others might be overlooked, but you killed the one you should not have killed."
At this point, his tone turned as sharp as a cold knife cutting to the bone.
"Even if you are a Golden Core cultivator, I, Wei, will have to give my all to capture you."
Mu Yun's gaze sharpened. He thought to himself: So they have indeed come for the cultivator I killed earlier.
Before he could respond, the black-robed man had already silently extended his divine consciousness to probe Mu Yun.
"Huh… a mortal?!"
With a sweep of his divine consciousness, the black-robed man found that Mu Yun's body had no trace of spiritual energy flow—he seemed like an ordinary mortal who had not even begun cultivation.
But the next moment, his pupils contracted sharply! He suddenly realized that was impossible.
"Impossible!" His heart shook violently, his eyelids twitching.
"How could a mortal kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator in a single strike? The only explanation—this man's cultivation is not below mine!"
Before the thought had even settled, Senior Brother Wei hesitated no longer. He instantly activated his Golden Core power, condensing his vast divine consciousness into an invisible blade, stabbing straight at Mu Yun's brow!
—This was the Soul Slash Technique, designed to break through divine consciousness and annihilate the mind.
But—before the divine consciousness could reach Mu Yun, it suddenly halted, as if trapped in a swamp, unable to advance further.
"What is this…?" The black-robed man's gaze sharpened, his expression shifting.
He could clearly feel that needle-thin thread of divine consciousness had stopped an inch from Mu Yun's body, as if striking some invisible barrier that prevented it from going further.
"Without any spiritual energy fluctuation, my divine consciousness cannot penetrate… yet when I swept it just now, there was no obstruction. When did he silently set up this defense?"
The black-robed man's gaze darkened. He slowly withdrew his divine consciousness, the killing intent in his eyes growing thicker.
In the valley, Mu Yun's expression remained calm, his demeanor unchanged, but inside, waves of shock were surging.
This familiar sense of oppression—he had now experienced it for the third time in his life.
The first time was when he left Earth. The Genesis had traveled into the deep reaches of space and was pulled in by the gravity of a black hole. The instruments suddenly malfunctioned, strange white noise filled his ears, and all the ship's data went completely haywire.
At the time, he did not understand why. Now, looking back, it was clearly because that golden humanoid figure's divine consciousness had enveloped the ship, and he had been caught in the ripple.
The second time was in the Jubao Pavilion. When the Zeus Creative Neurological System was passively activated, a wisp of unknown divine consciousness clung to him like a shadow. Though it retreated very quickly, the icy, piercing sensation still made him shudder.
Now, this third time, though not as terrifying as the previous two, was equally real. That oppressive feeling of "being watched by consciousness" was all too familiar.
Mu Yun was not yet a true cultivator, nor had he even awakened his divine consciousness. But he possessed reason, experience, and logical judgment. At this moment, the moment the black-robed Golden Core cultivator's divine consciousness swept over his body, he analyzed the situation and, without hesitation, activated the Zeus Creative Neurological System.
Unexpectedly, the next moment, the system's feedback on blocking the divine consciousness attack arrived:
"Successfully blocked quantum information interference 1 time. Nuclear Arc Reactor energy consumption: 20%. Remaining energy reserve: 60%."
A barely perceptible flicker passed through Mu Yun's eyes.
Against this "invisible killing weapon"—divine consciousness—he was still nearly defenseless. Without the system's early warning and protection, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
He looked at the black-robed man, his expression cold, but in his heart, he had classified this man as an extremely high-priority threat, and listed divine consciousness attacks as a top-tier defensive risk.
The black-robed man spoke no further.
He simply looked at Mu Yun, the killing intent in his eyes already condensed into something almost tangible.
This man was unreadable. Since divine consciousness attacks were ineffective, then he would simply engage in direct combat!
The mountain wind rose, rattling the vines and leaves. The mist between the two seemed to be scattered by the growing spiritual pressure.
He moved.
His sleeves fluttered, and a dark gold artifact materialized in his palm—a whip about a foot long, its surface covered with roaming runes. At the tip of the whip, faint arcs of lightning flickered. When still, it lay like a coiled dragon; once activated, the explosive force of its thunder could shatter mountains and tear through forests.
A Golden Core cultivator's magical treasure: the "Judgment Whip"!
Without a word, the black-robed cultivator suddenly surged his spiritual energy. The whip shadow flickered, instantly weaving into a net as dozens of thunderbolts crackled toward Mu Yun!
Before the whip arrived, the air was filled with sharp, crackling sounds, like a thousand thunderbolts crashing down.
Mu Yun did not retreat.
His gaze fell on the interwoven whip net. Within two short breaths, he had analyzed the gaps in the whip's pattern using his vision and amplitude feedback algorithms.
"The main whip locks the soul, thunder splits seven ways, sealing the front, cutting off retreat, disorienting vision…"
He stepped lightly. His body did not use any energy techniques, but simply moved among the scattered rocks with astonishing speed, leaving afterimages in his wake, barely dodging every lightning strike.
"Oh?" The black-robed man raised an eyebrow.
"Not teleportation, not a spiritual technique—just pure physical movement!"
"What kind of method is this?"
Mu Yun did not answer.
His gaze was calm, as if facing not a Golden Core cultivator but a dangerous device with a complex mechanical structure. He was assessing, probing, and searching for the key nodes to counterattack.
Suddenly, he stopped walking. His right hand slowly rose and gripped the hilt of his blade.
The long blade still had no sheath. There was no trace of spiritual light on it, only an extremely subtle high-frequency amplitude arc quietly dancing along the edge.
The Superluminal Amplitude System was at work.
He took a deep breath, stepped slowly, and his body flickered in and out of sight like a bee's wings. Then, with a low shout:
"Bamboo-Cutting."
The blade flashed—faster than fast!
Senior Brother Wei's gaze sharpened. He swept his whip horizontally but was too slow to fully block, only managing to meet it at an angle.
Clang!
The magical artifact clashed with the blade. Sparks flew, and spiritual energy reverberated through the canyon.
Wei's arm trembled slightly. He stepped back three paces, his expression changing slightly.
"What kind of weapon is that? What kind of technique is that?"
"I have never seen anything like it!"
Mu Yun stood still, not answering. He knew that these exchanges were just probing.
With that strike, the Nuclear Arc Reactor's energy consumption was 5%. But the real fight was only just beginning.
Only now did Mu Yun truly realize how terrifying a Golden Core cultivator could be.
…
The mountain mist rose again. The wind over the cliff moaned.
Senior Brother Wei slowly raised his head. His divine consciousness and spiritual power moved in unison, his sleeves billowing. A bronze-colored ancient seal slowly materialized above his head.
Its inscriptions twisted, its aura dark and heavy.
"Since your blade can block my whip, then… try blocking this seal."
He murmured, pointed a finger, and the ancient seal rumbled as it pressed down toward Mu Yun.
The mountain forest trembled. Spiritual pressure descended once more, and the light of the sky seemed to dim by three parts.
At this moment, the true power of a Golden Core cultivator was finally revealed.
No more probing. No more holding back.
The killing had truly begun.
The ancient seal roared and trembled in the air. Its inscriptions emerged, and it fell like a mountain.
A weight comparable to a mountain instantly enveloped the entire canyon. The cliff and rock walls shook, leaves and sand danced wildly in the spiritual pressure, and the ground cracked inch by inch under the compression.
The black-robed man's expression was cold and stern, his robes flapping as he stood in the void.
The true pressure of a Golden Core cultivator, from this moment on, was fully unleashed.
"When the Judgment Seal falls, it seals the energy orifices. Beneath this seal, life and death are mine to decide," he murmured. His spiritual energy continuously poured into the seal, which expanded further, its inscriptions growing brighter and brighter, like burning stars.
Mu Yun looked up, his expression unmoved, but his gaze grew increasingly calm.
He could feel it. In this moment, space itself seemed to be collapsing. Spiritual energy was being compressed and drained away. Every particle of spiritual essence in the air collapsed inch by inch under the seal's might, as if trapped in some temporary domain.
"This is some kind of sealing magical treasure of a cultivator… If I am caught under it, I might not even have room to move."
Mu Yun's gaze sharpened. The next moment, the Zeus Creative Neurological System's feedback appeared:
"Dark matter collapse detected. The suppression zone will form a Zhang curvature field. Recommendation: Activate Quantum Defense System, use Energy Folding Barrier for short-term counteraction. Activate Superluminal Amplitude System for evasion."
He did not hesitate. He stepped lightly, raised his right arm slightly, and the Nuclear Arc Reactor within him pulsed like a flickering light.
In an instant, an almost invisible rippling distortion expanded within a zhang of his body.
Boom!!
The ancient seal crashed down, but just before it reached him, it suddenly halted, as if blocked by an invisible force, hovering a foot above his head.
The black-robed man's expression changed dramatically. "What technique have you used?!"
Mu Yun did not answer. He shifted his feet, sidestepping abruptly, his body pulling a trail of afterimages, like a fleeting beam of light, forcefully evading the core suppression zone.
Senior Brother Wei snorted coldly, changing his hand seals.
"Trap!"
The inscriptions on the ancient seal twisted, forming a wall of energy in the air that sealed off the surrounding space.
"Trying to escape? Not so easy."