Chapter 100: A Perilous Encounter in the Cavern

Deep within the cavern, candlelight flickered.

The leader of the black-clad men narrowed his eyes, his gaze, sharp as a hawk’s, locking onto Mu Wanqing in mid-air.

The magic school uniform, embroidered with the emblem of Starfall Academy, stood out prominently on the young woman.

The magical fluctuations emanating from her were pitifully nascent, clearly betraying her as a mere academy student.

‘Hmph…’ The black-clad man sneered, his rough hand resting on the curved blade at his waist, evidently poised to unleash a fatal strike at any moment.

‘A mere magic apprentice dares to trail us to such a place?’

He squinted, his gaze sweeping back and forth over the flying sword beneath Mu Wanqing’s feet.

The longsword, shimmering with an ethereal glow, was clearly no ordinary artifact; the energy circulating within its blade exuded an inexplicable aura, much like the two skeletons resting deeper within the cavern.

‘Boss, this girl definitely has accomplices! How could those bookworms from the magic academy possibly wield a flying sword meant for Eastern cultivators?’ his companion muttered, lowering his voice.

The leader of the black-clad men nodded, his face grim.

He had once encountered similar magical artifacts in the black market, rumored to have been crafted from fragments of an ancient sword-wielding technique originating from an antique ruin, a skill long since lost to time.

The flying sword before them, perfectly preserved, clearly should not have belonged to this trembling young girl.

Mu Wanqing, after all, was merely an apprentice mage still immersed in her studies, inherently lacking practical combat experience.

Though she and Su Liyue were usually hailed as the academy’s twin prodigies, she had never before confronted such a terrifying situation.

Moreover, the uncanny atmosphere pervading the cavern had already unsettled her, and the three adult powerhouses from the Xuanhuang Divine Realm Empire before her were inherently formidable and vicious-looking.

The oppressive aura they exuded was even comparable to that of an academy instructor, far beyond what an ordinary student like her could contend with.

Terrified, her legs instinctively weakened, and she nearly toppled from Qizai’s sword. Fortunately, Qizai stabilized her just in time.

At present, they numbered only three.

While Ye Xingchen’s concealment magic had cloaked their movements undetected thus far, a direct confrontation with these three formidable aura-wielding experts would be akin to striking a rock with an egg.

Mu Wanqing bit down on her lip, regretting her earlier panic. She didn’t blame Ye Xingchen and Su Liyue for leading her into danger; rather, she resented her own cowardice for jeopardizing their plans.

If they were to expose themselves to rescue her, it would likely only plunge them into an even more perilous predicament.

‘Qizai… quickly, put me down… you and Yueyue, hurry and run…’ Mu Wanqing’s voice trembled with fear. She could even envision the horrific scene of her best friend rushing to save her, only to be torn apart by a surge of aura.

‘Huh? Run away?’ Qizai tilted her head, her glass-like eyes brimming with confusion.

‘Don’t be so nervous~’ she chirped, deliberately twirling Mu Wanqing around as the sword body gracefully ascended.

To the black-clad men, however, this action became a blatant provocation.

Though they could not perceive Qizai, the sword spirit, their eyes beheld a young girl in an academy robe, brazenly turning her back on them, apparently intending to escape by controlling the flying sword beneath her feet.

This was, quite simply, the greatest insult to all three of them!

‘You court death!’

The man with the tattooed face roared like thunder, the sonic wave shaking loose gravel from the cavern walls.

The crescent scimitar in his hand suddenly vibrated violently, and the ancient runes etched onto its blade illuminated sequentially with a crimson glow.

As his heavily muscled arm surged with power, aura, thick as blood plasma, erupted from his pores, coalescing on the blade into a crimson light-blade three zhang long.

Liquid flames incessantly dripped from the light-blade’s edge, searing the rocks beneath their feet with sizzling scorch marks.

To the left, the black robe of another black-clad man billowed without a breeze, revealing hands covered in venomous serpent tattoos.

His fingers, agile as butterflies flitting among flowers, formed seven layers of venomous seals.

With each completed hand seal, a layer of emerald mist appeared in the air.

As the final seal was perfected, all the poisonous mist abruptly contracted, condensing before his palm into a verdant handprint the size of a carriage.

Countless phantom vipers writhed within the palm lines, their venomous breaths corroding the air they passed through into distorted ripples.

To the right, the perpetually silent black-clad man suddenly let out a grotesque, owl-like cackle.

His gaunt, stick-like fingers brushed over the skull-adorned longsword hanging at his waist; the stark white skull embedded in the hilt abruptly opened its jaw, emitting a chilling ‘click-clack’ gnashing sound.

As dark aura surged into it, two spectral ghost fires ignited within the skull’s hollow eye sockets, and seven chains, forged from black smoke, shot forth from its teeth, weaving a deathly net that spanned half the cavern.

BOOM!!!

The instant the three attacks erupted simultaneously, the entire cavern seemed to be violently shaken by an invisible, colossal hand.

Where the crimson light-blade passed, the rock walls were gouged into three-zhang deep molten furrows.

The venomous wind stirred by the verdant palm print dissolved all stalactites in its path into putrid fluid, while the seven black smoke chains, arriving even faster, sealed off all possible angles of evasion as if imbued with life.

Mu Wanqing felt three distinct deathly auras instantly assailing her back: a scorching crimson capable of vaporizing blood, an intensely corrosive verdant green, and a pitch-black imbued with the wails of the undead.

These three colors of aura intertwined in the air, forming a vortex of destruction, now less than ten zhang from her back!

She closed her eyes in despair, knowing full well that with her current strength, she was utterly powerless to resist these terrifying combat techniques, which far surpassed her own cultivation realm.

How much less could Su Liyue and Ye Xingchen hope to? Even if Yueyue was her dearest friend, even if Ye Xingchen was a prodigious alchemist, in the face of such an absolute disparity in strength…

‘Yueyue… run… as long as you two can escape safely… that’s enough…’ she silently pleaded in her heart, tears silently tracing paths down her cheeks.