Chapter 89: With Just This Trash?

Chapter 89: Chapter 89: With Just This Trash?

BAM! BAM!

Two explosions rang out almost simultaneously as Chen Yue’s palms, like a pair of heavy hammers, brutally slapped aside the two ethereal blue longswords.

The chilling Sword Qi and Inner Strength coating the blades rapidly melted and dissipated the instant they touched his Gang Qi.

"Pfft!"

Yin Mo Li grunted in pain as if he’d been struck by a massive blow, his face instantly draining of color.

A violent rebounding force slammed into his arms. The webbing between his thumbs and forefingers tore apart, dripping with blood, and the bones in his arms went numb, losing all feeling in an instant.

The two longswords, connected to his very Heart Spirit, were sent flying upward by the immense force.

Boundless horror filled Yin Mo Li’s heart. ’I unleashed my ultimate technique, even damaging my Primordial Qi to activate a Secret Technique, yet I was defeated so completely, so helplessly!’

’Is the gap between our strengths really this vast?’

Yin Mo Li desperately squeezed out the last dregs of Inner Strength from his Dantian, trying to retreat faster and farther.

However, after slapping the swords away, Chen Yue’s forward momentum didn’t slow in the slightest; if anything, he grew even faster.

In the fatal opening created when Yin Mo Li’s body faltered from the Inner Strength backlash, Chen Yue closed the distance, bringing them face to face.

The right palm that had just sent the longswords flying grew larger and larger in Yin Mo Li’s terror-widened pupils, eventually filling his entire field of vision.

The stench of death washed over him like a splash of ice water, freezing all his thoughts and any lingering hope. Survival instinct overrode everything else, and a hoarse cry tore from his throat:

"Save me!"

Chen Yue’s eyelids twitched, and a sharp glint flashed in the depths of his pupils.

In his perception, the very instant Yin Mo Li screamed for help, a surge of frigid Ghost Qi erupted.

Within the world of perception granted by the full activation of his Heart Nourishing Technique, a black shadow appeared directly above Chen Yue’s head as if it had teleported, without any warning whatsoever.

Immediately after, a foul gust of wind, reeking of a nauseating mix of burnt char and blood, pressed down from above.

It was the decrepit Pill Furnace!

The Alchemy Ghost, moving at an unbelievable speed and angle, gripped the heavy, half-man-sized Pill Furnace with both hands. It swung the furnace like a small mountain, bringing it crashing down toward Chen Yue’s head with unstoppable momentum.

Before the Pill Furnace even arrived, the terrifying pressure it exuded seemed to solidify the very air around Chen Yue.

Moreover, a chilling, corrosive power that pierced straight to the Divine Soul spread out with the furnace’s descent, attempting to freeze his Qi Blood and reflexes.

Chen Yue’s eyes narrowed slightly. ’I previously saw the Alchemy Ghost commanding Yin Mo Li and Xu Zhang and just assumed it was the cult using a Secret Technique to control a Ghostly Object, with Yin Mo Li and the others acting as its guards.’

’Now it seems I was completely wrong!’

The Alchemy Ghost’s speed alone, with its Body Technique that concealed it within the black mist, was enough to make any Marrow Refining Realm Martial Artist’s scalp tingle with fear, to say nothing of the pure power contained in the descending Pill Furnace.

’Yin Mo Li and Xu Zhang weren’t guards at all! They were clearly the Alchemy Ghost’s underlings, responsible for searching out and capturing Alchemy Masters for it.’

In the distance, Shen Dujiang—who was working with Hu Shaoyu to barely fend off the attacks of the Half-Headed Ghost and the Headless Ghost—caught a glimpse of this horrifying scene out of the corner of his eye, and his heart clenched.

He had seen Chen Yue suppressing Yin Mo Li and thought they might be able to escape with their lives today.

He never would have imagined that this seemingly frenzied and greedy Alchemy Ghost could be so terrifyingly powerful! If he were the one facing this thunderous strike, he wouldn’t even have time to react, let alone block it!

In that split second, Chen Yue’s gaze turned incomparably sharp.

"ROAR!"

A terrifying, soul-shaking tiger’s roar erupted from Chen Yue’s position without any warning.

Tiger’s Roar Shatters the God!

This was the first time Chen Yue had unreservedly activated the technique since raising his Tiger Roar Golden Bell Shield to such a high level.

The Gang Qi around his body circulated at an unprecedented speed. His bones crackled like rolling thunder beneath his skin, and his Qi Blood surged like a great river bursting its banks.

Neither his previous encounter with Chen Xuanli nor his fight with Yin Mo Li had forced him to use his full strength, but the Alchemy Ghost’s sneak attack made him feel a genuine threat.

The reason he hadn’t used Tiger’s Roar Shatters the God until now was not only because it consumed a massive amount of Heart Spirit, but also because he was wary of the unknown Ghostly Objects lurking within Youlin County. He feared that this sonic attack, which directly targeted the mind, would attract even more troublesome entities.

But right now, he couldn’t afford to worry about that!

The tiger’s roar swept out in all directions like an invisible tidal wave.

The first to bear the brunt of it was Yin Mo Li, who was right in front of him.

His Heart Spirit was already suppressed by Chen Yue’s aura, he was suffering from an Inner Strength backlash, and he was on the verge of death and despair. Under the impact of the soul-shaking roar, his mind went BOOM, as if ten thousand bolts of lightning had detonated at once, and his consciousness instantly went blank.

All that remained was a pair of pupils, wide with terror, staring blankly at Chen Yue’s descending palm.

Above him, the Alchemy Ghost, who was bringing the Pill Furnace crashing down, was struck head-on by the sudden roar. Its body trembled violently as it let out a sharp, piercing shriek.

The bluish-black Ghost Qi coiling around it roiled violently, and its shriveled, distorted face even blurred and contorted for a moment, as if in extreme agony.

It didn’t completely lose its senses like Yin Mo Li, but the momentum of its descending Pill Furnace and the condensed Ghost Power clearly faltered, the force diminishing by at least thirty percent out of thin air.

The frigid, corrosive power that pierced the Divine Soul was also mostly scattered by the roar.

At the same instant the roar sounded, Chen Yue’s movements didn’t pause in the slightest. In fact, they became even faster thanks to the extreme activation of his Heart Nourishing Technique.

His right palm, striking toward Yin Mo Li, did not change its course. It even accelerated due to the extreme circulation of his Qi Blood, taking advantage of the fatal opening while Yin Mo Li was stunned by the roar to land squarely on his face.

"SPLAT!"

With a dull cracking sound, Yin Mo Li’s facial bones instantly caved in. His features twisted into a blurry mess of flesh and blood as the Power pierced through his skull and instantly turned his brain to mush.

The last spark of life in the eyes of this Marrow Refining Realm expert from the Divine Flame Cult was extinguished. His body, as if boneless, collapsed backward, all signs of life gone.

At the same time, Chen Yue had already raised his left palm to the sky.

His five fingers spread wide as Gang Qi frantically condensed and spun in his palm. With a majestic aura that seemed capable of propping up the heavens and shaking the earth, he met the descending, decrepit Pill Furnace.

"DOOOM!!!"

A terrifying boom, like two small mountains colliding, suddenly erupted.

A visible shockwave blasted out from the point of contact between Chen Yue’s left palm and the Pill Furnace, kicking up all the dust and rubble from the ground and sending it flying in all directions.

Moss peeled off the walls on either side, and fine cracks appeared on the surface of the bricks.

Chen Yue felt a massive, corrosive force travel up from his left palm. The muscles in his arms bulged instantly, and his legs bent involuntarily, his feet sinking more than half an inch into the hard ground before he finally managed to disperse the violent downward force.

His left palm felt sore and numb, and his Protective Gang Qi fluctuated violently, but he had ultimately caught the blow—a strike that would have smashed an ordinary Bone Forging Realm cultivator into a meat paste.

The Pill Furnace was knocked back, rebounding about a foot into the air. Bluish-black smoke spewed madly from its mouth, carrying a pungent, burnt stench.

"Hmm?"

Its attack having failed, the Alchemy Ghost used the rebound force to float lightly back several yards. It tilted its shriveled head, staring at Chen Yue with utter amazement, as if looking at something incredibly rare.

Its raspy, bizarre voice sounded again:

"Are you really an Alchemy Master? Strange, how strange! I’ve never seen an Alchemy Master with your level of Martial Arts! And that tiger’s roar just now, what was that?"

Chen Yue slowly straightened up, meeting the Alchemy Ghost’s gaze calmly. He didn’t answer its questions, but instead voiced his own doubt:

"With your strength, how could the Divine Flame Cult’s forces in Youlin County possibly control you?"

"Control?"

Hearing this, the Alchemy Ghost was first taken aback, then it split its crooked mouth into a hair-raising, grotesque grin.

"Hahaha..."

The Alchemy Ghost extended a withered, pitch-black finger and pointed at Yin Mo Li’s still-warm corpse on the ground, its tone filled with disdain and a kind of twisted honesty:

"Who said they control me? With these few pieces of trash?"

The avarice in its eerie green eyes flared up again as it locked onto Chen Yue, its voice laced with a bizarre excitement:

"I stay with the Divine Flame Cult simply because I love Alchemy! I love watching medicinal ingredients transform in the furnace fire, I love smelling the aroma of a newly refined Elixir... and of course, I love even more..."

The Alchemy Ghost extended its scarlet tongue, licked the mucus at the corner of its mouth, and stared intently at Chen Yue:

"...eating you Alchemy Masters! Your flesh and blood have the taste of elixirs. It’s the most delicious nourishment in this world!"

Hearing this, Chen Yue frowned slightly. He didn’t know if the Alchemy Ghost’s words were true or false, but it no longer mattered.

The Alchemy Ghost tilted its head, looking at Chen Yue as if admiring an extremely precious medicinal ingredient:

"You, little one, must be absolutely delicious!"

Before its voice had even faded, the bluish-black Ghost Qi around the Alchemy Ghost surged once more. Its withered arms again lifted the heavy, decrepit Pill Furnace high overhead, and with all its might, it brought it smashing down on Chen Yue again.

A foul wind howled, chilling to the bone. Before the Pill Furnace arrived, the pure, ultimate sense of weight it carried had already caused the ground beneath Chen Yue’s feet to crack again.

Chen Yue’s gaze was serene as he watched the Alchemy Ghost’s movements intently.

’After that direct clash,’ Chen Yue had keenly observed a crucial point, ’this Alchemy Ghost’s speed is unpredictable and its strength is astonishing, but its attack methods are far too crude.’

’This Pill Furnace strike has no variation in its moves, no application of Power, no interplay of feints and real attacks. Simply put, it doesn’t understand Martial Arts at all. It just smashes things with its innate Ghost Power.’

’If any other Marrow Refining Realm Martial Artist encountered this, they would probably find it truly difficult to parry this fast, heavy, brute-force smash that’s also imbued with corrosive Yin Qi.’

’But I’m different. My own strength, refined by multiple Cultivation Techniques, has also reached an unbelievable level. The one thing I don’t fear is a head-on collision.’

Watching the Pill Furnace descend with unstoppable momentum, Chen Yue rooted his feet, twisted his waist slightly, and abruptly condensed and spun the Gang Qi in his right palm, striking diagonally at the side of the falling furnace.

Great Vajra Palm, Mountain Shifting Technique!

"BANG!"

A muffled thud!

Chen Yue’s right palm didn’t meet the full frontal force of the Pill Furnace. Instead, he cleverly combined a horizontal Soft Force with his own immense power to forcibly deflect the furnace’s downward trajectory to the side.