Chapter 1008: Being Part of the Orthodox Path, We Don't Need to Talk About Jianghu Ethics

Although Lu Yang had no inkling of how to dispel the Poison of Lovelessness, he knew someone who certainly could.

Take, for instance, Perfected Master Zhuiyue, who possessed the rudimentary form of the Seven Emotions Dao Fruit.

During his last cycle of reincarnation, when he had returned to the sect to summon reinforcements, he had asked Perfected Master Zhuiyue if she could neutralize the poison, and she replied that while she was not well-versed in medicine, she could directly purge the poison using the regulatory power inherent in the rudimentary form of the Seven Emotions Dao Fruit.

With a sharp snap of her fingers, the domain of the rudimentary Seven Emotions Dao Fruit swept across the entire city, causing everyone to shudder in unison as their senses rushed back to them.

"Y-You people..." Lou Nan discovered that no matter what grand spatial shifting techniques he employed, he could not escape the confines of Kaihuang City.

This was hardly surprising; against the rudimentary Spatial Dao Fruit wielded by Daoist Master Hanhai, an enemy’s flight was the least of his concerns.

No matter how many escape methods a foe possessed, how could they ever outrun the rudimentary form of the Spatial Dao Fruit?

"We what?" Perfected Master Zhuiyue looked at Lou Nan with a ghost of a smile playing upon her lips.

Beholding her smile, Lou Nan felt as though his heart had been violently seized; a wave of panic magnified infinitely within him, plunging him into a sensation akin to a mortal falling into the deep ocean, corroded by pitch-black waters, with no footing to be found in any direction.

In a mere single encounter, Lou Nan had fallen into her snare, completely unaware of his own undoing.

"Dark Heaven-Cleaving Palm!"

Seeing no path of escape, Lou Nan had no choice but to stake everything on a desperate struggle; two massive, pitch-black palms tore through the sky, as ancient roars echoed from between the clouds.

The entire city grew restless and uneasy; even if they did not understand the combat methods of high-level cultivators, they could perceive the sheer lethality of this move.

Should this palm descend, the entirety of Kaihuang City would be reduced to nothingness!

"Mystic Yellow Finger."

Faced with this utterly terrifying palm, Daoist Master Hanhai merely extended a finger with absolute serenity, thrusting the digit, which was wreathed in the dual qi of the Mystic Yellow, toward the heavens; compared to the two massive, pitch-black palms, this finger was so small as to be practically invisible.

Yet the moment the finger clashed with the gargantuan palm, the massive hand seemed to strike the very barrier of the world, unable to press down even a fraction of an inch further, no matter what.

Lou Nan gritted his teeth, sweating profusely as he exerted his full strength, whereas Daoist Master Hanhai maintained his calm and unruffled demeanor, not finding this palm terrifying in the slightest.

Setting aside his status as a Half-Immortal, Daoist Master Hanhai was a top-tier powerhouse at the peak of the Tribulation Transmutation Stage; Lou Nan was merely at the early Tribulation Transmutation Stage, so how could he possibly contend against him?

"Intent of Absolute Cold."

The power of moonlight condensed into snowflakes that poured down upon the mortal realm, carrying an ultimate frigidity as they landed on the massive, pitch-black palm; wherever each snowflake touched, ice formed instantly, and even Lou Nan, who was currently casting the spell, felt that profound cold indirectly through his magic.

In a mere instant, the massive, pitch-black palm was frozen into a block of ice; Daoist Master Hanhai exerted a modicum of force with his finger, and with a sharp crack, a fissure rent the center of the palm and rapidly spread across the entire colossal hand.

Crash—

The hand, frozen into solid ice, shattered and fell away, as a spatial vortex manifested below, allowing Daoist Master Hanhai to shift the entirety of the debris to the Eastern Sea.

Even leaving the rudimentary Seven Emotions Dao Fruit aside, Perfected Master Zhuiyue could well be called an established figure of the Tribulation Transmutation Stage.

Lou Nan was panting heavily from exhaustion, never expecting that this move would fail to hinder the duo in the slightest, and furthermore, due to the collapse of the technique, even he, the caster, suffered a severe backlash.

"Did I give you time to catch your breath?"

Daoist Master Hanhai stood with his hands behind his back, speaking in a flat tone as he lightly traced a line toward Lou Nan from half a city away.

Lou Nan’s hairs stood on end as he sensed an impending crisis, yet he knew not from whence the attack would strike.

"Must dodge!"

Lou Nan hurriedly threw himself aside, only to see a horizontal line manifest across his waist; the lower half of his body refused to obey his commands, remaining rooted to the spot.

"Spatial techniques!"

Lou Nan finally understood what Daoist Master Hanhai had done; this was the method of spatial severing, cutting him in half at the waist!

"Shifting Stars and Changing Positions!"

Lou Nan roared, burning his essence blood to execute the technique of Shifting Stars and Changing Positions to transfer his injuries; disregarding the loss of his essence blood, he sought to force his upper and lower halves back together!

"Wrath," Perfected Master Zhuiyue commanded Lou Nan, and the newly restored Lou Nan became consumed by uncontrollable rage, charging toward Daoist Master Hanhai like a maddened bull.

The Five Elements spells manifested within Lou Nan’s palm, with a different elemental technique resting upon each finger; no other cultivator at the early Tribulation Transmutation Stage would dare to blindly withstand this move.

"Haha, now this is getting interesting," Daoist Master Hanhai laughed uproariously; Lou Nan had been dodging and weaving distractedly until now, searching by any means for a loophole to escape.

How could that possibly allow him to fight to his heart's content?

"Blood Sacrifice Heavenly Fist!"

Lou Nan’s originally pale hair actually reverted to black, strand by strand, showing a grand momentum of reversing aging to return to his peak; faint threads of blood wreathed his form, and his fists flushed crimson with blood, resembling a villain drenched in gore.

"Dragon-Subduing Wood."

Just as Lou Nan’s fist was about to make contact with Daoist Master Hanhai, a section of timber abruptly shot forth from directly beneath Lou Nan, striking his chin and knocking out several of his teeth.

Subsequently, more and more pieces of Dragon-Subduing Wood materialized out of thin air, batting Lou Nan back and forth like a ball, striking him so relentlessly that he had no opportunity to even execute a technique.

This was the Dragon-Subduing Wood nurtured by Daoist Master Hanhai, incredibly solid and typically stored within an alternate dimension, summoned directly whenever needed; those unfamiliar with spatial fluctuations could not even perceive how the wood was being called forth.

"I have had enough!" Lou Nan roared in fury, erupting with an utterly terrifying aura that blasted the pieces of Dragon-Subduing Wood away.

"If you have the ability, let us fight fair and square with real weapons!" Having been infused with emotions, Lou Nan had become exceedingly irascible, even forgetting the vast disparity between himself and Daoist Master Hanhai.

"Avatar of a Hundred Ghosts and All Living Myriads!"

Lou Nan manifested his unique, self-created avatar; the avatar stood a thousand Zhang tall, shrouded in resentment, blotting out the very sunlight.

This was an avatar composed of tens of thousands of fierce ghosts; if even a single one of these ghosts escaped into the mortal world, it would cause immense devastation to villages and cities alike.

"Is that all?"

Daoist Master Hanhai clenched his hands and twisted them as though wringing a towel; the space surrounding Lou Nan, who was hidden within the avatar, distorted as if turning into two hands squeezing his body, twisting his form into a pretzel.

Losing the control of its master, the avatar composed of tens of thousands of fierce ghosts collapsed with a roar, and the ghosts scattered in flight.

"Frost Descent," Perfected Master Zhuiyue said softly, blowing out a breath of frigid air that was bone-chilling enough to freeze even departed souls.

Though the tens of thousands of fierce ghosts possessed vast supernatural powers, they were no different from ordinary departed souls before Perfected Master Zhuiyue; the moment they encountered her Frost Descent cold air, they were instantly frozen into icy lumps, though they still maintained their clawing and fangs-baring postures.

"Settled," Daoist Master Hanhai concluded the battle by utilizing a spatial cage.

The spatial cage was invisible and intangible; it appeared as though there was nothing around Lou Nan, yet the moment he attempted to flee in any direction, no matter how far he ran, he would be teleported right back to his starting point.

Seeing Daoist Master Hanhai and Perfected Master Zhuiyue descend upon the Kaihuang Temple, Lu Yang and his companion hurriedly went forward to greet them.

"Grandmaster, you have been through much hardship; Perfected Master, you have been through much hardship."

"What hardship? In the future, remember to call me whenever such matters arise; I am at your beck and call." Daoist Master Hanhai appeared exceedingly pleased; it was a rare occasion for him to have the opportunity to display his prowess before the eyes of the world.

Lu Yang breathed a sigh of relief; he had worried that summoning two Half-Immortal powerhouses just to deal with a mere early Tribulation Transmutation Stage cultivator would make his Grandmaster feel that he was making a mountain out of a molehill.

As if seeing through Lu Yang's anxiety, Daoist Master Hanhai consoled him, saying, "For our Righteous Path to deal with the Demonic Path, bullying the weak with our superior numbers and overwhelming them with strength is exactly as it should be."