Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 496 Repelling the Golden Core
Thinking of this, Murong Hai's eyes flashed with intense killing intent, and he no longer held back, continuously channeling his spiritual power into the golden sword.

He originally didn't want to expend too much of his magical treasure's power, because there would definitely be a big battle later.

The main force of the Beast Taming Sect hasn't even entered the formation yet, so he needs to conserve the power stored in his magic treasures to fight against the Golden Core cultivators of the Beast Taming Sect.

Although magical treasures and magical artifacts are fundamentally different, they have one thing in common: both need to store spiritual energy.

Once the spiritual energy stored inside is exhausted, it needs to be replenished in order to unleash its power.

The golden sword in his hand was a low-grade magic weapon, which could only store a limited amount of spiritual energy. However, if it was used up, it would take at least ten days to replenish it, even in a third-level cultivation room.

In other words, the spiritual energy within the magical artifact diminishes with each use and cannot be replenished in a short period of time.

But now, he doesn't care about any of that; all he wants is to get revenge.

As spiritual energy continuously flowed into the golden sword, its light grew brighter and brighter, and powerful sword energy soared into the sky.

On the other side, Zhao Botao, who had fled to a distance, stopped and watched the battle between Song Xian and Murong Hai. Seeing that Song Xian's Taiyin Netherfire had melted the huge golden sword phantom, his mouth opened slightly involuntarily, and his face showed an expression of disbelief.

However, the next moment, seeing the sword in Murong Hai's hand gleaming into the sky, he steadied himself, took a deep look at the place where the two sides were fighting, and then fled the formation without looking back.

"Disciples, heed my command! Engage the enemy!" Song Xian shouted, and Lin Zixiang, Hu Xiaobao, and others around him immediately attacked, each using their own techniques to strike at the powerful golden sword energy that soared into the sky.

Golden light enveloped the heavens and earth like a vast ocean, and the phantom sword seemed like a pillar supporting the sky. When it slashed down, the space trembled visibly wherever it passed.

Under Song Xianzhen's keen observation, Murong Hai's attack consumed 2,500 points of spiritual power, and the sword energy attack power reached 25,000 points.

Is this the limit of a first-level magic weapon?
So this is what a Golden Core cultivator is all about!
Song Xian's face was expressionless, but his eyes seemed to radiate a fierce light, and he was filled with confidence.

He had never fought against a Golden Core cultivator since he began cultivating. The only time was when he attacked the Fang family's mountain gate and encountered Xu Zhuoxuan's attack. He had no choice but to fight back, but that time he only touched the surface and Xu Zhuoxuan did not use his full strength. Therefore, he did not know exactly how strong a Golden Core cultivator could be.

Although he possessed the Eye of True Observation, which allowed him to directly observe the attack power of various spells and the various data of cultivators, he had never been involved in the battles between Golden Core cultivators, nor had he ever personally witnessed the battles between Golden Core cultivators.

Therefore, he lacked sufficient understanding of the true strength of a Golden Core cultivator.

He could only make a rough judgment based on surface data, such as assessing the person's combat strength by examining their spiritual power and divine sense.

However, these are merely appearances; the combat power that can be converted from spiritual energy and divine consciousness is unknown.

Taking himself as an example, if we only look at spiritual power, he is no different from any other Foundation Establishment Level 10 cultivator. However, the power of the spells he can convert from his spiritual power is incomparable to that of ordinary Foundation Establishment Level 10 cultivators.

The same applies to cultivators at the Golden Core stage. If we only consider spiritual power, the spiritual power of an ordinary first-level Golden Core cultivator is about six times that of a cultivator at the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment.

In other words, the strength of six Foundation Establishment Great Perfection cultivators is basically on par with that of a Golden Core First Stage cultivator.

But this is not actually the case; the difference in strength between the two is far greater than the surface data suggests.

Golden Core cultivators can practice third-tier techniques, the power of which far surpasses that of second-tier cultivators.

Take the Golden Light Palm Print, a third-tier low-grade technique used by Murong Hai, as an example. It only used 250 points of spiritual power, but its power reached 3750 points. This is of course also due to his main cultivation of metal-type techniques, which enhanced the power of metal-type techniques. But then again, who doesn't have a high-level technique to cultivate at this level?

An ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, when using a second-tier high-grade spell, consumes 100 points of spiritual power and only gains 500 points of attack power.

The difference in the conversion rate of spiritual energy between the two is obvious.

Not to mention that Golden Core cultivators can also use magic weapons, which allows them to maximize the advantages of their spiritual power.

Although Song Xian himself could not use magical artifacts, he had a considerable amount of knowledge about them from books.

Like ritual implements, magical treasures are also divided into low-grade, medium-grade, high-grade, and top-grade.

Magical artifacts are classified by the number of layers of restrictions, while magical treasures are classified by the depth of space they contain.

The first to third layers of space are classified as low-grade magic treasures, the fourth to sixth layers as mid-grade magic treasures, the seventh to ninth layers as high-grade magic treasures, and the tenth to twelfth layers as top-grade magic treasures.

The higher the level of a magic weapon, the more spiritual power it can store, the more powerful attacks it can unleash, and the higher the intensity of spiritual power conversion.

Furthermore, some magical artifacts also possess elemental power. For example, some magical artifacts can unleash lightning-attribute attacks. In this way, cultivators who do not possess lightning-attribute spiritual roots can also use magical artifacts to cast lightning-attribute spells.

The golden sword in Murong Hai's hand was a first-level magic weapon, which Song Xian had already seen through when he used the sword to attack.

Seeing that Murong Hai, in his anger and embarrassment, had used a magic weapon with an attack power of only 25,000, he was immediately filled with confidence.

This was undoubtedly Murong Hai's trump card, and judging from the undisguised change in his expression, he was truly enraged.

This is understandable. After all, it happened in front of everyone, in front of all the cultivators of the Murong family. If he, a Golden Core cultivator, were to be suppressed by a Foundation Establishment cultivator, what face would he have left?

At this point, if there were even stronger measures available, they would certainly use them without hesitation.

Therefore, it can be basically concluded that this should be the strongest attack of its magic weapon.

Considering that Murong Hai has already used magic weapons to attack twice, we can draw the following conclusion.

The maximum power of a first-level magic weapon is 50,000 attack points, because the total attack power of its previous two magic weapons was 25,000, and with this attack, it is exactly 50,000.

.........

With a deafening roar, the golden sword light soared into the sky and struck the eerie green fireball.

The golden, boundless sword energy and the eerie green sea of ​​fire were like two distinct worlds, merging together and constantly emitting crackling sounds.

Originally, the situation was evenly matched, but with the help of George Lam, Hu Xiaobao, and a group of Hunyuan Sect disciples, the golden sword light gradually showed signs of losing ground.

Because Murong Hai bypassed the fighting forces ahead and headed straight for Song Xian, there were no Murong family cultivators around him who could provide timely assistance.

In addition, the number of Murong family cultivators dispatched was not large, as they were currently engaged in a fierce battle with the Hunyuan Sect disciples and were therefore unable to lend a hand.

This was mainly because Murong Hai was too arrogant, believing that with his title and strength as a Golden Core cultivator, dealing with a group of Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators would be a piece of cake.

Those Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining enemy cultivators would flee at the mere sight of them, so they only symbolically led a thousand cultivators into battle. Because they were launching a counterattack against the three enemy forces that had entered the formation simultaneously, they also sent troops to lead attacks from the south and west. Of the four Golden Core cultivators from the Murong family, apart from the family head Murong Teng, the other three each led a team to counterattack the enemy forces that had entered the formation, so each team did not have many people.

In fact, if Song Xian hadn't stepped forward at the crucial moment to lead the Hunyuan Sect disciples in the fight, the outcome would have been exactly as Murong Hai had predicted: the entire team would have collapsed at the first touch.

No one else dared to confront a Golden Core cultivator head-on. As the leader of the group, Zhao Botao immediately fled upon seeing him, and the disciples of the Beast Taming Sect scattered and fled in all directions.

Even Song Xian didn't initially intend to put up a stubborn resistance. After all, this was working for the Beast Taming Sect, not his own business. Even Zhao Botao, the backbone of the team, chose to flee, so why should he resist?

The blame lies with Murong Hai for targeting him from the very beginning, forcing him to confront him head-on.

If he had chosen to flee at that time, he would have been left to fight alone.

Given his cultivation level and speed, it was impossible for him to escape Murong Hai's grasp. In a one-on-one fight, he had no chance of winning, so he had no choice but to go all out and command his troops to fight back.

It was also because he usually held great prestige in the sect that the disciples of Hunyuan Sect did not flee in the face of a Golden Core cultivator.

……

As time went by, under the combined attack of everyone, the golden sword light gradually disintegrated, and Murong Hai's face became increasingly pale, as if it had turned into a liver color.

With a loud shout, a golden palm print materialized and slammed towards the crowd.

Seeing that he no longer used the golden sword, Song Xian was completely relieved. Although the power of this third-grade low-level spell was not weak, it was still far inferior to the attack of a magic weapon.

Faced with an attack from a magic weapon with tens of thousands of points of power, he had to use the Taiyin Netherfire to resist it, but he could easily deal with this palm print attack with only 3750 points of power.

Seeing that the other party had put away the magic weapon, he immediately withdrew his Taiyin Netherfire.

Due to the previous confrontation, the Yin Fire was extremely weak at this moment, its flames flickering like a candle in the wind.

In his keen observation, the Taiyin Netherfire now had less than three thousand points of power, and the huge sphere that was originally a hundred feet in size was now only ten feet in size.

The Taiyin Netherfire is not only his trump card, but also a fusion of three different flames. Once lost, it is equivalent to losing the three different flames, which will greatly reduce the power of his fire-attribute spells.

After returning to his body, he can restore the Taiyin Netherfire to its original state by cultivating the Xuan Tian Fu Huo Jue.

Of course, this will take some time.

Based on past experience, it will take at least one or two months to recover the depletion of the Yin Fire.

In other words, he will not be able to use this fire against the enemy for a short period of time.

……

The golden palm prints gradually materialized and attacked Song Xian.

The two sides' techniques clashed and intertwined continuously. Even without the help of magic treasures, a Golden Core cultivator is still a Golden Core cultivator, and his strength is far superior to Song Xian's. The spiritual power they possess is not on the same level.

Fortunately, Song Xian was not fighting alone; he had a group of Hunyuan Sect disciples by his side to help him.

The sounds of collisions were incessant. Murong Hai unleashed more than a dozen golden palm prints, all of which were neutralized by Song Xian. Instead, he himself was forced to retreat considerably by the attacks of the Hunyuan Sect cultivators.

Just as the two sides were fiercely fighting, a piercing gong suddenly sounded from the direction of the Murong family's mountain gate, followed by a series of dazzling golden beams shooting into the sky.

Upon hearing this sound, the Murong family cultivators almost simultaneously retreated like a tidal wave.

Murong Hai's face turned a deep purplish-red, and his eyes were terrifyingly fierce. If looks could kill, Song Xian would surely have been torn to pieces.

To think that he, a dignified Golden Core cultivator, was forced to retreat repeatedly by a Foundation Establishment cultivator, would mean the loss of his lifelong reputation if he didn't kill this person.

However, given the current situation, killing this person and washing away the shame would be far from easy for him.

The piercing sound of the gong was a pre-arranged signal to retreat. Even if he didn't want to retreat, the Murong family cultivators had already obeyed the order to withdraw and returned to their mountain gate.

Leaving him alone would be impossible for him to deal with so many enemy cultivators.

Moreover, Murong Teng, who stayed at the mountain gate to oversee the overall situation, must have had his reasons for issuing the signal to withdraw his troops. Perhaps the main force of the Beast Taming Sect had already broken into the formation.

If he doesn't retreat in time, he'll be in big trouble if he runs into the Golden Core cultivators sent by the Beast Taming Sect.

After a struggle with his thoughts, Murong Hai gave Song Xian a final, hateful look, then flashed away and headed towards the mountain gate.

As soon as the Murong family cultivators retreated, strange noises emanated from the colorful auspicious clouds above their heads, followed by bolts of enormous lightning that instantly engulfed the area.

Due to the previous chaotic battle, many Hunyuan Sect disciples had broken away from the ranks. Faced with the powerful attacks of the formation and restrictions, without the unified command of the team, they were completely unable to resist on their own, and screams of agony rang out one after another.

Many Hunyuan Sect disciples were instantly torn apart by the lightning attack, turning into charred corpses.

While Song Xian used his magic to fight against the array's restrictions, he also ordered his troops to deploy a counterattack.

When the array restrictions ended, the surrounding area was littered with corpses. Some had died from the array restrictions, while others had died in the battle with the Murong family cultivators. Of course, there were also quite a few Murong family cultivators among them.

Song Xian didn't have time to carefully count the casualties of his disciples before immediately ordering the troops to retreat. Although the Murong family cultivators had already retreated back into the mountain gate, the array restrictions were still in place. Even Zhao Botao had escaped the array, so why should he continue to push forward?

If Murong Hai hadn't kept pestering him, he would have already ordered a retreat.

.........

Outside the great formation, on the third-tier spirit ship surrounded by stars, a beam of light shot out and revealed the figure of a man. It was none other than Zhao Botao, who had escaped the great formation. At this moment, he looked somewhat nervous, and his eyes could not hide his unease.

He withdrew from the formation without orders, and he didn't know if the sect would hold him accountable, especially since the cultivators of the Hunyuan Sect were still resisting inside, which made him seem even more cowardly.

But when he was led to the bow of the ship, his anxiety instantly subsided, and he breathed a sigh of relief, because there he saw the Foundation Establishment cultivators who were in charge of attacking the Beast Taming Sect's team on the west side of the great formation.

Since everyone has chosen to withdraw from the formation, it's no longer just his problem. As the saying goes, the law doesn't punish everyone; in this situation, the sect can't hold all of them accountable.

(End of this chapter)