Senior sister, stop working and go home for dinner.

The dark figure was incredibly fast, rushing straight towards the three of them!

Despite the danger, Shen Zui remained calm, rapidly chanting incantations and thrusting his hands forward in a mudra!

"Heaven and Earth, the profound origin of all things! Golden light swiftly appears, protecting the True Man! By decree!"

A solid golden light burst forth from his palm, transforming into a semi-transparent golden light shield that blocked the three of them!

"boom!"

The dark figure crashed into the golden shield with a dull thud. The golden light flickered violently, and Shen Zui was forced back several steps by the force, his face turning pale, clearly having suffered some shock.

"Such powerful strength!" Shen Zui was shocked.

"Watch out!" Chen Anran reacted swiftly. With a thought, the white shadow of his guardian spirit instantly appeared behind him, letting out a silent roar as it met the black streams. The white shadow and the black energy intertwined, eroding and devouring each other, emitting a hissing sound.

The guardian spirit clearly felt the pressure; the negative energy contained within the shadow was extremely vast and pure.

At the same time, the young female senior disciple finally moved.

She had taken off her baseball cap at some point, revealing a beautiful yet cold face. What was most surprising was her ears, which were a pair of black animal ears.

With fingers held together like a sword, a point of extremely concentrated, almost tangible, pale spiritual light swirled around the fingertips, which were then pointed at the core of the black shadow.

"net!"

There was no earth-shattering noise, only a clear, cold shout.

That pale, ethereal light, like an ice cube thrown into boiling oil, instantly disappeared into the shadowy figure.

"Awooo—!!!"

The shadowy figure cried out in pain, but became even more agitated. He slapped Shen Zui away, then slapped the girl away as well.

The two men from Maoshan crashed heavily against the mountain wall and rolled to the ground, both spitting out blood and turning deathly pale instantly.

"Fellow Daoist Chen! Run!" Shen Zui shouted hoarsely, enduring the excruciating pain of his displaced internal organs. "This thing is far beyond the capabilities of anyone at the Qi Refining stage!"

The girl struggled to prop herself up, saying, "This beast is inherently strange, possessing immense strength; spiritual power has little effect on it... Retreat quickly!"

However, Chen Anran seemed not to hear their urgent appeals.

It wasn't that he didn't want to leave, but how? This thing was strong and fast, and Chen Anran didn't think he could outrun it on his own two legs.

Therefore, rather than leaving your back to the enemy, it is better to fight head-on for that sliver of hope.

Chen Ran stretched out his right hand and summoned the thousand-year-old peach wood sword from the museum. At the same time, the "Samadhi Pure Yang Foundation Building Experience" in Chen Anran's body was running wildly. The scorching pure Yang spiritual power in his dantian was completely activated, and like a wildfire, it instantly traveled through all the meridians of his body!

"This is... a unique skill from the Zhang lineage... He actually passed it on to this kid?" A hint of surprise flashed in the girl's eyes.

This is not over yet!

Chen Anran drew his left hand with his fingers together like a sword, making a sweeping motion in the air while chanting incantations. It was the Thunder-Inducing Technique from Zhang Nanshan's "Five Thunder Orthodox Method Insights"!

Although he was not yet able to summon true heavenly lightning with his current cultivation level, at this moment, under the impetus of his pure spiritual power, especially with the blessing of a trace of pure yang power, dazzling white lightning began to jump at his fingertips, making a "crackling" sound, and exuding a majestic aura of extreme strength and yang, which could slay evil and destroy falsehood!

"The Five Thunder Orthodox Method of Longhu Mountain?!" Shen Zui was also dumbfounded, almost forgetting the pain in his body.

A sudden gust of mountain wind whipped up the sand and gravel on the road, causing Chen Anran's clothes to flutter wildly.

Electric snakes danced wildly between the five fingers of Chen Anran's left hand, emitting a chilling "crackling" sound. The thousand-year-old peach wood sword tightly gripped in his right hand hummed and trembled, and the pure yang spiritual power inside the sword was fully activated, radiating a scorching and majestic righteous aura.

The approaching black shadow seemed to sense the threat as well, its forward momentum slightly halting, and a silent hiss, a mixture of hatred and vigilance, emanated from its distorted outline.

"roar--!"

It abandoned its pursuit of the two seriously injured Maoshan members and focused all its malice on Chen Anran, the greater threat.

"It's not enough." The girl wanted to get up and go to help. "Even with lightning magic, the difference in strength is too great."

Just as the girl was gathering her spiritual energy and Shen Zui was struggling to form hand seals again, the black shadow transformed into a twisted black lightning bolt, carrying overwhelming malice and bone-chilling cold, and pounced on Chen Anran!

Chen Anran's pupils contracted sharply, and the white lightning he drew with his left hand and the peach wood sword in his right hand met the attack simultaneously!

"boom!"

The lightning and the shadow collided violently, unleashing a blinding light and a violent energy shock!

Chen Anran felt an indescribable force coming from the peach wood sword. His tiger's mouth instantly split open, blood gushing out. He was struck as if by a heavy blow, flying backward and crashing heavily to the ground. He felt a sweet taste in his throat and spat out a mouthful of blood.

The lightning magic he unleashed did indeed harm the shadowy figure, purifying a small portion of the black energy and producing a hissing burning sound. However, compared to the shadowy figure's massive size, it seemed to have merely enraged it.

Chen Anran tried to stand up, leaning on his sword, but felt as if all the bones in his body were falling apart, and his spiritual energy was sluggish.

At that moment, the attacks from the young female master and Shen Zui arrived!

The girl suddenly held an ancient-looking copper coin in her hand, its surface shimmering with runes. She bit her fingertip, letting a drop of crimson blood fall onto the coin, and uttered a low cry: "Bind!"

The copper coin instantly transformed into a golden light, shooting towards the dark figure like a serpent, attempting to entangle and bind it.

Ignoring his injuries, Shen Zui cast the Golden Light Spell, condensing it into a golden short sword. With the girl's restraints, he thrust it straight into the core of the shadow!

Faced with the two men's desperate attack, the dark figure let out a sharp screech, and the black aura around it suddenly expanded, spreading outwards like a shockwave from an explosion!

"Bang! Bang!"

The golden coin was instantly blasted away, and the girl let out a muffled groan, staggering backward again, her face paling even more. Shen Zui's golden short sword shattered into pieces, and he himself was thrown back by the violent force, crashing into a tree by the roadside, sliding down softly, unable to get up for a moment.

The combined efforts of the three appeared utterly pale and powerless in the face of such an absolute disparity in strength.

The shadowy figure seemed to be completely enraged. It abandoned its other targets and fixed its empty, distorted "eyes" on Chen Anran, the one who had injured it first.

"Fellow Daoist Chen!" Shen Zui's eyes widened in horror, but he was powerless to help.

A resolute glint flashed in the girl's eyes, as if she were about to use some kind of secret technique with a very high cost.

At this critical moment—

The spiritual power within Chen Anran's body, which had been stuck at a bottleneck, suddenly began to circulate wildly under the immense pressure of death and the urging of his own indomitable will! The cultivation path of the "Samadhi Pure Yang Foundation Building Experience" flowed spontaneously at an unprecedented speed, and the scorching pure Yang spiritual power in his dantian exploded like ignited explosives!

"Snap!"

It was as if some kind of barrier had been completely breached!

A surge of spiritual energy, far purer and more powerful than before, instantly coursed through his limbs and bones, cleansing his meridians and nourishing his body and soul! The intense pain in his body seemed to lessen considerably at this moment, and the depleted spiritual energy was rapidly recovering, even becoming more solid and powerful!

Mid-stage Qi Refining!