Alert! The Dragon Lord has emerged from seclusion!

"Miss Chu, please go to the ancestral hall immediately and use your spiritual power to activate the guardian spirits left by the ancestors of the Chu family. Although they may not be able to stop the Nascent Soul, they can at least interfere with it."

"Ye Qingcheng, you've just broken through and need time to consolidate your breakthrough. Go to the secret chamber; it's the safest place there."

"And what about you?" Ye Qingcheng stared at her.

Shen Qingqiu took out three palm-sized jade bottles from the medicine box; the bottles were covered with runes.

"I'm going to the locust tree to complete the final step of the 'Blazing Sun Sealing Yin Curse.' If the formation is broken, the vengeful spirits within the locust tree will go berserk, and that will be our last resort."

She looked at Lin Chen: "As for you—"

"I'll face him head-on," Lin Chen said calmly. "Not to defeat him, but to buy you time. Giving you a quarter of an hour to set up your formation and prepare will be enough."

"Are you crazy?!" Ye Qingcheng grabbed his arm abruptly. "In your current state, you might not even be able to defeat a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, and you're going to fight a Nascent Soul cultivator?"

"So it's not about fighting, it's about stalling." Lin Chen took out the Ice Heart Pendant from his pocket, and then took out the white jade given to him by Ye Qingcheng. He tied the two together with a red string and hung them around his neck.

"When the Nine Yang Burning Heaven Body is unleashed at full power, its yang energy is like the blazing sun in the sky, naturally restraining all yin and evil techniques. Even the Netherworld Old Ghost in the Nascent Soul stage, his 'Netherworld Soul Devouring Technique' belongs to the yin and cold lineage."

"I will burn 30% of my essence and blood to temporarily push the Nine Yang True Qi to the pseudo-Golden Core level, which should make him wary for a while."

Burning one's essence and blood is a forbidden technique that damages one's own foundation!

Shen Qingqiu's lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he only took out a small pill box from his storage bag:

"This contains the 'Nine-Turn Life-Extending Pill,' of which my Shen family has only three left. After taking it, as long as there is still a breath left, one's life can be sustained for twelve hours."

"But the backlash that follows... will be worse than death."

Lin Chen accepted the pill box and carefully put it away: "Thank you."

Chu Ling'er suddenly spoke up: "Lin Chen, lower your head."

Lin Chen did as instructed, though he was puzzled.

Chu Ling'er bit her fingertip and used her blood to draw a strange rune on his forehead. The moment the rune was completed, Lin Chen felt a chill between his brows, as if he had gained an invisible eye.

"This is a 'Spiritual Imprint,' temporarily sharing some of my spiritual awareness." Chu Ling'er's face paled even more, clearly indicating that casting this spell had consumed a considerable amount of energy.

"You can see spirits and sense the flow of yin energy, which might... help you avoid fatal attacks."

She paused, her voice very soft: "You must survive. As for the engagement, I haven't decided whether to accept it or not."

Lin Chen paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Okay."

He turned and walked towards the gate of the Chu residence.

In the morning light, that figure stood tall and straight like a pine tree, yet it exuded a resolute determination to gamble everything.

Ye Qingcheng stared at his retreating figure, then suddenly said to Shen Qingqiu, "Give me a quarter of an hour. After that, I will come out regardless of whether the consolidation is complete or not."

"What are you going to do?"

"The first level of the Frost Yin Body contains a forbidden technique called 'Freezing a Thousand Miles,' which, at the cost of burning one's own essence, can freeze an area within a hundred feet in radius," Ye Qingcheng said calmly.

"If he dies, I will at least make that old ghost of the underworld pay the price."

Shen Qingqiu remained silent for a moment, then took out another jade bottle from the medicine box: "This contains 'Exploding Yuan Powder.' After taking it, your true energy will increase threefold within half an hour, but afterwards your meridians will be completely shattered."

"Give me one."

"I want one too," Chu Ling'er said.

The three women exchanged glances, and a tacit understanding, unspoken, flowed in the air.

They were strangers, bound together by an absurd marriage contract, and drawn into this life-or-death crisis.

But now, they are comrades fighting side by side.

Shen Qingqiu divided the pills in the jade bottle into three portions: "Hopefully we won't need them."

Outside the Chu residence, Lin Chen stood alone on the bluestone steps.

In the distance, a churning black cloud was approaching at an alarming speed.

Where the dark clouds passed, the grass and trees withered, the birds fled in fright, and even the morning light was swallowed up.

That was pure, solidified Yin energy.

Even from dozens of miles away, the pressure from the Nascent Soul old monster was like Mount Tai pressing down on you.

Lin Chen took a deep breath, formed a hand seal, and silently recited a secret technique.

"With my lifeblood, I refine the Nine Suns—ignite!"

boom!

Three hidden acupoints in the body exploded simultaneously, and the essence and blood burned, transforming into a powerful energy that flowed into the dantian.

The Nine Yang True Qi surged like a volcanic eruption, and golden-red light burst forth from every pore of his body, transforming him into a human-shaped blazing sun!

His aura steadily increased, progressing from the peak of Qi Refining to the early stage of Foundation Establishment, the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, the late stage of Foundation Establishment... and finally settling at the pseudo-Golden Core level!

The price was that his hair turned gray at a visible rate, and fine, blood-red cracks appeared on his skin.

But he stood even straighter.

Dark clouds had reached the sky above the Chu residence, obscuring the sun.

The clouds parted, and a figure in black robes slowly descended.

The man looked to be around forty years old, with a pale and handsome face, long, jet-black hair, and deep, abyssal eyes that seemed to devour all light.

He wore a simple black robe with dark gold ghostly patterns embroidered on the cuffs.

Sect Master of the Netherworld Sect, the Old Ghost of the Netherworld!

He stood suspended in mid-air, looking down at Lin Chen as if he were an ant.

"Nine Suns Burning Heaven Body." His voice was calm, yet carried a chilling quality that struck straight to the soul. "A decent sacrifice."

Lin Chen looked up and met his gaze, his voice calm: "If you want my body to be used for alchemy, then come and get it yourself."

A flicker of surprise crossed the old ghost's eyes, which quickly turned into amusement: "Commendable courage. Unfortunately, courage can't save a life."

He extended his right hand, his five fingers loosely clenched.

The Yin energy between heaven and earth gathered wildly, transforming into a black ghost hand a hundred feet in size, which grabbed down towards Lin Chen's head!

Before the ghostly hand even arrived, the terrifying pressure had already caused the bluestone ground beneath Lin Chen's feet to crack inch by inch.

A single strike from a Nascent Soul cultivator is enough to flatten a small mountain!

Lin Chen's eyes flashed with golden light, and he raised both palms to the sky, unleashing the pseudo-Golden Core level Nine Yang True Qi obtained by burning his essence blood without reservation!

"Nine Yang True Fire - Burning the Heavens!"

A golden-red pillar of fire shot into the sky and crashed into the black ghost hand!

boom--!!!

The golden-red pillar of fire collided with the black ghost hand in mid-air.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only an extremely eerie annihilation—wherever the pillar of fire passed, the ghostly hand melted away like ice and snow, but the pillar of fire itself also rapidly dimmed and shrank.

This is the most direct confrontation between the ultimate Yang and the ultimate Yin, a crushing defeat at the energy level.

Lin Chen grunted, his knees bent slightly, and the bluestone steps beneath his feet shattered completely, causing him to sink three inches.

The blood that had spilled from the corner of his mouth hadn't even dripped down before it was evaporated into a blood mist by the high temperature around him.

The old ghost in the sky merely had his black robe flutter slightly, without even a sway of his body.

High judgment.

But for the first time, genuine surprise appeared in the eyes of the old ghost of the underworld.

"A pseudo-Golden Core cultivator, yet he could withstand a strike from thirty percent of my power?" He looked at Lin Chen with great interest. "The Nine Yang Burning Heaven Body truly lives up to its name."