Mortal: I have a Spirit Gathering Cauldron

Tian Buque's face turned pale, and he almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

He gritted his teeth and desperately poured his spiritual energy into the light shield, repairing the cracks on it.

The Thunderfire Blade's attack continued for several breaths, and the cracks on the light shield increased, but it never completely shattered.

The aura emanating from the Thunderfire Blade finally dimmed.

The Thunderfire Blade transformed into specks of spiritual light in the air and dissipated. A crack about an inch long remained on the pink light shield, which slowly healed under Tian Buque's pale face.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on Tian Buque's forehead. He had already exhausted most of his spiritual energy, and maintaining the light barrier was becoming increasingly difficult. But he still forced a composed expression onto his face.

"Fellow Daoist, shall we continue?" His voice trembled slightly, but his tone remained firm. "Your spiritual power is probably running low, isn't it? Continuing to fight will not benefit anyone."

Lin Feng did not answer.

He held the Thunderfire Blade Talisman in his palm, infusing it with spiritual power once more, and the runes on the talisman lit up again.

Tian Buque's expression changed completely.

"you--"

There was a hint of fear in his voice.

Again?

Lin Feng pushed his spiritual power to its limit, and the Thunderfire Blade took shape on the talisman. Crimson-gold firelight and blue lightning intertwined, making it more intense and violent than the previous two times.

Tian Buque's face was extremely ugly. He had very little spiritual power left. If he were to take another full-force attack from the Thunderfire Blade, even if the "Pink Heavenly Net" didn't break, his spiritual power would be completely drained.

Moreover, Nie Ying was constantly harassing them from the side. If their spiritual power was insufficient to maintain the "Pink Heavenly Net Shield," they would be in real danger of being directly attacked by these two cultivators.

"Fellow Daoist!" His voice held a hint of urgency, "Do you truly intend to fight to the death? If you kill me, you won't survive either!"

His voice rose several decibels, and his speech quickened considerably: "I have the blood pact spell of a Nascent Soul Ancestor within me! If you kill me, the blood pact will activate, and the Nascent Soul Ancestor will immediately sense your presence and hunt you down relentlessly! Do you think you can escape?"

Lin Feng paused for a moment while holding the Thunderfire Blade.

His brow furrowed slightly.

Blood Pact Curse?

He had heard of this thing.

Some elders of major sects will plant blood pact curses on important juniors. Once the junior is killed, the curse will be activated, leaving an indelible blood mark on the murderer.

The bloodstain will last for years or even decades, and no spell to conceal its presence can hide it. The sect's elders will follow the scent of the bloodstain to hunt down the culprit, relentlessly pursuing them to the death.

"We'll talk about that after you're dead." Lin Feng snorted coldly, and the spiritual light on the Thunderfire Blade shone even brighter.

Seeing that Lin Feng was acting like a reckless fool and didn't care about anything, Tian Buque finally couldn't hold on any longer.

"Fellow Daoist, please state your conditions!" His voice carried a hint of pleading. "We don't need to seek death together! Tell me, spirit stones? Pills? Magic artifacts? I can give you anything! As long as you're willing to stop fighting and make peace, any conditions are negotiable!"

Lin Feng's lips curled slightly, and he stopped wielding the Thunderfire Blade, but the spiritual light on the talisman did not extinguish.

"Oh?" His voice held a hint of amusement. "I don't necessarily want to kill you. But if you want to live, you'll have to pay for it, right?"

Tian Buque nodded hurriedly, forcing a smile: "Yes, yes, yes! Fellow Daoist, what do you want? Spirit stones? Pills? Magic artifacts? I can provide them all!"

"Hand over this pink cloak and your storage bag." Lin Feng's tone was calm, as if he were discussing a trivial matter. "I'll let you go. How about it?"

Tian Buque's smile froze on his face.

"Impossible!" His voice sharpened, a flash of anger in his eyes. "Fellow Daoist is far too greedy! I'm willing to give you spirit stones, pills, and magic weapons, but not everything! You—"

Lin Feng remained silent.

The Thunderfire Blade Talisman in his hand lit up again, and as spiritual power was injected, the crimson-gold light and blue lightning intertwined once more.

The Thunderfire Blade slowly took shape on the talisman, radiating an increasingly powerful aura.

Cold sweat dripped down Tian Buque's forehead like beads from a broken string.

He stared at the Thunderfire Blade that was taking shape, at Lin Feng's unwavering eyes, and was torn between his own conscience and his inner turmoil.

"Wait! Wait!" he cried, his voice tinged with despair. "The Powdered Heavenly Net can only be activated using our Joyful Union Sect's techniques; it's useless to you! I'll give you everything else, take it all!"

He gritted his teeth, took off the storage bag from his waist, and threw it, along with the jade flute in his hand, at Lin Feng.

The storage bag and jade flute traced an arc in the air and landed at Lin Feng's feet.

Lin Feng used his spiritual power to gather the storage bag and jade flute, then casually tossed them behind him.

Then the Thunderfire Blade Talisman in his hand suddenly shone brightly.

The Thunderfire Blade is complete.

Tian Buque's eyes widened suddenly.

"You broke your promise—" His voice was hoarse, filled with endless anger and fear.

He desperately poured his spiritual power into the Pink Heavenly Net, and the pink light shield almost solidified into red. The runes on the surface of the light shield flowed wildly, emitting a piercing buzzing sound.

But the earth-shattering collision he had envisioned did not occur.

The Thunderfire Blade grazed the pink light shield and slammed into the ground several meters away.

"boom--"

With a deafening roar, a crater several feet deep was blasted into the ground, sending debris flying and dust billowing everywhere.

A powerful shockwave spread outwards from the explosion's center, striking Tian Buque's pink light shield.

The light shield easily blocked the shock wave, only swaying slightly.

But at this moment, Tian Buque's face was even paler, as pale as paper. His spiritual power had been completely exhausted in that instant of all-out output, and now his body was empty, and he barely had the strength to maintain the light barrier.

But he held on.

He is still alive.

Tian Buque let out a long breath, his legs went weak, and he almost collapsed to the ground. His back was soaked with cold sweat, and his heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would jump out of his chest.

"Thank goodness... thank goodness the other side isn't some reckless madman." He thought to himself with relief, "As long as I survive today, I will avenge this humiliation one day."

Lin Feng gave him no chance to catch his breath.

He took out the array plate and array flags of the Inverted Five Elements Array from his storage bag and began to set up the array around Tian Buque.

Tian Buque's eyelids twitched, but he was too weak to stop it. His spiritual power was almost exhausted, and he could only barely maintain the basic operation of the Pink Heavenly Net.

He glanced at the array flag in Lin Feng's hand, then at the array plate on the ground, and decided to stop wasting his magic power maintaining the light shield.

The pink light shield slowly dissipated.

Tian Buque sat cross-legged on the ground, closed his eyes, and began to recover his magical power.

Lin Feng glanced at him but did not stop him.

One by one, the array flags of the Inverted Five Elements Array were inserted into the ground. As spiritual energy was injected into the array plate, the flags lit up at the same time, and the spiritual light flowed, forming a light blue shield that trapped Tian Buque inside.

After setting up the Inverted Five Elements Formation, Lin Feng only activated the trapping formation mode for the time being, without activating the killing formation.

Trapping him is enough.

Given Tian Buque's current condition, it would take him several days to recover enough spiritual energy to break the formation. A few days later, Lin Feng had already long since fled.

Lin Feng activated the last restriction on the array plate, confirmed that the array was operating normally, and then stood up and patted the dirt off his hands.

Then he walked over to the storage bag and jade flute that Tian Buque had thrown over, checked them, and put them away after finding no problems. He didn't have time to examine them closely for the time being.