The Confucian and Taoist Sages of Mortal Cultivation

"This person's spiritual cultivation technique is probably no less powerful than the Great Evolution Technique." The three protectors of the Thousand Bamboo Sect exchanged glances, all seeing the solemnity in each other's eyes, and thought to themselves, "The first four levels of the Great Evolution Technique do not contain any attack techniques that can directly destroy the soul."

Now that they have lost their puppets, they are no different from tigers with their teeth pulled, and they immediately have the idea of ​​retreating.

"Walk!"

Seeing that Yang Qingyuan's strength was unfathomable, Huanglong, the protector of the Thousand Bamboo Sect, immediately shouted, then took out a mid-level low-grade flying talisman, stuck it on his chest, and took off into the air.

Seeing this, the other two guardians also took out a flying talisman, stuck it on their chests, and took off into the air, flying in different directions.

Upon seeing this, Deacon Lin took out a yellow talisman and activated it. His body glowed with yellow light, and he vanished into the ground without a trace.

Surprisingly, the direction in which the Thousand Bamboo Sect's Yellow Dragon Protector and Protector Xie fled was precisely towards the dense forest.

As soon as the two flew over the dense forest, they saw seven or eight huge pillars of light shooting into the sky.

Immediately afterwards, the beams of light converged in the sky, condensing into a five-colored bowl-shaped protective shield, which trapped the Yellow Dragon Protector and Protector Xie of the Thousand Bamboo Sect inside.

"What?!"

"This is a formation!"

Huang Long and Protector Xie were shocked and quickly took out a yellow throwing knife and a golden mace from their storage bags to try to attack the five-colored light barrier.

Both the throwing knife and the golden mace emitted a dazzling spiritual light, clearly indicating that they were top-grade magical artifacts. However, when they struck the five-colored light barrier, they didn't even cause a ripple and were easily deflected back.

"What kind of formation is this? It can easily block the attack of a top-grade magic weapon!"

Upon seeing this, Huang Long felt a pang of anxiety, realizing that he would not be able to escape his predicament anytime soon.

Protector Xie, standing nearby, pondered for a moment, then his face showed fear as he exclaimed, "It's the legendary Forbidden Array!"

"The Inverted Five Elements Formation!"

"What?!" Upon hearing the name of this formation, Huang Long was terrified and muttered, "How is this possible?"

"Could any random cultivator in the Yuanwu Kingdom set up such a high-level formation?"

Knowing he was incapable of breaking the formation, he could only hope that Protector Dai outside would lend a hand.

Unfortunately, Yang Qingyuan had no intention of letting Protector Dai go. With a thought, he commanded the black dragon to give chase.

Riding on dark clouds, the black dragon sped along, generating sonic booms. In the blink of an eye, it caught up with Protector Dai, opened its blood-red maw, and spewed out a large amount of purple liquid.

The liquid elixir filled the sky, like a torrential downpour.

Upon smelling the foul odor of the elixir, Protector Dai realized that its toxicity was extraordinary. Her expression immediately changed, and she was so frightened that she felt a chill run down her spine. In a panic, she flicked her sleeve and summoned a red silk magic artifact, which she held above her head to protect herself.

Unfortunately, the purple poisonous rain fell on the silk, instantly corroding it and creating holes.

"Ah..." Protector Dai only had time to let out a scream before she was engulfed by the purple poisonous rain, her skin torn open and her flesh ripped open, before dissolving into a pool of blood.

Yang Qingyuan sat atop the black dragon's head and raised his hand to pluck a red storage bag from the blood.

The black dragon turned its head and rushed towards the formation in the dense forest.

"Young master."

Xin Ruyin and Xiao Mei, each holding a blue array plate, rode two-headed geese and flew out of the dense forest to greet them.

"Those two cultivators are now trapped in the Reversed Five Elements Formation."

"This Reversed Five Elements Formation before me has been specially enhanced by me, and it has half the power of the original formation."

"Two Foundation Establishment cultivators have absolutely no chance of escaping."

"Alright, Ruyin, you've worked hard." Upon hearing this, Yang Qingyuan put away the Luan Guqin, patted his storage bag, took out a sword box and placed it aside. Then he opened his mouth and spat out a silvery "sword" character, which disappeared into the sword box.

The next moment, the sword box opened to both sides, revealing seven flying swords.

Yang Qingyuan formed hand seals and chanted incantations as he unleashed the "Greatsword Technique," a spell attached to the fifth level of the "Divine Sword Thunder Control True Technique."

The seven flying swords trembled incessantly, then hummed as they soared into the sky, emitting a dazzling spiritual light.

Under the astonished gazes of Xin Ruyin and her servant, the seven flying swords gradually coalesced into a seven-colored ball of light.

The next moment, an enormous sword tip emerged from the ball of light, radiating an extremely powerful aura that snapped all the towering trees in the dense forest.

Immediately afterwards, a giant, seven-colored sword, tens of meters long, descended from the sky and fell vertically towards the array barrier.

Seeing this, Xin Ruyin was also secretly shocked by the power of this giant sword technique. She quickly manipulated the array plate to create a vortex above the array barrier of the Inverted Five Elements Array, so that the giant sword could enter the array smoothly.

At that moment, inside the formation, Protector Huanglong and Protector Xie suddenly noticed a vortex appearing above their heads and hurriedly looked up.

When they saw the giant sword descending from the sky, both of them were terrified, their faces filled with horror. Even the most idiotic person could see that this sword technique was extremely powerful.

The two hastily unleashed their throwing knives and golden maces, attempting to defend themselves.

The giant sword emitted a thunderous roar, its descent even more astonishing. With a single strike, it slashed at both the flying knife and the golden mace, two magical artifacts.

With a loud "boom," the two magical artifacts shattered instantly, unable to withstand even a single breath, turning into countless fragments that scattered across the ground.

The giant sword did not pause at all, but continued its unstoppable advance, striking Protector Xie and Protector Huanglong.

Before the two could even let out a scream, they were cleaved in two from top to bottom by the giant sword, their lives ending in oblivion.

"What a powerful sword technique!" Xin Ruyin exclaimed, blinking her beautiful eyes as she held the array plate. "Even a pseudo-core cultivator might not be able to block this sword strike."

"Young master's supernatural abilities are becoming increasingly unfathomable."

Yang Qingyuan raised his hand and summoned the seven flying swords back into the sword box. He smiled and said, "There are always people more capable than you, and there are always higher levels to reach. This little bit of supernatural power is not worth the attention of a Core Formation cultivator."

Xiao Mei, meanwhile, manipulated the formation to retrieve the storage bags from the corpses of Huang Long and Protector Xie, presenting them to Yang Qingyuan and asking, "I wonder if these two carried any methods for controlling puppets?"

Upon hearing this, Xin Ruyin's beautiful eyes also flashed with a hint of excitement. She parted her lips slightly and said, "Yes. This puppetry technique and formation complement each other perfectly. If I could learn this puppetry technique, it would be wonderful."

Upon hearing the two women's words, Yang Qingyuan also wanted to see what the legendary "Great Evolution Technique" was all about, so he opened three storage bags.

Inside the three storage bags were dozens of intact soldier puppets.

After examining the items, Yang Qingyuan took out many gray jade slips from his storage bag and read them one by one.

"Young master, how is it?" Xin Ruyin asked eagerly.

Yang Qingyuan's expression shifted between light and shadow as he pondered, "No, it seems the other party didn't copy the cultivation technique into the jade slip."

"What should we do?" Xin Ruyin was also slightly disappointed.

"It's alright," Yang Qingyuan replied. "The escaped Deacon Lin should have the whereabouts of the cultivation technique on him."

Xin Ruyin looked around and sighed, "It's a pity that person has already escaped using an earth-遁符 (earth-遁符 is a type of talisman used in Chinese magic)."

"It's too late for us to chase after them now."

Yang Qingyuan didn't take it seriously and explained, "Since Mo Jiao broke through to the third level, he has become particularly sensitive to smells, so tracking this person is not difficult."

The black dragon sniffed twice, then turned its head to look to the northwest.

Upon seeing this, Yang Qingyuan used his storage bag to collect the hundreds of puppets on the grass, intending to count them carefully later.

Xin Ruyin and Xiao Mei also put away their battle flags and changed to ride the black dragon.

The black dragon carried the three of them, chasing after Steward Lin, and soon entered the Taiyue Mountains where Yellow Maple Valley was located...