Old Refining Spirit

"You're dreaming! You disgusting thing!" Mu Wan trembled with rage, and with a "crack," she drew her silver whip, leaving a deep welt in the ground. "Get out of here right now, or don't blame my whip for being merciless!"

"Oh? Junior sister's pretty hot?" Liu Ting sneered, not even glancing at Li Xuangeng, treating this blind man like a dead man. "Since junior sister won't listen to reason, then today senior brother will teach you who's in charge in this Xuantian Sect!"

Before Liu Ting finished speaking, his four henchmen immediately dispersed, completely blocking any escape routes around the tea table.

Liu Ting grinned maliciously and suddenly stretched out his right hand. A chilling scene unfolded—the moment his entire right arm extended, it emitted a cracking sound as if bones were shattering, followed by the flesh exploding and transforming into a massive tentacle covered in barbs and dripping with green venom!

The tentacle, accompanied by a piercing shriek that tore through the air, swept towards Mu Wanjiao's slender waist with overwhelming force!

Although Mu Wanjiao was an inner disciple, she cultivated the orthodox Qingyuan Daoist method. Compared to Liu Ting, a core disciple who had devoured countless lives and had undergone severe mutation, she was not even in the same league.

Her face turned deathly pale. She tried to swing her whip to defend herself, but found that the poisonous miasma emanating from the tentacles had already made her internal energy sluggish, and she couldn't even lift her hand.

"It's over..." Mu Wanjiao closed her eyes in despair.

However, the expected excruciating pain of being strangled by tentacles did not come.

Instead, a gentle, warm sigh, tinged with a hint of helplessness, reached my ears.

"Senior Brother Liu, the smell on you has not only polluted the air around me, but also disturbed my guests."

Mu Wanjiao suddenly opened her eyes.

Li Xuangeng had somehow stood up and gently pulled her behind him. The action was so natural, as if he were simply leading a naive little girl to safety under the eaves to avoid the rain.

"Young lady, don't look at this dirty stuff," Li Xuangeng said gently, turning his head slightly.

The next second, facing the enormous tentacle that stabbed at him like a venomous dragon, Li Xuangeng didn't even form a hand seal. He simply extended his long, pale, and bony right hand with utter indifference.

"Snapped!"

A crisp, muffled sound.

That venomous tentacle, powerful enough to shatter a thousand-pound boulder, was effortlessly and firmly held in mid-air by Li Xuangeng's seemingly harmless right hand! No matter how violently the tentacle twisted and spat out venom, it couldn't budge that jade-like finger an inch! The green venom, capable of corroding magical artifacts, was instantly evaporated into nothingness by an invisible layer of [Creation True Qi] the moment it touched Li Xuangeng's skin.

"You...this is impossible! How could a piece of trash like you, who hasn't received the baptism of holy blood, possibly catch my 'Mysterious Sea Spirit Whip' with your bare hands!" For the first time, extreme terror appeared in Liu Ting's narrow, venomous eyes.

"The Profound Sea Spirit Whip? It dares to call something of that level 'spiritual' before me?"

The smile on Li Xuangeng's lips vanished completely, replaced by a cold and murderous aura, as if he were looking down on ants.

"Since you are so fond of using physical transformations, then today I will teach you what the true meaning of 'following the natural way' is."

Li Xuangeng did not reveal the phantom of the Creation Furnace. He had no interest in even "eating" such inferior ingredients. He did not want to expose his identity so soon.

"Taoist thunder magic, Yang fire in the palm."

Li Xuangeng suddenly clenched his five fingers inward!

"Snap!!!"

"ah--!!!"

Liu Ting let out an extremely agonizing scream. Li Xuangeng's fingers, like five branding irons, crushed the bones and nerves inside the tentacle! Immediately afterward, a pure, golden flame—the [Samadhi True Fire]—rushed up Liu Ting's tentacle like a leech, following Li Xuangeng's fingertips!

This fire is specifically designed to burn away evil and karmic obstacles!

The flames spread upwards along the tentacles at a terrifying speed. Wherever they passed, the deformed scales, barbs, and rotten flesh were instantly scorched and sizzled under the high temperature, turning into black ash and falling off in a flurry!

"Hot! So hot!" Liu Ting rolled on the ground in pain, trying to cut off the tentacles with his other hand, but found that the flames seemed to be alive, instantly enveloping him and turning him into a burning fireman!

The other four henchmen were terrified and were about to draw their weapons to fight back when Li Xuangeng snorted coldly and casually flicked his sleeve with his left hand.

"boom!"

A surge of overwhelming, violent true energy swept out, violently throwing the senior brother out of the courtyard.

In less than three breaths, Liu Ting, the arrogant and domineering core disciple of the inner sect, and his fellow disciples had already scrambled out of the courtyard in a panic.

Li Xuangeng wiped his hands with disgust, looking at the whip he had just held, feeling extremely nauseous himself. After doing all this, Li Xuangeng pulled out the spotless white silk handkerchief from his sleeve again and carefully and slowly wiped his right hand, which was actually spotless.

"It's too dirty; even using it for alchemy would pollute the furnace. Xiaoman, clean it up later."

The entire Luoxia Peak Courtyard was deathly silent. The only sound was the rustling of leaves in the mountain wind.

Mu Wanjiao froze on the spot. She stared blankly at Li Xuangeng, the man in white robes, handsome as an immortal, yet more ruthless and decisive than any monster.

She had always thought he was a frail, blind Taoist priest, a weakling who needed her grandfather's charity of elixirs to survive. But what she had just witnessed—his domineering power, his disdain for the terrifying monster—was deeply imprinted on her proud heart.

"that……"

Li Xuangeng wiped his hands clean and casually tossed the silk handkerchief aside. He turned around, facing Mu Wanjiao, and the corners of his mouth, which always held a cold sarcasm, now showed a genuine, gentle smile, like a spring breeze.

"Did I scare you just now?"

He leaned slightly forward, his voice deep and pleasant.

Mu Wanjiao subconsciously raised her head. Although the other person was covered with a white veil, she could feel a pair of deep and burning eyes staring at her.

"No...no." Her usually sharp and domineering voice stammered for the first time ever.

She felt her cheeks begin to burn uncontrollably, her heart pounding wildly in her chest, making it difficult to even breathe. She hurriedly lowered her head, unaware that the tips of her once snow-white, translucent ears were now tinged with a delicate, vibrant blush.

Li Xuangeng looked at her reddened ear tips, and his Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

He walked back to the tea table, poured another cup of steaming Longjing tea, and handed it to Mu Wanjiao.

"It is fate that we meet. Miss Mu, since you are here, why not sit down and have a cup of tea with me?"

Against the backdrop of blood and ashes, the white-robed Taoist priest's act of serving tea appeared extremely eerie, yet it exuded an irresistible and deadly allure.

Looking at that slender and beautiful hand, Mu Wanjiao's last bit of defense crumbled completely at that moment.