My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

The night was deep and still.

The flames and shouts of battle in the front courtyard of the Zhou residence were kept far behind by the thick, tall courtyard walls.

Li Chen, Lu Fei, and Lin Qing'er, like three nimble night owls, landed silently in front of the massive artificial mountain complex in the backyard of the Zhou residence.

The guards here have all been drawn away by the commotion of the prison break in the front yard.

There was a deathly silence all around, with only the occasional mournful chirping of insects echoing in the cold wind.

"This is it."

The male assassin, Lu Fei, lowered his voice.

He suppressed the psychological trauma of the "pink little bellyband" in his mind and dared not use the Insight-Breaking Pearl to see through things again.

Instead, relying on the assassin's keen intuition, he began to explore the intricate rock face of the artificial mountain.

soon.

A soft "click" sounded.

A huge Taihu stone on the side of the artificial hill slowly slid away.

A bottomless underground stone staircase, exuding a cold and damp aura, suddenly appeared before the three of them.

The walls on both sides of the stone steps are inlaid with fluorite that emits a faint green light, making this deep underground passage look like the Yellow Springs Road leading to the deepest hell.

"Walk."

Without the slightest hesitation, Li Chen took the lead and walked in.

Lu Fei and Lin Qing'er followed closely behind. The three of them walked lightly down the winding stone steps for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

The further down you go, the stronger the strange spiritual energy fluctuations in the air become.

Even faintly, one could hear low, mournful cries, like those of a trapped beast.

"We're almost there, there's light ahead!" Lin Qing'er whispered a reminder.

The three of them pressed themselves against the cold stone wall and silently made their way to the end of the passage.

Through the gap at the exit of the passage.

The sight before him made even the well-informed Li Chen gasp slightly.

This is an underground cave that was built by forcibly hollowing out a huge mountain.

The cave covers an area of ​​several thousand square meters, with countless sharp stalactites hanging upside down from its dome.

And right in the center of the cave.

A massive altar, ten zhang high and entirely constructed of dark red boulders, was under construction!

The surface of the altar is engraved with countless intricate, eerie array patterns that exude a strong aura of evil.

These patterns resemble bulging blood vessels in the human body, radiating a chilling, blood-red glow.

"That...that is..."

Lu Fei stared wide-eyed at the very center of the altar.

In the center of the altar, suspended in mid-air, floated a long dragon of spiritual energy, about ten feet long, radiating a pure milky white light.

This is precisely the miniature spiritual vein beneath Qingyang City!

These are natural wonders that should nourish the land and benefit hundreds of thousands of people.

now.

However, his body was pierced by eight incredibly thick, dark red energy chains!

The miniature spiritual vein, like a true dragon trapped in a slaughterhouse, writhed and struggled in mid-air, emitting mournful cries that only high-level cultivators could hear.

With each struggle, the pure spiritual energy within its body is forcibly extracted along the eight chains.

then.

It was poured into the bodies of the six old men sitting around the altar.

These six old men all had white hair and beards.

Dressed in matching brocade robes, they sat cross-legged at the six nodes of the formation, their hands forming hand seals, greedily absorbing the vast and pure spiritual energy.

And directly in front of the six people.

The one who controlled the entire array was an old man with a kind face, wearing a purple robe.

He had white hair but a youthful face, and even with his eyes closed, he exuded the majesty of a superior.

This person is the highest authority in the Zhou family, and also the Zhou family head who is rumored to be "kind-faced and benevolent"!

"A bunch of hypocritical beasts!"

Seeing this, Lin Qing'er trembled with anger, her beautiful eyes filled with fury.

"They're killing the goose that lays the golden eggs! To improve their own cultivation, they're willing to drain the entire city of its life force!"

Once this tiny spiritual vein is completely drained.

Within a few months, the land within a hundred li radius of Qingyang City will be completely desertified. Water sources will dry up, and vegetation will wither.

At that time, hundreds of thousands of people in the city will surely become starving corpses everywhere!

"What should we do?"

Lu Fei gripped the short knife tightly in his hand and asked in a low voice.

"They have six experts at the late Foundation Establishment stage, and that old scoundrel Zhou is even at the half-step Golden Core stage! With the protection of their formation, even if we launch a sneak attack, our chances of winning are extremely slim!"

Lu Fei's heart was filled with despair.

They originally only intended to disrupt the outer array's core, but they unexpectedly stumbled upon a massive scene of the Zhou family's top leaders coming out in full force.

With their combined strength, charging forward would be like throwing an egg against a rock.

"The odds of winning are extremely slim?"

Li Chen hid in the shadows, looking at the altar in front of him that was shimmering with blood-red light.

A cold, arrogant, and unrestrained sneer slowly crept onto the corners of his mouth.

"The word 'retreat' has never existed in my dictionary, Mr. Li's dictionary."

Li Chen stretched his neck.

His bones suddenly crackled and popped like popping beans.

Although his dantian is now dry and he cannot mobilize a single trace of true essence.

But during his prison break and beating up the guards, he had become thoroughly familiar with his physical body, which had been reshaped by the Chaos Creation Crystal.

No magic?

Then let's use our fists! Let's use these fists, which can tear through the void with our bare hands, to smash our way to a bright and clear world!

"You two, stay here and don't move."

Li Chen turned his head and looked at the assassin brother and sister who were full of tension.

"Wait for the right moment. Once I break that damn formation, you can all rush out with me and beat the dog when it's down!"

"My benefactor! You mustn't!"

Lu Fei was shocked. "That's a third-tier killing formation! Without spiritual power of the same level to break it, relying solely on physical strength will result in being pulverized by the formation's backlash!"

however.

He hadn't finished speaking.

Li Chen's figure, like a cheetah lurking in the darkness, suddenly leaped out!

"Whoosh!"

The sound of something cutting through the air was particularly jarring in the vast underground cavern.

On the altar.

The Zhou family patriarch, who was at a critical moment in absorbing the spiritual vein, suddenly opened his eyes.

Two cold, venomous glints suddenly flashed in those originally kind eyes.

"Who goes there! How dare you trespass on the forbidden area of ​​the Zhou residence!"

The Zhou family head shouted sternly.

However, he dared not interrupt the formation casually, and could only spare a sliver of his attention to look at the blue afterimage rushing from the darkness.

There's no spiritual energy fluctuation?

A mere mortal with no cultivation?

A hint of surprise flashed in the eyes of the Zhou family head, which then turned into deep contempt and disdain.

"You ignorant ants, how dare you ruin my important plans!"

"Ignore him. The protective counter-force of the great formation is enough to turn him into a bloody mist!" The Zhou family head coldly ordered the five elders around him who had also been awakened.

Upon hearing this, the five elders closed their eyes again with peace of mind and continued to greedily absorb the spiritual energy.

In their view, it was no different for an ordinary person without true essence to attempt to break through a third-order formation than for an egg to hit a rock.

but.

They made the most fatal mistake of their lives.

They had no idea what kind of monster they were facing!

"Smash it, you son of a bitch!!!"

midair.

Li Chen let out a roar as loud as thunder.

While in mid-air, he suddenly exerted force from his waist and abdomen. His entire body was stretched into a taut bow in mid-air.

Then.

That right fist, devoid of any spiritual brilliance, yet containing a pure, earth-shattering physical power.

It was accompanied by a deafening sonic boom that tore through the air.

Like a meteorite falling from the sky, it ruthlessly and violently smashed into the thick, blood-red defensive light shield surrounding the altar!

"boom--!!!"

A deafening, terrifying roar that shook the entire underground cavern exploded out!

There were no flashy magical clashes.

There was no dazzling flash of inspiration.

Only the most primitive and purest form of violent crushing!

Li Chen's seemingly fair and slender fist made contact with the defensive light shield the moment it touched the shield.

A terrifying, overwhelming force poured out without reservation.