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Pain!

An indescribable pain!

It wasn’t just the excruciating pain of his physical body being torn apart inch by inch.

It originated deep within his Dantian Purple Mansion—a feeling of cataclysmic collapse, as if heaven and earth were crumbling, that struck at the very core of his path of cultivation!

Wu Yushan fought back the weakness and agony that nearly made him faint, taking a deep breath.

His face was as pale as paper, utterly devoid of color. Beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead, soaking the collar of his tattered robes.

He clenched his teeth so hard that his gums began to bleed, mixing with the metallic, sweet taste in his mouth.

But at this moment, he couldn’t spare a single thought for his physical suffering.

His Heart and Spirit was almost entirely submerged in the wreckage of his Purple Mansion.

The Great Perfection of Qi Refining—a realm countless Cultivators dreamed of reaching.

Its core was no longer about accumulating cultivation power, but about forging a Dao Foundation.

It involved finding a suitable Foundation Establishment Object, using one’s own Divine Soul True Essence as the furnace fire to refine it, and forging a preliminary "Keystone" to bear one’s own Great Dao.

Although this "Dao Foundation" was not yet completely stable and couldn’t truly elevate a Cultivator into the Foundation Establishment Realm, it was the prototype for a future ladder to the heavens.

It was the ultimate manifestation a Qi Refining Stage Cultivator could achieve.

He, Wu Yushan, had spent a century of bitter effort and overcome countless hardships to finally find four yin attribute Foundation Establishment Objects compatible with his Cultivation Skill. He had preliminarily refined them, forged the outline of his Dao Foundation, and stepped into the Realm of Great Perfection in Qi Refining.

Although he still had a ways to go before truly reaching Foundation Establishment, hope was finally within his grasp.

But just now... just a moment ago!

To slaughter that swarm of ants, he had been forced to activate his unfinished Dao Foundation.

To feign the might of Foundation Establishment!

For that one moment, he had indeed briefly possessed power nearly equal to that of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

With a single word, he could decide life and death, viewing all beings as mere ants.

But the price...

The price was that now, inside his Purple Mansion, the Dao Foundation that had begun to take shape and emanate a profound glow was now covered in a dense web of terrifying cracks.

The entire "Keystone" was on the verge of collapse, its light dimmed to the extreme.

It looked as if it would completely disintegrate at any moment!

This incomplete Dao Foundation was like an incredibly complex and precise jigsaw puzzle that had been hastily pieced together but not yet glued in place.

Forcibly "lifting" it to face an enemy had resulted in devastating damage to the puzzle’s own structure.

The connections between its various parts had become precarious, threatening to fall apart completely at any moment.

’It’s over... It’s all over...’

A despair a thousand times more intense than his physical agony washed over Wu Yushan’s mind like ice water.

He could clearly feel his realm rapidly plummeting.

Although he hadn’t dropped directly back to the Qi Refining Ninth Layer.

But the feeling of flawless perfection was gone.

Replaced by a sense of weakness, of a shaken foundation, like a great tower about to collapse.

More importantly, the damage to his Dao Foundation was almost irreversible.

Once the Dao Foundation completely shattered, he wouldn’t just fall back to the Qi Refining Ninth Layer; even his original foundation at that level would be severely damaged.

This meant his century of bitter cultivation would all be for naught.

In the future, not only would Foundation Establishment be a hopeless dream, but even cultivating back to Qi Refining Great Perfection would become incredibly difficult, the chances practically nil.

His path of cultivation... was almost completely severed!

"Situ Huaji!!!

And that rat who plotted against me from the shadows!!!

I, Wu Yushan, swear to the heavens, if I can survive this calamity!

I will hunt you down... until one of us is dead!!!"

Boundless resentment burned like a venomous flame in his heart, threatening to consume his last shred of sanity.

He hated Situ Huaji for destroying his Magical Artifact with a single punch and severely damaging his foundation.

He hated even more the insidious villain, whoever it was, who had leaked his whereabouts!

If not for that, how could he have been forced to use such a career-ending, forbidden technique!

Waves of intense dizziness washed over him, and the cracks in his Purple Mansion seemed to widen. Wu Yushan gritted his teeth and steadied himself.

He had to find an absolutely safe place to enter seclusion immediately and try to stabilize his crumbling Dao Foundation.

Even if he could only preserve a sliver of his foundation from being destroyed, it was better than complete collapse.

Gathering the last dregs of his nearly dissipated Primordial Qi, Wu Yushan recklessly burned what little Origin Essence Blood he had left, pushing his Tunneling Speed to its absolute limit.

He fled for his life toward an abandoned cave-dwelling he remembered—a place so secret that few even within the Yellow Springs Netherworld knew of its existence.

His figure was staggering and pathetic.

...

Ahead, the dim gray light that was Wu Yushan flickered like a candle in the wind, wobbling erratically, yet its speed was still astonishingly fast.

He could no longer be bothered with concealing his tracks.

He only wanted to find a corner to hide in as quickly as possible and deal with the collapsing Dao Foundation inside him.

But far behind him, a wisp of ethereal Pure Qi—formless, colorless, and blending almost perfectly with the air, its faintest ripples of Daoist Intent completely concealed—was latched onto his trail.

Qi Yun’s Divine Sense was locked firmly on the pathetic, fleeing figure ahead, but his heart was still filled with awe.

’That’s right... That unstoppable pressure from before, the kind that views all life as ants, was definitely the might of a Foundation Establishment Master!’

Recalling the terrifying scene from moments ago—how it had enveloped a ten-li radius and instantly killed every Cultivator—Qi Yun still felt a flicker of fear.

’I never thought a Great Perfection Qi Refining Cultivator could wield such power, even temporarily, through some kind of Secret Skill...’

He silently rejoiced that he had been cautious enough not to get personally involved.

Otherwise, even with his many protective measures, he likely wouldn’t have survived that annihilation that acted directly on the Divine Soul, an attack on the level of Foundation Establishment.

He would have long since become one of the corpses littering the ground.

’But to use such a heaven-defying technique must come at an enormous price.’ Qi Yun’s eyes glinted as he stared at Wu Yushan’s nearly dissipated Escape Light.

’Looking at his current state, he’s a spent arrow, a lamp with no more oil.’

Like the most patient of hunters, he followed unhurriedly, tailing him for a full thousand li.

Finally, at the edge of a desolate mountain range, Wu Yushan, like a bird with a broken wing, plunged into the dilapidated ruins of an abandoned city.

Qi Yun materialized outside the city, stopping behind a patch of withered yellow shrubs.

Looking ahead, he saw a county town of considerable size, but it had long been deserted.

The tall city walls had collapsed in many places, revealing the crumbling buildings within.

The streets were strewn with rubble and overgrown with weeds. Many houses were nothing but charred frames, as if they had been ravaged by both war and time.

A cold wind whistled through the empty doors and windows, creating a mournful sound that added to the eerie atmosphere.

The entire city was suffused with an aura of deathly silence and decay.

’He’s good at finding places,’ Qi Yun thought, his eyebrow twitching. With a wave of his hand, dozens of white Thousand Crane Talismans fluttered out, silently dispersing.

They surged into the dead city from different directions and altitudes.

By sharing the perception of the Thousand Crane Talismans, a detailed map of the ruined city quickly formed in Qi Yun’s mind.

The street layout, the remaining buildings, and... the target, Wu Yushan, who was stumbling along, his aura faint to the extreme.

Wu Yushan staggered through streets where weeds grew waist-high, occasionally bumping into ruined walls but showing no reaction, simply pressing forward stubbornly in one direction.

Finally, he turned into the city’s southwest corner and dove into a small, equally dilapidated temple whose plaque had long since fallen off and rotted away. His aura vanished completely.

It seemed he had set up some kind of isolating Restriction inside the temple.

’Southwest corner, a small temple...’ Qi Yun’s eyes narrowed.

He confirmed there wasn’t another living soul in the city.

Qi Yun’s form once again dissolved into that imperceptible wisp of Pure Qi, and he drifted into the city like a ghost.

He followed the safest path scouted by the Thousand Crane Talismans, avoiding areas of rubble that might make noise, and silently closed in on the southwest corner.

Strike while he’s sick, and take his life!

To ambush and kill a Great Perfection Qi Refining Cultivator, even one who was already severely injured and dying, one could not give him any chance to catch his breath or recover.

Soon, the small temple, standing alone in a corner of the ruins, came into view.

The temple walls were mottled, and most of the roof tiles were missing, revealing rotten rafters within.

Qi Yun did not barge in directly.

He stood silently in the shadows on the roof of a relatively intact building opposite the temple.

His gaze was heavy as he scanned the seemingly defenseless temple.

Then, with a flip of his hand, he retrieved several Array Discs of different colors, all engraved with complex patterns, from his Storage Magic Bracelet.

These were all spoils of war that he had accumulated over time or looted from enemies.

They weren’t top-tier, but their strength lay in their sheer number; used in combination, they could produce miraculous effects.

His figure moved like lightning, darting around the temple’s perimeter.

While performing hand-seal calculations to determine the positions, Qi Yun carefully buried the Array Discs one by one in specific locations underground. He used his True Essence to draw connecting Magic Patterns, linking their auras to form an invisible encirclement.

He set up the Trapped Dragon Rock Array in front of the temple’s main entrance, designed to seal the space and prevent escape.

On the sides, he placed the Illusionary Array to interfere with Divine Sense and sight.

Furthermore, at several key nodes, he buried his only offensive Array Discs, which contained the power of thunder and fire, as his final killing moves.

The entire process was silent, careful, and meticulous.

Half an hour later, everything was in place.

Qi Yun returned to the rooftop, his gaze fixed on the silent temple opposite him, as if he could see through its mottled walls to Wu Yushan inside, who was struggling to suppress his injuries and repair his Dao Foundation.

He took a deep breath, slowly raised his hands, and began to form a series of complex and ancient Spells before his chest.

The True Essence in his body began to circulate along a specific path, creating a subtle resonance with the arrays he had laid out.

A hidden yet murderous aura began to quietly spread through this corner of the ruined city.

The ambush!

Had officially begun!

...