"You truly are the most arrogant of the arrogant. Last time, if I hadn't been absent, could you have left with a complete victory?"
Lin Yezhou spoke coldly, his words carrying a clear implication — the last time the mysterious woman had come, had he been present, she could never have achieved a total victory. He would have been the one to bring her winning streak to an end.
"Heh…" Upon hearing this, the mysterious woman suddenly laughed, and her laughter was rather bizarre, brimming with derision.
"What are you laughing at?" Seeing this, Lin Yezhou asked coldly.
"Were you truly absent last time, or were you simply too afraid to show your face? Don't you know the answer yourself?" The mysterious woman said with a light chuckle.
"You—" Hearing this, Lin Yezhou's expression changed dramatically, a look of humiliation spreading across his entire face.
"This…"
At the same moment, every high-ranking member of the Spirit World Master Alliance furrowed their brows, dark lines appearing across their foreheads.
Because they all knew full well that when the mysterious woman and the mysterious elder had first come, Lin Yezhou had in fact been inside the Spirit World Master Alliance.
But at that time, Lin Yezhou had been only a Gold-robed Spirit World Master. In order to preserve the Alliance's dignity, they had not allowed him to step forward.
It was only after the woman and the elder departed that they activated the Breaking Cocoon into Emperor array, allowing Lin Yezhou and the others to enter and cultivate within it, transforming Lin Yezhou into a Royal-robed Spirit World Master.
Yet they never imagined that this mysterious woman would somehow know that Lin Yezhou had been at the Spirit World Master Alliance at that time — and this was a matter of grave significance.
After all, apart from the high-ranking members of the Spirit World Master Alliance, almost no one knew that when the mysterious woman had first come to challenge the Alliance, Lin Yezhou had been inside as well.
This meant either that the mysterious woman and the mysterious elder truly possessed extraordinary abilities, or that there was a spy planted among the Alliance's high-ranking members on behalf of the mysterious elder.
"Enough with the meaningless talk. Now that I've stepped forward, the one who will definitely lose is you," Lin Yezhou said.
"Cut the chatter. Take this!"
But just then, the mysterious woman suddenly let out a mighty shout. Her black robes fluttered as her body erupted with blazing radiance, blooming with golden light.
That golden light, threaded with swirling rune patterns, surged forth like a great tidal wave — one wave crashing over the next, each faster than the last, blotting out sky and earth as it hammered toward Lin Yezhou and Fu Feiteng.
"This is… an offensive technique!!!" Gazing upon those raging waves condensed from Royal-level barrier force, even Chu Feng's eyes lit up with surprise.
He could feel just how formidable that barrier was. This was no ordinary barrier — it was an offensive barrier, and the power it contained was not inferior to forbidden martial arts unleashed by a half-emperor powerhouse.
Such an offensive technique was simply too powerful. Though it still fell short of the offensive technique wielded by Old Village Chief Ma of the Sealed Ancient Village, it was nonetheless an exceptionally fearsome technique.
But Old Village Chief Ma had cultivated for an enormous span of time before achieving that level of power. Yet this woman, still so young, had already mastered such an offensive technique — that was truly terrifying.
One could only imagine just how powerful the mysterious woman's barrier arts had become.
In this moment, Chu Feng truly realized how formidable this mysterious woman was.
"Junior Brother Fu, don't hesitate — attack together!"
Lin Yezhou and Fu Feiteng were no fools. They both felt the overwhelming power of that barrier force.
Had it been a contest of martial strength, they could still have coped. But this was ultimately a clash of barrier techniques — they were not permitted to use martial force or reveal their cultivation. They could only defend with barrier arts.
While they were both proficient in certain offensive barrier techniques, they were far from being as refined as this woman's.
So neither one of them could withstand such an assault alone. They had to combine their strength.
"Haaah~~~"
In that instant, Lin Yezhou and Fu Feiteng struck as one. Immense Royal-level barrier force erupted from each of them, also carrying tremendous power — and when their barrier forces intertwined, the strength grew even greater.
Yet despite the power behind their attack, its form left something to be desired. The mysterious woman's barrier surged like rolling waves, layer upon layer — not only fierce in its assault but strikingly beautiful as well.
Lin Yezhou and Fu Feiteng's attack, by contrast, was nothing more than raw barrier force with no variation in form.