Upon hearing the woman's words, the black-armored man harbored no further doubts and immediately assented several times over.
The palace-robed woman swept her sleeve, and amid a frantic flash of pink radiance, both figures blurred and vanished.
……
At the same time, atop a towering peak in Spirit Race territory bordering the Human Race, three Holy Spirit beings at the Integration stage were surrounding a strikingly handsome young man as though facing a formidable enemy.
The young man stood in midair wearing a golden robe, his hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the three before him with an expressionless face.
Emblazoned across the front of his golden robe was an enormous, resplendent golden lotus — impossible to miss.
Below, the mountain peak was riddled with crater after crater. Inside them lay piles of mutilated corpses and skeletal remains, while countless shattered artifacts were scattered across the ground — over a thousand in total, all completely drained of spiritual energy.
"No matter who you are, to slaughter our fellow clansmen of Zuyun Mountain on such a scale and dare to absorb their vital essence has committed a grave taboo of our race. The three of us will carve you into a thousand pieces to avenge this!" snarled one of the three Holy Spirits — a short, portly old man — through gritted teeth.
The other two Holy Spirits flanking him were a disheveled-haired elder clutching a section of emerald-green bamboo staff, and a beautiful woman who appeared to be in her early thirties.
Both stared at the golden-robed young man with eyes practically spitting fire.
The Spirit Race was unlike ordinary foreign races. Because the awakening of spiritual intelligence was exceedingly difficult, their numbers had always been far fewer than those of other races, which meant that every single member was valued immensely. Fortunately, once a Spirit Race member awakened spiritual intelligence, they immediately possessed considerable supernatural abilities — those at the Core Formation or Nascent Soul level being merely the most common among them — which was how they had managed to coexist alongside the Yaksha, Demonic, and Monster Races in their corner of the
Zuyun Mountain, where this scene was unfolding, was one of the more well-known strongholds where Spirit Race members resided. The three Holy Spirits were the three Supreme Elders of this stronghold.
A few days prior, the three Holy Spirits had left on business. Upon their return, they discovered that every single clansman at the stronghold had been slaughtered to the last, their true-form vital essence completely drained. And the perpetrator — this golden-robed young man — had not even bothered to leave. The shock and fury within the three Holy Spirits could well be imagined.
Yet although the young man's aura did not appear particularly formidable, none of the three Holy Spirits could discern his exact cultivation level.
This simultaneously intensified their rage and stirred a vague sense of unease — otherwise they would have seized him long ago rather than remaining locked in this standoff.
"Hmph, are you quite finished speaking?" The golden-robed young man finally broke his silence with a snort, adopting an utterly condescending tone. "Nothing more than a handful of spirit servants who have taken human form, and you dare be this insolent before me. That their vital essence has been put to my use is a fitting end for them. As for the three of you — your cultivation far exceeds the other spirit servants. If you're willing to submit to me as masters and serve my purposes, I may spare your lives."
"Spirit servants? You're a person from the Immortal Realm?" The three Holy Spirits, who had been glaring with fiery eyes, simultaneously blurted out in shock.
"Oh? You actually know about this? Could it be that one of you fled down from above? No — with your level of cultivation, that would be impossible. It seems someone told you. In that case, this Immortal Envoy finds himself rather more interested in whoever shared that information." The golden-robed young man paused in mild surprise at their reaction, but quickly resumed his cold smirk. "Well then — now that you know where I come from, why don't you obediently reveal your true forms and allow me to bind you with a blood contract? Otherwise, I'll simply capture you and personally wipe out your spiritual intelligence myself. It amounts to the same thing — just a bit more trouble."
Upon hearing the young man actually confirm their suspicion, the three Holy Spirits' faces turned deathly pale, and they exchanged glances of utter terror.
If this person truly hailed from the Upper Realm, then the three of them at the Integration stage would be utterly powerless against him.
"Wait — if he truly descended from the Immortal Realm, then why would he cause such a massive commotion while dealing with our clansmen? He's deceiving us with empty words!" The disheveled-haired elder gripping the emerald bamboo staff, though fear still lingered on his face, suddenly hit upon something after his eyes darted back and forth, and raised his voice in a shout.
"Brother Huang is quite right. I've never heard of anyone from the Immortal Realm being able to descend into our realm. Even if he truly came from the Upper Realm, something seems to have gone wrong. Otherwise, why would he waste so much breath talking to us? There's no need to fear him if the three of us join forces," the beautiful woman added, her expression growing solemn.
The golden-robed young man's face stiffened ever so slightly at their words.
This subtle, involuntary change did not escape the notice of the three Holy Spirits, and their resolve strengthened considerably.
"Attack! We cannot let this braggart leave this place alive!" The short, portly elder in the middle flashed a vicious glint in his eyes, then abruptly formed a series of hand seals. A hazy white bronze mirror materialized before his chest, and he swept it toward the young man.
*Whoosh!*
A pillar of white flame erupted from the mirror, expanding into a sea of fire over a hundred zhang tall that surged toward the young man in a sweeping roll.
The disheveled-haired elder and the beautiful woman struck without a moment's hesitation.
One swept his emerald bamboo staff through the empty air before him. Instantly, countless emerald-green bamboo shadows overlapped and layered above the golden-robed young man, covering an area of over a hundred mu, then descended without a sound.
The other flicked her fingers forward in rapid succession, and a mass of azure light shot out. After spinning rapidly, it suddenly transformed into ten enormous azure birds, each dozens of zhang long, which let out piercing cries as they dove straight toward their target.
Though the three Holy Spirits did not truly believe the young man was from the Upper Realm, they knew he was far from ordinary. Without thinking, they unleashed their most devastating techniques, hoping a combined strike would finish this formidable enemy in a single blow.