A deep purple sphere of energy rose like a towering pillar, locking down a region of a hundred zhang in every direction.
The barrier didn't completely block sight. Outside it, countless pairs of eyes watched from the shadows.
"Bai Ningbing, you'd better surrender quietly. There's no escape for you here — not even with wings!" The four Elders of the Tie family had taken up positions to the north, south, east, and west, surrounding Bai Ningbing in the center.
Bai Ningbing sat cross-legged on a massive boulder, clutching Yuan Stones in both hands as she replenished her True Essence.
"Bai Ningbing, stop deluding yourself. You killed people from our Tie family, and you thought you could get away with it? Hmph." The four Elders of the Tie family each had grim expressions, their eyes locked tightly on Bai Ningbing. The encirclement was airtight.
Bai Ningbing's narrowed eyes slowly opened. Her blue irises were calm and still, and her voice was as cold as ice. "Four Elders of the Tie family — what good does more talk do? If you want to capture and kill me, then come at me. Even if I die at your hands, I'll drag a few of you down with me."
She paused, then continued, "Maintaining this barrier must be draining a considerable amount of your True Essence, right? Heh. I know the four of you excel at coordinated combat, and I'm only at the Initial Stage of the Fourth Transformation. But please believe one thing: if you do manage to kill me, even if you survive, you'll be seriously wounded at the very least. And if my companion shows up — what then?"
"You — " The four Elders of the Tie family were choked with fury.
Bai Ningbing's words had borrowed Fang Yuan's imposing presence, but they struck squarely at their weak point.
"Bai Ningbing, stop talking big. Come, come — I'll be the one to face you." One of the four Elders of the Tie family stepped forward.
"Heh heh heh." Bai Ningbing laughed softly and rose gracefully to her feet, ready to fight. Her silver hair and snow-white robes made her stand out from the crowd. Even cornered and besieged, she carried herself with an air of effortless composure — a serene disregard for life and death.
The two sides clashed, and within the barrier, sand and stone were hurled through the air. Flashes of white and the ring of metal on metal filled the space.
On a low mountain peak in the distance, a group of Gu Masters from the Shang family stood watching.
"The wheel battle has begun again. Bai Ningbing truly deserves her reputation from the fighting arena. To withstand the rotation of four Fourth Transformation, Middle Stage Gu Masters — no small feat!" One of them sighed in admiration.
"Bai Ningbing does have remarkable combat talent. She's genuinely powerful. But another reason is that the four Tie family Elders don't dare use their full strength," another analyzed.
"Exactly. The four Elders are holding back, afraid of Bai Ningbing's death throes. Their specialty is coordinated combat, but individually, they're not as strong as other cultivators of the same rank. If they lose a single member, their combined power plummets, and they'd have no chance of competing for the Three Kings' inheritance."
"What worries me right now is that Bai Ningbing has the Purple Gold Token. If she brings it out — do we intervene?"
"Not yet. I've already sent word back. The family is dispatching powerful reinforcements. Elder Yihuo is on his way!"
At this news, the Gu Masters of the Shang family perked up with renewed spirits.
Yihuo was no ordinary Gu Master. He was one of the five great Elders of the Shang family, a cultivator at the Peak Stage of the Fourth Transformation! He was Shang Yanfei's right-hand man — his arrival would surely change the balance of power on Three Blade Mountain.
……
"I didn't expect things to develop like this. If the Tie family kills Bai Ningbing, the Shang family's deal goes down the drain." In a patch of tall grass, Meng Tu watched the battle inside the barrier with sharp, focused eyes, his tone worried.
He was in his prime years. Together with his partner Jiao Huang, he was a Peak Stage Third Transformation Gu Master.
The pair were a notorious assassination team from the Demonic Path. Years ago, even Xiao Fulu — a Righteous Path Gu Master at the Middle Stage of the Fourth Transformation — had fallen to their hands.
They had received a promise from the Shang family: if they could kill the Fang-Bai duo, they would be allowed to defect and join the Shang family.
They had already made their move on Fire Coal Mountain, but the group of Heat-Crocodiles they had lured hadn't caused Fang Yuan and Bai Ningbing much trouble.
Unwilling to give up, they followed the pair to Three Blade Mountain and had been biding their time ever since.
"Sigh… what can we do about it? We're good at assassination, not frontal assault. The chances of succeeding under the open gaze of so many people are far too slim. If Bai Ningbing dies, there's nothing we can do. All we can do in this deal is try our best and leave the rest to fate." The elder, Jiao Huang, let out a long sigh.
"You're right. There are who knows how many pairs of eyes watching from the shadows right now. We might even be spotted before we get close." Meng Tu echoed helplessly.
They were assassination Gu Masters. They valued stealth — if they didn't strike, they didn't strike, but when they did, it had to be a single lethal blow. Before making their move, they needed meticulous calculation and thorough preparation, followed by a devastating burst of effort.
If the probability of success was too low, they would never act. They would rather abandon the deal entirely.
This was precisely why they had survived so long in the Demonic Path.
Every renowned Gu Master had their own unique method of survival.
……
"Heh heh heh… now those four old men from the Tie family are in an awkward spot." Li Xian stood before the barrier, watching the fight inside with narrowed eyes gleaming with schadenfreude.
Though this location had already become the focal point of all attention on Three Blade Mountain, Li Xian couldn't have cared less.
He was supremely confident that he would never be exposed to anyone's gaze.
This confidence came from the Fifth Transformation Gu Insect in his possession — the Concealment and Invisibility Gu!
Gu Insects that reached the Fifth Transformation were exceedingly rare. Many Fifth Transformation Gu Masters, even after years of cultivation, possessed only one or two Fifth Transformation Gu Insects.
The Concealment and Invisibility Gu could only be detected by specific Fifth Transformation reconnaissance Gu. But the Three Kings' inheritance had only opened recently — no one had even reached the midpoint yet, so there was no need to worry about Fifth Transformation Gu Masters getting involved.