“A mere million Spirit Stones, what does it matter even if I lose?”

Qin Lianyi agreed immediately, her voice unwavering.

It wasn’t that she lacked confidence in Han Lie himself, but rather that she understood the brutal mathematics of cultivation. The gap between the mid-Golden Core Stage and the perfected Golden Core Stage was like a chasm. Without some unconventional and world-shaking trump card, it was almost impossible for the former to defeat the latter.

However, even though she knew the odds were against her, she absolutely could not let Mu Feng have the last laugh.

“Heh, Princess Lianyi is as concerned with face as ever,” Mu Feng chuckled, clearly not surprised by her stubbornness. “From any perspective, a mid-Golden Core cultivator cannot possibly defeat a perfected one. I’ll thank you here in advance for your generosity.”

Qin Lianyi gave him a cold glance and didn’t bother responding. She couldn’t be bothered wasting breath on a hypocrite like Mu Feng.

Her gaze returned to the distant battlefield. Her priority wasn’t the bet; it was Han Lie’s survival. It didn’t matter if he lost, but he absolutely could not perish at Ye Lang’s hands. That was the only reason she was standing here.

Woo woo woo~

The energy storm raged for a long time, howling like a tormented beast, before finally subsiding.

The clouds in the sky had been completely annihilated, leaving a stark, empty void. Below, an unfathomably deep crater, tens of thousands of zhang wide, scarred the earth. From high above, it looked like the wound of a god.

Ye Lang stood in mid-air, his robes fluttering in the turbulent wind.

He hadn’t even had time to feel proud of easily deflecting Han Lie’s powerful slash when his expression gradually darkened.

Because… he could no longer sense the auras of his four junior brothers.

Looking across the crater at Han Lie, who wore a seemingly amused expression, the answer was already obvious.

“Was that slash just now merely a feint?”

Ye Lang’s eyelids twitched violently, his voice low and dangerous.

He personally didn’t care about the lives of those four useless burdens. However, returning to the sect alone would be problematic. Imagine explaining to Old Ghost Black Sha: ‘Master, I, a perfected Golden Core cultivator, led a team to ambush a mid-Golden Core target, and somehow I lost four disciples while the target is still laughing.’

It would be a humiliation he couldn’t wash away.

But what was done was done; he couldn’t resurrect the dead.

“Your reaction time seems a bit slow,” Han Lie mocked mercilessly.

The energy storm just now had caused the surrounding atmospheric qi to become extremely chaotic, masking his movements. Ye Lang had been too focused on the spectacle to notice the reaper claiming his subordinates.

“No matter. I will take your head back to explain to Master!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Lang clenched his hand violently!

The spiritual energy between heaven and earth was once again fully mobilized, obeying his will. It formed a massive spiritual energy mountain that blotted out the sky and sun, casting a terrifying shadow over the battlefield.

With unstoppable momentum, it pressed down towards Han Lie!

Crack! Crack!

The immense potential energy generated by the descent of the mountain compressed space itself. Han Lie felt an invisible, terrifying pressure lock onto him. His body felt as heavy as a thousand jin, his bones groaning under the strain.

Han Lie frowned, not daring to be negligent in the slightest.

Gripping the hilt of Crimson Oath with both hands, he channeled his robust spiritual energy into the blade.

“Soul Sever!”

Hum!

A fiery red blade light, even larger and thicker than before, shot out like a geyser of blood. It met the spiritual energy mountain head-on!

At the same time, a sharp sound of something cutting through the air rang out.

Ye Lang, holding his large cleaver, had used the distraction to charge right in front of him.

“Die!”

Han Lie had no time to react; he could only instinctively raise his blade to block.

Clang!

A terrifying force struck like a falling meteor.

Using the momentum of the impact, Han Lie rapidly retreated backwards. In the few brief moments that the Soul Sever slash held back the mountain, he managed to escape its direct suppression range.

Behind him, the blade light shattered, and the spiritual energy mountain crushed the empty space where he had just stood.

“Huff~”

Stabilizing his posture mid-air, Han Lie could clearly feel his qi and blood churning violently within him.

Although Crimson Oath had intercepted and absorbed most of the power from Ye Lang’s sneak attack, the shockwave had still invaded his body, causing severe internal turmoil. If not for his Pure Yang Sacred Body’s formidable physical resilience, that single exchange would have been enough to rupture his organs.

The perfected Golden Core Stage and mid-Golden Core Stage truly were not on the same level. If Ye Lang were merely at the late stage, Han Lie wouldn’t be struggling this much.

However, Han Lie wasn’t without advantages.

His low-grade Heaven-rank treasure, Crimson Oath, was the great equalizer. In a battle between cultivators, a powerful treasure could tilt the scales. Moreover, Ye Lang’s strength, while overwhelming, hadn’t achieved absolute dominance. He wasn’t a Nascent Soul monster capable of crushing Han Lie with a thought. The gap was quantitative, not qualitative.

And quantitative gaps could be bridged.

Immediately after…

Ye Lang raised his hand high above his head. The remnants of the spiritual energy mountain transformed, flowing like water into a vast river that converged entirely into his palm.

The immense spiritual energy was frantically compressed into a sphere about one meter in diameter. The energy density within it reached an astonishing, unstable level.

“Heaven-rank treasures are indeed impressive… but…”

Ye Lang smiled confidently, his eyes burning with malice. “How many more of my moves can you block?”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

As Ye Lang’s words fell, the spiritual energy sphere in his palm was instantly tainted by eerie dark spiritual energy. It ignited with sinister, terrifying black flames that seemed to devour the light around them.

“This move will finish you!”

“Black Demon Immovable Bell!”

Ye Lang’s hands rapidly formed a series of profound and mysterious seals. A sinister, bone-chilling aura instantly enveloped heaven and earth!

Then, the strange dark spiritual energy sphere suddenly expanded outward.

In the blink of an eye, it formed a massive, eerie black bell that encompassed the entire battlefield.

The black bell rapidly solidified, becoming a ten-thousand-zhang construct that slammed down onto the earth, sealing the space.

Both Han Lie and Ye Lang were drawn inside this pocket dimension.

Upon entering, the pervasive sinister aura made Han Lie feel extremely uncomfortable, as if thousands of needles were pricking his skin.

Directly opposite him…

Ye Lang stood in mid-air holding his large cleaver, looking down at Han Lie from above. In this dark, enclosed space, he looked like a demonic lord presiding over his domain.

“Let me tell you honestly now… you old bastard.”

Ye Lang’s voice echoed unnaturally within the bell.

“Among all those powerful experts who have fought me before… none have ever left this Black Demon Immovable Bell alive!”

He watched Han Lie like a cat playing with a trapped mouse, victory already certain in his eyes.

“Is that so?”

The calm expression on Han Lie’s face remained unchanged. He adjusted his grip on his sword, sitting steady in the air as if fishing from a terrace.

“Well, today… This Senior truly doesn’t believe in such superstitions.”