nyslfriends Chapter 119 Battle at Foundation Establishment
Chapter 119 Battle at Foundation Establishment
The moonlight, as white as frost, fell upon the withered old locust tree, casting a long, slanted shadow of Zhou Huaili leaning against it.
The light in his eyes had mostly faded, and the blood and foam at the corners of his mouth had stopped flowing. Only the occasional twitch proved that there was still a last glimmer of life remaining in his body.
Zhang Lin stood ten feet away, the Heaven-Burning Flame burning quietly in his palm.
The pale blue flames danced on his face, casting flickering light on his calm, almost hard eyes.
He did not go forward immediately.
He had read about the power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator's desperate counterattack more than once in the sect's scriptures.
Even if the Dao foundation in the dantian is shattered, the remaining true essence may still be detonated at the last moment, dragging everything within a radius of ten feet down with it.
Zhou Huaili had just burned his True Essence Lotus Platform to force him back, which showed that this person had already disregarded life and death. A dying man is capable of anything.
Zhang Lin held the Heavenly Flame in his right hand and took out a Qi-restoring pill from his storage bag with his left hand and swallowed it.
As the elixir entered the abdomen, it transformed into a warm current that spread along the meridians, and the nearly depleted liquid true qi in the dantian began to slowly recover.
He needed to wait, wait for Zhou Huaili to breathe his last, wait for that shattered foundation to fall into complete silence.
Zhou Huaili seemed to see through his thoughts, and a nasty smile appeared on his lips: "So cautious... no wonder Zhou Mingyuan... fell into your hands..."
Zhang Lin did not answer.
His spiritual consciousness was like a fine net, enveloping Zhou Huaili for three zhang.
In his spiritual perception, Zhou Huaili's true essence fluctuations were decreasing at a visible rate. The true essence lotus platform in his dantian had shattered into several pieces, and the remaining true essence, like water in a sieve, was seeping out drop by drop from the cracks in his meridians and dissipating into the world.
That light blue true essence shield was as thin as a cicada's wing, flickering on and off, and could go out at any moment.
Zhou Huaili suddenly gasped for breath, his voice hoarse like a broken bellows.
"My life has been a complete failure. I've done dirty work my whole life, but I can't even get into the Zhou family genealogy. Ten years later, no one in the Zhou family will remember who Zhou Huaili is."
He paused, then looked up at Zhang Lin: "You're a smart man. You didn't rush to catch up just now because you were afraid I would turn on you in my dying moments and take you down with me."
"You dare to stand before me now because you know I'm completely exhausted and can't even self-destruct my true energy."
Zhang Lin paused for a moment, then calmly replied, "Yes."
"That's frank enough." Zhou Huaili coughed up a mouthful of black blood, mixed with small pieces of internal organs. "When I was your age, I was still a lackey for the direct descendants, serving tea and water, wagging my tail and begging for favors."
"I reached the Foundation Establishment stage at the age of forty-two, thinking that I could become a superior person from then on. However, the clan elder said that my aptitude was limited and sent me to do dirty work."
"Ten years have passed. I killed so many people for the Zhou family, and all I got in return was this broken mirror."
He flipped his hand and took out the spirit mirror, its dark golden surface gleaming faintly in the moonlight.
The eye on the back of the mirror was now completely closed, its light dimmed.
"Take it." Zhou Huaili tossed the bronze mirror over, his movements as casual as if he were throwing away a piece of trash. "This is the only valuable thing I have."
"The spirit stones and pills in the storage bag are not worth mentioning; they won't be of much use to you."
"But this mirror is quite good. It's a mid-grade spiritual artifact that can reveal the flow of true essence and expose the weaknesses in your techniques. If you hadn't had that bell and that flag, I could have found the flaws in your techniques within three breaths and killed you with a single blow just by using this mirror."
The bronze mirror landed at Zhang Lin's feet, sinking slightly into the soil by half an inch.
He did not use his spiritual sense or true energy to pick it up.
It's not that I don't want it, it's that I don't believe it.
He had already experienced far too many of the methods of Foundation Establishment cultivators today.
Even if Zhou Huaili looked like a candle flickering in the wind, he would not rashly pick up what his opponent threw at him while his eyes were still open.
Seeing that he didn't move, Zhou Huaili sneered: "You little brat, you're more suspicious than someone like me who does dirty work."
"Don't worry, I didn't do anything to the mirror. I look like this already, what energy would I have to do anything?"
"I just don't want this thing to be buried underground with me. It's been with me for ten years, and it needs to go somewhere."
"...What's your name?" Zhou Huaili suddenly asked.
Zhang Lin paused for a moment, then said, "Zhang Lin."
"Zhang Lin." Zhou Huaili repeated the name, as if he were chewing on something. "Okay, I'll remember it. When I get down there, I'll be able to give my name to the King of Hell."
He paused, then suddenly coughed up a mouthful of black blood.
Blood mixed with fragments of internal organs fell onto the withered yellow grass, making a hissing, corrosive sound—the result of the backlash from the residual true essence after the Dao foundation shattered.
His hand groped around at his side, as if trying to grab something, but in the end it just hung limply in the soil, his knuckles slightly curled, like a dying spider.
The True Essence Shield was completely extinguished.
Zhang Lin made a move at that moment.
He did not approach, but instead used his true energy to activate the Blood Refining Sword.
The flying sword was drawn silently, tracing a pale blood-red arc across the night sky before precisely piercing Zhou Huaili's throat.
The sword tip emerged from behind his neck and embedded itself deeply into the trunk of the old locust tree behind him.
Zhou Huaili's body trembled, his blood was rapidly consumed by the Blood Refining Sword, and his face visibly turned pale.
His eyes were open, reflecting the eerie blue firelight. The ugly curve of his lips was frozen on his face, as if he were smiling, or perhaps sighing.
Zhang Lin did not immediately sheathe his sword.
He stood there for five breaths, his spiritual sense repeatedly scanning Zhou Huaili's corpse. He confirmed that the true essence seed in his dantian had completely subsided and that the shield showed no signs of reigniting before recalling the Blood Refining Sword and slowly stepping forward.
There wasn't a trace of blood left on the sword; in fact, it even replenished some of his true energy.
He put the sword back into his storage bag to nurture it.
He squatted down and first took off the storage bag from Zhou Huaili's waist. The bag was embroidered with the character "Zhou". It was finely crafted and of the highest grade. Its capacity was several times larger than his own storage bag.
Immediately afterwards, he picked up the dark gold bronze mirror from the ground; the closed eye on the back of the mirror gleamed faintly in the moonlight.
Finally, there was the flying sword that grazed the tree trunk beside him. Its blade was slender like a willow leaf, silver-white all over, and intricate runes were engraved on the edge.
Zhang Lin pulled the flying sword from the tree trunk, the blade rubbing against the wood and making a slight creaking sound.
The sword tip gleamed coldly under the moonlight. Although it had cut several inches into the tree trunk, not a single speck of wood had gotten into it.
After confirming that nothing was missing, Zhang Lin snapped his fingers.
The dark blue flames descended upon Zhou Huaili, igniting upon contact with his flesh and spreading layer by layer along his robes, skin, and bones.
In just a few breaths, the entire corpse transformed into a ball of ghostly blue fire.
The flames hissed as they burned, and flesh, bones, and clothes turned to ashes in the high temperature. Even the withered old locust tree was burned, losing most of its branches.
After the flames died down, all that remained was a handful of grayish-white ashes and a few charred bone fragments.
Zhang Lin made a hand seal and used his wind manipulation technique to scatter the ashes, which fell into the withered grass by the roadside and mixed with the soil, making it impossible to distinguish whether they were human or animal.
After doing all this, he let out a long breath, returned to the ruins of the town hall in Baishi Town, sat cross-legged on the stone steps, and took out the Blood Fiend Banner to absorb the remaining death energy here.
In this battle, the Blood Fiend Banner repeatedly activated the Profound Yin Soul-Seizing Technique, depleting its evil energy. The death energy here was just the right amount to replenish it.