Faced with these Yellow Springs Phantoms that can't be harmed by attacks, Ian Song didn't have any good solutions, but the phantoms couldn't hurt him either.
"You guys be careful—I’ll go deal with him!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Ian Song appeared several meters away from Skye Miao. A longsword materialized in his hand and he swung it in a slash.
The sword-qi shot out like a rainbow, reaching Skye Miao in an instant.
“Break for me!”
Facing the sudden sword-qi, Skye Miao shouted sharply. Another ghost claw wreathed in black mist stretched out from the black fog to smack at the sword-qi.
"Heh!"
Seeing this, Ian Song let out a cold laugh—this sword-qi was not so easily broken.
Sure enough, the moment the ghost claw touched the sword-qi, the sword-qi suddenly flared with brilliance, instantly swallowing and shredding the claw before continuing to slash toward Skye Miao.
"Not good!"
With a shout, Skye Miao retreated in flight, summoning two more ghost claws to block in front of him.
"Puff! Puff!"
But this sword-qi was unstoppable—within a split second, it shredded the two ghost claws and kept chasing after Skye Miao.
"Damn it!"
Annoyance flashed across Skye Miao’s face as he suddenly dove into the black mist. Instantly, dozens of Yellow Springs Phantoms burst out from the fog, lunging at Ian Song.
“Hmph, you think hiding in there will save you?”
Ian Song sneered and flickered above the black mist. The Azure Lotus Sword appeared in his hand.
Ever since he went to the fantasy world, he’d rarely used the Azure Lotus Sword.
But now, in this cultivation world, the Azure Lotus Sword was finally back in its element.
Azure Lotus Bloom!
With a single sword slash, a thunderous boom sounded as an absolute sword domain formed, enveloping an acre-sized patch of black mist, unleashing endless slaughter within.
"Aaaaah!"
As the Azure Lotus sword-qi shredded through, a series of agonized, piercing screams echoed from the black mist, while the entire mass was sliced into countless pieces.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The next moment, endless black blood fell from the mist, as if a rain of black blood was pouring down.
A moment later, the sword domain faded, and the fragments of black mist gradually dissipated into the void. The Yellow Springs Phantoms vanished as well, and Skye Miao was ground to dust.
"Too weak!"
Ian Song hadn’t expected Skye Miao to die so easily. He felt quite disappointed—this much-hyped Yellow Springs Secret Canon turned out to be so fragile!
The six Miao Clan elders looked at Ian Song with awe in their eyes, harboring some doubt in their hearts. Wasn’t mastering the Yellow Springs Secret Canon supposed to make you invincible at the same realm?
How did Skye Miao die so easily?
After thinking it over, they figured there were two possibilities: first, Skye Miao hadn’t truly mastered the Yellow Springs Secret Canon and disgraced it; second, this woman was simply too strong—even with the secret canon, he couldn’t win.
Ian Song collected Skye Miao’s storage spirit ring from the void, then turned his gaze to the six elders.
Feeling his gaze, the six elders’ faces changed slightly, a chill creeping into their hearts.
"So, how should I deal with you?" Ian Song asked with a half-smile.
"Fellow Daoist, I’m willing to surrender!"
One of the guest elders said.
"I’m willing to surrender too!" Another guest elder quickly followed.
These two had been recruited by the Miao Clan and were basically just salaried workers. Now that Skye Miao was dead—and he’d almost killed them to keep his secrets—they felt no guilt about betraying the clan and surrendering.
The remaining four Nascent Soul experts were all cultivated by the Miao Clan. Hesitation and inner struggle flashed across their faces—they weren’t sure whether to surrender.
After a long pause, one Miao Clan elder said, "Fellow Daoist, all of this started because of Skye Miao. Now that he’s dead, we’re willing to represent the Miao Clan and make peace with you. What do you think?"
Ian Song curled his lip dismissively. "Peace is fine—just pay me ten thousand high-grade spirit crystals!"
The elder froze, then gave a bitter smile. "Fellow Daoist, you may not know—even if we combined all the Miao Clan’s assets, we couldn’t reach ten thousand high-grade spirit crystals. How about two thousand instead?"
Ian Song was surprised. "Your Miao Clan is that poor?"
He’d collected huge amounts of spirit crystals in the fantasy world—just the supreme-grade crystals stored in the Divine Temple numbered in the tens of millions, and there were even more high-grade ones.
He’d thought the Miao Clan could easily produce ten thousand high-grade spirit crystals, but it turned out their total assets didn’t even reach that.
No wonder Skye Miao was willing to risk exposing his secrets and fight to the death.
Hearing Ian Song call the Miao Clan poor, the elder was speechless. After a moment, he explained, "Fellow Daoist, our clan may be big, but running a family is expensive. So we don’t actually have that many spirit crystals in reserve."
"So how many spirit crystals can your Miao Clan actually bring out right now?"
The elder replied, "Our reserves are less than one thousand high-grade spirit crystals. Even to pay you two thousand, we’d have to sell off a lot of industries and treasures to make up the difference!"
Ian Song waved his hand, bored. "Forget it. For Lingyan’s sake, I’ll settle for two thousand. You have ten days to deliver the crystals to the Jade Maiden Sect. If you’re late and I have to come to the clan myself, it won’t be just two thousand anymore!"
"Thank you for your generosity, Fellow Daoist!" The elder bowed deeply to Ian Song, clearly worried he might go back on his word, and firmly remembered Lingyan’s name.
Half an hour later, the four Miao Clan elders left with Elder Jian and Elder Yao, while the two who surrendered stayed behind.
After all, they’d already surrendered—they had no face to return to the Miao Clan.
Splendor Palace, on a cloud bed.
Ian Song lay on his side, while little Leah Ling diligently massaged him.
After this battle, Ian Song’s Senior Azure persona had become the Jade Maiden Sect’s idol. Being able to serve Senior Azure in person made Leah Ling and her three companions the envy of countless disciples.
Even second-generation disciples volunteered to serve Senior Azure.
Several hours later.
Six Nascent Soul experts returned to the Miao Clan.
With Skye Miao dead, the clan was leaderless, but the four Miao Clan elders showed no panic. After sending Elder Jian and Elder Yao to rest, the four joined the two resident Nascent Soul elders and went to the most remote courtyard in the clan’s inner compound.
All six bowed respectfully toward the courtyard and called out, "We greet the Old Ancestor! The Miao Clan has suffered a great upheaval—please, Old Ancestor, come out and take charge!"
After a long pause.
An aged voice sounded in their ears: "What has happened?"
The elders looked up to find a disheveled gray-robed old man standing before them. They all knelt at once. "Old Ancestor, the clan head Skye Miao has been killed!"