The reason Evan Lin dared to speak like this was mainly because of the defensive barrier projected by Tom Chu and Jade Chu. No matter how powerful the three opponents' artifacts were, none of them could possibly reach mid Immortal Lord-level attack power. At this moment, the only thing truly frustrating him was the Feather-Spirit Binding Cord wrapped around his body—he still couldn't break free.
When the Heaven-Shatter Token and the flame attack slammed into the defensive barrier, they were blocked outside with a muffled boom. The result stunned both the silver-haired elder and the middle-aged man—the barrier was actually this strong, far beyond what they’d imagined.
All three stared in shock at the cyan-and-yellow barrier surrounding Evan Lin. The Heaven-Shatter Token struck several times but had no effect; instead, the backlash from each hit made the silver-haired elder’s qi and blood churn, as if his mind might be injured by the recoil.
“How does this kid have such a terrifying energy defense? Who the hell is he?” The middle-aged man couldn’t help but curse, his face twisted in disbelief and looking downright comical.
Right now, Evan Lin was focused on how to break the Feather-Spirit Binding Cord—only by regaining his freedom could he kill these three. With a thought, flames erupted across his body. This was the result of activating Fireshift; his current Fireshift had reached the second layer, and the heat was enough to turn stone into magma. He was sure the Feather-Spirit Binding Cord couldn’t withstand such burning.
When they saw the flames burst out from Evan Lin, everyone was stunned. In that moment, he was a man of pure fire—a living fireball. The red-robed Lord of Coldriver City’s face changed drastically. “No! This kid wants to burn away my Feather-Spirit Binding Cord! That cord is extremely tough—even divine weapons have a hard time cutting it—but it can’t withstand flames like these.
If it were just ordinary flames, I wouldn’t be worried. But this guy’s fire actually has black mixed in—this is no normal flame. Looks like it’s about to be destroyed. What should we do?”
“His energy barrier must need Immortal Essence to maintain. We need to keep attacking him with artifacts and martial skills—his consumption will skyrocket. Even if he breaks free from the cord, he’ll be spent and easy to kill. We have to use our strongest attacks.” the silver-haired elder said.
Evan Lin cursed to himself, “Damn it! You’re actually sharp enough to see that the barrier needs Immortal Essence to sustain. But you idiots don’t realize it’s not my own Immortal Essence keeping it up. Once I break this cord, I’ll show you what true power looks like.”
The flames crackled and popped as the Feather-Spirit Binding Cord around Evan Lin began melting rapidly. Since the cord wasn’t the Lord of Coldriver City’s life-bound artifact, it posed no real threat to him—he’d only lose a precious artifact, nothing more.
At this point, the three unleashed their strongest martial skills against Evan Lin. Each blow sent violent tremors through the barrier—attacks at Ninth-Heaven Arch-Immortal Realm were no joke. If these strikes landed on the ground of Coldriver City, thousands of miles would have been leveled.
Evan Lin, meanwhile, was knocked around like a rubber ball—every hit sent him flying far away. But no matter what, the three still couldn’t break the barrier, and the Feather-Spirit Binding Cord on Evan was melting fast. Finally, at a certain moment, Evan regained his freedom.
He glanced at the three and laughed to himself: “Time to hit you with something big. However you attacked me just now, I’ll pay you back double.” With a thought, he split his focus and began rapidly gathering lightning-element particles from the surrounding space.
Now that he’d broken through to late Da Luo Golden Immortal, he could gather a ton of lightning element. He decided to use a lightning strike to kill the silver-haired elder—even if it didn’t kill him outright, it would seriously injure him, and combined with Star-Cleave, death would be all but certain.
The three were shocked—now that the Feather-Spirit Binding Cord had been destroyed, Evan Lin still hadn’t attacked, which was unexpected. The middle-aged man suddenly said, “Is he unable to attack us right now because he’s burned too much Immortal Essence?”
“I don’t think so. He’s probably trying to use his barrier to drain our Immortal Essence. Not a bad tactic, but our reserves aren’t something he can just wear down.” the silver-haired elder replied.
Just then, the red-robed Lord of Coldriver City pulled a green jade pendant from his storage ring. It flashed with powerful green light, and even from a distance Evan Lin could feel the energy surging from it. Seeing the pendant, he realized what was happening—this guy was calling for backup, but he was too far away to stop it.
“This kid’s strength is just too much. The three of us can’t do anything to him. To kill him, we’ll have to call in Pengzhou City’s top experts. This pendant was a gift from the Second Elder of Pengzhou City’s City Lord’s Mansion. He said if I ever faced real danger, I could use it to send a message, and he’d rush over. Looks like we have no choice but to ask for help.” said the red-robed elder.
“The Second Elder of Pengzhou City’s City Lord’s Mansion? He’s an early Immortal Lord-level expert! If he really comes, this kid is dead for sure. All we have to do now is keep him trapped here and make sure he can’t escape.” the silver-haired elder said.
The more Evan Lin listened, the more annoyed he got. Did they really think he was some pushover? By now the lightning element had almost finished gathering—the Immortal Realm’s lightning particles were at least twice as abundant as in the lower worlds, and it didn’t take long for him to reach his maximum limit.
But he didn’t unleash the lightning right away. As he gathered the lightning particles, Evan Lin thought of a way to boost his attack power—by compressing the gathered lightning element. If he could shrink the area from dozens of meters across down to just a few, turning a bucket-thick bolt into an arm-thick shaft, the destructive force would multiply.
The idea came to him in a flash, and Evan Lin figured it was worth a try. He used his spiritual force to compress the lightning particles, but it turned out to be much harder in practice than in theory. After a long effort, he saw little result, and during that time, the three kept attacking him.
“Damn it, a tiger forced too far isn’t some sick cat!” Evan Lin snarled, giving up on compression. The Frostbane Sword trembled in his hand as he unleashed Star-Cleave at top speed toward the middle-aged man. At the same time, he had Jade Chu and Tom Chu retract their energy barrier.
Seeing Evan Lin’s energy barrier vanish, the three felt a surge of joy. As Evan rushed the middle-aged man, the silver-haired elder also attacked. But Evan was secretly laughing—his real target was the silver-haired elder, who was mid Ninth-Heaven Arch-Immortal Realm.
Midway through his attack on the middle-aged man, Evan twisted and lunged at the silver-haired elder instead. In an instant, their attacks collided—and almost simultaneously, a bucket-thick golden lightning bolt crashed down from the sky, landing squarely on the silver-haired elder...