Lang Jiuchuan’s sudden attack instantly wiped the warmth from Tantai Wuji’s face. Catching sight of the Dizhong blazing with divine might, his pupils contracted sharply. His expression grew grave as his fingers snapped into a hand seal, and a bolt of pure Lightning Art shot forward.

Boom.

A thunderous crash. The Jitian Hall shuddered violently, more and more debris raining down, the fissures in the already cracked stone walls splitting ever wider.

Tantai Wuji’s brow twitched as he watched a fist-sized chunk of rock strike the jade coffin.

He had raised this little wolf cub himself — he understood her temperament well.

She was reckless by nature, single-minded. She had tracked him down here and uncovered his secret, and with that vengeful, unrelenting ferocity of hers, she would stop at nothing to destroy everything he had worked for.

He had only just seized Tantai Princess’s physical body. It was a woman’s frame, and he had not yet fully mastered or grown accustomed to it — bringing his full power to bear through it was, for now, impossible.

There were priorities in every crisis. The most pressing matter was to reclaim his original corporeal form before this little madwoman Lang Jiuchuan destroyed it and rendered a thousand years of effort meaningless.

As for her — once he returned to his true body, could she really slip free from the palm of his hand?

The moment that thought crystallized, Tantai Wuji abandoned his entanglement with Lang Jiuchuan and lunged toward the jade coffin.

Lang Jiuchuan had no intention of letting him have his way. She drove the Dizhong forward and slammed it savagely against the jade coffin.

The Dizhong was small, yet the esoteric runes carved across its surface stirred to life, and the force of thunder and lightning fell like a crushing hammer.

Crack.

A seam split open across the jade coffin, and wisps of vital fortune seeped out through the gap.

Tantai Wuji’s eyes flew wide. His composure shattered. He roared: “Insolent wretch — you desecrate my tomb, you ruin my corporeal form — do you truly think I cannot deal with you?!”

His voice came out hoarse and ragged. It was unmistakably a woman’s pitch, yet that only made the venom and hatred within it more unsettling. His eyes fixed on Lang Jiuchuan with lethal intensity as his hands flew through seals at blinding speed, activating the underground palace’s restrictions. Countless streams of malevolent energy transformed into pitch-black yin serpents that surged toward Lang Jiuchuan from every direction, blotting out the sky.

Now.

A strange light flashed through Lang Jiuchuan’s eyes. With a flick of her wrist, she hurled the Xiaojiu Pagoda toward the jade coffin.

At the same instant, she gripped the talisman brush in her right hand. Her wrist moved in a small, deft arc, the brush tip tracing rapidly through the air. A golden light blazed from a Demon-Subduing Talisman and crashed into the yin serpents, erupting in searing white sparks before vanishing in an instant.

Her movements were extraordinarily swift — she was doing two things at once. Tantai Wuji was startled. He caught only a glimpse of something dark and squat hurtling toward the jade coffin. Assuming it was some sort of spiritual artifact, he moved to intercept — but before he could reach it, he saw Lang Jiuchuan’s talisman light scatter the malevolent yin energy and close in on him directly. His fingertip flicked out a thread of spiritual energy to dispel the talisman light, and the small Xiaojiu Pagoda that Lang Jiuchuan had thrown reversed its course and came spinning toward him.

A feint — nothing but a feint.

Tantai Wuji let out a cold laugh. He looked the little pagoda over and said, “In such a short time, your tricks keep multiplying. Who has been corrupting you?”

And then there were these artifacts he had never seen before. Just how much had she hidden from him right under his nose?

“So many words — and none of them worth hearing. It’s not you, old ghost, so that’s all that matters.” Lang Jiuchuan’s spellwork never ceased. She sneered: “Shut your mouth already. Looking at that face while you talk to me turns my stomach.”

Wave after wave of Palm Thunder crashed out. The sound-wave blade conjured by the Dizhong carried a dense and mighty righteous energy, hammering relentlessly at Tantai Wuji.

In the beginning, he barely took it seriously, and he seemed reluctant to genuinely wound Lang Jiuchuan — his attacks lacked real force. Only when the righteous energy began carrying a power that seared the soul did he grow cautious, gathering strength for a true counteroffensive.

Though the body he occupied limited the full expression of his power, he had lived for a thousand years. His cultivation was steeped and deep, his arts subtle and formidable. This counteroffensive sent Lang Jiuchuan’s already depleted spiritual energy draining away at an even more alarming rate.

They traded blow for blow, righteous energy clashing again and again, the rumbling never ceasing, their arts evenly matched.

In no time, the entire Jitian Hall had become a battlefield. Stone pillars crumbled. Murals peeled from the walls. The luminous night pearls studding the vaulted ceiling rained down one by one, and the stellar formation array inscribed across it was utterly destroyed.

Tantai Wuji’s attention kept straying back to his corporeal form — his gaze darting toward it again and again — and each time it did, Lang Jiuchuan seized another opening.

A weakness means a liability. Excellent.

Without the slightest restraint, she drove the Dizhong forward and hammered it into his soul, trying to batter him out of the body he had stolen.

Perhaps because her assault was relentless, Tantai Wuji suddenly felt a piercing stab through his soul — a pain almost too sharp to bear — and something was draining away from him with terrifying speed.

That was—

No. This was wrong. This was wrong.

He could feel the connection between his soul and his original corporeal form being severed by force.

A flash of clarity burst through his mind. He snapped his gaze toward the jade coffin — and his pupils instantly contracted.

Bang!

The jade coffin exploded from within. A figure burst free from inside — robed in black, skin smooth and luminous, yet the aura radiating from them was a mingling of dragon vein fortune and the energy of the underworld.

The figure opened their eyes. A pair of black irises as deep and dark as the dead sea of the netherworld locked onto Tantai Wuji, and the corner of their mouth curled upward in a slow, oblique arc — laden with malice and provocation.

It was Feng Ya, who had seized Tantai Wuji’s original corporeal form.

Hum.

Tantai Wuji’s mind reeled as though a thunderbolt had split it open. He stared at the figure, stunned.

Now.

The light in Lang Jiuchuan’s eyes flashed. Her intent shifted. She raised the talisman brush in her hand, bit the tip of her tongue, and spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the brush — then drove it like an arrow directly at Tantai Wuji: “Supreme Taiji, Heaven and Earth — purge the wicked and annihilate the soul — I command it!”

Tantai Wuji’s soul clenched. He felt a terrifying force bearing down on him like descending heavenly fire, and mortal peril crashed over him from all sides. He poured out a surge of pure and magnificent energy to block it with everything he had.

Boom.

Two colossal forces collided. The Jitian Hall lurched and convulsed violently. Stones rained down from every surface.

Lang Jiuchuan was thrown backward by the shockwave, her qi and blood surging in chaos. She slammed into a stone pillar and vomited great mouthfuls of black blood, her soul wavering and faint.

Tantai Wuji fared no better. The talisman brush had struck him. His soul turned unstable, with faint signs that it might leave the body entirely.

But he could not spare attention for that. He fixed his ferocious glare on Feng Ya: “Whatever rat-hole vermin you are — return this seat’s body to me.”

Before the last word had even fallen, he disregarded the searing agony of his tearing soul and flung himself at Feng Ya like a madman. His towering killing intent seemed capable of incinerating the heavens and obliterating the earth, and the energy around him turned savage and wild.

Lang Jiuchuan and Feng Ya had played this feint brilliantly, and he had never sensed Feng Ya’s presence at all. The jade coffin had looked undamaged — his original form had appeared intact — so he had assumed all was well. He had never dreamed that a rat had crept inside that coffin to steal his body in precisely the same way he himself had stolen others!

To be outmaneuvered like this was a profound and humiliating disgrace — an error he could not endure!

Tantai Wuji’s fury burned to the heavens. His chest heaved with violent pain. He bit down savagely on his tongue to force back the surge of metallic sweetness rising in his throat, then pushed his energy to its absolute limit: “I will kill you.”

Feng Ya let out a cold and derisive laugh. He mobilized the power of the Nine Underworlds, converting the vast fortune stored within this corporeal form into its most fundamental energy. The resulting pressure surged like an ocean — boundless and churning — and crashed down on Tantai Wuji with crushing force, intent on grinding him to nothing.

Using the enormous fortune you spent years pilfering to turn against you — fitting.

Tantai Wuji’s pupils narrowed to pinpoints. His gaze sharpened to a lethal edge: “You dare — I will take the Lang Family down with me!”