“This! This is impossible! Wasn’t he already killed by the First Senior Sister yesterday?”
The disciples of Qinglian Pavilion were filled with terror. After all, a dead person coming back to life was something unheard of since ancient times, yet it was happening right before their eyes.
Yu Qingya looked at Qin Yu. “Is this what you meant by souls being able to be refined into puppets?”
True to her role as the female protagonist of the book, Yu Qingya grasped the problem at a single glance.
Compared to the Seventh Elder of the previous night, the person before them had the same facial features, but his entire figure appeared somewhat illusory.
“Heh heh, there is still someone here with spiritual power fluctuations. What a fine treasure I have found.”
A weird, eerie laugh reached everyone’s ears, and Yu Qingya’s expression changed drastically in an instant.
Seeing the worry in Yu Qingya’s eyes, Qin Yu looked at her reassuringly and said in a low voice, “Don’t worry. If my guess is correct, they must have brought his soul back and used some secret technique to revive him. However, since his physical body has already been destroyed by you, this new shell combined with his injuries will definitely reduce his strength significantly. You and I only need to stay steady and join forces.”
Although Qin Yu said this out loud, she did not feel very confident inside either.
The only way right now was to stabilize morale so that they could find a turning point.
“What whispered secrets are the two of you still sharing? Go and die!”
Seeing the calm demeanor of the two, the Seventh Elder became instantly exasperated and charged straight at them.
Yu Qingya shoved Qin Yu aside, raised her hand, and blocked the attack with an ice shield.
During the ensuing assault, Yu Qingya only defended and did not attack, completely different from her previous fierce offensive.
“Little girl, if this is all the skill you have, you might as well come back and become my puppet.”
The Seventh Elder smiled sinisterly, and a black vortex appeared in his outstretched palm as he lunged at Yu Qingya.
“Elder Sister, now!”
Qin Yu suddenly cried out, having been ignored by the Seventh Elder.
Hearing this, Yu Qingya’s gaze shifted. She immediately pulled out a wooden plaque from her hand; the plaque bore the pattern of a black eye, looking extremely mysterious and making one yearn to explore its secrets.
“Spacetime Stillness.”
Yu Qingya’s red lips parted slightly as she raised the wooden plaque, aiming it directly at the Seventh Elder.
The Seventh Elder froze mid-air. At that moment, Qin Yu suddenly pulled an item from her robes and hurled it at him.
“Immortal Binding Rope, Soul Restraint.”
Qin Yu chanted an incantation silently, and the rope in the air lashed toward the Seventh Elder. The moment the rope touched his body, no matter how hard he struggled, he could not break free.
Seeing this, the Seventh Elder smiled gloomily. “I never expected one of the Ancient Tree Sect’s supreme treasures, the Immortal Binding Rope, to be in the hands of a little girl like you. However, even if you can trap me right now, the Immortal Binding Rope only lasts for twelve hours. Once the time is up, do you think I will fall for your tricks again?”
The confidence in his words was almost overflowing, and his gaze toward Qin Yu grew increasingly venomous.
The disciples felt a jolt of panic in their hearts. The Seventh Elder was right.
He had already been relentlessly hunted down and killed by the First Senior Sister while she pushed herself to her limits, yet he had still managed to make a comeback like this.
However, this chance for a sneak attack only came once. The second time around, this old man would not fall for it so easily.
“First Senior Sister, what should we do now? Why don’t we set off right now? Twelve hours is plenty of time to reach Qinglian Pavilion.”
“That is right, that is right! Once we reach Qinglian Pavilion, we will be saved.”
As soon as these words were spoken, they were immediately echoed by all the disciples.
The Senior Sister had risked everything to kill him once before; if their Master were to act, he would definitely be no match for them.
Yu Qingya shook her head slightly. Putting aside the fact that her Master was currently in seclusion, her Master’s health had been growing worse over the past few years. If any mishap occurred and further injured her Master, what would happen?
Based on her observations, this Seventh Elder also utilized spiritual power techniques. What if he was just like Qin Yu, able to perceive his surroundings even with his eyes covered? That would undoubtedly be inviting a wolf into the house.
She raised her head to look at Qin Yu, who understood what she meant and flashed a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Elder Sister. Leave this matter to me; you just need to lead the disciples out safely first.”
Yu Qingya looked at Qin Yu with concern, but Qin Yu only shook her head comfortingly to signal that she was fine.
Once everyone had cleared out, only the two of them remained in the room: Qin Yu and the Seventh Elder.
“Little girl, you couldn’t possibly be sending them away on purpose just so you can sacrifice yourself, could you?”
The Seventh Elder was somewhat baffled by Qin Yu’s series of actions.
Watching them leave, Qin Yu’s eyes lost their previous gentleness, replaced by a deep and heavy gaze. “I sent them away on purpose, but not to sacrifice myself. I did it to make you completely disappear.”
The Seventh Elder laughed as if he had heard a hilarious joke. “Make me disappear? Little girl, are you out of your mind? Even that Senior Sister of yours could only barely destroy my physical body, let alone a little girl like you who hasn’t even reached the Nascent Soul stage.”
Ignoring his mockery, Qin Yu instead produced a whip. The moment the Seventh Elder saw it, his expression immediately turned horrified.
“The Soul Drawing Whip! You actually have the Soul Drawing Whip?”
The Seventh Elder’s voice pitched up sharply, but he then forced himself to remain calm. “So what if you have the Soul Drawing Whip? Do you really think you can destroy my soul?”
Hearing this, Qin Yu chuckled. “Why don’t you try and find out?”
With that, Qin Yu swung her whip with her right hand, directly lashing the Seventh Elder. A miserable scream rang out, followed by a puff of blue smoke that condensed into the soul form of the Seventh Elder.
The Seventh Elder tried to run, but looking down, he was horrified to find that the Immortal Binding Rope was still bound to him.
“What is the meaning of this?” the Seventh Elder shrieked.
Qin Yu did not answer. Naturally, it was because she had cast the Soul Restraint technique on the Seventh Elder; even after his soul detached from his body, the Immortal Binding Rope remained attached to it.
Qin Yu bit the index finger of her right hand, traced several bloody talisman lines in the air, and rapidly formed hand seals with both hands. The entire seal blossomed with a fiery red glow.
“Farewell,” Qin Yu murmured softly.
Following that, the red seal smashed down toward the Seventh Elder.
“This is! This is!” The Seventh Elder was truly terrified now, but no matter how he tried to dodge, once the flames touched his body, they refused to go out. The fiery red blended with a blaze of golden light until his screams were completely silenced.
That was a technique from the later stages of the book that made all the other tribes tremble in fear, known as the Flames of World Purification.
Unfortunately, using this move prematurely had already overdrawn her own soul energy.
Qin Yu felt as though her entire being was being hollowed out. Even so, this was enough to buy them a brief period of peace.
Hearing footsteps behind her, Qin Yu forced herself to gather her energy, wanting to tell Yu Qingya that she was fine.
Before she could turn around, she felt a sharp pain in her chest, followed by a mouthful of fresh blood as her consciousness began to blur and she collapsed downward.
“Xiaoyu!”
Throwing all regard for etiquette and physical contact to the wind, Yu Qingya instinctively caught Qin Yu in her arms, her eyes filled with an urgency she herself hadn’t realized was there.
Qin Yu wanted to say she was fine, but the severe depletion of her energy left her unable to speak before she collapsed into a soft, fragrant embrace and lost consciousness.