To think that shield can block the blades of light from the mirror! Pi Yan gaped at the sight. “Try blocking this!” He had drawn his mythical, lightning-summoning sword out from Pi Batian’s chest, the blade still dripping with Pi Batian’s blood. When he pointed the blade at the heavens, the skies instantly turned dark. With an ear-splitting crash of thunder, Pi Yan’s blade began to crackle with lightning.

“Strike these three groundhogs into smithereens!” Pi Yan commanded. As Pi Yan pointed the sword at the mirror, the lightning leapt into it and shot out through the other end, twice as concentrated as before. It hit Zhuo Yifeng’s shield with a massive rumble and blinding flash that turned their vision white and sent tremors through the earth.

Zhuo Yifeng grit his teeth and forced himself to hold the shield steady. Both Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo supported him and the shield, and the three cultivators bore the blow together. Yun Ruoyan felt as though a scorching, piercing pain was travelling through the shield and up her arms, then from her arms to the rest of her body. She cried out in pain.

Of the three cultivators, only Li Mo’s face wasn’t a stark white. Yun Ruoyan and Zhuo Yifeng’s foreheads were beading with sweat, their faces haggard.

“That was only two-thirds of my strength! This time, I’ll draw the largest bolt of lightning I can and vaporize your very existence!” Pi Yan shouted, once again raising his sword to the air. When the blade turned a glowing white, the skies seemed to tremble. A massive bolt of lightning struck the sword, one that caused even Pi Yan to stumble as he tried to contain it.

“Li Mo, we’ve come so close to death time and time again. Will we escape it this time?” Yun Ruoyan turned to Li Mo. Her face was stark white, her forehead coated in a sheen of sweat, but her lips were curled up into a smile. Her beauty, so captivating despite her circumstances, made Li Mo’s heart ache.

“Whether we live or die, what matters is that we’re together.” Li Mo wanted to wipe away the sweat on Yun Ruoyan’s forehead, but he wasn’t able to.

Zhuo Yifeng turned toward Yun Ruoyan, his heart struck with a lingering heartache. Yun Ruoyan, I won’t let you die! Zhuo Yifeng promised mentally.

“Brat, you should be thinking about how you’re going to survive!” the malicious voice called out in his head. His tone was shockingly severe, a clear sign of the impending danger.

“Die, you groundhogs!” Pi Yan yelled out. He swung the blade at the mirror, which concentrated and condensed the already-massive bolt of lightning and shot it toward the three cultivators.

So great was the electrical discharge that Pi Yan stumbled as he shot out the bolt of lightning, the sword aura beneath his feet flickering as he barely regained his balance.

Yun Ruoyan and the others knew that, as long as they were able to overcome this blow, that Pi Yan would be powerless to stop them from escaping. They all infused their spiritual energy into the black shield, hoping that their combined efforts would be able to prevent the lethal blow.

With a great crack, another bolt of lightning, at least twice the strength of the previous, struck the black shield. A searing, scorching pain instantly filled their bodies, as though their spiritual pathways were burning and their spiritual vortices were evaporating.

“This is what you get for trying to go against the Pi family!” Pi Yan called out arrogantly, but none of the three had the attention to spare to rebuke him.

Just then, however, the surface of the mirror suddenly rippled. A beam of gentle, white light shone through the mirror, impinging on the shield and dampening the force of the lightning until it vanished. 

Yun Ruoyan, Li Mo, and Zhuo Yifeng glanced at each other, not comprehending what had just happened. Together, they turned to the surface of the mirror. As their bodies bathed in the gentle light, they felt even the numbness of the lightning begin to dissipate.

“This… This…” Pi Yan stared open-mouthed at the sight in front of him, so shocked he was unable to form a complete sentence.

“Pi Yan, how dare you!” an indignant voice suddenly shouted mentally at Pi Yan. His body stilled: the voice came from none other than the first elder of the silver dragon clan himself.

“El—Honored Elder…” Pi Yan knelt down on both knees.

The elder’s irascible voice again rang out in Pi Yan’s head. “I’ve told you once and again not to harm Yun Ruoyan’s life, but what do I see? What use do I have for an underling that disobeys my orders?!”

“Honored Elder,” Pi Yan begged, “my son’s death was so traumatizing to me that I momentarily lost my rationality. Elder, please spare my life!”

Yun Ruoyan and the others saw Pi Yan kneeling on the ground and mumbling something incoherent, but none of them bothered to understand what he was doing. The pillar of light that had trapped them dissolved under Li Mo’s attacks. While Pi Yan was distracted, the three of them hurriedly flew off toward the border of the Pi city.

“You fool, chase them! If Yun Ruoyan escapes, I’ll kill you!”

Pi Yan shuddered, then immediately organized a group of swordsmen to chase after them.

Yun Ruoyan, Li Mo, and Zhuo Yifeng were all exhausted after being struck twice by lightning and fighting hundreds of swordsmen. However, they couldn’t stop to rest. Even after escaping from the Pi city, Pi Yan was still chasing them desperately with a group of swordsmen.

Yun Ruoyan turned around as she flew, glancing at the horde of cultivators still chasing after them.

“Yan’er, don’t worry,” Li Mo consoled. “Once we enter Feng territory, they won’t be able to chase us any further.”

“I’m simply worried that we won’t be able to get that far,” Zhuo Yifeng commented, his face pale. He had borne the brunt of the attack during the lightning strike, and although he looked fine from the outside, he had clearly suffered some internal injuries.

“Look!” Yun Ruoyan suddenly exclaimed. “It’s Feng Bo!”

Indeed, there was a black-robed man heading their way.

“Young Master Li, Zhuo Yifeng, Miss Yun,” Feng Bo called out from afar. “Lord Feng had me come over to receive you all. Did I make it on time?”

“Feng Bo!” Yun Ruoyan called out. “Excellent timing. We’re being chased by a pack of wild dogs, and we can’t outrun them all.”

“Leave them to me. Lord Feng’s waiting for the three of you in the Feng city.”

Feng Bo always appeared with impeccable timing. His presence seemed like a ray of light to the three exhausted cultivators, and his middle-aged face seemed to get cuter and cuter the closer he got.

Yun Ruoyan, Li Mo, and Zhuo Yifeng were able to slow down and catch their breaths. Behind them came the wails and moans of the Pi swordsmen, followed by loud calls to retreat. Of the cultivators present, only Pi Yan was able to face off against Feng Bo. However, after calling down two strikes of lightning, Pi Yan was far too weak to do much of anything.

Somehow, against all odds, Yun Ruoyan, Li Mo, and Zhuo Yifeng finally made it back to the Feng city. They headed directly to Yun Ruoyan’s manor—to their surprise, Feng Yicheng and Feng Yanyang were waiting for them there.

“Ruoyan, you’re finally back!” With the Lin sisters’ support, Lin Tianming slowly stood up and walked up to her.

“Uncle, please sit!” 

“Let me see if you’re hurt.” Lin Tianming inspected her all over before finally relaxing.

“Quick, help Uncle sit,” Yun Ruoyan told the Lin sisters. She then turned to Feng Yanyang, who was currently speaking with Li Mo and Zhuo Yifeng. 

When he sensed Yun Ruoyan’s gaze, he turned to her and replied, “Miss Yun, it’s very fortunate to have you here with us.”

“Luckily, Feng Bo found us in time,” Yun Ruoyan sighed. “Otherwise, the three of us would likely have been captured again.”

Feng Bo had, on Feng Yanyang’s orders, sent his men into the Pi city to surveill the Pi manor. When a fight broke out, those spies hurriedly informed Feng Bo of the matter, allowing him to arrive on time.

“Now we’ve thoroughly destroyed any semblance of a relationship with the Pis, though…” Feng Yicheng murmured. “The Pis have formed an alliance with the Wus, Lies, and Chens, and they’ll likely be attacking us in a matter of days. I tried to head to the Lie city in hopes of forming an alliance with them instead, but I was rebuffed with every attempt. The future of the Feng family is looking bleak.”