Freshly Appointed Five-Star General

The majestic purple qi surged like an angry dragon bursting from the sea, sweeping toward Zhang Fengyi.

Zhang Fengyi instinctively tried to dodge, only to find the surrounding space seemingly locked down by the purple qi. A powerful suction force came from all directions, madly tearing at his divine soul hidden within Buddha Face's body.

Looking closely, he finally noticed the bizarre power targeting the divine soul emanating from the Human Emperor Banner. A trace of disdain flashed across his face as he sneered, "Hmph, just a wicked and unorthodox magical artifact."

"Old geezer, your eye for things is exceptionally poor," Lin Mo scoffed. "Let me educate you. This is a spiritual weapon, understand? Besides, you're just a filthy rat playing at body-snatching; what right do you have to call others wicked and unorthodox?"

With another sweep of the Human Emperor Banner, the suction force suddenly multiplied.

Zhang Fengyi finally couldn't hold it together. The agonizing pain of his divine soul being torn from him forced out a muffled groan.

"What is this thing!"

"Heh, you're not the first to ask that question, and you certainly won't be the last."

Lin Mo smiled like a grand villain. "So I can generously tell you, this thing is called the Human Emperor Banner. It specializes in dealing with old monsters like you who rely on body-snatching. Do you understand the value of a hard counter!"

With just a single roll, the Human Emperor Banner displayed its unparalleled countering effect.

However, Zhang Fengyi's divine soul was tightly bound to Buddha Face's Golden Core. Relying solely on suction was too inefficient.

Lin Mo raised an eyebrow, instantly grasping the crux of the matter.

The next second, he stomped heavily on the ground, his figure vanishing from the spot.

Boom!

Zhang Fengyi only felt his vision blur as a violent wave of air rushed at his face. Lin Mo's figure dashed in front of him like a cannonball in an instant.

"Close combat is still the most satisfying!"

He threw a punch—simple, direct, yet carrying a terrifying force capable of piercing through anything.

Zhang Fengyi tried to block, but the physical strength of Buddha Face's body was as fragile as a piece of paper in front of Lin Mo, who had been tempered by lightning tribulations.

Pfft!

The fist pierced through Buddha Face's abdomen without any resistance.

A fist-sized, brilliantly glowing Golden Core was forcefully blasted out of the dantian by this punch, rolling onto the ground with a trail of blood.

After all, it wasn't a Golden Core naturally cultivated by this body, so its connection to the flesh wasn't very firm.

The originally durian-sized Golden Core had shrunk to the size of a fist, indicating that much of its core energy had been used to modify Buddha Face's body, though Buddha Face himself was already nearing the end of his rope.

Even after absorbing a massive amount of core energy, it was still just a piece of trash.

Losing the Golden Core as the core, Zhang Fengyi, who occupied Buddha Face's body, instantly lost control over the physical form.

Buddha Face's body collapsed limply, its life force rapidly fading.

The Golden Core rolled on the ground, its energy leaking wildly and slowly condensing into an illusory human figure in midair.

It was a blurry face, but the aura of resentment and horror undoubtedly belonged to Zhang Fengyi.

"You!!!"

He had just spat out a single word.

"You what? Save your last words, no one wants to hear them."

Lin Mo gave him no chance at all, waving the Human Emperor Banner once more.

The escaping core energy seemed to find an outlet, being sucked wholesale into the Human Emperor Banner, becoming the grand banner's purest nourishment.

Even the terrified divine soul hidden within the core energy could not escape.

It would become another freshly minted five-star general within the Human Emperor Banner.

After Zhang Fengyi was sucked away, Lin Mo stopped using the Human Emperor Banner to absorb the core energy.

The Golden Core suspended in midair once again bloomed with a warm golden radiance, and no one else emerged from it.

Now, this Golden Core had truly become a harmless Nine Heavens Divine Pill.

Lin Mo strolled over, picking it up like an inconspicuous pebble by the roadside. He weighed it in his hand and casually tossed it toward Zhang Gonglian.

"Catch."

"Ah?"

Zhang Gonglian was scared out of his wits. Seeing the Golden Core that had been aggressively pumping core energy into him not long ago flying straight at his face, he instinctively wanted to dodge.

In a split second, he frantically channeled his spiritual energy to lay down a thick barrier between his hands, only then trembling as he caught the Golden Core.

The touch was warm, but holding it made him feel like he was holding a red-hot branding iron, burning so much that his fingertips trembled.

"Alright, stop looking so terrified." Lin Mo wanted to laugh seeing his demeanor. "The dirty stuff inside has already been sucked clean by me. It's cleaner than you are now, so you don't need to seal it anymore."

He paused, then slowly added:

"As for this core, the person who refined it back then either intentionally left a backdoor to scheme something, or their skills were simply lacking and they produced a defective product. But well, who can clearly say what happened in history?"

All truth had already vanished into the long river of history.

Zhang Gonglian held the Golden Core, taking a long time to squeeze a sentence out of his throat, his voice dry and hoarse.

"Was that really the Patriarch just now?"

"Yes and no," Lin Mo answered straightforwardly. "Just a lingering remnant soul that refused to leave. The grave grass of the real first-generation Celestial Master is probably hundreds of feet high by now; he might have reincarnated eight hundred times already."

Looking at Zhang Gonglian's expression of collapsed faith, as if the sky had fallen, Lin Mo felt it necessary to give his fragile little heart a strong dose of medicine.

"It's a bit different from my previous guess. I thought the first-generation Celestial Master slaughtered a Golden Core cultivator to refine this pill."

"Now it seems that most likely, his own lifespan was nearing its end, and out of care for his family, he had his clansmen help refine himself into this core so that the Zhang family's lineage would not be broken."

Lin Mo looked at the conflicted Zhang Gonglian and reached out to pat his stiff shoulder with considerable force.

"Don't overthink it. I'm the one who dealt with him, not you. You didn't betray your master or destroy your ancestors. Besides, didn't you see? He wanted to kill you.

Because in his mind, the one to inherit the title of Celestial Master must be of his direct bloodline. What is an outsider like you worth? You deserved to die!"

Lin Mo said the last few words casually, yet they pierced fiercely into Zhang Gonglian's heart like two steel needles, making his whole body shudder.

As he spoke, Lin Mo bent down to pick up the quaint Celestial Master Seal from the ground and stuffed it into Zhang Gonglian's cold hands without allowing for any argument.

"Hold it steady. Remember, you are the Celestial Master of the Dragon Tiger Dojo."

This heavy seal seemed to carry the fate of the entire Dragon Tiger Dojo.

Zhang Gonglian gripped the Celestial Master Seal tightly, taking a deep breath. The confusion and conflict in his eyes finally transformed into a trace of determination.

He dared not imagine what the Dragon Tiger Dojo would become if today's ultimate victor was Buddha Face or the remnant soul of the first-generation Celestial Master.

Buddha Face would kill all the fellow disciples who refused to submit; he had no feelings for the dojo itself.

Zhang Fengyi would similarly purge all disciples who weren't direct descendants of the Zhang family; he only recognized bloodlines.

Thinking of this, his last shred of hesitation vanished into thin air.

He solemnly placed the Nine Heavens Divine Pill back in the center of the ritual altar.

The moment the Golden Core returned to its place, the spiritual energy of the entire blessed grotto-heaven once again turned into trickling streams, converging toward it.