The Enchantress of Duality: Nightfall of the City

"Sigh..."

Ye Xuan let out a long breath.

He reached out and rubbed Ying'er's head, messing up her smooth, long hair into a bird's nest. His tone became a bit more relaxed:

"Never mind, let's not talk about these disappointing things."

"You just need to know that the outside world is full of man-eating monsters, and only the Zixiao Palace is truly safe."

"Whether it's Xia Lengyue or any other crazy woman, as long as I don't go out, they can't do anything to me."

After saying that, Ye Xuan closed his eyes again and formed hand seals:

"Let's continue cultivating."

"Only by becoming stronger will we have the right to live with basic human dignity."

Ying'er nodded, half-understanding, and obediently retreated to her own Spirit Gathering Array.

The great hall once again returned to a deathly silence.

Only the sound of flowing spiritual energy remained, like a babbling brook.

However, on the path of cultivation, the more one rushes for success, the harder it is to make even an inch of progress.

One month.

Two months.

The five-element spiritual energy in Ye Xuan's body had long accumulated to a terrifying critical point.

Every breath he took would trigger a storm of spiritual energy around him. However, the door to the Golden Core stage remained completely unmoving, as if cast from ten-thousand-year profound iron.

"Still not working..."

Ye Xuan opened his eyes, the depths of his gaze filled with bloodshot veins.

Over these two months, he had attempted to break through countless times, but each time he was blocked by an inexplicable repulsive force.

With an unstable state of mind, the five elements were difficult to fuse.

If he kept hiding in this turtle shell working behind closed doors, he probably wouldn't be able to form his core even in another hundred years.

Just as Ye Xuan was feeling frustrated and distracted.

Boom!

A loud explosion suddenly came from above his head.

The entire Zixiao Palace trembled violently, and even the light of the Spirit Gathering Array within the hall dimmed.

"Hmm?"

Ye Xuan's expression changed drastically as he suddenly stood up.

Someone was attacking the defensive restrictions of the Zixiao Palace!

At this moment, above the valley.

Three young men with alluring faces, wearing pink gauze robes, were floating in mid-air, their eyes flashing with greedy light.

Holding various magical artifacts in their hands, they were wildly bombarding the node of the concealment array below.

"Senior Brother! It really is a treasure!"

One of the effeminate men screamed in excitement:

"My Treasure-Seeking Mouse reacted just now. There is definitely an ancient ruin hidden down here!"

"Looking at the strength of this restriction, it was left behind by at least a Golden Core or even a Nascent Soul stage mighty figure!"

The leading man licked his lips, and the pink folding fan in his hand violently sent out a gust of astral wind:

"Put more effort into it! Break this turtle shell!"

"As long as we get the inheritance inside, we won't have to suffer the attitudes of those senior and junior sisters anymore!"

"When the time comes, we can also get a few cauldrons to play with!"

Within the Joyous Sect, although women were superior to men, the male disciples also practiced the arts of dual cultivation and plucking, and their actions were even more despicable and wretched.

Rumble!

A few more rounds of attacks landed.

The soil surged, and golden light suddenly appeared.

A corner of a majestic palace, radiating purple-gold light, slowly revealed itself before the crowd.

"Heavens..."

"Is this... the aura of a Connate Spirit Treasure?!"

The three of them were completely dumbfounded, their eyes practically popping out of their sockets.

They struck it rich!

This overwhelming wealth had actually fallen right onto their heads!

However, before they could celebrate for too long.

"Get lost!"

A furious shout exploded in their ears like a clap of thunder.

Immediately after, a terrifying, multi-colored streak of sword qi roared out from the depths of the palace!

This sword qi was too fast, too fierce!

It contained the sharpness of metal, the explosiveness of fire, the softness of water, the heaviness of earth, and the vitality of wood.

The five elements merged into one, generating endlessly!

"Not good! A tough opponent!"

The leading senior brother's expression changed drastically, and without a second thought, he grabbed the junior brother beside him to act as a shield.

Pfft!

That unlucky junior brother didn't even have time to let out a scream before he was sliced clean in half at the waist by the sword qi, his blood spraying across the sky.

The remaining two were scared out of their wits.

This power... could it be a Golden Core ancestor?!

Just as they were retreating in terror, a tall and slender figure shot up into the sky from underground.

White clothes surpassing snow, black hair dancing wildly.

It was exactly Ye Xuan.

At this moment, Ye Xuan's mood was at its absolute worst.

"Where did you trash come from, daring to touch my things?"

Ye Xuan coldly looked at the two shivering Joyous Sect disciples in front of him, killing intent surging in his eyes.

"Se... Senior, spare our lives!"

"We are disciples of the Joyous Sect! Our master is..."

"Noisy."

Ye Xuan couldn't be bothered to listen to their nonsense.

If he let them escape, or allowed them to send out a communication talisman and attract that female demon Ye Qingcheng, he would truly be finished.

"Die!"

Ye Xuan clapped his hands together.

The five-element spiritual energy transformed into a massive grinding stone, descending from the sky and directly enveloping the two men.

"Ahhhhh!!"

Accompanied by a few miserable shrieks, these immortal cultivators, who stood high and mighty in the eyes of mortals, were instantly reduced to a puddle of mashed flesh.

After dealing with the trouble, Ye Xuan did not relax in the slightest; instead, his expression turned even uglier.

He looked at the remaining traces of battle around him and the scent of blood that had yet to dissipate in the air.

"I've been exposed."

"Although I killed them, this is still the heartland of the Joyous Sect. The spiritual energy fluctuations here won't escape the notice of true experts."

Ye Xuan glanced back at Ying'er, who had just emerged, and spoke extremely fast:

"Ying'er, let's go!"

"We can't stay in the Zixiao Palace anymore. The target is too big."

He gestured with his hand.

The massive Zixiao Palace rapidly shrank, turning into a streak of light that drilled into the center of his brow.

Then, he grabbed Ying'er's hand and pulled out a Thousand-Mile Divine Movement Talisman from his storage ring—this was one of the life-saving trump cards that Xia Lengyue had forcefully shoved onto him back in the day.

"Speed!"

The talisman burned.

The figures of the two instantly blurred, turning into a streak of light as they fled madly in a direction away from the core area of the Joyous Sect.

Less than a quarter of an hour after Ye Xuan left.

The deepest forbidden ground of the Joyous Sect, the Ten Thousand Flowers Abyss.

This place was shrouded in pink miasma all year round, a land of death within the sect that not even the elders dared to step foot into lightly.

But at the very bottom of the abyss, there was an exquisitely beautiful palace made of white bones.

Deep inside the palace, in a secret room draped with red gauze.

An ancient bronze lamp with a quaint design and a faint blue wick had been burning there silently for a full hundred years.

This lamp was named the Husband Seeking Lamp.

Countless years ago, Ye Qingcheng had refined it using a strand of hair left behind by Ye Xuan, combined with her own heart's blood.

As long as Ye Xuan appeared within a ten-thousand-mile radius and used his spiritual energy, this lamp would react.

Suddenly.

Poof.

The flame, which had originally been the size of a bean, violently shot up three feet high!

The flame turned from faint blue to crimson, emitting a series of joyful crackling sounds.

At the same time.

A peerless beauty, who was taking a nap on a soft couch, slowly opened her eyes.

She was breathtakingly beautiful.

Unlike Xia Lengyue's fairy-like coldness, her beauty was a charm that seeped out from her very bones.

With a mere shift of her gaze, she could steal a man's soul.

She wore a bright red dudou, draped with a layer of red gauze as thin as cicada wings. Her long, beautiful legs were exposed to the air, and the bells on her ankles chimed without any wind.

Ye Qingcheng, the Supreme Elder of the Joyous Sect.

An early-stage Tribulation Transcendence expert.

She looked at the frantically dancing flame. Startled at first, a wild ecstasy that could pale all the flowers in the world soon bloomed across her bewitching face.

Barefoot, she hopped out of bed like a little girl and threw herself before the lamp, greedily inhaling the faint, familiar aura emanating from the fire.

"Husband..."

"It really is you..."

"I knew it... I knew you couldn't bear to leave me behind..."

Ye Qingcheng reached out a finger to gently stroke the dancing flame, her eyes filled with absolute infatuation.

"Five hundred years."

"Do you know how I have lived through these past five hundred years?"

"All those filthy men combined couldn't even compare to a single one of your fingers."

The next moment.

The infatuation on her face instantly transformed into supreme majesty and overbearing authority.

"Men!"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several dark silhouettes appeared outside the palace, kneeling on the ground and trembling uncontrollably.

"Greetings, Supreme Elder!"

Ye Qingcheng waved her flowing sleeve, and an image materialized in mid-air—it was exactly how Ye Xuan looked right now.

"Pass down my decree."

"The entire Hehuan Sect, from top to bottom, all thirty-six caves and seventy-two manors—mobilize every single disciple!"

"Lock down the borders of the Western Continent!"

She licked her red lips, a glint of absolute certainty flashing in her eyes.

"The target is Ye Xuan."

"Bring him to me alive."

"If anyone dares to harm a single hair on his head, This Seat will make them beg for life and pray for death!"

"Understood!"

The entire Hehuan Sect, a massive machine of the demonic path, roared into motion at this very moment—all for the sake of one man.