Dai Bufan glanced at Lu Yang, who stood obediently behind him.

The Heartless Creed came after you first?

Then how did you know the Heartless Creed was coming and that you should return to the sect to call for help?

Dai Bufan stretched, his joints popping and cracking. He had been in charge of the Great Mission Hall for years, rarely needing to fight, but that didn’t mean he was weak.

First Elder’s laziness was only part of the reason he could take over the Great Mission Hall long ago. Most importantly, he was strong enough to shoulder such a heavy responsibility.

Among his peers, apart from Yun Zhi, he had never lost to anyone!

“It's not all the time that I get to encounter the Heartless Creed.” Dai Bufan sounded somewhat wistful. The Heartless Creed members I’ve seen over the years were barely more than dying souls. To see such lively Heartless Creed elders is a first.

“Heaven Change!”

Dai Bufan raised his hand and pointed at the sky. In an instant, dark clouds rolled in, unleashing a torrential downpour that Kaihuang City had not seen in five hundred years. The city and the surrounding desert immediately turned chilly.

With his Water Spirit Root, this was his home turf.

In all four directions, the entire world seemed to have transformed into a kingdom of water. The civilians of Kaihuang City had never seen their city look like this.

“Rivers Flow Backward!”

Rainwater flowed through the cracks in the streets, forming countless small streams. These streams seemed alive, morphing into little jiao-dragons that surged toward the two elders.

“Xuanwu Tortoise Shell!”

“White-Bone Flying Vessel!”

Elder Bai Liting and Elder Wu Shui had not expected Dai Bufan to cast spells so swiftly. They could hardly believe he was also at the Intermediate Fusion Stage.

The Xuanwu Tortoise Shell protected Elder Bai Liting, while Elder Wu Shui took refuge inside the White-Bone Flying Vessel, using its hull as a shield.

These little jiao-dragons were agile and ever-changing. When they struck the Xuanwu Tortoise Shell, they scattered into raindrops. The droplets crawled over the shell’s surface and recoalesced into jiao-dragons, encircling Bai Liting.

Elder Wu Shui produced the Myriad Souls Banner. Countless deceased souls wailed, controlling the ship’s cannons to bombard the little jiao-dragons.

The White-Bone Flying Vessel bobbed up and down on the sea like a real vessel; if it struck a reef, it would be smashed to pieces.

When the little jiao-dragons were dispersed, they simply reformed, as if endowed with inexhaustible vitality. Some unknown spell had been placed upon them, allowing them to use their bodies as cages, imprisoning the deceased souls within.

Even if Elder Wu Shui’s Myriad Souls Banner contained numerous deceased souls, it couldn’t withstand such rapid drain. His cultivation technique was related to water, which was precisely why he understood how ferocious Dai Bufan was in this state.

I must restrain him!

“I hereby establish [Rule: No rain may fall over Kaihuang City].”

The skies above Kaihuang City immediately cleared. The little jiao-dragons formed from rainwater vanished as well.

In battles between Fusion cultivators, victory hinged on establishing rules and counter-rules to restrain each other.

However, when faced with Elder Wu Shui’s rule that dispersed the clouds and rain, Dai Bufan showed no intention of countering with a rule of his own.

He produced a crimson banner embroidered with auspicious clouds. The moment he unfurled the colorful banner, countless elegantly beautiful and intricate characters flew out, imprinting themselves in the void and forming layers upon layers of arrays.

There were nine layers in total. It was called a Nine-Tiered Pagoda Array. As soon as it emerged, the two elders were forced to bend over, unable to stand upright.

“Xuanwu Manifests!” Elder Bai Liting fused his spear with the Xuanwu Tortoise Shell and summoned a Xuanwu corpse. He intended to use its immense weight to break through the array.

But when the Xuanwu corpse slammed into the array’s boundary, it seemed to be stuck in mud, rendering its brute strength useless.

Dai Bufan charged into the array, wielding the Five-Colored Auspicious Cloud Banner like a cudgel.

“Mystic Heaven Axe!”

“Thunderfire Pure Gold Fist!”

The two elders respectively summoned an axe capable of cleaving space and a Thunderfire Pure Gold Fist imbued with a trace of heavenly tribulation power.

Dai Bufan remained unmoved, not even raising an eyebrow. He swung the banner like a staff, shattering the Mystic Heaven Axe with a single blow and striking Elder Wu Shui square in the face. He hit the elders so badly that he knocked their teeth out. No matter their heaven-defying methods and healing abilities, it was all useless.

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou stood at Kaihuang Temple, watching the battle with upturned faces. Seeing their usually gentle, scholarly Senior Brother Dai transform into a battle-crazed berserker and lay waste to all, the two trembled in fear.

“This is my first time seeing Senior Brother Dai fight.”

“He fights so ruthlessly.”

In theory, the two of them could hold their own against Intermediate Fusion cultivators, but that was only against ordinary ones. If they faced a Fusion cultivator like Dai Bufan, their fate would be no better than these two elders’.

An aged voice echoed through Kaihuang City.

“To have achieved such cultivation at such a young age—you are no ordinary junior.”

As the aged figure appeared, the Nine-Tiered Pagoda Array collapsed on its own. The two elders, finally freed, quickly sought the elderly man’s protection.

“Vice Creed Leader.”

“Lou Nan?” Dai Bufan gripped the crimson banner, his fighting spirit undiminished.

Lou Nan, the vice creed leader of the Heartless Creed, was at the Basic Transcendent Tribulation Stage.

“Everyone in this city has been poisoned. The cultivators may recover on their own, but the mortals are frail. Only this old man possesses the antidote.

“These people will die within ten days if the poison isn’t neutralized. If you want them to live a little longer, you’d better hand them over to me.”

As Lou Nan spoke, he released the aura of the Transcendent Tribulation Stage, bearing down on Dai Bufan alone. Dai Bufan was forced to transform his body into a water form to lessen the burden.

“Quite a clever junior.” Lou Nan contemplated whether to just take Dai Bufan with him.

Only Lou Nan knew the detoxification method; Bai Liting and Wu Shui did not. If Dai Bufan wanted the people in the city to live, his only choice was to let Lou Nan take them.

“Why is he so determined to take the entire city?” Lu Yang was puzzled. In the previous loop, Lou Nan had also relocated Kaihuang City.

The Everlasting Immortal Fairy lay on her lotus platform and casually guessed. “Probably to condense an Incipient Dao Fruit. By observing the heartless actions of an entire city over a long period, if he is lucky enough and gains some insight, he might have a chance to form an Incipient Dao Fruit related to heartlessness.”

“Master Lu, what do we do?” Cold sweat poured from Tang Chuanwu. Dai Bufan had been like a war god moments before, but once Lou Nan appeared, even Dai Bufan was barely holding on, unable to retaliate. Will I have to start another loop to find a new way out?

Lu Yang smiled at Tang Chuanwu. “Don’t worry. I have plenty of people.”

With that, he shot into the sky and stood shoulder to shoulder with Dai Bufan, raising the Qingfeng Sword steadily. “You want to take the entire city? Did you ask my sword?”

“Intermediate Divine Transfiguration Stage.” If Lou Nan hadn’t already attained a heartless mental state, he would have burst out laughing.

Does this Intermediate Divine Transfiguration cultivator think he can defy the heavens?

“Take my sword!”

Lu Yang raised the Qingfeng Sword high, his Sword Dao blazing brilliantly. With a single strike, the small world opened. A snow mountain large enough to cover the whole of Kaihuang City drifted out and sent Lou Nan flying.

If Dai Bufan's summoning of the wind and rain earlier had simply caused Kaihuang City to be cooler, the appearance of the snow mountain now made the city frigid.

Two figures flew out from the snow mountain—one tall and one petite.

The tall figure sneered at Lou Nan. “Calling everyone ‘junior.’ Kid, are you really that old?”

“Is the heartless poison really so hard to cure?” The petite figure let out a derisive laugh.

Lou Nan got a clear look at the two figures. His heartless mental state shattered instantly, and his previously composed and assured demeanor vanished without a trace.

“V-Vast Sea Daoist Lord! Moonchaser True Person!”

Two half-immortals!

Run!

Lou Nan turned and bolted. Just as he was about to escape Kaihuang City, a portal appeared before him, teleporting him back to his original spot.

“Trying to run? Did you get my permission?”