Chapter 00284: Did I Overestimate You
# Did I Overestimate You?
Chapter 284
Novel: Abandon The Universe
Chapter 284: Did I Overestimate You?
Jiu Tingxuanmu sneered, "I knew you'd try to ambush me."
As he spoke, he summoned a massive square seal.
Empowered by the immortal energy of a Great Zhi Immortal, the seal unleashed a wave of killing intent that swept across dozens of miles, carrying an overwhelming force as it crashed toward Lan Xiaobu.
Jiu Tingxuanmu wasn't just talking out of his hat—he had indeed anticipated this.
Lan Xiaobu was likely at the Great Yi Immortal level.
They had intercepted him early to prevent him from taking Fu Xun to a place where they would be at a disadvantage.
Now that Lan Xiaobu was cornered, if they were in his shoes, they would definitely strike first, aiming to incapacitate the stronger opponent.
If possible, they'd even kill them.
At the same time, Fu Xun also made his move.
Lan Xiaobu had some intention of ambushing Jiu Tingxuanmu, so how could Fu Xun let such an opportunity slip by?
Having been road bandits, they had seen all kinds of situations.
Working together, they had even taken on Great Luo Immortals.
A greenhorn like Lan Xiaobu? Any one of them could handle him with ease.
But soon, Fu Xun's face turned pale with terror.
He had clearly seen Lan Xiaobu ambushing Jiu Tingxuanmu, and Jiu Tingxuanmu had predicted it too.
Yet, just as Fu Xun was about to strike with his own weapon, Lan Xiaobu's halberd had already locked onto his life force.
Lan Xiaobu wasn't targeting Jiu Tingxuanmu—he was targeting Fu Xun.
"Stop—" Fu Xun barely managed to utter a single word before the Seven-Tone Halberd tore through his dantian.
Fu Xun fell like a broken sack, his face ashen and his body trembling.
Boom! Only then did Jiu Tingxuanmu's massive seal come crashing down, gouging a deep trench where Lan Xiaobu had been standing.
But it didn't harm Lan Xiaobu in the slightest.
"Spatial divine ability... This is a spatial divine ability..."
Fu Xun muttered to himself, realizing he was done for.
A Great Yi Immortal who could wield spatial divine abilities? His grasp of battle tactics was completely beyond their expectations.
Jiu Tingxuanmu stopped moving, staring dumbfounded at Lan Xiaobu.
Spatial divine abilities? Wasn't that something only Immortal Venerables or even Immortal Emperors could touch?
After sealing Fu Xun with a few restrictions, Lan Xiaobu ignored him and turned his attention to Jiu Tingxuanmu, his divine sense firmly locking onto the man.
Using his trump card, the spatial divine ability "Boundless," to ambush a mere late-stage Great Yi Immortal was like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.
He had used his strongest ability because he didn't want to face two enemies at once and also to prevent Jiu Tingxuanmu from escaping.
"Are you also a Great Zhi Immortal?" Jiu Tingxuanmu asked, his heart no longer in the fight after seeing how Lan Xiaobu had effortlessly subdued Fu Xun with a single move.
Or rather, he felt a twinge of fear.
As road bandits, they had seen it all.
How could they not know how terrifying a Great Zhi Immortal who could control spatial divine abilities was? Even if Lan Xiaobu wasn't a Great Zhi Immortal, Jiu Tingxuanmu didn't dare to fight him.
Lan Xiaobu chuckled, casually carving void-trapping immortal array patterns as he spoke, "What level I'm at isn't important. What's important is that I called you here today for a reason."
"My apologies, but I must decline," Jiu Tingxuanmu said, his figure beginning to fade.
Lan Xiaobu acted as if he didn't notice, his Seven-Tone Halberd sweeping out another arc of light.
Though it was just a single arc, it felt like a thousand soldiers charging forward.
The explosive sound of the halberd filled the air, turning the surrounding space into an endless battlefield.
Jiu Tingxuanmu's figure was blocked by an invisible wall, becoming clear once more.
Fear flashed across his face.
"A concealment array..."
Now, Jiu Tingxuanmu no longer dared to think about escaping.
He summoned his treasure, ready to strike.
Although he could break through the concealment array with brute force, he knew he wouldn't have the time to do so.
Just as Jiu Tingxuanmu had guessed, having lost the initiative, he was immediately engulfed by an endless wave of killing intent, leaving him at the mercy of death.
The halberd's sound exploded like a mournful dirge.
Despair filled Jiu Tingxuanmu's heart as he desperately summoned his massive seal.
The halberd's arc slashed across ninety thousand miles! The divine sound of the halberd tore through Jiu Tingxuanmu's defenses, even ripping apart the void-trapping immortal array Lan Xiaobu had set up.
Boom! A ten-thousand-foot-deep chasm was carved by Lan Xiaobu's Seven-Tone Halberd.
Jiu Tingxuanmu's massive seal was sent flying, and his body was split in two by the halberd's light.
He lay in the chasm, his eyes filled with despair.
Lan Xiaobu glanced at his Seven-Tone Halberd, then at Jiu Tingxuanmu lying in the chasm and Fu Xun not far away.
He then uttered a sentence that nearly made the two vomit blood: "Uh, did I overestimate you guys?"
Heaven and earth as his witness, Lan Xiaobu truly didn't mean to mock them.
He had thought that since he was only at the mid-stage of Great Yi Immortal, and his opponents were at the late-stage Great Yi Immortal and early-stage Great Zhi Immortal levels, he had to go all out.
If he slipped up, he might end up being the one getting caught instead of the catcher.
That would have been quite the joke.
So, right from the start, he had used his strongest trump card, the spatial divine ability "Boundless," to severely injure Fu Xun.
The spatial ability had frightened Jiu Tingxuanmu so much that he didn't even dare to fight and tried to flee.
But he was blocked by Lan Xiaobu's void-trapping immortal array, losing the initiative.
Then, under Lan Xiaobu's other divine ability, "Palace Sound Kill," he was split in two.
However, Lan Xiaobu also realized his own combat strength—Great Zhi Immortals probably posed no threat to him anymore.
This "Longevity Sutra" was truly something.
He was only at the fourth layer of Great Yi Immortal, yet his immortal energy was so condensed that he could instantly kill an early-stage Great Zhi Immortal.
Even if he used the void-trapping immortal array to do it, it still counted as an instant kill.
"You're a Great Luo Golden Immortal..."
Fu Xun stared at Lan Xiaobu in terror.
On the other side, Jiu Tingxuanmu didn't even bother trying to heal his wounds.
He guessed Lan Xiaobu wouldn't let him go, so why bother with futile actions?
Lan Xiaobu took out a stool and sat down, speaking leisurely, "You both know you're doomed. I was planning to annihilate your souls, but I thought it over and decided to leave you a sliver of hope—I'll allow you to reincarnate. Of course, reincarnation comes with a condition: you must answer one of my questions, and your answer must be useful to me. Otherwise, it's still soul annihilation for you."
How ruthless! Both Fu Xun and Jiu Tingxuanmu secretly regretted their actions.
They had known Lan Xiaobu was baiting them, so why had they been so greedy for the treasures on Bian Yufeng?
Seeing that neither of them spoke, Lan Xiaobu asked, "The few of you killed Zhi Feng'an outside Tianyun Immortal City and took a top-grade wood immortal spirit vein. I want to know who has that spirit vein now."
Fu Xun replied, "That spirit vein was indeed something we stole together. It was taken by Bian Yufeng. Because Bian Yufeng is a generous person, anything that couldn't be divided immediately was temporarily kept with him, to be split later. After that, we never heard from Bian Yufeng again. It wasn't until we met you that we learned he had been captured by the Forbidden Immortal Bureau."
Lan Xiaobu was stunned.
After all that, he had gotten a completely useless piece of information.
No wonder Bian Yufeng believed Fu Xun and Jiu Tingxuanmu would save him—it turned out he had taken that top-grade wood spirit vein.
It seemed that top-grade wood spirit vein was out of his reach.
Since it was with Bian Yufeng, it would surely have been confiscated by the Forbidden Immortal Bureau.
Once the bureau had it, there was no way he could get his hands on it.
"You're of no use to me anymore," Lan Xiaobu said, raising his hand to summon flames and reduce the two to ash.
Suddenly, Fu Xun cried out, "Fellow Daoist, I answered your question. Can you allow me to reincarnate?"
Lan Xiaobu coldly replied, "Your answer was useless to me. You're a road bandit who's killed countless innocent cultivators, and you've done nothing for me. You still want to reincarnate? Let me tell you, forget about reincarnation. Of course, if you can give me a fire-attribute origin crystal, I might spare your miserable life."
Fu Xun hurriedly said, "I don't have a fire origin crystal, but I know where you can find something to upgrade your immortal flame—a Earth Core Flame Crystal."
Fu Xun was shrewd.
Since Lan Xiaobu wanted a fire origin crystal, it was likely he had a flame that needed to advance or undergo a rebirth.
Lan Xiaobu's eyes lit up.
Although a Earth Core Flame Crystal couldn't compare to a fire origin crystal, it was still an incredibly rare treasure that couldn't be bought.
A Earth Core Flame Crystal could upgrade any immortal flame, though higher-level flames would require more crystals.
His Primal Eternal Flame was a fourth-grade immortal flame.
With a Earth Core Flame Crystal, it would definitely advance to the fifth grade.
"Tell me, and I'll let you reincarnate," Lan Xiaobu said, flicking a flame toward Jiu Tingxuanmu.
Fu Xun watched with a twitching eye—this was clearly a method of soul annihilation.
"The Earth Core Flame Crystal is at the Jiting Chamber of Commerce in Tianyun Immortal City. A rogue cultivator obtained it. He was only a Great Yi Immortal but disguised himself as an Immortal King to try and auction it at the Jiting Chamber of Commerce. Unfortunately, the chamber saw through his disguise, and he ended up losing his life there," Fu Xun quickly explained.
"How do you know this?" Lan Xiaobu asked.
Fu Xun hurriedly explained, "As road bandits, we need to know who has good stuff. So, we secretly set up monitoring restrictions in many chambers of commerce and are very familiar with various marks."
Lan Xiaobu believed this.
If they weren't familiar with divine sense marks, they wouldn't have known he had tampered with Bian Yufeng's divine sense mark.
"Good, I'll let you reincarnate," Lan Xiaobu said, tossing another flame at Fu Xun.
Unlike with Jiu Tingxuanmu, Lan Xiaobu allowed a sliver of Fu Xun's soul to enter the reincarnation cycle.
However, retaining memories was out of the question.
...
Lan Xiaobu didn't return to the Forbidden Immortal Bureau.
Instead, he went to Tianyun Immortal City.
Tianyun Immortal City was much smaller than Tianjiang Immortal City, but its foot traffic was just as heavy.
Since more low-level immortals came here, there was a teleportation square just outside the city.
Lan Xiaobu had transformed into the appearance of Yan Chengjian and blended into the crowd as he entered Tianyun Immortal City.
Once inside, Lan Xiaobu didn't even need to ask around before spotting the Jiting Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber's status in Tianyun Immortal City was clearly high.
Upon entering the city, one could see a massive array display screen showing the times for the Jiting Chamber's auctions.
According to the information on the screen, the Jiting Chamber held auctions almost every month.
(That's all for today's update.
Goodnight, friends!)
(End of Chapter)