Chapter 151: Jade Spirit

Seeing how confident Lin Yi was, Zhuge Xian instantly felt full of assurance as well. Even if Lin Yi were to fail in the end, she still had a backup plan she could resort to, though the price to be paid would be considerably higher.

"Stay here, I'll go gather the spiritual herbs first," Lin Yi said.

The Jade Spirit was simply too massive; any casual movement of its body could potentially destroy the spiritual herbs right here. To prevent any accidents, he decided to secure the spiritual herbs first before dealing with the Jade Spirit.

Lin Yi's movements were completely silent and swift as he gathered all the Myriad Transformation Fruits in the area, totaling five in all. Just as he was about to retrieve the Sword-Exposing Stone, Zhuge Xian suddenly let out a piercing scream.

"Ah, there's a spider!"

Lin Yi was somewhat speechless. To think that a martial artist like her would actually be afraid of a tiny spider. As expected, women of all kinds were nothing but the most troublesome creatures.

The moment Zhuge Xian finished crying out, she also realized something was terribly amiss. Looking up, she saw that the Jade Spirit, which had been fast asleep just a moment ago, was now standing upright. When lying down, it was already three meters tall, but now standing, it towered like a small hill, reaching over ten meters in height.

Its appearance bore some resemblance to a human, with its entire body covered in suet-white jade. Through the continuous catalysis of spiritual energy, this suet-white jade had long since become incomparably hard.

The Jade Spirit glared at Zhuge Xian with eyes the size of carriage wheels, fixing its unblinking gaze entirely upon her. Zhuge Xian felt a sudden numbness creep across her scalp, followed by chills running down her spine.

"Roar!"

With a thunderous roar, the Jade Spirit strode heavily toward Zhuge Xian.

"Oh come on, big guy, there's clearly another person right beside you—why do you have to lock onto me alone?" Zhuge Xian complained inwardly.

She hurriedly tried to bolt backward, but she had barely taken a single step when a surge of worldly power locked her firmly in place. No matter how desperately she struggled, she could not shake it off.

"Damn it, I've really messed up this time! Since when did this Jade Spirit break through to the Spiritual Venerable realm?" Zhuge Xian felt a wave of despair wash over her.

The gap between a Spiritual Venerable and a Grandmaster was absolute and insurmountable. No matter how slow the Jade Spirit might be, a single application of worldly power was more than enough to immobilize anyone beneath the Spiritual Venerable realm.

In just a few strides, the Jade Spirit reached Zhuge Xian's side. Showing not an ounce of mercy for a fair maiden, it raised a fist the size of a truck cabin and smashed it down fiercely toward her.

Terrified, Zhuge Xian turned pale. Taking a blow like this would undoubtedly shatter every bone in her body. Faced with the imminent loss of her life, she dared not hesitate any longer. A faint red glow erupted around her, finally shattering the shackles of the worldly power.

However, by this time, the Jade Spirit's fist was already crashing down.

Boom!

Zhuge Xian was sent flying like a batted ball, instantly hammered dozens of meters deep into the earth. Yet, she was not dead. The layer of red light around her absorbed ninety-nine percent of the Jade Spirit's force; even so, it left her severely injured. Several fractured ribs had pierced her internal organs—unless surgically removed, medicinal pills could only aid in closing wounds and were completely powerless to restore broken bones. Even the red glow had dimmed drastically, flickering as though it could extinguish at any moment.

Sensing that Zhuge Xian's life aura still persisted, the Jade Spirit seemed somewhat bewildered as to why a single strike had failed to directly obliterate that tiny ant. Since one punch wasn't enough, it would simply throw another. Winding back its fist, the Jade Spirit prepared to strike her once more.

Zhuge Xian's eyes narrowed as she hurriedly retrieved her Treasure Color Disk from her storage pouch. Aside from its ability to bypass formations, this disk was her most crucial trump card. Sealed within the Treasure Color Disk was a strand of power belonging to her Zhuge family patriarch, potent enough to contend with a Spiritual Venerable. However, it could only be used once, and furthermore, the Treasure Color Disk itself would be completely destroyed in the process.

This artifact had accompanied Zhuge Xian since her childhood, and the thought of destroying it naturally filled her with reluctance. Yet, keeping it unused right now was simply not an option.

Zhuge Xian hurled the Treasure Color Disk from her hand, colliding directly with the descending fist of the Jade Spirit.

Crash!

The Treasure Color Disk shattered violently, causing the surrounding spiritual energy to instantly converge in mid-air, coalescing into the illusory figure of an elderly man whose features remained indistinct. The old man likewise threw a punch toward the Jade Spirit; though his fist was small, it seemed imbued with immense strength, managing to halt the Jade Spirit's blow in its tracks.

"Quite interesting—using an array formation to seal away a fragment of power. What a pity, though; after all, it is not the person himself, and it's utterly incapable of subduing the Jade Spirit," Lin Yi remarked calmly, observing the illusory elder.

At that moment, Zhuge Xian called out weakly, "Hey, Lin Yi, hurry up and pull me out of here."

"What a nuisance," Lin Yi muttered, shaking his head as he turned and walked up to Zhuge Xian's position. To think she had been driven dozens of meters deep into the soil by a single blow from the Jade Spirit. Were it not for the protection of that red light, not even dust would have remained of her by now.

Lin Yi produced a rope, which Zhuge Xian managed to grab hold of with great difficulty. Once pulled to the surface, she immediately urged, "Let's run, quickly! This Jade Spirit has actually broken through to the Spiritual Venerable realm!"

"There's no rush," Lin Yi replied evenly.

"You say there's no rush?! This is a Spiritual Venerable we're talking about! I'm telling you, my trump card won't hold out for much longer," Zhuge Xian warned anxiously. She could distinctly feel the power left behind by her patriarch rapidly fading away, and feared it would collapse entirely within ten seconds. Once that happened, escaping would become an absolute impossibility.

"I know," Lin Yi said indifferently.

"If you know, why aren't you running?!" Zhuge Xian snapped, growing rather exasperated. Had she not been severely injured at the moment, she would have genuinely wanted to crack open Lin Yi's head just to see what on earth was inside it.

"Why should I run?" Lin Yi countered with a question. Since he had already promised to clean up the Jade Spirit for Zhuge Xian, he naturally wouldn't go back on his word.

"You, you... you're going to be the death of me! If you're not leaving, I am!" Zhuge Xian glared at Lin Yi, turned on her heel, and prepared to make her escape.

"Don't you want the Jade Spirit anymore?" Lin Yi asked.

"I don't want it anymore!" Zhuge Xian shouted without even looking back. The Jade Spirit? Preserving her life took precedence over everything else right now. Limping along in a hurried jog, she mentally cursed Lin Yi a few more times for being a brainless, reckless blockhead who still insisted on acting like a tough guy even at a time like this.

Roar!

The Jade Spirit let out another deafening roar. Its massive fist, glowing with a brilliant white radiance, smashed down heavily once more upon the illusory elder. The elder reciprocated with a strike of his own; with a resounding crash, the entire cavern shook violently.

However, the illusory elder was merely a construct of energy and understood no martial arts techniques. With the force of a decaying tree crushing rotten wood, the Jade Spirit shattered the elder's form with a single punch, dissolving it into countless starlights that vanished into thin air.

Immediately afterward, the Jade Spirit locked its gaze back onto Zhuge Xian.

"Oh, come on! Why are you targeting me again?" Zhuge Xian felt utterly on the verge of a breakdown. Lin Yi was standing right there beside it, yet even after she had run hundreds of meters away, the beast still refused to take its eyes off her. This was simply going too far.

In a single stride, the Jade Spirit caught up to Zhuge Xian. Beating its chest with both fists, it viciously hurled them downward toward her.

"I'm finished."

Zhuge Xian instinctively closed her eyes. This time, not even an intact corpse would be left behind. Fortunately, she hadn't brought Little Fatty along, or another innocent life would have been squandered in vain. She only wondered if Little Fatty would manage to build up her immortal sect; truly, she did not want to die.

In that brief fraction of a second, countless thoughts flashed through Zhuge Xian's mind.

Whoosh!

A wave of air rushed past her face, gently stirring her disheveled strands of hair.

"Hey, step back a bit," a voice suddenly echoed in her ear.

"I'm not dead?" Zhuge Xian thought in sheer astonishment. Opening her eyes, she beheld a sight that left her utterly dumbfounded.

There stood Lin Yi, blocking the path directly in front of her, halting the Jade Spirit's massive fist with nothing more than a single palm. No matter how one looked at it, this defied all logic like a fairy tale.

"Lin Yi, you...?" Zhuge Xian's beautiful eyes widened in disbelief.

"Don't speak, just stand aside and watch quietly," Lin Yi said casually.

"Okay," Zhuge Xian nodded hastily, limping away toward a safer distance. With every single step she took, she turned her head back to glance at him. She simply couldn't fathom how Lin Yi, who appeared to be on par with her in age and cultivation, possessed such monstrous strength that he could actually contend with a Jade Spirit of the Spiritual Venerable realm.

Roar!

Seeing its prey wander off, the Jade Spirit let out a furious roar. It desperately wanted to flatten the little speck beneath it into pulp, but no matter how much force it exerted, the human didn't budge an inch. This infuriated the Jade Spirit even further.

It swung its other fist toward Lin Yi's head as well. Lin Yi merely chuckled softly, letting the strike come at him.

"Be careful...!" Zhuge Xian, happening to look back just in time, reflexively cried out a warning.

Boom!

The blow connected with Lin Yi's body, causing the ground to shudder violently. The earth centered around Lin Yi cracked into a web of fissures that spread rapidly in all directions. Yet, Lin Yi remained completely unharmed, not even a single thread of his clothing torn.

Zhuge Xian swallowed hard. Was this even human? To take a blow from a Spiritual Venerable Jade Spirit head-on without suffering a scratch—not even her own patriarch would dare show such audacious confidence. Compared to the Jade Spirit, Zhuge Xian felt that Lin Yi was the true monster here.

"Decent strength," Lin Yi remarked mildly. Glancing over at Zhuge Xian in the distance, he stretched his limbs slightly and continued, "Now, it's my turn."

With those words, Lin Yi pulled his right fist back like a fully drawn bowstring, ready to unleash it at a moment's notice. Instinctive dread gripped the Jade Spirit; it attempted to flee, but it was already far too late.

Explosive Fist!

Lin Yi threw his punch forward, landing squarely on the Jade Spirit's leg.

Crash!

The Jade Spirit's incredibly sturdy right leg shattered instantly into pieces. Yet, the next moment, a luminous white radiance rippled across the creature's body, and the shattered leg miraculously reassembled itself right before his eyes.

This was the most terrifying aspect of the Jade Spirit: unless its energy core was located and destroyed, it could rapidly regenerate even if its entire body was pulverized into dust.

The moment its leg was restored, the Jade Spirit scrambled away in frantic retreat. It was truly terrified now. The human before it looked as weak as an ant, yet possessed a terrifying power capable of shattering its body with a single blow. If he landed a couple more punches and struck its energy core, it would be obliterated for good.

Just as the Jade Spirit took a step to run, Lin Yi closed the distance in a flash and delivered another Explosive Fist.

Boom!

Half of the Jade Spirit's body disintegrated entirely, exposing its energy core embedded within the remaining half—it was roughly the size of a fist, pulsing slowly like a beating human heart.