The black spiritual energy surging around Victor Jin had condensed into something tangible, manifesting as a colossal evil serpent that thrashed and writhed, its scales catching no light. Within its pupils, ghostly green flames danced, and each breath it exhaled warped the very air around it. I tightened my grip on the Wave-Cleaver blade; the residual sword-intent of the Dao Ancestor left within the meteoric iron anvil resonated faintly with my weapon, drawing out a barely audible hum.

"A Qi-Refining maggot dares to leap about before this lord?" Victor Jin's voice was like rusted iron plates grinding together. He raised a hand and swept it forward—the evil serpent lunged, and the reeking gale it unleashed sent my robes snapping violently. I could see clearly the malevolent energy churning within the beast's maw—a venomous death-force refined from the vital essence of countless mortals. One touch meant annihilation.

There was no retreating. I drew a deep breath. The spiritual energy in my dantian spun furiously, and the Scripture of Evil-Breaking Sword Arts flashed through my sea of consciousness at lightning speed. The sword-intent of Righteous Qi Pierces the Sun blazed through my mind like the first light of dawn breaking the horizon. This technique demanded the full measure of one's righteous energy as its catalyst, driven forward by the sword-intent of the Dao Ancestor—only then could it sever the root source of an evil entity.

"Victor Jin! You have slaughtered the innocent and refined wicked elixirs—today, with the sword-intent of the righteous path, I shall cut the very root of your evil!" I roared, and my feet stamped the ground with explosive force. Fine threads of mist seeped up through the cracks that split the earth. The aqueous resonance of the Tidal Flux Art collided thunderously with the evil-breaking sword-intent, and the Wave-Cleaver blade erupted in a blinding blaze of golden light—not the searing heat of flame, but a clarity that pierced the senses like a cold mountain spring.

"Righteous Qi Pierces the Sun!"

A sword-qi of tremendous might tore straight toward the heavens, a pillar of condensed righteousness that seemed to pierce the sky and earth entire. Wherever the golden radiance passed, the evil serpent's scales let out a sizzling corrosive shriek, and the dark-green ghost-fire within its eyes dimmed in an instant. A flicker of astonishment crossed Victor Jin's face—he had clearly never anticipated that a Qi-Refining insect could unleash a force of evil-breaking purity so absolute.

"Impossible!" he bellowed, his hands forming seals. The evil serpent swelled grotesquely, its body throwing itself into the path of the blade-light. But the golden radiance moved as though it were alive—the more evil it met, the stronger it grew. With a wet, clean thud, it cleaved through the serpent's body as effortlessly as a hot blade through butter, and drove straight for Victor Jin's chest.

Hisss——

The golden light grazed Victor Jin's left shoulder, shattering the blood-red scaled armor that guarded his body and laying bare the grotesque scar beneath. The scar wound in the shape of a serpent, and faint black energy seeped from it—clearly a festering weakness left behind by his cultivation of the dark arts. The lingering force of Righteous Qi Pierces the Sun did not disperse; instead it bored through the wound and into his body, setting off a chain of faint, muffled detonations within.

Victor Jin grunted and staggered back several paces, black blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. He stared at the wound on his shoulder in disbelief—the flesh around it was withering at a pace visible to the naked eye, a thread of his evil power's root source forcibly severed clean.

Behind me, Chichi Linzi had gone so pale at the sight that he nearly lost his footing, his face ashen as sifted chaff.

"A fine Righteous Qi Pierces the Sun..." Victor Jin wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and the murderous light in his eyes blazed hotter than before. "To think a little bastard like you could produce such a technique! If I do not kill you today, you will become a grave threat in the days to come!"

The black energy around him surged with sudden, violent force. The crushing pressure of a Core Formation cultivator descended like a mountain, and I felt my breathing seize at once—the spiritual energy flowing through my meridians ground to a sluggish, agonizing crawl. This was the true might of Core Formation. The blow I had landed before was owed entirely to his underestimating me and to the suppression wrought by the Dragon-Binding Formation.

"System—now!" I cried out inwardly, and at the same time my hand dove into my robes for the jade vial. I shook a single Qi-Gathering Pill into my mouth. It dissolved the moment it touched my tongue, and a warm current surged through every inch of my body, staving off the crisis of spiritual energy exhaustion. But unleashing Righteous Qi Pierces the Sun had drained nearly eighty percent of my reserves—my dantian now felt hollow and barren, barely able to sustain the most basic circulation.

Victor Jin saw this and let out a vicious laugh. His hands slammed together in a resounding clap. "Insolent child—receive your death! Ten-Thousand Soul Demonic Flame!"

Black spiritual energy gathered in his palms and coalesced into a writhing, twisted mass of flame. From within the fire came the faint wailing of wronged spirits—this was a baleful blaze refined from the life-souls of ten thousand beings. To be touched by it was to be annihilated in body and soul alike.

I gripped the Wave-Cleaver blade. Knowing full well I could not win, I had no choice but to meet it head-on. At that most desperate, knife's-edge moment, a streak of azure light descended like an immortal falling from beyond the sky, placing itself between Victor Jin and me.

"Lord Jin, why must you drive a junior so completely to his end?"

The azure radiance faded, and the figure of Everett Li emerged. He still wore that same green robe, a jade-boned folding fan held loosely in hand, looking for all the world like a scholar-poet who had simply been passing by. Yet the Core Formation pressure emanating from his person was not the slightest bit inferior to Victor Jin's—if anything, it ran a measure deeper.

Victor Jin's expression darkened. "Everett Li? Does someone from Azure Dragon Hall intend to meddle in this lord's affairs?"

"Not at all, not at all." Everett Li fanned himself with an unhurried ease, his smile warm yet weighted with meaning. "But you led men in a forcible entry into our Azure Dragon Hall's office premises. That shows rather complete disregard for the entire Xuanmen Bureau, wouldn't you say?"

"Rubbish!" Victor Jin thundered. "That brat injured my disciple and destroyed my business. This lord is merely settling accounts within his own house—what concern is that of yours?"

"Settling accounts within his own house?" Everett Li gave a light, unhurried laugh. His gaze swept over the wound on my shoulder, then shifted to Victor Jin's withered left shoulder. "From where I stand, it looks more as though Lord Jin was outmatched by his junior and came away the worse for it. Nevertheless—Ethan Lu is a man our Azure Dragon Hall has its eye on. I trust Lord Jin will be magnanimous enough to let him go."

End of Chapter 50: Righteous Qi Pierces the Sun