"Rookie, the reinforcements the Bureau Chief sent have arrived." The elderly System's voice resonated in my mind. "Everett Li at mid Core Formation, and Marcus Su at early Core Formation — both are elite operatives of the Xuanmen."

My heart leapt. I stole a glance upward. Two streaks of flowing light split through the overcast gloom above the sea — Everett Li's azure robes and Marcus Su's crimson dharma vestments. Everett Li held a jade-boned folding fan, his body suffused with a gentle wood-attribute spiritual energy, his presence as steady and immovable as a mountain. Marcus Su had deployed a whip wreathed in coiling flames, scarlet spiritual power surging visibly — a fire-attribute cultivator, clearly.

"Fellow Daoist Ethan, good to see you in one piece." Everett Li landed beside me, his gaze sweeping over my somewhat pallid face. "That old creature Victor Jin has already sensed us?"

"Sensed us, and set a Blood-Sha Labyrinth Formation on top of it. We nearly lost our lives inside just now." I passed the jade box to Everett Li. "These are the five Blood Coral Hearts we managed to seize. Victor Jin is likely somewhere close by."

Marcus Su took the jade box and probed it with her divine sense for a moment, her expression turning grave. "They're genuine Blood Coral Hearts, all right. The yin-cold energy is so dense — no wonder Victor Jin risked everything to collect them."

Before her words had faded, Black Reef Island convulsed with a violent shudder. Beneath the surface of the sea, countless pitch-black, tentacle-like shapes tore upward through the earth, coiling around the reef and dragging out a grinding crack of splitting stone. A crushing, suffocating pressure surged from the island's depths — like a thunderhead descending — and even I, a mid Foundation Establishment cultivator, found my breath seizing, the spiritual energy in my meridians all but grinding to a halt.

"It's here!" Everett Li's pupils snapped shut. His jade-boned fan snapped open with a flourish. "Late Core Formation pressure — Victor Jin has come in person!"

A blood-colored silhouette rose slowly from the heart of Black Reef Island. It was Victor Jin. His body was shrouded in dense blood-mist, the fish-scale markings on his face writhing and contorting — far more hideous than when I had seen him at the Blood Scale Manor. Behind him trailed three devil cultivators whose auras were no less terrifying: one at mid Core Formation, two at early Core Formation. His core personal guard, beyond any doubt.

"Ethan Lu! Everett Li!" Victor Jin's voice was like millstones grinding together, laced with a venomous smile. "What a small world. Hand over the Blood Coral Hearts, and I'll leave your corpses intact."

"Delusional!" Everett Li let out a cold snort. His azure robes billowed as his wood-attribute spiritual energy condensed into a towering primordial tree, standing sentinel before us. "Victor Jin — you have colluded with devil cultivators and slaughtered the innocent. Today is the day you die!"

"The day I die?" Victor Jin burst into wild laughter. The blood-mist erupted outward in an instant. "With just the few of you? Take them down!"

The words had barely left his mouth before his three guards lunged forward. The mid Core Formation guard wielded a jet-black bone saber, its blade coiled in black flame, driving straight for Everett Li. The two early Core Formation guards split off — one launching a volley of poison needles toward me, the other swinging a spiked chain-hammer at Marcus Su — devilish malice radiating in all directions.

"Fellow Daoist Ethan, take the one on the left!" Marcus Su cried out, her crimson whip lashing toward the chain-hammer guard. The thunderclap of fire and iron was deafening.

I drew a deep breath and pulled the Tide-Wave Blade free. The moment the blade left its sheath, the meteoric iron anvil at my waist and the sword-tip shard within my qiankun pouch both flared hot simultaneously. Gold and blue light intertwined, boosting the Tide-Wave Blade's power by several degrees. Facing the charging guard, I didn't retreat — I advanced. The Tidal Sacred Body Art drove to its limit; my physical resilience surged instantly to the peak of late Foundation Establishment. At the same time, the sword-intent of the Evil-Breaking Sword Art flooded into the blade.

"Evil-Breaking!"

A gold-and-blue blade-arc slashed out and collided with the poison needles. A crisp clang rang out, and the needles shattered piece by piece — but the early Core Formation guard's strength far exceeded my expectations. The recoil numbed my arm, forcing me back several steps.

"A mid Foundation Establishment dares play the mantis against the cart?" The poison-needle guard sneered and lunged again.

Meanwhile, Everett Li's duel with the mid Core Formation guard had devolved into a grinding stalemate. Wood-attribute spiritual energy and devilish malice clashed violently, staining the seawater into swirling patches of green and black. Marcus Su, for her part, was being pressed hard by the chain-hammer guard, crimson whip and iron chain knotted together in a deadlock.

Victor Jin stood high overhead, watching it all with cold indifference, as if savoring a cat-and-mouse game at his leisure. His late Core Formation pressure was tangible as stone, bearing down on us until we could barely lift our heads, and cycling our spiritual energy had become agonizingly laborious.

This won't do — we can't keep going like this. Anxiety clawed at my chest. I cast a glance at the System panel. Merit Points remaining: just over nine hundred thousand — enough to support one large-scale redemption.

System — activate the Shop's "Temporary Combat Power Amplification" function! I roared inwardly.

Ding! Host activation of Temporary Amplification detected. Available for redemption: "Dao Ancestor Sword-Intent Temporary Infusion" — cost: 500,000 Merit Points. Duration: ten minutes. Side effect: Spiritual Energy Exhaustion (short-term). Confirm?

End of Chapter 74: Reinforcements Arrive, Victor Jin Emerges