Chapter 233: The White Crane’s Underhanded Moves

"Luo Yuan!" Ye Fei screamed.

The spatial bracelet on his arm shone a dark crimson and a silver-framed treasure mirror flew out.

Crimson dragonfish swam around in the world within the mirror.

"The Dragonfish Mirror!" Lu Xiangyi's expression changed and she said tentatively, "Ye Fei, the Violet Crystal Pagoda was only an intermediate-grade spirit artifact. Luo Yuan broke it, and we can always have him compensate you.

"If you take out that Dragonfish Mirror, this will become a battle to the death, and I don't think that's necessary."

"It is necessary!" Ye Fei cried, expression cold as he glared at Pang Jian. "He meddled first! He dares to destroy my Violet Crystal Pagoda, I must make him pay!"

With that, he aimed the silver-framed mirror at Pang Jian.

Pang Jian looked curiously at the mirror filled with crimson dragonfish and felt the instant the dragonfish targeted him.

Whoosh!

A beam of silvery light shot from the Dragonfish Mirror to Pang Jian's pupils, connecting a shimmering, silver river between the two.

The crimson dragonfish in the mirror swam along the beam of silvery light and headed straight for Pang Jian's eyes.

A searing pain filled Pang Jian. His eyes felt like they were about to rupture.

Six fierce dragonfish appeared in his sea of consciousness, ready to devour his divine sense.

The Dragonfish Mirror was designed to attack the soul and sea of consciousness. It was capable of devouring the opponent's divine sense.

Pang Jian's face darkened.

Without hesitation, he sent his spiritual power and life energy rushing into his sea of consciousness to intercept the strange dragonfish.

He simultaneously manipulated the strands of divine sense to evade the dragonfish's attacks.

Fortunately, I've advanced to the middle stage of the Profound Abode Realm and can control my divine sense!

Pang Jian thought in relief.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Pang Jian's green spiritual power and life energy surged into his sea of consciousness, ready to encircle and slay the dragonfish.

"Ah!" Ye Fei suddenly screamed in horror, eyes filling with fear.

The inner disciple of the Black Valley Sect instantly recalled the dragonfish from Pang Jian's sea of consciousness into the Dragonfish Mirror.

"It's a misunderstanding!" he shouted.

Pang Jian had been preparing to fight with all his might and was taken aback by Ye Fei's unexpected reaction.

Ye Fei gazed at Pang Jian as though seeing him in a new light. His gaze was filled with deep apprehension.

"Luo Yuan, I should've given you the respect you deserve. I was being unreasonable earlier," Ye Fei conceded, backing down.

Everyone around stared at him in bewilderment.

"Ye Fei, you—" an outer disciple of the Black Valley Sect, over fifty and in the late stage of the Profound Abode Realm, frowned deeply. "Our Black Valley Sect has a reputation to uphold."

"Shut up!" Ye Fei glared at him and said coldly, "Remember this. You may be older and have a higher cultivation realm than me, but I'm still the leader of this expedition for our Black Valley Sect!"

The man's expression changed, and he quickly lowered his head. "I understand."

"Good."

Ye Fei turned back to Pang Jian, demeanor shifting to one of politeness.

With an awkward smile, he asked, "Luo Yuan, could we talk privately?"

Pang Jian, although perplexed, nodded nonetheless.

The two of them moved to a grassy area away from the lake under the puzzled stares of the disciples from the Demon Sect and the Celestial Lagoon Sect.

"Luo Yuan, you're not just an ordinary disciple of Sword Pavilion. You have one hundred and twenty-eight strands of divine sense!

"Anyone who can refine over a hundred strands of divine sense in the Profound Abode Realm in our Second World can instantly be promoted from an outer disciple to an inner disciple! This applies to the Demon Sect, the Sword Pavilion, the Celestial Lagoon Sect, and my Black Valley Sect!

"And that's just for over a hundred strands, let alone your one hundred and twenty-eight!"

Ye Fei's arrogance had disappeared when he saw Pang Jian's sea of consciousness through the dragonfish.

"Luo Yuan, I don't know why you're hiding your identity, but I don't want to become enemies with someone like you over an intermediate-grade spirit artifact.

"So...how about we just consider this a misunderstanding?" Ye Fei said, clasping his hands in apology.

Pang Jian smiled.

So that's the reason.

After a brief pause, he casually asked, "You seem to be at the middle stage of the Profound Abode Realm too. How many strands of divine sense do you have?"

"Just barely over a hundred, at one hundred and one strands." Ye Fei smiled bitterly "From what I know, once one has over a hundred strands of divine sense, every ten strands after that becomes a major hurdle.

"Going from a hundred and ten strands to a hundred and twenty strands is like crossing a great chasm.

"None in the Second World have managed to exceed one hundred and thirty strands of divine sense while in the Profound Abode Realm over the last eight hundred years.

"Even your one hundred and twenty-eight strands is the most anyone has had in the last three hundred years, Luo Yuan." With every word, Ye Fei became more and more despondent. He had lost all desire to fight Pang Jian. "I could tell you didn't want anyone to know about this, so I brought you here to talk."

Pang Jian nodded calmly. "Yes, please keep it a secret."

"Of course, of course!" Ye Fei nodded like a pecking chicken.

A battle that could have been deadly was resolved because Ye Fei had seen Pang Jian's strands of divine sense through the Dragonfish Mirror.

As the two conversed, Lu Xiangyi tossed a pearl into the lake, revealing an area on the lake's floor filled with corpses of both Vicious Beasts and Spirit Beasts.

The white crane could be seen pecking at the flesh of a Vicious Beast, consuming it to restore its strength.

"The white crane is recovering!"

"There are many corpses of Vicious and Spirit Beasts in a corner of the lake bottom. It's among the corpses!"

"Let's dive in and hunt the white crane!"

The onlooking disciples cried out.

Whoosh! Splash!

The disciples summoned their protective shields and jumped into the lake.

"Luo Yuan, you have the qualifications to claim a share of the treasures in the white crane's spatial bracelet, but you'll need to contribute as well," Ye Fei advised.

Pang Jian nodded.

He and Ye Fei then summoned their protective shields and dived into the lake as well.

Many oval-shaped protective shields could be seen at the bottom of the lake.

Vicious Beasts and Spirit Beasts that could enhance their strength through lightning, such as Lightning Serpents, Electric Eels, Thunder Eagles, and Rock Rhinos, lay scattered at a corner of the lake.

The dejected and listless white crane ripped apart the body of a Lightning Serpent with its talons and pecked out its gall bladder before eating it.

The lake was its personal food cache.

The Vicious Beasts and Spirit Beasts it had hunted were all stored here for the white crane to consume when injured.

The disciples from the Second World gradually made their way toward the white crane, still encased in their protective shields.

A gleam of cunning triumph shone in the white crane's eyes.

Pang Jian was immediately suspicious as he was familiar with the white crane's deceptive nature.

His green protective shield thickened several times over as he infused it with additional lightning and cold energy.

The cold energy transformed Pang Jian's protective shield into something resembling a solid ice crystal, with streaks of white lightning flickering around it.

He was fully prepared to defend with all his might.

Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!

Lightning bolts burst out of the corpses of the lightning-attribute Vicious Beasts and Spirit Beasts, linking the scattered bodies together.

The corpses were abruptly transformed into an array capable of concentrating and releasing lightning.

Boom!

Lightning shattered the protective shields of several disciples from the Celestial Lagoon Sect at the forefront, killing them instantly.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The violent lightning struck the Demon Sect and Black Valley Sect disciples.

Those lacking powerful protective spirit artifacts with low cultivation realms met their ends the moment the lightning shattered their protective shields.

Boom! Crackle!

Streaks of lightning struck Pang Jian's icy protective shield.

Pang Jian's protective shield not only did not shatter but also absorbed a portion of the lightning.

The lightning vortex in Pang Jian's spiritual sea started to spin, causing the lightning in his new spirit sword to extend and contract.

A loud screech echoed and the heavily injured white crane flew toward the surface of the lake, surrounded by lightning.

It expended much effort to flap its wings, causing the lightning-gathering array below to continuously draw in lightning.

The bottom of the lake rumbled as lightning shattered more and more protective shields.

The disciples from the Second World had mistakenly thought themselves to be hunters, only for the white crane to lure them into a trap at the bottom of the lake.

In the blink of an eye, more than half of them were dead.

Crackle!

The array formed from the linked corpses of the Vicious and Spirit Beasts continued to rain down terrifying bolts of lightning.

The lightning vortex within Pang Jian's spiritual sea allowed him to move freely at the bottom of the lake while everyone else was immobilized.

Ye Fei of the Black Valley Sect and Lu Xiangyi of the Celestial Lagoon Sect were barely holding on, movements sluggish as the lightning battered at their shields.

Whoosh!

The white crane broke through the surface of the lightning-filled lake.

Whoosh!

Pang Jian chased it down, still encased in his icy protective shield.

"Luo Yuan, you vile dog from the lower world! How did you not die at the bottom of the lake?!" the white crane cursed through its exhaustion.

The lightning array built from beast corpses had been its trump card.

It had expected everyone in the lake to die or be trapped there once it activated the array, allowing it to escape Cloud Lightning.

The white crane could not have predicted that a freak like Pang Jian would not only survive the violent lightning but also manage to chase after it.

Glancing around and seeing no one around the lake, Pang Jian summoned his Startling Slaughter Spear.

"Go!" he cried, controlling his spear to pursue the white crane.

The white crane was still injured and could not fly very high.

Blazing spheres of light flew out from the tip of Pang Jian's spear to surround the white crane.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The light spheres exploded simultaneously, with the force of blazing suns and volcanoes.

The white crane let out a piercing scream as it fell from the sky once more.