A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

Any later, and even if he did get the Golden Threaded Ghost Flower, it would have been useless.

”Your composure is admirable! I’m impressed. In that case, allow me to deal with the remaining Puppets.” As soon as he finished speaking, Guna ordered his Refining Corpses to stop defending and resume their attack on the last few Puppets. Green flames began to gather on the White Bone Fork above his head, as if he were preparing to eliminate all the Puppets before them in one go.

A mocking glint flashed in Lü Zhong’s eyes as he watched.

’How could I fail to see his intentions?’

’He’s obviously feigning an attack on the Puppets, only to launch a surprise attack on me.’

As he saw the green flames on the White Bone Fork flare, he chuckled softly, then formed a Technique Mantra with his hands and slapped it onto the ground.

Instantly, Spiritual Light surged from the ground as the grand tower Array activated.

A blade of light rapidly took form. It didn’t fly toward Lü Zhong, who had activated the Array, but instead shot toward the treacherous Guna in the distance. A scream echoed for a moment, and then Guna fell silent.

Lü Zhong smiled to himself. ’My efforts weren’t wasted after all.’

Ever since they had joined forces, he had been feigning cooperation with the Demon Cultivator while secretly working to crack the tower’s Grand Array.

This Array was a relic left by Ancient Cultivators, its design philosophy incredibly outdated. To a modern Array Master, it was riddled with flaws. Although Lü Zhong’s own attainments in the Array Dao were too low to decipher it completely, the Grand Array was currently uncontrolled. This made it possible to exploit its loopholes and make minor modifications.

For example, he had changed the Grand Array’s counterattack protocol to target Yin Qi.

Normally, a modification like this would have taken an extremely long time to succeed, given Lü Zhong’s current mastery of the Array Dao. But he had the Gray Mist Space to help him run simulations.

After a great deal of effort, he had finally completed the change just a moment ago.

Staring at the Demon Cultivator’s corpse, which had been split in two, Lü Zhong carefully examined it. Only after confirming that the man was well and truly dead did he slowly approach.

He reached out, intending to magically pull the White Bone Fork to him, when he heard a faint whistling sound from above.

The sound was nearly imperceptible. Had Lü Zhong not been constantly vigilant, he likely would have missed it. Above him was a sphere of light—Guna, who, realizing his own death was certain, had managed to send his Divine Soul fleeing.

Without a second thought, Lü Zhong raised his hand to cast Palm Thunder.

Although Palm Thunder was a minor art, a single strike would be enough to shatter the man’s Divine Soul.

”Peach Ghost Stasis!” a voice cried out from above.

’Not good,’ Lü Zhong thought, trying to move. But to his shock, his body wouldn’t budge.

A sweep of his Divine Sense revealed several small, imp-like creatures clinging to his feet; he had no idea when they had appeared. They held him fast. Even when he summoned his Spirit Forging Fire to burn his own body, he couldn’t incinerate them in an instant.

”I never thought you’d possess Yang Fire! A pity these Peach Ghosts aren’t creatures of Yin or evil, but naturally-occurring Spirit Monsters. Your Yang Fire can’t burn them to death in an instant!” Guna cackled victoriously as the sphere of light that was his soul shot straight for Lü Zhong’s Sea of Consciousness.

”Hahaha, this body is mine for the taking! Everything you have will belong to me!”

The sphere of light plunged into the Sea of Consciousness, preparing to devour Lü Zhong’s Divine Soul and seize his body.

Guna was supremely confident. After all, his Divine Soul was Innately powerful, which gave him a significant advantage in a battle of possession.

But he never expected to be met with an even larger sphere of light. The difference in size between the two was stark.

”How can this be? Your Divine Soul is this powerful!” Guna shrieked in horror.

Only then did he realize, to his dawning horror, that he had overlooked a critical factor in his calculations.

”Hmph!” Lü Zhong couldn’t be bothered to waste his breath on him.

After a brief chase, the large sphere of light completely devoured the smaller one.