Chapter 229: Golden Core Duel, Slaying Bai Zhi

“Run! Run now!” After withdrawing her spiritual power, Bai Zhi had only one thought left. Without looking back, she activated her Blood Escape technique, swiftly fleeing toward the location of the fourth trial in the Great Void Realm.

Originally, suppressing the spiritual poison within her body had already been challenging. Now, after her encounter with Wei Tu, she had contracted a new spiritual poison.

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The combination of internal and external spiritual poisons, coupled with her already severe injuries and the significant energy expended to kill Jia Tianlong, had severely weakened her.

At this moment, her strength had dropped to less than half of what it was when she faced Jia Tianlong.

Moreover, in Bai Zhi's eyes, Wei Tu was shrouded in mystery. Even though his cultivation was only at the early Golden Core stage, dealing with him might not be any easier than facing Jia Tianlong, who was at the late Golden Core stage.

However, shortly after initiating her Blood Escape, Bai Zhi's delicate body began to waver mid-air, nearly causing her to fall.

“This spiritual poison is even more intense than the one in the inner region of the Great Void Realm,” Bai Zhi thought in terror. At this point, her cultivation had been eroded by the poison, leaving her at the mid-Golden Core stage.

Furthermore, her physical body was gradually weakening, no longer at the late third stage of body refinement.

Unbeknownst to Bai Zhi, as a Nascent Soul cultivator, Master Shentu had ventured deeper into the inner region of the Great Void Realm and obtained treasures that were among the rarest.

Therefore, the spiritual poison on the “jade token” and “ancient mirror” was far more potent than the poison she had encountered in the inner region.

The Seven-Star Begonia spiritual poison on the “jade token” and “ancient mirror” was potent enough to cause even Nascent Soul cultivators to perish.

At this moment, Bai Zhi couldn't afford to heal or detoxify herself. With a fierce glint in her eyes, she struck her chest three times, spitting out several mouthfuls of essence blood, and once again activated the demonic Blood Escape secret technique.

Wei Tu, trailing behind Bai Zhi, did not rush to catch up and kill her while she was severely injured.

Using the “Know Heaven Crossing” technique, he sensed Bai Zhi's location from afar, following her like a hyena on the plains.

As the saying goes, “Never chase a cornered enemy.”

Although Bai Zhi was heavily injured and poisoned, it didn't mean she was incapable of counterattacking.

If he hastily caught up and engaged in a duel, he might be dragged down by Bai Zhi, who was in a desperate situation. A Golden Core cultivator in dire straits could unleash formidable power.

He only needed to kill Bai Zhi before she completely escaped his sensing range.

This approach would consume less spiritual power and be safer.

—The longer the delay, the more Bai Zhi's strength would diminish due to the spiritual poison.

“If it weren't for devouring the Ghost Infant, which significantly enhanced my divine sense, I wouldn't dare to implement this plan,” Wei Tu thought as he trailed behind Bai Zhi.

Waiting for Bai Zhi to weaken before delivering a fatal blow sounded good, but executing it was extremely challenging.

Without a divine sense comparable to the late Golden Core stage and the top-tier sensing secret technique “Know Heaven Crossing,” as an early Golden Core cultivator, he would likely be detected by Bai Zhi and eliminated first.

This plan hinged on his sensing range being far greater than Bai Zhi's.

In the following days, Wei Tu and Bai Zhi, one pursuing and the other fleeing, quickly left the outer region of the Great Void Realm and, following Master Shentu's underground palace passage, returned to the Southern Desolate Ancient Plain.

Upon reaching the Southern Desolate Ancient Plain, Wei Tu no longer held back, instantly doubling his escape speed to catch up and kill Bai Zhi.

The Southern Desolate Ancient Plain, located at the junction of three kingdoms, was a desolate area rarely visited by cultivators.

However, for safety's sake, Wei Tu planned to end the battle quickly, killing Bai Zhi near the underground palace to avoid unforeseen complications.

“Wei Tu? How did he catch up?” Just after exiting the underground palace, Bai Zhi, who had yet to catch her breath, saw the green escape light trailing behind her. She was instantly shocked and terrified.

After all, within her sensing range, she had already left Wei Tu far behind.

As for recognizing the true identity of the “green-robed male cultivator” as Wei Tu, it wasn't difficult for her.

Aside from cultivators from the Blood God Sect and Beastmaster Sect, among Golden Core cultivators, only Wei Tu had a Wind-Cleaving Eagle.

Moreover, the “green-robed male cultivator's” early Golden Core cultivation further confirmed that he was Wei Tu.

Over a decade ago, the Heavenly Maiden Sect had already known that Wei Tu had formed his Golden Core within the Loose Immortal Alliance.

However, after a brief moment of shock, Bai Zhi regained her composure. With a cold laugh, she flipped her delicate hand, revealing a jade talisman.

After crushing the jade talisman, her figure appeared twenty li away.

A Minor Shift Talisman!

This was a life-saving item she had possessed since the Foundation Establishment stage. She hadn't expected to use it after reaching the Golden Core stage.

“Too foolish, thinking to kill me while I'm weak,” Bai Zhi mocked Wei Tu's overconfidence.

Now that she was outside, without the barrier formations of the Great Void Realm, she could use the Minor Shift Talisman without any hindrance.

Wei Tu was foolish enough not to realize that Golden Core cultivators of her status would always keep one or two Minor Shift Talismans for emergencies.

“After all, he comes from a rogue cultivator background—his horizons are limited.” Bai Zhi sneered inwardly.

As soon as she finished, she immediately restrained her aura and dove underground to escape Wei Tu’s pursuit.

But it wasn’t long before—

A sharp eagle cry suddenly pierced the air. A stream of deep blue flames surged toward the area where Bai Zhi was hiding.

“So fast? How did he sense my location? Impossible! Even if I’ve been poisoned and my strength dropped, my aura isn’t so loose that he’d find me this quickly.”

Bai Zhi stared at the scene, momentarily stunned.

She couldn’t understand how Wei Tu had managed to put her at a disadvantage again and again.

“Did he plant something on me? Is that how he’s tracking me?” With her vast combat experience, Bai Zhi instantly deduced that Wei Tu must have set a marker on her in advance.

She immediately burst from the ground, fleeing while scanning every part of her body with divine sense, searching for the trace of any spiritual marking Wei Tu might have used.

If she couldn’t find it—

Then even using another Minor Shift Talisman would do her no good in escaping Wei Tu’s pursuit.

The Minor Shift Talisman could instantly transport her twenty li away, enough to shake off most Golden Core cultivators. But if marked by divine sense, twenty li... would only buy her a few seconds.

At Golden Core speed, it would take only a few breaths to cross that distance.

...

But Wei Tu clearly didn’t plan on giving Bai Zhi enough time to react or remove the marker.

Once again, the two resumed their chase—one fleeing, one pursuing.

Half a day later, with her strength nearly exhausted, Bai Zhi turned and activated her Moon Wheel artifact, preparing to make one last desperate stand against Wei Tu.

But how could Wei Tu give her that chance?

With a wave of his sleeve, two top-grade third-rank defensive talismans transformed into solid blue barriers, easily withstanding Bai Zhi’s attack.

Immediately after, Wei Tu formed a hand seal and shouted, “Swift!”

Several talismans shot out from his sleeve like sharp arrows, all aimed directly at Bai Zhi’s position.

At the same time, he summoned a white jade stele and sent it crashing down toward her.

This white jade stele was the Talisman Heart Stele he had obtained from the underground palace.

Unlike before, the nine top-grade second-rank talismans inside had already been replaced with seven low-grade third-rank talismans by Wei Tu.

Nearly twenty third-rank attack talismans shot out in unison.

Among them were even three top-grade talismans.

Bai Zhi’s face changed drastically.

She quickly summoned a defensive artifact and raised her arm to block, but now, drained and at her limit, she didn’t have the power left to fend them all off.

After just a few blows, her defensive artifact was blasted away by the overwhelming talisman force. Now, she could only rely on her body to face the full brunt of the attack.

But tragically, under the influence of the spiritual poison, her body no longer had the strength of a late third-rank body cultivator—barely holding at mid third-rank.

Moments later, her physical body was torn apart inch by inch by the explosive talisman force, cracking like porcelain and reduced to ash.

When the smoke finally cleared—

A pair of soft, boneless jade-like hands and a few scattered artifacts were all that remained on the scorched ground.

Then, from beneath one of the artifacts, a perfectly round Golden Core suddenly burst into the air, streaking away toward the southeast.

“Trying to flee?” Wei Tu sneered and gave the command to the Wind-Cleaving Eagle waiting nearby.

The Wind-Cleaving Eagle, now at the peak of second rank, might have struggled against the injured Bai Zhi earlier. But to deal with a Golden Core carrying only her spirit—more than enough.

Less than the time it takes to brew a cup of tea later—

The Wind-Cleaving Eagle returned, clutching Bai Zhi’s Golden Core in its beak, and landed before Wei Tu.

“Well done.” Wei Tu chuckled and gently stroked the eagle’s head.

Then he reached out his hand, summoned Bai Zhi’s Golden Core, and prepared to use his spiritual power to completely destroy the spirit inside.

“Daoist Wei, please spare me. I’m willing to serve you as a slave or maid.” Seeing this, Bai Zhi panicked and hastily sent a divine sense transmission to Wei Tu.

Though her physical body had been destroyed, her Golden Core remained. With demonic techniques, she could potentially seize another body and continue her cultivation.

She had cultivated for centuries—there was no way she would resign herself to death so easily.

Besides, her body had already been poisoned. Even if she escaped, she would likely have needed to seize a new body anyway. So losing her current body wasn’t unacceptable.

Of course, all of this was conditional—

On surviving Wei Tu’s next move.

“No need,” Wei Tu said flatly. A green light surged from his right palm, poised to annihilate Bai Zhi’s spirit in the very next instant.

“Daoist Wei, let’s talk this out! I’m still a late-stage Golden Core cultivator and possess many rare demonic arts… If you spare me, I’ll tell you everything I know.” Bai Zhi’s Golden Core trembled slightly, pleading once more.

The Golden Core trembled slightly, Bai Zhi’s soul shrinking further in fear as she tried again to plead for her life.

At this—

Wei Tu’s expression showed a hint of hesitation. He rubbed his chin, weighing the pros and cons.

After all the effort he went through to kill Bai Zhi, if it ended like this, it would hardly be worth the cost.

During the fight, those nearly twenty talismans not only destroyed Bai Zhi’s physical body, they also obliterated her storage pouch tied to her waist.

Now, only a few dim artifacts remained on the battlefield.

Those items were nowhere near enough to make up for the talisman losses.

Of course, Wei Tu hadn’t hunted Bai Zhi purely for treasure. He had other goals.

He already had more than enough artifacts and resources from Venerable Master Shentu and Jia Tianlong.

Now that Bai Zhi was begging to live, it actually played into his hands.

Wei Tu’s goal was to learn some secrets about the Heavenly Maiden Sect through Bai Zhi.

“Fellow Daoist Bai, what demonic secret arts can you teach me?” Wei Tu asked, withdrawing the green light, sounding composed.

“I can teach you every secret art I know. But before I do, you must swear a Heart Demon Oath, promising to release me after you learn them.”

“Of course, I’ll also swear not to seek revenge.”

“If you happen to enjoy the company of women, once I regain a physical body, I can serve you personally. With both of us working together—righteous and demonic—we could go anywhere…”

Bai Zhi rattled off her terms quickly, trying to tempt him.

As soon as she finished—

Wei Tu smirked.

He glanced at the Wind-Cleaving Eagle. The eagle immediately understood, spewing a stream of Profound Nether Yin Fire onto Bai Zhi’s Golden Core.

Profound Nether Yin Fire—an extremely cold, extremely dark flame—was enough to threaten even Venerable Master Shentu’s soul, let alone Bai Zhi’s.

The blaze wrapped around her soul, freezing it layer by layer as she screamed from within the Golden Core.

“Fellow Daoist Wei, stop! Please stop!” Bai Zhi cried.

But Wei Tu ignored her and let the fire burn a while longer.

Only when her soul’s aura became weak and feeble did he signal the eagle to stop.

“Fellow Daoist Bai, you’re the fish, I’m the butcher. Kindly watch your tone moving forward,” Wei Tu said with a cold snort.

With his spiritual suppression in place, even self-detonation wasn’t an option for her.

Earlier, when the eagle chased her down, she had a chance to destroy her own core—but she chose to beg instead.

Still, to prevent her from becoming desperate now—

Wei Tu softened his tone slightly. “As long as you show your worth, I’m not opposed to swearing a Heart Demon Oath. But if your secret arts are useless to me, then I’d be getting the short end of the deal, wouldn’t I?”

Hearing this—

Inside the Golden Core, Bai Zhi’s soul hesitated, then slowly nodded.

“Before that, I have one question,” she said seriously. “When exactly did you mark me with your divine sense?”

If not for that, she would’ve escaped long ago using the Minor Shift Talisman.

She couldn’t die without knowing the answer.

Worried that Wei Tu might avoid the question, Bai Zhi added after a moment of silence, “If you’re willing to explain how you did it, I’ll teach you one of my demonic secret arts free of charge.”