85: Chapter 85: Welcome to My Home Ground

Sect Leader Lu Yun was completely dumbfounded.

He floated in mid-air, blankly staring at the iron tower that shone like a giant lightbulb, then looked down at the silent space-splitting ruler in his hand, feeling as if his brain had been crushed back and forth by something several times.

"I... I came here to seize the treasure."

"I didn't come to act as a power bank for this crappy city!"

"How could this happen?"

"Why did my spells, my treasure, and my all-out attack just become electricity for your lighting?"

"This is unreasonable! This isn't cultivation! What the hell is this!"

"Pfft!"

He couldn't catch his breath, felt a sweetness in his throat, and spat out a mouthful of blood.

This wasn't because someone had injured him; it was purely from rage.

This was even more distressing than being slapped away to his face.

"Impossible... absolutely impossible!" He shook his head as if he had lost his soul, his gaze unfocused. "It's an illusion! This must be an illusion! It's an incredibly powerful illusion array!"

He could only think this way; otherwise, the Dao heart he had cultivated for hundreds of years would shatter into pieces today.

"Right! An illusion array!" He latched onto it like a lifeline, his eyes turning red again. "As long as I break your array, you ants will be dead!"

He disregarded the bizarre-looking iron tower; he wanted to slaughter the group of people below first!

He felt that as long as he killed the person who set up the array, this ridiculous scene would naturally vanish!

He swayed his body and, like a crazed eagle, charged toward Director Zhao Lixin, Dongfang Shuo, and the others below!

"Die!"

But he hadn't even charged ten meters out.

A cold, emotionless woman's voice, neither loud nor quiet, rang out clearly in everyone's ears.

"Are you done making a scene?"

This voice sounded like a thunderclap, exploding directly inside Sect Leader Lu Yun's brain.

His whole body stiffened, and his momentum charging forward was abruptly halted in mid-air.

He jerked his head up, looking in the direction of the voice.

He saw that on top of the blindingly bright Donghai Pearl Tower, someone was standing there, though he didn't know when they had arrived.

It was a young girl wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, looking no different from an ordinary female college student.

She stood quietly on the edge of the tower top, the night breeze blowing her hair. She looked at him calmly, the feeling just like an adult watching a child throwing a tantrum.

"It's her!"

Sect Leader Lu Yun's pupils constricted.

Although he hadn't seen this girl before, he had a feeling that the previous times his spells inexplicably failed, along with that bizarre "energy absorption" just now, all had something to do with her!

She was the real mastermind!

"Who exactly are you?!" Sect Leader Lu Yun felt uneasy inside, but he still sounded tough.

He wanted to use his divine sense to probe her background, but as soon as his divine sense drifted over, it vanished without a trace; he couldn't feel anything.

He couldn't see through her!

This discovery poured a bucket of cold water on the fire that had just ignited in his heart.

"Who I am is not important," Jiang Ning looked at him, speaking as if reading an instruction manual. "What is important is that you damaged our tower, scared our residents, and delayed me from drawing my blueprints."

She paused and swept a glance at Sect Leader Lu Yun with eyes that looked at trash.

"So, as compensation, you, and everything on you, stay here."

"How dare you!" Sect Leader Lu Yun was ignited by this condescending attitude. "Just by you? A little girl whose feathers haven't even grown yet, and you dare to say such big words?!"

He decided to strike first!

Regardless of how strange she was, as long as he killed her, everything would be solved!

"Get down!"

He urged the space-splitting ruler, his whole body merging with the ruler, becoming as fast as a beam of light, thrusting straight toward Jiang Ning!

This was his fastest and most ruthless move as a sword cultivator!

He was confident that at such a close distance, even someone at the Golden Core Stage definitely couldn't dodge it!

But Jiang Ning just stood there, not even blinking an eyelid.

She merely raised her right hand.

Then, she snapped her fingers toward the city below her feet.

A crisp sound.

Then, a buzzing sound, louder than any previous time, rose up from underneath the entire city!

With the Donghai Pearl Tower as the center, a golden light barrier rose from beneath the tower, covered in symbols he couldn't understand, instantly covering dozens of kilometers, like a large inverted bowl.

"Spirit Induction Array, mode switching!"

"Mountain Protection Array (test version), activating!"

"Spirit Prohibition Domain, enabling!"

Sect Leader Lu Yun, who was charging forward fiercely, suddenly felt the surrounding air become like cement, pasting him in place!

The bit of spiritual energy in the air that was quite active just a moment ago suddenly disappeared entirely, clean, as if it had been sucked dry by something!

He felt like a fish in the sea suddenly thrown into a waterless desert!

He couldn't breathe!

A stifling sensation he had never experienced before enveloped his whole body!

The spiritual energy inside his body lost its connection to the outside world, becoming water without a source!

His most proud "Man-Ruler Unity" state was broken on the spot.

His speed, previously too fast to see, suddenly dropped to slower than an ordinary person running.

He used a particularly ugly posture, slowly "creeping" toward Jiang Ning's direction in the air.

"This... this is... what..."

The expression on Sect Leader Lu Yun's face went from ferocious to stunned, then to fear, and finally, only blankness remained.

He discovered that not only could he not absorb spiritual energy from the outside, but even using the spiritual energy inside his body was excruciatingly difficult.

Every bit of spiritual energy he tried to mobilize was a hundred or a thousand times more tiring than usual!

Moreover, the little spiritual energy he managed to mobilize was rapidly leaking out; he couldn't keep it at all!

He felt his cultivation base rapidly dropping!

From Foundation Establishment Late Stage, to Foundation Establishment Mid Stage, then to Foundation Establishment Early Stage...

In the blink of an eye, he was about to fall back to the Qi Refinement Stage!

"No! My spiritual energy! My cultivation base!"

Sect Leader Lu Yun screamed in terror. He wanted to stop, wanted to retreat, but his body simply wouldn't obey him.

He watched himself drift in front of Jiang Ning in a disgraceful slow-motion.

Finally, he stopped three meters away from Jiang Ning.

It wasn't that he wanted to stop; it was that his internal spiritual energy was completely drained, and he could no longer fly.

Like a kite with a broken string, he fell straight down from mid-air.

A dull thud.

The once arrogant "Immortal Envoy from the Upper Realm," Sect Leader Lu Yun, landed face-down, smacking solidly onto the cold concrete floor of the tower top.

And Jiang Ning, from beginning to end, hadn't even moved her position.

She just looked down at Sect Leader Lu Yun, who was lying at her feet, unable to move like a dead dog.

Then, a cold, clear voice rang out through the command center's loudspeaker.

" 'Spirit Prohibition Domain' stress test complete."

"Test results: Foundation Establishment Late Stage target lost all mobility within three seconds; spiritual energy completely suppressed and dissipated."

"Evaluation: Results significant, meets design expectations."

"Target individual, Sect Leader Lu Yun, has been captured."