Hearing Luo Qingliu's words, Xu Zimo smiled indifferently and said, "Then I'll wait for your Undying Race."
Luo Qingliu snorted coldly and stepped aside with Luo Qingxue and the others.
Luo Changfeng’s aura of the Empyrean Meridian Realm enveloped his whole body. His crimson eyes stared at Xu Zimo.
He slightly shifted his right foot back and stepped forward with his left.
He charged straight at Xu Zimo.
Red spiritforce surged around his fist, and the mark on his forehead glowed continuously.
In just a blink, he appeared before Xu Zimo.
He punched hard at Xu Zimo’s body.
With a loud "boom," a shockwave spread out from the two of them in all directions.
Luo Changfeng stared blankly at his fist. At that moment, he felt like he had struck an unbreakable piece of iron.
"Undying Battle Physique?" Xu Zimo chuckled and said, "Had your fun yet?"
"You…" Luo Changfeng's heart was racing. He wanted to say something, but the words were stuck in his throat.
Xu Zimo grabbed him by the neck and slowly lifted him up.
"How…" he said with difficulty.
"How can the difference be this big?" Xu Zimo said with a smile. "I was planning to play with you a bit, but I'm not interested in child’s play anymore."
"Are you going to kill me?" Luo Changfeng asked.
"Your True Martial Sacred Ground is strong, but you wouldn’t want to go to war with both the Divine Sun Sacred Ground and my Undying Race, right?"
"Are you threatening me?" Xu Zimo narrowed his eyes.
"No, I just want to know what will happen to me," Luo Changfeng said bitterly.
He felt disheartened. As a genius of the Undying Race and a Holy Son of the Divine Sun Sacred Ground, he had always been someone to be proud of.
He had been determined to compete for the Heaven’s Will.
But this sudden defeat was hard to accept.
Losing isn’t terrifying. What is terrifying is not even being able to see the gap, like an unbridgeable chasm between them, leaving him confused about the future.
The time limit for the Heaven’s Will was drawing closer, and time to prepare was running out.
For someone like Luo Changfeng, who had always been ahead of his peers, this kind of failure was a terrible feeling.
"Hand over the Soft-Water Pearl," Xu Zimo said calmly.
"Let my junior brothers and sisters go, and I’ll give it to you," Luo Changfeng replied.
"You’re not in a position to negotiate with me," Xu Zimo shook his head.
He directly broke into Luo Changfeng’s storage ring and retrieved the Soft-Water Pearl.
The pearl rested on its companion object, the ladle. It was about the same size as the Wind-Destroying Pearl.
It was deep blue all over and had a dreamy appearance.
The moment Xu Zimo saw the Soft-Water Pearl, he felt the Wind-Destroying Pearl inside him tremble even more intensely.
It was as if the two were mysteriously connected.
Holding the Soft-Water Pearl in his hand, Xu Zimo could faintly feel a vast ocean stirring and crashing with massive waves before him.
There’s an old saying: from the three thousand weak waters, take only one ladle.
Soft-Water is the heaviest water. It’s said that a single drop could destroy a mountain.
Imagine the weight of an entire river or sea formed from Soft-Water.
For cultivators below the Paragon Meridian Realm, even one drop is too heavy to lift.
Let alone an entire body of Soft-Water.
After Xu Zimo stored the Soft-Water Pearl, he looked at Luo Changfeng and the others.
Luo Qingxue stood tensely and protectively in front of Luo Changfeng, asking, "Since Young Master Xu has obtained the Soft-Water Pearl, can you let us go?"
"I don’t like trouble," Xu Zimo shook his head.
"Just like he said to Gongsun Hong earlier, what if you leak the news? Besides, your Sacred Ground wouldn’t let this go so easily."
Upon hearing this, Gongsun Hong suddenly burst out laughing, though his mouth was already bloody and mangled.
"So you all have a day like this too. You won’t die easy either!"
"Noisy," Xu Zimo snorted coldly and waved his hand. Several streams of spiritforce shot out, tearing Gongsun Hong into pieces.
Seeing this, Luo Qingliu covered her mouth in shock and stared at Xu Zimo in terror.
"Young Master Xu, there’s no grudge between us," Luo Qingxue continued.
"What happened today, we can promise not to tell anyone. Gongsun Hong disappeared with the Soft-Water Pearl. We’ll say the same thing to our Sacred Ground."
"Enough talk. End your own lives. I can leave your bodies intact," Xu Zimo replied. "If I do it myself, you may not even leave bones behind."
"If I’m going to die anyway, I’d rather die fighting," Luo Changfeng said calmly.
His crimson eyes were fierce, his pupils unfocused, and the red mist around his body grew thicker.
Just as he was about to fight again, everyone suddenly felt a powerful pressure descend from above.
"Enough, Changfeng. Step back," an old voice came from the sky.
Hearing it, Luo Changfeng froze, quickly looking upward.
An old man in white stood in midair, looking down with an emotionless gaze.
"Master, you’re here," Luo Changfeng quickly greeted him.
Hearing this, the tension in Luo Qingxue and the others also eased.
Senior Brother Changfeng’s master was probably that ancestor who had just broken through to the Immortal Path.
The old man wore white robes, had a long white beard, and even his eyebrows were white.
His long hair was black and white, tied neatly behind his head, giving him an immortal-like aura.
"Master, why are you here?" Luo Changfeng asked.
"I’ve been following you secretly the whole time," the old man said with a gentle smile. "The Soft-Water Pearl is too important. The Sacred Ground would never casually let you retrieve it alone. This mission was a test. You just became the Holy Son. Naturally, you need to prove yourself."
"I’ve let you down," Luo Changfeng said sadly.
"No, do you know why I didn’t step in earlier?" the old man shook his head.
"In the face of life and death, you didn’t back down. That proves your path in martial arts is firm. That’s enough. If you had begged for mercy, then I would have been disappointed."
"Thank you for your guidance, Master," Luo Changfeng bowed deeply and stepped aside.
The old man now looked at Xu Zimo and said with a slight smile, "Young one from the True Martial Sacred Ground, you’re impressive."
"You’re here to lecture me?" Xu Zimo replied with a faint smile.
"You really surprised me," the old man shook his head. "The disciple I personally trained couldn’t even put up a fight against you. No wonder you won first place in the Six Holy Lands Gathering."