After being reborn, the villain comes with a spoiler tag.

The cultivator surnamed Wang gritted his teeth and poured his spiritual power into the spirit silver sword in his hand.

The originally translucent silver spirit sword suddenly shone with a bright blue light, and phantom images of lotus flowers appeared on the sword. With the surge of spiritual energy, his clothes moved without wind, fluttering loudly.

"go with!"

With a loud shout from the cultivator surnamed Wang, the spirit silver sword surrounded by azure sword light flew out of his hand and sped towards Long Yucheng like lightning.

During flight, clusters of blue lotuses appeared and disappeared around the sword. Amidst the swirling blue light, the speed of the Spirit Silver Sword continued to increase, emitting a sharp sound as it pierced the air.

Long Yucheng knew that this attack was the Wang surname cultivator's trump card, so he threw out the talisman he had prepared beforehand.

The talisman instantly ignited, turning into a thick white mist that engulfed the oncoming spirit sword.

However, the thick white mist only held off the flying sword for a moment before dissipating completely.

Although the azure light on the spirit silver sword weakened slightly in the white mist, its speed remained undiminished, continuing its attack on Long Yucheng.

Having exhausted all his last means of survival, Long Yucheng had nowhere left to retreat.

But he was unwilling to sit and wait for death. Gritting his teeth, he stopped making futile dodges and instead used offense as defense, fully activating the Fire Control Technique.

Today, even if it means death, Long Yucheng will make this outer disciple, who has no grudge against him, pay the price!

In an instant, the temperature around Long Yucheng rose sharply, and countless flames emerged from the air, quickly gathering in front of him and forming a fire dragon in a moment.

The fire dragon was blurry, with only its dragon shape barely discernible. Compared to the fire dragon in Huo Yu's hand, it was like the difference between an abstract and a figurative art, but the high temperature it emitted foreshadowed its immense power.

Just as the cyan spirit sword was about to strike Long Yucheng, he roared, and the fire dragon in front of him lunged at the cultivator surnamed Wang.

At the same time, Long Yucheng's divine sense condensed into a sharp blade and stabbed at the cultivator surnamed Wang first.

This move is the Soul-Shocking Thrust recorded in the Ghost Control Manual. It was originally used to suppress and weaken the souls of the dead, but Long Yucheng discovered through experiments that it also had a miraculous effect on the spiritual sense of cultivators. So he practiced it for a period of time and used it as a surprise attack when facing enemies.

The cultivator surnamed Wang's all-out attack had exhausted most of his spiritual power. After unleashing his trump card, he was determined to take Long Yucheng's life. He never expected that Long Yucheng would choose to abandon his defense at this moment and launch an attack on him as if his life depended on it.

Caught completely off guard, the cultivator surnamed Wang was struck hard by this terrifying stab. He felt his sea of ​​consciousness violently shake, and the world before him seemed to be distorted and deformed as if he were looking at the moon in water. His footwork faltered.

By the time he came to his senses, the fire dragon was already within arm's reach.

At the same time, the spirit silver sword, its blue light slightly dimmed, continued its undiminished speed, already in front of Long Yucheng, about to pierce through his skull and kill him.

Long Yucheng stared intently at the Wang-surnamed cultivator who was being engulfed by the fire dragon, his eyes bloodshot with rage. His spiritual power and divine sense had been completely exhausted in that last attack, leaving him powerless to face the Wang-surnamed cultivator's final killing move.

At this critical moment of life and death, a faint white spiritual light suddenly emanated from beneath Long Yucheng's clothing. With this strange fluctuation of spiritual energy, half a jade pendant floated out of his bosom and hovered in front of him.

A burst of white light suddenly appeared before Long Yucheng's eyes, and the aggressive cyan spirit sword was blocked by this white light, stopping it three inches away and unable to advance any further.

The white light and the flying sword were locked in a stalemate for a long time until the spiritual energy on the sword was exhausted, and it finally fell in front of Long Yucheng.

As the spirit sword landed, the white light gradually dimmed, revealing half of a jade pendant inside—the very same communication jade pendant Huo Yu had given him on the day he entered the sect.

Long Yucheng reached out and caught the jade pendant in a daze; the warm white jade pendant still carried his own body heat.

He gave a wry smile, thinking to himself:

"Now I owe Senior Brother Huo another favor. At this rate, I'm afraid I'll never be able to repay it in this lifetime."

Not far away, half of the body of the cultivator surnamed Wang, who had been completely engulfed by the fire dragon, was engulfed in flames. His clothes and flesh quickly turned into charcoal, and he let out a miserable wail.

In a panic, he jumped into a nearby pool of water and rolled around in it for a long time before finally extinguishing the flames on his body.

When he crawled out of the pool in a disheveled state, half of his face was completely disfigured, creating a stark contrast with his intact other side, making him look extremely bizarre.

Long Yucheng was also severely injured, his body covered with tiny holes left by the sword light, from which blood flowed continuously, staining the outer disciple's robes red, making him look like a vengeful ghost crawling out of hell.

The feeling of exhausting both his spiritual energy and his divine sense was extremely uncomfortable. Long Yucheng felt that he had already exhausted all his strength just by standing. He still forced himself to pick up the flying sword that had almost killed him and staggered to the Wang surname cultivator, whose body was half charred.

When he approached, the latter tried to escape by rolling and crawling on his intact half of his body. After trying for a long time, he only crawled three feet away before Long Yucheng stepped on his chest, rendering him unable to move.

When his own sword was pointed at his neck, the cultivator surnamed Wang finally broke down, crying and begging for mercy. He regretted his previous actions and even handed over his storage bag, begging Long Yucheng to spare his life.

When Huo Yu arrived from the Offering Hall, he saw Long Yucheng standing there with his sword drawn.

In stark contrast to his horrific injuries and swaying figure, the look in his eyes as he gazed at the person at his feet—exhaustion, relief, lingering fear, and anger—ultimately transformed into a cold indifference as if looking at a dead man.

The indomitable vitality in his eyes was dazzling, like a flame burning in solid ice.

This familiar scene suddenly brought back vague memories of Huo Yu from a long time ago.

At that time, he was only at the sixth level of Qi Refining. He was a small cultivator who accidentally stepped onto the path of cultivation. He only knew how to hold the Fire Control Manual and bury himself in cultivation. He knew very little about the cultivation world and the way of cultivation.

In a secluded treasure trove discovered by chance, Huo Yu and another cultivator clashed over a century-old Huangjing plant, quickly escalating into a fight to the death.

The battle ended with Huo Yu emerging victorious. However, upon hearing the opponent's pleas, he chose to spare his life.

However, a month later, that person ambushed Huo Yu when he was at his weakest, almost killing him.

That was the first lesson Huo Yu learned on his path of cultivation—to cut the weeds, you must nip them in the bud; the price of learning is half a life.

That person was also the first person he killed.

Huo Yu looked at the outer disciple's eyes as he looked at Long Yucheng. Hidden beneath the fear and pleading was a deeper hatred, exactly like the one who had begged him with tears streaming down his face back then.

However, he did not interfere with Long Yucheng's decision. Killing someone is not an easy decision for most people, especially for a first-time murder.

Some things can only be learned through personal experience, and Huo Yu will not overstep his bounds.

Long Yucheng ultimately couldn't bring himself to do it. After accepting the storage bag from the cultivator surnamed Wang, he watched helplessly as the man scrambled away from the place.

After the adrenaline subsided, the dizziness from excessive blood loss, the emptiness from depleted spiritual energy, and the stinging pain from excessive consumption of spiritual consciousness all came at once.

Long Yucheng swayed a few times, barely managing to keep from falling by using the sword in his hand to support his body.

Once the dizziness subsided, he turned his head and saw Huo Yu standing quietly not far away.

Forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace at Huo Yu, Long Yucheng muttered to himself:

"Why is it that every time I'm at my worst, Senior Brother Huo, you happen to see me...?"

Before he could finish speaking, he collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious.

Huo Yu sighed and finally carried Long Yucheng back to his cave.