I defeated the saint with a parry.

"impossible!"

"Absolutely impossible."

Sumi stood up and joined the battle with the Yaksha Doll.

This is the most difficult situation Xu Ling has ever faced.

Of the thousand ways he died, at least a third were due to their combined attacks. Because it was a combined attack, it meant that Xu Ling not only had to parry both sides of the attack, but also had to deal with the deadly attacks that the two of them couldn't parry.

The difficulty increases exponentially.

Xu Ling was experienced; he approached directly, and when Sumi squinted and made a forward motion, he rolled forward and continued to get closer to the Yaksha doll.

Hundreds of deaths taught him that when faced with such a combined attack, the only way to survive was to put himself in a desperate situation and kill one of them first.

Xu Ling dodged Sumeru's flash attack and met Yaksha's three consecutive fast and slow sword strikes.

"one!"

Xu Lingmo counted to one, raised his sword and held it horizontally to his left. As soon as he landed, the assist to deflect the attack appeared. He parried the attack and blocked the first strike.

Then he silently counted two numbers again: "Two! Three!"

The Yaksha Doll, with one foot on the ground, spun around, gathering its strength to slash with its halberd.

Xu Ling parried again, retreated in the process, and then rolled away, just in time to dodge another attack from Sumeru.

"Four!"

Xu Ling raised his sword and slashed to the right, and Sumi, who had just revealed himself, was hit head-on by the attack.

If Xumi hadn't reacted quickly, the knife would have struck his shoulder directly, severing his arm, instead of just leaving a cut on his chest.

"five!"

Xu Ling did not pursue, but turned around to receive the sword dance of the Yaksha Doll.

Three swords in total, not one of them landed, all were deflected.

These were the very three swords that sliced ​​through Xu Ling's waist, severed his head, and pierced his heart...

The fact that I can now perfectly parry a shot is all thanks to hard-won lessons.

After successfully parrying multiple times, Xu Ling's parry just now directly knocked the longsword out of the Yaksha doll's hand, and the 'Decisive Kill' mark appeared on the doll's body.

"cut!"

Xu Ling didn't hesitate and thrust his knife in.

The doll made a sound like shattering glass, and several cracks spread from the knife cut, cracking in various places.

According to Xu Ling's experience, the doll would be unable to move for a short time after being touched like this, but it would not "die" or be ruined.

After all, it is a spiritual treasure, and cannot be compared with a cultivator.

The Yaksha Doll immediately stood up again, this time opening its mouth as if to devour.

Xu Ling was silently counting in his mind: "One! Two!"

Then he rolled forward, just in time to avoid the swallow's capture range. The move that had swallowed Li Hong and his group was actually dodged by him so easily.

That wasn't all. After rolling away from the devouring range, Xu Ling didn't waste any time and continued to use basic attacks to deal damage.

The Ink Blade was already formidable; when the two magical weapons clashed, the blade suffered no loss, while the cracks on the Yaksha Doll became increasingly apparent.

The doll was forced to retreat and entered a brief standby state.

Xu Ling turned to look at Xumi, who was touching his chest with lingering fear; the wound had already healed.

Xumi was utterly shocked and asked, "What kind of cultivation technique do you practice? May I learn it?"

Wow! You have great taste, as expected of you! It's a pity... no one else can fix this.

Xu Ling rolled her eyes and ignored her.

He needed to force out Sumeru's execution while the doll was imprisoned, so talking was a waste of time...

He responded with a blade aura, but Xumi shattered it with his bare hands. This made Xu Ling realize the truth: he could only rely on mechanical means, and the ordinary martial arts of a Body Tempering Realm cultivator were simply incapable of harming Xumi.

"Come!"

Xu Ling roared, his fighting spirit blazing, as if he would be more uncomfortable if Sumeru didn't make a move.

With Sumeru still, Xu Ling began to use basic attacks to steal damage, completely disregarding any martial arts skills or techniques.

As Sumeru moved, Xu Ling dodged to avoid damage, parried to seize opportunities, and continued to inflict damage.

Thus, he managed to fight Sumeru to a standstill.

The damage was not significant, but the mental pollution was severe. Sumeru's eyes turned red, which was a symptom of extreme anger leading to madness.

"Waaaaaahhhhhh!!" Sumeru roared, "Activate the formation!"

His spiritual energy surged wildly towards the underground cave as if he had no energy left, and at the same time, spiritual energy fluctuations of the same frequency rippled throughout the ruined village. An inexplicable power was gathering in the village, and Xu Ling could already feel the pressure coming from all directions, as if it would crush him into dust.

Xu Ling quickly withdrew and ran towards the outermost edge of the village without hesitation. He ran faster and faster, and judging from the way his blood was surging, he was using all his strength, and even his blood was burning.

The fleeing figure was decisive and swift, as if it knew great terror was coming. Sumi was stunned: "He knew again?"

As soon as Xu Ling ran to the village entrance, a huge rune pattern appeared on the ground behind him, the same one he had seen in the cave.

The same runes appeared everywhere in the village, followed by a surge of spiritual energy, and the formation was activated.

Xu Ling breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank goodness, we escaped."

In reality, fighting is very physically demanding. If I hadn't relied on burning my qi and blood, I might have been trapped in the formation.

He had tried it in the trial space; as long as he was inside the formation, he would surely die.

Sumeru's most powerful technique is this array, which is related to the inheritance he received in his later years and is also the method he used to steal divine power.

Xu Ling's current stats are too low, and his foundation in cultivation level is too weak, so he cannot withstand this wave of damage.

Putting everything else aside, even the two people in Peach Grove couldn't understand how Xu Ling could escape the formation's range.

"Is the Demon Suppression Division so powerful that even its unofficial demon slayers understand such profound matters as formations?"

Li west looked at Hou Le: "It seems that Elder Hou doesn't need to take action; this guy might create a miracle."

"Young Master, if the matter in Fancheng is over, we should either take this boy back or kill him outright." Hou Le said calmly, "It's quite normal for an ordinary genius to kill someone at the Nascent Soul Realm while crossing levels. But he has directly broken through the barrier between immortals and mortals, and is no longer among the geniuses. Great Chu has always been on par with us in terms of martial prowess. Now that we have encountered such a monstrous talent who is still growing, we should nip it in the bud as soon as possible."

"Oh? Elder Hou seems to think highly of him, but he's only at the Body Tempering Realm after all. How can he possibly influence the future?"

"Young Master hasn't cultivated yet, so it's normal that you can't see it. After Xu Ling slew the Man-Faced Tiger and entered a state of enlightenment last time, his essence, energy, and spirit were enhanced. Compared to cultivators in the Meridian Opening Realm, he was only lacking in spiritual power. Just now, this change occurred again. When he unleashed his fighting spirit and slashed at the old bald monk, his essence, energy, and spirit were sublimated again, even stronger than the last time."

"Doesn't that mean it's already comparable to the Condensation Realm?"

Hou Le shook his head and then nodded: "Those in the Concentration Realm possess divine sense, capable of perceiving the subtle and discerning the truth. This kid is naturally not easily compared. This kid cannot be judged by ordinary standards; he's not bad, but his actual combat strength is astonishing and cannot be measured by realm. This old man is also quite troubled..."

Li west chuckled: "There are few juniors who can give Elder Hou a headache. What's the relationship between their spirit, energy, and cultivation level?"

"Heh!" Hou Le looked at the changes in the formation and slowly said, "For us cultivators, the three thousand Great Daos lead directly to the sage. They seem to be many kinds, but in fact they are all just different paths to improve one's essence, energy and spirit, and achieve the trinity, ultimately reaching the sublimation and evolution from mortal to celestial sage. As the saying goes, all methods are different, one begets two, two begets three, three begets all methods, and all methods return to one, in the end it is all one thing."

"So, although Xu Ling couldn't cultivate, he found another path?"

"Indeed! That old bald monk has some insight; he clearly saw this and shamelessly wanted to learn it. But I have a feeling that this path is only for Xu Ling; others cannot learn it."

Hou Le looked closely but found no trace of 'cultivation' at all. If there was no cultivation, how could one learn? Could it be through enlightenment?

If transcendence could be achieved simply through enlightenment, this world would have long been dominated by those stubborn old fogies from the "Heavenly Mystery Sect" and the "Heavenly Array Sect," and it wouldn't be as vibrant and diverse as it is now.

The old man shook his head without speaking, but his eyes suddenly widened as he looked at Xu Ling with even greater astonishment and suspicion: "Truly a prodigy!"

In the blink of an eye, the once devastated Peach Blossom Village was completely razed to the ground in just a few breaths. Xu Ling seized the opportunity, rushing back at the crucial moment when the formation ceased. This time, to increase his speed, he deliberately consumed several Qi and Blood Pills to burn his Qi and Blood more intensely, transforming into a blood-red dragon as he charged towards Sumeru.

"Old monk, it's my turn next."

"No..." The old monk gasped for breath, maintaining such a large formation was very difficult even for him.

He had only just entered this realm, with neither time to consolidate nor familiarize himself with it, making his realm seem flashy but insubstantial. Now, with his spiritual energy depleted, the weakness emanating from his dantian and body gave him the illusion that he had returned to that old, hunched, mortal state.

The fear of failing to achieve one's goals was taking root in his heart.

"You can't do this. I've worked so hard to get this far, and you..."

Xu Ling remained silent, focusing solely on dealing damage. Based on the situation in the trial space, Sumi should already be low on health and about to be killed.

He only needs to inflict the appropriate damage...

A red dot of light appeared on Xumi's body, and Xu Ling finally smiled. Under Xumi's horrified gaze, he raised his knife and stabbed it, directly piercing Xumi's dantian and shattering Xumi's hope.

Xu Ling drew his sword and retreated. The pressure from the surrounding array had dissipated, and without the protection of spiritual energy, Sumeru was rapidly declining.

A hunched body and a feeling of weakness enveloped Sumeru once again... He looked even older than before.

Sumeru's eyes were like those of a dead fish; he said weakly, "How could this be? How could this be..."