The cloaked figure was naturally Lin Fan.
As he saw the old man being slammed down into the ground, he pulled back his cloak and said with a smile, “Yes, that.”
The old man wanted to get up and fight back, but before he could, there were several blades of spiritual energy that fell down on him. These blades of spiritual energy were perfectly aimed so that they cut right through his limbs, severing all four of them.
The old man couldn’t help screaming in pain, but he couldn’t do anything other than flounder around without any limbs.
Once he recovered from the sudden pain, he immediately looked around him for the source of these attacks, but he found that he wasn’t able to find the attacker at all.
He knew that it was impossible for Lin Fan to have attacked him with attacks of this level, so there had to be someone hiding in the forest. If he wanted any chance of surviving, he had to find this person first before he could make his move.
Since they weren’t willing to show themselves, he would have to do something to make them appear.
So the old man shouted, “Hiding in the dark like this and ambushing someone, aren’t you ashamed? Why don’t you come out and reveal yourself!”
But as his voice rang out, there wasn’t a single movement.
It seemed like the other side wasn’t easily provoked, but this was expected. He had only attempted this to see if it would work, but he never actually expected any results from it.
So he lowered his head and took a deep breath.
As he took this breath, there were wisps of dark energy that had gathered in his mouth. Then after he finished taking this breath, he suddenly looked up at Lin Fan and spat out a needle of dark energy at him.
This was an attack that condensed all of his remaining power, it was not something that a Foundation Realm Cultivator would even be able to react to.
He knew that to force the person hiding to act, he would need to take action on one of the people they cared about.
So the target that he chose was Lin Fan.
Lin Fan had the lowest level of cultivation here. Even if the Love Sect disciples were weakened, they were still in the Qi Condensing Realm and had better reactions than this Foundation Realm kid.
So Lin Fan was the best target for him.
The dark needle flew out at Lin Fan at a speed that he couldn’t even see with his naked eye, but he wasn’t worried at all because there was someone protecting him in the dark.
Before the dark needle could hit Lin Fan, there was another spiritual energy blade that flew out and intercepted it. It hit the dark needle right in the center and cut it in half.
The two pieces of the dark needle that were left lost all momentum and dissipated into fading dark energy.
The old man revealed a shocked look. This wasn’t just because he hadn’t been able to see where the attack came from, but also because he had felt the aura behind the attack.
When the spiritual energy blades cut off his limbs earlier, it had only been with the power of the Peak Qi Condensing Realm.
This old man was in the Mid Qi Condensing Realm, same as senior brother Ying, but the Love Sect disciples were currently weakened, so he should have been the strongest person here.
A person at the Peak Qi Condensing Realm, he felt that there was still a chance for him to escape with his trump cards.
However, the spiritual energy blade that had just cut through his dark needle just now wasn’t just in the Qi Condensing Realm.
That spiritual energy blade just now had surpassed the Qi Condensing Realm, flying much faster than his dark needle and scattering it with pure force.
That was an attack in the Golden Core Realm!
Realizing this, when the old man came back from his shock, he immediately summoned a token from his Storage Ring with his mind. With his spiritual sense, he was about to activate the token, but before he could…
The token disappeared on the spot and flew over to where Lin Fan was standing.
The old man watched as his token disappeared and he tried using his spiritual sense to connect to it, but he found that he wasn’t able to do so. When he tried using his spiritual sense to connect to his Storage Ring as well, he found that it too had disappeared.
When he looked up at Lin Fan, he saw that he was holding both his severed arm and the token that he had taken out.
The old man looked at him in a daze for a bit before suddenly breaking out in laughter.
Lin Fan knitted his brows when he saw this, but before he could ask why the old man was laughing, the old man said, “You might have been able to stop me, but I’ll still have the last laugh.”
Then without hesitation, the old man bit down on seemingly nothing. However, the moment that he clenched his teeth, there was a swelling of spiritual energy that came from him.
He was going to blow himself up!
Lin Fan was alright since he was further away, but the Love Sect disciples would be caught up in the explosion from where they were standing!
The Love Sect disciples all knew this, but it was too late for them to run. Not to mention that even if they had tried to run, they wouldn’t have the energy to do so.
So all they could do was stand there in a daze, not knowing what to do.
That was except for senior brother Ying.
The moment that he saw that the old man was about to blow himself up, he immediately turned and ran over to where his junior sister Xi was.
Junior sister Xi was surprised to see this and said, “Senior brother, what are you…”
Before she could finish though, senior brother Ying threw himself at her. He grabbed her and used his body to shield her from the blast.
But it was just that the blast never came.
When the old man was about to explode, there was a dome of pure blue spiritual energy that fell down atop him. This spiritual energy dome completely covered him, making sure that there wasn’t even a single gap.
The old man looked up to see the person who threw down this spiritual energy dome and said, “Ah, so that’s where you were hiding.”
Mu Bao Bao had been hiding far up in the sky, just out of sight.
The old man had never considered this because to reach that height, one had to reach the Nascent Soul Realm.
While cultivators under the Nascent Soul Realm could still fly with the help of tools, they couldn’t fly that high. They would never be able to reach an altitude where they would be out of sight.
So he had never thought about looking up for Mu Bao Bao.
As for how Mu Bao Bao had been able to reach that height, it was all because of Lin Fan’s floating spell.
Unlike flying with spiritual energy or tools that used spiritual energy, Lin Fan’s floating spell used magic energy to control the wind. The wind was all over, so there was no limit to how high one could fly, that is other than their magic energy.
But Lin Fan’s current magic energy was more than enough to lift Mu Bao Bao high enough that she would be out of sight. Only, it was just barely enough to keep her there.
That was also why Lin Fan had been calm and mostly silent during this time.
He had been concentrating on maintaining the spell that he had cast on Mu Bao Bao.
Mu Bao Bao had been shocked when she learned of this spell of his, but she was also used to being surprised by him. She just quickly followed his plan and took care of the old man.
With the blue spiritual energy dome over him, the old man’s explosion didn’t travel far as it was contained within the dome.
That dome filled with dark purple flames, flames that were clearly different from normal flames.
When Lin Fan looked carefully at it, he saw that these were flames that were imbued with a dark energy, but were different from his Hell Flames. His Hell Flames had the attribute of burning forever as very concentrated flames, but these purple flames had the attribute of rotting.
Whatever they touched, they would not only burn, but also rot.
After the explosion, being devoid of all air through the blue spiritual energy dome, the purple flames quickly dissipated and revealed a corpse lying there.
However, when they took a closer look at this corpse, they were shocked to find that it wasn’t a corpse at all. It was a puppet that was made of wood and what seemed to be bone.
There was a purple core that had a crack right in the center of it that laid at the center of this puppet that was still glowing.
As the flames disappeared, there was a voice that rang out from the purple core, “You might have escaped today, but know that you can’t hide forever. Mu Bao Bao, I know you’re there. Know that you are the one that we really want.”
Then with another cackle, the light of the purple core faded away until it completely dimmed and there wasn’t a trace of light left in the purple core.
Everyone just stood there with their brows knitted.
However, that didn’t last long since they knew that there was nothing else they could do about this.𝗈𝓋𝑳xt.𝒸𝑜𝕞
Now that they were finally safe, the legs of the Love Sect disciples turned soft and they collapsed where they were standing. Lin Fan’s legs also gave out under him and he fell onto his butt on that tree branch.
It had taken him quite a bit of magic power to keep Mu Bao Bao floating in the air, so it really had been hard for him as well.
After they collapsed, junior sister Xi noticed that something was wrong and quickly said, “Senior brother, can you get off me? It’s getting a bit hard to breathe.”
Since he had been holding her, when they collapsed, senior brother Ying had been laying atop junior sister Xi in a very awkward position…
Senior brother Ying had been in a daze from the smell that came from junior sister Xi, but when she spoke up, he had no choice but to move. So he stood up and helped her up before asking, “Junior sister Xi, are you alright?”
Junior sister Xi nodded with a smile before turning to everyone else and asking, “Is everyone else alright?”
Junior sister Yu had been sitting there with a hurt and disappointed look, but she once again suppressed it again to say, “Un, I’m alright.”
Junior brother Fan just had a bitter smile on his face as he nodded in agreement.
He was the lonely dog here. It had been easier when his junior brother Gu was with them, but now that he was the light bulb to this love triangle on his own…
But when junior brother Gu passed through his mind, he also couldn’t help feeling a bit of sadness.
The junior brother Gu that he had been with over the past few days had been a fake…so where was their real junior brother Gu?
After they made sure that they were all alright, they finally turned to Mu Bao Bao.
All of them teared up as they said, “Junior sister Mu.”
Mu Bao Bao also had tears in her eyes as she looked at all of them. She could tell from their appearances that they must have suffered during their captivity.
She nodded and said, “Un, it’s me.”