Spatial Ambush

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Qiu Yue was instantly pierced through.

Yet, what was pierced was not flesh and blood, but rather—

Qiu Yue’s figure rippled and dispersed like water.

The clone, thoroughly impaled by the three corrosive black beams, transformed into a puddle of cold water, splashing onto the ground with a gurgling sound and evaporating into thick white mist. The instant the three black rays stabbed into the afterimage, it seemed to be corroded by strong acid, emitting an extremely faint sizzle, and instantly dissolved into wisps of black smoke.

Even though Qiu Yue reacted with astonishing speed, almost using a substitute as if she had predicted it, she was ultimately not fast enough to evade these three sneak attacks.

Despite desperately twisting her body, she still suffered a slight graze.

Feeling a bone-chilling spiritual energy instantly coil around her, she hastily activated her cultivation technique.

The boundless spiritual power roared and surged through her meridians like raging deep-sea tides, dispelling most of the sinister coldness that clung to her like a tenacious parasite.

A lingering sensation of icy numbness persisted, permeating half her body with a profound chill.

Had she been fully struck, recovery might have been impossible for quite some time.

Qiu Yue immediately retreated back into the house, and a water barrier instantly enveloped the entire dwelling.

It completely cut off all external sight.

Qiu Yue had not sensed the attacker’s location at all; it was as if the attack had materialized from thin air.

Had she not possessed superior skill, her fate would likely have been grim.

To silently eliminate so many people, coupled with the sudden surge in points just now, indicated a terrifying feat that clearly did not belong to Liu Ruyan.

Although Qiu Yue had never witnessed such a stealthy method, she had heard rumors of it.

This terrifying sneak attack technique, which made it impossible to detect the source of the assault and only allowed for detection just before impact, bore a striking resemblance to the methods of a long-disappeared assassin organization.

“Water clone? Senior Sister Qiu, you escaped so quickly…”

Liu Ruyan’s voice suddenly rang out, devoid of its usual vivacity and cheer.

A hint of coldness permeated the low, childish voice, with surging killing intent swirling within.

Yet, Liu Ruyan’s voice merely echoed all around, making it impossible to pinpoint her exact location.

Rip—!

A sharp, ear-splitting sound, as if tearing through one’s soul, suddenly erupted, almost grazing Qiu Yue’s left ear.

Qiu Yue instinctively turned her head, dodging based on her keen reflexes.

A strand of her black hair, severed by an invisible sharp energy, silently drifted down.

A cold, sharp pain blossomed on her right cheek, and tiny beads of blood began to seep out.

The outer water barrier remained unbroken, and even the wooden walls of the house showed no damage whatsoever.

Just within Qiu Yue’s blind spot, space suddenly twisted, and a slender hand silently extended, tightly gripping an ebony dagger.

A wisp of black mist coiled around her body, slowly piercing towards the weakest point of Qiu Yue’s body-protecting aura at her side waist.

Boom—!!

However, the instant it touched her body-protecting aura, a terrifying power erupted, far exceeding Qiu Yue’s imagination.

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

The azure body-protecting aura, where it was touched, shattered into countless fragments like broken glazed tiles.

The dagger pierced into her body with almost no effort.

Even though it was only the tip of the dagger slowly sinking into her skin by a mere fraction.

Qiu Yue grunted, feeling a soul-freezing chill instantly invade her body.

Furthermore, the spiritual energy within her body was being continuously devoured, like a barrel with a hole drilled in its bottom, causing her spiritual power to leak out frantically.

‘How is this possible?!’ Qiu Yue’s heart was filled with dread. ‘Her body-protecting aura was something even a typical peak Foundation Establishment cultivator would struggle to break with a single strike.’

‘Just who exactly was this Liu Ruyan?!’

Qiu Yue reacted almost instinctively—spiritual energy surged wildly within her body, and her form transformed into a torrent of water.

This caused Liu Ruyan’s dagger to miss entirely.

Swish!

Almost simultaneously, Qiu Yue’s body transformed into a highly condensed flood dragon, emanating a rich water attribute aura, and lunged directly at Liu Ruyan’s arm.

But if she was fast, Liu Ruyan was no less so.

Almost at the exact same moment, Liu Ruyan’s hand retracted.

‘It was a space-attribute cultivation technique!’

‘Moreover, she could merge into space even at the Foundation Establishment stage… truly elusive and unpredictable!’

Liu Ruyan’s figure quickly vanished like a stone sinking into the sea, disappearing into the twisted spatial vortex, so fast that not even an afterimage remained.

The icy numbness in half of Qiu Yue’s body reminded her just how perilous that last strike had been.

Had it not been for the ‘Water Moon Transformation’ secret art being cultivated to perfection, allowing her to instantly liquefy and avoid the sneak attack, she would likely have an unsightly, grotesque scar on her back.

This Liu Ruyan, a little girl who usually seemed harmless, even somewhat innocent and naive, actually concealed such a terrifying spatial secret art!

‘This was definitely not a technique of the Xuan Nv Sect!’

She could no longer remain in the confined wooden house.

The small space was a perfect hunting ground for Liu Ruyan, who could perform short-distance spatial jumps.

As thoughts rapidly spun in her mind, a burst of water vapor erupted around Qiu Yue.

The entire simple wooden house structure groaned under the violently fluctuating spiritual pressure, instantly collapsing under the surging spiritual flood.

Broken wooden splinters and snapped vines, like tattered leaves in a storm, were swept up and shot out in all directions.

Qiu Yue’s figure, enveloped in a torrent of water, soared into the sky, intending to escape the ruined wooden house and enter a relatively open environment.

However, the moment she broke free from the ground’s restraint, a tiny, silent rift appeared in the void less than a meter above her head.

Hiss!

A black ray, even more condensed and refined than before, carrying absolute stillness and a chill more piercing than profound ice, stabbed directly at the top of Qiu Yue’s head.

Qiu Yue’s pupils trembled slightly; she clearly hadn’t anticipated that Liu Ruyan could still keep up, even with her transformation.

All the hairs on Qiu Yue’s body instantly stood on end!

A fatal warning exploded in her sea of consciousness!

There was no time to think!

She wanted to transform again!

Pfft!

The dagger pierced directly through the water body!

A crisp sound, not particularly loud but striking directly at the soul, rang out.

The condensed, deathly black light fiercely stabbed into her body.

It merely stabbed into the water body!

Violent ripples spread across the surface, and the deep blue light rapidly dimmed.

The black light, as if colliding with an absolute solid wall, instantly shattered and annihilated at its tip.

At the fraction of a second of their intersection, they exploded.

Black and blue light intertwined, covering all sight.

Qiu Yue was struck hard, her delicate body trembling violently, and she spat out a mouthful of blood mist.

“Liu Ruyan!!” Qiu Yue’s voice carried unconcealed shock and fury.

‘Space ability users were already the most difficult to deal with, let alone such an elusive and unpredictably aggressive stealth assassin unmatched in offense!’

She couldn’t even pinpoint her opponent’s location now!

Her response was an even denser, more bizarre barrage of attacks.

From all directions! From every unfathomably tricky angle!

Her left side ribs, her rear spine, the bend of her right leg, and even the position of the afterimage left by her recently moved arm!

Space twisted like cracked glazed tiles, and over a dozen hair-thin black rays, imperceptible to the naked eye, silently stabbed out.

Even more terrifying, more than half of these attacks still had no spiritual energy fluctuations, no air disturbances.

In fact, they were invisible.

“For my Sister Wan’er, Senior Sister Qiu, rest in peace.”