Shi Zhixuan hardly hesitated, his Spirit Perception tinged with warning vaguely gauging Tao Yu’s approximate position and speed in the shadows, before he bolted.


    The Phantom Demon Technique was pushed to its limit!


    He had thought, with the assistance of these Fortune Thieves, that his mindset was repaired, his vision for the future clear, with infinite possibilities at hand.


    But how could he have expected that their first cooperation would confront them with such a scene, damn it!


    "Where is the Evil King going?"


    As Shi Zhixuan’s sense of alarm grew, Tao Yu’s voice also reached his ear.


    Although Tao Yu was not adept at straightforward moves, he had the strength to send bricks flying!


    The stats increased by the second Deification offered by the Longevity Secret and the prolonged breath allowed him to recklessly, easily merge the Shadow Force with Demonization.


    This was a speed Shi Zhixuan simply could not escape.


    "Drink!"


    Shi Zhixuan poured all his effort into activating the Immortal Seven Illusions, integrated with everything he had learned in his lifetime, hoping to transform life and death to withstand this hit.


    But all he saw was the Black Iron Heavy Sword growing ever larger before his eyes.


    "This sword strike is dedicated to Zhu Yuyan—she has already paid an advance, after all..."


    It cut through Shi Zhixuan’s Grandmaster aura like a blade through cloth with astonishing ease.


    He had intended to borrow a portion of the strength through the transformation of life and death, but the moment his Grandmaster aura shattered, Shi Zhixuan felt the pure True Yuan blast against him.


    This nearly popped his eyes out of their sockets.


    What kind of True Qi was this?


    To hell with borrowing power!


    Dang~


    Crack~


    As the Black Iron Heavy Sword swept past, Shi Zhixuan’s outstretched hands became flattened like brittle sticks against his body; then, like a rag doll, he was sent flying a dozen or so yards, tumbling upon landing.


    If it weren’t for Tao Yu deliberately holding back to see if he could extract something from the situation, that strike would have destroyed both the aura and the man!


    In the end, there remained only Shi Shaojian, who, with his zombie traits, was the toughest and best at dragging out time.


    "Where is Shi Jian, and are there any others..."


    Tao Yu continued to draw in the Qi of Heaven and Earth while slowly walking towards the other party with his sword.


    "You are a Pioneer!"


    Looking at the fusion of multiple abilities displayed by Tao Yu, Shi Shaojian’s eyes showed both resentment and regret.


    This was actually a Pioneer! A Pioneer!


    Why hadn’t that damned guy mentioned that such a strong Pioneer was coming?!


    Damn it, damn it all!


    "Oh~ realizing now, are you? Then take a guess, where is our Young Mistress at the moment?"


    Tao Yu said with a cheerful tone. Find more to read at empire


    It seemed that they had already formed a strong soul-binding with Shi Shaojian, and with his death, they too were doomed to eternal unrest.


    This sudden change left many of the Great Tang experts bewildered.


    "So it was all their doing, and here we were, wrongly blaming Sect Master Tao all along."


    Heavenly Blade Song Que also sighed as these zombies were quite troublesome.


    This also showed how strong the vampire and the Corpse King were.


    Fortunately, Sect Master Tao possessed extraordinary strength and was able to turn the tide. Otherwise, with just these zombies, our side would ultimately have had to choose to flee, or else we would have certainly been worn down to death.


    Shi Feixuan’s expression was complex at this time as she looked at Tao Yu, who had yet to revert from his demonization, and sighed inwardly.


    Due to the Yin Gui Faction’s decisive actions, he had so easily become the Sect Master of the Yin Gui Faction, making the situation even worse for Mercy Temple, who had always been the Yin Gui Faction’s rival.


    Originally determined to retain some Yuan Qi, even if it meant staining their hands with blood from the Buddhist Sect, they now realized this was far from enough...


    Meanwhile, Tao Yu did not bother with the group of Martial Artists. After confirming they only suffered some True Qi depletion and none were seriously injured, he left them be.


    Tao Yu first went to the spot where the vampire ’disappeared’ after his first attack reduced it to dust.


    Now, some black dust remained on the ground, emanating a strong presence of Yuan Force.


    Being both the Fortune Thief and a non-human form, likely possessing the nature of a Yuan Force creature, Tao Yu wanted to see what would drop.


    Absorbing five thousand Yuan Force was quite a decent yield for such dropped items.


    [Vampire’s Ashes]: A peculiar magic material, holding the essence of a vampire. When injected into the heart, it grants vampire bloodline and can absorb five thousand Yuan Force.


    While Tao Yu didn’t need the bloodline item himself, he could sell it.


    For this item to be Tao Yu’s first target highlighted its value. Moreover, compared to the colossal side effects of the Titan bloodline, the vampire’s side effects were much milder. He didn’t even need to auction it off, as giving it away could count as favors.


    "There might have been contamination, but probably because of the additional identity as the Fortune Thief, it turned out to be a Yuan Force item without contamination, making it even more valuable than traditional skill absorptions..."


    Afterward, Tao Yu turned his attention to where Shi Shaojian’s remains lay and walked over.


    "Eh?"


    Tao Yu noticed Shi Shaojian’s Yuan Force gathering towards an eight-trigram mirror among his remains.


    Picking it up, he instantly saw the information about this Yuan Force item.


    [Corpse Hiding Mirror]: Contains a space of half a cubic meter, size at will, and can absorb five thousand Yuan Force.


    A space item!


    Tao Yu’s eyes lit up; half a cubic meter was not small, much larger than the space in Wino!


    Half a cubic meter, if filled with water, would weigh half a ton, or one thousand pounds!


    In other words, that’s five hundred liters!


    An adult is only about 0.06 cubic meters in size, and even if Wino were filled to the brim, it would be less than 0.1 cubic meters of storage.


    This half-cubic-meter space that could change size at will meant a direct five-fold expansion, making it easy to store the Black Iron Heavy Sword and personal flying machine.


    Normally, this item might have the downside of being retrievable by others after being acquired, but Tao Yu could just throw it into his shadow.


    And if Wino just absorbed this item, it wouldn’t affect his mobility, which was rather nice.


    "It’s not cost-effective to kill the Fortune Thief directly, but with such high strength, the dropped items tend to be quite useful."


    Tao Yu was very satisfied and casually hung the [Corpse Hiding Mirror] at his waist...