The ghosts in midair were still chasing around the ceiling of the cave, still immersed in the Illusion Technique Yuan Ming had cast.

"You've only just entered the early stages of the Love Witch Realm, how could you possibly possess such immense Soul Power!" the green-robed old man realized something was amiss and shouted in a deep voice.

Not only was the person before him endowed with tremendous Soul Power, but his divine abilities in Illusion Technique were also extremely impressive. During this quarter-hour, he had tried multiple times to break the illusion that had ensnared the ghosts, but the power of the illusions was astonishing. Even he could only resolve them one by one, and soon after breaking them, the ghosts would fall back into the illusory realm, making it all pointless.

The more the green-robed old man thought about it, the more inconceivable it seemed. What exactly was the background of this person?

"Now is the time!" Yuan Ming sensed the emotional fluctuations of the green-robed old man and activated his "Emotion Manipulation" ability.

The "Emotion Manipulation" ability could control a person's emotions, but it had a prerequisite; the target's emotions needed to show certain fluctuations to be effective. If the target's emotions were stable, "Emotion Manipulation" would be useless. Forcibly using it would have little effect.

This green-robed old man had also reached the Love Witch Realm long ago, and his emotions were exceptionally stable. Whether it was the earlier slaying of his Three-eyed Soul Dove or revealing his identity as a Soul Cultivator, the green-robed old man had remained quite composed, offering no opportunity to be taken advantage of. Now, under his evidently impressive Soul Power, a slight crack finally appeared.

The shock in the green-robed old man's emotions suddenly magnified, his mind instantly destabilized, various emotions beginning to surface one after another.

Yuan Ming was secretly delighted and immediately used "Emotion Manipulation" to grasp the old man's anger and amplify it.

If one wished to disturb the mind, shock was far less useful than anger.

An uncontrollable surge of anger welled up in the green-robed old man's heart, and his eyes started to redden slightly.

"Not good!" the green-robed old man realized something was wrong and hurriedly tried his best to suppress the various emotions.

Yuan Ming would not allow his opponent to recover, prompting the Curse Rune within the Soul Destroying Sword, and an invisible force began to shake.

The air around the green-robed old man suddenly became heavy, as if sinking into a viscous mire. Both body and mind felt an intense nausea, his internal organs churning.

Vomit...

He vomited uncontrollably, but instead of food from his stomach, he spewed out clumps of black Qi, emanating fluctuations of Mana and Soul Power, which were his painstakingly cultivated Mana and Soul Power.

The aura of the green-robed old man plummeted from mid-stage Core Formation instantly to the early stages of Core Formation, his Soul Power in the Sea of Consciousness also weakening by thirty percent.

This was also Yuan Ming's first time using the Curse Rune in actual combat, and the effect was surprisingly good.

Previous testing of the rune had only shown that the Curse Rune would cause Mana and Soul Power to dissipate, but he hadn't expected the rune could actually forcibly reduce the opponent's cultivation level.

"What kind of attack is this!" The green-robed old man was greatly taken aback, his composure even more disrupted, emotions becoming even more chaotic, his expression revealing a hint of madness.

Yuan Ming continued to use the "Emotion Manipulation" ability to disturb the green-robed old man's thoughts. He flicked his sleeves forward, and eight soul crows shot out.

With "Emotion Manipulation" controlling most of his emotions, the green-robed old man alternated between cursing and feeling frightened, with greatly reduced judgment. Yuan Ming's soul crows reached halfway before the old man noticed and responded hastily.

From his forehead, the green-robed old man shot out eight Three-eyed Soul Doves, placing the black Flood Dragon in front of him as a shield.

However, the positions of Yuan Ming's eight soul crows suddenly changed, forming a formation akin to a battle array, a technique he had devised by integrating the Crow Formation with the joint attack formations of the Guiyuan Sect.

He had named this technique: Crow Formation.

The eight soul crows cried out in unison, and eight streams of Crow's Call Wave surged forth, merging with each other, and almost instantly turned into a tangible wave of black Sound Waves that overwhelmed the eight soul doves, the black Flood Dragon, and the green-robed old man behind them.

The eight soul doves showed a dazed expression and came to a halt in their escape, while the black Flood Dragon also stopped in place.

The green-robed old man, having suffered both the Emotion Manipulation and the Curse Rune attack, had a very unstable Divine Soul. The Dream Butterfly Illusion Technique carried within the crow's call quickly invaded, and the green-robed old man began to see all kinds of illusions, unable to extricate himself.

The White Bone Knife shot out like lightning, covering a distance of more than ten zhang in an instant, slashing across the green-robed old man's neck.

The green-robed old man's head flew off, but in the next moment, a flash of black light passed over his body and his head was restored as before.

At the same time, among the many ghosts trapped in the illusion above, the body of the white-clad man suddenly decapitated, dissolving into a large cloud of Yin Qi dissipating away.

"Death Replacement Divine Ability!" Yuan Ming's eyes moved.

The green-robed old man, having been revived from death, did not bother to reclaim his black walking stick but instead dived into the ground, escaping deep into the cave. His tunneling speed was surprisingly not slower than his Flying Escape.

Yuan Ming immediately gave chase, again prompting the Curse Rune within the Soul Destroying Sword.

Once more, Curse Power enshrouded the green-robed old man in the ground, causing him to vomit a stream of Mana and Soul Power, although this time the Mana and Soul Power he lost were clearly less than the first.

When used consecutively, the effect of the Curse Rune gradually weakened.

Even so, the green-robed old man still groaned, his escape speed significantly reduced.

The eight soul crows rushed over, once again forming the Crow Formation, and unleashed the Crow Attack. A wave of black Sound Waves swept down, engulfing the green-robed old man's body.

The green-robed old man fell into an illusion, appearing in a vast ocean with blowing sea breezes and blooming waves, indistinguishable from reality.

The old man hurriedly cast spells similar to the Soul-shocking Secret Technique, which could break Illusion Techniques, to no avail.

The illusions around him faintly formed into an Illusion Technique space, exceptionally tough.

Yuan Ming had been busy with his cultivation lately and didn't spend much time practicing the Dream Butterfly Illusion Technique. However, his soul power had increased so much that the technique had also improved significantly, showing signs of breaking through to the Mirage Realm.

Yuan Ming activated the Soul Destroying Sword, and a substantial Sword Qi shot forth, burrowing ten feet into the ground and piercing the glabella of the green-robed old man, exploding in his Sea of Consciousness.

The old man's Divine Soul shattered, and he fell dead without so much as a whimper.

But the next moment, his Divine Soul was restored to its original state, and he broke free from the illusion, continuing to tunnel deeper into the cave.

In mid-air, the red-dressed female ghost's head exploded, and she fell dead.

"I'd like to see how many times you can come back to life!" Yuan Ming deployed the Curse Rune once more, causing the cultivation of the green-robed old man to drop again, halting his fleeing figure.

Crow's Call Sound Waves surged towards him, trapping him in the illusion once again.

This time Yuan Ming didn't move to kill him, he simply patted the Spiritual Beast Bag at his waist.

The figure of Hua Zhi shot out, burrowing into the ground. Numerous highly poisonous vines wound around the green-robed old man, with more than a dozen vines piercing his body.

The old man's skin quickly turned purplish-black, and his vital energy rapidly weakened.

After a short while, the light in the old man's eyes scattered, and he died.

However, the next moment, another ghost fell from mid-air, trading its life for the resurrection of the green-robed old man, yet the poison within his body did not dissipate, causing him to exhaust his energy and become entangled by Hua Zhi's vines, unable to move.

A yellow light flashed over Yuan Ming's body, and he tunneled into the ground, nearing the green-robed old man.

"Fellow Daoist, my previous actions were reckless, and I apologize to you. We indeed have no enmity between us. The bodies of those three can also be returned to you. Let us put an end to today's matters," the green-robed old man hastily said.

"Since you claim to be an old hand in the Cultivation World, you shouldn't need to resort to such underhanded tactics," Yuan Ming replied indifferently, activating the Curse Rune once again.

The green-robed old man's cultivation dropped significantly again, this time plummeting past the Core Formation Stage.

His Golden Core shattered into pieces, falling all the way to the Late Foundation Establishment stage of cultivation.

Yuan Ming was taken aback, the Curse Rune's effects were really so miraculous?

He had thought that the weakening of the old man's energy was temporary, like the exhaustion during regular battles, recoverable after a brief period of Breathing Control. He had not expected that the drop in cultivation caused by the Curse Rune would be so authentic, shattering the green-robed old man's Golden Core directly.

Not only was the Golden Core a congealment of a Core Formation Stage cultivator's mana, but it also contained the cultivator's Dao Foundation. With the shattering of the Golden Core, the Dao Foundation is greatly damaged, which is almost impossible to recover unless aided by treasures of heaven and earth.

With his Golden Core shattered, the green-robed old man had utterly lost his future prospects in magic practice, his eyes showing despair as he began to beg for mercy.

By then, Yuan Ming was unmoved, continuing to weaken the old man's cultivation with Curse Runes, while Hua Zhi injected more poison into the old man's body.

As the green-robed old man's cultivation greatly decreased, his resistance to Hua Zhi's poison also weakened significantly, and he quickly died of poisoning again, only to be resurrected once more.

Yuan Ming carefully observed the process of the old man's resurrection and pondered. The first soul from his Sea of Consciousness shot out and flew deeper into the cave.

He persisted in his actions, causing the green-robed old man to face another round of death.

The man cursed, then began to beg piteously; Yuan Ming remained indifferent.

This green-robed old man was a Soul Cultivator and possessed such an eerie ability to revive. Having formed a deep hatred, Yuan Ming couldn't let him go.

The Curse Runes were continuously cast, causing the old man's cultivation to drop further and further until it fell to the Qi Refinement stage.

Just as Yuan Ming was about to proceed, his brow suddenly raised; his first soul had uncovered a situation.

He shifted his position and arrived close to the green-robed old man, pressing a single hand against the man's head and employed the Soul Search Divine Ability, quickly understanding the full story.

With a thought, he stunned the green-robed old man, captured him in the Spiritual Beast Bag to suppress him, and then continued forward, arriving in front of a blue stone wall which faintly glowed with spirit lights, evidently engraved with some kind of forbidden restriction.

Yuan Ming took out the old man's Storage Bag, retrieved a blue token from inside, and gave it a gentle wave.

A blue light entered the wall, the spirit lights on the wall dissipated, slowly moving to the side, revealing a passage leading downward.

Having learned all about this place from the green-robed old man's memory, Yuan Ming directly entered and quickly arrived at the bottom of the passage.

This was a huge stone chamber; the Three-eyed Crow was also present. Seeing Yuan Ming's sudden appearance, its three eyes shone with malice, and it took flight, spitting out several clumps of gray flames towards him.

Alone now, Yuan Ming had no need to hold back. The White Bone Knife hacked across.

With an exceedingly cold aura bursting forth, it easily extinguished the gray flames.

The Three-eyed Crow was also struck by the knife light, flipping over and crashing heavily into the stone wall behind it.

Immediately after, several sound waves of Crow's Call struck the Three-eyed Crow.

The Three-eyed Crow had previously relied on soul cultivation techniques left in its body by the green-robed old man to avoid falling into Yuan Ming's illusions when they hunted the Poisonous Blade Locust. Now that the green-robed old man was critically injured and unconscious, the Three-eyed Crow lacked external support and could not resist Yuan Ming's illusions, instantly falling into the illusion, immobilized.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.