Seizing the learned scholar’s nascent soul, Wang Lin cast a frigid gaze upon the two figures fleeing in separate directions. He did not deign to pursue them himself, but with a flicker of his shadow, the towering visage of Tarsus materialized. The earth trembled as the hulking giant took a single stride, embarking on a thunderous chase.

To crush two craven cultivators of the Yin Void Realm posed no challenge to Tarsus, whose celestial form embodied the solid essence of a Xian Guardian.

“Mercy, esteemed elder! My cultivation was hard-won! Spare me!” the scholar whimpered, his nascent soul writhing in Wang Lin’s grasp, his pleas echoing through the void.

Wang Lin remained impassive. His left hand descended upon the scholar’s head, unleashing a torrent of primordial energy. The potent force swept through the soul, paving the way for the forbidden art of Soul Rend.

The scholar’s spirit faltered, his eyes clouded with an unconscious agony. His ethereal form trembled, teetering on the precipice of utter disintegration.

He felt it keenly – his very consciousness was assaulted by unseen hands, probing and dredging like grave robbers. The torment was so profound that madness threatened to consume him.

In the midst of this agonizing ordeal, a flood of regret engulfed him, washing over his soul and dissolving his consciousness into nothingness.

Sometimes, a millennium of arduous cultivation could be undone by a single, ill-fated choice, resulting in complete obliteration. As Wang Lin extracted the scholar’s memories, a chilling glint ignited within his eyes. He became as a half-drawn blade, radiating an intense killing intent that simmered within his breast.

“So, this is the truth!” Wang Lin murmured.

At that moment, a series of thudding sounds echoed in the distance. Tarsus returned, each hand clutching a nascent soul and a storage pouch.

Following the same grim procedure, Wang Lin subjected the remaining souls to the Soul Rend technique. Combining the memories of all three, he gained a clear understanding of the two significant events that had transpired within the Roiling Heavens Starfield in the past half-year.

These three souls, having dared to offend Wang Lin, were not spared. He cast them into the Soul Banner, to serve as sustenance for the invocation of winds.

He examined their storage pouches. Within, he discovered various artifacts, which he extracted and crushed, extracting their essence. This essence he manipulated, transforming it into a liquid that he then integrated into Tarsus’ physical form.

The strength of the Xian Guardian’s body stemmed primarily from the rare celestial materials detailed in the Xian Emperor Qinglin’s scroll. However, these materials, scarce even in their time, had become practically extinct.

Therefore, Wang Lin was forced to make do, drawing materials from lesser artifacts to gradually enhance the Xian Guardian’s physique. Within the pouches, he also found two jade slips – communication devices used to contact the Yao Clan. He learned from the memories that the Yao Clan had mobilized considerable forces to hunt him down.

Almost every cultivator in the Roiling Heavens Starfield who had attained the second step possessed one of these jade slips, each bearing Wang Lin’s likeness.

Holding the jade slips, Wang Lin’s face darkened as he gazed towards the distant horizon.

“The Yao Clan… one of the four great clans tracing their lineage back to the Immortal Realm… what is the true reason behind their decision to target me?” Wang Lin pondered, a troubled expression on his face.

He harbored numerous grudges against the four ancient clans, especially the Yao Clan. There was the matter of the Blood Ancestor, and the death of the Yao Clan’s young master, and the incident at the Hidden Treasures Pavilion.

“It cannot be the Blood Ancestor… the Blood Ancestor knows my true name. If that were the reason, the Heavenly Dome Decree from the Yao Clan would bear the name Wang Lin, not Xu Mu.”

“However, it is also possible that my true name has never been used within the Roiling Heavens Starfield, while the name Xu Mu is widely known. Hence, the decree bears the name Xu Mu!”

“Similarly, the young master of the Yao Clan, whom I slew in the Thunder Immortal Realm while he prepared to torture Li Yuan, also died by my hand. Given the Yao Clan’s strength, they must possess some means of knowing when their kin perish.”

“The incident at the Hidden Treasures Pavilion, however, is unlikely to be known, given the collapse of the Thunder Immortal Realm.”

Wang Lin pondered for a moment, a dense killing intent rising within him.

“The Heavenly Dome Decree… it reminds me of the Hundred-Day Demon Slaying Decree in the Sea of Cultivated Demons on Vermillion Bird Planet!” A chilling glint filled Wang Lin’s eyes as he flickered into motion, darting forward.

He transformed into a shooting star, streaking towards the heavens.

“With the Yao Clan’s vast influence, nowhere within the Roiling Heavens Starfield is safe… and within the Yao Clan, there are certainly powerful cultivators, perhaps even stronger than the Blood Ancestor!” Wang Lin frowned, his mind filled with gloom.

As he flew, concentric ripples emanated from beneath his feet. He partially merged with the fabric of the universe, but refrained from taking the final step of Space Shrink, instead maintaining this state as he advanced.

He wished to calculate the time it took for the Yao Clan to detect his presence and dispatch assassins. Before long, he halted, his eyes flashing as he fixed his gaze upon a point in the starry sky. Seven sword beams, like rainbows, hurtled directly towards him.

Simultaneously, seven more streaks of light approached with equal speed from his left and right.

Likewise, seven sword lights rapidly approached from behind.

Encircling him on all sides… it had been, at most, the span of two incense sticks! It seemed the Yao Clan had dispatched their clansmen to every corner of the Roiling Heavens Starfield!

With all avenues of escape seemingly blocked, Wang Lin’s eyes flashed with cold resolve as he muttered, “They are here, almost filling…”

Wang Lin’s body quivered, sweeping out a circle. His gaze sharpened.

“Something is amiss. It is impossible that all these people are from the Yao Clan, otherwise, the Yao Clan members are far too many. It is possible that the Yao Clan has dispatched members to multiple regions within the Roiling Heavens Starfield, who, in turn, contacted the nearby allied stars. Only then could they find me in such a short time!”

Confirming his theory, the killing intent in Wang Lin’s eyes blazed. He murmured, “It has been a long time since I last unleashed a great slaughter… If I can’t defeat the old, then the young… Come one, I’ll kill one!”
The air crackled with malevolence, saturating Wang Lin’s very being. Never a saint, the Yao clan’s decree of outlawry, coupled with the encirclement of twenty-eight cultivators, had only sharpened his edge. As they descended, a palpable aura of death radiated from them, each heart consumed with the desire for his demise.

With a sweep of his spiritual sense, Wang Lin deciphered the cultivation level of each assailant. The seven to his left were the weakest link in this deadly chain.

Amongst their seven approaching blades of light, four wielded the power of the Yin Void stage. The remaining three were at the peak of the Asking Heart realm, now bearing down on him with lethal intent.

Ripples emanated from Wang Lin, distorting the space around him. His face a mask of glacial resolve, he took a single, decisive step to the left!

In an instant, his form vanished. The encircling cultivators, their sights locked upon him, recoiled in surprise. Then, amidst the seven converging beams of swords, a ripple rent the starlit canvas. Wang Lin materialized, a specter of wrath.

Before they could react, his fingers snapped together, forming a sword of pure energy, which he brought down in a ruthless strike!

The Decapitation Spell roared to life, an invisible blade cleaving through existence itself. The three Asking Heart cultivators cried out, their bodies dissolving into crimson mist with twin, thunderous explosions. The remaining four paled, scattering in disarray. Yet, to Wang Lin’s Yang Solid eyes, their retreat was but a snail’s pace.

His eyes burning with relentless hunger, he pursued one of the Yin Void cultivators, a middle-aged man. Facing his imminent demise, a desperate fury flickered across his face as he wove hand seals, channeling the energy within his dantian, preparing to unleash a forbidden art.

A cold smile twisted Wang Lin’s lips. With a flicker, his right hand shot forward, piercing the air with a single point. The man froze, his body locked in place. Wang Lin seized the moment, his foot descending upon the man’s crown, using his very skull as a stepping stone into the void.

With a sickening crack, the cultivator’s body imploded into a gory mess. His nascent soul, a wisp of terror, attempted to flee, but a swirling vortex of black mist erupted as Wang Lin produced the Soul Devouring Banner, claiming the spectral essence as its own.

All this unfolded in the blink of an eye. In a mere heartbeat, Wang Lin had felled four foes!

The stench of spilled blood painted the starfield. From the remaining three directions, the other cultivators pressed in, closing on Wang Lin. Shouts and roars reverberated through the cosmos as they unleashed a tempest of arcane weapons and mystical arts, each aimed at obliterating him.

The fiercest assault was spearheaded by three elders, each a seasoned warrior, their cultivation levels matching, and in a few cases, even surpassing Wang Lin, reaching the pinnacle of the Yang Solid stage.

Even with his formidable power, the combined might of these two dozen cultivators could crush him. But Wang Lin remained a statue of composure, his eyes burning with a chilling, ever-escalating fury.

He took a subtle step forward. His previous movements had been a ploy, a pretense. He had been subtly melding his form with the very fabric of reality. This harmony allowed him to shrink distances, to move with a speed that defied comprehension.

With that single step, Wang Lin vanished, leaving behind only a phantom echo. The barrage of spells and weapons, deprived of their target, dissipated harmlessly into the void. Then, in a flicker of displaced starlight, Wang Lin reappeared behind a lone Yang Void cultivator.

Without pause, Wang Lin executed the Decapitation Spell once more. The unfortunate cultivator barely registered the shift in the air before his body convulsed. Though his Yang Solid resilience allowed him to partially withstand the assault, before he could respond Wang Lin’s fingers, once more transformed into a blade of pure energy, pierced the man’s heart.

With a final implosion of gore, the cultivator ceased to be. His departing soul, a fleeting beacon of dread, was instantly devoured by the Soul Devouring Banner. Before the shock could register, Wang Lin stepped back, melting into the ether once more.

The speed of his assault left the surrounding cultivators reeling. Wang Lin was gone again, vanished like a phantom in the night.

He saw it now, the third step on the road to enlightenment: mastery over the melding of self with the universe. With this supreme art, one could become untouchable, invincible.

It was the path of the Immortal Monarch Qing Shui, who had danced amongst hundreds of foes, untouchable, unscathed. Now, Wang Lin walked that same path!