Hearing this, Meng Xi shook her head solemnly. “No, rather than preventing the two families from having a reason to unite, keeping Lin Xiao as a lingering threat to unsettle them is better!”
“I understand what to do!” Meng Ying cupped her hands and quietly withdrew.
Glancing at Meng Xi and the retreating Meng Ying, Zhou Moyi, clearly prepared, signaled a Martial King beside him. The Martial King nodded and slipped away.
“All imperial forces, retreat to the perimeter!” Seeing the battle intensify, Meng Xi ordered.
“The Zhou family, pull back too!” Zhou Moyi added promptly.
Both groups swiftly withdrew.
At that moment, Lin Xiao glanced at the Tianxuan Sect disciples charging into the fray. A flicker of emotion stirred within him—most had little connection to him, yet they joined the fight at Yi Xuanfeng’s command.
But when he saw Grand Elder Yan Yitian and his faction charging toward him, his eyes turned icy, a thick killing intent surging forth.
At this critical juncture, they defied Yi Xuanfeng’s orders to attack him, effectively neutralizing the Tianxuan Sect experts aiding him in mutual combat.
Memorizing their faces, Lin Xiao clenched his fists, summoned his spiritual power, and took flight, speeding toward the Feng family’s outer edge.
With his current strength, he couldn’t face a Martial King. His priority now was escaping the Feng family and the imperial city.
The city harbored too many experts from both families.
For the fleeing Lin Xiao, those below Martial King posed little threat—unable to form vitality wings for flight. The real danger came from Martial Kings.
The Feng and Chen families had unleashed ten Martial Kings. The Spirit Controller Alliance’s four fourth-grade spirit controllers—two intermediate and two elementary—could only hold off four, plus disrupt some Heavenly Martial experts.
Third-grade spirit controllers capable of flight, even combined, could at best stall one or two Martial Kings. The families’ Heavenly Martial experts vastly outnumbered the alliance and Tianxuan Sect combined. Under their interference, the Martial Kings wouldn’t be delayed long.
That meant at least four Martial Kings were free to pursue him, with two more likely to break away soon.
“Kid, your life ends here!” As expected, an elder’s shout thundered from behind. Lin Xiao sensed several powerful auras closing in.
Glancing back, he saw four Martial Kings, vitality wings spread, charging toward him—now just twenty or thirty zhang away.
“Shiu!”
Without hesitation, Lin Xiao pulled the Thunderbolt Evil Fire Pill from his storage ring. Splitting off a thread of spiritual power, he sent it hurtling silently backward.
With the four Martial Kings rushing toward him, the pill reached them in a blink. Lin Xiao injected his spiritual power into it.
“Here’s a fourth-grade explosive pill for you!”
In that instant, he shouted back, pushing his speed to the limit.
“What?!” The lead Martial King’s face twisted in shock, but it was too late to dodge. A violent energy erupted before him.
“Boom!”
A deafening blast, like divine thunder from the ninth heaven, exploded. A sea of energy detonated, a blinding light outshining the sun illuminating the surroundings. Waves of power surged outward like a stormy sea, the void seemingly fracturing as space trembled.
Caught in the blast, the lead Martial King felt his mind blur. Like a kite with a cut string, he was flung far back, never imagining he’d fall to a junior’s trick.
“The fourth-grade Thunderbolt Evil Fire Pill—truly formidable!” Seeing the Martial King blasted away, Lin Xiao’s heart jolted. As he angled downward, the explosion’s shockwave roared overhead.
Had he not preemptively descended, he’d have been caught in it too—his escape distance wasn’t far enough.
An attack pill’s power exceeded his expectations by far.
In that moment, he saw the second Martial King, following closely, summon a robust vitality shield. Still, he was blasted back, blood spraying from his mouth.
The two farther back veered aside, activating their vitality shields and pushing out energy to resist the blast.
But the fourth-grade Thunderbolt Evil Fire Pill, infused with a third-tier beast core, Heaven-Devouring, and Azure Fire spiritual energies, unleashed a force they couldn’t fully block in their haste.
After a brief resistance, both were hurled back—one spitting blood.
The shockwave didn’t stop there, toppling a dozen more approaching experts from both families.
Those farther back retreated in panic.
“That’s the pill that won the refining competition? Its power is terrifying!” The battling crowd on the plaza gasped, belatedly realizing Lin Xiao still held an explosive pill—one that even Martial Kings suffered from.
“Killing a Martial King with it isn’t easy, but without them blocking me, it’s enough to escape the Feng family!” Muttering to himself, Lin Xiao turned to see the Feng family’s perimeter ahead.
But at that moment, a white-haired elder materialized in front of him, a fearsome Martial King aura crashing toward him.
“Not good!” Lin Xiao’s brows shot up.
