While Lu Tianzi had still yet to recover from his shock, the scholarly Origin Core realm expert of the Dragon Cauldron Army had his eyes trained on Lu Tianzi, scrutinising him head to toe.

..Tianzi?

So that's Nanlu Tianzi?

The scholarly expert could not help but let out a smile.

After hearing so much about this Nanlu Tianzi, he finally had a face to match to the name. This would make things far easier from now on!

"What's so funny?" Elder Mingxin pierced forward with her sword, aiming straight for his throat.

However, her strike ended up just barely off the mark as the scholarly expert managed to dodge out of the way at the very last moment.

"Damn it.." Elder Mingxin cursed under her breath.

The previous attack might have seemed close, but that was the case for all of her earlier attacks as well.

In fact, it was not just for her. All of her partner's attacks looked like they were going to hit the opponent as well, only to end up missing by a hair in the end.

By now, Elder Mingxin was beginning to suspect that their attacks had all been read by their opponent, and were never going to hit in the first place.

Otherwise, the opponent should have at least started to show any signs of discomfort or panic after this many close shaves!

But then again, if her suspicions were true, then the other party should have been more than capable of retaliating, why would he just remain on the defensive all the while?

As though answering the question in her heart, the scholarly enemy expert suddenly shot backwards, creating a short distance between them.

Both Elder Mingxin and her partner immediately paused, waiting cautiously to see just what he was up to.

Up till now, he had been retreating at the same pace as the soldiers on the ground.

This was not because Elder Mingxin and her partner had successfully kept him from escaping, but because he was deliberately matching his speed to that of the retreating soldiers on the ground.

Otherwise, had he chosen to fly off by himself, Elder Mingxin and her partner would never have been able to stop him. However, his subordinates would also not stand a chance when left to fend for themselves against the Origin Core realm martial artists of the Scarlet Moon Army!

Elder Mingxin and her partner had been hoping to lock him down using his subordinates as a shackle. But now, it seemed like he had actually decided on a different course of action?

"That's enough. The chase ends here," the scholarly expert confidently proclaimed while raising his right hand into the air.

"Just because you say so?" Elder Mingxin scoffed. "As if we will just let you leave after what you have done!"

The scholarly expert merely smirked in response, causing Elder Mingxin to frown.

At this moment, the scholarly expert drew out a huge bronze cauldron from his spatial ring, leaving it to float freely in the air behind him.

Along with the appearance of the cauldron, a powerful surge of energy rushed out in all directions, disrupting the flow of World Origin Energy in the surroundings.

This sudden change in their surroundings could be sensed by every martial artist present. Even Lu Tianzi could not help but break out of his daze, turning his attention towards the battle in the sky.

From where he was, Lu Tianzi could see the lid of the bronze cauldron slide open. With that, the surge of energy that had appeared earlier seemed to have met its nemesis, all of it rushing back into the cauldron through that one small gap.

Before anyone had time to react, the previous surge of energy that had appeared along with the bronze cauldron had already disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

All that was left before their eyes was the huge bronze cauldron floating harmlessly behind the scholarly expert.

Of course, that was only what appeared on the surface.

Everyone present could sense that there was some form of energy connection between the scholarly expert and the cauldron behind him.

As for what kind of connection that was, nobody could tell.

That was, nobody except for Lu Tianzi.

A silvery light flashed across Lu Tianzi's eyes as he activated the Limitless Mirror Eye. With that, the flow of energy in the surroundings was immediately laid bare before him.

He could clearly see countless invisible threads of energy stretching out from within the cauldron, extending towards the scholarly expert and wrapping around his raised arm.

It coiled round and round, turning his arm into something similar to a cocoon of energy.

Apart from that, there were also additional threads of energy from the bronze cauldron, stretching all the way down to the ground, attaching themselves to every single one of the soldiers who were retreating at the moment.

Since there was only one thread of energy connected to each soldier, the energy trace was much fainter, to the point where no one else had detected it. In fact, had it not been for his Limitless Mirror Eye, even Lu Tianzi would not have been able to sense it.

Some form of group enhancement ability?

Lu Tianzi narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

At this point, Lu Tianzi had already seen enough to make sense of the situation. He shot forward decisively, heading straight towards the battle.

He might not know what these threads of energy did, but sitting back wouldn't help him understand either. In any case, Lu Tianzi was sure that in just a few moments, he would be finding out exactly what the effects of the bronze cauldron were!

The scholarly expert let out a confident grin but remained hovering on the spot, not rushing to make his move. He knew that his two opponents were now on their guard, and Origin Core realm martial artists who were on alert would not be easy to take down.

Instead, the first observable changes came from the battle on the ground.

To the horror of the pursuing Scarlet Moon Army, the retreating soldiers of the Dragon Cauldron Army suddenly burst forth with strength far beyond what they had been displaying before!

Their defences had already been impregnable earlier. Now with this sudden increase in strength, many of the Scarlet Moon Army soldiers were actually directly sent flying by their attacks.

As for Nanlan Qianxue who was leading the charge, she was the one to bear the brunt of this counterattack.

What?!

Nanlan Qianxue was shocked by the sudden increase in her opponents' strength level. Still, she gritted her teeth as she managed to forcefully withstand a powerful strike from an enemy soldier, the back of her heels digging into the ground from the impact.

This sudden change caused her to be stunned for a moment, unsure of what to do next.

Taking a quick look around her, Nanlan Qianxue could see that most of her comrades fared far worse than she did. In that last clash, there were even some at the Peak Essence Condensation realm who were caught by surprise and ended up heavily injured by their respective opponents!

Given the situation, should they really continue to pursue the enemy?

"What did you just do?" Elder Mingxin questioned as she tried her best to suppress her anxiousness.

From above, everything that had happened on the ground was reflected in her eyes.

"You really want to know?" the scholarly expert maintained the smirk on his face. "Why don't you make me spit it out then?"

Elder Mingxin furrowed her eyebrows.

Judging from the confidence level of the enemy, it would appear that the tides had already turned against them somehow.

Was it a bluff?

No, the soldiers' increase in strength was obvious for all to see.

In that case, what about the scholarly expert?

Did he just receive a similar power increase?

If that was the case, then things could get really dangerous from here on out!

At this moment, Elder Mingxin was seriously contemplating calling off the pursuit.

But if she did that, she would have nothing left to answer to the upper echelons of the Scarlet Moon Army when questioned about this sneak attack by the enemy.

After all, there were two of them, both possessing a higher cultivation level than the enemy. Considering that, letting the enemy escape unscathed despite their obvious advantage would really be quite a blemish on her reputation!

Everyone had joined the war for the sake of merits and fortuitous encounters, and deep inside, Elder Mingxin was no different.

Unfortunately, she had not been able to come across any fortuitous encounters up till now.

If she were to be labelled as having failed her duty on top of that, then her earlier contributions might end up being completely disregarded, rendering her participation in the war a huge waste of time and effort!

On the other hand, if she decided to continue with the pursuit, she could end up causing even more casualties to the forces on her side.

Most of them were actually members of the Nine Suns Sect, and losing them would be a huge blow to the sect. Moreover, Nanlan Qianxue was among them!

She was a rare martial genius whose future Elder Mingxin absolutely could not afford to jeopardise!

After weighing her options, it was obvious which she had to choose.

At this point, Elder Mingxin could not help but let out a deep sigh. "Fall back."

"Wait!"

A clear shout drew everyone's attention to the one person who had charged right up from behind.

With the Torrential Sabre in hand, Lu Tianzi kicked the ground hard, leaping directly over the battling soldiers on the ground.

Tianzi?

Nanlan Qianxue widened her eyes in surprise.

Not just her, but all the other soldiers on the ground, enemies or allies alike, looked up at the figure that was seemingly flying through the air above them.

Judging from the trajectory of his jump, he would be landing right in the midst of the enemy forces!

Even Elder Mingxin felt her heart skip a beat when she saw what Lu Tianzi was doing.

This was not because he looked cool at the moment, but because it was a dangerously crazy move!

Did Nanlu Tianzi intend to leap right into the midst of the enemy forces so as to disrupt their orderly retreat?

This was the thought on everyone's mind as they watched Lu Tianzi's figure cut through the air.

But contrary to what everyone had thought, Lu Tianzi tightened his grip on his sabre, slashing out in mid-air without hesitation.

His target this time was the countless energy threads that had stretched down from the bronze cauldron, each attaching to one of the enemy soldiers.

Since the enemy had increased in strength after coming into contact with the energy threads, then it was obvious what he needed to do.

In order for for the situation to revert to how it was before, all he had to do was to directly severe this connection!

Slash-!

"Oh?" the enemy Origin Core realm expert could not help but exclaim in surprise.

Among everyone here, he was the only one who clearly understood what Lu Tianzi was aiming for.

However, the look of surprise only lasted for a moment.

A confident smirk immediately returned to his face when Lu Tianzi's blade passed straight through those energy threads, not doing a single thing to them.

In the eyes of every other person, it was as though Lu Tianzi had been out of his mind, leaping into the air just to slash at empty space.

"What the hell?"

This time, it was Lu Tianzi's turn to exclaim in shock.

Why did his attack pass through the energy threads?

It was almost as though the energy threads were nothing but an illusion!

But he did not have the time to ponder over this matter.

After all, he was just about to land right in the midst of the enemy soldiers!

"Careful!" Elder Mingxin was about to go help him when the scholarly expert promptly moved down to block her way.

"What? Are you intending to interfere with the battle below the Origin Core realm?" he remarked calmly.

Elder Mingxin immediately halted her advance, wary of the trump cards that the scholarly expert had in store. That was especially because Elder Mingxin could sense a huge store of energy pulsating from her opponent's right arm after the appearance of the bronze cauldron.

From that alone, Elder Mingxin was sure that there must be more to things than met the eye.

Lacking the confidence to challenge the unknown, Elder Mingxin could only watch on helplessly as Lu Tianzi started his descent.

The first attack came even before his feet could reach the ground.

On top of that, it was an attack by a halberd user at the Peak Essence Condensation realm, one who had just received a buff to his strength no less!

In response, Lu Tianzi quickly got into a crouching position, stepping onto the blunt edge of the Torrential Sabre while angling the blade to clash directly against the head of the approaching halberd.

With such an unbalanced stance, there was no way for even Lu Tianzi to overpower such an opponent.

Bang-!

What happened next shocked everyone present, including the three Origin Core realm experts in the air.

At the moment of impact, Lu Tianzi retracted the Torrential Sabre right after it absorbed the impact from the halberd, thereby stepping onto the outstretched halberd directly.

The firm grip and steady stance of the opponent meant that the outstretched halberd had become the perfect foothold, allowing Lu Tianzi to leap off of it once more!

With that, Lu Tianzi was once again ascending through the air.

And this time, Lu Tianzi was headed directly towards the scholarly expert.

Since he was unable to severe the threads of energy, he would just have to take out the source of it all instead!