"Huh? Is anyone up ahead? I cannot sense anything?" Hu Jia stood behind Xiao Tian, looking at the space in front of her, puzzled.
Xiao Tian flicked Hu Jia's forehead. "Learn from Xue'er more."
Hu Jia turned to look at Han Xue and saw that she had already drawn her longsword and was fully prepared for battle.
"Xiaoxue, you sensed the enemy?" Hu Jia looked at Han Xue, whose strength was inferior to her own, with a head full of question marks.
"No, if Xiao Tian says there are people, then there definitely are." Han Xue said with a serious expression.
Hu Jia patted her head helplessly. *Is this what love-struck thinking is like?*
Just as Hu Jia was about to say something more, an aged voice rang out in the void. "Hehehe!! I did not expect you to be able to find me. It seems that the intelligence that you were suspected to be a four-star Dou Zun was correct."
An old man dressed in gray-white clothes, his body covered in black energy, slowly stepped out of the space and stood in the void, smiling at Xiao Tian and the other two.
When Xiao Tian heard that his information indicated he was a four-star Dou Zun, his expression turned strange. He was currently at the peak of Dou Zun and was about to reach the first-stage Dou Zun.
Xiao Tian looked at this person who was always smiling, with a pale face, a black mist surrounding him, and the strength of a peak five-star Dou Zun.
"Xiao Tian, who is he?" Hu Jia asked Xiao Tian, her eyes fixed warily on the old man.
"Judging from their attire, they must be from the Soul Palace." Han Xue had heard about Xiao Tian and his group's feud with the Soul Palace. As a native of the Central Plains, she naturally had some understanding of those powerful forces.
Xiao Tian nodded. "That is right, it is someone from the Soul Palace, and even a Celestial Venerable from the Soul Palace, Old Ghost Zhaixing."
"Oh, I did not expect you to know me?" Old Ghost Zhaixing was slightly surprised that the other party knew him.
"Since you know me, you had better surrender obediently, so as not to cause trouble for either of us. Our Palace Master values the key in the hands of your Xiao family very much."
"The intelligence report says you have a chance to obtain a small world left behind by some unknown Dou Sheng. It is an enviable opportunity. Your Xiao family is quite safe hiding inside."
The old ghost who picks stars chuckled and continued, "However, I have found you, and I am quite interested in your little world. You have managed to see through most of the people we have planted there."
"Want my little world? That is up to you. You might just die here."
Xiao Tian was really curious to see what the character Zhaixing Laogui, who appeared the most often and was the most boisterous in the entire series, was like.
After thinking for a moment, he turned to Hu Jia and Han Xue and gave them instructions. "Do not move, just stand behind me."
"How about we go inside the Primordial Heaven Realm?" Hu Jia tugged at Xiao Tian's sleeve.
"No need. With his strength, he poses no threat to me." Xiao Tian glanced at Old Ghost Zhaixing with disdain.
"Arrogant!! Since you want to die, then I will grant your wish and show you the difference between us!"
The old ghost of the stars smiled, and his pale hand emerged from his sleeve. A vast black mist surged and instantly condensed into a massive black mist palm print, ten feet in size, which he then slapped down towards Xiao Tian and the other two.
Tiny cracks appeared in the space around the palm print.
Seeing the powerful attack from the old ghost Zhaixing, Xiao Tian simply smiled, his smile filled with disdain and contempt.
He stood firmly on the spot, watching the palm print descend without flinching.
Xiao Tian reached out and clenched his fist. The space in front of him collapsed instantly, and the black palm print shattered into pieces, dissipating into black mist.
"Is that all you have got? Your attacks are so weak. Is your Soul Palace so poor that they cannot even afford to eat?"
Xiao Tian looked at the old ghost who picks stars with a mocking smile, his words full of sarcasm.
Old Ghost Zhaixing was so angry that his face turned red. He gritted his teeth and roared, "Boy, do not be so arrogant. Take this move!"
"Star-Reaching Hand!!"
Old Ghost Zhaixing sneered, extended his pale right hand, black mist surging on his palm, and then suddenly grabbed it. This grab was extremely strange, because the moment he grabbed it, Old Ghost Zhaixing's hand mysteriously disappeared, leaving only a section of his arm outside that space.
A pale hand appeared in front of Xiao Tian and reached for his neck.
"Star-Picking Hand? Ha, a mere trifle!"
A cold glint flashed in Xiao Tian's eyes, and his right hand, crackling with red lightning, suddenly thrust forward!
"Laugh--!"
Xiao Tian's finger landed precisely on the pale wrist of the old ghost who was picking stars!
"Ah—!" Old Ghost Zhaixing roared in pain as Xiao Tian pierced through his pale, eerie hand with a single finger!
"Impossible! How could you..." Old Ghost Zhaixing's pupils shrank suddenly, and he tried to retract his arm, but Xiao Tian's lightning power suddenly exploded.
In an instant, lightning blazed, shattering the old ghost's arm!
"Snap—!"
A sound of bones cracking rang out, and Old Ghost Zhaixing's expression changed drastically. He staggered backward, his hand bent at an odd angle, his eyes filled with horror. "What is your cultivation level? A four-star Dou Zun could never break my Zhaixing Hand."
Xiao Tian smiled faintly, withdrew his hand, and said calmly, "Star-Plucking Hand? With this strength, you cannot even pluck a leaf, let alone a star."
"Pfft!!" Han Xue could not help but laugh when she heard Xiao Tian's words. "You are too mean! This Star-Picking Hand is one of the signature fighting techniques of others, but now it seems that it was not just hyped up by the Soul Palace, was it?"
"Seriously? This is your signature move? I think you might as well have a ninety-year-old grandma picking vegetables." Hu Jia chimed in, joining Han Xue in her sarcastic remarks.
As for the Soul Palace, the two were not afraid, since they now had powerful backers.
When the old ghost Zhaixing, who was secretly taking healing medicine, heard Han Xue's words, his face turned green.
Having roamed the entire Central Plains for so many years, I am respected by everyone in the Central Plains. I never expected to have my hand broken today and be ridiculed by two little girls.
He took out several pills from his storage ring and quickly popped them into his mouth. Xiao Tian did not interrupt him. Perhaps this is why villains in novels enjoy watching ants struggle.
Oh, no, I am on the same side as Xiao Yan, the Chosen One, not the villain.
After the old ghost of the stars swallowed the pill, a flash of green light appeared in his hand, and his twisted arm gradually returned to normal.
As his injuries healed, he clenched his fists and grinned maliciously at Xiao Tian and the other two.
"You did not interrupt me? You will regret this. I will show you the true power of a five-star Dou Zun!"
The sinister smile on the old ghost's face grew wider and wider. Vast battle qi surged from his palm, then transformed into a strange, viscous substance. With a series of eerie writhing movements, it solidified into a pitch-black ghost-head broadsword.
This broadsword was extremely strange, covered by a layer of strange, pitch-black crystals. As the blade lightly swept across the space, a crack the size of a thumb appeared silently.
He raised his broadsword high, his body rising into the air, streaks of light converging on the blade, his entire demeanor one of resignation to death.
But his next move left Hu Jia and Han Xue dumbfounded, as if a flock of crows had flown by.