71: With the acquisition of Star Essence, feelings began to stir.

Ahead, a broken Puppet locked onto them with a scarlet single eye, its Killing Intent chilling; behind, a Black-Robed Elder of the Guixu Cult, accompanied by two Mid-stage Golden Core cultists, blocked their path with cold, ominous auras.

In an instant, the four of them, led by Lin Xuan, were trapped in a desperate, inescapable situation!

"Gongsun Yu, protect my right side! Senior Sisters, leave the left flank and the rear to you!" Lin Xuan spoke rapidly, his tone brooking no argument.

In this critical moment, he naturally assumed the role of commander, and the three women executed his orders without hesitation.

Before his words had even faded, the broken Puppet lunged forward with a sharp, piercing sound, its single arm acting like a blade as it slashed directly at Lin Xuan's neck!

Although its movements were stiff, its strength and speed were not to be underestimated.

Lin Xuan did not dodge or evade; a fierce light flashed in his eyes as he circulated the Nine Revolutions Golden Body Art. Pale golden Qi and blood enveloped his right fist, and he met the attack head-on!

He intended to resolve this obstacle in the most ferocious manner and at the fastest speed possible!

"Clang!"

The collision of fist and arm sounded like a boom of metal striking metal!

Lin Xuan's figure swayed slightly, and a stinging pain radiated from his knuckles; the material of the Puppet was truly extraordinary.

However, his Mid-stage Golden Core mana erupted, and his supreme Yang Qi and blood acted as the bane of such sinister creations, sending the force of his punch straight through the Puppet's body!

"Crack!" The Puppet's single arm snapped, and its body was sent flying backward by the immense force, the starlight fragments in the hole in its chest flickering violently.

At the same time, the battle behind and to the left had also erupted!

The Black-Robed Elder let out a cold snort and reached out with a withered hand, which transformed into a pitch-black ghost claw that blotted out the sky. With a soul-stealing, bone-chilling shriek, it lunged toward Lin Xuan's head, intending to capture him in one fell swoop!

The power of this claw had reached the Peak of the Late Golden Core Stage, causing the very space to distort.

"Freeze the Universe!"

Su Wanqing let out a sharp cry as she blocked the rear-left of Lin Xuan. Her ice sword danced, and endless Taiyin Moon Essence surged forth, forming a thick barrier of crystalline ice that forcefully halted the momentum of the ghost claw!

The ice wall trembled violently as cracks spread across it. Su Wanqing's face turned pale, and blood spilled from the corner of her mouth once again, yet her eyes remained firm, and she did not retreat a single step!

She knew deeply that Lin Xuan was at a critical moment and must not be disturbed.

"Old thing, look over here!" Qu Feiyan's seductive laughter rang out, and her figure, like a red phantom, appeared on the flank of the Black-Robed Elder.

She did not engage in a direct confrontation but instead formed hand seals. A pink light flared intensely in her eyes, and a blood lotus bloomed behind her, radiating a mesmerizing glow.

An intangible, formless power of seduction that pierced straight into the mind surged like a tidal wave toward the Black-Robed Elder and the two cultists beside him.

The movements of the two Mid-stage Golden Core cultists stalled instantly, their gazes becoming dazed for a moment.

The Black-Robed Elder also felt his mind waver, and the power of his ghost claw weakened by thirty percent. He roared angrily, "How dare you, enchantress!" He had to use his Divided Soul to handle this insidious mental attack.

On the right, Gongsun Yu's petite figure erupted with astonishing power. Her thunder light silver ring transformed into two intersecting bolts of lightning, creating an impenetrable defense for her and Lin Xuan's right side, barely holding off the other cultist who was attempting to circle around for a sneak attack.

Although her cultivation was weak, her thunder techniques were ferocious, allowing her to hold her ground for the moment.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye!

Lin Xuan seized this precious gap, his figure moving like lightning as he lunged straight at the broken Puppet that had just climbed to its feet!

The immortal abode pivot token emitted a brilliant, clear light, and a suppressing force aimed at the Puppet's core descended upon it!

The Puppet's single eye flashed with frantic red light as it tried to struggle, but having lost an arm and with its core suppressed by the cardinal edict, its movements were a beat slower.

Lin Xuan pressed his fingers together like a sword and struck with pinpoint accuracy at the speck of starlight in the hole in its chest!

"Pfft!"

The purifying power contained in his fingertips instantly annihilated the final barrier protecting the fragment.

Lin Xuan flipped his wrist, and the fragment of "star marrow gold"—the size of a fingernail, cold to the touch, and radiating pure stellar fluctuations—fell into his palm!

The moment he touched it, a vast and ancient stellar consciousness gently washed over his mind, deepening his understanding of the Void Realm by a fraction.

It was indeed the crucial Material for refining the "vessel" to traverse the Burial Star Sea!

"Got it! Retreat!" Lin Xuan shouted in a low voice, and without hesitation, he stored the star marrow gold fragment into the internal space of the immortal abode pivot token.

"Where do you think you're going!" Seeing the treasure snatched away, the Black-Robed Elder was furious. Completely ignoring Qu Feiyan's harassment, the power of his ghost claw increased further, violently shattering the crystalline ice barrier Su Wanqing had set up, and it continued unabated toward Lin Xuan's back!

Su Wanqing strained to raise her mana, intending to block it again, but she was already at the end of her rope.

Qu Feiyan frantically ramped up her Seduction Skill, attempting to interfere once more.

Gongsun Yu was being forced back repeatedly by her opponent.

Seeing the ghost claw about to strike, Lin Xuan turned around abruptly, a flash of determination in his eyes as he prepared to take the hit head-on to buy time for the three women to escape.

Suddenly—

"Senior Brother Lin, watch out!"

Gongsun Yu, who was closest to him, saw the ghost claw about to strike Lin Xuan. Driven by some unknown courage, her petite figure lunged forward, intending to use her own body to block it!

"Gongsun Yu!"

Lin Xuan's pupils constricted, and his heart trembled violently!

It was already too late for him to stop her.

However, another cold, aloof figure was faster than him!

Almost at the same time as Gongsun Yu moved, Su Wanqing transformed into a stream of moonlight, arriving after but striking first, blocking the path in front of Lin Xuan and Gongsun Yu!

She held her ice sword horizontally in the air, and the Taiyin Golden Core within her body spun at an unprecedented speed, erupting with blinding cold light; she was intending to use her own body as a shield to take this attack from the Late Golden Core Stage head-on!

"Senior Sister Su!" Lin Xuan cried out, his heart feeling as if it had been tightly gripped!

At this critical moment, a flash of complexity and determination crossed Qu Feiyan's eyes. She bit the tip of her tongue and sprayed a mouthful of essence blood onto the blood lotus behind her!

The blood lotus flared with brilliant light, manifesting countless illusory and real phantoms that layered themselves in front of Su Wanqing, while at the same time, an even stronger power of heart-bewitchment surged straight into the Black-Robed Elder's Sea of Consciousness!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The phantoms shattered one after another under the ghost claw, but they successfully delayed it for a moment, reducing its power by more than half.

In the end, the ghost claw struck away the final phantom and landed on the ice sword Su Wanqing held horizontally.

"Clang—!"

Su Wanqing was struck hard, spraying a mouthful of blood as her delicate body was sent flying backward, with cracks spreading all over her ice sword.

"Go!" Qu Feiyan's face was pale, clearly suffering from a significant loss of essence blood, but she did not stop. She threw several pink smoke bombs from her sleeves, instantly enveloping the entire area and blocking Divine Sense.

Lin Xuan suppressed the surging emotions in his heart and caught the flying Su Wanqing; touching her, he felt only that her body was cold and soft, and her aura was weak.

With his other hand, he grabbed Gongsun Yu, who was still trying to rush over, and shouted to Qu Feiyan, "Let's go!"

Under the cover of the mist, the four of them transformed into four streaks of light, fleeing desperately into the deeper reaches of the stone forest.

Behind them came the infuriated roar of the Black-Robed Elder and the sound of pursuit cutting through the air.

Lin Xuan held the weak Su Wanqing tightly in his arms, feeling the lingering fear in Gongsun Yu's trembling beside him and Qu Feiyan's slightly heavy breathing; an unprecedented and complex emotion welled up in his heart.

There was the relief of surviving a catastrophe, the excitement of obtaining the relic, but more than that, it was the shock of the three women sacrificing themselves to protect him, and a heavy sense of responsibility.

They were no longer just objects of his "investment."