"No, my lord! Let us hold her off, you should go first!"
As the two spoke, they also lunged towards Zi Lingling.
Zi Lingling sneered, "There's no need to refuse. You can all stay here! It's less lonely on the road to the Yellow Springs with companions, isn't it?"
With that, she met them, and the battle commenced with the three of them.
The two scalpels in her hands, imbued with the essence of the Autumn Wind Falling Leaves technique, sliced towards the trio.
"Hmph! Such arrogant words! Even if we can't defeat you, you can't stop us if we want to leave."
The leader dodged Zi Lingling's attack, and pulled a porcelain bottle from his embrace.
He uncapped the bottle and, with a pained expression, poured its contents into his mouth and swallowed.
Zi Lingling's nostrils twitched, and she said contemptuously, "Spirit Recovery Pill? Not bad! But it's not enough!"
The Spirit Recovery Pill was a high-grade healing elixir, capable of rapidly restoring eighty percent of one's spiritual energy.
The leader chuckled sinisterly, "Brat, don't be so presumptuous! I was caught off guard just now, which is how you got the upper hand. Now, let me gauge your true strength!"
As his words fell, a segment of chain appeared in his hand.
The chain emanated a dark, lustrous glow, clearly a King Artifact.
Zi Lingling calmly sent two waves of blade energy towards the other two, then said with amusement, "Using a chain as a weapon? Interesting! But if this is your trump card, then you can depart with peace of mind."
Those who wielded chains as their weapons were extremely rare.
In her two lifetimes combined, Zi Lingling had only seen, or rather, heard of, two individuals who used them as their weapons.
Those two… well, they were ghosts, the legendary Black and White Impermanence.
This was because the power of a chain was not easy to control.
Like a whip, a chain belonged to the category of flexible weapons, its strength leaning towards softness. However, a chain was also a heavy weapon, thus possessing a formidable, masculine force.
Therefore, to wield a chain effectively, one needed both sufficient strength and the skill to master both the soft and the rigid.
While this sounded simple, its execution was undeniably difficult.
"Soul Hook Chain, emerge!"
The leader roared, and with a slight flick, the chain lashed out towards Zi Lingling.
Zi Lingling's eyes narrowed, and the scalpels in her hands, pulsing with spiritual energy, met the attack.
"Bang!"
The chain and the blades collided, producing a crisp sound.
The scalpel in Zi Lingling's hand was almost jolted out of her grip.
She inwardly chuckled; she had already overestimated the power of the chain, but it seemed she still hadn't estimated it enough.
Of course, with her timely recovery, the scalpel did not fall, but it did expose a slight opening.
The leader rejoiced as his attack found its mark. At the same time, he seized the opening and pressed his attack on Zi Lingling.
Zi Lingling sneered.
She would never make the same mistake twice.
She retracted her scalpels into the Nine Spirits Ring and retrieved the King Artifact, the Profound Nether Ruler.
Although the scalpels were comfortable to use, they were merely spiritual artifacts. After all, in a backwater like the Three Kingdoms, there were no high-level artifact refiners, let alone the means to forge King Artifacts.
It seemed that upon her journey to the Azure Dragon Empire, she would need to forge a new set of King Artifact scalpels.
Of course, that was a matter for later.
For now, she needed to deal with these three first, and then, with Ye Lingyuan, head to the Azure Dragon Empire.
Zi Lingling infused her spiritual energy into the Profound Nether Ruler, which immediately shone with a brilliant light.
Facing the incoming chain, the Profound Nether Ruler seemed to have been provoked, and powerfully lashed out at the chain.
"Boom!"
The collision of the two created a deafening roar.
The Profound Nether Ruler stood firm, while the chain was sent flying back, striking the other two who had attempted to capitalize on the opening, and then continuing its trajectory towards its wielder.
The leader was greatly alarmed. He quickly swung the end he held twice, using a clever maneuver to deflect the returning end, narrowly changing its direction.
However, the other two were not as fortunate.
Their bodies were sent flying backward at an even greater speed than before, crashing heavily onto the ground.
"Pfft!"
"Pfft!"
Both spat out a mouthful of blood, interspersed with fragments of their internal organs.
The might of a King Artifact was terrifying; it had directly snapped three of their ribs and shattered their internal organs.
The two managed to get back on their feet, and upon seeing the Profound Nether Ruler in Zi Lingling's hand, they cried out in horror, "A King Artifact?!"
It was known that crafting King Artifacts was extremely difficult.
Even a prominent family like the Imperial Zi family possessed them in very limited quantities.
Therefore, not everyone among them, even those at the peak of the Saint King realm, had one.
Now, seeing a King Artifact in Zi Lingling's hand, their astonishment was mixed with a flicker of avarice.
The leader steadied himself and finally got a clear look at the Profound Nether Ruler in Zi Lingling's hand.
He exclaimed in surprise, "I never expected a young girl in the Yuan Transformation realm like you to possess a King Artifact. It is truly… enticing!"
His eyes and face were filled with greed, for who would ever have too many King Artifacts?
"No! The fluctuation when you took out that King Artifact earlier was not right, it wasn't intent, it was…"
The leader frowned, then his eyes suddenly lit up, and he said, "It was soul power. You just used soul power. And what requires the use of soul power should be… a spatial ring. I never imagined you would also possess such a treasure as a spatial ring."
At this point, the greed in his eyes intensified.
Spatial rings were treasures rarely seen even on the Tian Yuan Continent! Even the Imperial Zi family possessed only one.
Initially, the leader had only intended to report Zi Lingling's immense potential to the higher-ups of the Imperial Zi family.
Now, upon seeing the King Artifact Profound Nether Ruler and deducing the existence of a spatial ring, he had changed his mind.
He intended to kill Zi Lingling and seize her King Artifact and spatial ring.
Zi Lingling's heart skipped a beat.
She recalled Ye Lingyuan warning her not to expose her possession of the Nine Spirits Ring.
At first, she had been cautious, trying her best not to use the Nine Spirits Ring in front of others.
However, later, as she was not recognized, she gradually relaxed her guard.
After all, in a desolate place like the Three Kingdoms, there were very few people with discerning knowledge.
But the leader before her was different. He hailed from the Azure Dragon Empire, and his vision was naturally incomparable to that of the people in the Three Kingdoms.
Therefore, he recognized the spatial ring at a glance.
Although Zi Lingling felt a flicker of panic, her expression remained unchanged, and she asked in surprise, "What spatial ring? What is that?"
She acted as if she truly had no idea what a spatial ring was.
The leader chuckled greedily, "There's no need to deny it, denial is useless. Materializing items out of thin air using soul power, what else could it be if not a spatial ring?"