A setup and an opportunity

Gu Aoyao immediately sprinted as a great force seemed to come at him.

However he still underestimated the Third Elder's strike, as it exploded with a great force as it hit the ground behind him. This threw him off and sent him flying towards the Reincarnation Pavillion's entrance. He was severely injured but it couldn't contain his glee as he saw where he landed on.

"You!" The Third Elder immediately realized his mistake when he saw this. This wasn't an expert but an ant, he had been fooled! He could barely block Jian Wufeng's strike after getting distracted. He couldn't completely guard himself and the forced shook him a little bit.

"Despicable! The Jian family is despicable!"

"All is fair in war elder, how can you be so naive!"

The youth smiled to himself. It was a small advantage, but he knew it increased his chances of escaping here safely.

"With that said, I have to thank this ant! Hahahaha!" His sword then seemed to vibrate and a sword intent unleashed itself towards Gu Aoyao.

"No!" Gu Aoyao panicked. The sword intent seemed to have a mind of its own, and followed his movements. Forcing himself through his injuries, he ran inside the pavillion to hide, only for the sword intent to follow him.

"Fuck!" Gu Aoyao didn't have the strength to block this sword intent from an expert and could only accept his fate, as it bifurcated him from waist down and then sent him flying towards the end of the room.

"Arghhh!!" Gu Aoyao couldn't hold himself back from the pain and shouted. He saw his waist lying on the ground not far from him.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he forced himself to calm down through the pain.

"Jian Wufeng! No! I can't give up now!" He gritted his teeth and started crawling on the ground despite the pain. His eyes were focused on a treasure pearl enclosed and sealed in glass. He had to get that no matter what!

"Now that is dealt with, let's continue, elder!" Jian Wufeng enthusiastically flew towards Shangguan Wenxian and slashed his sword at him.

"Arrogant!" Despite taking a blow earlier, the Third Elder was still vigorous and easily defended this attack.

Just like this, severable rounds of exchange happened between Jian Wufeng and the Third Elder.

In the midst of all this, Gu Aoyao managed to crawl and get to the enclosure of the pearl. The fight kept shaking the place, making the crawl harder for Gu Aoyao, but he finally managed to get here.

"I spent the measly allowance the Shangguan Family gave me to be able to get information about the formation that protected the Rebirth Pearl. I should be able to open it." That's right, this was Gu Aoyao's goal from the start.

The Rebirth Pearl was a rare treasure that allowed a cultivator to reshape his body and subsequently maintain his soul and mind. It reincarnates the user somewhere using the soul. The treasure has various uses, but it is mostly used to bolster the strength and train scions of large sects and clans.

Gu Aoyao long planned to get the Rebirth Pearl and die to be reincarnated outside the Saint Realm. He knew there was no escape from the Shangguan Family as long as he stayed in the Saint Realm. After staying in Shangguan family for years, he had long known the different methods that they were capable of that would allow the Shangguan family to track him anywhere in the Saint Realm, including but not limited to soul tracking, etc.

In the previous half of the century, he had seen many servants try and escape the Shangguan family, only to be brought back and punished with a fate worse than death.

As he tinkered around the formation, the battle outside seemed to have come to a halt.

Both were injured, albeit the Third Elder seemed to have the upper hand.

"Damn it!" In spite of this, the Third Elder was not happy. The blow from earlier allowed Jian Wufeng more advantage than he should've. And he knew there was no longer victory in the matter at hand. His fury now seemed to be directed at the person in the Reincarnation Pavillion. He could be a corpse now or severely injured inside the pavillion, although there was no way an ant could survive a sword intent from Jian Wufeng. Regardless, he wouldn't be leaving any corpse intact!

"Thank you for the lesson Third Elder! But as it stands I have to go now. Thank you for entertaining me!" Jian Wufeng faked a bow and readied himself to escape.

"Want to go? Not so easy!" The Third Elder reached out his hand to block the space, but his eyes squinted as he saw Jian Wufeng pull out a paper from his pockets.

"A Void Escape Talisman? Damn it!" In his heyday, he could easily muster the force to completely block the surrounding space to prevent this talisman, but he knew he didn't have the strength now.

Jian Wufeng smiled with pleasure as everything went according to plan. He just had to fight the Third Elder to weaken him enough and then escape.

"Thank the man for me. Until we meet again Third Elder." Jian Wufeng crushed the talisman as he said that, a purple light enveloped him and then he disappeared in place.

"Damn it!" The Third Elder exclaimed in anger.

"It's all because of this ant! All this work for nothing!" The Third Elder focused his attention on the Reincarnation Pavillion and flew towards it, he then went inside.

"A servant? How dare he!" He saw the clothes Gu Aoyao was wearing and recognized that he was a Shangguan family servant, he was even more angered. But as he approached the upper half of the body he could no longer feel the breath of life on Gu Aoyao, he only saw the mocking smile plastered across Gu Aoyao's face.

"Fuck!" This exacerbated the Third Elder's wrath and he wanted to tear Gu Aoyao's corpse into pieces, but he was further enraged when he saw the case that should've housed a Rebirth Pearl in there.

"Damn it! You!" The Third Elder mustered all the force available to him and immediately sent out a blast that all but obliterated Gu Aoyao's corpse.