Lin Jichen and the pudgy elder were locked in a tense standoff.
The pudgy elder continuously maintained his spirit shield for protection, while Lin Jichen stood not far in front of him, sword in hand, ready to strike.
Neither moved, and the scene seemed frozen in time.
Below, the players were too busy fighting the elite disciples to pay attention to what was happening above.
Cold sweat dripped from the pudgy elder's forehead as he inwardly cursed his bad luck.
He regretted staying behind to deal with this monstrous young man.
Despite only being at the Foundation Establishment Realm, Lin Jichen had beaten him so badly that he was covered in wounds.
His spirit shield was rapidly draining his mana and was on the verge of collapse.
Yet Lin Jichen stood motionless, holding a black sword in a poised stance, with a friendly expression on his face.
If this continued, the pudgy elder's mana would be completely exhausted.
After a moment, the pudgy elder suddenly canceled his shield!
He hoped to use the brief moment when Lin Jichen might not react to make a quick escape.
But as soon as his shield disappeared, a slash of Sword Qi came at him, perfectly timed with his movement.
"Venomous Movement Technique!"
The pudgy elder moved quickly, but the Sword Qi still grazed his arm!
[Dizzying Sword Qi! -1220!]
The pudgy elder immediately fell into a coma, plummeting from the sky.
With a dull thud, he crashed down like a weight, hitting one of his own sect's 'unlucky' elite disciples below.
Not only did he kill the elite disciple on the spot, but the pudgy elder also lost over a thousand points of vitality from the fall.
Fortunately, Lin Jichen couldn't attack during the fall.
By the time the pudgy elder hit the ground, the dizziness had worn off.
Realizing he was no match for Lin Jichen, the pudgy elder chose to fly up the mountain to seek help.
But before he could take off, Lin Jichen had already instructed a healer to cast a forbidden flight skill on him.
Unable to fly, the pudgy elder tried to flee but was chased down by Lin Jichen.
With most of his vitality gone and witnessing Lin Jichen's ghostly speed, the pudgy elder lost all will to fight.
In a panic, he used his most powerful skills, but none hit their mark.
Instead, he completely drained his mana, leaving his body devoid of any spiritual energy.
The pudgy elder became a helpless fish on the chopping block.
The outcome was clear.
In Lin Jichen's relentless pursuit, the pudgy elder was repeatedly struck by his sword.
Before one could finish half a cup of tea, the pudgy elder had already fallen in defeat.
Throughout the fight, Lin Jichen only used two significant skills: Wind Thunder Sword and Dizzying Sword Qi.
He methodically wore down his opponent with one sword strike after another.
[Cultivation +5000 points! Battle Merit +1000 points!]
Lin Jichen's solo defeat of a Crystal Formation elder was witnessed by the surrounding players, who were both amazed and inspired.
Their morale soared, allowing them to focus entirely on the elite disciples before them.
The Soul Burial Mound dropped by the pudgy elder naturally fell into Lin Jichen's hands.
It was his first Soul Burial Mound trophy.
He hadn't bothered with the Soul Burial Mounds of ordinary and elite disciples, as there were too many people fighting over them.
Besides, he didn't think they were worth much. What good items could a small sect's disciples possibly have? Elders might have something decent, but they shouldn't be too poor.
To Lin Jichen's surprise, the small sect was indeed impoverished.
The Crystal Formation elder's body only yielded three pieces of Spirit Grade equipment!
Disappointed, Lin Jichen tossed the three pieces of Spirit Grade equipment into his ring.
Fortunately, the Soul Burial Mound was secondary to this mission.
The real reward was battle merit, which could be exchanged in the four main cities for reputation, equipment, Spirit Stones, skills, and more.
Lin Jichen currently had 1005 points of battle merit.
Aside from this pudgy elder, he hadn't done much, only killing a few ordinary disciples.
The battle merit system didn't just count the kills; otherwise, it would be unfair to healers and too easy for spell cultivators.
In "Tale of Immortal," the battle merit system was fair, calculating points based on overall contribution to the mission.
Any contribution, such as damage, kills, tanking, control, healing, etc., counted towards battle merit.
The system, managed by an intelligent brain, ensured absolute fairness.
Previously, Lin Jichen had killed dozens of ordinary disciples, earning only five battle merit points.
This time, killing an elder netted him a thousand points.
Since he had done it solo, he earned all the battle merit.
If other players had ganged up on an elder, the battle merit would be distributed based on each person's contribution.
The thousand points of battle merit motivated Lin Jichen to continue fighting.
Previously, he had only been commanding, not wanting to waste effort on the Poison Sect disciples, as their battle merit didn't interest him.
Even elite disciples only offered less than ten points, which had to be shared with other players, resulting in even less.
It also required using skills, as without them, he could only kill one by one, which was too troublesome and tiring.
He checked the battle merit leaderboard; he was now at the top, surpassing the previous leader.
Second place was Chen Yuan, with over two hundred points.
He was outside another hall, having just helped a group of players take down a late-stage Foundation Establishment elder, earning nearly a hundred points.
Third place was Jiang Luoyu, with over a hundred points.
Further down the list, the battle merit points decreased.
To Lin Jichen's surprise, Ren Lan had also accumulated dozens of points, ranking relatively high.
She was only at the Qi Refining Realm, making her achievement quite rare.
On the leaderboard, almost ninety-nine percent of the top hundred were at least early Foundation Establishment.
Lin Jichen remembered that Ren Lan and Jiang Luoyu were also dealing with a mid-stage Crystal Formation elder and hurried over to assist.
When he arrived, he was surprised to see the Crystal Formation elder being besieged by players from the Moon Shadow Guild.
Ren Lan and a group of Foundation Establishment body cultivators were holding the elder's aggro.
Ren Lan seemed to be the main target, with the elder attacking her four out of ten times.
Ren Lan was like an indestructible cockroach, enduring each attack.
Though she lost a lot of vitality, it wasn't fatal.
A group of healers behind her kept her health topped up, allowing her to continue fighting.
Artifact and spell cultivators behind her focused on dealing damage.
Shortly after Lin Jichen arrived, the Crystal Formation elder finally fell, defeated by the barrage of skills.
"Yay! I got 90 battle merit points!"
Ren Lan couldn't help but boast to Jiang Luoyu after the elder was defeated.
Jiang Luoyu retorted, "I got 120 battle merit points, and I'm not even bragging."
"You're at the Foundation Establishment Realm, while I'm only at the Qi Refining Realm. You're only thirty points ahead, and you dare to boast?" Ren Lan mocked.
"I'm a spell cultivator, dealing group damage. Against single targets, my damage isn't as concentrated. Why don't you compare our battle merit from killing disciples? Mine far exceeds yours."
Neither was willing to back down, turning away from each other in a huff.