To prevent sneak soul attacks, Punya decided to attack the Ming clan's supreme elder first. And it was not only because of the soul attacks, the Ming clans were a bunch of cunning foxes so letting the supreme elder live would be disadvantageous for the Rijal clan.
As for the supreme elder of the Visigoth clan, although he was also strong, most of his strength came from brute force. For a battle cultivator, they had ways of avoiding the moves of the cultivators who had mastered brute force. The brute force was the most primal force and with enough strength, one could destroy everything with just their brute force but not just anyone could achieve that. Punya circulated his cultivation technique, the Lesser Battle Sutra of Mountain, and used the sword technique of the Rijal clan.
When he reached before Yan Ming and slashed his sword, Yan Ming was stunned. He didn't think that Punya would be daring enough to attack them head-on. He was planning to lurk behind and sneak attack Punya from time to time. If he could distract him then the Thapa clan elders would finish their work and he would contribute to the battle without putting himself at much risk. He only stood before Punya because he wanted to make his presence known and wanted to fawn over the Thapa clan after the battle was finished.
He hurriedly used a talisman for defense. The Ming clan's specialty was talismans so they had plenty of them in stock but having plenty of them and having really strong ones differ greatly. They had a lot of talismans but it was only up to the high tier of second grade and they were rare in the clan. As for those middle tier and below, they had plenty of those.
The talisman Yan Ming used was a defense talisman with earth attributes and was at the top tier in second grade. It could withstand an attack from the peak foundation building realm. The Ming clan didn't have any amulets so they had to manually activate the talisman. Although it was fast, almost instant, there was still a time difference.
For high-level cultivators, their reaction speed is so fast that even a second may look like a minute. Although Punya hadn't reached such a realm, he could react a few times in a second. But the reaction of the supreme elder of the Ming clan was not something to scoff at. When Punya had slashed at Yang Ming, the brown barrier was already erected.
At this moment Punya revealed his cultivation level and added more qi to the attack. He was acting low-key because he wanted to catch at least one person off guard. When the sword slashed at the barrier, the Thapa clan cultivators also reacted and wanted to rush toward Yan Ming but Kumari had already created a wall of crimson-hued fire before them.
They had wanted to help Yan Ming because they knew he would be helpful in the battle later but they hesitated at the crimson-hued flame wall because they had seen such fire for the first time and it radiated a faint sense of threat. But the moment they hesitated, the sword broke the barrier created by the talisman and slashed at Yan Ming. He was a veteran cultivator with a lot of battle experience so he had already erected defense with his soul qi.
But what surprised him was that the sword still broke through the defense. He didn't even have the time to be surprised about the increased cultivation realm of Punya's when the sword was at his face. But his reaction was still swift.
He hastily used another talisman and used the same barrier to cover himself. The defense that had been shattered by the sword created a little backlash for Yan Ming because he had used a lot of soul qi hastily, but the backlash was small, it was still related to the soul so even a small injury could prove fatal for future cultivation. He endured the little backlash and immediately used another talisman for defense.
This was the last talisman he had on him. The clan had few on reserves and they were distributed to the clan leader and a few elders closest to him for their safety. He didn't think it would have been necessary to bring much for this battle because they had a lot of cultivators on their side and he had already planned to attack from far away. This time the second talisman blocked the sword but Yan Ming was still feeling uneasy.
The Thapa clan cultivators were still behind the flame wall but now they were trying to attack it with their skills. Yan Ming seeing there was a flame wall behind him knew that there was no escape so he used a soul attack on Punya. Punya had strong soul power because he was a battle cultivator but there was still a limit without corresponding soul techniques whereas the soul of Yan Ming had reached the peak of violet soul realm.
The most elusive thing about this attack was that there was no telling when the attack would come because with all the variation, any attacks could become lethal and the user of this technique could interchange between the moves freely not only in style but also in power otherwise it wouldn't count as a spirit grade technique derived from heaven grade technique, violet soul realm. The instant Yan Ming used the soul attack, Kumari used her crimson-hued flame to block the attack. The mother-son duo had already discussed this previously when they found out that the crimson-hued flame had an effect on the soul.
Their main target was either the supreme elder or the clan leader of the Ming clan because soul cultivators were troublesome opponents everywhere. Although it wouldn't be enough to completely block a soul attack because the flame was only crimson-hued, it was enough if it could be toned down. Punya could manage somewhat weaker soul attacks and the backlash would injure Yan Ming. It was two birds with a stone situation.
The attack landed on Punya and even though his soul defense was crude, he was able to safeguard his consciousness with little bit of damage. This was a win in his view. He rapidly charged his sword with qi and slashed at Yan Ming. This time Yan Ming felt the threat of death. The previous slashes were strong enough but this slash was somewhat different, he felt as if he had been locked down and there was no escape.
He felt that he would not be able to avoid being hit no matter what. This was because Punya was using the spirit halberd technique this time. And since he had used a lot of qi than previous attacks it was also much stronger. This was probably the strongest attack of his life.