Invincible Bravery

Chapter 110 109, the majestic golden elixir, just give it away!
Ni Kun was urging the flying boat with all his strength to fly northward.

Suddenly, the sky in front of him darkened suddenly, and a giant palm with a radius of one hundred feet appeared out of thin air, grabbing towards the flying boat.

The whole body of the giant palm was condensed from ink-like black water, exuding a cold and gloomy aura, giving people an extremely dangerous feeling.

"Xuanming True Water!" Heisha exclaimed, "This is the supernatural power of Patriarch Tianhai!"

"This kind of momentum doesn't look like the magical powers displayed by the Nascent Soul boss himself! It's amazing that it came from the hands of Jindan!"

Ni Kun laughed, calmly, and with a thought, the flying boat plunged down and swooped down towards a hundred-foot-high mountain below.

The hundred-foot giant palm condensed from the "Xuanming True Water" pursued closely, but after Ni Kun approached the mountain, he suddenly turned flat and flew forward, then suddenly turned back and flew upwards, soaring into the sky.

The [-]-foot giant palm that was chasing the flying boat fell into the air, and grabbed the top of the mountain with a plop, and smashed a small half of the mountain peak with one claw. The mud, rocks, vegetation caught between the fingers of the giant palm melted quickly In a blink of an eye, it completely disappeared.

"Xuanming True Water can dissolve everything, don't be touched by it!"

Heisha quickly reminded.

Ni Kun laughed: "Don't worry, it can't reach us..."

As soon as the words fell, another pitch-black water curtain appeared out of thin air in front of the flying boat. It stretched for more than ten miles and was hundreds of feet high.

It's Xuanming True Water again!

This time the scope of the Xuanming Real Water is too large, and Ni Kun can't escape it just by relying on the maneuverability of the flying boat.

But he was still unhurried, and with a thought, a khaki light burst out from his body, rapidly expanding and turning into a huge khaki sand ball, enveloping the flying boat.

It is the ability of "Huangsha Baojia"!

The black frenzied tide condensed by Xuanming True Water came roaring, crashing on the earthy yellow sand ball.

But the Kuroshio wave, which was enough to easily destroy the top of Baizhang Mountain, was torn apart by the high-speed rotating sand on the surface of the maracas, and was thrown away in all directions.

Xuanming True Water has amazing corrosive power and can dissolve everything.

However, when the sand ball rotated at a high speed, it not only tore the peak of the Kuroshio wave and released the impact force, but also actively threw away the surface gravel that was in contact with the Xuanming True Water, causing the small amount of Xuanming True Water contaminated on the sand ball to , before it had time to deeply erode the interior, it was already stripped and thrown away.

And although the surface layer of the khaki-yellow sand ball is peeling off layer by layer, the volume has never decreased, as if new sand and sand are being derived from the inside of the sand ball.

The earthy yellow sand ball is thousands of feet away.

With his hands behind his back, Ji Feihu hung in the air, looking expressionlessly at the earthy yellow sand ball that seemed indestructible under the impact of Xuanming True Water.

The few foundation-builder cultivators who followed him from behind all showed shock, as if they couldn't believe that a few foundation-builder cultivators could block the big brother's mysterious power of true water.

You must know that Xuanming Zhenshui supernatural power is extremely difficult to practice, and among the five golden alchemists under Tianhai Patriarch's sect, only Ji Feihu has successfully cultivated it.

And Ji Feihu is also the only one who has reached the middle-grade alchemy, and his cultivation has reached the late stage of golden alchemy.

In the eyes of the disciples of Tianhai Patriarch's sect, elder brother Ji Feihu is no less inferior to the famous Dazong's true biography of Jindan.

But I didn't expect that the Xuanming Zhenshui of the elder brother is indeed powerful and unstoppable, but those few seemingly innocuous foundation-building minor cultivators can persist until now under the mad attack of Xuanming Zhenshui, and they seem to be invincible. Can hold on for a while longer.

"This..." a foundation-building cultivator gasped and said, "Could it be that among the four foundation-buildings on the flying boat, there is a golden elixir hidden in it?"

"There is indeed a golden elixir." Ji Feihu said lightly: "but it should be only a low-grade golden elixir. The reason why I can block my Xuanming Zhenshui is just relying on a special defense, and can slightly restrain the 'Xuanming Zhenshui' The golden elixir magic weapon of earth element attribute is just struggling to support."

Although the tone was flat, it revealed strong self-confidence, and several of the Junior Brothers who established the foundation were completely convinced.

At this time, a slightly anxious male voice came from the sand ball:

"This fellow Taoist, I have no grievances or enmities with you, and I have never even met you before. Why do you want to do this? Could it be that there is some misunderstanding?"

A sneer appeared on the corner of Ji Feihu's mouth, "Can't hold it anymore? Hmph, it's really just a low-grade golden elixir!"

Xuan said in a cold voice: "Misunderstanding? I am Ji Feihu, the first disciple of the founder of Tianhai, and I am now investigating the change in Haiya and hunting down the culprit. Baoqian left the city in a hurry, there must be ghosts in his heart! Say, who are you? The change in Haiya City has something to do with you?"

"Ah? The change in Haiya City has something to do with me? Fellow Daoists really think highly of me... How powerful is Tianhai Patriarch? With my meager cultivation, how can I cause Haiya City to change under the eyes of my ancestor?"

Ji Feihu knew that what he said was justified, but now he wanted to vent his anger on others, and by the way, establish an unshakable authority in front of his juniors, and holding a low-grade golden elixir head as a sacrifice flag was enough to convince his juniors.

At that moment, Ji Feihu said coldly:
"Whether the change in Haiya City is related to you or not, it doesn't matter what you say, but what Ji says! If you want to save your life, then disperse this sand ball, and I will restrain you. Let me search the soul to find out!
"If the change in Haiya really has nothing to do with you, Ji will not kill innocent people indiscriminately. But if you continue to resist...you and the four of you will all be melted into the mysterious water of Ji!"

"Restricted by you, let you search for your soul?"

The voice from the sand ball was startled and angry:
"Ji Feihu, don't bully others too much! I am also a golden core, how can I let you bully me!"

Ji Feihu said coldly:
"So what if Ji deceived people too much? What can you do!"

While speaking, he raised his right hand, clenched it into a fist, and punched the maracas from a distance.

He actually has the means to break the sand ball in an instant——

Although limited by his cultivation, Ji Feihu couldn't move the "Zhenhai Pearl" entrusted to him by Tianhai Patriarch, but the five golden pills under the patriarch's sect, each of them has the energy mechanism of Tianhai Patriarch to intercept the Zhenhai Pearl , a talisman made by refining.

This talisman has the power of three strikes, and each strike is equivalent to [-]% of the power of Zhenhaizhu's own strike.

The Golden Core Realm defense magic weapon activated by a mere low-grade Golden Core, in front of this talisman, cannot withstand even one blow, and will collapse in an instant.

But how can you use a sledgehammer to kill a chicken?

In Ji Feihu's view, why should he use the precious talisman refined by his master for a small low-grade golden elixir?

With his cultivation and supernatural powers, he can break through its defenses with bare hands!
The most important thing is that the master has been robbed, no matter how difficult it is to replenish this talisman, it will be used once less.

As Ji Feihu clenched and punched, in the wave of Xuanming Zhenshui that hit the sand ball continuously, a huge wave suddenly rose up, turning into a giant black fist, driven by the wave, he punched the sand ball slam.

Boom!

Amidst the loud noise, the air shook violently, layers of snow-white air waves exploded, and the air explosion clouds spread in all directions.

A wave of water flashed on Ji Feihu's body, and it turned into a water curtain of light, covering himself and his juniors inside, pushing away the oncoming snow-white air waves.

However, he didn't notice that when the air wave came into contact with the water curtain light curtain, wisps of thin air mist, like snowflakes melting into the water, silently merged into the water curtain light curtain...

the other side.

The sand ball that was hit by the giant fist failed to tear the giant fist through the spinning force this time, but was shaken suddenly, the spinning momentum stopped suddenly, and dense cracks appeared on the surface.

As soon as the spinning of the sand ball stopped, the Xuanming Zhenshui frenzy following the giant fist slammed on the sand ball again, melting the sand ball layer by layer, making its volume shrink continuously, getting smaller and smaller.

Fortunately, at this time, the sand ball seemed to have recovered from the shock caused by the punch, and began to spin rapidly again, while peeling off and throwing away the sand shells eroded by the real water, while tearing open the subsequent Kuroshio tide.

Its volume did not expand and recover, but barely maintained the status quo after shrinking.

With a sneer on his lips, Ji Feihu shouted majesticly:

"Look how long you can last!"

While speaking, he clasped his five fingers again, and punched the sand ball.

boom!boom!boom!
After three explosions, the sand ball had shrunk so much that even the flying boat could not cover it, the bow and stern of the boat were all exposed to the sand ball, and were melted away by Xuanming True Water in a blink of an eye.

Ji Feihu opened his five fingers again, turned his fist into a claw, and grabbed at the sand ball that could barely protect the four people in the boat.

In the Xuanming True Water, a big wave rose up and turned into a pitch-black giant claw, clasped the sand ball with five fingers, and squeezed it hard.

Bang!
The sand ball disintegrated, turned into sand and gravel, and flew away, revealing the dilapidated flying boat that lost its bow and tail, and the panic-stricken man and three women in the middle of the boat.

Seeing the man and the three women, Yi Feihu was even more merciless, grabbed the giant claws of Zhenshui, and grabbed all four of them in his palm.

He is the master of supernatural powers, and he can control whether the Xuanming True Water melts the object it touches.

Now he didn't immediately dissolve the four people, but turned the Xuanming True Water into black mist, which eroded from the seven orifices into the meridians and acupoints of the four people, and even into the dantian, instantly sealing their mana.

Afterwards, he activated the giant claw, making the giant claw grab the four of them and fly towards Ji Feihu and the others, hovering ten feet in front of them.

With his hands behind his back, Ji Feihu looked at the man and three women with pale faces and desperate eyes in the giant claws of Zhenshui.

Male Xiu Xiu is that low-grade golden elixir, the magic weapon can barely be seen, his strength is not worth mentioning, so it doesn't matter if he kills it.

Those three nuns...

But all of them have good looks and attractive figures.

Especially the woman in purple seemed to have an indescribably strange charm on her body. Compared with her tear-filled eyes, her pitiful eyes full of pleading eyes, Ji Feihu had already read all the beauties in the world, so he couldn't help feeling a little bit heartbeat.

"The three female cultivators, especially the purple-clothed female cultivator, can stay here. They can be trained and played in their free time, and they can chat for fun..."

Ji Feihu thought to himself, he didn't ask any questions at all, and directly stimulated his divine sense, eroded towards the male cultivator's sea of ​​consciousness, and wanted to use the soul search technique on him.

The art of soul searching is a double-edged sword.

Invading other people's sea of ​​consciousness with spiritual thoughts, of course, can fully understand the secrets of others, but it is also possible to be led by others to invade one's own sea of ​​consciousness.

Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the opponent has been completely restrained, and his whole body cultivation is prohibited before he can use spells to search for souls.

Ji Feihu is very confident in his cultivation and supernatural powers.

The male cultivator has fallen into the giant claws of the Xuanming True Water, his meridians and dantian have been corroded and sealed by the black mist of the True Water, and he cannot move even a trace of mana. Of course he has no resistance, so he can rest assured to search for his soul.

The same is true.

Ji Feihu's spiritual sense did not meet any resistance, and easily penetrated into the male cultivator's sea of ​​consciousness.

then……

He saw a boundless and monstrous sea of ​​blood.

A huge throne made of countless skeletons and white bones, bound by countless resentful spirits and ghosts, stands on the sea of ​​blood.

A pale-skinned, handsome and bewitching young man in blood was sitting lazily and leisurely on the throne, with one hand on the armrest and the other on his chin. He was staring coldly at him with blood-red pupils.

Paired with those crazy, introverted, cruel and hidden blood pupils, Ji Feihu couldn't help but shudder, his scalp exploded, his back felt cold, and he instinctively felt a sense of fear as if he was facing a natural enemy.

Then, a cold and majestic male voice sounded beside his ears:

"Since I saw the Demon Lord, why didn't you worship?"

This sound is like the decree of the gods, and it contains a vast majesty that is hard to resist.

Like rolling thunder, it oscillated back and forth in Ji Feihu's mind, causing his mind to go blank for a moment, and he just stared blankly at the blood-clothed youth on the throne. what are you doing...

reality.

When the snow-white air wave blasted by Ji Feihu's critical punch hit them in front of them, and was blocked by the water curtain and light curtain, and rolled away, Ji Feihu, who was about to punch the second time, was startled for a moment, his eyes widened. The five lights are blurred.

After that, he still made a gesture of clenching and punching, but the Xuanming Zhenshui, which was constantly pounding around the sand ball, did not melt into a fist and bombard the sand ball.

The roaring Xuanming True Water Kuroshio gradually calmed down, and then slowly dissipated, leaving nothing behind.

The sky became clear again.

The sand ball also dissipated quietly, revealing the intact flying boat, and on the flying boat, the intact Ni Kun four people.

But Ji Feihu, who was shrouded in the water curtain and light curtain, was still clenching and punching, and sneered from time to time, looking majestic and holding the winning ticket.

The foundation builders behind him even cheered, as if they were praising the invincible elder brother.

Look at this weird scene.

Heisha couldn't help feeling:

"Mirage dragon illusion is really easy to use..."

Qi Lingyun also nodded in agreement:

"It's impossible to guard against ghosts and ghosts. Judging from the scale and power of Ji Feihu's supernatural power, it is not only a late-stage Golden Elixir, but also a high-grade Golden Elixir. Compared with the middle-grade Golden Elixir of my Xianyin School, its strength is only slightly inferior. At the end, it can be compared with the true biography of Jindan mid-stage. But even though it is so tyrannical, it is still unknowingly caught."

Ni Kun smiled slightly: "At the beginning even Xu Yueqing had to be recruited, let alone this person? But even though he was trapped by illusion, it is still difficult to kill this person..."

Although the illusion of the six-turn Mirage Dragon Ball is strong, but relying on illusion alone, the damage to Jindan is extremely limited.

After trapping Ji Feihu with illusion, if he wanted to kill him, he had to use other means.

But once he makes an attack, with Ji Feihu's cultivation, he can quickly regain consciousness.

If you can't kill it before it recovers, it will inevitably be a little troublesome.

But in Ni Kun's hands, there is really no way to quickly kill a middle-grade Jindan late stage——

It took more than an hour to kill the ancestor who had just formed a pill, had no magic weapon to protect him, and was seriously injured. Now that Ji Feihu seems to be trapped in an illusion and is defenseless, but Ni Kun can sense that he There is a powerful magic weapon on his body.

In other words, even Ni Kun can get a magic weapon, Ji Feihu is a senior old golden elixir, even a self-refined magic weapon, he can refine a powerful natal magic weapon, not to mention he has a lot of years Nascent Soul's master?

And the natal magic weapon has the ability to protect the Lord independently.

Although Ji Feihu is trapped in an illusion and is ignorant of the outside world, once Ni Kun launches an attack, his natal magic weapon will immediately act in response to protect his master independently, and help wake Ji Feihu up by the way.

Therefore, Ni Kun is really in a difficult situation now.

His most powerful attack method now is not Motian Liudao, but Mirage Dragon Pearl Wai Dan.

Throwing the outer alchemy as a magic weapon is as powerful as a strike from an offensive middle-grade golden elixir, and it is much more powerful than the one-time consumable "Heavenly Demon Black Wind Orb" condensed by Ni Kun.

But taking the outer alchemy head-to-head with a late-stage golden elixir talisman...

If you are not careful, the outer alchemy may be damaged.

ponder for a moment.

Ni Kun sighed:

"Golden pills are hard to kill. Back then, when Jun Yujiao chased and killed Bai Yufei, she fought countless times and fought for thousands of miles, but in the end she only ended up losing both sides. I have limited means, and I will use illusion to trap them first, wait for the opportunity .”

The so-called timing is naturally waiting for Jun Yujiao to come over on the night of the full moon.

As soon as Jun Yujiao arrived, she cooperated with Ni Kun to strangle Ji Feihu.

Just maybe a little blood.

I hope that Ji Feihu has something good on him...

At that moment, Ni Kun flicked his sleeve, and waved a multi-colored glow, which shrouded the water curtain and light curtain, enveloping Ji Feihu and others.

After that, he pushed the flying boat, landed, and flew close to the forest tops.

Enveloped by the five-color rays of light, Ji Feihu and the others were in a daze, doing all sorts of inexplicable and even funny movements and expressions, while being led by the five-color rays of light, they couldn't help following the flying boat.

After walking through the forest for a while, they found a sinister valley with thin aura and filled with poisonous miasma. Ni Kun flew into the valley with a boat, and worked with Heisha and others to open up an open space. After landing in the center of the open space, he laid out various formation disks around several people, put in spirit stones, and activated the formation disks.

Several layers of restrictions were launched one after another, covering Ji Feihu and others.

Ni Kun activated the outer alchemy again, releasing a cloud of mirage, submerging the bottom of the valley.

Under the shroud of mirage, even if there is a golden core peeping over the valley at close range, it is impossible to find the bottom of the valley.

After arranging everything, the four of Ni and Kun each sat in a formation, watching Ji Feihu and others in the center.

In fact, if they just wanted to get away, Ni Kun and his party could have slipped away long ago.

When the illusion gradually failed and Ji Feihu came to his senses, they had already disappeared without a trace.

But Ni Kun has always said that people don't offend me, I don't offend others, if people offend me, they will kill you all.

For no reason, Ji Feihu gave him a big hat for causing the change in Haiya City, and even searched his soul and killed him. If he didn't get rid of him, how could Ni Kun's thoughts be clear?

Therefore, even if it takes some time to delay, even if it takes a bout of blood, Ni Kun must kill Ji Feihu.

Time passes day by day.

Ji Feihu and others are still trapped in the illusion and cannot extricate themselves.

Those few foundation-building cultivators, within ten days, their aura had rapidly exhausted, and their bodies had become withered like corpses. Obviously, they had spent their spirits and souls in the illusion, and their physical qi and blood were also implicated, and their energy and spirit were completely exhausted. It's not too long to die.

Compared with those few foundation-builders, Ji Feihu's breath weakened slightly, and his body remained unchanged, as if he had not been worn down in the illusion.

According to Ji Feihu's state, if he were to be dealt with purely with illusions, he would have to be trapped in a death place like "Zhenhai Palace" where his aura had been completely exhausted, and let him be consumed by illusions for more than ten years before he could be exhausted to death.

Fortunately, soon, the night of the full moon will come.

Jun Yujiao, still wearing a little red shirt and a bun, appeared in front of Ni Kun out of thin air.

When she first appeared, she was not in high spirits, obviously this time she didn't get any good things to trade with Ni Kun.

However, when Ni Kun pointed at Ji Feihu and asked her to cooperate in killing this person, Jun Yujiao's eyes lit up and her fighting spirit suddenly became high.

She stared at Ji Feihu for a while, her eyes brightened, and said eagerly:
"My lord, this person is not simple. Not only is his alchemy a middle-grade alchemy, but his cultivation level is even higher than mine. Not only does he have a magic weapon of his own destiny, but he also seems to hide a terrifying secret treasure with great power... To kill this person, the servant must You have to go all out and risk your life..."

"All right, all right!" Ni Kun interrupted her: "Let's make an offer!"

Jun Yujiao extended a slap: "50 spirit stones!"

"..." Ni Kun's eyes twitched, "You might as well grab it."

Jun Yujiao stared blankly at her big watery eyes, and said with a smile:
"If this person has not been trapped by my uncle, but is my uncle's spoils of war. If I see him first, I must snatch him. There are too many good things on him, and the value is inestimable. Only 50 yuan will be charged to my uncle. It’s already because of the deep relationship between my aunt and my slaves, who depend on each other for life and death.”

"I really don't know when my relationship with you reached the level of 'life and death'."

Ni Kun said so, but he was muttering in his heart, Jun Yaonv is very sensitive to treasures now, if she is in Qixingfang, she can accurately deprive all monks of all the treasures obtained from the ghost market, Nascent Soul can't escape this robbery.

Jun Yaonv said that Ji Feihu is an inestimable treasure, so is this Ji Feihu really a treasured boy?
But even so, you can't let Jun Yaonu ask for a price, otherwise she will taste the sweetness, and I'm afraid she will become more and more vicious when she kills my uncle with a knife.

After thinking up to this point, Ni Kun pondered for a while, and said:

"50 is too expensive. I can only offer 40. After all, it's not that I don't have treasures that can hurt this person..."

As he said, a five-color glow shot out from the top of his head, and there was a bead inside, as bright as the moon, it was the six-turn mirage dragon bead.

Jun Yaonu giggled:
"Young master, this outer alchemy is really good. However, if you use the outer alchemy to collide with this person's natal magic weapon, it may damage the outer alchemy. Are you sure you want to take this risk in order to save a mere hundred thousand spirit stones?"

Ni Kun has no expression on his face:

"The outer alchemy is nothing more than a foreign object, even if it is damaged, it will not implicate me. Besides, it is not impossible for me to repair the outer alchemy."

Jun Yujiao asked curiously:

"If this kind of dragon ball is damaged, it must be repaired with the blood of a real dragon. Where are you going to find the real dragon?"

Ni Kun smiled slightly:
"That's my business. Anyway, I'm absolutely sure."

Seeing that he was confident and did not seem to be fake, Jun Yujiao couldn't help but frowned and hesitated for a while:
"Then, 45 million?"

Ni Kun thought for a while, then nodded:

"Forget it, 45 is 45. But if this person doesn't have many treasures, and I do business next time, I will have to bargain hard."

Jun Yujiao grinned: "Young master, don't worry! Guaranteed value for money!"

After finishing speaking, with a swipe of his little hand, a guzheng appeared out of thin air in front of him.

She sat cross-legged beside Ni Kun, with the guzheng floating in front of her, pressed the strings of the zither with both hands, looked at Ni Kun and said:

"My uncle, please make a move first, and draw out his talisman..."

Ni Kun nodded, urged the outer alchemy, stretched out his hand, and a blazing light flashed in the sky, and a huge thunderbolt as thick as a water tank fell from the sky, like a roaring thunder dragon, blasting down on Ji Feihu.

When Thunder Fury Dragon was about to hit the top of Ji Feihu's head, Ji Feihu's head also shot out a wave-like glow, and in the light, holding a blue orb, it rose into the sky and hit Thunder Fury Dragon.

With just one impact, the thunder and fury dragon, which was powerful enough to flatten a hundred-zhang mountain, instantly vanished into nothingness.

At the same time, Ji Feihu was also shocked, and the blurred five lights in his pupils gradually dissipated, revealing a faint look of sobriety.

Unfortunately it was too late.

Jun Yujiao played the guzheng fiercely, and amidst the exciting sound of the zither, a flying sword with a simple shape and a radiant aura appeared out of thin air, shooting towards Ji Feihu from all directions!

Jun Yujiao realized the supernatural power of Tianyin, mastering ambushes from all sides and besieging from all directions, and can summon a corps of Taoist soldiers stretching for more than ten miles, forming a large formation to strangle and kill.

But when she felt that there was no need to make such a big commotion, she could just call out weapons to shoot and siege.

The power of each bite of these weapons is not inferior to top-grade spiritual weapons.

Although a single blow from a high-grade spiritual weapon cannot break the defense of the golden core, but with a hundred blows, a thousand blows, ten thousand blows... under continuous stabbing, the golden core will also be chopped into pieces.

What's more, Jun Yujiao's Dao Bing Formation and Weapon Formation did not simply kill randomly.

The formations formed by the Taoist soldiers have the ability to restrain formations, and can form various targeted large formations according to specific situations.

Its weapons can also form formations, laying down various formations such as sword formations and knife formations.

The more weapons there are, the more powerful the formation will be.

At this moment, under the siege of countless flying sword formations and the continuous thunderstorms falling overhead, Ji Feihu has just begun to regain consciousness, and has not yet completely broken free from the illusion. Ji Feihu, who only responded instinctively, soon Fully fell into a disadvantage.

That azure orb can defend against thunder, but it cannot block the flying sword, and if it defends against the flying sword, it cannot defend against thunder.

Under the circumstances, Ji Feihu was full of loopholes, and soon the protective magic power that was triggered by stress was wiped out layer by layer, and scars from flying sword stabs and even scorched marks from thunder bombardment began to appear on his body.

"Quick! We must kill him completely before he is completely awake! Otherwise, if he desperately activates the secret treasure, he may be in danger of being destroyed!"

Jun Yujiao reminded her quickly, and at the same time, her hands turned into phantoms, playing the guzheng with all her strength, urging the sword formation.

Ni Kun also looked awe-inspiring, taking advantage of the entanglement between the azure orb and the flying sword array, he stretched out his finger and flew out of the Mirage Dragon Orb.

[Ask for a monthly ticket! 】

(End of this chapter)