Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Nine Heavens’ claws slashed like blades, easily tearing through the three elders’ defensive barriers.

The thick scent of blood filled the air. Three Combined Body Realm cultivators were torn apart limb from limb.

Nine Heavens’ eyes gleamed with contempt. He opened his jaws and unleashed a devastating blast of lightning breath. The dragon breath swept over the three elders before they had any chance to flee, annihilating them in body and soul.

Three of the original nine were dead, leaving six. Peng Luo had already badly wounded two of them, while the other four continued to maintain the array.

The survivors panicked. Yu Cang screamed, “Run! Don’t let it catch you! That beast is immune to pupil techniques! Be careful and maintain the array!”

Yu Cang and the others fled at full speed, but Nine Heavens was far too fast. He would catch them before long, and once he did, the array would break. The moment it did, Li Guanqi’s allies would sense his presence and learn what was happening around him.

Yu Qingkun frowned. He had not expected true dragons to be immune to pupil techniques. He exhaled slowly, and his black eyes turned a strange dark gold.

Then his pupils warped into something eerie, and everyone within a hundred li froze in place.

Yu Qingkun hurled a Beast-Trapping Immortal Net into the air. The golden net caught the wind, expanded rapidly, and completely enveloped Nine Heavens. The net constricted, crushing his scales and sinking deep into his flesh.

Roar!Nine Heavens writhed in panic. He roared furiously, but the net had trapped his claws, and it was digging deeper into his flesh.

The remaining Yu clan members finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Whew… That beast is trapped at last!

“It’s a shame Old Zhao and Old Zhou are dead…”

“Hmph! Once we bring this beast home, we’ll give it a proper flogging!”

The net began suppressing Nine Heavens’ vital force, and his consciousness slowly blurred.

But the sight of a distant figure jolted him awake. His claws tightened around the net, sending sparks flying, as if metal were scraping against metal.

Yu Cang frowned. “What’s that dragon trying to do?”

Crunch!

Nine Heavens’ claws tore clean through the Beast-Trapping Immortal Net, ripping two gaping holes in its golden mesh.

Meanwhile, the world around Li Guanqi spun. Everything transformed into a vast crimson wasteland stretching endlessly in every direction.

The earth was split into a tortoiseshell pattern. Each fissure was nearly a zhang wide and seemingly bottomless.

Everyone within this realm was immobilized, unable to draw upon their vital force or divine consciousness.

“It’s over,” Yu Qingkun murmured.

He raised his sword toward Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu.

Li Guanqi’s heart lurched. His eyes burned with unwillingness.

Is this really how it ends? The Mahayana Realm… truly is beyond the reach of a Combined Body Realm cultivator.

No matter how hard Li Guanqi had fought, Yu Qingkun had remained effortlessly in control from beginning to end.

Together, he and Meng Wanshu could contend with even a peak Combined Body Realm cultivator. But against a Mahayana Realm cultivator, they were utterly powerless. No matter how extraordinary their methods, they could not bridge that chasm.

Yu Qingkun brought his sword down, a triumphant glint in his eyes. Everything was proceeding exactly as he had planned.

But he had forgotten one thing...

Roar!

A furious dragon roar resounded through the void. Overwhelming dragon’s might slammed into Yu Qingkun’s soul. His soul shuddered for an instant. The illusion his pupil technique had created began to warp and fracture.

Ignoring his injuries, Nine Heavens broke free from the Beast-Trapping Immortal Net, and he lashed out with his tail in one all-out sweep.

The void shattered. The instant Nine Heavens’ tail struck Yu Cang, the elder’s body exploded into a cloud of blood mist.

The residual force even shredded Yu Cang’s fleeing soul, and the shockwave sent the other elders flying, leaving them severely wounded.

The array trays shattered. Nine Heavens raised his head with a roar and hurled himself straight at the exposed Yu Qingkun.

The surrounding dark void suddenly blazed with light. Several silver-white rifts opened in rapid succession. Three terrifying heavenly flames surged from the foremost spatial rifts and swept across everything within a hundred li.

The few remaining elders tried to flee, but spatial force locked them in place. In an instant, they were reduced to ashes.

Meng Jiangchu stepped through a tear in the void, wreathed in pale green spectral flames. His expression was frigid, and his gaze was brimming with killing intent.

A blaze of crimson fire appeared beside him, its scorching heat warping the void.

Xiang Huaizhi emerged with an incredibly grim expression. He was in a foul mood. Nangong Xuandu had contacted him through his jade slip, and the message had been full of insults. Xiang Huaizhi had never been so brazenly mocked before.

Standing beside Gu Changsheng were no fewer than three Mahayana Realm cultivators. Han Yuan, Jiang Qizhi, and Guo Feng had all come. They were not about to let anything happen to Li Guanqi, the person who had produced a tier-eight pill recipe.

Their crushing auras descended upon the battlefield.

In an instant, Meng Jiangchu whisked Li Guanqi, Meng Wanshu, and Peng Luo behind him.

Meng Jiangchu’s gaze shifted to his daughter, his expression etched with concern. Upon seeing Meng Wanshu’s injuries, his face darkened like an impending storm.

“You are asking for death!”

The instant Yu Qingkun appeared, the three heavenly flames transformed into chains and pierced straight through him. They were joined by three pillars of earthly fire. Together, the flames shackled his limbs.

Crimson light burst apart into ten thousand swords, stabbing through Yu Qingkun’s body from every direction.

Xiang Huaizhi reached out and hoisted the man into the air with one hand. His slender fingers dug into the man’s cheek like spikes.

He pulled Yu Qingkun’s face closer. “Worthless wretch. Do you have any idea how much face I’ve lost because of you?!”

Xiang Huaizhi drove his left knee upward, his right hand wrenching Yu Qingkun’s head down to meet it.

Thud!

All his teeth were knocked loose, sending them flying in a bloody spray. Yu Qingkun’s face caved in, leaving him mangled beyond recognition.

His eyes even burst from their sockets, blood streaming from the sunken hollows.

Even Gu Li, standing nearby, momentarily forgot about treating Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu’s injuries. He muttered under his breath, “That’s a lot of pent-up anger... What happened to him?”

Gu Changsheng took out healing pills and had Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu swallow them. Li Guanqi’s face was ashen, and he trembled faintly.

Gu Changsheng’s expression changed sharply. His fingers swept across Li Guanqi’s pressure points. “What were you thinking? Now that you’ve released the seal, sealing it again will be even more painful than before!”

Li Guanqi gritted his teeth, his voice shaking. “I couldn’t let Wanshu face him alone…”

Meng Jiangchu stopped Gu Changsheng. “Exactly. He couldn’t leave my daughter to shoulder it all by herself. Enough talking. The three of us are here, aren’t we? It is only a seal.”

He turned to Xiang Huaizhi. “Huaizhi, put aside your grudges for now and come help. Your Crimson Sun Flame is better suited for this.”

Xiang Huaizhi’s expression remained icy. With a scoff, he drove his fingers through Yu Qingkun’s throat, then waved a hand and formed a cage of Crimson Sun flames around the man.

He turned his head. “You worthless bastard. I’ll settle the score with you later!”

He pulled out a jade slip. “Wushang, have Qin Xiao suppress the Yu clan’s domain. I’ll be there shortly!”