Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Rumble!

Thunder roared. The long sword pierced through Li Guanqi’s palm and shoulder, but his expression never changed. He raised the Red Lotus Sword high.

Ring!

The sword let out a clear, piercing cry, and Li Guanqi murmured under his breath.

“Red Lotus Sword… Asura Slash.”

Boom!

The blow carried a faint trace of Sword Spirit’s own power. It descended in a flash, impossibly fast and unmatched in power.

Pssht!

With his right hand still tightly gripping the blade, Li Guanqi forcibly severed Ye Feng’s arm at the shoulder, sending it flying through the air.

He glanced at the severed arm and unleashed endless lightning, attempting to obliterate it on the spot.Boom!

Within the torrent of lightning, however, thin strands of demonic qi still clung to the severed arm.

Whoosh!

The strands pulled the arm back. Though it was mangled beyond recognition, it still gripped the Wrathful Slaughter Sword as it reattached itself to Ye Feng’s shoulder.

The sight caught everyone off guard. They had never imagined that a mere demonic spirit parasitizing Ye Feng’s body could be so hard to put down.

Cao Yan took a deep breath and put away his Solitary Flame Gauntlets. Flames flared beneath his feet, and he shot forward.

Whoosh!

Talisman runes flared beneath his feet, and he teleported directly behind Ye Feng. He put his arms beneath Ye Feng’s armpits and lifted him up.

“Boss! Do it now! Take me down with him!”

His eyes were bloodshot. This was the only method he could think of.

Scorching flame energy surged out like purple chains, binding him and Ye Feng tightly together.

A flicker of reluctance crossed Xiao Chen’s eyes, but he planted his feet and tightened his grip on the Divine Slaying Spear. The chains were already breaking, and Ye Feng was tearing loose.

Looking at the chains, Xiao Chen roared, “Third Brother, brace yourself!”

Swoosh!

The crimson spear blazed as it shot forward like an arrow released from a bow.

Pssht!

The spear instantly pierced through both of their right shoulders, pinning them together. The demonic spirit had never imagined that Ye Feng’s own sworn brothers would move against him without the slightest hesitation.

Blood poured from the wound, but Cao Yan gritted his teeth and refused to loosen his grip, letting Xiao Chen’s spear tear straight through his shoulder.

Flames erupted, and the chains of the two heavenly fires tightened again. For the first time, the demonic spirit felt afraid. They meant to erase it from existence.

Boom!

“Heavenly Demon Soul Devourer!”

Boom!

Pitch-black demonic qi engulfed Cao Yan, and an agonized scream tore out of the demonic spirit.

“Aaaaaah!”

A sharp sizzling sound rang out, like flesh searing on hot iron. The demonic qi was rapidly corroding Cao Yan’s skin.

In the blink of an eye, his flesh rotted away, his face melting downward like thick batter. The corrosion bored visibly through his cheekbones, and his right eyeball dissolved into pus.

Even so, Cao Yan gritted his teeth and continued restraining Ye Feng, refusing to let him move.

Li Guanqi shot forward while Meng Wanshu rushed in from behind. She unleashed a wave of ice energy to suppress the demonic aura.

Thousands of blood-red threads coiled around Li Guanqi as he unleashed the full power of Spirit Pardon.

“Spirit Pardon! Seal it!”

Red threads shot out, but the demonic spirit reacted quickly. With the Ghost Arm, it hacked away half of Cao Yan’s shoulder and broke free. Ye Feng’s body teleported a thousand zhang away, and the red threads struck empty air.

But the demonic spirit couldn’t evade Gu Li’s talisman storm.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

BOOM! BOOM! RUMBLE!

Explosions thundered one after another. Ye Feng’s battered figure burst through the force of the blasts and reappeared in the distance.

Ye Feng was badly wounded and struggling for breath, and the Ghost Arm had weakened considerably. He seized the opportunity and began to wrestle the demonic spirit within him for control of his body.

Mystical runes flickered up one after another, but the demonic spirit’s phantom took shape and bit them to pieces.

“Heh heh. In your current state, you think you can form a master-servant contract with me? Pure wishful thinking!”

A trace of clarity still showed in Ye Feng’s blood-red left eye. He glared at the demonic face on his own right cheek and cursed.

“You bastard! I regret ever listening to your pathetic pleas and bringing you out of the Dungeon Abyss!”

The demonic spirit erupted in boisterous, mocking laughter. The laughter was eerie and piercing, echoing in everyone’s sea of consciousness and making their minds ring.

Whoosh!

The Ghost Arm twisted at the wrist and leveled the Wrathful Slaughter Sword at Ye Feng’s left eye, the tip about to sink into the eyeball.

The demonic spirit shaped a phantom the size of a human head, extended it out of the arm, and stared at Ye Feng. “You don’t really think it was luck that let you bring me out back then, do you?”

The words struck everyone like lightning.

Ye Feng’s pupils dilated. His left hand clamped down on the blade, and he did not dare let go even as the edge cut into his fingers.

He stared at the manifested demonic spirit in disbelief, and his voice came out cold. “Are you saying… it wasn’t an accident?”

The demonic spirit burst into laughter. “An accident? Hehehe… you’re far too naive. How could something like that ever be an accident? It was only the second level of the Dungeon Abyss. How could a tier-seven demonic spirit like me ever have turned up there?”

The demonic spirit continued, “My master will not mistreat you. And my master… will not be killed either.”

Ye Feng’s eyes glinted. “Your master? Who? Sha?”

“Heh heh, that’s right. Only Lord Sha is worthy of being our master! Our master is an unkillable, immortal existence!”

Everyone felt their minds reel. No one understood what the demonic spirit truly meant. But “unkillable and immortal” was surely too much to swallow.

Li Guanqi had never once considered that Sha might survive this battle. Nearly every one of the Eight Generals who could come had gathered, along with many other experts.

If even that could not kill Sha, the only explanation was that he had been hiding his strength all along, that he was really a Tribulation Realm old monster. Perhaps that was the only way Sha could walk away alive.

The demonic spirit smiled eerily. It raised a hand, seemingly preparing to tear open the void and leave.

Ye Feng stood there in a daze. Li Guanqi had no idea what was on his mind.

“What are you standing there for? Stop it!”

Before his voice had even faded, the others had already closed in for the kill.

Ye Feng clung to a sliver of clarity by his formidable will alone, his gaze shifting to Li Guanqi and the others.

Then his expression turned cold. The demonic qi twisting around him seemed to seep into his mind, stirring up the darker parts of his heart.

Ye Feng looked at Li Guanqi with blood-red eyes, his voice slow and cold. “Li Guanqi, you know… I’ve always hated you. I hated that your strength has always kept me beneath you. I hated how easily you rose, how nothing was ever too much for you. I hated how incredible your background was, how even the mightiest experts always treated you with the utmost respect. If that’s how it is, I might as well follow someone else. Then one day I might be the one standing a head above you.”