Meanwhile, Li Guanqi was also trapped within that bizarre crimson sphere.
From a diameter of a hundred zhang half an incense stick ago, the blood sphere had contracted to merely ten zhang.
Li Guanqi used the Three Phantasms Jinling Gates to prop open a ten-zhang pocket of space, constantly holding the contraction at bay with the sealing barrier's power.
Yet this was already his third time casting the spirit incantation Three Phantasms Jinling Gates.
The opponent's technique was clearly extraordinary. The temperature within the blood sphere kept rising, to the point where Li Guanqi was forced to draw upon demonic transformation just to resist it!
Even so, the stinging, burning agony racking his skin showed no sign of abating.
It was just as he had anticipated. Once the other man's blood fiend power fused with the Blood-Burning Flame, the resulting ability incinerated both blood and flesh!
Li Guanqi's eyes flickered, narrowing as he murmured, "A bit troublesome, isn't it?"
"If I break out now, all our previous efforts will be for nothing."
"Since we're putting on a show, we have to see it through to the end..."
With his strength, he could certainly shatter this prison, but now was not the time!
Li Guanqi slowly sat down cross-legged. His purple-black dragon scales gleamed with a cold, metallic luster.
With divine patterns running across his body, the searing sting lessened slightly.
Yet after a moment's thought, Li Guanqi curled his lip, dispelled his Dragon Transformation, and began actively burning his own primal energy.
In just a single breath, blisters erupted all over his skin, giving him a gruesome appearance.
His face grew pale as chalk and his eye sockets slightly sunken, making him look as though he had suffered severe, prolonged dehydration.
Li Guanqi muttered, "You miserable bastard, just wait until I give you a proper surprise!"
Closing his eyes, he gathered his focus and sat cross-legged within his lightning barrier, keeping his burned primal energy hovering at an apparently frail, depleted level.
He even permitted that blood fiend power to seep into him, yet he kept every wisp tightly suppressed to ensure it remained entirely under his control.
The corners of Li Guanqi's mouth curved slightly into a strange, uncanny smile.
"Your obsession runs that deep, does it...?"
***
On the other side, chaos engulfed the Great Xia Sword Sect.
No one understood what was happening, nor why all three thousand wondrous peaks and eight hundred scenic waters across the Great Xia Sword Sect's territory had begun violently trembling without warning.
The cultivators of the Spirit Fish Clan and the members of the Fire-Eyed Demon Fox Clan were all forcefully expelled from their protective barriers!
The patriarchs of the Fire-Eyed Demon Foxes and the Spirit Fish Clan sought out Wu Bing, demanding to know what had occurred.
Yet Wu Bing was equally in the dark as to why the earth was quaking across the Great Xia Sword Sect's lands.
Very few people knew of the sect treasury's existence, leaving the vast majority bewildered.
A warped spatial rift tore open before Duan Xian.
Watching the fissure form, the corners of Duan Xian's mouth curved upward. He raised a hand and crushed the blood puppet's body!
*Crack! Boom!*
The blood puppet burst apart, its innards melting into a puddle of bloody water that flowed into the blood pool.
Without sparing it a glance, Duan Xian took a single step into the Great Xia Sword Sect's treasury space, a place he had yearned for day and night!
When he saw the dense thicket of golden pillars of light, he scoffed coldly.
In his eyes, every single one of these items was little better than trash.
With his current perspective, he had long ceased to care for such trinkets.
Reaching into the void, he drew forth a ring and slid it onto his finger. The ring suddenly blazed with radiant light.
The light wavered, as though guiding him forward.
Before long, he arrived in front of a golden pillar of light. Floating quietly within was a pristine, ancient square seal.
Seeing the shining ring, Duan Xian's lips curved faintly.
Drifting in midair, he threw a punch that shattered the pillar of light before him!
Yet the instant the pillar crumbled, a stone peak a hundred zhang south of Yuhu Peak abruptly exploded into dust!
Debris rained down everywhere as scores of disciples took to the sky in panic.
Duan Xian caught the ancient seal and shrouded it in crimson light, only relaxing once he confirmed it was a genuine, usable dharma artifact.
Had Lu Kangnian witnessed this, he would have been utterly astounded.
On one hand, he would have marvelled at Duan Xian's meticulous caution.
On the other, he would have been stunned by Li Guanqi's unfathomable scheming, having anticipated even such an exquisite detail.
Nor could Li Guanqi be blamed for going to such lengths; a ruthless figure capable of biding his time for thousands of years would inevitably be cautious to an extreme.
Duan Xian let out a breath of relief, tightened his grip, and crushed the ancient seal.
*Crack!*
The ancient seal shattered, yet its dispersing energy did not brush against him in the slightest.
An ancient, serrated ring lay resting in his palm.
Looking at the ring, Duan Xian finally breathed easy. Yet just as he moved to slide it onto his finger, an abrupt anomaly struck!
A barely perceptible glint of silver-white light flashed across the ancient ring.
Spatial ripples surged instantly, and by the time Duan Xian tried to pull back, it was already too late!
*Boom!*
A colossal surge of lightning erupted without warning!
A cold gleam flashed, and two severed fingers flew into the air.
Hideous and covered in bloody blisters, Li Guanqi materialized in an instant!
The other half of the ancient ring fell into Li Guanqi's grasp.
With a physique as towering and formidable as a divine fiend, Li Guanqi unleashed a kick that sent the man hurtling thousands of zhang away!
Duan Xian shot backward like an arrow, his body violently shattering through empty space!
A surge of blood light spread behind Duan Xian as a rushing river of blood swallowed him like a gaping maw!
Tumbling into his domain, Duan Xian stared at the severed fingers on his left hand, his heart pounding with lingering dread.
Had his reactions been even a fraction slower, he would have lost his entire left hand.
Duan Xian scrambled up from the ground, his eyes flashing with frigid murderous intent.
"Damn it! How could he have possibly broken the Blood Prison technique?!"
"I must have that Ancient Spirit-Burning Ring!"
At that thought, Duan Xian whipped his head toward the captives in the blood pool.
With a sweep of his sleeve, blood light flooded the air!
"Blood Puppet · Condense!"
The disciples' bodies began to warp, their limbs forcibly broken and remolded into his own twisted likeness.
Yet right at that moment, Lu Kangnian roared,
"Guanqi! Kill him!"
Duan Xian sneered coldly, looking down at Lu Kangnian with mockery as he hissed,
"This is my domain. No matter how you—"
*Hum!*
*Rumble!*
A terrifying ray of sword radiance ripped effortlessly through the domain's space from the outside.
Everywhere the sword radiance passed, the blood mist dispersed, carving a chasm thousands of zhang long deep into the earth!
By the time Duan Xian realized something was wrong, it was already too late. An endless river of blood surged toward the helpless disciples!
Li Guanqi teleported onto the scene, raising his hand to cast a purgatory of boundless lightning that enveloped the blood pool!
In an instant, the liquid within the pool began to boil, sending up wisps of crimson vapor that rapidly evaporated.
Lu Kangnian crawled frantically to the edge of the pool. When Li Guanqi caught sight of Lu Kangnian's horrific state, his killing intent detonated!
Lu Kangnian stopped him, gasping, "Save them first!"
With a sweep of his hand, Li Guanqi shattered the suppressing force locking Lu Kangnian's body, then began freeing the other disciples.
Yet at that very moment, a sinister grin crept onto Duan Xian's face.
*Thump!*
Stamping the earth, he caused the ground to cave in for over a hundred zhang as his body shot backward in retreat!
Forming hand seals, Duan Xian roared, scarlet light blazing in his eyes,
"Blood Python Heavenly Burial!"
*Boom!*
Two gargantuan blood-colored pythons erupted from the blood pool, soaring toward the heavens!
A hundred zhang in size, the pythons unhinged their colossal jaws, engulfing every single disciple of the Great Xia Sword Sect in one fell swoop.
Chapter 1329