The scorching sun seemed veiled beneath a layer of hazy gray, leaving the world steeped in a somber dusk.
The screech of flying sand and hurtling stones tore at the eardrums.
Amidst an obscurity where one could not even see one's own hand, nothing remained but a savage sandstorm sweeping across all creation.
At the very vortex lay a colossal tornado of sand bridging earth and sky, scouring away every living thing.
From time to time, the mangled carcasses of demonic beasts were swept inside, swallowed up to expand the tornado's girth.
All of this was the aftermath wrought by the clash of absolute peak techniques between two of the realm's supreme powerhouses.
The chain reaction unleashed by that single collision between Convergence of a Thousand Firmaments and Sub-spatial Slash was terrifying beyond measure.
When the silver-threaded, black-robed man ventured deep into the heart of the storm and saw the remnants left behind, his heart leapt into his throat.
"Under such a horrifying strike, could anyone at the Nascent Soul stage truly survive?"
He was shaken by the sheer might of these two unfamiliar champions, yet secretly thrilled by their reckless fight to the death.
Grand methods of this caliber could not be unleashed on a whim.
Once things had reached this point, it was almost certainly a battle to the bitter end.
"Did they both perish?"
Lian Yinpeng licked his dry lips and returned to Sinking Sand Valley.
His divine sense expanded, cautiously sweeping across the surroundings in all directions before following the lingering aura deep into the earth.
Descending a full thousand zhang, Lian Yinpeng's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Found them!"
He threw out a palm strike.
The torrential shifting sands parted to both sides, and the scene within the deep crater gradually came into view.
A man and a woman!
The man was entirely naked, his hair disheveled, one arm severed, one leg limp and powerless, and his entire body covered in wounds great and small that refused to heal. The longest stretched a foot and a half, slashing diagonally across his abdomen in a gruesome spectacle.
The woman fared no better, bruised black and blue all over, riddled with injuries. A faint golden needle was even embedded in her crown, presenting a truly miserable sight.
The two were entangled in an intimate posture, their necks pressed together, their hands lodged in each other's chests.
"What a splendid mutual destruction!"
Seeing this, Lian Yinpeng rejoiced.
Yet as his divine sense probed further, he felt a twinge of regret.
"No trace of breath remains; their Nascent Souls must have dispersed, depriving me of the greatest prize."
His gaze then shifted to their bodies.
Cultivators of such caliber were bound to carry abundant resources.
Just to be safe, demonic qi surged from Lian Yinpeng's fingertips as he launched several attacks at the two corpses.
*Thwack! Thwack!*
*Thwack! Thwack!*
The heads of the man and woman burst apart like overripe melons.
Only then did Lian Yinpeng finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The brain was the seat of the sea of consciousness. Even if a cultivator's divine soul could temporarily reside in their Nascent Soul, no one would willingly sacrifice their brain as bait.
It seemed they had truly dragged each other to the grave!
"An unexpected windfall for me!"
Overjoyed, Lian Yinpeng swooped down.
Suddenly!
"Something is wrong!"
Lian Yinpeng's expression warped drastically. A violent, crackling burst erupted across his body, as if something were tearing through him.
His eyes turned blood-red in an instant, and the surrounding scenery began to shift wildly.
The transition from illusion to reality took merely a heartbeat.
Before him, a woman in green was reaching out, forcefully shattering the layers of defenses he had laid down in advance.
"A trap!"
Scared out of his wits, Lian Yinpeng surged his magic power, instantly scattering boundless silver brilliance around him.
Yet the woman in green disregarded it entirely, her hand continuing its grasp.
Wherever her slender hand passed, the silver light parted like mercury, his magic power powerless to impede her in the slightest.
When her palm brushed against his head, Lian Yinpeng panicked.
"My brother is King Jinpeng, hegemon of the Western Desert! Spare my life!"
King Jinpeng was none other than the title of the fifth-rank desolate beast, the Golden-Winged Great Peng.
Hearing that name, the woman in green paused slightly.
Right at that moment, a muffled grunt sounded from behind.
Lian Yinpeng's eyes went blank.
No longer hesitating, the woman in green struck with enough force to pierce gold and split stone, crushing his brain in a single grasp.
His divine soul dispersed, and flowers of blood blossomed.
Stripped of consciousness, the remaining body lost control and reverted to its true form.
It was an enormous roc several hundred zhang long, its entire body cast in pure silver, magnificent and sharp.
*Boom!*
The roc's carcass crashed heavily onto a sand dune.
Only then did heavy panting come from behind the woman in green.
She turned around to look at the man leaning against the earthen wall, tears of blood trailing from his eyes, and a flash of astonishment crossed her gaze.
She seemed profoundly shocked that Luo Chen could still unleash a soul technique capable of so easily seizing control of a Nascent Soul demon cultivator under such dire circumstances.
Sensing her marvel, Luo Chen closed his eyes with great difficulty and gave a bitter smile. "Even if my divine soul foundation far exceeds that of my peers, isn't it still useless against you?"
Qingshuang offered no explanation. Wiping the blood from her hand, she walked to his side.
"Can you still move?"
Keeping his eyes closed, Luo Chen replied, "I need to adjust my breathing and recover a bit."
Qingshuang murmured an acknowledgment. She paced over to Lian Yinpeng's side, inspected the corpse for a moment, and suddenly reached out with a clawing motion.
*Rip!*
Amid flying flesh and blood, a storage pouch flew out into her grasp.
"There might be something you need in here."
Luo Chen did not decline. Catching the storage pouch, he wiped away its fragile soul imprint with a brush of his hand.
Immediately, several bottles and jars drifted into the air.
Even with his eyes closed, Luo Chen's senses allowed him to discern the nature of the medicinal pills within with absolute clarity.
"Agada Pills, medicine that brings the dead back to life and grows flesh on white bones."
"Sarira Pills, capable of restoring a vast amount of a cultivator's magic power."
"White Bone Grease, a fourth-tier pill that mends meridional trauma."
"This demon roc truly possessed plenty of good things!"
Luo Chen's own pills had been virtually exhausted over these past years, so this cache of medicine would allow him to make a rudimentary recovery.
Sorting through them, he began to consume them in turn, and his aura, which had sunk to the absolute nadir of weakness, slowly began to climb.
Yet once it reached a certain threshold, it stalled, unable to advance another inch.
Luo Chen lifted his head, his closed eyes still turned toward Qingshuang.
"Now that the gu worm has been planted and we are bound by restrictions and Great Dao oaths, why not help each other out?"
Qingshuang remained silent.
Luo Chen sighed and said helplessly, "My dear Hall Master of Zhoukong, neither of us is familiar with this region, where human Nascent Soul cultivators and fourth-rank demon emperors might emerge at any moment. Must we face our foes next time with these crippled bodies? If you lend me a hand, I will rid you of the hidden hazards I left inside you as well."
"Hmph!"
Qingshuang gave a cold snort. Walking to a spot not far from Luo Chen, she extended her right hand from afar.
In an instant, wisp after wisp of the foreign magic power lingering within Luo Chen's body was drawn out.
"Phew..."
Feeling this, Luo Chen exhaled a breath of profound relief.
Ever since his battle with Qingshuang began, every strike of hers that landed had left behind a bizarre, potent foreign magic power within him, preventing his body from healing.
Particularly the move that severed his left arm—even when he drove the Dragon Slaying Art at supreme mastery, he had been unable to purge that residual magic power.
It had been a vexing nuisance!
It was also during this battle that Luo Chen realized the flesh rebirth talent was not merely rendered useless by destructive strikes and overexhaustion; against certain extraordinary arts, it could also be drastically weakened.
With those restrictions lifted, Luo Chen's rate of recovery quickened immensely.
He retrieved his severed arm from his storage ring, fitted and twisted it back in place, and circulated his source power. It reattached as good as new, and the lingering wounds across his body began to knit closed.
After a brief adjustment, Luo Chen slowly opened his eyes.
Looking at the still-silent woman, he smiled wryly.
"If you don't mind, come a bit closer."
Qingshuang bit her lip, hesitating.
Luo Chen shrugged. "There is no other way. I cannot muster much magic power in a short time. You must draw closer for me to help you."
Qingshuang's eyes wavered, but she ultimately stepped beside Luo Chen and sat down cross-legged.
With a thought, Luo Chen acted.
*Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!*
Instantly, five streaks of light flew out from her body.
They were the Law-Suppressing Five Elements Awls!
Not stopping there, Luo Chen extended his hand, hovering it above Qingshuang's head as a suction force unfurled.
Qingshuang's body trembled slightly, yet she allowed him to proceed.
A glint of golden light slowly surfaced from her crown.
Throughout the process, Luo Chen spread his divine sense and finally caught sight of something peculiar.
A strange gray light wrapped tightly around her sea of consciousness.
It was precisely that gray light that had rendered Luo Chen's Soul-Weaving Needle and myriad illusory soul techniques entirely ineffective against Qingshuang.
A term slipped from his lips.
"A soul-defense spirit treasure!"
Having the Law-Suppressing Five Elements Awls and the Soul-Weaving Needle extracted, Qingshuang appeared noticeably relieved.
With a complex expression, she said, "This is the Dark Soul Pearl, a spirit treasure that feeds upon the soul-spirits of the physical body to protect the divine soul. The stronger the physical vessel, the greater its defensive power. In our prolonged battle, my body grew weaker and weaker, which allowed your golden needle to drive progressively deeper."
Luo Chen was thoroughly astonished. Such a treasure existed in the world?
Yet a moment later, he noticed a faint, familiar touch in the artifact's crafting style.
"This spirit treasure wasn't forged by you, nor by Monarch Qixia, was it?"
"You guessed it?" Qingshuang asked in return.
Luo Chen hesitated before voicing a name: "Demonic Lord Liantian?"
Qingshuang nodded. "None other than that demonic lord. Back then, after the battle against my elder sister where all his spirit treasures were deployed, most were destroyed by her hand. Even this Dark Soul Pearl was once burned into a shattered husk by the Nirvana Holy Fire. Later, my sister claimed it, refined it slightly, and gave it to me. Only through nurturing it since my youth did it gradually recover a fraction of its might."
Luo Chen let out a foul breath, thinking that it was indeed as he suspected.
Back in the Alchemy Hall of Mingzhao Heaven, he had heard the artifact spirit of the Heaven Refining Cauldron speak of the past.
Demonic Lord Liantian had forged many spirit treasures throughout his life, among which was the Dark Soul Pearl.
Though a spirit treasure, its utility and rarity were by no means inferior to the heritage treasures.
Alas, after his battle against Monarch Qixia, five of his spirit treasures were destroyed.
Who would have guessed that one had been preserved by Monarch Qixia?
Luo Chen cast a slightly envious glance at Qingshuang.
She practiced the true intent of the laws of space while tempering the body of a divine beast, making her offense virtually peerless, and on top of that, she was shielded by a soul-defense spirit treasure.
In this manner, she had practically no weaknesses.
No wonder she had forged a reputation as the foremost figure beneath the Soul Formation stage.
With the Dark Soul Pearl shielding her, even an ordinary Soul Formation grandmaster would likely be helpless against her divine soul in the short term!
Shaking his head, Luo Chen began to help Qingshuang purge the lingering virulent poison from her body.
It was a "mixed poison" he had cultivated upon bringing the Hundred Poisons Body Refinement Technique to great mastery.
Luo Chen had yet to give it a proper name, but its potency surpassed even the rotting corpse poison of Celestial Master Li.
It was thanks to this mixed poison that he had been able to continuously whittle down Qingshuang's strength throughout their battle.
As Luo Chen went to work, the mixed poison gradually separated from Qingshuang's body and was absorbed back into his own.
The bruised, dark discoloration faded, and the wounds on Qingshuang's body began to heal, while her severed leg even began to regenerate from the inside out.
Watching Luo Chen draw out the poison with rapt concentration, she hesitated, keeping her silence.
Noticing this, Luo Chen chuckled. "If you have something to say, just speak your mind."
Qingshuang parted her lips, finally murmuring in a detached voice, "That final sword strike of yours was very strong!"
Luo Chen chuckled lightly. "Your move was no slouch either."
Qingshuang wrinkled her nose. "If not for refining the Void Accumulation Flower, which prevented me from wielding my full might, that strike would have been even stronger!"
The Void Accumulation Flower?
Luo Chen was taken aback, then faintly understood.
He had indeed felt that during this clash with Qingshuang, her movements were not as ghostlike as the previous time, and her execution of the void-evasion divine art had left traceable signs.
While his grasp of abundant space restrictions and the aid of his Scarlet Eyes, Golden Pupils played a part, the primary reason was that an issue had arisen within Qingshuang herself.
He had not expected it to stem from refining the Void Accumulation Flower.
Legend had it that this flower allowed a cultivator to establish a second purple mansion; in the hands of one who cultivated the laws of space, it could even forge a wondrous internal space within the body.
Qingshuang had presumably attempted just that.
Yet the refinement process was so prolonged that flaws had surfaced in her otherwise seamless combat system.
It had even compromised her lethal divine art!
Naturally, he had no intention of showing weakness before her.
"The strongest form of my Convergence of a Thousand Firmaments must be driven by Nine Firmaments Qi. What you saw was merely fueled by impure demon blood; its might did not even equal ten or twenty percent of the original."
Qingshuang sneered. "Boastful words!"
"You can test it again when the chance comes in the future."
Luo Chen clapped his hands and took a composed step back.
The mixed poison in her body had been entirely drawn out.
With their chronic injuries cleared, both could recover their condition as quickly as possible and regain a degree of self-preservation.
At the very least, they would not need to join forces just to slay an early fourth-rank demon cultivator like Lian Yinpeng.
For a time, no other sounds disturbed the cavern, save for the faint, steady breathing of the two as they nurtured their life force.
It was peaceful and serene.
As though the two who had wished nothing more than to butcher each other moments ago were not them at all.
...
Several days later.
Within the cavern, two figures prepared to depart.
"Returning it to you!"
Qingshuang spoke indifferently, tossing an object to Luo Chen.
Seeming to have anticipated this, Luo Chen caught the item, which promptly vanished into his right arm.
His gaze fell upon the massive silver roc carcass nearby.
"Can't let this go to waste!"
With a thought, a wisp of blue-and-white flame leaped from his mouth, completely enfolding the roc's hundred-zhang carcass.
In mere moments, Lian Yinpeng's remains were reduced to a heap of ash.
In return, the reclaimed Wither-Bloom Divine Fire gained a noticeable surge of vitality.
Seeing this, Qingshuang's lips twitched slightly, yet she said nothing.
Having acted first, Luo Chen then asked, "This Lian Yinpeng was a lackey of the Golden-Winged Great Peng. That Golden-Winged Great Peng joined your elder sister in attacking the Central Plains—was their relationship that of master and servant, or a partnership?"
Qingshuang did not conceal the truth, answering calmly, "A partnership."
Luo Chen raised an eyebrow. "So the other three desolate beasts at the Soul Formation level are all partners as well?"
"Not all of them. The Ghost Immortal Tower was dispatched by the Sea Emperor Whale and Great Sage Beili. Sister Qinghe attained the Soul Formation realm through my sister's benevolence, so she came to repay a debt of gratitude. As for the Nether Earth Dragon, it was purely captured and had its strength forcibly elevated through secret arts; it is merely an enslaved thrall."
Luo Chen understood at once.
Then, he laughed. "Since the Golden-Winged Great Peng and your sister are partners, won't killing his lackey and refining his carcass bring any repercussions?"
"You've already refined him, so what is the point of asking?"
Curling her lip, Qingshuang spoke no further. Leaping upward, she exited the underground cavern.
Luo Chen sensed the gradually reviving Wither-Bloom Fire Spirit within his purple mansion, and the boulder weighing on his heart finally settled.
Looking toward the surface, he chased directly after her.
The moment he emerged, the savage sandstorm battered his frame. Luo Chen steadied himself and pursued Qingshuang's heading.
Amidst the sky-blotting sandstorm, two figures advanced at an unhurried pace, leaving a trail of footprints behind them.
"Given such terrain and beasts like Lian Yinpeng, have we drifted into the Western Desert?"
"Broken Soul Cliff, the Diaohun Desolate—truly worthy of being one of the Mountain Sea Realm's supreme Great Desolate beasts, renowned alongside the mirage dragon in antiquity."
"Is there a swift way to return to the Eastern Desolation?"
Faint snatches of brief conversation drifted forth, only to be swallowed instantly by the roaring tempest of sand.
Chapter 982