The iron chains snapped taut. Xu Ying, Wu Tianzun, Li Xiaoke, and the Son of Heaven of the Nether Court were flung into the air one after another.
The five-colored qi had previously retreated from the world, flowing back toward the Five-Colored Mountain's crater as if reversing time, but now it erupted outward once more!
Countless strange markings swirled madly across the iron chains. Suddenly, the ringing clash of metal rang out. Xu Ying looked down to see that along a single link on one of the chains, those radiant markings were popping and snapping apart!
"Look out!"
Xu Ying barely had time to shout before the chain snapped. The severed link recoiled upward, whooshing across the corpse of the Son of Heaven of the Nether Court.
The Son of Heaven's lower body detonated into a mist of blood, bone fragments scattering like projectiles. One shard pierced Xu Ying's shoulder blade, punching clean through from front to back!
Xu Ying grunted in pain.
Just then, a grand Dao sound resonated from within the jade coffin, as though an emperor commanding the Dao methods and principles were reciting an incantation. Thick iron chains snapped one after another with sharp cracks.
The jade coffin finally tore free from its last chain. All around it, massive Immortal Dao runes blazed with radiant light, pressing down against the Dao sound within the coffin.
Whistling as it spun, the jade coffin dragged its severed chains and whipped them against the Immortal Dao runes, shattering them to pieces.
There were six of these Immortal Dao runes in total, positioned across the six directions: above, below, front, back, left, and right. Their power was astonishing. Moments earlier, Li Xiaoke and the Son of Heaven of the Nether Court had combined their might against just one of them, only to be gravely wounded by a single strike.
Yet dragging its chains, the jade coffin effortlessly obliterated the other five Immortal Dao runes, dazzling Xu Ying with the spectacle.
*If I could ask the entity suppressed in that coffin to help, could he break the Immortal Dao runes that seal and suppress me?* A fervent hope rose in his heart.
Along the inner wall of the volcano, various runes and seals upon the five-colored stones blazed with blinding brilliance. Xu Ying, Wu Tianzun, and the others were overwhelmed by the suppressing force. Bizarre sounds assailed their ears, deranging their divine senses until all their strength deserted them, sending them tumbling from the sky.
The jade coffin spun with a sharp whistle, its trailing chains lashing against the runes on the volcanic wall. Wherever it passed, the runes went dark one by one, stripped of every ounce of power.
Xu Ying's pressure lightened drastically. With his divine sense restored to clarity, he immediately tread upon empty air and surged upward with all his might.
Seeing him rush upward, Wu Tianzun hastily did the same. Revived from death by the five-colored yuan qi, his physical functions had recovered, but his Martial Dao Primordial Spirit had already begun crumbling when he died.
The five-colored yuan qi had not restored his Martial Dao Primordial Spirit. Consequently, he remained in a muddled stupor, only dimly recalling a few scattered memories.
As for the withered bones at the foot of the mountain, they had been dead for so long that their flesh had decayed to bare bone, their Primordial Spirits turned to ash and entirely erased. Restored by the five-colored yuan qi, they could only be consumed by wandering ghosts and grudges drifting through the world, turning into monsters that knew only how to devour and slaughter. That was how Wu Tianzun differed from them.
Wu Tianzun caught up to Xu Ying. Yet the jade coffin was rising faster and faster—so fast that even though Xu Ying had become a grand master of the Martial Dao, he could not keep pace.
Xu Ying urgently shouted, "Wu Tianzun, do you see that purple medicinal plant on the coffin lid? Catch it!"
Having broken free of the Five-Colored Mountain's seal, the jade coffin soared into the sky. Wu Tianzun glanced at it and shook his head. "I can't catch up."
Before Xu Ying could speak, Wu Tianzun suddenly grabbed him and sprinted upward. Reaching maximum speed in barely a dozen strides, he let out a thunderous breath and hurled Xu Ying toward the jade coffin with all his might!
Xu Ying cut through the air. Just as he was about to slam into the jade coffin, his body twisted like a swimming fish. With a gentle tap against the coffin, he dissipated the momentum and slid along the jade surface, landing atop the coffin lid.
Xu Ying reached out, seized the purple immortal plant, and pulled with great joy, only to find the plant was rooted deeply within the crevices of the jade coffin.
He peered through the jade casket and could faintly discern a towering, majestic figure inside, wearing an imperial crown and imperial robes.
Even lying in the casket, the figure retained an undeniable aura of grandeur. Behind his head floated a round halo of light, within which myriad worlds seemed to drift.
The root systems of the purple immortal plant were currently burrowing into the emperor's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, threading through his facial features and deep into his body!
*This immortal medicine is a seal as well!*
Xu Ying realized at once. Planting the immortal medicine upon the jade coffin had been done with malicious intent—to use the rare plant's power to siphon the trapped man's strength!
The physical cultivation of the emperor in the coffin was nourishment for the immortal medicine!
*To be suppressed on such a massive scale, the person in the coffin must not be an evil person, just like me! If so, saving him is saving myself!* Xu Ying comforted himself with the thought. Gritting his teeth, he ripped off one of the purple plant's leaves.
The purple immortal plant did not have many leaves to begin with—only seven. Moving his hands like lightning, Xu Ying swiftly plucked it bare, leaving not a single leaf behind.
Wracked with agony, the purple immortal plant spasmed. It wrenched its roots free, stood upright like a person, and lashed its root tendrils toward Xu Ying with sharp snaps!
Taking a strike, Xu Ying's skin split and his flesh tore. He backed away continuously to avoid the plant's assault.
Right then, he saw the man in the coffin open his eyes.
Xu Ying was stunned. Those were four eyes, arranged left and right, with two above and two below. The pupils were bright and clear, filling the jade coffin with brilliance and making the jade surface gleam.
Completely unaware of its impending doom, the purple immortal plant pressed its furious attack against Xu Ying. With his sharp sight, Xu Ying noticed several figures reflected on the coffin lid, rapidly closing in. His heart pounded fiercely. *It's those immortal corpses!*
Unable to care about anything else, he rolled off the coffin lid without hesitation.
The instant he slipped away, the coffin lid blew off with a thunderous boom, and the bare-headed purple immortal plant was sent flying along with it. "Serves you right!"
Xu Ying laughed aloud. Just as he was about to dive downward, a root tendril shot over with a sharp whistle and coiled around his neck. The purple immortal plant shortened its root, hurtling toward him through the air.
As soon as the plant drew near, Xu Ying slammed his fist into the junction between its stem and roots, bending the plant double and sending it flying backward.
Xu Ying pulled his fist back, only for a flash of purple light to appear. Tethered to his neck, the immortal plant swung back, wound a bundle of roots into a tight ball, and drove it squarely into his lower abdomen.
The strike bent Xu Ying over like a cooked prawn. He flew backward, his stomach wracked with sharp cramps.
*You little brute, I'm the dignified Demon King Xu! Do you think I'd be afraid of a stalk of grass?!*
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Xu Ying surged his vital blood. With most of the Five-Colored Mountain's seal broken by the man in the coffin, Xu Ying's cultivation and strength were largely restored. Why should he fear a mere immortal plant?
Suspended in midair, he unleashed supreme martial arts techniques, trading punches and kicks with the plant in a ferocious brawl!
The purple plant was utterly shameless, wrapping even more root tendrils around his body to fight him in close quarters.
It took dozens of punches from Xu Ying until its outer skin was soft and swollen, but Xu Ying also took over a dozen heavy blows to the chest, leaving his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
The purple plant even aimed for low blows, hammering Xu Ying's lower abdomen and putting him entirely on the defensive.
One person and one plant tumbled downward, trading vicious strikes the entire way.
Suddenly, an unimaginably terrifying tremor erupted, accompanied by a low hum from the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. Across the Netherworld, countless cold crows took flight, innumerable ghosts cowered low, and the ghosts and gods upon the Five-Colored Mountain fell to their knees one after another.
A vast majesty swept over the world in an instant, striking awe into the boundless Netherworld and the primordial battlefield.
The purple immortal plant shrank into a ball from sheer terror, clinging to Xu Ying's neck and trembling violently. Even so, it tightened its grip around his throat, trying to strangle the fellow who had plucked it bald!
Naturally, Xu Ying refused to back down. He grabbed its head and battered it with his fists.
The purple plant reached out with its roots to gouge his eyes and tear at his mouth, while another cluster of roots formed a fist and hammered his groin. Person and plant tumbled, crashing down toward the Five-Colored Mountain.
In the midst of the chaos, Xu Ying stole a glance and saw that the man had already flown out of the jade coffin to meet the immortal corpses arrayed at varying heights in the sky.
The host of immortal corpses formed the fourth layer of the seal—the most powerful seal that could possibly be laid in the mortal realm.
They composed a complete immortal grand formation that sealed the Five-Colored Mountain and exerted its full power to suppress the jade coffin. Now that the man was free, the full might of the formation concentrated entirely upon him!
*Boom!*
The immortal grand formation erupted. Xu Ying heard profound, abstruse Dao sounds ring out. Blood immediately gushed from his eyes and poured from his ears, his brains feeling as though they were boiling!
It was a sound that mortals could neither comprehend nor listen to—more exquisite than the Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing, containing far more profound mysteries than the Voice of the Heavenly Dao, directly assaulting one's mind and consciousness!
While the Voice of the Heavenly Dao drove one's mind to madness, the sounds of the Immortal Dao threw one's Great Dao into total disarray!
Upon the Five-Colored Mountain, the ghosts and gods brought by the Son of Heaven of the Nether Court froze upon hearing the sound. Then, their divine golden bodies crumbled and collapsed, their Primordial Spirits dissolving into plumes of smoke. With sharp clatters, they shattered one by one.
"Don't listen to that sound!" a Jiulong Mountain disciple shouted.
The moment the words left his mouth, his Golden Core blew apart, and his entire body exploded into clouds of blood with a loud pop.
Those magical treasures imbued with Dao methods drifted upward as well. Their Dao image imprints popped and burst, causing the treasures to disintegrate directly, their spiritual nature wiped clean!
Dragging their severely injured bodies, Li Xiaoke and the Son of Heaven of the Nether Court fled desperately for their lives.
Both had been wounded by the Immortal Dao runes. The Son of Heaven's injuries were even worse—his lower half had been pulverized by the snapped iron chain. Now his hands moved like wings, far nimbler than legs, carrying him down the mountain at top speed.
Their Dao images and Hidden Sceneries had become death warrants. Their cultivation and dharmic powers were boiling, and the cave-heavens that Li Xiaoke had transplanted after slaughtering Nuo immortals had turned into craters on the verge of erupting at any moment!
Even channeling their full power and Dao attainment, they could not withstand the sounds of the Immortal Dao!
Winds of wild energy surged within Xu Ying's body. He was horrified. *If I listen to this any longer, my body will blow apart!*
Suddenly, the majestic figure of the man raised his hand. The jade coffin flew upward as the sky caved in with a roar. Floating in the air, the arrayed immortal corpses tumbled into the jade coffin alongside the immortal grand formation they had formed!
The coffin lid flew back, snapping shut. The sounds of the Immortal Dao emanating from the grand formation ceased at once.
Xu Ying breathed a sigh of relief, only to immediately resume wrestling with the purple plant. "It's you or me!"
A massive hand settled over the jade coffin with a gentle pat. The countless immortal corpses inside decayed instantly, rapidly reducing to bare white bones. The man looked up toward the firmament, beyond which another world loomed in faint outline.
The Five-Colored Mountain was an immortal mountain where one could see the Beyond-Heaven and glimpse the tip of the Immortal Realm's iceberg. At this moment, an equally tall and majestic figure in the Beyond-Heaven stood gazing at the man from afar. He was the sixth seal.
One stood in the mortal realm, the other in the Immortal Realm, looking at each other across the divide. Suddenly, the man supported the jade coffin with one hand, strode two steps forward, and hurled it with tremendous force!
*Whoosh—*
The jade coffin pierced through the air like a streak of flowing light. In an instant, it shattered the barrier between the two worlds, roaring toward the Immortal Realm and shooting straight at the towering figure there.
The figure in the Immortal Realm raised a hand to block the coffin. His frame shook once as the jade coffin blew apart, sending the white bones of the immortals scattering across the ground.
Evidently, he had come out slightly worse in the exchange.
Xu Ying plummeted with a thud, crashing into the Five-Colored Mountain. Man and plant rolled through countless turns before leaping up at the same time.
Xu Ying unleashed a rain of punches, intending to hammer the purple plant into paste. To his dismay, the plant coiled around his body to fight him in close quarters.
As the two brawled, Wu Tianzun dropped from the sky with a heavy thud, landing right in front of them and looking on with curiosity. Man and plant froze, both feeling the situation was rather awkward.
Keenly sensing that this white-haired old man was by no means as feeble as he looked, the purple plant immediately wound itself around Xu Ying and hid behind him.
It held its root tendrils against Xu Ying's neck with an implicit warning: if the old man dared to make a move, it would slit Xu Ying's throat and kill the hostage!
Xu Ying had no time to deal with it. Hastening forward, he took out the leaves of the immortal medicine he had plucked and smiled. "Wu Tianzun, take this quickly!"
The purple plant lunged to snatch them back, but Xu Ying raised a hand to block it, and the two tangled in a brawl once more.
Just then, an aura that suppressed heaven and earth descended. The purple plant shuddered and hastily dove into Xu Ying's Realm of Xiyi to hide.
Xu Ying looked up to see the man with double pupils and four eyes slowly descending from the sky.
Double Pupils looked at him with complicated eyes, finally saying, "Many thanks for your assistance, Fellow Daoist."
Xu Ying returned the courtesy and smiled. "I wouldn't dare take credit. I originally intended to seize the immortal medicine to treat my friend's disease of death. I never expected to stumble upon a way to rescue you, sir."
"The disease of death? You call death a disease?"
Double Pupils paused slightly, murmuring, "Indeed, this disease is ineffective against you... That plant is indeed an immortal medicine, but it cannot truly grant immortality. You will discover its drawbacks in time. Having your friend consume a single leaf will suffice; having more is useless."
His figure drifted upward and vanished into the distance.
Xu Ying pursued him a few steps, but the man was already gone. He said regretfully, "Had I known, I should have claimed the credit! Getting a few immortal treasures would have been nice!"
He handed a leaf of the immortal medicine to Wu Tianzun, nervously watching the old man and urging him to take it quickly.
"If one isn't enough, I have a few more! Oh, and there's a whole stalk of grass here—gnawing on that will definitely be enough!"
Hearing that, how could the purple immortal plant let the matter rest?
No sooner had Xu Ying finished speaking than countless tiny root tendrils sprouted from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, flailing like tentacles and startling even Wu Tianzun.
Chapter 188