*Swish!*
The moment Qin Sang laid down the Twelve Demon Banners formation, his true essence and divine sense began depleting at an alarming rate.
The remaining medicinal power of the Three Lights Jade Liquid continued to replenish his true essence in a steady stream, but his divine sense could only be restored with another spirit medicine.
Qin Sang downed the Soul-Washing Liquid he had long held ready in his hand.
This elixir could improve the chances of forming a nascent soul, and refining it with the secret art passed down to him by Mingwei could substantially enhance divine sense as well. Now, however, it could only serve as a spirit elixir to replenish his depleted divine sense.
Fortunately, this would not impair its efficacy in aiding his nascent soul breakthrough later.
Pure soul qi surged in to replenish his divine sense, yet it fell far short of the rate at which it was being consumed.
The demonic banner formation was becoming difficult to sustain.
"We have Soul-Washing Liquid too."
A faint voice came from beside him.
Glancing sideways, Qin Sang saw that the youth had awakened at some unknown point. The boy struggled to speak, his face as pale as golden paper. Pinned flat to the ground and unable to move, he could only shift his gaze toward the storage pouches belonging to himself and the girl.
Even without the youth's reminder, Qin Sang had already thought of this.
He had noticed that the youth and maiden had deep ties with the Four Sages Palace. Since the Trial Realm had been left behind by the Four Sages, and the manner in which the Soul-Washing Liquid appeared was so unusual, he had already guessed as much.
Qin Sang did not stand on ceremony. Snatching both of their storage pouches, he retrieved two bottles of Soul-Washing Liquid and immediately gulped down one.
Arrayed in formation, the twelve demonic banners possessed power that rivaled a top-grade magic treasure.
It was not that Qin Sang did not wish to deploy the complete Eighteen Demon Banners formation. Rather, he could sense that this was already his limit. Even reaching this point was possible only by drawing upon his demonic fire seed; if he channeled any more of the Nine Nether Demonic Fire, it would spiral beyond his control.
"Wait!"
Lingzhuzi suddenly called out to stop Qin Sang.
Just as he was about to inform the Demon Lord and Fairy Nangui of this development, he unexpectedly sensed the thoughts of Qingzhu's original consciousness.
By forcibly executing the Split-Essence God-Slashing art, the ancient demon's split soul had impaired its own strength, allowing Qingzhu to finally find an opening and struggle to reach outside minds for help.
Upon hearing this, deep delight surfaced in Lingzhuzi's eyes. His lips moved slightly as he silently initiated some kind of blood-refining technique. Then, opening his mouth, he spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the whisk in his hands.
Drinking its fill of essence blood, the whisk turned crimson. As its strands fluttered, they resembled threads of scarlet hair, profoundly eerie.
In that same breath, Lingzhuzi's hair turned entirely gray and white. His vitality rapidly drained away, and deep wrinkles carved into his face, aging him several times over.
On the other side, the Demon Lord, held fast in the grip of the ancient demon's split soul, did not resign himself to death.
In this moment of crisis, the Lunar Heavenly Ghost Divine Light appeared once more.
Thousands of evil ghosts clung to the Demon Lord, ravenously devouring his vitality. Half of his body shriveled at a visible rate, turning as withered as tree bark and clinging tightly to his bones like a skeleton.
The very same scene unfolded on the Demon Lord's nascent soul.
*Bang!*
The Lunar Heavenly Ghost Divine Light suddenly shattered piece by piece.
All thousands of evil ghosts were sacrificed simultaneously by the Demon Lord, blasting apart the shackles binding him and freeing him from the split soul's grasp.
Fairy Nangui had forcibly elevated her cultivation using the Sacrificial Essence Art. Having endured consecutive fierce battles and suffered severe trauma to her essence soul, she was already at the end of her tether.
Knowing there was no chance of survival, she gave a soft inward sigh and kept her eyes closed, offering no resistance as her nascent soul emerged from her body and hurled itself toward the ancient demon's split soul.
All three human experts chose to make a desperate final stand.
They struck simultaneously.
The blood whisk transformed into a river of blood, sweeping forward neck and neck with Fairy Nangui's nascent soul.
The Lunar Heavenly Ghost detonated itself, sending countless evil ghosts madly swarming at the split soul.
With victory already in its grasp, the ancient demon's split soul had no desire to trade lives with them. Seeing this onslaught, it mobilized its true demonic qi to defend while simultaneously flying backward to evade the brunt of the assault.
At the same time, it waved an arm violently, splitting its power into three streams. One locked onto Fairy Nangui, who was about to self-detonate, and hurled her into the blood coffin, while the other two shot toward Lingzhuzi and the Demon Lord.
"Grandmaster!" the youth cried out in grief.
The girl had awakened as well. Holding each other, they wept bitterly as they watched their beloved grandmaster being ruthlessly slain by the ancient demon, yet racked with agony, they could not move a finger and were powerless to help.
They could only bitterly regret their slackness in cultivation during normal days.
"What are you doing?!"
A furious roar drowned out the weeping of the two disciples.
Forced backward toward the blood coffin and the sword qi, the split soul had just been preparing to seize the Demon Lord and Lingzhuzi as well when it suddenly sensed an abnormal disturbance from Qingzhu's true soul within its body.
This time was different from before.
The spirit sword fragment glowed with a strange radiance, emitting ripples that actually sent sharp stabs of pain through the split soul.
What shocked and enraged the split soul even more was that a wisp of sword intent within the surrounding sword qi seemed to resonate in harmony with the spirit sword fragment.
In a flash, the split soul understood Qingzhu's intention: the spirit sword fragment had deep origins with the sword qi of Yitian Peak, and Qingzhu was actually capable of manipulating the fragment to draw that sword intent into his own body to slay the split soul!
Qingzhu could only draw the sword qi inside; he lacked the ability to control such overwhelming power. This act was nothing less than suicide—dragging the ancient demon's split soul down to death with him!
"You are playing with fire and burning yourself!" the split soul bellowed. "Stop! I promise to spare your life!"
"What fear is there in death!"
Qingzhu's voice finally rang out, calm and utterly unmoved. He was willing to die alongside the split soul rather than release the ancient demon to bring catastrophe to the mortal world.
Just as he had declared earlier: *I have no intention of shouldering the fate of the common people, but this catastrophe must not begin with me!*
Had he not sealed the demonic soul within Yitian Peak, things might never have come to this pass.
The sword qi trembled faintly, and a strand of sword intent was triggered, slashing in an ethereal arc toward the back of Qingzhu's head.
The split soul went pale with fright.
Demonic qi churned across Qingzhu's face, revealing a contorted visage. The split soul was desperately trying to cast off Qingzhu's demonic soul and abandon Qingzhu's physical vessel.
There was still another vessel outside, and having reached an accord with the true body, it had no desire to die here.
"Now!" Lingzhuzi shouted urgently.
Qin Sang had long been waiting for this chance. Eyes flashing brightly, he violently unleashed the Nine Nether Demonic Fire straight toward the split soul.
His true essence and divine sense were instantly overdrawn, causing him to collapse backward onto the ground.
*Whoosh!*
The demonic fire shot like an arrow, as swift as a shooting star.
"Nine Nether Demonic Fire!"
Never did the split soul expect that someone outside would still be capable of unleashing such an attack. Demonic fire inherently counteracted souls; caught unprepared, its true demonic qi collided with the fire, arresting the split soul's escape.
A moment's stall was enough to decide everything.
The intangible sword intent sank into Qingzhu's body.
A hair-raising shriek of excruciating agony tore from inside Qingzhu—a scream belonging to the split soul.
Qingzhu's body stiffened abruptly. A sword mark appeared between his brows as blood leaked from his seven orifices, his aura plummeting at a terrifying rate.
*Thud! Thud!*
Lingzhuzi and the Demon Lord crashed to the floor, having narrowly escaped being hurled into the blood coffin.
Seeing each other's wretched states, their hearts were steeped in bitterness.
The ancient demon's true body flew into a rage. Taking advantage of the sword qi being diverted by Qingzhu, it frantically drove the blood coffin upward in a surge. But as the ancient restrictions of all three races were fully restored, they were triggered by the sword qi.
When the power of the three demon-suppressing treasures—the Demon-Suppressing Stele, the dragon corpse, and the divine furnace—was stimulated by the ancient restrictions, the sealing power magnified exponentially.
The blood light dimmed, and the counterattacks of the ancient demon's true body grew increasingly feeble.
*Boom!*
Shuddering violently under the relentless pressure of the sword qi, the blood coffin was powerless to resist and plummeted into the bottomless pit.
Having recovered slightly, Qin Sang noticed Qingzhu standing motionless. Feeling an inward jolt of alarm, he hastily stowed the demonic banners and darted toward him.
Chapter 1089