"Strike!" Qin Sang shouted coldly.
The sword rays appeared detached from one another, yet each erupted with an astonishing sword momentum, coalescing seamlessly within the sword formation as though wielding the majesty of a heavenly blade.
The demonic serpent blanched.
He had witnessed Qin Sang deploy the sword formation during their brief clash before, but the strength displayed back then had been nowhere near this formidable!
Last time, knowing he was in the wrong, the opponent had likely held back.
Qianji Demon King realized he had miscalculated and underestimated his adversary.
Even among the human race, achieving such attainments in the way of the sword was exceedingly rare.
Rumble!
The mountains shook.
The sword momentum surged toward the heavens.
The demonic serpent roared. Its scales rustled as a sheen of black luster rippled across them. The demonic body twisted unnaturally, filling the surrounding space with chaotic, surging force.
The sword formation's might was disrupted.
Yet his true body was not the only target enveloped by the formation. Sword qi plunged like a galaxy cascading from the highest heavens, accompanied by earthshaking sword cries as it submerged the two phantoms.
Qin Sang's intuition had been correct: the combat strength of the serpent phantoms was not to be underestimated, for they were not mere illusions. However, the two phantoms possessed nowhere near the true body's formidable defenses.
Boom!
Before the phantoms could serve their true purpose, they were torn to shreds. Like shattered mirrors, they broke into countless fragments that danced and fluttered through the air.
Every single fragment reflected sword silhouettes alongside the serpent's furious gaze.
Breaking free of the sword formation, the demonic serpent attempted to reconverge its phantoms. Qin Sang, however, had no intention of allowing it to regroup. With a wave of his hand, the river of sword qi lunged straight for it!
The demonic serpent was fierce indeed. Savage light flashed in its eyes as it pit its physical body against the sword formation. Even as several scales shattered, laying bare bright red flesh and blood, it disregarded the injuries entirely.
Yet having miscalculated and seen its shadow-splitting divine ability easily broken, the serpent had lost the initiative. With Qin Sang seizing the upper hand, reversing this downward spiral would not be so easy.
Qin Sang's eyes were calm and resolute. His true body charged forward as well, delivering heavy blows in coordination with the sword formation and refusing to grant the serpent a single breath of respite.
The demonic serpent made several attempts, yet none succeeded in reforming the phantoms. Instead, its predicament only worsened.
Outside the battlefield.
Snake King watched from the sidelines. He could see that the demonic serpent was already displaying signs of defeat, yet not the slightest trace of anxiety appeared on his face.
Seemingly powerless to fight back, the demonic serpent finally found its chance.
The serpent reared its body high and roared toward the sky, baring its fangs. From within its gaping, blood-red maw, a speck of black light suddenly shot forth. Moving with lightning speed, it pierced through the blockade of sword qi, aimed squarely at Qin Sang's true body!
"I knew it wouldn't be this simple!"
Facing this abrupt change, Qin Sang did not panic in the least.
Demon kings and Nascent Soul experts were never simple figures; Qianji Demon King could not be a mere brute who knew only close-quarters combat. Especially in a place like the Xiaohan Realm, they would hardly lack treasures.
Forcing out one of Qianji Demon King's trump cards using only the sword formation left Qin Sang thoroughly satisfied, and he knew when to quit while ahead.
Even so, locked on by that black light, the blood and qi within Qin Sang felt as though drawn toward the bone dagger, and a faint prickling pain stung between his brows.
"A dagger! A bone dagger!"
Qin Sang saw the true form of the treasure clearly.
The bone dagger was only three inches long, lacked a hilt, and was entirely pitch-black. Crafted from some unknown bone, it exuded a sinister aura and remained firmly locked onto the spot between Qin Sang's brows.
The black light seemed like a bottomless pit, ceaselessly devouring the surrounding black mist as it bore down upon Qin Sang, causing the bone dagger's momentum to climb steadily.
Qin Sang dared not be careless. Recalling his sword, he retreated, simultaneously flicking his wide sleeve. Nine miniature spirit banners—including the three deployed earlier—spiraled into the air.
He was still concealing his strength, staying guarded against Snake King.
Now that he was a Nascent Soul cultivator, the might of the nine demonic banners in his hands was incomparable to the past—more than enough to handle the present situation.
Whoosh...
The demonic banners expanded against the wind, growing into large banners over a zhang tall.
With a series of thuds, the nine demonic banners planted themselves into the ground, forming an array. Demonic fire surged forth wildly, instantly enveloping Qin Sang in a sea of flames.
The surrounding black mist met the demonic fire as if encountering its natural bane, swept away in an instant.
The next moment, the bone dagger struck.
With a thought from Qin Sang, demonic fire coalesced into a fireball that collided squarely with the bone dagger.
A deafening boom rang out.
The fireball was shattered, scattering flowing flames everywhere, but as expected, it successfully checked the bone dagger's assault.
Stymied, the bone dagger's black radiance scattered slightly, revealing its physical body to the naked eye as it twitched faintly in the void.
Faint golden threads, barely discernible to the eye, formed strange runes across the bone blade.
The treasure bore an archaic air; it was likely an ancient treasure.
Just as Qin Sang was about to cast an art to reconverge the demonic fire, he noticed a sudden movement from the demonic serpent.
By now, the demonic serpent had unleashed some unknown divine ability. Behind it, a colossal black python phantom materialized out of thin air, several times larger than its true body, rivaling a mountain in scale.
Qin Sang fixed his gaze on the serpent phantom, confirming it was not a dharma idol, yet it still made him feel a twinge of danger.
The next instant, the gigantic python phantom opened its eyes.
Its eyes were equally massive, resembling stars in the night sky. The phantom roared silently, its eyes blazing with exceptional brilliance as two beams of divine light abruptly shot forth—aimed straight at the bone dagger!
Qianji Demon King wore a look of utter confidence.
Qin Sang's strength had exceeded expectations, but the giant serpent phantom was Qianji Demon King's strongest divine ability, and the bone dagger was a treasure borrowed from his father-in-law. When combined, even if they could not heavily injure Qin Sang, they would certainly be enough to force him out of the battlefield.
Just at that moment, an abrupt change occurred!
The instant divine light erupted from the demon's eyes, a beam of light shot out from Qin Sang's body as well. Striking second yet arriving first, it landed right between the eyes of the gigantic python phantom.
Chaotic currents swirled within the beam, interwoven with hair-thin silver filaments that, upon closer inspection, proved to be threads of lightning.
Crack!
Struck by the beam, the gigantic python phantom froze instantly. The divine light in its eyes rapidly dimmed. The next moment, fissures split across the serpent's head and swiftly spread down its body.
Qianji Demon King grunted in pain, horror and confusion welling in his eyes.
He had actually suffered a backlash from his own divine ability!
A peculiar expression surfaced on Qin Sang's face.
The one who had unleashed that beam of light was not him, but the Heavenly Eye Butterfly!
This was a divine ability the Heavenly Eye Butterfly had comprehended after its fourth metamorphosis, which Qin Sang had named the Divine Light of the Heavenly Eye.
The Divine Light of the Heavenly Eye possessed the wondrous effect of breaking arts, targeting the vulnerabilities in Daoist arts and divine abilities. Though subject to many constraints, so long as the timing was precise enough, it could not only break an art, but even cause the opponent to suffer a backlash from their own technique.
Qin Sang did not know whether all Heavenly Eye Butterflies could comprehend the Divine Light of the Heavenly Eye after four metamorphoses, or if it was the result of a mutation and the fusion of two divine abilities.
This was the first time he had used it against an enemy, and the result was even better than anticipated.
Caught off guard, Qianji Demon King had fallen victim to it. Desperately reconverging the giant serpent phantom to resist the backlash, he had no leeway to attend to the bone dagger.
Seizing the moment, Qin Sang immediately commanded the demonic fire to violently knock away the bone dagger, then pounced straight at Qianji Demon King, intending to take him down in a single stroke.
Still clueless as to how he had been defeated, Qianji Demon King was filled with reluctance and was about to execute a self-harming secret art to launch a desperate counterattack.
Just then, a sigh from Snake King sounded in the distance.
"Enough! There is no need to fight any longer. Fellow Daoist Mingyue's skills are superior. We concede!"
Chapter 1173