Wary of being discovered, Qin Sang launched his sudden attack before even drawing near the battlefield.
Consequently, with so many cultivators present, not a single one noticed him before he revealed himself.
In a mere instant, Qin Sang charged straight into the fray, carried by his consummate escape art.
The Snake King, Cultivator Lu, and the Cold Lizard were battle-hardened veterans with unspoken rapport; the instant they caught sight of Qin Sang, they made the optimal choice.
The Cold Lizard once again summoned the snow pearl, joining forces with Cultivator Lu to strike back against the evil spirit.
At that exact moment, the evil spirit's long tail swept toward them.
The snow pearl spun rapidly, sending heavy snow fluttering all around amidst a bitter, biting gale.
Crack, crack...
A layer of frost spread over the evil spirit's tail at a pace visible to the naked eye, slowing its sweep by several degrees.
At the same time, without sparing the evil spirit a second glance, the Snake King reversed his black saber and slashed toward Jiang Chenzi and his companion.
Having already tasted the vicious potency of that black saber, the two dared not take it lightly. They were forced to join hands to spur the treasure banners before them, conjuring a blood sword to parry the saber light.
Witnessing this, Qin Sang gave a silent nod of praise.
They truly lived up to their status as top-tier experts; their timing was impeccable. The blow from Cultivator Lu and the Cold Lizard pinned down the evil spirit just in time, granting him a prime opening to strike.
Naturally, their true motive in doing so was simply to escape as quickly as possible.
If Qin Sang was willing to draw the evil spirit's attention, they could ask for nothing better.
Even the Snake King did not believe Qin Sang could easily wrest the treasures from within the evil spirit. To seize them, one would first have to wear down the monster's strength considerably and drive off the Sin Abyss Nascent Soul cultivators.
With Qin Sang joining the fray, their side's power had surged, yet achieving this in short order remained exceedingly difficult. Furthermore, Cultivator Lu was grievously wounded, merely suppressing his injuries by force, and desperately needed a safe place to recuperate.
Meanwhile, Jiang Chenzi and his comrade had surely contacted reinforcements; if they lingered any longer and other Nascent Soul cultivators within the Abyss Ruins arrived, escaping would become truly impossible.
Qin Sang reined in his stray thoughts.
With the evil spirit looming right before him, confronting such a colossal body and terrifying aura pressed down on Qin Sang with immense pressure, imparting a faint, stifling sensation of suffocation.
Yet his expression remained composed, without the slightest trace of fear. He gazed coldly at the evil spirit, unveiling his killing intent only upon reaching point-blank range.
"Seven Po Killing Array!"
Swoosh!
The spirit sword tore through the air, pointed straight at the evil spirit!
At this moment, the battlefield was cleaved into three segments.
Farthest away, the Sin Abyss Nascent Soul cultivator had just come to his senses and emerged from the shadows, his movements distinctly half a beat behind, leaving him detached on the periphery.
The Snake King faced Jiang Chenzi and his companion alone, the black saber clashing head-on against the blood sword.
The Cold Lizard shielded Cultivator Lu behind itself, driving the snow pearl with all its might to tie down the evil spirit's long tail for dear life. Meanwhile, Qin Sang materialized on the evil spirit's opposite flank, his spirit sword unleashed.
In an instant, everyone's gaze was involuntarily drawn to this streak of sword light, dazzled and shaken to their cores.
"A supreme-grade magic treasure!"
Sensing the aura radiating from the ebony sword, those words sprang unbidden into everyone's minds, their expressions shifting in varied ways.
The Snake King was the most astonished of all.
He already knew Qin Sang possessed a set of formation banners whose might rivaled a supreme-grade magic treasure, yet now he had produced another supreme-grade flying sword—he could practically be called a Treasure-Laden Demon King!
Could such wealth truly belong to a demon king who had only just advanced to the Transformation stage?
It had taken the Snake King countless years and an unimaginable amount of effort just to temper and refine his black saber to the level of a supreme-grade magic treasure.
The Thousand Mountains Bamboo Sea truly possesses deep foundations!
This thought flashed across the Snake King's mind, and he could only attribute it to the Bright Moon Demon King's master, that most enigmatic bamboo demon.
The evil spirit sensed the malice directed at it. Its colossal head snapped around, fixing its unblinking stare upon the instigator, Qin Sang. Ferocious flames erupted within its eyes, exuding endless killing intent.
It hated the Snake King's trio, but that hardly meant it wouldn't retaliate if attacked by someone else; otherwise, Jiang Chenzi and his comrade wouldn't have needed to tread so cautiously.
Roar!
Livid with rage, the evil spirit's attention was fully snared by Qin Sang, and it resolved to first erase this insolent ant from existence.
Its head lunged forward abruptly, fangs bared, completely disregarding the ebony sword. Azure light flickered within its throat; a single blow was all it would take to claim Qin Sang's life.
Having witnessed the dreadful might of this move while watching from afar, Qin Sang was already prepared. Knowing he could not allow the evil spirit to unleash this strike, he instantly shifted his sword incantation, and the ebony sword split into countless rays of sword light.
The sword light flowed like water.
In a flash, the sword array manifested.
At that moment, the space illuminated by the blood-red glow dimmed.
Around the evil spirit fell a murky gray haze, as though night had fallen, draping over it a gloomy pall.
The light grew exceedingly dim, and every streak of sword light vanished from sight. Even the true body of the ebony sword melted into the sword array, obscured from view—mysterious and utterly elusive.
Looking closely, one could discern crisscrossing gray threads within the array, exceedingly slender, roaming ceaselessly in endless permutations.
Were one to extend divine sense to probe it, that divine sense would feel a faint, prickling sting.
The evil spirit was enveloped by the sword array.
Qin Sang held nothing back, driving the Seven Po Killing Array with all his might.
An opportunity like this came only once. Though the evil spirit lacked intellect, its instincts remained; once stung, it would know how to evade and counter, making it nearly impossible to lure it into the sword array a second time.
Against an evil spirit, the Seven Po Killing Array was far deadlier than the methods used by the Cold Lizard and the others.
The agony surging through its body drove the evil spirit into a frenzy. The azure light coalescing in its jaws flickered and dimmed, interrupted for a split instant by the blow.
And a single instant was more than enough!
Overjoyed, Qin Sang flapped his wings and lunged beside the evil spirit without hesitation. He violently flicked his sleeve, and the twelve demonic banners he had prepared beforehand spun rapidly, embedding themselves deep within the evil spirit's body.
Whoosh, whoosh...
An unending stream of Nine Nether Demonic Fire surged madly from the banners. Before it could even coalesce, the demonic fire shot forward like pitch-black tentacles, thrusting deep into the evil spirit's form.
The Nine Nether Demonic Fire also exerted a suppressing effect on such spiritual bodies.
The reason Qin Sang dared pluck chestnuts from the fire was precisely because he relied on the Seven Po Killing Array and the Nine Nether Demonic Fire.
Otherwise, he likely would have prioritized his own safety, either continuing to watch from the sidelines for an opening or simply giving up altogether.
At most, out of consideration for his friendship with the Snake King, he would have pinned down one or two Sin Abyss Nascent Soul cultivators to help create a chance for them to break free, never daring to entangle himself with the evil spirit.
This was, after all, the Abyss Ruins—the heart of the Sin Abyss—where several Nascent Soul cultivators could appear at any moment and trap them to death.
Sizzle, sizzle...
Like maggots clinging to bone, the Nine Nether Demonic Fire burned through the evil spirit's body under everyone's stunned gaze, penetrating deep into its core and sweeping toward that chunk of white bronze.
"He can actually snatch the treasure from inside the evil spirit!"
Seeing this scene, the crowd was utterly astounded.
The next moment, the Nine Nether Demonic Fire touched the white bronze and surged back like a crashing wave.
The white bronze offered no resistance, wrapped within the Nine Nether Demonic Fire as it flew toward the exterior of the snake spirit's body.
Though the stone axe and the blood jade were not far from the white bronze, Qin Sang withdrew the Nine Nether Demonic Fire without the slightest hesitation, as if he hadn't noticed the two treasures at all.
A clear, spectral soul light erupted inside the evil spirit, and its wounds knit shut at breakneck speed.
The Nine Nether Demonic Fire still inside was ground away by the soul light, fighting its way outward with immense difficulty before finally managing to drag out the white bronze just before it was extinguished.
Fortunately, Qin Sang had not succumbed to greed; otherwise, he would have had to yield even the white bronze back.
Chapter 1210