Escape

Back during the great battle of Ziwei Palace, after witnessing the terrifying might of the Foul Blood Divine Light, countless cultivators had yearned to obtain a piece of Boundless Blood Mulberry to refine into magic treasures. The Xiaohan Realm had sent multiple expeditions into Wuya Valley to search for it, only to return empty-handed. Suspecting that the Sin Abyss had already swept up every last scrap of Boundless Blood Mulberry, they eventually let the matter drop. The Boundless Blood Mulberry had only flashed into prominence for a brief moment. With so many years having passed, Jiang Chenzi and the others had gradually forgotten all about it. Never did they expect that the Foul Blood Divine Light would reappear right here—and be used against them. Truly, the wheels of karma had turned, and retribution was swift. *Swish!* The Foul Blood Divine Light appeared slow, yet moved with deceptive swiftness as it drifted down onto the treasure banner. Jiang Chenzi had no time to withdraw it, forced to watch helplessly as the banner shuddered and grew dim and lusterless in the blink of an eye. The three treasure banners were interdependent. With one corrupted, the spirit array stalled without exception. "Not good!" They had never anticipated that Qin Sang possessed such a trick. In a frantic bid to salvage the situation, Jiang Chenzi poured true essence madly into the teetering banner. Old Demon Ye had appeared above the blood water at some unknown point, on the verge of refining Cultivator Lu and the Cold Lizard trapped within it. Sensing the damage to the banner array, Old Demon Ye frowned slightly in displeasure. Yet his expression remained calm, devoid of surprise or urgency, as he lightly raised a hand to reach toward Qin Sang. Right at that moment, an unexpected change erupted from within the blood water. An unearthly screech surged from the depths of the bloody surge. The sound was piercing in the extreme, laden with agony. Like a demonic resonance drilling into their skulls, it made everyone who heard it furrow their brows in acute distress. *Boom!* A tremendous force violently erupted, churning the blood water back upon itself. At the same time, a terrifying chill permeated the surroundings. A portion of that eerie blood water was actually frozen into solid blocks by the frigid gale. A round bead gleaming with blue light rose slowly from the center of the explosion. It looked like the snow bead the Cold Lizard had commanded earlier, yet the waves of chill it radiated were far more potent than before. A Cold Lizard dozens of zhang in length held its head high with the snow bead hovering above it. Its four limbs were like giant pillars trampling through the river of blood, its gaze burning with fury as it glared coldly at Old Demon Ye. Under the Cold Lizard's glare, Old Demon Ye felt his heart tighten. A ripple stirred his calm expression, and a glint of surprise surfaced in his eyes. Among the four who had barged into the Abyss Ruins this time, Cultivator Lu and the Snake King were both Mid-Nascent Soul experts. Qin Sang possessed the lowest cultivation, yet his divine abilities and treasures were not lacking in the slightest, making him the one they regarded with the most wariness. Only the Cold Lizard, being merely in the Early Transformation stage, had appeared ordinary and unworthy of concern. Yet the Cold Lizard before them now defied everyone's expectations. Not only had its size ballooned dramatically, rendering it exceptionally imposing and ferocious, but the aura it radiated was also incomparably greater than before, provoking deep wariness even in Old Demon Ye. Old Demon Ye's gaze shifted rapidly downward beneath the Cold Lizard's body, where he finally spotted Cultivator Lu. In stark contrast to the Cold Lizard, Cultivator Lu's face was deathly pale and his aura extraordinarily feeble. His injuries seemed to have abruptly worsened, far more severe than a moment ago. Meeting Old Demon Ye's gaze, Cultivator Lu's eyes were similarly calm, showing none of the desperation of someone fighting for his life. *What secret art is this? That man surnamed Lu seems to have poured his entire cultivation into the Cold Lizard...* Old Demon Ye deduced the cause of this transformation in an instant. The Cold Lizard and Cultivator Lu had remained entirely motionless earlier because they were preparing this secret art. Yet what puzzled him deeply was that the Cold Lizard bore no spirit-beast brand from Cultivator Lu. Not being his bound beast, how could it possibly master such a linked secret art? The thought vanished in a flash, for Old Demon Ye heard the Cold Lizard's roar and simultaneously felt a prickle of danger. He immediately withdrew the hand reaching for Qin Sang and thrust it down toward the snow bead. At the same time, the snow bead erupted with brilliant radiance, resembling a deep-blue sun. With a solemn expression, Old Demon Ye spread his five fingers wide. Slender threads of blood shot from his fingertips, devouring the blood water below before rapidly congealing into a bizarre blood-red diagram. *Boom!* The blood diagram had just taken shape when the deep-blue sun crashed violently into it. Blood light and frigid radiance collided and churned, sending out shockwaves that threw everything into complete chaos. Nothing could be seen clearly anymore, including the figures of Cultivator Lu and the Cold Lizard. Old Demon Ye's figure flashed as he was forced to soar higher, temporarily avoiding the brunt of the impact. The Cold Lizard's current power was abundantly evident. On the other side, after Qin Sang crippled one of the treasure banners and tore a flaw into the spirit array, he and the Snake King drove their magic treasures forward, slashing back Jiang Chenzi as he attempted to resist, before charging outward side by side. Sensing the terrifying commotion below and 'witnessing' the entire process through the Heavenly Eye Butterfly, Qin Sang was slightly startled. He had not anticipated they possessed such a trump card. As expected, these Nascent Souls and great demons all held their own hidden aces. Yet with Cultivator Lu heavily wounded and the Cold Lizard relying on a secret art to forcefully elevate its might, it remained uncertain whether they would have enough strength left to shake off the subsequent pursuit after breaking through the blood water's restraint. Qin Sang and the Snake King exchanged a glance. Qin Sang still intended to follow his original plan and head to the headquarters of the Heavenly Corpse Sect. Although the blood water's blockade would soon be torn open by the Cold Lizard, Old Demon Ye appeared largely unharmed and still had plenty of strength in reserve. If they dove downward now, they would still have to face Old Demon Ye, and they would have to get past the evil spirit first. A single misstep could ruin everything they had achieved. This outcome was fine as well. Barring any accidents, the Cold Lizard and its companion should be able to breach the blood water and charge out of the Abyss Ruins, while Qin Sang and the Snake King bypassed them via the Heavenly Corpse Sect. Splitting into two paths would disperse the forces of the Sin Abyss. As for the evil spirit, Qin Sang had already devised a method to deal with it. Over the past few days spent searching for the Killing Sword fragment in the Abyss Ruins, Qin Sang had gained a thorough understanding of the ancient restrictions scattered throughout the area. He knew they would pass by several ancient restrictions on their way back, which they could use to their advantage. Though they could not kill the evil spirit, they could trap it for a brief moment and shake it off. "Let's go!" the Snake King said in a deep voice, sharing Qin Sang's thoughts. His decision to assist Qin Sang had also been carefully weighed; he was neither abandoning his companions nor using Cultivator Lu's pair as bait. Had he decisively plunged downward earlier to launch a pincer attack with the Cold Lizard, it might have seemed easier to force back Old Demon Ye and break the blood river's blockade. Yet if Qin Sang failed to break the banner array deployed by Jiang Chenzi's trio, Old Demon Ye would have had the support of three Nascent Souls, and the blood river's power would certainly not have stopped there. Once the banner array's full might was brought to bear, all of them would have been reduced to beasts trapped in a cage. It was precisely this course of action that enabled all four of them to shatter the cage and flee in separate directions. As for whether they could escape with their lives during the pursuit to come, that would depend entirely on their own abilities. Without sparing another glance below, they led the evil spirit toward the depths of the Abyss Ruins. Furious, Jiang Chenzi joined forces with the other two Nascent Souls to make one final effort to delay them. But having lost the initiative when their spirit array was shattered, it was already too late for the three of them to intercept Qin Sang and the Snake King. Qin Sang was adept in escape techniques, while the Snake King's cultivation was second only to Old Demon Ye's, making his speed equally formidable. With blade and sword dancing in concert, they pushed back the hurried attacks from Jiang Chenzi's trio with effortless ease. With a few flashes of movement, Qin Sang and the Snake King broke through all obstruction and slipped into the fissures among the dark clouds. Unfamiliar with the path, the Snake King could only stay close behind Qin Sang. Working together to fend off the evil spirit's attacks, the two flew swiftly toward the headquarters of the Heavenly Corpse Sect.