Trapping the Enemy

Though Qin Sang possessed a multitude of divine abilities, slaying Dongyang Bo was no simple matter. Only by luring him into the demonic fire would there be any real chance of success. For this reason, Qin Sang had run through the scenario in his mind numerous times before making his move. He would first use the Seven Po Killing Array to catch Dongyang Bo unawares and pin him down. Trapping and slaying him right inside the sword array would naturally be ideal. Even if that failed, it would serve to blind and deafen Dongyang Bo, buying Qin Sang the opportunity to deploy the eighteen demonic banners. The ebony sword was a supreme magic treasure, and the Seven Po Killing Array was no ordinary sword formation. Given enough time to master it thoroughly, trapping and killing an opponent across cultivation stages was entirely within reach for Qin Sang. At present, however, certain weak points were inevitable. Against cultivators of the same realm, it was an effortless triumph, but an opponent of a higher realm could easily see through it. What was more, Dongyang Bo happened to possess a green lotus treasure lantern that countered the sword array. Seeing that the sword array was indeed broken, Qin Sang rapidly formed hand seals. Eighteen demonic banners emerged in the surrounding void, expanding silently until each became a banner thirty feet tall. The banners unfurled. Even before the demonic fire was truly unleashed, the blood shadows corralled by the banner array grew restless, swimming about frantically as they instinctively sensed mortal danger. Immediately after, the aura of demonic fire surged outward. Any blood shadows near the demonic banners stiffened one after another, then dissolved without a sound. Dongyang Bo had used the bronze treasure lantern to bait Qin Sang into unleashing the Foul Blood Divine Light, simultaneously launching a sneak attack with the dragon-and-phoenix stone pillar while keeping his divine sense locked firmly onto his surroundings. Although the stone pillar could not damage an ebony sword of such extraordinary quality, delaying it for a brief instant had been more than enough, causing the flaw in the sword array to become glaringly apparent. In battles between masters, everything hinged on a single instant. Dongyang Bo seized upon that flaw. By the time the ebony sword finally broke free of the dragon-and-phoenix stone pillar, it was already too late for Qin Sang to patch the flaw, alter the array's formation, or intercept Dongyang Bo. Boom! A blast of blazing light erupted from the vajra ring like a white rainbow piercing the sun, violently shattering the sword array's blockade. In an instant, the sword array dissolved into disarray. A thread of crimson light shone in from the outside, exceedingly faint. Without a visible movement from Dongyang Bo, his figure appeared right at the breach in the array in the very next heartbeat, on the verge of breaking free. Right then, the ebony sword materialized before him once more, leaping forward with a fierce, slashing arc. Clang! Yet this strike was blocked again by the vajra ring. Not letting the chance slip, Dongyang Bo shifted his form and successfully broke through the array. The moment he emerged from the sword array, just as he was about to seize the talisman puppet, Dongyang Bo sensed something amiss ahead. Before his eyes surged ribbons of black flame, which instantly incinerated the surrounding blood mist and blood shadows down to nothing and pounced toward him. Qin Sang, anticipating his objective, had laid down the banner array in advance, greeting him head-on with a crushing wall of demonic fire! Witnessing this, Dongyang Bo's expression darkened, yet he remained composed. He recalled that Qin Sang possessed a set of banner arrays. Because Qin Sang had only deployed it once on the battlefield, information on it had been incomplete; some suspected it had been refined by drawing upon Patriarch Kuiyin's demonic banners, only with two additional banners. Even if the demonic banners truly matched the original's power, Dongyang Bo was confident he could protect himself. There was a full realm between them; if they kept grinding against each other, Qin Sang would surely be the first to exhaust his true essence. Dongyang Bo simply did not wish to drag out the fight; he harbored no real fears for his own safety. Yet when he clearly saw what surrounded him, his face drained of color in an instant. Counting them carefully, bobbing behind the sea of fire were not twelve banners—there were a staggering eighteen! Qin Sang had reached the Nascent Soul stage only a few years ago. The might he had displayed moments ago had already greatly exceeded Dongyang Bo's expectations, but who could have guessed that it still fell short of his true strength? Confronted by eighteen demonic banners, all trace of ease vanished from Dongyang Bo's eyes, replaced by an ominous premonition. "It really is the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner!" Dongyang Bo had dealt with Patriarch Kuiyin in the past and knew the extraordinary might of that fiend's banner array. Now, Qin Sang held eight more banners than Patriarch Kuiyin ever had. At this moment, it was no longer a question of whether he could take the talisman puppet! The eighteen demonic banners stood like great pillars in the void, resembling eighteen gaping maws that relentlessly spewed demonic fire. Qin Sang manipulated the demonic fire through the fire lotus seed. In an instant, demonic flames soared to the heavens with terrifying ferocity, sending waves of fire crashing toward Dongyang Bo layer upon layer. Alarm bells rang wildly in Dongyang Bo's mind. Sweeping his gaze across the area, he felt as though he had plunged into a boundless ocean of flames with nowhere to run. The vajra ring above his head clinked shrilly, its glowing flames forced back by the demonic fire until they looked dull and on the verge of collapsing. Patriarch Kuiyin's treasure was formidable, yet it possessed a flaw: this demonic fire was an external element that could never be commanded as smoothly as an extension of one's own limbs. Against a powerful opponent, it might suffice to defeat them, but killing them was exceedingly difficult. Dongyang Bo was surprisingly knowledgeable about the demonic banners. Even so, once the number of banners reached eighteen, it brought a qualitative leap—it could no longer be compared to the past. Thoughts raced through Dongyang Bo's mind. Though startled, he kept his wits and reacted with extreme speed, acutely aware that unless he broke free at once, what awaited him was incineration by demonic fire and eternal damnation! Dongyang Bo poured all his strength into driving the vajra ring to shield himself, his figure flickering continuously until only a streak of white light could be seen crashing frantically through the void. For a time, the demonic fire was churned into sheer chaos. Dongyang Bo understood the banner array's flaw well enough to know that standing his ground for a head-on clash was out of the question. Qin Sang had to steer the demonic fire to constrict and crush him, and because the fire was not something Qin Sang had refined into his own power, moving faster made it easier to ferret out openings. Seeing this, Qin Sang's expression shifted slightly. Dongyang Bo's tactic struck right at his sore spot. The man was indeed an old fox, discerning the array's deficiency in such short order. Fortunately, Qin Sang possessed the fire lotus seed, which served as a bridge through the subdued demonic fire, giving him far better control than Patriarch Kuiyin had once enjoyed. Left with no other choice, Qin Sang sat cross-legged in the void, driving the banner array with all his might without daring to let his attention waver. The Heavenly Eye Butterfly also revealed itself, perching upon Qin Sang's shoulder with its heavenly eye open, watching the array intently. For one thing, Dongyang Bo was not yet at the end of his tether, and her lightning-controlling ability could not currently pierce the vajra ring's defenses, making it wiser to keep the Heavenly Eye Divine Light primed to counter any Daoist arts Dongyang Bo might unleash at any moment. For another, Qin Sang needed her to focus entirely on maintaining her Heavenly Eye divine ability to lock onto Dongyang Bo and anticipate his movements in advance. The demonic fire blazed fiercely, hurling itself crazily against the vajra ring. The vajra ring clinked and chimed incessantly, its light flickering between bright and dim. Dongyang Bo attempted to repeat his earlier trick, smashing at the demonic fire with the dragon-and-phoenix stone pillar, but the fire had no physical form, gathering and scattering at will. Seeing that the treasure was useless here and that he could not get close to the banners, he had no choice but to put it away. The eighteen demonic banners were formidable indeed. Dongyang Bo's true essence drained at an alarming rate, and before long he sensed that he could barely sustain the vajra ring, leaving him burning with anxiety. Whoosh! Whoosh! As the demonic fire pressed closer, its impact left Dongyang Bo's mind reeling and his origin soul unsteady. He hastily pushed the vajra ring to keep the flames at bay while pulling out the bronze treasure lantern once more. The lantern had already suffered contamination. Yet Dongyang Bo could not afford to care. He poured his true essence into it with everything he had. The consequence of forcing it into action was a sharp crack. Fractures spread across the bronze treasure lantern, pieces fell away, and it crumbled into ruin just like that. Even so, a section of the wick at the lantern's center was preserved, barely igniting a ball of dim yellow flame. Dongyang Bo's face twitched in agonizing regret; the treasure was rare and precious, but to save his life, he had no other option. He had never imagined that a former pawn would drive him to such an extremity. The lantern flame could steady his mind, but to break free, it was still far from enough.