Island Master Shen and the others also suspected that the demons had orchestrated this, putting on a show of desperately fighting over the man in white while secretly dispatching the Rainbow Rat to make off with the treasure.
They could only blame themselves for overlooking the Rainbow Rat.
Targeted by Master Feng's sarcasm, Bi Fang felt increasingly humiliated and furious, wishing he could drag the Rainbow Rat out right this second and tear it to pieces.
Yet reason told him it was already too late.
The deserted island was so close to the storm belt; as long as the Rainbow Rat escaped into the storm belt, no one would be able to track it down.
Bi Fang glared venomously at the eagle and snake demons.
They had shared some friendship with the Rainbow Rat in the past.
The eagle demon let out a bitter laugh, half in awe and half in wrath. "Who would have thought that in such a state, it would still have the audacity to pocket the treasure for itself..."
A supreme treasure of Xuantian Palace—everyone wanted to claim it for themselves.
The Rainbow Rat had truly displayed reckless audacity.
Of course, some Demon Kings suspected whether the Rainbow Rat's sudden disappearance had something to do with the man in white, and that it was the man in white who had gotten the last laugh. But none of that mattered anymore.
Master Feng and the human cultivators did not believe their lies in the slightest, taking the Demon Kings' words as mere hypocritical theatrics—feigning innocence after having made away with the spoils.
"Kill them!" Master Feng roared.
Since they could not find the Rainbow Rat, they had no choice but to vent their fury on the Demon Kings before them.
Master Feng's voice transmission sounded by Qin Sang's ear, inviting him to join forces to hunt down Bi Fang and slay the fiend.
Although they had not secured the supreme treasure of Xuantian Palace, the items inside the ice chests used as decoys were still of considerable value.
The man in white was truly worthy of hailing from Xuantian Palace; his wealth was immense. Island Master Shen and the others had seized several of the chests, which would be divided equally later, with a share set aside for Qin Sang.
Qin Sang's expression shifted slightly. After pondering for a moment, he agreed to Master Feng's proposal.
A chaotic melee broke out in an instant.
Without another word, Qin Sang and Master Feng lunged straight at Bi Fang, thick with killing intent.
Startled, Bi Fang dared not hesitate. His wings flapped frantically, the feathers of blood flame upon his body chiming crisply as he shot away like an arrow loosed from a bow, fleeing outside the island.
Island Master Shen and the other two cultivators struck out one after another to pin down the four Demon Kings, including the frog-fish. Yet being down by one person, the demons soon exploited an opening.
A chase between the experts of both races played out across these waters once more.
A crimson glow ripped through the night sky.
Immediately after, two streaks of light pursued closely behind.
Like three shooting stars, they streaked across stretch after stretch of sea.
All three were blisteringly fast.
Yet a gap still separated them.
Bi Fang's secret art of Blood Flame Transformation had not yet expired. His flight was as fast as lightning, and in the end, he actually plunged right into the storm belt.
Qin Sang could still keep pace, but Master Feng was gradually left behind. Master Feng's movement technique excelled in agility, dissolving into wind and mist to penetrate everywhere, but in sheer linear speed, it fell somewhat short.
Seeing the speed Bi Fang displayed, Qin Sang was rather surprised as well.
After observing for a while, he finally spotted the telltale sign.
Bi Fang had turned into a mass of blood flame, which welled incessantly from within him. He was burning his own essence blood, likely using a divine ability that overdrew his potential.
'This is already the third transformation of Blood Flame Transformation. Bi Fang's divine ability is truly remarkable...' Qin Sang thought to himself.
No wonder Bi Fang had entrenched himself between the Crescent Moon Realm and the Star Sand Islands, stirring up trouble for so long without being eradicated.
'I'd like to see just how long your essence blood can keep burning,' Qin Sang sneered inwardly.
Unexpectedly, after a period of pursuit, Bi Fang saw no hope of shaking Qin Sang off and flew back out of the storm belt.
Before long, Qin Sang noticed demonic qi soaring into the heavens to the north. A dark, dense mass blanketed the sea—the demon army had finally arrived.
The demon army was well-trained; even as they marched, their battle formation remained orderly.
Frowning, Qin Sang halted and watched helplessly as Bi Fang fled into the Ten Thousand Demons Formation.
With the demon army arrayed in formation, and not knowing whether other Demon Kings were present, plus having his Nascent Soul talisman puppet away from his side, he had no intention of risking a reckless charge.
Though reluctant, he could only let it go.
He did not retrace his path to meet up with Master Feng. Instead, he flew toward the vicinity of the storm belt and swept back along its edge for a time until a dark shadow surfaced from the sea.
The Nascent Soul talisman puppet had returned.
The Heavenly Eye Butterfly had not yet calmed down from her excitement; fluttering over to Qin Sang, she nuzzled against him repeatedly before finally vanishing into his qi sea.
Taking the ice chest from the talisman puppet's hand, Qin Sang examined it. He found that the seal upon the chest was far from ordinary and would require careful study once he returned.
"A spirit body..."
Holding the ice chest, Qin Sang pondered the earlier battle thoughtfully.
Neither battlefield had shown any sign of the man in white's Nascent Soul.
Yet the aura radiating from him had unmistakably belonged to a Nascent Soul cultivator.
In the battle by the storm belt, there was no way the man in white could have pulled off any further tricks; he had definitely perished. However, his spirit body seemed somewhat different from an ordinary cultivator's primordial spirit.
'His spirit body had no ethereal, drifting feel to it. It was exceptionally condensed, like a ghost cultivator that possessed a physical body... Could he have specialized exclusively in cultivating the primordial spirit?'
Qin Sang's heart stirred.
In today's cultivation world, such cultivators were even rarer than body cultivators.
At least in the Beichen Realm, he had never heard of anyone who specialized solely in the primordial spirit or the physical body being able to reach the Nascent Soul stage.
'Could it be that cultivators who cultivate only the primordial spirit or the physical body don't need to form a Nascent Soul?'
Qin Sang recalled the ancient texts he had read in the past; records regarding this were exceedingly scarce, practically nonexistent.
As far as Qin Sang knew, viewed broadly, most paths of cultivation could be categorized into three avenues: essence, qi, and spirit. In ancient times, all of these could lead to the Great Dao; dharma cultivation was merely one among them.
In the present age, the immortal path was fraught with hardship.
For humanity alone, dharma cultivation had become the sole orthodox path.
The other paths, even if one could manage to practice them, offered vanishingly slim hopes of even reaching the Core Formation stage. Hence, they had gradually fallen into decline until they were abandoned altogether.
Dharma cultivators condensed true essence and forged a Nascent Soul, but the other two paths might not necessarily do so!
"Fire Seed Golden Lotus is merely a secret art for subduing spiritual fires. It's a pity that Heavenly Demon Refining Form originates from the demon race, so I cannot cultivate it in full. Otherwise, I might have grasped some of these profound mysteries."
Thoughts whirled through Qin Sang's mind as he sighed inwardly. 'Xuantian Palace, the foremost power of the North Sea, truly lives up to its reputation! They even possess an inheritance for such a rare method, and one that can genuinely reach the Nascent Soul realm. I wonder if I'll ever have the chance to borrow and peruse it in the future.'
Regrettably, he had not obtained any cultivation method from the man in white's remains.
Qin Sang tried several more times, but unable to open the ice chest for the time being, he stowed it into the Qianjun Ring. Taking a wide detour, he rejoined Master Feng and the others.
Learning that Qin Sang had lost Bi Fang, Master Feng felt quite regretful, yet he understood that Qin Sang was not to blame.
"Bi Fang burned his essence blood to escape this time. Without a century or so of recuperation, he won't be able to come out and stir up trouble again. The frog-fish and the other demons are injured as well. This is our chance to drive them back to the demon realm in one fell swoop!"
Master Feng was preparing to vent his wrath on the nearby demons, but remembering that treasure, he remained deeply aggrieved. "It is infuriating that such a treasure fell into their hands!"
Qin Sang kept an impassive face, chiming in with Master Feng as they cursed the Rainbow Rat together.
They turned back to rendezvous with the human army, made the necessary arrangements, and returned along their original route to the unnamed islet.
Stepping into the hall, everyone remained silent, the atmosphere solemn and heavy.
Island Master Shen swept away the gloom on his face and said with a faint smile, "At least we snatched a few ice chests. The items on that man shouldn't be too shabby, so we didn't return empty-handed. Let's see what we have first..."
Chapter 1391