Gems melted, corals were scorched, and the once magnificent water manor was reduced to a wretched spectacle swept by wind and ravaged by fire.
Qin Sang's praise sounded like mockery.
Surveying the devastation within the water manor, even as he was astonished by the might of the Sun God Tree, he took stock of how it felt to control the divine sun birds.
Presently, even with all his might, he could barely control three divine birds. Furthermore, because his mastery of the Fire Seed Golden Lotus was insufficient, he could not refine the Nanming Primordial Fire and was utterly incapable of subduing it. He could only resort to the crudest method: detonating the spiritual fire within the divine birds, treating them like thunderbolts and heaven-shaking thunders.
Though the divine birds possessed formidable power, they lacked agility; once unleashed, there was no turning back.
All Qin Sang could do was slightly adjust their flight paths.
Therefore, the Sun God Tree demanded exceedingly precise timing. Against an opponent like Old Man Hunmo, who possessed the ability to shift shapes and swap shadows, meticulous planning would be essential; otherwise, the strike would most likely miss.
In Tong Lingyu's hands, the Fourfold Tengshe Seal was far less powerful than the Sun God Tree. Yet, perhaps thanks to the Treasure-Connecting Incantation, she clearly commanded a degree of control over the spirit treasure, capable of using it like a personal magic treasure to execute numerous transformations and adapt nimbly.
Both treasures had their merits and drawbacks. As for which was stronger, that was a matter of perspective.
Moreover, the drain from the Sun God Tree far exceeded Qin Sang's expectations.
In a single battle, the true essence in his body could only sustain two strikes. Even by absorbing spirit stones and ingesting medicinal pills, it was difficult to recover enough true essence within a short span.
Miraculous substances like the Three Lights Jade Liquid could only be found by chance, not sought.
Besides, he could not rely entirely on the Sun God Tree in combat; he still needed to reserve strength to wield his other magic treasures.
With a slight thought from Qin Sang, the Sun God Tree floating behind his head swooshed before him. The divine birds on the tree quickly restored themselves to nine.
A true feather of the Vermilion Bird was sealed within this treasure, allowing the Nanming Primordial Fire to replenish endlessly. What constrained Qin Sang was merely his own cultivation, not the magic treasure or the spiritual fire itself.
After its first display of might, the Sun God Tree was stowed back into the Qianjun Ring by Qin Sang.
The light within the water manor dimmed.
Qin Sang looked up and met the frog-fish's shocked, terrified gaze. He chuckled inwardly; for Nascent Soul cultivators and demon kings, the power of the Sun God Tree was indeed somewhat beyond the norm.
The frog-fish's pupils quivered violently, completely dispirited and terrified. Seeing Qin Sang stepping out from the flames, its dread reached its absolute peak, filled with bitter regret.
Why had it been so blind back then as to provoke such an omen of calamity!
"Pfft!"
The frog-fish opened its mouth and spat a ball of green light toward Qin Sang. Without even checking the outcome, it wheeled around and fled.
It had used this green light against Qin Sang before, and was now resorting to the same old trick.
In an instant, the water manor was bathed in an eerie green glow, saturated with lethal poison nearly impossible to guard against. If an ordinary person's skin even grazed this poison, their flesh and bones would dissolve, dying in agonizing torment to become a pool of pus.
Thus, though the frog-fish was only at the early Transformation stage, it was one of the few figures the demon kings were most reluctant to provoke.
The green light dispersed the fiery air, surging aggressively and manifesting into green waves that crashed madly toward Qin Sang like a tide.
Though the frog-fish appeared to have seized the initiative, it knew well that Qin Sang possessed means of warding off poison—having nearly suffered greatly from it last time. It harbored no illusions that the green light could trap Qin Sang and dashed toward another exit without looking back.
Only by escaping into the subterranean river and leveraging the labyrinthine underground waterways would it stand a chance of giving this formidable enemy the slip.
Clad in the Poison-Warding Armor, Qin Sang had nothing to fear. Without the slightest hesitation, he brazenly plunged into the green light, giving chase to the frog-fish.
At that moment, while the frog-fish appeared to be fleeing in panic, its senses remained intently trained behind it. Seeing its foe take the bait, the frog-fish's mouth split wide, its fangs jutting out in a sinister grin.
"Detonate!"
A bizarre syllable rumbled from the frog-fish's throat.
The next instant, without warning, beads of deep green materialized within the green light, densely ringing Qin Sang. The moment they appeared, a violent chain reaction of explosions erupted!
The water manor shook violently once more as buildings collapsed into ruins.
Qin Sang's figure was swallowed by the dense green glow.
Within the green light, emerald lightning arced in all directions, chaining the beads together in continuous explosions with incessant roars.
The frog-fish smiled smugly.
After failing to ambush Qin Sang previously, it had realized its divine abilities were too one-dimensional. Against a foe with formidable poison-warding means, it was meeting its natural nemesis, completely suppressed.
After racking its brains, the frog-fish had truly devised a countermeasure. Mimicking the techniques demonic cultivators used to refine Yin Thunder, it fused Yin Qi and condensed venomous light to forge a special kind of poison thunder.
When the poison thunder detonated, it not only unleashed virulent poison, but also packed astonishing concussive power.
In this life-or-death crisis, the frog-fish had been shaken but not flustered. Its earlier display had been half genuine and half feigned, intended to make Qin Sang believe it had lost all courage, fleeing blindly and forced to use poison light merely to stall him, thereby fostering complacency.
The poison thunder concealed within the toxic light was the real killing move. Once the blasts shattered the Poison-Warding Armor, the lethal poison would inevitably invade Qin Sang's body.
The plan had indeed worked!
Yet, even seeing Qin Sang hit, the frog-fish still did not turn around, having zero intention of counterattacking.
It had truly been frightened out of its wits by the Sun God Tree's might. The fire birds meant instant death upon contact, and the frog-fish was hardly a demon king renowned for physical resilience.
Unless the poison thunder killed Qin Sang outright, even a dying breath would allow him to deliver a lethal blow—a risk the frog-fish could not afford.
All it sought was to escape this formidable foe.
As long as the green mountains remained, there would always be firewood to burn.
Alas, things did not go as hoped!
Immediately after, a scene that plunged the frog-fish into despair unfolded.
Following the explosions of the poison thunder, surrounded by the radiance of a protective astral barrier and shielded by the Ruyi Orb, Qin Sang leisurely charged out of the venomous light, completely unscathed.
Whoosh!
A light flap of Qin Sang's phoenix wings carried him effortlessly past the frog-fish, blocking its path ahead.
The frog-fish's expression changed drastically, the terror in its eyes stripped of any pretense.
Qin Sang swept a cold, indifferent glance over the frog-fish. With their old grudge, there was nothing to say.
He did not unleash demonic fire, nor did he summon the Jinchen Sword. Instead, with his blood vitality surging and Sanskrit chants echoing around him, he threw himself straight at the frog-fish, intending to fight the demon in hand-to-hand combat!
Having contemplated the Seven Masters' Buddhist Seal for years, Qin Sang's proficiency had deepened day by day. He no longer needed to form hand seals; visualizing them in his mind was enough to execute the first two seals.
This was the first seal—the Auspicious Seal!
His blood vitality surged with immense vigor, his fighting spirit soaring sky-high. He even retracted the barrier of the Ruyi Orb, eager to test the power of the Seven Masters' Buddhist Seal against the frog-fish.
"Seeking death!"
Knowing there was no escape, the frog-fish's ferocity was aroused. Roaring harshly, it immediately assumed its true demonic form. Though not renowned for physical prowess, it was still a demon king, far beyond what human cultivators could rival in sheer physique.
For its opponent to be so arrogant as to forfeit the advantages of a human cultivator and engage in close-quarters physical combat was the height of overconfidence—and its golden opportunity.
In an instant, the frog-fish transformed into a monster with the head of a fish and the body of a frog. It let out a hiss and a roar, the madness in its demonic eyes growing thicker.
Qin Sang was even faster. Condensing blood vitality into his palm, he closed in and thrust out a palm, striking violently toward the frog-fish.
Boom!
A gale assaulted the monster's face.
The frog-fish's pupils shrank. In its field of vision, only this palm and a Buddhist seal seemed to exist, the surrounding void locking down around it like a miring bog.
At that moment, its body violently twisted like a swimming fish, extraordinarily nimble. Radiance flowed across the scales covering its body, and when the palm wind made contact, it slid off like running water, ingeniously neutralizing the blow.
Immediately after, the frog-fish whipped its upper body around and gaped its maw. Its fangs elongated to half a foot, each gleaming with green venom like a poisoned spear. Taking advantage of the brief lull between Qin Sang's spent force and his next strike, it lunged and snapped down viciously.
If bitten, dozens of bloody holes would instantly be punched through Qin Sang.
Unexpectedly, the frog-fish bit into empty air and froze in bewilderment.
Ghostlike, Qin Sang had visualized the Lotus Seal in his mind and somehow slipped to the frog-fish's flank.
This was not merely a matter of speed, but an exquisite footwork technique.
As it turned out, aside from their ferocity, each of the seven seals of the Seven Masters' Buddhist Seal possessed its own subtle utility. Mastering the complete set of seven seals was tantamount to learning a comprehensive repertoire of physical close-combat skills.
Radiance like a blooming lotus shimmered around Qin Sang, making him look like a holy child born of a lotus.
As his feet shifted slightly, it was as if he were treading across floating petals, ethereal and unpredictable, advancing and retreating without a trace, leaving his opponent utterly helpless to guard against him.
Seeing Qin Sang vanish so abruptly, the frog-fish was indeed taken aback.
Yet the demon was experienced; it snapped back to attention instantly. Rather than wasting focus hunting for Qin Sang, its scales bristled with a rustling clatter while golden light erupted from within its body, fusing into the scales to form a suit of armor for all-out defense.
No sooner had it done this than alarm bells blared in the frog-fish's mind. It sensed a terrifying power erupting by its flank.
Qin Sang's seal shifted once more to form the fourth seal—the Demon-Subduing Seal! This was a true seal of slaughter, mighty and relentless, subduing demons without quarter, its offensive power ranking highest among the first four seals.
At this moment, Qin Sang seemed an incarnation of a Tiger-Subduing Vajra or a Dragon-Taming Arhat, his eyes glinting with fierce resolve.
The Buddha was merciful, but the Demon-Subduing Seal was the ultimate killing strike!
Boom!
Under the Demon-Subduing Seal, evil spirits cowered!
The frog-fish was terrified, sensing an imminent threat to its life. This human cultivator's physical body was actually no weaker than a demon king's, and he even wielded such a formidable divine ability.
Even demon kings renowned for sheer savagery were barely this formidable!
Worse still, this man possessed countless rare treasures; he was not a pure body cultivator at all.
Just what kind of monster was this!
The frog-fish screamed internally. Daring not to take it head-on, it forced its body to twist in a frantic retreat, but it was still half a beat too slow. Intense agony shot through its shoulder as its body shuddered violently, staggering backward.
Bang!
A patch of scales and armor was torn away by Qin Sang's palm, flesh and blood flying everywhere.
Fortunately, the frog-fish had reacted quickly enough; had it taken the full brunt of the Demon-Subduing Seal, its injuries would not have been so minor.
"Ahhh!"
The frog-fish shrieked, bloodlust filling its demonic eyes. Watching Qin Sang close in once more, it went completely berserk.
In the next breath, the flesh across its body swelled. A cluster of scales on its chest tore itself inch by inch from its body, their roots dripping with fresh blood and leaving behind countless puncture wounds—a gruesome sight that chilled the heart.
The frog-fish bared its teeth. This method of shedding its armor was another of its supreme trump cards. Refining these toxic scales had taken ages, and unleashing them inflicted excruciating pain.
It had been waiting for a chance at a one-hit kill, but Qin Sang's strength was too overwhelming—he could wound it relying purely on physical might. If it held back any longer, it might never get the chance to strike at all.
The scales were as hard as refined iron and had been tempered with poison arts over countless years, making them among the most virulent objects in existence.
Swish, swish, swish...
The toxic scales rained down, blotting out the surroundings.
Qin Sang was in the middle of pressing his momentum, completely undefended and at point-blank range. Unable to dodge, he seemed about to be riddled with holes.
Faced with imminent peril, Qin Sang remained unruffled. His figure paused slightly as his fingers wove into a peculiar hand gesture—yet another Buddhist seal.
The third seal—the Rotating Altar Seal!
The moment the seal took shape, Qin Sang's aura shifted completely.
At this moment, unlike the thunderous, unstoppable momentum of the Demon-Subduing Seal, his blood vitality turned inward, coalescing around him as though enveloping him in an altar diagram.
In the void around Qin Sang, blood vitality and physical force coursed about, and an invisible vortex spawned at the center of the altar chart. The toxic scales that arrived first instantly grew sluggish, pulled by the force and diverted slightly off course, unable to reach him.
Such was the marvelous efficacy of the Rotating Altar Seal. It could counter not only toxic scales, but also magic treasures.
In the future, as Qin Sang's physical body grew stronger and his mastery of this divine ability deepened, the domain affected by the Rotating Altar Seal would not be confined to his immediate vicinity; he would be able to suppress magic treasures with his bare hands!
After mastering the first four seals of the Seven Masters' Buddhist Seal, Qin Sang could not help but marvel at the comprehensive nature of this divine ability. His understanding of body cultivation had grown far deeper, and he looked forward even more to the power and functions of the final three seals.
Seeing this, the frog-fish was aghast. Daring not delay, it hurriedly urged the toxic scales to coalesce. The scales melted away, leaving a single drop of dark green fluid that transformed into a tiny toxic needle. Aimed at Qin Sang, it pierced through the Rotating Altar Seal and vanished without a trace in an instant.
Yet in that brief moment of delay, Qin Sang stepped with the Lotus Steps, shifting away to dodge the lethal strike.
The toxic arrow missed.
The frog-fish went numb with shock. Qin Sang had dodged its ultimate trump card without even deploying the Ruyi Orb. The gulf between their strengths was vast as heaven and earth; today, escape seemed all but hopeless.
Knowing doom was upon it, its ferocity was completely unleashed. Roaring sorrowfully, it lunged recklessly at Qin Sang, determined to make its foe pay a price even in death.
Soldiers possess no constant formation, just as water possesses no constant shape.
Qin Sang's figure moved like lightning as he seamlessly shifted between the four Buddhist seals, his movements epitomizing that fluid ethos as he toyed with the frog-fish with effortless grace.
Between flashes of lightning and flint sparks, human and demon traded countless blows.
The vast water manor was rendered unrecognizable, totally destroyed and reduced to their battlefield.
Falling back at every turn, the frog-fish was gradually cornered by Qin Sang, its predicament growing ever more dire as it was thoroughly suppressed. It roared repeatedly, but its impotent fury did nothing to alter its fate.
The frog-fish fared so poorly for two reasons: first, the Seven Masters' Buddhist Seal was truly extraordinary; second, its venomous arts were completely nullified by the fat silkworm. Possessing an arsenal of formidable divine abilities yet unable to employ them, it felt stifled to the extreme.
The frog-fish's roars were laced with bitter indignation and overwhelming frustration.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Seizing the opportune moment, Qin Sang drove the Demon-Subduing Seal squarely into the frog-fish's chest.
Spewing blood, the frog-fish shot backward, smashing through three water stones in succession. Its chest was caved in severely.
Unexpectedly, the frog-fish had not given up; it had been waiting for this very moment. Rolling to its feet, it spat out a beam of white light that bolted toward the exit at staggering speed.
The Seven Po Killing Array descended!
Trapping the white light within, the array revealed a set of crystal fish bones. Jolted by the sword Qi, they shattered on the spot, extinguishing the frog-fish's final glimmer of hope.
Now that the might of the first four seals had been verified, Qin Sang put away his playful mood. Unleashing the Jinchen Sword, he made quick work of the battle and snuffed out the frog-fish's life.
With a flicker of his figure, Qin Sang picked up the frog-fish's mutilated corpse.
Looking around the water manor, it had become a total ruin.
Before departing, Qin Sang meticulously erased all traces left by the divine sun birds, lest the demon race discern any clues.
Chapter 1471