The pressure radiating from the Suspended Sword Tower was not a whit inferior to that of the Fourfold Tengshe Seal before Liuli had begun to affect it!
Only a spirit treasure could muster such pressure.
Did Xuantian Palace truly possess two spirit treasures?!
Qin Sang drew a sharp breath, but then his expression flickered slightly as if he had sensed something.
"No, it seems different from the Fourfold Tengshe Seal..."
Qin Sang had this feeling, yet he could not pinpoint the exact difference between the Suspended Sword Tower and the Fourfold Tengshe Seal.
After all, he had seen far too few spirit treasures.
The Suspended Sword Tower did not seem to be a true spirit treasure.
It was clearly Yin Changsheng's life-bound magic treasure, not a heritage spirit treasure of Xuantian Palace; it could only have been crafted by Yin Changsheng himself.
Crafting a life-bound spirit treasure while still in the Nascent Soul stage would be simply too astonishing!
Whether the Suspended Sword Tower was a spirit treasure or a magic treasure, the pressure it exerted was undeniable, and its might would likely be no weaker than that of the Fourfold Tengshe Seal at the start!
The danger he faced would not diminish by half a bit because of that.
This time, there was no Liuli to help hold it in check.
"To force out my Suspended Sword Tower is achievement enough for you to boast of."
Yin Changsheng had grown more talkative.
His expression warped even more noticeably.
Years ago, Yin Changsheng had set his sights on Old Man Hunmo, intending to lure him into the Sacred Ground and capture him alive; many of his arrangements had been made specifically to counter Old Man Hunmo's demonic arts.
Qin Sang had shot to prominence only ten years ago, and Liuli's mastery of her divine ability had been revealed a mere six months ago. Yin Changsheng had changed targets at the last minute, leaving no time to make more thorough preparations.
Even so, Yin Changsheng had believed that with the Fourfold Tengshe Seal, the Luoyou Divine Restriction, and his many divine abilities, taking down a mid Nascent Soul stage cultivator would be effortless.
He never anticipated that Tong Lingyu's schemes would run so deep, that she would meticulously find every possible means to counter him.
Moreover, Qin Sang's strength far exceeded his cultivation level, rivaling that of a great cultivator.
Had he not been unable to subdue Qin Sang quickly and forced to this extreme, Yin Changsheng would never have deployed the Suspended Sword Tower.
As his life-bound magic treasure, the Suspended Sword Tower served to steady his mind. Now that he was forced to bring it out against an enemy, the consequences were immediate: Yin Changsheng's temperament grew increasingly unstable, to the point of showing plainly on his face.
Ding-ling-ling...
The Suspended Sword Tower hovered before Yin Changsheng.
The nine inverted little swords swayed without wind, swinging gently within the tower and giving off peals of sound—not sword hums, but crisp, chiming rings.
The sound was melodious.
Yet to Qin Sang's ears, it sounded like the summons of a death knell!
The madness in Yin Changsheng's eyes mounted. He glared fixedly at Qin Sang with earth-shattering killing intent, sending violent ripples surging through the chilly mist surrounding the ice coffin.
Ding-ling-ling! Ding-ling-ling!
The suspended swords swayed violently.
None of the swords were large, each crystal-clear and translucent.
The ancient characters engraved upon their blades flashed with multicolored brilliance.
An astonishing scene unfolded: countless illusory sword auras materialized on every story.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
These sword auras turned into streaks of light, whirling rapidly around the Suspended Sword Tower in a dizzying blur.
At this moment, the nine-story ice tower seemed ringed by countless sword auras, turning into an authentic sword tower, yet it lacked any corresponding sword intent.
The Suspended Sword Tower was related to swords in name and form alone; it was not a true treasure of the sword Dao, merely refined into the shape of swords through a specialized crafting technique.
This was a magic treasure of absolute slaughter, where every illusory sword aura was a condensed embodiment of deadly intent!
"Die!" Yin Changsheng roared.
The Suspended Sword Tower droned incessantly. The ancient characters on the nine mystic swords grew increasingly dazzling, and the illusory sword auras were swallowed up by the radiance one after another, transforming into a cloud of iridescent haze.
In the next breath, the Suspended Sword Tower flashed abruptly into midair, sweeping forth a blast of multicolored haze with the speed of lightning!
In an instant, Qin Sang felt a prickling ache at his Baihui acupoint and his scalp went numb. He did not doubt in the least that if that haze swept over him, he would be crippled if not killed outright, never to escape Yin Changsheng's clutches.
***
Liuli could feel the peril looming right before them. Despair surfaced on her face. She had done everything in her power, yet she still could not alter the outcome.
She could influence Yin Changsheng, but she could not wrest the Fourfold Tengshe Seal for herself right in front of him.
She was too weak!
At this juncture, Liuli felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness.
To think that in the end, she would die alongside him in this lifetime!
Liuli's eyelids trembled slightly. Opening her eyes, what met her sight was Qin Sang's profile.
The scene from all those years ago—something Liuli had deliberately tried to forget—welled up once more. Who could have imagined that a single night of fateful entanglement would spawn so many ties between them?
Looking back across her life, the first half had been spent cultivating selflessly to save her master, and the latter half spent scheming painstakingly to rid herself of an evil art. Her mind had always been pulled taut, never knowing a moment of respite.
Liuli looked up, her gaze seeming to pierce through the void to behold her master, whose life and death remained unknown, a look half of relief and half of regret on her face.
"Master, this disciple is truly so tired."
***
Unaware of the many thoughts running through Liuli's mind, Qin Sang keenly noted the change in Yin Changsheng's state. With a lightning-fast thought, he flicked his finger, and a crimson flare flew out of the Qianjun Ring.
This flare blazed brighter even than the multicolored haze.
Inside the flare, a precious tree slowly revolved, wreathed in endless, ever-cycling flames, upon which perched nine divine birds with heads held high and tails cocked, looking remarkably lifelike.
Qin Sang had summoned the Sun God Tree directly!
The moment the flare appeared, Yin Changsheng's eyes bulged, displaying sheer disbelief.
"Go!"
A fierce glint flashed in Qin Sang's eyes as he shouted, the true essence within him surging forth like an uncontainable tide.
The flames upon the sacred tree surged, and the three divine birds at the very top came to life. Their expressions suddenly grew vivid as they flapped their wings and broke away from the tree, hurtling toward the multicolored haze like arrows without the slightest fear.
Midflight, the three divine birds merged into one, indistinguishable from one another.
This was the fruit of Qin Sang's continuous refinement over these years: compressing the three divine birds as much as possible. While it could not directly increase the blast's raw power, it concentrated the energy of the Nanming Primordial Fire.
Swish!
Whew!
In an instant, the multicolored haze and the divine bird collided.
At first, there was no earth-shattering commotion; an eerie silence fell.
The speed of the multicolored haze slowed drastically, and the ceaselessly flowing 'sword auras' abruptly stiffened, while the solar divine bird vanished into thin air, plunging straight into the core of the haze.
Yet all three present could feel a terrifying energy brewing within, on the verge of erupting.
The eruption came swiftly.
The multicolored haze swelled violently like a rapidly inflating sphere of light. Crimson cracks split across its surface, within which flames surged wildly.
Boom!
A brilliance brighter than the sun flared in midair.
An unprecedented explosion erupted within the cavern.
The two attacks—both boasting might far exceeding normal magic treasures—unleashed turbulent streams of energy, forming an energy storm in midair. The thick layer of ice blanketing the ground was swept clean away, and nothing else could be seen within sight.
Qin Sang held Liuli close and darted away, evading the explosion's aftermath.
Qin Sang had used the solar divine bird as a shield to confront the Suspended Sword Tower's haze head-on, naturally eliminating any worry of missing the mark.
Chapter 1496