Heaven-Severing Soul-Shaking

The incarnation struck with vicious precision. The Ice Soul Divine Light cut off the scar-faced man's retreat. At the same time, the scar-faced man had to contend with the pressing threat of the Seven Po Killing Array. Despite all his careful plotting, the scar-faced man's ambush on Qin Sang had failed. Instead, he had backed himself into a corner where he could neither advance nor retreat. The divine light surged vast and mighty. A vast expanse of white cold fiend qi froze the very space it traversed. Feeling the chill pierce through his protective true essence, as if it meant to freeze his blood and qi solid, the scar-faced man was inwardly alarmed. He instinctively swung his wooden armor around to meet it. This treasure had protected its master several times, proving its worth. The wooden armor manifested in the air above the scar-faced man, gleaming brightly as the silhouette of an ancient tree stretched upward, propping open heaven and earth. Unexpectedly, just as the ancient tree was about to fully take form, the divine light's speed abruptly skyrocketed. It swept down in an instant, giving the impression that it had pierced straight through the ancient tree's projection. The greatest strengths of the Ice Soul Divine Light were its stealth and swiftness. Even though the incarnation could no longer hide its sweeping momentum after refining the cold fiend qi from the ice disc, the light's speed had only grown faster, not slower. During their clash, the incarnation had deciphered the wooden armor's rhythm. He had deliberately reined in the divine light's speed solely to mislead the scar-faced man's judgment and bait him into bringing out the armor. *Swish!* In a split second, the wooden armor was engulfed by the Ice Soul Divine Light. The half-formed ancient tree shuddered violently and shattered into pieces. Amid the blinding white expanse of divine light, only the physical wooden armor itself shone with a deep green radiance, while mystic ice rapidly condensed along the edges of the green glow. The wooden armor tumbled erratically, churning out an endless stream of green light. Unfortunately, it was purely a defensive treasure. Incapable of breaking through the mystic ice, it was sealed within a thick dais of ice in the blink of an eye. With a single move, one of the scar-faced man's defensive treasures was neutralized. Right behind it came the Snow-Treading Divine Saber. Saber qi arched like a rainbow! By now, Qin Sang's true body had also regained his footing. The Sun God Tree was tucked inside his sleeve, and the Sun God Birds were poised to strike, merely waiting for the right moment. Once saber and sword joined forces, the scar-faced man would face certain death! To any ordinary observer, the scar-faced man had run out of room to maneuver. He could either pick a direction and force a breakout, or surrender. "Petty tricks!" With a cold snort, the scar-faced man struck his dantian with a reversed palm. A beam of crimson light surged out of his dantian, revealing the illusory projection of a spiritual tree within. The spiritual tree hovered in front of him, standing no more than seven feet tall. Compared to the ten-thousand-year-old giants filling the forest, it seemed barely matured. Its leaves were crimson and brilliantly lustrous, as though molten lava flowed through their veins. Its gray trunk was covered in cracks like parched earth, rugged and ancient. Its well-developed root system was likewise crimson, tightly entwined into a knot. The scarlet light radiating from the spiritual tree linked with the scar-faced man's dantian, their auras harmonizing into an unbroken whole. The roots swayed toward him, seemingly taking root within his very body. "The ancient red mystery tree?" Qin Sang's pupils constricted. He then discovered that the ancient tree was not the manifestation of a divine ability, but a physical entity, which astonished him even more. The ebony sword required devouring spiritual wood to upgrade, so wherever Qin Sang went, he took care to gather records concerning spiritual wood. He had heard of the ancient red mystery tree before, but knew little about its power. The scar-faced man had refined an intact spiritual tree and rooted it inside his own body. Qin Sang had never seen such a divine ability before. Just then, the scar-faced man swiftly formed a hand seal and pressed it against the trunk of the ancient red mystery tree. The tree shuddered and plummeted downward. As it fell, the ancient red mystery tree transformed from real to illusory. The instant it hit the ground, it vanished without a trace, as though it had burrowed deep into the earth. Qin Sang's expression grew solemn. At that moment, the surrounding forest changed. It felt completely different from before. Earlier, the scar-faced man had merely used the wooden beads to mobilize those specks of light; now, Qin Sang felt a strange illusion that the entire forest had been bound together by an uncanny force, merging into a unified whole. At the same time, crimson light flared brilliantly behind the scar-faced man. The illusory projection of the ancient tree surfaced behind his back, flickered, and sank into his body. *Whoosh!* Crimson light soared into the sky! The scar-faced man leaped down from midair. The moment his feet touched the ground, the earth took the brunt of an astonishing force, letting out a drum-like boom. As the shockwave rippled outward, waves of foliage surged through the forest, and several side halls on the periphery were shaken into collapse. What was even more startling was that the scar-faced man on the ground had vanished, replaced by a towering giant. His skin was rough like tree bark, and his arms and fingers were slender like branches, making him resemble a sprite born from an awakened ancient tree. The giant's features still vaguely bore the contours of the scar-faced man. Planting his feet on solid ground, he gave Qin Sang the impression that he was an ancient tree rooted right here—an immortal monument standing in this forest! *Swish!* The Snow-Treading Divine Saber cleaved through the air. A torrential snowstorm poured down. The scar-faced man's head instantly turned white with frost. He threw his head back. Combined with his coarse skin, his expression became even more ferocious. With a savage grin, he rolled his right shoulder and threw a heavy punch. Where the fist wind passed, the blizzard ground to a halt. Snowflakes disintegrated. The sight resembled the shattering of empty space, leaving a striking path through the blizzard. Right beneath the blade of the Snow-Treading Divine Saber, a fist shadow abruptly materialized. Defying the sharp saber light, it punched upward! *Boom!* Fist collided with blade. The Snow-Treading Divine Saber shook violently. The incarnation's breath caught as an immense force traveled through the saber from afar, making his body tremble and nearly sending him flying backward. With a grim expression, the incarnation exerted his cultivation technique to the fullest to steady his footing. The Snow-Treading Divine Saber, however, could not hold. With a resonant clang, it bounced upward from the monstrous force. Though it was not sent flying on the spot, his pressing offensive was abruptly checked. Fortunately, the sword array swept in right then, dragging the scar-faced man into its fold. The Jinchen Sword and the Snow-Treading Divine Saber were both magic treasures, but one was wielded by the true body and the other by the incarnation. Furthermore, Qin Sang's sword arts and saber skills were worlds apart, so naturally their might could not be mentioned in the same breath. Viewed from above, the sword array cordoned off a shadowy space within the forest. Once dragged inside, the scar-faced man's figure blurred, surrounded by a dense thicket of sword threads that radiated deadly intent! *Slash!* The sword threads converged to butcher him. Letting out a series of shrill roars, the scar-faced man whirled his fists like wheels, unleashing a relentless barrage of sonic booms. He retaliated using nothing more than his bare fists, snapping countless sword threads with every blow. He inevitably sustained cuts from the threads, but beneath his skin circulated a layer of crimson light, which, combined with his bark-thick hide, ensured he faced no immediate threat to his life. *What immense strength!* Qin Sang stared at the scar-faced man's fists, finding no other treasure present. Evidently, this power was granted by a divine ability. In their earlier clashes, all signs had indicated that this man could not possibly be a body cultivator. Yet through the ancient red mystery tree and a peculiar divine ability, he had attained a spirit wood body and merged with this ten-thousand-year-old forest, undergoing an earth-shattering transformation. Qin Sang thought to himself that it was fortunate he had not pinned his hopes on the treasure given by Myriad Poison Mountain. With the resilience of this spirit wood body, suppressing the potent poison within his system would hardly be a difficult task. However, while shifting into this spirit wood body greatly increased his strength, it also made him unwieldy... Qin Sang's expression shifted slightly. Flickering above the sword array, he raised his sleeves, and a blazing crimson light flew from his hand, revealing a spiritual tree of his own. The difference was that his was a tree of fire! The moment the Sun God Tree emerged, three Sun God Birds took flight side by side, merging in midair into a single ball of blazing fire that rushed before the scar-faced man in an instant. Sensing the violent aura of the Nanming Primordial Fire, the scar-faced man's roars ceased abruptly. His face drained of color as he threw himself backward in a frantic retreat. Yet he was currently trapped inside the sword array; how could he dodge as he pleased? Just as the scar-faced man was cornered and the Sun God Birds were about to crash into him, his entire body suddenly stiffened. The luster on his skin faded at extreme speed, eerily morphing into a withered, dead tree. At the same time, an obscure aura rippled through the shadowed depths of the forest. Qin Sang's face darkened. It was already too late to alter the trajectory of the Sun God Birds. *Boom!* The spiritual fire crashed into the ground. Flames roared. The dead tree instantly disintegrated into ash, reducing a vast swath of the surrounding forest to scorched earth. "Is this what you rely on?" The scar-faced man's voice drifted from the forest beyond the scorched earth. An ancient tree swayed several times, its leaves turning yellow and falling away as it withered at a pace visible to the naked eye. With cracking sounds from within the trunk, a treeman leaped out. Looking at Qin Sang with a cold sneer, he returned Qin Sang's earlier mockery in full. The clumsy demeanor of the spirit wood body had been an act, put on deliberately to bait out Qin Sang's trump card—and it had worked. Even so, the scar-faced man was nowhere near as relaxed as he appeared. A flicker of terror had flashed in his eyes upon seeing the Sun God Tree, and he finally understood why Su Zinan referred to this person as the Fire Demon! A demonic fire and a tree of fire—with just these two spiritual flames, this man could walk sideways across the cultivation world. At the same time, the scar-faced man felt immense regret. Had he known better than to be so conceited, he would have decisively pulled out the moment Cave Master Qiling fell into the trap. Now he was caught in a bind, riding a tiger with no way to dismount. The taunt fell on Qin Sang's ears, but his expression remained utterly placid. Relying on his divine sense and the Heavenly Eye divine ability, he keenly discerned that the scar-faced man's movements were not completely untraceable. Furthermore, his aura had grown chaotic upon reappearing; clearly, this technique imposed no small burden on him. Leaving the Sun God Tree hovering by his side, Qin Sang raised his right arm and reached toward the distant death qi vortex, curving his fingers into a claw and clutching firmly. The demonic fire within the vortex contracted abruptly, taking the shape of a fire lotus. Because the demonic fire had not been completely refined, the lotus's edges appeared somewhat illusory, and stray wisps of fire lingered on the periphery, swirling around it. As the power of the demonic fire concentrated to its utmost, the fire lotus shuddered with earth-shattering might. A rumbling crash sounded from the center of the death qi vortex. The vortex collapsed on cue. Boundless wisps of death qi scattered in all directions, and once stripped of the scar-faced man's control, they swiftly reverted to their original essence as wood spiritual qi. Green light fell like rain across the forest. Qin Sang pointed a finger, and the fire lotus expanded, instantly transforming into a colossal ring of fire large enough to blanket more than half the forest as it descended from above. *Roar! Roar! Roar!* Raging flames burned the heavens. Ancient trees snapped and fell. If the scar-faced man wished to use the terrain of the forest, Qin Sang would simply burn it to the ground! Flames erupted everywhere. A wall of black fire encircled the battlefield. Though ten-thousand-year-old trees stood throughout the forest—many of which had grown into spiritual wood over the ages—none could withstand the Nine Nether Demonic Fire. Ash drifted in the air. The wall of fire advanced inward, the ring of scorched earth rapidly expanding. *Crack!* Near the edge of the fire wall, an ancient tree was in the middle of transforming into a treeman. Having grown eager to retreat, the scar-faced man had leaped here, only for his connection to the outside forest to be severed by the Nine Nether Demonic Fire, forcing him out into the open. The scar-faced man had never anticipated that Qin Sang would find the crux of his technique so quickly. Ever since Zhu Wudao delivered the ancient red mystery tree, he had been refining the Post-Heaven Wood Figurine Stele. This divine ability was a true inheritance of the Hall of Wood Phases. Before reaching grand achievement, it required an environment brimming with wood spiritual qi to unleash its full might. Yet he had devoted most of his time to raising the Gu King, leaving him lacking in cultivation time and still quite far from reaching grand achievement. With no mood left for mockery, the scar-faced man flickered, attempting to break through the fiery blockade. *Swish!* The Ice Soul Divine Light flared once more. Seeing that the Snow-Treading Divine Saber posed little threat to the man, the incarnation simply sheathed the blade to focus entirely on driving the divine light. The sword array followed close behind. The scar-faced man was first glazed in a sheet of frost, then hemmed in by sword threads. No matter how formidable his spirit wood body was, he could take no more. Qin Sang went further, summoning all three Sun God Birds. He had already acquired a certain level of control over them, no longer bound to fire them blindly with no chance of recall. The divine birds circled above, poising to strike. Yet if the scar-faced man refused to dodge, they would do far more than just pose. On top of that, Qin Sang occasionally invoked the Soul Absorbing True Words. Even though the scar-faced man was on guard, he could not help but be disrupted by sharp twinges of pain stabbing into his origin soul. Several leaps failed to buy his escape. Anxiety gradually surfaced on the scar-faced man's face. *Boom!* Crimson flames surged to the heavens. Controlling the Sun God Birds for so long while juggling both the demonic fire and the sword array exceeded Qin Sang's capacity, forcing him to unleash the blow. Sure enough, the Sun God Birds missed once more. With his room to maneuver drastically squeezed, the scar-faced man emerged in another spot, upon which the divine light and sword array converged simultaneously. Unexpectedly, instead of scrambling to fight back, he did something out of character: he looked at Qin Sang, a faint, cold sneer touching the corners of his mouth. Noticing his expression, Qin Sang's gaze hardened. A sudden, inexplicable premonition of danger washed over him. Without hesitation, he beat the Phoenix Wings furiously, shooting straight into the sky. A bulge swelled on the scar-faced man's glabella, from which a blood beetle emerged. In just a brief moment, the jade beetle had turned a vivid, bloody crimson, utterly bizarre and sinister. As the blood beetle writhed at his glabella, it contorted the scar-faced man's features into a grimace. Tough though his spirit wood body was, his aura fluctuated wildly, suffering severe backlash. A sinister murmur squeezed from his throat. "Take my Heaven-Severing Soul-Shaking Divine Needle—let us see if you can survive this!" *Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!* Following the collapse of the death qi vortex, specks of light had scattered all over the forest. Suddenly, every speck of light around the scar-faced man floated into the air. Inside each light speck hovered the illusory image of a jade beetle. Earlier, the scar-faced man had ambushed Qin Sang with three rays of toxic light. Having heard from Cave Master Qiling that Qin Sang possessed immense divine sense, he had known the sneak attack might be seen through, so he had prepared a contingency. If it succeeded, well and good; if it failed, he could use the toxic light as cover to quietly set his trap, converting each speck of light into the power of the jade beetle. He had bided his time until Qin Sang's Sun God Tree was coaxed out, revealing his killing intent precisely when the old strength was spent and the new had yet to rise! The Heaven-Severing Soul-Shaking Divine Needle was extraordinarily powerful, but with his late Nascent Soul cultivation, it required extensive preparation and could not be deployed on a whim. *Swish!* The specks of light transformed into poisonous needles, their tips gleaming with an eerie, frigid toxic luster. Every poison needle aligned in unison toward Qin Sang and shot forth in a volley! Swift though the needles were, Qin Sang had remained wary of the scar-faced man and kept his distance. Flying at lightning speed, he seemed poised to outrun them. Bloody light erupted from the scar-faced man's glabella. He let out a low bark, followed by a clamorous buzzing of wings. The next moment, a startling sight unfolded. The blood beetle tore away from the scar-faced man's glabella and flew beneath the poison needles. Its eyes locked onto Qin Sang, flashing with savage bloodlight. In an instant, the needles fused into a single blood needle as thin as a strand of hair. With a flash, the blood needle bridged the void, catching up to Qin Sang.