Unexpectedly, before Wu Yuesheng could breathe a sigh of relief, an abrupt change occurred.
Just as the corpse poison seemed on the verge of burning away completely, a loud bang erupted from within. A cluster of earth fiend qi had been concealed inside, detonating violently and piercing through the Crimson Flame Sword's spiritual glow.
Wu Yuesheng's complexion shifted drastically. He hastily recalled the spirit sword, only to see that while no physical cracks had appeared on the blade of the Crimson Flame Sword, its spirituality had inevitably suffered harm. The sword's radiance was considerably dimmer than before, and an expression of acute heartache and fury surged across his face.
A sword cultivator cultivated their life spirit sword in tandem with their mind and spirit; once it was damaged, it could no longer move as freely at will, and its power would instantly drop by several notches. Although the Crimson Flame Sword had not suffered true structural damage, restoring its impaired spirituality would require Wu Yuesheng to nurture it for a long time. Not only would this stall his cultivation progress, but it would also be a massive drain on his energy.
Witnessing this, Qin Sang was inwardly startled. Without hesitation, he unleashed the full might of the Five Elements Dharma-Breaking Sword, wrapping its physical blade in vast spiritual power so as not to give the baleful corpse any opening to exploit.
Even Wu Yuesheng's Crimson Flame Sword had nearly been ruined, and the Five Elements Dharma-Breaking Sword was far inferior in quality. If struck by those ghostly claws, it might well be snapped clean in half even without the corrosion of corpse poison.
"Damn this vile corpse!"
Flustered and exasperated, Wu Yuesheng cursed furiously. Not daring to use the Crimson Flame Sword any longer, he hurriedly drew it back into his dantian to nourish it, retrieving another spirit sword from his mustard seed bag.
With Wu Yuesheng's spirit sword damaged, their three-man formation was easily broken by the baleful corpse.
Having suffered a setback earlier, the baleful corpse could not easily be lured into a trap again.
Furthermore, its evasion technique was exceedingly bizarre, allowing it to appear and vanish like a ghost throughout the grand hall. They had to protect themselves and stay vigilant against sneak attacks while simultaneously dividing their attention to control their magic tools, trying to herd the baleful corpse into a corner.
After remaining at an impasse for a long time, they were still unable to trap the baleful corpse. They could only bombard the Black-Yellow Armor on its body in a continuous barrage, trying their best to wear down its earth fiend qi. Yet most attacks were dodged by the creature, yielding little result.
However, once the initial panic subsided, they began to notice a pattern. Throughout the fierce struggle, aside from the Black-Yellow Armor and the uncanny evasion technique, the baleful corpse had not cast any other incantations.
Wu Yuesheng's earlier speculation about whether the corpse could wield magic tools had been said in jest, but they had tested it cautiously nonetheless. They confirmed that aside from its nails possessing sharpness comparable to magic tools, the corpse possessed no other tricks.
Though this baleful corpse had birthed sentience, its methods were singular. No matter how formidable an evasion technique was, it remained merely an evasion technique; so long as they remained vigilant and gave it no openings, they would be safe.
In any other circumstance, wearing it down like this until its earth fiend qi was depleted—rendering it unable to sustain the Black-Yellow Armor—would have allowed them to slay it with ease.
Yet with an imminent crisis looming behind them, this was not the time to take things slowly.
Unable to subdue the baleful corpse after so long, Qin Sang was considering deploying the ebony sword when he noticed Baiyun Shanren growing increasingly impatient. Producing his Sky-Trapping Pouch, Baiyun Shanren shouted, "Do either of you fellow Daoists have a way to temporarily hold this beast down? The greatest ability of my Sky-Trapping Pouch is ensnaring enemies. As long as it is bound by the Sky-Trapping Pouch, it will be stripped of its evasion technique and have nowhere to run, leaving it entirely at our mercy! However, it requires prior preparation. Please, buy this old man some time!"
Seeing Baiyun Shanren rely on the Sky-Trapping Pouch to cross the yin wind barrier and then block the corpse's ambush earlier, Qin Sang had assumed it was purely a defensive magic tool. He had not expected it to possess such a function—it truly was worthy of being his signature tool.
Hearing this, Qin Sang and Wu Yuesheng naturally did not refuse. Answering in unison, their offensive instantly shifted.
Their figures flickered as they positioned themselves between the baleful corpse and Baiyun Shanren, driving their magic tools with all their might to attack the creature. Seeing this, Baiyun Shanren nodded, sat down cross-legged where he was, and invoked the Sky-Trapping Pouch. With eyes half-closed, he began chanting incantations under his breath.
The Sky-Trapping Pouch had originally resembled an unremarkable, dusty cloth sack, but as spiritual power flooded into it, its form underwent a transformation.
The cloth pouch hovered into midair on its own, billowing without wind. Its opening aimed toward the baleful corpse from afar. Suddenly, a violent gale rose, and tangible icy-blue winds surged forth from within, swimming through the void like schools of blue fish. It was a magnificent spectacle, culminating in the winds forming an eight-trigram wind array at the mouth of the sack.
The baleful corpse instinctively sensed the threat from the Sky-Trapping Pouch. Shifting its blood-red eyes, it locked onto Baiyun Shanren, a ferocious look spreading across its face. With a snarl, its figure vanished from the spot.
Wu Yuesheng drove his spirit sword to unleash several streaks of sword qi with whooshing sounds, but all struck empty air. He hurriedly shouted a warning:
"Junior Brother Qin!"
Realizing the corpse was coming toward him, Qin Sang swept the Five Elements Dharma-Breaking Sword outward. Sure enough, an afterimage of the baleful corpse appeared, attempting to bypass him to ambush Baiyun Shanren.
Baiyun Shanren was at a critical juncture in preparing the Sky-Trapping Pouch and could not be disturbed. Without hesitation, Qin Sang raised his left hand and flung out several talismans he had been palming.
These talismans were all earth-element talismans, capable of gathering earth-element spiritual power to form earthen walls, shields, and the like to protect oneself or block an enemy's advance.
Leaving Qin Sang's palm, the talismans burst one after another. Guided by his spiritual sense, their power coalesced in front of the baleful corpse. In the blink of an eye, thick earthen walls surged from the ground, blocking the path between the corpse and Baiyun Shanren.
*Bang!*
The baleful corpse materialized and smashed an opening right through one of the earthen walls with a single claw, brutally ferocious.
Back then, Qin Sang had pressed Sun De so hard that Sun De never had a chance to use his talismans, so they had all fallen into Qin Sang's hands. Unfortunately, the vast majority were made using Qi Refinement stage incantations, so they proved somewhat underwhelming against a baleful corpse comparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Still, holding the baleful corpse back for even an instant was enough.
With a flick of Qin Sang's finger, the Five Elements Dharma-Breaking Sword channeled sword qi and stabbed fiercely at the baleful corpse, knocking it head over heels and giving Baiyun Shanren time to evade.
Baiyun Shanren had kept half an eye on the battle the entire time. Seeing this, he continued channeling the Sky-Trapping Pouch without breaking his posture, drifting backward to widen the distance between himself and the baleful corpse.
At the same time, Wu Yuesheng produced a magic tool from his mustard seed bag resembling a green vine. With a gentle tap toward the baleful corpse, the vine shot before the creature like a lightning-fast viper.
Just as the corpse scrambled back to its feet, the serpent whipped its tail violently against its body, forcing it back several more steps and even farther from Baiyun Shanren.
Joining forces to blockade the creature, Qin Sang and Wu Yuesheng did not seek to wound it, only to stall it. Time and again, they managed by a hair's breadth to drive the corpse back. No matter how the corpse dashed left and lunged right, it was in vain; it could not breach their line of defense.
After some time had passed, Baiyun Shanren finally finished priming the Sky-Trapping Pouch. Rising to his feet, he glared venomously at the baleful corpse and drove the pouch to envelop it from above, shouting, "Fellow Daoists, hold it down quickly!"
Qin Sang and Wu Yuesheng immediately dodged to either side.
Simultaneously, Wu Yuesheng gave a low cry. The vine magic tool blazed with green radiance, shooting forth phantom images of itself that bound the baleful corpse tight and secure.
Not to be outdone, Qin Sang flipped his palm and threw out several more enemy-trapping talismans.
Chapter 166