Su Zinan tossed out a bundle of gossamer netting with a flick of his wrist.
The netting unfurled in a billowing sweep, revealing itself to be his familiar dragon tendon silk net, shrunk and reshaped for convenience.
Woven entirely from cords of dragon tendon, it spread out like an expansive chessboard. Glinting luster rippled across its surface, giving the impression of dragons and serpents gliding beneath.
They appeared fierce and awe-inspiringly formidable.
Su Zinan had clearly been on guard. The instant the heavenly thunder crashed down, the dragon tendon silk net had already left his hand, billowing open at blinding speed right above his head.
The net snapped taut with a sharp ring, metallic and resonant as a ringing blade.
The spiritual mist roiled violently as the dragons and serpents reared their heads.
Boom!
The heavenly thunder plummeted with the crushing weight of ten thousand jin.
In a flash, the mist shattered, pierced clean through by the thunderbolt, and the phantasmal dragons and serpents collapsed in ruin. A massive crater dented inward at the very center of the dragon tendon silk net. The explosive power of the lightning burst forth across the mesh, and countless electric arcs shot along the grain of the dragon tendons, turning the whole mesh into a web of lightning.
As if alive, the dragon tendons convulsed violently under the brutal onslaught, twisting into a tangled ball that bundled the lightning's force within.
Su Zinan did not even spare a glance for the tumult above. Shifting his gaze, he stared at the streak of light shooting toward him like a bolt of lightning and chuckled darkly. "So that's it! It's your incarnation!"
He recognized Qin Sang's incarnation.
Years ago, that incarnation had paid a visit to Old Man Yanshan, only to turn against him later on the snowy plains to divide the relics of the Water Element Master.
After capturing Old Man Yanshan, Su Zinan had pieced together the incarnation's background and learned of his acquaintance with the Fire Demon, with whom the incarnation had previously joined hands on the snowy plains.
The Fire Demon had intercepted Old Wu outside the tomb.
Consort Yue had then met her 'death' at the incarnation's hands.
One inside, one outside—the two had cooperated seamlessly. Had Old Man Yanshan not been slightly more cunning, not a single treasure would have left that tomb.
Now, their simultaneous appearance on Dishou Mountain was further proof of their close connection.
It was precisely because Su Zinan had factored in the Fire Demon that he had resolved to strike right now.
From their previous clashes, it was plain to see that the Fire Demon had virtually no weaknesses and was an exceedingly troublesome adversary. Su Zinan had long abandoned the notion of imprisoning the Fire Demon's Nascent Soul.
He considered the Fire Demon a formidable rival. If the incarnation were allowed to rendezvous with the Fire Demon and hand over the Five Elements Pill, wresting it away would become nearly impossible.
At the moment, the Fire Demon was nowhere in sight, having either been scared off or lurking in hiding.
Furthermore, the incarnation would never expect anyone to dare snatch the Five Elements Pill right under the noses of Deity Transformation cultivators. His vigilance would be at its lowest, offering the highest chance of success.
What Su Zinan had not anticipated, however, was that their bond was this deep.
External incarnations derived from orthodox Daoist schools were subject to many restrictions, yet their presence was entirely natural and their divine abilities profound, far surpassing ordinary heterodox arts.
When appearing on its own, an external incarnation could even deceive Deity Transformation cultivators.
Of course, it was also possible those grandmasters had been too preoccupied with the demon body to pry into the incarnation's roots.
Unable to fathom the divine abilities of Deity Transformation cultivators, Qin Sang had actually felt quite uneasy earlier, worried that his incarnation's true nature might not escape their discernment.
Even if Su Zinan had 'seen' both the incarnation and the true body through the memories of Old Wu and Old Man Yanshan, it would have been difficult to connect the two.
Now, with the situation critical, Qin Sang had neither the strength nor the need to keep up any pretense. As the true body and incarnation manifested together, Su Zinan caught that faint, almost imperceptible trace of shared resonance and instantly understood.
"Courting death!" Qin Sang roared in fury.
Within the streak of flying light, Qin Sang's gaze burned with earth-shattering murderous intent, piercing like twin blades that stung Su Zinan's eyes.
Su Zinan sneered, dismissing Qin Sang's threat with cold disdain. "A late Nascent Soul true body together with an external incarnation wielding a spirit treasure, yet you still let that old ghost Yanshan outwit you, steal the Water Element relics, and escape unscathed. Calling you a piece of trash is an understatement..."
Before his mocking words were finished, an incoming beam of sword light cut him short.
The Jinchen Sword ripped through the air, traveling even faster than Qin Sang's true body.
The sword's shrill, urgent hum seemed stoked by its master's burning rage.
Having witnessed the might of Qin Sang's sword array, Su Zinan's expression darkened slightly. Before the Jinchen Sword could reach him, he sent a mental command to the black ruler that had been relentlessly pounding the sword star.
Whoosh!
The ruler's afterimages snapped back. The black ruler wheeled around, tilting slightly as it surged to meet the Jinchen Sword.
Bursts of black radiance detonated incessantly across the ruler with thunderous booms, blooming like exploding demonic lightning flowers fraught with violent tempestuous force.
Wherever it passed, demonic lightning bloomed, weaving a dense thicket of black filaments through the surrounding void.
It looked as though the ruler were shattering space itself.
As the black ruler advanced, its momentum climbed higher and higher until the ruler's physical form vanished entirely, leaving only a black sun surrounded by a colossal solar wheel.
Boom!
The sword light was like a rainbow piercing the sun!
A pinpoint of radiance pierced the heart of the black sun, and the dark sphere began fracturing from its core, laying bare the black ruler inside.
At that moment, the Jinchen Sword vanished. Unbeknownst to all, the void had grown dim as crisscrossing sword threads wove the sword array into the solar wheel, relentlessly grinding away the ruler's might.
Amidst ringing metallic clashes, the black ruler shuddered violently, raining ruler silhouettes across the eight directions.
Su Zinan had deliberately let the Jinchen Sword close in. The black ruler's solar wheel locked viciously with the sword array. Though battered and frayed by the array's assault, it held its discipline, clinging desperately to tangle with its foe at any cost.
Everything was proceeding according to plan. Su Zinan paid no heed to the clash; his gaze was already fixed upon the sword star, seemingly piercing the starlight to behold the incarnation sheltering within.
He had no designs on Qin Sang's Nascent Soul. First, Qin Sang was far too strong; second, the looming threat of the Deity Transformation cultivators hung overhead. Engaging in a prolonged life-and-death struggle with Qin Sang here was anything but wise.
His sole objective was the Five Elements Pill!
Relying on the spirit treasure, divine light, and the sword intent of the sword star, the incarnation had somehow managed to hold out against the joint assault of Su Zinan and the two demonic souls.
Su Zinan glanced toward the two demonic souls from the corner of his eye, his gaze narrowing slightly.
Even while trading blows with Qin Sang's true body from afar, his hands had never stopped. The blood qi between the man and the two souls had grown so thick that its metallic tang turned foul and rancid.
The blinding crimson glare outshone even the brilliance of the sword star.
The blood qi spread in a triangle, with Su Zinan's true body and the two souls stationed at the three vertices. The demonic banner stood tall at Su Zinan's side. Drained of luster, the sword star looked like a lonely skiff adrift upon a sea of blood, on the verge of capsizing at any moment.
Such a spectacle was hardly random. Though ordinary eyes could not see through the blood qi, the surging might within it was unmistakable.
Su Zinan turned slightly, flashed a savage grin at Qin Sang's true body, and struck the demonic banner with his palm.
Smack!
The Three Corpses God-Perishing Banner shook.
Its banner surface billowed, and a faceless human head drifted out from within.
This was the third demonic soul, one that had yet to assimilate a Nascent Soul.
Forced out of the banner, the faceless soul could make no expression, yet its sheer terror was palpable in the presence of its master and the two completed companions.
The dense blood qi made it tremble all the more, cowering as it tried to retreat.
Su Zinan gave a cold snort, a guttural syllable pressing from his throat. The faceless demonic soul froze instantly, unable to put up the slightest struggle, and drifted toward Su Zinan on its own.
The next instant, a beam of light shot out from Su Zinan's crown. His Nascent Soul left the body, paused briefly, and plunged straight toward the faceless demonic soul.
Swish!
As the Nascent Soul merged within, the faceless soul let out a piercing shriek as its face bulged outward.
The howling abruptly ceased. Facial features molded into shape, becoming an exact replica of Su Zinan.
True spirit nourishment, the three corpses assembled!
Reborn as a demonic soul, Su Zinan stood beside his true body, pressed close to the demonic banner. Lowering his gaze, he looked not at the sword star, but at the roiling sea of blood qi.
Beneath his gaze, the blood qi suddenly grew dead still, devoid of even the slightest ripple. Beams of crimson light manifested across the mist, the three outer ones particularly thick and dazzling.
Connected to the three demonic souls, these three crimson beams traced out a triangular blood array.
Inside, an even denser network of blood threads, both thick and thin, etched out myriad nether ghosts and blood creatures of every grotesque shape, a hundred times uglier and more terrifying than the demons of legend.
The sword star lay squarely at the center of the blood array, surrounded by legions of nether ghosts and blood creatures. It was as though it had been plucked from a river of blood only to be hurled into Avici Hell, its sword light tainted by foul malice.
"Spirit Burning!" the Su Zinan demonic soul shrieked.
Su Zinan's voice could still be heard within the howl, though it sounded eerie and ethereal.
The demonic souls of Old Wu and Old Man Yanshan roared in unison.
In an instant, bloody radiance soared into the heavens.
This was the most potent blood-path divine ability at Su Zinan's command: the Burning Spirit Blood Sacrifice.
This divine ability belonged to the same lineage as the techniques practiced by him and Old Wu, but it had not originated from the manuals themselves. Rather, Old Demon Lu had deduced and passed it down to Su Zinan.
Though Old Demon Lu's Dao foundation was not rooted in the blood path, he understood the value of drawing connections across diverse arts and held great interest in blood techniques. He had taken Old Wu as a servant precisely because he saw Old Wu's talent, using him to corroborate his demonic arts.
In truth, Old Demon Lu and Old Wu were master and servant, but also akin to master and disciple.
As Old Wu's cultivation surged by leaps and bounds and Old Demon Lu's demonic art reached great completion, the latter deduced the great divine ability known as the Burning Spirit Blood Sacrifice.
The art Su Zinan cultivated was a fusion of Old Demon Lu's demonic methods and Old Wu's blood arts. Because he had received far more guidance from Old Wu, his style leaned heavily toward the latter. Yet with his current cultivation, executing the Burning Spirit Blood Sacrifice remained immensely taxing; he had to rely on the Three Corpses God-Perishing Banner.
Had the three souls been complete, it would have been far easier.
With two complete and one missing, it could only be cast with great strain.
Without three full souls, the step of true spirit nourishment was required. Lacking advance preparation, he could only execute it as he was doing now—trapping his opponent within the sword star and surrounding them to ensure nothing went awry.
True spirit nourishment would also leave both him and his demonic souls weakened, meaning it was not something to be used lightly.
In his earlier bout with Mo Xingdao, Su Zinan had tried multiple times to encircle him, but Mo Xingdao's puppet escape techniques were too formidable, slipping through his fingers every time and denying him the opportunity to deploy the Burning Spirit Blood Sacrifice.
Now, to seize the Five Elements Pill, Su Zinan held nothing back!
With the three souls in place, the blood array attained completion.
Amidst the blinding crimson glare, the array's outlines sharpened, and the nether ghosts and blood creatures within seemed to come alive, scrambling frantically toward the central sword star.
The sword star was no longer visible. A colossal blood bubble had swelled at the center of the array, enduring horrific concussions as muffled explosions tore through its interior.
Witnessing this, Qin Sang's true body felt his eyes nearly split with fury. Shrouded in his astral fire barrier, he tore through the black ruler's halo in a flash. With a wave of his hand, red radiance flared, and the Sun God Tree spun into the air, blazing with incandescent light.
Su Zinan's demonic soul let out a low growl.
The ground beneath the three demonic souls jolted violently as they transformed into three beams of soul light, shooting above the blood array.
The lights converged in a flash, turning into a giant several tens of zhang tall.
The giant's facial features were distinctly discordant. On closer inspection, it leaned closer to Su Zinan, yet the visages of Old Wu and Old Man Yanshan were also discernible. The spiritual auras of all three demonic souls were blended together in an unsettling composite.
The giant's body was not solid flesh either. Like the demonic souls, it appeared somewhat phantasmal, much like a spirit.
Swish!
The giant snapped open its eyes, glaring at Qin Sang's true body. A pinpoint of blinding flame reflected in its pupils, mirroring the Sun God Tree.
With the Burning Spirit Blood Sacrifice fully unleashed, the sword star was utterly submerged in blood light, while bizarre, twisted silhouettes writhed across the central bubble.
The pressure bearing down on the incarnation skyrocketed to terrifying levels.
With the Five Elements Pill almost in his grasp, Su Zinan would never permit Qin Sang's true body to disrupt him. The giant strode forward, blocking Qin Sang's path. Looking down as if gazing upon an ant, it raised a finger and slashed downward.
A faint red glow flickered at the fingertip, leaving behind a stark trail of blood as it sliced through the air.
The blood streak appeared like a portal cut through the void to the Blood Prison, darting toward the Sun God Tree with blistering speed as boundless blood water surged from the fissure.
Su Zinan intended to strike preemptively.
Though he had never personally faced the Sun God Birds, he had witnessed them several times and had a general grasp of their might. Even if this blow failed to force Qin Sang back, stalling the Sun God Birds was well within its power.
He needed only to buy a fraction of a breath to breach the sword star and seize Qin Sang's incarnation.
The Sun God Tree radiated dazzling light. Streams of Nanming Primordial Fire coursed along its trunk, eventually congregating at the boughs to form the Sun God Birds.
Confronting the crushing blood streak, the Sun God Tree's luster did not dim in the slightest. If anything, the crimson light set off its brilliance, making the divine birds appear all the more lifelike.
The trunk trembled faintly as the divine birds beat their wings.
The giant's eyes narrowed slightly.
Suddenly, an abrupt change occurred. A shrill screech rang out from within Qin Sang's body. It was clearly not a sound Qin Sang had produced, but one originating from his dantian!
Inside the dantian.
The sword intent of the Yunyou Sword had been working in tandem with the Poison Pearl to suppress the Gu King.
Suddenly, both lost control.
The sword intent spiked violently, shattering the balance. To the Gu King's senses, this was an attempt on its life. Jolted awake, it instinctively lashed out in retaliation, spewing forth a wild torrent of poisonous light.
The toxic light erupted inside Qin Sang's dantian.
This move was undeniably fraught with extreme risk, but Qin Sang had preemptively channeled the Poison Pearl to shield himself, which would soften the brunt of the venom.
Under his deliberate guidance, the poisonous light erupted straight toward the giant.
Swish!
The giant demonic soul had been fully braced to counter the Sun God Birds. How could it have anticipated an unheralded blast of toxic light spewing directly from Qin Sang? It took the hit full on, and because the poison was so vicious, its body momentarily stiffened.
Having seen firsthand how the scar-faced man died, supplemented by Lu Zhang's experience, Qin Sang knew the Gu King's toxic light could harm spirit bodies. What he could not be sure of was how much damage it would inflict on the merged trio of demonic souls.
Of course, his goal was not to poison the demonic souls to death, but to exploit that instant of venomous invasion to delay his opponent's reactions and carve out an opening for himself!
Whoosh!
The Sun God Tree erupted with blinding flames unlike anything seen before. The firebirds spread their wings and soared from the boughs.
Not three, but six!
Six firebirds took flight all at once!
In an instant, Qin Sang's true essence drained away like floodwaters breaching a dam, leaving him utterly exhausted.
By the time Su Zinan forcibly suppressed the toxins invading the giant's form, all he saw was his blood streak being swallowed whole by a raging inferno.
Chapter 1684