Deploying six divine birds was not what Qin Sang had wanted.
This was the first time six birds were brought out together. Qin Sang had no idea how powerful they would be or how great a commotion they would cause.
With Deity Transformation cultivators right overhead, the Five Elements Divine Restrictions might not be able to conceal the fluctuations of the Nanming Primordial Fire.
Yet Qin Sang had no time to hesitate; the situation demanded it.
The giant demonic soul Su Zinan had formed by integrating the Three Corpses God-Perishing Banner, coupled with the Burning Spirit Blood Sacrifice, posed a lethal threat to Qin Sang.
The Burning Spirit Blood Sacrifice in particular required three demonic souls of late Nascent Soul strength to unleash simultaneously. Su Zinan's evident strain in driving it spoke volumes of the technique's terrifying might.
In this predicament, Qin Sang had no desire to test whether three divine birds or the blood slash was stronger. His incarnation was in imminent peril; a moment's hesitation would bring unthinkable consequences.
The safest choice was undoubtedly to dispatch all six Sun God Birds to force Su Zinan back and rescue his incarnation.
And since he had to pay a price, Qin Sang naturally did not want to merely repel Su Zinan. It would be far better to end things once and for all, eliminating future troubles forever.
If Su Zinan were allowed to escape and complete all three souls, he would become even harder to deal with.
The man harbored sinister designs and had made things difficult for him repeatedly. Qin Sang had tolerated it up to now only because he hadn't been certain of slaying him, and because he had come up the mountain with a clear objective—the opportunity for Deity Transformation—and didn't want complications to derail his plans.
The instant he saw an opportunity, Qin Sang would strike without hesitation to exterminate this scoundrel.
Consort Yue's reminder and Daoist Hegao's recent reprimand both indicated that Old Demon Lu was not trapped in Wuwang Hall like Saint Huiguang, but had ascended and departed this realm.
Slaying Su Zinan would therefore not carry the risk of Old Demon Lu's retaliation.
Matters of the lower realm were settled in the lower realm.
If he truly had a day of ascension, it would not be too late to worry about Old Demon Lu's threat then. According to Ghost Mother, the vast multiverse was boundless; running into him would hardly be that easy.
The present moment was a crisis, but it was also an opportunity.
Just like when he had first become able to command the Sun God Tree, wielding six divine birds left Qin Sang with almost no real control; simply awakening them pushed him to his limits.
Their power was beyond question, but they lacked maneuverability.
If an opponent refused to clash head-on, the attack could easily miss.
Su Zinan in particular—the disciple of a Deity Transformation cultivator—possessed countless secret treasures and divine abilities, and had two demonic souls to attack on his behalf while his true body lingered on the periphery, making him the most difficult type of opponent to deal with.
Yet Su Zinan was bent on snatching the Five Elements Pill and had held nothing back, fusing the three souls to forcefully block Qin Sang from rescuing his incarnation. That was precisely what gave Qin Sang his opening.
However, once six divine birds stirred on the Sun God Tree, anyone who wasn't a fool would know their power had to be far more terrifying than three.
Su Zinan was obviously no fool.
The Five Elements Pill was an external object after all; if the situation turned hopeless, Su Zinan would never fight to the death over it.
At the critical juncture, Qin Sang had made a decisive call, awakening the Gu King in his dantian without hesitation to release toxic light solely to slow Su Zinan's reaction.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
More than half the branches of the Sun God Tree emptied in an instant.
The divine birds traced six streaks of crimson flame across the void. Dazzling streams of fire illuminated the interior of the sword array in brilliant crimson.
Guided by Qin Sang's desperate efforts, the trajectories of the six crimson flames intersected and ultimately converged in the void. The blaze grew blinding, the aura of spiritual fire turning turbulent in the extreme. The silhouettes of the divine birds vanished entirely, leaving only a mass of blazing crimson fire.
Qin Sang's true essence hit bottom in an instant, a wave of profound weakness abruptly sweeping over his entire body.
Panting heavily, he felt as if he were suffocating. His vision was filled with nothing but that mass of raging fire, and a look of shock surfaced in his eyes.
Unleashing six birds at once consumed even more than he had anticipated. He had barely managed to awaken the six divine birds, sketch the simplest and most direct trajectory, and force the strike out before his true essence ran dry.
From this point on, the Nanming Primordial Fire was entirely beyond his control. Whatever stood in its path—even if he were to stand before it himself—would suffer the exact same fate.
Its might seemed to be far more than a simple addition of three more divine birds...
Facing the blaze head-on, Su Zinan felt it even more vividly.
The toxic light had not let Qin Sang down.
The toxin ran rampant inside the giant demonic soul, rattling it to the core. By the time the three demonic souls pooled their strength to suppress the toxic light, they witnessed the blood slash being swallowed whole by a mass of raging fire.
The blood slash, despite its vast and ferocious momentum, offered virtually no resistance.
The bloody water surging from the blood slash evaporated cleanly the moment it touched the fire, then vanished completely along with the slash itself without leaving the slightest trace, giving way to rolling flames.
The blaze radiated a furious aura beyond Su Zinan's imagination. He could not conceive of any flame possessing such power—how could a mere late Nascent Soul cultivator wield a force like this?
The giant demonic soul's pupils dilated, its eyes stained crimson by the fire and filled with dread and unrest, reflecting Su Zinan's internal terror.
Its mouth gaped wide, yet it seemed choked by the throat, unable to utter a sound as the terror deepened. In an instant, the flames surged forward right before it, making the giant demonic soul feel as if it were about to melt.
At this moment, Su Zinan felt only endless regret.
Had he not been determined to claim the Five Elements Pill at all costs, he would never have clashed with Qin Sang head-on. He could easily have sent the two demonic souls to hold the front, allowing him to retreat unscathed even if Qin Sang revealed his trump card.
Had he not been impaired by the Gu King's toxic light, he would also have had a chance to react when the six divine birds were launched.
Now, everything was too late.
Inside the sword array, the sword stars hung in formation, their pure starlight transforming the space into a celestial expanse of starry sky.
In the depths of space, a single sword star had been tainted by dense blood qi, blood light soaring into the air and turning it into an eerie blood star. Yet neither the starlight nor the blood light was nearly as dazzling as that flame.
Standing before the flame, the giant demonic soul wavered, its legs trembling as it tried to pull back and retreat, but before it could dodge, it was swallowed by the blaze, following in the footsteps of the blood slash.
In the next breath, the vague outline of a burning humanoid figure appeared within the blaze, flailing its arms in what seemed like a desperate death throe. Its body shrank at an astonishing rate until even its silhouette disappeared.
Having swallowed the giant demonic soul, the blaze remained ferocious.
Like a fiery meteor piercing the celestial realm, crashing into this starry sky from beyond the ninth heaven, it plunged irresistibly into the blood array formed by the Burning Spirit Blood Sacrifice.
The blood array was already operating at its peak.
Countless ghostly fiends and bloody apparitions lunged toward the sword star.
Empowered by layer upon layer of reinforcement, thick gore churned across the blood bubble's surface. Twisted, agonizing heads emerged from the slurry, only to be dragged back down by other ghostly fiends because of their sheer density, accompanied by heart-wrenching howls and shrieks. The legendary Underworld could hardly have been more harrowing.
Anyone trapped at the heart of the blood array could not escape the tribulation of having their spirit burned away.
Gurgle, gurgle...
Amid the sound of churning gore, the snapping of strings seemed faintly audible.
Though it sounded as if the void itself were shattering, it was actually the noise of the sword intent barrier being overwhelmed and collapsing under the blood array. Barely any starlight could be seen inside the blood bubble now.
This sword star was on the verge of destruction.
The incarnation sheltering inside faced a crisis of life and death.
Given just a little more time, the blood array would have consumed the sword star, and Su Zinan might have gotten his wish—yet that moment would never arrive.
The vanguard of the Nanming Primordial Fire plunged into the blood array. Looking at its path, it was not aimed at the center of the blood array; otherwise, it would have obliterated the incarnation rather than rescuing it.
Crash!
The blood array was provoked by the aura of the Nanming Primordial Fire into raising monstrous waves of blood. Immediately after, the blood array launched its counterattack, driving the blood waves back and slamming the reversing surge violently against the blaze.
Then, the moment the blood waves touched the fire, they evaporated cleanly.
The tightly structured blood array was instantly torn open by the fire, and a rolling torrent of flame rushed through the breach, sweeping away all resistance like deadwood.
Blood light flared and burst as runes shattered one after another and countless ghostly fiends were obliterated. The blood array could no longer mount an effective counterattack and was ultimately pierced clean through by the stream of fire.
As if crushed by a torrent of destruction, a deafening rumble echoed as a vast swath of empty space appeared on one side of the blood array—the exact path through which the fire had charged.
The array was utterly ruined!
The bloody glow abruptly dimmed. Other parts of the blood array disintegrated in succession, and the blood light trapping the sword star popped like an actual blood bubble.
The runes within the array dissolved. The ghostly fiends and bloody apparitions—neither their origin nor their destination known—had vanished entirely.
Starlight pierced through the remaining gore.
The sword star reappeared, far dimmer than before. Within it sat a seated phantom with a square seal above its head and a Tengshe coiled around its body—Qin Sang's incarnation.
The incarnation opened his eyes, the terror in them lingering still.
Just now, the Nanming Primordial Fire had grazed past him, barely different from facing it head-on. In that split second, he had felt as if he were about to be crushed into oblivion by the torrent of fire alongside the blood array.
As the blood bubble blocking his sight cleared and his vision returned, before the incarnation could even take in his surroundings, he heard a piercing scream.
The scream came from Su Zinan.
The instant the giant demonic soul was swallowed by the Nanming Primordial Fire, Su Zinan had risked everything to forcibly use a secret reversal technique, pulling himself out of the demonic soul state so that he did not accompany his two demonic souls to the Underworld.
Yet because of the toxic light, his movements had been half a beat slow, costing his true body the chance to escape unscathed.
Whoosh!
Su Zinan's physical body suddenly caught fire.
Returning to his physical form, Su Zinan's expression contorted in sheer agony as he let out a shrill scream. Fire surged through his flesh from the inside out, burning straight through his robe.
Exposed completely naked, half of his body was charred black, virtually reduced to a scorched corpse. Illusory flames flickered outward from within, threatening to incinerate him entirely.
Evidently, though Su Zinan had not perished on the spot, he had been struck by the impact of the Nanming Primordial Fire and was now tormented by the spiritual fire's aftershocks.
Not only him, but the Three Corpses God-Perishing Banner standing beside him also showed signs of igniting. However, because the two demonic souls had already perished, the Nanming Primordial Fire did not spread across, though the banner face had visibly changed.
Originally, there had been three human heads on the banner face. After Su Zinan murdered Old Wu and Old Man Yanshan in succession, it had turned into two figures and one head.
Now the figures were gone, leaving behind two crimson scorch marks where sparks spread, burning two gaping holes through the cloth. The faceless head remained, but it was far blurrier than before and on the verge of collapsing.
With the six birds unleashed: the souls perished, the banner was ruined, and the array was shattered!
"Ahhh..."
Su Zinan's physical body, Nascent Soul, and primordial spirit were all burning. Pain enveloped him everywhere, piercing to the marrow. Grievously injured, his life force drained away at terrifying speed. His screams were shrill, steeped in boundless fury, grief, and desolation, making him look like a madman.
He felt immense regret, having ruined his bright future for the sake of the Five Elements Pill.
He felt immense hatred, loathing Qin Sang to the bone.
Yet he had not lost his sanity. He was still alive, and life meant hope. So long as he secured a sliver of survival, he could make a comeback and seek his vengeance.
Hum!
A sudden blue glow appeared beneath Su Zinan's feet, coalescing into a dainty round mirror.
The rim of the round mirror was transparent, resembling ice crystals, while the mirror surface rippled as if connecting to another location.
The round mirror expanded as its blue light flared, producing a circular diagram about a zhang across. Inside, water rippled over dark depths as profound as an ancient well, resembling a water gate.
This treasure was none other than Old Man Yanshan's Qianhuan Mirror, the very artifact he had used back then to shake off Qin Sang and take away the Water Element Master's relics. After Old Man Yanshan was captured by Su Zinan, this treasure had fallen into Su Zinan's hands.
When his demonic soul entered the banner, everything belonging to Old Man Yanshan was plundered by Su Zinan.
This included the Qianhuan Mirror, which Su Zinan could borrow for his own use. Wary of Saint Huiguang, he had made thorough preparations before making his move, having laid out Qianhuan Mirrors elsewhere beforehand. The Five Elements Divine Restrictions were riddled with flaws now and could no longer trap anyone.
Once the spirit pill was in hand, he would flee Dishou Mountain immediately.
Only, Su Zinan had never expected to flee in such a manner, fueling his hatred even more.
Water ripples swayed gently as Su Zinan grabbed the ruined banner and leaped inside.
A stream of pure white cold qi shot forth from the center of the blood array.
In an instant, a layer of white frost coated the round mirror's surface, freezing the water.
Crack!
The round mirror shattered from the cold.
At the same time, across various cliff faces of Dishou Mountain, silhouettes of round mirrors flashed continuously, paving a path of ice mirrors leading straight out of the mountain. Yet as the round mirrors flashed and phantom figures faintly emerged on their surfaces, the sound of cracking resounded without pause. With each mirror that appeared, white frost spread over it, freezing both mirror and phantom until they cracked apart.
Until the very last one shattered.
Inside the sword array, the round mirror broke into several pieces, and Su Zinan's figure reappeared. The swirling mirror shards reflected Su Zinan's despairing eyes.
He knew Old Man Yanshan had used the Qianhuan Mirror in front of Qin Sang, but once set up, the Qianhuan Mirror was notoriously difficult to break even if one were prepared. What he never could have anticipated was that Qin Sang had once received the legacy of a former master of the Qianhuan Mirror in the North Sea and knew the mirror's crux, cutting off Su Zinan's retreat directly with the Ice Soul Divine Light.
Swish!
Su Zinan transformed into a flash of blood light. He had not given up; burning his remaining half-corpse of flesh and blood, he executed a blood escape.
Suddenly, a Tengshe descended from above, whipping its long tail violently into the blood light. Amid a shrill scream, a gray silhouette stumbled out from the blood light, only to be frozen solid on the spot by the frigid chill that followed immediately behind.
Though it took long to tell, from the divine birds' strike to the incarnation capturing the crippled Nascent Soul was merely the blink of an eye.
The torrent formed by the Nanming Primordial Fire, having shattered the blood array, surged forward in a mighty rush until the flames completely lost balance, expanding rapidly into a colossal fireball from which countless streams of fire erupted outward.
Like a great sun, it dimmed the surrounding stars.
Even more violent was the interior of the fireball. As the Nanming Primordial Fire erupted completely, cracks formed around the perimeter of the fire. The surrounding sword stars were driven by some force to move over and block the stray flames, but the power of the sword array could not suppress the Nanming Primordial Fire.
Boom!
Visible from outside the mountain, the rosy clouds formed by the Five Elements Divine Restrictions suddenly grew violent at the golden position. A fissure split open in its center, spewing masses of red fire outward.
The sword array, which the Wuxiang Immortal Sect had poured all its might into deploying back in the day, was actually torn apart by the Nanming Primordial Fire, its very foundations shaken!
Suppressing the toxin within him, Qin Sang's expression changed drastically. He jerked his head up, only to see the flying swords roaming the heavens and the suspended lake steeped in devilish qi, before his gaze met a pair of seductive, bewitching eyes.
Watching the plumes of spiritual fire shooting out of the clouds, those eyes narrowed slightly.
Chapter 1685