Qin Sang widened his eyes, and sure enough, he saw it.
Identical objects hovered before Huang Tian and the Wuji Sect Master.
They were peculiar formations assembled from countless fragments of Boundless Blood Mulberry. Though none of these shards was as large as the piece Qin Sang had refined into his ebony sword, their combined quantity across the two formations was staggering.
It amounted to at least the greater half of a whole Boundless Blood Mulberry tree!
The moment the formations began to spin, they tyrannically drained every shred of the Blood Filth Divine Light within the fragments, gathering it into a blinding sphere of blood-red light.
The process unfolded with terrifying speed. In a mere breath, the formations had finished siphoning the divine light—far too quickly for anyone else to intervene, even upon noticing.
Such a brutal method naturally came at a cost. Once the Blood Filth Divine Light had been bled dry, the fragments faded to an ashen pallor at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Even more shockingly, fracture lines spiderwebbed across the shards before they shattered to pieces.
Their foundational origin destroyed, they were reduced to mundane wood.
In the blink of an eye, every fragment of Boundless Blood Mulberry had been ruined.
This was draining the pond to catch the fish!
This was reckless, unforgivable waste!
Qin Sang's eyes nearly split at the corners, and he roared inwardly in anguish.
Watching this, his heart bled.
If only those pieces of Boundless Blood Mulberry had been given to him! Even if they couldn't elevate the ebony sword into a top-grade magic treasure, ascending to the high-grade rank would have been a certainty!
Why would he ever have needed to worry about upgrading the ebony sword again?
Yet no one cared what Qin Sang thought.
The instant the bloody glow flared, Daoist Zhenyi immediately grasped what the Red-Haired Ancestor had been warning about, and the others realized something was horribly wrong with both men.
Ahead, the forces of the Sin Abyss bore down with menacing fury.
The Wuji Sect Master and Huang Tian had actually been bought off by the Sin Abyss!
The Lesser Beichen Star Element Formation could only fend off a fraction of the immortal formation's divine astral winds. All the Nascent Soul cultivators had been forced to deploy their own magic treasures to add an extra layer of protection.
Because they had to shelter their disciples as well, prudence dictated that they bring out their most formidable treasures, the majority of which were their life magic treasures.
If the traitors were permitted to unleash that Blood Filth Divine Light, these treasures would be hopelessly contaminated. The severe blow to their combat strength was only part of the problem—none of them would have enough time to summon replacement treasures.
Naturally, the Sin Abyss would never grant them a chance to mount a counterattack.
The Lesser Beichen Star Element Formation was not an offensive spirit array. Once their treasures were gone and the pervasive winds of nothingness closed in around them, they would have nowhere to run. Would they have any choice left but to stretch out their necks for the slaughter?
If the leadership of both domains were wiped out in one fell swoop, the Sin Abyss could claim dominion over all three domains without breaking a sweat!
What a venomous scheme!
The Nascent Soul cultivators of the Heaven-Traversing Alliance blanched in sheer terror, while Huang Tian and the Wuji Sect Master broke into mad, feral grins.
"Detonate!"
Having prepared their escape route long in advance, the two bellowed in unison, poised to detonate the blood orbs.
Yet at that exact instant, the smile on the Wuji Sect Master's face abruptly froze. Innumerable reflections of incoming magic treasures gleamed in his pupils, and pure terror overtook his features.
"You..."
Never in his wildest dreams had the Wuji Sect Master anticipated that after Daoist Chongyi passed word to the Red-Haired Ancestor, the others had already placed him under close watch.
They had merely assumed he was conspiring with the Heaven-Traversing Alliance; none foresaw that he had truly been bought off by the Sin Abyss, let alone that he would strike inside the immortal formation.
Even so, their reflexes were infinitely swifter than those of the Heaven-Traversing Alliance.
In a flash, the Wuji Sect Master was engulfed by the full-force barrage of multiple magic treasures.
Faced with a concerted strike from so many fellow Nascent Soul cultivators, the Wuji Sect Master stood virtually helpless amidst the kaleidoscope of radiant energies. His life spirit sword was instantly battered into powder.
*Boom!*
A deafening roar resounded. The Wuji Sect Master and the few Core Formation cultivators under his protection were obliterated, leaving behind not a trace of bone or flesh.
For this journey, the Wuji Sect Master had brought along only a single disciple whose lifespan was nearly exhausted; the rest were rogue cultivators or members of vassal sects—people he had clearly intended to abandon from the start.
Now, they had all been reduced to dust alongside him.
Before the aftershocks of the treasures could disperse, a battered Nascent Soul scrambled out through a gap in the blast. Looking closely, it was a miniature duplicate of the Wuji Sect Master, its face twisted with frantic panic.
Surrounded by so many watchful Nascent Soul cultivators, the Wuji Sect Master had no hope of survival. The moment he showed himself, a sword ray that had long been gathering power impaled him straight through, extinguishing his life. The one who struck was none other than Dongyang Bo.
Within the span of a single breath, the Wuji Sect Master's body died and his Dao was extinguished.
Unfortunately, though they had successfully executed the traitor, they failed to prevent the explosion of the Blood Filth Divine Light.
The tactic had simply been too unexpected. No one could have imagined that the Sin Abyss would deploy Boundless Blood Mulberry against them.
Thankfully, because they had been guarding against the Wuji Sect Master from the start, they reacted with astonishing speed. They had executed the traitor in a thunderous blow while hastily maneuvering their magic treasures to evade, buying precious moments in the process.
Even so, those closest to the Wuji Sect Master were not nearly as fortunate.
The first to suffer was Leng Yuntian.
He stood closest to the Wuji Sect Master and was distracted by the burden of sustaining the Lesser Beichen Star Element Formation.
Above his head hovered a pitch-black iron pagoda.
It stood nine stories tall, capped by a gourd-shaped finial that shimmered with faint golden light. Each tier possessed eight faces, every face bearing a single window, while the lowest story held a gate—all firmly sealed shut.
Engraved on the structure were three archaic characters: *Five Directions Pagoda*.
The pagoda's true body was merely the size of an open palm, casting a dim black sheen that sheltered Leng Yuntian and his disciples. Outwardly unassuming, it showed neither ostentation nor grandeur.
Yet during the pursuit of the Wuji Sect Master a moment earlier, it had projected a massive phantom tower that unleashed breathtaking power. That phantom had played a pivotal role in effortlessly crushing the traitor's life spirit sword and denying him any room to breathe.
Regrettably, formidable as the black pagoda was, it could not escape unscathed when submerged by the Blood Filth Divine Light.
The filthy divine light was concentrated to the extreme, washing over everything like an upturned basin of fresh gore.
The pagoda was instantly smothered. In a flash, its dark radiance dissolved; both the golden glimmer of the gourd and the black aura of the spire vanished without a trace. The already modest pagoda turned completely dull and sooty, devoid of any treasure-like splendor. Tilting violently, it tumbled from above Leng Yuntian's head.
It would likely take Leng Yuntian months of patient nourishment just to restore it.
"My Five Directions Pagoda!"
Clutching the pagoda to his chest, Leng Yuntian tried to channel his spiritual energy into it, only to find the treasure stiff and unresponsive. It was entirely useless for the remainder of their time in Ziwei Palace, prompting him to cry out in heartbroken dismay.
Suffering an identical misfortune was Patriarch Bing Han of the Xuling Sect. The robes she wore had originally been a magic treasure, but contaminated by the filth, they had degraded into coarse, common sackcloth.
Bing Han shook her head. Though pained, she did not lose her composure quite like Leng Yuntian.
Aside from them, another demonic cultivator met with bad luck, while the rest barely managed to steer their treasures away. Though splattered to varying degrees, their losses remained manageable.
Chenyan had darted forward to shield Qin Sang and his companions, using one of her own magic treasures to protect them. Had she not done so, the Five Elements Beast Seals would likely have been ruined as well.
The Blood Filth Divine Light erupted abruptly and dissipated just as swiftly.
All things considered, the overall strength of the Lesser Cold Domain had suffered little damage.
The Heaven-Traversing Alliance, however, enjoyed no such fortune. Caught unprepared, not only did they fail to stop Huang Tian from detonating the blood light, but they also allowed him to breach their encirclement and make good his escape.
Nearly every one of their magic treasures had been tainted by the Blood Filth Divine Light to some degree.
Chapter 565