Nine Phoenix King

The two demons exchanged a glance, swiftly formed hand seals, and cast their final spirit items into the gray mist atop the altar. "Do it!" Gu Heng barked an order, his voice strained with effort. The demons knew precisely what to do. Pressing their palms against the altar, they poured in their true essence. Qin Sang disguised his with demon qi, and fortunately, he gave nothing away. Whether through their combined efforts or the effect of those final two spirit items, the celestial beast engravings on the altar suddenly began to shimmer with wondrous light, and the white jade structure shone with mounting brilliance. The stone hall was illuminated by the altar until every minute detail stood revealed. At the same time, the gray mist violently churned, and the altar emitted a deafening hum. Immediately following, a pillar of light soared toward the sky, crashing against the stone vault in the blink of an eye. The demons were instantly swept off their feet by the shock wave. Muffled groans rang out in succession as they hastily retreated toward the entrance of the stone hall to escape the impact, their expressions rife with astonishment. No wonder the demon king had commanded them to set up the formation in a place like this. The momentum of the spiritual formation was astonishing; without the ancient restrictions to contain it, that pillar of light would have shot straight into the clouds, visible throughout the entire Hall of Seven Kills, which inevitably would have drawn human cultivators toward them. At the ceiling, the ancient restrictions flared, intercepting the pillar of light. Two mighty forces clashed against each other. Fortunately, the ancient restrictions were powerful enough, holding firm against the pillar of light without breaking. Slamming relentlessly into the ancient restrictions, the light pillar not only showed no sign of dissipating, but grew even more dazzling, its power steadily mounting. The entire cave dwelling trembled. Even now, none of them could discern the purpose of this spiritual formation. Right then, Fairy Caiyi seemed to sense something. She let out a soft exclamation of surprise and turned her beautiful eyes to stare fixedly at the altar, a trace of suspicion flickering across her gaze. The next instant, the gray mist enveloped within the pillar of light parted to both sides. A sliver of silver light flashed from within, resembling a door swinging open, and an exquisite silhouette stepped out from within with graceful strides. Seeing this, all the demons were struck dumb with shock. They never could have imagined that once the spiritual formation was activated, someone would actually emerge from the gray mist. This spiritual formation did not resemble a teleportation formation in the slightest! With this sudden turn of events, Qin Sang was seized by an ominous premonition, and his expression shifted subtly. The moment the figure emerged, the altar ceased its tremors, and the pillar of light retracted. They could finally clearly see the figure's true appearance—a woman in court attire, exuding an air of nobility. "Ninth Aunt?" Recognizing the woman's face, Fairy Caiyi lost her composure and gasped in utter disbelief. "Ninth Aunt... It's her, the Nine Phoenix King?!" "Impossible! How could she be here?" "Could it be..." Once the demons realized her identity, a commotion broke out among them. This woman was a Transformation stage great demon of the Demon Sea's Phoenix Clan—the Nine Phoenix King. No one had expected that the Nine Phoenix King, who should have been in the Demon Sea, would suddenly appear in the Hall of Seven Kills. The reason these young demons had been able to slip into the Canglang Sea was twofold. First, the True Art of Blood Burning had aided their early transformation. More importantly, their cultivations were not high. The human cultivators had never anticipated a secret art capable of allowing Demon Core stage beasts to transform prematurely, so their guard had been down. A true Transformation stage great demon was an entirely different matter. Both the human and witch races maintained the tightest vigilance against them. Every Nascent Soul cultivator passing through the teleportation formations underwent the strictest scrutiny. No matter how well a Transformation stage great demon concealed themselves, it was impossible for them to infiltrate the Canglang Sea through a teleportation formation. Listening to the demons' clamor, Qin Sang inwardly lamented his misfortune. Dealing with a few half-step transformed demons had been perilous enough, and he had believed he could slip away once the task was complete. Yet unexpectedly, a genuine Transformation stage great demon had now arrived. He grumbled internally. What on earth were the Nascent Soul experts of the human and witch races, from both the righteous and demonic factions, doing? Letting a Transformation stage great demon sneak right under their noses—the Canglang Sea had practically turned into a sieve. Inside the corpse puppet pouch, Bai was so furious he nearly spat blood. *A jinx of a millennium!* He longed to rush out and curse right in Qin Sang's face, yet he dared not make the slightest move, feeling utterly suffocated. "Greetings, Nine Phoenix King!" The demons hurried forward to pay their respects. Qin Sang dared not lag behind and mingled among the crowd. "Rise," the Nine Phoenix King said with a casual glance over them. Looking at the dazed Fairy Caiyi, her expression softened with affection, and she teased, "Caiyi, what's this? Aren't you glad to see your Ninth Aunt?" "Of course I am!" Fairy Caiyi transformed into an endearing, bashful maiden, shaking her head like a rattle-drum. "Caiyi just hasn't seen Ninth Aunt in so long, and I never dreamed we would reunite here! Could this spiritual formation be a teleportation formation that transported you from your cave dwelling to this place?" The Nine Phoenix King offered a wry smile. "If such a teleportation formation existed, things would be far simpler. In truth, I was not far outside the Hall of Seven Kills, waiting for you all to act. This spiritual formation helps me activate the Heavenly Phoenix Plume, tearing through space to teleport me here. Of course, had the human cultivators not opened a rift in the outer immortal formation first, not even the Heavenly Phoenix Plume could have breached it." "The Heavenly Phoenix Plume? Ninth Aunt, you brought that along too?" Fairy Caiyi gasped. The other demons were bewildered, none of them knowing what the Heavenly Phoenix Plume was. It was clearly a supreme treasure of the Phoenix Clan to cause Fairy Caiyi such a loss of composure. Could it truly be a feather from an ancient heavenly phoenix? "Wait, Ninth Aunt, why were you outside the Hall of Seven Kills? How did you reach the Canglang Sea? Have we found a teleportation formation that leads here?" Fairy Caiyi realized, her face lighting up with excitement. Gu Heng, who had remained silent all along, suddenly narrowed his gaze. "Senior Nine Phoenix King, is my royal father also outside the Hall of Seven Kills?" The other demons chimed in with their own eager questions. One demon, eager for chaos, declared excitedly, "Senior, do you intend to wipe out all the human cultivators who entered the Hall of Seven Kills in one fell swoop? This junior is willing to do his part!" "It is a long story. There is no teleportation formation, nor did I cross the storm belt. If there truly were an easy path into the Canglang Sea, we would not have endured the human cultivators running amok in the Demon Sea, slaughtering our descendants while we remained helpless against them!" the Nine Phoenix King said resentfully. "Only I came across this time. To send me into the Canglang Sea, the Flood Dragon King and the others paid an immense price, and I suffered grievous wounds that nearly cost me my life. Fortunately, I carried enough treasures with me and hid on a desolate island to recuperate for several decades..." "Could that holy war have been..." Realization dawned on the demons. Qin Sang was similarly enlightened. Decades ago, turmoil had suddenly erupted across the Demon Sea when the demon race launched an audacious assault on Tianwu Island. It was said the crisis on Tianwu Island had been so dire that the Witch Clan nearly sealed the teleportation formation and abandoned the island entirely. Later, the demons went on to besiege the human race's Dahuang Island, and the humans suffered heavy casualties before managing to repel them. Could the true objective of the demons in launching that war have been merely to send the Nine Phoenix King into the Canglang Sea? He had no idea how they had managed it. Qin Sang had never expected to overhear such deep secrets. What did the Nine Phoenix King intend to do after sneaking into the Canglang Sea? Infiltrating had been arduous enough; returning would be nearly impossible. Alone, with at most a few junior demons who had transformed early through a secret art, no matter how powerful she was, she could not stir up much of a storm on her own. What was the point? *The Hall of Seven Kills!* Qin Sang's heart skipped a beat. Could the real target of the demon race's elaborate plotting also be the Hall of Seven Kills?