C1016 One Against Three

Thousands of crimson strands of sword light converged into a massive, shimmering orb that slowly enveloped Gou Yungui. Simultaneously, radiant fractures in the ground, as if sliced open by the sword light, encircled him.

The Taintborn Sect's hunchbacked elder, a practitioner in the middle period of the Solar Spirit, realized the direness of his predicament. Attempting to escape the sword light's embrace, he found himself surrounded by these ominous cracks.

Each fissure burst with flowing light, reminiscent of starshards detonating, creating the illusion of fleeting meteors.

Not new to the extraterrestrial realm, he recognized the cracks harbored unspeakable horrors. The three Veilwalk techniques that sprang to his mind were abruptly dismissed. Clenching his teeth, he removed a white jade porcelain bottle from his waist and tossed it overhead.

The bottle swelled with the wind, gurgling as it released a stream of colorful liquid. Gou Yungui shrank into the bizarre, viscous fluid, which then enveloped the white jade porcelain bottle and gently rose into the air.

With a whoosh, the ball of crimson sword light closed in, its blades piercing the vivid liquid and silently vanishing.

Yu Yuan, having imbued the sword light with his remnant soul, sensed the blades like fish darting into a murky, luminous sea, their destination and depth unknown.

"There's some trickery here," he noted, a wry smile playing on his lips as he raised his sword for another strike.

"Moonfall Strike."

The relentless barrage of crimson sword light fused into the glowing sphere, relentlessly applying pressure.

Clink!

Soon enough, he was rewarded with the crisp sound of the white jade porcelain cracking under the assault of the sword light.

In the following instant, he unleashed the Fiendish Might and channeled the Altar of Rebirth. He mustered the ferocious vitality from his acupoints and surged through the space rifts like a bolt of lightning, bypassing his own scarlet sword light, and descended like a Star River giant beast into the vibrant liquid.

The viscous liquid clung to him like numerous anacondas, with what seemed like endless tentacles trying to penetrate his flesh.

Unfazed, he harnessed the intuition of the Lunar Spirit and the power of the crimson sword light to carve a path through the depths.

Swoosh!

Beams of crimson sword light ripped open a luminous passage, abruptly widening his view.

He spotted Gou Yungui, now several times smaller, clinging to the white jade porcelain, his face dark with malice.

"Kid, you've bypassed the road to heaven and instead, you've chosen the nonexistent gate to hell!"

Gou Yungui let out a chilling laugh. After spending a century in the Star River of the extraterrestrial realm refining the filthy liquid, it surged toward Yu Yuan like a bizarre dire beast.

"Just a Solar Spirit clone dares to challenge me?" Yu Yuan chuckled and shook his head.

"Explode!"

With a mere thought, the fierce vitality and refined spiritual energy within his acupoints ignited like millions of tons of explosives within the vibrant liquid.

Gou Yungui, now part of the liquid, grunted as he realized his painstakingly refined porcelain and the special liquid he had gathered from the extraterrestrial were being relentlessly bombarded by an unyielding force.

Each explosion made him empathetically suffer, so much so that he felt like spitting blood.

Outside.

Sun Jun of the Ruby Hand, having witnessed Yu Yuan unleash waves of crimson sword light and then charge in with his corporeal body, inhaled sharply.

"Sister Nan, Yu Yuan's physical might surpasses that of Forgeroses cultivators at the same level! No, that's incorrect. This isn't the kind of power a human should possess!"

Sun Jun's purple eyes bulged, threaded with veins.

In his urgency, he swallowed the eyeball, warming it with his own vitality.

His telepathic voice echoed in Zhan Ruonan's Heart Lake, "In the Everlands, many eighth-level archdemons don't possess vitality as fierce as Yu Yuan's! Without relying on spiritual energy or remnant soul, his mere physical form could vanquish eighth-level Shura warriors! He's nothing like the kin we know!"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A massive whirlpool, spawned by the Bane devils, suddenly emerged with a powerful suction force.

Chebus cackled ominously as the Grimlantern's wick flickered. In the whirlpool's epicenter, the Armor Crusher and Silver Chain locked onto Huang Zhenlong from the Poison Cult, activating the Circle of Damnation.

Caught off guard, Huang Zhenlong felt the world spin around him.

Before he could gather his wits, he unwittingly and willingly stepped into the vortex created by the Circle of Damnation.

In an instant, Huang Zhenlong vanished.

Immediately after, the four great Banes – Grimlantern, Armor Crusher, Silver Chain, and Chebus – followed suit, sinking into the whirlpool's core in the direction of his disappearance.

This spectacle sent shivers down the spine of Yang Yi from the Binders of Shadows.

Yu Yuan's intervention was swift and decisive; Gou Yungui was first enveloped by a sphere of crimson sword light, and then, without the chance to use any spells or artifacts, Huang Zhenlong was swallowed by the Circle of Damnation.

Suddenly, Yang Yi was filled with regret.

But at that moment, he was horrified to discover that the Arctic Breath, which had frozen Veilfall Canyon and its environs, had stealthily shifted to his location.

He looked up in alarm.

The Frost Queen, striding upon a sea of ethereal green flames, approached from above.

Green flames poured down like a deluge, transforming his domain into a realm of bitter cold and ice.

Forget the Solar Spirit Body; it seemed even his fleeting thoughts could freeze into dust.

Yang Yi's gaze sought help from Zhan Ruonan and Sun Jun, who were calmly watching the unfolding events.

But within seconds, his consciousness and thoughts began to solidify, and the brilliance in his eyes crystallized into ice – just like his Solar Spirit Body.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Under the chilling embrace of the Frozen Flames, Yang Yi was encased in a sculpture of ice.

The relentless ice energy continued to penetrate his flesh and soul, and the struggle in his eyes slowly dissipated under its assault.

"Sister Nan," Sun Jun managed to say as he removed the peculiar eyeball from his mouth, his voice tinged with bitterness.

He realized it wasn't the taste of the eyeball that was bitter, but rather the overwhelming power displayed by Yu Yuan that left a bitter taste in his mouth.

It was clear to anyone that the battle between the Frost Queen and Yang Yi, where she appeared to be severely injured by three spells, was nothing but an illusion. In reality, the Frost Queen, unleashing her full ice force, was every bit as powerful as Zhan Ruonan in the late period of the Solar Spirit Realm, not to mention Yang Yi from the Binders of Shadows.

"I..."

Zhan Ruonan from the Ruby Hand was visibly tense. She had intended to prevent Yu Yuan from wreaking havoc and to assist her three comrades, with whom she had fought for many years. However, when the moment came to act, she hesitated. Her hesitation stemmed from the warning Yu Yuan had issued before he took action—a warning she had once found amusing, now carried a genuine deterrent force.

"You're free."

At Yu Yiyi's soft exclamation, the ice broke with a crisp sound, and Benin, who had been tormented by Yang Yi, stood up shakily. The white spell on her forehead crumbled into icy flakes and scattered on the ground. She wiped her face, removing the frozen blood, and made her way to the Dragon Slaying Stage with unsteady, slow steps.

"Cauldron spirit!"

It was only then that Zhan Ruonan and Sun Jun noticed another peculiar presence, comfortably dangling its legs while seated on the rim of the cauldron, unmoved.

"Don't think you're so impressive just because you have more people and higher realms of power," Yu Yiyi said, lips pursed, casting a sidelong glance at Zhan Ruonan and Sun Jun. "If it weren't for my master's special relationship with Miss Yuan of the Ruby Hand, you two might not be safe right now."

Zhan Ruonan and Sun Jun exchanged uneasy looks.

"I refuse to believe that Yu Yuan has any energy left to deal with us," Sun Jun declared, his voice low but firm. Yu Yiyi's provocation had angered him, yet he wasn't intimidated by the plight of Yang Yi, Gou Yungui, and Huang Zhenlong. "Sister Nan, are we going to fight or not?"

Their five-person squad had been on missions together for years, knowing each other well and always coordinating seamlessly. Sun Jun was loath to see the team, which had taken so long to build a rapport, disband over Yu Yuan in the Nirvana Realm.

Additionally, he had the impression that Yu Yuan had exhausted all his strategies, making it improbable that he had any more fearsome contingencies left.

"You've forgotten about Peach Madam," Zhan Ruonan murmured.

Sun Jun whirled around and indeed, the Rainbow Ocean unleashed by Peach Madam had engulfed the black iron warship, towing the sizable vessel through the air towards them.

"Why are you staring at me? I'm merely here to observe the battle. I have no obligation to assist Hong or Yu Yuan."

Peach Madam nearly slipped up, nearly revealing Yu Yuan's past identity. She inhaled deeply, savoring the murky spiritual energy, and declared, "Pay me no mind. I shall purify the foul energy of this realm. Once my task is complete, I'll soar into the Star River, and we shall keep to our own paths."

"Benin!"

Hart from the Silverscale Tribe, elated, gazed at the Voidweaver girl and gestured enthusiastically.

Yet at that moment, Benin, who was very near the Dragon Slaying Stage and surrounded by shattered ice, appeared dazed as she fixated on a particularly vast space rift.

It appeared that something within was capturing her full attention.

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