C605 Spiritual Evil Technique
Du Huang of the Ancient Desolate Sect, along with several of his youthful peers, felt their blood surge as they sprinted towards the mist with the agility of powerful cheetahs.
"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
Thunderous footsteps that shook the earth suddenly erupted from behind them.
One turned to look back, his face draining of color, fear causing his steps to halt abruptly.
Sensing trouble, Du Huang glanced over his shoulder and let out a cry of alarm.
His voice was laden with terror and anxiety.
Behind him loomed a massive crocodile, as large as a mountain, shrouded in a dense aura of death. It seemed to tread on white clouds as it rapidly closed in.
The dead crocodile advanced, its flesh peeling away with each step.
In mere moments, the creature was reduced to a ghastly skeleton, dripping with blood and sinew, its speed increasing dramatically.
The sight of the skeletal beast from a distance shattered Du Huang's courage, his soul feeling as if it were about to scatter to the winds.
Du Huang realized instantly that this deceased crocodile was being manipulated by a formidable force intent on their destruction.
Suddenly, an unseen binding power enveloped Du Huang and his fellow disciples.
Those who had been fleeing as if carrying mountains on their backs found themselves unable to move an inch further.
Du Huang bellowed, channeling his inner strength. Within his body, explosive springs of blood erupted, bolstering his divine power in an instant.
"The might of the Ancient Desolate Barbarian God!"
Whoosh!
Du Huang tore through the enigmatic restraint and shot forward like an arrow released from its bow.
The blood-soaked crocodile skeleton charged, its hoof-like feet crushing his sect brothers beneath its weight.
Overwhelmed by fear, Du Huang suppressed his sorrow, refusing to look back or dwell on the scene, focusing solely on escape.
...
The Totem Pillar of the Nagas.
The purple jade dragon, having absorbed the venom along with Loong Tianxiao's blood and soul, began to swell swiftly.
Its breath transformed into bolts of purple lightning, coursing through its draconic form.
Sensing the presence of the elder patriarch, the purple jade dragon was filled with an unexplainable thrill. It morphed into a strikingly handsome man dressed in fine purple silk.
He looked up at Loong Tianxiao, whose body was ravaged and nailed to the dragon-patterned pillar. He could feel the rot in his dragon flesh and the slow infiltration of the deadly toxin.
"You, a vile creature, have no right to exist in this world. Your death will even heal my wounds completely. In a way, your death is fitting."
The purple jade dragon said, laughing joyously, "The old patriarch, your father, has been freed."
Loong Tianxiao, barely clinging to life and awaiting death at the dragon pattern pillar, had eyes of ashen gray, revealing nothing but stillness. His wrinkled mouth twitched slightly.
That small movement seemed to cause him unbearable pain, making him gasp repeatedly.
"If I could live on, you, my father, and every dragon in Hidden Dragon Lake—I would hunt you all down, one by one." Loong Tianxiao's voice was faint, barely audible unless one listened intently.
"That's an impossibility."
The jade dragon sneered maliciously, "I won't obliterate the last wisp of your dragon soul just yet. I want you to retain your consciousness, to slowly feel the poison seeping in, your dragon flesh rotting away."
With those words, the jade dragon let out a triumphant dragon's roar and joined Loong Jie and Loong Yang.
Moments later, the jade dragon, now in human form, reached the hovering palanquin.
"Old Patriarch!"
The jade dragon bowed deeply to Loong Jie, his eyes ablaze with fervent adoration.
"Let's discuss this outside."
Loong Jie yanked the jade dragon into the hovering palanquin to join Loong Yang, then asked, "Is that Loong Tianxiao dead?"
Loong Tianxiao was his son, his own flesh and blood, yet Loong Jie spoke of him as if he were a stranger.
Such was the cold-hearted nature of this elder dragon.
"Not yet. He'll suffer as the poison slowly eats away at him before death claims him," the jade dragon reported.
"Loong Yang has informed me that he's a traitor to Hidden Dragon Lake. His death is of no consequence," Loong Jie said dismissively, then steered the palanquin away, soaring into the distance.
...
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The three figures from the Demon Palace, escorted by the small green snake and flying midair, met a sudden and explosive demise, their bodies bursting without warning.
Blood and shattered bones were strewn about in a grisly display.
Zhan Tianxiang, his hair wild and unkempt, stood with his leather armor reduced to dust. His bare skin bore the image of a colossal golden elephant, exuding a domineering and ferocious presence that commanded attention.
The golden totemic elephant, as if summoned from thin air, lent its strength to Zhan Tianxiang, helping him endure the onslaught.
Zhao Yafu let out a muffled groan as the token bestowed by the White Divine Tiger, emblematic of the Demon God Sky Tiger, burst forth with blinding radiance.
The light cocooned her, emitting sparks that crackled in the air around her, as if an unseen force was relentlessly assailing her, only to be repelled by the token's power.
The diminutive snake, once the grand commander of the Demon Palace, hovered in place, coiling its body as it spoke in the ancient tongue of the demon race, "The one responsible is a woman named Chi Hongyi. Her lute playing unleashed a silent sound that claimed their lives."
The snake's voice was devoid of emotion as it delivered its account.
"You two have survived solely because you possess the Demon Weapon Spiritual Treasures."
With this explanation, the former grand commander of the Demon Palace resumed its path, adding, "But whether you can make it out alive from the Desolate Swamp remains uncertain."
Even this formidable demon harbored doubts in such perilous times.
...
At the Sword Prison.
Yu Yuan, under the watchful gaze of Chung Miao and the others, approached the rear of the Sword Prison with a docile and subdued demeanor, confronting the grotesque visage on the opposite side.
The face carved into the back of the statue, wrought from the Sword Prison itself, was twisted with malevolence, radiating an aura intent on obliterating all life and bringing about the collapse of the world—an embodiment of pure evil.
Yu Yuan stood tall, his gaze locked with the sinister face behind the statue.
Chi Hongyi and the Yin Corpse King watched him with a haunting intensity, their eyes wide with bewilderment.
Above the statue, a snow-white robe fluttered as if stirred by an unseen presence, suggesting the return of the master's fragmented soul.
Suddenly, Yu Yuan sensed the soul imprint left by Zhan Yun within his Consciousness Little World begin to tremble violently, sending ripples through his very being—his three souls, his mind, and his emotions.
The hand that held the soul imprint remained steady, not yet swayed by Zhan Yun's influence, as Yu Yuan followed through on his intent and approached the statue's rear, his grip firm on the sword's sheath.
With his other hand, he called forth the Evil Cauldron from his Violet Palace point.
The cauldron's soul unleashed a frenzied roar within his heart.
Yu Yuan's eyes slowly took on a deep, enigmatic quality, as if infiltrated by an external soul force, stripping him of his own identity.
Yet Chi Hongyi and the Yin Corpse King, despite being under the statue's control, exhibited none of these symptoms.
Yu Yuan's dark, unsettling gaze swept over Chi Hongyi, Zhao Jie, Chung Miao, and Chung Mann.
The seductive Chung Mann, with no hesitation, drew a sharp awl and pierced her own heart, dying instantly.
Chung Miao, her mind linked with her sister through the Bright Sect's sorcery, felt a violent upheaval in her heart lake at Chung Mann's death, sending a sharp pain through her mind.
Beads wrapped in lightning burst forth from Chung Miao's sleeves, detonating suddenly.
Zhao Jie, who had brought the sisters together, was engulfed by hundreds of lightning strikes, the thunderous power from the beads rending her flesh into an indistinguishable mass.
In agony, Zhao Jie, dazed and disoriented, lashed out at Zhan Yun, her mentor in the Bright Sect's secret arts.
The four members of the Bright Sect were suddenly embroiled in a deadly fray.
"A mere enchantment dares to confront the statue of the Divine Soul Sect? You truly have no idea of your own stature," Yan Qiling scoffed, as though he had anticipated this very chaos.
