Chapter 97: Giant Demon Mirage

As a wisp of his mind and consciousness floated into his dantian’s spirit sea, Qin Lie suddenly became stumped. He found that the whirlpool within the spirit sea had stopped its rotation since who knows when.

Even if he channeled spirit energy and gathered his strength, that whirlpool within dantian and the spirit sea still remained motionless.

Staring blankly for a bit, he concentrated and attentively surveyed the situation and found that the spirit energy within his dantian’s spirit sea seemed to have decreased by a lot…

Yet the spirit clouds lingering above the spirit sea that were originally spread thin and existed everywhere were currently distributing themselves in bundles; furthermore, each and every bundle was concentrated and thick.

It wasn’t that spirit energy had decreased. Rather, it became more pure and congealed; from loose and scattered, to refined and concentrated.

As though it was completely purified once by the whirlpool.

“Rumble!”

Heavenly Thunder Eradication began to channel. The dantian’s spirit sea still showed no change, yet the rumbles of thunder came from every bone in his body.

Trace after trace of fine electric current shot out from all of his acupoints like sparks and flowed along his body’s vessels lightning fast. All of them gathered toward the spirit sea’s direction.

Qin Lie’s heart trembled.

Ever since he started cultivating Heavenly Thunder Eradication, the thunder and lightning energy concealed within the depths of meridians, bones, and flesh had never before drawn close toward the dantian’s spirit sea of their own accord!

There had always been a clear line between thunder energy and spirit energy; normally, they would not flow together.

Only when he battled with other people would some of the thunder and lightning energy discharge as his spirit energy flowed from within his spirit sea, gathering together with spirit energy and causing it to fill with the power of thunder and lightning, thereby increasing the might of his attacks.

Under normal conditions, the power of thunder definitely wouldn’t spontaneously converge into his spirit sea!

Something’s wrong!

Qin Lie began to get anxious. Just as he was about to focus his mind to control them, he discovered that even his head was also rumbling nonstop. His entire body was like the origin of thunder, unceasingly quaking.

As of this moment, the thunder energy within his body had actually escaped his control. Becoming violent and turbulent, it all flooded toward the spirit sea within his dantian.

As the first batch of violent and overbearing thunder energy fell into the dantian’s spirit sea, his mind suddenly jolted. With that, he instantly lost his ego, as well as all of his consciousness and thought. It was as though he was pulled into a small world within the dantian, violently surging and roiling within the dantian’s spirit sea, along the direction of the thunder’s flow in his body.

He lost himself. Closing his eyes, his body slightly trembled as he was incapable of controlling it.

Meanwhile, the enormous vile soul that had transformed from the Soul Devouring Beast’s soul fragments roared within the flames, crazily crashing onto the light shield congealed by Dark Asura Hall’s generals.

“Bang!”

The ice blue light barrier collapsed all of a sudden as blue light scatteredly shot out.

Instantly, two generals of Dark Asura Hall madly sprayed out blood. Vigor dissipated within their bloodshot eyes.

“Qin Lie! Gao Yu! Is there anything you can do? If you do, then act on it already!” Ban Hong was raspily roaring, but unfortunately, his voice was incredibly quiet and hoarse.

He had already exhausted everything he had and didn’t even have the strength to shout very loudly.

On his fingertip, a miniature purple colored spirit snake was trying to solidify, yet it could not truly take form at all.

Traces of blood uncontrollably flowed out of Ban Hong’s nostrils, ears, and eyes. His expression was mournful, yet he was helpless.

At this very moment, the Soul Devouring Beast rabidly pounced onto Liang Zhong. His Azure Moon’s brilliance was gradually fading. In addition, his shoulder possessed a few wounds that were still being eaten away by the poisonous fluid.

Liang Zhong could not assist the others in any way.

Outside the valley, Crimson Flame Association’s Xiong Ba, Water Moon Sect’s Na Nuo, as well as Nebula Pavilion’s Tu Ze, Zhuo Qian, and others, all looked appalled and anxious, intimidated by the crisis within the valley.

They subconsciously approached the valley, wanting to find someway to help out in order to assist Liang Zhong and Dark Asura Hall in their fight against the Soul Devouring Beast.

“All of you stop! Don’t make extra trouble for us!”

Liang Zhong’s body was flung away. While in midair, he was burned by a flame ray and his hair caught on fire.

He saw the imperativeness on the faces Xiong Ba, Tu Ze, Na Nuo, and the others, so he understood what they were thinking. He hastily chided them with all his strength, not allowing them to take a single step into the valley.

Na Nuo, Xiong Ba, and Tu Ze’s footsteps stopped immediately upon being scolded. Their expressions became more and more anxious, and their hearts grew increasingly restless.

They understood very well that this was the battle’s most critical moment. If either Liang Zhong and Xie Jingxuan fell, Dark Asura Hall’s people would end up in an extremely precarious predicament.

Especially for Xie Jingxuan. Inciting the Vermillion Bird’s blood with all her power, she was completely defenseless.

Wild and bloodthirsty, that vile soul had already shattered the various layers of defensive light barriers. If the vile soul managed another step and proceeded to destroy the dark green layer, it would be able to barrel toward Xie Jingxuan’s head without obstruction, becoming able to heavily wound or even kill her while she was in deep concentration.

Once Xie Jingxuan died, no one would be able to keep on increasing the Eight Extreme Trigram Fire Formation’s power, which meant that the Soul Devouring Beast wouldn’t be smelted down, that they would also be unable to stop the Soul Devouring Beast’s rank advancement.

The meticulously planned extermination operation would also go down the drain, and they would all immediately bear the bitter consequences of failure.

While the Soul Devouring Beast could slaughter all martial practitioners in the stone forest with viciousness of a rank four if it successfully broke through to its next rank, Icestone City, Water Moon City, and Crimson Flame City would all likely bear the painful consequences of their failure as well, resulting in an ending where all cities would become devoid of life.

“Qin Lie!”

“Qin Lie!”

Ban Hong and Gao Yu were both staring at Qin Lie and shouting as loudly as they could, hoping that Qin Lie could induce heavenly lightning to fall down this very moment, relieving the crisis of the vile soul’s descension.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Qin Lie could not hear them and was unaware of their expectations. His eyes were tightly shut, and his body unceasingly trembled.

There was no thunder rumbling in the nine heavens, and there was no lightning on Qin Lie’s body either; everything seemed ordinary.

Ban Hong and Dark Asura Hall’s martial practitioners gradually gave up hope and lost their faith in Qin Lie. Every one of them had dimmed expression in their eyes, as though they understood that the operation was about to fail.

“Whoosh Whoosh! Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh!”

Above everyone’s heads, all of the Soul Devouring Beast’s soul fragments gathered together and transformed into a several dozen meter tall dreadful vile soul.

This vile soul accumulated all of the soul fragments’ strength, exuding an extremely foreboding pressure. After it took shape, that final dark green light barrier promptly burst apart.

Xie Jingxuan suddenly found herself in a defenseless state.

She had her eyes closed from beginning to end, but as if feeling the terrifying pressure from the air above, her eyelids also trembled for a bit.

“Milady! This subordinate is useless!” Ban Hong raspily shouted.

“Aooo!”

The enormous vile soul that condensed into one suddenly pounced down from the skies with heaven shaking viciousness and might, moving to eliminate all the nuisances in one fell swoop, which meant everyone, including Xie Jingxuan.

An eccentric fluctuation came from Xie Jingxuan’s body. Her eyelids below the ghost mask trembled even more violently as though she was trying really hard to wake up.

But it was unknown what trouble she encountered; even though she was trying hard to struggle free, she seemingly couldn’t do it.

The vile soul, as though bringing thick layers of black clouds with it, was about to descend, wishing to instantly eliminate all threats.

Ban Hong closed his eyes in despair, and all of the martial practitioners lowered their heads, not daring to look.

“Eh?”

However, at this crucial moment, Gao Yu cried out in surprise. A ripple suddenly radiated from the Ogre-faced Rings on his hands.

In the next moment, the Nine Hell Wandering Soul Record that Gao Yu painstakingly cultivated for many years, as well as his entire body’s sinister and cold spirit energy, all madly flowed into the Ogre-faced Rings.

“Kekeke!”

Threads of ink-like, pitch-black, sinister energy, dispersed from his body. That ink-like energy current rose up to the sky, swaying, and slowly came together on top of Gao Yu’s head, forming into a enormous and indistinct apparition.

That apparition had a mountain-like body, two large curved horns on the head, and a pair of pitch-black wings that could mask both the sky and earth.

The apparition was vague and indistinct, and its true appearance could not be made out. However, the moment it finished forming, a terrifying aura manifested, as though the apocalypse filled everything, from the heavens to the earth.

This imposing aura, it was demonic and evil to the extreme!

It was like an enormous demon from the depths of the nine hells had descended upon this land, struggling free from its infinite shackles and chains.

Both in and out of the valley, all sentient beings, as long as they possessed souls, felt their souls shuddering!

One after another, the Arctic Mountain Range’s spirit beasts crawled down at the outer ranges. Their beastly bodies shook violently as though submitting onto the ground.

The legs of Tu Ze, Na Nuo, Xiong Ba and everyone else outside the valley trembled,and under that pressure of the enormous demon mirage, they couldn’t even steadily stand.

Their willpower was utterly destroyed!

Inside the valley, Liang Zhong, Ban Hong, and martial practitioners of Dark Asura Hall suddenly felt their breath had become heavy, as if a mountain was pressing onto their shoulders. Their hearts quaked in fear as they all looked toward Gao Yu and that enormous demon mirage floating about Gao Yu’s head, aghast and pale.

Even the enormous vile spirit formed from the Soul Devouring Beast’s soul fragments also stopped its culling at this moment.

Compared to the enormous demon apparition above Gao Yu’s head, that vile soul formed by all the soul fragments seemed to have been weakened all of a sudden, as though its ferocity was suppressed; it actually did not dare to pounce down.

The Soul Devouring Beast’s main body, which made Liang Zhong more and more into a sorry figure, also stopped its hunt against him. Its three ice cold, sinister, and evil eyes all looked toward that indistinct demon apparition, and all three of them simultaneously revealed an intense expression of dread.

Just like how a low ranked creature that was suddenly looked down upon by a vicious entity at the top of the food chain would instinctively feel fear.

Soul Devouring Beast was afraid; whether it be the main body or the soul fragments, both felt anxious at the same time.

It stopped. Both its main body and the vile soul formed by the soul fragments were silently observing, not daring to act rashly.

Different from the vile soul congealed by the Soul Devouring Beast, this terrifying vicious demon apparition that flew out from Gao Yu’s body wasn’t in the slightest afraid of the scorching flames. It floated amidst the torrential flames, completely unaffected.

Its emergence caused all living things both inside and outside the valley to become dismayed and restless, resulting in the intense battle coming to a sudden stop.

Everyone was awed by the terrifying demon mirage that emerged above Gao Yu at this time. All gazes that looked toward him were filled with fear and anxiety.

Yet, Gao Yu, who was fixedly stared at by everyone, had an extremely weird expression.

He looked toward Qin Lie…

He could faintly feel the restlessness of this enormous demon mirage that had appeared inexplicably. He seemingly heard urging voices that traveled directly to his soul; that voice seemed to be the demon’s voice coming from above his head.

“Quickly leave! Leave this place, leave this place!”

Gao Yu had never heard of each and every one of these odd syllables, yet he understood the meaning.

—That voice was anxiously urging him to leave.

Even though Gao Yu did not know what that demon mirage was afraid of at first, after he took a step toward Qin Lie, that voice suddenly became even more urgent and frightened. With that, he suddenly understood.

The cause of the sudden emergence of that demon mirage didn’t seem be the vile soul above, nor was it the Soul Devouring Beast…

It came out because of Qin Lie!

—It was simply forced out by Qin Lie!

Unbeknownst to the reason nor what it felt, it just suddenly came out. It was continuously urging Gao Yu, telling him to leave, telling him to quickly depart from here!

—Keep away from Qin Lie!

“Why? Just why is it? What exactly do you have on you? What are you going to do? It made even the Soul Devouring Beast tremble and made the spirit beasts outside prostrate themselves, not daring to move. Yet why is it so afraid of you, why does it want me to leave your side?”

The bottom of Gao Yu’s heart was shouting. Each and every sound of the urging voice that directly traveled to his soul caused his head to ache, as though it was going to burst apart.

He clutched his head in pain, his expression was hideous, and his eyes stared at Qin Lie as he retreated backwards step by step.