“Rumble—”
The earth collapsed, and the sky changed color.
The Demonic Ape’s cultivation had reached the staggering late Nascent Soul Stage at this moment, but it was useless against the current Wu Yan.
Its strength was immense, but if it couldn’t land a hit, that strength was meaningless.
The effects of the Soul Governance Art far exceeded Wu Yan’s expectations. After her soul began burning, the injuries across her body suddenly seemed as if they no longer existed.
But Wu Yan knew this was only temporary.
“Roar!”
Fire spewed from the Demonic Ape’s eyes, and demonic runes lit up across its body. Under the nourishment of demonic blood, its wounds healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
It stared fixedly at the tiny human before it, its killing intent surging like a tidal wave.
Wu Yan didn’t waste any breath and took the initiative to attack.
As her long sword rose and fell, she seemed to transform into a streak of white light.
Even though the Demonic Ape had entered its second phase, doubling its strength and defense, it still appeared clumsy and incompetent before Wu Yan.
Wu Yan’s figure shifted and dodged in the air, moving so fast that not even an afterimage could be captured.
“Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!”
Each of Wu Yan’s sword strikes precisely sliced into the gaps of the Demonic Ape’s scales.
Black blood sprayed wildly. The Demonic Ape let out an angry roar as demonic flames rose to the heavens. Its fists swung frantically, its entire body spinning like a cyclone in an attempt to catch this slippery insect.
“Too slow.”
Wu Yan spoke coldly. Her body performed an incredible mid-air twist, evading the Demonic Ape’s heavy fist. With a backhand strike, her sword pierced into the ape’s shoulder, bringing forth a shower of blood.
The speed of the wound’s recovery could not keep up with the speed at which Wu Yan was inflicting damage. If things continued like this, Wu Yan would be able to kill it quite easily by relying on her speed and offense.
However, although the Demonic Ape had entered a berserk mode, a beast was still a beast. Its innate combat instincts would not disappear just because of its rage.
It realized it could not hit the white-clothed human, but there were two motionless sandbags lying nearby.
“Roar!”
A cruel red light flashed in the Demonic Ape’s eyes.
It endured one of Wu Yan’s sword strikes and chose not to counterattack. Instead, it suddenly turned around and raised its massive foot—large enough to crush mountains—and stomped down fiercely toward the unconscious Yu Qingyao!
Wu Yan’s pupils constricted.
Her originally fluid offensive was instantly interrupted by her own choice.
Then, she forcibly twisted her body, blocking the way in front of Yu Qingyao.
“Boom!”
Wu Yan used the blade of her sword to take the foot head-on. Although she blocked it, the massive counter-shock made her blood and chi churn, and her previously suppressed injuries split open once again.
“Roar!”
The Demonic Ape had tasted success.
It discovered that as long as it attacked the people lying on the ground, this powerful white-clothed human would rush over like a fool to take a beating.
And so, the situation reversed.
The Demonic Ape no longer paid attention to Wu Yan’s sword techniques. Instead, it behaved like it was playing whack-a-mole, smashing a fist toward Yu Qingyao and kicking a foot toward Bai Zhiqiu.
Wu Yan was like a tireless firefighter, transforming into light again and again to block the attacks in front of each of her companions.
“Huff… Huff…”
Wu Yan panted heavily, and the hand holding her sword began to tremble slightly.
As time passed, her condition gradually worsened.
The side effects of burning her soul began to manifest. Illusory double visions appeared at the edges of her sight, and her brain throbbed with a piercing pain as if it were being jabbed by countless steel needles.
The Demonic Ape caught a momentary opening in Wu Yan’s defense.
Its fist, burning with purple-black demonic fire, carried a momentum that could destroy everything as it smashed down fiercely toward the nearby unconscious Bai Zhiqiu!
It was a killing blow!
Driven almost by instinct, Wu Yan arrived in front of Bai Zhiqiu in an instant.
There was no time for sword techniques.
She could only hold Severing Delusion horizontally, pouring all of the spiritual energy in her body into the blade to endure this strike.
“Boom—!!!”
Fist and sword collided.
Terrifying power erupted instantly.
“Crack!”
A crisp sound of breaking rang out.
Wu Yan’s Severing Delusion, which had been repaired with Gengjin metal Powder, finally could not withstand the dual pressure of the Nascent Soul Stage Demonic Ape and Wu Yan’s surging strength.
It snapped.
The blade shattered at the brownish-black mark, and fragments flew everywhere.
Without the sword to block it, the Demonic Ape’s flame-wreathed fist drove straight through, magnifying rapidly in Wu Yan’s contracting pupils.
Is it over?
Wu Yan subconsciously attached spiritual energy to her own body. Now that her cultivation had risen to the middle Nascent Soul Stage, doing this might allow her to block the blow.
At this critical moment…
“Ang—!!!”
The sound of a dragon’s cry suddenly echoed above the ruins.
The sound was clear and high-pitched, filled with Vast Sword Chi. In an instant, it tore through the Demonic Chi and the crushing pressure.
Immediately following that, a brilliant, indescribable golden sword light transformed into a golden dragon descending from the heavens, colliding with the Demonic Ape’s fist with absolute precision.
“Boom—!!!”
An earth-shattering explosion occurred.
The intense light was so bright that Wu Yan could barely keep her eyes open.
When the light dissipated, an extremely beautiful woman appeared in front of Wu Yan.
She wore light-gold trimmed clothing, with silver-threaded cloud patterns faintly visible on her hem. A pale gold silk sash was tied around her waist, outlining a tall and slender figure with a back as straight as a sword.
Her long black hair was gathered simply with a mutton-fat white jade hairpin, fluttering fiercely in the wind without a speck of dust.
Her face was as cold as frost and snow, chillingly beautiful, and her naturally amber Glazed Pupils were as clear as mirrors, deep and indifferent.
She held a three-foot green blade, surrounded by domineering golden dragon-shaped Sword Chi. Standing amidst the ruins and pools of blood, she looked like a goddess from the nine heavens descending to the mortal world—cold, aloof, and possessing a sharpness that one dared not look at directly.
With just one sword strike, she had forcefully blocked the attack of that Demonic Ape.
The Saintess of the Lingxiao Sect, Ji Xuerou.
She turned her head slightly and glanced at Wu Yan, who was holding the broken sword behind her. A flash of surprise crossed those eyes that were like cold stars, which then turned into a warm sense of relief.
Her cold voice rang out across the battlefield:
“Apologies, I’ve arrived late.”
Wu Yan looked at that silhouette, her tensed nerves relaxing slightly as a slight curve formed at the corner of her mouth: “Not late. Just in time.”
“Can you still fight?” Ji Xuerou asked, flicking her long sword as the Sword Chi roared like a dragon.
She tilted her head slightly, her Glazed Pupils scanning Wu Yan’s somewhat battered appearance before finally coming to rest on the broken Severing Delusion, of which only half the hilt remained.
That was Wu Yan’s only reliance, and now it was nothing but scrap metal.
Ji Xuerou’s brow furrowed imperceptibly.
Wu Yan put away the broken sword and took out a spare, ordinary sect-standard long sword from her Storage Ring: “To kill it, this is enough.”
“Good.”
Ji Xuerou nodded. “Then let us do it together.”
In the next moment, two figures disappeared from their spots simultaneously.
One gold and one white, the two figures instantly began to slaughter the Demonic Ape.
With the powerful support of Ji Xuerou to share the pressure, Wu Yan was finally liberated from her passive defense.
Ji Xuerou’s cultivation was estimated to be at the peak of the Golden Core Stage. Even when teaming up with Wu Yan, whose strength had currently reached the middle Nascent Soul Stage, she could still keep up with Wu Yan’s offensive rhythm.
Though it was the first time the two of them had cooperated, they shared a startling degree of chemistry.
Ji Xuerou struck head-on, her Vast Sword Chi wide and powerful like a blazing sun; Wu Yan moved along the flanks, her sword strikes precise and rapid like an assassin under the moonlight.
“Puchi! Puchi!”
Dozens of wounds instantly exploded across the Demonic Ape’s body. The defense it prided itself on was like thin paper under their joint assault.
“Roar—!!!”
The Demonic Ape let out a shrill scream of agony; it felt the terror of death.
In just the time it takes to burn half an incense stick, this once-invincible Demonic Ape had been beaten until it was covered in wounds and its aura was nearly extinguished.
The Demonic Ape knew it could not survive.
A flash of crazed determination appeared in its blood-red eyes.
“Roar—!!”
Along with its roar, its massive body actually began to rapidly shrivel. All of its flesh, Demonic Chi, and flames disappeared in an instant, subsequently converging into the Demon God Phantom behind it.
“Clang—!”
The originally blurred Demon God Phantom suddenly solidified at this moment!
It was a terrifying demon god, a thousand feet tall with a hideous visage.
The Demon God Phantom raised its foot and stomped down fiercely toward Wu Yan and Ji Xuerou.
This strike gathered the entire life essence of the Nascent Soul Stage Demonic Ape and locked down the space, making it unavoidable!
Ji Xuerou’s expression changed drastically, and the golden light on her sword surged.
But at that moment, Wu Yan moved.
Wu Yan took a step forward, blocking the way in front of Ji Xuerou.
Because she had burned her soul excessively, her Divine Sense was now extremely weak, and the defenses of her Sea of Consciousness had dropped to their lowest point.
In this very instant, Wu Yan (Inner), who had been protected deep within the Sea of Consciousness by Wu Yan, finally found her opportunity.
“You idiot, still trying to be brave at a time like this.”
Words filled with a hint of heartache were spoken from Wu Yan’s mouth.
Hum!
An aura that did not belong to Wu Yan, yet merged perfectly with her, quietly integrated into Wu Yan’s cold white soul-fire.
Wu Yan’s gaze changed.
In her originally clear black eyes, a stray glint of bewitching red light appeared.
The ordinary long sword in her hand actually let out a wail at this moment.
She slowly raised the sword. Her movements were startlingly slow, yet so fast they seemed to transcend time.
“Illusion Sword · Mirror Flower Poem.”
The sword swung out.
There was no earth-shaking explosion, nor any dazzling light.
There was only a dreamlike, illusory mirrored surface that stretched between the two of them and the Demon God Phantom.
“Crack.”
The demon god’s foot landed on the mirrored surface.
The mirror shattered.
At the same time the mirror broke, that terrifying Demon God Phantom actually became like a flower in a mirror or the moon in the water. Along with the shattering of the shards, it crumbled inch by inch!
Using the illusory to break the real, using a fantasy to extinguish the truth.
“Roar…”
The Demonic Ape let out one last cry of unwilling grief as its massive body completely turned to ash and dissipated in the wind.
They had won.
Wu Yan maintained her sword-swinging posture, but the sect sword in her hand, unable to withstand that power, had completely turned to dust.
The soul-fire on her body slowly extinguished, and that bewitching red light also faded away.
Wu Yan’s body swayed, and she began to fall backward.
In the final moment before losing consciousness, a warm hand caught her.
Ji Xuerou supported the unconscious Wu Yan. However, those eyes—as clear as glazed glass—did not hold the joy of victory; instead, they were filled with deep suspicion.
Just as Wu Yan had swung that stunning, peerless sword strike…
Ji Xuerou’s Glazed Pupils, which were naturally able to see through all delusions, had witnessed an inconceivable scene.
She saw that behind Wu Yan’s plain white figure, a red phantom had actually overlapped.
The red shadow wore a blood-red dress and stood barefoot with a lazy yet arrogant posture.
She had held Wu Yan’s hand, guiding the trajectory of that sword strike.
That aura was cold and domineering, giving Ji Xuerou a feeling very similar to Demonic Chi.
Ji Xuerou looked at the pale-faced, defenseless Wu Yan in her arms, her gaze complex to the extreme.
What exactly was that red phantom…
She wanted to ask, and she wanted to investigate.
But the person in her arms was completely unconscious, her breathing as faint as a flickering candle in the wind.
Ji Xuerou remained silent for a long time.
Ultimately, she did not draw her sword.
She merely gave Wu Yan a deep look before taking a healing pill from her robes and feeding it to her.
The wind blew across the ruins.
That red phantom had long since disappeared, as if it had never existed at all.