Chapter 354: The Final Battle (Part 2) (Bonus Chapter 21 for Average Subscriptions)

Before their eyes materialized that strange, wondrous, and magnificent treasure-sword, the Nanming Li Fire Sword, its vast blueness resembling condensed crystals of dark ice, upon which spectral blue flames rose and flared, looking like fire yet tasting of ice.

The prowess of this blade was distinctly not inferior to the twin swords, and in certain aspects, it proved even superior.

Every Shushan cultivator, along with the disciples of Wutai Mountain, Qingcheng Mountain, and Emei, had gathered in a single hall; this was a momentous matter concerning the very survival of the entire Shushan cultivation world!

Yet at this moment, they still faced a monumental and arduous barrier—entering the Blood Cavern to rescue Li Yingqi, who had been abducted when the demon-corrupted Dan Chenzi destroyed Emei.

To enter a place of such perilous hazard as the Chiyou Blood Cavern in the flesh was clearly fraught with layers of danger; exiting the body as a primordial spirit to enter was the optimal course, yet this in turn spawned another difficult riddle: Youquan would very likely hunt for the enters' physical forms, waiting for a chance to obliterate them, and should that happen, the strength of Shushan would absolutely suffer a devastating blow.

In the end, a plan could only be settled upon where only Xuan Tianzong and Lian Xing (the reborn Changkong Wuji), wielding the Thunder-Flame Sword, would enter the Blood Cavern to retrieve Li Yingqi and the Heaven-Strike Sword.

Meanwhile, their physical bodies would be concealed at Wutai Mountain, relying on the singular power of the Wutai Mountain sect to guard against a sneak attack should the Blood Demon emerge from seclusion, striving at the very least to delay for a period of time.

At the exact instant the two entered the Blood Cavern, a phenomenon of blood-colored clouds capping the summit manifested within the sky; to call them blood clouds was, in truth, to describe a vast ocean of blood that blanketed the heavens and cloaked the earth, surging grandly and turbulently from above the Blood Cavern toward Shushan.

The entirety of the sky was obscured by the sea of blood; within the heavens, there was no longer light, nor were there clouds, only the blood of the full sky flowing and cascading!

The sea of blood surged, unscrupulously displaying to the mortal world the Youquan Blood Demon's grand, world-shaking power—a boundless, world-invincible might that had even forced Bai Mei into an immediate ascension!

Standing beneath such an ocean of blood, feeling a demonic majesty far more peerless and boundless than before, all the cultivators currently watching felt their legs involuntarily turn soft.

"Even if a true immortal descended to the world, I fear they might not necessarily be able to contend with this?!" Even the habitually calm Daoist Master Xi Chi showed a trace of panic upon her face as she watched.

"Master, against such a demon king, can anyone truly stand in resistance?" Feng Hua and Yue Xin clutched the edges of Su Tianji’s robes, trembling with fear, wishing for nothing more than to shrink beneath their master's garments.

"This Great Array of Blood Clouds is boundless and without end; let alone a man, even the ordinary majesty of heaven and earth is naught but a toddler learning to walk before it," Nalan Hongwu clicked his tongue in awe. "To think this demon king, in so short a time, has evolved to such a realm."

Within the fearful gazes of the Black Demon, Daoist Red Wing, and the others, there also lurked an endless excitement: "I wonder what sort of divine ability this Youquan Blood Demon cultivates; if we could but comprehend a mere speck of it, we would likely enjoy its benefits without end and profit for a lifetime!"

"What is there to comprehend in such an evil, bizarre, and treacherous divine ability?" Naturally, there were those who snorted in disdain. "Setting aside True Master Bai Mei, if one could but learn a few fractions of Xuan Tianzong's true legacy, it would be enough to last a lifetime."

"Yet... what a pity for Dan Chenzi..." Lan Mo exhaled a long sigh.

Xuan Tianzong possessed the Nanming Li Fire Sword, but the demon-corrupted Dan Chenzi could draw upon the endless demonic energy of the Blood Cavern; within this Chiyou Blood Cavern, even Xuan Tianzong, who had obtained the Nanming Li Fire Sword, could be said to possess not the slightest advantage.

Watching the interior of the Blood Cavern, where Xuan Tianzong and Dan Chenzi—these two close friends of yesteryear—were forced to unfold a duel of life and death, many could not help but wring their hands and sigh in sorrow.

"Look quick, Li Yingqi has been rescued!"

"Now Lian Xing, having recovered his cultivation, is formidable as well!"

"I wonder if the Heaven and Thunder twin swords can still successfully combine..."

Almost every single scene felt as though they were walking upon a tightrope, where the slightest error or omission would plunge the entire Shushan into eternal damnation, causing everyone to watch with unbearable tension.

At this time, both the Blood Cavern and Wutai Mountain were in a state of near-simultaneous emergency; the endless sea of blood overflowed the skies of Wutai Mountain, and countless Wutai disciples chanted scriptures, yet no matter how firm their wills, facing this scene akin to the doomsday, an unsuppressible panic and despair arose within their hearts.

The crowd witnessed that even the Great Arhat Buddha Hand of Wutai Mountain's Abbot, Master Zunsheng, merely pushed out two palm prints upon this vast blood cloud before being swiftly swallowed by the furiously rushing mad waves!

This oppressive weight, heavy as a mountain, pressed down upon the cultivators and warriors from the Half City Shop and Jiuhua City Shop who were standing at Wutai Mountain to watch the battle, leaving them on the verge of suffocation.

Above the blood clouds, a monstrous fiend-head, massive as a mountain, emerged from the boundless sea of blood and opened its maw in a roaring howl.

Standing at the absolute front of the mountain peak to meet the attack, Master Zunsheng instantly sprayed wild torrents of fresh blood, and the mountains beneath his feet fractured and collapsed, kicking up sky-blotting waves of earth!

A single demonic roar caused mountains to shatter and the earth to rend!

At this moment, let alone Ocean-of-Spirit realm cultivators like Daoist Master Xi Chi and Lan Mo, Owner Fang discovered to his rare surprise that Ning Bi, who usually wore an unfathomable expression beside him, was now trembling slightly in her fragrant shoulders, her silver teeth biting tightly upon her lower lip, unclear whether it was from excitement, agitation, or reverence and fear—or perhaps a mixture of them all.

Across Wutai Mountain, all the monks were either dead or injured; in nearly an instant, the peaks of Wutai Mountain, which had previously been as prosperous and flourishing as Emei, suffered the collapse and destruction of over half their mountain structures!

Any human form consists of but one primordial spirit and one physical body, and only cultivators with profound cultivation could achieve the feat of exiting the body as a spirit; yet within this sky, that massive, mountain-like fiend-head opened its mouth and exhaled, and the Youquan Blood Demon’s primordial spirits—numbering in the tens of thousands—flooded forth out of their shells!

"How could there possibly be so many primordial spirits?!" The crowd of cultivators could no longer restrain themselves, crying out in lost voices.

"This isn't real! This can't be possible, right?!"

"With tens of thousands of primordial spirits, who can still kill this old demon?!"

"Even if he stood still and let someone kill him, one's hands and feet would go soft from the sheer slaughter!"

Within the sky, the Youquan Blood Demon’s primordial spirits were like a swarm of locusts, dense and packed together, darting into the ruined Wutai Mountain to search for the physical bodies of the two.

The sight made one's scalp tingle with numbness!

"Xuan Tianzong's physical body has been swallowed!"

"Where is Li Yingqi?! Where is Lian Xing?!"

"Can the Heaven and Thunder twin swords actually deal with this Blood Demon?!"

After a bout of silence, all the cultivators erupted; Owner Fang's sightseeing tourist group was like a pot that had burst into a boiling frenzy.

"Quick! Quick, save them!"

"Hurry and combine the Heaven and Thunder!"

"It won't fail to combine like last time, will it?! If so, it's all over!"

Someone with an impatient temper like Ruan Ning truly wished she could personally fly up and jam the two swords together: "Watching this is worrying this old lady to death!"

Fortunately, the reborn Lian Xing was different from his past life’s Changkong Wuji; the current Lian Xing harbored no stray thoughts, existing in a state of unity between man and sword!

One green and one purple, two treasure-swords resembling grand rainbows intersected within the sky, and immediately thereafter, everyone saw that following the collision of the two swords, they instantaneously vanished from sight!

At this moment, the twin swords had already entered the velocity of flowing light, swift as illumination itself, utterly impossible for the naked human eye to behold.

Of course, since it was the system-version of the movie, there naturally existed a method to allow everyone to behold the twin swords in their combined form once more; when the crowd saw the twin swords again, they could only discern a expanse of faint golden brilliance, which, in nearly an instant, blasted the true body of the Blood Demon into a spray of bloody froth!

Yet clearly, this was merely one of the Blood Demon's primordial spirits; very quickly, the Youquan Blood Demon manifested once more, completely unscathed, for just now, he had merely lost a single spirit.

On the other side of the battlefield, the crowd witnessed Xuan Tianzong exerting nearly the entirety of his strength, the Nanming Li Fire incinerating his body as he dragged Dan Chenzi down to perish together with him.

Amidst the flames, the Crimson Corpse was forced to abandon Dan Chenzi's primordial spirit to flee alone, and Dan Chenzi, having broken free from control, finally recovered his original nature; enveloped in the raging fire, he seized the Crimson Corpse, allowing Xuan Tianzong to free his hands to obliterate both together while he himself managed to survive.

Dan Chenzi finally dragged the Crimson Corpse along, dying beneath Xuan Tianzong's sword, his form and spirit utterly annihilated.

Watching the two go from close friends who had known each other for two hundred years, to mutual admirers, and finally to a life-and-death struggle, everyone felt profound stirrings within their hearts.

Meanwhile, above Wutai Mountain, it was only now that they witnessed the true majesty of the Heaven and Thunder twin swords.

With the swords combined, the grand, turbulent blood clouds continuously decomposed beneath the sword-light that was nigh to flowing light; in the blink of an eye, over half had already vanished.

The returning primordial spirit of Xuan Tianzong settled back into his body, and the Nanming Li Fire Sword unleashed its might within the Blood Demon's mouth; outside the Blood Cavern, this divine blade finally displayed the terrifying prowess it was meant to possess!

The remaining primordial spirits were instantaneously swept clean by this terrifying expanse of sword-light!

To prevent a repeat of the situation when Youquan escaped last time, Li Yingqi borrowed the power of the Heaven-Strike Sword, achieving unity of man and sword to pierce into Youquan's primordial spirit, using her own spirit to pin Youquan's primordial spirit in place.

A streak of blue light instantly skewered into Youquan's body!

Owner Fang could be seen leading the tour group of cultivators and warriors, standing atop the clouds, gazing upon the scene before them where heaven and earth had finally cleared into bright serenity.

Looking out as far as the eye could see, in the sky ahead, gathering the forces of the Heaven-Strike, Thunder-Flame, and Nanming Li Fire Swords, the destruction of Youquan was finally ushered into being!

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