“Is it here?”
“The Cosmos Sect’s Forbidden Ground?”
As Deng Tianyu channeled his [Star Shift] divine ability, forming a vortex that forcefully dragged the surrounding blood mist into his body to be refined, he asked.
“Ying~ Ying!” The little fox in his embrace cried out in confirmation.
After summoning Xi Lingxue, he had let Yingying the little fox rely on her keen senses to locate the place where the Blood Miasma was most concentrated.
Following her guidance, Deng Tianyu refined blood mist along the way, advancing forward.
Before he knew it, he had arrived at the Cosmos Sect’s Forbidden Ground.
The blood mist before him was unbelievably dense. Faintly visible beneath it were eight blood-red array patterns stretching across the ground in all eight cardinal directions.
These blood-red patterns throbbed rhythmically, like human blood vessels, appearing profoundly sinister.
And with every throb, they would erupt with swirling masses of blood mist.
A sky-obscuring mass of Blood Miasma coalesced into eight hundred-zhang blood-red phantom figures, tearing through the air with ear-piercing shrieks as they lunged viciously towards Deng Tianyu.
Without a doubt, this place was the very core of the Five Elements Blood-Refining Grand Array.
“Ring!”
Deng Tianyu did not hesitate for a moment. The Four Seasons Sword Intent in his hand solidified into a four-colored sword rainbow, and with a sudden, forceful pull—
Drawing Sword Art! Heaven-Severing Sword-Drawing Art!
In that instant, space itself contorted. A hundred-zhang sword beam swept across horizontally, instantly annihilating the eight blood-red phantom figures.
But moments later, the eight vessel-like array patterns pulsed again, and the blood mist once more condensed into eight more phantom figures.
“Swoosh!”
Deng Tianyu had already anticipated this. The moment he unleashed that single slash, he activated his [Shrinking Earth into Inches] divine ability, arriving directly in the center of the array patterns.
He looked down at the little fox in his arms and instructed firmly, “Yingying, protect me. Do not let those eight phantoms get close.”
“Ying~ Ying!” The little fox nodded, baring her teeth and putting on what she thought was the most ferocious, terrifyingly tough expression. She brandished her fluffy little paws violently.
Riiip… Riiip!
Enormous snowy-white claw marks tore through existence, materializing out of thin air to brutally slam against the eight blood-red phantoms.
Boom!… Boom!
The Cosmos Sect’s Forbidden Ground quaked violently. Fierce gales howled. The eight blood-red phantoms strained to resist the little fox’s relentless assaults and were blasted staggering backward.
“Buzz!”
Deng Tianyu sat down cross-legged, right in the center of the eight blood-red array patterns, and directly activated [Star Shift]!
In a flash, a massive vortex emerged, relentlessly drawing in the endlessly birthing blood mist.
The moment Deng Tianyu found the core of the Five Elements Blood-Refining Grand Array, his immediate thought had been to test if it could be destroyed.
Although he knew little about the path of array formations, he understood one thing clearly.
If these eight array patterns were completely obliterated, the Five Elements Blood-Refining Grand Array would instantly become ineffective.
But just moments ago, even when he unleashed the Heaven-Severing Sword-Drawing Art, he could only temporarily destroy the eight phantom figures. The array patterns themselves had not been eroded in the slightest.
From this, he deduced that Sword Dao-based slaughtering arts were likely ineffective against them.
Thus, Deng Tianyu came up with another method—directly using [Star Shift] to refine these eight special array patterns.
If these eight patterns could continuously spawn Blood Miasma, then Deng Tianyu felt he should also be able to refine them directly.
“Buzz!”
As the Yin-Yang Fish vortex conjured by [Star Shift] rotated, the eight blood-red array patterns began to tremble violently and, incredibly, started gradually becoming more and more indistinct.
“It’s indeed working!”
A smile spread across Deng Tianyu’s face. He immediately quickened the pace of his refinement.
He could clearly perceive that after refining just a trace of the array patterns, the meridians within his body once again began to expand and widen, and his Spirit Mansion also steadily started to grow.
This was exactly the same effect as refining Blood Miasma.
The only difference was that the energy derived from refining the Blood Miasma was not nearly as immense as that from these array patterns.
“Perhaps after I completely refine these eight sinister array patterns, my cultivation will be able to reach the Divine Ability Extreme Realm!”
Deng Tianyu mused inwardly, recognizing that this was an opportunity amidst the crisis.
…
“Boom… Boom…”
At the same time, high above the Cosmos Sect, the Spirit Cod King and Qian Yuan continued their intensely fierce confrontation.
Every killing blow they exchanged was overwhelmingly domineering and sharp, containing the sheer power to annihilate everything.
Meeting the Spirit Cod King’s Domain head-on, Qian Yuan had unfurled his own Domain. It was a pitch-black, sinister, and gloomy netherworld.
Domain clashed against Domain, devastating storms of rampant spiritual energy raged throughout the void, and the very heavens and earth were cast into shadow.
“If this continues dragging on, once my blood essence is completely spent, I’ll inevitably die at the hands of the Spirit Cod King.”
Qian Yuan, currently at a disadvantage, was keenly aware of how unfavorable the tide of battle was turning.
His gaze shifted downwards, towards the gathered factions still huddled together on the ground below. A murderous intent surged in his eyes.
“Boom!”
Yet another shockingly earth-shattering exchange occurred. Qian Yuan, his entire body now drenched in a bloody hue, plummeted from the sky.
Right then, his blood-drenched form writhed violently, transforming into an unbelievably enormous and ferocious bloodstained face that lunged straight for the gathered factions, intent on swallowing them whole.
Qian Yuan’s line of thought was brutally simple.
Since he was no longer a match for the Spirit Cod King, he would first devour some more flesh and blood essence.
This way, the power of the Five Elements Blood-Refining Grand Array would strengthen, and his own strength would swell accordingly.
Then he could turn back around and devour the Spirit Cod King. That would be the optimal strategy.
“Everyone, attack together!”
Discovering this horrifying development, the Grand Elders of the Six Sects felt their faces drain of color. True Essence erupted violently from them all as they unleashed a barrage of slaughtering divine abilities.
Unfortunately, while their divine abilities managed to scatter portions of the blood mist, it quickly began coalescing back together again.
“It’s useless. All of you, just obediently become nourishment for This Seat!”
Taking advantage of the Spirit Cod King not yet reacting, the savage-faced Qian Yuan was about to devour every single cultivator.
But who could have expected that at this very moment!
All the blood mist enveloping his body was forcibly ripped away! A terrifyingly immense pulling force descended upon him, dragging it all towards the Cosmos Sect’s Forbidden Ground!
“The Five Elements Blood-Refining Grand Array has been broken?!”
“How is this possible?!”
Qian Yuan’s body trembled. His face was a mask of utter disbelief.
In this single instant, he realized that he had completely lost control of the Five Elements Blood-Refining Grand Array. His own realm was plummeting at a terrifying speed.
Imperial Sovereign Realm Ninth Level!
Imperial Sovereign Realm Seventh Level!
Imperial Sovereign Realm Fifth Level!
In less than half a breath, he had fallen back to his original realm.
“Boom!”
Almost simultaneously, a massive silhouette shimmering with six-colored brilliance tore through all obstacles in a single, fleeting flash.
Qian Yuan’s body exploded on the spot. Bloody flower petals scattered everywhere across the sky.
“It’s… over?”
The Grand Elders of the Six Sects and the powerhouses from the various factions all stared blankly at the scene, still not fully processing what had just happened.
The Qian Yuan who had been so utterly invincible moments ago was now dead, just like that?
In Li Shishi’s and Qu Qirong’s hearts, the exact same thought surfaced simultaneously: “It was Senior Brother (Tianyu)! He found the core!”
Aside from this explanation, they could think of no other reason.
It was glaringly obvious that the Five Elements Blood-Refining Grand Array had suddenly spiraled out of control just moments ago, which in turn abruptly halted Qian Yuan’s final, desperate slaughtering move.
“Thank you, Senior, for saving us!”
“Thank you, Senior, for granting us your aid!”
Once the crisis was averted, the various factions and the Grand Elders of the Six Sects revealed expressions of heartfelt gratitude, one after another offering a respectful salute to the Spirit Cod King.
Everyone was crystal clear on this point: if not for the Spirit Cod King’s intervention this time, likely every single one of them would have been buried within the Cosmos Sect.
Even if the Spirit Cod King’s sole objective had been to annihilate the Stone Gate thief Qian Yuan…
Regardless of her reasons, she had still saved their lives.
Facing their gratitude, the Spirit Cod King merely swept her gaze across the assembly. Her breathtakingly beautiful, colorful Spirit Wings fluttered, and in the next moment, she completely vanished from the void.
