High above in the sea of clouds, radiant colors vibrated violently as divine abilities roared past.
Upon the Dao platform, restricting formations were awakened one after another. Wu Cang personally took command of the main array. Behind him, a towering giant tree rose from the ground, its branches and trunk merging with the grand array.
[Coiling Dragon Precious Fir Tree]!
This was Wu Cang's Life-Bound Divine Ability. The tree bore three Dao art fruits, colored crimson, azure, and gold. At this moment, the crimson fruit fell, transforming into a ball of raging fire that burned through the sea of clouds.
Simultaneously, Wu Cang's hands did not remain idle; he constantly formed hand seals. Vigorous spiritual power poured into his dantian, then traveled upwards, passing through the mingtan and crossing the chonglou, finally reflecting a patch of dark red radiant light between his lips and teeth. With a wide open mouth, he exhaled, unleashing a roaring prairie fire that poured out directly forward.
[Bu Nan Ben].
As the saying goes, fire relies on wood to be born; when the fire is prosperous, the wood must burn. The enhancement of this divine ability upon Wu Cang's Life-Bound immediately catalyzed the spiritual fire method he relied upon to make his name.
[Heavenly Furnace Li Fire]!
Rumble!
Looking out, the firelight was unbelievably intense. Initially, it appeared an azure blue like the sky, but after a sudden collapse, it transformed into a blinding, blazing white radiant light.
This patch of radiant light blotted out the sky and covered the earth. Like a bursting dam, it blocked the path of Perfected One Xiaohai and Ye Guyue, who were charging forward. The sight instantly caused both of their expressions to change slightly. If Ye Guyue could still be considered calm, Perfected One Xiaohai felt his scalp tingle. Without a word, he pulled a Spiritual Treasure from his sleeve.
It was a miniature boat.
A superior-grade spiritual treasure, the [Frontier-Expanding Ship]. Its profound wonder could break through obstacles and escape predicaments. Now deployed by Perfected One Xiaohai, it immediately stirred up sky-covering waves.
The next second, Perfected One Xiaohai vanished.
He rode the waves and escaped with his life, fleeing from that patch of blazing white radiant light. Only a corner of his spiritual robe was caught by the firelight and burned to ash.
Only when he landed safely outside the blast zone did he form a hand seal.
Instantly, the previously clear, cloudless firmament was suddenly filled with dark clouds. Accompanied by a dragon's roar, torrential rain crashed down like swords and halberds!
'[Dragon Cloud Rain]!'
A Ren Water divine ability that controlled the clouds and distributed rain. Perfected One Xiaohai clearly intended to use water to overcome fire. However, to his complete surprise, when the rain he summoned fell upon Wu Cang's [Heavenly Furnace Li Fire], not only did it fail to diminish the flames, it acted like oil poured on a fire, causing it to burn even more fiercely!
"A rogue cultivator's mindset indeed!"
Seeing this scene, the Master of Heaven-Mending Peak, hidden in the shadows, instantly shook his head and laughed. "Although Fellow Daoist Wu Cang uses fire arts, what he cultivates is the Wood element."
Water overcomes fire—but that depends on the situation.
And Wu Cang was exactly that exception. The [Heavenly Furnace Li Fire] used Wood to generate Fire. Attempting to suppress it with the Water element would only result in Water generating Wood, which in turn would actually fuel the power of his divine ability!
This was also Wu Cang's ultimate trump card.
After all, he was still a Perfected One of the Saint Sect. Despite the permanent stain of his primary background as a rogue cultivator, managing to join the Saint Sect proved he definitely possessed some capable methods.
As expected, Perfected One Xiaohai pushed the [Dragon Cloud Rain] to its limits. The torrential curtain of rain obscured the view, but it was completely useless. The increasingly vigorous [Heavenly Furnace Li Fire] shot straight into the clouds. Wherever it passed, clouds and mist billowed upwards, further exacerbating the haziness of the battlefield, but also striking Ye Guyue squarely in the chest.
Rumble!
Instantly, Ye Guyue appeared to be "caught completely off guard" and took the blazing white fire head-on. Her graceful body immediately began melting in the firelight like ice and snow.
Almost simultaneously, a hand reached out from thin air.
"A perfect opportunity!"
The Master of Heaven-Mending Peak's eyes shone brightly. The moment he struck, a burly, majestic white tiger, as if crouching on a mountain ridge, had already materialized behind him.
Geng Metal Divine Ability, [Sitting Mountain Lord]!
"Roar—!"
With a tiger's roar, rolling sandstorms cascaded from the sky. Formless and intangible, yet weighing over ten thousand catties, the roar carried a profound wonder capable of shaking divine abilities.
In that instant, Ye Guyue—who was just about to cast a technique to counterattack—was struck squarely by the Master of Heaven-Mending Peak. All her divine abilities faltered for a fraction of a second under that tiger's roar, causing her to lose the optimal window for combat. By the time she recovered, an ocean-like surge of water vapor had already been ruthlessly injected into her body.
Witnessing this, Ye Guyue hurriedly changed her hand seals.
She formed a seal with two fingers, then lightly swiped them across her spiritual treasure, the [Nine-Child Mother Heavenly Demon Sword], instantly coating the blade in a layer of golden-white light.
Zi Water Divine Ability, [Aiding Golden Brilliance]!
Among the Earthly Fiends, Zi Water was Yang Water. Therefore, the concept of this divine ability was "Water aiding the golden brilliance." When facing the Water element, it could conversely increase the power of sword qi.
This was also her instinctive choice when facing the ocean-like water vapor unleashed by the Master of Heaven-Mending Peak.
However, to her slight dismay, although the divine ability was deployed, its effect was minuscule. The Master of Heaven-Mending Peak was almost entirely unaffected by the divine ability!
"Heh... a petty trick!"
The Master of Heaven-Mending Peak sneered. Why didn't it work? Very simple. Because this ocean-like water vapor only looked like the Water element; its essence was something completely different.
Shen Metal Divine Ability, [Red Ru Scales]!
This divine ability was very similar to Wu Cang's [Heavenly Furnace Trigram Fire]. Although it belonged to the Metal element, its intent was Metal generating Water, so what it displayed was the radiant light of the Water element.
But regardless of appearances, Shen Metal remained Shen Metal.
Therefore, it naturally wasn't affected by [Aiding Golden Brilliance]. In his eyes, Ye Guyue hastily using this divine ability to counter him had actually cost her last chance.
At this thought, the Master of Heaven-Mending Peak immediately formed a hand seal, pushing his divine ability to its absolute limit. Like closing palms, he trapped Ye Guyue within a three-inch space in his palm.
"Gotcha!"
Looking out, only a boundless ocean filled the sky.
Amidst the mighty waves, mermaids could be seen swimming back and forth. They possessed human faces and voices like mandarin ducks. Just like that, they suppressed the heavily injured Ye Guyue at the bottom of the ocean.
"Ah!"
At this moment, Ye Guyue's "furious" roar rang out. She pushed the two divine abilities, [Master of Armament] and [Aiding Golden Brilliance], to their limits, attempting to break free.
'It worked!'
Seeing this scene, wild ecstasy instantly surged in the Master of Heaven-Mending Peak's heart. After all, in his view, as long as Ye Guyue was suppressed, this battle was essentially over without any suspense.
'I've won!'
However, having focused his entire attention on Ye Guyue, the Master of Heaven-Mending Peak subconsciously ignored the fact that the entire battlefield was now completely shrouded in mist.
This was the result of the clash between Perfected One Xiaohai and Wu Cang.
The [Dragon Cloud Rain] commanded Ren Water, while [Bu Nan Ben] catalyzed Li Fire. The violent collision of Water and Fire created this sky-covering, earth-enveloping dense fog.
Because this was a collision of divine abilities, the mist also contained surging spiritual power, giving it the effect of blocking divine sense. This made it difficult for anyone on the battlefield to see each other clearly. This was originally a massive taboo in a spiritual battle... but the Master of Heaven-Mending Peak now believed victory was in his grasp, so he naturally didn't care about such trivial matters.
So what if vision was temporarily obscured?
Could there possibly be a Great Perfected One at the late stage of Foundation Establishment secretly hiding in the shadows, just waiting for this exact moment to pop out, muddy the waters, and launch a sneak attack?
"You two don't have Imperial Order Jade Tablets to protect you."
On the spiritual platform, Chong Guang calmly observed the dazed Wu Cang and Tuan Xu. With all three inner demon divine abilities deployed simultaneously, he had instantly reduced the two to drooling fools.
It was just a pity there wasn't a Great Perfected One here.
"If I want to condense my fourth inner demon divine ability now, I must devour a Great Perfected One. One mid-stage and one early-stage cultivator aren't enough to fill my stomach."
At this thought, he looked up again toward the direction of the Master of Heaven-Mending Peak, completely unaffected by the dense fog.
After all, a mist of this level could only deceive lower-tier cultivators who weren't even Great Perfected Ones. To someone at Foundation Establishment Perfection, it was simply not worth mentioning.
"Ye Guyue's death is also a good thing."
"After all, this will make it easier to request reinforcements from the Sword Pavilion. Given Ye Guyue's status and the Sword Pavilion's noble clan style, they will inevitably send a highly capable Great Perfected One."
"Once the Sword Pavilion sends someone over, Chen Taihe's usefulness will have run its course."
"When that time comes, given Hong Yun's personality, he will definitely send Hong Ju over. That way, I'll have the required talent at Foundation Establishment Perfection, which will be more than enough to bring my inner demon to major accomplishment."
As this thought crossed his mind, a hint of black qi suddenly surfaced in Chong Guang's eyes, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
"But before that, I still have to delay Chen Taihe's steps a bit. I can't let him press his advantage and kill Perfected One Xiaohai as well."
The next second, Chong Guang placed the divine ability between his lips and teeth.
[Five Poisons of the Heart]!
The inner demon divine ability was formless and intangible. It silently swept past the Master of Heaven-Mending Peak and submerged into Ye Guyue's body, issuing its final command—
"Self-destruct."