Chapter Ninety-Three: Jiang Yuehai

In the midst of the ever-shifting struggle, Jiang Feng’s brow was tightly furrowed. His whole body was drenched as though it had been soaked through, though in truth every drop was his own sweat. At this moment he was locked in a contest of dark power, bodily strength, and spirit with Xuan Xingzi. If any one of the three faltered, he would be defeated.

Within the realm of the Nether Soul, torrents of fierce martial killing intent spun and roared. Countless auras seemed to rise from an ancient battlefield, carrying with them the despair, pain, excitement, and many other emotions of millions upon millions of souls. Those emotions alone were enough to shatter the mind of any master of the True Nether Realm.

By then, Xuan Xingzi had begun to concentrate all his will upon restoring his spirit. If he still refused to give up his attempt to kill Jiang Feng, the end would surely be mutual ruin. Seven crystals engraved with the word Star revolved around him, radiating an incomparably intense power of the stars, all of it pouring into his sea of consciousness.

“Damn it, he’s abandoning the attempt to kill you and shifting instead to saving himself!” Absolute was startled, inwardly alarmed. Within those seven crystals was an unimaginable concentration of starlight power, refined through who knew how many layers of extraction. Originally Xuan Xingzi could have used that power to unleash tremendous dark arts, but he had clearly never imagined that Jiang Feng was the legendary possessor of Nether Soul power. That was why he had never revealed those seven crystals. Only after Xuan Xingzi had made a misstep and fallen into Jiang Feng’s Nether Soul domain did he remember that he still possessed such a priceless treasure.

The bulging veins on Xuan Xingzi’s forehead began to recede, and much of his cold sweat faded as well. His expression gradually turned placid, as though he had reverted once more to that kindly old man. Yet his voice was colder than ice, so chilling that all who heard it felt their hearts tremble: “Heaven has yin and yang, earth has height and depth, qi has purity and turbidity, stars have brilliance and eclipse. Lone yin does not grow, lone yang does not live. Spirit, awaken at once and return to the heavenly frontier...”

This chant was ancient and profound, carrying something of the flavor of a celestial hymn.

Xuan Xingzi drew starlight power from one crystal after another. At once, the spirit fragments in his mind, which had been shattered by the Nether Soul domain, began to move of their own accord, intertwining and quietly reassembling.

First were wisps of scattered spirit, and then the larger fragments began to join as well, like a puzzle that had just been disturbed and was now being put back into order.

By the end, nearly all the starlight power in the seven crystals had been poured into his consciousness. The riot of multicolored, intricate spiritual fragments in his mind shone like the stars of heaven and the demon stars of earth, each thread brimming with fierce and sinister power.

“Hmph, Jiang Feng, so what if your Nether Soul domain is formidable?” Xuan Xingzi’s lips curled into a smile. “My spirit has now recovered to about eighty percent. And you? Not only has your body been battered to pieces by my Stellar Radiance Sword, even your spirit is beginning to show signs of collapse. What do you have left to contend with me?”

His voice no longer trembled in the slightest, as though from the very beginning he had never been wounded at all.

“Bad news—his spirit has recovered much of its strength. Your situation is now utterly dangerous!” Absolute’s expression turned grim. In anger, his fists clenched without his conscious command, while his figure paced back and forth within the sea of consciousness as though searching for some countermeasure. But by now the strength of Xuan Xingzi and Jiang Feng had already returned to the starting point—no, it was even worse than before, because Jiang Feng was exhausted of both dark power and Nether Soul power, whereas Xuan Xingzi had recovered almost completely. Aside from some injury to his spirit, he had lost very little dark power at all.

Jiang Feng bit down hard on his lip, so hard that he drew blood without even noticing. Even his gums were seeping faint traces of red. Flames seemed to burst from his eyes, and his whole body looked as though it might ignite. He said fiercely, “So what if you’ve recovered? What I could do just now, I can still do now!”

Yet in his heart he could not really believe that. Xuan Xingzi’s current strength was terrifying. If he so much as relaxed for a moment, his soul would be scattered to the winds. He was holding on by sheer will, and more than once his dark power had nearly dispersed completely. If not for the fact that the Mountain and River Bottle had been continuously supplying him with dark power, he would already have been beaten to the point where his half-step Dark Power Core shattered and disaster befell him. It seemed he would have to fight with everything he had, or else he would never escape this day alive. “You freak,” he thought grimly. “When my cultivation advances again, I will surely capture you, subdue you, refine you, and never let you be reborn!”

Jiang Feng had already abandoned the idea of killing Xuan Xingzi. At this point, all he wanted was a chance to get away.

His half-step Dark Power Core was powerful and contained many dark arts, but a tiger could not withstand a pack of wolves. The other side possessed crystals capable of restoring both spirit and dark power, and in the first place their cultivation vastly surpassed his own.

And especially after Xuan Xingzi drew out the Stellar Radiance Sword, with a casual sweep he could unleash those endless and heart-stopping starry sword energies. Such an attack was truly terrifying, no less than a heavenly calamity from the sea of stars, capable of slicing through and grinding down all matter. Even Jiang Feng’s half-step Dark Power Core could only barely endure it.

If Xuan Xingzi were to use the Sea of Stars Calamity again, then Jiang Feng need not even think about escape.

A sharp burst rang out.

Another barrage of star sword energies struck Jiang Feng. The defenses of his half-step Dark Power Core had been completely broken. He was now relying solely on his tough body to withstand the onslaught. But Xuan Xingzi, whose spirit had now recovered, sent out sword energies that were even more bitterly sharp and fierce, and within them there was also a strange force of suction and drag, as though they intended to rip out Jiang Feng’s organs and viscera.

Startled, Jiang Feng abandoned all thought of escape and, in an instant, the Nine-Turn Chain Ring Blade emerged from within his body. It flashed with a scarlet blood glow and transformed into millions of blood-colored blade lights. Those blade lights interwove to meet the starry sword energies of the Stellar Radiance Sword head-on, preventing them from truly shredding his body to pieces.

Blood-colored blade lights collided with star sword energies, and in an instant all the blade lights were shattered apart. Jiang Feng’s entire body jolted. A portion of the Nine-Turn Chain Ring Blade remained embedded within his body, and his flesh and blood nearly dispersed under that blow.

“So fierce,” he muttered.

The starry sword energies of the Stellar Radiance Sword broke through the blood-colored blade lights, and Jiang Feng was immediately driven back step by step. Yet in the instant of his retreat, he suddenly pointed at the Nine-Turn Chain Ring Blade. At once, the blade burst into myriad fragments, scattering and interweaving in the air. Among those blade lights and sword shadows, some actually condensed into tangible forms, swelling in size as all kinds of radiance illuminated one another. Within the sacred, majestic brilliance there emerged something eerie and mysterious, and even among the swords there took shape the likeness of blades.

This was Jiang Feng shattering the Nine-Turn Chain Ring Blade and unleashing the method of All Forms and Countless Phenomena. He remembered that the day Fang Yichen had shattered his Nine Heavens Fine Steel Edge, the All Forms and Countless Phenomena Fang Yichen had used was utterly different in momentum from the one Jiang Feng had previously employed. Thus he too put this method to use, and immediately discovered that its power had greatly increased.

At the same time, behind Xuan Xingzi there remained clumps of murky air—those were the parts of the Nether Soul domain that he had broken through using starlight power. Under Jiang Feng’s summoning of dark power, they instantly returned to their place. Without regard for the blade fragments of the Nine-Turn Chain Ring Blade driving into them, the two dark arts fused into one, striving to strengthen themselves and break out of the encirclement.

Buzz.

The Nether Soul domain and All Forms and Countless Phenomena collided and merged in fierce chaos. Their immense powers circulated against each other, and the various killing moves within them were all unleashed. In an instant, in the void appeared demon gods and immortals one after another, with all manner of blade lights, sword shadows, staves, and arrows, overlaid with countless flowing runes. In one stroke, they seized the starry sword energies of the Stellar Radiance Sword and swept them into All Forms and Countless Phenomena, like a ship dragged into a tsunami or a house carried off by a cyclone, never to return.

“A chance...”

Rarely having encountered such an opening, Jiang Feng no longer cared about anything else. The Nether Soul power in his sea of consciousness, already nearly exhausted, once again erupted in a frenzy and poured all of it into All Forms and Countless Phenomena. That dark art swelled and expanded once more, resplendent with dazzling brilliance. With a violent tremor, its aura rose yet again. Within it, myriad scenes unfurled in brilliant profusion, like dragons and snakes dancing wildly, smashing through the layers of star sword formations and reaching Xuan Xingzi’s front, ready to press in and suppress him.

But just as he realized he was about to counterattack successfully, Xuan Xingzi actually revealed yet another treasure. It was a ring of countless dark pillars of light, towering all around and sealing the Azure Emperor Glass Cauldron completely. Let alone breaking out—it was difficult even to move.

This was the power of the Heaven of Supreme Purity Star-void Talismans that Xuan Xingzi had produced.

Not only was the Nether Soul power sealed, but Jiang Feng’s physical body was as well.

“This is truly the end!”

The moment Jiang Feng saw it, he knew he was in deep trouble. This seemed to be the greatest calamity of his life. The sealing treasure Xuan Xingzi had used was simply too dreadful, leaving him not even a sliver of room.

“Jiang Feng, you can’t escape. Unless you can hold out for half an hour, the power of the Star-void Talismans will dissipate. By then, breaking out would not be very difficult. Unfortunately, you cannot last half an hour. Right now even your Nine-Turn Chain Ring Blade has been shattered, and your Nether Soul power is already overdrawn to its limit. Unless you possess some elixir or treasure that can restore your strength, you are certain to die today!”

Xuan Xingzi stood once more in the void, completely unruffled, as though this battle had not left even the slightest mark on him.

However, just as he finished speaking, an unexpected change erupted.

Boom!

A heaven-shaking force of suction and tugging came from outside. At once, time and space fell into disorder, and the air currents within the Azure Emperor Glass Cauldron began to churn and rupture chaotically. Jiang Feng could even see those dark pillars of light collapsing one by one.

The Heaven of Supreme Purity, the Star-void Talismans, had actually been shattered.

What kind of force could this be? Could it be power even more terrifying than Xuan Xingzi’s?

“Xuan Xingzi, to bully a junior and scheme against him in every possible way—how utterly lacking in dignity can you be?”

A voice came through.

“Jiang Yuehai!”

Xuan Xingzi’s entire body jolted, as though a mouse had seen a cat.