362 Sword of the Soul

The colored Buddha's light and black Devil Qi changed countless times in the blink of an eye. In the end, the filth won the upper hand and the entire mummified corpse was flushed black with black light curling around it. Its thirst for blood and death directly assaulted their Vital Spirits as Devil Whelm overwhelmed them. It was horrific!

However, most of its breath was used to counter the glow of Buddha's light and it was much less scary than before. It seemed to be only slightly more frightening than the Bluecloud Progenitor.

Seeing this turn of events, Meng Qi and the others knew that they had no choice but to battle. A heavy feeling of fear and trepidation rose within them. However, they were also warriors who had experienced life-and-death scenarios before. They were afraid but unfazed, scared but unflustered, and acted decisively without hesitation.

Ruan Yushu spat out a mouthful of Blood Essence on her Phoenix-perching Zither. The zither was covered in a faint glow as it floated before her.

With a focused icy expression, her hands strummed slowly.

A loud, high-pitched cry rang from the heavens and penetrated through the clouds, splitting the Devil Qi and tearing the Buddha's light. It dove straight to the bottom of one's heart. Even a hundred birds chirping in harmony could not rival such a beautiful sound that could not be described in words.

Just as the Buddha's light was suppressed, the mummified corpse quivered as it seemed to be waiting to move. Wisps of Devil Qi were given off and dissipated in the air.

It stopped right where it was, as if listening to the phoenix's cries.

Meng Qi kept all his fear and nervousness within. His heart was as calm as still waters that could reflect all his surroundings, then he swung out his blade.

He did not choose to activate Buddha's Lamp, because it was unlike the last time when he chanted scriptures to redeem the lost soul of the Luo Han. At that time, the Primogenitor of Buddhism's horizontal board "Big Leiyin Temple" was present and undamaged. The bluish white lamp, on the other hand, was on the verge of total destruction and was only on the preliminary level of the Exterior. Even if it could help the Buddha's light, it did not seem like it would be able to suppress the Devil Qi for the moment. It would only be able to first hurt the evil spirit and disperse some of its Devil Qi. They would just have to proceed from there.

At that moment, Meng Qi forgot about everything else. He forgot about the possible consequences, the ground that was swelling between him and the mummified corpse, and the twisting plants embedded in it. All of his attention was focused on the evil spirit.

Through such a turn of events, and the existence of the evil spirit, the dark ground, twisted plants, and everything else around them were re-imaged in Meng Qi's subconscious world. It was exactly the same as the reality and was incredibly detailed, albeit with an inexplicable feeling to it.

Under immense pressure, all the gains Meng Qi had accumulated from numerous challenges transformed into a thing of his own. Meng Qi's martial arts had entered a new realm.

His eighth natural Acupore quietly opened with a rumble. The preparations for life and change of vitality seemed to turn into a giant wheel that was spinning madly. Its rapid rotations gave his genuine Qi and spiritual energy the power to break through his current fetters and rise to a higher level!

With his anterior yin acupore point opened, there was an additional channel for discharging the turbid substances from his body, and vitality was also brewing near the filth. In it hid the origin of the mystery of forgetting one's previous life and the enigma of Refining Energy into Qi. It was increasingly similar to the natural world, and was extremely wondrous!

Heaven's Inflicted Pain quivered on the spot eight times as if it had performed eight slashes at high-speed. Purple lightning bolts overflowed and turned into a monstrous dragon.

A thick fog suddenly rose around him as dark clouds gathered overhead with streaks of silver and white lightning leaping about in them. The sound of thunder rumbled in the distance.

"BOOM!"

A loud thunderclap sounded, and Meng Qi made the final strike. The force of it caused the airflow to collapse. The surrounding vitality, moisture, and lightning all converged towards the tip of his blade!

"BOOM!"

Flashes of lightning blitzed past and thunder ripped through the skies as if they were cooperating with Meng Qi's Knife Momentum. Large raindrops fell from above, creating a gentle mist.

Sky Thunder wildly crackled as it guided Meng Qi's blade. Numerous bolts of lightning gathered and transformed into a gigantic dragon that intertwined with the purple lightning. It was so imposing that it seemed to be able to block out the sky and cover the earth!

Small Thunderbolt Pythons snaked around in the air as they smashed the Devil Qi, dispelled the Buddha light, and charred the ground black, causing various shrubs from the Demonic World to simply disintegrate.

"BOOM!"

The purple dragon menacingly pounced in front of the mummified corpse.

Qi Zhengyan, on the other hand, had been a beat slower than Meng Qi in using Thousand-mile Freeze and activating the Dragon Stripe Golden Sword.

The surrounding temperature dipped dangerously low and the clouds of black gas began to freeze into layers of ice, resembling clear black gems.

The falling raindrops gathered and crystallized into snow, and danced in the wind like feathers. A beam of pallid light rushed at the mummified corpse like a dragon. Everything it touched turned to ice.

Striking at the same time as him was Zhao Heng, who took out a small yellow seal that had golden dragons perched on it. It looked noble and dignified, as if no evil could ever penetrate it.

When the small seal was activated, it turned into the size of a millstone. The three five-clawed golden dragons seemed to come to life as they circled around the seal. A dark yellow light spread and the black ground nearby turned brown, losing its filth.

Jiang Zhiwei was slightly slower than them. With a calm disposition, she forgot about her friends and enemies, her wins and losses, life and death itself, and wielded the Anatta Sword.

The skies seemed to get darker, accentuating the beauty of her sword light. It seemed to be able to tear everything apart: all sorts of obstacles, countless dangers, the cycle of life and death, and the Devil Qi and Buddha's light. Everything parted for her blade.

Sword Qi surged and the ground reacted by splitting. Several plants were tossed into the air, their incision marks were extremely clean. A hill the size of a humongous boulder was simply split apart!

All of them were going at full strength and thus had intentionally staggered their attacks!

Meng Qi had used up all his mental energy and his seven Acupores were bleeding, but there was no way he could divide his attention to run the Sacrifice Formula. In his mind, there was only his blade and the evil spirit!

The large, terrifying purple dragon pounced onto the mummified corpse. Crackling sounds were continually emitted as it dispersed a large amount of Devil Qi.

However, at that point in time, the mummified corpse had already broken free from the Heavenly Phoenix Cries. It punched its right fist forward, and as if it had grasped some kind of rule, landed it right on Meng Qi's blade body.

As it swung its fist , their surroundings turned pitch black, as if all light had been sucked up. They could no longer see anything else. Countless twisted shadows became apparent against the darkness and they launched themselves at the purple thunderclap.

"BOOM!"

The thunderclap exploded and Meng Qi was sent flying backward. Blood sprayed out of his mouth and the faint gold glow around him flickered before it turned dim and shattered. He then hit the ground with a heavy thud.

Thankfully, the mummified corpse had just broken free from the zither's influence and was unable to use its full strength. Otherwise, that punch alone would have sent Meng Qi's long saber flying out of his right hand and smashed his bones to smithereens.

The few traces of lightning left crackled. A significant amount of Devil Qi had been dispersed, causing its suppression of the Buddha's light to become more difficult.

There was not a scratch on the mummified corpse. It was pitch black as ever, resembling an Evil Lord.

Then, coldness hit and it chilled all the way to everyone's bone. Layers of Devil Qi solidified, trapping the mummified corpse in ice.

Swordwill sliced through the air and was about to cleave its body.

All of a sudden, the mummified corpse raised its left hand as darkness gathered around it to block the Sword Qi right before it hit.

"Crack!"

The Sword Qi shattered and the iciness grew stronger, but the mummified corpse's palm was completely undamaged!

The sound of cracking ice could be heard as obvious cracks appeared on the layers of ice. Then, the dark yellow seal hurtled towards the mummified corpse's head like a mountain descending from above.

"Bang!" Under the influence of the ice and the Sword Qi, the mummified corpse was unable to dodge. The layer of ice around its head was smashed as it took a hit to the head.

The dark yellow glow grew brighter and the three golden dragons dove into the corpse's body.

"Argh!" The mummified corpse released a blood-curdling shriek. Bloodstains appeared on its forehead and bursts of Devil Qi sprayed out, ripping the golden dragons into pieces.

On the bright side, the Buddha's light had grown stronger again. However, it had still yet to regain control.

Beautiful, lithe and graceful, yet seemingly able to cut through everything, the all-piercing sword light had arrived. It shocked the corpse's Vital Spirit and locked onto it midbrow.

Just then, the mummified corpse's body turned transparent and it changed into countless black shadows that drifted in all directions. The Sword of the Sun-Penetrating Rainbow barely managed to hit a few of them, causing them to vanish.

Countless black shadows danced about in the air, then gathered together once more and leaped onto Zhao Heng.

"Snap! Snap! Snap!" The cracking sound rang out as numerous objects on Zhao Heng were broken. They seemed to be in bright yellow or dark red, blocking the black shadow from entering his body.

The black shadow was so strong and fearsome that the numerous beams of light seemed to be able to hold it off for only a brief moment.

A long and drawn-out Dragon's Cry sounded. It was vast and boundless, and caused the entire Demonic World to tremble. Ruan Yushu played the 12 Magical Sounds of Langhuan again. Her eyes went blank and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

The Devil Qi around them tumbled outwards as if it were trying to avoid the Dragon's Cry. The black shadow stopped where it was, like it wanted to crawl away.

Meng Qi grit his teeth and began using the Sacrifice Formula. His Energy, Qi, Spirit and Will rose to their peaks once more as Flowing Fire in his left hand was fully activated.

His right hand was still numb from the previous attack, so he could only count on his sword to fend off the enemy.

At the same time, he still had not used the Buddha's Lamp because the Devil Qi still had the upper hand by quite a margin. Only Zhao Heng's dark yellow seal had dispersed a part of it just now.

A gush of firelight streaked across the skies with pure swordwill. It was gorgeous but not gaudy, and full of Sword Principles, Dharma and Logos. No fires rose nearby because its scorching heat was kept inside.

The long sword stabbed the stalling black shadow and a burst of Yin fire was emitted from the soles of its feet, pervading every part of its body. A golden-yellow flame that carried the might of the sky dragon attacked from the middle of its eyebrows.

The two continuously burned Devil Qi, and grew more and more powerful as they did so.

Right at that moment, a pitch black Devil Flame exploded within the mummified corpse's body. Like a raging wave or howling wind, it swallowed the Yin fire and Eight-part Sky Dragon's flame in an instant.

After that, it split into many black shadows once more and flew in various directions, avoiding Qi Zhengyan's Thousand-Mile Freeze by a hair's breadth for the second time. One of the shadows even managed to pounce onto Zhao Heng, stealing much of his Blood Essence from him and putting him in a coma with serious injuries.

Zhao Heng had many secret treasures and supreme arts, but it was precisely because of that that he had become the focus of the Exterior-level evil spirit. He had barely clung on to his life after exhausting everything.

The difference in strength between the two sides was obvious!

Ruan Yushu and Zhao Heng had been knocked out. Qi Zhengyan had expended all of his Energy, Qi and Spirit and was on the brink of collapsing. He had only normal moves to spare, no longer able to use Exterior-level moves. Meng Qi could not repress the feeling of despair that was welling up inside him.

Only Zhiwei was able to keep going. However, the evil spirit had split itself into numerous black shadows and there was no way to target all of them. It was difficult to hit its vital spot!

The little glutton was unconscious, the rest of them standing could not land a blow on their opponent, and it could kill any one of them on a whim. How on earth were they supposed to keep fighting?

It was the most despairing battle Meng Qi had ever experienced. Even when they were up against Murky, they still had a chance of survival!

However, he was not the kind of man who would lose his fighting spirit just because of despair. On the contrary, he had an undying tenacity and the characteristics of one who did not fear death.

Damn it! If he was doomed to die today, he would not survive by any means! If he died, he was going to drag that evil spirit down with him!

What other items could he still use?

In a matter life or death, should he use the Sacrifice Formula again and activate Buddha's Lamp?

"Ah! I wonder if Master Lu's wooden sculpture would be able to scare the evil spirit and give Zhiwei a chance to strike!"

The thought had just surfaced in his mind when Meng Qi suddenly felt the airflow around him solidifying, as if something strange had occurred.

He spun around in shock only to see Jiang Zhiwei wearing an extremely serious expression. She was standing on the ground, but there was a faint image of her in mid-air, as if her Vital Spirit had escaped from her body.

Resolute and courageous, there was no turning back. Such feelings arose in Meng Qi's mind all of a sudden.

Jiang Zhiwei's physical body wielded her long sword, while her Vital Spirit in the air rapidly burned and wielded a sword of her soul.

The wind stopped blowing and the rain froze in the skies. The Devil Qi was no longer tumbling. All was dead silent.

Colors seemed to fade away from their surroundings. Black and white became apparent, and the evil spirit's black shadows were frozen in their places like insects encased in amber.

Meng Qi's thinking process became slower. A voice in his heart reverberated, shouting,

"No!"

This was the Twenty-three Swords Skill: Sword of the heart, sword of the soul, sword of the Vital Spirit and sword of swordwill. With one single strike, all senses would be lost, everything would be frozen in place, and nothing would be able to stop it. When one trained deep enough into it, it could possess the might of Heavenly Emperor Tramping Times!

It was an Exterior-level move that would not be more powerful than Anatta Sword. However, under certain circumstances, it was more useful than Anatta Sword. It might not be more powerful, but it was more applicable!

However, that strike required one's Vital Spirit to burn. One would have to almost give up one's life to use it. It was the glorious light of life!

"Zhiwei... Chicken-slaying Sword God..." Meng Qi was quaking on the inside. All sorts of emotions were swelling within him, and were difficult to tell apart.

"It's okay! It's not like she'll die straightaway from using the Twenty-three Swords Skill! As long as we blow up the channel and return to the square in time, I'm sure the Dominator of Samsara in the Six Realms will be able to save her!"

He kept trying to allay his fears.