Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

The Abyssal Demon, still engulfed in blazing flames, surged with rolling black qi and extinguished the heavenly fire completely.

Xiao Chen’s pupils contracted to needle points. Rage, despair, unwillingness—countless emotions flooded his mind.

He had concealed his ability to wield heavenly fire precisely for this moment, saving it to catch the demon off guard and destroy it in a single strike. Yet the demon had simply paid a price and snuffed it out entirely.

Boom!

The Abyssal Demon’s gaze sharpened, and its figure exploded into motion, flashing dozens of times in rapid succession.

More than ten streaks of black-and-gold sword light swept past its side, each carrying power that sent a chill through its core.

The Abyssal Demon’s hoarse, indistinct voice slowly echoed. “The… aura… of this power…”

Whoosh!

Ye Feng appeared before Xiao Chen, blocking his path. Sword in his right hand, he clenched his left toward the distant heavens.

“Yin Hellfire, Seal!”Boom!

Heaven and earth trembled as the void shook violently. An invisible, eerie flame manifested in mid-air without the slightest warning, sealing the Abyssal Demon within a space of ten zhang.

The Abyssal Demon immediately became alarmed, erupting with terrifying power as it madly battered the seal. The flame was devouring its origin power. Worse, that man carried a force it feared deeply.

“No… impossible… How could he possess such power?!”

“Break for me!” Ye Feng shouted.

Boom!

Rumble—!

The thunderous explosions rang out endlessly. Xiao Chen caught sight of Ye Feng from the corner of his eye and finally relaxed.

His body tilted and fell, plummeting toward the ground. Ye Feng raised a hand and caught him.

Just then, Meng Wanshu and Li Changqing arrived. Meng Wanshu’s gaze turned cold. With a wave of her hand, she froze the barrier imprisoning the Abyssal Demon. Frost gathered across heaven and earth, encasing the entire seal in ice.

She wanted to see firsthand what the demon truly was.

Ye Feng checked Xiao Chen’s condition, probing with his divine consciousness before letting out a breath of relief. Xiao Chen’s reaction had been fast enough. Otherwise, that strike would have pierced straight through his heart.

Meng Wanshu retrieved a healing pill from her storage ring and gave it to him, but Xiao Chen’s injuries were far too severe. His body was riddled with wounds, all of them festering and turning black. Probing further, she discovered that even his meridians had been ravaged by the sinister demonic qi.

Xiao Chen’s aura was fading, incredibly weak. If the demonic qi inside him wasn’t expelled soon, even his cultivation realm could fall.

Icy frost power surged into his body, but Ye Feng’s expression changed drastically. “No!”

Meng Wanshu looked up with confusion, and she shot back, “What’s wrong? If we don’t help him now, it’ll be too late!”

Ye Feng took a deep breath. Emotions flickered in his eyes. This sight, festering flesh and decaying blood, was far too familiar. He had lived like this for years in the Dungeon Abyss.

He sighed softly, placing his Ghost Arm over Xiao Chen’s chest. “This demonic qi… once it invades a cultivator’s body, it behaves as if it’s alive. It devours the cultivator’s vital force. When the vital force is exhausted, it starts gnawing at the meridians and flesh until nothing remains.”

Demonic qi surged from his Ghost Arm, transforming into a pool of inky black liquid that enveloped Xiao Chen entirely. Dark as black ink, it writhed and devoured every trace of residual demonic qi within him.

The eerie scene made Li Changqing’s gaze flicker. Ye Feng spoke calmly without turning around. “Don’t stare at me like that. It makes me… very uncomfortable.”

He had sensed an inexplicable hostility, as though he were no different from the murderous Abyssal Demons.

Li Changqing’s expression shifted. He concealed the emotions in his gaze and said softly, “My apologies.”

Meng Wanshu knew Ye Feng had to be feeling uneasy. She turned and shot the old man a sharp glare, but before she could reprimand him, Ye Feng raised a hand to stop her.

He didn’t deny that the power of his Ghost Arm shared the same origin as that of the Abyssal Demons. But what was sealed within it was on an entirely different level from those inferior creatures. Moreover, after receiving the Yin Hellfire from Li Guanqi, he was fully capable of controlling its power.

Ye Feng even suspected that Li Guanqi had foreseen the latent danger within his Ghost Arm, which was why he’d given him the perfectly compatible Yin Hellfire. It may not have ranked high among the heavenly fires, but it was unquestionably the most suitable for him.

Li Changqing realized that remaining with them would only make things more awkward. He vanished in a flash to seek additional help.

Moments later, a hint of color returned to Xiao Chen’s deathly pale face. Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

There hadn’t been many Abyssal Demons invading the Xiao family. Along the way, Ye Feng had slain them all. The main culprit was the one they’d just slain, whose strength rivaled the peak of the mid Illusory Refinement Realm.

Ye Feng stood up and surveyed the tragic state of the Xiao family’s domain, finding it hard to bear. How many didn’t make it?

The casualties were catastrophic. Abyssal Demons were nearly immune to conventional weapons, and even most vital force attacks couldn’t harm them directly. Only cultivators with fire or lightning attribute powers had any chance of injuring them. The Xiao family’s disciples had suffered grievously, and every one who fell had died in an unimaginably brutal way.

It was hard to even imagine how desperate Xiao Chen must have been before Ye Feng arrived.

As Ye Feng and Meng Wanshu contemplated their next move, Meng Wanshu’s expression shifted. With a swift motion, she erected an exceptionally strong ice prison, encircling Ye Feng and Xiao Chen. Its ice walls were over a zhang thick.

Only then did Ye Feng sense an overwhelmingly powerful aura descending abruptly.

“Half-step into the Combined Body Realm!”

Boom!

The space near the sealed Abyssal Demon twisted. A black-robed figure wearing a crimson mask squeezed out of the void, his aura unfathomably deep.

The figure extended an arm and threw a punch.

Boom!

A shrill sonic boom rang out as the fist, wrapped in terrifying black vital force, punched straight through multiple layers of seals.

Meng Wanshu drew her sword and shot into the sky. “Heaven-Opening Tier, Frozen World!”