"A formation!?"
Rank Six let out a howl, her eyes splitting with rage as she looked toward Xie Xuanyi, who stood suspended on his purple bamboo flying sword and looked back at her.
"Despicable! You actually ambushed me!"
Xie Xuanyi covered the shoulder pierced through by the Blood Refinement Art and merely watched coldly as the Heavenly Puppet Sect woman stepped into the grand formation, along with those Death Puppets containing the blood essence of the evil path.
"Do it!"
Xie Xuanyi sent the message telepathically.
Holding the main formation talisman, Deng Baiyi became the sovereign of this heaven and earth. Thousands of wisps of Phoenix Fire emerged and gathered in the void!
Jiang Huang, who had been sleeping soundly atop the mountain, sniffed the air and caught a familiar scent.
She dazedly opened her eyes, sat up, and stared blankly at the blazing fire covering the mountainside.
Above the barren mountain.
Countless Phoenix Fires floated through the air, like lotus blossoms.
Deng Baiyi held the talisman before her chest in one hand. With the other, she pressed two fingers together in a Sword Qi slashing gesture.
With a light sweep.
The whole world seemed as though it were about to be cleaved in two—
Countless Phoenix Fires linked into a long crimson line that swept past with plain simplicity. Wherever it passed, grass blades burned away and trees were uprooted. Rank Six roared and raised her four arms, forcibly resisting the pressure of the grand formation as she pressed forward.
Those dozens of Death Puppets, mindless and knowing only to obey their master's orders, surged toward that crimson line like moths rushing into flame.
"Riiip!"
The next moment.
The Death Puppets' bodies were sliced into scattered fragments like sheets of paper.
The sound of tearing paper, overwhelming heaven and earth, flooded the mountaintop like a tide.
At last, the dust settled.
Silence returned to the summit.
The wind rustled through the withered grass.
At an exceedingly slow pace, Rank Six lowered her head.
Her eyes were filled with bewilderment.
But even more than that, there was fear.
All four of her arms had formed seals in resistance, but unfortunately, those seals had lasted only an instant—perhaps not even that.
Her body had already been cut in half, the incision smooth and now giving off a faint scorched smell.
The Heavenly Puppet Sect's greatest specialty, the "Blood Refinement Art," had no room whatsoever to operate beneath the suppression of Phoenix Fire... Every drop of Gu Blood Rank Six had prepared was burned into nothingness by the Phoenix Fire that symbolized the pure yang of the world. The moment it was offered up, it met instant destruction.
With an incomprehensible, disbelieving gaze, she lifted her head and looked at the stunning woman before her, who was slowly descending like a radiant deity.
Countless Phoenix Fires circled Deng Baiyi, dyeing her snow-white robes a faint red... Controlling this grand formation, even for only an instant, had consumed most of Deng Baiyi's strength. Her complexion was now almost as pale as Xie Xuanyi's, yet the divine radiance of Phoenix Fire still lingered deep within her eyes.
Their gazes met.
"You... deserve to die."
Deng Baiyi looked down at that ugly, filthy, shadowed face. Her expression was icy, and killing intent burst from her eyes.
The hand gripping the formation talisman tightened once more.
More wisps of Phoenix Fire gathered in the void—
Deng Baiyi raised her trembling arm, preparing to point once more and completely end the life of the woman who had injured Xie Zhen.
"...Wait."
Xie Xuanyi stretched out his hand and gently pressed down on hers.
Deng Baiyi froze for a moment.
Xie Xuanyi's voice suppressed her killing intent.
The warmth from his palm also called her reason back.
Deng Baiyi obediently lowered her arm and gently exhaled the killing intent and resentment pressing against her chest.
Thus, the hundreds of Phoenix Fire wisps drifting through the void dispersed, and the dazzling brilliance unleashed by the grand formation faded into the long night.
"Don't waste your strength. She's already a dead woman."
Blood streamed from half of Xie Xuanyi's shoulder, and his face was pale as paper.
Taking the Blood Refinement Art head-on, luring Rank Six into the trap...
This was the only way to kill a Grotto-Heaven Realm cultivator tonight.
The Heavenly Puppet Sect's corpse-refining arts were formidable. Once the Death Puppets lying in ambush throughout Sunken Chime Mountain had fully awakened, this battle had already become unfair.
Rank Six had come to meet him with every intention of killing him.
The only way to break the situation.
Was to unleash tremendous destructive power within an extremely short time and erase Rank Six together with all those Death Puppets.
Such a thing.
The current Xie Xuanyi could not yet accomplish...
But the Ninefold Bright Phoenix Fire Void Refinement Grand Formation could.
Rank Six's body had already been completely severed. It was only because the Phoenix Fire's cutting speed had been too fast that she still retained a breath of life... If Deng Baiyi delivered a second strike, even one containing only the remnants of its momentum, Rank Six would not be able to withstand it.
That would mean wasting a life in vain.
Rank Six had to die, but not yet.
"She still has her uses."
Xie Xuanyi gently patted Deng Baiyi's shoulder, signaling that she could rest properly now.
What an outstanding formation master needed to do was not merely carve formations, but control them as well.
After all, every formation pattern on this mountain had been personally inscribed by Deng Baiyi. She knew every marvelous use of this grand formation, and she also knew its limits... Truly supreme Grand Array Pattern Masters all controlled their formations personally, presiding over slaughter and conquest. With the very same formation patterns, the killing power unleashed by the one who had personally carved them was simply stronger than that of anyone else!
For her first time controlling a grand formation, she had already matched its patterns so perfectly...
Deng Baiyi's talent in the path of formations far surpassed her talent in cultivation.
Xie Xuanyi came before Rank Six.
He smiled and sighed softly. "I told you before. It's a pity you only know how to refine corpses and not carve formations. Otherwise, who would live and who would die tonight would still be uncertain."
If Rank Six had also known how to set up a grand formation and seal off the space for escaping by sword.
Then in tonight's trap at Sunken Chime Mountain... Xie Xuanyi might have faced nine deaths with not a single chance of life.
But this world had everything.
Except ifs.
"I... lost..."
Rank Six spoke hoarsely.
The vertical eye opened between her brows slowly closed. This rotten body was undergoing the "purification" of Phoenix Fire. That vicious Gu Blood, fused from dozens of poisons, would not go out once ignited by Phoenix Fire... On the surface, she still appeared "whole," but before long, her entire body would shatter like porcelain.
Her organs would soon turn to ash.
"I don't understand. What formation is this? And what kind of fire is this?"
Her gaze passed beyond Xie Xuanyi.
It landed on the drifting sparks atop the mountain. The Phoenix Fire covering the mountains had already died out, yet faint specks of light still drifted everywhere like tiny flowers, carrying an air of desolation and extinction.
Once the flames burned out, they no longer made one feel warm.
What remained was endless, final coldness.
"This is the Ninefold Bright Phoenix Fire Void Refinement Grand Formation."
In a telepathic voice only the two of them could hear, Xie Xuanyi slowly said, "This fire is Phoenix Fire."
"..."
Rank Six's eyes became even more vacant.
She had never heard of this formation, but she had heard of Phoenix Fire.
Phoenix Fire...
Was it the sort of Phoenix Fire she thought it was?
"Yes... it's exactly the fire you're thinking of. You did not die unjustly."
Xie Xuanyi saw through Rank Six's thoughts at a glance and transmitted the words indifferently.
He stood opposite Rank Six, silently waiting.
He was waiting for the moment before her death, when her consciousness scattered.
The person before him was, after all, a Grotto-Heaven Realm cultivator. To perform Soul Searching and obtain enough memories, he had to wait for the most reliable moment...
"Cough, cough..."
After a fit of violent coughing.
Rank Six raised her head. That scarlet, bewitching vertical eye had completely shut, which showed that all the vital energy within her body had dispersed. She could no longer support the opening of her Grotto-Heaven, and the so-called Blood Refinement Art had now become a joke.
Because her body had been hollowed out by Phoenix Fire.
Not a single drop of blood remained.
How could she activate Blood Refinement?
Yet Rank Six's eyes still carried mockery. Looking at the shoulder she had pierced through on Xie Xuanyi, she smiled lightly. "Although I'm about to die, you won't fare much better."
"...You were hit by Gu Blood. Even if you don't die, you'll lose half your life."
Xie Xuanyi said nothing. He merely continued waiting in silence.
After a brief silence, Rank Six came back to herself. She vaguely guessed what the man before her was waiting for.
She laughed softly.
The Blood Refinement Art... was not completely impossible to activate. She still had a tiny bit of blood left.
Inside this ruined head.
"Buzz, buzz, buzz!"
That vertical eye which had just closed opened again. Rank Six shut both eyes as blood spilled from her eye sockets and instantly streamed down both sides of her cheeks.
This time, she merely stared at Xie Xuanyi with that vertical eye—
"Before I go to die, I'll see you off."
Xie Xuanyi had long guessed Rank Six's intentions.
He extended a hand and pressed it against that vertical eye. His incomparably powerful divine soul instantly crashed into the mind-sea of this exhausted Grotto-Heaven Realm cultivator.
Soul Searching! Activate!
Before you continue