Breaking the Seal

Black water in the pool, black stones.

How could he refine the Black Stone? How could he gather Purple Flame?

Ji Tian pondered for a moment. Was he supposed to burn his Primordial Spirit? If he did, everything would have to start over. Where in this realm could he find enough Soul Power to absorb? He had already absorbed almost all the essence from the Black Remnant Bone.

Or was there another way? Ji Tian had thought of one, though it was risky.

He would gamble on whether his spiritual energy could hold out.

Ji Tian said, "I want to borrow that wraith."

A deathly voice sounded in his mind. "How do you know he isn't an illusion?"

Ji Tian replied calmly, "It's just a guess. You must have given him awareness while studying this seal—testing him over and over, destroying him over and over, and bringing him back to life over and over."

"My Primordial Spirit Fire has already transformed into black flame. But before it changed, my Core Elixir produced a Purple Flame. I vaguely sensed that it held tremendous power. I thought I could wield it myself, but later I learned that using it required a price. The first time, I had to burn my Soul Power at its source. This time, I think I can use something else in its place."

The deathly voice sighed. "But he's a living being. You want to force the flame to ignite by burning the wraith's soul?"

"What choice do we have? It's your tool to begin with. We're all just trying to survive."

The Black Bone Arm barked, "Stop testing each other. We don't have much time. Ji Tian already knows that survival means doing whatever it takes."

The deathly voice suddenly rose in pitch. "Ha! Better to let a friend die than yourself!"

A shadow appeared out of nowhere and cried, "What are you doing?"

Ji Tian didn't even look at him. He hurriedly formed a hand seal, and an enormous phantom hand seized the wraith.

In a cold voice, he said, "I'm going to help you advance a little." As he spoke, he poured a stream of primordial Soul Power into the wraith and kept forming seals, as if refining a magic treasure. These seals came from the Black Bone Arm's memories.

The seals were also a kind of restriction, constructed from spiritual energy and Spiritual Sense.

The wraith howled in agony as the Soul Flame inside him rapidly changed. Its green color deepened, turning blue, while Ji Tian forcibly poured boundless Death Qi into his body.

Ji Tian wasn't using spiritual energy to form an Inner Core for the wraith. Instead, he used Death Qi to build a shell around one.

Black Death Qi gathered, compressed again and again by a strange restriction until it formed a thin black shell. As more Death Qi poured in, it formed something like a black hole. The black Core Elixir kept devouring the Death Qi.

As the devouring intensified, the black Core Elixir grew darker, and a strange light appeared within it.

The black Core Elixir swallowed the wraith whole, along with his Soul Flame, which had turned purple. But this was only an ordinary purple flame, without the power of Heaven and Earth.

Ji Tian then used spiritual energy to force the innate marks of Heaven and Earth imprinted on his Primordial Spirit onto the black Core Elixir.

The marks of Heaven and Earth connected with the purple Soul Flame inside the Core Elixir and began devouring it.

Ji Tian was struggling too. He had to keep pouring in his own Soul Power to keep the Soul Flame inside the black Core Elixir from going out. Carving those marks of Heaven and Earth also consumed a great deal of spiritual energy, and his Primordial Spirit could draw only a meager amount of Heaven and Earth Power from this space.

After all, this space was sealed.

The marks of Heaven and Earth seemed to keep devouring the wraith's Soul Flame, staining themselves purple.

Their color gradually shifted toward purple, but they also drew spiritual energy from Ji Tian faster and faster. He was nearly unable to maintain the balance.

Ji Tian felt his Primordial Spirit withering. Why was this so difficult? It would have been easier to burn his Primordial Spirit. He roared, "Let some of the pool water in—especially those fish! I'll try to absorb their energy."

"That's impossible. Most of it is the power of the restriction. If you devour it, the restriction might refine you and turn you into a spirit of the seal."

"I don't care. I need spiritual energy."

Ji Tian truly didn't care anymore. He gulped down the pool water. In truth, the entire pool was a restriction, one that had merged with the water. Every drop contained the seal.

But restrictions also contained spiritual energy. Without it, they couldn't function. It could be the caster's spiritual energy, or energy drawn from Heaven and Earth.

It was still a form of spiritual energy.

The pool's restriction was formed from the suppressive power of the spiritual energy in Pangu's blood. It contained tremendous spiritual energy, all meant to suppress the so-called Demon Bone.

Ji Tian kept devouring the power of the restriction in the pool. At the same time, the restriction battling the Black Remnant Bone weakened. That bought them a little more time.

Purple Fire—a wisp of purple flame appeared.

A wisp of Purple Flame burst from the surface of the Core Elixir, and it kept growing. Ji Tian spat out a mouthful of black Primordial Spirit Fire to feed it, while carving more marks of Heaven and Earth onto the Core Elixir.

The Black Stone couldn't withstand the purple flames. The stony layer covering its surface quickly burned away and dissolved.

It turned into black vapor and drifted away. It was Yin Energy and Death Qi.

As the black stone shell diminished, a powerful force emanated from within: life force.

It was the life force contained in Great God Pangu's blood.

Drawn by that life force, the restriction suddenly grew much stronger and pressed harder against the Black Remnant Bone. The restriction inside Ji Tian, which had been gradually refinable, became impossible to refine.

It began turning into a sealing force inside him, sealing the spiritual energy in his Primordial Spirit.

A phantom finger pointed toward Ji Tian's brow, and a vast stream of Soul Power flowed into him.

"Hurry and refine it. We don't have much time."

"Crack!" The stone shattered in the purple flames, and a beam of white light fled into the pool.

Ji Tian watched the white light slip past him, powerless to stop it. A powerful force had immobilized him—not only the pool's sealing force, but also a finger suspended in his sea of consciousness, as if it could press down at any moment.

The black Core Elixir wrapped in Purple Flame pursued the white light. Phantom hands formed from Death Qi coiled around it, quickly enclosing it.

"Ha! As long as I devour this bit of marrow, I can escape. You can stay here and enjoy this lightless place!"

The Black Remnant Bone roared, "You... you—"

Ji Tian said calmly, "I understand now. You've seen through some of the restrictions in this pool. It seems you created many of those scenes yourself. That explains how the Flying Demonic Tiger got the withered bamboo. You've been controlling everything, looking for someone who could help you refine the Black Stone."

"Ha! You figured it out too late."

"Maybe not. Do you really think you've completely taken control of that black Core Elixir?"

"Why wouldn't I? The Death Qi gathered throughout this pool is filled with my consciousness. How could I not control the black Core Elixir? It'll make a perfect puppet. I can even help that Demonic Dragon advance again. It's the very foundation of my recognition by the Heavenly Dao!"

Ji Tian said, "Being too confident isn't always a good thing. Overconfident people often think they control everything, yet overlook the problems right beside them. How much do you really know about this wraith?"

"Ha! You think he'd betray me? What a joke. I created him. I can destroy him too."

"You've destroyed him too many times. He wants to be free."

"Impossible. His memories are long gone. And even if they weren't, could he escape the control of my soul mark?"

Ji Tian sneered. "What if I helped him erase it? Don't forget, my soul is as powerful as yours. Both our souls came from a mighty god."

At that moment, the black Core Elixir exploded, and boundless Death Qi scattered in every direction. Neither the wraith nor the white light was there.

"I was fooled! Even if it could betray me, as long as you're in this pool, I can seal every last one of you. I'll absorb you little by little. Ha! I'm still the winner!"

"Then let's see who wins."

Ji Tian suddenly stood up. His Primordial Spirit gestured, and the Black Bone Arm, which had been struggling against the restriction, flew back to him.

"Kid, how did you do that? You're more impressive than I thought. I underestimated you."

Ji Tian sneered. "I was willing to become a spirit of the seal. I made peace with the restriction inside me. Those fish have only instinct. As long as you don't leave this sealed place, they won't activate the whole restriction to strengthen the seal. But I can."

"Heaven and Earth Seal!" Most of the pool water churned at once, forming a huge whirlpool. The water contracted, and boundless pressure surged forth—the power of Heaven and Earth drawn in by the seal.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you: I couldn't refine the Black Stone." The Black Stone floated in the pool, unchanged.

"You... you—"

A giant finger made of pool water, its fingerprints clearly visible, pointed toward the water forming the whirlpool.

"Crash!" The two currents collided. An invisible shock wave spread in every direction, and the surrounding rocks shattered. The deep pool expanded to twice its size.

Boundless water fell from the sky, like a waterfall hanging from the horizon.

The light cast by many of the restrictions faded.

"Kid, you nearly bluffed me. You haven't truly taken control of the pool's restriction; you've only gained a little control over it. Did that damned wraith tell you how? I never would've guessed."

"Spirit of the Seal—Devour!" Four tiny silver-white fish joined head to tail, spreading silver-white light across all the pool water Ji Tian controlled.

A giant wave rose from the pool and surged toward the enormous finger, sweeping over it like a tidal wave.