The Immortal-Ending Sword itself was like a mystic embryo born from heaven and earth, carrying an essence of true intent.
Using this sword did not depend on the quality of the Immortal-Ending Sword itself, but on how much power of heaven and earth its wielder could leverage through this treasure.
Ling Qing was merely a Heavenly Immortal. Even with the Mystic Whale Sword in hand, he was only a Four-Tribulation Heavenly Immortal.
The strength he could exert was limited.
However, once he hung it above the Azure Palace, things were different.
This Azure Palace represented the formation cores of the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation and the All-Heavens Star Array, and could mobilize the power of both grand formations.
Only by blessing the Immortal-Ending Sword with that immense power could it possess the strength to kill the Spirit Demon and Fierce Demon in a single stroke.
Only then could it awaken the Essence Demon's fear of the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation and keep it from daring to resist head-on.
No matter how many external things one possessed, one's own self had to remain the foundation.
At present, Ling Qing's foundation was the weakest among everyone present.
Thus, when he could bring all his external assets into play, his strength was enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the others.
But once a force could avoid his strongest points and strike directly at his foundation, then no matter how powerful his external strength was, it would be useless.
When the Essence Demon combined the power of the Sin Demon and Harm Demon, refusing to clash directly with Ling Qing and instead exploiting the earlier opening to break open the formation space—
—it was like bypassing strength to strike weakness, hitting Ling Qing right in his soft underbelly.
Fortunately, although the Essence Demon