The golden vortex kept spinning, like a never-sated Taotie, devouring the bloody demonic energy pouring from Daoist Daoxuan's body.
The crimson torrent grew thinner and dimmer.
Color returned to Daoist Daoxuan's withered face.
His aura shifted from savage destruction to calm serenity.
Though his tightly shut eyes remained closed, his eyelids trembled faintly.
Like someone who had endured a century of nightmares, he was about to awaken from the darkness.
Their faces lit up with the joy of having survived a catastrophe.
Yet just then.
Another sudden change occurred.
The gleaming gray Wine Gourd shuddered.
Fine cracks spread across its ancient surface.
"Not good!" Wan Jianyi's heart sank.
He hadn't expected the mysterious gourd, capable of devouring the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation, to show signs of crumbling at such a moment.
Was it unable to withstand the full force of the Immortal-Slaying demonic energy, too?
The thought made everyone's hearts leap into their throats.
Li Xiaoyu was the one hit hardest.
A force of backlash, even greater than before, surged from the crumbling gourd into his body.
It was terrifyingly powerful.
Even his cultivation in the Taiqing Realm seemed utterly helpless before it.
"Pfft!"
Li Xiaoyu's body shuddered, and a mouthful of thick black blood burst from his lips.
His face turned as pale as gold paper, and blood seeped from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
His body flew backward as if struck by a ten-thousand-jun hammer.
"Xiaoyu!"
Lu Xueqi, who had been holding him, shrieked as she watched him fly away.
Li Xiaoyu slammed into the shattered mountainside.
Then he fell limply toward the ground.
"Boom!"
With a muffled crash, his body struck the earth and made a deep crater, sending dust billowing into the air.
The world seemed to fall silent in that instant, leaving only the wind's