Third-Tier Treasure Talisman

"Half an hour!" Liang Zhaohuang's expression grew somewhat grave. He turned to look at the Spirit Demons charging in and made a swift decision. "Second Sister, take the others and set up the defenses."

"There are too many Spirit Demons coming. I have to strike first and kill some of them!"

As Liang Zhaohuang spoke, he raised the Green Lotus and flew straight to meet the Foundation Establishment Spirit Demon Black Eagle pouncing down from the sky.

The Black Eagle was over ten feet long, its vicious aura terrifying. It led several dozen avian Spirit Demons in a diving charge, moving the fastest by far, far outstripping the other Spirit Demons charging over the ground.

This, however, gave Liang Zhaohuang the chance to defeat them one by one and seize the initiative.

"Screech!"

Seeing Liang Zhaohuang fly toward it, the Black Eagle let out a piercing cry and swept up an icy wind of black Baleful Intent. Frigid qi erupted from its pair of sharp talons, cold light flashing along their razor edges as it tore straight at Liang Zhaohuang.

Looking at the Foundation Establishment Spirit Demon Black Eagle coming to kill him, Liang Zhaohuang's face turned solemn. He had no time to fight and tangle with the Black Eagle here. He had to end this quickly—best of all, kill it in a single strike.

So he reached to the Storage Bag at his waist and drew out a crimson jade talisman.

This was precisely the Third-Tier Treasure Talisman, the Crimson Separation Sword Talisman, that his aunt Liang Xuemiao and his cousin Wang Hui had spent nearly a month obtaining in the commandery city, and had delivered in time before Liang Zhaohuang and the others entered the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm.

This Crimson Separation Sword Talisman contained three attacks. Each attack was equivalent to a strike from a Golden Core True Person.

Of course, with Liang Zhaohuang's Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivation, there was no way he could unleash the Crimson Separation Sword Talisman's power to its limit and reach the level of a True Person's strike.

Even so, it was still a Third-Tier Treasure Talisman. Once activated, its might was already enough to sweep across the Foundation Establishment level!

Liang Zhaohuang raised the crimson jade talisman and poured his magic power and Spiritual Sense into it. He only felt that the little jade talisman was like a bottomless pit, wantonly devouring his magic power and Spiritual Sense without pause, without end.

With his meager magic power, the bottom soon came into sight.

Liang Zhaohuang had no choice but to stop supplying magic power and directly trigger the attack within the jade talisman.

In an instant, an illusory, ethereal crimson sword light slashed out from the jade talisman. Though illusory, though ethereal, it was like heavenly fire and a falling meteor crashing to earth, its momentum unstoppable as it cut straight toward the Foundation Establishment Spirit Demon Black Eagle coming to kill him.

If Liang Zhaohuang's magic power and Spiritual Sense had been sufficient to support it and unleash this treasure talisman's power to the limit, the illusory, ethereal sword light would have turned solid and reached the might of a Golden Core True Person's strike.

But for now, it was already enough. As the illusory, ethereal crimson sword light descended, the Black Eagle Spirit Demon screeched shrilly. Trying to dodge was utterly impossible. It could only beat its wings madly, rolling up endless icy winds of black Baleful Intent, while boundless cold qi erupted from its body and transformed into dark ice-black armor, attempting to block the sword light that was cutting down.

Yet everything was futile. Though the crimson sword light was illusory, its power was immeasurable. With a single slash, cold wind, black Baleful Intent, hard ice, and Black Eagle alike were all split in two!

The Black Eagle Spirit Demon gave one final shriek, and its body broke apart in midair. A low-grade second-tier Spirit Source Ore dropped from the sky.

Liang Zhaohuang stretched out a hand and sent out a stream of magic power, sweeping it up and storing away the falling Spirit Source Ore.

By now, his face had already gone somewhat pale, and the magic power in his dantian had been depleted by more than half.

He took out a Spirit Ginseng Pill and swallowed it, recovering his magic power. Liang Zhaohuang put away the crimson jade talisman; it still had two attacks inside, and they needed to be saved for critical moments.

At the same time, he circulated his innate spiritual art. The illusory Red Lotus and Golden Lotus appeared in succession, blasting toward the several dozen remaining Qi Refining Spirit Demon birds pouncing through the sky.

The Red Lotus exploded, flames surging in all directions; the Golden Lotus bloomed, Golden Blades slashing across all eight sides!

Almost in the blink of an eye, nearly half of the several dozen Qi Refining Spirit Demon birds flying in were cut down. Piece after piece of first-tier Spirit Source Ore, like stubborn rocks, fell from the sky. Liang Zhaohuang had no time at all to gather them.

On the other side, the Foundation Establishment Spirit Demon on the ground—a Giant Python—had already charged near the Earthen Hill. He had to return.

The Green Lotus beneath his feet turned, and Liang Zhaohuang flew back to the Earthen Hill. While still in midair, he sent out the Black Tiger Sword. With a tiger's roar, the black tiger pounced out once more, sweeping up a great swath of Sword Qi black wind as it lunged straight at the several-zhang-long Giant Python Spirit Demon on the ground.

If possible, Liang Zhaohuang wanted to raise the Crimson Separation Sword Talisman again and release another sword-shadow attack to kill the Giant Python Spirit Demon on the ground as well.

But his magic power could no longer support even the minimum activation requirements of the Third-Tier Treasure Talisman. Even the Black Tiger Sword was only being maintained with difficulty, relying on the crude refining of the Spirit Ginseng Pill to recover magic power at low efficiency.

Liang Zhaohuang was even powerless to send out his other spiritual artifact, Crimson Essence Peak.

In the current situation, he could only rely on the Black Tiger Sword to temporarily hold back the Foundation Establishment Spirit Demon Giant Python until Liang Ruiqin finished setting up the Five Directions Five Mountains Five Elements Sealing Suppression Great Formation.

While Liang Zhaohuang held back the Foundation Establishment Spirit Demon on his side, the Qi Refining Spirit Demon birds and beasts on the other side had all already charged in.

On the Earthen Hill, the five Five Elements formation flags had already been transferred into the hands of Liang Zhaoyu and the other five Zhao-generation disciples, who formed the Small Five Elements Formation to guard the four directions.

Liang Ruizhao, Liang Ruixin, Liang Ruijie, and Liang Ruijian, meanwhile, were protected within the Small Five Elements Formation. Each held a stack of talismans and, following Liang Zhaoyu and the others' guidance, used all kinds of techniques to blast talismans one after another outside the formation, attacking the Qi Refining Spirit Demons charging toward them.

Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers, One Line Connecting Stars, Flying Fish Three Layer Wave, Five Directions Worshipping Immortals, Meteor Piercing Sun... Under Liang Zhaoyu and the others' guidance, all sorts of talisman-using techniques were swiftly grasped and mastered by them.

Talismans exploded one after another around the Earthen Hill. Golden light, flames, Thorns, earth spikes, layered waves—attacks of every kind of Five Elements spell erupted, blasting Qi Refining Spirit Demons to death one after another. Spirit Source Ores rolled to the ground one by one, and no one had the time to pick them up.

Even so, there were simply too many Spirit Demons charging in from every direction. Liang Zhaoyu, Liang Ruiqin, and the others had limits to their manpower, and they had no choice but to fight while retreating, slowly falling back toward the top of the Earthen Hill.

On the Earthen Hill, Liang Ruiqin was busy, setting up the formation as fast as he could.

Although the core formation diagram of the Five Directions Five Mountains Five Elements Sealing Suppression Great Formation had already been completed by Liang Zhaohuang, finishing the remaining auxiliary parts of the great formation and completing the entire array was still extremely complicated and difficult.

This was especially because it was a second-tier spiritual formation, while Liang Ruiqin was only a first-tier formation master. In setting it up, he could only follow the map to find the steed, completing the formation step by step according to the formation-setting process and methods provided when the formation was purchased, which consumed even more time and energy.

During this process, not the slightest disturbance could be tolerated. Otherwise, with Liang Ruiqin's ability, he would be completely unable to control the great formation. It would be very easy for the formation to develop problems from even slight interference, collapse into chaos, and cause all their efforts to fall short at the last step, making it impossible to complete the spiritual formation.

Therefore, seeing that Liang Zhaoyu and the others could not hold out and had no choice but to retreat up the Earthen Hill, Liang Zhaohuang also had no choice but to act. An illusory Golden Lotus appeared and transformed into petal after petal of Golden Blades, cutting into the swarms of Qi Refining Spirit Demons and slaughtering a swath of them, slightly easing the pressure on Liang Zhaoyu and the others.