Everything had happened far too suddenly, drawing the attention of the thousands upon thousands of cultivators present.
The Long-faced Elder had been distracted as well. His sword light crashed onto the ground with a clang, its might undiminished, yet it had come a beat too late.
Mu Yingluo, lying on the ground and already prepared to meet her death, saw a sliver of life flash before her.
A fierce will to survive burst from her eyes. She forcibly roused her last wisp of True Yuan and carried her body several zhang sideways.
But... that was all.
The next instant, the residual force of the sword light and the airwave it kicked up sent her flying.
Her internal injuries worsened once more, yet she had luckily preserved her final breath.
"Hmph!"
The Long-faced Elder snorted coldly. Though Mu Yingluo had narrowly escaped death, she no longer had the strength to move.
At once, he no longer had time to strike again.
His slightly furrowed brow was filled with tension as he hurriedly followed everyone's gaze toward the Hope Fire.
At the same time that the crowd recovered from their shock and turned their eyes over, the final wisp of the Hope Fire was drawn into the Nascent Soul's body in midair.
Even more shocking, the tiny Nascent Soul did not stop after doing so.
The Nascent Soul Essence within it continued to surge, its pull spreading outward and drawing the sparks scattered throughout the sky toward its body at even greater speed.
"Brazen villain, you are courting death!!!"
The Sacred Spirit Cult Saintess was the first to react. Her face darkened, her expression turning incomparably ugly.
With that furious rebuke, the incomparably weak aura around her was swept clean away.
Ignoring Mu Yingluo, whose life hung by a thread, she fixed