Spirit-Breaking Bead

Flames exploded across the sky, leaving behind only a charred corpse and a Dragon Scale Sword whose spirituality had greatly diminished.

At the same time, the purple hue on Futu Yun gradually faded.

His purple hair returned to black, his purple left eye reverted to gold, and his aura fell back to the peak of the Divine Soul Stage.

Just as in the original plot, Shen Cangsheng, the top-ranked student on the Sky Ranking, arrived as well.

"I accepted the bounty mission on Demon Dragon and chased him for two months, yet I still failed to capture him."

Guo Xiong, standing nearby, secretly clicked his tongue in amazement.

Among all the students of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, Shen Cangsheng was probably the only one who would dare hunt Demon Dragon.

But now, Ye Yun likely had to be added to that list.

After all, Demon Dragon had already died at Ye Yun's hands.

"I never expected it to end like this." Shen Cangsheng lightly shook the golden spear in his hand.

Although he was quite powerful,

even the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy's Punishment Squad had failed to eliminate Demon Dragon when they joined forces. Naturally, he could not accomplish it alone.

Yet by relentlessly pursuing him, Shen Cangsheng could at least hold Demon Dragon back and prevent him from continuing to hunt Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy students.

And as long as Demon Dragon showed even the slightest opening, he would leave his life here.

However, Shen Cangsheng had merely relaxed his guard for a brief moment earlier, allowing Demon Dragon to find an opportunity to attack the younger students.

He had never imagined that Demon Dragon would ultimately die at the hands of a new student,

even if Ye Yun had borrowed the power of a secret technique.

"Senior Shen, should we take his head back to claim the reward?" Futu Yun pointed at Demon Dragon's charred corpse.

"You didn't accept the wanted mission, but you can still collect the reward." Shen Cangsheng had no habit of claiming credit.

"The Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy has produced quite a promising seedling." A faint laugh suddenly echoed through the heavens and earth.

The voice was not loud, yet the surrounding area instantly fell silent.

Space rippled, and a figure slowly condensed into existence like liquid.

The figure wore black robes and appeared to be middle-aged, with slightly graying hair.

Yet his eyes resembled a pair of black holes, so deep that they could not be fathomed.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he looked at Futu Yun with a faint smile.

"Black Dragon Sovereign?" Shen Cangsheng and the others' expressions changed drastically as they cried out in horror.

Su Xuan and the others were especially alarmed. Back when they had entered the Sovereign Spiritual Treasury, Bai Xuan had summoned an incarnation of the Black Dragon Sovereign.

But the one before them was clearly the true body!

What exactly was the Dragon Demon Palace trying to do?

A Sovereign had actually appeared in person!

Against an opponent of this level, they had no ability to resist whatsoever.

"On you, I can sense a trace of an old friend's aura." The Black Dragon Sovereign smiled.

From the moment he appeared, he had not glanced at Demon Dragon's charred corpse even once. His gaze remained fixed solely on Futu Yun.

His expression was exceptionally gentle, yet that gentleness sent a chill straight into everyone's bones.

If the White Dragon Sovereign had not betrayed the Dragon Demon Palace and taken the Great Sumeru Demon Pillar with him back then,

the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy and the Dragon Demon Palace might have remained deadlocked for a long time before deciding a victor.

"I naturally have no interest in meddling in petty fights between juniors. But this item is the supreme treasure of my Dragon Demon Palace."

"For its sake, my Dragon Demon Palace is willing to resort to any means necessary." The Black Dragon Sovereign found himself an excuse to disregard the rules.

But at that moment, a blood-red bead abruptly appeared before him and exploded with a deafening roar.

The entire world twisted at that instant.

Shen Cangsheng and the others stared in stunned disbelief. What was that thing?

"As expected of a Fifth-grade Sovereign. Even a Spirit-Breaking Bead couldn't blow you to death." Futu Yun's teasing voice rang out.

"Not far from it." The Black Dragon Sovereign's furious voice came from within the explosion.

Then, a completely charred figure emerged. He looked almost identical to Demon Dragon's burnt corpse on the ground.

The only difference was that he was merely severely wounded, not dead.

Yet despite his rage, he did not dare make a reckless move.

Because several more blood-red beads had appeared in Futu Yun's hand.

The beads were the size of dragon eyes, fiery red throughout, their surfaces covered in obscure inscriptions. They were Spirit-Breaking Beads.

These spiritual artifacts were forged from special Spirit Gold. Although their crafting process was complicated and their failure rate extremely high,

they were not considered rare on the Northern Heavens Continent. Divine Soul Stage experts could create them.

However, Spirit-Breaking Beads forged by Divine Soul Stage experts could only severely injure those at the Spirit Wheel Stage.

Cultivators with higher cultivation could naturally forge higher-grade Spirit-Breaking Beads,

but both the crafting difficulty and the cost would rise accordingly.

And the Spirit-Breaking Beads in Futu Yun's hand were enough to kill Sovereigns below the fifth grade!

The distinction between first-grade and fourth-grade Sovereigns was based only on the difference in the strength of their spiritual energy.

Starting from Fifth-grade Sovereigns, however, the gap widened greatly. This gap was determined by one's mastery over spatial abilities:

A Fifth-grade Sovereign could travel through space.

A Sixth-grade Sovereign could pass through Spatial Rifts.

A Seventh-grade Sovereign could initially distort space and create Spatial Rifts.

An Eighth-grade Sovereign could freely control space, such as manipulating Spatial Rifts to kill enemies.

The power of a ninth-grade Sovereign had already initially reached the level of shattering space.

If the Black Dragon Sovereign had not promptly used the power of space just now, Futu Yun would have blown him to death long ago!

The Black Dragon Sovereign was not afraid of the Spirit-Breaking Beads. He had simply been caught off guard earlier.

If they truly fought, he was confident that he could kill Futu Yun before Futu Yun had the chance to act.

But what he feared even more was the force behind Futu Yun.

Leaving aside how costly Spirit-Breaking Beads capable of severely wounding or even killing a Sovereign were,

the mere fact that someone could forge Spirit-Breaking Beads of such a grade meant they were not someone he could afford to provoke.

Spirit-Breaking Beads created by Divine Soul Stage experts could only severely injure Spirit Wheel Stage cultivators.

They had little effect on Divine Soul Stage experts themselves.

Could the Spirit-Breaking Beads in Futu Yun's possession have been forged by an Earthly Sovereign?

At the very least, Northern Sea Dragon Kun, the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy's ninth-grade Sovereign, could not accomplish such a thing!

Moreover, the higher the grade of a Spirit-Breaking Bead, the greater the difficulty of forging it.

An Earthly Sovereign was merely the starting point. Perhaps someone above the Earthly Sovereign level had taken action.

Such an existence could destroy not merely the Dragon Demon Palace, but the entire Northern Heavens Continent with a single thought.

Hadn't the Holy Spiritual Academy, one of the Five Great Academies, been directly wiped out some time ago?

At this thought, the Black Dragon Sovereign could not help cursing wildly in his heart.

If Futu Yun had such a formidable background, why had he come to cultivate at the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy?

Was he a young master playing at experiencing ordinary life?

"Sir." The Black Dragon Sovereign forced himself to smile.

"What happened today was my Dragon Demon Palace's fault. I hope you can forgive us."

"To make amends, my Dragon Demon Palace will no longer seek that supreme treasure. We shall regard it as a gift of apology to you."

Seeing the Black Dragon Sovereign in such a lowly posture, Shen Cangsheng and the others could not help clicking their tongues in amazement.

Everyone knew that the Black Dragon Sovereign had always been domineering.

They had never expected that even someone like him would be forced to lower his head today, even willingly surrendering the Dragon Demon Palace's supreme treasure.

While the others were astonished by this, the Black Dragon Sovereign was roaring with fury inside, yet utterly helpless.

Who could have expected that such a terrifying figure stood behind this boy?

An expert of that level was simply not someone the Dragon Demon Palace could afford to offend.