Intercepting the Nine Nether Sparrow

The Northern Spiritual Realm was divided into nine domains, each controlled by a single ruler.

The nine domains either allied with or opposed one another,

keeping the Northern Spiritual Realm locked in a balance where the nine domains stood side by side.

Beyond the nine domains, the Northern Spiritual Realm also possessed a powerful force that could not be ignored—the Northern Spiritual Academy.

Unlike the endlessly contentious nine domains,

the Northern Spiritual Academy had always remained neutral.

However, the Northern Spiritual Academy controlled the quotas for entering the "Five Great Academies," a resource coveted most by the rulers of every domain.

Thus, as soon as their children came of age, they would immediately send them to the Northern Spiritual Academy to cultivate, all in hopes of securing that opportunity.

The Spiritual Art Chamber was where the Northern Spiritual Academy stored its Spiritual Arts, and it was likewise divided into Heaven and Earth levels.

Within the spacious Spiritual Art Chamber, quite a few academy students were bent over, browsing through Spiritual Arts.

After all, not everyone had a father who ruled a domain of the Northern Spiritual Realm. Most could only obtain Spiritual Arts here.

Naturally, compared to the Spiritual Arts painstakingly prepared by the families of people like Mu Chen, the collection here was somewhat inferior.

This did not mean that the Northern Spiritual Academy's collection was inferior to those of the domain rulers of the Northern Spiritual Realm.

It was merely that ordinary students had no chance of seeing the truly precious Spiritual Arts of the Northern Spiritual Academy.

Even so, would even the academy's greatest treasure really be enough to interest the young clan chief of the Pagoda Ancient Clan?

Mandala looked helplessly at Futu Yun.

A dark-red jade slip was already pinched between his fingers.

Futu Yun had originally said he wanted to learn Spirit Formations.

Yet the moment he touched them, his head began to ache. This stuff was even more torturous than calculus.

In any case, learning Spirit Formations had only been an excuse to take Qing Yanjing as his master and free her from confinement.

Now that Qing Yanjing had regained her freedom, he had come out to gain experience, with Mandala serving as his personal protector.

But Mandala had not expected

this brat's first destination to be the Hundred Spirit Continent—a completely unremarkable continent in the northwest of the Great Thousand World.

Hundred Spirit Heaven was one of the countless regions on the Hundred Spirit Continent.

The Northern Spiritual Realm, meanwhile, was one of the weaker realms within Hundred Spirit Heaven.

The strongest people in a place like this were merely at the Divine Soul Stage, and even its best Spiritual Arts seemed to be only Spirit-grade.

Why would the dignified young clan chief Futu Yun come to such a place to choose a Spiritual Art?

The dark-red Spiritual Art within the Northern Spiritual Academy's Spiritual Art Chamber had a special designation—"dangerous Spiritual Art."

It meant that cultivating such Spiritual Arts carried considerable risk, and some could even harm the cultivator.

The one Futu Yun had chosen was the Forest of Death Seal mentioned in the original work.

Two highly gifted students had once cultivated it.

The result was that their meridians had been shattered, leaving them on the verge of becoming cripples.

After that, no one dared set their sights on this Spiritual Art again.

However, cultivating this Spiritual Art had one requirement: it needed domineering spiritual energy as its foundation.

Those two senior students had failed because their spiritual energy had not reached that domineering level.

But who was Futu Yun?

His Spiritual Wheel had long surpassed its limits, and he even had Qing Yanjing, an Immortal Grade Heavenly Sovereign, at his side. The strength of his spiritual energy went without saying.

Though this Forest of Death Seal was merely a high-grade Mortal-grade art, it could cultivate multiple Death Seals. Only by stacking them could its true power be unleashed.

Its early-stage power was limited, but once the number of seals accumulated, its effects would increase dramatically.

However, the more Death Seals there were, the stronger the backlash became. By the time a cultivator could withstand that backlash, they would often no longer think much of this Spiritual Art.

That was why this highly scalable Spiritual Art, one with seemingly limitless potential, had been abandoned by Mu Chen in the later stages of the original work.

But Futu Yun would not waste it like that.

Spiritual Arts were divided into Mortal, Spirit, and Divine grades, with each grade further divided into high, middle, and low tiers.

As a dangerous high-grade Mortal-grade Spiritual Art, the Forest of Death Seal was powerful enough to rival a low-grade Spirit-grade art.

Yet it was ultimately only high-grade Mortal-grade, for compared with a Spirit-grade Spiritual Art, it lacked a trace of spirituality.

In that case, wouldn't it be enough to integrate a trace of spirituality into it?

Given the right conditions, it would not even be impossible to grant it a trace of divinity.

And within the Northern Spiritual Realm, something possessing divinity truly existed.

For example, a Nine Nether Sparrow that was about to undergo its tribulation.

In truth, a Nine Nether Sparrow that did not even count as a divine beast was not worth Futu Yun making a special trip for.

Even the evolved Nine Nether Flame Sparrow or Nine Nether Frost Sparrow did not warrant such attention.

He only needed to spread the word, and plenty of people would capture them for him.

The entire Nine Nether Sparrow Clan had only one Heavenly Sovereign.

If Futu Yun so much as spoke, they might even voluntarily present several evolved Nine Nether Sparrows to him.

After all, this was a rare opportunity to forge a good relationship with the Pagoda Ancient Clan.

But the Nine Nether Sparrow before him was different.

She was the one beside Mu Chen in the original work, with a status comparable to Yao Lao beside the Flame Emperor and Lord Diao beside the Martial Ancestor.

Most importantly, her bloodline was special.

She was the most outstanding genius the Nine Nether Sparrow Clan had produced in nearly ten thousand years.

She could evolve a portion of the Immortal Bird Bloodline and had the potential to become a Nine Nether Netherbird—an existence capable of evolving into an Undying Bird.

The Ancient Undying Bird ranked among the top three Super Divine Beasts in terms of power. The moment it evolved, it could rival a Heavenly Sovereign.

Although it belonged to the Phoenix Clan's lineage, it was rarer than either a True Phoenix or a True Phoenix.

Avian Super Divine Beasts excelled most in speed, yet the Undying Bird's greatest strength was its ability to remain undying and indestructible.

She had indeed succeeded in the original work, and her cultivation had already advanced greatly, but unfortunately, she had no chance to display it now.

The instant she failed her tribulation, Futu Yun suddenly struck under Mandala's cover.

In the original work, even when facing the Phoenix Clan, the Nine Nether Sparrow Clan had been unwilling to hand her over, much less to the Pagoda Ancient Clan.

It was not because the Phoenix Clan was stronger than the Pagoda Ancient Clan.

Rather, the Pagoda Ancient Clan was ultimately a human force.

The Phoenix Clan and the Nine Nether Sparrow Clan, on the other hand, both belonged to avian divine beast races. To the Nine Nether Sparrow Clan, the Phoenix Clan was naturally more worth courting.

Even the mighty Phoenix Clan had been unable to make the Nine Nether Sparrow Clan yield, so the Pagoda Ancient Clan had even less chance.

Thus, he could only achieve his goal by taking action himself.

The Black Divine Lightning filling the sky was nothing more than a joke in the eyes of Mandala, a Heavenly Sovereign.

She controlled the black lightning, gathering it in Futu Yun's palm like agile black snakes to form a black Seal of light.

Mandala and Futu Yun were bound by a contract, and Futu Yun's Spiritual Wheel contained the power of the Datura Flower.

Their relationship was almost like a bloodline bond, except there was a distinction between master and subordinate.

If Futu Yun died, Mandala would die as well.

But if Mandala died, Futu Yun would remain unaffected.

Other than that, this connection was no different from a bloodline bond. Mandala could completely help Futu Yun accomplish many things.

At that moment, the black Seal of light suddenly trembled and emitted a buzzing hum.

Immediately afterward, the lightning rapidly converged, ultimately becoming a black Seal of light that slowly imprinted itself onto Futu Yun's palm.

The instant the Seal of light landed on his palm, Futu Yun threw a punch.

A wheel of black light, like a black sun, collided head-on with the freely falling Nine Nether Sparrow.

Futu Yun's Forest of Death Seal had been forged by Mandala with Black Divine Lightning.

The Nine Nether Sparrow had already been grievously wounded and near death from the Black Divine Lightning, making this move a perfect counter. It directly absorbed her essence soul.

In the end, it left only a black Seal inscription radiating a chilling coldness in his palm.

Yet this Forest of Death Seal was different from the original one.

Within the Seal, the faint image of a bird soaring with spread wings emerged.

It was unmistakably that Nine Nether Sparrow!

"Continue!" Futu Yun's expression changed sharply as he sensed the Nine Nether Sparrow's essence soul resisting.

Mandala narrowed her eyes and controlled the Black Divine Lightning filling the sky, pouring it in.

One Forest of Death Seal after another was forged and layered atop the first Death Seal on Futu Yun's right palm.

Every remnant strand of Black Divine Lightning left behind from striking the Nine Nether Sparrow was drawn out.

And the Nine Nether Sparrow's resistance finally began to weaken.