Five-Fire Universe Net

Old Lady Red Flower had forty-nine Bingling Shuttles in all. Once released, they became shuttle-shaped streaks of red light that shot across the sky and collided with Geng Peng's Feather Arrows. In an instant, they clashed thousands of times, exploding into a rain of red light and a wild spray of golden sparks.

Shi Feiyang used his two inner cores to intercept Zhuge Jingwo's flying sword and Old Lady Red Flower's.

Zhuge Jingwo's Invisible Sword was already formidable, its movements unfathomable even to Gods and ghosts, but Old Lady Red Flower's Immortal Sword brought still greater pressure.

Worried that Geng Peng could not withstand Lady Baoxiang and Old Lady Red Flower together, Shi Feiyang was eager to defeat his opponents. His two inner cores formed a Taiji Diagram and charged forward, battering furiously, while releasing countless fire serpents, Fire Sparrows, and other firebirds, along with a skyful of hail and freezing rain. Amid this ferocious assault, he also attached Formless Fiendfire to the firebirds and hailstones and sent them against Zhuge Jingwo.

Zhuge Jingwo practiced the Mystic Sect's mental disciplines. Ordinarily, his heart was clear, illuminating Heaven and Earth, and even the Formless Fiendfire could not escape his mind's eye. Yet the upheaval he had just suffered had filled him with remorse and regret. Desperate to recover the Purple River Grass and make amends, he had lost command of his own heart, allowing the Formless Fiendfire to cling to his Invisible Sword and burn its way toward him.

Even so, he detected it sooner than an ordinary practitioner of the unorthodox paths would have. He hurriedly used the Lesser Clarity Immortal Art from the Emei Sect's secret demon-subduing manual. His left hand formed a seal to control his sword, while his right fingertips released Lesser Clarity Divine Light, which swept over the invisible Immortal Sword like flowing water and extinguished the vicious Formless Fiendfire.

At that moment, Geng Peng unleashed the Heavenly Forbidden Arts, drawing two icebergs through the air and hurling one at Lady Baoxiang and the other at Old Lady Red Flower. Old Lady Red Flower raised her hand, directing forty-nine streaks of red light upward with the force of thunder and fire. They blasted the iceberg, over a hundred feet high, into pieces that scattered through the sky, tumbling and spraying in every direction.

Lady Baoxiang wrapped her Rainbow Silk around the other iceberg and constricted it, crushing it apart.

Amid the skyful of shattered ice, Lady Baoxiang seized an opening to release her White-Brow Needles. This time, she fired ten at once: five at Geng Peng and five across the battlefield at Shi Feiyang.

Shi Feiyang was using his True Water inner core to gather the shattered ice across a broad stretch of sky, igniting invisible Formless Fiendfire upon it and arranging it around Zhuge Jingwo according to the configuration of the Circumcelestial Cycle. This maneuver ingeniously combined the Golden Seal Heavenly Talisman left by the Yellow Emperor at the base of Dinghu Peak, the secret poison-fire art in the Lesser Book of Heaven, and the Demonic Fire Heart-Burning Technique Wei Fengniang had learned from Bruninga. Together, the three actually formed a battle array.

With Geng Peng pressing Old Lady Red Flower too hard for her to attack him, he intended to capture Zhuge Jingwo first. He was just about to spit out the Cloud-Mother Veil to envelop Zhuge Jingwo, then use the Inverted Five Elements Technique to concentrate the Formless Fiendfire upon him, when Lady Baoxiang's White-Brow Needles arrived again.

These Bai-Brow Needles were not made of metal. When released, they were merely inconspicuous white threads. With Lady Baoxiang far away and a skyful of flying ice and freezing mist between them, they were truly impossible to guard against.

Just as the White-Brow Needles were about to strike him again, Daoist Cold Light, who had been watching from behind, intervened. He released the Star-Absorbing Orb, and all ten White-Brow Needles changed direction midway through their flight, flew toward the orb, and were drawn onto its surface.

Lady Baoxiang flew into a rage. "Daoist Cold Light, do you dare make an enemy of the Emei Sect?"

Daoist Cold Light truly did not quite dare. He tried earnestly to persuade them. "Both sides have come from afar, honoring my humble home with your presence. You are all my esteemed guests. Enmity is better dissolved than forged. Whatever the matter, can't everyone sit down and discuss it properly? Come to my cave and share a cup of tea..."

Old Lady Red Flower had always been arrogant and looked down on Daoist Cold Light. "Since he is helping this Monster, what more is there to say?" she said coldly. "Watch me destroy the Magic Treasure that made his name!" She raised her hand and released a mass of red light, which spread through the air and erupted into roaring flames.

Daoist Cold Light's Star-Absorbing Orb was renowned. Most cultivators under heaven knew of it, and Old Lady Red Flower was no exception. Since its attraction could restrain both her flying sword and her Bingling Shuttles, she brought out another treasure she often used for protection: the Five-Fire Universe Net. It flew up and enclosed the Star-Absorbing Orb. As she formed seals and cast her spell, five-colored flames ignited, interweaving and surging wildly, threatening to refine the orb away.

Seeing his precious treasure on the verge of destruction, Daoist Cold Light was both anxious and furious. "Fellow Daoist Red Flower, there is no grievance or enmity between us. Why must you press me so relentlessly?"

Old Lady Red Flower had the temperament of an unorthodox cultivator: ruthless in her actions and eccentric in disposition, she was known as an "old Monster woman." Ever since Elder Longbrow had beaten her into submission, she had bottled up her resentment and secluded herself on Osmanthus Mountain to cultivate all manner of formidable Spells. Over the years, many Sword Immortals had visited the mountain hoping to gather Black Wind Grass, and almost all had perished in the poisonous pool.

Although she had gained some understanding over the years and was no longer as extreme as before, she still acted as she pleased. Had Daoist Cold Light continued to stand aside as a mere bystander, she would have left him alone. Once he intervened, however, she showed no mercy.

She pointed, and the Five-Fire Universe Net carried the Star-Absorbing Orb straight toward the highest heavens. Daoist Cold Light pursued with his sword, but she intercepted him with her flying sword. "Don't be impatient. Once I've sent that wretched ball of yours into the Nine Heavens Astral Wind and refined and scoured it clean, we can have a proper fight."

Daoist Cold Light gritted his teeth. "You've gone too far!"

As the two Immortal Swords tangled together, Old Lady Red Flower brought out her newly refined mountain-guarding treasure, the Three Powers Fire Cloud Rings. They became three Golden Rings, each releasing flames thousands of feet long. They soon caught Daoist Cold Light's flying sword and tightened inward, instantly crushing it to pieces.

Daoist Cold Light fired three Cold Light Needles at Old Lady Red Flower like flashes of lightning, but the Three Powers Fire Cloud Rings caught those too and released flames to refine them away.

By then, Shi Feiyang had spat out the Cloud-Mother Veil and trapped Zhuge Jingwo within it and the swirling ice filling the sky. Seeing what was happening nearby, he did not rush to join the battle. Instead, he furiously generated mist, then rose into the air and used his True Water core to gather a vast bank of dark clouds. He condensed hailstones the size of washbasins, mixed with countless millions of ice pellets, and sent them crashing down in a torrential deluge.

All this was merely to conceal his movements. He continued soaring upward until he reached the astral wind layer. Old Lady Red Flower's Five-Fire Universe Net was there, wrapped around the Star-Absorbing Orb. Its five-colored flames had condensed into a mountain that burned fiercely, while the orb tumbled and battered about inside, unable to escape.

Old Lady Red Flower was formidable indeed. Ordinary flames could not withstand the Nine Heavens Astral Wind and would be extinguished at a breath. By all ordinary reasoning, her Five-Fire Universe Net should have been blown apart before the Star-Absorbing Orb could be refined away.

In fact, however, her treasure could absorb the astral wind and use it to feed its flames, burning ever more fiercely. From the look of it, the Star-Absorbing Orb really would be refined away before long.

The Star-Absorbing Orb was the bane of all needle-type Magic Treasures. Shi Feiyang was deeply grateful that Daoist Cold Light had just used it to draw out the White-Brow Needles for him. No matter what, he could not let Old Lady Red Flower destroy it now.

Facing the Five-Fire Universe Net, he steadied his mind and studied it carefully, then tentatively spat out his Divine Fire Inner Core.

This protective treasure refined by Old Lady Red Flower was no ordinary object. Any common Monster core, even one of the fire attribute, would have been burned to ashes upon contact, its fire overcome by hers.

Yet Shi Feiyang's Divine Fire Inner Core had been replenished with the true yang remaining in his true water inner core. It contained pure yang energy and had already begun to exhibit the nature of Qian Heaven True Fire, so it did not fear the burning of the Five-Fire Universe Net. Shi Feiyang suspended it above the net and used its core energy to smooth out the five fires, each according to its nature...

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