Banner-Mist Clouds

Shi Feiyang suspended a Divine Fire Inner Core above the Five-Fire Universe Net, using the true yang within the core to counter the five fires in the net. Old Lady Red Flower had painstakingly extracted the essences of wood fire, stone fire, water fire, Jin fire, and Nanming Li Fire, then refined them together to produce these five fires. They constituted Five Elements True Fire, containing the mysteries of mutual generation and restraint, and were formidable beyond measure. In battle, even enemies wielding fire-attribute Magic Treasures would have their treasures burned away by her fire overcoming fire.

Yet all these fires were acquired fire, incapable of overcoming innate fire. As it happened, Shi Feiyang's Divine Fire Inner Core contained a spark of innate true yang fire qi. The innate was the foundation, while the acquired was its application. When it came to tracing things back to their source and generating power without end, the innate stood supreme; for defeating enemies and burning all things to ashes, the acquired was naturally stronger.

Precelestial and Postcelestial divine fires ordinarily met without interfering with each other. But with a nearly refined Star-Absorbing Orb caught between them, the three produced an unexpected marvel: the five-colored divine flames and the pure yang qi within Shi Feiyang's inner core actually began attracting one another.

Had he been fighting Old Lady Red Flower face-to-face, she could naturally have controlled this Magic Treasure to seize Shi Feiyang's inner core instead. But Daoist Cold Light was fighting desperately for his life, forcing her to focus on handling him while also diverting some of her attention to helping Lady Baoxiang deal with Feather Daoist Geng Peng. With her attention divided, her control over the Five-Fire Universe Net inevitably weakened.

The Five Elements True Fire had originally interwoven, burning fiercely to form a mountain of flame. After Shi Feiyang worked to unravel it for a brief moment, it rapidly separated and dispersed.

The Five-Fire Universe Net was like a net woven from five colored threads. Now it had been unraveled into its original five strands—five streams of colored flame that danced up and down around the Divine Fire Inner Core like five dragons playing with a pearl.

Shi Feiyang had intended to preserve the Star-Absorbing Orb and help Daoist Cold Light recover the Magic Treasure so they could resist their powerful enemies together. He had thought the orb would be worn down bit by bit, steadily shrinking until it vanished. Instead, once its outer protective radiance had been refined away, the "sun, moon, and Stars" inside rapidly disintegrated and were about to scatter and vanish. He hurriedly spat out his True Water inner core as well. The two circled one another, forming a Taiji Diagram that locked the nebula at the heart of the Star-Absorbing Orb in place.

He did not know what this substance was, but the Star-Absorbing Orb was a world-renowned treasure, the only one of its kind in the entire Zu Mountain World. It had to be something valuable. He wanted to find a way to preserve it and return it to Daoist Cold Light later, to see whether the orb could be refined anew. Perhaps he could even watch from the sidelines and learn this unusual method of refining treasures.

The Star-Absorbing Orb shrank into a mass of nebula and was drawn into the center of the rapidly spinning "taiji." Around it, the five-colored flames were also attracted, their leading ends connecting to the outer edge of the Taiji Diagram. They spun along with it like five streamers attached to a spinning disc.

Shi Feiyang kept breathing out True Essence and Essence Qi, trying to imprison the "nebula" temporarily. Yet it spread outward beyond his control. Dustlike Stars trickled like grains of sand into the rapidly spinning qi of water and fire, while the five-colored flames outside were likewise absorbed, flowing continuously into it.

Though complicated to describe, the process took only a brief moment. Soon, both the Stars at the center and the flames outside had been completely absorbed and vanished. Shi Feiyang drew his inner cores back in and felt something wonderfully strange. Both cores were somewhat different, but in his haste, he had no time to examine exactly what had changed.

Old Lady Red Flower had already noticed him refining and absorbing the Five-Fire Universe Net. But Daoist Cold Light's desperate struggle at death's door had left her scrambling, with no attention to spare to stop him.

As Shi Feiyang swooped down from the sky, he saw Old Lady Red Flower trapping Daoist Cold Light in midair with the Three Powers Fire Cloud Rings. The three golden rings, positioned above, in the middle, and below, simultaneously released vast quantities of fire clouds. Daoist Cold Light's protective Magic Treasure, an Icy Light Canopy, was refined away by their flames. Then the golden rings contracted until they clamped directly around his body—one around his neck, one around his waist, and one around his feet—imprisoning both his flesh and his Primordial Spirit. Old Lady Red Flower drove the Magic Treasure to unleash raging flames that engulfed him completely.

Shi Feiyang hurriedly spat out both inner cores. Knowing how formidable Old Lady Red Flower was, he attacked with all his might, spinning the two cores at their highest speed. The water-and-fire Taiji Diagram they formed expanded to dozens of zhang across and smashed down at Old Lady Red Flower like a Meteorite from beyond the heavens!

Seeing him, Old Lady Red Flower shouted furiously, "Vile beast, you ruined my Magic Treasure!" She recalled all her Bingling Shuttles, turning them into dozens of streaks of red light that shot diagonally into the sky toward Shi Feiyang.

The Bingling Shuttles struck the Water-Fire Taiji Diagram and exploded with a thunderous crash, erupting into an enormous luminous cloud of flame.

Shi Feiyang possessed the Black Dragon's three thousand years of cultivation; head-on collisions like this were what he feared least. His two inner cores flew backward, but remained under his control. He breathed out a mouthful of true essence, and they converged once more, forming a Taiji Diagram that slammed downward again.

The Bingling Shuttles were Old Lady Red Flower's cave-guarding treasures. In this clash, she had gained no advantage and had instead suffered a slight setback. Her forty-nine shuttles flew back toward her, and even if she formed hand seals to gather and control them again, she would be too late to block Shi Feiyang's attack. She cursed urgently, "Vile beast, you deserve to die!" With a shake of her body, she turned into a cloud of red smoke that split into five streams and scattered in five directions. Several hundred zhang away, the red smoke churned, and an identical Old Lady Red Flower emerged from each stream.

Having lost his target, Shi Feiyang descended and was about to determine which one to attack when all five Old Lady Red Flowers took out a small banner painted with the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams. They waved their hands and cast their spells simultaneously. At once, clouds and mist billowed across hundreds and thousands of zhang, intertwining into a continuous expanse that trapped Shi Feiyang within.

This was another of Old Lady Red Flower's formidable Magic Treasures, called the Banner-Mist Clouds. Even used alone, it possessed tremendous power. When she used it to lay a Formation, its marvelous applications became endless.

Trapped within the five-colored clouds, Shi Feiyang found what seemed to be boundless space ahead, behind, and on either side. No matter which direction he flew, he could not escape. He knew his opponent was also inverting the Five Elements and warping space. Moreover, the colored mist could condense at any moment into ribbons that wrapped around him and tightened.

He released his Inner Cores, continually shredding and scattering the "ribbons" constricting his body. But so long as the Formation remained intact, they reappeared as quickly as they were destroyed, without end.

Shi Feiyang charged left and right within the Formation, seemingly without a plan. In truth, he was deliberately triggering it to observe the crucial points of its workings.

He circled this way and that, back and forth, until he gradually untangled its workings. Then he too began using Spells of Reversing Yin and Yang and warping space within the Formation. Normally, breaking a Formation meant working against it, but that was not his approach. When the Formation moved the Bing-Ding Fire in the Southern Region to the north, he followed its momentum and moved the Ren-Gui Water in the north to the south. He went along with the Formation's changes, then traveled in the opposite direction.

When the Two Maidens of Xiandu had been trapped inside Dinghu Peak, they had clearly flown in one direction, yet in reality had constantly retraced their steps. Now he flew left for a while, then right, moving forward, backward, up, and down in apparent disorder, while the path he actually followed was a straight line.

As he was breaking through the Formation and making his way out, he suddenly heard Geng Peng's mighty shout overhead. The five-colored mist throughout the Formation froze instantly, as though time itself had stopped at that moment. Then a Hurricane swept between heaven and earth, dispersing the clouds and mist in an instant.

Geng Peng's enormous wings appeared in the sky. With a grasp of his hands, he plucked Shi Feiyang into the air again. Shi Feiyang did not resist, instead taking the opportunity to transform into a little dragon and settle onto his palm. Then his vision blurred as Geng Peng carried him away at tremendous speed.