"Tingchao!"
Ning Xiang called the boy's name, but no one answered.
Threads of pain spread beneath her left ribs.
For a moment, boundless bewilderment welled up in Ning Xiang's heart, leaving her unable to tell whether she felt terror or numbness.
Of course, she had no time to distinguish between them.
The spiritual energy unleashed by Yu Tingchao's self-detonation was like a cool, refreshing breeze sweeping through the mountains and brushing tender willow branches, silently driving away every trace of demonic energy.
The blood mist in the sky dispersed. Gentle dawn light fell over everyone, and the thin mist shimmered like a dream beneath a veil of gauze.
Spiritual power coursed chaotically through her limbs and bones. At last, Ning Xiang broke free of the Spirit-Severing Formation completely. She flew toward where Yu Tingchao had just been, with nothing but the wind sounding in her ears.
But Yu Tingchao had vanished.
Ning Xiang's eyes were vacant and stricken.
At that moment, how desperately she wished her Junior Brother had merely faked his death to deceive everyone, just like Fu Yunsheng at the Spirit Fighting Tournament.
But this was different.
With her Junior Brother's foundation establishment late stage cultivation, his self-detonation would not have been powerful enough to take the Great Demon down with him, unless...
He had used the Spirit-Detonation Formation, which was forbidden in the Cultivation Realm.
As its name suggested, the Spirit-Detonation Formation could rapidly gather the surrounding spiritual energy and channel it into a cultivator's body, instantly raising their cultivation by several levels.
However, the damage inflicted by the Spirit-Detonation Formation was immense as well.
It subjected the cultivator to the agony of flames searing their heart and their meridians shattering inch by inch.
Ning Xiang could hardly imagine what pain he had been enduring when he