"All right, thank you for your efforts, nephews. You three may head back now! Remember, you must not reveal what happened today to anyone!" Heavenly Venerable Daoling instructed the red-robed elder and his two companions.
"Yes, martial uncle!" all three answered at once.
"All right, off you go!" Heavenly Venerable Daoling waved his hand, sending a streak of yellow light toward a wall opposite him. The yellow light flickered, and sure enough, another doorway silently opened in the wall.
The three took their leave and walked toward the doorway. Seeing this, Li Xiaoya asked, "What about me?"
"You can just... What are you doing?!" Fairy Qingxia had been about to answer when she suddenly shouted in fury.
"I... I didn't do anything!" Li Xiaoya was dumbfounded. He had done nothing at all. But he immediately realized Fairy Qingxia was not talking to him, for he saw the Black-Clad Man suddenly shoot a streak of black light at the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma she held as he passed her. In an instant, it struck the silver mesh enclosing the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma. With a whoosh, the black light burst apart, revealing a mass of black flame.
"Spirit-Devouring Demonfire?!" Fairy Qingxia cried out. Her reaction was swift: she flung the Silver-Thread Net aside and darted away. At the same time, a gourd appeared in her hand, and a jet of water shot toward the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma on the ground. Yet it failed to extinguish the black Spirit-Devouring Demonfire, instead locking into a stalemate with it.
"How dare you!" Heavenly Venerable Daoling roared from beside her. He raised his hand, and an enormous blue-green hand suddenly materialized in the air, striking at the Black-Clad Man. It pierced his chest almost instantly, but the man vanished a moment later. As it turned out,
the Black-Clad Man had already darted away and disappeared almost the instant he released the black light. He had simply moved so fast that Li Xiaoya could see only an afterimage. Almost simultaneously, the Black-Clad Man was already at the doorway.
"You're not going anywhere!" The red-robed elder had reacted by then. Almost as soon as the Black-Clad Man appeared at the doorway, the enormous gourd on his back was already in his hand. He slapped it with his other hand, and a sheet of fiery-red flames spurted from its mouth, blocking the Black-Clad Man's escape.
"Hah!" The brocade-robed burly man roared, golden light blazing all over his body as he punched toward the Black-Clad Man's back from a distance. A piercing hiss tore through the air, and a beam of golden light as thick as the mouth of a bowl shot from his hand toward the Black-Clad Man's back.
Caught between attacks from front and rear, the Black-Clad Man nevertheless seemed to have anticipated this. A pitch-black shield suddenly covered his body. Almost the instant it appeared, the golden beam struck it with a deafening bang. Golden light scattered in all directions as black light blazed from the shield, canceling out the golden beam. The shield's black glow dimmed as well.
"The Black Baleful Shield?!" the brocade-robed man exclaimed. His hands did not slow, however, and he pointed from afar, shooting a streak of golden light from his finger. But it was already too late. Black light flashed around the black-robed man as he narrowly evaded the red-robed elder's flames and slipped through the doorway.
The brocade-robed man traced his finger through the air, and the golden streak abruptly changed direction, curving toward the Black-Clad Man's back. Just as it was about to strike the shield there, a piercing sound suddenly rang out. A streak of Red Radiance shot toward the Black-Clad Man's back like lightning—no, faster than lightning. Though launched later, the Red Radiance arrived first, and the Black Baleful Shield immediately flared with black light again. With a sharp ripping sound, the red light pierced straight through the shield and then through the Black-Clad Man's back, leaving a gaping hole. Strangely, no blood spurted from the wound. Instead, it began to burn.
"Aaargh!" The black-robed man screamed. In that brief instant, the hole in his body had already burned wide enough to match the mouth of a bowl. With a fierce shout, he flooded his hand with black light and clawed at his own abdomen. His five fingers plunged into it with a wet tearing sound. He wrenched out a great handful of flesh, spraying blood everywhere, then gave an eerie smile and hurled the bloody flesh toward the doorway. Wrapped inside it was a spherical object glowing black, which emitted sinister streaks of black light as it flew.
"Not good! He's going to detonate his Golden Core!" the brocade-robed man cried. He beckoned with his hand, and the golden light flying toward the black-robed man halted before shooting back.
"Hmph!" A cold snort sounded, and a figure suddenly appeared beside the hurtling Golden Core, one hand already closing around it. It was none other than Heavenly Venerable Daoling. Red light radiated from his hand while the black Golden Core blazed fiercely, trying to break through the red light surrounding it.
"Aah!" the black-robed man bellowed. By now, the burning hole in his chest had nearly split his body in two. His hands swiftly formed several seals. With a bang, his head suddenly exploded, and a black orb of light shot into the sky. In a flash, it was more than a hundred zhang away.
"Hmph! Trying to run?" Heavenly Venerable Daoling sneered. With a sweep of his hand, he hurled the black Golden Core outward. It flew even faster than the black orb and reached its side almost instantly.
"No!" A desperate scream came from the black orb as it erupted with fierce black light. With a thunderous boom, black radiance burst in every direction, engulfing everything within a hundred-zhang radius. Fierce gales raged for several li around. The explosion of that black Golden Core was astonishingly powerful.
"Absorb!" A white jade bottle had appeared in Heavenly Venerable Daoling's hand. It emitted intertwining red and blue-green light, and the black radiance in the sky rushed toward its mouth, each streak racing to be first. Within a few breaths, every trace of black light had been sucked away.
By then, streaks of light were rising from the surrounding ground and speeding toward the site of the explosion.
Heavenly Venerable Daoling frowned and announced, "Disciples! I am testing an immortal art here! Nothing serious has happened. Return to your respective duties, and do not approach!"
His voice was not loud, yet every disciple on Dao God Mountain heard it clearly. They could not help marveling at Patriarch Daoling's vast divine abilities.
The streaks of light flying toward him from every direction all paused at his words, then dispersed.
Seeing this, Heavenly Venerable Daoling immediately flew back into the cave abode with a whoosh, only to be stunned by the scene inside.
Li Xiaoya was bare-chested, rolling back and forth on the ground with black vapor coiling around him as he let out agonized screams. The Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma that had been surrounded by Spirit-Devouring Demonfire was nowhere to be seen. Beside him, Fairy Qingxia's fingers moved rapidly, sending streak after streak of blue light into his body.