When Fairy Qingxia saw Heavenly Venerable Daoling enter, she cried urgently, "Senior Brother Daoling, come help! This boy can't hold on much longer!"
"What happened?" Heavenly Venerable Daoling had no time to concern himself with the Black-Clad Man. He hurriedly sent streaks of red light from his fingers into Li Xiaoya's body.
While Heavenly Venerable Daoling had been killing the Black-Clad Man, Fairy Qingxia had been using her Magic Treasure to extinguish the Spirit-Devouring Demonfire. But the demonfire was so formidable that she could not destroy it immediately, and the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma suffered terribly, shrieking as the flames burned him. Seeing this, Li Xiaoya had disregarded the fire's eerie black color, hurriedly stripped off his clothes, and rushed over to beat out the flames. Before his clothes even touched them, however, they burned away without leaving so much as ash. Only then had Li Xiaoya realized how fearsome those black flames were, but that only made him worry more about the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma. Unable to help from the sidelines, he paced in frantic circles, constantly urging Fairy Qingxia to think of something.
Fairy Qingxia found his behavior both exasperating and amusing, but she had no time to pay him any attention. The gourd in her hand blazed with blue light and spat out volley after volley of ice arrows. With a series of hisses, the Spirit-Devouring Demonfire was finally extinguished, but the Silver-Thread Net had burned away. Strangely enough, despite being burned for so long, the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma bore no scorch marks at all, though he had noticeably shrunk. A layer of black mist shrouded him as he lay motionless on the ground.
"He isn't dead, is he?!" Li Xiaoya hurriedly bent down to touch the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma.
"Don't touch-"
Before Fairy Qingxia could finish, the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma suddenly leaped onto Li Xiaoya. Before he could react, the ganoderma vanished into his body.
"He's possessed me again!" Li Xiaoya said with a wry smile. But the moment those words left his mouth, his entire body felt as though it were on fire. His blood seemed to boil, surging wildly through him.
"Aaaah!!!" Li Xiaoya let out an agonized scream and collapsed, rolling wildly across the ground in pain. Although Fairy Qingxia was furious, the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma held the key to the sect's rise or fall. She had no choice but to send stream after stream of magical power into him to suppress the demonfire's lingering power.
After hearing Fairy Qingxia's explanation, Heavenly Venerable Daoling said, dumbfounded, "This boy really is a magnet for trouble. Even Nascent Soul Realm cultivators like us wouldn't dare let this Spirit-Devouring Demonfire touch us lightly. There may only be a trace of its lingering power left, but that's still more than a mortal without a scrap of magical power can withstand." He formed several hand seals, then pointed a finger, sending streaks of red light into Li Xiaoya.
"Ah..." Fairy Qingxia sighed helplessly. With the level of cultivation her state of mind had reached, few things could still stir negative emotions in her. Yet the repeated mishaps surrounding the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma had left even her feeling weary. She sighed deeply and increased the flow of magical power from her hands.
With Heavenly Venerable Daoling adding his spiritual power and Fairy Qingxia increasing her output, the burning pain in Li Xiaoya's blood gradually subsided. After a long while, it finally disappeared. Although the heat and pain were gone, that bout of torment had dragged him through death and back. His mouth and tongue were parched, and his entire body was as red as a cooked crab as he lay on the ground, gulping down great breaths.
Seeing this, Heavenly Venerable Daoling stopped channeling his magical power. Fairy Qingxia, however, changed her hand gesture, releasing a broad swath of blue light from her hands. Strange patterns resembling written characters floated within it, each glowing cyan. The blue light enveloped Li Xiaoya, and he felt as though every pore in his body had opened up, leaving him refreshed from head to toe. His bright red skin returned to normal at a speed visible to the naked eye. The cool relief felt so good that he nearly moaned. Several more streaks of light struck him, and he felt his body tighten as a blue radiance surrounded him, apparently to keep the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma from escaping.
Fairy Qingxia withdrew her hands and said to Heavenly Venerable Daoling, "This Spirit-Devouring Demonfire is an extremely powerful flame cultivated through a secret method unique to the demonic Fire Dragon Palace. It's an overbearing demonfire that specifically subdues and devours five-element spiritual qi, and it's exceptionally difficult to cultivate. Could that man have been a disciple of the Fire Dragon Palace? And that Black Baleful Shield seems to be that person's treasure."
Heavenly Venerable Daoling's face darkened. "Whether that brat belonged to the Fire Dragon Palace or not, the demonic path is blazing like the sun at its zenith right now. Our Heavenly Dao Sect has spent these years cultivating behind closed doors to prepare for the ten-thousand-year tribulation, and those demonic cultivators actually dare set their sights on us. They truly have no idea how to stay alive!"
He then addressed the large man in brocade and the red-faced elder, who stood to one side, not daring to speak out of turn. "You two are core disciples raised by our Heavenly Dao Sect from childhood, as well as members of our Lin and Liu Lineages. I trust that you aren't spies from outside. I'll leave it to you to investigate how this spy infiltrated our Heavenly Dao Sect, along with the people, affairs, and things he came into contact with day to day. Remember, everything must be done in secret. Do not draw attention! What happened today must remain confidential and must not spread outside!"
"Yes, Martial Uncle Daoling!" the large man in brocade and the red-faced elder answered hurriedly, bowing.
"All right! You may leave!" Heavenly Venerable Daoling waved them away.
Once the two had left, Fairy Qingxia sighed and said, "Ah! Senior Brother Daoling, if we'd waited for Senior Brother Feikong, none of this would have happened. It's all my fault for being too impatient. Although we saved the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma, that Spirit-Devouring Demonfire burned away a considerable amount of his vital energy!"
"Junior Sister Qingxia, don't blame yourself too much. Our Heavenly Dao Sect was destined to face this calamity. Still, some good came of it-we eliminated this Golden Core Stage spy. With his cultivation, who knows what trouble he might have caused?" Heavenly Venerable Daoling consoled her.
"That's true! Judging by this spy's strength, he must have reached the pseudo-nascent soul level, and his cultivation was considerably deeper than an ordinary cultivator's. Otherwise, he couldn't have escaped your first strike, Senior Brother!" Fairy Qingxia said with a bright smile.
"Mm! It seems this fellow was no ordinary demonic cultivator. He might even have been a core disciple of the Fire Dragon Palace. It's just as well we eliminated him!" Heavenly Venerable Daoling said coldly, a flicker of concern passing through his eyes.
At that moment, Li Xiaoya sprang to his feet, patted the dust off his clothes, and picked at his ear. "Master Sis! What am I supposed to do now?" he drawled. "Don't tell me we have to do another round of squeezing exercises?"
Fairy Qingxia's cheeks reddened slightly. Why did this fellow keep calling her such ridiculous things? "Stop calling me that!" she snapped. "You should count yourself lucky that demonfire didn't burn you to death! And here you are talking about squeezing exercises. Even if we have to do it ten more times, you're going to hand over the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma!"
The mere mention of the demonfire's power filled Li Xiaoya with lingering dread. He scratched the back of his head, his expression awkward. "Well... uh! I'm hungry. Let me have a meal, will you? I haven't eaten anything in over a day..."
Fairy Qingxia's expression softened, though she too looked a little awkward. As an Immortal Cultivator, she had long since passed the grain avoidance stage, but Li Xiaoya was still a mortal and needed to eat grains and other ordinary food.
"Hehe! Junior Sister! Senior Brother Buddha won't be back until tomorrow anyway, so let the boy have something to eat first!" Heavenly Venerable Daoling said with a chuckle from beside her.