The instant the purple-gold torrent struck the Demon Emperor, the dome of the Star-Locking Hall collapsed completely.
Massive stones rained down, only to be ground to dust by the shock waves.
White Snow spread her wings, her star phoenix true form hovering above the altar, purple-gold flames burning along every feather.
Ye Han stood beneath her left wing, supporting the Purple Cauldron with one hand. It had swollen to thirty feet tall.
Purple radiance poured from the cauldron's mouth like a waterfall, cascading over White Snow and driving her flames to burn ever fiercer.
"Star Phoenix Cauldron Mark!"
White Snow cried in a low voice, forming an intricate hand seal with her right claw. A purple-gold phoenix phantom soared from behind her, its wings spanning a thousand feet as it circled the Purple Cauldron. Cauldron patterns interwove with phoenix feathers, ringing out with the thunderous clash of metal.
A gash tore through the Demon Emperor's black fog. For the first time, something flickered in his black-hole eyes, and his body retreated thirty feet.
"Impossible... mortals... how could you possibly hurt me..."
Ye Han said nothing. He pressed his left hand against the cauldron, held two fingers of his right hand together like a sword, and slashed toward the space between the Demon Emperor's brows. There was nothing flashy about this strike, only the most solid external release of spiritual power practiced by mortal-path cultivators. The Purple Cauldron hummed, ten thousand rays of purple radiance converging into a single beam that stabbed in the direction his sword fingers pointed.
White Snow moved at the same time. With a beat of her right wing, a rain of purple-gold fire blanketed the sky, sealing every path of retreat. Within that fiery rain, each lotus bore a miniature cauldron pattern, burning the air until