His body withered at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"No! Don't! Spare me, my lord!"
He struggled desperately, trying to survive, but that was destined to be impossible.
Before long, amid excruciating agony, he turned into a sheet of human skin, all the flesh and blood in his body melting away and withering.
Meanwhile, the figure from the Death Forbidden Zone that he had summoned with such difficulty was crushed to pieces by Fang Yang, turning into a bead.
He swallowed it in one gulp.
His aura rippled. As soon as the bead entered his body, Fang Yang felt his soul grow a little brighter.
It seemed more solid than before, and his cultivation had improved considerably as well.
Silence. Deathly stillness.
At the foot of the mountain, all was quiet, without so much as a crow's cry or a sparrow's chirp.
Ye Qinghong gripped the Azure Shadow Sword tightly.
He watched the figure before him, whose black robes billowed in the wind.
His knuckles grew ever paler.
Sure enough, his master's strength had grown again.
The Crying Old Man's strength inspired dread throughout the Tang Kingdom, yet before his master, he could not withstand even a single move.
That alone proved how powerful his master was.
And the stronger his master became, the fainter his hopes of breaking free of his master's shackles grew.
Thinking of his master's realm of Unity of Heaven and Man, then of how he himself was plagued day after day by an absurd Heart Demon.
He could not even learn the complete God-Shocking Sword Technique.
Deep within his heart, ripples that should never have existed had even stirred, giving rise to feelings he should never have had.
He could not help feeling utterly powerless.
Could it be...
Master really is my nemesis?