Defiance and shock churned in Yue Wushuang's eyes.
She watched with her own eyes as the wound on Gai Jiuyou's left rear shoulder healed at a visible pace.
Dark golden light circulated once through her meridians, sealing the final crack in her manifested body without leaving the slightest gap. The three-pronged steel fork Yue Wushuang had tempered for five hundred years now stood slanted in the ground like scrap iron. The silver runes at its tips had gone completely dark.
At that moment, Gai Jiuyou's manifested body attained complete perfection. Dark golden light erupted from within her, illuminating the entire space as brightly as day. Her aura climbed like a flood bursting through its banks, breaking through the final embankment and crossing straight into the Three Flowers Realm.
The whole of Nine Nether Mountain trembled.
Countless spiderweb cracks appeared across the mountain's surface. Loose stones showered down, and a dark golden pillar of light shot skyward from within the mountain, piercing the clouds and dyeing the entire sky a surging gold.
Leaning on her three-pronged steel fork, Yue Wushuang slowly stood. Her dark red robes snapped and billowed in the surging spiritual light. She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and looked at the rising figure, her initial shock turning to defiance, then defiance to resolve.
"Demon Venerable, you are indeed stronger than I imagined. But you think this is enough to raze my Nine Nether Mountain? A fool's dream!"
Yue Wushuang raised her hand and slammed it against the ground. A dark red pattern of light spread out in every direction from her palm.
The whole of Nine Nether Mountain shook violently. The restriction runes that had slumbered deep within it for a thousand years lit up all at once. From its foot to its summit,