Yet how could the blood mist block Ye Lingtian's attack?
The azure sword threads pierced straight through the thick blood mist and swept toward Soul-Devouring Zhenren, surrounding him without losing momentum.
"Junior, don't even think of ruining my plans!" Soul-Devouring Zhenren immediately retreated several li, firing off several attacks from his hands to obstruct Ye Lingtian.
Ye Lingtian said nothing. He kept sweeping his sword light out, cleaving every attack in sight in two as he rapidly closed in on Soul-Devouring Zhenren.
Soul-Devouring Zhenren's expression changed drastically. He still needed time to absorb the cultivation, and an attack would surely injure him. He absolutely could not let Ye Lingtian get close.
Soul-Devouring Zhenren hurriedly fled. Ye Lingtian narrowed his eyes and controlled his flying sword to keep disrupting Soul-Devouring Zhenren's flight path. Before long, they arrived above a forest.
"Junior, have you already exhausted all your tricks? Then prepare to die!" The cultivation Soul-Devouring Zhenren had absorbed had reached a critical point. Before long, he would be able to force a breakthrough to Half-Step Nascent Soul.
Though it was only Half-Step Nascent Soul, an ordinary Golden Core cultivator still could not defeat him.
Even so, Soul-Devouring Zhenren wanted nothing more than to eat his flesh raw.
After all, if not for Ye Lingtian and Su Mingyue, he would have already used living souls to break through to the Nascent Soul Stage. How could he have ended up stuck at Half-Step Nascent Soul, neither here nor there?
"Is that so?" Ye Lingtian chuckled and suddenly stopped, forming a hand seal.
The next second, eight pillars of light suddenly rose from the forest below.
"When did you set up a formation?!" Soul-Devouring Zhenren's expression changed, and he hurriedly tried to escape its range.
But the next second, a blade flash came straight at him. It was Su Mingyue, who had caught up.
"Old devil, we won't let you escape this time!" Su Mingyue said coldly. The last time, Soul-Devouring Zhenren had escaped precisely because she did not know formations. This time, she had to keep him here no matter what.
"Damn it!" As Soul-Devouring Zhenren scrambled to dodge, he lost his chance to escape the formation's range.
Ye Lingtian had adapted the Heavenly Dipper Eight Trigrams Formation from the ancient Two Forms Eight Trigrams Formation. The original Two Forms Eight Trigrams Formation could only be set up by a Nascent Soul cultivator and could imprison several Nascent Soul cultivators.
Though the Heavenly Dipper Eight Trigrams Formation was not as powerful as the Two Forms Eight Trigrams Formation, it was more than enough to imprison Soul-Devouring Zhenren.
Within the formation's space, Soul-Devouring Zhenren discovered to his astonishment that the cultivation that had been flowing into his body had suddenly stopped.
Clearly, the formation had separated the worlds inside and outside, rendering his method ineffective. His cultivation was now completely stuck at Golden Core Perfection, unable to rise any further.
"Ah!!! I'll kill you both!" Seeing his method fail, Soul-Devouring Zhenren grew even more frantic.
He was filled with hatred. He had been just a little short of becoming a lofty Nascent Soul cultivator, so why had he run into Ye Lingtian of all people?
Soul-Devouring Zhenren looked like a madman. He hurled the Blood Soul Banner, with its half-zhang tear, into the air and sprayed out blood essence, urging the tens of thousands of remnant souls left within it to pour out. He was fighting like a cornered beast.
"Even if I die, I'll drag you both down with me!"
Countless ghostly figures let out piercing shrieks as they blotted out the sky and lunged at Ye Lingtian and Su Mingyue.
Ye Lingtian stood on his sword above the formation's eye and lightly pointed his sword fingers forward. His overflowing Heavenly Dipper Sword Intent surged along the formation patterns in every direction, and the entire Heavenly Dipper Eight Trigrams Formation suddenly blazed with dazzling azure-gold light.
"Suppress!" Ye Lingtian shouted!
Countless streaks of sword light swallowed the approaching ghostly figures in an instant, like a meat grinder.
In the blink of an eye, every ghostly figure filling the sky had been wiped out.
The Blood Soul Banner fell to the ground with a clatter.
Soul-Devouring Zhenren's last chance shattered along with it.
"Give up. The Heavenly Dipper Eight Trigrams Formation has been fused with my Heavenly Dipper Sword Intent. It's the bane of all wandering souls." Standing outside the formation, Ye Lingtian did not let down his guard.
With demonic cultivators like this, the more desperate the situation, the harder it was to tell what they might do. He absolutely must not approach.
Seeing that all his final trump cards for saving his life had been broken, Soul-Devouring Zhenren froze in place, his eyes full of disbelief.
His eyes then filled with resolve. "Since that's how it is, I won't go on living either. Rather than let you take me back for punishment, I'll take you with me!"
But Ye Lingtian gave him no chance to act. While he was speaking, Ye Lingtian rapidly formed hand seals.
Two streaks of sword light shot silently out from within the formation, severing both of Soul-Devouring Zhenren's arms before he could react.
"Pfft!" Even a cultivator would lose a great deal of spiritual power and strength if part of his body was severed.
As Soul-Devouring Zhenren suffered the grievous injury,
Su Mingyue swung her blade down with a burst of crimson light. Soul-Devouring Zhenren could only watch helplessly as the blade flash swept past his eyes.
Boom! A tremendous crash rang out.
And so the wicked Soul-Devouring Zhenren met his end.
Su Mingyue put away her blade, shook her aching wrist, and pursed her lips as she gave Ye Lingtian a thumbs-up.
"That formation of yours is downright unfair. I was ready to fight that old devil with my life just now, but from beginning to end, you didn't leave him the slightest room to struggle."
Ye Lingtian smiled and bent down to pick up the damaged Blood Soul Banner. He wrapped his fingertips in spiritual light and disposed of the last trace of Blood Qi before casually tucking it into his storage bag.
"Keeping it as a warning display wouldn't be bad. That way, when the juniors in the sect who've never seen blood run into evil cultivators, they won't fail to recognize their underhanded tricks and suffer a great loss."
The two cleaned up the aftermath and put away the formation. The disciples guarding outside had already dealt with all the low-level demonic cultivators who had slipped through the net, and had purified most of the Blood Baleful Qi lingering in the desolate city.
Ye Lingtian casually tossed Soul-Devouring Zhenren's storage ring to the inner sect disciple leading the group, telling him to take it back to the sect for storage and registration,
"Now that things here are settled, I'll head back first." Ye Lingtian looked at Su Mingyue.
"Mm." Su Mingyue nodded. "Sorry for the trouble this time. Once I'm done with the remaining cleanup, I'll come find you for a drink. You can't refuse this time."
Ye Lingtian waved, stepped onto his flying sword, and flew toward the Primordial Sect.
A trace of disappointment flashed through Su Mingyue's eyes when she received no reply.
But the next second, Ye Lingtian's voice came back to her.
"I know."
Su Mingyue smiled radiantly. Just then, a disciple walked over at a rather inopportune moment and asked respectfully, "Martial Uncle Su, what should we do with that demonic disciple we captured earlier?"
Su Mingyue quickly composed her smile. Hearing this, she raised her brows. "He didn't die?"
When Soul-Devouring Zhenren performed the blood sacrifice just now, quite a few low-level demonic cultivators had been sucked dry. The demonic villain they had captured was only at the second or third layer of Qi Refining, yet he had somehow survived?
Su Mingyue followed the disciple leading the way into a makeshift detention shed. From a long way off, she could hear someone inside crying out that he had been wronged.
"I told you, I'm really not a demonic cultivator! I'm just a rogue cultivator who had only just set out to travel. I was abducted into their group along the way, and I barely managed to escape."