Chapter 166 — Crimson Flame

Every face among the righteous path changed at once!

At this moment heaven and earth seemed drained of light, a scene of utter desolation, as a dense ghostly aura rolled in. Those six giant skeletons staggered to their feet one after another; though not nimble, they were drawn by some bizarre force, dragging their enormous bodies and gouging deep furrows in the ground as they were sucked into the giant wind pillar.

One, then another, until the last—the vast skeleton of the White Bone Snake Demon—was wholly drawn into the black wind pillar and vanished without a trace. Then, like a shriek from the depths of the nine underworlds, a baleful aura surged up from the wild wind. The Beast Lord above the clouds showed no expression; standing upon the enlarged body of Taotie, he charged into the wind pillar swift as wind and lightning.

A thick stench of blood drifted over. Even the countless beast-demons beneath their feet fell quiet now, most of them crouching on the ground not daring to breathe aloud; some of the weaker ones buried their heads and trembled, frightened out of their wits.

Then suddenly the wild wind ceased, the clouds fell still, and heaven and earth were silent. And then, like the countless beasts, everyone held their breath, staring dumbstruck as the wind and clouds dispersed to reveal the monster standing bare before the world.

Above the sea of clouds loomed a brand-new and unimaginable monster. Its height and bulk were such that it stood fully three times taller than the six giant demonic beasts of before; compared with it, the people and the ordinary beast-demons were as insignificant as ants.

The stench of blood poured ceaselessly from this monster; even its body was oozing bloody water without pause. Everywhere one looked there was stark white bone; the vast skeleton made it plain at once that this was a horrifying evil spirit pieced together and remade from the corpses of those six giant demonic beasts.

And standing upon the head of this colossal monster was that Beast Lord youth. His face now looked faintly pale, but the thick killing intent in his eyes seemed only more rampant.

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The huge, hideous white-bone skull swayed slowly, giving off an eerie "kaka" sound. In its two hollow eye sockets there seemed to lurk another kind of invisible ferocity, glaring viciously at the people before it.

A foul, stinking reek struck them in the face.

This reborn evil spirit seemed to grow restless in every part of its body, growling low.

And apart from that, over the vast sea of clouds there was not a sound. Countless people held their breath and gazed out.

Before the crowd stood Dao Yan Zhenren, his dark green Daoist robe fluttering in the wind, his face austere. After the first shock had passed, countless people, near and far, quietly stole glances at him—but on that immortal, otherworldly face there was no expression at all, and no one could tell what he was feeling now.

The giant evil spirit-beast gave a low roar, and all at once the white bones over its whole body burst out with a piercing noise. Its vast body moved slowly forward; with every step the ground beneath seemed unable to bear the pressure and sank deep, and the smell of blood drifted in every direction.

"Boom, boom, boom..." The dreadful thing walked very slowly, yet every step seemed to land upon the hearts of the righteous path. Countless people stared woodenly as that mountain of horrifying white bone drew slowly nearer; even a figure like Xiao Yichen had gone somewhat pale.

Seeing the evil spirit about to reach them, white bone like a mountain, Dao Yan Zhenren spoke in a deep voice: "Fellow Daoists, follow me."

As the words left his mouth, the three righteous leaders at the fore transformed into three beams of radiance and were the first to rise, and behind them followed more than a dozen beams of various colors, flying toward the evil spirit. And atop the head of the giant evil spirit, that mysterious youth wore a look of indifference, his eyes slowly reflecting those approaching streaks of strange light.

Between heaven and earth there was suddenly a dead stillness, a feeling as though one could not draw breath.

Seeing the righteous radiance streak across the sky and about to descend, the Beast Lord's pupils abruptly contracted. He made no visible movement, yet the huge, horrifying monster beneath his feet suddenly raised its vast, hideous head, opened its enormous bloody maw, and howled at the heavens, a sound that shook the four wilds; behind it, the countless horde of beast-demons broke into a chorus of mournful cries.

With that shrill howl, the giant monster, its feet never leaving the ground, opened its great maw and snapped at the beams of radiance rushing down from the sky. From afar, that gaping maw was so hideous that it looked capable of swallowing all these righteous folk in a single bite.

But these dozen or so were the finest of the righteous masters, the elite of the elite; even across the whole world, among the righteous, the demonic, the sorcerous, and the shamanic paths alike, they were first-rate figures, and the depth of their cultivation was not to be underestimated.

Sure enough, savage and ferocious as that evil spirit-beast was, the beams of radiance plunging from the sky scattered at once, flying off in every direction, and in an instant revealed the true forms of the elders standing in midair. For a time all of them shouted curses, magic treasures blazed with strange light, and they attacked the evil spirit from every quarter.

And high above the clouds appeared Dao Yan Zhenren, Sage Pucheng, and Yun Yifeng. Yun Yifeng struck first: with a light sweep of his left hand, firelight suddenly flared in his palm, like the jade of pure yang born in the void, amber in hue—the Mystic Fire art of the Fenzia Valley, cultivated to its highest realm.

That flame was almost solid, seeming tiny as it burned in Yun Yifeng's hand. Then his palm turned over, his face stern, his hands moving in a dance like a shooting star streaking across the horizon. That single point of pure flame left his body; in midair it seemed to turn slowly, seemingly slow yet in truth swift, and flew toward the evil spirit.

By now the dozen elders around him had all summoned their magic treasures and were striking at the horrifying monster. The giant white-bone body was struck everywhere by ceaseless impacts of strange radiance. Yet though the monster shuddered under the blows of treasures wielded by figures of such profound cultivation—force that would have scattered the souls of ordinary men—it went on as if nothing were happening, only howling again and again, clearly uncomfortable, and growing ever more furious, roaring savagely.

At this moment in midair, the flame Yun Yifeng had sent forth glowed with an amber light, small in form yet condensed and unbroken, flying toward the monster. Somehow, though the giant monster was utterly reckless before the magic treasures of all those around it, it seemed somewhat wary of this tiny flame, and its body even seemed to shrink back a little. But its frame was far too vast—how could it dodge? In no time at all the point of flame reached the edge of the evil spirit's white-bone skull and struck the stark white bone.

"Sss..."

Amid countless roaring, clashing sounds, that inconspicuous little noise, that tiny amber flame, on bone so hard that a mountain of force could not chip it, actually burned its way in, leaving a scorched yellow hole in the white bone. And the point of flame vanished into the depths of the hole.

Everyone was stunned, watching breathlessly.