7: The sword breaks the demonic flames, and the Yin energy breaks through the barrier.

"Hehehehe... The Profound Yin Maiden Body! Heaven truly helps me!"

The hoarse, ancient, owl-like cackle, wrapped in a terrifying pressure far exceeding the Qi Refining Stage, struck Su Wanzhao's mind like a tangible black tide! Before the sound faded, a demonic light, black as ink and emanating a thick scent of blood and decay, tore through the heavy night, descending upon the mountain hollow in an instant with a piercing shriek!

The demonic light receded, revealing a withered figure within.

It was a hunched old man, draped in a wide black robe seemingly patched together from countless pieces of rotten animal hide. His exposed skin was shriveled and sallow, covered in dark brown age spots and twisted black veins. His face was almost devoid of flesh, resembling a skull covered by a thin layer of skin. In his deep-set eye sockets, two points of eerie green light, like ghost fire, flickered erratically, locking onto Su Wanzhao with greed, cruelty, and a soul-freezing coldness. A viscous, foul Demonic Might of the Foundation Establishment Stage, seemingly originating from the Nine Nether Abyss, descended like invisible shackles, completely enveloping the entire mountain hollow!

The moment the Demonic Might reached her body, Su Wanzhao felt the air around her instantly solidify, as if she had plunged into a ten-thousand-fathom deep sea, with terrifying pressure squeezing her from all directions! The spiritual energy surging within her immediately became sluggish. The long sword in her hand, which emitted a biting cold aura, actually let out an overwhelmed hum, and the light on its blade dimmed slightly!

"A Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator!" Su Wanzhao's heart trembled violently, and for the first time, her clear, cold eyes showed unprecedented solemnity. Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment were worlds apart! The opponent's mere pressure made her feel like she was bearing a mountain, making movement difficult!

"Caw caw... Such pure Profound Yin Qi! What a perfect cultivation vessel!" The Withered Old Man extended his dry, chicken-claw-like hand and greedily grabbed toward Su Wanzhao in the air. An invisible suction force abruptly generated, frantically seizing the Profound Yin aura radiating from Su Wanzhao's body, and even attempting to invade her interior to probe her source power!

Su Wanzhao let out a muffled groan, feeling as if her very essence was about to be pulled out by this evil force! A cold light burst forth from her eyes as she shouted sternly, "Dream on!"

"Buzz—!"

An even colder, purer, and sharp Sword Intent, carrying the meaning of destroying all laws, burst forth from her delicate body! The Autumn Water Longsword trembled violently, emitting a high-pitched dragon's roar! At the tip of the blade, a point of ice-blue cold star, brilliant to the extreme, suddenly lit up, instantly dispelling the oppressive Demonic Might for several feet around her! She forcefully gathered all her spiritual energy, flicked her wrist, and the sword light shot out like an ice river flowing upstream, carrying resolute killing intent, stabbing directly at the Withered Old Man's approaching withered claw!

"Oh? Nascent Sword Intent?" The green fire in the Withered Old Man's eyes flickered with a hint of surprise, which immediately turned into deeper greed. "Good! Good! With such talent, refining her into a 'Profound Yin Soul Slaughtering Pill' will yield even better effects!"

Facing Su Wanzhao's deadly strike, which contained Nascent Sword Intent, he neither dodged nor avoided it! His dry, chicken-claw-like palm was suddenly covered by a layer of black Demonic Flame, viscous like crude oil, churning with the faces of countless suffering vengeful spirits!

"Little girl, in the face of absolute power, your struggles... merely add to the fun!"

"Demonic Flame Corrodes Bone!"

The withered claw, carrying the surging Vengeful Spirit Demonic Flame, struck the tip of Su Wanzhao's sword with unwavering force!

"Clang—!!!"

The ear-splitting clash of metal echoed through the mountain hollow, accompanied by a grating "hissing" sound of corrosion!

The anticipated scene of the sword tip piercing the palm did not occur. Su Wanzhao's icy Sword Intent, which was enough to freeze and tear apart peak Qi Refining cultivators, seemed to meet its nemesis the instant it touched the Vengeful Spirit Demonic Flame! The ice-blue sword qi was frantically eroded, polluted, and melted by the viscous, foul demonic flame! The coldness attached to the sword tip rapidly receded, replaced by a bone-chilling coldness and malice that surged madly along the sword and into Su Wanzhao's meridians!

"Pfft!" Su Wanzhao felt as if she had been struck by a heavy blow; her face instantly turned paper-white, and a mouthful of congested blood, which she could no longer suppress, spurted out! As the blood left her body, it was actually ignited by the residual Demonic Flame aura in mid-air, turning into wisps of foul-smelling black smoke!

Her sword-wielding arm trembled violently, the web of her hand tore open, and blood stained the sword hilt. A cold, chaotic Demonic Thought, filled with endless malice and despair, surged madly up her arm meridians like a maggot clinging to bone, impacting her Sea of Consciousness, causing her vision to blacken in waves and her soul to feel tearing pain! The Profound Yin Spiritual Energy that had been flowing smoothly inside her was now contaminated by this foul Demonic Qi, becoming sluggish and chaotic, even showing signs of self-detonation!

The gap was too vast! A casual strike from the Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator, containing Demonic Flame and Demonic Thought, was enough to severely injure her and shake her foundation!

"Gagaga! The source essence blood of the Profound Yin Maiden Body! Great tonic! Truly a great tonic!" The Withered Old Man cackled, sticking out his crimson tongue to lick the few drops of blood that had splashed onto his withered claw. The green light in his eyes flared, the greed almost overflowing. "Little girl, obediently become this old man's cultivation vessel, and spare yourself the pain of Soul-Searching and Spirit-Refining!"

The Demonic Flame on his withered claw surged again, transforming into a shadowy black Demonic Claw several yards in size. Its five fingers spread wide, carrying the power to confine space and a demonic sound that defiled the spirit, grasping down upon the precarious Su Wanzhao! This grab aimed not only to capture her body but also to contaminate and imprison her spirit!

The shadow of death had never been so clear and cold as it was now! Su Wanzhao looked at the sky-obscuring Demonic Claw descending upon her. A hint of despair flashed in her eyes, but even more prominent was a bone-deep unwillingness and resolution!

"Want to refine me? Dream on!" A fierce, manic look flashed in her eyes. Her left hand suddenly put her fingers together and fiercely tapped her glabella!

"Profound Yin Secret Sword—Burning Blood!"

Inside the stone chamber, time seemed to be frozen.

Chen Feng sat cross-legged on the ground, but his body felt as if it had fallen into the deepest level of the Nine Nether Cold Prison! The surging, back-flowing torrent of terrifying Yin Sha, which far exceeded his limit of endurance, carried soul-freezing frigidity and chaotic, frantic negative will. It was destroying his newly tempered, tough physical body with devastating force, and frantically impacting his fragile Sea of Consciousness!

"Pfft!" Another mouthful of black blood containing ice crystals spurted out. The white frost on Chen Feng's body rapidly thickened, even beginning to condense into small icicles! His skin displayed an eerie blue-purple hue. His muscles were stiff, and his bones groaned under the strain. Even more terrifying was his Sea of Consciousness, where countless chaotic, frantic, and malicious roars and icy fragments churned fiercely, like millions of steel needles stirring his soul, threatening to completely tear and freeze his consciousness!

"No! I can't die here!"

"Su Wanzhao... is still fighting outside... Black Wind Cliff..." That cold, clear figure, that resolute sword light, and the prophecy of the Soul Refining Demonic Artifact ten days later, burned stubbornly like the last faint spark in the darkness, deep within Chen Feng's consciousness, which was about to completely sink.

This thread of unwilling obsession, like a spark thrown into an oil drum, instantly ignited all the potential within his body—the potential that had just been tempered and contained the severe poison of the heart-corroding grass and a weak trace of Earth Sha Power!

In his Dantian Qi Sea, the drop of dark silver-glowing venom, viscous as ink, that floated up and down, seemed to receive the summons of its master's will and began to tremble violently! A wild power, mixed with corrosive poison, Yin Sha frigidity, yet carrying a strange trace of vitality, erupted like a lit barrel of gunpowder!

This power was no longer purely destructive; instead, it was forcibly guided by Chen Feng's dying will, transforming into a raging dragon swimming against the current, slamming fiercely into the back-flowing Yin Sha Torrent!

"Boom—!"

It was as if a small energy storm had been detonated inside Chen Feng! The savage Poison Sha Power and the back-flowing Yin Sha Torrent collided violently, tearing at each other and mutually annihilating! The intense pain instantly reached an unprecedented peak! Chen Feng felt as if his body was being repeatedly hammered and ripped apart from the inside by countless giant mallets, and simultaneously sliced repeatedly by extremely cold ice blades!

However, right in the center of this ultimate pain and destructive storm, a subtle, strange fluctuation containing both destruction and rebirth quietly emerged, like the first ray of light born at the dawn of chaos!

Breakthrough after destruction! Seeking life in the midst of death!

The most difficult and perilous spell formula in the remnant scroll of the Poison-Inducing Body Tempering Art—"Guiding Sha to Assault the Barrier, Breaking the Realm by Burning the Soul"—was instinctively and recklessly pushed to the extreme by Chen Feng's desperate will to seek life after being placed in a death trap!

"Break—!!!"

Chen Feng let out a silent roar deep within his soul! All the pain, all the will, and all the remaining power condensed into a single point, transforming into an invisible, world-splitting giant axe, which fiercely cleaved towards the originally impregnable bottleneck barrier lying between the Qi Refining First Layer and the Second Layer!

"Crack!"

A crisp sound, seemingly from the depths of his soul!

The solid barrier, under the impact of the savage power interwoven with internal and external attacks, destruction, and rebirth, finally... cracked open!

"Boom—!"

Inside the stone chamber, centered around Chen Feng, an invisible wave of air exploded! The thick frost on the ground was instantly shaken into dust! The chaotic Yin Sha Qi permeating the air was violently pushed away and devoured by this nascent power, which carried a savage Poison Sha aura!

Chen Feng's tightly shut eyes snapped open! The two beams of light were no longer simply sharp, but carried a dark, deep luster mixed with corrosive poison and Yin Sha frigidity, like the eyes of a fierce beast awakening from the abyss!

The spiritual energy inside him, which was originally thin as silk and difficult to circulate, now roared and surged like a breached river in his meridians, which had been widened and toughened several times over! The total amount of spiritual energy soared severalfold, and its quality underwent a fundamental change! The spiritual energy was no longer simply colorless; instead, it carried an unpredictable dark silver sheen, containing powerful corrosive force and Yin Cold Sha Qi! His Dantian Qi Sea was expanded further, with the drop of dark silver venom floating within, acting as the core source of his power.

Qi Refining Second Layer!

Moreover, it was the Qi Refining Second Layer whose foundation had been tempered hundreds of times by the Poison-Inducing Body Tempering Art, and whose spiritual energy possessed the characteristics of severe poison and Yin Sha! His true combat strength far surpassed those of the same stage!

"Huu..." Chen Feng slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid air carrying an icy aura. As the turbid air left his body, it actually corroded a small pit in the ground. He slowly stood up. The blue-purple stiffness on his skin rapidly faded, replaced by a restrained, dark luster like fine iron. His bones emitted faint popping sounds, brimming with explosive power.

Feeling the surging new power with destructive characteristics within him, his lips curled into a cold and fierce arc.

However, the moment he successfully broke through and his guard slightly lowered—

"Buzz!"

An extremely faint, yet supremely cold and evil Spiritual Sense fluctuation, like the slyest viper, silently penetrated the Sword Qi Blockade set up by Su Wanzhao outside the stone chamber. It swept across the room and instantly locked onto Chen Feng, who had just broken through and whose aura had not yet fully retracted!

The greed and malice contained within this Spiritual Sense fluctuation were identical to the Demonic Might of the Withered Old Man! Clearly, the Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator had diverted a thread of Spiritual Sense to probe the surroundings while capturing Su Wanzhao, and happened to catch the abnormal aura Chen Feng leaked during his breakthrough!

Exposed!

A chill more biting than the Earth Vein Yin Sha instantly shot up from Chen Feng's tailbone to the top of his Heavenly Spirit Cap! The joy of the recent breakthrough vanished completely, replaced by spine-chilling dread!

Almost simultaneously, outside the stone chamber, from the direction of the distant Black Wind Cliff, the Withered Old Man's hoarse, uncertain voice pierced through layers of obstruction, carrying a hint of unbelievable ecstasy and deeper greed, fiercely impacting Chen Feng's Sea of Consciousness like a Demonic Sound Pouring into the Ears:

"Oh?! Such pure Earth Vein Yin Sha! And... the aura of Corpse Heart Grass Poison? Hehehehe! Heaven truly helps me! I never expected this remote wilderness to hide such a unique Medicinal Slave Embryo! Once this old man captures the Profound Yin Maiden Body, I will come back and properly deal with you, little worm!"