100: Narrow victory

The voice of the Corpse Demon was like a steel knife scraping bone, and its decaying, deathly silent pressure instantly enveloped Lin Jingyu like an invisible swamp!

The air was thick like mercury, and every breath carried a bone-chilling coldness, seemingly intent on freezing and rotting his flesh, blood, and marrow!

Dharma Aspect Realm, Sixth Heaven!

A terrifying existence far surpassing the One-Horned Black Python Demon King!

Lin Jingyu's muscles instantly tensed like steel cables, the Star Body Tempering Method shone brightly with Star Glow, and Chaos Qi Flow roared and surged through his Meridians, forcefully resisting the suffocating pressure!

He abruptly raised his head, his gaze like cold lightning, locking onto the front.

The shadows twisted, and a Gray-Robed Old Man, shriveled like a dried corpse, slowly stepped out.

His eye sockets were sunken, his skin clung tightly to his bones, making him look like a walking skeleton, enveloped by dense Corpse Qi and death intent.

In his hand, he held a pale bone banner—the nine nether soul-slaying banner!

The banner surface was sewn from countless human skins struggling in agony, the main pole was a twisted spine, and the top was embedded with an infant's skull, whose hollow eye sockets burned with eerie green phosphorescent fire!

"Jie jie jie... What a treasure body! Qi and blood like a furnace, muscles and bones like divine metal! It's even more perfect than this old man anticipated!"

The Corpse Demon greedily licked his cracked lips, as if appreciating a priceless treasure, "Obediently follow this old man back to the Heavenly Prison, and you'll spare yourself the suffering of having your Soul extracted and refined!"

Before his voice faded, the nine nether soul-slaying banner in the Corpse Demon's hand suddenly shook!

Wooo—!

The mournful cries of ghosts, sharp enough to tear apart the Soul, suddenly erupted!

The human skin faces on the banner shrieked in unison, and countless grayish-white vengeful spirits, like a bursting flood, carrying Soul-corroding, bone-eating Yin wind, swept toward Lin Jingyu in an overwhelming tide!

Where the Yin wind passed, the ground was instantly covered with a thick layer of black frost, and even the air emitted sizzling sounds of corrosion!

"You old coffin stuffing! Want to capture me? Let's see if your teeth are tough enough!" Lin Jingyu roared, his half-step Dharma Aspect Realm Qi and blood erupting like a human torch!

The Heart Divine Fire burned fiercely, dispelling the cold Yin energy!

He clenched both fists, running the Chaos Heaven Opening Art to its extreme, advancing instead of retreating, and punched out against the monstrous ghost tide!

Chaos Heaven Opening Fist—Sky-Rending Style!

Where the punch landed, space twisted and shattered! The nascent Star Dharma Aspect prototype flickered in and out of existence within the shattered spatial fissures, and terrifying gravitational force tore at the surging vengeful spirits!

Chichichi—!

It was like a red-hot iron brand plunging into a snowdrift!

Countless vengeful spirits collided with the Chaos Qi Flow and Star gravitational force of the punch, emitting miserable shrieks, and were instantly annihilated and shredded!

But there were simply too many vengeful spirits, rushing forward relentlessly, and the cold Death Qi relentlessly eroded Lin Jingyu's protective divine light!

"Hmph! Vain resistance!" A cruel smile appeared on the Corpse Demon's withered face, and he shook the bone banner again!

The infant skull at the top of the banner flared with eerie green phosphorescent fire, opening its mouth to spew out a condensed, extremely pale green beam of light—the "Nine Nether Corpse Fiend Soul-Shattering Light"!

The beam of light was silent but swift as lightning, instantly penetrating the layers of vengeful spirits and shooting straight toward Lin Jingyu's glabella!

This was a vicious attack aimed directly at the Divine Soul and meant to corrupt the Physical Body!

Danger!

Lin Jingyu's pupils constricted suddenly. The divine demon dharma idol phantom in his Sea of Consciousness roared, fully protecting his Divine Soul!

At the same time, his left hand turned from a palm into a claw, his five fingers wrapped in Chaos Qi Flow and Star gravitational force, swiftly grabbing toward the pale green beam of light!

Hiss—!

The beam of light struck his palm!

A terrifyingly cold Corpse Fiend power instantly erupted, frantically corroding the flesh and drilling toward the bone marrow!

The skin and flesh of his palm instantly turned gray and withered, and he could even hear the slight sound of bones grinding!

The intense pain was heart-piercing!

"Break for me!" Lin Jingyu roared, his five fingers suddenly exerting force! The Chaos Qi Flow and Star gravitational force frantically strangled the beam!

Bang!

The pale green beam of light was actually crushed by him!

However, his left palm was scorched black and bloody, with threads of gray, withered Death Qi clinging stubbornly!

"Able to withstand one of this old man's Soul-Shattering Lights? Good! Very good! All the more worth refining!" The Corpse Demon was not surprised but delighted, his eyes blazing with greater greed.

His withered, claw-like left hand suddenly formed a seal, and he began chanting an obscure, ancient incantation.

"Nine Nether Yellow Springs, Corpse and Bone are Supreme! Ten Thousand Souls gather the Fiend, Bone Dragon appears!"

Following the incantation, the nine nether soul-slaying banner shook violently, all the human skin faces on the banner let out the most agonizing wails, and the entire banner surface suddenly ignited with eerie green phosphorescent fire!

Countless vengeful spirits were forcefully extracted and melted down!

The infant skull at the top of the banner pole shattered with a crack, and an even more terrifying aura spread out!

Aooo—!

An earth-shaking Dragon roar resounded through the sky!

A terrifying Bone Dragon, completely pieced together from stark white bones and a hundred zhang long, wrapped in sticky grayish-green Corpse Fiend poison fire, shot up from the burning bone banner!

The Bone Dragon's hollow eye sockets burned with two massive clusters of eerie green Soul fire, locking onto Lin Jingyu! The Dragon might, mixed with monstrous Corpse Fiend energy, exerted pressure even greater than the Corpse Demon's true form!

This was the Corpse Demon's true killing move—the "Nine Nether Underworld Bone Dragon," condensed from the grievances and fiendishness of ten thousand Souls and its own Corpse Dao Origin!

Its power had already touched the threshold of the Dharma Aspect Realm, Seventh Heaven!

The Bone Dragon roared, carrying Corpse Fiend poison fire that sought to destroy all life, and plunged fiercely toward Lin Jingyu like a collapsing mountain of bones!

Wherever it passed, the space itself was left with grayish-green corrosive marks!

Despair! True despair!

The Corpse Demon's true form sneered from behind, shaking the bone banner, controlling the Bone Dragon, and cutting off all of Lin Jingyu's retreat paths!

"Want to refine me? Then pay with your life!"

An unprecedented madness and ferocity erupted in Lin Jingyu's eyes!

He felt the ultimate threat of death, but the Dharma Aspect Realm barrier within his body, under this pressure of death, emitted its final, clearest shattering sound!

"System! Burn everything! Strengthen the Star Body Tempering Method! Help me Breakthrough the realm!" He roared internally!

[Ding! Consuming 300,000 evolution points! Star Body Tempering Method upgraded to Major Achievement Peak! Star Core Casting Body, defense limit reinforced!]

[Ding! Special Status: Life-and-Death Pressure! Breaking through the Dharma Aspect Realm barrier!]

Boom—!!!

Indescribably majestic Star Power, ignoring spatial barriers, poured down fiercely from the Nine Heavens into Lin Jingyu's crown!

Every pore on his body erupted with Star Glow, and his muscles, bones, and internal organs emitted deafening thunder under the washing of Star Power!

His scorched black left palm instantly healed, and the withered Death Qi was dispelled by the Star Glow!

His body seemed to transform into a humanoid star, emitting an unparalleled force field and radiance!

More crucially, the phantom image of the Star River in the shattered space behind him suddenly swelled and solidified!

It was no longer a vague prototype, but a clearly rotating miniature Star River!

Countless stars lived and died within it, terrifying gravitational force twisted the light, and the aura of annihilation caused space itself to tremble!

A vast, boundless, and terrifying pressure belonging to the true Dharma Aspect Realm descended fiercely, like an ancient Vicious Beast awakening from slumber!

Star Dharma Aspect—Manifest!

"Old dog! Prepare to die!" Lin Jingyu let out a long roar toward the sky, his voice shaking the surroundings!

He took one step, and the earth beneath his feet instantly collapsed!

His figure and the Star Dharma Aspect behind him nearly merged into one, transforming into a silver-gray meteor that tore through the heavens and earth, charging head-on toward the hundred-zhang Bone Dragon plunging down!

Star Annihilation Fist!

This punch contained the power of star annihilation from his newly formed Dharma Aspect, the ultimate manifestation of his will, strength, and rules!

Where the punch passed, space shattered inch by inch like fragile glass, forming a straight Void Realm channel!

At the end of the channel, the miniature Star River rotated, its gravitational force tearing at everything!

Boom—!!!!

The Star meteor and the Corpse Fiend Bone Dragon collided fiercely like two falling stars a hundred zhang in the air!

An indescribable colossal sound erupted! Blinding light swallowed everything!

The destructive shockwave spread spherically, instantly leveling the hills and scorched earth within several miles below, turning them into dust!

The entire Black Wind Hollow trembled violently, as if the end of the world had arrived!

The light persisted for several breaths before slowly dissipating.

The scene in the sky caused the Corpse Demon, who was controlling the bone banner from afar, to show an expression of unbelievable shock on its withered face for the first time!

The hundred-zhang Bone Dragon was broken in half!

At the break, the white bones were pulverized as if crushed by billions of stars!

The remaining bone body was covered in spiderweb-like cracks, the winding Corpse Fiend poison fire dimmed as if about to extinguish, and the eerie green Soul fire flickered wildly, emitting painful cries!

As for Lin Jingyu, covered in blood, he stood beside the severed Dragon, his Star Dharma Aspect slowly rotating behind him, radiating a terrifying pressure capable of suppressing the eight directions!

His right fist was clenched tightly, and Star Glow and Chaos Qi Flow continuously wrapped around the fist edge!

"Impossible! You... you actually Broke through to the Dharma Aspect Realm?!"

The Corpse Demon shrieked involuntarily, its voice carrying a subtle tremor.

His proud Nine Nether Underworld Bone Dragon was actually severed by the opponent's newly formed Dharma Aspect with a single punch! This Physical Body, this Dharma Aspect, was outrageously strong!

"It's not over yet!" Lin Jingyu's eyes were cold as ten thousand years of ice, his killing intent boiling!

His figure vanished again; Shrinking the Ground to an Inch, boosted by the Dharma Aspect, reached its extreme speed!

He instantly appeared above the remnants of the severed Dragon!

The power of the Star Dharma Aspect condensed onto his feet!

"Star Stomp!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

His feet were like two falling stars, carrying immense force and annihilating Star Glow, stomping heavily onto the Bone Dragon's shattered spine!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Bone-cracking sounds that made one's teeth ache rang out densely!

The Bone Dragon, already on the verge of collapse, disintegrated inch by inch under this violent trampling!

Countless vengeful spirits wailed in relief as they were annihilated!

The massive body of the Bone Dragon was actually crushed into bone powder filling the sky by Lin Jingyu!

"Pfft—!"

With the destruction of the Bone Dragon, the Corpse Demon, whose mind and Soul were connected to it, suffered a heavy blow, violently spitting out a mouthful of foul-smelling black blood, its aura instantly weakening!

The light of the nine nether soul-slaying banner in his hand dimmed, and the human skin faces on the banner became much blurrier.

"It's your turn!"

Lin Jingyu stepped on the bone powder and smoke, his gaze like a knife, locking onto the Corpse Demon whose aura was in disarray!

His figure moved again; the Star Dharma Aspect leveraged spatial power, crossing several hundred zhang in one step, and the Chaos Heaven Opening Fist, carrying the mighty power of shattering the Void Realm, struck directly at the Corpse Demon's head!

The Corpse Demon was terrified beyond measure!

He never expected that he would actually fall into the hands of a junior who had just Broke through to the Dharma Aspect Realm!

"You little beast! This old man will remember you!" He roared venomously, suddenly biting the tip of his tongue and spraying a mouthful of essence blood onto the bone banner!

Buzz!

The bone banner erupted with a final burst of pale green light, instantly transforming into a streak of light wrapping the Corpse Demon, attempting to escape into the Void Realm!

"Trying to run? Leave something behind!" How could Lin Jingyu let him succeed?

The momentum of the punch remained unchanged, and his speed increased by another third! The fist edge grazed the edge of the escaping light!

Tear!

A scalp-numbing tearing sound!

"Ah—!" A miserable shriek tore through the sky!

A withered, skinny arm covered by a gray robe, along with half of the pale white bone banner, was forcefully torn off by the violent punch force, scattering blood across the sky!

The Corpse Demon's true form, however, turned into a faint green light, disappearing instantly into the spatial ripples, leaving behind an utterly venomous curse echoing in the wind:

"Lin Jingyu! The Heavenly Prison will ensure you can neither live nor die!!"

Lin Jingyu grabbed the severed arm and half of the bone banner, landing back on the ground, breathing heavily.

His face was pale, and the power of his nascent Dharma Aspect was greatly depleted, but his eyes were sharp as an eagle's.

"Dharma Aspect Realm... achieved!" He felt the surging, vast power within his body, and the Star Dharma Aspect slowly rotating behind him, containing supreme might. An unprecedented feeling of power filled his heart.

He looked at the severed arm and half of the bone banner in his hand, then glanced at the One-Horned Black Python Demon King's broken corpse and severed horn on the ground. Finally, his gaze fell upon the half of the bone banner tightly gripped by the Corpse Demon's severed arm—though the banner surface was damaged, its core seemed to be inlaid with a strange token, neither gold nor jade, emitting cold Death Qi.

"The haul... is decent." A cold arc curved on Lin Jingyu's lips.

Just then, urgent sounds of rushing through the air came from the distant horizon!

Several powerful auras were rapidly approaching. The leader's Qi and blood were like a Dragon's, and it was none other than the Demon Suppression Division Commander—Qin Shanhe!