220: Chapter 220 Clash of Rivals: A Battle of Wits and Strength

Above the Desolate Valley, the toxic miasma dissipated completely.

The golden Spirit Beast bag, inscribed with intricate beast patterns, exploded with a bang.

A violent Demonic Qi, infinitely approaching the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, surged like a breached dam, washing over this world without restraint.

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan stood atop a jade Flying Sword, his expression as cold and stern as ice.

He formed hand seals at lightning speed, and a ring with an overall dark gold luster flew out from his sleeve.

This was his life-bound Magical Artifact, the [Eight Desolations Beast-Taming Ring].

The ring expanded in the wind, hovering directly above that violent Demonic Qi, casting down wisps of dark golden radiance.

"Ree——!"

A bird's cry that could pierce gold and crack stone resounded through the heavens.

Blazing waves of fire swept out from mid-air, evaporating all the remaining air in the vicinity.

A Spirit Beast, huge as a small mountain, flapped its wings and emerged from the sea of fire.

This bird had a wingspan of fully five zhang, its feathers resembling translucent emerald crystals.

The edges of every crystal feather were wreathed in crimson Demonic Qi fire capable of melting gold and iron.

Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle.

A strange Spirit Beast raised by the inner Sect of the Beast Taming Sect.

Such a Vicious Beast, approaching the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, would be difficult even for ordinary Sect Elders to tame.

That Core Disciple Qin Wuyan could keep it by his side as a trump card to protect his Dao shows just how exalted his status within the Sect was.

"Go! Melt those pieces of junk into molten iron for this seat!"

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan pointed a finger toward the Desolate Valley below, and the Eight Desolations Beast-Taming Ring emitted a clear, resonant hum.

Under the reinforcement of the Beast-Taming Ring's magical power, the ferocity of the Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle was thoroughly ignited.

Its hawk eyes, resembling blood moons, stared fixedly at the nine Demon Bone Iron Guards below, and it suddenly flapped its wings.

A gale howled, and a rain of fire poured down from the sky.

That was no ordinary fire, but crystal flames fused with the Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle's life-bound Demonic Qi.

As the rain of fire landed on the hard rocks at the bottom of the valley, the solid rock instantly melted into pools of glaring magma.

The nine Demon Bone Iron Guards below firmly protected the young Mountain-Quaking Kui Ox in the center.

Facing such an overwhelming fire-elemental assault, the power furnaces within the chests of the Iron Guards emitted a low roar, and their titanium-tungsten alloy armor took on a dark red luster under the scorching of the fire rain.

Gu Shen stood in the Void Realm, observing the situation with cold eyes.

While the Iron Guards' armor was indestructible and the sound-dampening coating could absorb vibrations, however, under the continuous high-temperature melting of such a Foundation Establishment Late Stage great demon, that severely injured young Mountain-Quaking Kui Ox could not possibly survive.

Even more troublesome was that he himself cultivated the wood-elemental Longevity Art; among the Five Elements, fire restrained wood.

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan summoning this fire-elemental Spirit Beast was undoubtedly an attempt to form an absolute suppression over him using the Laws of the Five Elements.

"A mere feathered beast dares to attempt to burn the heavens and boil the seas."

Gu Shen sank his Qi into his Dantian and stomped heavily in the Void Realm.

The wind and thunder array patterns on the soles of his thunder shadow boots exploded with light.

Accompanied by a deafening thunderclap, Gu Shen's figure turned into a bolt of dark cyan lightning rushing against the sky, heading straight for the Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle circling in mid-air.

He exerted force with his right arm and swept out with the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade in his hand.

On the blade's edge, deep cyan poisonous evil True Qi surged, rendering the three-zhang-long Thunder-Magnetic Force blade aura as if it were tangible.

"Seeking death!"

Seeing Gu Shen dare to take the initiative to attack a Foundation Establishment Late Stage fire-elemental Spirit Beast with his Physical Body, Core Disciple Qin Wuyan's eyes flashed with extreme mockery.

He controlled the beast-taming ring with both hands, his thoughts racing.

The Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle let out a cry of disdain.

Its talons, the size of an adult and dark gold in color, tore through the sea of fire, carrying a terrifying grip strength sufficient to crush a Low Grade Magical Artifact, and viciously clawed toward Gu Shen's face.

"Clang——Boom!"

The thunder pattern gold-slaying blade and those dark gold talons collided with a bang in mid-air.

A blinding flash of intense light erupted from the center of the collision.

The violent shockwave cleared away all the surrounding clouds and mist.

The moment they clashed, Gu Shen felt a mountain-toppling force surging in along the hilt of the blade.

The Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle was a naturally occurring strange species, and its Physical Body was inherently incomparably strong.

Dark golden halos flowed around Gu Shen's body, and the black flood dragon black gold armor firmly resisted the sharp Qi escaping from the talons.

The Cold Jade Bone deep within his flesh and skin emitted a dense trembling hum, forcibly taking on and dissipating all of this Foundation Establishment Late Stage's overwhelming force.

He stood in mid-air, his figure as steady as Mount Tai, not retreating a single inch.

Yet that huge Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle was actually knocked upward by this saber strike, letting out a hiss of combined shock and anger.

"How is it possible!"

The mockery on Core Disciple Qin Wuyan's face instantly froze.

His pride-and-joy Spirit Beast, which protected his Dao, had actually been forcefully pushed back in a close-quarters struggle by a Body Cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage.

An even more terrifying mutation was spreading across the Spirit Beast's talons.

The True Qi transformed by the Nirvana Star Core, the ultimate Foundation Establishment of two worlds, had long since transcended the cage of the ordinary Five Elements.

That deep cyan True Qi certainly had the endless vitality of the wood element, but it also contained the mutated poisonous evil remaining from the Wasteland nuclear explosion.

Just now, when the blade and talons met, a wisp of deep cyan poisonous evil True Qi had already quietly coiled around the Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle's dark gold talons like maggots on bones.

Fire fundamentally restrains wood.

The Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle's protective crystal flames burned this wisp of True Qi madly, attempting to refine it.

However, the extreme deathly silence emanating from that nuclear poisonous evil conversely corroded the crimson Demonic Qi fire layer by layer.

Upon contacting the poisonous evil, the Demonic Qi fire actually made sizzling sounds of retreat, and the surface of the originally translucent dark gold talons quickly took on a layer of lifeless gray decay.

"That scoundrel's magical power is strange! Fire Eagle, increase the distance, use feather flames to blast him to death!"

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan felt a warning sign in his heart and hurriedly urged the Eight Desolations Beast-Taming Ring to issue a command.

The Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle, feeling pain, flapped its wings wildly, taking the opportunity to ascend higher into the sky, attempting to increase the distance from Gu Shen and leverage its absolute air superiority as a flying Spirit Beast.

How could Gu Shen let it have its wish?

"Absolute Collapse."

Gu Shen's eyes were deep as an abyss, and the Nirvana Star Core within his Dantian suddenly reversed.

A terrifyingly extreme gravitational field erupted from his entire body, instantly enveloping the three-zhang radius Void Realm.

The spatial curvature of this world was severely distorted under this pure mass collapse.

The Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle, which was about to flap its wings and fly high, felt as if it were suddenly carrying a mountain of ten thousand jun.

Its huge body suddenly plummeted downward, and the crimson Demonic Qi fire wreathing it was forcibly pulled and deflected in the distorted gravitational field, its light dimming significantly.

"Slash!"

Taking advantage of the gravitational field's pull, Gu Shen's figure followed like a shadow, pressing forward.

He gripped the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade tightly with both hands, uniting his waist and hips, and gathered all the Thunder-Magnetic Force of the Cold Jade Bone and the poisonous evil True Qi of the Star Core into a single point on the blade's edge.

A ten-zhang-long crescent-shaped dark cyan blade aura, carrying the momentum of splitting the heavens and earth, slashed out diagonally from bottom to top.

Under the heavy pressure, the Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle could not dodge in time and could only let out a sharp cry, pulling its pair of emerald crystal-like wings together in front of it, attempting to withstand this strike head-on.

"Sshh-la——"

The sharpness of a top-grade Magical Artifact, combined with the explosion of the Ultimate True Qi.

Those emerald crystal feathers, comparable to top-tier defensive Magical Artifacts, were cut through like dry wood before the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade.

The dark cyan blade aura cut through the Spirit Beast's Protective Aura without any resistance, slicing deeply into the root of its right wing.

Scalding demon blood poured down from mid-air like a rain of blood, landing on the glazed scorched earth below and smashing out pit after pit.

The Emerald Crystal Fire Eagle let out a miserable, extreme wail.

Its right wing suffered heavy damage, and half of its body was instantly numbed by the erosion of the poisonous evil True Qi.

It could no longer maintain its flight, and its huge body spun as it fell powerlessly toward the Desolate Valley below.

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan was shocked and angry; he hurriedly pinched a magical formula to forcibly recall the falling Spirit Beast into the Spirit Beast bag.

He stood on his jade sword, his face livid as he looked at the gray-robed Cultivator opposite him, who looked like a god of slaughter.

His pride-and-joy trump card had actually been forcefully crippled by the opponent in mere dozens of breaths through the most savage and domineering close-quarters combat.

Such terrifying combat power had already exceeded the cognitive scope of him, a Prodigy of a great Sect.

Gu Shen stood in the Void Realm thirty zhang away, holding his saber, the tip of the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade pointing diagonally at the ground, with drops of demon blood slowly sliding down the spine of the blade.

The gravitational field of the Nirvana Star Core continued to operate, completely sealing off all of Core Disciple Qin Wuyan's retreat paths.

"Fellow Daoist Qin, your Spirit Beast that protects your Dao seems unable to save your life either."

Gu Shen's voice was like the northern wind blowing through the depths of winter, cold and murderous.

He slowly raised the long saber in his hand, pointing it from afar at the center of Core Disciple Qin Wuyan's brows.

"Next, it is your turn."