Robbery Flame Takes Form, Demonic Horde Surrounds
In the depths of the cave, dim and damp, only the ethereal drip of water from the rocky ceiling echoed through the silence.
Su Rui casually tossed Feng Xi to the ground. With a flicker of spiritual power from his fingertips, several night-luminescent pearls shot out from his storage pouch and embedded themselves into the cave walls.
A soft, cool glow rippled outward layer by layer, instantly banishing the cave's darkness. It illuminated the grim tension etched across Su Rui's brow and the stunningly beautiful sleeping face of Feng Xi on the ground.
"Oh? I didn't look closely before—this holy phoenix's humanoid form has quite the fine skin, not a whit inferior to Yan Mingli and her daughter."
Su Rui examined Feng Xi's sleeping visage with a faint sigh of admiration before forming hand seals with both hands.
As the seals took shape, five restraining arrays materialized from the void. Pitch-black chains slithered out from the arrays with a clanking rattle, binding Feng Xi's limbs and neck securely. They yanked her into a humiliating "great mountain" shape, suspending her in midair.
"Urgh…"
Feng Xi grunted at the chains' tight grip and slowly awoke.
Upon seeing her predicament—and Su Rui—her ethereal phoenix eyes blazed with fury. "Shameless wretch, release me at once! Otherwise, once my Nirvana Holy Flame ignites, I shall burn your flesh and soul alike to nothingness!"
"Heh… laozi wants precisely that—your Nirvana Holy Flame!"
Su Rui sneered coldly, stepping through the void until he stood before the suspended Feng Xi. Black demonic flames coiled around his fingertip, casting shadows on her humiliated features.
"Rest assured, I'm just borrowing your inner core for a bit. If all goes smoothly, you'll drop a few realms at worst—your life… should be safe enough."
"Dream on if you think you'll take my inner core!"
Feng Xi's phoenix eyes widened as blazing flames erupted around her, attempting to melt the chains.
Yet those chains were forged from the Heavenly Extreme Demonic Flame Art; though her Nirvana Flames were formidable, they couldn't budge them in the slightest.
Her face darkened. Gritting her silver teeth, she spat, "Damn you! If you've got the guts, let me down and fight me fair and square!"
Su Rui burst out laughing as if he'd heard the world's greatest joke. "You're already laozi's prisoner—why the hell would I bother fighting you? You that stupid?"
With those words, the black flame on his fingertip touched her chest. A restraint powerful enough to force her true form surged into her body.
"Woo—!"
Feng Xi let out a pained cry, her body flashing wildly as her form twisted between human and phoenix.
In the end, under the compulsion of the restraint, her tall, graceful humanoid shape could no longer hold. Amid a surge of light, she revealed her true body—a colossal bird wreathed in sacred flames, majestic beyond compare. It was Feng Xi's authentic form, the holy phoenix in all its glory!
But now, her once-radiant plumage seemed dimmed, her flames feeble. Bound tightly by the chains, she cut a tragic, sorrowful figure.
Su Rui's gaze turned icy. He pointed like a sword, condensing highly compressed demonic essence at his fingertip, and thrust lightning-fast toward the holy phoenix's dantian in her abdomen.
A complex, eerie extraction seal formed in an instant, stamping onto the phoenix's body.
"Shreee—!!!"
A piercing phoenix cry echoed through the cave, laced with unimaginable agony.
The holy phoenix's massive frame convulsed and thrashed, pulling the chains taut with creaking protests of strain.
A pigeon-egg-sized orb, entirely crimson-gold with liquid flames swirling inside, exuding vast life force and sacred pressure, was slowly wrenched from her body by the seal!
It was the inner core she'd cultivated for centuries!
At the same moment—
"Boom—!!!"
The entire cave shuddered violently, rocks and dust crumbling from the walls as if some titan were shaking the mountains outside.
Clearly, Yan Mingli had arrived and was launching a frenzied assault on the Nine Nether Nether Domain Array.
"Ming… Mingli…"
The excruciating pain of having her core extracted blurred Feng Xi's consciousness. She arduously lifted her head toward the direction of Yan Mingli's aura, whispering almost inaudibly.
Su Rui ignored the attacks outside, pouring all his focus into extracting the core.
Finally, with a faint ripping sound, the crimson-gold core fully detached from the phoenix's body and dropped into an ink-black jade box Su Rui had prepared. The lid snapped shut, sealed with several talismans.
Without her core, the holy phoenix's glow rapidly faded, her flames extinguished entirely. Her colossal form began crumbling inch by inch into countless motes of light, like a candle flickering out in the wind, until it vanished completely.
All that remained was a fist-sized, crimson-red egg etched with natural flame patterns, lying quietly on the ground with barely detectable vitality.
"Oh?"
Su Rui eyed the egg in mild surprise. "Not a realm drop, but reverting to origins—back to an egg for rebirth? Was my method too crude and damaged her essence? Or was this female's temperament too unyielding, preferring total reversion over mere survival?"
He shook his head. Whatever the reason, it didn't matter.
For him, securing the core was victory enough.
With a casual wave, he stored the holy phoenix egg in his pouch—perhaps useful later.
Outside the cave, high in the sky.
Yan Mingli hovered in the air, her ink-black skirts whipping wildly in the gale.
Her peerless face was frosted with chill, her phoenix eyes brimming with killing intent so tangible it could kill.
Just moments ago, the soul-link she'd shared with Feng Xi for centuries—severed abruptly!
Like a thread forever connecting them, cruelly snapped!
Such a break meant only one thing—Feng Xi had met with disaster!
Even if not fallen, her core must have suffered irreparable damage!
Undoubtedly, that cunning brat's doing.
He'd coveted Feng Xi for her centuries-old inner core.
Had Feng Xi refused unto death, prompting him to strike her down? Or was his extraction botched, killing her? Or had he simply deemed her useless post-extraction and slain her?
No matter the truth…
"Little thief… this palace shall extract your soul and refine it, leaving you forever unrested!"
The icy vow hissed through her clenched teeth, laced with sky-high hatred. Her jade hands formed several seals in succession.
With the final seal complete, a vast spatial restraint silently formed.
This wasn't for attack or defense—its sole purpose: disrupt and seal all space-jump evasion arts.
During her pursuit of Su Rui and Mu Xueyi, those two had inexplicably vanished over five thousand li away—clearly some evasion technique.
She'd tracked via Feng Xi before, but now the link was broken. She had to prepare early, lest they repeat the trick; even she couldn't search endlessly then.
"Next…"
Yan Mingli's phoenix eyes gleamed murderously as her gaze locked back on the cave-shrouding netherlight barrier—the Nine Nether Nether Domain Array.
She raised a slender hand; a jade flute appeared. Red lips to mouthpiece, fingertips dancing, the flute glowed and hummed.
"Break for this palace!"
With a sharp cry, the jade flute flew forth! It drew heavenly spiritual qi into a violet divine rainbow piercing the heavens, slamming into the netherlight barrier with sky-tearing sharpness!
"Boom!"
The impact thundered across the wilds! A ring of violent energy blasted outward, pulverizing surrounding rocks and trees to dust.
Yet the dark barrier merely rippled fiercely, absorbing the strike that could cripple a late-Nascent Soul cultivator.
The barrier held firm, unmoved.
Yan Mingli's eyes narrowed. She unleashed several more devastating arts—summoning ninth-heaven thunderfire, condensing profound ice storms—all battering the barrier.
The result: unchanged. The barrier stood like bedrock, ripples fiercer at most, far from breaking.
"What a bizarre array! This can't be Mu Xueyi's work—it's that brat again. What origins does he have, to deploy such a formidable defensive grand array?!"
Doubts flooded Yan Mingli's mind. She'd roamed the Cultivation World for centuries, seen countless arrays, but never one so insidious and tenacious.
Breaking it by force alone wouldn't be easy for her solo.
Even at full cost with relentless bombardment, it'd take days.
Worse, spiritual power drain.
Though her half-god peak cultivation granted vast qi surpassing late-Nascent Soul, limits existed.
Reckless outpouring like before wouldn't last long, no matter her reserves.
"Can't brute-force it."
Decision made in an instant—she must conserve strength against that enigmatic thief.
Mind racing, a flash of light from her fingertip sent a crimson-gold talisman skyward. It morphed into a phoenix phantom amid the clouds, vanishing instantly.
Two hours later, whooshes rent the sky.
Seven figures rode clouds over. The lead man bowed. "Palace Lord, the Saintess is settled in Canaan City, guarded by the Twelve Shadow Guards."
Yan Mingli nodded slightly, scanning them. "Proclaim: barring the Xuanming Grand Elder guarding the Scripture Pavilion, all Eternal Night Palace Nascent Soul grand elders come here at once! Also, spread word of Mu Xueyi's presence here via Bloodsoul Tokens to every demonic sect."
"As Palace Lord commands!"
The seven chorused, dispersing to act.
Inside the cave, Su Rui had no time for outside turmoil. Priority: refine the Robbery Flame, or he and Mu Xueyi faced a nine-deaths-one-life path.
He sat cross-legged at the cave's deepest recess, expression solemn.
With a thought, Nine Nether Profound baleful iron and over A hundred blocks of lusterless black obsidian stone emerged from his storage pouch, hovering silently before him.
"Rise!"
Su Rui barked lowly, palms pressing down virtually as the Heavenly Extreme Demonic Flame Art roared to life.
Vast black demonic flames erupted from his palms, instantly smelting all materials. With heaven and earth as furnace, refining began.
Demonic flames roiled, radiating soul-chilling heat.
Hours ticked by. The indestructible Nine Nether Profound baleful iron finally softened, oozing ink-thick droplets that hissed corrosively on void upon falling.
The black obsidian stones cracked with sharp pops, shedding stone skins as impurities burned away in extreme heat, yielding globs of pure, glowing stone marrow.
Under Su Rui's flawless control, the molten iron fused with the stone marrow like rivers to sea, churning at the flames' core into a shifting, dark-metallic liquid sphere.
This process devoured mind and qi terrifyingly. Fine sweat beaded Su Rui's brow, face paling, but his hawk-like eyes stayed razor-sharp, tracking every flame nuance. Hands wove intricate forging seals nonstop, shaping the liquid metal preliminarily.
Gradually, a spear's outline emerged in the flames.
Two meters twenty long, thirty-five centimeters taller than him—perfect balance of piercing lethality and sweeping dominance, just his style.
The shaft gleamed deep blood-red, as if forged from congealed gore, etched with dense, twisting demonic runes. Faintly, myriad resentful souls wailed within, exuding bone-chilling baleful aura.
Yet this was mere embryo, lifeless.
Su Rui's gaze sharpened. He inhaled scorching demonic breath deeply, then produced the ink-jade box sealing the holy phoenix core.
The instant the lid lifted—
"Hum!"
Crimson-gold radiance, with colossal life aura, flooded the cave like a breached dam!
The sacred pressure even rippled the outer Nine Nether Nether Domain Array barrier.
Su Rui wasted no beat, fingertip beckoning. The terrifyingly energetic core streaked as golden rainbow into the roiling flames, slamming precisely into the spear embryo's tip-shaft junction!
"Sizzle—boom!!"
Like profound ice plunged into lava hell, utmost sanctity clashed with utmost malignity!
Nirvana Flames and Heavenly Extreme Demonic Flames eroded, annihilated, fused madly, erupting mountain-melting, sea-boiling superheat that swept the cave!
Nearest the blast, even Su Rui's protective aura couldn't fully shield him; heat scorched him, a sweet-metallic tang of his own blood rising in his throat.
Yet his hands remained rock-steady, seals flowing as his demonic essence intervened forcibly, mediating the polar-opposite, water-fire forces.
A razor's-edge dance with destruction: slightest mental lapse or qi stutter meant core detonation, spear collapse, self-backlash catastrophe.
Time crawled amid peak peril.
Su Rui's face whitened further, but his eyes' mad, obsessive blaze burned fiercer.
"Fuse!!"
He spat essence-blood mist laced with origin power onto the quaking embryo.
As if granted key catalyst, the crimson-gold core's resistance crumbled visibly, melting at eye speed.
Brilliant Nirvana Flames no longer fought but wove mystically into the blood-red shaft, strand by strand.
Nirvana rebirth—from-death revival!
Under demonic flames' coercion, Nirvana's truths oddly meshed with the spear's destructive essence, defying logic!
Slowly, living-like golden veins surfaced on the blood-red shaft—like subterranean magma flows or midnight lightning flashes.
A far more terrifying, suffocating aura rose from the spear!
Contradictory: utter annihilation fused with rebirth spark—calamity-summoning… Aura of annihilation!
"Hum—!"
A soul-quaking low buzz filled the cave.
At the tip, novel flames birthed: black-red intertwined, writhing, core pure primal destruction.
Su Rui beheld this peerless demonic weapon afloat in flames, eyes flickering weary triumph. His dream spear was forged.
He sensed: Robbery Flame incomplete sans Wind Soul Jade—thirty percent power loss—but its annihilating tribulation force was plenty horrifying.
"Against half-god peak… more than enough! Yan Mingli, just you wait!"
He muttered hoarsely, voice raw with peerless confidence and slaughter-lust.
Four days passed, but fresh-forged Robbery Flame couldn't fight yet—needed his soul-imprint branding and hundreds of internal restraints for arm-like mastery.
Su Rui devoted himself wholly to final tempering, restoring qi meanwhile.
Outside, per Yan Mingli's first-day order, ten Eternal Night Palace Nascent Soul grand elders arrived that night.
Day two: demonic Nascent Souls hearing of Mu Xueyi trickled in—six at first, over a hundred by day three. Skies and ground around the cave swarmed with Nascent Soul demonic cultivators!
Including late-stage and great-perfection powerhouses!
Such lineup: nigh half demonic path's overt elite force! Mu Xueyi's presence weighed heavy; Yan Mingli's summons awed.
Hundreds of Nascent Soul demonic cultivators, under Yan Mingli's command, took turns hammering the Nine Nether Nether Domain Array barrier.
Treasures, arts, secrets poured like storm-rain.
Multicolored blasts never ceased; deafening booms droned endless.
The range quaked like doomsday.
The array held staunchly, but relentless high-intensity barrage dimmed the barrier over time.
Yan Mingli floated above, coolly directing assault tempo, eyes fixed on the cave mouth.
She felt the array's power draining fast.
Finally, day six, noon.
"Crack… crackle…"
Spatial shattering rang out. The unbreakable dark barrier birthed its first clear fissure, spiderwebbing rapidly!
"Array's breaking! Everyone, push harder!" a demonic cultivator roared excitedly.
Assaults intensified.
At last, with earth-shaking thunder, the Nine Nether Nether Domain Array shattered like glass, dissolving into swirling dark motes, fading into heaven-earth.
Dust from the broken array cleared slowly, revealing the deep cave mouth.
And at the entrance, a solitary, ice-blue stunning figure wielding a clear, frosty longsword.
It was Mu Xueyi, guarding the cave mouth.