Chapter 148: Devour

“Now’s the chance!”

As the golden sword qi swept across the air in all directions, Immortal Chi Yin caught the momentary lapse in Yu Zhou’s focus behind her—but she gritted her teeth and didn’t act. She held back until the moment when the True Immortal Yang Spirit that had leapt from the Moon Demon stabbed malicious intent toward Yu Ci, and Yu Zhou instinctively shifted his attention in that direction. Only then did she abruptly unleash her innate Qi and shoot forward at full speed.

Yu Zhou reacted quickly. Even though Immortal Chi Yin had seized the initiative, a barely perceptible strand of sword qi still slipped through. In that instant, Immortal Chi Yin shifted her meridians and internal organs, altering their positions, while deploying seven layers of innate Qi to intercept. She had neutralized the sword qi to the greatest extent possible, but what she couldn’t erase was the killing intent from three hundred years of cultivation soaked into that old daoist’s attack.

A dull pain rippled through her heart vessels, and she felt a chilling frost spread from the injury, exploding out in a sudden burst, flooding every corner of her limbs and torso in an icy wash. She let out a low grunt as a wave of reverse blood surged to her throat. Her forward momentum faltered, and she nearly stumbled and fell. She understood clearly: the old daoist truly intended to kill—there was not even the slightest trace of mercy in that strike.

Her whole body steeped in killing intent, her heart meridians already wounded, yet she had managed to avoid the most lethal blow. At the very instant she nearly crashed into the ground, a chant flashed through her mind. Her figure abruptly twisted and split—dividing into two, each shooting off in a different direction.

“Excellent clone technique!”

Yu Zhou praised her decisiveness, clearly impressed. After all, this wasn’t the main battlefield. Having failed to land a decisive blow, he didn’t pursue. As his sword let out a low hum, he transformed into a stream of light and shot toward Yu Ci.

Immortal Chi Yin finally couldn’t suppress the surge of reverse blood and coughed it up mid-movement, staining her lips a vivid red. Just then, the True Immortal Yang Spirit from the Moon Demon transformed into a streak of golden light, laughing as he tried to flee into the distance.

“Leaving now! No need to see me off!”

‘That boneless thing never intended to fight head-on at all!’

Before the thought even finished forming in her mind, a powerful incantation echoed through the heavens:

“Great Net of Heaven and Earth, Prison of Five Directions—seal!”

The Yang Spirit’s laughter cut off sharply—and in that moment, Immortal Chi Yin felt the air around her freeze.

Though the technique wasn’t aimed at her directly, the technique’s area of effect spread over more than ten miles. The atmosphere thickened like sticky glue, restricting all movement. Immortal Chi Yin tried to force her innate Qi to break through, but the moment she pushed it outward, she had to pull it back in.

There was something else—something behind her!

This wasn’t just the effect of a technique. At some unknown point, additional traps had been laid in the void. As for what kind they were, Immortal Chi Yin didn’t intend to test them.

She lifted her head. The Yang Spirit seemed to sense the danger too, scattering into golden light in all directions, unsure where to flee. Just as it was about to escape into the void, a stream of light shot out from behind the thunderclouds. In the air, it looped into a large ring.

Under the blinding golden radiance, the ring seemed somewhat dim—but quickly, golden flecks of light from the surroundings began to flock toward it, like moths to a flame, as if the ring carried a powerful magnetic force.

In the blink of an eye, the golden light had gathered into a flowing blaze, leaping and flickering across the ring, crackling with arcs of lightning. In that moment, nothing in the sky was more striking than this ring—not even the golden humanoid figure slowly emerging at its center.

Immortal Chi Yin drew a long breath, steadying the trembling Golden Core within her. As the ring manifested, the surrounding natural energy began to spiral, rotating slowly with the ring at its center. Within a ten-mile radius, the world was now under its control, and the usual natural order had temporarily yielded to the ring’s unique rhythm. Any hostile movement could trigger an overwhelming retaliation from the ambient spiritual energy—and of course, the immense power of the ring itself.

Even the golden humanoid figure at its center, the Yang Spirit that had emerged from the Moon Demon, found himself immobilized. Though he tried to scatter and escape into the void, the ring siphoned energy from the surrounding world, locking him back in place, rendering him motionless.

This kind of terrifying artifact stirred vague memories in her mind. But… something about the wielder didn’t match up.

The person who cast the technique still hadn’t revealed themselves.

In the sky, the golden humanoid figure—the Yang Spirit from the Moon Demon—struggled furiously, trying to break free. The ring flared with golden lightning, emitting high-pitched shrieks and booms. Though incredibly powerful, the ring’s wielder hadn’t yet reached the same tier as a True Immortal. The more energy the ring gathered, the harder it was to control. Its outline shuddered constantly, even twisting and warping several times, on the verge of collapse.

Xie Yan and Xie Liang stayed at a distance, not daring to get close. The ring’s might was undeniable, but its control was unstable. To wield it like an extension of one’s own body required the cultivation of a True Immortal. The wielder’s strength was comparable to theirs, but still fell short of that standard. If pushed too hard, accidents could happen—perhaps even injuries to allies.

Speaking of True Immortals, that golden humanoid figure at the ring’s center was the real deal—at least, he definitely met the qualifications of a True Immortal Yang Spirit. Still… something about him felt off.

In this world, for a cultivator to reach the realm of a True Immortal, two conditions must be met. First, one must forge a true form—a body that does not decay or die, free from the ravages of time and illness. Second, the Yang Spirit must be perfected—wherein all vital energy is fully governed by the soul, capable of coalescing into form or dispersing into energy, with a heart free from flaw or confusion. Only when both are fulfilled can one truly be called a True Immortal.

Generally speaking, the True Form is easy to mold, but the Yang Spirit is difficult to achieve, and their values in cultivation are also quite different. In the eyes of many top-tier sects, the True Form is a rigid practice—if one possesses a top-level Void Stepping technique and supplements it with pills, persistent hard work can lead to progress along a clear path. However, the Yang Spirit is tied to the Dao Embryo and Dharma Body—it is of utmost importance and the most difficult to attain. Throughout history, it has not been uncommon for cultivators to abandon their physical bodies in pursuit of the Dao, all for the sake of achieving the Yang Spirit.

The Yang Spirit is hard to attain, but once achieved, it grants immense power and great divine abilities. Xie and Yan were each only a step away from becoming True Immortals, and as members of the prestigious Rifting Earth Sect, one of the great sects of the cultivation world, they had broad horizons and were well-acquainted with both True Immortals and Yang Spirits. To them, although the aura and realm of the person before them had no flaws, it still felt like a disgrace to the very concept of a “Yang Spirit.”

Xie Yan sneered and said, “To be compared with this person—any True Immortal in the world would be ashamed and flee, unable to face the world.”

Xie Liang added, “Perhaps it’s a tribulation from a heart demon… hmm?”

At that moment, perhaps provoked, the golden humanoid figure let out a sharp, shrill laugh. “Rifting Earth Sect juniors think they can trap me with the ‘Great Net of Heaven and Earth’? Unless that one surnamed Fang shows up… Wahahaha, get out of my way!”

As the shrieking echoed, the ring suddenly expanded, and a series of explosive booms from the friction of innate Qi erupted in the air.

With a loud “bang”, the ring finally gave out under the impact of the True Immortal’s Yang Spirit and shattered into fragments flying in all directions. Just as the golden humanoid figure was about to rejoice in its newfound freedom, it was startled to find that even as the ring shattered, the scattered fragments still retained a strong magnetic force, dragging the surrounding golden light apart in all directions!

It was like tearing a piece of cloth—the golden light wrapped around the figure was instantly ripped into fragments.

“Crap, this is bad!”

Since the battle began, the golden humanoid had never panicked like this. Now, he couldn’t care about anything else. He summoned all his remaining strength and shot off like a rainbow of light, trying to flee while the “Great Net of Heaven and Earth” was disintegrating.

On the ground, Yu Ci had been observing the situation above. When the ring shattered, he suddenly felt a tightness in his chest. The air seemed to boil in an instant. The dense thunderclouds in the sky fragmented, the ground trembled, and cracks several zhang long appeared at his feet, still spreading.

An earthquake?

“Don’t move!” Yu Zhou had already rushed over and cautioned, “Once the Great Net of Heaven and Earth is activated, all innate Qi within ten li is drawn in. This is your Elder He using the power of heaven and earth to tear apart the Yang Spirit’s outer Qi barrier…”

Yu Zhou’s explanation was logically sound, but it involved extremely complex dynamics of Qi manipulation, the gathering and dispersing of innate Qi, and even the deeper layers of techniquecasting—things Yu Ci did not yet understand. What puzzled him more was—Elder He? Which Elder He?

Just then, he saw it—a slender, snake-like shadow shot out from the broken thunderclouds. Its timing and positioning were impeccable, and it collided head-on with the golden humanoid’s rainbow-like escape light the moment it appeared.

“Out of my way!”

The golden humanoid sensed that the figure blocking his path wasn’t very strong, so he suppressed the old injury haunting his Yang Spirit and forced out his power, intending to obliterate the obstacle in one strike.

But before his power could be unleashed, a chant echoed through the air. Cold incantation force condensed into a sharp blade and struck before he could react. The incantation itself wasn’t fatal, but it tore through the golden light and struck the spirit, and the resulting shockwave broke through the suppression of his previous wound—long held back by ritual techniques and mantras—and it exploded.

Under the now-dimmed golden light, six hazy gray shadows spread across the figure’s chest, limbs, and abdomen—one, two, three… a total of six, and they continued expanding. The golden light tried to reclaim these regions, but before it could react, the snake-like shadow crashed forward.

Even before it hit, the snake’s jaws opened wide, and an overwhelming suction force locked onto the target—it swallowed him whole in one bite.

The sky darkened, and the snake shadow, having devoured the golden humanoid, swelled dramatically as if it couldn’t contain the immense energy inside and was about to burst. But ultimately, it didn’t explode; instead, it began gliding through the air slowly, like a post-meal stroll, aiding digestion.

“It… swallowed him?”

Yu Ci was dumbfounded on the ground. He hadn’t expected such an outcome. Moreover, the still-moving snake shadow looked oddly familiar.

After a long moment, he suddenly remembered something, turned to Yu Zhou, and asked:

“Temple Master, is that… Elder He?”

At that moment, Yu Zhou’s aged face turned remarkably colorful.