Chapter 1188: Chapter 1188: Demon Vanquished, Tainted with Evil Qi
"Although we still don’t understand why these Snow Demons can inherit the residual spiritual power of similar corpses, it should be as you see: these white mists are the key issue."
Seeing Yang Yan come to inquire, Lin An also informed him of the discussion results among the three Sect Leaders.
Having cracked the key to the Snow Demons’ abnormal ability, Yang Yan immediately gathered Dugu, other Sect Elders, Ye Changqing, Lin Zimu, and Baihua Fairy. After briefly arranging the battle plan, they quickly dispersed and returned to combat.
"Start the battle!"
At Yang Yan’s command, the scattered individuals quickly circulated their spiritual power, ready to strike.
Ye Changqing took a deep breath, and the emerald Life Spirit Flame blazed fiercely in his palm.
"Go!"
With a shout, several strands of ghostly green flame jumped out from the Life Spirit Flame in his hand, quickly diving into the mass of white mist. Suddenly, they expanded with the wind, rooting themselves on the Snow Demons and burning them to ashes in an instant.
"Well done, Ye!"
Seeing the Snow Demons turned to dust without leaving any snow mist, Yang Yan felt relieved and said.
This was the heart of the Life Spirit Flame, which was also the key to Ye Changqing’s victory against the Snow Demons, leaving no snow mist!
Ye Changqing turned to smile at Yang Yan. Little did he know this slight distraction gave a giant Snow Demon, nearly at the Golden Core level, an opportunity.
The giant quickly formed a massive ice spike and hurled it fiercely at Ye Changqing.
Ye Changqing, fully focused on controlling the flame, had no energy left to dodge in time, and could only watch as the ice spike speared towards him like a breaking wind.
"Bang!" A loud noise echoed, and Yang Yan, gripping Star Night with both hands, sped over from the side with lightning speed, forcefully knocking the ice spike aside.
"Thank you, Yang!" Ye Changqing removed the emergency Life Spirit Flame Armor he had set up, and said to Yang Yan with lingering fear.
"No need to thank me, Ye." Yang Yan waved his hand nonchalantly. Then, tightly gripping Star Night again, he leveraged his power to charge at the giant Snow Demon, pressing the attack.
"Azure Vault Technique: Shattering Heaven!"
A strike shattered the ice crystals the Snow Demon casually threw, and Yang Yan wielded Star Night to slash at the Snow Demon’s huge arm shielding its head.
"Azure Vault Technique: Fengduan!"
Star Night, trailing a starlight, hacked down viciously on the Snow Demon’s arm.
However, Star Night felt like it was hitting cotton, leaving merely a scratch before being halted by a soft force, unable to penetrate further.
"Ha! You plan to use soft force to defend against the hard?"
Yang Yan’s eyes flashed with a sharp gleam, and he uttered two words:
"Devour!"
The soft force suddenly had no effect on Star Night, and Yang Yan seized the opportunity to exert force, cleaving the Snow Demon’s arm entirely!
"Roar!" The Snow Demon roared in pain.
The severed arm immediately transformed into a large mass of snow mist upon landing, and it quickly attempted to re-enter the Snow Demon’s body.
Not willing to let it succeed after barely injuring it, Yang Yan instinctively called for Elder Dugu and at the same time, wrapped Star Night in thick Devouring Power, plunging it into the snow mist to prevent its return.
"Ha ha, leave it to me!"
Elder Dugu waved his robes, and a Spirit Array he had long prepared flew out, enveloping the snow mist. It acted like a vacuum cleaner, sucking all the snow mist into the array.
"Grandmaster Yang, behold, this is the most basic Devouring Spirit Array, also called Devouring Array. It can devour ownerless objects, but one must reach Qi Cultivation level three to resist its devouring power."
Since Elder Dugu decided to pass on his knowledge to Yang Yan, he seized every opportunity to teach Yang Yan about Spirit Arrays, even amidst battle.
Yang Yan was speechless when a strong sense of danger suddenly surged, prompting him to execute a Small Shifting technique and move tens of meters away, looking back to see another giant hand of the Snow Demon overhead.
Had he been any slower, he would certainly have been severely injured.
The giant hand still hung in midair, and upon closer inspection, it was bound by several massive vines summoned by Baihua Fairy and a few elders, along with a group of Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers disciples, stopping its descent.
Seeing Yang Yan teleport tens of meters away in an instant, Baihua Fairy was momentarily stunned and said somewhat awkwardly:
"I didn’t expect Saint Son Yang to have such great body technique, we really acted unnecessarily."
Noticing it was the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers attempting to rescue him, Yang Yan’s attitude noticeably cooled.
At this moment, a wave of green fire suddenly surged out from the side, instantly engulfing the Snow Demon, seemingly indicating Ye Changqing had rejoined the battle after recovering for a while!
At this moment, the Snow Demon, now clad in a layer of green fire film, went completely mad, screeching deafeningly as it lunged at Ye Changqing.
However, after severely injuring the Snow Demon, Ye Changqing’s face turned pale, indicating that the use of this move was also exceedingly exhausting for him.
"Protect the senior disciple!"
"Cover for the senior brother!"
The elders and disciples of the Pill Sect quickly positioned themselves in front of Ye Changqing, while some went to contain the rampaging Snow Demon.
It’s worth noting, previously Yang Yan had swiftly intercepted an attack aimed at Ye Changqing, ensuring their precious senior disciple remained unharmed. If Ye Changqing were to suffer any injury right under their noses again, they would indeed be culpable.
"I implore everyone to join me in exterminating this demon!"
Seeing the Snow Demon fall into a disadvantage, the crowd was inspired, each fervently launching another round of attacks against it.
"Contain it, while I use the third-level Devouring Spirit Array to obliterate it!"
Elder Dugu suddenly shouted, his palms swiftly flipping hand seals, dazzling the eye. Subsequently, hundreds of bright magic points shot out, swiftly forming a sizable spirit array above the Snow Demon.
"Devouring Spirit Array, devour!"
As the spirit array began slowly operating, certain parts of the Snow Demon below started showing signs of instability! Pieces of its skin began transforming into snow mist being absorbed into the array, as a significant portion of the Snow Demon actually belonged to others!
"Grandmaster Yang, this is the third-level Devouring Spirit Array, otherwise known as...one must reach Foundation Establishment cultivation to escape this array."
Elder Dugu proudly introduced it to Yang Yan.
However, more than the array itself, Yang Yan was intrigued by Elder Dugu’s technique in setting it up.
With Ye Changqing’s Life Spirit Flame suppression, and Yang Yan along with other elders and disciples delivering the final blows, the Snow Demon couldn’t hold on any longer and finally toppled over, then was thoroughly dissected and absorbed into the array.
As the Snow Demon was completely annihilated, the disciples, after exhaling a sigh of relief, couldn’t help but cheer.
This time, they witnessed just how terrifying the strength of Golden Core cultivation could be. And this was merely defensive and life force capabilities, if it involved Daoist techniques of the same level, the outcome would be quite different.
Afterwards, the Pill Sect didn’t forget to seize "compensation" from the now-dissolved Snow Demon. It was impossible for a creature of such cultivation not to contain some treasures within.
Hence, Sect Leader Dan Xuan led the entire sect in the envious and surprised stares of disciples from the other two sects, successfully refining the snow mist extracted from the Devouring Spirit Array into Ice Spirit and distributed it among everyone after negotiating with the two Sect Leaders.
The disciples were immersed in the joy of acquiring treasures, all relaxing their vigilance. Only Yang Yan, after habitually inspecting these Ice Spirit, discovered a trace of evil qi within.
Although unsure what exactly this qi signified or the consequences of absorbing it, better safe than sorry, Yang Yan decided to inform Sect Leader Lin An of the abnormal situation.
Lin An listened then stroked his chin and remarked:
"Given this, it’s highly likely the Snow Demon was infected by something, leading to its mutation. The previous Cold Radiance Snake also behaved strangely, I suspect these demonic creatures were all contaminated..."
Thus, Lin An adopted Yang Yan’s suggestion and ordered the temporary isolation of these Ice Spirit within the sect.
Then Lin An and Yang Yan shared their concerns with the other two sects.
Dan Xuan, being an alchemist, is always exceptionally sensitive to the composition of all things. He had not detected anything unusual during the refining of these Ice Spirit, hence he was somewhat skeptical upon hearing the words from Yang Yan and Lin An.
But on second thought, the Ancient Abyss Sect had no reason to deceive them, so he accepted Lin An’s proposal, planning to address the issue further upon returning.
Later, the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers declined the Ancient Abyss Sect’s invitation, opting to travel independently.
A group of male disciples from the Ancient Abyss Sect had been eagerly anticipating the journey alongside numerous beauties from the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers, but now, faced with dashed hopes, each lamented and sighed.
These disciples were unaware that the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers once participated in besieging the Ancient Abyss Sect.
On the surface, the two sects appeared harmonious, united in eliminating the demon. Only those familiar with the situation could sense Yang Yan’s ire towards them. Hence, they could never have the face to travel alongside the Ancient Abyss Sect.
"Hey, hey, hey, how long does it take to say goodbye? Isn’t there an awfully lot of chatter?"
Baihua Fairy was bidding farewell to Yang Yan, suddenly interrupted by Guo Guoguo.
"Yang Yan, let’s go, the Sect Leader...has some matters to discuss with you!"
Guo Guoguo rolled her eyes, pulling Yang Yan to fly back, not forgetting to jest at Baihua Fairy:
"Don’t just stand there, behaving like it’s the final farewell..."
Before she could finish her sentence, Yang Yan was whisked away by this Little Witch.
