"Hahahaha!" The inner demon guffawed its body abruptly swelled in size. Qin Zhongguo's physical body was completely torn apart, and in its place arose a skeletal giant that was three meters tall. Its entire body was covered in muscles, sinews, and bones, and its back was riddled with bone spikes, while bone scythes were growing out of its elbow joints.
At the same time, the bone spikes on its back thrust forward with vicious force. As they did so, they transformed into Yin energy of 13 different colors that surged toward Qin Ye's seven orifices.
At this point in the battle, it was already supremely confident. Having been able to exploit the vulnerability in Qin Ye's heart, its victory was assured!
This was its innate ability, which was invisible to everyone else, the Cage of Desires!
Qin Ye was rushing forward at full speed, and the Yin energy of 13 different colors was drawing closer and closer to him. A victorious smile had already appeared on the inner demon's face, yet right at this moment, Qin Ye suddenly stopped cold in his tracks before flying back several hundred meters.
How could this be?!
The inner demon looked on with an astonished expression. Its Yin energy had already come into contact with Qin Ye's clothes, transforming into purplish-black feelers that were riddled with eyes and mouths, frantically trying to sniff out something. However, the complete loss of control that Qin Ye had just exhibited had vanished in the blink of an eye!
How had he accomplished this?
The inner demon cast an incredulous gaze toward Qin Ye, and right at this moment, a series of golden characters appeared all over Qin Ye's robes.
His entire body was basked in golden light, and he finally calmed down as he said in a trembling voice, "Are you surprised? There's no need to be surprised. I'm going to put your soul through eternal torment in the path of the beast!"
His clothes were like a golden sun, and every single character on them was clearly discernible.
"When I'm unable to control myself and even the origin rune of emotions and desires can't help me, I would automatically stop everything I'm doing and retreat until I'm away from danger."
It was Fate!
The dual safety net of Fate and the origin rune of emotions and desires was what gave him the confidence to challenge the inner demon!
Silence.
Right at this moment, the flame of the Xuanwu Turtle was abruptly snuffed out, and the third flame, that of the Azure Dragon, finally lit up.
It was also in this instant that the inner demon let loose an earth-shattering roar, and boundless Yin energy converged from all directions to envelop its entire body.
There was no more time to waste!
It wasn't that the inner demon didn't want to stall for time. However, in a battle of life and death, one would inevitably default to their most familiar style of battle, and never did he think that Qin Ye would have a foolproof plan to counter what it excelled at the most.
The Yin energy vortex quickly dissipated, revealing a skeleton that was over 10 meters tall. The skeleton's body was riddled with bone spikes and countless golden eyes, and it opened its mouth as it sighed, "I underestimated you. You are the only fifth one to have seen this true form of mine in the past several thousand years."
All of the surrounding souls were howling with all their might as it spoke, and it was as if hell had descended upon this place.
It cast its gaze toward Qin Ye before raising two fingers. "20 minutes is all I'll need. In the face of an absolute disparity in power, your little tricks are useless."
As soon as its voice trailed off, it abruptly vanished on the spot.
It was fast, incredibly so!
It was completely untraceable to the naked eye, and in the next instant, Qin Ye was struck by a sense of overwhelming peril that instantly swept through his entire body.
The inner demon had appeared above him without any warning, and the bone scythes growing out of its elbows were crashing down toward him with devastating power.
In this dire situation, Qin Ye raised his arms above his head, doing everything he could to shield himself.
A burst of terrifying shockwaves erupted from beneath Qin Ye's feet, and countless cracks spread over the top of the pagoda.
The entire pagoda was rumbling violently, and shards and chunks of stone were sent flying in all directions.
Qin Ye threw up a mouthful of blood as the sound of cracking bones rang out, and countless cracks had already appeared over his golden arms.
An earth-shattering boom rang out as the ground beneath his feet completely gave away, forming a massive crater that was over 100 meters in size.
All of this had happened in no more than the blink of an eye!
Qin Ye's teeth were gritted tightly as he held on for dear life. The inner demon wasn't using any arts, it was merely crushing Qin Ye with its absolute Yin energy advantage. Qin Ye had a feeling that if he were to continue fighting fire with fire, his body would be shattered.
Furthermore, this still wasn't the inner demon's full power!
After that attack, the inner demon vanished once again.
There was unmatched killing intent and peerless power all around Qin Ye, and there was no time for him to react. The golden sword in his hand transformed into a ball of golden light, and a string of loud clangs rang out in rapid succession in the air while large sections of the ground on the top of the pagoda were shattered explosively.
For a whole three minutes, neither of the combatants could be seen. Three minutes later, Qin Ye's body was sent flying like a cannonball amid a muffled groan, following which he crashed heavily into the statue of the Vermilion Bird.
The inner demon was hovering in the distance, and all of the golden eyes on its body abruptly sprang open. In the next instant, boundless rainbow light swept over the entire top of the pagoda.
It was a completely unavoidable attack with no blind spots, and it was as if a sun had risen up above the Myriad Soul Pagoda!
Qin Ye drew a sharp breath upon seeing this, and an inky-black ripple instantly proliferated outward from his body. Right as the ripple appeared, the boundless light descended like a divine tribulation.
Qin Ye was using the Untouchable Love ability to protect himself from this attack, yet as soon as the attack arrived, Ryu Changmin's panicked voice immediately rang out in his mind. "He's too powerful! I can't keep up!"
Ryu Changmin was only an Abyssal Prefect.
He was an extremely unique Yin spirit with exceptional abilities, but the disparity in cultivation rank was simply too vast to be bridged.
What do I do?
Qin Ye's mind was racing. He still had more tricks up his sleeves, such as the Heavenly Dragnet or the mutual teleportation ability. However, if he were to use any of those abilities, the inner demon would definitely grow extremely wary, and it would become virtually impossible for him to damage the array here.
This was a very peculiar array. It had been inscribed onto the ground, but even though the ground had already been severely ravaged during the course of their battle thus far, all of the blood characters had detached themselves from the ground and were hovering in mid-air.
Before he had a chance to think about anything else, a resounding boom rang out, and the light that was 10 meters away just a moment ago abruptly descended upon him.
Time seemed to have fallen completely still, and the Yin energy ripple around Qin Ye instantly disintegrated right in front of his astonished eyes. The Book of Life and Death immediately flew out of his chest, forming another layer of defense.
Countless names appeared upon it, and those names transitioned between golden and inky-black in color as the Book of Life and Death released a burst of incredible power to keep the light at bay. However, before Qin Ye even had a chance to catch his breath, all of the light before him suddenly converged and transformed into a massive rainbow sword.
Even though Qin Ye was already mentally prepared for this battle, he still couldn't help but be struck by a sense of despair.
The inner demon was far more powerful than he was. Even with the Book of Life and Death, there was no way he would be able to withstand this attack.
"You are the third person to ever see this attack." The inner demon's voice rang out from all directions. "I've given it a nice name: Godslayer."
In the next instant, the golden sword exploded violently, and an indescribably powerful burst of force completely inundated Qin Ye.
A golden sun rose up into the sky from the top of the Myriad Soul Pagoda, illuminating the entire heavens. Even the entirety of Shanxi Province trembled incessantly in the wake of its might, let alone Zhuolu and the city of Yuncheng.
The inner demon's expression was slightly twisted with ferocity, and golden light exploded into countless shockwaves before it, sweeping through a vast area with devastating force. By the time everything faded, everything in the surrounding area had been razed to the ground.
Qin Ye had already retreated to the statue of the Vermilion Bird and also reverted back to his human form, panting heavily with a hand clasped over his own chest.
His dragon robes were covered in blood, as was his entire body, and he was coughing uncontrollably. With each cough, copious amounts of blood would gush out of his mouth, and his body was a complete mess. If it weren't for the Dusk Legionnaire's mutual teleportation ability, the Yellow Emperor Protector Seal would've most likely already been activated.
Right at this moment, the inner demon descended slowly in front of him, and an icy cold finger was pressed against his glabella.
Am I about to die again?
Qin Ye wanted to muster up some strength so that he could at least face his demise with some dignity, but he found himself unable to summon any strength, and he felt as if his body had been split apart at the seams.
"A weakling like you has no right to act as the ruler of Hell," the inner demon said in a cold voice, and black light was quickly converging toward its fingertip.
Right at this moment, something suddenly clattered gently onto the ground.
Both the inner demon and Qin Ye reflexively turned to see what it was, and it turned out that a jade hairpin had slipped out of Qin Ye's grasp.
It was a very ordinary hairpin, and it was not remarkable in any way. Furthermore, it was completely stained by Qin Ye's blood, making it impossible to glean its original color.
However, right at this moment, an indescribable aura began to spread rapidly from the jade hairpin.
The inner demon faltered momentarily before exclaiming, "This is... the aura of Lishan Laomu!"
The black light that was gathering at its fingertip immediately erupted.
Several seconds later, it suddenly raised its head to look up at the sky, then spat through gritted teeth, "That meddling bitch!"
Right above him, Qin Ye's body was completely spread open, and millions of specks of silver light were surging toward him in a frenzy from the entirety of Yuncheng!
……………………………………………………
Yuncheng.
The countless paper cutouts littered all throughout the city suddenly began to move.
There was not a breath of wind, so the movement was completely inexplicable.
Having received no orders, these Divine Heavenly Guardians had reverted back into paper cutouts and drifted down onto the ground, but they were suddenly moving again.
The first paper figure stood up in a rather shaky manner, and it was quickly followed by all of its comrades.
In the span of no more than 10 minutes, all of the Divine Heavenly Guardians across the entire city had risen to their feet before turning toward Zhuolu in the distance.
In the next instant, all of them formed a stream of paper that surged toward Zhuolu from all directions at an incredible speed!