Chapter 1243: Meeting At Last
Chapter 1243: Meeting At Last
Buddhism did not flourish in Beichen Realm. Only a few insignificant sects existed, most of them scattered across the desert.
However, many ancient Buddhist relics had been unearthed from Ancient Immortal Battlefield. The Myriad-Form Talisman of Shangyuan Tranquility Palace and the Stone Bridge Zen that Dongyang Bo had once produced both came from such discoveries.
Only after the Myriad-Form Talisman had been broken did Gong Liangyu realize that this old fox had already thoroughly understood all his trump cards and had calculated every step in advance.
To be schemed against to such an extent by a grandmaster of the Spiritual Infant Realm, Gong Liangyu suddenly felt an absurd sense of honor.
The Myriad-Form Talisman had been his strongest means of escape. Now that the talisman was useless, he knew he would not survive today..
As expected, unwilling to accept death, he attempted to use other methods. But before he could even unleash them, Dongyang Bo had already prepared countermeasures in advance. In fact, he did not even have time to strike.
Crack! A defensive astra was easily knocked away by Dongyang Bo. At this point, Gong Liangyu had exhausted all his tricks. His face filled with despair as he watched the Vajra Bangle descend from above.
He felt a binding force clamp down on him. His bones crackled violently, and unbearable pain surged through him. His physical body and even the Golden Core within him were completely restrained. He could not even self-destruct.
Whoosh! The Vajra Bangle blazed with brilliant white light, transforming into endless flames that completely enveloped him. In an instant, his protective spiritual power was shattered. Without even a chance to scream, he was burned to ashes.
Dongyang Bo had schemed for years and had long harbored killing intent. Once he acted, he struck like lightning, leaving Gong Liangyu no chance to breathe.
As for the method of controlling the Spiritual Infant Talisman Puppet, he had already obtained it. There was no need to leave Gong Liangyu alive.
Moreover, when he had taken the Blood-Boiling Evil Flower earlier, he had already sensed that this place was fraught with danger. It was best not to cause too great a disturbance.
Gong Liangyu had died in Blood Lake without a trace. No one would be able to uncover any clues.
Having seized the Spiritual Infant Talisman Puppet, Shangyuan Tranquility Palace would inevitably become even more dependent on Shaohua Mountain. It was a plan that killed two birds with one stone.
Though it sounded complicated, from Dongyang Bo’s appearance to trapping the puppet and killing Gong Liangyu, everything had flowed seamlessly. In the blink of an eye, Gong Liangyu’s life had ended.
With Gong Liangyu dead, the Spiritual Infant Talisman Puppet lost its master. No one could control it. Instinctively sensing a chance for freedom, it launched a frenzied assault on the array and the jade bottle.
Yet without guidance, its attacks lacked order. Though they appeared fierce, most were ineffective.
Dongyang Bo’s mind stirred. He was about to withdraw the flames and activate the Vajra Bangle to restrain the puppet and take it away when a sudden sense of danger surged within him.
Whoosh! A streak of sword light pierced through the blood mist, swift as lightning. Along its path, all blood shadows were reduced to dust. Its momentum was astonishing as it shot straight toward Dongyang Bo’s back.
The moment the spiritual sword struck, Dongyang Bo felt a sharp sting. His expression changed drastically. There was a third person here!
And the momentum of the sword was extraordinary. This person was a Spiritual Infant cultivator!
He had no time to think. His body lunged forward as he hurriedly recalled the Vajra Bangle. With a crisp clang, the bangle trembled and released a phantom nearly as powerful as its true form, which flashed out to block the incoming flying sword.
Sin Abyss had once used Infinite Blood Mulberry Wood to set up an ambush.
Dongyang Bo had also suffered under the Blood Defilement Divine Light before. Having learned from that lesson, he now always held something in reserve when using his life-bound astra, no longer fighting as recklessly as before.
Clang! A metallic collision rang out.
The bangle’s phantom blocked the flying sword. Its radiance contracted inward, attempting the same trick again, trying to bind the sword and seize it outright.
At the beginning of the great battle, he had used the Vajra Bangle to forcibly seize several astras from Sin Abyss's cultivators. It had worked every time.
But this time, he miscalculated. The phantom barely managed to trap a portion of the sword’s tip before it could no longer close. It began to hum violently, cracks appearing across its surface as if it were about to shatter.
Dongyang Bo was inwardly shocked. He had refined the Vajra Bangle for many years. Even the life-bound astra of Devil Lord Tongyou might not surpass it. Yet this opponent’s flying sword seemed to exceed it, clearly a top-grade astra of the highest quality.
Whoosh... The blood mist howled. A figure followed closely behind the sword light, rushing forward at great speed. Beneath the mask, a pair of cold eyes gleamed as it stared at the slightly disheveled Dongyang Bo. It was Qin Sang.
His expression was grim. To avoid being detected by Dongyang Bo, he had deliberately kept his distance.
He had originally thought that Gong Liangyu, as the head of a sect, would surely possess sufficient means to escape. With the Spiritual Infant Talisman Puppet at his side, even if he could not win, he should have been able to hold out for a few moves, long enough for Qin Sang to arrive.
Who could have expected that Gong Liangyu was not even a match for Dongyang Bo in a single exchange and had been killed by the bangle in the blink of an eye?
Qin Sang had not anticipated that Dongyang Bo’s true objective was not the treasure within the blood river, but Gong Liangyu and the Spiritual Infant Talisman Puppet themselves.
A middle-stage Spiritual Infant expert scheming against a mere Core Formation junior... Qin Sang had not even had the chance to intervene.
The devilish banner array was too slow, and the Lightning Control Technique required incantation. Qin Sang made a decisive choice. Without regard for exposing his identity, he used the fastest weapon at his disposal, the ebony sword, and struck at Dongyang Bo.
Even if he could not save Gong Liangyu, he could not stand by and watch Dongyang Bo take the puppet.
Qin Sang had concealed his identity not out of fear, but because he had intended to wait until his strength was sufficient, prepare thoroughly, and strike unexpectedly in one decisive blow. But now, he could no longer remain hidden.
Qin Sang did not fully understand the hidden dangers of the puppet, but he knew one thing for certain. He could not allow such a powerful puppet to fall into Dongyang Bo’s hands. Otherwise, even with allies, killing him would be impossible.
He had always been decisive. The moment he drew his sword, he attacked. Dongyang Bo was battle-hardened and reacted swiftly. Not only did he block the sneak attack from the flying sword, but he also avoided repeating past mistakes.
"It’s you! It's you?" Upon seeing Qin Sang, Dongyang Bo’s expression changed repeatedly as he exclaimed twice in succession.
The first cry came when he saw the phoenix wings behind Qin Sang. He recognized him as the newly risen Demon King Ming Yue.
Since breaking into the Spiritual Infant Realm, Qin Sang had always worn a mask while traveling. The phoenix wings were his most obvious feature.
Dongyang Bo had heard many rumors about Demon King Ming Yue. Slaying a Spiritual Infant cultivator in battle, entering Abyssal Ruin and fighting Old Devil Ye, even retreating unharmed. It was even he who had brought back news of Blood Lake.
The Two-Domain Alliance had rejoiced at gaining such a powerful ally. But there had also been concerns. The rise of such a prodigy among the demon race might signal their resurgence, perhaps even leading to them surpassing the human race in the future.
Still, Sin Abyss was the immediate threat. And with the demon race’s weak foundation, a single individual could not change the overall balance. The matter had eventually been set aside.
The second cry came when he saw the ebony sword. He had once studied the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment. Later, he had judged the art incomplete and with little future, even if cultivated successfully, and had abandoned it. But he still remembered it clearly.
Over the years, only two people had achieved anything with that art.
One had been a former disciple who had refined a metal-attributed spiritual sword. Stubborn to the extreme, the disciple had refused to change arts and had insisted on forging his own path. Dongyang Bo had already concluded that he would never reach the Spiritual Infant Realm.
The other had been a pawn who had once slipped out of his control, cultivating a wood-attributed spiritual sword. Years ago, he had formed his Golden Core and had now appeared before him again.
The ebony sword was no longer what it once was, but it was enough to reveal the identity of the one before him!