Chapter 526 - 523: Hell's Evil Dog, Karma Fire Red Lotus
Death Replacement Talisman—it was an artifact Ning Wuxu risked his life to bring back from the Ancient Battlefield, crafted from the Sky-Reaching Lotus Leaf. He gifted it to Qin Feng, his youngest disciple, as a means of protection when he took him as a student.
From the early stages of his Foundation Establishment, Qin Feng had stored it within his Dantian, nurturing it with his own Essence Qi and True Yuan until it connected with his breath. Only then could it serve as a substitution for death in moments of life-threatening crisis.
Qin Feng had originally thought he would never need to use the Death Replacement Talisman, assuming it might still be his life-saving trump card even after he achieved success in the Immortal Dao.
Unexpectedly, right here, he was blown apart by someone…no, by an Undead Spirit Ghost, plunging him into a crisis where his body and Dao could have perished.
If it had not been for the Death Replacement Talisman’s crucial intervention, he would have definitely not escaped this calamity!
Qin Feng, who had just struggled out of death’s grasp, didn’t bother to suppress the shock in his heart or even wipe the cold sweat from his forehead. With a flash of his figure, he utilized a Space Jump, instantly teleporting away from the spot to avoid further attacks.
After escaping a few hundred meters, he finally had a chance to see who had attacked him!
In fact, it wouldn’t have mattered if he didn’t evade, as the existence below who had attacked him seemed equally stunned.
Even though he had just blown apart this human, he could actually revive and resurrect, which was utterly baffling to all Undead!
For a moment, the scene fell into silence, with each—a human and an Undead—staring at each other, speechless.
Looking down at the Undead standing on the ground, humanoid in shape but shrouded in a somewhat tattered black robe, emitting a faint ghostly fire from the eyes under the cowl, its bare fingers sporting sharp and fierce nails, it presented a terrifying sight!
What shocked him even more was the strength of this Skeleton Undead—it was no weaker than the Flame Giant that had pursued him earlier, perhaps even stronger than the Flame Giant Clan Chief, and its bizarre strength was far superior as it effortlessly broke his Escape Skill!
Thinking of this, Qin Feng felt increasingly worried.
Indeed, this trial was not going to allow him to pass through safely. Although he had many advantages over disciples from other sects, this was, after all, a high-rank world, and it was normal to encounter opponents beyond his ability to contend with.
He had just escaped from the hands of the Flame Giant Clan Chief, and now he immediately encountered an even more powerful Undead that not only disrupted his Light Escape but also depleted his life-saving Death Replacement Talisman!
Unlike other treasures, he only had one Death Replacement Talisman that could save his life just once. If he was killed by this Undead in front of him, he would have no chance to resurrect again—he would truly die!
Thus, Qin Feng’s sense of crisis peaked, his spirit tensed to the extreme as he cautiously watched the powerful Undead, fearful of another assault.
If he hadn’t been closely watched by the opponent, making him wary of making a careless move, Qin Feng would have definitely taken out another Escape Talisman and fled immediately.
The Undead’s eyes glinted fiercely, fixated on the human before him, its longing for Qin Feng’s ability to resurrect profound.
He didn’t know if this capability could be applied to himself, but if an Undead could also resurrect, did that mean he had a chance to come back to life?
Every Undead craved life, and this powerful Undead was no exception.
Compared to the vibrant world of the living, this dreary realm of the Undead, inhabited mostly by wandering Undead with only rare sightings of living creatures, was profoundly lonely for an intelligent and powerful Undead.
Although powerful Undead possessed spiritual intelligence, being Undead meant their hearts were filled with dark, negative emotions, and they rarely interacted with other Undead, so they seldom had close friends.
Seeing Qin Feng resurrect ignited the interest of this potent Undead.
It raced toward Qin Feng, its chilling bone claws stretching out to grab him, intending to capture this human and force out the secret of his resurrection!
Qin Feng’s eyes narrowed, his heart pounding.
Although the Undead’s move was a simple grab, it demonstrated immense strength, giving him a sense of inescapability.
He executed the Thousand-Mile House Great Divine Power, attempting to escape, but the Undead’s speed surpassed his, so fast that he couldn’t even retreat.
Qin Feng tried to perform a Space Jump, but just as a ripple appeared in space, a formidable aura emanated from the Undead, solidifying the spatial ripple and preventing him from using his Space Divine Power.
Seeing no way to evade the Undead’s claws about to catch him, Qin Feng reluctantly resorted to his most familiar tactic.
“Caw…”
Suddenly, a harsh crow’s cry sounded, echoing far into the fog.
The undead felt its claws had indeed grasped a body,
Yet unlike the warm, vibrant body it had imagined, upon contact, its claws felt not a trace of warmth but rather encountered an aura colder than that of the Netherworld Dead Land,
Within this cold aura, there also lingered hints of ominousness.
Moreover, the aura rapidly climbed up its claws and in an instant had spread up its arm.
“Hmm?”
Surprise filled the undead’s heart.
For it, as an undead creature, to feel such a bone-chilling and ominous sensation was truly odd.
Focusing its gaze, it then realized that there was now a crow before it!
It was this crow that had replaced the human it had initially grabbed.
The cold and ominous aura it sensed came from a strange fire that was burning on the crow.
The flames crept along its claws ceaselessly, threatening to engulf its entire body.
Feeling that something was amiss, the undead wasted no time in releasing the crow and retreating, as endless death qi surged from its body, forcibly expelling the eerie flames and bringing it some relief.
Then, it raised its head to glance at the crow and then at Qin Feng, growing increasingly intrigued by this human.
To silently summon an undead spirit crow with strange powers—such summoning magic was indeed remarkable, and it, too, desired to learn it.
Thus, it issued a strange call from its mouth, and Qin Feng heard a low roar coming from not far away.
Turning his head, he saw that below the left cliffside lay a huge creature.
It was a creature resembling, yet not resembling a wolf.
Besides that creature, the depths of the valley seemingly held other peculiar auras.
Previously, Qin Feng had focused all his attention on that undead being and hadn’t noticed these; only now did he discover that there was also a powerful monster here.
Upon hearing the undead’s summoning, the monster immediately stood up, displaying its strong body of over ten meters long and its fearsome features.
The monster’s blood-red eyes exuded infinite ferocity, its wide mouth filled with sharp fangs radiated brutality, its dirty matted black fur was coarse and stiff, and its long limbs bore claws sharp as sickles. The creature’s entire presence emitted unbridled savageness, clearly revealing it as an extremely brutal beast.
“Is this… a Hellhound?”
Flashes surged through Qin Feng’s mind, including memories from his past life and many documents and books he had seen in this world, and quickly deduced its identity.
Legend has it that Hellhounds are the pets of the Netherworld’s ruler, the Death Goddess Hel, guarding the gates of her palace.
As one of the strongest forces under Hel, the Hellhound’s reputation was widespread across the three great worlds and well-known.
The Hellhound before Qin Feng was certainly not the powerful beast named Gam, as the disparity in strength was simply too great—if it had been that Hellhound that could confront formidable divine beings head-on, Qin Feng would have no chance of resistance at all.
This might be an offspring of that Hellhound’s bloodline, or perhaps another of its kind.
Nevertheless, even so, the strength of this Hellhound made Qin Feng furrow his brow because the aura bursting from it indicated that this was a ferocious monster comparable to a Dharma Image, and even among those in the Dharma Image Realm, it wasn’t ordinary—it was significantly more formidable than the two Dharma Image Giants that had pursued Qin Feng earlier.
Bitterness filled Qin Feng’s heart.
Merely one powerful undead had already made it difficult for him to cope, and now with this mighty monster added, how could he defend himself?
He certainly couldn’t expend all the treasures on him meant for preserving his life here, could he?
But without using those trump cards, how could he deal with the crisis before him?
The Undead summoned the Hellhound precisely because it wanted the Hellhound to deal with the Death Curse Crow.
Although it was only briefly burned by the nefarious flames of the Death Curse Crow, it made him feel somewhat uneasy, sensing that something intangible on his body had been considerably burned. This made him apprehensive at heart, unwilling to come into contact with the Death Curse Crow again, so he simply let his subjugated pet deal with the crow.
As for himself, of course, capturing this human with the ability to revive was more important.
As the Hellhound let out a low growl and took two steps forward, its body leaped up like a black whirlwind and pounced toward the Death Curse Crow.
“Roar…”
Just as the Hellhound’s sturdy body was about to pounce on the Death Curse Crow, suddenly a loud roar came from the void and a white figure violently crashed into the Hellhound, knocking it to the ground.
It was Qin Feng who, at the critical moment, summoned the White Dragon and struck the Hellhound from the side, sending it flying.
Immediately afterward, the White Dragon opened its mouth and emitted a hot stream of Dragon Breath onto the Hellhound.
“Ow… Roar…”
Caught off-guard by this force different from the Netherworld’s Death Qi, the Hellhound instantly felt immense pain.
However, its strength was definitely far superior to the White Dragon’s, and since this place was the Undead Realm—its home ground—it didn’t suffer much damage, just unaccustomed to the severe pain from being purified by the Holy Flame.
Thus, it quickly recovered, avoided the White Dragon’s Holy Flame with a flip, and opened its mouth to spew a red stream of Hell Flame onto the White Dragon.
Qin Feng knew that the White Dragon alone was no match for the Hellhound; having no choice, he had to release other monsters to help in the fight.
Soon, this valley was occupied by many large Spiritual Beasts, taking up a vast space.
The Undead, seeing Qin Feng continuously summoning Spiritual Beasts, had flickering ghostly lights in its eyes, and its interest in Qin Feng grew stronger.
Being able to summon so many monsters for battle was an extremely rare ability.
More importantly, he didn’t feel much fluctuation of Space Power, and besides the all-black scaled poisonous snake which he was familiar with, he didn’t recognize any of the other monsters.
This was highly intriguing!
He even more so wanted to capture Qin Feng and thoroughly interrogate him.
This Undead didn’t care about the Hellhound trapped in the encirclement or the poisonous snake and Death Curse Crow in front of Qin Feng that attempted to attack him.
His strength was, after all, far superior to Qin Feng and these Spiritual Beasts. Although somewhat wary of the Death Curse Crow’s strange flames, he felt that as long as he didn’t get close to the crow, there shouldn’t be any major problems.
Therefore, he waved his hand, launching a series of powerful attacks continuously toward Qin Feng.
Qin Feng ducked and dodged left and right, appearing somewhat flustered.
He prepared to take out a Defensive Divine Talisman to block the powerful Undead’s attacks.
The reason he hadn’t directly taken out a Life-Saving Talisman to escape earlier was that he was concerned about the Undead interrupting his Light Escape like before, so he had to withstand for a moment to ensure the Undead couldn’t immediately attack his Light Escape, which would give him a chance to flee.
Moreover, he couldn’t ignore these Spiritual Beasts; it was better to collect them all in the Demon Refining Pot and take them away.
Even if that wasn’t possible, letting that poisonous snake entangle them to help him escape was another alternative.
After all, he had tamed this snake last and hadn’t let it out to help him in battle in the Fire Kingdom before, so there wasn’t much attachment; it was initially planned to be taken back to the Sect for breeding purposes, and other poisonous snakes in the Demon Refining Pot could be used—it wouldn’t be too regrettable even if this one died here!
Just as Qin Feng was contemplating various thoughts and preparing to take out the Defensive Divine Talisman, suddenly his spirit was alerted, sensing the awakening of a presence, and he immediately stopped.
He extended his spirit into the space within the sixth level of the Netherworld Treasure Pearl and instantly sensed the aura of the Red Lotus Sword.
Perhaps it should no longer be called the Red Lotus Sword; Red Lotus Immortal Sword might be more appropriate now since the Red Lotus had reborn its Sword Spirit.
But then, could this Artifact Spirit still be called a Sword Spirit?
Qin Feng harbored some doubts about this.
Initially, the Artifact Spirit of the Red Lotus Immortal Sword was primarily a sword, hence it was known as the Sword Spirit.
But now, the power laws within the Red Lotus Immortal Sword had undergone significant transformations. It no longer focused on the unparalleled sharpness of the Sword Qi. Instead, it revealed the boundlessly powerful Flame Principle to Qin Feng. Although the Sword Qi was still sharp, it paled in comparison to the Flame Principle.
The Holy Fire, worshipped by the Flame Giant Tribe for countless years, possessed power not inferior to the Red Lotus Immortal Sword in its prime. Otherwise, the Giant Clan Chief would not have counted on the power of the Holy Fire to ascend to divinity.
Qin Feng not only integrated the Holy Fire but also merged it with the Ghost Dragon’s soul-burning Netherworld Fire, the White Dragon’s purifying Holy Flame, and the fire from the Death Curse Crow that incinerated Qi Fortune.
With so many unique flames harmonized by the Fire Origin within the Red Lotus Immortal Sword, the integration with the original Flame Principle was not just a simple enhancement of power. The Immortal Artifact underwent a transformation because of the presence of the Fire Origin, incorporating these fiery characteristics.
Originally, the Red Lotus Immortal Sword was merely an Immortal Artifact refined by a peak True Immortal Sword Immortal. Although powerful, it was ultimately at the level of True Immortal.
However, now, under the enhancement of the Fire Origin, with the integration of many flames, tempered by the Netherworld Water, and the countless resentful souls and fierce ghosts in the Netherworld unknowingly completing the sword sacrific,e the power of this Immortal Artifact surged, breaking through barriers and advancing to an even higher level.
Ironically, the ability of this Immortal Artifact to advance was mainly due to the power of the flames, with little growth in the Sword Dao Rules.
Moreover, Qin Feng no longer wanted to name this treasure the Red Lotus Immortal Sword, as it would easily associate it with Taiyi Mountain.
Therefore, he decided to rename this Immortal Artifact… Karma Fire Red Lotus!
Just like the Demon Refining Pot, he wanted to borrow the name of an incredibly powerful Innate Spiritual Treasure from the Primordial Ancestor Realm to add a bit of essence to this Immortal Artifact.
He didn’t expect it to grow to become a genuine Karma Fire Red Lotus one day, but it should possess greater potential.
At the same time, Qin Feng no longer intended to use this Immortal Artifact as a Flying Sword. After all, he was not proficient in sword techniques and couldn’t bring out the power of a Flying Sword. It was better to use it as a powerful Fire Element Magical Treasure.
Feeling the newly born Spiritual Intelligence of Karma Fire Red Lotus, jubilantly controlling a lotus that floated in the Netherworld Water and wandering back and forth, Qin Feng was resolute in his heart.
With this Immortal Artifact in hand, his confidence greatly increased.
Although limited by his cultivation, he normally couldn’t summon this Immortal Artifact due to the immense consumption of True Yuan, which he struggled to maintain.
But now, he could take advantage of the recent advancement of the Immortal Artifact and the new formation of the Artifact Spirit to harness the abundant power within the Immortal Artifact and strike.
Just one strike would be enough.
Although he still couldn’t unleash its full power, his opponent didn’t need Karma Fire Red Lotus to exert full effort.
Thus, Qin Feng began communicating with the Artifact Spirit, relinquishing control of the Immortal Artifact, allowing the Artifact Spirit to act on its own.
Just as the Undead Spirit was confidently advancing, having kicked a snake aside and repelled a Death Curse Crow with a spell, and was a few yards from capturing or dealing with Qin Feng, suddenly, a streak of red light appeared before his eyes.
In his confusion, he seemed to see a fiery red lotus appearing in front of Qin Feng.
Then, an intensely hot blaze that could purify all his powers and even his soul descended from the sky and landed on him.
The Undead Spirit was horrified.
He tried to escape the flames, but the power of these flames far exceeded his imagination.
The powerful purifying force, specially designed to counter the sinister, burning souls, melting Qi Fortune, was too fierce. In an instant, it burned his form to nothing, leaving nothing behind!
“Aooo…”
Not far away, the Hellhound, which was battling the White Dragon, Qingluan, and other Spiritual Beasts, suddenly tucked its tail between its legs, withdrew its ferocious gaze, and whimpered as it looked at the flames with fear in its eyes.
It wasn’t stupid; the power of the flames that had incinerated its master in an instant was not something it could withstand.
Knowing that its master had bitten off more than he could chew, and since its master was already dead, the Hellhound immediately thought of fleeing the scene.