From a loser to an immortal sage

Chapter 470 Trial of the Fiendish Aura Space

The stinging pain from my knee hitting the bluish-black ground hadn't subsided when I was already feeling choked up by the metallic taste in my throat, making my eyes sting.

Ling Feng's hoarse cough was right beside me. I turned my head to look at him—he was kneeling with his back to me, his sword blade supporting him on the ground, his knuckles turning bluish-white from the effort. With each cough, dark red blood seeped from the front of his clothes, clearly indicating that the wounds from his previous fight with the ghost soldiers had reopened.

"This breathing... feels like a hand is squeezing my lungs." He wiped his mouth, and when he looked up, his eyes were bloodshot.

Looking at Qinglian again, her jade lamp only had two wicks flickering weakly, the warm yellow halo shrinking into a palm-sized circle, enveloping the three of us in the middle.

She held my arm, and there was a fine crack in the jade bracelet on her wrist. I was startled when I touched the back of her hand—it was as cold as ice, and there were bluish-purple veins under her skin.

“It’s the Abyss of Evil.” Her voice was as soft as a sigh. “I’ve read about it in ancient books… a place where ancient evil spirits are suppressed, where even the spiritual power of immortals is worn away by the evil energy.” Before she finished speaking, her jade lamp flickered twice, and the third wick went out with a “poof.”

I saw her eyelashes tremble violently, and her fingertips dug into her palms; she was clearly trying to hold on.

The pressure in my chest grew heavier and heavier. I tried to circulate my spiritual energy, but found that it was as if a stone was blocking my dantian. As soon as my spiritual energy surged up, it was smashed into pieces.

Just as he was about to say something, Ling Feng suddenly staggered to his feet, and the Xuan Tie sword hummed as it was drawn from its sheath: "I'll clear the way!" He swung his sword at the thickest fog on the left, and the bluish-white sword energy shot out like a dragon. But as soon as it touched the edge of the fog, the sharp part of the sword energy turned black and charred, like silk that had been splashed with concentrated sulfuric acid, hissing as it melted away.

“How could this be…” Ling Feng’s eyes widened, and his hand holding the sword trembled slightly.

He then unleashed three more sword strikes, each weaker than the last. By the fourth strike, the sword energy barely managed to extend half a zhang before being completely swallowed up by the mist.

Sweat dripped from his forehead onto the sword, splashing up tiny droplets: "This malevolent energy... corrodes spiritual power!"

"Quickly back!" Qinglian's fingertips trembled with anxiety. Suddenly, the remaining two wicks of the jade lamp blazed brightly, and a pale blue light enveloped the three of us.

But as soon as the light film formed, puffs of white smoke rose from its surface, like thin ice being roasted by fire, thinning at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Qinglian's lips instantly turned pale, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead: "My barrier... can't even last half an incense stick's time."

Just as I was about to help her sit down, Xuanxiaozi's voice suddenly echoed in the void, carrying a slightly hoarse tone: "This is the second trial ground. Those who wish to break through this predicament must purify their evil influences." I looked up sharply, but all I saw was a hazy gray mist. "But purifying evil influences is not achieved through brute force. Impatience will only invite evil influences into the body. Patience and..." My words were suddenly interrupted by a low murmur from within the mist. The voice grew closer, like countless people sobbing simultaneously, with the final note carrying the roar of a wild beast.

I clenched my fists, the silver veins burning hot with tension.

Wen Chen once said that inheritance and traps are twin flowers—now that I think about it, this Sha Yuan is probably the thorny one.

My throat was sore from being pressed, but I suddenly calmed down: "Don't try to hold the barrier up." I pressed down on Qinglian's hand, which was about to continue casting the spell. "Xuanxiaozi said we need to be patient. We need to see how the evil energy moves first."

Ling Feng coughed twice and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve: "Does Miss Xiao have an idea?" I didn't answer, but closed my eyes and released my spiritual power.

In the past, spiritual energy flowed like water, but now it was like water being put into sand, which was absorbed cleanly as soon as it overflowed from the body.

I gritted my teeth and pushed in three more points of spiritual power, finally touching the "veins" in the mist—the dark red evil energy was not surging randomly, but flowing along a certain trajectory, and every three steps it would gather into a small vortex. The color of the center of the vortex was three points darker than the surrounding area, like a kite being pulled by a string.

"Look there." I opened my eyes and pointed to the swirling mist a few feet to the left. "The malevolent energy is circling around these nodes." Ling Feng squinted in the direction I was pointing, then suddenly slapped his thigh: "It really is! That mist is swirling!" Qinglian barely managed to look up, and the light from the jade lamp swept across the vortex. I saw her pupils contract slightly: "It's the source of malevolent energy... Ancient texts say that the malevolent energy of the Abyss of Malevolent Energy condenses into source points. If the source points can be purified..."

“It’s like draining a spring from a pool.” I replied to her words, and the silver lines on my palm suddenly sprang up on their own, condensing into needle-like lights at my fingertips.

I took a deep breath—though it made my throat feel metallic—and raised my hand, slowly piercing the dark red vortex with the fine silver needle.

The moment my fingertips touched the mist, a burning heat shot up my veins.

I bit my lip and remained silent, but then I saw the silver pattern burrow into the center of the mist as if it were alive.

The next moment, the dark gray fog suddenly surged, and a blinding white light burst forth from the center, as if someone had lit a lamp in the fog.

"Hiss—" The weight pressing on my chest suddenly lightened, and I heard Ling Feng exclaim in surprise, "Miss Xiao! The evil aura has dissipated!"

Sure enough, the mist shrouded in white light was visibly thinning, revealing the dark blue ground below, which was engraved with complex patterns, resembling some kind of formation.

Qinglian's jade lamp suddenly brightened a bit, and she pointed tremblingly to another spot: "There are more over there!" I looked in the direction she was pointing, and sure enough, there were three more dark red vortexes that were faintly visible in the mist.

"I'll protect you!" Ling Feng wiped the sweat from his face, stuck the Xuan Tie sword into the ground, took out a small jade bottle from his pocket, and tilted his head back to drink a mouthful of pills.

His wound was still bleeding, but the light in his eyes was brighter than the jade lamp. "You focus on purification, Qinglian and I will guard you!" Qinglian didn't say anything, but simply pushed the jade lamp closer to me, and the light from the lamp wick steadily covered my back.

For the next half incense stick's time, I was like an embroiderer searching for a needle, following the trajectory of the flowing evil energy, and piercing the silver patterns into those dark red vortexes one by one.

With each node purified, the surrounding malevolent energy weakened, the Azure Lotus's barrier stopped dissolving rapidly, and Ling Feng's sword energy could extend an additional ten feet.

As the seventh node was purified, I heard a faint cracking sound beneath my feet—the array patterns on the dark blue ground lit up, gleaming with a ghostly blue light.

"There's one last one." I gasped for breath, my fingertips feeling slightly weak.

The final node was five zhang ahead, where the fog was thicker than elsewhere, and the dark red vortex spun extremely fast, like a mouth that wanted to devour everything.

I stood up, supporting myself on Ling Feng's sword, and was about to take a step when I suddenly heard a very soft "sneer" coming from deep within the mist.

The laughter was sinister, like ice scraping against your spine.

I looked up abruptly, but all I saw was churning fog.

Ling Feng's sword clattered to the ground. He stared behind me, his pupils shrinking: "Miss Xiao... behind you..."

I turned around and saw a semi-transparent shadow emerge from the mist, with a blue face and fangs, and a deep, bone-revealing scar on its forehead—it was the face of the Netherworld King.

His mouth stretched to his ears, black blood dripping from his chin into the mist, splashing up dark red bubbles: "Little girl...you know how to pick up bargains."

The dark red vortex at the last node suddenly spun even faster, and the silver lines on my palm felt so hot they almost burned through my skin.

Ling Feng and Qing Lian stood in front of me at the same time. Ling Feng's sword was trembling, and Qing Lian's jade lamp had only one wick left, but it was dazzlingly bright.

As I gazed at that distorted face in the mist, I suddenly remembered another saying Wen Chen had made: "The most dangerous traps never have only one door."

At this moment, the door seemed to be about to open.

The blue-faced, fanged face in the black mist drew closer and closer, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Black venom seeped from the fingertips of the Netherworld Ghost King, dripping onto the dark blue ground with a sizzling, corrosive sound—he was going to destroy the last node directly!

"Protect the node!" I blurted out, the silver lines on my palm burning so intensely they felt like they were about to pierce through my skin.

The power of the Key of Destiny surged in my sea of ​​consciousness. I remembered Wen Chen saying that this key could "lock in all the life force of heaven and earth." At this critical moment of life and death, I inexplicably channeled my spiritual power into the ground along the silver patterns.

A semi-transparent wall of light suddenly rose up, blocking the Ghost King and the dark red vortex.

His sharp claws slammed into the wall of light, the impact making my eardrums ache. "Little girl, you know how to be clever!" His grin widened, and blue scales fell from his face. "This lousy barrier can last three breaths?"

Three breaths.

I stared at the black mist rising from the surface of the wall of light, my fingernails digging deep into my palms.

Ling Feng's Xuan Tie sword had already pierced the Ghost King's back, but it was deflected by a sudden surge of malevolent energy.

He groaned and crashed into me, blood splattering onto my wrist, burning hot: "Miss Xiao, I'll distract him!"

"Don't panic!" I grabbed his blood-stained sleeve, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Qinglian's jade lamp suddenly burst into a blinding blue light—she had burned out the last wick.

A warm yellow halo enveloped the Ghost King's right leg, causing him to stagger two steps in pain, which slowed the cracks in the light wall.

"Three breaths are enough." I gritted my teeth and poured all my spiritual power into the silver pattern.

When I was purifying the seven nodes before, the resonance between the silver pattern and the evil energy was still faint. But now, the dark red vortex of the last node is attracting the silver pattern like a magnet. I can even hear a "buzzing" vibration coming from my blood vessels.

"Combine spiritual power!" Xuanxiaozi's previous words, "Purifying evil spirits is not achieved through brute force," suddenly resounded in my ears.

I suddenly remembered that when I first activated the silver pattern, Wen Chen said, "The key to destiny must be guided by the heart and nurtured by the spirit"—perhaps it is not to be used separately, but to let the spiritual power become the fuse of the key!

Golden light burst forth from the silver patterns, and I felt like a lit candle, the heat starting from my fingertips and spreading down my arm to my heart.

Ling Feng's exclamation mixed with Qing Lian's soft call sounded like a layer of mist in my ears.

I stared at the black mist trapped half a foot away by the wall of light, and poured all my spiritual power into the dark red vortex, following the trajectory of the silver patterns.

"boom--"

The explosion made me stagger and fall to my knees.

The dark red vortex in front of me first solidified into a solid form, like a piece of black jade wrapped in blood scabs, and then "cracked" open with spiderweb-like patterns.

The golden light streamed into the crack and instantly tore the black jade into pieces.

The last trace of malevolent energy was swept up into the air by the golden light, emitting a dying shriek.

The Netherworld Ghost King's figure suddenly blurred for a moment. He looked down in horror at his palm—the black mist that had covered his entire body was peeling away, revealing the bluish-gray rotting flesh beneath. "Impossible!" he screamed hoarsely, turning to flee, but was struck in the back by Ling Feng's Xuan Tie sword.

The blade pierced his translucent body with a tearing sound, and he screamed as he crashed into the mist, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

"Gone?" Ling Feng wiped the blood from his face; the blade of his sword was still trembling.

Qinglian slumped to the ground, the jade lamp's base cracked into three pieces, yet a faint light still illuminated her pale face: "He's lost his support of malevolent energy and dares not come again for the time being."

I tried to stand up, supporting myself on the ground, but was blinded by the sudden light that shone from the center.

The light was milky white, like the moon bathed in the morning mist, rising from the spot where the node had been, floating in mid-air and condensing into a pearl-sized bead.

The surface of the bead shimmered with tiny starlight. The moment my fingertips touched it, a flood of information rushed into my mind—a diagram of the spiritual veins, the follow-up techniques of the Spirit Control Technique, and even half a commentary on the "Nine Heavens Tribulation".

"Congratulations on completing the second trial." Xuanxiaozi's voice was clearer this time, but tinged with a heavy tone. "But the real challenge..."

A muffled rumble suddenly came from the ground.

As I looked up, rubble was falling from the dark blue stone wall, and the mist above was torn open, revealing a blood-red sky. "The space is collapsing!" Ling Feng grabbed Qing Lian, plunged his Xuan Tie sword into the ground for leverage, and leaped up. "Run!"

We stumbled and fell as we ran toward the crack, the loose rocks hitting our backs painfully.

I glanced back at the still-glowing bead, which had automatically burrowed into my forehead, feeling warm and soft like a piece of jade.

Just as we reached the edge of the crack, the ground beneath our feet suddenly split open with a loud crack. Ling Feng grabbed my wrist, and the three of us slid down the raised edge of the crack.

As the wind rushed into my ears, I glimpsed a blurry shadow below.

When I landed, my knees hit something hard. I squinted and looked up—what I saw were concentric circles of stone seats extending upwards, with a cold-looking open space in the middle, like an abandoned ancient arena.

"This is..." Qinglian stood up, leaning against the stone wall, her voice still trembling with shock.

Ling Feng pointed his sword towards the center of the open space, where there was a stone tablet about half a person's height. The four characters "Third Trial" were engraved on the tablet, gleaming with a faint blue light in the twilight.

I touched the bead between my eyebrows that was still burning hot, and suddenly I heard the sound of chains dragging on the ground in the distance.