Pain!
A type of pain utterly unbearable. Too intense. In an instant, his three souls and seven spirits all experienced excruciating agony. It was as if countless sharp needles had suddenly appeared within him, stabbing into his soul. His true spiritual essence quivered, nearly collapsing.
At that moment, his primordial spirit seemed on the verge of melting and disintegrating under the assault of the ten Dragon-Slaying Needles.
The attack came too fast, too suddenly. Even with mental preparation, it was impossible to defend against this assault originating directly from the soul. The needles seemed fused with his very essence. Even the Primordial Heavenly Emperor Tower could not guard against it.
External enemies were easy to handle; internal ones—once unleashed—could truly end a life.
These needles were literally dissolving his soul.
The primordial spirit, normally a consolidation of the three souls and seven spirits, instantly teetered on the edge of fragmenting back into its original components. Should it shatter, it would mean complete destruction—true essence broken, a death sentence even for supreme cultivators.
"Indeed… it possesses the ability to slay dragons."
Yi Tianxing drew a deep breath, forcing himself to endure the agony. In the next instant, within one of his life meridians, a golden talisman shot into the air and affixed itself onto his primordial spirit. Immediately, the ten Dragon-Slaying Needles twisted toward the talisman and disappeared along with it. The excruciating pain vanished in that moment.
Yet even so, he could feel his primordial spirit had sustained damage—the needles struck too abruptly, too ruthlessly. Even with his countermeasures, injury was inevitable.
"Heaven-Earth Life Talisman… let's see how you defend against this."
Yi Tianxing's eyes gleamed with depth.
The Heaven-Earth Life Talisman was a divine ability somewhere between a talisman and a supreme technique. Once used, it would take a hundred years to condense again—an unparalleled life-saving technique, one of ultimate value.
On the altar, the Dragon-Slaying Demoness stared at the straw doll with a solemn expression.
This time, her target was Yi Tianxing—a peerless prodigy, one of the top figures of Eternal Night, and one of only two immortal court rulers in the Eternal World. Even with absolute confidence in her Dragon-Slaying technique, she dared not relax for an instant.
Dragon-slaying, for a dao-proving-level cultivator, was a game of hidden cards—nothing could be trusted until the end. She feared the unexpected.
This was a game of strategy. Failure here meant immediate retreat to Eternal Night; otherwise, ominous events could unfold.
"Ah!!"
Suddenly, her brow furrowed, eyes wide in shock. She let out a pained wail as her primordial spirit was struck. The Dragon-Slaying Needles tore through her spirit, hundreds of times per second, wreaking unimaginable devastation.
"Why… why are the Dragon-Slaying Needles attacking me? Damn it!"
Her face went pale. She never imagined her own Dragon-Slaying technique would rebound, striking her with greater force than she had intended. The needles seemed uncontrollable, treating her as the target, delivering lethal precision.
She could feel death itself brushing against her.
Although she didn't understand how Yi Tianxing had reflected the needles back, one thing was certain: her assassination attempt had failed—and the retaliation had struck her.
Fortunately, the Dragon-Slaying Needles were her soul-bound magical treasures. Once she recovered her focus, she forcibly regained control, drawing the needles out of her body. They became ten streaks of light, circling her form.
"Even if I don't know how you reflected my Dragon-Slaying Needles… if at first I fail, there's always a second attempt. My Dragon-Slaying technique is perfected. Behold, my thousand needles piercing the heart!!"
Her eyes glinted coldly. In the next instant, three hundred sixty-five Dragon-Slaying Needles appeared, floating outside her body like stars, emitting strange light.
She was about to strike the straw doll again.
But then, without warning, a layer of red light enveloped the straw doll. A voice emanated:
"If you wish to kill me, first see if you have the skill. I have found you."
Immediately, ripples formed in the air above the altar, as if some force was about to pierce the boundaries of the world.
Inside his cultivation hall, Yi Tianxing, who had just reflected the needles, now used the Heaven-Earth Life Talisman to locate the Dragon-Slaying Demoness through the straw doll's Red Dust Hair. He locked her down, fixing her position across the dimensional rift.
All this time, he had been waiting to lure her out—not merely to endure a single deadly attack. He was ready to counterattack.
Calmly, he held up a black fishing rod. A transparent line extended, the black hook gleaming coldly. With a flick of his wrist, he cast it into the void.
The hook moved as if alive, tracking a subtle spiritual trace, slicing through the void, and instantly locking onto the Dragon-Slaying Demoness.
She saw it appear, surging toward her at lightning speed.
"Death God Hook… trying to fish out my soul."
"You wish."
She immediately reacted. All three hundred sixty-five Dragon-Slaying Needles converged, forming a golden demonic sword from the void, striking at the fishing hook to sever the line.
The Dragon-Slaying Sword could shatter innate spirit treasures, even forcing Supreme treasures to yield.
Yet the hook made no evasive move. In the next instant, it accelerated hundreds of times, piercing straight into the Demoness's body.
"Ah—impossible!"
She felt a foreign intrusion within her soul, sharp pain tearing through her spirit. The hook had entered, and her already wounded primordial spirit suffered another massive blow.
The broken fishing line bizarrely reconnected, as if the severance had been an illusion.
"This is the Line of Cause and Effect," she realized.
"Good eyes. You cursed me, which creates a bond of cause and effect between us. Until that bond is severed, this line cannot be broken. Come to me."
Yi Tianxing said calmly.
A tremendous force surged through the line, yanking her primordial spirit and soul from her body. The pain was overwhelming, flooding her entire being.
Even the Demoness screamed in terror. Every divine technique and magical power collapsed in that moment.
"Impossible! I won't believe it! I… the Dragon-Slaying Demoness… cannot be defeated!"
She could not accept the reality. She, the Dragon-Slayer, had been fished out of her own soul.
"The dragon-slayer… shall be slain."
Yi Tianxing's cold voice resonated.
The hook, carrying her soul, vanished from the secret realm and reappeared in Xuanhuang City, immediately restrained within the Primordial Heavenly Emperor Tower—only this tower could contain her, ensuring no harm would befall the world.
What seemed like a long sequence of events had occurred in the blink of an eye.
The clash between supreme beings had reached a level where life and death could be decided in an instant.
With the Demoness suppressed, Yi Tianxing exhaled slowly. The razor hanging over his head had finally been removed.
"Amazing… such domineering Dragon-Slaying Needles. Recovery from injury would be infinitely harder without the Heaven-Earth Life Talisman. I was truly on the edge of life and death this time," he thought, still shivering from the ordeal.