The puppet female cultivator had already sensed the incoming attack of the ice dragon. She immediately swung her sword backhand, severing the dragon's foreclaw.
Yet the ice dragon under Yun Yun Zhēnzūn's control twisted midair, its massive tail smashing the sword shadow that had just struck it into pieces.
At that moment, the attack of the Shui Yun Ribbon also fell. Brimming with chilling frost, the ribbon pierced straight through the puppet female cultivator's body. She was split in half and tumbled down from the sky.
Seeing her strike succeed, Yun Yun Zhēnzūn recalled her life-bound treasure at once. By her side, Master Jue Song of the Buddhist Sect intoned a Buddha's name: "Amitabha. Yun Yun Daoyou, your life-bound treasure has been tainted with evil qi. Do not return it to your body for now."
In truth, she had already noticed the corruption the instant the Shui Yun Ribbon returned. With a wave of her hand, she sealed the ribbon into a jade box and stored it in her wrist bangle.
"Many thanks for the reminder, Master."
This vile trick of Hai Yan's—corrupting life-bound treasures—was utterly detestable. Yun Yun was seething with fury. To dare defile her very foundation, it was intolerable.
Yun Yun formed a seal with both hands, gathering power for a great technique. The seawater began to churn. One by one, blue droplets rose from the waves, floating upward. The droplets grew larger and denser, until the ocean itself seemed to reverse.
Beside her, Master Jue Song fought with effortless composure. His string of one hundred and eight prayer beads circled around the puppet, releasing radiant Buddha-light. Dark smoke rose from the puppet's body until it shrank back into its wooden form. With a flick of his fingers, Master Jue Song released a "Flame of the Buddha's Heart," burning the puppet into nothingness.
The one leading Heavenly Demon Palace this time was Mo Yao Zhēnzūn, who had long remained in obscurity. He was none other than the younger brother of Mo Xuan Zhēnzūn, former warden of the Ming Valley. The two shared identical features.
Earlier, amid the chaos, Jian Dan had mistaken him for Mo Xuan Zhēnzūn. Only after Mo Yao struck did she realize her error.
Mo Yao's face bore the fresh look of a youthful scholar. Yet the black demon blade in his hand moved without pause, sealing off every escape route of the puppet. Each stroke of his knife split into shadowed blades, hacking at the puppet's limbs.
The puppet whirled its spear, parrying four of the incoming strikes, but one blade still slipped through. The shadowy edge pierced its back, splitting its chest wide open.
But the puppet acted as though nothing had happened, continuing its frenzied assault.
Mo Yao's expression did not change. He flickered behind the puppet in an instant. The puppet spun with a sudden reverse thrust, its long spear darting toward his dantian.
"Well struck!"
Mo Yao gripped his demon blade with one hand, parrying the spear with a deft backward cut. Then he spun, slashing the puppet's right arm.
The demon blade's power was overwhelming. With one strike, the puppet's spear arm was severed. It retreated, but too late.
Mo Yao pressed the attack, refusing to fall back. He stepped in close, his free hand clenched into a fist. Black demonic qi surged around it as he smashed it toward the puppet's skull.
With a thunderous crack, demonic qi collided with evil qi, shattering the puppet's head into fragments. As it collapsed, Mo Yao released a burst of demon fire, reducing the remains to ashes.
The other Zhēnzūn had been battling simultaneously, and within only a few breaths, each one had destroyed their respective puppets.
Meanwhile, the joint assault of Jian Dan and Jian Xu crashed into the depths. Radiance of light and chaotic energy entwined, overturning the seabed itself. Their sword lights struck directly upon Hai Yan's blood sac.
The surface split open, but even as it tore, the blood sac healed itself. It began to move, retreating from its hiding place.
Jian Dan and Jian Xu exchanged a glance, immediately launching their second wave of attacks.
By then, Yun Yun Zhēnzūn's grand technique was already in full effect. The seawater within the barrier began to flow in reverse. Every cultivator present understood, and ceased their own attacks, throwing up protective shields to wait for the evil cultivator to be forced into the open.
As the foremost sect of the seas, Cloud Sea Sect had its foundations for good reason. Yun Yun Zhēnzūn herself was of supreme water spiritual root, and after advancing into Mahayana, she had mastered both water and ice with perfect fluidity. Her control was unmatched, her power severalfold greater than before.
Her expression calm, she finished the final seal and lifted both hands. Instantly, all the seawater surged upward into the skies. Within only a dozen breaths, the entire seabed within the barrier was laid bare.
The crowd swept the revealed depths with their divine sense, but found no trace of the evil cultivator. Their eyes turned toward the Nine-tailed Demon King.
The Nine-tailed fox demon chuckled, her eyes gleaming. "He is here. The only question is whether you have the skill to drag him out."
Jian Dan swept her divine sense across the newly revealed seabed. Jagged trenches stretched across the dark ground, with ridges and valleys, broken coral, and scattered shells.
The remaining undersea shrubs stood wilted, as though their very bones had been extracted.
Jian Dan's divine sense was no weaker than any Zhēnzūn's. She had already scanned every corner of the domain enclosed by Tian Zhuo Zhēnzūn's barrier.
Retracting her divine sense, she suddenly froze, realization dawning. With a sharp flick, she sent her sword first.
Every Zhēnzūn's gaze followed her strike. The gray sword light split open a patch of undersea brush, revealing beneath it a mass of brown-red veins.
Across it was a sword wound yet unhealed, still corroded by Jian Dan's chaotic qi. That lingering trace prevented its recovery, and by this, Jian Dan had pinpointed the hiding place.
The evil cultivator's lair was exposed. Without need for orders, every Zhēnzūn unleashed their might, ripping the blood sac's hiding place into the open.
Hai Yan roared in fury: "Whore!"
A massive brown-red tentacle, thick as a basin, lashed toward Jian Dan, intent on annihilating her.
Hai Yan had not expected, besides the Buddhist monk and the light-root sword cultivator, to also face a chaotic-root female sword cultivator. What unsettled him most was how familiar her aura felt.
Jian Dan only sneered at his enraged curses. To think he would call her names for exposing his hiding place.
"Whore? Who are you calling?"
Her voice was sharp, brimming with confidence. With so many Zhēnzūn gathered, she refused to believe Hai Yan could escape alive.
Even as she retorted, she acted. The yin-yang Taiji disc within her body spun madly, flooding her meridians with chaotic qi. Power coursed into the Mò Xī Jiàn, and the sword spirit purred with satisfaction before surging into a fierce counterattack.
Sword after sword slashed through, severing the massive tentacle into six or seven pieces. At once, Jian Dan released her Verdant Flame, burning the remains to ash. Her clean, ruthless strikes made even Jian Xu, who guarded her flank, twitch at the mouth. Clearly his junior sister had much practice in "weeding out roots."
Then came the combined onslaught. The claw mark of the Nine-tailed Demon King, Tian Zhuao's sword light, Yun Yun's ice dragon, Jue Song's monk staff, and Mo Yao's blade shadows—five Mahayana attacks in unison.
They struck precisely at the mark Jian Dan had left. The entire seabed collapsed.
The backlash even overturned the ground within the barrier. From the ruins spewed a flood of foul, blood-red stench.
And at last, a blood-colored sac, fifty meters wide, emerged before all eyes.