In the end, Xiao Meng actually agreed to the terms, his spirit broken by the presence of the other two artifacts. With that settled, things became much easier to manage. After a full two hours of intense siphoning, he had filled six top-grade spiritual veins with his own essence. He refused to give any more after that point, since going any further would make his form dissipate completely into the air.
"Zhēnzūn, this is already my limit. Even though I kept back some spiritual power for my own foundation, maintaining the Rubik's Cube Realm for a hundred years couldn't have been without significant losses."
Xiao Meng said this with a deathly pale face, his chest heaving slightly. He didn't even use his remaining spiritual power to regrow the severed arm he had lost, clearly trying to look pitiful and win some measure of sympathy from his creator.
"Mm. I believe you on that."
Jian Dan sealed the six fully restored spiritual veins with a flick of her fingers and then casually waved at Mo Xi and Little Mo Mei to come back.
Only then did the two little ones turn around and walk toward her through the magnolia petals, preparing to return to her dantian. Behind them, Xiao Meng finally let out a long breath of relief, thinking he had survived the ordeal.
But in the very next instant, a cold streak of sword light flashed through the domain with blinding speed. He froze on the spot as the air hummed. Then his entire body was split cleanly in two from top to bottom. The look of shock on his face didn't even have time to fade before his energy began to unravel.
Mo Xi and Mo Mei were already standing on either side of the bisected spirit, raising their hands and pulling their spoils directly into their own bodies.
"Why?"
Xiao Meng asked unwillingly, his final words filled with a bitter resentment that echoed in the space.
"Our master agreed to let you go, but we never did."
Little Mo Mei instantly absorbed that half of the spirit into her body and flashed back into the Mó Yuè Zhǎn, where she began slowly refining the energy. What remained of him was pure essence, and it even contained a trace of the Heavenly Dao's blessing. Refining such a thing would benefit her greatly in the long run.
Mo Xi did the same with the other portion. He took the half missing the arm, absorbed it into himself, and returned to the Mò Xī Jiàn. Using the Yin Yang Taiji Disc to stabilize the intake, he began refining the other half of the artifact spirit.
Only then did Jian Dan raise her hand and retract her magnolia domain, the petals dissolving into motes of light. In the next instant, the Rubik's Cube Realm below began to tremble with a deep, bone-shaking rumble, and a dull thunderclap sounded in the darkening sky. Purple lightning followed, rolling through the heavy clouds like luminous serpents.
The Law Enforcement Hall members stepped toward her out of concern, but she raised a hand to stop them. She tossed the jade box sealing the eight top-grade spiritual veins to Meng Congjian, who caught it with both hands.
She then stood alone in the air above the Rubik's Cube Realm and looked up at the gathering tribulation clouds. So this was the Heavenly Dao coming to settle accounts because she had erased the artifact spirit Xiao Meng, a being it had once blessed.
Without any warning or preliminary flash, a bolt of purple thunder struck straight down onto Jian Dan's head, piercing through her entire body. The intense, almost refreshing sensation of the electricity made her grind her teeth slightly as she anchored her feet in the void.
The onlookers all watched the scene from below with heavy, worried expressions.
Jian Li was the first to react, his fingers gripping his Thunder Sword tightly until his knuckles went white. What was this supposed to mean? Did the Heavenly Dao think the Heavenly Sword Sect was easy to bully, sending down an ancestor to hollow out their foundation and then expecting them to worship it? There was no such logic in the world of cultivation.
"Jian Li, don't be reckless."
Jian Dan spoke up to stop him before he could interfere. With a simple wave of her hand, a thick, shimmering layer of golden merit light enveloped her entire body, forming a protective sphere.
She wanted to see just how much thunder the Heavenly Dao had left in its clouds and whether it could really shatter the merit light she had accumulated.
In everyone's eyes, including those of her three disciples, she now looked like a small golden figure standing against the storm. She appeared solemn and dignified, no less impressive than a great Buddhist cultivator in a state of meditation.
Sure enough, when the second bolt of thunder struck with a deafening crack, it was completely blocked by the golden merit light. There was even a brief, hesitant pause in the sky as if the clouds were reconsidering. The third purple thunderbolt was much weaker than the previous two. It struck down toward her without even touching the corner of her ceremonial clothes before being neutralized by the golden merit.
Then the tribulation clouds and the purple lightning dissipated together, leaving the sky clear once more. The golden merit light around her thinned slightly from the exertion. This loss was something she could afford to pay, so she drew the remaining merit light back into her body.
The Rubik's Cube Realm, which had been shaking nonstop, suddenly shrank by another tenth of its size and kicked out all the sect disciples who were still inside its trials.
The fifteen people who were thrown out onto the grass were still a bit dazed from the sudden transition. When they saw the big shots of the sect standing in the air above them, they quickly moved aside with good sense. With all the bosses present, someone would definitely give them an explanation for the interruption later.
After shrinking once more, the Rubik's Cube Realm finally stopped trembling. Everyone realized with a start that it had fallen from an immortal artifact to the level of a spirit treasure. It was still a high-grade spirit treasure of great value, but it was obviously no longer comparable to an immortal artifact in terms of power and aura.
"Senior Sister Tian Lu, are you alright?"
Jian Li stepped forward first to meet her. His already serious face looked even more severe now that the danger had passed. Meng Congjian beside him was also frowning deeply, staying silent as he inspected the box in his hands.
"I'm fine."
Jian Dan waved her hand indifferently to dismiss his concerns. In the end, the one who benefited least from this outcome was definitely not her.
"If I had known this would implicate you in a heavenly tribulation, I would have kept that artifact spirit alive."
Jian Li said flatly, his gaze lingering on the now-dimmer cube.
"Don't. Leaving it to grow freely with no one able to restrain it in the future would have left a hidden disaster for the sect to deal with. I always feel there's something fishy about this whole situation. Let's wait and see whether a new, more loyal artifact spirit can form after the Rubik's Cube Realm is nurtured properly again."
She said this directly, without avoiding the ears of anyone else standing nearby. After all, she was the original forger of the Rubik's Cube Realm, so she had the most authority to speak on its nature here.
"Hall Master Meng."
"I'm here."
"Can those eight top-grade spiritual veins make up for the extra consumption of the Rubik's Cube Realm over the past hundred years?"
Jian Dan asked with a calm smile.
"Of course. Of course they can. It's much better than I had initially expected."
Only then did a genuine smile appear on the man's face. He continued,
"Zhēnzūn, there are still five five-elements top-grade spiritual veins buried deep beneath the Rubik's Cube Realm that we can use."
"Mm. There's no rush for that. As for the fifteen people who were kicked out just now, register their names first. After I nurture the Rubik's Cube Realm for a while and reopen it to the sect, let them go in for another trial without cost."
"Yes, I understand."
Meng Congjian accepted the order happily and went to handle the registrations of the dazed disciples. At this moment, Sect Master Jian Chong also led a group of people forward and cupped his hands in greeting toward the woman in purple.
The Rubik's Cube Realm was located right behind his main hall, and such a huge commotion had naturally made him uneasy. When he had rushed over earlier, he happened to see her being struck by the purple thunder, so he immediately came forward to ask about her health.
Jian Dan waved her hand, indicating to the Sect Master that she was fine. After speaking with him and Jian Li for a bit longer, she dismissed everyone and returned to the cave dwelling on Tianyue Peak with her three disciples in tow.
Lü Se and Ting Feng had already returned to Tianyue Peak after attending their Zhēnzūn's ceremony earlier in the day. Gifts from the various peaks kept arriving in steady streams, and Lv Se was busy sorting them with Ting Feng's help. They had both noticed the massive disturbance behind the Heavenly Sword Peak main hall earlier.
However, their cultivation levels weren't high enough to get involved in such high-level matters, so they simply focused on their sorting tasks. News would naturally reach them later.