Wu Pang was genuinely panicking now. He hadn't anticipated Lin Feng could be this ruthless, let alone still have tricks up his sleeve. Seeing that violet beam streak towards him, a palpable threat of death washed over him. His pupils contracted violently. He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, forcing a sliver of clarity through the pain, then roared and slapped his palm against the ground, trying desperately to fling his body sideways.
"Ssssst!!"
Wu Pang managed only a minuscule shift. A soft, wet shlick sounded. He felt a numbness blossom in his chest. Looking down in disbelief, he saw the violet light had pierced straight through his protective magic robe without resistance, boring deep into his body. He could even feel the corresponding exit wound tear open on his back…
The violet light vanished as quickly as it appeared. Dead center on Wu Pang's chest, a thumb-sized hole remained, blood welling out instantly, staining his robes front and back crimson. His entire body convulsed as if shocked by lightning. His eyes bulged in stunned silence for one dreadful second before a raw, agonized scream ripped from his throat!
"GAAAAHHH!!!" Wu Pang shrieked, clutching the gaping wound in his chest. He thrashed wildly on the ground like a common mortal, a testament to the devastating trauma inflicted by the Demon Light Ring's power. Yet, despite the horrific sound, his cry held no finality – that barely perceptible twist at the last instant had just barely shifted his heart away from the beam's path. Pierced through the chest he was, but death was not immediate!
"Still alive?!" This realization sent a chill deeper than ice through Lin Feng. The man's tenacity was monstrous. Gritting his teeth fiercely, Lin Feng swung his right hand again. A mass of fiercely burning flame on the ground nearby, previously unleashed against the corpse puppet but left unattended since, suddenly surged upwards! It coalesced into a blazing net and swept towards the writhing Wu Pang — it was the Magma Flame!
"Haaagh... Argh!!!" Wu Pang gasped, thick and labored, having barely suppressed his wildly fluctuating true yuan. Seeing the net of strange flame descending, he bellowed in furious defiance. Summoning every scrap of strength, he forced his true yuan into motion once more, reactivating his spiritual light barrier. A faint 'Hummm' resonated as a three-meter-wide orange barrier flashed into existence around him, holding the encroaching flames at bay.
Witnessing this, however, Lin Feng felt a surge of grim satisfaction within. Immediate execution might have failed, but trapping Wu Pang within the strange fire was a major victory. He prepared for his next move, but a wave of extreme peril crashed over him. A shriek tore through the air from his right flank! A figure charged like a maddened beast!
"Chiu!!" As the corpse puppet lunged again, an answering shriek sounded from Lin Feng's shoulder! Xiao Qiu snatched the top-grade spirit stone coiled in its tail and hurled it with all its might!
"BOOM!!!" Another earth-shattering explosion ripped through the plateau. The scene repeated: the corpse puppet was violently blasted backwards, shattering several large boulders in its path before crashing heavily into the ground, leaving a deep crater.
Yet, the sheer resilience of this puppet defied Lin Feng's comprehension. Almost instantly after landing, it sprang back up, seemingly unscathed, and charged forward with undiminished ferocity!
"Keh, keh keh... Kill him... Kill him now!!!"
Trapped within the flames opposite, Wu Pang saw this and a vicious spark of desperate hope reignited in his eyes. He recognized Lin Feng was also teetering on the edge of collapse. Though he himself was crippled, his puppet could still obey. Eliminate Lin Feng, and the threat vanished.
At that very moment, Wu Pang saw Lin Feng raise his hand and make a grasping motion towards him through the air. For a heart-stopping instant, Wu Pang feared another attack was imminent. But nothing happened. He blinked in momentary confusion, then realization slammed into him. His face twisted in horror!
"CRACK!!!" An explosion tore through the air right beside Wu Pang! It came from the earthen prison he had constructed earlier to seal the Blood Demon Blade. The mound of dirt burst apart! A streak of bloody crimson light shot out! It didn't target Wu Pang. It didn't return to Lin Feng. Instead, it streaked with unerring accuracy towards the corpse puppet charging Lin Feng!
"NOOOO!!!" Utter terror froze Wu Pang's heart. He screamed, a sound of pure madness. He tried to command the puppet, to divert it! Yet, the moment he strained his true yuan, his face instantly drained of color. Instead of control, a torrent of blood erupted from his mouth! As the blood sprayed, profound despair flooded his eyes...
Swoosh…
The crimson streak sliced through the intervening space. In the blink of an eye, it intercepted the puppet mere meters away from Lin Feng. Mindless, focused only on its target, the puppet made no move to dodge. The Blood Demon Blade slammed into its abdomen! Had it been an ordinary artifact, even a top-grade spiritual weapon, it might only have knocked the puppet aside. But the Blood Demon Blade erupted with a blinding flash of bloody light, unleashing every ounce of its pent-up energy in that single instant. A soft 'Thump' followed, then a jet of dark crimson ichor sprayed outwards as the blade sank deep.
The puppet's movement froze mid-stride. The eerie twin lights glowing in its eye sockets flickered violently, like unstable bulbs, then sputtered out completely. It toppled forward stiffly, momentum carrying its desiccating form rolling across the ground until it finally slid to a stop right at Lin Feng's feet. A glance confirmed it: the eye sockets were utterly dark. Its entire body had shriveled beyond recognition, resembling a mummified corpse decayed for a thousand years.
Sweeping the area with his divine sense, Lin Feng confirmed the puppet emitted not the faintest ripple of true yuan energy. Only then did his expression relax, the tension draining away. He staggered back two steps, drained like a wrung-out rag, barely managing to remain upright. Flipping his hand, he produced a porcelain bottle of spirit spring water and took a small sip. Some color gradually returned to his pale face.
Using the Blood Demon Blade against the puppet – Wu Pang had unwittingly given him that idea. Had he instinctively relied on the Scarlet Soul Flying Sword again, the outcome would likely have been disastrous.
"GAAAAHHH!!!"
Simultaneously, Lin Feng heard another agonized scream from across the way. His expression hardened as he snapped his head up. Within the flaming cage, Wu Pang convulsed violently, caught in the backlash of his puppet's destruction – suffering yet another grievous wound. This was the final straw. The spiritual light barrier protecting him shuddered violently, then collapsed with a thunderous crack! The surrounding flames, no longer impeded, surged inward like hungry tides, engulfing Wu Pang's entire body in an instant.
Wu Pang's screams continued, raw and piercing. Lin Feng waited, his gaze cold and detached. Seconds ticked by. Then, sensing something, Lin Feng raised his right hand, fingers splayed wide then clenching into a fist. Instantly, the flames surrounding Wu Pang recoiled sharply, forming a hollow sphere roughly one meter in diameter around him. At the same instant, a faint glow flickered on the charred, unrecognizable husk within the heart of the fire. A miniature figure, the visage contorted in utter panic, shot out – Wu Pang's Nascent Soul! It tried desperately to dive into the earth below, but the ground was still carpeted with Magma Flame. The moment it touched the searing fire, it shrieked in agony, recoiling violently back into the fiery sphere, hopelessly trapped.
Wu Pang's Nascent Soul flailed madly within its cage of flame, dashing itself against the fiery barriers. But in its severely weakened state, it couldn't endure the Magma Flame's scorching touch. After a dozen frantic attempts, its form grew even more translucent and unstable. Finally, the futile struggle ceased. The Nascent Soul turned, its gaze locking onto Lin Feng. Its voice, thin and shrill with terror and rage, pierced the air: "What do you want?! Finish me if you dare!! Even as a vengeful ghost, I will never let you go!! None from my Yin Corpse Sect will ever let you go!!!"
Lin Feng offered a cold smirk. "If you truly wished for death, you'd fling yourself willingly into the flames. Spare me the empty bravado!"
With that, he ignored the trapped Nascent Soul completely. He sank directly onto the ground, crossing his legs. Retrieving several healing pills, he swallowed them, closed his eyes, and began focusing his energy on recovery.
"..."
Silence fell heavy upon the scene. Lin Feng's scornful dismissal seemed to strike a nerve deeper than pain. Wu Pang's Nascent Soul fell utterly silent. Though its ethereal form revealed no expression, its burning gaze remained fixed unwaveringly on Lin Feng, lost in meditation. Its thoughts were impenetrable.
...
Lin Feng's injuries were severe. Beyond the crippling exhaustion from overdrawing his true yuan, the internal damage inflicted by the corpse puppet's blow was critical. Had his hastily conjured spiritual light barrier not absorbed some impact, the force likely would have shattered every bone in his body. Even so, his internal organs were grievously wounded. The Lin Feng of old would have succumbed instantly. Fortunately, he now possessed the Prismatic Stellar Art (Cǎichén Jué). Both his resilience and recuperative abilities were leagues beyond his former self. That was the only reason he'd been able to withstand such a blow and still launch a counterattack against Wu Pang – a crucial miscalculation on Wu Pang's part.
Thankfully, Lin Feng possessed top-grade Tier 4 healing pills and spirit spring water, whose efficacy surpassed even the pills. Combined with the Prismatic Stellar Art's heaven-defying restorative power, his injuries healed at a pace that defied reason. In barely half an hour, his eyes snapped open. Apart from a lingering paleness in his complexion, he was largely recovered. His true yuan reserves had also replenished almost entirely.
The moment Lin Feng rose to his feet, Wu Pang noticed. Utter disbelief flooded the Nascent Soul's luminous eyes. "Impossible!" it shrieked, its voice thin with shock. "How could you recover so swiftly?! What... what cultivation art is this?! Is it a Heaven-tier technique?!"
Lin Feng didn't dignify Wu Pang with a response. His gaze swept first to the shriveled corpse puppet nearby. With a casual flick of his wrist, he conjured a fireball, reducing the desiccated remains to drifting ash. Next, he recalled the Blood Demon Blade, its bloody light vanishing into his grasp. Only then did he stride towards the trapped Nascent Soul, stopping beside the lingering patches of Magma Flame. He retrieved the Scarlet Soul Flying Sword, still embedded in the earth, and stored it within his spatial ring. Finally, he lifted his eyes, his gaze cold and penetrating, fixing on Wu Pang's Nascent Soul imprisoned within the fiery sphere.
Wu Pang didn't press the issue of Lin Feng's impossible recovery. Instead, he focused his gaze on Lin Feng with an intensity that screamed of a desire to rend flesh. Hatred dripped from his words as he spat, "What do you want?!"
He wasn't a fool. He understood Lin Feng's deliberate choice to keep him alive meant something was desired. He likely even guessed what that something was. This knowledge ignited a sliver of desperate hope within him. Even knowing the odds of survival were microscopically thin, that thousandth of a chance was still a chance. After all, no one truly wishes to die.
Lin Feng remained silent for several long moments, letting the tension build. Then, he spoke directly, cutting to the heart of the matter: "Tell me everything you know about the Blood Demon Blade. Do that, and I might consider letting you live."