Chapter 8

"Xuantian Evil Emperor?" After breaking through the demonic aura, Dugu Feng turned her sword around and cast layers of sword qi, blocking the surging river outside the cave. At the same time, she looked thoughtfully into the void.

In the instant she broke through the demonic aura's seal, Dugu Feng had a brief mental confrontation with an unknown expert. The vast mental force that came through the air was filled with coldness, evil, and loneliness, clearly belonging to no one else but the Xuantian Evil Emperor.

"Unfortunately, it was just a mental force! If I could have a real confrontation with the Evil Emperor's true body, this journey would not have been in vain!" Dugu Feng couldn't help but sigh inwardly. In that brief confrontation, both sides only clashed mentally through the demonic aura, far from what could be called a battle.

However, even this brief moment was enough for them to gain some understanding of each other. In terms of mental force, Dugu Feng, who was accustomed to mental battles and had experienced the baptism of breaking through the void, was slightly superior to the Xuantian Evil Emperor. But in the material world, Dugu Feng's sword qi was far inferior to the Xuantian Evil Emperor's demonic aura.

In the instant when the sword qi and demonic aura clashed, the originally lifeless demonic aura responded like a living thing, either blocking, deflecting, or devouring, instantly displaying various strange properties. It resisted Dugu Feng's sharp sword qi, with each bit of demonic aura devouring and annihilating dozens of sword qi. This huge disparity greatly surprised Dugu Feng.

After careful consideration, Dugu Feng found that the properties of the demonic aura were very similar to the legendary "Yuanling," where mental force and energy were fundamentally integrated. Each bit of energy was like a living organism, with its own consciousness, able to adapt on its own during energy clashes and even absorb the elemental energy of heaven and earth to strengthen itself after leaving the body, unlike ordinary energy which would dissipate. This level of energy was extremely advanced, surpassing the mundane, and only divine power, celestial abilities, and other nine-star energies could possess such power.

Dugu Feng estimated that the power of this demonic aura might not come from the Evil Emperor but probably from the Primordial Demon. Throughout the entire "Shenbing Xuanyi" series, the Xuantian Evil Emperor only broke through to the divine realm at the end, and before that, he did not possess such nine-star level demonic energy.

This brief confrontation also brought Dugu Feng some gains. Through the instant clash with the demonic aura, she understood the characteristics of nine-star energy, which not only gave her a clear direction for further cultivation but also made her realize the power of divine weapons she had overlooked.

In the "Shenbing Xuanyi" world, most of the divine weapons were "anti-god weapons" created by deities, containing abundant divine energy. Under non-combat conditions, this divine energy remained dormant and stable, appearing only slightly more condensed than the true qi of experts. However, when in combat, they activated like war machines, displaying various wondrous abilities. Although Dugu Feng had previously come into contact with the spiritual energy on Nangong Wentian's body, she had not paid attention due to the divine nature of the weapon. Now, she realized her oversight and decided to collect all the divine and demonic weapons she could after her cultivation in the imperial tomb.

After passing through a long underground tunnel, Dugu Feng suddenly found herself in a vast and strange space.

In front of her was a large underground lake, enclosed in a huge underground cave. The cave ceiling was at least fifty to sixty zhang above the lake surface. In the center of the lake, a massive structure stood. This structure was neither a tomb nor a palace but a huge platform. The platform, nearly a hundred zhang wide, was divided into three parts by concentric circles with strange patterns.

The outermost circle of the platform was lined with dozens of stone pillars carved with strange patterns. These pillars emitted a green spiritual light, serving as the light source for this vast space. Inside the stone pillars, four trapezoidal towers and four pyramids stood in a crisscross pattern. Each trapezoidal tower had two stone statues as tall as the tower itself. At the core of the platform stood a peculiar building shaped like an inverted shell, entirely green, with snake-like patterns carved on the outer layer. This was the Nüwa divine artifact, the Star Ferry, stored in the Wu Emperor's tomb.

As Dugu Feng stepped onto the passage connected to the platform, she was halfway across when the world suddenly changed.

"Ji ji, Wu Emperor's tomb, intruders die!"

A strange laugh echoed, and a lean old man suddenly appeared dozens of zhang above Dugu Feng's head. He hovered in the air like a hawk, his red hair dancing wildly like venomous snakes, and his body radiating scorching fire qi.

"Extinguish the Sky!" Dugu Feng immediately recognized the old man. The only person who could appear at this time and place was the former leader of the Heaven and Earth Alliance, Extinguish the Sky, who had been practicing in the Wu Emperor's tomb.

Extinguish the Sky's body twisted strangely, spinning like a top, generating a scorching qi tornado capable of melting gold and eroding iron. It rushed towards Dugu Feng with irresistible force.

In that instant, Dugu Feng judged that she could not withstand it with her current strength. Extinguish the Sky, a veteran supreme expert in the "Shenbing" world, not only had much higher strength than the current Nangong Wentian but also had far superior control over his power. With her fourteen years of cultivation, Dugu Feng could not block this devastating attack, which condensed nearly a century of divine-level internal energy.

In a flash, Dugu Feng entered the realm of unity with heaven and earth, her spirit merging with the Dao, and her true qi blending with the boundless elemental energy of heaven and earth. She thrust her sword forward.

"Rumble..."

The sword qi, ten times more powerful than her own internal energy, clashed head-on with Extinguish the Sky's scorching qi, creating a force like a twelve-level typhoon, sending a powerful gale surging into the sky. The lake surface within dozens of zhang around Dugu Feng, as if struck by an invisible iron ball, indented into a huge half-circle.

"Brat, not bad!" Extinguish the Sky laughed strangely, his hands moving continuously, and countless fists burning with white-hot qi bombarded Dugu Feng, the layers of fist energy like a tsunami, instantly engulfing her.

Dugu Feng slashed her long sword, instantly creating hundreds of solid sword shadows. The dense sword shadows converged into a river of sword qi, shooting towards the sea of fist energy like lightning.

Bang, bang, bang... In an instant, the sword and fist clashed countless times, the explosions of energy sounding like continuous fireworks, the air turning into a thick paste, and the red-golden qi radiating like flowing fire, turning the lake water into a towering mist before it even reached the surface.

"Brat, your sword is hard!" After a round of fierce attacks proved ineffective, Extinguish the Sky flipped in the air, leaping high. "Your sword skills are good, let me show you the ultimate move I learned in this tomb." As he spoke, he extended his arms, his withered hands like eagle claws, grabbing the air and condensing a red-golden fireball over a foot in diameter. He shouted, "Red Canopy Four Yang Power—Fire Essence in the Sky."

At this moment, the lake surface within a hundred zhang was shrouded in mist. Extinguish the Sky hovered above the mist, his body radiating a golden flame like a golden crow, his highly condensed red yang qi causing a change in the heavens and earth, like the rising sun, instantly repelling all elemental energy within a hundred zhang.

Dugu Feng stared intently at Extinguish the Sky, her calm heart feeling excitement for the first time. This move from Extinguish the Sky gave her an extreme sense of danger. At Dugu Feng's level, she could always merge her spirit with the Dao, and every move carried boundless power. However, Extinguish the Sky's cultivation was even higher, allowing him to use his own power to resist elemental energy, repelling and suppressing all other elemental energy within a hundred zhang, creating a battlefield most favorable to himself. This level of cultivation had surpassed the seven-star level, reaching the eight-star level.

Under the suppression of Extinguish the Sky's red yang force field, Dugu Feng found it extremely difficult to draw on elemental energy, the efficiency of her unity with heaven and earth reduced to the lowest level, from dozens of times to just a few times. In a blink, Dugu Feng found herself in the most dangerous moment since entering this world.

Extinguish the Sky's hands came together, striking down from the air. The two scorching qi balls, comparable to the divine fire of the sun, merged into one, falling like a meteor, piercing the void, and smashing towards Dugu Feng.

At this critical moment, Dugu Feng felt no fear or panic, but rather a long-lost excitement and fighting spirit. Her spirit became unprecedentedly lively, her spiritual awareness operating at a speed a thousand times faster than usual. In an instant, time seemed to stop, and the movements of heaven and earth were fully projected into Dugu Feng's mind. Every bit of true qi and every movement of the Red Canopy Four Yang Power within a hundred zhang were clearly visible to Dugu Feng.

"Clang!"

Dugu Feng's long sword seemed to come alive, flying and singing without warning.

Flowing light, the speed of a flying immortal, one sword.

The singing long sword disappeared from Dugu Feng's hand in an instant, transforming into a stream of light, crossing several zhang in a flash, and piercing through the scorching qi ball.

"Boom!"

No one could capture the moment the stream of light pierced the qi ball, and no one could describe the brilliance of the qi ball's explosion.

Like the divine arrow of Houyi, the stream of light pierced through the scorching qi ball, precisely destroying its most unstable point. Instantly, a dazzling light explosion spread, the red-golden qi waves sweeping out, turning the entire cave white.

"Ah!" Unprepared for the qi ball to be pierced, Extinguish the Sky was caught off guard by the explosion of the qi ball condensed from ten layers of his power, and he was thrown into the air with a strange cry.

Dugu Feng's figure flashed, avoiding the direct impact of the qi explosion, her spirit merging with heaven and earth, once again drawing on boundless elemental energy. She pointed her fingers like a sword and thrust, "If you don't return a blow, it's impolite, take my sword!"

The sword qi pierced the sky, the clear light filling the river and sea.

Countless threads of sword qi appeared in the air, weaving into a sea of clear light, instantly engulfing Extinguish the Sky.

In a blink, hundreds of threads of sword qi struck Extinguish the Sky, the highly condensed threads of sword qi clashing with his protective true qi at an ultra-high frequency.

In a breath, Extinguish the Sky's powerful protective true qi, under the relentless high-frequency oscillation of the sword qi, finally broke, and countless threads of sword qi left numerous small wounds on his body, which was as tough as divine weapon material.

"Roar!"

Extinguish the Sky roared, and just as the threads of sword qi were about to strike his body, he successfully unleashed the second move of the Red Canopy Four Yang Power—Golden Bell Illumination.

The surging red yang true qi transformed into countless golden fire pillars, and the threads of sword qi, condensed from elemental energy, dissipated like snow melting in boiling water under the golden light.