Chapter 759: Nine Nether Flame Sparrow vs Intention Demon King
"Hiss, hiss!"
The black-gold beam shooting from the Golden Spirit Mirror branded itself onto the giant demonic serpent's body, drawing a piercing shriek from it.
Bathed in that ray of light, the serpent's form began to melt away, finally condensing into a pitch-black heart that was sealed within the mirror's surface.
"Looks like you succeeded," Aunt Ling said with a soft laugh.
"Yeah. The Golden Spirit Mirror seems to have a sealing effect on these demonic creatures. The Intention Demon Heart no longer had a body and was only acting on instinct, so it couldn't put up much of a fight," Lin Langtian replied with a smile.
He beckoned, and the heart flew out of the mirror to hover in front of him.
Staring at the dark, pulsing mass in his hand, Lin Langtian couldn't help the faint curve at the corner of his lips.
The key material for refining the Battle Intent Demon Heart was finally his.
"This place is saturated with demonic energy. It's the perfect spot to refine it," Aunt Ling suggested.
Lin Langtian swept his gaze around the dense, sticky miasma and nodded.
Anyone else would have chosen to stay as far away from such corruption as possible, purifying every trace of demonic power from the heart before daring to refine it.
But Lin Langtian was different.
He could already wield demonic power and bore the demonic fetus within his body. For him, this place was a cultivation paradise.
Settling cross-legged, he slowly raised the Intention Demon Heart.
Refining the Battle Intent Demon Heart was simple to describe, but extremely difficult in practice. Taking the heart of an Intention Demon expert for himself would be anything but easy; a single misstep could leave him a broken husk.
"Langtian, the original owner of this heart was likely an Earth Sovereign," Aunt Ling warned gravely. "Even after all these years, the will remaining inside it won't be weak. Be careful."
"An Earth Sovereign…"
Lin Langtian's eyes narrowed, his expression growing heavier.
He hadn't expected the heart to belong to such a powerhouse. Then again, it made sense—anything less would have long since dissipated into nothing.
"Relax, Aunt Ling. It's just a remnant will," he said with a faint smile.
Focusing on the heart before him, he sent his consciousness into it and followed the steps recorded in the Battle Intent Demon Heart's refinement method.
Boom!
The moment his mind slipped into the pitch-black heart, an indescribable demonic pressure erupted from within.
Lin Langtian's body buckled, the ground beneath him fracturing in all directions.
His face changed as the crushing force closed in around him. Even the Grand Elder of the Heaven-Earth Sect had never made him feel such weight.
This was the pressure of an Earth Sovereign.
"Hmph. You're nothing but a dead shade. A little leftover power is hardly worth fearing," he growled.
He formed a rapid series of seals, and his demonic power surged outward.
Boom!
The two forces slammed into each other. Gritting his teeth, Lin Langtian poured out more of his strength, holding the Earth Sovereign's lingering might at bay.
Hum.
While he fought against the suffocating pressure, the black heart suddenly pulsed. A beam of darkness shot out, piercing into his eyes.
His mind exploded like a collapsing mountain, dizziness dragging him down as though he'd been thrown into a demonic realm.
The vertigo faded quickly, but when Lin Langtian steadied himself, the world around him had already changed.
He now stood in an endless domain of shadow.
A foul, oppressive aura rolled across the land.
"Hehe. How amusing. A mere human dares covet the Intention Demon Heart."
A cold voice echoed through the air as he took in his strange surroundings.
The sound carried such overwhelming majesty that even the heavens themselves seemed to darken under its weight.
Heart pounding, Lin Langtian looked up.
Far off in the sky, a black throne floated in midair.
Seated beneath it was a man in dark robes, resting calmly with legs crossed.
He was strikingly handsome, but the authority in his brows was terrifying. A dreadful wave of evil energy rolled from his body, making the heart shudder.
"An Intention Demon expert," Lin Langtian muttered, face tightening.
This had to be the heart's original owner.
Even if he was now only a lingering will, the power he radiated was still chilling.
"You're from the Great Thousand World, aren't you?" the man said lightly. "You carry both spiritual power and demonic energy within your body. How strange.
"Has someone in that world now managed to merge the two perfectly?"
The dark-robed man watched him with keen interest, his casual tone only adding to the chill burrowing into Lin Langtian's bones.
Lin Langtian did not answer that question.
"You must be one of the Intention Demon experts who attacked the Heaven-Earth Continent in ancient times," he said instead, voice steady.
"Hehe. Surprising that someone still remembers," the man replied with a soft chuckle. "Yes, this king is the Intention Demon King."
His slender fingers tapped the armrest of the throne as he continued, "Back then, our extraterritorial races failed to completely sweep the Great Thousand World, but we still seized half its lands. Quite the accomplishment.
"Though this king fell on the Heaven-Earth Continent, once our kind returns in force, I will be revived and walk the world again.
"Given that you can wield both demonic and spiritual power, you are not without value. Why not submit to this king? When I rise again, you will not be treated poorly."
Lin Langtian blinked, taken aback by the unexpected offer.
He hadn't thought the Intention Demon King would rate him that highly.
But he shook his head a moment later. "No. I came here for the Intention Demon Heart, not to join the extraterritorial races."
"A fool who can't recognize greatness," the Intention Demon King said, eyes turning cruel. "You wish to forge a Battle Intent Demon Heart, don't you? I did not expect that after so many years, someone would dare set their sights on me."
The Battle Intent Demon Heart was taboo among the Intention Demons.
The thought that a frail human would try to carve it from his legacy stoked a burning fury in the Intention Demon King's heart.
Bang!
The ancient, corrupted land shuddered as a tidal wave of demonic might surged across it.
He slammed a palm down.
A massive black hand tore through space itself, hurtling toward Lin Langtian at breathtaking speed.
Lin Langtian's face darkened.
Even as a mere remnant will, this former Earth Sovereign was still monstrously strong.
Demonic power roared out of him as he stomped down and shot forward, his right hand wrapped in a maelstrom of power that slammed into the descending hand.
Boom!
The impact sent him hurtling backward like a cannonball.
He crashed deep into the earth, leaving a crater a thousand meters wide.
"Cough."
Racking coughs echoed from within the pit, flecked with traces of blood.
In that single exchange, Lin Langtian had been thoroughly overwhelmed.
A being who had once stood tall among Earth Sovereigns remained terrifying even in death.
"Your strength doesn't quite match your courage," the Intention Demon King remarked from his throne, looking down at the battered figure below.
"This king may be only a lingering will, but you are still far from my equal. Submit now, and I will spare your life."
Wiping the blood from his lips, Lin Langtian raised his head.
His black eyes burned with fiery battle intent as he locked onto the figure above.
He didn't bother replying.
Instead, he stepped forward, power surging out again.
Eight strands of energy burst forth—demonic flame, demonic lightning, demonic ice, and more—manifesting as eight colossal black pillars.
They anchored themselves at eight points across the land, towering into the sky.
Each one radiated a terrifying aura—burning hot, bitterly cold, or infinitely dark.
"Eight Directions Primordial Art!"
With a low shout, he sent the eight pillars roaring upward, tearing through the air toward the Intention Demon King.
Wherever they passed, even the void itself seemed to be marked with streaks of black.
"Oh? This power feels familiar," the Intention Demon King murmured. "Someone once used this very art against me…"
He smiled faintly, then shook his head.
"But it still isn't enough."
He raised his hand and made a casual downward sweep.
In an instant, his palm swelled to the size of a mountain, blotting out the sky as it slammed into the onrushing pillars.
Bang!
The heavens rang with the collision.
The eight pillars shattered one after another. Their overwhelming force failed to move the titanic hand in the slightest—if anything, it only drove it farther down, carving a massive rift into the ground below.
As the pillars crumbled, Lin Langtian staggered, his face drained of color.
Blood seeped from his pores, running across his skin in thin red lines.
"Someone once mastered that divine art as well," the Intention Demon King said with a faint smile. "He was far stronger than you—but in the end, he still fell to this king."
Lin Langtian's expression twisted.
So even in the distant past, another wielder of the Eight Directions Primordial Art had been killed by this same foe.
Was he destined to share the same fate?
"Defeating this will isn't entirely impossible," Aunt Ling's voice rang quietly in his mind.
"You have a way?" he asked, startled.
"The enemy before you is only a fragment of will," she explained. "To defeat him, you must defeat that will. But your current strength is nowhere close to his."
"That's why you'll need help."
"Help? You mean… you?" Lin Langtian blinked.
"Hehe. At my peak, I was also an Earth Sovereign. Why shouldn't I compete in a battle of wills?" she said with a light, unrestrained laugh.
Hope flared in Lin Langtian's eyes.
While they conversed, the Intention Demon King's patience began to fray.
With a flick of his sleeve, a black pillar of demonic power shot forth, descending toward Lin Langtian like a falling sky.
Hum.
Just as it was about to crush him, the space in front of Lin Langtian split apart, opening into a yawning crack of darkness that swallowed the incoming pillar whole.
"Hm?"
The sudden twist drew a brief look of surprise from the Intention Demon King.
His gaze sharpened, fixing on the space behind Lin Langtian.
The air there was twisting violently, as if something were tearing through from the far side.
"Hehe. For the mighty Intention Demon King to still be causing trouble after dying so long ago… Do you really think the Great Thousand World has no one left to stand against you?"
A seductive yet chilling voice rang out as a figure slowly stepped from the warped space.
Before the Intention Demon King's keen stare, the silhouette grew clearer, resolving into a woman in red.
She was a tall, stunningly alluring beauty. Her eyes held a lazy, teasing charm that hinted at her maturity, and her slim waist looked as though it could be encircled with one hand.
Her long, perfectly shaped legs, straight and smooth as carved jade, would have made many a heart skip a beat.
As she appeared, a clear cry rang through the heavens.
A tide of crimson flame flooded the air behind her, and a gigantic avian shadow emerged from within—a great red bird, wings like clouds of fire, its long cry shaking the sky.
The temperature of the world seemed to soar in an instant.
Even the air itself began to glow red with heat.
For the first time, the Intention Demon King's expression grew truly serious.
Silence fell.
Two figures faced each other from across the vast demonic land.
For a brief moment, it felt as though even the flow of time itself had halted.
Two beings who had once stood among the very peak of Earth Sovereigns now confronted each other again in this strange inner world.
"Truly unexpected," the Intention Demon King said at last, breaking the stillness.
His eyes never left the blazing figure.
"To think I would encounter the Nine Nether Flame Sparrow once more…"
(END CHAPTER)
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