The Sect Master and the elders lunged forward in unison. The corpse, unfazed by the pressure of five experts, raised its halberd. Spectral fire roared, enveloping the black weapon before it swung with a force capable of shattering space itself.
An ominous aura, laden with flames that seemed hungry to devour the world, erupted forward in an expansive wave of destruction.
One of the elders stepped ahead of the group and extended his arm with determination. Instantly, a gargantuan shield in the shape of a Celestial Tortoise, engraved with ancient Daoist runes, manifested before them. The black fire slammed into the barrier with a deafening roar, attempting to consume the spiritual defense.
The elder frowned as he felt his energy draining rapidly under the intensity of that suffocating heat. "This strange fire is far too potent!" he exclaimed in shock. As an expert in the Nascent Soul realm, he was by no means weak; he could fight for months against others of his level without exhaustion. However, these flames were not only damaging his protective treasure but were consuming his spiritual energy as if it were mere kindling.
Without hesitation, he hardened his expression. The protective treasure, which had begun to yield under the pressure, shone with a renewed intensity, forcefully surging to repel the strange fire completely. "A corrosive nature... far too demonic," the elder grunted.
With the path cleared, the rest of the elders lunged forward, unleashing their secret techniques. "Let us fight fire with fire!" one of them bellowed. An extremely scorched spiritual fire erupted from his body as he charged. The sacred flames and the corpse's corrosive fire collided, mutually devouring each other in a frenzied dance for supremacy.
Taking advantage of the contained flames, another elder launched a flurry of talismans that evaporated instantly. In their place, a complex containment formation based on the five elements emerged, with the Yin and Yang symbol rotating at its center. "Five Elements Primordial Formation!" he shouted. Immediately, countless elemental incarnations appeared, imbued with the eternal cycle of creation and destruction, surrounding the corpse to suppress its power.
The corpse, devoid of any trace of fear, swung its halberd again and again. The elemental incarnations collided with the weapon's demonic aura, but the specters were devoured one by one by the halberd's dark edge. However, while the entity focused on breaking the formation, its strange fire—locked in a duel against the elder's flames—partially separated from its body, leaving it vulnerable.
Another elder seized the opening immediately. He closed the distance and retrieved an ancient alchemy furnace, an ancestral treasure carved with the figures of the Four Guardian Beasts on each of its sides. "Let us see how much you can endure, insolent fire," he declared as he hurled the furnace toward the spectral flames. "Four Beasts Containment!" Upon activation, the furnace's carvings roared to life, unleashing a suction force designed to seal even the most rebellious energies in the universe.
The fire, which had been focused on devouring the opponent's flames, immediately noticed the elder's intent. An intense wave of heat erupted in all directions, forcing both elders to retreat several steps. However, the furnace achieved its goal: unable to resist the suction, the strange fire was sealed within.
Noticing the disappearance of its flames, the corpse turned with fury toward the pair of elders. "It seems the creature is upset," they remarked without a hint of fear. They would dread a conscious and cunning Nascent Soul cultivator, but a corpse moving solely on instinct was far easier to handle.
The corpse lunged at them, swinging its black halberd. A power capable of collapsing the heavens was unleashed without restraint; both elders felt a chill down their necks, realizing the attack was devastating, and retreated hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye.
"I am your opponent," the Sect Master declared, appearing before him. Her aura of destruction and the golden sword clashed instantly against the halberd. A light of countless colors bathed the world for an instant, erasing the horizon. Wu Huang and his sisters, watching from a distance, looked on in absolute awe. They had never witnessed a combat of such magnitude and did not turn their eyes away, determined to comprehend as much as their minds would allow.
The power that seemed capable of destroying heaven and earth collided countless times; the ominous aura clashed against the golden radiance over and over again.
For Wu Huang and his sisters, it was almost impossible to distinguish who held the advantage, but the elders, with centuries of experience behind them, knew immediately who would emerge victorious. "Quite simpler than I expected," an elder remarked while holding the furnace. Inside, the strange flame battered against the walls, trying desperately to escape. "Congratulations on obtaining a strange fire," another elder said with a light smile. "This thing is far too demonic," the first sighed, slightly disappointed. "Refining it seems impossible without destroying it." Although a fire of this level was valuable, its impure nature was not entirely attractive to him, though it was by no means a waste either. "Perhaps if you trade it with an alchemy sect, you can obtain a lesser fire that is less troublesome." "No, I'll likely deliver it to the sect's treasury. Perhaps it will have some use in the future," they replied, chatting casually while waiting for the Sect Master to finish off the corpse.
But then, the unexpected happened. The corpse swung its halberd, and the Sect Master responded with her sword at the same time. However, the clash that had repeated so many times did not occur; instead, the corpse's arm was severed clean off, and the halberd went flying downward at a terrifying speed.
Everyone reacted immediately upon noticing the weapon was aimed directly at the disciples. But because they had not foreseen this outcome, the halberd fell upon Wu Huang. Caught off guard by the sudden shift and overwhelmed by a speed that only Nascent Soul experts could follow, Wu Huang could not react. With extreme ease, the black halberd pierced through Wu Huang's chest, pinning him to the ground.
"What...?" was all he could articulate before an unbearable pain invaded every corner of his being.