“Not bad, not bad! Despite the fact that this devilfied body is inferior to my original body, you must be quite the cultivator to withstand that blow. I will accept you as a blood sacrifice!” A sinister voice left the mouth of Marquis Nanlong’s body.

The black Qi surrounding his face grew even more concentrated and his pair of silver-white eyes icily stared at Lu Weiying as if he were already dead. Lu Weiying felt an icy tremble fill his heart.

Once those words were said, Marquis Nanlong’s body blurred and pounced towards Lu Weiying, leaving a trail of afterimages in its wake.

Lu Weiying felt himself overcome with fear. He thought to emerge from the wall, but he didn’t have nearly enough time as Marquis Nanlong was far too quick. In a display of monstrous strength, black Qi-clad claws were stabbing towards Lu Weiying’s skull.

In his panic, Lu Weiying resolved himself and white light flashed from his body, pouring the entirety of his magic power into his fire-red scarf. In that instant, the barrier of fire-red light sharply expanded to six inches thick, right before ‘Marquis Nanlong’ fiercely stabbed his claws into him with emotionless eyes.

A bizarre crackle sounded out and blinding light flashed before Lu Weiying. He watched in fear as the monstrous claw pierced through the barrier before eventually coming to a stop. Lu Weiying was greatly relieved to see this and regained a bit of his composure. Then, light began to flash once more around his body as he attempted to break free of the metal-like walls.

When ‘Marquis Nanlong’ saw this, a smirk appeared on his face. With another loud bang, he smashed his other hand into the red light barrier.

In that moment, most of the spirit light that Lu Weiying had emitted from his body suddenly dispersed for some unknown reason. Before Lu Weiying even realized what had happened, ‘Marquis Nanlong’ pulled on his arm stuck in the barrier and smashed his free hand into the light barrier.

The light barrier trembled and blew away the remaining spirit light that Lu Weiying had summoned, scattering it away entirely. At that moment, his body sank several inches deeper into the wall.

‘Not good!” Lu Weiying suddenly realized what was happening and his expression vastly changed. He hastily shook the white spell flag in his hand in an attempt to activate it.

However, ‘Marquis Nanlong’ began to methodically pound down his fist, refusing to give Lu Weiying the opportunity to activate the flag. Each punch struck down just as he began to pour spiritual Qi into the flag and forcefully interrupted him, with each continuous strike coming down faster and with increasing force. Trembles resonated throughout the wall.

Lu Weiying thought to execute a secret technique, but half of his magic power faded away when he attempted to activate it.

As a result, Lu Weiying was denied the use of his abilities as he was helplessly trapped inside the stone wall. He could only blankly watch in despair as the red light barrier around him gradually became dimmer.

Lu Weiying met eyes with ‘Marquis Nanlong’ and he felt his heart violently tremble. It was only a matter of time before his treasure was broken through and his body smashed to a pulp.

With that thought, Lu Weiying gritted his teeth and loudly shouted. White light s.h.i.+ned from his head as a Nascent Soul with his face emerged from it. Its face was panicked and it was tightly holding onto a small blue sword.

At the same time, the Vast Yang Scarf suddenly ruptured. The last trace of hesitation faded from the Nascent Soul’s mind and it suddenly disappeared with a stamp of its foot, blurring towards the hall’s entrance.

However, things didn’t go as planned.

With his back still facing the entrance as if oblivious to what was happening, Marquis Nanlong’s back suddenly exploded and a ghost face with its eyes shut sprouted out from it, identical to the one on the Blood Curse Gate.

At that moment, the ghost face opened its silver eyes and released a purple streak from its mouth.

At that same moment, Lu Weiying’s Nascent Soul had already tossed out his flying sword and was riding away on it as quickly as he could. But when it heard a howl across its ear, the Nascent Soul felt its mind burn as something spurted forth from its head.

The Nascent Soul blankly stared at the long strip that emerged from its brow and sharply screamed. Then an instant later, it lost all the strength in its body and it fell onto the ground, motionless.

Were there anyone present to see this, they would’ve seen a long purple strip shot out from the ghost face’s mouth and pierce through the Nascent Soul’s head, the purple strip being the ghost face’s tongue.

When the ghost face saw the Nascent Soul fell, it sneered and withdrew its tongue, drawing Lu Weiying’s Nascent Soul into its mouth and chewing it several times before swallowing. It then slowly closed its eyes with a satisfied expression.

At that moment, ‘Marquis Nanlong’ finally turned around and expressionlessly looked at the masterless small blue sword. A harsh expression appeared on its face and it swiped its hand, tearing out the heart from Lu Weiying’s body and crus.h.i.+ng it, scattering it into the air as a b.l.o.o.d.y mist. The body was now completely lifeless.

With this done, ‘Marquis Nanlong’ expressionlessly swept his gaze around and then effortlessly turned into a black mist before heading outside. A moment later, he found himself facing several masterless spell formations. He scoffed and pa.s.sed through them before directly rus.h.i.+ng out of the pool.

In the time it took to finish a cup of tea, ‘Marquis Nanlong’ appeared several hundred meters above a mountain and glanced around. Flying at such a height naturally stirred a few of the restrictions in Devilfall Valley. Countless bolts of lightning rained down upon him from the sky. But whenever they arrived three meters away from him, they were redirected and turned away, leaving him entirely safe and peaceful.

‘Marquis Nanlong’ look around him for half a day and eventually got his bearings. Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes, silver light flickering from within them, and he streaked through the sky in a streak of black light.

...

At that moment, the Ghost Spirit Sect Master’s party was standing at the side of the giant altar and were looking at the endless stairs that rose above them with expressions of awe.

Earlier, they had been caught in a large scale restriction over five kilometers away from the altar and were delayed for nearly a day as a result.

Now that they had finally arrived next to the altar, they were able to see that although it was grand and imposing, there were clear signs of the vast pa.s.sage of time. Not only were the stairs overgrown with weeds, but there were also a few areas that were completely worn down.

w.a.n.g Tiansheng examined the altar for a long while. He eventually said, “Go! When we arrive at the top portion of the altar, we’ll be able to find traces of the Spirit Ether Garden. According to the soul remnant, the entrance should be there.” He then stepped forward and took the lead climbing up the altar.

But much to the shock of the others, w.a.n.g Tiansheng loudly cursed as soon as he set off. Yellow light then appeared all around him. Looking up at the seemingly endless flight of stairs, he resentfully gritted his teeth and said, “Everyone be careful! Restrictions exist on these steps. Climbing to the top of the altar won’t be an easy task.”

Wei Wuya frowned when he heard this. Although he didn’t care about a few restrictions, it would definitely slow down the rest of the party. He was helpless to do anything about this.

The others also shared his thoughts. Knowing that the Spirit Ether Garden lay in front of them, the existence of these restrictions aroused irritation and impatience in them.

“Let’s go!” w.a.n.g Tiangu sighed and set foot on the stairs. Yellow light then lit up around him and he felt his body become half a ton heavier.

At that moment, the others were affected by the formation as well. While Wei Wuya was able to move unimpeded, the three Core Formation cultivators paled as they struggled to climb.

The party of cultivators slowly climbed to the top of the altar.

...

Next to an oasis concealed by restrictions, Han Li looked at the water in front of him and muttered, “This is the Spirit Kindle Fruit?” Outside of the restrictions, there was boundless yellow sand surrounding them.

“That’s right. This is definitely the fruit. Regardless of its exterior appearance, all the signs point to it being genuine!” Violet Spirit stood three meters away from Han Li and spoke with an expression of excitement. Her luminous eyes were unerringly focused on the oasis.

At the center of the water in front of them, there was some sludge emerging from the water along with the stalk of a glistening emerald-green plant. It was a meter tall and covered in thumb-sized oval leaves. Growing at the very top of the plant were four odd fruits. They were fire-red, slender at the top and wide at the bottom, and glowed with a faint red light at the top. Along with the faint scent that it emitted, it bore a striking resemblance to a lit candle on a stand.

Han Li was also certain that this was the Spirit Kindle Fruit and smiled when he heard that Violet Spirit thought so as well.

Violet Spirit deeply sighed and turned to Han Li, saying with a decisive tone, “I’m going to pick the fruits right now. It’s best not to let matters drag on.”