435 - Senior Sister Is on Top
"Cough." Gao Ye hacked up a mouthful of dark blood, his hand slowly gripping the war halberd shrouded in demonic mist. With a deep breath and a great effort, he wrenched it out fiercely. "Yin Sheng, it seems I've bested you." Gao Ye curved his lips into a smile, drawing the blood from the Demon Emperor's body and injecting it all into the Sovereign Chart. "Descendant of the heavenly demons... let me see what's different about you." "Bastard! How dare you strike at our lord!" A demon general in the Transcendence stage, seeing his leader fall, brandished his blade and charged at Gao Ye with reckless abandon. Following him, numerous loyal demon cultivators surged forward, from the Great Vehicle stage to the Transformation stage, seemingly determined to bring down the Ghost Emperor in one fell swoop. Those lacking the strength to court death turned their attacks towards the ghost spirits. Ten thousand rebelled in an instant, plunging the battlefield into chaos. Gao Ye's face turned cold, a sinister smile forming. "Since you all seek death, don't blame me for turning ruthless." With his words, he produced the Demon Emperor's Soul Destroying Disk, drawing upon heavenly thunder to strike at the demon cultivators. Seizing the moment when they were severely wounded by the thunder, he siphoned off the divine power from the Sovereign Chart, converting them into nutrients for the forming Lotus Seat. The move was exceedingly ruthless. Many surviving demon cultivators, witnessing their generals' souls disintegrate, were terrified, abandoning their armor and fleeing the battlefield in panic. But Gao Ye had no intention of letting them escape. With a wave of his hand, he sucked them all into the scroll. In the blink of an eye, ten thousand lives were extinguished. Empowered by the flesh and blood of numerous demon cultivators and the Demon Emperor, the Lotus Seat rapidly took form. Within a few breaths, its appearance was completely restored; only the inner runic spells remained to be inscribed. Jiang Yin, sensing her connection with her junior sister growing tenuous, thought she too was about to be sacrificed. She immediately brandished her blade and charged at Gao Ye. "Gao Ye! Die!" As she attacked, Wen Dai and others also joined the fray. Though avatars were split from his soul fire, they were not entirely independent. Earlier, Gao Ye had been counterattacked by the dying Demon Emperor, causing his soul fire to shatter; only his prior preparation of splitting his soul fire and infusing it into the Netherworld Rune had kept him alive. However, he could still barely survive, while the remaining avatars, lacking a replacement soul fire, perished in consequence. Now facing another assault by the trio, Gao Ye had to confront them alone. With most of his soul fire destroyed, his strength was significantly diminished, even if his life was not at risk. Within a few moves, the once formidable Ghost Emperor was at a disadvantage. Meanwhile, Si Junfeng Kai and Yin Qing had just stabilized the demon domain and returned to the battlefield, finding it transformed. They immediately joined the battle. With the reduction of demon cultivators, the pressure on the demon domain's forces dropped sharply. With their superior numbers, they crushed the halved enemy force with absolute dominance. After killing several powerful ghost spirits, Si Jun and others also decided to attack Gao Ye directly, aiming to capture the leader first. Facing three opponents, Gao Ye could still maneuver with luck, but with two Great Vehicle stage cultivators and a Transcendent joining the fray, he was overwhelmed. After a few more moves, Gao Ye was repeatedly injured, narrowly avoiding serious wounds multiple times. He initially thought Jiang Yin, with the lowest cultivation level, would be his breakthrough point. Unexpectedly, she seemed to anticipate his moves, countering him at every turn. Half of his wounds were inflicted by her hand. Gao Ye couldn't be blamed for this; even as shrewd as he was, he couldn't have foreseen that his lethal moves had already been thoroughly exposed in a past life. Thus, in the current battle, he found himself struggling at every step. "Lunatic!" Escaping death once more, Gao Ye cursed in exasperation. Little did he know, the situation could get even worse. As the power of the Lotus Seat grew imminent, signaling its ascension, the ethereal black sand abruptly halted. The operation of the Sovereign Chart was forcibly interrupted! Gao Ye's eyelid twitched, a sense of foreboding rising within him. He urgently extricated himself, attempting to use the divine artifact to reach the divine hearing, seeking eternal life. But before he could act, a pure white figure burst from the scroll, holding an eerie long sword, and unhesitatingly stabbed at his chest. Caught off guard, Gao Ye hurriedly summoned the Soul Destroying Disk, intending to sacrifice blood to attract blood lightning and forcibly kill the opponent. Unexpectedly, Tang Muxi spoke with sorrow and knit brows: "Will you continue to rebel?" Gao Ye was stunned, initially thinking the words were directed at him. But when he saw the Soul Destroying Disk slip from his control and fly to the Divine Emperor's side, his eyes widened in disbelief. Unable to counter, he burned his soul fire to evade. The sword pierced through his shoulder, severing his entire left arm. Gao Ye's face turned pale, but he made no sound, immediately clutching his shoulder, his face full of shock as he stared at the figure. "Why?!" "Why?" Tang Muxi sneered. "Do you think my divine artifact can harm me?" With that, Tang Muxi suddenly shouted: "Netherworld Rune, Haunting Seal, Heavenly Demon Halberd, Nine Evil Sword, obey! Return quickly, no delays!" Upon her command, all the artifacts named, except the Haunting Seal, flew from Gao Ye's hands, out of his control, to gather beside the Divine Emperor. Even the Demon Imprisoning Blade, which wasn't mentioned, seemed restless, squirming uncomfortably like a boneless object in Jiang Yin's hand. Jiang Yin: ... Can you not be restless for a while? Her face expressionless, she patted the black blade. As if feeling a bit embarrassed, the Demon Imprisoning Blade indeed calmed down. Gao Ye, oblivious to this detail, was utterly stunned by the scene before him. "So that's it... all my efforts, undone by a single word from you? Truly, the Divine Emperor." Gao Ye finally recalled that the divine artifacts revered by the world for millennia were merely the companions of the person before him. Heaven and Earth's endowment—what could be more glorious than this? He laughed a few times, finding himself surrounded, cut a truly pathetic figure. Under the assault of the demon domain's forces, nearly ten thousand ghost spirits were reduced to a few thousand. Though tireless and unafraid of death, they still lacked power. Facing demon cultivators several times their number was akin to throwing eggs at a rock.