Seeing Yang Kai trapped so easily, the fire bird once again wore an expression of smug contempt. It opened its mouth wide, and a sharp tongue of flame shot forth, transforming into a sword-like attack aimed straight at Yang Kai's face. It moved with the speed of rolling thunder, its force utterly unstoppable.
It looked as though it intended to seize this chance to take Yang Kai's life.
Crack, crack, crack...
Over a hundred Haotian Shields guarding in front of Yang Kai shattered in succession. The purple shield only managed to block for an instant before the purple glow on its surface suddenly dimmed, appearing to have lost most of its spiritual energy. It was sent flying to the side and crashed to the ground.
In the blink of an eye, the fire sword had already reached Yang Kai, and it seemed his life was about to be forfeit.
Just then, a pitch-black, blade-like attack flew out from in front of Yang Kai. That blade seemed to tear through space itself—silent, without the slightest fluctuation of energy, utterly mysterious.
Space Blade!
Yang Kai had already concluded that the techniques he could muster with his Divine Sense and Sacred Yuan were no match for this artifact spirit. That it could actually use the artifact refining furnace to fight against him had completely exceeded his expectations.
Artifact spirits were already extremely difficult to deal with, and now that it had also driven the furnace that birthed it, its ferocity had risen to yet another level. To continue fighting it like this would be tantamount to seeking death!
So Yang Kai used his trump card without hesitation.
He was still fairly confident in his Space Blade. Although the artifact spirit's abilities were extraordinary—it was naturally proficient in fire-attribute laws—spatial power was a rare and devastatingly powerful force. Yang Kai had considerable experience with the laws of space. Even if he hadn't fully mastered them, dealing with a single artifact spirit shouldn't be too difficult.
Sure enough, when the Space Blade met the fire sword, the blade-like crack twisted and warped under the violent turbulence of the powerful fire spiritual energy, unable to maintain its stability, and quickly vanished. But before it disappeared, it had already swallowed the fire sword into the rift of the void.
Yang Kai's crisis was resolved in an instant.
Before the artifact spirit could make another move, several more Space Blades leisurely materialized. Half of them shot toward the artifact spirit, while the other half swept around Yang Kai's sides. In an instant, the force binding him was severed as though cut clean through, and he regained his freedom.
The moment his Sacred Yuan flowed again, Yang Kai immediately retreated. He raised both hands, and a foot-long Space Blade shot forth, carving an opening in the red barrier that had been sealing the passage. The gap was small, but it was enough for Yang Kai to pass through safely.
The next instant, Yang Kai had already dashed into the passage stretching several hundred zhang long, the furious cries of the artifact spirit echoing from behind.
The spirit had obviously been thrown into disarray by the Space Blades, leaving it no time to concern itself with Yang Kai's retreat.
Yang Kai hadn't expected his Space Blades to destroy the artifact spirit. The fire spiritual energy the spirit wielded was too pure and vast for his current Space Blades to fully devour. Catching it off guard and creating an escape opportunity was more than satisfactory.
His only option now was to leave this Earth Lung Fire Pool as quickly as possible, find another place to refine the Mysterious Yin Sunflower Water, and then—once his strength had improved, if there was still time—return to settle scores with it.
Just as Yang Kai had anticipated, he had barely covered a hundred zhang when it seemed the fire bird had already intercepted all the Space Blades. Immediately, a searing wave of heat surged toward him from behind.
Stealing a glance behind him, Yang Kai felt his soul nearly leave his body in terror.
Far down the passage, the artifact spirit had wrapped itself into a ball of red light and was pursuing him relentlessly, utterly unwilling to let him go.
The entire passage became unbearably hot. The fire bird hadn't even arrived yet, but its dense fire spiritual energy had already spread throughout. The stone walls on all sides of the passage began to melt instantly.
Yang Kai didn't stop running and pushed his speed even higher. But compared to an artifact spirit born without a physical form, his speed was still slightly lacking. The exit of the passage was within sight, yet the gap between him and the spirit was steadily closing. A flash of ruthless resolve crossed Yang Kai's eyes. He was just about to turn and strike when a strange cry rang out from behind him.
The cry was filled with unwillingness and fury. At the same time, the fire spiritual energy that had flooded the entire passage withdrew rapidly, like a receding tide.
Yang Kai was startled. He turned around again, a look of pleasant surprise in his eyes. Instead of continuing to run, he stopped in his tracks and gazed toward the spirit with great interest.
At a distance of roughly fifty zhang, the fire bird was thrashing about in the air. But now, chain-like energy bands had appeared across its body, with runes flowing along the links—clearly some kind of sealing technique. The chains enveloped the bird completely, binding it tight.
It had only cried out a few times before the chains suddenly constricted, biting deep into the fire bird's body.
The unwillingness in the fire bird's eyes deepened. But with a resounding boom, its body exploded, dissolving into motes of fluorescent light that vanished without a trace.
Destroyed? Yang Kai furrowed his brow. Then, after a moment's thought, he quickly sent out his divine sense to probe into the stone chamber.
Inside the stone chamber, the artifact refining furnace that had been hovering moments ago had settled back down. Everything was quiet, having returned to the state it was in when Yang Kai had first entered. But the bizarre bird pattern on the furnace still remained. The only difference was that the bird pattern now seemed restless and agitated, constantly moving and darting across the furnace's surface, yet never leaving it.