After all, the secret art of Demon Blood Threads was capable of breaking through the aura of a Return Void Realm powerhouse, making it a technique of considerable power. And generally speaking, the more powerful a secret art was, the greater its restrictions. The number of Demon Blood Threads was the biggest limiting factor of this art!
Yet this alluring Sect Master of the Demon Blood Sect had somehow cultivated two Demon Blood Threads. Judging from the aura emanating from within them, both threads possessed equally formidable power. Moreover, her own vital energy and blood were abundant, with no signs of depletion whatsoever. No one could fathom how she had managed such a feat.
On this point alone, her position as Sect Master was well-deserved.
The instant those two Demon Blood Threads were launched, they twisted and writhed, unleashing torrents of blood-red mist from within before transforming into two crimson snakes.
Yang Kai's eyes brightened at the sight, and an excited expression crossed his face.
His Golden Blood Threads were nowhere near capable of this. It seemed his earlier suspicions were correct — there was far more untapped potential within the Demon Blood Threads secret art.
He had been able to cultivate Golden Blood Threads entirely because, back when he had left the Flowing Flame Sand Field, he had helped a Demon Blood Sect disciple named Deng Ning. From him, he had obtained the upper half of the Demon Blood Threads secret art. Though it was only half, it hadn't hindered his Cultivation.
Yang Kai had long suspected that the lower half of the art described how to wield the Demon Blood Threads with greater flexibility and master their myriad transformations.
Now it seemed his guess had been right all along! However, the Demon Blood Threads secret art was the Demon Blood Sect's most jealously guarded technique, and the lower half would never have been accessible to an outsider like him.
Seeing the transformation technique of the Demon Blood Threads now, Yang Kai was naturally thrilled.
Since cultivating the Golden Blood Threads, this secret art had served him tremendously, playing a crucial role in numerous battles. If he could truly comprehend the mysteries hidden within the lower half, the art's power would multiply manifold.
A flurry of thoughts flashed through Yang Kai's mind in an instant. Meanwhile, the two crimson snakes had seized the white rabbit's moment of distraction and lunged before it, their jaws gaping wide to reveal venomous fangs. One latched onto the rabbit's head, the other clamped down on its tail, refusing to let go.
From those fangs, streams of blood-red energy poured into the white rabbit's body, as though seeking to corrupt its spiritual power.
The Heaven and Earth Spirit was caught completely off guard by the sudden assault. By the time it recovered from Jin Shi's attack, it found itself restrained from both front and rear. Rage boiled over within it. It thrashed and writhed, but no matter how it struggled, it could not shake free of the two blood snakes' entanglement.
In fact, in that brief span, the two blood snakes had pumped even more blood-red energy into the white rabbit's body, leaving it in a state of mounting mental fog.
The Heaven and Earth Spirit sensed the growing danger. No longer daring to remain in place, its form suddenly collapsed — the white rabbit dissolving into streams of pure, frigid energy that attempted to flee the area.
A tinkling, feminine laugh rang out, imbued with a soul-captivating force that made every person present feel their blood surge and a restlessness stir deep within their hearts.
The Demon Blood Sect's alluring Sect Master hovered gracefully in midair. With a casual flick of her finger, seemingly devoid of any effort, the two blood snakes transformed once more. They reverted to two Demon Blood Threads, instantly twisted together, and then abruptly split apart — becoming a multitude of smaller, crimson filaments.
Those crimson filaments wove and intertwined at extraordinary speed, forming a massive blood-red net that descended upon the Heaven and Earth Spirit from above.
There was no escape. The Heaven and Earth Spirit was snared squarely within the blood-red net.
"Seal!" the alluring Sect Master called out sweetly. With a thought, the blood-red net constricted violently, tightening around the Heaven and Earth Spirit until it was bound fast. No matter how it charged and thrashed within, it could not break free from the net's hold.
In the blink of an eye, it had become the beautiful woman's captive.
A smile played at the beautiful woman's lips, tinged with a hint of smug satisfaction. She beckoned toward the blood net with a finger, and it drifted toward her as if alive, floating lightly through the air.
But then, a sudden change erupted.
A piercing, crystalline cry — unmistakably that of a phoenix — shattered the air. Accompanying it came a power so terrifying it made one's soul tremble, descending from the heavens above. Every person present — the two injured women of Ice Heart Valley, the triumphant Jin Shi, and the alluring Sect Master — turned pale with shock, their eyes darting in alarm.
From behind a towering iceberg, a colossal bird soared into the sky. It spanned over ten zhang in length, its entire body pristine white and flawless, as though carved from ice jade. The bird had no physical form — it was merely a phantasmal projection. Yet even so, it exuded an overwhelming dominance, as if nothing in this world deserved its attention. Its eyes contained boundless authority.
Anyone who met its gaze was seized by an overwhelming sense of being as insignificant as an ant.
"Ice Phoenix!" The two Ice Heart Valley women nearly had their eyes pop out of their heads. They identified the great bird at once, and beyond their shock, their eyes blazed with fervent adoration.
There was no other way about it — Ice Heart Valley cultivated ice-attribute Cultivation arts, and in this world, the Ice Phoenix was the supreme ancient creature most attuned to the laws of ice. The totem that every disciple of Ice Heart Valley worshipped was an Ice Phoenix.
But they had only ever seen depictions, never a real one. The creature before them now wasn't a true ancient sacred spirit, but it bore at least some connection to that heaven-defying existence.
In the span of mere moments, these two women had experienced the wildest of emotional swings. First, they had believed they would perish at the Heaven and Earth Spirit's hands. Then, at the critical moment, someone had appeared and used a powerful secret art to subdue the ice-attribute spirit. And before they could even catch their breath, an Ice Phoenix phantom had manifested before them.
Their emotions were a tangled storm. They had never imagined that while they had been fighting the Heaven and Earth Spirit, so many outsiders had been watching from the sidelines all along.