Buddhist chanting rose to a thunderous crescendo as countless silver runes surged outward from the net, coalescing in an instant into phantom images of massive stars that plummeted straight down.
Booming detonations shook the earth!
Everything within a radius of over ten li was completely swallowed by blinding silver light.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the void turned violently turbulent, and gray hurricanes materialized out of thin air, piercing straight up into the sky. They swept everything nearby into their midst and ground it to dust.
Earth-shattering explosions continued to erupt from within the silver net, but the true situation within was entirely obscured by the dazzling spiritual radiance, impossible to make out in the slightest.
The gold-robed young man stood high in the air with one hand controlling the entire net and the other clasped behind his back. He seemed utterly unconcerned about the three Sacred Spirits escaping, the picture of absolute leisure.
After a full quarter of an hour, the roaring within the silver net gradually subsided and eventually fell completely silent.
The young man's gaze shifted. After sweeping his spiritual sense downward, a cold smile appeared on his face, and his fingers gripping the silver net pulled back.
With a ripping sound!
The massive silver net shattered inch by inch in an instant.
The hurricanes, silver light, and everything else flickered and vanished without a trace, as if the entire spectacle moments ago had been nothing more than an illusion.
However, the towering mountain peak below had been reduced by more than half its original height.
Amid the ruins atop the devastated summit, three faintly glowing objects hovered silently in the low sky.
A silver ancient mirror roughly a zhang across, a half-section of emerald bamboo over ten zhang tall, and a hazy azure sphere of light.
The moment the gold-robed young man laid eyes on these three items, a flash of delight crossed his face, and he flicked his sleeve downward.
A swath of silver mist shot out, swept the three objects into the air, and after a few flickers, they landed in the young man's hand.
"Just as expected. As long as I wipe away their spiritual intelligence and refine them properly back home, these three treasures should serve well enough." The gold-robed young man carefully inspected the items in his hand, murmuring with a satisfied look on his face.
"But these few items alone aren't nearly enough. If I could get my hands on a few more, I might be able to barely put that technique of mine to use. However, I've heard the Spirit Race's Han Sect also seems to have a Mahayana-stage powerhouse guarding it. In my current state, going up against them would be quite troublesome." After stowing the items away, the young man muttered to himself with a brief moment of contemplation.
His expression flickered uncertainly for a while before he suddenly let out a cold snort, having reached a decision. Then, with a flash of golden light across his body, he transformed into a blinding golden streak that tore through the sky and vanished into the distance.
The area around the devastated mountain peak suddenly fell deserted, with no living figure in sight. Everything was eerily silent.
But roughly half an hour after the young man's departure, a humming sound suddenly emanated from the mountain, and a sphere of red light shot out from a pile of rubble.
The ball of light was no larger than a fist. After a single flash, it halted in midair, revealing a translucent purple eyeball-like object within.
The eyeball spun in the air a few times, then suddenly fixed its gaze in the direction the gold-robed young man had fled, remaining perfectly still.
This object was clearly an artifact under someone's control, and it had managed to evade even the gold-robed young man's perception — a testament to its extraordinary nature.
The purple eyeball suddenly began rotating again, then flickered between light and darkness, yet without producing the slightest sound.
Making the whole scene appear utterly eerie.
Almost simultaneously, in a golden palace situated somewhere far away amid a sea of clouds, an elderly man with white crane-like hair and a youthful complexion sat in a dark wooden chair, staring intently at a white crystal ball floating before him. His expression was extremely grim.
On the crystal ball's surface, vivid images shifted slowly, displaying the very scene of the gold-robed young man defeating the three great Sacred Spirits, with faint traces of spoken words drifting through as well.
When the old man heard the young man utter the words "Spirit Slave," his expression changed several times in rapid succession, but with a fleeting glance, he immediately composed himself.
However, as the crystal ball's images shifted to reveal the silver giant net the gold-robed young man had unleashed, the old man shot up from his chair with a start and let out a low roar:
"The Spirit-Confiscating Heavenly Net! So it's this very artifact. Impossible — even someone who truly descended from the Immortal Realm shouldn't be able to bring something like this down!"