The Heavenly Demon Lord had only just broken free from his seal and was still far from his peak condition. Whether it was his physical capabilities, his bodily reactions, or his neural responses, everything was vastly inferior to his prime.
The three arrows were so fast that he had no room to react.
A glimmer of fear finally flickered through the Heavenly Demon Lord's eyes.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The three arrows, blazing as streaks of golden light, pierced straight into the Heavenly Demon Lord's body.
"Ahh!"
The Heavenly Demon Lord let out a miserable scream. A bolt of black light immediately shot out from his Dharma Body.
In the next instant, the Heavenly Demon Lord's towering, imposing Dharma Body—brimming with demonic might—shattered apart, dissolving into wisps of dark energy before being completely annihilated by the three arrows.
That black light was the Heavenly Demon Lord's Divine Soul. His reaction had been extraordinarily swift; the very moment his Dharma Body exploded, he chose to escape from within it.
In the time it takes to blink, the instant that black light shot free, his Dharma Body completely disintegrated.
Once a Divine Soul was separated from its Dharma Body without any special means of protection, it became extremely vulnerable. Especially under the blazing sun in broad daylight, a Divine Soul would be even more fragile beyond compare. Its combat power would plummet dramatically.
In that split second, the Divine Soul transformed into a wisp of black smoke and swooped downward. It was heading straight for where Zhongli Yan was located.
Zhongli Yan had been trapped by the Heavenly Demon Lord's black vortex and hadn't yet managed to break free. While he was still struggling, the black smoke dove straight down upon him without warning.
Zhongli Yan's entire body convulsed. In the next instant, the Heavenly Demon Lord's Divine Soul had completely invaded his Sea of Consciousness. The overwhelming demonic consciousness instantly crushed Zhongli Yan's own divine sense, usurping his body like a cuckoo nesting in another bird's home!
The Heavenly Demon Lord's Divine Soul had directly seized the body, occupying Zhongli Yan's physical form and obliterating Zhongli Yan's Divine Soul—all within the span of a single breath.
Even Lei Xiaotian and Chi Yun, who were closest to Zhongli Yan, couldn't react in time.
In the next moment, "Zhongli Yan" let out a strange, shrill scream: "Humans! Humans! This Lord will not let you off!"
With those words, "Zhongli Yan" immediately turned around. Rather than flying toward human territory, he shot off in the opposite direction, not daring to linger for even a single minute.
Though the soul seizure had succeeded, the mighty Heavenly Demon Lord's Divine Soul paired with Zhongli Yan's body was an obvious mismatch.
Such a mismatch was extraordinarily dangerous. If he didn't leave immediately, forget about the Ancient Divine Bow—even Lei Xiaotian and Chi Yun could pose a threat to him.
So, having successfully seized the body, the Heavenly Demon Lord looked neither left nor right and fled posthaste.
Jiang Chen saw this and without a second word, called to the Giant Stone Clan's eight brothers and the Vermilion Bird Divine Beast: "Pursue!"
But the Vermilion Bird Divine Beast shook its head. "No need to chase. You won't catch him."
The Heavenly Demon Lord had clearly employed a demonic secret technique; his escape speed was extraordinary, leaving those behind absolutely no chance of catching up.
Jiang Chen extended his spiritual sense to its absolute limit but could no longer track the Heavenly Demon Lord's silhouette.
After firing those three arrows, the Ancient Divine Bow's brilliant, galaxy-like radiance gradually dimmed. The three golden arrows, imbued with keen sentience, returned of their own accord.
Hovering around the Ancient Divine Bow, the three golden arrows that had shattered the Heavenly Demon Lord's Dharma Body still radiated a trace of chilling killing intent.
"Jiang Chen, what are you hesitating for? Bond with it already!" The Vermilion Bird Divine Beast couldn't help but urge.
Jiang Chen came back to his senses. He quickly steadied his spiritual consciousness, dripped his blood to claim the bow, and channeled his divine sense to commune with it.
The Ancient Divine Bow contained the infinite heritage and legacy of the Sacred One Sect and was deeply sentient. Those three arrows had been sealed beneath this sky dome since ancient times by a mysterious power.
Put simply, those three arrows had been prepared specifically for the Heavenly Demon Lord.
Once the spirit vein foundation of this place was destroyed, the Ancient Divine Bow would manifest directly, firing at whatever it sensed to be the greatest threat.
That was precisely why the three golden arrows had bypassed the three Nandou Li Clan cultivators and aimed straight for the Heavenly Demon Lord.
The instant Jiang Chen completed the blood-binding, the Nandou Li Clan's Lei Xiaotian and Chi Yun finally broke free from the Heavenly Demon Lord's black vortex. Their faces were panicked as they looked around frantically—there was not the slightest dignity of Heavenly-tier experts about them.
In that moment, they were like stray dogs without a home. They glanced about in every direction, obviously searching for Zhongli Yan's whereabouts. But Zhongli Yan had already been possessed by the Heavenly Demon Lord; the original Zhongli Yan had perished the very instant that happened.
Jiang Chen had just finished the blood-binding at that exact moment.
He nocked an arrow to the bow and aimed from afar at Lei Xiaotian and Chi Yun.
The Vermilion Bird Divine Beast called out: "Jiang Chen, get on."
Jiang Chen understood and leapt onto the Vermilion Bird Divine Beast's back. The Vermilion Bird Divine Beast transformed into a streak of red light and shot off toward the palace.
Lei Xiaotian and Chi Yun, seeing Jiang Chen drawing the Ancient Divine Bow with golden arrows nocked and aimed straight at them, were terrified out of their wits.
The two didn't dare linger for even a moment. They transformed into two streaks of light and frantically fled in the direction of the Nandou Li Clan.
They were Heavenly-tier experts after all, and when it came to fleeing for their lives, their speed was still formidable.
With a flash of light, the two vanished without a trace.