Your Spell Version is Too Low!

The Eighth Layer!

Over a dozen heavy fists of black sand, howling with terrifying power, slammed into a three-legged demon toad covered in venomous sores, its skin the color of gold.

BANG!

A sickening squelch echoed out. The demon toad was obliterated by the absolute force before it could even utter a cry, dissolving into a foul-smelling puddle of gore and viscera.

The Spiritual Points on the back of Qi Yun’s hand returned to [3,419].

"I’m a little tired..."

He rubbed his brow, a hint of weariness on his face. Fighting nonstop from the Sixth Layer all the way to the Eighth had left even Qi Yun feeling a little exhausted.

’A little?’

Du Yunian and Shen Fan gulped, staring at the surrounding devastation littered with severed limbs and mangled corpses.

From the Sixth Layer to the Eighth, the two of them had been nothing more than spectators, not even getting a chance to make a move.

It had been Qi Yun, and Qi Yun alone, who had carved a path of destruction through it all with unstoppable force.

The speed at which the Spiritual Points on the back of his hand had increased was simply staggering.

The two of them, working together, had fought from the First Layer to the Fifth, and had accumulated less than seven hundred points combined.

Yet here was Qi Yun, all by himself, with over thirty-four hundred Spirit Points.

The disparity was so great it was almost insulting.

What Du Yunian and Shen Fan didn’t know, however, was that Qi Yun had already spent three thousand Spirit Points back on the Fifth Layer.

The total number of Spiritual Points he had actually earned was closer to eight thousand.

"If our Champion Scholar is tired, you can rest for a while. The two of us will stand guard for you." As if completely forgetting the time he’d been skewered, Du Yunian put on his signature smile and softly made the suggestion. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"You two are grievously injured yourselves. How could you possibly stand guard for me? It’s just... I have less than ten percent of my True Qi remaining..."

Waving his hand, Qi Yun’s face turned slightly pale, feigning weakness.

’Huh? We’re grievously injured?’

Shen Fan and Du Yunian exchanged a stunned glance and were just about to ask about it.

But then a sudden, bone-chilling cold washed over them, as if ice water had been dumped over their heads. The hair on their arms stood straight up.

The next instant!

The solid wooden "ground" beneath their feet suddenly twisted and warped.

Without warning, countless twisted, pale, and lifeless human faces emerged, a dense mass that filled their entire vision.

All at once, the faces opened their dark, bottomless maws and let out a sharp, chaotic, and terrifying shriek—a sound capable of tearing one’s very Divine Soul apart!

"Hundred Ghosts Howling Together? Isn’t that a unique Magic of the Yellow Springs Netherworld?"

The shriek hit their ears, and both Du Yunian and Shen Fan let out a muffled grunt.

It felt as if their heads had been struck by a sledgehammer. Warm blood trickled from their ears, their vision pulsed with darkness, and their Divine Souls violently shook.

Their souls were on the verge of being completely shattered by the terrifying sonic assault!

Hearing Du Yunian’s subconscious cry of alarm, Qi Yun’s gaze shifted slightly. With a wave of his hand, he enveloped the two of them in Abyssal Iron Sand.

The Abyssal Iron Sand was heavy and dense, and it could also absorb illusory forces like Divine Sense, making it the perfect counter to the sonic attack of the Hundred Ghosts Howling Together.

"So impatient. Did you really believe me when I said I had less than ten percent of my True Qi left?" The pale, weak look vanished from his face in an instant, and Qi Yun snorted, a sharp glint in his eyes.

At Qi Refining Fifth Layer Perfection, his body had been tempered and transformed, greatly strengthening his perception of unknown dangers.

That was why he’d felt something was off the moment he stepped onto this layer.

He hadn’t expected that by merely feigning a moment of weakness, these clowns lying in ambush would be so eager to make their move.

If these had been Holy Sect Disciples,

they wouldn’t have so much as farted without being absolutely certain of their success.

Hearing this, the Yellow Springs Netherworld Cultivator who had launched the sneak attack felt his face darken, and he couldn’t help but retort:

"You think all the cultivators in the world are a bunch of bastards just like you Holy Sect Disciples!"

"Heh heh, so you’re a fellow practitioner of the Demon Dao."

Qi Yun grinned, keenly picking up on the nuance in the other’s words.

After all, only those of the Demon Dao would call the Infinite Demon Sect the Holy Sect. The Righteous Dao would only ever call them the Demon Sect.

"But even if we are brethren of the Demon Dao, trespassing in our Holy Sect’s Secret Realm and attacking our Holy Sect’s Disciples is still a death sentence!"

The smile vanished from his face. Qi Yun formed a Spell with a single hand, and his robes began to billow and snap as if in a gale. A terrifyingly ferocious heatwave, brimming with monstrous power, rolled out from him.

Nanming Demon Fire!

Ignite!

BOOM—

A terrifying, crimson-purple light erupted from Qi Yun’s eyes, making them look like two burning, demonic suns.

A ring of violent, frenzied crimson-purple flames exploded from his feet like a volcanic eruption, spreading madly in all directions!

The Nanming Demon Fire was the bane of all illusions and evils under the heavens!

The moment the Demon Fire touched the ghosts summoned by the Yellow Springs Netherworld Cultivator, it was like a spark hitting hot oil. They all went up in a spectacular conflagration.

"AHHH—!!!"

Screams a hundred times more wretched and agonizing than the previous "Hundred Ghosts Howling Together" instantly filled the Eighth Layer.

The ignited ghostly faces twisted and wailed in the flames before dissolving into wisps of green smoke.

"Puh..."

Never expecting this Holy Sect Disciple’s methods to be so terrifying, Yang Sanming’s Magic was shattered. He violently spat out a stream of black blood, his skin turning a bruised purple as if countless hands were strangling him.

"Stop just watching! Help me!!!"

At the brink of death, Yang Sanming could no longer afford to hide, shrieking with the last of his strength.

"Yang Dayan, you motherfucker! Why couldn’t you just die quietly instead of dragging us down with you?!"

The moment his voice fell, several furious curses immediately echoed out from the ethereal mist and the shadows of the branches. The voices were elusive, their exact locations impossible to pinpoint:

"Yang Dayan! You son of a...!

Couldn’t you have just died on your own? Did you have to drag us all down with you?!"

’Quite a crowd.’

His gaze swept across the area. Qi Yun made a quick calculation with his fingers as points of bloody light stirred the secrets of the heavens, swiftly locking onto the positions of several people in the vicinity.

"Since you’re already here, why not come out and have an open chat?"

With a flick of his finger, he sent a pulse of energy to knock Yang Sanming unconscious. Then, the vast Magical Power within Qi Yun’s body erupted like a bursting dam.

Countless grains of Iron Sand swirled together and took shape, instantly forming over a dozen immense iron chains that writhed like black, horned dragons.

A dark light flowed over the chains’ surfaces. Imbued with terrifying strength and an unstoppable piercing intent, they lashed out indiscriminately, striking and strangling at the seemingly empty space all around!

The iron chains filled the air, overwhelmingly tyrannical!

The air cracked and boomed wherever they passed.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A rapid series of muffled impacts rang out!

The seemingly empty space began to ripple like the surface of water.

Over a dozen Cultivators were forced to reveal themselves. They all wore uniform black robes, their faces were pale, and their gazes were as cold as ice.

More than a dozen pairs of icy eyes, like those of venomous snakes, instantly locked onto the figure standing in the center of the area, his hands clasped behind his back and his robes stirring in a nonexistent wind.

Qi Yun looked up at these Netherworld Cultivators, who were wreathed in Yin Qi. He was just about to speak when he suddenly felt a strange tremor.

"Hm?"

...