Tianming and Ye Lingfeng followed the soulfiend's lead to the weapon. Even though it seemed to have forgotten matters long past, its short term memory was rather impressive. It led them through the Demon City, taking hundreds of turns before reaching a glowing heavenly pattern formation.
The two charged forward and saw a sphere-shaped underground labyrinth, but it didn't look like the one they had found the Crimsonblood Galaxy within. This one was different.
There was no sea of ants here, and right in the middle of the labyrinth was a transparent heavenly pattern formation. Tianming could indeed see a blue weapon right in the center. As it didn't look dangerous, Tianming jumped into it without hesitation. He stretched out his black arm and easily tore apart the heavenly pattern formation. Before he even gave the weapon a good look, he took it and jumped back to Ye Lingfeng.
"Go, now!"
They had to hurry and return to the altar now that they had the weapon. Based on what Tianming felt from Ling'er's Love, he had a premonition that she would awaken soon, possibly due to the innate godchild soul's influence.
On the way back, he took a good look at the weapon and was delighted to find that it was a chain. It was blue all over and had ninety-nine rings, each one looking like a star field. It was heavily dotted with stars all over. Ninety-nine azure saintly heavenly patterns were inscribed on the rings, making the stars shimmer.
It was easily the most beautiful weapon Tianming had ever seen. It felt like he was holding a river of boundless stars. With a simple swing, he also noticed that the rings could be stretched really far apart.
"This chain's range is up to three thousand meters!" he said with shock. In other words, as long as he had enough space and a good vantage point, he would be able to attack up to three kilometers away. Normally, the ninety-nine rings were only some tens of meters long, so it was suited for close combat as well.
"Even though I can't use the fourth Shenxiao Sword Art strike with this, I can infuse Invincible Sword Ki into the chain to execute whip arts." Tianming excelled the best at whip arts. Currently, he was using the Life-Death Whip Art, but that was only an earth-ranked art, a little too simple.
"I'll be able to learn other whip arts that work well with the Invincible Sword Body once I leave." Invincible Sword Body's biggest benefit was that its foundation was Tianming's body itself. He could use the Invincible Sword Ki however he wanted with a single thought, even channeling them through his fist or fingertips, so they would naturally work with this weapon as well.
"What’s this whip called?" Tianming didn't know the weapon's name, nor its origin. With Feiling out of commission, she wouldn't be able to help him out with her encyclopedic knowledge, either—if she even knew about it in the first place. "Forget it, I'll name you myself. Since each ring is like a star field and you can stretch three thousand meters long, I'll call you Three-Thousand Starfield."
"Sounds like it'll work great in tandem with Crimsonblood Galaxy, a match made in heaven!" Ying Huo said.
"That's right! We'll fight together!" Ye Lingfeng excitedly said.
"Why does that sound a little weird coming from you?" Tianming said.
"There's nothing weird about it. Feng is pretty decent. He's someone you can rely on for the rest of your life, you know." The fiery bird giggled.
"To hell with you." Tianming choked the fowl out of annoyance. First, it messed with Bai Zijin, and now it was messing with Ye Lingfeng. Those two were too innocent to know that they were being made fun of, though.
Since Three-Thousand Starfield was something the soulfiend found, it could be said to be a gift from Ye Lingfeng to pay him back for the one he had given him.
"You've exchanged marital gifts, I see," Ying Huo said.
"Grraaaagh!"
......
Not long after, they were back in the vicinity of the altar.
"Feng, let's stop cultivating for now and start making our final preparations. Ling'er will wake up in a few days, so we'll be counting on you."
"Alright. I've been analyzing lots of different methods in the past few days, so I'll do my best."
The atmosphere turned grim. The dead silence in the Demon City allowed Tianming to hear his own frantic heartbeat rather clearly. Time slowly ticked away, and soon, six days had passed.
"Feng!" The moment the necklace shook, Tianming signalled Ye Lingfeng to project his soul into his sea of consciousness so that he could hide there. His soul form shrunk infinitesimally small, making him really hard to discover. Next, the soulfiend opened its mouth and swallowed Ye Lingfeng's 'corpse'. This was one of the methods he had come up with. As they only had a little time, whether they succeeded or failed, the soulfiend would have to send his 'corpse' over. As for the details, they had discussed them countless times.
"Feng," Tianming said, taking a deep breath.
"Don't worry, Sister Ling'er will be fine, I promise. We won't lose!" Ye Lingfeng whispered.
"Alright."
Tianming didn't want to put too much pressure on Ye Lingfeng, but he didn't dare to imagine how he would react if he really did lose this one chance. Perhaps there would be no future for him anymore.
"If Ling'er is no longer in this world, I will no longer exist. Even though so many people placed their hopes in me... I'm sorry...." he said to himself.
When he finished, the necklace wildly shook in his spatial ring. If he didn't take it out, the ring itself might shatter. The moment the necklace appeared in his hand, Feiling came bursting out of it.
Her eyes shone a blinding white. When she set her sights on Tianming, a powerful spiritual will came pressing down on him. After that, she manifested Celestial Wings and flew toward the altar. Though she could use the wings on herself, she wasn't as fast and couldn't use them for too long.
However, the innate godchild's soul would never know why Tianming wasn’t staying far away from the altar, and gave her this chance instead. There was no way she would suspect normal mortals like Tianming and Ye Lingfeng would be in possession of a spiritual projection ability. The only time Ye Lingfeng had used it was when Feiling wasn't around.
In fact, if the innate godchild's soul only awakened from time to time, there was even less chance she would know about Ye Lingfeng. There was no way for her to know that the two had a method they could use to kill her soul when she was at her weakest.
"Last time, it was my carelessness that let her use Soulburn, but the same trick won't work twice. Not to mention, if I die, she dies! I'll just see what you can do about it!" the soul said as Tianming approached. Closing in toward her was the soulfiend, of which she was horribly terrified.
The soulfiend currently couldn't control itself. However, Tianming and Ye Lingfeng had broken through two levels each and were much stronger, so they could keep it under control, despite it rampaging around. Thus, they carried out their plan to use the soulfiend to put up a show.
Tianming used his three lifebound beasts to hold the soulfiend back for some sense of realism. He was trying to look like he was preventing the soulfiend from gobbling Feiling up. He, on the other hand, followed her closely from behind, shattering one Spatial Wall after another as he approached.
The innate godchild's soul could only do what Feiling could, despite having a vastly more powerful soul. Currently, she was flying at the very front, followed by Tianming giving chase and the soulfiend and his beasts behind him. Soon, they came to the underground labyrinth. Though Tianming was now much faster, he maintained his distance and chose to slowly approach Feiling until the moment she reached the altar, whereupon he boosted ahead.
"Don't run!" he yelled. It was a crucial moment and he felt sweat forming on his forehead. The slightest mistake could cost him everything. This was rather trying on his mental fortitude, and he felt like he was short of breath.
In a fraction of a second, the two of them reached the front of the crystal coffin. The soul smiled, thinking that she would succeed as long as she could send the acquired godchild into the coffin. In fact, if not for Tianming tearing open the formations in the tomb and the appearance of the soul servants, she would've gotten her way much sooner.
"I shall defy the heavens and revive, leaving only one me behind!" she said with a giggle. The next moment, the coffin opened and she immediately charged into it.
"Feng!" This was the moment! Tianming stretched his black arm out and stopped the coffin from closing. There was a loud wham and Tianming felt some pain coming from his black arm for the first time. It appeared that the crystal coffin was also a powerful item. Had it been his right hand, it would no doubt have been crushed to powder. Even so, that was already enough.
The instant the coffin door was jammed, Ye Lingfeng came out from his sea of consciousness and fused into the innate godchild with Feiling after traveling through Tianming's arm.
The moment the innate and acquired godchildren fused, the Feiling within the crystal coffin's lips shook, then shifted into a smile. With a loud wham, a powerful force came shooting out of the coffin, sending Tianming flying. Right after that, the coffin closed back up.
"Open it!" Tianming raved madly as he attacked the coffin. Though he knew it was all up to Ye Lingfeng, he still had to keep up the act. The angrier and more desperate he was, the more the innate godchild's soul would let down her guard and gleefully watch him suffer, thereby neglecting Ye Lingfeng's presence.
This was the method the soulfiend had suggested; the two hadn’t just randomly come up with this idea. For the three of them to be able to fight the soul of a god to this extent was already a miracle in and of itself.
"Ling'er, survive! After this tribulation, you'll transform into a new you. You'll definitely be able to shake the world! You must win!"
Now, all that remained was to witness the unraveling of fate.
"Stop knocking. I have a gift for you, so make sure you enjoy it," said the 'Feiling' in the coffin.
"What?"