Half an hour later, Ling Tian propped himself up against a shattered Dragon Pillar, the glazed floor tiles beneath his feet having all turned to dust. The once majestic Demon Dragon Hall was left with only seven broken pillars jutting into the sky, and the faint light leaking from the shattered dome illuminated the black-robed youth's shoulder, revealing uncleaned dark-gold Dragon scale bloodstains on his neck.
"This is Fellow Daoist Qing You." Su Meier, her nine tails wrapped in bandages, lied without batting an eye, "His family has guarded the Eye of Gui Xu for generations, but a hundred years ago, all his clansmen had their souls extracted by that Demon Dragon for Artifact Refining..." She deliberately let her voice trail off in the wind, her fingertips lightly tapping the still-wet dragon blood on the ground.
The black-robed youth timely tossed out a bone horn carved with inverse scale patterns, and said in a hoarse voice, "This item is a reward for defeating the Demon Dragon. I am not a participant in the trial, so I cannot use it. I will give it to you all."
Dark-gold dragon blood dripped from his sleeve, transforming into a Dragon language explanation the moment Ling Tian touched the horn: "This horn is formed from the inverse scale of the Nether Shadow Dragon. Blowing it can summon its Soul Emergence Middle Stage Incarnation, lasting for fifteen minutes. It can be used once per day."
Ling Tian caressed the battle indentations on the horn as if deep in thought, when Su Meier suddenly linked her arm through his and pouted, "Brother Ling Tian, you were instantly stunned by the Dragon's might yesterday! Thankfully, Fellow Daoist Qing You suddenly appeared and saved us!"
The black-robed youth suddenly coughed violently, and more golden-red dragon blood seeped from beneath his robe. Su Meier secretly formed a hand seal, transforming the vital dragon blood he coughed up into bruised blood from an injury. Afterwards, Qing You said, "Two Fellow Daoists, I have suffered damage to my Foundation from the Demon Dragon and need to return to the Southern Sea immediately to recuperate. I must take my leave now. We shall meet again if fate allows."
"Uh... Fellow Daoist, I will never forget your life-saving grace. We shall meet again if fate allows." Although Ling Tian looked bewildered, he still politely bowed to the other party.
Before his words finished, the black-robed youth transformed into black mist and dissipated.
"Phew..." Su Meier, her face flushed, tugged at her collar and panted softly. She had finally managed to fool him... Looking at the teleportation array that appeared before them, and thinking that the final battle was imminent, the two decided to rest here for the night.
Ling Tian leaned against the broken Dragon Pillar, his fingertips caressing the cracks on the surface of the Demon Dragon horn. Su Meier's nine tails were immersed in a pool of water condensed from Moonlight, and her fingertips were grinding medicinal herbs she had just gathered. In the glazed cauldron hanging over the bonfire, century-old snow marrow was simmering into an amber-colored syrup, its sweet fragrance overpowering the smell of blood in the air.
"Brother Ling Tian, come, open your mouth, ah~."
She suddenly placed a jade spoon against Ling Tian's lips, "Today, let's try a different flavor. Taste my Qingqiu ancient method-brewed calming honey. It's no less delicious than your honey-roasted bear meat."
Ling Tian licked his tongue, savoring the aftertaste, and suddenly noticed a hint of blood in the honey. He looked down and caught sight of Su Meier's left hand hidden behind her back—beneath the bandage wrapped around her pinky finger, an old wound was seeping faint bloodstains.
"Don't move." Su Meier's nine tails suddenly wrapped around Ling Tian's wrist, and the tip of a tail, dipped in starlight, tied his hair. "The burnt hair tips from the Thunder Prison haven't been trimmed yet." Fox fire danced between his black strands, illuminating the battle scars into dark-green Dragon patterns.
"Tomorrow's battle will likely be a near-death experience. Meier, try to assist me from behind. I will protect you!"
Looking at the firmness and tenderness in Ling Tian's eyes, Su Meier embraced Ling Tian and fell backward onto the silver carpet formed by her nine tails. Specks of starlight filtered through the clouds, sprinkling upon them both. Tonight, the moonlight was truly beautiful.
After a night of rest, both were in optimal condition. Ling Tian took Su Meier's hand and stepped into the teleportation array ahead.
Eighth Heaven
From the moment they stepped out of the teleportation array, their vision seemed to be distorted. As far as the eye could see, it was a bizarre world. Thousands of twisted crystal pillars rose from the ground, with countless misaligned limbs floating on their dark-purple surfaces. Each crystal pillar was like a crumpled and then solidified mirror, reflecting figures that were sometimes headless, sometimes had three extra arms. Eerie green phosphorescent flames drifted in the gaps between the crystal clusters, their light refracting into a ghostly dance in the prisms, tearing the shadows of those who entered into seventeen or eighteen fragments.
Inside some crystal pillars were embedded solidified human faces, their eyeballs mechanically rotating with the movement of outsiders. When Ling Tian stepped on the accumulated water on the ground, all the crystal surfaces suddenly simultaneously reflected him with blood flowing from his seven orifices; the moment Su Meier raised her hand to touch the crystal wall, her fingertips felt the sticky sensation of a thousand piled corpses. Most bizarre were the suspended rhombic shattered mirrors—they sometimes converged into a human silhouette and whispered, and sometimes burst into silver needles piercing the Qi Sea, while the mirror fragments scattered on the ground spontaneously pieced together into a complete scroll of life, playing back the most forgotten memories of the defeated.
The two cautiously advanced, one after the other, when the surrounding purple crystal pillars suddenly reflected Ling Tian's distorted face. The entire space was like a shattered kaleidoscope, each rhombic mirror surface reflecting a different version of himself from different periods—a trembling child of seven holding a wooden sword, a youth of fifteen blocking the Young Lord of the Yinkui Sect in Tianzhen Pavilion, and even a future figure of old age with white hair and beard.
"Welcome, two of you, to the Heart Demon Prison."
The voice of the Mirror Spirit was pieced together from a myriad of echoes, and two human-shaped mirror surfaces fell from the dome. "Let the selves from another world... teach your current selves how to fight, Jiejiejie."
The moment the mirror shattered, two figures stepped out, bathed in light.
The body covered in dark-gold Dragon scale armor was half a head taller than Ling Tian's original body, and the edges of each inverse scale bore barbs, opening and closing with each breath like thousands of sharp teeth. Heart Demon Ling Tian's jade dragon sword was entirely black, and the sword's spine was no longer adorned with Dragon patterns, but with a hideous relief of the Nine-Headed Xiang Liu. When he bared his fangs, the black flames overflowing from his lips burned sulfur-smelling cracks in the air: "Look at this cowardly true form, I wonder how he even reached this Eighth Heaven."
Fingertips wreathed in black flames lightly tapped the Void Realm, and the Burning Sea raging flames released by Ling Tian's original body were entirely devoured.
"Hahahaha! Still using Flame Dragon Second Transformation?"
The Heart Demon suddenly flickered behind Ling Tian, striking his back heavily with the sword hilt, "When I annihilated the Yinkui Sect, I used the Fourth Transformation Heaven and Earth Annihilation!" His dark-gold Dragon eyes swept over the original body's right arm holding the sword, and with a sneer, the sword's edge slashed towards Su Meier's cheek, "You can't even protect your beloved fox, are you worthy of wielding the jade dragon sword?"
As the sword's edge approached, the moment Su Meier unfurled the Moonlight Barrier, the image had already appeared like a ghost, sneering close to her face. Ink-colored fox tails, like nine colossal sky-devouring pythons, coiled around the dome, their tips bearing barbed, dark-red bone spurs. The surface of Heart Demon Su Meier's Heavenly Dao Dan body was covered with blood-colored runes, and whenever the runes flowed, the surrounding Moonlight transformed into a foul-smelling blood rain. She gripped the original body's neck and pressed her against a crystal pillar, her fingertips leaving blood marks on the other's neck: "The qingqiu imperial seal is truly wasted on you."
The image suddenly pulled a strand of white hair from the original body, and the hair burned to ashes in her palm: "Your grandmother's hair was also this white when she self-destructed her demonic core." With that, the Heart Demon's nine tails jabbed their bone spurs towards the original body.
"Qingqiu Secret Technique! Body-Protecting Moonlight!" The Moonlight halo that appeared with the incantation repelled the Heart Demon's bone spurs.
"Is that all? Watch closely, this is how Moonlight should be used!" Under the blood moon, the original body's Body-Protecting Moonlight was corroded into a thousand holes.
Amidst mocking laughter, the two Heart Demons floated back-to-back in mid-air, causing the entire mirror domain to tremble. Dark-gold and ink-colored Spiritual Qi intertwined to form a Heavenly Dao Taiyin diagram, pressing the two original bodies to their knees.
What was even more despair-inducing was that the oppressive aura surging around the Heart Demons was actually at the Immortal Realm Middle Stage Great Perfection!