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Xiao Yan’s previous strike combined the Heavenly Catastrophe’s power with that of his Penta Fire Lotus. That energy was so berserk that even Cardinal Tribulations Beginning Stage cultivators would be unable to resist. The Cangming Swordmaster was also severely injured from this collision.

If not for the fact that the Cangming Swordmaster had channeled his own energy to the highest possible level, that impact would have inflicted even heavier injuries upon his body.

The Cangming Ancient Sword was powerful, but lines of thin cracks began to appear on the surface of its blade. If the Cangming Swordmaster hadn’t infused his immortal soul into the sword, the Cangming Ancient Sword would have been destroyed by Xiao Yan.

However, Xiao Yan’s situation was even worse, and his mana and aura grew as bleak as ever.

For Xiao Yan, the Penta Fire Lotus was extremely powerful but the pressure it heaped upon him was also very intense and would damage his own immortal soul to a certain extent.

He didn’t use the Nefarious Spectral Primordial Fire or the Heavenly Apocalyptic Blaze to form the fire lotus as they were too violent and far too unstable. This meant that he couldn’t channel the Heaven Fire Lotus at the fastest possible speed and he wasn’t completely burnt out either.

Still, his power and mana sunk inevitably sunk into a nadir.

Even channeling the power of the Heavenly Catastrophe was a little challenging and he had the thought but not the strength to do so, and the Heavenly Catastrophe’s red light gradually became dim and dull.

He wasn’t in the best of states, and it also became extremely difficult to open the crack of the Netherworld Sea.

The Cangming Swordmaster was naturally aware of everything at the first possible moment. He laughed into the sky and forcefully suppressed his injuries and garnered the rest of his courage before he threw himself at Xiao Yan once more.

The green sword radiance flickered as it tore through the air and stabbed Xiao Yan like a meteor shower.

“Junior, your prowess at the first-level immortal soul stage is laudable, but if you’re still far from being able to stop the Saintly Celestial Sword from being reborn today!”

The strengths and weaknesses of Xiao Yan’s Heaven Fire Lotus was pretty much known to the entire world today. The Cangming Swordmaster remained inside Mount Shu for a long time, but he was well aware.

If Xiao Yan’s strongest strike couldn’t do anything to him, then Xiao Yan’s fate would be in his grasp afterwards.

Part of the Cangming Swordmaster’s attention was redirected to his battle against the Tiangang Swordmaster using the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation. At the same time, he continued to watch Chu Yang, Luo Qingwu and Zhuge Zhan.

At this point, even though he was confident of slaying Xiao Yan, who was in an extremely exhausted state, However, he was injured himself and if Luo Qingwu and the two others came forward now, it would become very difficult for him to murder Xiao Yan even if the three of them couldn’t do anything to him.

The Cangming Swordmaster’s heart began to rush as he developed an ominous feeling.

This feeling originated from Xiao Yan before him, and it pushed him to move forward without hesitation to eliminate this threat as soon as possible.

Xiao Yan appeared unkempt and defeated, but his expression was still calm and composed. His eyes were focused as he directed the remnants of his mana and did all he could to gather the Heavenly Catastrophe’s power to defend protect himself. He broke apart move after move as he struggled to resist the Cangming Swordmaster’s repeated assault.

The ferocious and devilish red light sparkled once more and blocked the Cangming Swordmaster’s green sword radiance.

Xiao Yan’s current state meant he was no longer able to control the Heavenly Catastrophe’s power at whim. His spirit was willing, but his flesh was weak, and if he forced the issue, he would lose control entirely.

The Cangming Swordmaster’s onslaught became quicker. He was experienced, and his eyes were sharp and immediately realized where Xiao Yan’s problems lay in. As long as he applied sufficient pressure, Xiao Yan would be forced to increase the Heavenly Catastrophe’s power and he would end up losing control of it. Eventually, Xiao Yan would be the first to be consumed by that fearsome and evil red light.

However, even though the situation became increasingly in his advantage, the ominous feeling in the Cangming Swordmaster’s heart grew stronger as well.

“If this fellow used this strange power against me amongst other tactics against me from the very beginning, even thought he wouldn’t have been able to defeat me, he probably wouldn’t be defeated so easily either and the battle would have entered some kind of impasse. Why did he did his own grave?” The Cangming Swordmaster’s eyes closed into slits as chilly lights flashed within.

A standoff was actually more beneficial for Xiao Yan. The Cangming Swordmaster’s attention would be held down as a result, and the Tiangang Swordmaster would gain more ground against the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation.

The Saintly Celestial Sword wasn’t fully completed yet and the sword formation was no longer directed by the Cangming Swordmaster. This meant that the Saintly Celestial Sword wouldn’t be able to resist a Vipralopa Stage cultivator like the Tiangang Swordmaster for long and could result in the Tiangang Swordmaster stealing away control of the Saintly Celestial Primordial Sword Formation in the end.

Therefore, Xiao Yan’s hasty decision to try and decide the victor of their battle in one move was a little counter-intuitive for the Cangming Swordmaster. Besides the fact that Xiao Yan was too self-confident and was impatient to achieve success, the Cangming Swordmaster couldn’t think of any other reason.

However, the Cangming Swordmaster’s instincts told him that even though Xiao Yan was a straightforward person, he wasn’t rash and irrational.

Thoughts spun in his head as the Cangming Swordmaster shook his sword and channeled the True Fruit of the Vast Heaven Saintly Sword once more and instilled it into the Cangming Ancient Sword and infused his immortal soul into the sword yet again and raised his strength to the highest possible level.

He blocked Luo Qingwu, Chu Yang, and Zhuge Zhan with one sword before he spun around and transformed into boundless green lights and lunged towards Xiao Yan.

The green light world collapsed into a single line and slashed down at Xiao Yan ferociously.

The red lights around Xiao Yan’s body radiated incessantly and fended off this the Cangming Swordmaster’s strike.

However, the red lights were beginning to go berserk under the Cangming Swordmaster’s savage onslaught. The terrifying radiance no longer heeded Xiao Yan’s control to protect himself and retaliated against the Cangming Swordmaster instead.

What made Xiao Yan’s circumstance even more perilous was the fact that the red lights were not only extending outwards, they were also reaching inwards and threatened Xiao Yan’s own safety.

Even though the green lights began to revert to their original form under the meteoric attacks from the red lights, the Cangming Swordmaster and the Cangming Ancient Sword continued to resist this onslaught.

However, Xiao Yan no longer had the red lights’ protection and was beginning to feel the toxic feedback. He was also under the Cangming Swordmaster’s relentless assault and his situation was becoming ever so dire – and it appeared as if this was the end for him.

Xiao Yan howled into the sky and his immortal soul shed its human form and transformed into the Flaming Taiji Diagram. Seven primordial fires became multiple small flames and, together, they formed a giant Taiji Diagram that loomed over the world.

The colorful flames split into Yin and Yang as they rotated between heaven and earth continuously. The only difference was that it had lost its usual liveliness and vitality and displayed a state of acute weakness.

Rays of golden light suddenly surged out of the Taiji Diagram. These golden lights covered the entire Flaming Taiji Diagram as they shot up in to the sky and barricaded off the toxic red lights of the Heavenly Catastrophe and the Cangming Swordmaster’s sword radiance.

Uncountable characters were engraved into the void space around the golden light pillar and a mystical concept of power emanated from within.

The Cangming Swordmaster’s expression could only be described with bewilderment and hysteria as he watched the golden light pillar. “The Celestial Being Divine Light of Heavenly Protection?! The Great Void Sect’s Way of the Celestial Being pill?!”

From the moment the Celestial Being Divine Light appeared, Xiao Yan stabilized the Heavenly Catastrophe’s power that was currently berserk and swiftly reduced its intensity and it returned under his control.

The red lights congregated once more and merged with the Celestial Being Divine Light of Heavenly Protection and worked together to defend against the Cangming Swordmaster’s assault.

The Cangming Swordmaster quickly recovered from his astonishment and grunted coldly. “The Celestial Being Divine Light of Heavenly Protection – so what?”

His attacks became faster and faster. Even though the power of the Heavenly Catastrophe was injected in the defensive efforts, the golden light of the Celestial Being Divine Light of Heavenly Protection was being grinded down rapidly.

The golden light of the Celestial Being Divine Light gradually disappeared under the Cangming Swordmaster’s relentless onslaught. Xiao Yan didn’t increase the Heavenly Catastrophe’s power either, and the red lights were slowly wilting away under the continuous pressure from the green lights.

Ray after ray of green sword radiance pierced through the red light and landed upon the Flaming Taiji Diagram formed by Xiao Yan’s immortal soul.

Speck after speck of flames were extinguished as scars began to appear on the Taiji Diagram’s surface and an entire crack tore open.

It felt as if they were being forced as the red lights formed by the Heavenly Catastrophe around the Flaming Taiji Diagram erupted once more.

However, even though the red hues were fighting against the Cangming Swordmaster’s attacks, they began to descend into chaos and were about to go out of control yet again.

A long sigh could be heard from Xiao Yan’s Taiji Diagram. “Just as master once said, I need to find a life and death episode to speed up my understanding of the Heavenly Catastrophe and to help me understand the path I have to travel down in the future.”

Only Xiao Yan could see what was happening inside the Netherworld Sea, and everybody else couldn’t. Disasters and catastrophes filled up the entire space of dusk and darkness as the red lights became increasingly dense. Even though it hadn’t recovered its original appearance as the Heavenly Catastrophe Stone Pillar, its shape was starting to form.

The absolute evil inside this destiny-level magic treasure wasn’t as extreme as that of the Heaven-Destroying Sword. However, it was still full of destructive and apocalyptic energy, as if it would bring about the most disastrous of calamities to the Greater World.

However, it contained a unique concept of the power of destiny. In the process of returning to its original form, it began to display the profound concept of destiny, nature and the great Dao.

Before the war between the worlds, Xiao Yan remained inside the Netherworld Sea. Besides communicating with the Heavenly Catastrophe and the Netherworld Sea’s power, he observed the entire process and attempted to understand the concepts contained inside.

These concepts and principles that he was studying right now reinforced Xiao Yan’s own cultivation and understanding of the Two Elements Origins-Returning Scripture and cleared up the foggy mist before his eyes and gradually displayed a clear path for him to travel down.

Before this, Xiao Yan’s understanding and cultivation entered a bottleneck and he was just this one step away, this one step that he couldn’t make.

And now, the road ahead became crystal clear and Xiao Yan finally made the step out into the new world ahead of him.

He roared into the sky once again. With Xiao Yan’s Flaming Taiji Diagram as the center, specks of light glimmered. Even though they were initially dim, they were becoming brighter.

The scene resembled embers sparkling and crackling in a pile of fire that had already burnt out. This extinguished pile of fire erupted once again, and the raging flames returned to their original splendor in an instant.

The entire Flaming Taiji Diagram began to radiate brilliantly once again as the roaring flames filled up the sky. The weakness and dejection of before were swept away, and the fires only became stronger and increasingly violent.

The Cangming Swordmaster’s heart sank as he glared at Xiao Yan’s immortal soul. With his understanding of the great Dao and of heaven and earth along with his life experiences, he sensed the changes in Xiao Yan’s immortal soul and quickly realized what was going on. “The Birth of the Dao Energy! It’s also far stronger than usual and hardly ever seen in the world. There has never been such a level of Birth of the Dao Energy in his level of mastery!”

Following Xiao Yan’s mighty revitalization, the Heavenly Catastrophe’s power grew exponentially and blocked off every single one of the Cangming Swordmaster’s attacks.

What was more frightening was that there was yet another fiery lotus throne that was starting to form on the Taiji Diagram.

Milky white, pure gold, bluish purple, green, black – five different colors that represented the Pure Yang Primordial Fire, the Grand Sun Primordial Fire, the Nefarious Spectral Primordial Fire, the True Torth of Ksitigarbha and the Heavenly Apocalyptic Blaze.

This was a Penta Fire Lotus that was even more fearsome and powerful than the one that he just unleashed.

The power of annihilation contained turned the Cangming Swordmaster’s stomach into ice.

A voice came out from the Flaming Taiji Diagram, “The Birth and Destruction of Dao, the flames that can never be extinguished, burning of the heavens and annihilation of the earth as life is consumed by calamity and ashes.”

His voice echoed throughout the heavens as the terrifying Heaven Fire Lotus flew out and went straight for the Cangming Swordmaster. The raging flames poured into the sky as they ripped through the green lights.