The heavy and profound earth seemed to instantly become a living thing.

A roaring fierce beast!

From underground came what seemed like some enormous sound, yet when one listened carefully, heaven and earth were completely silent!

At this moment, almost no one could stand steady!

The earth was trembling, and from beneath the ground came an overwhelming pressure that made people’s hearts give rise to an uncontrollable depression and fear. For a moment, they couldn’t tell whether what they stood on was the silent earth or the lofty firmament!

Only that endless gray-black aura was frantically steaming upward!

It was impossible to tell whether this legendary enormous Houtu Seal was buried in the vast earth of the snow region, or whether this plateau of the snow region, which was clearly higher than the entire Nineteen Continents, was itself the incarnation of the Houtu Seal!

Endless Earth Force Yin Essence surged from the earth’s cracks, occupying the space originally held by heaven and earth spiritual qi, binding like chains every cultivator within!

From the sacred mountain’s peak to the foot of the sacred mountain!

All cultivators who relied on spiritual qi for cultivation, in this sudden change, could not perceive the slightest existence of spiritual qi within their sensing range, much less establish any connection with the surrounding heaven and earth!

Like prisoners wearing shackles, like a small boat drifting in the boundless bitter sea, an isolated island cut off from the human world!

“Retreat!!!”

Firm and decisive voices simultaneously came from the mouths of Zen Master Xuelang and Qu Zhengfeng! Urgent and grave!

The moment their voices fell, the originally attacking cultivators from the Nineteen Continents on the sacred mountain almost without thinking immediately abandoned battle and leaped into the air!

Over a thousand brilliant rays of light swiftly ascended!

It looked as if countless stars that had originally fallen here were returning to the sky!

However, the moment they left the ground, that endless Earth Force Yin Essence surged up, completely transforming the entire snow region into an ocean of Earth Force Yin Essence!

“Rumble…”

Amid the massive tremors, countless screams arose! It was actually the monks from the sacred halls originally on the sacred mountain who, as if gnawed by something, instantly turned into white skeletons!

The originally Buddhist sacred land had become a hellish netherworld in the blink of an eye!

Jian Chou reacted very quickly. Though she had been to the Extreme Region and even practiced Extreme Region techniques, and her current divine soul realm wouldn’t be considered very low in the Extreme Region, the moment this mighty Earth Force Yin Essence appeared, she felt no familiarity at all—only a cold and dangerous strangeness!

Rejection!

The clearest possible rejection!

The Earth Force Yin Essence that had originally seemed to be at her command in the Extreme Region was like it possessed its own consciousness, rejecting the devouring and control of all surrounding forces!

Except for…

The Treasure Seal Dharma King!

This Earth Force Yin Essence that was so mighty it almost drowned the entire snow region was actually something with an owner!

They competed to surge out from the earth’s cracks, turbulent like a dark river, rapidly ascending, actually covering the originally rotating golden Sacred Ritual array in the sky, plunging the originally illuminated snow region back into boundless darkness!

The Treasure Seal Dharma King’s strange calls continued.

In the unseen, it was as if some power transcending all beings appeared, causing this endless Earth Force Yin Essence to condense, actually forming in the void the phantom of a huge octagonal square seal!

Eight angles perfectly regular, each corresponding to one of the eight directions of the Nineteen Continents!

Standing on the trembling earth and looking up, Jian Chou clearly saw the archaic characters carved beneath this seal. Yet even with her current knowledge, she couldn’t recognize what these four characters were or which era they belonged to.

Only pressure descended from heaven!

“Crack crack crack…”

Having only pressed down one chi, the terrifying pressure had already fallen on her shoulders! In just this instant, Jian Chou’s throat produced a bloody taste!

Her jade-like bones felt as if they were about to be crushed!

Every inch of her body seemed to be trembling, wanting to kneel and prostrate before this supreme existence overhead!

The fierce battle with the Treasure Bottle Dharma King earlier had truly consumed too much of her strength. Though she appeared fine on the surface, in reality she could no longer compare to her peak condition. Moreover, the Treasure Seal Dharma King’s power was more than ten times stronger than the Treasure Bottle Dharma King’s!

At this moment, she had no choice but to summon the Wind Thunder Wings again!

The wings spread frantically, endless surging lightning power shattered the pressure from the Houtu Seal in the sky, barely allowing her to stand in place!

If she, already a Void Refining great power, was in such a state, others naturally found it even harder to bear.

Only Zen Master Xuelang and Qu Zhengfeng were slightly better off.

Zen Master Xuelang clearly knew the power of the Houtu Seal. The moment the phantom overhead took shape, he suddenly pointed with his finger. As Buddha light burst from his fingertip, the snow-white monk’s robe he wore also flew out!

Like a shower of pear blossoms in snow!

It grew with the wind!

When it left his fingertip, it was still just a monk’s robe, but when it fell between the Treasure Seal Dharma King and the Houtu Seal, it had already transformed into a tight net covered with sutras!

Earlier when the Treasure Bottle Dharma King used the Pure Heaven Treasure Bottle, a similar scene had occurred, but the feeling given by these two was completely different.

One was evil and wanton, the other was solemn and dignified!

As light and shadow moved, a few traces of illusion emerged in Zen Master Xuelang’s dull, wood-like eyes. The spread monk’s robe no longer looked like a monk’s robe, but like a worldly paradise!

At the same time, the Dakini Yang Jin, who had previously hidden in the shadows and never fought with anyone, suddenly let out a clear shout, turned her delicate hand, and summoned a red banner!

The banner was painted with sixteen heavenly demon patterns, imposing and fierce.

When she formed hand seals, the sixteen heavenly demons with terrifying faces condensed from the banner, becoming sixteen mountain-like fierce phantom beasts that thundered toward the nearby Treasure Seal Dharma King himself!

Whether it was Zen Master Xuelang or the Dakini Yang Jin, both were first-rate experts in Buddhism. The power of both attacking simultaneously—how shocking was it?

Others watching felt their courage fail!

However, the Treasure Seal Dharma King wrapped in black qi showed no intention of dodging at all when he saw this, as if he completely disregarded these two people, and even laughed wildly: “Interesting! Interesting! Even Yang Jin has come! One is someone this seat didn’t kill eleven cycles ago, one is someone this seat didn’t kill a hundred years ago, yet today they’ve all come to deliver themselves!”

Arrogant and presumptuous!

Both Zen Master Xuelang and Yang Jin immediately frowned, their hand seals becoming more urgent, their mental urging faster, trying by every means to take the Treasure Seal Dharma King’s life before that Houtu Seal fell!

Only Qu Zhengfeng didn’t move.

Not only did he not move, he even closed his eyes at this moment.

As if he couldn’t see the pressure that had suddenly descended between heaven and earth, he didn’t even look up once, despite that constantly pressing downward phantom of the Houtu Seal being so enormously mighty, so swift as wind and lightning!

At this moment, he seemed to have completely separated from this chaotic battlefield.

At this moment, he also seemed to have completely merged with this vast and trembling snow region!

Mortal eyes closed, heart’s eye opened!

The powerful spiritual consciousness unique to Void Refining middle stage cultivators, the moment he closed his eyes, like rolling wild tides rapidly extended in all directions!

The shape of the earth, the veins of mountains and rivers…

Every bit was in his heart!

All the world’s clamor became silent at this moment, silent in Qu Zhengfeng’s heart. Only that primitive clamoring sound that remained after eternal years, as his spiritual consciousness extended, constantly expanded, constantly expanded…

That was the shouting of mountain ravines!

That was the rhythm of earth’s veins!

The Yashan Sword was held diagonally by him. At this critical moment when Zen Master Xuelang and Dakini Yang Jin were joining forces to counterattack the Treasure Seal Dharma King’s Houtu Seal, it actually began to tremble lightly, and the frequency of that trembling faintly harmonized with the frequency of the earth’s trembling!

“Clang—”

The stone long sword suddenly issued an ancient and leisurely long cry!

“Boom!”

“Bang!”

Two consecutive earth-shaking and heaven-moving sounds!

The attacks of Zen Master Xuelang and Yang Jin fell on the Treasure Seal Dharma King’s body almost simultaneously, instantly submerging his broken body and burying the black qi coursing around him!

A huge deep pit instantly appeared where he had originally stood!

The entire Treasure Seal Dharma King was smashed down!

His physical body turned to dust in this instant, mixing with the gray soil, no longer findable in the slightest trace, leaving only that eerie and intense black qi, trapped in the siege by the fierce attacks!

It was at this moment that Qu Zhengfeng also suddenly opened his previously tightly closed eyes. What was reflected in his pupils was not the suddenly exploding scene before him, but mountains and rivers for thousands of miles, solitary peaks reaching the clouds!

The Yashan Sword was suddenly raised high!

But it wasn’t slashing toward the Treasure Seal Dharma King who had already been submerged by Zen Master Xuelang and Yang Jin’s attacks in front, but in this lightning-fast moment, it was deeply thrust into the ground!

Beneath his feet was the sacred mountain trembling due to the Houtu Seal. A three-chi Yashan Sword thrusting into the ground shouldn’t logically have any impact on this enormous mountain range.

But no one expected that the moment the sword edge entered the ground, the sword body suddenly swelled dramatically!

Constantly growing longer and wider!

It was almost like returning to its original appearance when it was still sheathed at the peak of Yashan!

A stone sword that pierced through Yashan’s mountain body and could almost compare in height with heaven!

What was even more terrifying was that at this instant, the snow region earth that had been trembling and surging under the control of the Houtu Seal actually stilled for a moment.

The next moment, even more terrifying tremors swept out!

Countless mountain peaks throughout the entire snow region, as if they had all received some call from the unseen, shook and produced sounds even greater than before!

Heaven collapsed and earth split!

The Houtu Seal controlled the “earth” among the three powers of heaven, earth, and humanity, yet the Yashan Sword was nurtured from the most spiritually beautiful Yashan of the Nineteen Continents—it was the mountain among mountains, the master of all mountains!

Even if the Treasure Seal Dharma King could command the power of Houtu, so what?

As long as the Yashan Sword was in hand, Qu Zhengfeng could use this sword to forcibly borrow five parts of mountain power from this “Houtu”!

The snow region was originally a plateau, moreover the highest terrain in the Nineteen Continents. Speaking of the entire Nineteen Continents, it could be said that the entire snow region was a “mountain”!

When the sword fell, the mountain’s roar was like the ocean’s roar!

All the peaks seemed to come alive in this instant, shaking off the ice and snow accumulated for thousands of years, revealing their most primordial forms before everyone, echoing with the sword cry that resounded through heaven and earth!

Peaks gathered like clusters, waves like fury!

The entire snow region was as if pierced to the bottom by this one sword from Yashan. On the phantom of the Houtu Seal that was about to strike everyone’s heads, in this moment of stillness, appeared thread after thread of fine golden cracks!

“Crack crack crack…”

From small to large, from sparse to dense!

The violent momentum and surrounding fierce winds from its descent immediately peeled off countless powder-like fragments from above, making the entire mighty phantom suddenly become mottled…

The Treasure Seal Dharma King hadn’t regarded the attacks of Zen Master Xuelang and Yang Jin at all. Even being submerged by attacks was merely physical annihilation—his divine soul still transformed into that nearly immortal and indestructible black qi, even the original Nascent Soul form no longer existed…

At this moment, he was infinitely close to an ancient deity!

Possessing a form similar to the primordial universe’s initial birth, naturally close to the most primitive rules between heaven and earth, eternally undying!

However, he ultimately hadn’t anticipated Qu Zhengfeng!

Hadn’t anticipated this Yashan Sword!

The Treasure Seal Dharma King himself, as the main controller of the Houtu Seal, had already clearly felt the sudden heavy blow the Houtu Seal received the moment Qu Zhengfeng’s sword cracked the snow region earth!

It was like some very powerful force that had been completely under his control suddenly broke free from control! The part belonging to mountains within the Houtu power was actually torn away forcibly by the Yashan Sword!

He could no longer feel their existence!

Because at this moment, they no longer served him, but gathered on Qu Zhengfeng’s giant sword, becoming his enemy!

“Boom!”

With one sword seal, the Yashan giant sword that had completely penetrated the entire sacred mountain thunderously rose at this moment!

The overflowing sword qi easily pierced through the mountain body, splitting this sacred mountain in half!

The brilliant moonlight instantly illuminated the depths of the cracks, also casting the stern shadow of the Yashan Sword onto the mandala at the foot of the sacred mountain.

Using the sacred mountain as a sheath, drawing the sword again!

This time, Qu Zhengfeng unhesitatingly swung his sword toward the Houtu Seal that had become mottled yet still pressed toward everyone’s heads!

“Bang!”

It was the collision of a real giant sword with a void seal phantom!

It should have been silent, yet at this instant it was as if they had truly collided, erupting in terrifying roars!

The enormous Houtu Seal was actually split by Qu Zhengfeng’s one sword!

Countless mountain powers transformed into countless fierce beasts, surging into the Houtu Seal at the moment of collision, frantically tearing at it as if tearing fragile paper!

“Crack crack crack crack!”

The terrifying sound of shattering was like crushing countless ceramics, densely layered together. Countless dark golden fragments fell like rain!

When three zhang above everyone’s heads, the Houtu Seal still had a complete phantom belonging to the octagonal seal; at two zhang, it had already peeled away half; when it reached the final zhang, it could no longer hold on and instantly collapsed like smoke and clouds!

The gathered endless earth force was suddenly like spilled quicksilver.

They came from underground, and at this moment of collapse, swiftly returned underground, flowing into the previous earth cracks and disappearing without a trace!

Only the terrifying shadow of Qu Zhengfeng’s Yashan giant sword still shrouded the entire sacred mountain!

Everything that happened was merely the flicker of light and shadow.

The Treasure Seal Dharma King was first restrained by Zen Master Xuelang and Yang Jin, unable to spare the mental energy to control the Houtu Seal. In his haste, he was actually broken by Qu Zhengfeng from this strike that should have had world-destroying power, and was momentarily consumed by rage!

“Scram!”

A deterrent roar came from his mouth, and the endless black qi suddenly surged, actually turning around to envelop the attacks that had originally submerged him!

The faces of Zen Master Xuelang and Dakini Yang Jin immediately paled, and even a strand of black qi appeared in their eyes out of thin air.

Both immediately realized something was wrong and quickly retreated.

Almost at the same time they retreated, from the deep pit they had smashed open earlier, black qi ten times, a hundred times more intense and eerie than before surged out, like a vicious centipede, fiercely crashing into the mass of black qi that the Treasure Seal Dharma King’s divine soul had transformed into in mid-air, filling it, strengthening it!

Little Wise Monk Liao Kong had originally been hiding near the array in the Sacred Hall, which was also near this newly created deep pit.

When the sudden black qi surged, his entire consciousness was seized.

In this instant, he actually felt his vision blurring, as if willing to follow this strand of black qi surging from the deep pit and drill into that formless, constantly changing mass of black qi in mid-air!

Fortunately, at this moment Jian Chou was quick-eyed and quick-handed, grabbing him—

The speed of Zen Master Xuelang and others’ attacks was too fast, and their cultivation was much higher than hers, so though she had the heart to participate in battle earlier, she really couldn’t keep up. But this also gave her the opportunity to observe the overall situation.

Almost the moment that black qi shot out, she noticed Liao Kong.

At this moment, her spread Wind Thunder Wings flew swiftly, like a purple-gold lightning bolt, arriving in an instant. She pressed down on Liao Kong’s back neck, and as spiritual power flowed in, she cast a Clear Heart Incantation, forcibly pulling him back away from that waterfall-like surging black qi at this most dangerous moment!

When Liao Kong was cleansed by the Clear Heart Incantation’s power, he immediately regained consciousness. In mid-air, he only felt cold sweat had already soaked his back!

Looking up at mid-air again, he was even more alarmed!

The Treasure Seal Dharma King, who earlier could still be seen in human form, had now completely transformed into that demon-like black qi, writhing and coagulating frantically, and continuously absorbing the black qi surging from beneath the deep pit, gradually forming a three-headed, six-armed appearance, though the features were very blurred and indistinct!

How was this still human?!

He had clearly already departed from the shell belonging to humans and become another kind of existence that ordinary people couldn’t understand!

And such an existence was exactly what Jian Chou had seen before!

Not a deity, but its aura was already extremely similar!

It was what she had seen in the prison of the night sailing ship, and also what she had seen through Fu Chaosheng’s cosmic dual eyes when Yu Zhifei and others died while she was investigating the snow region!

The fingers gripping Liao Kong’s back neck trembled slightly and slowly released. On Jian Chou’s pale face hung a gravity close to stunned confusion, but her gaze followed the black qi connected to the Treasure Seal Dharma King, looking toward the terrifying deep pit not far ahead.

Bottomless, with no light visible.

Only that strand of black qi that clearly didn’t belong to this realm’s power continuously surged out from within…

If she remembered correctly, the position where this deep pit was located was originally where that eerie array in the Sacred Hall had been…

At this moment, the Treasure Seal Dharma King had already revealed his complete fierce appearance, and Qu Zhengfeng had also activated the true power of the Yashan Sword before the world…

In the distance, the light on Holy Son Ji’s body gradually dimmed.

Victory and defeat seemed to finally reach the moment of final resolution.

However, Jian Chou couldn’t control her gaze, nor could she suppress another extremely terrifying guess that surged from her heart.

This guess made her stand still in the void for a long time.

Then, at the moment when Qu Zhengfeng and others renewed their attack on the Treasure Seal Dharma King, at the moment when the light on Holy Son Ji’s body finally extinguished, she transformed into a gust of wind and quietly yet swiftly dove headfirst toward that deep pit!