No one knew who had forged the Sun-Moon Star Disc in Gong Tinglan’s possession, but it was surely a precious heirloom passed down through the generations of the Gong Family — capable of attacking evil and purifying corruption alike. The stellar radiance that surged from the Star Disc was pure and pristine, and possessed a natural, innate counter to death and resentment energy. That he had further driven its power by offering the most pure of heart blood only made that purity stronger and more potent.

And yet — doing so would cause him severe depletion of vital energy. There might even be a backlash from his spiritual power.

But having witnessed the corpse specter’s formidable abilities, and the terrible depths of her dread — and having spent these days tracking her, personally witnessing her grow more powerful by the day — Gong Tinglan would not allow her to continue developing. Especially now that backup had arrived. If the two of them, fighting two against one, still let her escape and survive, then they might as well forget about dealing with Tantai Wuji and simply find themselves a hole to hide in.

A severe depletion of vital energy was all. It would not kill him.

Gong Tinglan’s ruthless resolve meant that the corpse specter — already bound by the Stellar Chains and made even more frenzied by the blast from the Five Thunder Talisman — though still capable of struggling, had her freedom of movement greatly restricted, causing her offensive momentum to falter and stall.

“Roar!” The corpse specter let out a cry of shock and fury, bellowing in rage. Her increasingly crimson eyes locked onto Gong Tinglan with fierce intensity. Death energy poured off her in endless waves, as though releasing ten thousand wronged souls — manifesting as countless gnashing, clawing resentful skulls that surged toward Gong Tinglan, with some also flying toward the Sun-Moon Star Disc.

Like moths to a flame!

Pure power could purify death energy — but when this death-desolation energy was sufficiently yin, resentful, and malevolent, it was not entirely without the capacity to defile a magical treasure, strip it of its spiritual function, and cause it to backlash against its master.

Lang Jiuchuan saw through the corpse specter’s intent at a single glance, and felt a fresh flicker of wariness toward her spiritual consciousness — she was far too cunning. At the same time, she fired a spell seal toward Gong Tinglan’s side. It was chaos energy, carrying within it the breath of supreme yang flame, transforming into an invisible wall of fire that stood before him — and those skulls truly were like moths hurling themselves into flame, sizzling and crackling as the chaos fire breath scorched them, sending them shrieking apart and scattering in pieces.

The corpse specter’s death-desolation energy once again stagnated and weakened. Her eyes held both shock and wariness, and she began to contemplate retreat.

Two against one — she was at a disadvantage, and defeat was inevitable. If she remained here, she would be utterly finished.

She had to flee. Now.

Lang Jiuchuan caught the retreat in her eyes and let out a cold laugh. Want to run? Not a chance.

She and Gong Tinglan exchanged a glance. Their understanding was immediate and unspoken.

Lang Jiuchuan instantly launched a fierce, savage offensive against the corpse specter. Her figure moved with the swiftness of lightning, her finger seals shifting without pause. Taking advantage of the Stellar Chains still binding the corpse specter’s physical form, she unleashed chaos fire — targeting specifically those two crimson eyes, intent on devouring those twin soul-flame orbs.

This was what she had discovered when she had slain the skeletal demon in the corpse pit previously: their soul flames were housed within their eyes. As long as the main soul endured, once those two soul-flame orbs were extinguished, that was tantamount to destroying the soul entirely.

Sure enough, the moment she made this probing strike, the corpse specter was thrown into complete panic.

She thrashed like a creature gone mad, unleashing her death-desolation power in endless waves. Corpse miasma spread in all directions, and wherever it passed, plants withered and blackened instantly.

This sight only strengthened both Lang Jiuchuan’s and Gong Tinglan’s resolve to annihilate her completely.

The corpse miasma this specter now exuded had become so terrifyingly malevolent — if they truly let her escape, all of Dahan would be lost entirely. Even with the antidote, it would be useless.

Gong Tinglan urgently recited his Daoist incantations, channeling his spiritual energy to drive the Star Disc, raining down ten thousand rays of clear radiance, continuously whittling away the corpse specter’s power, purifying her death aura, eroding her ferocity, and purifying the resentful souls she had absorbed so they could no longer serve as her strength.

The two worked in seamless tandem — one attacking, one holding the line — occasionally executing a surprise strike. Together they drove the corpse specter into a continuous series of furious roars, her power steadily diminishing, her movements growing ever more sluggish. Even the soul force on her body, condensed from layers of resentful thought, had begun to grow unstable, with faint signs of dissipating.

The corpse specter grew increasingly frantic. She had to flee. Immediately.

Casting all else aside, she hurled that single overwhelming surge of power at both Lang Jiuchuan and Gong Tinglan.

Lang Jiuchuan’s pupils contracted sharply. Volcanic fury blazed in her eyes!

Outrageous wretch.

“Pin it down — let us both strike with full force!” Lang Jiuchuan cried out in fury.

Gong Tinglan, though not fully understanding the source of Lang Jiuchuan’s sudden icy cold and rage, read her intent immediately. He melded a drop of his essence blood into the Star Disc, which erupted with a brilliant radiance unlike anything before. He cried out coldly and sharply: “The Stars of Heaven and Earth — fix the cosmos in place!”

Countless rays of starlight solidified into tangible shackles, layer upon layer, binding the corpse specter’s massive form dead in place. No matter how she raged and struggled, she could not break free.

Lang Jiuchuan fused her chaos intent with her soul force and poured it into the inscription brush. She aimed it at the densest concentration on the corpse specter’s chest — the spot where a black demonic core was faintly concealed — and unleashed it with a thunderous cry: “Chaos returns to the Void — divine might ten thousandfold — burn away evil, obliterate all obstruction — by edict, be done!”

The jade-white inscription brush shot forward like an arrow, striking with precision into that demonic core.

Boom.

“No—!”

The corpse specter let out a cry of utter despair and horror. The chaos fire entered her body and spread like wildfire — igniting all the death-resentment energy within her, along with the soul core itself, burning from the inside out. She became a towering pillar of flame.

The fire showed no mercy as it consumed and devoured every shred of her malevolent power — including the demonic core that had sustained her existence in this world.

Countless unjustly killed souls, bound and absorbed within her, let out a final shriek amid the blazing inferno — and then dissolved, one by one, into wisps of blue smoke that faded away. As though finally freed, they entered the realm of passing on and vanished from the world between heaven and earth.

And the corpse specter’s massive skeletal body writhed and contracted violently within the flames, crumbling to ash, and finally collapsed with a thunderous crash. In the last moments before she was entirely annihilated, a surge of original source power suddenly erupted from her chest, hurtling toward both Lang Jiuchuan and Gong Tinglan.

Lang Jiuchuan had prepared for this. She unleashed the Dizhong Bell, and her overwhelming will crashed violently into the bell’s body, making its divine might surge to full force — it charged headlong into that source power.

Boom.

A tremendous sound detonated in the air above them.

Lang Jiuchuan threw her head back and spat a mouthful of black blood, collapsing to the ground.

And in the distant Cang Mountains, the National Preceptor likewise spat a great mouthful of essence blood. His soul pierced with sharp, stabbing pain — as though a divine magical treasure had punctured a hole straight through it, his soul energy leaking outward. He felt a wrenching ache from his dantian, and was overcome with stunned fury. An expression of utter disbelief flickered through his eyes.

This backlash was barely a hair’s breadth weaker than the one he had suffered when he had suppressed Lang Jiuchuan and sealed her within the imperial mausoleum. Yet this backlash had not come from someone breaking his formation — rather, Lang Jiuchuan had struck across a vast distance, landing a blow through the corpse specter’s body and hitting the source power that was his. That was what had caused him to absorb such a devastating backlash.

How was this possible?

When had she come to possess such tremendous power? She was clearly only a soul reborn in a borrowed body — even with the unceasing accumulation of karmic merit and the power of vows and faith, it should have been impossible for her strength to be this overwhelming.

No. The body she had rebuilt for her Daoist form — where had she done so, and what kind of fortuitous encounter had she obtained? If he could acquire it, would the Great Dao still elude him?

A thread of cold, covetous desire flashed through the National Preceptor’s frigid eyes. Quickly, however, he calmed himself. There was no need to rush. The stronger she became, the more useful she was to him. He needed only to make good use of her.

He lowered his head and looked at his withered, gaunt hands, and felt the aching pain in his chest. The life force within this body had already grown feeble. This vessel would not hold much longer. His time was running short — he needed to move quickly.

“Let this teacher see just what kind of surprise you will bring me, and what kind of situation you will open up.”

The National Preceptor murmured softly to himself, the corners of his mouth curling into an arc — deep, unfathomable, and unreadable.

Someone is in quite a delighted mood.