The Purgatory Calamity

The battle erupted in an instant!

Ouyang Duanhai, unarmed, twisted his chest bone in a strange way, and the deep red crimson phoenix, ready to spread its wings, extended its feathers all the way to his armpits and arm bones.

He was filled with the bizarre phoenix totem throughout his limbs, and his movements suddenly became agile and swift.

Like a deep red flash of blood, Ouyang Duanhai, whose eyes had long lost their human luster, blinked in front of Jin Yang.

His hands, flapping like wings, effortlessly slapped down the Cicada Wing Swords onto the bottom of the pool.

"Whoosh!"

A captivating blood-red column of light shot out from the top of Ouyang Duanhai's head, filled with what seemed like numerous leaf-like feathers.

The feathers in the blood-red column of light whistled, faintly transmitting the mournful cry of a phoenix, causing the pupils of the onlookers at the bottom of the pool to sting.

At a fierce glance, it was as if another slender deep red phoenix bone had penetrated through Ouyang Duanhai from the top of his head.

Jin Yang, greatly alarmed, tore off a jade pendant carved with a Chi dragon from his waist and hurriedly held it in front of him.

The exquisitely carved Chi dragon totem in the jade pendant released a cold halo through its intricate pattern, instantly freezing the water in front of Jin Yang's chest into a large chunk of solid rock ice.

"Bang!"

Ouyang Duanhai charged violently, shattering the rock ice into pieces, causing Jin Yang, who was clutching the life-preserving Cold Chi Jade Pendant, to be thrown far away, spitting blood as he fell toward the bottom of the pool.

Once he distanced himself from the Phoenix Bone, Ouyang Duanhai, now extremely bloodthirsty, stopped pursuing and stood firm again on top of the python's skull.

His eyes, blood red like fresh blood, were fixed on the center of the Phoenix Bone, where a brilliant white light was slowly condensing.

The blood-red column of light that surged from his head was filled with whirling feathers, seemingly arranging some intricate array, attempting to extract the forming Phoenix Marrow within the Phoenix Bone.

Jin Yang, who had fallen to the bottom of the pool, a cloud of his own blood floating above his head, hurriedly used the jade pendant carved with a Chi dragon to absorb his streaming blood.

Ouyang Duanhai, standing with his fingertips on the python's skull, looked exceedingly impatient, urging Hong Tai and the others to hasten their attack and kill.

Hong Tai and others, who had planned to assist him, seeing Ouyang Duanhai, now a transformed being using his own power to shatter Jin Yang's protective ice, suddenly hesitated.

The ferocity displayed by Ouyang Duanhai was beyond Hong Tai's expectations; this dark cult ghost cultivator, who had previously pursued Zhou Qingchen, did not expect the universally recognized worthless scion of the seven great families to become so troublesome.

After a moment of contemplation, he casually discarded the iron chains he was pulling and no longer cared about Ning Yao's life or death.

He shook his head at Jin Yang, signaling with his eyes not to rush, and communicated through gestures with the two leaders of the Meridians Channeling Realm.

Seeing that the Phoenix Marrow was about to form, and fearing that Ouyang Duanhai would get there first, Jin Yang desperately ignored his injuries and climbed up from the bottom of the pool.

He gestured frantically to Hong Tai, once again urging him to make haste and kill Ouyang Duanhai.

Unaware of what the gradually gathering amber light was, Hong Tai suddenly became skeptical.

About the mystery of the Heaven Phoenix's remains, he didn't know much; the Dark Ghost Leader hadn't made it clear to him.

Unlike him, Jin Yang, given his relationship with the Ghost Leader, surely knew more secrets related to the Heaven Phoenix.

Ouyang Duanhai and Jin Yang, both fixated on the glowing white dot inside the Phoenix Bone, exhibiting such eagerness and desire—could it be?

With this thought, Hong Tai had his own plans.

He gestured for the python to come over, patted its head, and let this python loyal to him roam around the bottom of the pool, searching for any possible anomalies.

He then waved to Xu Rui and the masked leader, asking the two to stay by his side, one on the left and one on the right.

After doing all this, he waited for Jin Yang to get up and come over before the four of them went together toward Ouyang Duanhai.

...

Also at the bottom of the pool, in a dark area clinging to the rock wall, Pang Jian watched the fleeting battle.

The esteemed Jin Yang, relying on a jade pendant, had narrowly avoided a wrathful strike from Ouyang Duanhai and immediately became cautious and prudent.

The python raised by Hong Tai, however, began to move around the bottom of the pool.

When he noticed the python, the python seemed to have sensed his presence as well, quietly swimming towards him.

Pang Jian muttered to himself that this wasn't good.

He originally planned to take advantage when the dark ghost and Ouyang Duanhai were fighting to the death, to snatch some benefits, but did not expect Hong Tai to be so malicious as to send the python to look for him.

Hong Tai's python was not only intelligent, but also swifter in the water than him, making him feel like it was hard to fend off.

He prepared to immediately retreat behind the stone door!

However, just as he was about to extricate himself from the affair, a severe pain suddenly erupted from his dantian next to his navel.

Within the depths of his constantly circulating Spiritual Sea, for some reason, a storm had been stirred up, as if some strange creature had been disturbed, colliding to and fro within his dantian.

Pang Jian immediately began to curse his bad luck.

The commotion of the living creature thrashing about in his spiritual sea made him wonder if the cultivation of the Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell had led him into a delusional state from deviation.

He, whose scalp was numb with pain, now found himself too weak to even think of retreating back to the stone door.

Lacking the refinement of Divine Sense, he could not see the condition of his Spiritual Sea but vaguely felt something struggling, yearning to burst forth.

His snarl, contorted with grimace, he let out bubbles under the water, making a faint and strange noise from his mouth.

With one hand on the Dragon Pattern Spear as support, and the other clutching his belly from the pain, he was forced to crouch down.

At that moment, he vowed to himself that he would never absorb just any type of energy again when cultivating with the "Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell."

He believed the abnormality in his dantian was caused by his rampant absorption of the Mysterious Yin Power, as well as the acidic peculiar supernatural ability in the waters of the pool.

In excruciating pain, nearly fainting, he tried to look ahead and saw the approaching python.

The python, as thick as a water bucket and patterned with black and white, held its head high, its pupils gleaming green like ghostly flames.

Pang Jian inwardly cursed his bad luck, finding it the worst time for his dantian to be disrupted, especially when Hong Tai's captive python had located him.

Now, without the strength to even flee, he could only watch helplessly as the python approached to devour him.

It was similar to how the Phoenix Bone, which had fallen from the sky, had been slowly consumed by the giant python at the bottom of the pool.

It seemed he was fated for the same dismal end.

Feeling helpless, Pang Jian braced himself to be devoured by the python, but he noticed the pain in his dantian rapidly subsiding.

Looking down, he saw from between his fingers clasped over his stomach, strands of pitch-black lines emerging.

The dark lines resembled the lethal venom secreted by the giant python, mixing into the pool's water above.

With every black line that sprouted from his fingers, the pain in his dantian lessened, and as the lines left his fingers, they entwined with each other.

Entwining, entwining, they transformed into a thin black snake.

The small black snake, no thicker than a child's arm and covered in scales like black iron, felt to Pang Jian not like flesh and blood, but rather like a physical manifestation of dark energy.

Suddenly, he remembered the so-called "Spirit Evil" and that fleeting blood shadow.

Identical!

"A spiritual body, or perhaps... a Soul Spirit?"

Pang Jian looked bewildered at the black snake refined from the strands of darkness, suspecting that it was the beast soul of the giant python.

The python that had been nurtured by Hong Tai and was now targeting Pang Jian to devour him also noticed the black lines swiftly taking snake form.

The python, with its emerald green eyes, began to show fear in its cold, green pupils once it clearly saw the form of the black snake.

Its proudly held neck and head trembled gently.

It seemed to want to flee at once but found itself unable to move, just like Pang Jian had been, wracked with unbearable pain.

Staring wide-eyed as the black snake, many times smaller than itself, slipped into its gaping maw and vanished into the snake's head.

Then the Strange Snake devoured its beast soul, turning it into its own shell.

"Spirit Evils" in the world can possess the bodies of their own kind, cultivators, and naturally, so can a "Dark Giant Python" of such ferocity, using its beast soul for possession.

The beast soul of the "Dark Giant Python" rapidly took over the body of the python, its green eyes consequently turning pitch black.

After acclimating for a moment, it slowly stretched its body and lunged at Pang Jian just as before.

Pang Jian, whose body had just regained freedom, was left stunned by the unfolding events; he could not even comprehend what had happened when the python attacked him again.

Pang Jian was forced to lift his Dragon Pattern Spear to fight.

He sprang up in the water, his arm bones erupting with ferocious power, and, not caring whether he could hit his target, he jabbed at the now-black-eyed python.

His spear aim was directed solely at the python's unnervingly pitch-black eyes!

The python, watching him intently with its new, pitch-black eyes or rather... looking towards the gap under his chest clothing, that quaintly shaped bronze door pendant.

Fear gradually surfaced in the pure black eyes of the python, leading it to hesitate.

Twisting its body sinuously in the water, its tail thrashed chaotically, ready to propel it in any direction or to continue its frantic assault on Pang Jian.

It seemed to remember something, and even though it could have quickly succeeded, it oddly chose not to continue its charge.

Just as Pang Jian and the python were about to collide, the python's whipping tail seemed to turn into a head, pulling it rapidly backward.

It was actually fleeing!

"The beast soul of the giant python at the bottom of the pool has dissipated into the pitch-black waters, absorbed into the Spiritual Sea of my dantian along with the acidic peculiar supernatural ability!"

"This was the giant python's last bid for survival as its flesh and blood was consumed, desiring only its flesh and blood, not its beast soul."

As the Dragon Pattern Spear struck emptily and he witnessed the python's escape, Pang Jian finally understood the situation.

The black lines that had separated from his body to refine the black Strange Snake were in truth the master of the massive snake bones and also the terror originating from the Black Water Pool Forbidden Area.

— It was the beast soul of the giant python.

Now, it had possessed a weaker kindred body nurtured by Hong Tai, moving about in the shell of a small relative.

By the time Pang Jian finally understood, the fleeing python had made a large circuit at the bottom of the pool and then suddenly emerged behind him, biting down hard on his back.

Pang Jian, caught off guard, had no chance to react effectively, and his entire back fell into the clutches of the python.

Excruciating pain struck him instantly!

"Gurgle!"

Under the intense pain and choking on water, Pang Jian was astonished to find that his spine and ribcage hadn't been snapped by the python's bite.

At that moment, he felt an intense heat from the bronze plaque on his chest once more.

This burning sensation spread through his body at an unimaginable speed, even surrounding the python which held him in its grip!

The "Dark Giant Python," which had hesitated to kill Pang Jian directly, had possessed the body of its kind and resorted to a sneaky detour to bite him to death. But it hadn't expected Pang Jian's ribcage to be as tough as Divine Iron.

When it tried to release its bite and escape, a bizarre heat silently spread from Pang Jian's body to it.

The "Dark Giant Python" realized the danger too late; now it wanted to flee but couldn't break free.

…