Chapter 405: Jail Shrinks

Fiend Saint Jiuyuan felt the power of the entire 'Dark Red Prison' world converge within its body, reveling in an unprecedented sense of might.

Killing Meng Chuan? It was absolutely confident.

"Die," Fiend Saint Jiuyuan said, transforming into a dark red afterimage as it charged forward. It completely ignored the attacking Stone Ox beast, the twelve blood blades, and Liu Qiyue's incoming arrows.

"Huh?" Fiend Saint Jiuyuan's expression suddenly changed.

An invisible 'soul artifact' struck instantly. Its soul domain perceived it as a peculiar, jet-black awl. Just seeing it caused Fiend Saint Jiuyuan to panic.

It was too fast. Fiend Saint Jiuyuan had no time to react as the Demonic Awl pierced its body and entered its sea of consciousness.

Within its sea of consciousness, its powerful soul, cultivated for many years and surrounded by dark red shadows, also panicked at the sight of the Demonic Awl.

As a 'world-type' Tribulation realm secret treasure, the Dark Red Prison also offered some benefits to the soul. However, this assistance was limited and couldn't compare to the protective secret treasure, the 'Blood Blade Disk.' The 'Blood Blade Disk' was specifically forged by a Soul Tribulation realm mighty one for their disciples, with protection as its primary function. The 'Dark Red Prison,' on the other hand, ultimately prioritized creating a world.

*Puff*. The black Demonic Awl instantly pierced through the dark red shadows and then stabbed into Fiend Saint Jiuyuan's soul.

Although the soul was tough and solid, it was still forcibly penetrated, leaving a large hole.

As it penetrated, the sharp teeth along the edges of the 'Demonic Awl'—a technique renowned for its offensive power—also shredded the soul, maximally destroying its origin.

"Awooo!!!" Fiend Saint Jiuyuan, who had been utterly confident, suddenly let out an excruciating wail. The 'dark red robe' condensed on its body began to uncontrollably dissipate.

Pain, pain, so much pain! The intense agony made Fiend Saint Jiuyuan involuntarily clutch its head and wail.

*Puff, puff, puff...* With the dark red robe dissipated and no resistance, Fiend Saint Jiuyuan's only remaining protection was its Blood Fiend Battle Armor. However, the blood blades bypassed the armor, piercing into exposed areas like Fiend Saint Jiuyuan's head, abdomen, and throat.

*Boom*. The Stone Ox beast also fiercely slammed into Fiend Saint Jiuyuan's body. Although its technique was crude, the Stone Ox beast's pure strength rivaled a peak Creation realm expert. This collision caused Fiend Saint Jiuyuan's tough body to *thump* and shatter into two halves, breaking at the waist. Its upper body, still clutching its head in agony, completely ignored these attacks.

*Puff, puff, puff*. Three consecutive arrows also struck Fiend Saint Jiuyuan's body, making it even more battered.

"That really hurts," Fiend Saint Jiuyuan growled. Its shattered body instantly reunited, perfectly intact.

It opened its eyes, its yellow gaze coldly fixed on Meng Chuan in the distance. However, the intense pain in its soul caused its face to twitch slightly.

"What a powerful body," both Meng Chuan and Liu Qiyue thought with secret astonishment.

"Demon races excel in physical bodies," Meng Chuan transmitted to his wife. "My physical body can only be considered superior to all fifth-tier demon monarchs. Compared to Fiend Saints... at least this Fiend Saint Jiuyuan's body is stronger than mine. Its vitality and recovery ability are probably also close to mine; it can likely achieve regeneration from a single drop of blood."

Even cutting a fifth-tier demon monarch into seventeen or eighteen pieces makes them difficult to kill. Killing a Fiend Saint? Fiend Saints' vitality is even more abnormal, and Fiend Saint Jiuyuan is a Fiend Saint who has cultivated for many years, far beyond what a newly ascended Fiend Saint could achieve.

"What a formidable soul killing move," Fiend Saint Jiuyuan growled softly, simultaneously pouncing on Meng Chuan once more.

"Demonic Awl," Meng Chuan thought again.

The Demonic Awl once again drilled into Fiend Saint Jiuyuan's sea of consciousness, forcibly penetrating its soul. As it pierced through, the sharp teeth on the 'Demonic Awl's' surface naturally shredded the soul's origin. Fiend Saint Jiuyuan's soul resisted tenaciously, but after it was completely penetrated, faint cracks appeared within the Demonic Awl.

"The Demonic Awl is damaged?" Meng Chuan was secretly alarmed. "Although its power is immense, it's too easily damaged."

The Demonic Awl, a forbidden technique, aims for ultimate power but also has many flaws.

First, it requires a continuous expenditure of soul origin to maintain it.

Second, it is too rigid and easily broken. Being excessively sharp and peerless, if an enemy's soul resists with all its might, the Demonic Awl will suffer damage. If it fails to penetrate, it will shatter directly.

Even if it penetrates, it will shatter after only a few uses.

However... a single penetration has an excellent effect. With their soul in agony, the enemy is almost powerless to retaliate.

"Awooo!!!" Fiend Saint Jiuyuan again stopped, clutching its head in pain. Even with the assistance of the Tribulation realm secret treasure 'Dark Red Prison,' it could only barely maintain a faint external awareness.

"Under this soul attack, I've almost lost control of the outside world; I can only barely remain conscious and cannot perform any intricate techniques at all," Fiend Saint Jiuyuan thought to itself. "The soul can gather and disperse unpredictably, capable of splitting into billions of thoughts. But this strange soul attack, in just two attempts, has caused me to lose one-tenth of my soul's origin. Two or three more times, and I will lose part of my memory."

"My origin is damaged, and my soul is in excruciating pain right now," Fiend Saint Jiuyuan thought, feeling waves of intense pain emanating from its soul. "I cannot perform any intricate techniques now."

"I can only use crude and brute force techniques," Fiend Saint Jiuyuan concluded.

Fiend Saint Jiuyuan mused.

"I must activate a forbidden technique and kill the enemy in one blow! I cannot drag this out!"

The dark red robe once again condensed on its body. Fiend Saint Jiuyuan watched Meng Chuan from a distance as the entire Dark Red Prison began to shrink, rapidly reducing its ten-mile radius, shrinking continuously.

"Hmm?" Meng Chuan, his wife, and the Stone Ox beast all noticed the Dark Red Prison shrinking.

"A'Chuan, why aren't you using your soul mystic technique anymore?" Liu Qiyue transmitted.

"If I use it once more, the soul artifact might shatter," Meng Chuan transmitted. "So I can't use it lightly."

He felt a little regretful at this moment.

If he had used twenty percent of his soul origin to form the 'Demonic Awl,' its power would certainly have greatly increased. Perhaps he could have directly killed Fiend Saint Jiuyuan with just that soul mystic technique. But there's no medicine for regret in this world! Meng Chuan chose to use ten percent of his soul origin also because once he surpassed that amount, it would begin to have noticeable effects on him in various aspects.

Although it was explicitly stated that surpassing thirty percent of his origin would lead to memory loss and a decline in comprehension.

But Meng Chuan could feel that merely using ten percent of his soul origin already had a very slight effect. For example, his soul's thinking speed slowed down a bit, and its stability decreased by one or two points. Clearly, the more origin used, the greater the impact. It might even invisibly affect 'spiritual insight' and 'comprehension,' though the initial impact was too minor.

This mystic technique is, after all, a forbidden one.

Meng Chuan also wished to reach the Creation realm as soon as possible, to become invincible among Creation realm experts faster, and even reach the Emperor realm, all to completely resolve this war.

"No need to regret a choice made," Meng Chuan thought to himself. "Using ten percent of my origin versus twenty or thirty percent might mean a difference of ten or twenty years in reaching the Creation realm. And it could have a qualitative impact on becoming an Emperor."

Fiend Saint Jiuyuan continuously shrunk the range of the Dark Red Prison, eventually reducing it to a three-mile radius.

The Dark Red Prison could be expanded or shrunk, with its minimum size being a three-mile radius.

"Too close," Meng Chuan and Liu Qiyue thought, feeling uneasy.

The shrinking of the Dark Red Prison brought them closer and closer to Fiend Saint Jiuyuan. Close-quarters combat with a Fiend Saint possessing an extremely powerful body?

*Boom*. Fiend Saint Jiuyuan unleashed a punch without any warning.

Its punch had already reached the vicinity of Meng Chuan and his wife. The distance was truly too short! Fortunately, the Origin Treasure 'Qingyun Heaven' had formed three layers of lightning shields.

*Boom*. A punch carrying the power of the world, *puff, puff, puff*, caused the three layers of lightning shields to successively collapse.

This punch was not aimed at Meng Chuan, but at Liu Qiyue! This was because Meng Chuan's movement technique was too elusive! It was a lesson learned after Elder Huang Yao and others had tried to intercept him.