Chapter 166: Self-Destructing Spiritual Aperture

On the ring, Zi An quickly retreated, but a wound was still cut across his chest and abdomen. Across from him, Lu Ye closed in and struck again.

Zi An tumbled to the ground, narrowly avoiding the blow. When he stood up, his body was covered in blood-stained mud, looking utterly disheveled.

As soon as he regained his footing, a strong gust of wind assailed him from behind. He threw himself forward like a dog pouncing, feeling a chill across the top of his head as a large piece of his scalp was sliced off.

Collapsing heavily, Zi An knew this was the end for him.

He truly couldn't understand why his opponent's spiritual artifact, despite being broken, hadn't lost its power, while his own, once broken, felt like a mere decoration in his hand.

He couldn't possibly dodge the next strike, yet the pride of coming from a second-rank sect made him clench his teeth, refusing to utter those two words.

He didn't shout, but someone else did for him: "I surrender!"

It was Zi An's senior sister, seeing the dire situation, who knew that if she didn't shout, her junior brother would die. Even if she was unwilling, even if she knew that after this shout, the Myriad Demon Ridge would have no more opportunities, she couldn't stand by and watch her junior brother throw his life away.

Lu Ye, who was in pursuit, paused, looking at Zi An who was struggling to his feet.

Thundering cheers erupted from the Vast Heaven Alliance's side. The collective roar and laughter of thousands of people converged, making the entire Golden Light Peak tremble.

A dazed Lu Ye was bewildered. He walked back, holding his broken blade, and looked at Li Baxian and Wei Yang: "Is it over?"

The Vast Heaven Alliance's side was as festive as a New Year celebration, so his misunderstanding was understandable.

Li Baxian chuckled: "Not yet."

Lu Ye then sat down cross-legged, popped a spiritual pill into his mouth, and switched his cultivation method to Gluttonous Feast to accelerate the refinement of the pill's energy.

Why be happy if it wasn't over yet!

"There's one last match!" Li Baxian's voice came from behind Lu Ye. "See that guy over there with the flame mark on his brow? He's from the Sacred Fire Sect. He's your only remaining opponent. But don't be afraid, everyone from the Sacred Fire Sect are spell cultivators!"

In a wilderness encounter, a sixth-level spell cultivator might pose some threat to Lu Ye, but in this limited arena battle, the threat posed by spell cultivators was greatly diminished.

Li Baxian was incredibly relieved that when he signed the Heavenly Secret Pact with the Myriad Demon Ridge previously, they had agreed on the size of the arena.

The spell cultivators sent out by the Myriad Demon Ridge earlier had been defeated the fastest. Lu Ye's speed was too great; he reached them in just a few steps. Those spell cultivators could often only cast one or two spells, with stronger ones managing three or even four. But Lu Ye had his Guardian Spirit Mark; as long as his eyesight was good enough, he could easily block those spells. Once he got close, those spell cultivators could only wait for death or surrender.

Lu Ye looked up towards the Myriad Demon Ridge side and indeed saw a sixth-level spell cultivator with a flame mark on his brow, standing there waiting.

It seemed this would be his final opponent.

He didn't let his guard down because of this. He silently checked his own condition. His spiritual energy was low, only a little over ten percent remaining. Even with a quarter-hour of recovery time, he could only barely recover to twenty percent. If he used it sparingly, it should be enough for the final battle.

"Senior Brother, can I go home after this fight?" Lu Ye asked softly.

"You can go home after this fight!" Li Baxian replied.

"Understood!" Lu Ye lowered his head, trying to restore his physical strength as much as possible.

The Vast Heaven Alliance remained jubilant. With Hu Ping dead and Zi An surrendered, both disciples from second and third-rank sects, the remaining Sacred Fire Sect spell cultivator simply couldn't be Lu Ye's match. In the eyes of the Vast Heaven Alliance, Lu Ye had already secured victory.

In contrast, the Myriad Demon Ridge was somber, with everyone looking glum.

It was no wonder they felt this way. The Myriad Demon Ridge had taken too much advantage in the past two days of successive battles. Except for the first match, where a fifth-level body cultivator went up to probe, all the rest were sixth-level cultivators. Yet, in just two days, they had been cut down by this Lu Ye of the Jade Blood Sect. The last remaining Sacred Fire Sect disciple was destined to achieve little.

It could be said that in this grand game between the two factions, the Myriad Demon Ridge had lost utterly. The deaths were secondary; conflict with the Vast Heaven Alliance would inevitably lead to casualties. The main problem was how to explain it to their respective sects. The Myriad Demon Ridge cultivators present could almost imagine the fury of their sects once the news got back.

The few Myriad Demon Ridge powerhouses on the Spiritual Stream List now approached the Sacred Fire Sect cultivator who was preparing to fight, whispering something. The Sacred Fire Sect cultivator slowly shook his head, making the powerhouses' faces darken.

A quarter-hour seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

On Golden Light Peak, Lu Ye finally stood up, leaning on his broken blade for the last time. He walked step by step onto the arena, quietly gazing at the Sacred Fire Sect cultivator.

The opponent stood in front of the Myriad Demon Ridge formation, head lowered, making no move.

This situation caused many from the Vast Heaven Alliance to hiss and boo. Some shouted for Lu Ye to go up and kill him, while others told the Sacred Fire Sect members to surrender quickly and go home to plant sweet potatoes.

The Myriad Demon Ridge, though losing men, would not lose spirit. Some hot-tempered individuals began to exchange insults with those from the Vast Heaven Alliance, and the scene quickly descended into chaos.

If not for the binding Heavenly Secret Pact signed earlier, the two sides might have engaged in an all-out brawl to decide the victor.

Just as the Myriad Demon Ridge side was almost getting impatient, someone finally slowly walked onto the arena.

The clamor suddenly subsided. Thousands of eyes fixed on the cultivator stepping onto the arena, but that person was not the Sacred Fire Sect disciple who was originally supposed to fight. Instead, it was another female cultivator!

Li Baxian's gaze immediately sharpened: "What is the Myriad Demon Ridge doing?"

Simply put, although this female cultivator who walked out was also from the Sacred Fire Sect, just by looking at the spiritual light emanating from her body, it was clear that she was not a sixth-level cultivator.

She was a seventh-level cultivator!

The few Spiritual Stream List powerhouses on the Myriad Demon Ridge side clearly hadn't expected this to happen. The terms of the Heavenly Secret Pact had stipulated that the highest cultivation level for a challenger was sixth-level. A seventh-level cultivator entering the arena undoubtedly broke the rules.

Openly defying the Heavenly Secret Pact was an act of extreme audacity. Once the Heavenly Secret began to mete out punishment, all the powerhouses who had left their blood fingerprints on the Heavenly Secret Pact, as well as their respective sects, would unite against the Sacred Fire Sect, whether the Myriad Demon Ridge side was willing or not.

Since the establishment of the Spiritual Stream Battlefield, no one had dared to violate the impartiality of the Heavenly Secret.

Even if the people of the Sacred Fire Sect were completely unhinged, they shouldn't commit such an unwise act. This was gambling with the fate of their entire sect.

Although Li Baxian's gaze was sharp and his tone cold, he was secretly pleased, because if the Sacred Fire Sect really wanted to play this way, it would be beneficial to their side.

He secretly mused, "Have these guys really had their minds burned out by their sacred fire?"

The few powerhouses of the Vast Heaven Alliance all thought the same way. Otherwise, they wouldn't be sitting here quietly, they would have stopped the seventh-level female cultivator as soon as she stepped onto the stage.

"What are you doing!" Over on the Myriad Demon Ridge side, the powerhouse ranked in the top twenty of the list glared at the Sacred Fire Sect's administrator present, shouting through gritted teeth.

Even if the sixth-level spell cultivator was no match, they absolutely could not break the Heavenly Secret Pact; otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Just as his voice fell, faint flashes of lightning and thunder echoed in the sky. Heavy dark clouds appeared out of nowhere, gathering above Golden Light Peak, obscuring the sun.

The Heavenly Secret had begun to stir...

All on the Myriad Demon Ridge side were horrified. The cultivators near the Sacred Fire Sect members quickly scattered. For a moment, a large empty area appeared around the Sacred Fire Sect group.

The aura of death pressed down, yet the Sacred Fire Sect group remained composed. Regardless of other things, their courage in directly facing the Heavenly Secret was truly admirable, but this could not change their impending fate.

"Blazing sacred fire, consume my body; if my heart's fire never ceases, I shall not fear death!"

From the Sacred Fire Sect's side, their highest-ranking administrator lowered his head and softly chanted.

On the arena, the seventh-level female cultivator also lowered her head, chanting the same words: "Blazing sacred fire, consume my body; if my heart's fire never ceases, I shall not fear death!"

As she chanted, she raised her right thumb and pressed it firmly against a certain spot below her chest.

"This is..." Li Baxian suddenly realized something, and his expression subtly changed.

Pffft...

A faint sound like a punctured balloon emanated. Along with this sound, the female cultivator stumbled slightly, and at the same time, a violent wave of energy swept outwards from her.

The female cultivator grunted, a flicker of pain in her eyes. Concurrently, her aura sharply weakened.

"Self-crippling a spiritual orifice!" Li Baxian gritted his teeth and whispered.

Everyone who witnessed the female cultivator's action, whether from the Vast Heaven Alliance or the Myriad Demon Ridge, changed color.

Self-crippling a spiritual orifice was easy to say, but difficult to do. Once a spiritual orifice was crippled, one's future was undoubtedly bleak, destined to languish at the Spiritual Stream Realm. Just looking at Li Baxian, one could see how remarkably talented he was, a figure even admired by the Sword Lord of the Northern Profound Sword Sect. Yet, with a damaged spiritual orifice, he had been stuck at the Spiritual Stream Realm for over a decade, and his cultivation had halted at the eighth-level. Because one spiritual orifice was broken, the final Minor Heavenly Cycle circulation system could not form, preventing him from advancing to the ninth level.

Of course, a broken spiritual orifice could be repaired, but the cost was too immense, and no one was willing to easily attempt it.

At this very moment, before thousands of cultivators from both factions, this Sacred Fire Sect female cultivator, without a change in expression, crippled one of her own spiritual orifices. Her demeanor was as if she were merely plucking a single strand of hair.

This decisiveness, this ruthlessness towards herself, made thousands of cultivators' scalps tingle. Truly worthy of being called the madmen of the Sacred Fire Sect; to be capable of such a feat.

After a brief shock, everyone looked up at the surging crisis in the sky.

Originally, as soon as the female cultivator stepped onto the arena, the Heavenly Secret began to rapidly stir, as if punishment was about to descend. The lightning and thunder within the thick dark clouds made people uneasy.

However, when the female cultivator crippled one of her spiritual orifices and her cultivation fell to the sixth level, the dark clouds hovering above Golden Light Peak quickly dissipated, and the surging Heavenly Secret vanished completely.

Sunlight poured down, and the sky was clear.

The Myriad Demon Ridge side beamed with smiles.