Chapter 167: Saintess

“Excellent!” a powerful shout boomed from the expert from Myriad Demons Ridge, who ranked among the top twenty on the Spirit Stream Ranking.

When the female cultivator stepped onto the arena, he had also believed the Holy Fire Cult lunatics had lost their minds, daring to provoke Heavenly Mystery. Who would have thought they had such a brilliant move – voluntarily disabling a spirit aperture!

This was undoubtedly exploiting a loophole in the Heavenly Mystery Pact, but judging from Heavenly Mystery’s reaction, this loophole was exploited in a way that left no room for argument.

By crippling one spirit aperture, the female cultivator fell from the seventh-layer realm to the sixth-layer realm. This naturally conformed to the terms of the Heavenly Mystery Pact. Now that even Heavenly Mystery had retreated, the Vast Heaven Alliance, despite their grievances, had nowhere to vent them.

A sixth-layer realm cultivator who had just fallen from the seventh-layer realm would naturally be stronger than an ordinary sixth-layer realm cultivator! This was Myriad Demons Ridge’s last hope.

Boom...

Just as the expert from Myriad Demons Ridge’s exclamation of “Excellent!” faded, Lu Ye, cloaked in a bloody aura, lunged towards the Holy Fire Cult female cultivator, brimming with killing intent as always.

He had killed a sixth-layer realm spell cultivator who had fallen from the seventh-layer realm shortly after advancing to the fifth-layer realm. Although he was not in peak condition at the moment and wasn’t even entirely sure what had just happened, since his opponent was on the stage, standing before him… he would just kill her!

The twenty-zhang distance quickly closed. Lu Ye’s sprinting figure was like a rampaging beast, exuding immense pressure.

His bloodshot eyes were clear, reflecting the image of the woman opposite him.

Ten zhang, five zhang. Fiery-red spiritual power began to cling to his long saber. Even though Lu Ye’s spiritual power was no longer as pure at this moment, and even though his spirit artifact was broken, the enhancement of the Sharpness Spirit Pattern still made this saber invincible.

The Holy Fire Cult female cultivator did not dodge. She knew she couldn't match Lu Ye's speed. She had willingly crippled her spirit aperture to fight Lu Ye on the stage, so she naturally had a way to cope.

She raised her hands, spiritual power surging through her body. A heart-shaped pendant on her chest subtly floated, emitting a fiery-red glow. As her own spiritual power frantically poured into it, a layer of protection suddenly expanded from the pendant, enveloping her.

The protection was fiery-red, as if lava constantly flowed over it, obscuring the woman's figure. When it appeared, the temperature of the entire Golden Light Peak rapidly rose. The ground, previously stained red with blood, was baked dry, emitting bursts of unpleasant odors.

“Molten Heart!” Someone from the Vast Heaven Alliance exclaimed, recognizing the pendant's origin.

This was a unique defensive spirit artifact of the Holy Fire Cult. Only five could be forged in each generation, and only their Holy Sons or Holy Maidens were qualified to possess them. It possessed extremely strong protective abilities. In battles of the same cultivation level, it could be said that as long as the wearer’s spiritual power was inexhaustible, the generated protection would not be broken, unless the power gap was too vast, causing the protection to be shattered in one go. However, against an enemy with such an overwhelming power difference, no defensive spirit artifact would be of any use.

Possessing the Molten Heart indicated that the female cultivator fighting this time was a Holy Maiden of the Holy Fire Cult.

A group of Vast Heaven Alliance cultivators cursed internally. The Holy Fire Cult members were indeed lunatics; a dignified Holy Maiden was actually willing to cripple her spirit aperture and lower her cultivation just to win a single battle!

At this very moment, Lu Ye had already rushed to the protective layer. The scorching heat blasted him, making his mouth and throat dry. He ignored it and chopped down with his saber.

In previous battles, other opponents had indeed deployed defensive spirit artifacts. However, those artifacts often proved of little use and were shattered by his few saber strikes.

This time, however, when he struck the fiery-red protection with his saber, he immediately noticed a difference. The defense wasn't hard, yet it gave an extremely resilient feeling. His saber strike, enhanced with Sharpness, felt like chopping into a piece of rubber.

Without hesitation, he unleashed a second strike, followed by a third, then a fourth...

His saber-holding hand was already scorched, but Lu Ye seemed not to notice, chopping wildly under the gaze of thousands of eyes.

“This is bad,” Li Baxian said with a grim expression. Although he couldn't see what the Holy Fire Cult's Holy Maiden was doing inside the protection, she was certainly preparing a powerful, large-scale spell.

The tragic deaths of the spell cultivators who had previously fought Lu Ye made Myriad Demons Ridge realize one thing: on this arena, spell cultivators found it difficult to pose any threat to Lu Ye. This was because he possessed a defensive spirit pattern that could be activated at will, and its protective power was exceptionally outstanding, allowing him to easily block every spell.

If this Holy Fire Cult Holy Maiden were to fight Lu Ye like the previous spell cultivators, even if she had fallen from the seventh-layer realm, she wouldn't last long.

There was only one way to defeat Lu Ye using spells: cast a large-scale spell that would leave Lu Ye's defensive spirit pattern unable to defend.

Ordinary seventh-layer realm spell cultivators weren't qualified to cultivate spells of that scale; it would require at least ninth-layer realm cultivation. But this was a Holy Maiden of the Holy Fire Cult, so her innate talent was undoubtedly extraordinary.

That's why she directly activated the protective power of the Molten Heart, to ensure her spell casting wouldn't be interrupted.

On the arena, Lu Ye also vaguely sensed this, so he drastically increased the speed of his saber strikes.

Meanwhile, inside the fiery protection, the Holy Fire Cult's Holy Maiden, who had maintained a normal expression even while crippling her spirit aperture, showed a slight change in her complexion.

She felt her spiritual power rapidly depleting, and a ripple appeared in her previously unperturbed state of mind. She was secretly astonished by the strength of her opponent's attacks.

It was important to know that while the Molten Heart's protection was exceptionally outstanding, its drawback was equally obvious: immense consumption.

This consumption was tied to her spiritual power. This protective layer wasn't unbreakable; rather, it was furiously mending itself while under attack, with the mending power originating from her spiritual energy.

The greater the intensity of the incoming attacks, the faster her spiritual power would deplete!

She had once battled a Vast Heaven Alliance cultivator also at the seventh-layer realm. The spiritual power consumed by the Molten Heart's protection during that attack seemed to be less rapid than this time!

That broken saber… it was indeed incredibly sharp.

Fortunately, she wasn't preparing for a prolonged battle with Lu Ye. She only had one spell prepared to deal with him!

Her spiritual power reserves continued to drop. In just ten breaths of time, she was left with little more than sixty percent of her spiritual power.

The outcome was decided!

She gently exhaled and pushed her hands outwards. With this action, a scorching, violent aura surged outwards. The remaining sixty percent of her spiritual power rapidly drained away, like a flood bursting through a dam!

At the same time, outside the lava-like protective layer, Lu Ye rapidly retreated. From the moment it appeared, an intense sense of crisis had surged within him, as if a voice was screaming in his ear: “Retreat quickly, or die!”

Almost the instant he retreated, the protection in front of him shattered. It wasn't cut open by him, but torn apart from the inside by a violent force.

Fiery-red color instantly filled Lu Ye's vision. Accompanying it was an aura that incinerated all things. That aura enveloped him, drawing him into its embrace.

The twenty-zhang arena was almost instantly engulfed in raging flames. These flames were not ordinary fire; they resembled diluted lava. This sudden change caused the cultivators watching near the arena to quickly retreat. For a moment, no one could clearly see the situation on the arena.

But it was undeniable that a fifth-layer realm cultivator enveloped by such a spell could not possibly survive.

Just as Li Baxian made a move, Wei Yang grabbed him. “Don't be impulsive,” she said. “Junior brother isn't dead!”

Although she couldn't see the situation clearly either, she could sense that Junior Brother's aura on the arena had not yet vanished. Her perception of life auras was extremely acute; as long as it hadn't vanished, she could save him!

But if Li Baxian rushed out at this moment, while he could indeed retrieve Junior Brother, the subsequent situation would not be optimistic.

Hearing Wei Yang's words, Li Baxian suppressed the urge to act.

The scorching power on the arena slowly dissipated. The previously muddy Golden Light Peak was now scorched dry, with even glass-like crystals appearing.

The hazy situation began to clear.

On one side of the arena, the Holy Fire Cult's Holy Maiden was ashen-faced, utterly devoid of color. Blood even seeped from her seven orifices, and her aura was extremely weak, as if she could collapse at any moment.

Her consumption was too great. The Molten Heart's protection had consumed thirty to forty percent of her spiritual power, and that large-scale spell had almost completely drained her.

Strictly speaking, that spell was not something a cultivator of her level should have been able to cast at all. She couldn't control it perfectly, and there was a high chance it would backfire on her, but to deal with Lu Ye, she had no other choice.

Fortunately, her willpower was strong enough that she barely managed to complete the spell. However, this left her somewhat depleted, like an oil lamp running out of fuel. Though the backfire wasn't severe, it still left her heavily wounded.

At this moment, all her spirit apertures were being burned by the power of the holy fire. If she didn't receive timely treatment, she would be crippled even if she survived.

She raised her vacant eyes and looked forward, wanting to see her opponent's fate.

From amidst the distorted heatwaves, a figure steaming from head to toe defiantly charged out. His bare upper body was covered in festering burns, his hair was a mess from being singed, and his lower garments were similarly ruined, clinging to his flesh. With every step he took, a fresh red bloody footprint appeared on the ground, the blood quickly drying under the high temperature.

The Holy Fire Cult's Holy Maiden's expression finally changed!

Not dead!

How could he not be dead?

The opponent indeed had a defensive spirit pattern, but even with it, he shouldn't have been able to block her spell. As long as he was still on the arena, he should have undoubtedly died.

At this moment, the Holy Maiden almost suspected someone had secretly intervened to help Lu Ye.

But since their own powerful experts hadn't spoken, it indicated that this possibility was small.

The enemy was not dead and was charging towards her. Although his speed wasn't fast and his figure staggered, the distance between them was rapidly shortening. It was clear that when he reached her, it would be her demise!