Chapter 221: Destructive Magic Skill

The Blazing Fire Titan seemed to sense the danger of Xu Yang's current attack and instinctively activated its Blazing Fire True Form.

In an instant, a thick layer of Blazing Fire Aura formed around the gorilla's body, causing the surrounding air temperature to rise sharply. Simultaneously, the power of Xu Yang's sword energy was significantly reduced.

"As expected of a combat spirit beast with a hundred-thousand-year top-tier bloodline. If I could acquire this Blazing Fire Titan, it would definitely be a tremendous asset!"

As Xu Yang thought this, his gaze suddenly fell upon the Empress beside him.

The Empress's cultivation method was primarily based on the Cold Moon Art, which was extremely cold in nature. Moreover, her techniques leaned towards illusions and were not particularly strong in offense or defense. If she could acquire this Blazing Fire Titan spirit beast as a guardian divine beast, it would naturally bring her numerous benefits in the future.

Spirit beasts over ten thousand years old possess a unique ability unmatched by other beast races: they can form a soul bond with a host through a soul sacrifice. Once successfully bound, the host can share some of the spirit beast's attributes and abilities, greatly enhancing the host's combat power.

However, this sacrificial process requires the spirit beast's absolute recognition of the host, as it's equivalent to dedicating half of its life. Even ten-thousand-year-old spirit beasts are rarely willing to do this, let alone this hundred-thousand-year-old ancient spirit titan.

What the Titan didn't know, however, was that this time its opponent was Xu Yang, a powerful being who could always turn the impossible into possible.

"Ape," Xu Yang said, "as a hundred-thousand-year-old spirit beast, it would be a shame to simply kill you. How about sacrificing yourself to the Empress and becoming her spirit beast instead?"

The Empress was greatly startled, looking at Xu Yang in disbelief. She naturally understood the benefits of such an action, but she also knew that getting the Blazing Fire Titan to sacrifice itself would be ten times harder than simply taking its inner core.

"You're dreaming!" the Blazing Fire Titan roared. "If I don't kill both of you today, I don't deserve to be the King of this Jungle!"

Roar!!

The Titan pounded its arms again, but this time, the special aura fluctuations emanating from its body seemed to be a unique signal of the ape tribe, capable of sending out summoning messages to the surroundings.

Sure enough, before long, large groups of subordinate apes with demonic eyes gathered towards the center of the jungle, surrounding Xu Yang and the Empress.

Each ape let out screams of distinctly different frequencies, creating immense interference to spiritual power. Even someone as strong as Xu Yang couldn't help but frown.

The temperature in the jungle continued to rise, inexplicably stirring up tumultuous waves from the clash of the two ice and fire elemental powers within the Empress, making her internal energy highly agitated. Coupled with the howls of the subordinate apes, the Empress's emotions quickly spiraled to the brink of collapse.

Just then, Xu Yang transferred both parts of the Desolate Heavens Boundless artifact to the Empress's front, transforming them into two golden light shields that hovered and spun, completely isolating the space around the Empress from the outside world.

As expected, with the protection of this peerless divine artifact, the pressure the Empress felt instantly diminished. However, this meant that the pressure Xu Yang had to face naturally increased.

"Come on! Old Ape," Xu Yang challenged, "Do you dare to make a wager with me? Within the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, without relying on any magical treasures or weapons, I can turn this entire vibrant forest of yours into a dead land!"

The Blazing Fire Titan burst into laughter. "Though my jungle isn't the largest island in the East Sea, its spiritual energy is incredibly abundant. There are at least ten thousand living beings on this island. In a mere half an incense stick's time, let alone annihilating my entire island, you won't even be able to break out of my Thousand Ape Formation! Brat, arrogance comes at a price!"

Xu Yang's lips curved slightly. "If I lose, you can kill or dismember me as you please! In fact, if you agree, I can even lead you to the Dragon's Hoard within the East Sea! But if you lose, according to our agreement, you must recognize her as your master and sacrifice your soul to form a symbiotic contract with the Empress. How about that?"

The Blazing Fire Titan was absolutely confident in its own strength. On the other hand, it genuinely didn't believe Xu Yang could achieve such an incredible miracle. If he truly could, it would prove that the opponent had the ability to kill it, in which case it would have no choice but to comply.

"Alright! If you can do it," the Blazing Fire Titan roared, "this Venerable One will immediately sacrifice itself to her!"

Xu Yang waved his hand, and half an incense stick appeared, already lit, before the Blazing Fire Titan.

"No! Xu Yang," the Empress exclaimed, "you don't need to make such a reckless gamble with it. We can leave here immediately, and there will be no danger!"

Xu Yang did not answer the Empress but merely gave a slight smile, then suddenly sat cross-legged in meditation. Without warning, a purplish-black light flashed from the center of his brows.

Xu Yang had never used this technique since he comprehended it. It was after he unlocked the Eternal Divine Artifact, when Empress Alousha's demonic imperial life source merged with his own, that he unlocked a forbidden demonic cultivation technique sealed within the Eternal Divine Artifact.

Xu Yang speculated that it was a demonic art left by the previous owner when the Eternal Divine Artifact was sealed in ice hundreds of thousands of years ago. It was called "Annihilation"!

As this purplish-black soul force continuously spread, the shadow beneath Xu Yang rippled like waves in the ocean, gradually covering a larger surrounding area. The abundant spiritual energy in the air began to decay, all signs of life began to wither, and all souls enveloped within this shadow began to instinctively tremble!

"My heavens... what kind of power is this?" the Blazing Fire Titan gasped. "It's even more terrifying than the aura of the Gluttonous King! Just what is the origin of this human brat?!"

The Blazing Fire Titan watched in disbelief, momentarily not knowing how to resist. No matter how it roared wildly or tried to approach Xu Yang, it found itself unable to break free from the purplish-black shadow beneath its feet.

"No..."

The Empress, perfectly protected in mid-air, also showed an incredulous look in her eyes. Only now did she realize that what she had seen of Xu Yang was merely the tip of the iceberg of his true capabilities. His mystery and power had long exceeded the limits of her imagination.

Decay and extinction continued! The first to change were the surrounding vegetation and plants, which rapidly withered within an extremely short time, their life force flowing towards Xu Yang's main body.

Next, the lower-tier life forms, after having their spiritual energy drained, their physical bodies also began to perish!

Furthermore, more than half of the incense stick had already burned down. The surrounding subordinate apes let out hysterical wails, wanting to resist but finding they had no strength to fight back!

"No!!"

The Blazing Fire Titan watched its thousands of tribesmen kneeling on the ground, letting out painful wails and struggling wildly. It knew that this game was already lost...

Xu Yang's gamble wasn't truly about safely devouring all life around them. He was gambling on the Blazing Fire Titan's inner warmth being equally fervent, that it would never disregard the lives of the ten thousand beings on this island for its own life.

In other words, only a spirit beast with good intentions could truly complete the sacrifice with the Empress.

"Stop!" the Blazing Fire Titan cried. "I... I lose..."