Final Trial Shocks the Entire Arena, Shen Yi Reaches the Peak and Displays His Might

The morning mist on the trial stage was shredded into fine ice crystals by sword qi as Shen Yi stepped across a vine bridge woven from demon-devouring vines, leaping onto the seventh tier of the jade stairs.

Bronze bells chimed melodiously from the eaves of the hundred-foot-tall sword pavilion, their vibration causing the cold-frost hairpin at his waist to emit a faint crimson mist.

"Junior Brother Shen, watch out!" Hao Yu's voice transmission, carrying the enticing aroma of roasted chicken, crashed into his eardrums.

Three poison-tipped flying swords grazed the back of Shen Yi's neck, scorching a blackened gouge into the icy ground.

Jian Chen's floating-cloud sword array had already formed, and twelve inner-sect disciples surrounded Shen Yi in the center, positioning themselves along the eight trigrams.

A mysterious iron sword box floated in mid-air, and the surging sword qi condensed into the shape of a blood-colored phoenix. "Today, I will make you rogue cultivators understand that cultivation grown in spirit fields can never take the grand stage."

Shen Yi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and the demon-devouring vines on his wrists suddenly grew wildly.

The dark purple vines shattered two streaks of sword qi, but withered abruptly upon touching the core of the sword array—a system light screen flickered frantically across his retina: [Warning! Spiritual plants have been eroded by raging-fire sword qi, forced into dormancy].

"Shen Yi!" Gao Yao's ice-silk ribbon suddenly pierced through a gap in the sword array, blooming a twin-lotus protective seal on his left shoulder.

The young girl's hurried voice transmission was wrapped in frost and snow: "Jian Chen carved a spirit-suppression array on the jade stairs. Your spiritual power is being..."

Before she could finish, the blood-colored phoenix suddenly swooped down.

Shen Yi was flipped to the ground by the shockwave, his back slamming heavily against the trial stele engraved with the characters "Inquiring Heart".

The spectator stands erupted in gasps. He heard the crisp sound of jade bottles colliding inside Ling Yun's medical box, and smelled the plum-blossom honey fragrance radiating from the rejuvenation pill Hao Yu had secretly slipped him.

The system prompt in the bloody mist was particularly glaring: [Do you wish to consume a hundred years of lifespan to unlock the Heavenly Demon Seed? Current win rate will increase to 73%].

Shen Yi's fingertips dug deeply into the seams of the blue-jade bricks, and a demon-devouring vine sprout suddenly bloomed at his wound—he abruptly realized that the drops of blood seeping into the ground cracks were flowing along some ancient pattern toward the base of the sword pavilion.

"So that's how it is..." Shen Yi coughed up blood and laughed aloud, the vines on his wrist suddenly entangling Jian Chen's sword box.

When the raging-fire sword qi struck again, he deliberately met the edge with his shoulder, letting his blood splash onto the bronze rust stains on the surface of the jade stairs.

The spectator stands suddenly stirred.

Elder Xuanfeng's horsetail whisk drifted without wind, while Gao Yao's ice-silk ribbon emitted a strange buzzing sound—those bronze rust spots stained with Shen Yi's blood were actually resonating with the bells on the eaves of the sword pavilion, etching tiny cracks into the spirit-suppression array.

"Hao Yu!" Shen Yi suddenly crushed the sound-transmission jade slip hidden in his palm, "That flock of blue-eyed golden-feathered finches you raised in the medicinal garden..."

"I've been waiting!" A crisp sound of bamboo whistles came from the northeast corner of the stands, and seven or eight golden rays suddenly pierced through the clouds.

The disciples forming the array hurriedly swung their swords, only to cut through drifting clouds of pale purple pollen—that was the intoxicating fairy powder Ling Yun had spent three days and nights concocting.

Jian Chen's floating-cloud sword array experienced a momentary freeze.

Shen Yi's demon-devouring vines seized the opportunity to burrow into the ground cracks, heading straight for the base of the sword pavilion along the spiritual veins corroded by the bronze rust.

When the system light screen popped up again, he smiled and wiped away the blood in front of his eyes: "It's not yet time to reveal my trump card."

The morning light was suddenly stained blood-red, and the three thousand copper bells on the eaves of the sword pavilion wailed in unison.

Shen Yi turned around amidst the howling wind, seeing Gao Yao's ice-silk ribbon transforming into countless frost blades, while the chicken bones Hao Yu had finished gnawing clearly bore half a broken-array rune carved into them.

The demon-devouring vines in Shen Yi's palm suddenly bloomed with seven seductive purple epiphyllum flowers, and the frost condensed on the vines fell away in rustles.

He tilted his head to dodge Jian Chen's stabbing sword edge, and whistled toward the northeast spectator stands: "Hao Yu, your golden-feathered finches need a change of feed!"

"I've been waiting for those words!" Hao Yu tossed the gnawed chicken bone into the air, his oily knuckles pinching out a bizarre incantation.

The blue-eyed golden-feathered finches that had been circling in the clouds suddenly swooped down, the phosphorus powder shaken from their tail feathers refracting colorful halos in the sunlight, precisely scattering onto the sword sheaths of the array disciples.

Ling Yun's gentle laughter came from the southwest corner: "Since Senior Brothers' swords are stained with the intoxicating fairy powder, why not rest for a while?" Her gesture of opening the medical box stirred up a wave of herbal fragrance, and three jade bottles burst in mid-air, pale cyan spiritual mist instantly enveloping the twelve humming flying swords.

The originally fierce sword qi suddenly turned soft, drooping to the ground like water-soaked silk.

"Trifling tricks!" Jian Chen's mysterious iron sword box suddenly inverted, and the surging sword qi actually dyed the blood-colored phoenix into an ink-like blackness.

Gasps rose one after another from the spectator stands—this was the immortal sect's forbidden art, the "Soul-Devouring Sword Technique", and even Elder Xuanfeng frowned.

Shen Yi's demon-devouring vines suddenly wrapped around the ice-silk ribbon thrown by Gao Yao, borrowing its force to vault into the air amidst the dancing frost flowers.

As his boot soles grazed the edge of the sword array, the vines on his wrist suddenly grew three inches longer, precisely hooking the jade pendant at Jian Chen's waist. "Senior Brother Jian's mandarin-duck pendant is quite unique. Could it be a gift from some fairy maiden?"

Jian Chen's pupils contracted violently, and this tiny flaw was captured by Ling Yun's silver needles.

Three mind-calming-powder-coated ice-soul needles pierced the sword qi barrier, prancing three cinnabar moles onto the back of his hand.

The floating-cloud sword array instantly developed cracks, and Hao Yu seized the moment to smash the gnawed chicken bone toward the array core, the rune-carved bone piece sinking deeply into the blue jade ground.

"Right now!" Shen Yi's demon-devouring vines suddenly burrowed into the ground cracks, charging straight toward the base of the sword pavilion along the spiritual veins previously corroded by the blood droplets.

The trembling sound of the bronze bells suddenly pitched up by an octave, and the icicles hanging from the eaves shattered one after another, turning into a sky full of crystal powder that drifted over the trial ground.

Elder Xuanfeng abruptly stood up, the silver hairs on his horsetail whisk standing straight up.

He saw the hem of Shen Yi's robe being cut into pieces by the sword qi, yet his exposed back revealed a bizarre vine totem—those dark purple patterns were resonating with the bronze rust stains at the base of the sword pavilion.

"Myriad Swords Return to Sect!" Jian Chen suddenly bit the tip of his tongue, and the ejected vital blood dyed the entire sword box red.

The twelve flying swords merged into one within the bloody mist, transforming into a ten-foot giant sword that hacked toward Shen Yi's forehead.

A female disciple shrieked from the spectator stands, and Gao Yao's ice-silk ribbon instantly condensed into an ice shield, only to shatter inch by inch upon touching the sword's edge.

Shen Yi suddenly smiled.

He took half a step forward against the sword edge, and the withered demon-devouring vines on his wrist suddenly bloomed—not the usual dark purple, but glowing with golden-cyan light!

The system light screen flickered wildly before his eyes: [Heavenly Demon Seed resonance achieved, demon-devouring vines advanced to...]

The latter half of the prompt was drowned out by the ringing of swords.

When the giant sword was only three inches away from his glabella, seven bronze bell phantoms suddenly appeared on Shen Yi's fingertips.

Amidst crisp chimes, a golden ray shot out from the base of the sword pavilion, illuminating his figure like a deity.

"Break!"

With this crisp shout, the twelve inner-sect disciples vomited blood simultaneously and flew backward.

Jian Chen's giant sword shattered into powder in the golden light, and the mysterious iron sword box cracked in half with a "click", revealing the scarlet demonic rune paper hidden inside.

The spectator stands fell into a dead silence, with only the bronze bells on the eaves continuing to vibrate endlessly.

Elder Xuanfeng's horsetail whisk suddenly flew out of his hand, transforming into countless silver threads above the trial ground: "Trial terminated! Shen Yi wins!"

When Gao Yao rushed onto the jade stairs holding her blood-stained skirt hem, Shen Yi was playing with the mandarin-duck pendant he had pilfered from Jian Chen's waist.

The young girl's ice-silk ribbon was still wrapped around his bleeding wrist, but her voice carried a trace of crying: "You knew clearly that the spirit-suppression array would devour spiritual power, why did you still forcibly urge the demon-devouring vines?"

"Wasn't I waiting for the Medical Fairy to work her magic?" Shen Yi blinked at those below, and Ling Yun immediately blushed and hid her medical box behind her.

Hao Yu was gnawing on a newly fished-out braised pork knuckle, shouting indistinctly: "When you two are being all lovey-dovey, can you first return the broken-array rune I carved? That cinnabar cost three months' worth of meal money!"

The cheers of the immortal-sect disciples surged like a tidal wave.

Shen Yi's name rose into the high sky along with the shattered ice crystals, condensing into golden runes within the clouds.

As Jian Chen was helped away by his fellow disciples, he suddenly turned back to glance at the base of the sword pavilion—the residual bronze rust stains there were bizarrely twisting into the shapes of demonic script.

When dusk dyed the trial ground in twilight, Shen Yi stood alone at the eaves of the sword pavilion.

He stroked the bloodstains on the cold-frost hairpin, and the system light screen suddenly popped open automatically: [Ancient demonic qi remnant detected, do you wish to initiate traceability tracking?].

The celebration banquet in the distance was brightly lit, yet the new-moon hairpin Gao Yao wore cast a bloody shadow over the jade pendant at his waist.

A night breeze swept across the three thousand copper bells, and Shen Yi suddenly pressed his wildly throbbing brow.

In the southwestern sky, a red star flickered strangely three times, and Hao Yu, who was busy gnawing on a chicken leg, suddenly choked, while the blue-eyed golden-feathered finches he kept in his sleeves let out a collective wail.