Divine Desolation Heaven-Locking Formation! Jiang Yuqiong's Killing Intent.
Jiang Yuqiong gripped the purple-gold gourd and infused it with spiritual energy.
A terrifying devouring force erupted forth in an instant.
Gu Xiu, who was closest to him, let out a wretched scream!
A brilliant light emerged from the crown of his head—a tiny humanoid figure identical to Gu Xiu himself!
It was Gu Xiu's soul!
But at that moment, the soul figure twisted in extreme distortion!
With a slash, an overwhelming force swept forth, tearing half of the soul's light apart and transforming it into a stream of energy that was swallowed by the purple-gold gourd!
"Ahhh!!!"
Gu Xiu let out a harrowing wail.
Baili Jinghong, Helian Cheng, and the others froze in horror, their bodies trembling.
"The Purple-Gold Soul-Refining Gourd! That's the Purple-Gold Soul-Refining Gourd!"
Baili Jinghong suddenly roared, his face paling in terror.
The others were equally petrified!
They recognized the treasure!
The Purple-Gold Soul-Refining Gourd!
It was a notorious and fearsome object that had once caused a massive upheaval across the Three Thousand Dao Domains!
Legend had it that thousands of years ago, a great clan stood tall and prosperous in the world.
Their status rivaled even the current Baili Clan!
They had killed a woman, unaware that it would provoke a terrifying god of slaughter!
Enraged for his beloved, that god of slaughter charged into the clan alone.
Wielding the Purple-Gold Soul-Refining Gourd, he forcibly extracted and devoured the souls of tens of thousands!
An entire clan crumbled in an instant, with few survivors escaping.
Even the clan's strongest elder, a Cave Profound Realm supreme, perished within the gourd's maw.
In the end, the god of slaughter succumbed to exhaustion, his divine energy depleted!
No one could have imagined that such a malevolent object would end up in the Ancient Sky Sect!
And now, it was in the hands of that little kid.
In a single moment, it had dealt Gu Xiu a grievous blow!
Baili Jinghong, Helian Cheng, and the others felt excruciating pain in their souls, as if they were about to be ripped from their spiritual apertures.
This Emperor-tier weapon pinned them in place, rendering them unable to break free!
A thick shadow of death loomed over them swiftly!
They were filled with dread, teetering on the edge of despair!
But just then, the childish voice of the little guy rang out with a strange yelp.
"Grandma's sake! This thing consumes way too much!"
It was Jiang Yuqiong's voice.
Only now did he learn its name—the Purple-Gold Soul-Refining Gourd.
At that moment, the spiritual energy in his body surged uncontrollably, already half-depleted.
The speed of consumption shocked him!
Even the devouring force at the gourd's mouth weakened considerably.
"Don't suck me dry into a husk!"
Jiang Yuqiong yelped again, immediately withdrawing all his spiritual energy.
In an instant, the suffocating aura of death receded like a tide.
Baili Jinghong, Helian Cheng, and the others let out muffled groans, clutching their chests as they stumbled back, drenched in cold sweat.
Every pair of eyes was filled with unbridled fear.
What they had just experienced made them truly taste the scent of death!
That Emperor-tier weapon was simply too terrifying!
"Run!"
Taking advantage of Jiang Yuqiong retracting the Purple-Gold Soul-Refining Gourd, two of the youths bolted out of the palace.
Baili Jinghong, Helian Cheng, and Gu Xiu didn't dare linger either, fleeing swiftly.
"They sure run fast!"
Jiang Yuqiong's eyes flickered as he too darted out.
Feng Wuchou, Hui Shoutao, and the others were still waiting outside. If they ran into Baili Jinghong and his group, a fight might break out.
Of course, if those guys were smart enough to leave on their own, he wouldn't bother chasing them down.
With a flash, Jiang Yuqiong reached the palace entrance, scanning for Feng Wuchou and the others.
But at that very moment, a familiar voice boomed!
"Little brat! No one's ever dared to steal from the Baili Clan!"
"Divine Desolation Sky-Locking Formation! Activate!"
Whoosh! A dazzling divine light swept down from above!
Countless runes flickered and whirled, releasing an overwhelmingly powerful fluctuation!
Mysterious patterns formed instantly, weaving through the void, transforming into a massive cage that descended to trap Jiang Yuqiong!
"Formation disk!"
Jiang Yuqiong's eyes glinted as he looked upward.
A palm-sized disk radiated an eternal glow!
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth poured in, absorbed by the disk, forming a ferocious grand formation!
In the blink of an eye, the space was sealed off!
Jiang Yuqiong knew it was a powerful formation disk.
Only those deeply skilled in the art of formations could etch countless array symbols onto such a small disk and carry it with them!
Once activated with external force, it could draw in the spiritual energy of the world to sustain itself!
Without profound enough cultivation, breaking it would be nearly impossible!
As Jiang Yuqiong pondered, the surrounding scene shifted, isolating this space from the outside world, rendering other figures invisible!
Rumble!
Ferocious energy surged like a flood, forming phantom after phantom of savage beasts that lunged at Jiang Yuqiong in a frenzied assault!
Roar!
A white tiger stepped through the air with its four hooves, like a majestic mountain sliding forth. Its gaping jaws unleashed a foul wind, aiming to swallow Jiang Yuqiong whole.
"A mere formation dares to trap me?"
Jiang Yuqiong's gaze turned icy.
At this moment, he genuinely harbored killing intent toward Baili Jinghong!
"Kill!"
Jiang Yuqiong let out a light shout, drawing the longsword he'd obtained from the palace and slashing fiercely!
A massive sword beam arced through the sky like a divine rainbow, obliterating everything, striking the charging white tiger head-on!
Pfft…
The enormous tiger shattered instantly, dissolving into fragments of light and vanishing into the void.
But immediately after, a giant snake lashed its massive tail through the air from the left, carrying mountain-splitting force as it whipped down.
Without hesitation, Jiang Yuqiong raised his sword again to strike.
At the same time, he activated the Word of Movement technique, darting swiftly within the formation.
When mastered, this secret art could evade supreme killing formations and bypass countless restrictions—capable of traversing the heavens and earth, going anywhere!
Though Jiang Yuqiong hadn't reached that level yet, escaping would still take time.
Meanwhile, outside the formation, Baili Jinghong, Baili Jingyun, Helian Cheng, Gu Xiu, and the others stood watch.
"Baili Jinghong, is it really appropriate to use a killing formation against a kid like this?"
One of them frowned and asked.
Before he could respond, Helian Cheng sneered.
"What's inappropriate about it?"
"All the treasures in the palace ended up in his hands—how can you swallow that?"
Another youth hesitated before speaking.
"But those treasures belong to the Ancient Sky Sect, not us!"
"The formations and restrictions here are damaged—it's clearly not intentional on the sect's part!"
"When the assessment ends, the Ancient Sky Sect will likely reclaim them!"
Baili Jinghong's eyes gleamed as he cast a faint glance at the speaker.
"So what? As long as we get our hands on them, the Ancient Sky Sect won't easily take them back!"
"Even if they demand them, they'll have to offer something in exchange!"
His tone then darkened.
"Enough stalling!"
"This Divine Desolation Sky-Locking Formation, which I obtained from a ruin, holds Tier 8 power. Below the Divine Treasury Realm, almost no one can break it."
"But that little brat's movement technique is uncanny—even restrictions can't stop him!"
"We should all act together to take him down!"
"He doesn't even have an assessment token. Even if he dies here, no one would dare say a word!"
"If you join, you'll get a share of the treasures!"
"If not, then I, Baili Jinghong, will claim them all myself!"
With that, he charged into the formation.