Qingzhuang Li glanced back at the pursuing skeletal warship, her delicate eyebrows knitting together in slight exasperation.

That the Great Winged Warship would be hunted by hordes of spectral cultivator minions along the route was something she hadn't foreseen when she borrowed Ye Qin's vessel to reach the Southern Demon Continent, solely to evade the Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint's tracking. Had she known Ye Qin’s journey involved such trouble, she might have sought a different conveyance altogether.

Her appearance on the stern now meant it wouldn't be long before the Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint detected her and gave chase.

Yet, if she remained hidden, the Great Winged Warship would soon be shattered by the skeletal ship, forcing her out regardless. The outcome, it seemed, would be the same either way.

"You pilot the warship and get out of this sea area as fast as you can. The Golden Crow will be descending soon; it is no longer safe here."

Qiu Li tilted her head to regard the sky momentarily, then cast a disdainful glance at the pursuing skeletal vessel, murmuring softly.

Huangfu Bing'er’s expression shifted sharply. She had heard Ye Qin speak of the Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint's destruction of Black Sand City and knew well the terror of that entity.

With her words spoken, Qingqiu Li shimmered, transforming into a nine-tailed spirit fox with fiery red fur, standing proudly at the bow of the ship.

This nine-tailed spirit fox possessed languid eyes, its gaze flowing like autumn water; even in its fox form, its beauty was incomparable. It stood near the stern of the Great Winged Warship, cast a brief look at Ye Qin and the Ghost Master locked in fierce combat, then turned toward the skeletal warship, its nine tails swaying gently.

Within the Fox Clan tribes, the number of tails was a symbol of cultivation strength. Only Fox Demons in the Soul Transformation stage possessed nine tails. In the Eastern Sea Cultivation World and the Demon Sea tribes, one would rarely find spirit foxes with more than seven or eight tails.

The Fox Clan stood apart among the great demon races, characterized by their cunning intelligence, a trait remarkably similar to human cultivators. They generally disliked war and slaughter, preferring to employ schemes and subterfuge to achieve their goals, often keeping close to human cultivators and frequenting their territories within the cultivation world.

However, to underestimate the combat capability of Fox Clan cultivators would be a grave mistake.

"Quick! Aim and prepare to fire!" "Don't let them escape!"

On the skeletal warship, numerous Golden Core ghost cultivators were shouting orders, adjusting the trajectories of their Ghost Spirit Cannons, attempting to lock onto the Great Winged Warship as it weaved and changed direction erratically.

The Great Winged Warship was smaller, and its flight pattern was agile—darting up, down, left, and right without discernible pattern. Capturing such a target with the skeletal ship’s ghost cannons presented a significant challenge. They had only engaged a fraction of their main artillery against this smaller vessel.

"What is that?" "Is that a fox demon on that ship?"

The Nascent Soul ghost cultivators aboard the enemy vessel observed the Great Winged Warship from a distance, noting the cultivators on board seemed to have released a spirit fox beast, apparently preparing for battle.

Upon seeing this, the Nascent Soul ghost cultivators burst into loud, scornful laughter. "A mere spirit fox? What can it possibly accomplish? Are they expecting that fox to challenge our skeletal warship? I doubt it can even damage a single plank of our deck."

"Are the cultivators on that ship driven mad? What good can a spirit beast do in a duel between two warships! I say the cultivators on board are desperate, reckless—a death throe!"

"Whether we blast one more spirit beast or one less with our ghost cannons, they are all doomed anyway!" Suddenly, a few sharp-eyed Nascent Soul ghost cultivators sensed something amiss. The Great Winged Warship displayed no signs of panic; it shouldn't be resorting to such a foolish tactic.

"Wait! That fox demon appears to have many tails... seven... nine??"

"This—how is this possible! How can it have nine tails!" One Nascent Soul ghost cultivator, having clearly counted the spirit fox’s appendages, cried out in terror, witnessing something utterly unbelievable.

Soon, other ghost cultivators also discerned the number of tails on the spirit fox. They stood frozen, as if plunged into a frigid abyss. A wave of chilling, (yin) wind swept across the entire skeletal warship, making the ghost cultivators, who normally felt quite comfortable, feel as if they were being frozen solid.

They were all originally Eastern Sea cultivators and understood the nature of Fox Clan demon cultivators. Only the patriarch of a Fox Clan tribe from the Demon Sea, an ancient demon fox of the twelfth rank, might possess eight tails; a common Fox Clan demon cultivator with seven tails was already exceptionally powerful.

"Is that a Soul Transformation stage demon cultivator?"

The Nascent Soul ghost cultivators were now gripped by a single, terrifying thought, overwhelmed with regret.

How could a Fox Demon of that caliber appear on the Great Winged Warship!?

Regardless of how it arrived, a Soul Transformation stage Fox Demon was not something their group of Nascent Soul ghost cultivators could provoke. The Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint alone had annihilated Black Sand Immortal City, sending countless Nascent Soul cultivators down the path to the underworld. Several among them had perished in the battle of Black Sand City and still carried a deep, paralyzing fear of the Crow Demon Saint’s might.

Now, a Nine-Tailed Fox Clan Demon Saint had materialized on the Great Winged Warship—this was simply beyond comprehension.

"Fire the cannons!" "Kill them all!"

Inside the skeletal warship's hull, the Golden Core ghost cultivators had not noticed the unfolding drama. They had prepared ten ghost cannons, shouting excitedly and maniacally, activating the Ghost Spirit Cannons.

Boom! Boom! Boom...!

The skeletal warship unleashed a volley of ten shots. These Ghost Spirit Cannons formed ten dense, intersecting columns of black light that tore across the firmament, hurtling toward the Great Winged Warship nearly a hundred li away.

Upon seeing the skeletal ship fire, Huangfu Bing'er urgently used her divine sense to maneuver the warship into a sharp turn.

The Great Winged Warship was already tracing an arc and executed a swift, agile turn.

Nearly half of the Ghost Spirit Cannon beams grazed past the Great Winged Warship’s vicinity, successfully dodged by its nimble evasion. A three-hundred-zhang-long Great Winged Warship was not large in the vastness of the sky; hitting it was difficult.

The remaining few shots slammed directly into the warship's protective barrier.

The Great Winged Warship shuddered violently several times. The ghost cannon rounds, saturated with potent corpse energy, nearly shattered the shield. Great clouds of corpse energy rapidly corroded the spiritual energy of the barrier, causing the Great Winged Warship's defenses to dim dramatically.

The skeletal warship, using only a fraction of its main arsenal, had nearly breached the Great Winged Warship's shield.

While evading, the Great Winged Warship returned fire, launching its ten light spirit cannons toward the pursuing skeletal warship.

These ten light spirit cannons struck the skeletal warship, creating only small, rippling waves upon its ghostly mist shield. They inflicted almost no damage, which sent the Golden Core ghost cultivators aboard into excited cheers, preparing for another barrage.

The offensive and defensive might of this large skeletal warship was simply too formidable—comparable to a flagship of the Heavenly Dao Alliance forces on the Immortal-Demon battlefield. A small Great Winged Warship stood no chance of resistance.

Had the vessel ahead not been a small warship, there would have been no need to fully charge all the ghost cannons; a simultaneous blast from a hundred cannons would have been potent enough to instantly reduce the Great Winged Warship to dust. However, this was as far as it would go.

The Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox looked up at the sky.

The golden-crow colored brilliance in the sky was intensifying. The Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint had located its position and was descending rapidly.

It lingered no more.

Swish—it transformed into a streak of fire-colored light, vanishing instantly from the Great Winged Warship.

It charged directly toward the skeletal warship.

"Bang!" The skeletal warship violently lurched, momentarily halting its high-speed flight.

A fiery red, nine-tailed spirit fox now stood atop the skeletal warship's ghostly mist shield. It lightly raised a sharp claw, and a beam of light flashed—Splat—the ghost mist shield was ripped open by its sharp claws, leaving a gaping hole.

It leaped down into the ship, burrowing toward the hull.

Its speed was incredible. With casual swipes of its claws, nearby Nascent Soul ghost cultivators were shredded like clumps of spoiled cotton. Not a single ghost cultivator could offer even momentary resistance.

The Nascent Soul ghost cultivators aboard the skeletal warship were utterly terrified, fleeing in disarray. What compounded their horror was the terrifying aura descending from the heavens, enveloping the skeletal warship. A Demon Saint—another Demon Saint! The Nascent Soul ghost cultivators were on the verge of collapse. They had never witnessed so many Demon Saints appearing in their lifetime.

High above, the golden-crow light descending toward the Great Winged Warship suddenly shifted slightly, turning to descend upon the skeletal warship instead.

Boom!

The Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint landed directly on the skeletal warship's deck, shattering countless pieces of bone armor. Its golden-crow feathers scattered, releasing clouds of the Heavenly Sun True Fire, which rained down upon the ship. The entire skeletal warship erupted into a sea of flames, burning fiercely.

The True Sun Fire ignited the ghost mist surrounding the vessel.

Countless malevolent spirits and resentful souls screamed mournfully amidst the roaring flames, scattering desperately.

This terrifyingly powerful Sun True Fire was an absolute extermination event for ghost cultivators.

The surviving Nascent Soul and Golden Core ghost cultivators fled the skeletal warship, now a sea of fire, escaping desperately in all directions. Faced with two terrifying Soul Transformation Demon Saints, they were completely demoralized, their only thought being to flee as far away as possible.

"Qingqiu Li, you cannot escape! Hand over the Sacred Artifact, and this Saint might spare your life!"

The Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint stood on the deck, roaring in fury. It stomped one foot onto the deck—Boom—and the incredibly sturdy deck was blasted open, creating a massive hole nearly a hundred zhang wide. It lunged into the ship's hull, pursuing the Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox Demon Saint.

The Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox had no desire to engage the Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint in battle. It dove straight toward the bottom of the skeletal warship, ripping open a large hole in the hull with a few swipes of its claws before escaping outward.

In the skeletal warship's hull, many pitiful Golden Core ghost cultivators, unaware of what had transpired outside, were utterly annihilated in the raging inferno. This time, their souls were completely dispersed, vanishing from the world, unable even to reform as ghost cultivators.

The Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint tore through the skeletal warship, relentlessly chasing the Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox. It would not cease until the Sacred Artifact was recovered. The colossal skeletal warship, forcibly pierced through and engulfed in flames, plummeted toward the sea below. This large skeletal warship, painstakingly constructed by the combined efforts of numerous Nascent Soul ghost cultivators, met its tragic end on its very first sortie, before it could even fully unleash its power.

Swish—From the direction of Linhai City, a streak of bloody gourd light and a flash of cyan sword energy were rapidly approaching the site of the battle from afar.

And from another direction, the formidable auras of six Demon Saints were also closing in fast.