Chapter One: The Arrival of the High Gods! …… …… Kou Xilai stood tall and imposing, enveloped in a swirling nimbus of violet light, radiating the aura of a demonic deity.

Even so, a grin of absolute certainty spread across his rugged features. The plan was to exhaust the Flower Spirit’s power using his formidable divine strength.

Once she was too weak to escape, he and the two High Gods would strike together to seal her instantly. Then, using the six "Spiritual Intent God Sealing Diagrams," they would shatter the final great gate.

The Spirit God Hall would gain access to every herb and talisman within the Spirit Mansion and the talismans themselves. As for him, he would refine and absorb the Flower Spirit, potentially breaking through the Third Spirit Tribulation to become the ninth Spirit God in the long history of the Spirit God Hall.

Everything would be perfectly aligned. "Crack!

Crack…" The sharp, intermittent sounds wove together, piercing Kou Xilai’s ears, yet they sounded to him like the most sublime melody on the Tianling Continent. Soon, the area dominated by the cloud of blood condensed from a radius of six or seven meters down to four or five, then two or three… Unwittingly, the two medicinal herbs hidden within the blood cloud became clearly visible.

One was entirely purple, the other red. However, their posture was bizarre: they were intimately embracing, their roots tightly entangled.

Most strikingly, the purple herb's flower bud was nestled deep within the petals of the second, red herb. "Could the owner of the Flower Spirit also be a Flower Spirit?" Seeing this strange sight, the vast majority of Tianling experts present felt a surge of profound doubt.

If there were truly two Flower Spirits, the Spirit God Hall's luck would be almost absurdly good. Ancient rumors suggested that refining spiritual entities into medicinal herbs or absorbing them directly provided immense aid during the Spirit Tribulation.

Although such rumors were rarely verified, the powerful figures of the Tianling Continent firmly believed them. But just then, those who were basking in envy suddenly noticed something peculiar: the blood cloud, which seemed on the verge of being compressed to its absolute limit, appeared to have stopped shrinking.

"Hmm?" As the originator of the pressure, Kou Xilai had already keenly sensed the shift. Under the suppression of his Thunder God power, the opponent's dark primal force was certainly being rapidly consumed, but for several seconds now, the Flower Spirit's primal force seemed to have received a massive replenishment.

Each influx of power not only offset the consumed primal force but also seemed to leave a slight surplus. Why was this?

Divine power surged around Kou Xilai like a tide, and a faint trace of confusion subtly shadowed his eyes. Meanwhile, Nie Kong and Tai Yan, hidden inside the blood cloud, were ecstatic.

After a prolonged effort, the sliver of dark primal force concealed within the heart of the 'Remembrance Grass' flower had finally been drawn out by Nie Kong's natural primal force. Subsequently, the two forces began to circulate between Nie Kong’s and Tai Yan’s bodies.

With almost every cycle, the dark primal force emanating from Tai Yan grew stronger. Moreover, as the circulation continued, the rate at which the primal force strengthened steadily increased.

Before long, the augmentation speed surpassed the rate of consumption. The most direct manifestation of this change was that the cloud of blood saturated with dark primal force began to slowly expand outwards.

In the span of mere moments, the situation had completely inverted. The faces of the Spirit God Hall experts, who had been exhilarated moments earlier, now looked rather grim.

Those watching from a distance exchanged uneasy glances, their minds racing with speculation. "Hmph!" Kou Xilai’s expression darkened.

An even more savage Thunder God power roared forth from his body like a beast breaking free of its cage, reinforcing the lightning net. Instantly, violet energy soared to the heavens, and the surrounding tens of meters were cleaved apart by wildly dancing lightning snakes, causing the void itself to shatter in patches.

The heavens and earth trembled, as if the apocalypse had arrived. Yet, no matter how aggressively Kou Xilai intensified his assault, the dark primal force contained within the blood cloud continued to recover rapidly.

In less than a minute, the cloud, which had shrunk to a mere two or three meters in radius, had ballooned to four or five meters, and it seemed it would soon regain its original size. "…" "We thought the Spirit God Hall had secured victory, but unexpectedly…" "Haha, this is truly splendid!

If the Spirit God Hall had claimed the Spirit Herb Illusory Realm so easily, wouldn't it have been dreadfully dull for us to watch?" "Judging by the current situation, it looks unlikely we’ll enter the Illusory Realm before nightfall!" "…" Seeing this, the onlookers couldn't help but rejoice. Even if they couldn't stop the Spirit God Hall from seizing the Illusory Realm, witnessing their humbling before the Flower Spirit was a pleasure in itself.

Kou Xilai could no longer manage a smile. The Flower Spirit’s primal force was expanding with alarming swiftness.

Although his Thunder God power was still continuously draining the opponent’s strength, it could no longer suppress it as effectively as before. In just this short time, the blood cloud had expanded to a ten-meter radius.

He was consuming the Flower Spirit’s power, but his own Thunder God power was depleting just as fast. If this continued, forget about shattering the barrier to enter the Spirit Mansion; whether he could even deal with the Flower Spirit and her master before nightfall was questionable.

It was possible his own Thunder God power might be exhausted first. "Two High Gods, please lend me your strength!" Kou Xilai’s expression grew grim as he suddenly shouted aloud.

Hearing this, the distant Tianling experts’ hearts skipped a beat, their eyes fixed intently. The chance to witness the High Gods take action was an event they might see only once in a lifetime.

Even though these two Spirit Gods had only projected their consciousness and a fraction of their power through their Divine Envoys, it was more than enough to broaden the horizons of the onlookers. "Very well." The man in black, floating high above, uttered two words without inflection.

His body suddenly descended, and when his feet touched the ground, the spiritual fire elements within a thousand-meter radius seemed to converge into his body in an instant. Then, he thrust his right hand directly into the blood cloud enveloped in faint light.

"Boom!" An aura of scorching intensity erupted violently, and a column of dark-red flame shot toward the sky, powerful enough to burn every obstacle between heaven and earth to ash. At almost the exact same moment, the man in the blue robe landed to Kou Xilai’s left.

Compared to his companion, his movement was much more graceful. "Whoosh!" He lightly tapped with his index finger, and a cyan vortex, like a bubble, emerged from his fingertip, drifting toward the blood cloud ahead.

However, the instant the vortex passed through the lightning net and made contact with the blood cloud, it suddenly expanded hundreds of times over. Innumerable cyan wind blades shot out, slicing the blood cloud into countless fragments.

Furthermore, stimulated by this cyan vortex, the pillar of flame opposite grew even more frantic. Wind feeds fire, and fire strengthens wind; the sudden conflagration dramatically augmented the might of Kou Xilai’s Thunder God power, instantly compressing the ten-meter radius blood cloud by half.

The two High Gods of the Spirit God Hall achieved such a result with just one move, leaving the distant onlookers stunned. For Tianling Masters, the Spirit Gods were truly invincible.

Even those who had passed the Second Spirit Tribulation were vastly inferior to true Spirit Gods. Gu Changgong watched this unfold, his heart fraught with intense conflict.

The High Gods' intervention placed Nie Kong in extreme peril. However, as the Palace Master of the Medicine Heart Hall in Lingyu City, how could he rashly intervene to save him?

Once he acted, he would incur the eternal enmity of the Spirit God Hall, and given Lingyu City’s current strength, confronting them was utterly impossible. What frustrated Gu Changgong the most was the complication arising from Yin Xu.

Otherwise, incurring the wrath of the Spirit God Hall wouldn't be such a dire concern; they could simply dismiss their disciples and hide the key figures of Lingyu City within Yin Xu. But now, not only did Yin Xu require constant suppression of the spirit vein, but even opening the entrance was impossible.

The only passage into Yin Xu was the spirit vein itself, which could only be traversed safely by those possessing the Yin Xu bloodline or by Wood Spirit Masters. If they provoked enmity with the Spirit God Hall, Lingyu City would have absolutely no path of retreat.

"Hurry up and get here!" Gu Changgong repeatedly turned his head to look toward the northern expanse of the Spirit Sealing Marsh. His action caused Yuan Xunyu, Yang Tian, and Houtu beside him to exchange confused glances, filled with suspicion.

"Die!" Just as everyone thought the Flower Spirit was about to be captured under the combined pressure of Kou Xilai and the two others, a familiar musical note suddenly sounded. The moment this voice reached their ears, the crowd’s hearts involuntarily skipped a beat.

Just a few days prior, that green-robed bandit had used this single, simple word to wither grass and drain the life force of Spirit Masters. But now, he was facing Kou Xilai, the Lord of the Spirit God Hall, and two High Gods.

Would he be as formidable as he was that day? …… ……RO