Old Devil Mou had finally managed to flee to the foot of Yitian Peak while the battle atop the mountain still raged on.

His body had been shattered, and though his spiritual consciousness rivaled that of a great cultivator, he had barely survived. At the last moment, he had used every life-preserving method at his disposal, sacrificing his fire lotus to block the fatal blow. Otherwise, his Spiritual Infant would have been torn apart on the spot, leaving him dead without a trace.

Even so, his current state was dire. Only a fragment of his Spiritual Infant remained, and the fire lotus he had painstakingly cultivated was completely exhausted.

Under normal circumstances, the pressure from the Spirit-Suppressing Domain would not have affected him much, but now, in his grievously wounded condition, even this faint suppression could not be ignored. If it caused his cultivation to fall, his fate would be even more tragic.

Old Devil Mou had been forced to burn his very origin to conceal his survival.

"Madam Li! The Four Saints Palace!" He looked furiously toward the mountaintop.

His cooperation with the Devil Lord had been an utter disaster. He had lost everything and once again suffered a crippling blow to his origin.

He dared not seek the Devil Lord’s aid now. If he fell into that man’s hands, the Devil Lord would not hesitate to claim his Spiritual Infant, perhaps even refine it into a devilish puppet.

After this battle, Old Devil Mou understood that he had to go into hiding. With the fire lotus shattered and his injuries so severe, simply healing without losing his realm would already be a blessing from heaven. Who knew how long it would take before he could rise again?

"That brat from the merchant guild..." He thought back to how it had all begun—with the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells—and clenched his teeth.

Swish! Old Devil Mou flew low over the ground, skimming above a fossilized meadow when a sudden wave of dread gripped his heart. A thunderclap split the sky overhead. Lightning appeared, followed by an aura of destruction.

"Someone’s here!" Old Devil Mou’s face drained of color as his surroundings turned blindingly white. Lightning filled his vision.

He had thought he’d deceived everyone and escaped unnoticed, but his tracks had been exposed all along. Despair welled up within him.

With the ancient barrier of the Spirit-Suppressing Domain, his attacker had to be at least a middle-stage Spiritual Infant cultivator.

The leaders of the merchant alliances, Four Saints Palace, and both the righteous and demonic factions were all at the ancient devil’s seal, but that didn’t mean there were no other experts nearby. Someone had been lurking in secret and had found him.

In his current condition, he had no power to fight back. His opponent had even tracked him here and launched a sneak attack without mercy.

Crack! The heavenly lightning struck precisely where the broken Spiritual Infant hovered, his movements entirely within the enemy’s control.

Yet even now, Old Devil Mou refused to give up. He burned his origin once more, teleporting away in a desperate bid to survive.

Boom! The thunderbolt pierced through his afterimage and smashed into the ground, leaving a massive crater in the fossilized meadow. Stones exploded in all directions as arcs of lightning crackled wildly through the petrified grasses, reducing the entire area to ash. Old Devil Mou escaped the blast by a hair’s breadth, appearing some distance away.

He was slightly surprised. The lightning wasn't as powerful as I expected.

That thought had barely crossed his mind when a gust of wind screamed toward him. A speck of blue light rapidly expanded in his vision.

Bai stayed close beside Qin Sang, the gray qi around them shielding a small area from the Spirit-Suppressing Domain’s constraints.

Bai had long since readied the Star Turban and seized the exact moment Old Devil Mou reappeared from teleportation, launching the strike without giving him a single breath to recover.

Both of them were tense. If their judgment was off and the ambush failed, they were ready to flee immediately.

Whoosh! The star turban spun forward, radiating a force sharp enough to pierce through heaven itself.

Old Devil Mou, still drained and unsteady, could only raise a frail hand and conjure a thin screen of cold flame. Before it even took form, the star turban tore straight through it.

Poof! The star turban’s power erupted. Old Devil Mou failed to dodge or defend. His broken Spiritual Infant was shredded again, its aura now feeble beyond repair.

Seeing this, Qin Sang’s heart leapt in joy. His judgment had been correct.

Whoosh! The light suddenly dimmed. Banners flared, and surging devilish flames engulfed the sky.

Qin Sang had anticipated Old Devil Mou's survival from the star turban’s strike.

To ensure success, he had swallowed a drop of Jade Liquid of Three Radiances while casting the Lightning Control Technique. His true essence surged violently within him. If it meant eliminating Old Devil Mou, any cost was worth paying.

Now came his true killing move: the devilish banner array. Nine banners rose into the air together, releasing a torrent of Devilish Flames of Nine Hells that swept toward Old Devil Mou in an instant.

Simultaneously, Qin Sang flashed forward, his sword light gleaming as he descended.

Recognizing the familiar devil flames, Old Devil Mou froze for a moment. Then, realizing his attacker’s cultivation, disbelief flickered across his face. He thought that he was hallucinating.

"It's you!" Old Devil Mou instantly understood.

The figure before him was only at the Core Formation Realm, yet he wielded devilish flames. His true identity was the very person from the Qiongyu Merchant Guild he had once hunted down.

At the outer hall’s exit, he had ordered all intruders slain without exception. He had planted the Fire Curse Seed and chased the person across a thousand li, yet the person had escaped through some unknown means, leading to his own string of misfortunes ever since.

And now, at his weakest moment, the same person had appeared again, and this time he came to claim his life!

Old Devil Mou couldn’t comprehend it. How could someone at the Core Formation Realm move freely within the Spirit-Suppressing Domain, appearing as if descending from the heavens? But none of that mattered anymore.

Whoosh! The torrent of devilish flames surged forward, shattering the cold flames.

The Devilish Flames of Nine Hells burned fiercely, their heat and malice overwhelming everything. Old Devil Mou, who had just exhausted his vital energy to teleport and whose old wounds had reopened, was now utterly weakened. Struck by the surge of devilish flames, he froze. He didn’t even have time to self-detonate.

The devilish flames engulfed Old Devil Mou. A sword wheel formed from the ebony sword, while Bai also released waves of corpse qi to assist. The barrier of the Spirit-Suppressing Domain activated as well, suppressing everything within its range.

The Spiritual Infant flickered like a dying candle. Seeing that Old Devil Mou’s remnant Spiritual Infant was shattered and powerless to resist, Qin Sang’s heart stirred. He quickly formed a hand seal, attempting to capture Old Devil Mou’s soul.

"Insignificant wretch, don't you dare try to search my soul!" Old Devil Mou glared at Qin Sang coldly, his gaze devoid of resentment or rage, only deep unwillingness.

All his life, Old Devil Mou had acted without scruples, doing whatever he pleased. He had long known that such a day might come, though he had never expected to fall to such an opponent.

He slowly closed his eyes. His remnant soul ignited, burning itself away. He chose death over capture. The last trace of cold flames around him flickered unsteadily.

Qin Sang sensed the desolate aura spreading from within the remnant Spiritual Infant. The soul was being annihilated. He sighed inwardly. These old monsters always have safeguards. The higher their realm, the harder it is to perform a soul search on them.

"Huh?" He urged the devilish flames to completely consume the remnant infant and quickly prepared to retreat, wary of any tricks Old Devil Mou might have left behind.

He suddenly noticed an unusual glimmer within the cold flames. It looked just like a lotus seed. Old Devil Mou had been trying to destroy it before dying.

"What is that?" Qin Sang’s mind stirred. Confirming that it wasn’t some self-detonating method, he immediately manipulated the devilish flames into the shape of a giant hand and seized it.

Poof! The Dongming Cold Flame scattered in retreat as the lotus seed revealed itself. It was instantly caught by the devilish flames and brought before Qin Sang.

"It’s not a storage astra," Qin Sang murmured after sweeping it with his spiritual consciousness, disappointment flashing across his face.

"Be careful! Someone’s here!" Bai’s voice suddenly sounded beside his ear. Qin Sang’s eyelids twitched sharply.