The Poison Scourge wreaked havoc across the Sacred Soul Continent.
Meanwhile, battles between divine beings raged beyond its borders.
This empty expanse in the skies of the Second World was in utter chaos.
The Nine-Headed Bird had tangled with Mu Wentao's soul fragments, alarming Gui Mu.
With her earth-shaking divine powers, Gui Mu projected her consciousness from the Southern Gorge into the Flame Dragon's soul, indirectly joining the fray.
The Abyssal Demon, once merely a soul within the Abyssal Demon Sword, had gained the ability to break free from the sword and exist independently within the demonic realms unleashed through the sword.
While Pang Jian fought the Nine-Headed Bird with his sword, the Abyssal Demon and Gui Mu had reached a tacit understanding.
The Abyssal Demon then promptly informed Pang Jian that Gui Mu would restore Yuan Qi's soul if he swiftly got rid of the Nine-Headed Bird.
Yuan Qi could be brought back to life! Pang Jian's heart trembled, focus wavering.
At that moment, the Nine-Headed Bird unleashed another wave of soul-piercing shrieks.
Beams of eerie spectral lights shot out from the Nine-Headed Bird's beaks, perceptible only to the True Gods and the Outer Gods at close range.
As they streaked through the air, they seamlessly melded into it, altering its fabric and structure.
The surrounding space grew fragile as if on the verge of shattering.
The Nine-Headed Bird then lifted its talons, grasping an array of rare artifacts: an ancient zither, a pipa, bells, drums, flutes, and other exotic musical instruments.
With a wave of its talons, these artifacts emitted melodies of exquisite beauty, despite nothing plucking their strings or blowing the flutes.
The notes rang crisp and clear, flowing like mountain streams, booming like spring thunder, roaring like an ocean tempest.
Strangely enough, these melodies harmonized seamlessly with the Nine-Headed Bird's cries, amplifying their resonance.
Spatial rifts split open around Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul.
Pang Jian repeatedly swung his sword, but rifts shattered his rivers of sword light into fragments.
The protective shield enveloping Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul could not withstand the Nine-Headed Bird's shrieks and collapsed with a resounding boom.
Another relentless assault from the Nine-Headed Bird forced Pang Jian into a defensive struggle.
His sword could not break through the overwhelming soundwaves.
"The new World God of this era ascended as an Immortal Realm God?" the Nine-Headed Bird let out a strange cry from one of its heads that was laced with mocking derision. "It seems your foundation is still rather unstable."
Its other heads each produced an ebony nail, clenching them between their beaks.
The Nine-Headed Bird's heads struck the air with the ebony nails, driving them into the spatial rifts and reinforcing their structure with audible clinking sounds.
"Fey God Nails Anchor the Deep Void!"
These Fey God Nails pinned down the space around Pang Jian, from the spatial fissures and the rivers of sword light to the Abyssal Demon Sword in his grasp.
"Golden Elephant, what are you standing around for?" The Nine-Headed Bird snorted coldly.
The three Fey Kings, seeing Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul restrained and his demonic sword immobile, felt their confidence swell.
Their earth-shattering might surged as they let out deafening roars.
The colossal Golden Elephant thundered ahead, the Nether Serpent churned a torrential river of black light, and the Qilin summoned a raging storm of flames.
Emboldened, all three Fey Kings charged headlong into the well-shaped domain of sword light.
The Abyssal Demon appeared from a demonic realm with his true demonic body.
"This path is closed!" he said with a mischievous grin
Transforming into a towering demonic figure that loomed over the battlefield, he exuded an air of effortless elegance and unrestrained confidence.
Fists, vast enough to shatter the sky, descended like falling meteors, striking the Golden Elephant, the Nether Serpent, and the Qilin. The three Fey Kings were blasted directly into the Third World.
Separated from the Abyssal Demon Sword, the Abyssal Demon could finally display the full might of an otherworldly Demon God and effortlessly overwhelmed the three Fey Kings with mere swings of his fist.
The Nine-Headed Bird's divine techniques had their limits, and its Fey God Nails could only restrict Pang Jian.
The six demonic realms lay beyond the reach of the Fey God Nails' suppression. With his strength fully restored, the Abyssal Demon could freely traverse between the Abyssal Demon Sword's inner world and these demonic realms, allowing him to manifest in the Abyss with his true body.
I'll take over protecting Li Zhaotian for now. You focus on slaying the Nine-Headed Bird, the Abyssal Demon said in Pang Jian's mind.
A pitch-black firmament, dark as ink, emerged from behind Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul and swiftly spread outward.
This firmament was so pure in its blackness that it obscured all light from the sky above the Abyss.
Pang Jian's cold energy seeped into this black sky, making it eerie and cold to the bone.
The stars and moons then appeared within it. The five elements of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth were also mixed with lightning, stellar, lunar, and solar energies.
The lifeless blackness resembling the desolate nothingness beneath the Fifth World of the Abyss seemed to gradually come alive, slowly transforming into the vast, starry expanse beyond the Abyss.
It was dim and cold, but also adorned with stars and moons.
The empty void was also infused with many strange energies.
Pang Jian was using his Immortal Divine Soul and his unique Dao of Chaos to simulate both the mysterious darkness beneath the Fifth World of the Abyss and the cosmic wonders above.
Everything he felt and envisioned manifested one after another.
When the strange phenomenon emerged, Pang Jian completely broke away from the Abyssal Demon Sword.
It was like he had transformed into the master of ancient chaos itself—the ruler of the bizarre mist that shrouded the abysses.
Pang Jian's voice resonated through the air, shattering the Nine-Headed Bird's soundwave attacks and obliterating its many artifacts.
His Immortal Divine Soul fractured into numerous manifestations that merged into the profound depths of the Chaos Firmament above.
Every strand of his divine sense, divine power, blood essence, and even his organs became part of the Chaos Firmament itself.
The Chaos Firmament slowly started to descend.
The barrier at the top of the Abyss briefly flickered into view.
In that moment, it too infused its power into the Chaos Firmament.
The Nine-Headed Bird's swaying heads exploded one after another. The artifacts in its talons crumbled into wisps of ash and smoke.
Soon, only three heads remained.
The monstrous bird let out terrified, wailing cries as it desperately plunged downward in retreat.
It had no idea what had just happened. It felt as if it was facing not only Pang Jian but also the Heavenly Dao within the well-shaped domain of sword light.
Even the barrier that bound the inhabitants of the Abyss had imparted its power into the strange firmament as it descended.
This was the true might of the Abyss.