Chapter 807: Netherworld Qi, Soul-Locking Celestial Forbidden Technique!

As Ren Xudong burst into triumphant laughter, Dong Chengyue and Qin Mengxue exchanged a glance, their expressions turning rather peculiar.

Based on the strength Shen Lang displayed and what their Divine Thought had probed, his Cultivation was unquestionably at the King Martial Realm Second Heaven. Even if he had concealed a fraction of his Cultivation, it absolutely could not exceed the King Martial Realm Fourth Heaven. His recent repulsion by the Light Wall further proved this.

Yet, this member of the Ghost-faced People had easily played them for fools just moments ago; he clearly wasn’t that stupid. Moreover, since this man understood the Twelve All Heaven Beast Array, how could he not comprehend the Light Wall’s repulsive force? In that case, why would he make such a pointless move?

Just as this thought crossed Dong Chengyue and Qin Mengxue’s minds, Shen Lang once again pressed his palm against the Light Wall.

Unsurprisingly, the rebounding energy violently threw him backward. This time, however, the distance he was thrown back was significantly shorter!

“How could this be? Is his mastery over Restriction Arrays truly this terrifying? With just one casual strike, he has already grasped so much of the Restriction’s Spiritual Power circulation paths and frequencies?” Qin Mengxue and Dong Chengyue were utterly shocked.

As Emperor Martial Realm Late Stage experts, their judgment was incredibly sharp. Simply by observing his two palm strikes, they realized Shen Lang was probing the Profound Mysteries and frequencies of the Restriction’s operation.

However, the drastic improvement on his very second attempt was a reality that these two Emperor Martial Realm experts found almost impossible to accept. If this guy from the Ghost-faced People truly possessed the capability they suspected, then compared to his mastery of Restriction Arrays, these Emperor Martial Realm Late Stage powerhouses were worse than toddlers. For such skill to appear in a King Martial Realm Second Heaven Martial Artist was simply absurd!

The two women fell dead silent, their eyes glued to Shen Lang.

Sure enough, when his third palm struck the Light Wall, something bizarre occurred. The barrier still flared with blinding radiance, but it did not surge with the tyrannical force that had previously repelled him.

This time, Shen Lang’s palm rested perfectly flat against the Light Wall, completely motionless!

At this point, even the smugly triumphant Ren Xudong realized something was terribly wrong.

Bringing up his other hand, Shen Lang pressed both palms against the Light Wall. In mere seconds, before Ren Xudong could even react from inside the barrier, Shen Lang sneered. He withdrew his hands, formed his fingers into sword-like points, and immediately began tracing complex patterns in the empty space between himself and the barrier.

It was as if an invisible canvas hung in the air. Shrouded in an aura of pure malevolence, his fingertips dragged swiftly across the void, rapidly sketching a profoundly mysterious Spirit Array Map!

The overall shape of the Spirit Array Map was deceivingly simple. Anyone immersed in Martial Arts could recognize it as a diagram mapping the body’s meridian pathways and Mystic Gate Acupoints. However, the intricate, crisscrossing Spiritual Lines that wove endlessly back and forth were completely beyond the comprehension of anyone present.

Trapped inside the barrier, Ren Xudong finally started to panic.

“Wait… why, aside from this creeping dread, does it feel so familiar?” he thought, freezing as his gaze locked onto the wicked energy wrapping Shen Lang’s fingertips.

If the Light Wall had truly lost its defensive effect against the man outside, then the bizarre Restriction he was currently weaving might actually breach the barrier and infiltrate his body! Although Ren Xudong refused to believe that a trap laid by King Martial Realm Martial Artists could actually threaten him, looking at that Restriction Map filled him with a chilling mix of familiarity and sheer terror.

“Netherworld Qi? Netherworld Qi! This is impossible!” Ren Xudong shrieked, his voice tipping into hysteria.

The Energy Shen Lang used to draw the Spirit Array Map was precisely the legendary Netherworld Qi from the Nine Netherworld Prison!

As a subordinate of the Candle Dragon, Ren Xudong was all too familiar with Netherworld Qi. Yet, he hadn’t recognized it immediately because no matter how familiar he was, he could never have imagined that this power—which supposedly only Master Zhulong and his master could control within the Demon God Hall—would manifest in this member of the Ghost-faced People!

“It’s impossible. It’s completely impossible! How could anyone harbor such surging Netherworld Qi in their body? How can someone use it to carve a Spirit Array Map and lay down a Restriction?” Ren Xudong babbled like a madman, shaking his head frantically as he chanted the word “impossible” over and over.

“Why don’t we test it and see if it’s possible?” Shen Lang sneered. “Soul-Locking Celestial Forbidden Technique!”

His right palm slammed violently against the freshly carved Spirit Array Map.

CLANG!

A deafening ring echoed out, as heavy as a sledgehammer striking solid steel. The Supreme Yin and profoundly evil Netherworld Qi surged forth, instantly expanding the Spirit Array Map to over three times its original size. Like a fishing net woven from Spiritual Lines, it pressed directly against the Light Wall trapping Ren Xudong.

At that moment, everyone’s pupils contracted. They watched the Spirit Array Map vibrate slightly before phasing through the Light Wall as if it were mere air, slamming directly onto Ren Xudong’s body!

Instantly, this bizarre, tyrannical Restriction permeated through his skin, completely bypassing his Spiritual Power shields and physical defenses.

“Aaaargh!”

Paralyzed inside the barrier, Ren Xudong watched helplessly as the Netherworld Qi seeped into his body. A second later, he let out a spine-chilling, inhuman scream.

The onlookers, who had been following the situation closely, were utterly dumbfounded. This unimaginable spectacle played out right before their eyes. Ren Xudong, who had just recently boasted about tearing this man of the Ghost-faced People to shreds and sentencing him to Soul Scattering, was now genuinely tasting the agony of Soul Extraction and Refining!

And all of this was happening in a clash between an Emperor Martial Realm Eighth Heaven expert and a King Martial Realm Second Heaven Martial Artist. The massive hall was drowned entirely in Ren Xudong’s unending screams, transforming the space into a horrifying replica of the Nine Netherworld Prison.

“To reduce an Emperor Martial Realm Eighth Heaven expert to such agonizing screams… just how terrifying is the Restriction this Ghost-faced People member laid down?” Dong Chengyue thought, her chest heaving heavily. “Since when did the Western Wilderness produce such a bizarre, monstrously talented genius?”

A strange gleam flickered in Qin Mengxue’s eyes. “If this man belongs to the War God Hall, that would be disastrous. If our Demon God Hall cannot recruit him, we must strangle him in the cradle! He is already this terrifying at the King Martial Realm Second Heaven. If we allow him to grow further, the consequences will be unimaginable!”

Shen Lang paid absolutely no heed to the women’s stares. Crossing his arms over his chest, he calmly observed Ren Xudong’s frantic thrashing and shrieking inside the barrier.

To infiltrate the Demon God Hall—or at the very least, establish a connection with them—he needed to flaunt his methods first. He had to establish dominance, intimidate these lackeys, and showcase his true strength. Only then, by leveraging his relationship with Dingdang, might he stand a chance at accessing the Demon God Hall’s inner circle.

Though this plan had been cooked up on the fly, executing it posed little difficulty for Shen Lang. Given his intimate familiarity with the Twelve All Heaven Beast Array, how could he not grasp the underlying mechanics of these twelve light barriers? A few test strikes were all he needed to map out their internal power flow perfectly.

Furthermore, against an Alien Energy like Netherworld Qi, ordinary Energy defenses were practically useless unless opposed by forces of Supreme Yang and Firmness, such as Thunder Power or the Vermilion Bird Divine Fire. Back when the Third Prince attacked Ying Huo with just a tiny wisp of Netherworld Qi, even the Xingtian Battle Armor had completely failed to block it!

Later, in the skies above the Dragon Bone Wilderness, the Third Prince had again used his Yellow Springs Finger to ambush Nangong Ziye, an expert of the Blood Wing Demon Sect whose Cultivation far exceeded his own. That, too, had succeeded effortlessly.

Now that Shen Lang intimately understood the barrier’s Spiritual Power circulation and its precise fluctuation frequencies, striking with the Netherworld Qi-infused Restriction allowed him to bypass it and directly penetrate Ren Xudong’s body! Let alone the devastating effects of the Restriction itself, just the raw Netherworld Qi alone was more than enough to make Ren Xudong suffer endlessly.

“You can wield Netherworld Qi… just who exactly are you? What is your relationship with Master Zhulong?” Zheng Tianfeng, who had remained silent for most of the ordeal, finally couldn’t help but ask.

On the other side, Qin Mengxue and Dong Chengyue finally snapped out of their daze. Horror painted their faces as they stared at the scene in utter disbelief.

Shen Lang shot Zheng Tianfeng a sidelong glance and scoffed. “Who told you that only the Candle Dragon can control Netherworld Qi?”

Zheng Tianfeng was instantly rendered speechless. However, his question voiced the exact thoughts plaguing Dong Chengyue and Qin Mengxue. Within the Demon God Hall, the only individuals truly capable of wielding Netherworld Qi were the Candle Dragon and his master, the Black Dragon Venerable.

The Supreme Yin and absolutely wicked Netherworld Qi derived from the Nine Netherworld Prison was something ordinary powerhouses couldn’t even touch. Thus, the moment they witnessed Shen Lang utilizing it, their subconscious minds immediately linked him to the Candle Dragon Lineage.

Amidst Ren Xudong’s blood-curdling screams, a man trapped in an adjacent light barrier spoke up, his face etched with terror. “Reporting to Your Excellencies, earlier on the second-level platform, this man severely injured an expert from the War God Hall. He used Netherworld Qi to plant a tyrannical Restriction inside his opponent’s body.

“He originally intended to kill that man, but ultimately failed because Jun Tianyu intervened… This subordinate originally planned to report his information to Your Excellencies after catching up…”

“Hmm?” Shen Lang’s gaze turned frosty. A single sweeping glance at the speaker immediately shocked the man into silence. “Do you want to end up like Ren Xudong?”

The moment Shen Lang’s sinister words fell, sweat poured down the Demon God Hall expert’s face like rain. If an Emperor Martial Realm Eighth Heaven expert like Ren Xudong couldn’t withstand it, having that Restriction cast on him would undoubtedly kill him in less than ten seconds!

“…” The man swallowed hard, terrified of making eye contact with Shen Lang and too afraid to utter another syllable.

Within the Twelve All Heaven Beast Array, the entire group of Demon God Hall experts had been completely cowed by Shen Lang. Several of them had even begun to view this Ghost-faced People member as the very avatar of terror.

At that moment, Shen Lang spoke again, his tone maddeningly nonchalant. “You said I couldn’t do anything to you. How do you feel now?

“You still want to subject me to Soul Extraction and Refining? Still eyeing my Cultivation Technique? As if someone like you is worthy!”