High-level martial arts: Long spear with black flames to suppress demons.

On the Northern Sea, Mingzhao once again retreated to the edge of the Bagua diagram.

His left shoulder had vanished, and large patches of flesh were dislocated between his chest and abdomen. The demonic energy surging from the sea was blocked several miles away by the black and white light barrier, unable to replenish his body for a long time.

To prevent him from constantly repairing his body, Xu Xiuqi has changed his methods.

The Bagua diagram unfolded outwards, with the Kan and Li positions lighting up alternately, separating the seawater and demonic energy layer by layer. The black current was drawn to the side, circling along the ever-changing array patterns, trying to get closer to Mingzhao, but was instead pushed further away.

Although he couldn't burn away the demonic energy like Black Flame, he could still prevent Mingzhao from being replenished.

Furthermore, the repulsion of heaven and earth will continue to wear down this ninth-realm body; time is on his side.

Mingzhao's shoulder and back were broken, and grayish-white debris fell from the wound. The new flesh and blood grew slower and slower. Just as his right arm had recovered to the elbow, it was intercepted by a palm that came pressing down on him.

Xu Xiuqi clenched his five fingers.

The bones in his chest separated, and the power that had just been gathered spread outwards along the tangled meridians.

Mingzhao grunted and took several steps back, his gaze fixed on that right hand.

With each contact, the other's power penetrated deeper into his body. An extremely ancient sense of familiarity also surfaced from the depths of the memory left to him by the stone slab.

Mingzhao suddenly looked up, staring at the face that he could never recognize, and then revealed a ferocious smile.

"So...it was you..."

Xu Xiuqi paused slightly.

"You recognize me?"

Mingzhao straightened up and suddenly burst out laughing.

The laughter aggravated his wounds, and bits of flesh and blood kept falling from beneath his robes. He paid no heed, only staring at the person before him.

"No wonder! No wonder!"

"Holding someone else's hand, wearing human skin... you've reduced yourself to this state; you're no different from a stray dog!"

Xu Xiuqi frowned. The Bagua diagram was still closing in, and the space for Ming Zhao to retreat was getting smaller and smaller.

"Explain yourself clearly."

"do not you remember?"

Xu Xiuqi's doubts only made Ming Zhao's laughter grow louder.

"Looks like you're just a loser after all!"

The sea breeze scattered the gray fragments between the two.

Mingzhao stared at him and said, word by word, "We already have a new king. The position you left behind... no longer belongs to you!"

Xu Xiuqi's expression changed drastically, and suddenly, a sharp pain shot through the depths of his mind.

A pitch-black sky, a broken stone surface, and a hand reaching out from the blood.

A few blurry images flashed by, only to be overwhelmed by an even heavier pain. Xu Xiuqi pressed his temple, and the Bagua diagram beneath his feet paused briefly.

Mingzhao quickly realized this was an opportunity and immediately rushed outwards, trying to escape the Bagua Formation.

But as soon as he took a step, the black and white light screen rose up, pushing him back into the formation.

Xu Xiuqi lowered his hand, his gaze much colder than before.

"Who is this new king you're talking about?"

Mingzhao looked at him, a slow grin spreading across his face, seemingly not intending to answer the question.

He waited no longer; the Bagua diagram suddenly closed, its black and white lines binding Ming Zhao's mutilated limbs. He stepped forward, his right hand pressing directly against the other's brow, attempting to search his soul.

Just then, the gray-silver light below Mingzhao's forehead suddenly collapsed inward.

Xu Xiuqi sensed something was wrong and immediately gripped his head with his five fingers, trying to suppress the force.

Mingzhao burst into laughter.

"It's too late, our Lord is about to rise again!"

The array patterns locked his body upright, but his voice still carried across the sea.

"You already lost back then; now you're just barely clinging to life."

"When our lord awakens, the first person he'll deal with is you, you worthless traitor!"

A gray-silver light exploded deep within the soul.

Xu Xiuqi's senses, reaching into it, only touched a frantically collapsing consciousness. Ming Zhao personally detonated the part that contained the memories, and a devastating shockwave swept through his limbs and bones.

The Bagua diagram suddenly snapped inward, and at the same time he retreated dozens of feet. Black and white energies piled up in front of him, catching the fragments of the divine soul that exploded towards him. The fragments scattered all around and quickly dissipated, but one wisp of fragment passed through the Northern Sea and rushed straight to the Abyss Gate below.

Mingzhao tilted his head back, the light in his eyes quickly disappearing, but his body remained suspended in mid-air.

On the seabed, the narrow stone slab suspended in the center of the abyss suddenly trembled violently.

The last command Mingzhao sent before losing his soul arrived at this moment. The stone slab suddenly detached from the door frame, and the black mist maintaining the passage collapsed. The heavy waters of the Northern Netherworld pressed in from all sides, crushing the demons squeezed to the edge into minced meat.

The stone slab enveloped the last wisp of accumulated demonic energy and rushed straight towards the sea.

Cang Gu had just noticed the disturbance and was about to stop it when the Ding Cang Pearl had not yet fallen. The gray-silver light had already passed through the water curtain and entered Ming Zhao's brow.

The wound on his forehead closed up, and then his previously lifeless body twitched violently. Beside him, the six-legged demon roared fiercely.

Countless thin, gray-silver threads emerged from the opening in its chest, the other end piercing into Mingzhao's body. The two bodies were rapidly pulled closer; Minghou struggled desperately, its six legs buckling uncontrollably, its massive head drooping heavily.

Its roar was filled with terror. Mingzhao's unconscious body crashed into Minghou's chest, and the flesh and blood suddenly closed up.

The bones belonging to the two pierced and interlocked, producing a series of crisp cracking sounds. The shoulders and back of the Minghou rose continuously, and the spine of the bones rolled forward, wrapping the Mingzhao's mutilated body in the center.

Xu Xiuqi immediately raised his hand and pressed down, and a Bagua diagram appeared out of thin air, covering the merging flesh and blood, forcibly tearing apart the outer tendons. But the stone slab had already lit up, and gray-silver patterns brutally pierced through the bones, dragging the remaining flesh and blood together.

The outer layer, once peeled off, quickly breaks off, while the inner layer continues to grow.

Having lost its soul, this body felt no more pain and no longer needed to maintain its original structure. The stone slab only cared about piecing the two ninth-realm bodies together, letting the heavens and earth repel and tear apart the newly formed flesh.

Deep marks appeared one after another on the surface of the massive body, and some of the newly grown bone armor turned into dust, but it still forcibly supported its body.

The front half of the beast's body was raised upwards, with a blurry human face embedded in its chest and a deformed long arm extending from each side. The spines on its back were spread open like barbs, and its head was covered by thick bone armor, with only a few reddish cracks visible.

The stone slab was embedded in the forehead of the face on the chest.

The face slowly opened its mouth and let out a completely irrational roar.

Xu Xiuqi's face finally darkened. The answer he wanted to know had been destroyed by Ming Zhao himself.

What remains now is a forcibly pieced-together ninth-realm body, which, even as it continues to crumble under the repulsion of heaven and earth, still has to carry out its final command.

The monster suddenly raised its forelimbs and charged towards Xu Xiuqi.

With its six legs stomping down, the surface of the Northern Sea collapsed with a deafening roar.

It slammed into the Bagua diagram, its chest bearing a blank expression, while the stone slab on its forehead lit up repeatedly. The bones in its deformed arm rapidly extended, reforming into a short hammer, which slammed down heavily, enveloped in demonic energy.

The black and white energies suddenly sank down.

Several spatial rifts appeared beneath Xu Xiuqi's feet. He raised his hand and pressed down on the Xun position, causing the Bagua diagram to rotate and redirect the force of the hammer blow to the side.

The sea suddenly split open, creating a chasm that stretched for miles.

Several sea-suppressing array platforms were affected, and the defending cultivators retreated one after another. Immediately, others stepped in to stabilize the swaying array patterns.

Xu Xiuqi stared at the monster, slowly raising his right hand.

But several images flashed before his eyes, interrupting his spellcasting.

The monster's bone hammer fell instantly, while its giant claw swept across, and demonic energy spewed from its chest.

He quickly ended the spell, and with a swift movement, dodged the monster's heavy attack. Almost at the same moment, the monster's chest armor opened to the sides, and long, thin bone spikes shot out from its flesh, blocking the space in front of it.

However, Xu Xiuqi did not choose to retreat. Instead, he went directly to its side, spread his five fingers, and pressed down from a distance.

The shoulder, covered in bone armor, suddenly twisted, forcibly separating the flesh from the bones. A large piece of flesh peeled off the body, scattering into pieces before it even hit the sea.

The monster staggered, demonic energy surging from the gap, and its other arm twisted back strangely. The bone hammer attached to the arm grazed its back and slammed towards Xu Xiuqi.

Xu Xiuqi shifted positions again, the space shattered by the hammer sweeping across his shoulder.

He was also affected by the impact; his sleeve tore open, and a bloody gash stretched from his shoulder to his elbow.

In the distance, Cang Gu's pupils contracted slightly.

The opponent's methods were bizarre; Mingzhao's current body could no longer be considered that of an ordinary creature. It felt no pain, and when it swung the bone hammer, it even cracked its own spine.

Xu Xiuqi glanced down at his wound, his eyes filled with gloom.

Suddenly, the monster's face on its chest opened its mouth, spewing out demonic energy mixed with broken bones. Its six legs simultaneously stepped onto the sea, its massive body following closely behind, raising its bone hammer high, enveloping Xu Xiuqi and the sky behind him.

Xu Xiuqi formed a hand seal.

"The world has changed hands."

Eight array diagrams unfolded from different directions, surrounding the monster in the center. The spewed demonic energy crashed into one of the diagrams, then burst out from the diagram behind it, slamming hard into its own back.

The bone armor shattered, and the monster lurched forward.

But the white bone hammer still fell, shattering the Bagua diagram in front of Xu Xiuqi with a crash, and black and white light fragments swept past his side. He retreated dozens of feet, his throat moved, and a trickle of blood spilled from his lips.

He adjusted his position, and the scattered light fragments stopped in mid-air.

On the sea, an even larger Bagua diagram slowly emerged, connecting with the eight array diagrams around it. Yin and Yang energies surged from all directions, binding the monster's arms and six legs layer by layer, pressing the bone hammer that had been raised again into the air.

Xu Xiuqi pressed down with his right hand.

"Yin and Yang reversed."

The growth of flesh on the monster's body suddenly stopped.

Two opposing forces pulled simultaneously from inside and outside the wound. The newly formed bone armor collapsed inward, while the still unstable flesh swelled outward, causing blood sacs to bulge on the body's surface before it exploded with a bang.

The stone slab on the monster's forehead suddenly lit up, and demonic energy surged from it, continuing to fill its body. Its six legs thrashed about, and cracks appeared in the Bagua diagram beneath its feet, spreading outwards one after another.

Xu Xiuqi looked at the stone slab, stepped into the formation, and swiftly attacked the human face.

The face on his chest suddenly lifted up, and a sharp bone spur shot out from its mouth, aiming straight for his brow.