Chapter 144: The Might of Divine Radiance

Once Wang Xian stepped forward, everyone present, regardless of whether they were previously aware of the Ping family's affairs, immediately understood the situation in their hearts.

This Pang Yue had undoubtedly fallen out with the Ping family.

Although Wang Xian was an elder of the Thunder Demon Hall, he held another identity: a son-in-law of the Ping family. It was precisely by leveraging the power of the Ping family that he had been able to enter the Thunder Demon Hall, eventually form his Golden Core, and enjoy a smooth and rapid rise. If he were to visit the Ping family and encounter the Lord of the Thunder Demon Hall, Ping Hongshen, he would still have to address him as an elder uncle.

Among the six great Golden Core aristocratic families of the Demonic Talisman sect, examples like this were by no means uncommon. Back then, had Pang Yue taken the Master of the Law Enforcement Hall, Luo Zhiyin, as his master, his situation today would likely be much the same.

"You must be careful. This Wang Xian has already cultivated the spirit of thunder magic and is not easy to deal with," Ye Bing transmitted her voice to him in secret.

A chilling intent to kill surged within Pang Yue's heart, yet his face wore a spring-breeze expression, completely devoid of any fierce or ruthless demeanor.

Walking into the center of the hall, Wang Xian cupped his hands in a salute, and without another word, shook his sleeve. Endless thunder light instantly erupted and surged toward Pang Yue.

The more than thirty advanced Golden Core masters within the hall possessed profound auras, and without the need for any restrictive formations, they easily suppressed the fluctuations of the two cultivators' battle within the boundaries of the main hall.

The thunder light was like a tidal wave, instantly rushing right in front of Pang Yue! Had this been in the outside world, even a towering mountain would have been instantly blasted into fine powder by this violent and astonishing lightning!

Pang Yue gently raised his finger, a trace of crystalline, freezing light emerging at his fingertip.

The next instant, boundless cold air surged forth, and layers of ice crystals materialized out of thin air within the hall.

The biting cold radiance flared brilliantly!

The thunder light crashed into the ice crystals, producing a deafening, muffled roar. The halos of the ice crystals rippled, while the thunder light continuously disintegrated.

The bone-chilling cold was so intense that even advanced Golden Core masters felt deeply uncomfortable. Especially Wang Xian, who bore the brunt of the attack, his expression turning grave beyond measure.

"Glacial Divine Light?"

Having been ordered by the Vice Master of the Thunder Demon Hall, True Person Luoshan, to test Pang Yue, he had approached the task with utmost vigilance and unleashed his full strength. After all, how could one take lightly the destined mortal tribulation of that favored son of the heavens from the Ping family?

Yet... Pang Yue's methods still far exceeded the limits of what he could have anticipated.

Glacial Divine Light... Though this earth-shaking, epoch-spanning divine ability was currently displaying only a fraction of its power, it was already enough to send chills through one's heart.

The surging coldness carried a destructive intent that threatened to freeze all living things, permeating the surroundings and assailing Wang Xian's magic power and divine sense. What made him even more vigilant was that freezing radiance at the tip of Pang Yue's finger.

With a flash of thought and daring not to hesitate, he hurriedly pinched out an incantation gesture.

The substantive thunder light within the hall suddenly converged, and then split apart. Five lightning spiders, each about a zhang in size, flashed forth from the thunder radiance.

Lightning Spirits!

Each of the lightning spiders radiated the aura fluctuations of the early Golden Core stage. Their entire bodies flashed with intense lightning, condensed to the absolute limit, shining brightly and dazzlingly.

Like living creatures, the five lightning spiders instantly bypassed the barrier of the ice crystals and assaulted Pang Yue from above his head and behind his back.

Pang Yue chuckled softly, a majestic aura suddenly surging from his body.

Among the spectators, True Person Luoshan, the Vice Master of the Thunder Demon Hall, frowned instantly.

He watched as five bucket-thick streams of glacial thunder Qi appeared out of thin air around Pang Yue's body. Compared to when he was in the Dao Foundation stage, these five strands of glacial thunder Qi radiated an even more dazzling brilliance, their chilling intent restrained yet carrying an extra trace of absolute frostiness, making their power all the more terrifying.

At present, he had cultivated this divine ability to the twenty-fourth layer. The number of glacial thunder runes had also broken through the twenty-million mark!

The sheer magnitude of its power caused all the Golden Core cultivators in the hall to reveal grave expressions.

Where the ice and thunder passed, electric arcs lingered and frost drifted, presenting a bizarre yet strangely beautiful spectacle.

Of the five lightning spiders, only two managed to dodge. The remaining three were instantly shattered by the glacial thunder Qi erupting from the void!

The corners of Wang Xian's eyes twitched. From his sleeve flew a pitch-black saber, wreathed in deep blue lightning, which slashed fiercely toward Pang Yue.

A second-tier magical treasure.

The blade was sharp, piercing through the air and sending ripples echoing across the void.

The freezing light at Pang Yue's fingertip finally transformed into a ray of light, shooting out instantly.

This hair-thin, unremarkable icy light pierced forward and struck Wang Xian. The protective light of a dignified Golden Core master proved utterly useless against this beam of light.

Meanwhile, that pitch-black saber was intercepted by a trace of formless sword light, entangled in mid-air and spinning wildly in circles.

The minuscule icy light left no trace on Wang Xian's body; even as it pierced through him, it seemed to have caused no physical injury whatsoever.

Yet the expression on Wang Xian's face changed through a myriad of complexities in that exact moment, ultimately leaving behind only endless reluctance and terror.

"Boom..."

A cluster of cold flames suddenly burst forth from within Wang Xian's body.

In the eyes of the various Golden Core masters of the Demonic True Hall, the body of this Golden Core elder from the Thunder Demon Hall instantly disintegrated and shattered, only to be blown away by a sudden gust of wind and scattered in all directions.

Wang Xian had fallen.

The storage bag on his person was likewise utterly destroyed in the process.

Only two magical treasures with dimmed spiritual light remained, suspended quietly in mid-air.

True Person Luoshan, Vice Master of the Thunder Demon Hall, let out a lingering sigh and reached out with a grab, retrieving the two magical treasures as well as the black saber that had been entangled by the formless sword.

"The Glacial Divine Light is indeed extraordinary," he said slowly, looking at Pang Yue.

Pang Yue spoke indifferently, "This junior only recently cultivated this divine ability and has yet to fully master its power. Accidentally causing fellow Daoist Wang Xian to fall is truly a sin; I ask the True Person to forgive me."

True Person Luoshan shook his head, "You cannot be blamed, fellow Daoist. For a fellow Daoist to cultivate such a formidable divine ability right upon entering the Golden Core stage, I am deeply impressed."

"The True Person flatters me."

Ping Hongshen, Master of the Thunder Demon Hall, stood up, cupped his hands toward Yuwen Bi seated above, and said, "Sect Master Yuwen, I have matters to attend to, so I shall take my leave."

Yuwen Bi smiled, waved his hand, and said, "Everyone, disperse."

With that, his figure dissolved abruptly and vanished.

The people in the hall also dispersed one after another.

At a single Golden Core grand ceremony, two advanced Golden Core masters had fallen in succession. Yet within the Demonic Talisman Sect, everyone felt no sense of surprise, treating it merely as an ordinary occurrence.

A few days later.

The news of Pang Yue advancing to the Golden Core stage gradually spread throughout the Demonic Talisman Sect. His deeds took on a more legendary hue, embellished and interpreted in various ways among the markets.

Along with this, the image-recording jade slip of his combat against others from back then began circulating once more.

To be able to rise against the current with a low-grade spiritual root and become an inner-circle direct disciple had already transcended the limits of people's imagination. Let alone achieving a top-grade Golden Core and, shortly after advancing, fiercely slaying two Golden Core masters of the same realm...

The prestige of the Luo and Xu families soared simultaneously for a time.

However, the details of the battle in the Demonic True Hall on that day were never leaked. The cultivators who attended the Golden Core ceremony on that day either possessed noble status and were difficult to see, or kept their mouths tightly shut in strict silence.

After returning to his cave dwelling to tidy up, Pang Yue headed straight to the Devour-Demon Hall.

A black basalt hall sat nestled among jagged and bizarre rocks, surrounded by towering ancient trees, quiet stone paths, and a pervasive layer of green moss.

Holding the talisman edict given by Yuwen Bi, Pang Yue refined the restrictions of the Devour-Demon Hall and stepped inside.

The interior of the hall was pitch black, with ripples of spatial fluctuations contained within a specific scope by a grand array.

Spiritual light surged around Pang Yue, instantly illuminating the interior of the hall.

Within the ancient and magnificent hall, a spherical three-dimensional grand array occupied more than ninety percent of the space. Inside the array, it was pitch black, continuously swallowing all kinds of light and sound like a black hole.

This grand array was exceedingly complex; with Pang Yue's pupil techniques, he found it difficult to see through it at a glance.

Using the Primordial Wuji Stele to deduce it, he also sensed that it contained vast and complex runes and formations, making it difficult to crack in the short term.

"This is the handiwork of a Primordial Spirit expert..."

A wave of realization welled up in Pang Yue's heart.

This grand array contained many formations such as the Heavenly Demon Seizing Dao Array, the Teleportation Array, the Spirit-Absorbing Array, and the Defensive Array, all of which were supremely profound.

Presumably, it had been personally set up by a Primordial Spirit powerhouse from the history of the Demonic Talisman Sect.

Direct disciples of the sect holding the talisman edict could enter the outer void through this place to hunt heavenly demons and temper themselves. When encountering a life-or-death crisis, they could also activate the talisman edict to instantly teleport back into the Devour-Demon Hall.

A ten-colored demonic vine flew out from Pang Yue's sleeve, spun in mid-air, and transformed into his exact likeness.

As for himself, he stepped into the grand array and vanished instantly.

Beyond the realm.

Upon the floating land of the void.

Pang Yue's figure flashed into existence.

Beneath the desolate and lifeless outer void, the blue boundary membrane of the world stretched to the edge of vision, boundless in extent.

Pang Yue released the Great Dao Desolate Pagoda, flew into it himself, and began to cultivate.

Having just finished refining the formless sword that day, he had been summoned away by Yuwen Bi. Now that he had some leisure, he could refine his remaining magical artifacts into magical treasures as well.

The Devour-Demon Hall was guarded by the demonic vine clone, which was more than enough.

Time drifted by, and the blink of an eye spanned several years.

Pang Yue sat cross-legged within the Desolate Pagoda, his aura restrained, demonic intent latent, and his cultivation base thoroughly consolidated.

Before him, the Primordial Wuji Stele, the formless sword, the Profound-Fixing Mirror, the Demon-Refining Pot, and the White Bone Relic floated quietly, revolving around him.

Outside the pagoda, a three-zhang-tall golden Buddha sat cross-legged in the void, its Buddha light vast and enveloping the surroundings. Waves of Sanskrit chanting emanated from the halo behind the golden Buddha, resounding through the void.

Over these past few years, any heavenly demon that approached this place was gradually and thoroughly purified by the golden Buddha. Even Golden Core-grade heavenly demons found it difficult to escape this fate.

It was just that this place could already be considered the Demonic Talisman Sect's outer-realm Dao domain; most of the Golden Core-grade heavenly demons had long since been slaughtered by the sect's high-level experts, and those that remained were mostly Qi-consuming or Dao Foundation-stage heavenly demons.

If the Immeasurable Light Buddha wished to purify higher-tier heavenly demons, it would still need to seek them out in the depths of the outer void.

Pang Yue stepped out of the Desolate Pagoda and set up a Heavenly Demon Seizing Dao Array upon the floating land of the void.

Following that, he took out the blood-leaf demonic grass gifted by Yuwen Bi and began to summon the Yellow Springs Heavenly Demons.

This was his first time practicing the Heavenly Demon Seizing Dao technique in the outer void. Comparatively speaking, executing this technique in the outer void was somewhat more perilous.

He watched as the Heavenly Demon Seizing Dao Array bloomed with blinding radiance, spiritual essence surging, filling the heavens and earth and permeating the void.

In the darkness, countless heavenly demons wandering the void were attracted and swarmed over.

The Immeasurable Light Buddha rose to its full height, its form instantly expanding to a hundred zhang across, with golden Buddha light spreading like water over a radius of a hundred miles.

The heavenly demons that entered the Buddha light had their demonic Qi cleansed instantly, transforming into pure Buddhist power that poured into the halo behind the golden Buddha.

Pang Yue stood within the grand array, waiting quietly.

Before long, a sound like rushing water, piercing enough to split metal and stone, echoed from the void.