The intense battle within the Domain had reached a fever pitch.
Dan Ji's consumption was enormous; she could no longer maintain her original giant sword Incarnation, instead wielding a bone sword and struggling against the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul.
The bone sword in her hand was also badly damaged, with many bones shattered. The beautiful head on the hilt, though still cold and noble, was stained with blood, and even the white hair sword tassel tied into a ponytail was dyed crimson.
The Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul's situation was even worse. His phantom was no longer solid, flickering in and out of existence, on the verge of dissipating at any moment. In his hand, there were nine Imperial Spirits, each emitting a different colored light, and some of them had already dimmed, about to vanish.
Dan Ji did not know that the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul actually had a chance to perish with her.
However, these Imperial Spirits were the Legacy left by his true form, the Hundred Flowers Evil Saint. His mission was to protect the Legacy, so he naturally couldn't sacrifice the fundamental for the trivial, causing the Legacy's Imperial Spirits to dissipate just to fight Dan Ji.
He was not human, but a Remnant Soul, existing only to protect the Legacy. Even if the Legacy was taken by Dan Ji, it was better than being destroyed by his own hands, perishing together.
From this point on, to prevent the Imperial Spirits from dissipating, the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul almost stopped using them, relying only on his remaining spiritual power and one or two Imperial Spirits that could still be used to battle Dan Ji, his combat strength greatly diminished.
But he still managed to suppress Dan Ji with continuous attacks. Dan Ji was forced to constantly expend a large amount of Blood Qi to heal her wounds during her battle with the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul, leading to immense consumption.
The Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul's combat experience was incredibly rich. He knew that if this continued, he would be the one to be worn down first, so he began to search for a way to defeat his opponent in one move.
Perhaps due to exhaustion, Dan Ji had almost no defensive posture, her guard wide open, full of flaws. The Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul seized the opportunity, rallied his spirit, expended a large amount of his remaining spiritual power, activated a special Poison Law Spirit, and injected the poison into Dan Ji's fair neck.
Soul-Separating Beauty, a Medium Grade Earth Spirit.
This was the Imperial Spirit Liu Lu used to ambush and Seal Dan Ji back then.
This Spirit possessed immense power, capable of Sealing a Cultivator's acupoints, leaving the Cultivator with spiritual power but unable to activate Imperial Spirits.
A Cultivator needs three conditions to activate an Imperial Spirit.
First, the Imperial Spirit must be refined and recognized as its master, belonging to the Cultivator, to be freely commanded.
Second, sufficient spiritual power must be used to activate the Imperial Spirit. Although the spiritual power required to activate different Imperial Spirits varies, it is indispensable.
Third, the Imperial Spirit must be carried within the Cultivator's acupoints to be effective. Here, 'carried' is just a concept, a special connection between the Imperial Spirit and the acupoints. With this connection, as long as the Imperial Spirit is nearby, it can be used.
And the poison of the Soul-Separating Beauty precisely could Seal a Cultivator's acupoints, severing this connection.
Even though Dan Ji was already a Venerable's Physical Body, with all her acupoints long transformed into Spirit Infants, she would still be affected.
The effect of this poison was Heaven-Defying, but not without a solution.
Firstly, it was only a Medium Grade Earth Spirit. Although its effect was strong, it could only produce venom. In a high-level duel, it was not easy to poison the opponent.
The Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul also seized the moment when Dan Ji was exhausted, risking exposing a weakness, to inject the poison into her body.
Secondly, as long as the opponent possessed strong recovery or healing abilities, by timely discarding the poisoned part of the body, the effects could be greatly alleviated, and recovery from the poisoned state would not take long.
Just like Dan Ji at this moment, the instant the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul injected the poison, her neck immediately gushed out a large amount of foul blood.
She knelt on the ground, in immense pain.
The Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul had used all his strength in this attack. She was deeply poisoned, and even after expelling a large amount of poisoned blood in time, she was still hit.
She gritted her teeth, raised the bone sword in her hand, and without hesitation, chopped towards her own neck.
This was a huge gamble.
She was at the end of her rope, and the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul was even on the verge of dissipating. If she could regenerate her body first, then the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul's all-out attack would be ineffective, and she would have victory assured.
If the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul could still recover enough spiritual power to launch another attack before she regenerated her body, then she would be a lamb to the slaughter.
With a 'thud,' Dan Ji's head fell into the center of the boundless blood pool beneath her, creating ripples.
At the critical moment, the Blood Sea Other Shore Domain became her last trump card. Flowers of the other shore bloomed beneath her head, and her body rapidly recovered from top to bottom: a fair, slender neck, shoulders carved like a blade...
But just then, the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul suddenly rushed over, the Heavenly Spirit in his hand gleaming with golden light.
He actually still had strength left, and one Imperial Spirit that could barely be used.
A black mist rose from the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul's hand, and just as it was about to touch Dan Ji's head, a hand grabbed his wrist.
Dan Ji revealed a strange smile.
"Got you."
The Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul was greatly alarmed and immediately activated his spiritual power, wanting to transform into black Qi and break free.
But Dan Ji's hand suddenly emitted a pure white soft light. The Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul let out a scream, and instead of turning into black Qi, he collapsed to the ground, unable to move.
Upon closer inspection, one could see that Dan Ji's arm was actually a translucent Spirit Body.
"This is... Soul Locking Spirit! Impossible! Aren't you a Blood Arts cultivator? How can you possess such pure Soul Law spiritual power? This is from the Xiaoshi Sect's..."
As she spoke, Dan Ji's body had recovered by more than half. She propped herself up with her arm, revealing a rare bitter smile.
"You truly are troublesome. I had to expose a weakness to lure you in."
Complex runes appeared on her translucent arm, eventually transforming into several chains that firmly bound the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul.
"Old ghost, I respect that you were once a figure of importance. I'll give you a quick end."
With that, a pure white flame rose from the chains binding the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul. The holy fire appeared so out of place in this blood-red world.
Before the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul could utter a sound, he dissipated with the flame, turning to ashes.
The flames burned out, and Dan Ji lay on the ground, gasping for breath.
The blooming flowers of the other shore beneath her also began to wither, and her spiritual power and Blood Qi were on the verge of depletion.
After a long while, she finally recovered her Physical Body.
Although she had recovered, it wasn't a complete recovery.
To conserve Blood Qi, her recovered Physical Body was a full size smaller than before. Previously, Dan Ji was a head taller than Changqing, standing at a height of 1.8 meters, but now she was only about 1.5 meters tall.
She had also lost her previous devilish figure, looking thin and small. Her originally flowing, waist-length white hair now almost dragged on the ground.
"I didn't expect that just a wisp of the Heaven Desolation Saint's Remnant Soul could make me so disheveled."
She finally stood up and sighed.
The bone sword in her hand once again submerged into the deep pool at her feet. At the last moment, Dan Ji gently stroked the beautiful head on the hilt, which bore a nine-tenths resemblance to herself.
"Mother, thanks to the Legacy you left me, you see, I won again."
The head, of course, could not respond to her, and the last bit completely sank. The boundless sea of flowers of the other shore also rapidly withered, and the bloody color between heaven and earth quickly faded, returning to its original state.
Dan Ji landed steadily on the ground, and everywhere her gaze fell was a mess.
