The ed Ghost Prince gazed at the green barrier before him and spoke coldly, "e out, Basilisk. You already know the situation,why be so cautious?"

  As soon as the ed Ghost Prince spoke, the young master uood what was happening. Without hesitation, he waved his hand, and both he and the elder desded gracefully from the barrier.

  H above the ed Ghost Prihe young master and the elder locked eyes with him, their gazes filled with cold indifference.

  "So, you are the huest visiting my humble pavilion, Prince Defying Phantom. We meet again," the young master, known as the Dragonic Basilisk, said with a smirk.

  Defying Phantom simply smiled back, his expression just as cold. "Indeed, we meet again, Dragonic Basilisk. I believe the st time we crossed paths was when I attacked the Azure Heir. Time truly flows like water, doesn't it? Back then, you were nothing more than a lowly Spirit F stage cultivator, and now you stand on the same stage as me at the Soul Fusion stage. As the old sages say, nothing is impossible."

  "Heh, indeed, Defying Phantom, nothing is impossible," Basilisk chuckled, his voice ced with irony. "At that time, I truly feared for my life, but look where I stand now? The Grand Elders and Head eve so far as to hire a professional Dragoo kill a mere snake. Amusing, isn't it? Even though that very Dragon Syer hunted down their own heir and sughtered him before their very eyes, they didn't lift a finger. As I expected, those old fogies care about nothing but bes—nothing more, nothing less. Only my foolish Head still grieves over the eldest heir."

  His voice was filled with irony, and he chuckled as if amused by his own words.

  With the formalities now over, Elder Blue Scale began to transform. His once-human body shifted into a more drai. His skin became covered in brilliant blue scales, two long, sharp azure hrew from his head, and his round pupils tracted into vertical slits. His aura surged, being even more dominant.

  Seeing the elder's transformation, Defying Phantom merely smiled coldly, but the young master chuckled, as if he had already anticipated every move.

  Without hesitation, Elder Blue Scale lu the young master, his attack swift and decisive.

  Yet, before his strike could nd, young master Basilisk vanished,fading away like an illusion.

  Elder Blue Scale was filled with shock, his mind struggling to process what had just happehen, from every dire, a ghostly chuckle echoed through the wind.

  "Hehe… Defying Phantom, did you really think I didn't know that Elder Blue Scale y pnted by the other elders? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I figured it out a long time ago."

  With those words, Young Master Basilisk reappeared oher side, his hands casually folded behind his back, a cheeky smile pying on his lips.

  Seeing this, Defying Phantom let out a sigh, as if accepting the iable. "So, the betrayal was already seen through…" His voice was calm, but a hint of amusement flickered within his gaze.

  "Well, it was worth a try. Even if Blue Scale had only betrayed you during our battle, the oute wouldn't have ged much. But in the end, he made his move too soon. And you, Basilisk,you already knew, even when I told them you'd probably figure it out. But, well… what does it matter now? What's done is done."

  Defying Phantom's expression shifted into one of quiet readiness. "Shall we fight? We've talked enough. Both of us have already made our preparations,so why dey any further?"

  Young Master Basilisk chuckled lightly before nodding in agreement. "Indeed… what's the point of this meanialk?"

  Then, in an instant, his voice turned cold and ruthless, filled with an overwhelming killing i.

  "You both die now."

  With those words, Young Master Basilisk activated the array of runiations he had meticulously crafted over the past 50 years. Instantly, the runes ignited with brilliance, cutting through the very fabric of space around the Illusion Forest, sealing them within.

  As the formations took effect, the flow of true spiritual essend heavenly essence surged into chaos, dist the surrounding world.

  For a fleeting moment, both Defying Phantom and Elder Blue Scale were caught off guard by the space-severing runiation. Though it was not truly a threat to them, the sheer rarity of su advanced formation being deployed stuhem momentarily. After all, very few runiation masters ever utilized these teiques due to the immense cost.

  That brief instant of hesitation was all Young Master Basilisk needed. Without wasting time, he absorbed all of his True Qi, along with the nearby true spirit essend heavenly essence, eling them into his spiritual sword.

  The unveiling of the Spiritual Sword was an ued surprise,oher Defying Phantom nor Elder Blue Scale had anticipated. Their eyes narrowed as they immediately gathered their True Qi in response, summoning their own ons.

  Defying Phantom's three draic flying swords hovered in the air, their aura exuding overwhelming dominance, while Elder Blue Scale summoned his pair of elemental gaus, each pulsing with densed energy.

  Without hesitation, Elder Blue Scale unched himself at Young Master Basilisk, his fists glowing with densed water essence. From his strike, an illusionary dragon materialized, r forward with immense force, crashing toward Basilisk in an attempt to overwhelm him.

  But this kind of probing attack was nothing to Young Master Basilisk.

  With a calm expression, he wielded his long spiritual sword and casually sshed forward.

  The moment he executed Sshing the Heavens, the very essence of the heavens respohe simple sword strike transformed into a devastating force, a mighty ssh that devoured everything in its path. As it cshed with the illusionary dragon, the dragon was immediately ed and erased from existence, vanishing as if it had never been.

  The devastating might of the attack did not stop there,it surged forward at an eveer speed, streaking toward Elder Blue Scale. Despite his attempt to retreat, the ssh reached him, smashing into one of his elemental gaus.

  Crack!

  The gau shattered instantly.

  A surge of fear and dread overtook Elder Blue Scale. He had barely blocked a fragment of the attack's full power, a one of his prized elemental gaus had already beeroyed.

  But as panic threateo cloud his mind, Young Master Basilisk saening.

  His figure blurred, and in an instant, he appeared mere meters away from the elder,close enough that a siroke of his spiritual sword could take his head.

  With deadly precision, he swung.

  The cold steel of the bde was mere inches away from beheading Elder Blue Scale when

  g!

  A flying blue sword intercepted the attack, slipping into the gap between the elder's ned Basilisk's bde at the st possible moment, stopping it just long enough for the elder to retreat.

  But before he could even sigh in relief, a glint of silver fshed through the air.

  A kerialized out of nowhere,silent, fast, and deadly.

  It tore through the space between them and pierced directly through Elder Blue Scale's skull.

  Like a hot khrough butter.

  "Hmph." A sneer escaped Young Master Basilisk's lips as he looked at Defying Phantom coldly.

  "Did you really think the elder could escape when I had already devised a pn for his execution the momerayed me? Did you truly believe I am that naive?"

  "Naive? You?" Defying Phantom scoffed, a cold smile f on his lips. "Who would dare to call the Demonic Basilisk naive? But then again, you shocked him so thhly that he ood a ce. You always have an unknown scheme lurking in the shadows, and you trust no one except your servant. We were careful… just not careful enough when dealing with you. Who would have thought you had already pnted his death sentence long before this fight even began?"

  With that said, Defying Phantom summoned his flying blue sword, letting out a soft sigh as he g the corpse of Elder Blue Scale.

  Yet, unlike Defying Phantom, Young Master Basilisk did not spare his former servant even a single gnce, as if the man he had known for tens of thousands of years had never mattered in the first pce. His gaze remained locked onto Defying Phantom, utterly indifferent.

  Raising his hands, he formed a hand seal, and immediately, the surrounding heavenly essend true spiritual essence surged toward the sky, densing into a colossal sword. Its form crackled with raw power, its massive tip poised and aimed directly at Defying Phantom.

  this unfolding formation, Defying Phantom's lips curled into a smirk.

  "Oh? The Sword-Pierg Earth runiation? A solid choice. A pity that it's a on teique used among top-tier sects and s."

  As he analyzed the formation, Defying Phantom moved his three Royal Dragon Crystals into his palm. H above his hand, the red, bck, and blue crystals radiated an eerie light. Infusing them with his soul essehey fused with his three flying swords, their bdes ing and dist into even more fearsome shapes.

  Then, the transformation began.

  The three swords shattered into tless shards, swirling in the air like fragmented refles. The shards moved as if guided by an unseen force, merging together to form the shape of a massive dragon. Its body pulsed with an ominous glow,its head red like sm embers, its spine a deep abyssal bck, and its tail shimmering with an eerie blue.

  A three-colored dragon, fed entirely from bdes.

  Seeing this monstrosity take form, Young Master Basilisk clicked his tongue in mild annoyance.

  With a siion, he directed his hand toward the three-colored dragon, and in perfect syny, Defying Phantom raised his hand toward the gigantic sword above them.

  In the instant, the two titanic forces cshed.

  The enormous sword and the dragon of tless bdes collided, shaking the very fabric of space around them.

  Both of them cshed, but the gigantic sword began to slowly shatter. Seeing this, Young Master Basilisk had already foreseen this oute. Defying Phantom had mentiohat the Sword-Pierg Earth runiation was well-known across the cultivation world.

  The young master had chosen this formatioe its widespread reition because, even though it was on, its raw power made it effective in most situations. Most cultivators cked the knowledge or ability to ter it properly. However, this time, his gamble had failed.

  But even so, he had a backup pn.

  With a swift motion, he uhed his spiritual sword and began f intricate hand seals with both hands. However, Defying Phantom repared as well. After all, he khat the Draic Basilisk was a man of caution, always scheming and preparing for any possible sario. It was expected that he would have arick hidden up his sleeve.

  The gigantic sword finally colpsed, and its shattered fragments rained down toward Defying Phantom. But with a wave of his hand, the three-colored dragon coiled around him, shielding him from the desding shards.

  As soon as the rain of shards ceased, Young Master Basilisk's sed pn unfolded.

  "Bind."

  At his and, the shattered fragments of the swlowed with a golden hue and merged into the ground, transf into Heavenly s that surged forward, entangling the three-colored dragon.

  Seeing his dragon bound by s, Defying Phantom did not hesitate. He poured a massive amount of soul esseo his three Royal Dragos, causing one of the ed shards to break free and transform into a red sword that hovered beside him.

  With one sword freed, the ohree-colored dragon was now reduced to only two colors—bd blue. However, the single red sword remained unbound, floating ominously around Defying Phantom, its energy surging with untamed power.

  Seeing this moment of weakness, the young master gripped his spiritual sword with one hand and shot forward toward Defying Phantom.

  But Defying Phantom had already anticipated this. A cold smile curled on his lips as he stomped against the ground.

  Just as the young master closed in, a massive bck earth spike erupted from the ground, aiming straight for his position.

  With no other choice, the young master sshed downward, his spiritual sword infused with soul essence, cutting through the earth spike in a siroke. The two halves of the shattered spike crashed onto the battlefield, but before he could regain his footing, Defying Phantom had already unched his sed attack.

  In one hand, he wielded the red sword, and iher, he raised a purple-bck fmed mp.

  The eerie fmes flickered, releasing an aura of death. The young master instantly uood what was about to happen.

  "The ghosts are joining the battle."

  Just as he had predicted, the purple fmes flickered wildly, and wherever they touched the ground, small fme ghosts emerged, rising from the embers like vengeful spirits.

  Now, with hundreds of fme ghosts surrounding him, the young master let out a disdainful snort before beginning his transformation.

  His pupils narrowed into vertical slits, his arms and skin became covered in thin, dark azure scales, and atop his head, four small azure horns emerged, f what resembled a , with twer o the forefront.

  With his new drai, the young master let out a low growl, and suddenly, the surroundings ignited in dark azure fmes.

  Everything,the battlefield, the air, everue spiritual esseself,was engulfed in the raging azure inferno.

  The fme ghosts shrieked as the dark azure fire devoured them, their forms disiing in an instant.

  A small smirk formed on the young master's lips as his glowing azure eyes locked onto Defying Phantom.

  The azure fmes surged violently, gathering at a single point, like a raging tidal wave ready to crash.

  Defying Phantom's eyes widened slightly as he realized too te

  His fme ghosts had vanished.

  And in the instant, the azure fmes swallowed him whole.

  But as the azure fmes ed Defying Phantom, a massive surge of true spiritual esseed, restrug his body. However, this time, it no longer bore any human-like features. Instead, his form had transformed into something far more terrifying,a ghostly apparition, devoid of physical straints.

  This was the very state that had earned him the infamous title of ed Ghost Prihe being feared across the Underworld.

  Now, with Defying Phantom in his true form, the real battle had begun. A fight where only one would leave alive.