The days flowed past, and the Heaven Flame Ritual gradually approached.

The four pavilions grasped every second they could to train. Under this calm, secret undercurrents flowed.

Due to Zhou Yuan’s appearance, the Wind Pavilion radiated with new life over the past few months, their fame and strength growing each day. However, the better life was for the Wind Pavilion, the worse it grew for the Fire Pavilion.

The Mark Capturing Rune was completely defeated by the four Mother Runes, causing their sales to plummet tremendously. In turn, the Fire Pavilion’s greatest source of income was now lost, and their previously envious treatment and benefits steadily fell little by little. This drew numerous complaints from the Fire Pavilion, resulting in a substantial blow to Lu Xiao’s reputation.

With regards to this, Lu Xiao’s response was rather cunning. He continuously sent out people to sway public opinion, directing their anger towards Zhou Yuan.

This tactic achieved some success. After all, Zhou Yuan had indeed hurt the Fire Pavilion’s benefits. Hence, nearly every member of the Fire Pavilion was filled with rage at Zhou Yuan. The anger boiled in their hearts, readying them to unleash a brutal counter attack on the Wind Pavilion in the subsequent Heaven Flame Ritual as a form of revenge on him.

After all, although the Wind Pavilion was slowly growing in strength, the current strongest of the four pavilions was still their Fire Pavilion.

The Heaven Flame Ritual was also a competition based on the overall power of each pavilion. As such, the outcome was already self-evident.

This time, the Fire Pavilion would wash away their shame. It was the best chance for them to show Zhou Yuan who was the real boss of the four pavilions!

Several thousand Spirits were orderly standing in the sky, creating a rather impressive sight.

Zhou Yuan’s Spirit also stood in the air, powerful Spirit undulations pulsing from his body. His Spirit was nearly as corporeal as a real person. If the several thousand Spirits were fireflies, Zhou Yuan’s Spirit would be as dazzling as the moon.

Zhou Yuan’s Spirit grasped a giant azure flag, waving it with vigour and enthusiasm.

Bzzbzz!

Several thousand Spirits released a pulse of energy as numerous foot-long Spirit needles appeared. The few thousand needles were quite similar although some were a little brighter and others a little dimmer. A chill filled the surrounding area.

“Attack!”

In the next instant, several thousand Spirit needles shot forward, converging into a giant torrent. Space trembled violently as they passed, emitting an ear-piercing shriek. The Spirit of anyone who was struck would immediately shatter to pieces.

The river of needles swam in the air like a giant illusory dragon. It was honestly quite a magnificent attack.

After training for two hours, Zhou Yuan gave a faint nod of approval. The hard work invested over the past half a month had finally given the Wind Pavilion’s Spirit formation some semblance of power; though, Zhou Yuan would only describe these offensive Spirit needles as crude.

However, as the saying went, nothing could stand before absolute power. In the face of this giant river of Spirit needles, even a Transformative stage Spirit like Zhou Yuan’s would have to evade. It wouldn’t dare to take such a force on directly.

“What a pity. If they had some mastery of Genesis Runes, we could use our Spirits to draw Genesis Runes, maximizing the power of everyone’s Spirits. Several thousand people attacking together would force even a Heavenly Sun stage expert to flee.” A sliver of regret flitted across Zhou Yuan’s eyes.

But he also understood that such thinking was too ideal. The art of Genesis Runes was both broad and profound, making it extremely difficult to study and comprehend. After all, not everyone could focus on Genesis Qi cultivation while not neglecting Genesis Rune study such as him.

While praising himself, Zhou Yuan seemed to have forgotten that if not for Yaoyao’s strictness and constant guidance on Genesis Rune cultivation, he would probably be in a similar situation as the Wind Pavilion members. He was merely a pot calling the kettle black.

Zhou Yuan’s Spirit descended from the air, merging back into his body.

Beside him, Yi Qiushui joyfully remarked, “The training seems to be quite effective.”

Ye Bingling also gave a small nod of agreement as a slight smile rose from the corners of her mouth.

However, Zhou Yuan shook his head as he gazed at the numerous Wind Pavilion members. “This is far from enough to contend with the Fire Pavilion.”

Yi Qiushui and Ye Bingling sighed helplessly. After all, the overall strength of the Fire Pavilion completely eclipsed the weak Wind Pavilion, leaving them at an absolute disadvantage. The Wind Pavilion’s goal for the upcoming Heaven Flame Ritual was not to cross swords with the Fire Pavilion but to do all they could to obtain a little Heavenly Sun Fire.

Zhou Yuan stared at the air in deep thought. On the Fire Pavilion side, just the number of Corporeal stage Spirits alone was nearly six hundred, and no one knew how many advanced Illusory stage cultivators there were. Both quality and quantity far surpassed the Wind Pavilion’s.

In the face of such a powerful force, even Zhou Yuan did not feel confident despite achieving initial mastery in the Spirit Lantern Art. Given his understanding of Lu Xiao, the aforementioned would most likely come at Zhou Yuan with his full power this time after suffering at Zhou Yuan’s hands previously.

Behind Lu Xiao was the Heavenly Spirit Sect. Zhou Yuan could not predict what kind of aid they would give.

He needed to be on guard.

However, reaching this level of coordination was already the limit of the Wind Pavilion. It was not possible to raise their Spirit mastery any further within a short period of time.

But this was not the first time Zhou Yuan had such thoughts. Over the past few days, he had been wracking his brains to come up with some kind of tactic or idea. However, his efforts had been fruitless, leaving him no choice but to inwardly sigh. Even a clever housewife could do nothing without the right tools.

Zhou Yuan sighed in his heart. He grasped the mottled Heavenly Yuan Brush and used its snow-white hairs to scratch his forehead. With how weak the Wind Pavilion was, he was under tremendous pressure as the wind pavilion master, feeling as if he had to do everything by himself.

As the snow-white brush hairs swayed before his eyes, Zhou Yuan blew gently.

The hairs danced in front of him and Zhou Yuan’s eyes suddenly flashed brightly.

“The Heavenly Yuan Brush!”

Zhou Yuan’s eyes darted towards the concealed sixth rune on the brush’s mottled body as an idea flashed in his mind. With a thought, a snow-white hair dropped off and was caught between his fingers.

The hair was even finer than a cow’s and seemed to glow as it gleamed under the light. Mystical patterns were faintly visible on its body.

On this strand of hair was the sixth rune, Spirit Devour.

Of course, it was not the true Spirit Devour but a sliver of Spirit Devour’s power. In other words, a Genesis mark of the Spirit Devour rune.

The Heavenly Yuan Brush’s sixth rune was very effective against Spirit power and could even devour it to use for oneself. If he gave something like this to the others, wouldn’t they be able to utilize Spirit Devour’s power?

Although it certainly could not compare to the power of the main rune, it was enough to raise the Wind Pavilion’s Spirit power to the next level.

“Qiushui.”

Zhou Yuan looked towards Yi Qiushui and said with a smile, “Summon your Spirit and have a duel with senior sister Ye.”

Yi Qiushui and Ye Bingling cast over puzzled gazes. Yi Qiushui rolled her eyes at him and said, “My Spirit is only at the initial Corporeal stage while senior sister Ye has already reached the intermediate stage. How can I beat her?”

She felt that Zhou Yuan was playing around and wasting time.

“Just give it a try,” urged Zhou Yuan.

Yi Qiushui could only summon her Spirit, and Zhou Yuan sent the snow-white hair flying forth with a flick. It quickly wrapped around the finger of Yi Qiushui’s Spirit.

Seemingly sensing something, Yi Qiushui cast a puzzled glance at him, but she clearly did not know what Zhou Yuan was up to. However, she swiftly used her Spirit to create a Spirit needle.

Zhou Yuan looked over and found that the needle created by Yi Qiushui was giving off a faint, peculiar undulation. It was Spirit Devour.

Ye Bingling also summoned her Spirit and created a Spirit needle. In the next instant, the two needles shot forth and collided in the air.

Cling!

A faint sound rang out.

Ye Bingling appeared somewhat inattentive. She was substantially stronger than Yi Qiushui and was thus unable to understand Zhou Yuan’s sudden request.

However, he was the pavilion master, and Ye Bingling intended to comply with his wishes.

The Spirit needles clashed. Yi Qiushui’s Spirit needle should shatter soon, right?

Cling!

The instant this thought flashed through Ye Bingling’s mind, however, she suddenly felt some of the Spirit power in her needle disappear for no inexplicable reason, while the Spirit undulations of Yi Qiushui’s needle abruptly strengthened.

In a short span of a few breaths, the two Spirit needles clashed another dozen times.

Ye Bingling’s Spirit needle grew increasingly dim with each clash, whereas Yi Qiushui’s needle grew brighter.

It felt as if Yi Qiushui’s needle was devouring the Spirit power of Ye Bingling’s needle with each clash!

Bang!

In the end, the two Spirit needles viciously collided one final time. Ye Bingling’s needle instantly shattered, turning into specks of light that quickly faded away.

Little by little, Ye Bingling’s and Yi Qiushui’s expressions turned rigid as shock filled their eyes.

Yi Qiushui’s initial Corporeal stage Spirit needle had smashed apart Ye Bingling’s intermediate stage needle?

It was a long time later before Yi Qiushui finally returned to her senses. She stared at Zhou Yuan in bewilderment as she asked, “You…what did you do to me?!”