The atmosphere in the canyon, which had just surged from despair to wild relief, plunged once more into a deeper abyss of hopelessness.
Once, twice, three times…
Each time, Dustin’s sword-light precisely shredded the re-forming crimson energy, scattering it to dust finer than ash. Within his strikes surged a will of annihilation so profound that it could obliterate body, spirit, and even soul imprints.
Yet the strange energy born from the humanoid beast clung like bone maggots, cursed with an unending existence. No matter how thoroughly Dustin destroyed it, from the smallest mote of dust it would begin to gather again—each time quicker than the last.
The crimson vortex at the center seemed like a mocking pupil, coldly watching every futile effort to erase it. Each resurrection carried a deeper stench of death and hatred.
“How… how can this be? It won’t die… it simply can’t be killed!”
“Even Mister Dustin… even he can’t destroy it?”
Faces blanched as despair clawed at the hearts of the onlookers.
To them, Dustin was as a god. If even a god-like figure could not resolve this monster, the blow to their faith was devastating.
Margaret’s brows knit tightly, the heaviness on her face impossible to conceal.
On this island, there were some existences that could not be measured by ordinary logic. To force their destruction might trigger even deeper taboos they were not yet capable of facing.
“Since it cannot be slain… then it must be sealed!”
Abandoning futile attacks, Dustin chose another path.
While the crimson energy had not yet fully reassembled into a complete form—its power at its weakest—he abruptly sheathed his sword and retreated several steps. His hands blurred before his chest, forming seals at a speed too fast for the eye to follow.
As his hand-seals shifted, so too did his aura.
No longer sharp and fierce like a sword cultivator’s, but vast, ancient, heavy as the earth itself—yet also infused with the majesty of heavenly law.
The boundless Xuanqing true qi within him no longer lashed outward but drew inward, compressed, then circulated along an esoteric trajectory that invoked the primal forces of space and time themselves.
“Boundless Heaven and Earth—turn the cycles, seal the sky, lock the earth!”
Dustin’s low cry rang out, like the voice of the Dao itself, echoing through the canyon.
From his palms burst a five-colored light array—gold, azure, blue, red, yellow—woven into a three-dimensional seal that expanded rapidly outward.
At its center spun a Taiji diagram, while layers of rune-forged chains coiled around it, exuding a will to suppress all evil and bind all laws.
“Go!”
The five-colored seal formation fell like a heavenly net, surging with awe-inspiring divine might, and engulfed the humanoid beast just as its body was half-formed.
The beast sensed the danger. From its incomplete form rang a piercing shriek, its half-grown arms flailing wildly, hurling waves of dark energy in a desperate attempt to tear apart the array.
But in its half-reformed state, its strength was greatly diminished. Meanwhile, Dustin’s sealing art was no ordinary spell but a supreme Daoist technique, specifically meant to subdue all that was strange and unholy.
The blasts of darkness struck the radiant formation, creating ripples that quickly dissolved, their force dispersed by the ceaseless turning of the sealing cycle.
The formation’s light flared brilliantly, descending fully. Chains of energy, alive with runes, twined layer upon layer around the beast’s body—ankles, waist, chest, arms, even its helm.
“Raaaghhh!”
The beast roared with fury and unwillingness, struggling violently as its crimson light pulsed.
But the rune-chains only tightened, biting into its energy-forged flesh, while streams of five-colored brilliance seared into its form, leaving burning imprints that cleansed and eroded the deathly aura within.
At last, under countless watchful eyes strained to their limits, the sealing array completed its descent.
The beast was entombed within a massive cocoon of light, three zhang across, its surface glowing with five-colored radiance.
Runes flowed ceaselessly across its shell, while the Taiji diagram spun slowly. The sealing power it radiated formed an unassailable barrier, cutting off the terrifying aura within.
The beast’s struggles and roars weakened… then ceased.
What remained was only the silent cocoon of light, like a tombstone erected in the canyon.
Silence blanketed the gorge.
All held their breath, staring at the cocoon, then at Dustin, whose figure swayed slightly, his face a shade pale.
Clearly, this great sealing had drained him heavily.
Only after a long pause, when the cocoon showed no further change, did relief surge through the group like a flood after a storm.
“It’s… it’s over? It’s sealed?” Green Bamboo whispered, her voice trembling.
“Dustin, are you all right?” Margaret hurried to his side.
Since his breakthrough, she had never seen him this strained.
“I’m fine,” Dustin shook his head slightly. “This creature is undying, its nature strange beyond reason. Though I have bound it with the Sealing Art, this is not eternal. Over time, the seal will weaken—or collapse if struck from outside. This place is no longer safe. We must press through the canyon quickly.”
His words fell like cold water, extinguishing the fragile sense of relief.
The danger was not ended—only suppressed.
No one dared linger. Steeling themselves, adjusting their packs, they followed Dustin with deeper awe and urgency, skirting wide around the five-colored cocoon and venturing further into the canyon’s depths. - Marinien
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