159: Chapter 159 The Fall of the Ice Emperor

The morning at Duanhun Cliff was shrouded in frost and mist, and the ice crystals congealed on the rocky beach shimmered with a cold, silvery light in the faint dawn.

The two armies had finished forming their battle lines on either side of the valley entrance; sixty thousand against forty thousand, a dark, crushing tide of humanity stretching from the valley mouth to the edge of the distant wilderness.

Battle flags snapped in the cold wind, and the air was thick with a suffocating, murderous aura.

Yao Chen stood on the command platform of the Flame Emperor Alliance's central army, his white hair disheveled by the wind.

He gazed at the familiar, aged figure in the opposing Soul Clan formation—Hai Bodong was being held at the front by two Hall of Souls Heavenly Venerables, his white hair messy and his robes stained with blood, yet an unyielding light still burned in those murky, old eyes.

Soul Mie Sheng stood behind Hai Bodong, his withered fingers pressing against the back of his neck; a slight exertion of force would be enough to crush his cervical vertebrae.

"Yao Chen! Isn't this who you wanted? Here he is." Soul Mie Sheng's hoarse voice echoed throughout the valley entrance.

Yao Chen took a step forward, his aged voice not loud but every word clear: "Soul Mie Sheng, the challenge has been issued, and the battlefield is set. Since this is a decisive battle, why make a fuss over a prisoner? Release him, and let the Flame Emperor Alliance and the Soul Clan fight fair and square."

Soul Mie Sheng sneered and looked at Void Swallowing Flame beside him.

The black flames at the fingertips of Void Swallowing Flame danced lightly, and he nodded slightly.

Soul Mie Sheng released his grip and pushed Hai Bodong forward.

Hai Bodong stumbled toward the Flame Emperor Alliance's camp.

He walked very slowly, each step feeling as if he were treading on the tip of a blade, yet his spine remained straight.

The Ice Emperor's pride could be broken, but it could not be bent.

A suppressed cheer erupted from the Flame Emperor Alliance's ranks, and Wind Idle had already led several personal guards forward to meet him, preparing to receive the old general who had been captured for months yet had never yielded.

Just as Hai Bodong was about to step into the Flame Emperor Alliance's formation, a slender, dark shadow appeared behind him without a sound.

It was Yao Yao.

She was wearing a tightly tailored black outfit today, with the skirt slit high up to her thigh, revealing her long, fair legs, and the silver bell on her ankle gave a faint, crisp chime in the wind.

Her features were as delicate as a porcelain doll, and those peach-blossom eyes were exceptionally bewitching and alluring in the morning light.

No one saw how she appeared—with the speed of an Eight Star Dou Sheng (late stage), fewer than five people present could have tracked her movements.

She stood behind Hai Bodong, her peach-blossom eyes churning with unconcealed killing intent.

Her right palm, like a blade, cleanly and decisively pierced through Hai Bodong's chest from behind.

Fresh blood spurted out, splashing onto the back of her fair hand and slowly dripping down her fingertips.

Hai Bodong looked down at the slender hand in his chest, his lips moving a few times as if he wanted to turn and look at her, but he had lost even the strength to turn his head.

Yao Yao leaned down close to his ear, her voice as soft as a lover's whisper, yet loud enough for everyone present to hear clearly: "A piece of trash, killed is killed."

She withdrew her palm, and Hai Bodong's body collapsed to the ground with a thud.

A pool of blood spread silently across the rocky beach, and those murky, old eyes remained open, gazing toward the direction of the Jia Ma Empire.

The entire process took no more than a single breath.

The Flame Emperor Alliance's camp fell into a brief, deathly silence, followed immediately by a thunderous roar of rage.

The Flame Emperor Alliance soldiers in the front row had bloodshot eyes, and the light of Dou Qi exploded everywhere.

Yao Chen's pupils constricted, and Wind Idle drew his sword, ready to charge out, but was held back tightly by the vice-general beside him.

Void Swallowing Flame stood at the front of the central army, a faint trace of a smile flashing in his eyes that burned with black flames.

He had never misjudged the ruthlessness of this girl, Yao Yao.

He slowly raised his right hand and then swung it down violently: "Kill."

The forty thousand Soul Clan Alliance troops surged toward the Flame Emperor Alliance's formation like a floodgate opening.

Yao Yao swung her bone whip, and seventy-two skulls emitted a shrill soul-piercing scream simultaneously as she charged into the vanguard of the Flame Emperor Alliance.

The bone whip swept past, and dozens of elite Red Flame Army soldiers had their protective Dou Qi shattered before they could even scream.

Medusa drew her sword on the other side, and a nine-colored sword glow, like a brilliant rainbow, slashed into the enemy formation, sending severed limbs flying wherever it passed.

Gu Xun'er's Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame spread across the sky above the battlefield into a sea of golden fire, enveloping the right flank of the Flame Emperor Alliance.

Xiao Yi Xian's poison mist silently seeped into the edge of the battlefield, and every Flame Emperor Alliance soldier who inhaled the poison mist collapsed to the ground.

Zi Yan transformed into her hundred-zhang Void Ancient Dragon true form, and her golden dragon claw smashed an improvised arrow tower of the Flame Emperor Alliance with a single blow.

The Flame Emperor Alliance side was equally fearless of death.

Under the leadership of Valley Master Tang Zhen, three thousand Red Flame Army soldiers from Burning Flame Valley confronted the Soul Clan central army head-on, with fire-attribute Dou Qi exploding in round after round of crimson shockwaves in front of the formation.

Although the student guards of Jia Nan Academy were young, they made up for their lack of cultivation with exquisite coordination and formations.

The mercenaries from the Black-Corner Region fought with a wild and tricky style, refusing to retreat even unto death.

The two sides fought until the sky went dark on the rocky beach; the roar of colliding Dou Qi, the piercing sound of weapons clashing, and the dying screams of the wounded intertwined into a chaotic din.

However, this stalemate did not last long.

Over thirty percent of the Flame Emperor Alliance's sixty thousand troops were low-level cultivators below the Dou Wang level, while the forty thousand troops of the Soul Clan Alliance were at least at the Dou Zong level, with no fewer than five thousand high-level Dou Zuns and hundreds of Dou Shengs.

When the true elites of the Soul Clan central army began to exert their power, the Flame Emperor Alliance's defensive line crumbled as quickly as a sand embankment washed away by a flood.

Elder Hun Tu of the Four Demon Saints struck first, and the phantom of the Gate of Dead Silence opened with a boom above the left flank of the Flame Emperor Alliance, forcibly extracting the souls of hundreds of Flame Emperor Alliance soldiers, instantly turning them into stiff corpses.

The withered figure of Soul Yuan Tian appeared on the right flank of the Flame Emperor Alliance, his soul pressure as a Seven-Star Dou Sheng (late stage) crushing dozens of Burning Flame Valley Red Flame Army soldiers directly into blood mist.

The Gu Clan's Black Annihilation Army, led by Gu Dao, smashed into the Flame Emperor Alliance's central army like a heavy hammer, while Yan Jin and Lei Ying each led their elites to flank from the sides, cutting the Flame Emperor Alliance's formation into pieces.

Just as the sounds of battle at Duanhun Cliff shook the heavens, Soul Mie Sheng had already led a team of Hall of Souls Heavenly Venerables to appear above the Imperial Capital of the Jia Ma Empire.

The forces left behind by the Flame Emperor Alliance were pitifully few—the elites had all been deployed to Duanhun Cliff, leaving only a few hundred old, weak, and wounded soldiers in the Imperial Capital.

Soul Mie Sheng didn't even have the interest to make a move; he simply waved his hand, and the Heavenly Venerables behind him pounced on every part of the Imperial Capital like hungry wolves.

The Imperial Guard was like paper before the Hall of Souls Heavenly Venerables, and the capital changed hands in less than half an hour.

The Imperial Palace was seized, various major clans were sealed off, and all officials and merchants associated with the Flame Emperor Alliance were thrown into prison.

Soul Mie Sheng stood on the highest tower of the Imperial Palace, gazing down at the city that had submitted beneath him, his withered fingers tapping lightly on the railing.

At the same time, Hun You had led the Assassination Department into the Black-Corner Region.

She didn't use a single soldier; she simply planted the black flame command flag of the Assassination Department in the central square of the Black-Corner Region, and those sects that had once answered the call of the Flame Emperor Alliance bowed their heads one by one.

The few who resisted stubbornly were wiped out by the Assassination Department overnight, and the Black-Corner Region was officially incorporated into the Soul Clan's territory.

Soul Yuan Tian appeared above the Inner Academy of Jia Nan Academy, and when Great Elder Su Qian attempted to activate the protective academy array, he shattered it with a single palm.

However, he did not engage in a massacre—Void Swallowing Flame had instructed that there was no need to wantonly kill these young students, just control them.

The Inner Academy was blockaded, and all teleportation arrays were cut off.

At the same moment, a team of Hall of Souls Heavenly Venerables arrived at the ancestral home of the Xiao Family in Wutan City, taking all the dozens of Xiao Family members left behind onto a warship to be sent to the Soul Realm to reunite with Xiao Zhan.

On the battlefield of Duanhun Cliff, the Flame Emperor Alliance had already lost more than half of its forces.

Yao Chen's white robe had long been soaked in blood; he stood on the command platform, gazing at the battlefield strewn with corpses, and slowly closed his eyes.

He knew the Flame Emperor Alliance had lost, but he also knew that the Jia Ma Empire, the Black-Corner Region, and Jia Nan Academy had likely all fallen by now.

The only thing he was grateful for was that Xiao Yan was not here—as long as Xiao Yan was still alive, the Flame Emperor Alliance still had hope.

Void Swallowing Flame raised his hand to signal a halt to the pursuit, allowing the surviving Flame Emperor Alliance soldiers to retreat from the valley entrance.

They left behind bodies and wounded soldiers covering the ground, left behind the comrades who had once fought side by side, and left behind the last glory of the Flame Emperor Alliance.

The cold wind wailed on Duanhun Cliff, and tens of thousands of corpses covered the rocky beach, their blood staining the originally grey-white rocks a dark red.

Yao Yao stood amidst the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, flicking the blood droplets off her bone whip one by one.

Her black outfit was covered in the blood of her enemies, yet her exquisitely beautiful face remained as clean as a fairy who had just bathed.

She kicked aside a corpse at her feet, a glimmer of satisfaction flashing in her peach-blossom eyes.

This battle had been quite satisfying.