166: Chapter 166 The Arrival of the Flame Emperor

A six-colored pillar of fire descended with a roar from a tear in the sky, smashing onto the plaza in front of the main hall of Starfall Pavilion. The corpses that had piled up over several months on the rocky beach were blown away by the shockwave, and falling debris rained down like a storm. As the fire pillar slowly dissipated, a slender figure in black robes stepped out from within.

Xiao Yan. He was thinner than before he entered the cave, his cheekbones slightly protruding, his jawline sharper, but the light in those black eyes was deeper and brighter than ever before. The xuan heavy ruler was still slung across his back; the cracks on the ruler were still there, but that aura, restrained to the extreme, made every powerhouse above the Dou Sheng level present feel a palpitation. Emperor energy circulated around him; it was not deliberately released, but the pressure naturally emanated by an Emperor Realm powerhouse—it was a suppression of the level of life itself, causing a sense of helplessness from the depths of the soul that made it impossible to resist.

The plaza in front of the Starfall Pavilion's main hall fell into dead silence. Yao Yao's bone whip stopped in mid-air, and for the first time, astonishment appeared in those peach-blossom eyes. Medusa's fingers, gripping her long sword, tightened slightly. Her cold, beautiful face showed no expression, but her knuckles had turned white. Gu Xun'er stared blankly at the figure in black robes, the Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame leaping silently in her palm as if responding to some distant call.

Yao Chen slowly opened his eyes, tears falling silently down his old face, which was covered in blood and wrinkles. His lips moved for a long time before he squeezed two words from his throat: "Little Yanzi." Xiao Yan turned to look at his teacher, a faint red tint appearing in his black eyes, which were filled with Emperor pressure. He knelt on one knee and bowed deeply to Yao Chen. A bow from an Emperor Realm powerhouse should have been a grand ceremony that would make the entire continent tremble, but he knelt without hesitation, just as he had when he knelt before Yao Chen to become his disciple in Wutan City all those years ago.

Yao Chen rushed forward in two or three steps to help Xiao Yan up, his aged palms gripping Xiao Yan's arms tightly, the force so great it was as if he were afraid he would disappear again. He carefully examined Xiao Yan's face, his eyes reddening the more he looked, and suddenly he slapped his shoulder, his voice hoarse but filled with indescribable pride: "Dou Di, my disciple, Yao Chen's disciple, is a Dou Di!"

On the plaza, the remnants of the Flame Emperor Alliance recovered from their shock. Valley Master Tang Zhen threw down his battle axe and was the first to kneel, and behind him, the remaining Scarlet Flame troops of the Burning Flame Valley knelt in unison. The student guards of Jia Nan Academy knelt on one knee, the mercenaries of the Black-Corner Region prostrated themselves on the ground, and the disciples of the Starfall Pavilion were teary-eyed. Thousands of voices converged from all directions into one sentence: "Respectfully welcome the Flame Emperor out of seclusion!" The sound waves rushed straight into the clouds, shattering the gloomy clouds that had shrouded the Starfall Pavilion for days. Tang Huo'er held onto her father's arm and looked up at the black-robed figure, tears blurring her face. Her lips moved, wanting to call out to him, but she found herself so choked with emotion that she couldn't utter a single word.

In the Hun Clan camp, Hun Tiandi's expression was so gloomy that water could drip from it. He had been stuck at the peak of Nine-Star Dou Sheng for thousands of years, trying countless methods but failing to take that step. Now, a junior from the declining Xiao Clan, a rising star of the Xiao Clan who had been hunted by the Hun Clan for most of his life, had actually reached the Emperor Realm before him. This humiliation was like a red-hot knife stabbed into the proudest part of his heart. Void Swallowing Flame did not speak, only the black flames at his fingertips flickering faster and faster. Gu Yuan was silent for a long time, then let out a long sigh.

Xiao Yan straightened his body, and his Emperor Realm Soul spread out like a tide. Every corpse, every remnant soul, every drop of undried blood on the battlefield appeared clearly in his consciousness. He saw Hai Bodong's chest pierced by a palm from Yao Yao, his Ice Dragon Spear broken in two and rolling in a pool of blood, those cloudy old eyes never closing even in death, staring toward the direction of the Jia Ma Empire. He saw Wind Idle's chest shattered by a claw from Zi Yan, kneeling in the pile of rubble with one hand supporting his sword, still roaring for Yao Chen to retreat before he died. He saw Xuan Kongzi struck down by Medusa's sword, Xuan Yi's throat crushed by a bone whip, and Tian Leizi burned into charcoal by the Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame. He saw Fire Cloud Old Ancestor fall before Yao Yao, his thin, withered body pierced by that slender palm, and the last of the Burning Flame Valley's Scarlet Flame troops let out a cry of grief and indignation. He also saw the fall of the Jia Ma Empire's capital, the Xiao Family ancestral home sealed with the Hall of Souls' seal, his father Xiao Zhan thrown into the Soul Realm dungeon, and the angry yet helpless expressions of Xiao Ding, Xiao Li, Ya Fei, and Xiao Yu as they were forced onto the warship. He also saw Yao Yao shattering his Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus with a whip during the wedding in the Soul Realm, taking his most beloved woman into her arms right in front of him; he saw Hun Feng kissing Xun'er publicly at the Ancient Emperor Hall, Xun'er trembling slightly in his arms but not pushing him away; he saw Yun Yun blushing in Hun Feng's arms, softly calling him "husband," those eyes that once held tenderness only for him now filled with the figure of another man. Yao Yao's mockery, Hun Feng's contempt, Cai Lin's indifference, Xun'er's avoidance, Yun Yun's alienation—these images flashed repeatedly in his sea of consciousness, like poison-tipped daggers, carving into the softest part of his heart one by one.

His Emperor pressure surged violently, the stone bricks under his feet turning into powder without a sound, and cracks spreading in all directions like a spiderweb. His gaze pierced through the crowd and landed on Yao Yao, the black eyes filled with Emperor pressure churning with murderous intent that had been suppressed for years. It was this woman. Back then, at the wedding in the Soul Realm, she had shattered his Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus with one whip and pulled Xun'er and Xiao Yi Xian into Hun Feng's arms right in front of him. Over the years, she had killed Hai Bodong, killed Fire Cloud Old Ancestor, killed Xuan Yi, her hands stained with the blood of the Flame Emperor Alliance. Every time she finished killing someone, she would look at him with that contemptuous gaze, as if she were looking at a stray dog.

Yao Yao met his gaze without flinching. The Emperor pressure enveloped the entire plaza; everyone else had knelt, but she was the only one still standing. The black tight-fitting outfit clung to her slender figure, undried blood droplets from the bone whip dripped slowly down the whip, and those peach-blossom eyes still held that habitual sneer, carrying undisguised contempt and ridicule.

"What? Does becoming a Dou Di make you so amazing?" Yao Yao rested her bone whip on her shoulder, lifted her chin, and her voice, though not loud, clearly reached every corner of the plaza. "Your wife has followed my husband, your daughter calls my husband 'Daddy,' and your childhood sweetheart is now enjoying herself in my husband's arms every night. You couldn't even keep your closest ones; so what if you became a Dou Di? In my eyes, you are always that loser who couldn't even keep his wife and child."

Xiao Yan's figure vanished from where he stood.

It was not teleportation; it was the pure speed of an Emperor Realm powerhouse. The black-flame pupils of Void Swallowing Flame contracted sharply; he raised his hand to block at the first moment, but the power of the Emperor Realm far exceeded the nine-star level—Xiao Yan's figure was like six-colored lightning piercing through the void, bypassing the soul barrier of Hun Tiandi, crossing the blockade of the Four Demon Saints, and the xuan heavy ruler, wrapped in a destructive blade of light interwoven with six types of Heavenly Flames, slashed down at Yao Yao's head.