173: Chapter 173 The Fall of the Emperor

The battle within the light cocoon had lasted for three whole days and nights.

The main peak of Starfall Pavilion had long since vanished from the earth, replaced by a bottomless crater. The mountain range for hundreds of miles had been reduced to a scorched basin under the repeated onslaught of Emperor Realm power. Magma from deep underground surged out through the fissures, solidifying into dark red scars on the cooling rocks. The sky had been burned through several times by the Emperor Flame and the Heaven-Slaying Flame; clouds were repeatedly evaporated and condensed, eventually turning into a torrential rain of blood that drenched the devastated land.

Outside the light cocoon, tens of thousands of people remained silent. No one ate, no one slept; everyone's gaze was fixed firmly on the two figures within the cocoon. They had been fighting continuously for three days and nights, and every collision of Emperor Realm power felt like a drum beating against the hearts of the spectators. Medusa stood at the very front of the blood-colored wall of fire, her purple eyes unblinking. For three days, she had not moved an inch, her fingers gripping her sword stiff and white from prolonged exertion. Yao Yao stood by her side; the wound on her shoulder had scabbed over, but she was completely unaware of it. Her peach-blossom eyes were locked onto every clash inside the cocoon, and her lips had been bitten into a row of deep bloody marks.

Gu Xun'er clasped her hands together in front of her chest. For three days, she had closed her eyes countless times and forced herself to open them just as often. Xiao Yi Xian held her cold hands, both their palms slick with cold sweat. For the first time, an unconcealable fear appeared on Xiao Yi Xian's usually indifferent face—she knew better than anyone the perils of an Emperor Realm battle, and she knew that this fight would not end in a draw. One of them was bound to fall.

Inside the light cocoon, Xiao Yan knelt on one knee amidst the rubble, the ancient ruler of exotic flames planted before him. The six-colored Emperor Flame on the ruler was no longer as brilliant as it had been at the beginning. His left arm hung limp at his side; the deep, bone-exposing burn wound had been repeatedly eroded by the Heaven-Slaying Flame over the past three days, and the speed at which his Emperor Qi could repair it could not keep up with the rate of destruction. The robe on his back had long since shattered into dust, revealing a spine covered in wounds of varying depths. The deepest one cut diagonally from his shoulder blade to his waist, the flesh torn open with charred edges. His breathing was heavy and ragged, and every rise and fall of his chest was accompanied by the muffled sound of dislocated ribs. Yet he did not fall; in those black eyes, tempered by countless fires of war, a flame that refused to be extinguished still burned.

Hun Feng's condition was much better than Xiao Yan's. His black robe was also burned with several holes by the Emperor Flame, a bloodstain from the ruler's edge marked his left cheek, and the webbing between his right thumb and index finger was split, with blood-colored flames slowly flowing from the wound. Yet the Emperor Qi within his body remained abundant, and his breathing was as steady as a mountain. The tenfold increase in talent allowed him to make rapid progress at every moment of this battle, and his control over the power of the Emperor Realm was becoming more and more proficient. He could feel that Xiao Yan's Emperor Flame was waning—not a superficial exhaustion, but a withering that had begun at the source.

"Xiao Yan, your Emperor Flame cannot hold on much longer." Hun Feng stood with his spear on his back. Xiao Yan did not answer; he leaned on the ancient ruler of exotic flames and slowly straightened his body. This simple action was incredibly difficult to perform at this moment. He gritted his teeth and forcibly reset his dislocated ribs. The excruciating pain made his vision go black for a moment, but his spine remained straight.

He raised his right hand and poured all the remaining Emperor Qi in his body into the ancient ruler of exotic flames. The sources of the six exotic flames burned simultaneously on the ruler: the emerald green of the Green Lotus Core Flame, the formlessness of the Fallen Heart Flame, the ghostly white of the Bone Chilling Flame, the deep blue of the Three Thousand Burning Flame, the crimson of the Nine Dragon Lightning Flame, and the dark blue of the Deep Sea Demon Flame—the six-colored flames intertwined into a destructive wheel of light. He was going to use his final strength to launch his last strike. Emperor Flame Fire Lotus—no, the ultimate form of the Emperor Flame Fire Lotus. The sources of the six exotic flames were ignited simultaneously, transforming into a six-colored fire lotus the size of a palm. With every rotation of the fire lotus, the surrounding space collapsed by an inch, and the inner wall of the light cocoon was shaken with spiderweb-like cracks by this destructive fluctuation.

Xiao Yan pushed the fire lotus forward. This was his final attack, exhausting all his Emperor Qi and the sources of his exotic flames. Wherever the fire lotus passed, space collapsed inch by inch; even the time afterimages set by Hun Feng were torn apart by this power.

Hun Feng did not retreat. He gripped the Shitian Battle Spear in his right hand, and the sources of nine exotic flames exploded simultaneously at the spear tip. He simultaneously activated the Law of Space and the Law of Time—the Law of Time accelerated his own flow of time to the extreme, while the Law of Space folded the space around the fire lotus layer by layer. The fire lotus passed through layer after layer of folded space, gradually consuming itself in the spatial maze. The six-colored Emperor Flame went from brilliant to dim, shrinking from the size of a fist to the size of a fingernail, and the last wisp of six-colored light dissipated three inches from Hun Feng's face. Three inches—this was the closest Xiao Yan had ever come to defeating Hun Feng.

Hun Feng's battle spear thrust forward. This spear pierced through Xiao Yan's final defense of Emperor Qi. The moment the spear tip pierced his chest, everyone heard the crisp sound of the Emperor Core shattering. It was the sound of the Emperor Core crumbling inch by inch under the impact of the battle spear. The spear tip pierced through his back, bringing out a cloud of hot blood mist. Xiao Yan's Emperor Body shattered instantly under this spear, and the Emperor Core transformed into countless tiny specks of light that drifted out from his body. Those specks of light scattered around him like falling stars. His cultivation level plummeted from the Emperor Realm to the peak of Nine-Star, and then all the way down from the peak of Nine-Star to Five-Star Dou Sheng before it finally stopped.

At that moment, heaven and earth mourned together. The previously clear sky suddenly turned gloomy, and blood-colored clouds surged from the horizon, shrouding the sky above Starfall Pavilion in an oppressive dark red. The fall of an Emperor—this continent was lamenting the fall of an Emperor.

Yao Yao was the first to cry out. She jumped up, clutching her bone whip, her bewitching face slightly twisted with wild joy, and her hoarse voice carried an indescribable sense of gratification. Medusa closed her eyes for a moment, exhaled a long breath, and a trace of relaxation finally appeared on her cold, beautiful face. Gu Xun'er covered her mouth with her hand, her whole body trembling violently, and tears streamed silently down her face. Xiao Yi Xian lowered her head and closed her eyes, tiny droplets of water clinging to her eyelashes. Zi Yan bit her lower lip, extremely complex emotions surging in her golden pupils—she thought of her father, Zhu Kun. Tang Huo'er burst into a heart-rending cry from the Flame Emperor Alliance camp, but she was held tightly by Valley Master Tang Zhen. Her screams came from across the light screen, as if separated by an entire world.

Hun Feng slowly withdrew the battle spear. As the spear tip exited Xiao Yan's chest, a faint wisp of blood was pulled out. Xiao Yan's body trembled violently, and then he fell from mid-air. Xiao Yan, the Flame Emperor who had once fought alone against Hun Tiandi, Void Swallowing Flame, and Gu Yuan, three Nine-Star peak experts, and who had once been regarded by Hun Feng as his greatest opponent, had now lost even the strength to maintain his flight. He lay on his back amidst the cold rubble, the blood hole in his chest pierced by the battle spear still gushing blood, and the emptiness of his cultivation level plummeting after the Emperor Core shattered engulfed him like a tide. He gazed at the blood-colored sky above him, and suddenly remembered many years ago in the back mountains of Wutan City, when Yao Chen first passed the Burning Technique to him, the old man had said—this technique is very difficult to cultivate, but once mastered, you will be the best in the world.

"Master, I have mastered it. It is just that the one who is the best in the world is not me."