244: Chapter 244 Bloodbath at Tianhe

Scattered around him lay a dozen or so cultivators who had just teleported in; some were clutching their heads and groaning low, while others were frantically fumbling to see if their storage bracelets were still there.

The sharp, rust-like smell in the air was even thicker than when they first arrived, mixed with an elusive, decaying sweetness, like old blood that had been stirred up by something.

Luo Li had already stood up, her long sword drawn three inches, a wisp of clear light flowing like a swimming fish along the blade.

She closed her eyes, her perception of the Law of Time spreading outward from herself as the center, and a moment later, she opened them abruptly, her blue eyes fixed on a seemingly empty void three steps to her side.

She probed forward with her scabbard—with a soft " laugh" sound, a space rift invisible to the naked eye was touched by the scabbard and slowly materialized before her, as thin as a hair, its edges shimmering with a cold, ghostly silver light.

"It is denser here than at the entrance." She sheathed her sword, her voice calm. "There are three within three steps. These rifts move; their positions are not fixed."

Mu Chen nodded without saying much.

He attached his perception of the Law of Space to the surface of his skin, stood up, and looked around.

There were broken walls on three sides and an abyss on the fourth; on the opposite side of the abyss, the outlines of more dilapidated palaces could be vaguely seen, shrouded in a layer of pale grey mist.

Half-buried in the rubble at his feet was a broken plaque, where only half of the character "Heaven" remained of the two characters "Heavenly Palace," the other half having been wiped away by some kind of black claw mark, the edges so smooth it didn't look like weathering.

He glanced at the claw mark and then looked away.

"Let's leave this ruin first. Walk in the direction of the buildings."

The two moved forward cautiously along the edge of the broken walls.

Mu Chen led the way, raising his hand every few steps to trace a minute spatial ripple in the void ahead, using the Law of Space to detect rifts; Luo Li followed, her perception of the Law of Time covering a three-zhang radius around them.

Their coordination grew increasingly tacit; after bypassing seven space rifts and climbing over two collapsed walls, they finally walked out of the most densely packed ruin area after the time it takes to burn an incense stick.

The terrain ahead suddenly opened up.

A dried-up ancient riverbed lay across their path, wide and long, as if it had been forcefully crushed into the earth's crust by a massive, blunt instrument.

There hadn't been a drop of water in the riverbed for a long time; what lay exposed was a layer of grey-white gravel and countless scattered skeletons—some human, some from the Evil Race, and some beast bones of such immense size they were unrecognizable.

A complete skeleton of a giant beast was half-buried in the sand, its ribs splayed out like a broken dome, with bone spurs on its spine standing straight toward the sky, each one taller than a person.

The air was filled with an extremely faint yet pervasive Evil Qi, mixed into the spiritual energy like honey laced with poison.

Mu Chen crouched at the edge of the riverbed and picked up a broken half of a sword blade from the gravel.

The spiritual patterns remaining on the blade had been dim for tens of thousands of years, but the thin, long corrosion mark on the sword spine was still fresh—it had been eroded by Evil Qi, and it had happened less than ten years ago.

His expression remained unchanged as he placed the broken sword back, stood up, and cast his gaze along the riverbed into the distance.

"Someone has been here. More than one group. The most recent time was within ten years." He said, "The Evil Race is also constantly sending people in. Be careful."

A commotion suddenly came from the opposite bank of the river.

A dozen or so figures flew out from the ruins opposite, wearing uniform robes with the coiled dragon pattern of the Great Xia Dynasty embroidered on their chests.

The youth in the lead wore bright yellow battle robes, his expression arrogant, with the spiritual energy fluctuations of a Ninth Grade Sovereign surging around him.

Behind him were guards of the Great Xia Dynasty, as well as several cultivators from smaller factions with various robes—clearly having been temporarily conscripted by him.

"This Heavenly River now belongs to the Great Xia Dynasty." The youth in bright yellow robes stood above the riverbed with his hands behind his back, his gaze scanning Mu Chen and Luo Li arrogantly, pausing slightly when he saw Luo Li, "If you are sensible, hand over your storage bracelets and get out of the Heavenly River range. Otherwise—there will be two more sets of bones in this pile."

The expression under Mu Chen's mask did not change.

He scanned the formation behind the youth and did not speak.

The captain of the guards behind the youth shouted sternly: "Are you deaf? This is His Highness, the Crown Prince of the Great Xia Dynasty, Xia Yu! Kneel down!"

"Crown Prince?" Mu Chen tilted his head, his tone as flat as if he were confirming the weather, "How many Crown Princes does the Great Xia Dynasty have?"

Xia Yu's eyes turned cold.

A subordinate behind him had already drawn his blade, the light of the blade slashing toward Mu Chen's face.

Mu Chen did not move.

Luo Li's long sword reached out from the side, the spine of the sword gently tapping against the blade, and the Law of Time was activated—the blade light suddenly froze in mid-air, clearly only half a foot away from cutting Mu Chen's face, yet it was as if frozen in amber.

Luo Li flipped her wrist, the sword edge sliding along the back of the blade, borrowing the force to strike back, and the blade reversed, its back heavily slamming into the man's chest.

The man flew out with his blade, falling onto the dry riverbed and sliding three or four zhang away, splashing up a cloud of grey-white dust.

He struggled to climb up, but the sharp pain in his chest made him fall back down.

Mu Chen finally raised his eyelids, his gaze passing over Xia Yu to scan the rabble behind him: "Leave now, and I will not kill you."

Xia Yu's complexion sank completely.

He raised his right hand, the spiritual energy of a peak Ninth Grade Sovereign gathering in his palm, and a huge golden palm print descended from the sky.

The palm print was solid and heavy, with dragon patterns vaguely winding within the flowing golden light, crashing down toward Mu Chen's crown with the force of suppression.

At the same time, the cultivators who had been conscripted behind him also attacked one after another, various spiritual techniques smashing over like a torrential rain, illuminating the entire dry riverbed in a kaleidoscope of colors.

"Just as I intended."

Mu Chen did not dodge or evade; the stone slab beneath his feet exploded, and his figure shot into the sky.

A brilliant golden light suddenly surged onto his right fist—not the Self-Sacrificing Demon Fist, but the Ten Yang God Buddha Hand.

This was another ultimate technique passed to him by Hun Feng before he entered the Heavenly Palace, using the Law of Space as the bone and Yang spiritual energy as the muscle, specifically designed to counter evil and demonic paths.

But it was just as effective for beating people.

The first golden Buddha handprint detached from Mu Chen's fist, expanding rapidly in the wind, and collided head-on with Xia Yu's golden palm print.

The two golden lights bombarded each other in mid-air, the explosive airwaves blowing the grey-white gravel on the riverbed into a frenzy, and the surrounding rubble was shaken into a rolling tumble.

Xia Yu's golden palm print lasted less than half a breath before it shattered in the face of the Buddha handprint, and the Buddha handprint, its momentum undiminished, slammed heavily into Xia Yu's chest.

Xia Yu spat out a mouthful of blood and flew backward, his back slamming into the broken wall on the riverbank, and the stone wall cracked at the impact.

"Your Highness—" the guard captain cried out in horror, but before he could finish, Luo Li's sword was already at his throat.

"Don't move." Luo Li said.

She only said two words, her voice not loud, but the elusive fluctuation of the Law of Time on the sword's edge made the guard captain's pupils shrink suddenly.

Mu Chen's second Ten Yang God Buddha Hand followed closely.

The grey-white dust on the riverbed was illuminated golden-red by the golden Buddha light, and amidst the flying dust, the handprint slammed into the densest part of the crowd.

Several guards spat blood and flew backward in unison, their weapons shaken from their hands in mid-air, hitting the ground with a dull thud.

Only one person barely managed to block the aftermath—that person wore deep-colored brocade robes different from the other guards, and his face was somewhat similar to Xia Yu's, but his cultivation was much weaker, only at the level of having just entered the Ninth Grade.

He stood in front of Xia Yu, crossing his arms to forcefully withstand the aftermath of the Buddha handprint, his web between thumb and index finger torn and bleeding, but he gritted his teeth and did not take a single step back.

"Xia Hong?" Mu Chen glanced at him, recognizing that the coiled dragon pattern on his body was slightly different from that of the other Great Xia Dynasty guards—he was a prince, not a guard.

Xia Hong gritted his teeth and pulled out a short sword with a green luster from his waist, spiritual patterns flowing on the blade, its grade not low; it was a Quasi-Saint Artifact.

Just as he was about to attack, Mu Chen's figure suddenly disappeared from in front of him—it wasn't speed, but true spatial displacement.

In the next instant, Mu Chen was already standing behind Xia Hong, and a hand blade precisely chopped onto the back of his neck.

Xia Hong's vision went dark, and he collapsed to the ground.

Mu Chen casually picked up the green-glowing short sword, glanced at it, and put it into his storage bracelet.

Xia Yu climbed out of the ruins, clutching his chest, half of his body scratched and bleeding from the collapsed stone wall, his bright yellow battle robes torn into strips.

He stared fixedly at Mu Chen, his eyes full of disbelief and resentment: "Who exactly are you?"

Mu Chen took off the mask on his face, revealing a young and calm face.

A flash of astonishment crossed Xia Yu's eyes—he was too young, so young that he couldn't reconcile this face with the power of the two palms just now.

Then his expression changed from astonishment to fear, because he saw the emotionless killing intent in Mu Chen's eyes.

Mu Chen did not answer his question.

He spread his right fingers slightly, the Law of Space weaving into a net at his fingertips, and he slapped his palm toward Xia Yu's crown.

The violent power of the Self-Sacrificing Demon Fist merged with the tearing force of the Law of Space, and Xia Yu hurriedly raised his arms to block, his arms breaking inch by inch the moment they touched the fist, and the fist force passed right through his body.

Xia Yu's whole body shook, his pupils dilated suddenly, and he collapsed softly into the ruins, his bright yellow battle robes stained beyond recognition by rubble and blood.

The few scattered cultivators still standing nearby were scared out of their wits and scrambled to escape toward the upper reaches of the river.

Mu Chen did not chase.

He retracted his fist, shook his wrist, and turned to walk back to Luo Li's side.

"Let's go."

Luo Li sheathed her sword, glanced at the scattered weapons and groaning wounded on the ground, said nothing, and simply followed his footsteps.

The two continued to advance toward the upper reaches of the Heavenly River.

Crossing the Heavenly River, the terrain rose again.

Ahead was a group of relatively well-preserved palaces—the stone pillars had not completely collapsed, the palace roofs had mostly fallen but the walls were still standing, and the ground did not have as many space rifts as the outer perimeter.

But the surrounding walls were covered with strange, evil runes, which were dark red, looking like wriggling blood vessels under the faint light.

The concentration of Evil Qi in the air suddenly climbed, and a thin layer of black mist rose from the ground, flowing slowly along their ankles, and wherever it passed, the stone slabs made a very faint sizzling sound, being corroded into tiny pits.

"There is something here."

Luo Li pressed her hand on the sword hilt, her perception of the Law of Time allowing her to capture a hint of abnormality—at the entrance of the half-collapsed dungeon ahead, something was staring at them.

That thing had no breath, no heartbeat, but its gaze had weight.

The stone door of the dungeon entrance was half-blocked by a rusty long halberd.

The owner of the halberd walked slowly out of the shadows—it was a guard clad in tattered black armor, a full head taller than an ordinary person, the surface of his armor covered with a layer of dark red Evil Qi paste, and black blood scabs congealed at his joints.

There were no eyeballs in his eye sockets, only two balls of ghostly green evil flames flickering.

Every step he took, the stone slab beneath his feet was corroded into a circle of scorched black footprints.

"Heavenly Palace Guard—Qin Tian." He spoke, his voice hoarse and dry, like two pieces of rusty iron rubbing against each other, "Intruders die."

Mu Chen did not hesitate and blasted the Ten Yang God Buddha Hand directly.

The golden Buddha light slammed into Qin Tian's chest, blasting that layer of dark red Evil Qi away inch by inch, revealing the already blackened flesh and blood beneath.

But Qin Tian's body only swayed, and the blasted Evil Qi gathered again in an instant, wriggling like a living thing to fill the wound.

"It's useless." The ghostly green evil flames in Qin Tian's eyes flickered, "I have been reshaped by the Holy Race's power. This body is no longer bound by the laws of mortals. Your Buddha light can hurt me, but it cannot kill me."

Mu Chen narrowed his eyes slightly.

He noticed that when Qin Tian spoke, there was a tiny dark red thread at the back of his neck connecting to the depths of the dungeon.

The thread was thinner than a hair and almost invisible in the darkness, but Mu Chen's Law of Space perception clearly captured it—it was not a physical entity, but a bond condensed from some kind of Evil Qi, which was continuously pouring Evil power from the depths of the dungeon into Qin Tian's body.

"Luo Li, there is a line behind his neck." Mu Chen lowered his voice, "Cut it."

Luo Li nodded, her figure flashed, and the Law of Time was activated.

Her figure suddenly became faster in front of Qin Tian—not fast in speed, but she adjusted the time flow around herself to a frequency different from Qin Tian's.

In Qin Tian's eyes, Luo Li's movements were so fast they were almost impossible to track, but his body couldn't keep up with his eyes, and he could only watch helplessly as that silvery-white sword light bypassed his defenses and precisely slashed at the dark red thread on the back of his neck.

The sword light flashed, and the thread snapped in response.

The moment the thread broke, a non-human shriek came from the depths of the dungeon.

The sound was extremely sharp, like fingernails scraping across a stone slab, stinging Mu Chen's eardrums.

The ghostly green evil flames in Qin Tian's eyes shook violently, and after the connection was severed, the Evil Qi that had been poured into his body lost its source and began to leak from his seven orifices, turning into foul-smelling black smoke in the air.

His hulking black-armored body began to tremble violently, as if resisting something, or as if being torn from the inside by something.

A moment later, he knelt on one knee, his long halberd propped on the stone slab to keep himself from falling.

"Thank... you." Qin Tian's voice returned to a normal tone, although still hoarse, it was no longer the dryness of rusty iron rubbing together, "Heavenly Emperor... Your Majesty... Did I... hold the line?"

Mu Chen looked at him.

This person had guarded the Heavenly Palace for over forty thousand years; even after death, he was controlled by evil energy, unable to even rest in peace.

He crouched down to look Qin Tian in the eye, slowing his speech: "The Heavenly Emperor has fallen. The Heavenly Palace has been destroyed. You have guarded it for over forty thousand years; that is enough."

Qin Tian was silent for a breath, then two.

The ghostly green evil flames in his eyes slowly extinguished, revealing two dried-up eye sockets.

He knelt on one knee, leaning on his long halberd, his body no longer moving.

Mu Chen reached out and gave a gentle push; the black armor, along with the skeleton inside, turned into flying ash, leaving only the rusty long halberd standing in its place.

Mu Chen picked up the long halberd and leaned it against the wall, the shaft standing straight, effectively erecting an unmarked monument for this guardian.

Luo Li looked at the standing long halberd, pursed her lips, and said nothing.

The most concentrated area of evil energy was deep within the Heavenly Palace.

Mu Chen and Luo Li skirted the outer edge of the dungeon; the further they went, the stronger the rot-sweet scent in the air became.

After passing through a group of collapsed palace halls, an underground dark river about a hundred feet wide appeared ahead.

The river water was as black as ink, with a layer of extremely thin evil energy film floating on the surface, like a piece of rotting oilcloth covering the river.

A stone bridge spanned the dark river, and at the end of the stone bridge stood a youth in white.

He stood with his back to them, his long silver-white hair gently fluttering in the breeze stirred up by the evil energy, his figure slender and tall.

Hearing the footsteps behind him, he slowly turned around.

His face was handsome to the point of being eerie, his irises were dark red, with two black vertical lines deep within the pupils, and a faint, ambiguous smile hung on the corners of his mouth.

"Mu Chen." Liu Mubai spoke, his voice soft, yet his tone carried a condescending familiarity, "Long time no see. I didn't expect you to make it here too."

Mu Chen stopped.

Of course he recognized this person.

Liu Mubai, the legitimate son of the Liu family from the Hundred Spirits Continent, had once dealt with him at the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy.

Later, this person fell into the evil path, defected to the Extraterritorial Evil Clan, and had since vanished without a trace.

He hadn't expected to run into him in the Heavenly Palace.

"You have fallen into the evil path," Mu Chen said.

"The evil path?" Liu Mubai laughed softly, as if he had heard an amusing joke, "The evil path you speak of is the strongest power in this world.

Do you know what the Evil Race gave me?

It wasn't the pity bestowed by those so-called righteous sects, nor was it the 'not bad talent' spoken by those hypocritical elders; it was real, tangible power.

The spiritual energy fluctuations on you are still at the Sovereign Realm, right?

I am already a Lower Earth Supreme—to be precise, after the power of the Saint Race in my body awakened, I directly crossed that threshold you are still struggling to find.

This is the gap."

"Power?" Mu Chen looked into his eyes, "Have you looked at your own eyes?"

The smile on Liu Mubai's face stiffened slightly.

"Your eyes have already become the eyes of the Evil Race," Mu Chen said, "You don't even know who you are anymore; you call that power?"

"Shut up." The smile on Liu Mubai's face vanished completely.

Evil energy surged in his dark red pupils, and he struck out with a palm.

The evil energy condensed into a pitch-black palm print; before the palm print arrived, the railings on the stone bridge had already been crushed into pieces by the palm wind, and the gravel turned into powder and drifted away.

The edges of the palm print glowed with an eerie dark red light, and the space wherever it passed was slightly distorted.

Mu Chen's figure flickered, the Law of Space operating to its limit, his figure flashing three times in succession on the stone bridge, each time barely dodging the edge of the palm print.

However, the palm print's coverage was too wide; he was struck on the shoulder by the aftermath, flipped off the stone bridge, and knelt on one knee on the riverbank, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

He raised his hand to wipe the corner of his mouth, stood up, his gaze remaining calm.

Liu Mubai looked down at him, standing at the bridgehead with his hands behind his back, his white hair fluttering in the evil wind: "Is this all the skill you have?

I thought Hun Feng had taught you something remarkable.

It seems it is nothing more than this."

Mu Chen ignored the provocation.

He took a deep breath and formed seals with his hands in front of his chest.

His left hand controlled the Law of Space, and his right hand the Ten Yang Divine Buddha Hand—two completely different forces converged in his dantian; the silver light of the Law of Space and the golden glow of the Buddha Hand intertwined, fused, and compressed.

He did not speak, only pouring all his will into this strike.

Master had said that the power of fusing laws depended on the strength of the will, not just the thickness of the spiritual energy.

He believed in his will, and he believed in her.

Luo Li darted out from the side, the Law of Time wrapping around her sword blade, and struck with a sword toward Liu Mubai's retreat path behind him.

Liu Mubai turned sideways and raised his hand to grab Luo Li's blade, wanting to use evil energy to directly corrode her sword intent.

But he was wrong.

Luo Li's sword blade, under the enhancement of the Law of Time, struck three times in succession—the first sword slashed through his protective evil energy, the second sword sealed the space for his retreat, and the third sword forcibly slowed his reaction by half a breath.

The composure on Liu Mubai's face finally cracked; he realized he could not dodge these three swords.

Because these three swords arrived simultaneously at different points in time.

The Law of Time—Luo Li used it to its limit.

She did not cultivate simple time acceleration or deceleration, but "Time Displacement."

In the same instant, her sword could fall upon the same target simultaneously at three different time coordinates; no matter how the opponent tried to block, they would be hit at some moment of displacement.

Just at the same instant Liu Mubai blocked Luo Li's sword momentum, Mu Chen moved.

He pushed his hands out, and the Ten Yang Divine Buddha Hand, fused with the Law of Space, transformed into a huge palm print interwoven with gold and silver, spanning the dark river and crashing towards the bridgehead.

Liu Mubai had just blocked Luo Li's sword and turned back to try to defend, but the Buddha palm print had already penetrated his defense.

Buddha light entered his body, clashing violently with the evil energy within him; the gold and silver light exploded inside his body, shredding his meridians inch by inch.

He spat out a mouthful of black blood, his whole body flying backward off the stone bridge, smashing into the stone wall on the opposite bank, creating a human-shaped crater in the stone wall.

He slid down the stone wall to the ground, the black clothes on his chest scorched black, struggling to lift his head.

"What... is this move... called..."

Mu Chen stood on the opposite bank of the river, looking down at him, his chest heaving violently, but his voice was steady: "The move that takes your life."

The Ten Yang Divine Buddha Hand struck out again.

Golden Buddha light engulfed the bridgehead, and Liu Mubai's body turned to ashes in the Buddha light, not even having time to let out a scream.

Only a very faint black smoke emerged from the ashes, fleeing rapidly downstream along the dark river—that was a wisp of the original evil source remaining in Liu Mubai's body.

Mu Chen frowned slightly and took two steps in pursuit, but the black smoke disappeared without a trace after diving into the evil energy film on the river surface.

"He got away?" Luo Li landed beside him, the clear light on her sword not yet fully dissipated.

"It wasn't him personally." Mu Chen stared in the direction where that wisp of black smoke had disappeared, his gaze darkening slightly, "There was something else in that body.

He was just being used."

He withdrew his gaze and clenched his right fist, which was still somewhat numb.

This time Liu Mubai had escaped, but next time they met, he would not let him have another chance to escape.

In the ruins on the opposite bank of the river, a dozen or so cultivators slowly stood up from various hiding spots, staring dumbstruck at Mu Chen and Luo Li.

Some of these people were rogue cultivators, others were disciples of small sects; after entering the Heavenly Palace, they had been hiding in this relatively safe area waiting for opportunities, but they hadn't expected that before any opportunities arrived, they would first witness a full-scale martial arts brawl.

"Who are those two people?"

"The Great Xia Crown Prince was killed, and Liu Mubai was also killed—Liu Mubai had defected to the Evil Race, I heard he was already a Lower Earth Supreme!"

"What move did they use? That golden palm print—"

"The Law of Space and the Law of Time.

The man cultivates space, the woman cultivates time."

An old rogue cultivator with sharp eyes lowered his voice, his tone hiding a trace of disbelief, "These two laws appearing at the same time on two such young people—when did the Great Thousand World produce such talents?"

Mu Chen ignored those gazes.

He took out three quasi-sacred items from Xia Hong's storage bracelet, put them one by one into his own storage bracelet, searched the ruins at the bridgehead for a while, picked up a pitch-black token left behind by Liu Mubai, looked at it, and tucked it into his bosom.

Then he walked to the edge of the bridge, sat down with his back against the stone railing, and sat cross-legged to regulate his breathing.

The Ten Yang Divine Buddha Hand consumed too much, and fusing the laws had overdrafted his soul power; at this moment, less than three-tenths of the spiritual energy in his meridians remained, and his temples were throbbing with pain.

Luo Li stood beside him, her long sword not yet returned to its sheath, vigilantly scanning the restless cultivators around them.

Swept by her blue eyes, the few people who had originally wanted to come up to probe for information immediately shrank back.

A moment later, Mu Chen opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid air: "Let's go.

This place is not suitable for a long stay."

The two stood up and continued walking deep into the Heavenly Palace along the flow of the dark river.

They did not notice that in the shadows of the ruins further away, several other gazes were firmly locked onto them.

The team from the Mohe Ancient Clan stopped on a high point in the ruins, and the youth in the lead put down the recording stone in his hand, the corners of his mouth curling into a meaningful arc.

The people from the Ancient Floating Pagoda Clan also saw it; an old man looking like an elder frowned, lost in thought.

The seven people from the Sword Domain were watching from afar, the white-clad Sword Master in the lead having an indifferent expression, but the long sword at his waist vibrated slightly—that was an instinctive reaction when encountering someone who cultivated the same Sword Dao.

The figures of Mu Chen and Luo Li gradually disappeared into the thin mist downstream of the dark river.

In the ruins behind them, on the dried-up riverbed, the remnants of the Great Xia Dynasty were collecting the corpse of Crown Prince Xia Yu, while Xia Hong climbed up from the ground clutching the back of his neck, the expression on his face flickering repeatedly between fear and resentment.

The place where Liu Mubai had turned to ashes was left with only a scorched black stone slab, but on the slab, there were faintly several black cracks as thin as hair slowly squirming, as if something was struggling to crawl out from under the stone slab.

The water of the dark river remained as black as ink, and the evil energy film on the water surface had been shattered by the previous battle, but the cracks were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Imperial City.

On the same day, a purple-gold pillar of light suddenly exploded in the sky above the Burning Heaven Mountain Range.

The pillar of light shot into the sky, piercing through the clouds and sweeping away the volcanic ash for a thousand miles around.

An ancient and majestic aura erupted from a closed-door cultivation secret room deep within the Imperial City; that aura carried the sounds of dragon roars and phoenix cries—not metaphors, but real, genuine dragon roars, low and long, vibrating the copper nails on the Imperial City's walls until they hummed.

Hun Feng rose abruptly from in front of the desk and walked quickly to the window.

He looked up at the purple-gold pillar of light, and the corners of his mouth slowly spread.

Zi Yan, who had been in closed-door cultivation for over half a year, had come out.

The pillar of light lasted for a little less than half an hour before slowly receding.

A petite figure walked out from the pillar of light, her golden pupils shining brightly in the morning light, her long purple hair rolling with the wind.

She had grown a bit taller than before her closed-door cultivation—probably by half a knuckle—still in the appearance of a young girl, but the aura circulating around her was completely different.

The pressure of the Void Ancient Dragon Dragon Phoenix origin was released without concealment, mixed with the spiritual energy fluctuations of an Immortal Grade Heavenly Supreme, causing the entire Imperial City to shake.

Hun Qian rushed out from the side hall, and before he could speak, Soul Mie Sheng had already landed in front of him a step ahead, the expression on his face quite spectacular: "Another Immortal Grade?

Elder Zi Yan has come out of closed-door cultivation?

This aura is... Dragon Phoenix origin?

She succeeded in evolving?"

"It looks like it." Hun Qian muttered, watching the petite figure hopping and skipping towards the main hall amidst the purple-gold light, the corners of his mouth twitching involuntarily—the seventh Immortal Grade Heavenly Supreme of the Spirit Hall had just made an appearance in such a hopping and skipping manner.

Zi Yan trotted all the way into Hun Feng's study, pushed the door open, poked her head in, scanned the study with her golden pupils, and finally landed them on Hun Feng.

"Brother! I'm hungry."

Hun Feng leaned against the window, sizing her up—Immortal Grade Heavenly Supreme, Dragon Phoenix origin Great Perfection, the true form of the Void Ancient Dragon Dragon Emperor had been fully activated.

He nodded: "Congratulations on coming out of closed-door cultivation.

The dining hall is over there."

"Aren't you even a little surprised!" Zi Yan puffed out her cheeks.

"Surprised." Hun Feng said without changing his expression, "The dining hall has roast whole lamb today."

Zi Yan turned and ran.

Xue Wei stood in the corner of the study, watching the purple-haired girl who had run off in a flash, then looked at the calm-faced Hun Feng, was silent for two breaths, and then spoke: "Hall Master, are the people of your Spirit Hall all this... lively after breaking through?"

Hun Feng walked back to the desk and sat down, picking up the unread ancient scroll again: "Used to it."

Outside the window, the lingering charm of the purple-gold light had not yet completely dissipated, and the sky above the Imperial City was dyed in magnificent colors of alternating light purple and pale gold.

The battle flags of the Spirit Hall fluttered fiercely in the light, and the black flame emblem on the flag face was illuminated with flowing brilliance.

Hun Qian had already sent people galloping to convey the message to the Great Thousand Palace and various domains—the Spirit Hall has added its seventh Immortal Grade Heavenly Supreme, the Void Ancient Dragon Dragon Emperor Zi Yan, who has come out of closed-door cultivation.