Chapter 168: The Peak Battle of the Younger Generation!
"Hun Mo, you old devil!" Seeing Hun Mo charging toward him, Gu Nanhai's expression turned thoroughly grim. He raised his hand and blasted out a violent palm strike.
Watching Gu Nanhai being dragged into the void battlefield by Hun Mo, the expressions of the Gu clan members immediately darkened.
"Since the Gu clan insists on wading into these muddy waters—then we'll just take you all down together!"
As Hun Mie Sheng's voice fell, Gu You let out a cold, sinister laugh and charged toward the Gu clan's members to kill.
"I'll hold off Hun Mie Sheng! All of you, flee quickly! The Pill Tower's legacy cannot be severed at our hands!" The dire predicament before him made the Grand Elder's pupils constrict. The Soul Hall still had Hun Mie Sheng, that half-step five-star Dou Sheng, with no one to oppose him. He had no choice but to try to buy them a sliver of hope.
"Grand Elder!" Watching the Grand Elder fly toward Hun Mie Sheng like a moth darting into flame, Xuan Kongzi and the others cried out in grief and fury, tears welling in their eyes.
"Jie, jie... Old man, do you even have the qualifications to trade blows with the Hall Master?" A cold laugh came from the sky. The Soul Hall's First Heavenly Venerable abruptly blocked the Grand Elder's path.
Gripping an enormous bone blade that radiated an eerie, sinister aura, he tore through the void and ruthlessly hacked down toward the Grand Elder.
Paying no heed to the Dou Sheng battlefield, Hun Mie Sheng turned his gaze toward the Three Thousand Burning Flame, which had halted in the distance. Step by step, he walked toward it. An indifferent voice rang out: "Submit—or perish?"
The Three Thousand Burning Flame sensed Hun Mie Sheng's strength. Its colossal dragon body shuddered violently. Its survival instinct told it that surrender was the best outcome.
Yet the lightless, endless seal had filled its heart with an extreme yearning for freedom. For a moment, endless conflict flickered within its enormous dragon eyes.
Battle raged everywhere. In an instant, all of Holy Pill City was thrown into complete chaos. Countless figures fled madly into the distance. Yet the Soul Hall's forces did not reap lives indiscriminately in a single sweep. Instead, they focused entirely on relentlessly hunting down the Pill Tower's people.
At this moment, within a stretch of void space, Xiao Yi Xian stood quietly. Her anxious eyes scanned the battlefield, searching for that black-clad figure charging and ramming through the chaos.
Turning her head, she looked at Zhu Feng beside her and asked, "Senior Zhu Feng, Jiang Yun... he'll be alright, won't he?"
Zhu Feng's entire body was tensed to the limit, his gaze fixed on the four figures on the battlefield: Hun Mie Sheng, Hun Mo, Hun Qianmo, and the Pill Tower Ancestor. Only these four possessed the ability to detect his presence.
Though the Taixu Ancient Dragons were innately gifted in spatial manipulation, that still could not bridge the gap in raw strength.
Hearing Xiao Yi Xian's words, Zhu Feng fell silent for a moment before speaking. "I will not let anything happen to the Young Master."
At the center of the battlefield, Jiang Yun controlled the Undying Sacred Flame with one hand, refining an unnamed Soul Hall Venerable. Just then, a cold shout rang out from the distance.
"What an arrogant brat! Watch as this Venerable blasts you into nothingness with a single palm!"
"Blood Demon Heavenly Demon Palm!"
A blood-red palm seal, nearly a thousand zhang wide and carrying a dense, rich crimson light, ruthlessly slammed toward Jiang Yun's back.
"You? You're worthy?" Jiang Yun whipped his head around. His eyes were like lightning as he stared indifferently at the Blood River Venerable, causing the other's body to stiffen momentarily.
That look in Jiang Yun's eyes—it felt strangely familiar. He seemed to have seen it on someone else before.
"White Tiger Divine Seal!"
Countering with a backhanded palm strike, a white tiger roared within Jiang Yun's palm. It brought with it a terrifying palm gale that tore through space and hurtled straight toward the Blood River Heavenly Venerable.
"Blood Demon Kasaya!"
Sensing the lightning-swift, ferocious attack from Jiang Yun, a surge of shock also welled up in the Fourth Heavenly Venerable's heart. Without the slightest pause, blood suddenly seeped from his pores, rapidly forming a thick, hardened blood shell over his body.
At the same time, he screamed toward the Third Heavenly Venerable, who was entangled with Xuan Kongzi in the distance, "Third Brother! Save me!!!"
He had come as fast as he fled!
"Bang!"
Jiang Yun's palm seal, like rushing thunder, slammed ruthlessly against the Blood River Venerable's body. The terrifying, unparalleled fierce wind directly blasted the blood shell on his body into inch-by-inch splinters.
"Pfft!"
Even with the Blood Demon Kasaya blocking it, the dreadful force still shattered the Blood River Heavenly Venerable's life force. His broken, ruined body plummeted toward the earth below.
"Fourth Brother..." Seeing the Blood River Heavenly Venerable crushed to death by Jiang Yun's living hand, the Third Heavenly Venerable's pupils abruptly constricted. He stared at the utterly composed, unruffled Jiang Yun with horror and disbelief.
Following the Blood River Heavenly Venerable's death in battle, on the Dou Zun battlefield, everyone's gazes subconsciously shifted toward Jiang Yun. Looking at the several Dou Zun corpses beneath his feet, chills involuntarily ran through their hearts.
"So powerful!"
Having blasted back a Soul Hall Protector with a single palm, Gu Yao stared blankly at Jiang Yun's back. His entire body shuddered and quaked—just as Gu Qingyang and the others had when they first witnessed Jiang Yun. He couldn't help but doubt himself inwardly. Just who was the imperial clan descendant, here?
"You've grown even stronger!" Gu Qingyang had witnessed the entire scene of Jiang Yun crushing the Blood River Heavenly Venerable with a single palm. He couldn't help but murmur quietly, "Too fast... It's truly despairing. I can't see any hope of catching up at all."
Then, he turned his gaze to the side. There, Yun Yi was wielding a pitch-black flaming long halberd, cutting down the Pill Tower's people like chopping melons and slicing vegetables.
Having these two standing in front of their generation—it was truly their generation's misfortune.
"Surround and kill that brat with everything you have!" Following the Eighth Heavenly Venerable and the Ninth Heavenly Venerable, now even the Fourth Heavenly Venerable had died at Jiang Yun's hands. A full third of the Soul Hall's nine great Venerables had been slain by Jiang Yun. This thoroughly enraged the Third Heavenly Venerable.
He glared at Jiang Yun and let out a furious roar.
In an instant, several Soul Hall Dou Zuns charged to surround and kill Jiang Yun.
"Earth Vein Blazing Flame!"
Jiang Yun calmly watched the Soul Hall Venerables closing in for the kill. Slowly, he extended a single finger and tapped down through the air.
Boom!
As his finger pressed down, a strange fluctuation rippled out between heaven and earth. In an instant, a pillar of blazing crimson light, roughly a hundred zhang wide, erupted from the ground—it was magma from deep beneath the earth. Crimson flames blazed atop it, appearing incomparably violent and fierce.
The violent magma, as if possessing the gift of foresight, intercepted the paths of the charging Soul Hall Venerables.
"What terrifying fire-attribute affinity... Even more dreadful than those fellows of the Yan clan." Watching this scene from the corner of his eye, Gu Qingyang couldn't help but feel his brow twitch violently. Had he not known Jiang Yun's origins, he would have been sorely tempted to suspect that Jiang Yun was a lost descendant of the Yan clan.
"Swoosh—"
A terrifying sound of something tearing through the air rang out. Jiang Yun's expression immediately turned steely. His eyes abruptly grew cold and piercing. He fiercely launched an Azure Dragon Seal behind him.
The space behind him twisted. Surging black demonic flames churned as a dazzling black dragon shot forth, directly meeting Jiang Yun's Azure Dragon Seal in a brutal head-on clash.
Boom!
The two collided. An earth-shattering boom immediately resounded. A hurricane of flames swept outward. The ground below split apart into enormous fissures.
In midair, Jiang Yun stood facing the wind. White flames wreathed the surface of his body. His pitch-black eyes stared somberly at the spear-wielding man ahead.
"It seems you want to settle this once and for all?"
"I'm going to kill you!" Yun Yi sneered. Gripping his long halberd with a single hand, he mercilessly brought it slashing down toward Jiang Yun's head without the slightest hesitation. Its pinnacle, peerless sharpness even shattered the surrounding space into countless fine cracks.
"Hmph!"
Jiang Yun snorted coldly. White flames condensed in both hands, forming a longsword. Then, the sword pierced the sky, bringing with it a torrential sea of fire as it ruthlessly met the demonic flame great halberd head-on.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of metal clashing rang out in rapid succession like rolling thunder across the sky. Sound waves spread outward like a storm, whipping up violent gales between heaven and earth.
"What a terrifying duo!"
In the distance, Gu Qingyang, Gu Yao, and the rest of the Black Annihilation Army watched the two in combat, unable to suppress their exclamations. They never imagined that the two most terrifying individuals of this younger generation would both be 'ordinary people' from the outside world.
Could they be yet another pair of figures like the Purifying Demonic Lotus Saint and the Yellow Spring Demon Saint?
Black-and-white flames swept across the horizon, as if even the very sky was about to ignite.
Bang! Bang!
Heaven-shaking, earth-shattering collisions exploded in the sky above. Jiang Yun's figure appeared somewhat small and slight beneath the sky-filling rain of halberd shadows. In a clash of long halberd versus longsword, the long halberd still held the advantage.
But how much of that advantage was genuine—only the two of them knew.
Amidst the fierce exchange, Yun Yi's eyes flickered with icy, bone-chilling light. His hands abruptly formed a series of seals. As his hand seals shifted, the pitch-black demonic flames between heaven and earth swept in overwhelmingly and condensed within his palm.
An exceedingly scorching, violent fluctuation spread outward.
"Heaven-Devouring Palm!"
Killing light erupted in Yun Yi's eyes. With a furious roar, he abruptly slammed his palm down. Instantly, the void twisted and distorted completely. A flame palm seal, blotting out nearly half the sky, abruptly shot downward with violent ferocity.
As the single palm descended, the houses and buildings of Holy Pill City below directly collapsed and were razed flat. Some were even directly reduced to ash. That force—it was domineering to the absolute extreme.
"Demon Lotus Ancient Array!"
Jiang Yun gazed solemnly at the descending giant palm. Suddenly, his hands flew through a rapid succession of seals. Spirit seal after spirit seal shot out. Milky-white radiance emerged from the void.
And under the influence of this milky-white radiance, the flames on the ground actually rapidly extinguished.
"Purifying power?!" Hun Mie Sheng, who had been brutally beating the Three Thousand Burning Flame, sensed the disturbance. He abruptly turned to look at Jiang Yun. An expression of astonishment appeared on his face—for the very first time.
"Purifying power? The Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame?!" In the sky above, not only did Hun Mie Sheng take note of this, but the Gu clan members did as well.
This power—they were far too familiar with it. And they had yearned for it for several thousand years.
Though it was still very weak, this purifying power, in the current world, belonged solely to the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame.
"Activate the array!"
But Jiang Yun paid no heed to the astonishment of others. His hands came together before his chest, forming an exceptionally complex hand seal, accompanied by a light shout.
Between heaven and earth, the milky-white radiance suddenly condensed into a pure-white lotus, faintly tinged with traces of pink. Countless rays of light shot forth from within the lotus's body, interweaving with one another. Finally, they formed an incomparably vast, bewilderingly intricate grand array.
A fluctuation that sent chills of terror through the heart quietly rippled outward.
Jiang Yun had already broken through to become a spiritual array grandmaster. Spiritual array grandmasters were divided into three ranks—Heaven, Earth, and Man—each with nine tiers. This grand array was something Jiang Yun had simplified from the Heaven-Refining Ancient Array. It was more than sufficient to blast and kill a Nine-Transition Dou Zun.
"The Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame!!!"
Seeing that flame—both familiar and foreign—voices cried out in shock across the sky. Countless gazes stared blankly at that quietly spinning lotus, tempestuous waves surging within their hearts.
"No—that is not the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame!" Very quickly, Hun Mie Sheng regained his composure. He spoke with absolute certainty. Possessing a child flame of the Nihility Devouring Flame as he did, he deeply understood the terror of the top three flames on the Heavenly Flame List. It absolutely was not something a mere little Dou Zun like Jiang Yun could subdue.
"However... this brat might very well possess the legacy of the Purifying Demonic Lotus Saint. What a lucky kid!" Gu Nanhai and the other mighty experts all came back to their senses, gazing at Jiang Yun with faces full of envy.
A fervent heat even surged within their hearts. The legacy of the Demon Lotus Saint—could it possibly contain the method to subdue the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame?
This was far too tempting!
Even the Three Thousand Burning Flame, which had been about to surrender, upon seeing those interwoven black-and-white flames and that lotus, had a glimmer of hope flash through its dragon eyes.
With a furious roar, it forcibly roused the purplish-black flames within its body. Vibrating its dragon wings, it charged straight toward Jiang Yun and Yun Yi.
"Hm?" Hun Mie Sheng noticed this scene. He did not intervene. Instead, he watched with keen interest.
"A mere fake Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame—it's not enough to deal with me!" Within the array, Yun Yi looked at Jiang Yun with a face full of pride and sneered confidently. Then, he stretched out his hand and brought it heavily down.
"Devouring Heaven Great Hand Seal!"
Boom!
Black radiance converged in his palm. Countless black flames shot into the sky. In the next instant, a massive black hand—as if reaching out from the deepest netherworld—seemed to shuttle through space and swept toward the flame.
Weng!
The instant they collided, heaven and earth, space itself—all seemed to fall utterly silent in that moment. The world was soundless.
Yet within this soundlessness, the space at the point of collision was directly torn open into enormous spatial fissures. Those fissures, like baring, clawing dragons, radiated heart-stopping fluctuations.
The colossal black hand suddenly shuddered violently. Then, cracks quietly spread across it. Finally, with a thunderous boom, it directly burst apart.
And in the instant the giant hand shattered, the milky-white lotus emerged. At this moment, compared to before, it had dimmed considerably.
Jiang Yun and Yun Yi exchanged a glance. Battle intent blazed in both their eyes. However, compared to Jiang Yun, a thin trace of crimson blood had appeared at the corner of Yun Yi's lips.
"Roar—"
Just then, a dragon's roar resounded. The Three Thousand Burning Flame came surging across from the distant space. A trace of madness flickered within its dragon eyes. It opened its blood-filled, gaping maw, as if it wanted to swallow both the two of them and that lotus alive in a single gulp.
"Get lost—!"
Jiang Yun and Yun Yi's reactions were, at this moment, remarkably in sync. They abruptly punched outward. Instantly, a long dragon formed of black-and-white flames blasted straight toward the Three Thousand Burning Flame's head.
Boom!
The Three Thousand Burning Flame, already beaten to the brink of collapse by Hun Mie Sheng, shattered with a thunderous boom under the combined force of Jiang Yun and Yun Yi.
"Swoosh!"
From its shattered form, a tiny purplish-black dragon shot forth violently with lightning speed. It actually wanted to tear through space and flee!
"Where do you think you're going?!"
Jiang Yun and Yun Yi both roared furiously. Their figures flickered with lightning speed, rapidly catching up. Two hands reached out—each locking onto one half of the little black dragon's body.
"Hmph!"
The two exchanged a glance and both snorted coldly. While fending off the Three Thousand Burning Flame's fierce, violent struggles, they also fiercely exchanged blows with one another.
The onlookers watched in dazzled fascination!
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