As the full Ten-Tenths Heaven and Earth Force on his skin was violently burned away, Shen Gongtu finally understood why Liu Xia and Yu Tonghai had fled in scattered panic before even mustering the will to fight. But... he understood too late! In that final instant before oblivion, his mind flashed through every scene: the soaring ambition of his youth on the Sun-Shooting God Mountain, his rise to high office, and finally, his zenith as the undisputed strongest of the Sun-Shooting God Mountain.
Slashes of memory flashed across his mind in a single instant.
"Aaaargh!!!" Shen Gongtu roared, his face contorted into a grotesque mask of fury.
The moment the violet-gold flames kissed his flesh, the divine bow, already drawn taut into a perfect, full moon, shimmered with a kaleidoscopic aura. Accompanied by a sharp, desolate shriek of madness, Shen Gongtu released his right hand, firing the very last arrow of his entire life!
Swoosh!
A brilliant streak of light tore through the firmament, carrying Shen Gongtu’s final, desperate intention—the First Arrow of the Nine Provinces—the Void-Piercing Arrow streaked across dozens of feet in an instant, striking directly into the Phoenix Mother, who hung in the air like a ball of fire. A rapid succession of sounds, like steel colliding violently, rang out.
"Hmm?" Teng Qingshan, perched atop the back of the Undying Phoenix 'Xiao Qing,' stared intently. Though supremely confident in the Phoenix Mother, a thread of worry persisted. "The Phoenix Mother dodged so fast. Shen Gongtu must have aimed for her head, yet the arrow struck her left wing. Her agility seems even superior to the Saber-Toothed Cicada!"
Several crimson feathers drifted down from the mid-air, their structures faintly showing signs of tearing.
On the Phoenix Mother’s left wing, that single Void-Piercing Arrow had actually punched through, embedding itself completely in the wing structure. Traces of golden blood oozed along the arrow shaft, clinging to it.
"Hiss, hiss~~"
The Void-Piercing Arrow snapped into two pieces and plummeted from the sky.
Yet, where the wound marred the Phoenix Mother's left wing, the violet-gold flames intensified, wrapping around the injury. Under the embrace of the fire, the wound began to repair itself at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Undying Phoenix, truly terrifying," Teng Qingshan felt a surge of both shock and relief. "It pierced the Void-Piercing Arrow and healed just like that? No wonder... only an Undying Phoenix could birth a heaven-defying treasure like the Undying Grass." The fact that the Undying Grass could extend life hinted at the sheer wonder of this creature.
"Teng Qingshan, if you kill me, you make an absolute enemy of my Yu Sovereign Gate!"
"My Yu Sovereign Gate is willing to negotiate peace with you! We can become allies!" Yu Tonghai's voice echoed near Teng Qingshan's ear.
Teng Qingshan, riding on Xiao Qing’s back, glanced down at Yu Tonghai scrambling away on the ground and simply sneered, "Yu Tonghai, only your Yu Sovereign Gate is allowed to kill me, but I’m not allowed to kill you?" Earlier, Liu Xia, Yu Tonghai, and the Gale-Rending Dragon Hawk had scattered, fleeing in different directions.
If they had run together, the Phoenix Mother would have wiped them out in one swoop. By separating, their chances of survival increased exponentially.
Initially, the Phoenix Mother hadn't intended to strike Shen Gongtu first, but his act of drawing his bow and aiming enraged her, leading to his swift annihilation. As for Teng Qingshan, riding Xiao Qing among Liu Xia, Yu Tonghai, and the Gale-Rending Dragon Hawk, he chose to pursue Yu Tonghai!
"He’s escaping fast," Mu Tao, situated on the back of the Six-Legged Saber Cicada, watched with eyes burning red, utterly unable to catch the fleeing Gale-Rending Dragon Hawk or Liu Xia. His Saber Cicada was injured and outmatched, and Mu Tao himself couldn't fly.
"Brother Qingshan, kill that man with the sweeping eyebrows!" Mu Tao shouted through a sonic transmission. Since he couldn't exact revenge himself, watching Teng Qingshan kill his enemy brought him satisfaction.
"Roger that!"
Teng Qingshan laughed heartily as the Undying Phoenix 'Xiao Qing' caught up to the fleeing Yu Tonghai.
"Hooooo~~~" Xiao Qing tilted its head and directly spewed a stream of purple flame downwards. While the Phoenix Mother released violet-gold fire, Xiao Qing, being younger, expelled a purely purple flame. Still, this purple fire had once incinerated the Heavenly Wind War God with effortless ease.
"No!"
Yu Tonghai couldn't evade in time and was instantly engulfed by the purple flames. "No, I can't die!" Yu Tonghai had just witnessed Shen Gongtu being reduced to ash in a second.
"Hiss, hiss~~" The purple flames licked and burned across Yu Tonghai's skin.
"Huh?" Yu Tonghai blinked in surprise.
"Eh? I'm not dead. This flame doesn't seem... that terrifying." The full Ten-Tenths Heaven and Earth Force surging around Yu Tonghai's body was being consumed by the fire, but his replenishment speed was incredibly fast. He could actually withstand the searing of this purple flame.
"Escape quickly! Don't let the other Undying Phoenix approach!"
Yu Tonghai forced down the euphoria of surviving the initial assault and furiously rocketed away into the distance.
Above him, Teng Qingshan, riding Xiao Qing, nodded quietly. "As expected, Xiao Qing's initial flame isn't enough to easily incinerate a peak Void Realm master! I wonder how many secrets her mother passed down to her over this past year." At that moment, the Undying Phoenix 'Xiao Qing,' perhaps annoyed that her first attack had failed, let out a sudden burst of frustration.
"Yooow~~"
With a high-pitched cry that pierced the heavens, the flames covering Xiao Qing’s body retracted. Teng Qingshan felt the surrounding Fire Elemental Force tremble intensely. Then, Xiao Qing opened its beak, and a stream of flame—purple, yet speckled with faint golden motes—shot out from its pointed maw, accelerating like an arrow, instantly enveloping the escaping Yu Tonghai.
"Wrong!" Yu Tonghai, who had been fleeing desperately and hadn't paid close attention to the residual flames, instantly sensed that something was fundamentally different about this fire.
But alas, it was too late!
The flame ignited upon his body, and once alight, Yu Tonghai found he had no means to extinguish it.
"No!" Yu Tonghai tried to dive deep underground.
"Boom!"
The Undying Phoenix 'Xiao Qing' immediately dove after him into the earth.
In the sect records, Yu Tonghai knew the Undying Phoenix possessed terrifying subterranean speed. But now, he had no mental capacity for such trivia; he could already smell death approaching.
"Hiss, hiss~~" The golden motes within this flame burned straight through the Heaven and Earth Force shielding Yu Tonghai’s body. The moment the flame touched the front of his shinbone, it flared like a struck match, hissing as it shot along his leg, splitting to spread both downward and upward, and laterally. Instantly, both legs were engulfed in fire. Everything below his knees disintegrated into flying ash, while the conflagration rapidly climbed upward.
"Splat!" Without a moment's hesitation, a streak of blade light flashed.
Yu Tonghai’s legs were severed completely at the root of his thighs. The two severed thigh pieces fell only to instantly dissolve into fine ash.
"Fleeing means death; fighting back offers a chance to live. This Undying Phoenix is clearly weaker than the other one." Having amputated his own legs to halt the fire's spread, Yu Tonghai, ignoring all else, gritted his teeth, spun around, and transformed into a beam of light, charging directly toward the pursuing Undying Phoenix 'Xiao Qing.'
"You won't let me live!" Yu Tonghai’s face was a mask of savage fury as he clearly sensed the Phoenix Mother descending from the sky above, instantly spitting down a torrent of violet-gold flame.
Hiss, hiss!
Soil and stone were as nothing before the violet-gold fire. The flame instantly pierced nearly a hundred feet of earth, enveloping the legless Yu Tonghai.
"Teng Qingshan, this victory is shameful!!!" With a final, ferocious howl, Yu Tonghai was utterly burned into dust.
Yu Tonghai, dead!
"Shameful victory?" Teng Qingshan sneered internally. "Your Yu Sovereign Gate relied on flying demonic beasts, burrowing demonic beasts, and even summoned the greatest archer in the world, Shen Gongtu, to gang up and kill me—and that was a fair fight?" This Yu Tonghai was treacherous and venomous; among all those from the Yu Sovereign Gate, he was the one Teng Qingshan most desired to eliminate.
Boom!
The Undying Phoenix 'Xiao Qing' burst from the ground.
"Yooow~~" Xiao Qing flew over to the Phoenix Mother. The Mother Phoenix seemed slightly displeased, watching Xiao Qing and emitting a series of calls, causing Xiao Qing to droop its head, occasionally chirping softly. Clearly, the Phoenix Mother was unsatisfied with her offspring's performance just now. After all, this wasn't the Xiao Qing from a year ago; this was the Xiao Qing who had learned numerous secret techniques. The ability to unleash a more potent flame was one of those new skills.
"What a pity. The other two managed to escape." Teng Qingshan could no longer sense the presence of Liu Xia or the Gale-Rending Dragon Hawk. They flew too fast, and scattering had worked. By the time Teng Qingshan and the others dealt with Shen Gongtu and Yu Tonghai, the others were long gone.
"Brother Qingshan," Mu Tao approached on the back of the Six-Legged Saber Cicada.
"Roar, roar~~" The Saber Cicada also looked at Teng Qingshan with a hint of excitement in its eyes. It had clearly suffered terribly while being pursued by the Yu Sovereign Gate people, and it had finally vented its rage. The wounds on its saber-legs looked noticeably better than before. Void Realm beasts possessed far superior regenerative capabilities compared to humans.
"Brother Mu Tao," Teng Qingshan smiled back.
"Tsk, tsk, just like that, two Void Realm masters, and peak Void Realm ones at that, were slain. Truly, truly—" Mu Tao’s aged face was flushed with excitement. It was rare for a Void Realm expert to die on the Duanmu Continent, let alone compared to the Nine Provinces. "—Haha, utterly satisfying! These Nine Provinces are the place where we Void Realm experts truly belong!"
"Yoo, yoo~~" The Phoenix Mother directed several calls toward Teng Qingshan.
"Uh," Teng Qingshan managed a wry smile. He couldn't understand beast speech.
The Phoenix Mother seemed to realize this, glancing at Teng Qingshan with a look of mild dissatisfaction.
...
In the end, the Phoenix Mother could only accompany Teng Qingshan toward Yangzhou. Only in Yangzhou could Li Jun assist with interpretation, allowing the Phoenix Mother and Teng Qingshan to communicate.
Thus—
The Phoenix Mother, the Undying Phoenix 'Xiao Qing,' Mu Tao, the Six-Legged Saber Cicada, and Teng Qingshan flew off in a grand procession toward Yangzhou.
**
Beneath Mount Tianyun.
"Teng Qingshan? Jing Yi is Teng Qingshan?"
"So, Commander Teng is Jing Yi!"
Several men watched the terrifying Void Realm battle from beginning to end. They were all scouts dispatched by the Guiyuan Sect.
"It's Commander Teng."
"Haha, quickly, quickly report this news to the Sect Master."
These scouts were extremely excited; some were even moved to tears.
"Commander Teng belongs to our Guiyuan Sect!"
At the base of Mount Tianyun, besides the Guiyuan Sect spies, there were also scouts from the Divine Palace... When Li Jun was the acting Sect Master of the Snow Lotus Sect, she had ordered her subordinates to wait at Mount Tianyun and relay a message immediately if the mountain caught fire. Therefore, the Divine Palace scouts had also witnessed the fighting.
Aside from these two groups, the sheer horror of Mount Tianyun erupting in flames had attracted numerous local residents.
Consequently... fragmented news of the battle at Mount Tianyun began to spread like wildfire.
One of the most astounding pieces of news was—
Jing Yi was Teng Qingshan! The Teng Qingshan who had once been hunted across the entire realm by Azure Lake Island!
That Teng Qingshan from years ago was now a Void Realm powerhouse!
A twenty-one-year-old Void Realm expert could emerge in the Nine Provinces! This heaven-defying, unparalleled existence was Teng Qingshan! This news alone was enough to stun any Void Realm expert in any sect.
A storm was already gathering momentum.