In fact, were it not for Jun Mo Xie stepping in to neutralize this calamity for Miao Qing Cheng, the terrifying Heavenly Tribulation would have next descended upon the Xuan Xuan Continent; as long as Miao Qing Cheng lived, the tribulation would not cease, and the Xuan Xuan Continent was inevitably destined to follow the ruin of the Illusionary Palace!
The Illusionary Palace crumbled, its ten-thousand-year legacy severed in a single morning. Miao Qing Cheng burned with grief and indignation at the sight…
Yet, War Fiend was not faring any better. His lifelong ambition was to safeguard the War Family, to establish them as the paramount lineage within the Illusionary Palace. This time, he had leaped forward with absolute certainty, only to witness the annihilation of all his descendants!
And because of his actions, the entire Illusionary Palace was indirectly destroyed.
The remorse consuming War Fiend at this moment was beyond description.
Finally, the master and disciple both found their eyes red.
The master and disciple, separated by ten thousand years, had now become irreconcilable enemies, sworn to kill one another!
Miao Qing Cheng’s power far surpassed War Fiend’s, rendering his attrition tactics utterly meaningless; but War Fiend, relying on his undying body, remained utterly fearless.
"Yes, I lack the strength to fight you, but no matter how you strike, you cannot kill me. You cannot exhaust me in a day, or three days—do you believe you can exhaust me in three years, three hundred years, or three thousand years?"
Neither of these two was willing to retreat or evade any further; they were determined to settle this intractable debt of grievance right here and now!
Jun Mo Xie finally understood the whole sequence of events, and an inexpressible fury began to well up in his heart. He recalled how he had once utilized Cao Guofeng and the others to enter the Illusionary Palace, and how those people, from beginning to end, had treated him with utmost care, regarding him like a nephew, offering meticulous attention—even going so far as to sacrifice their own lives to ensure his safety…
Every time Jun Mo Xie recalled this, a pang of guilt struck him. He had intended to reveal everything honestly upon his return to the Illusionary Palace this time, and then guide Cao Guofeng and the seven Saint Emperors back to the Tyrant Lord’s Mansion to live out their remaining years in peace…
Yet, he never imagined they would be left missing and presumed dead in that catastrophic explosion!
'Missing and presumed dead' was, in fact, the most charitable description. In an explosion of that magnitude, even experts at the Saint Venerable and Saint Sovereign levels could not survive; how could Cao Guofeng and the others possibly escape unscathed?
The twenty or so individuals Miao Qing Cheng had managed to bring out from the Illusionary Palace, instead of obeying orders to withdraw, were all filled with grief and outrage. They stepped across the water's surface, rushing toward the confrontation with the speed of fleeing ghosts!
Their sanctuary, the home they relied upon, was utterly destroyed; all their kin perished violently. Leaving them solitary and helpless, what meaning did life hold? They had no pursuits left. If they could drag the main culprit behind this disaster down with them into the abyss, that was their sole remaining desire!
Jun Mo Xie swept his gaze across them, and a chill ran down his spine: "Has the vast Illusionary Palace been reduced to only these few?"
Miao Qing Cheng let out a long sigh, a shadow of sorrow darkening his face.
Jun Mo Xie’s heart plunged into an ice cellar!
The people he wished to see, or rather, the people he cared about—it seemed only Miao Jingyun was among them!
Let alone Cao Guofeng and the other seven, even Miao Xiao Miao’s own parents and other close relatives were not among the survivors!
This piece of information was a colossal shock, not just to Miao Xiao Miao, but even to Jun Mo Xie himself!
Jun Mo Xie never considered himself a good man; he only cared for the friends and family he acknowledged. Yet today, with the collapse of the Illusionary Palace, nearly everyone he cared for was absent from this group of survivors!
He suddenly raised his head, fixing his gaze on War Fiend, and spoke word by word, each syllable like a blade: "War Fiend! You damnable wretch deserving of a thousand cuts! You insane, brainless bastard! The millions of souls in the Illusionary Palace—were they all swept away at your whim? You beast, you still have the gall to remain alive in this world?!"
"Hmph! Can you blame this old man? It was all because that old dog Miao Qing Cheng was stubborn and dared to challenge me! The primary cause for the Illusionary Palace’s collapse was the Heavenly Tribulation triggered by that old dog Miao! How could my War Family be an exception to the catastrophe of the Illusionary Palace? Do you think this old man isn't heartbroken?!" War Fiend roared back madly.
"Your War Family is nothing but a collection of useless bastards!" Jun Mo Xie cursed wildly in his uncontrollable rage, not caring about his words. However, thankfully, a sliver of clarity remained, and upon realizing the situation, he immediately sealed the Hongjun Pagoda.
Those inside—Miao Xiao Miao and the others—remained oblivious to the monumental disaster unfolding outside!
If Miao Xiao Miao were to learn that her entire clan had vanished into nothingness in the span of that single moment, given her temperament, she would likely collapse instantly. Even with Jun Mo Xie beside her trying to comfort her, the effect might be minimal… Moving from being a beloved little princess showered with adoration to an orphan without parents or relatives—the disparity was sheer cosmic difference!
Several furious roars erupted as the remaining twenty-eight experts—including three Saint Monarch powerhouses and twenty-five Saint Venerables of varying ranks—charged madly toward War Fiend, ignoring even Miao Qing Cheng’s command to halt.
Their hearts had been annihilated with that explosion; but their souls were still burning!
Beyond death, beyond exhausting every bit of their strength, they sought nothing else!
Jun Mo Xie was about to charge forward when Miao Qing Cheng grabbed his arm.
Jun Mo Xie looked questioningly at Miao Qing Cheng, who shook his head sadly. "They… their hearts are extinguished. They hold no will to survive, only endless death energy! For these individuals, living has become meaningless. Fearing we might stop them, they severed their own lifelines the moment they charged, seeking only to drag that beast down to the Yellow Springs with them…"
Jun Mo Xie stiffened, his entire body freezing on the spot!
"Since it has come to this, let them go. This counts as fulfilling their final wish," Miao Qing Cheng sighed toward the heavens, tears streaming down his face. "Perhaps dying this way is truly what they desired most now… Though they couldn't kill the enemy with their own hands, at least they expended every ounce of their power!"
Jun Mo Xie stood there, stupefied, watching figures disintegrate into showers of dust under War Fiend’s onslaught, feeling nothing but overwhelming impotence.
With a final, deafening blast, War Fiend's body exploded into scattered smoke and vapor; yet, simultaneously, the last among them, Miao Jingyun, was flung out like a broken kite, his body dissolving into a mist of blood and flesh in mid-air…
Jun Mo Xie roared, his eyes splitting with rage!
Extreme fury instantly flooded Jun Mo Xie’s mind. This sudden turn of events caused his body to freeze completely for the next instant.
An immeasurably vast surge of intense rage crashed into his brain like a tide, and then, the entire space within the Hongjun Pagoda experienced an inexplicable turbulence, and a hidden gateway in the void burst open with a loud crack.
Suddenly, a mysterious, five-colored divine radiance manifested without warning, escaping the Hongjun Pagoda’s space and descending into the real world. It then soared upward, the entire rainbow streak growing thicker and thicker, until finally, it became larger than an entire mountain range!
Miao Qing Cheng and War Fiend, unable to suppress their own fury and having no room to buffer, were about to re-engage in extreme combat when they unexpectedly noticed this miraculous anomaly.
As the two most experienced figures in this world, they immediately sensed the unusual nature of this sudden change. Their faces simultaneously paled in alarm. The sky, which had returned to clear brightness after the Heavenly Tribulation passed, suddenly turned pitch black, as if steeped in ink!
A sudden, absolute nightfall defied the laws of nature, descending abruptly!
No—this was an instant darker than night!
However, this extreme darkness lasted only for a single moment!
The next second, all the stars converged, filling the sky with starlight.
The second after that, the brilliant starlight covering the heavens suddenly transformed into countless streams of crystal-clear, dazzling torrents. Ripping through the boundless space from the distant firmament, they formed tens of millions of light rainbows…
Plummeting down!
And the target of their descent, by sheer coincidence, was none other than the body of Jun Mo Xie, who was currently caught in a state of chaos!
The source and originator of this divine anomaly!
Miao Qing Cheng and War Fiend watched, dumbfounded, as every single stream of starlight carried an extraordinarily colossal energy, injecting into Jun Mo Xie’s body in an unbelievably exaggerated fashion, disappearing without a trace…
This bizarre spectacle continued endlessly…”…
Heavens, I… what did I just see? Such immensely powerful stellar energy being poured ceaselessly into a single person’s body, and that person didn't instantly explode and die? How is that possible?
Could I withstand such terrifying energy? The probability wasn't small; it was zero. Yet, that man endured it all; what kind of powerful, perfect physical body must he possess!
Jun Mo Xie, whose mind was almost completely clouded by rage, felt the sudden surge of his anger act as a blazing fuse. Carrying his deep-seated reluctance and intense grief, it transformed into a surging tide, an incomparably powerful force that surged, pushing and shoving, into the Hongjun Pagoda!
With a boom, the first layer of the Hongjun Pagoda suddenly lit up brilliantly. Immediately following, the second layer turned completely black—this was the Chaos Fire burning at its absolute limit… The third and fourth layers followed suit, the power of the Five Elements Divine Abilities flashing on one after another, illuminating the ages like five-colored radiance!
Inside the Pagoda at this moment, the three women—Mei Xue Yan and the others—were completely bewildered. Qiao Ying, who had been staring intently at the side of the Exquisite Lotus Pond, also turned her head in surprise at this unprecedented change. And Miao Xiao Miao’s small mouth hung wide open as she watched this strange phenomenon.
The only one somewhat composed was the peerless beauty Mei Xue Yan. She was the only one who knew that Young Master Jun possessed this extraordinary space and had once cultivated within it, giving her some prior comprehension of the anomalies here. Even so, she remained utterly astounded…
The various lights from the four layers of the Pagoda flashed and intertwined, eventually merging into a single, multi-colored airflow sprinkled with faint starlight. It tore forward unimpeded, rushing up to the fifth layer!
In the fifth layer, the Violet Qi instantly shone brightly and flickered violently—this was the Hong Meng Violet Qi fully coming into action. Yet, its momentum did not slow in the least; instead, it grew more vast and rapid, continuing its ascent!
Subsequently, the fundamental origin energy of the sixth layer, the power of Wind and Cloud, erupted overwhelmingly. Gale winds mixed with vapor rushed and roared like vanguard troops, escorting the five-colored, magnificent, radiant airflow to sweep directly into the seventh layer of the Hongjun Pagoda!