Courting Death

Chen Fan withdrew his fingers, dusted off his sleeves, his gaze as calm as if he were shooing away a bothersome fly.

"Should we continue?"

The clear, innocent voices of children echoed through the courtyard, carrying a weight heavier than a thousand pounds.

Gu Changge's chest heaved violently, and his internal organs felt like they were churning.

He stared intently at Chen Fan, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth.

He could clearly sense that the gray-white chess piece withdrew seventy percent of its killing intent at the last moment before shattering the chessboard; otherwise, the Dao Rhythm that could reverse life and death alone would have torn his Primordial Spirit to shreds on the spot, turning him into a cripple.

The other party held back.

Taking a deep breath, Gu Changge's arrogance and disdain completely faded, replaced by an extreme sense of awe and complexity.

He straightened his disheveled clothes, raised his trembling hands, and bowed deeply to the boy in front of the steps, bowing ninety degrees without budging.

"Reversing life and death, mastering the cycle of reincarnation... I, Gu, have learned a great deal."

His voice was hoarse, yet unusually resolute.

Liu Qingfeng suppressed the tremors in his internal organs and walked out from the ruins of the broken wall. His gaze towards Chen Fan had completely changed, as if he were looking at a Primordial Era ferocious creature wearing human skin.

He dared not utter a word, silently supporting Gu Changge as they retreated out of the courtyard.

However, just as he stepped back to the dilapidated wooden gate, Gu Changge suddenly stopped.

The alley outside the side courtyard was already crowded with hundreds of cultivators and independent practitioners from the Central Region who had been drawn in by the noise.

Gu Changge turned around and was met with thousands of surprised and uncertain gazes. He boldly activated the remaining True Essence and infused his voice with divine power. The rolling thunderous sound resounded throughout the entire Vermilion Bird Street and Bing District!

"Gu Changge of the Myriad Phenomena Academy, today I will discuss the Dao with Fellow Chen Fan of the Azure Cloud Sword Sect in the Southern Region!"

His voice was clear and undisguised.

"I, Gu, am utterly incompetent and have been defeated in a single move. I am completely convinced of my defeat!"

"Although Fellow Daoist Chen is only eleven years old, he possesses unparalleled divine charm and is truly the number one Prodigies of this Southern Nation Ascension Convention!"

Boom!

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire neighborhood erupted in excitement.

"What?! Gu Changge lost?"

"The academy's top student, Nascent Soul the Great Perfection stage... lost to an eleven-year-old child from a remote sect in the Southern Region?!"

"Prodigies number one prodigy of the Ascension Convention? Has Gu Changge gone mad?!"

Countless whispers erupted into a deafening roar, and the shocked gazes of the crowd surged toward the dilapidated courtyard.

After Gu Changge finished speaking, he calmly withdrew his gaze, smiled slightly at Chen Fan inside the door, and then gracefully left with Liu Qingfeng.

Inside the door.

Chen Fan watched the departing figure, his eyes narrowing slightly, a hint of mockery in his expression.

"To praise someone to death?"

He lost decisively and admitted it openly, yet he conveniently placed a huge, crushing label on his own head.

These Confucian scholars are indeed wicked at heart.

"Fan'er..."

Chen Changqing suddenly took two steps forward and grabbed Chen Fan's shoulder.

His palms were covered in cold sweat, and his eyes were filled with unprecedented fear and panic. He didn't even bother to ask his son where his extraordinary abilities came from.

"Let's go! Let's go now! Even if I risk my life, I will have to use the Earth Escape Talisman to get you out of the divine city!"

Chen Changqing's face turned ashen, and the flying sword at his waist was instantly drawn.

Gu Changge's thunderous roar was tantamount to roasting the Azure Cloud Sword Sect on a volcano.

The Southern Nation Ascension Convention gathered giants from all directions, including reclusive ancient clans, ruthless demons, and Prodigies from Alien Races —who among them wasn't proud and arrogant?

If you were to label him "the most outstanding Prodigies in the Southern Nation," those ruthless killers would be able to raze this dilapidated courtyard to the ground tonight!

Mo Wendao was also on high alert, unleashing his full Nascent Soul aura and gripping the Formation Disk tightly with his withered hands.

"Changqing is right. I'll go distract them, you all leave quickly!"

In the midst of the chaos, a soft, warm little hand landed on the back of Chen Changqing's hand.

Chen Fan tilted his head back, his clear black and white eyes calm and unwavering.

"Dad, what's the panic?"

Chen Fan's fingertips twitched slightly, and a wisp of mellow and dense vitality flowed into Chen Changqing's hand, instantly soothing the True Essence in his Qi Sea that was about to surge backward.

"Just a few buzzing flies; the sky won't fall."

Chen Changqing froze, and his previously agitated Qi and Blood and qi miraculously calmed down.

Seeing his son's calm and composed demeanor, he opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to say.

"Dad, I'm a little sleepy, I'm going back to my room to sleep for a while."

Chen Fan yawned, let go of her hand, and slowly walked back to the room, closing the two wooden doors behind him.

The moment the door closed.

The childishness and languor on Chen Fan's face vanished instantly, replaced by an icy indifference to the heavens.

Sitting cross-legged on the futon, Chen Fan's eyes swirled with Two Gray-White Qis, and his Miniature Divine Kingdom quietly began to operate.

"Using me as a pawn?"

"Scholars are often cunning; then smash their cunning to pieces."

Buzz!

A chaotic phantom, invisible to the naked eye, rose from Chen Fan's crown chakra.

Ignoring the layers upon layers of anti-air Formation Array in the Divine City, that Daoist figure instantly vanished into the Void, covering a thousand miles in an instant.

High in the sky, several miles away.

Gu Changge rode swiftly on auspicious clouds, a cold smile playing on his lips.

He raised his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes filled with the satisfaction of a successful scheme.

Liu Qingfeng, Deity Transformation cultivator standing beside him, clutched his chest and spoke with lingering fear.

"Changge, wasn't what you just did a bit too risky? The Dao Rhythm emanating from that child was extremely strange. If there truly is Ancient Great Power behind him..."

"So what if you're powerful?"

Gu Changge sneered and lightly waved her folding fan:

"This is the Divine City! Beneath the feet of the Immortal Alliance, even a powerful dragon crossing the river must coil up! Once I declare myself the Prodigies one prodigy, how can that hot-tempered young master of the Golden Crow Immortal Pavilion swallow this insult? And how can those lunatics of the Taiyin Demon Sect sit idly by?"

"We don't need Myriad Phenomena Academy to take action; someone else will weigh that kid's abilities for us. Using someone else to do the dirty work and leveraging their power to intimidate others is the true path of Confucianism."

Before he could finish speaking...

The Firmament suddenly sank.

The cloudless sky suddenly fell into a deathly silence; the sound of the wind, the clouds, and even the flowing light all froze in that instant!

Gu Changge's smile froze.

An indescribable feeling of suffocation pressed in from all directions, and the True Qi around him crumbled inch by inch.

"Not good!"

Liu Qingfeng felt his soul leave his body, and the hairs on his body stood on end.

A pitch-black rift was forcibly torn open in the Void three thousand feet above their heads, and a gigantic hand, intertwined with Death Fiend Qi and pure white vitality, reached out from the void, blotting out the sky and the sun, and crashed down with the power to collapse the universe!

"Deity Transformation Dharma Form? No... this is impossible! Why is the Divine City's grand formation completely unresponsive?!"

Liu Qingfeng screamed and drew his natal sword, the Wufeng Wooden Sword, from his back.

His mid-stage Nascent Deity Transformation cultivation surged forth without reservation, and Ten Thousand Dao emerald green Sword Aura converged into a soaring river, slashing towards the descending giant hand.

However.

The moment the wooden sword touched the giant gray hand, the sword light wailed, Ten Thousand Dao the Sword Aura melted away like spring snow.

Snap!

The Earth-rank natal Spirit Treasure, nurtured for four hundred years, shattered into countless wood chips on the spot!