The Opening
On the morning of the fourth day.
Before dawn, a violent heat suddenly descended upon the entire Divine City.
Click!
The hard Obsidian floor tiles in Bing District suddenly cracked, with wisps of white smoke rising from the cracks, and the moisture evaporated in an instant.
The air seemed to have turned into molten iron, so thick it was suffocating.
"What happened?!"
The screams and cries of low-level rogue cultivators echoed from the alleyways.
Thousands of cultivators felt their Qi and Blood boiling, and their True Essence even showed signs of spontaneous combustion. They collapsed to the ground, spitting out blood.
Boom!
A hundred-mile-long crimson cloud was torn open in the eastern Firmament.
Nine-headed, golden-flamed, Fourth Tier Blazing Golden Crows with wingspans of thirty zhang and bodies covered in golden flames let out a cry that could pierce through gold and split rocks, tearing through the thick sea of clouds, and pulling a hundred-zhang dragon chariot carved from Red Sun Divine Jade as they soared through the air!
The terrifying heat scorched the space along its path, creating streaks of pitch-black cracks. The Golden Crow's iron claws trod through the Void, sweeping away layers of golden-red seas of fire, and hovered directly above the dilapidated Bingzi Street.
"It's the Golden Crow Immortal Pavilion!"
"Nine birds pulling the chariot... That's Lu Heaven-Burning! The young master of the Golden Crow Immortal Pavilion!"
"A peerless prodigy who reached the early stage of the Deity Transformation at the age of twenty! He actually came in person!"
The entire street fell into a deathly silence and panic.
At the top of the dragon carriage, a tall and slender young man in a red robe stood with his hands behind his back.
He had a pair of bright golden double pupils, and his body was surrounded by the phantom of a great sun formed from pure Sun True Fire, like an ancient fire god surveying the human world.
Lu Heaven-Burning lowered his eyelids slightly, looking down at the barren courtyard below that reeked of filth, his eyes filled with undisguised contempt and disgust.
"That good-for-nothing Gu Changge was scared out of his wits by an ant. Does he even deserve to be ranked alongside me as one of the Four Heroes of the Southern Nation?"
Lu Heaven-Burning's voice wasn't loud, but it carried the overwhelming might of a Nascent Deity Transformation cultivator, exploding like thunder above the Divine City.
"Today, I, the young master, will see just how many heads this mud-legged fellow from the backwaters of the Southern Region has grown, daring to claim himself the number one in the Southern Nation?!"
After saying this, he didn't even use any magic weapon; he simply waved his right sleeve casually.
Whoosh!
A blazing wave of fire, formed from a hundred-foot-long burst of Sun True Fire, poured down from the sky, carrying a domineering killing intent capable of melting metal and iron, and crashed straight toward Courtyard No. 7!
The poorly constructed defensive array of the entire courtyard couldn't even hold for half a breath, letting out a piercing wail before shattering completely like thin ice!
The strong wind blew away the stone table and broken tiles in the courtyard.
"Fan'er, step back!"
Chen Changqing's eyes were bloodshot, and without the slightest hesitation, he stepped in front of Chen Fan.
Clang!
The Yimu Flying Sword was unsheathed with a fierce roar, and the True Essence of the Early Nascent Soul in Chen Changqing's body surged wildly. Like a moth drawn to a raging fire, his bones made a cracking sound under the overwhelming pressure of the blazing sun. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, but he remained firmly rooted to the ground, not retreating an inch!
Mo Wendao also roared and summoned his natal spirit disk to try to form an array, but he was shocked by the scorching heat wave and was forced to kneel on one knee, his white hair turning scorched.
Chen Fan, with half a multigrain flatbread in his mouth, slowly walked out from behind Chen Changqing.
He raised his head, his clear black and white eyes reflecting the arrogant golden sun.
Deep within his Dantian, the Miniature Divine Kingdom rotated in reverse, and the silent Life-and-Death Millstone emanated a chilling, bone-deep gray-white aura of death.
A mere Fourth Tier flat-haired beast, plus a frivolous Nascent Deity Transformation built up with bloodline elixirs.
Since they're so eager to die, let's crush this dragon chariot and the nine-headed golden crow into a bloody mist, which will just add a few strands of Pure Yang fire energy to the Miniature Divine Kingdom.
Chen Fan's right hand, hanging by his side, had its five fingers slightly clenched, and a Martial God's Killing Intent, which transcended this world, was about to break through the air.
In that critical moment!
Clang!!
A vast, majestic bronze bell toll, seemingly spanning countless ages, suddenly echoed from the depths of the towering, star- Heaven-Reaching Divine Mountain at the very center of the Divine City!
The Void solidified.
Auspicious clouds billowed up from the summit of the Divine Mountain, and the phantom of an ancient giant bell, obscuring half the sky, slowly emerged, its surface engraved with the totems of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and all spirits paying homage.
Zhong Bo transformed into a giant wave of cyan-gold divine light, visible to the naked eye, sweeping across the vast sky.
Bang!
The moment Lu Heaven-Burning's hundred-foot-long sea of solar fire touched the azure-gold giant wave, it was instantly shattered into nothingness and smoke without even a spark.
The nine-headed, Fourth Tier Blazing Golden Crow pulling the chariot let out a mournful cry, its Divine Fire instantly extinguished by more than half, and its massive demonic body trembled as it knelt down in the air.
Lu Heaven-Burning's expression changed drastically at the top of the dragon carriage. The illusory image of the great sun around him suddenly shook violently. He was forced to take three steps back by the vast bell wave. His throat tasted sweet, and a look of fear mixed with shock and anger appeared in his eyes.
"The Ascension Nine Heavens Bell... has rung?!"
Countless cultivators within the city looked up in shock.
Immediately afterwards, nine pure white beams of light, reaching to the heavens and piercing the Firmament, shot up from the central hall of the Immortal Alliance.
A colossal Dharma Form, clad in Nine Luminaries Star River Robes, projected from the pillar of light onto the heavens above the Divine City. Its voice, cold and majestic, resounded throughout the four seas and eight wastelands.
"The Supreme Cangming has decreed!"
"The time for our ascension has come; destiny is changing. The Southern Nation's Ascension Convention officially commences today!"
"Order all sects, reclusive ancient clans, and all prodigies under the age of thirty participating in Prodigies selection to proceed to the Heaven-Reaching Battle Platform for review within one hour!"
"During the conference, private duels are strictly prohibited within the Divine City. Anyone who breaks the law by killing or disrupting order will be considered a traitor, and the nine peaks of the Immortal Alliance will exterminate their entire family on the spot!"
The Dharma sound resounded, shaking heaven and earth.
Lu Heaven-Burning's chest heaved violently as he stared intently at the side courtyard below, his double pupils blazing with murderous intent.
With the Immortal Alliance's grand formation fully activated and the Supreme Will hanging overhead, even though he was the young master of the Golden Crow Immortal Pavilion, he would never dare to defy the odds at this moment.
"You're lucky, you peasant."
Lu Heaven-Burning withdrew his true fire and looked down at Chen Fan, who was biting into a pancake, his eyes filled with cruel mockery.
"On the Heaven-Reaching Battle Platform, swords and blades have no eyes; life and death are your own responsibility. I, the young master, will personally twist off your head, extract your soul, and burn it in the Golden Crow Heavenly Lantern in my palace for three hundred years."
Boom!
Nine birds cried out, and the crimson dragon chariot changed direction, transforming into a fiery rainbow that stretched across the sky, hurtling towards the Heaven-Reaching Battle Platform in the center of the Divine City.
The oppressive aura dissipated, but the Obsidian surrounding the side courtyard still emitted scorching white steam.
Chen Changqing exhaled a long breath of foul air mixed with blood and foam. His legs went weak, and he barely managed to steady himself by using his longsword for support. He hurriedly turned around and looked Chen Fan up and down. "Fan'er, are you hurt?!"
Chen Fan swallowed the last bite of the flatbread, gently patted the crumbs off his hands, and shook his head.
"Dad, I'm alright."
He turned his head and looked at the colossal bell at the heart of the Divine City, radiating boundless majesty.
To outsiders, it was the supreme power of the Southern Nation's sovereign commanding the world.
But deep within Chen Fan's eyes, which could pierce through the Void, amidst the aftershocks of the bell's resonance, lurked a barely perceptible yet utterly violent and corrupt blackish-gray Death Fiend Qi.