A Sea of Flames

Noticing the Twelve Ancestral Witches closing in menacingly, Zhunti's heart tightened at once, leaving him as sickened as if he had swallowed a fly.

A trace of panic showed in his eyes, and his expression darkened.

The western lands were nothing like the Demon Race's territory. There were few Grand Unity Golden Immortals and Quasi-Saint-level experts here.

If they truly fell out with the Witch Race and came to blows, the consequences would be unimaginable!

Jieyin, who was still in Closed Door Meditation, suddenly felt a tremor in his heart.

He opened his eyes and immediately began calculating with his fingers.

The next instant, his face turned livid.

He hurried out of his meditation chamber and came solemnly to Zhunti's side.

"Junior Brother, just how much trouble have you caused?"

Zhunti spread his hands in confusion. "How should I know what is going on? I have never had any dealings with the Witch Race."

He felt deeply wronged. Why did every damned problem end up involving him?

"This has to be someone scheming against us in secret."

"Now is not the time to discuss that. We need to quickly find a way to deal with this."

Jieyin sighed helplessly.

It seemed this calamity could not be avoided.

He could only hope that the Twelve Ancestral Witches would show mercy. Otherwise, the only treasure he could bring out, the Twelve-grade Golden Lotus of Merit, might not withstand even a single axe strike from Pangu's phantom.

Suddenly, Zhunti seemed to remember something, and his heart skipped a beat.

He hesitantly told him about his previous trip to the Heavenly Court.

His instincts told him that the Witch Race's hostile arrival was probably related to that matter.

"Foolish, Junior Brother."

Jieyin rebuked him, but said nothing further.

What had happened had already happened. There was no use pursuing it now.

He swiftly considered a way to respond.

"That move of yours really screwed Jieyin and Zhunti over."

Nuwa covered her mouth and chuckled as she watched the scene in the Mystic Light Mirror.

Sending the recording to the Twelve Ancestral Witches? That was not passing along a message—it was plainly fanning the flames!

"A trivial matter. Those who scheme against others will sooner or later be schemed against themselves."

"If Zhunti had not been so restless, how could I have had the chance to make this move?"

Tongtian chuckled, his tone carrying a hint of satisfaction.

He had never liked those two in the first place. Since he had an opportunity to make them suffer, naturally he would not hold back.

Even if it had been Laozi, Yuanshi, Dijun, or Taiyi, he would not have shown the slightest mercy.

Changxi and Xihe exchanged glances, shock flashing across their faces.

From those few words just now, they realized one fact—

Tongtian was behind the Twelve Ancestral Witches going to trouble Jieyin and Zhunti.

This use of a borrowed knife to kill was extraordinarily clever, making the two women shudder involuntarily and grow even more wary.

They feared that one careless step would land them in his schemes.

Within the Heavenly Court.

"Damn it! Who leaked the news?"

"Could it have been him?"

Dijun cursed angrily, a familiar figure surfacing in his mind.

Thinking it over carefully, it seemed only Tongtian, who had already attained the position of Saint, could have silently spied upon their plans.

At that thought, a chill ran through his heart, and he abandoned any intention of helping Zhunti and the others.

First, the Dao Ancestor's prohibition was still in effect. If he rashly intervened and opposed the Witch Race, the Dao Ancestor might personally take action.

Second, he had only just formed an alliance with Zhunti. Their situation would not greatly affect him.

Third, Zhunti had already sworn a Dao oath. Even if he did not act now, they would still have to continue helping him in the future.

Otherwise, the backlash of the Heavenly Dao was no laughing matter.

Since he could profit by watching tigers fight from the mountain, why should he become some fool who worked hard for no reward?

If he angered Tongtian and dragged himself down with them, the loss would outweigh the gain.

"Zhunti! Get the hell out here and face your Ancestral Witch grandfathers!!!"

Zhurong, the most hot-tempered among them, roared and stepped forward first.

The flames around him churned with his fury. From afar, he looked like an ancient ferocious beast ready to pounce upon its prey at any moment.

That roar rolled across every corner of the western lands like thunder.

It frightened countless low-cultivation beings pale, leaving their legs trembling.

Especially some of the older ones,

who had long since found places to hide, fearing they would be caught in the disaster through no fault of their own.

That earth-shaking Dao-Demon War from back then was still vivid in everyone's memory!

"Greetings, fellow Daoists. May I ask why you have come here?"

Jieyin wore a troubled expression as he secretly arranged for Zhunti to be ready to assist at any moment, while he himself calmly stepped forward to face the Twelve Ancestral Witches.

At this moment, he could only hope to use his eloquence to maneuver around them and ease some of their hostility.

Otherwise, the wrath of the Twelve Ancestral Witches alone would likely reduce Mount Sumeru to dust in an instant.

Unfortunately, ideals were beautiful, but reality was incomparably cruel.

With the Ancestral Witches' blunt and fierce temperaments, how could they possibly allow him to talk his way out of it?

Moreover, the two brothers had long been infamous. Throughout the Primordial Wilderness, almost no one was willing to give them even the slightest face.

Thus, before Jieyin could finish speaking, he was answered by an enormous fist.

The fist was wrapped in scorching flames as it smashed straight toward his face like a small mountain falling from above.

The vegetation along its path instantly turned to ash, while even the air twisted under the intense heat.

Jieyin's expression sharpened, and he hurriedly summoned the Twelve-grade Golden Lotus of Merit to block it.

It was not that he feared Zhurong alone, but eleven equally formidable beings were watching from all around. He had no choice but to remain exceedingly cautious.

Boom!

A deafening explosion erupted from the battlefield.

In an instant, the shockwave spread millions of li outward.

That violent aftershock made the western world, already weakened by the Dao-Demon War, tremble violently once more.

It seemed as though it might shatter apart at any moment.

Jieyin's expression changed drastically. Without a moment's hesitation, he immediately controlled the golden lotus to stabilize heaven and earth.

The Twelve Ancestral Witches naturally did not care, but he and Zhunti had ultimately been born and raised here.

If the western continent suffered another heavy blow because of this, how would the two brothers establish themselves here in the future?

Zhunti, who had been lying in ambush nearby, froze on the spot when he saw this.

Had they not agreed to retreat immediately if the situation turned bad? Why had they started fighting without a word?

Cursing inwardly, he hurriedly waved the Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree and appeared beside Jieyin.

Mighty Dharma power surged forth, stabilizing the turbulent space around them.

"Zhunti, you cowardly turtle! You finally showed yourself! Hand over your life!"

The moment Dijun and the others saw Zhunti, they shouted furiously and charged at him together.

Eleven attacks comparable to those of Quasi-Saint experts came rushing at him, making Zhunti's scalp go numb.

A powerful premonition of death rose within him.

In his panic, how could he care about appearances? He dodged and evaded in utter disarray.

After the wave of attacks ended and he realized he was still alive, Zhunti swallowed hard, his face gray with despair.

Just as he was cursing the Ancestral Witches for not following the rules, an intense rumbling suddenly came from behind him.

His heart clenched, and a sense of foreboding abruptly rose within him.

He whipped around, and his eyes immediately turned bloodshot, nearly spitting fire.

It turned out that the eleven Ancestral Witches had never intended to truly attack him. Their earlier show of force had merely been a feint.

Their true target was Mount Sumeru behind him!

Under the eleven Ancestral Witches' deliberate surprise attack,

even though Mount Sumeru was protected by a defensive formation, it held out for only a brief moment,

before it shattered with a roar, and the entire Mount Sumeru was swallowed by violent power.

For a time, mountains collapsed and earth split apart, while the heavens seemed to cave in amid endless thunderous crashes.

"Damn it!"

Jieyin gritted his teeth and cursed, turning to mobilize the golden lotus to protect Mount Sumeru.

But before he could take a step, the surroundings had already become a sea of flames.

Even he did not dare take those flames capable of burning the heavens and boiling the seas lightly.

One moment of carelessness would result in injury.

"You dare destroy my Mount Sumeru! You vile scoundrels!!!"

Standing in the air in a bedraggled state, Zhunti's face was black as ink.

He raised a hand and pointed at Dijun and the others, trembling with rage from head to toe.

Mount Sumeru was the most spiritually blessed immortal mountain on the entire western continent.

Once it was destroyed, there would no longer be any place in the west with such dense spiritual energy.

This was clearly shaking the very foundation of the two brothers. How could he not be furious?

Unfortunately, rage was of no use.

The Ancestral Witches had always feared nothing, and now they were the righteous party. Naturally, they ignored Zhunti's words.

Their attacks did not slow in the slightest.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Deafening explosions rang out one after another over the western continent.

The entire Mount Sumeru shook violently, as though it too were trembling.

A careful observer could see that faint cracks had already begun to appear across the mountain.

If the Ancestral Witches kept applying pressure for just a little longer, Mount Sumeru would likely collapse with a thunderous crash.

"You brat! You have gone too far!!!"

Zhunti's fury soared as he roared toward the sky.

The Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree in his hand swept again and again, streaks of radiant light tearing through the void as they shot toward the eleven Ancestral Witches.

Yet in the face of this fierce assault, Houtu stepped forward and invoked the laws of earth.

In an instant, layer after layer of earthen barriers as heavy as mountains rose from the ground, forcibly blocking the Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree's attacks.

"This fellow is too annoying. Big Brother, I'll deal with him."

Gonggong could not help frowning as he spoke in a deep voice filled with impatience.

The moment he finished speaking, he revealed his Ancestor Witch True Body.

His body stood millions of zhang tall, his momentum towering as he threw back his head and laughed.

"Zhunti! Let Grandfather Gonggong show you what he can do!"

With that, he clashed with Zhunti.

With him out of the way, Dijun and the other ten Ancestral Witches moved even faster.

Everywhere they went, they destroyed a restriction with a mere gesture.

In only a short while, the last blessed paradise on the western continent collapsed beneath the Ancestral Witches' violent attacks.

Countless great cultivators watching the scene were shaken, unable to stop themselves from drawing cold breaths.

"Hiss—this is far too ruthless! Jieyin and Zhunti are probably going to regret this to the core."

"They deserve it! Who told them to provoke the Witch Race for no reason? Did they not know every member of the Witch Race was a reckless brute?"

"The Twelve Ancestral Witches seem to have grown even stronger. In the current Primordial Wilderness, perhaps only the Dao Ancestor and Saint Tongtian can suppress them."

"Too terrifying. They fight the moment they decide to fight—who could possibly stop them?"

"Madmen, a pack of madmen! Is there not a single normal person in the Witch Race?"

Before the Mystic Light Mirror, Nuwa and the Xihe sisters stared wide-eyed at one another.

That was the final blessed paradise on the western continent, and it had just been destroyed like that?

No matter how poor Jieyin and Zhunti's reputations were, they were still future Saints. Yet even their Daoist grounds had been demolished. It was unbelievable just thinking about it.

"What is there to be surprised about? It is only Mount Sumeru. Only Jieyin and Zhunti treat it like some precious treasure."

Tongtian curled his lips, utterly unconcerned.

His gaze remained fixed on the Mystic Light Mirror.

After Mount Sumeru collapsed, Jieyin and Zhunti seemed to have gone mad. Their eyes were bloodshot as they frantically attacked the Twelve Ancestral Witches.

But the result went without saying.

They had already been no match for the Ancestral Witches, and now that they were attacking in rage, they could not even display seventy percent of their strength.

After beating them viciously for a while, Dijun sent a quiet voice transmission to the others.