When the dust settled, Taiyi Zhenren's wretched figure stood frozen in every observer's sight like a statue of shame.
Within the ruins, he knelt on one knee. His once-immortal Apricot Yellow Daoist Robe had become tattered rags, dazzling golden blood stained the corner of his lips, and the sunken circular mark on his chest silently spoke of the terror of that blow.
His aura had withered to the extreme. Pain, confusion, and endless, bone-deep disbelief filled his immortal face.
He had lost.
A dignified member of the Chan Sect's Twelve Golden Immortals, a direct disciple of a Saint, had been severely wounded in a single move by a newborn infant wielding a Companion Spirit Treasure.
This thought spread madly through his Primordial Spirit's sea of consciousness like the most vicious nightmare, gnawing away at the pride and dignity he had built over countless ages.
"Puh!"
His mind roiled, and Taiyi Zhenren spat out another mouthful of golden blood. His aura became even more unstable.
No!
It could not end like this!
A madness even fiercer than his previous rage ignited in the depths of Taiyi Zhenren's eyes.
This was not merely his personal victory or defeat. It concerned the Chan Sect's reputation and a Saint's plans!
Spirit Pearl had to be taken away!
That presumptuous rogue immortal, that wretch who dared humiliate a Saint's disciple, had to die!
"Aaaahhh—!"
Taiyi Zhenren threw back his head and let out a roar that scarcely sounded human. His eyes instantly turned blood-red.
He abruptly rose from the ruins, his hair disheveled and his appearance crazed, no longer possessing even a trace of immortal bearing.
"You forced me to do this!"
"Die! All of you, turn to ashes!"
He roared hoarsely, his hands rapidly forming an exceedingly profound hand seal before his chest.
As the seal took shape, an aura of destruction a hundred times more terrifying than before erupted from his body.
He opened his mouth and spat out a stream of nine-colored radiance that shot into the heavens.
Within the radiance, a palm-sized, ancient-looking cover spun rapidly, with nine lifelike divine dragons coiled across its surface.
The Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover!
One of the Chan Sect's sacred treasures, Taiyi Zhenren's famed ultimate treasure, a Houtian Merit Spirit Treasure of boundless power!
The moment this treasure appeared, heaven and earth changed color.
The sky above all of Chentang Pass was instantly engulfed by scorching heat intense enough to melt space itself.
"Not good!" A hidden Great Power cried out from the void. "Has that bastard Taiyi gone mad? He actually brought out the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover!"
"Once this treasure is activated, it means a fight to the death! The Samadhi True Fire burns all things, and even Grand Unity Golden Immortals would lose a layer of skin if touched by it! The countless living beings of Chentang Pass are likely about to suffer an undeserved calamity!"
Li Jing and his wife were terrified out of their wits. Under that destructive pressure, even their thoughts nearly came to a halt, leaving behind only primal fear.
Shi Ji's expression also turned incomparably grave. She could feel that the power contained within that cover was enough to refine her into dregs in an instant.
Her gaze instinctively fell upon the still-seated figure before her.
Taiyi Zhenren's face twisted viciously as he pointed at the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover from afar.
"Nine dragons coil around heaven, divine fire refines the world! Burn!"
Buzz—!
The Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover instantly expanded, transforming into a colossal canopy that covered the entire General's Mansion.
The nine divine dragons coiled upon it seemed to come alive. They let out earth-shaking dragon roars in unison, opened their jaws, and spewed endless nine-colored divine fire filled with destructive aura!
Before the flames even fell, the pavilions, towers, flowers, grass, and trees within the General's Mansion began to spontaneously combust, twist, and turn to ash.
The ground cracked, and the air filled with the stench of sulfur.
The apocalypse had arrived.
A crazed, triumphant smile appeared on Taiyi Zhenren's face.
He seemed to already see that damned man and that damned wretch, along with every lowly living being in the city, screaming in agony beneath his divine fire before turning into calamity ash.
Yet just as the divine fire capable of burning all things was about to descend—
The man who had not even lifted an eyelid from beginning to end, Qin Feng, finally moved.
He did not even rise.
He merely cast a faint glance at Taiyi Zhenren in the sky and the arrogant Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover.
Just one glance.
One glance, ten thousand years.
An invisible, indescribable great power, impossible to sense with Spiritual Sense and standing above all the myriad Daos of heaven and earth, instantly enveloped the entire scene with Qin Feng at its center.
Time seemed to have been paused at that moment.
Space completely froze in that instant.
The nine divine dragons roaring and spewing flames came to an abrupt halt, their savage expressions forever frozen in place.
The nine-colored divine fire, capable of burning mountains, boiling seas, and refining Golden Immortals, suddenly stopped three feet above the ground. Every flicker of flame resembled a slow-motion scene slowed down countless times.
The dust drifting through the air stood still.
The despairing expressions on Li Jing and his wife's faces froze like sculptures.
Even the Spiritual Sense of those Great Powers watching from the void was firmly imprisoned in place by an irresistible force, unable to move in the slightest.
The entire world became a piece of perfectly motionless amber.
And Taiyi Zhenren was the most conspicuous insect trapped within that amber.
He remained suspended in midair, pointing ahead with a wild laugh on his face, completely frozen in place.
His thoughts could still move.
And precisely because they could still move, an unprecedented terror from the depths of his soul burst through him like a collapsed floodgate, instantly drowning everything he was.
What kind of power was this?
It was not Magic Power, not immortal essence, and certainly not any law of heaven and earth that he knew.
This was a... Dao!
A supreme Great Dao power beyond the Heavenly Dao of the Primordial World, one he could neither comprehend nor imagine!
Before this power, the Golden Immortal cultivation he took such pride in and the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover he regarded as his trump card had both become utter jokes.
He no longer felt like a lofty Chan Sect Golden Immortal. He was merely an ant lightly pinched between a giant's fingertips.
The other party did not even need to exert force. With a single thought, he could erase Taiyi Zhenren completely from this world, together with his Primordial Spirit and true soul, leaving not a trace behind.
Fear!
Extreme fear instantly shattered all his madness and rage.
He wanted to beg for mercy, but he could not make a sound.
He wanted to flee, but he could not even move a finger.
Before an absolute gap in strength, all dignity and pride seemed so pale and powerless.
Never had the shadow of death loomed over him so clearly.
He did not want to die!
Driven by his instinct to survive, Taiyi Zhenren used the last shred of strength he could squeeze out by burning his Primordial Spirit and released an incomparably mournful cry from the depths of his soul.
"Master... save me!"
That cry pierced through frozen space, tore through halted time, and echoed throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands with endless despair and hope.
The instant his words fell—
Another change occurred!
Within Jade Void Palace on Kunlun Mountain—
Yuanshi Tianzun, seated high upon his cloud bed as though he had existed alongside eternity itself, abruptly opened his eyes.
There was no emotion in those eyes, only the cold indifference of the Heavenly Dao's cycles and the birth and death of the cosmos.
The next moment—
Boom—!!!
Above the Nine Heavens, without warning, purple qi stretched eastward for thirty thousand miles!
Endless auspicious qi transformed into golden flowers and purple lotuses, falling from the void.
A vast, majestic, supreme, terrifying Saintly Might that made the entire Primordial World tremble descended like an inverted celestial river, instantly enveloping billions of miles around Chentang Pass!
Under this Saintly Might, whether mortals, immortals and gods, demons and monsters, or Grand Unity Golden Immortals hidden in the void—
Every living being felt absolute suppression originating from the very level of life itself.
It was as if a supreme ruler had cast down a cold gaze from above the Nine Heavens.
"A... a Saint!"
"It is the pressure of the Primal Beginning Saint!"
In the void, the Spiritual Sense of those imprisoned Great Powers began moving again, only to erupt with even more horrified waves of thought than before.
Immediately afterward, amid the purple qi filling the sky, a golden decree gleaming brilliantly and flowing with supreme Dao resonance slowly tore open the void and descended.
Upon the decree were only eight ancient characters formed from Great Dao Runes.
Chan Sect disciples, return to Kunlun at once
Every character contained a Saint's will that could not be questioned or defied!
As the decree appeared, that terrifying Saintly Might surged to its peak!
Thud!
Thud! Thud!
Within Chentang Pass, Li Jing and his wife, along with every soldier, general, servant, and attendant in the mansion, uncontrollably fell to their knees. Their bodies trembled, and none had the courage to lift their heads and look up.
This was the majesty of a Saint, the highest-level imprint of life in the Primordial World. Beneath Saints, all were ants, and no one could resist!
Shi Ji's face also turned deathly pale in an instant.
She exhausted every ounce of Magic Power in her body just to barely keep herself from kneeling on the spot, but her legs had already begun shaking violently beyond her control, on the verge of collapse.
The world fell utterly silent.
All beings bowed their heads, and All Spirits worshipped.
Yet amid this silence that represented absolute authority, one discordant sight appeared especially glaring.
The frozen space quietly thawed with the arrival of the Saint's decree.
But Qin Feng remained seated upon that ordinary stone stool.
It was as though the Saintly Might capable of crushing the spines of Grand Unity Golden Immortals was merely a gentle breeze brushing his face.
Against the backdrop of every living being present kneeling and trembling, his calm ease seemed so utterly out of place, yet so shockingly awe-inspiring.
He slowly picked up the cup of tea on the table, which had long gone cold.
Then he raised his head, his gaze passing over the crowd kneeling on the ground and over Taiyi Zhenren, who had regained his freedom yet remained terrified.
At last, his gaze settled upon the golden decree floating above the Nine Heavens, radiating endless majesty and representing a Saint's will.
The corner of his lips slowly curved upward.
There was no reverence in that smile, no solemnity, not even the slightest concern.
There was only bone-deep contempt and a cold sneer.
Before you continue