Ao Hong seemed to be venting something. The Water Spirit Qi in the surrounding space trembled continuously along with his laughter, stirring wave after wave amid the rolling river.
By a distant patch of wasteland, Hong Ze and the others watched their master laugh as if he had gone mad. They understood him somewhat, because if they could, they too wanted to throw back their heads and laugh wildly like that.
More than ten breaths later.
Ao Hong stopped laughing and forcibly suppressed the excitement in his emotions with his formidable cultivation. His gaze, cold and rational, fixed on the sky in the direction of Capital City.
Suddenly, a pillar of fire shot into the sky from the summit of the towering snow mountains to the north, setting the northern sky ablaze. It drove a powerful wave of energy and air pressure toward Capital City. As hot and cold air currents collided, a fierce wind sprang from nowhere, sweeping across vast tracts north of Capital City in the blink of an eye.
"Saint, have mercy!"
An illusory voice rang out from within the Clouds. A transparent pale-golden barrier immediately descended from the northern horizon, blocking the powerful air pressure pressing down from the north.
It was Zen Master Lingyuan of Vajra Temple. Clad in pale yellow monk's robes, he stood beneath the Clouds. Buddha light behind him cast the phantom image of an Arhat, and he looked toward the northern horizon with neither sorrow nor joy on his face.
At the end of the northern horizon lay a dazzling starry sky. It was Rongyang, who had deployed the Starry Sky Umbrella, and he regarded Lingyuan with a smile.
"Fellow Daoist Rongyang, do you intend to burn the tens of millions of living souls in Central Province to ashes?"
Lingyuan pressed