Lich brawl?

The streak of light, swift and sharp, cut through the sky, leaving the immortal island, bathed in myriad rays of rosy light and myriad strands of auspicious mist, far behind. It transformed into a hazy, colorful halo at the intersection of sea and sky.

His heart surged with exhilaration. A century of healing and discussing the Dao had not only advanced his cultivation to the Mid True Immortal stage but also forged deep friendships with four future core pillars of the Intercepting Sect. This was a solid start!

However, the Great Desolation was vast and unlike any ordinary place.

Dao Xuan fully activated the Heavenly Water Evasion Art, borrowing the power of the Nine Heavens' celestial wind and clouds. Though his speed was fast, he had already flown for an unknown tens of thousands of miles. Below him, it remained an endless expanse of blue waves, the boundless East Sea.

Sun and moon rotated, stars appeared and disappeared.

Dao Xuan, with single-minded focus, sped directly towards the direction of Kunlun Mountain in the misty distance.

One day, as he was navigating through the sea of clouds, he suddenly felt the moisture below gradually fade, and the celestial wind gained a hint of the heavy aura of the earth.

With a thought, he lowered his cloud.

Pushing aside the layers of mist, his eyes suddenly opened to a vast vista!

He saw:

Mountain ranges undulated like sleeping dragons, great rivers surged like horizontal silk. Ancient trees towered, obscuring sun and moon, strange peaks pierced the clouds. Beasts galloped, shaking forests and valleys, flying birds cried, stirring the nine heavens. All creatures competed freely under the frosty sky, the Great Desolation reborn in its majesty!

It was no longer the monotonous azure sea surface, but a vast, heavy, primordial wilderness teeming with life – the Great Desolation continent!

Mountain ranges stretched like slumbering giant dragons, great rivers flowed like winding jade belts, ancient trees were dense, blocking out the sky, and strange peaks and bizarre rocks pierced straight into the clouds.

Countless Great Desolation exotic beasts, whose names he couldn't recall, roared and galloped through the mountains and forests, while fierce birds of prey soared and cried in the sky, presenting a vibrant scene of burgeoning life!

The bleak shadow of the Dragon-Phoenix Calamity seemed to have been washed away by time. The myriad races of the Great Desolation were ushering in a new era of resurgence and contention!

"Finally, I've left the East Sea and set foot on the Great Desolation continent!"

Dao Xuan's spirits lifted, and he sighed with emotion.

He identified his direction, turned his streak of light, and continued to speed northwest along the edge of the continent.

However, beneath this vibrant life, undercurrents surged.

Dao Xuan's divine sense was sharp. While flying, he had already faintly sensed a subtle, elusive malevolent energy permeating the heavens and earth.

This malevolent energy was not as world-destroying as that of a calamity, but it was deeper and more widespread, like a dormant volcano, ready to erupt at any moment.

What he saw along the way confirmed his perception.

On the earth, the figures of two major tribal groups were the most prominent, and the most opposed!

The first was the Witch Clan!

Behold the Witch Clan:

Heights of over ten feet were common, muscles like coiled dragons. Faces like ripe dates or indigo blue, red hair bristling, fangs bared. Clad in simple beast-skin armor, wielding giant axes and bone clubs. Their Blood Essence surged to the heavens like a furnace, their strides cracked mountains! They cultivated not the Primordial Spirit but only the body, hunting all spirits for sustenance!

These burly Witch Clan warriors, each with a majestic Blood Essence, caused the earth to tremble with their movements, their roars like thunder.

They did not cultivate the Primordial Spirit, nor did they comprehend the Heavenly Dao. They focused solely on honing their incomparably powerful physical bodies, dominating the land with the most primitive and savage strength.

And their "sustenance" was the flesh and blood of the Demon Clan, imbued with spiritual energy!

The second was the Demon Clan!

Observe the Demon Clan:

Some took the form of jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards, others transformed into half-human, half-beast bodies. Demonic energy surged to the heavens, they gathered in mountains and forests, calling to their kin. Sharp claws and fangs gleamed with cold light, their innate divine abilities each displayed. Forming formations to resist the might of the Witch Clan, demonic winds swept the land, churning black sand!

The Demon Clan were diverse, some retaining their beast forms, others able to manifest half-human, half-demon bodies.

They absorbed the essence of the sun and moon, cultivated demonic cores and Primordial Spirits, and possessed various innate divine abilities.

Facing the hunts of the Witch Clan, the Demon Clan was not to be outdone. They often moved in groups, employing demonic arts and forming formations to resist.

Although a full-scale war engulfing the Great Desolation had not erupted between the two clans, small-scale conflicts, hunting and counter-hunting, were almost constantly playing out across this vast land!

Dao Xuan had personally witnessed:

In a forest, several burly Witch Clan warriors were hunting a winged demon tiger at the Early True Immortal stage.

That demon tiger had wings on its ribs and spat poisonous fire from its mouth, exhibiting extreme ferocity.

However, the Witch Clan possessed immense strength. With coordinated attacks, their giant axes and bone clubs rained down, smashing the demon tiger until its bones were broken and its flesh mangled, its cries of agony ceasing only with its death.

The Witch Clan cheered as they carved up the flesh and blood, feasting heartily.

In another river valley, a pack of wolf demons had set a trap. A demonic wind whipped up poisonous sand and miasma, ambushing a small group of stray Witch Clan members.

Caught off guard, the Witch Clan inhaled the poisonous miasma, their movements slowing. They were then torn open by the wolf demons' sharp claws, a brutal scene.

Killing intent permeated the air, and blood energy surged to the heavens!

Dao Xuan watched, his heart pounding.

He knew that his cultivation as a Mid True Immortal was no more than that of a slightly larger ant compared to the Witch Clan and Demon Clan powerhouses, who were often at the peak True Immortal, Mystic Immortal, or even Golden Immortal levels.

Once caught in such a conflict, a single misstep could lead to death and the dissipation of his Dao.

"Hold on! I must hold on!" Dao Xuan's mind screamed with alarm.

"Kunlun Mountain is the safe zone. Getting a stable job is what's important! Don't meddle in other people's business, go around, go around!"

He became even more cautious, suppressing his aura to the extreme. His escape light flew as close to the mountain shadows as possible. If he encountered any signs of conflict ahead, he would detour early, preferring to take a longer, roundabout route rather than getting close.

With such careful progress, he remained safe for a period of time.

However, in the vastness of the Great Desolation, accidents always happened when least expected.

One day, Dao Xuan was flying over a vast and ancient mountain range.

The mountains were majestic, ancient trees towered into the sky, the ravines were deep, and the spiritual energy was quite dense, but it also exuded a wild and ferocious aura.

Dao Xuan scanned with his divine sense and, finding no large-scale conflicts, intended to speed through the valley.

Unexpectedly, just as he flew into the depths of the valley, something drastic happened!

"Roar--!"

"Awooo--!"

Deafening roars and piercing wolf howls suddenly erupted from the dense forest below!

Violent air currents mixed with thick, bloody killing intent surged skyward like a volcanic eruption!

Dao Xuan's escape light halted, his expression changing slightly. His divine sense swept down instantly.

He saw that in a relatively open clearing in the forest below, a brutal battle was unfolding!

On one side were three Witch Clan warriors, each over ten feet tall!

The leader:

His face was like a ripe date, his hair fiery red and standing on end!

A beast bone headband wrapped his forehead. His upper body was bare, his muscles knotted like ancient tree roots, and his bronze skin was covered in mysterious witch markings!

He wore a skirt made of unknown beast hide around his lower body, his feet bare, striking the ground like drums!

He wielded a massive mountain-splitting axe, the size of a door, its blade gleaming coldly with menacing killing intent! His cultivation was clearly Late True Immortal!

The two Witches behind him also had faces like bronze and iron, with exposed fangs. One held a giant bone club, the other a heavy stone hammer. Each had a blood energy like smoke rising from a beacon. Their cultivation was Mid True Immortal!

They had formed a simple battle formation, trapping two enormous wolves in the center. These wolves were covered in silver-white scales, their eyes like two cold crescent moons, their fangs flashing with cold light!

The wolves:

Their entire bodies were silver-white, as if cast from moonlight!

Their eyes were deep blue, with illusory moon wheels seeming to float within!

What they exhaled was not a foul wind, but chilling, bone-piercing ice flames and silver frost!

When they swung their claws, they brought forth not wind blades, but silver cold light that tore through the void!

These were the Howling Moon Celestial Wolves, renowned for their ferocity and formidable bloodline among the Demon Clan!

The leading wolf demon exuded a ferocious aura and was also a Late True Immortal. The other was slightly weaker, at Mid True Immortal.

"Witch Clan barbarians! How dare you trespass on my Howling Moon Celestial Wolf territory! Today, I shall feast on your flesh and blood!"

The leading Howling Moon Celestial Wolf spoke human words, its voice as cold as ten thousand years of ice. The power of moonlight surged around its body, transforming into an icy storm, mixed with silver cold light that tore through space, sweeping towards the Witch Clan leader!

"Hmph! Feathered beasts! It's perfect timing to use your flesh and blood to sacrifice to my Witch Clan's battle banner!"

The Witch Clan leader sneered. Without dodging, he swung his giant axe in a wide arc, carrying earth-splitting, mountain-crushing power, and ferociously cleaved into the ice storm!

Boom! Crackle!

The axe light was like a flowing ribbon, forcefully splitting open a huge gap in the ice storm!

But the stray cold currents and silver cold light still scraped his skin, leaving white marks!

The violent energy exploded outwards, sending ice crystals and debris flying, freezing and tearing apart the surrounding ancient trees!

"Kill!"

The other two Witch Clan warriors roared and charged forward. The giant axe, bone club, and stone hammer, carrying immense power, smashed down heavily on the other Howling Moon Celestial Wolf!

The wolf demon roared, its ice flames, silver frost, and silver claws meeting the attack. Ice and fire intertwined, the sounds of metal clashing against metal incessant!

The moonlight ice flames and the Witch Clan's blood energy collided violently, stirring up a sky full of ice shards and dust! The rampaging energy shockwaves spread out like ripples, devastating everything in their path!

Dao Xuan watched clearly from high above, inwardly cursing his bad luck:

"Damn it! Why did I have to run into this kind of tough fight!"

Without hesitation, he immediately turned his escape light, intending to hug the edge of the mountain wall and flee this place of trouble as quickly as possible!

However, man proposes, and heaven disposes!

The moment he turned, the battle below took a sudden turn!

The Witch Clan Leader split the ice crystal storm with an axe and was about to pursue when he was momentarily delayed by a mouthful of his Natal Moon Essence Pearl spat out by the cunning wolf demon leader!

The essence pearl contained extreme cold, which even stiffened the Witch Clan Leader's formidable physical body.

The Witch Clan Leader roared, sweeping his giant axe. His surging Blood Essence transformed into a condensed, blood-colored axe aura, intending to shatter the Moon Essence Pearl!

The blood-colored axe aura was incredibly powerful, tearing through the air with a piercing shriek!

However, the wolf demon leader suddenly leaped backward to the side, actually redirecting this terrifying attack towards... the mountain wall in Dao Xuan's hiding spot!

BOOM!

The blood-colored axe aura missed the wolf demon but slammed fiercely into the mountain wall not far below Dao Xuan!

The target was a thousand-year-old ancient tree with lush branches and leaves next to Dao Xuan's escape light, used to conceal his form!

"Holy crap! Collateral damage?!

Is this the Great Desolation version of a scam?!"

Dao Xuan's internal alarm bells were ringing wildly!

The blood-colored axe aura contained the berserk power of a Late True Immortal, and its speed was astonishingly fast!

Dao Xuan didn't have time to completely evade it!

At the brink of life and death, the instinct for survival overwhelmed everything!

"Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd!" Dao Xuan roared inwardly. The dark gold halberd he held in his hand was swung almost as soon as his divine sense moved!

All his magical power was poured into it without reservation!

VMMMM!

A thread of dark gold, condensed to the extreme, tearing through the void, shot from bottom to top, precisely targeting the most violent and weakest core node where the blood-colored axe aura's power flowed!

Chiii--!

Like a hot knife through butter!

The seemingly indestructible blood-colored axe aura was pierced through the middle by the dark gold thread!

The law-breaking power erupted, and the berserk Blood Essence power contained within the axe aura instantly became chaotic, disintegrated, and scattered into countless blood-colored light spots!

However, although Dao Xuan shattered the axe aura, he was also shaken by the immense force of the dispersing energy, his Blood Essence churning, his escape light shaking violently. He could no longer perfectly conceal his aura, and a trace of Mid True Immortal Geng Metal aura leaked out!

"Hmm?!"

On the battlefield below, both the Witch Clan Leader and the Howling Moon Celestial Wolf Leader almost simultaneously sensed this sudden, unexpected aura that belonged to neither of them!

As the dust settled slightly, the Witch Clan Leader's bell-like giant eyes swept towards the sky, instantly locking onto Dao Xuan's somewhat disheveled figure!

"Hey, you Daoist! Sneaking around, hiding your face! You must be an accomplice of the wolf demon!"

A burly Witch Clan man (Mid True Immortal) wielding a giant bone club, closest to Dao Xuan, grinned sinisterly, his eyes flashing with ferocity.

"Use you to sacrifice to my bone club first! Get down here for me!"

Before he finished speaking, he stomped his feet, and the ground exploded!

He shot up into the sky like a cannonball, the giant bone club, made from the leg bone of some ferocious beast and wrapped in blood-colored malevolent energy, whistling through the air as it smashed down towards Dao Xuan!

It was powerful and heavy, capable of shattering stone!

This strike was fast! Ruthless! Accurate! It sealed off all of Dao Xuan's evasion space!

Dao Xuan's scalp tingled instantly!

A chill shot up from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head!

Being engaged in close combat by a Mid True Immortal Witch Clan member was extremely perilous!

"This is too much!"

A fierce glint flashed in Dao Xuan's eyes. Even an earth figurine has some temper, let alone him, who was transformed from the first Golden Flood Dragon in the world!

Did they really think he was a pushover?!

With no way to avoid it, he could only face it head-on!

"Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking! Break for me!"

Dao Xuan roared inwardly, advancing instead of retreating!

The Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd in his hand blazed with golden light, its twenty-seven Innate Restrictions circulating madly. The sharp Daoist rhyme that annihilated all laws condensed at the tip of the halberd!

He did not choose to block the heavy bone club head-on. Instead, he poured all his magical power, including what he had just recovered, into the Law-Breaking Halberd without reservation!

Just as the giant bone club was about to smash down, Dao Xuan's figure shifted slightly like a phantom, narrowly avoiding the direct force of the bone club!

At the same time, the Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd in his hand, like a viper's tongue, struck first!

A condensed, almost solidified dark gold sharp light, silent yet faster than lightning, struck with pinpoint accuracy towards the Witch Clan warrior's neck, exposed and with slightly sluggish blood essence flow due to his full-power swing!

This halberd strike condensed all the magic power of Dao Xuan, a Mid True Immortal, and unleashed the law-breaking divine might of the Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd!

It sought not defense, but a single, killing blow!

The Witch Clan warrior's eyes still held a sneer and bloodlust, as if he already saw the Daoist being smashed into pulp.

However, in the next instant, he felt a chill at his neck!

Chii!

A faint yet incredibly clear cutting sound rang out!

The dark gold sharp light flashed and vanished!

The Witch Clan warrior's charging momentum came to an abrupt halt!

The sneer on his face froze instantly, his eyes filled with disbelief, astonishment, and confusion. A thin line of blood slowly appeared on his thick neck.

Puff!

The bloodline suddenly widened!

A massive head, wearing an astonished expression, shot skyward! Blood gushed from the severed neck like a fountain!

The headless, colossal body, along with the giant bone club, plummeted from mid-air like a tattered sack, crashing heavily onto the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust!

Silence!

A deathly silence!

Below, the Witch Clan warriors and Howling Moon Celestial Wolves engaged in fierce battle paused momentarily!

"Fifth Brother—!!!"

After a brief, deadly silence, the Witch Clan Leader let out a heart-wrenching roar, filled with endless grief, indignation, and fury!

His bell-like giant eyes instantly became bloodshot, staring intently at Dao Xuan, who stood with his halberd in the air. His gaze was as if he wanted to devour Dao Xuan alive!

Another Witch Clan warrior holding a stone hammer also let out a beast-like roar!

"Innate Spirit Treasure?! You dare kill my brother!!"

The Witch Clan Leader's roar shook the entire valley. An immeasurable killing intent erupted from him like a tangible force, shattering the surrounding ice crystals and gravel into powder!

"I will tear your body into ten thousand pieces! Grind your bones to dust! Ah—!!"

He had completely lost control!

Pointing his giant axe at Dao Xuan, he no longer paid attention to the Howling Moon Celestial Wolf. Like a madman, he strode forward, crushing the ground, and charged furiously towards Dao Xuan!

Each step covered dozens of feet! The Witch Clan warrior with the stone hammer followed closely, his eyes filled only with frenzied killing intent!

A flicker of surprise and schadenfreude flashed in the azure wolf eyes of the Howling Moon Celestial Wolf leader. It let out a sharp howl, no longer engaging in the fight. With another wolf demon, it stirred up a gust of icy demonic wind and quickly vanished into the depths of the forest.

The trouble had been successfully diverted!

Dao Xuan's counter-kill, while resolving the immediate crisis, had also stirred up a hornet's nest!

Looking at the Witch Clan warriors charging up like two maddened beasts below, especially the leader, a Late True Immortal radiating immense killing intent, Dao Xuan's scalp instantly went numb, and a shadow of death once again enveloped him!