His escape light shot forward, tearing through the sky and leaving that immortal island, radiant with countless rosy lights and auspicious mists, far behind until it became a hazy splash of color at the edge of sea and heaven.
Heroic spirit surged within him. After a hundred years of healing and discussing the Dao, not only had his cultivation advanced to the Mid True Immortal realm, but he had also forged deep friendships with four future core figures of the Jie Sect. This opening was secure!
Yet the primordial world was vast beyond measure, nothing ordinary.
Dao Xuan pushed the Heavenly Water Evasion Art to its limit, borrowing the power of the Nine Heavens' astral winds and clouds. Though his escape speed was swift, after traveling countless tens of thousands of miles, all he saw below was the endless blue expanse of the boundless East Sea.
Sun and moon turned, stars appeared and vanished.
Dao Xuan focused solely on racing toward the direction where Kunlun Mountain lay in the unseen distance.
One day, while riding his escape light through the sea of clouds, he suddenly sensed the moisture below thinning, while the astral winds carried a heavier scent of earth.
His thoughts stirred, and he lowered his cloud.
Parting layer after layer of mist, his vision suddenly opened up!
There before him:
Mountains rose and fell like crouching dragons, great rivers surged like silken bands.
Ancient trees towered to blot out sun and moon, strange peaks pierced the heavens and shattered the clouds.
Beasts thundered through forests and ravines, birds cried through the ninefold skies.
All creatures competed freely beneath the frosty heavens; the primordial land stood magnificent once more!
No longer was it a monotonous blue sea, but the vast, heavy primordial continent, brimming with untamed life!
Mountain ranges stretched like dormant giant dragons, great rivers wound like jade belts, ancient forests covered the heavens, and strange peaks and jagged rocks thrust into the clouds.
Countless nameless primordial beasts charged and roared through the mountains and woods, while ferocious birds soared overhead with piercing cries. Everything flourished in a scene bursting with vitality!
The bleak shadow left by the Dragon-Phoenix Calamity seemed to have faded with time. The myriad races of the primordial world were entering a new age of recovery and contention!
"Finally, I've left the East Sea and set foot on the primordial continent!"
Dao Xuan was invigorated, his heart full of emotion.
After confirming his direction, he turned his escape light and continued racing northwest along the continent's edge.
Yet beneath this flourishing vitality, undercurrents churned.
Dao Xuan's divine sense was keen, and during his flight, he had already faintly detected a vague baleful aura pervading heaven and earth.
This baleful aura was not as world-destroying as it had been during the calamity, yet it was deeper and more widespread, like a dormant volcano that could erupt at any time.
What he saw along the way confirmed his senses.
Across the land, the figures of two great races stood out most prominently—and opposed each other most fiercely!
The first was the Witch Clan!
Behold the Witch Clan:
Being over ten feet tall was commonplace, their knotted muscles coiled like dragons.
Their faces were dark red or indigo, crimson hair standing upright, fangs bared.
They wore crude animal hide armor and carried great axes and bone clubs.
Their blood and qi pierced the skies like furnaces; as they ran, the earth split and mountains crumbled!
They cultivated no primordial spirits, only their bodies, hunting all living things for food!
These Witch Clan warriors all possessed surging blood and qi. The earth trembled faintly beneath their steps, and their roars boomed like thunder.
They cultivated neither primordial spirits nor the Heavenly Dao, focusing only on honing their incomparably powerful bodies and ruling the land through the most primitive, violent strength.
And their "food" was the flesh and blood of the Demon Clan, rich with spiritual energy!
The second was the Demon Clan!
Now behold the Demon Clan:
Some took the forms of wolves, tigers, and leopards; others transformed into half-human, half-beast bodies.
Demonic Aura rolled into the sky as they called friends and gathered in the mountains and forests.
Sharp claws and fangs flashed with cold light, each displaying its innate divine abilities.
They formed formations to resist the Witch Clan's might, demon winds sweeping the ground as Black Sand billowed!
The Demon Clan came in countless varieties. Some maintained their beast forms, while others could already transform into half-human, half-demon bodies.
They absorbed the essence of the sun and moon, cultivated demon cores and primordial spirits, and possessed varied innate divine abilities.
Faced with the Witch Clan's hunts, the Demon Clan refused to yield. They often gathered in groups, wielded demon arts, and formed formations to resist.
Though the two races had not yet erupted into an all-out war that swept across the primordial world, small-scale conflicts, hunts, and counter-hunts played out across this vast land almost without pause!
Dao Xuan had personally witnessed it:
In one forest, several Witch Clan warriors hunted a winged demon tiger at the Early True Immortal realm.
The demon tiger had wings growing from its ribs and spewed poisonous fire from its mouth. It was exceptionally fierce.
But the Witch Clan possessed boundless strength and worked in perfect coordination. Their great axes and bone clubs smashed down in turns, battering the demon tiger until its bones broke and sinews snapped. It died howling.
The Witch Clan warriors cheered as they carved up its flesh and feasted heartily.
In another river valley, a pack of Wolf Demons set a trap. Demon winds swept up poisonous sand and miasma as they ambushed a small isolated squad of Witch Clan warriors.
Caught off guard, the Witch Clan warriors inhaled the poisonous miasma and their movements slowed. The Wolf Demons tore open their chests with sharp claws in a scene of utter brutality.
Baleful aura filled the air, and blood qi soared into the heavens!
Dao Xuan's heart pounded at the sight.
He knew full well that his Mid True Immortal cultivation was merely that of a somewhat larger ant before the mighty Witch Clan and Demon Clan experts who were often at the peak of True Immortal, Mystic Immortal, or even Golden Immortal levels.
Once drawn into such a battle, the slightest carelessness would lead to death and the dissipation of his Dao.
"Stay hidden! I absolutely have to stay hidden!" Alarm bells rang wildly in Dao Xuan's heart.
"Kunlun Mountain is the safe zone. Getting an official position is what matters! Don't meddle in idle affairs—detour, detour!"
He became even more cautious, suppressing his aura to the utmost. His escape light flew as close as possible to mountain shadows. Whenever he sensed signs of fighting ahead, he detoured early, willing to travel farther rather than approach.
Proceeding with such caution, he remained safe for some time.
Yet the primordial world was vast, and accidents always descended when least expected.
One day, Dao Xuan flew above a vast, ancient mountain range.
The mountains were majestic, ancient trees towered overhead, and ravines ran deep. Spiritual energy was fairly dense, but the area also carried a savage, primeval ferocity.
Dao Xuan swept the area with his divine sense. Finding no large-scale battle, he prepared to accelerate through the valley.
But just as he reached its depths, a sudden change erupted!
"Roar—!"
"Awwooo—!"
Deafening roars and shrill wolf howls suddenly exploded from the dense forest below!
Violent airwaves mixed with rich bloodshed and baleful aura surged into the sky like an erupting volcano!
Dao Xuan's escape light stalled, his expression changing slightly as his divine sense instantly swept downward.
In a relatively open clearing below, a bloody battle was underway!
On one side stood three Witch Clan warriors, each over ten feet tall!
The leader:
His face was dark red, his crimson hair blazing like fire and standing upright strand by strand!
A beast-bone headband wrapped around his forehead. His upper body was bare, his muscles knotted like ancient tree roots, and mysterious witch patterns covered his bronze skin!
He wore a skirt made from the hide of some unknown ferocious beast, his bare feet striking the ground like war drums!
He held a Mountain-Splitting Great Axe the size of a door panel. Its edge gleamed with cold light, radiating a fearsome baleful aura! His cultivation was astonishingly at the Late True Immortal realm!
Behind him stood two more Witch Clan warriors, their faces as hard as bronze and iron, fangs exposed. One carried an enormous bone club, while the other gripped a heavy stone hammer. Their blood and qi rose like wolf smoke, and both were at the Mid True Immortal realm!
They had formed a simple battle formation, surrounding two gigantic wolves covered in silver-white scales. Their eyes resembled two cold crescent moons, and their fangs flashed with icy light!
The giant wolves:
Their entire bodies were silver-white, as though forged from moonlight!
Their deep blue eyes held phantom moon disks drifting within them!
What poured from their mouths and noses was not foul wind, but icy silver frost-flames that chilled to the bone!
When their claws swung, they unleashed not wind blades, but silver cold radiance that tore through space!
They were unmistakably Howling Moon Celestial Wolves, a Demon Clan lineage of extraordinary bloodline and notorious ferocity!
The lead wolf demon radiated a vicious aura and was likewise at the Late True Immortal realm, while the other was slightly weaker but still at the Mid True Immortal realm!
"Witch Clan brutes! You dare invade the territory of my Howling Moon Celestial Wolves? Today, I'll feast on your flesh and blood!"
The lead Howling Moon Celestial Wolf spoke in human language, its voice cold as ten-thousand-year ice. Moonlight power surged around it, transforming into an ice crystal storm mixed with silver cold radiance that ripped through space as it swept toward the Witch Clan Leader!
"Hmph! Featherless beasts! Your flesh and blood will make a fine offering to our Witch Clan battle banner!"
The Witch Clan Leader grinned viciously. Without dodging, he swung his great axe in a full arc and fiercely cleaved into the ice crystal storm with a force capable of splitting mountains and cracking earth!
Boom! Crack, crack, crack!
The axe light was like a streak of silk, forcibly slicing a huge gap through the ice crystal storm!
Yet the scattered cold currents and silver radiance still scraped his skin painfully, leaving pale marks behind!
Violent force exploded outward, ice crystals and shattered stones flying everywhere as the surrounding ancient trees froze and split apart!
"Kill!"
The other two Witch Clan warriors roared and lunged forward. Their great axe, bone club, and stone hammer carried immense force as they smashed toward the other Howling Moon Celestial Wolf!
The wolf demon howled. Frost-flames, silver frost, and silver claws met their attacks head-on. The clash of ice and fire, metal and stone, rang out without end!
Moonlight frost-flames collided violently with the Witch Clan's blood and qi, whipping up ice shards and dust throughout the sky! Violent energy shockwaves spread outward in ripples, destroying 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 a fight between such tough opponents?"
Without hesitation, he immediately turned his escape light, preparing to fly along the mountain wall and leave this troublesome place as quickly as possible!
But plans could not keep up with fate!
At the instant he turned, the battle below suddenly changed!
The Witch Clan Leader split apart the ice crystal storm with one axe and was about to pursue when the crafty wolf demon leader hindered him with a mouthful of its natal moonlight essence!
That essence contained extreme cold. Even the Witch Clan's powerful body became stiff from it.
The Witch Clan Leader roared and swept his great axe sideways. His immense blood and qi transformed into a condensed crimson axe force as he sought to split apart the moonlight essence!
The crimson axe force was peerlessly powerful, tearing through the air with a piercing shriek!
Yet the wolf demon leader suddenly leaped toward the side and rear, actually redirecting that terrifying strike toward... the mountain wall where Dao Xuan was hiding!
Rumble!
The crimson axe force missed the wolf demon and instead smashed viciously into the mountain wall not far below Dao Xuan!
Its target was precisely a thousand-year-old tree beside Dao Xuan's escape light, lush with branches and leaves, which he had been using to conceal himself!
"Fuck! Caught in the crossfire?!
Is this some prehistoric version of insurance fraud?"
Warnings blared madly in Dao Xuan's heart!
That crimson axe force contained the violent power of a Late True Immortal, and its speed was astonishingly fast!
Dao Xuan had no time to avoid it completely!
At the moment of life and death, the instinct to survive overwhelmed everything else!
"Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd!" Dao Xuan roared inwardly. The dark-gold short halberd he had kept clasped in his hand was swung out almost the moment his divine sense moved!
All his magical power poured into it without reservation!
Buzz!
A dark-gold thread, condensed to the extreme and capable of tearing through space, shot upward with incomparable precision toward the central node of the crimson axe force—where its power circulated most violently, and where it was also weakest!
Sssht—!
Like a hot knife through butter!
The seemingly indestructible crimson axe force was pierced straight through by the dark-gold thread!
The law-breaking power erupted. The violent blood and qi within the axe force instantly became chaotic and collapsed, scattering into crimson motes of light!
Yet though Dao Xuan had broken the axe force, the dissipating force sent his own blood and qi churning. His escape light shook violently, and he could no longer perfectly suppress his aura. A trace of Mid True Immortal metal aura leaked out!
"Hmm?!"
On the battlefield below, both the Witch Clan Leader and the Howling Moon Celestial Wolf leader sensed almost simultaneously this sudden aura that belonged to neither side!
As the dust settled somewhat, the Witch Clan Leader's bell-sized eyes swept sharply toward the sky and instantly locked onto Dao Xuan's somewhat disheveled figure!
"You there, Daoist! Sneaking about and hiding your head! You must be an accomplice of those demon wolves!"
One Witch Clan warrior holding an enormous bone club, the closest to Dao Xuan and at the Mid True Immortal realm, gave a vicious grin as ferocity filled his eyes.
"I'll sacrifice you to my bone club first! Get down here!"
Before his words had even faded, he stomped both feet against the ground, causing the earth to explode!
He shot skyward like a cannonball. The enormous bone club in his hand, fashioned from the leg bone of some unknown ferocious beast and wreathed in crimson baleful aura, smashed down toward Dao Xuan's head amid a vicious gale that tore through the air!
Its force was immense enough to shatter steles and split rocks!
The strike was fast! Ruthless! Precise! It sealed off every avenue of escape!
Dao Xuan's scalp went numb!
A chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of the head!
Being dragged into close combat with a Mid True Immortal Witch Clan warrior was incomparably dangerous!
"You've gone too far!"
A cold gleam flashed through Dao Xuan's eyes. Even a clay figurine had some temper, much less him—the transformed form of the first golden flood dragon born under heaven and earth!
Did they really think he was easy prey?!
Unable to evade, he could only meet it head-on!
"Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking! Break for me!"
Dao Xuan roared inwardly and charged forward rather than retreating!
Golden light surged from the Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd in his hand. Twenty-seven Innate Restrictions circulated madly as the sharp Dao intent capable of shattering all laws condensed at the halberd's tip!
He did not choose to block the bone club head-on. Instead, he poured all his magical power, along with the portion he had only just recovered, into the law-breaking halberd without holding anything back!
At the instant the enormous bone club was about to crash down, Dao Xuan's body shifted slightly like a ghost, narrowly avoiding the club's frontal force!
At the same time, the Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd in his hand struck like a venomous snake, launching after the attack yet arriving first!
A dark-golden gleam, condensed to the utmost and almost materialized, shot out soundlessly. Yet it was faster than lightning, piercing with flawless precision toward the vital point on the Witch Clan man's neck, where the circulation of his qi and blood had slowed slightly after he swung his club with all his strength!
This halberd strike contained all the mana of Dao Xuan, a Mid True Immortal, and further unleashed the law-breaking divine might of the Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd!
He sought no defense, only a single fatal strike!
The Witch Clan man's eyes still held a savage, bloodthirsty grin, as though he had already seen the Daoist smashed into a pulp.
Yet in the next instant, he felt a chill at his neck!
Rip!
A faint yet incomparably clear slicing sound rang out!
The dark-golden gleam flashed past!
The Witch Clan man's forward charge came to an abrupt halt!
The savage grin on his face froze instantly, and his eyes filled with incredulous shock and confusion. A thin line of blood slowly appeared across his thick neck.
Pfft!
The bloodline suddenly widened!
A massive head, still bearing an expression of shock, soared into the air! Blood gushed wildly from the severed neck like a fountain!
The huge headless body, along with that enormous bone club, crashed from the air like a broken sack, slamming heavily into the ground and sending dust flying everywhere!
Silence!
Deathly silence!
The Witch Clan warriors and Howling Moon Celestial Wolves locked in battle below all paused for an instant!
"Fifth Brother—!!!"
After that brief dead silence, the Witch Clan Leader let out a heart-rending roar filled with endless grief, fury, and rage!
His huge, bell-like eyes instantly filled with blood vessels as he stared fixedly at Dao Xuan, who stood in the air holding his halberd. His gaze seemed ready to devour Dao Xuan alive!
The other Witch Clan warrior wielding a stone hammer also let out a beastlike roar!
"An Innate Spiritual Treasure?! You dare kill my brother!!"
The Witch Clan Leader's roar shook the entire valley. Boundless baleful aura erupted from his body as though it were tangible, pulverizing the surrounding ice crystals and stones into dust!
"I'll tear you into ten thousand pieces! Grind your bones to ashes! Ah—!!"
He had completely gone berserk!
Pointing his giant axe at Dao Xuan, he no longer paid any attention to the Howling Moon Celestial Wolves. Like a mad demon, he strode forward, crushing the ground beneath his feet as he charged wildly toward Dao Xuan!
Each step carried him dozens of zhang! The Witch Clan warrior wielding the stone hammer followed closely behind, his eyes filled with nothing but frenzied killing intent!
A hint of surprise and schadenfreude flashed through the Howling Moon Celestial Wolf leader's azure wolf eyes. With a shrill howl, he actually stopped fighting. Taking the other wolf demon with him, he swept up an icy demonic wind and swiftly fled into the depths of the mountains, vanishing from sight.
The trouble had successfully been redirected!
Dao Xuan's counterkill had resolved the immediate crisis, but he had also stirred up a hornet's nest!
Looking at the two Witch Clan warriors charging toward him below like crazed ferocious beasts—especially the Late True Immortal leader whose baleful aura reached the heavens—Dao Xuan's scalp instantly went numb, and the shadow of death descended over him once more!
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