Tianchen was dead!

July 6, dusk.

Only five days remained until the Hidden Dragon Assembly ended.

Chaos Stone Ridge was a treacherous stretch of land formed by countless jagged, grotesquely shaped rocks.

At that moment, a brutal encirclement and slaughter was unfolding there.

"Screee—!!"

A phoenix cry tore through the sky.

More than fifty phoenix descendant prodigies wielded flaming spears or blazing war blades. Every attack sent scorching waves of air surging outward, burning the rocks below red-hot and blasting them apart.

The group they surrounded was in a far more wretched state.

They were a band of roughly thirty elf prodigies, but more than half had already been killed or wounded!

Their once elegant, handsome faces were smeared with blood and dust. Their splendid robes hung in tatters, and their bodies were covered in blackened burns and wounds left by sharp weapons.

They huddled back-to-back, their hastily erected shields teetering under the Phoenix Descendant Clan's savage flame attacks.

Elves kept being swallowed by flames, reduced to charcoal after agonized screams, or pierced by vicious attacks and left dead on the ground.

In just fifteen minutes, fewer than fifteen of the thirty elves remained.

The surviving elves' eyes brimmed with despair, rage, and defiance.

The three at their head were none other than the strongest prodigies under Anya's command—

Tianchen, Jiang Xuemian, and Xue Ye.

These three graceful elven talents, who had once chatted and laughed in Anya's villa, were now utterly battered.

"Xue Ye, Xue Mian," Tianchen said, his voice hoarse but resolute. "In a moment, I'll unleash everything I have and hold off that bastard Feng Feng, even if it kills me.

Seize the chance and lead the others through that gap in the northeast!

Forget everything else. Save whoever you can!"

His gaze remained locked on Feng Feng, who stood