Slaying the Fire Qilin

Roar!

With a beast roar that tore through the cloud cover, the ink-colored miasma wrapped around the Fire Kirin exploded with a bang, shooting skyward like countless torrents of molten lava and burning the Plague God's poison barrier until it sizzled.

The Plague God transformed into a shadowy figure and flew backward into the void. That mass of black fog twisted like a waning candle in the firelight before finally dispersing into several wisps of green smoke to temporarily avoid the sharp edge.

At that moment, Qi Miaoxuan's running figure suddenly blurred. In the midst of his charge, he actually transformed into a giant blade blazing with mysterious light.

The blade swept toward the Fire Kirin's flank with the force of wind and thunder. The clang of metal striking metal echoed through the valley, and a half-foot-long gash split open across its azure-gold scales. Scalding crimson blood spurted from the blade mark, scorching strings of white smoke from the rock when it hit the ground.

"So it really was you, you dog!"

The Fire Kirin's scarlet pupils abruptly contracted. It actually spoke human tongue, glaring at Qi Miaoxuan floating in the air as it roared, "Where is my child?"

Qi Miaoxuan floated in the air and gave a heh heh laugh. "Beast, I took your little beast and stewed it into soup. It tasted pretty good, so now I've come back to take you home and stew you too!"

"You deserve to die!"

The flames around the Fire Kirin swelled madly like an erupting volcano, while the blood vessels beneath its scales bulged with rage like red snakes. Its front hoof stomped violently upon the ground, and dark blue fire tongues shot from the cracked stone crevices. Accompanied by a second roar that shattered the cloud layers, the enormous beast fell into a frenzied state of flames devouring body and heart.

"Let me test your mettle!"

Gu Mo gripped the Grand Void Sword and slashed out. Vast Sword Qi surged toward the Fire Kirin like a great river bursting through its banks.

The Fire Kirin's scarlet pupils suddenly contracted, and the molten lava churning in its chest cavity erupted with its violent fury. Its front hoof smashed the ground apart, azure purple fire tongues shooting from the fractured stone crevices, while a beast roar powerful enough to shatter the clouds exploded first.

The sound waves rippled outward in tangible rings, making the air hum. The surging Sword Qi was instantly shattered and scattered.

"What a formidable Fire Kirin. I'm no match for it!"

Gu Mo shouted his praise. He tapped his toe against the rubble, twirling the Grand Void Sword into half a sword flower before him to block. The energy wave forced him several steps back, his robe hem snapping in the wind.

Qi Miaoxuan was utterly dumbfounded.

But he had no time to think, because the Fire Kirin had already leaped into the air and pounced toward him like a charging sun.

In that instant, Qi Miaoxuan's figure abruptly vanished like ink dripping into boiling water.

The Fire Kirin had barely swung its flame-wreathed long tail in a horizontal sweep when a cold gleam flashed beneath its ribs—it was a Broad-bladed Ghost-head Saber!

The saber blade carried the sound of wind and thunder as it split the air, striking the scales with a clang. Amid the scattering sparks, it ploughed out a blood trough half an inch deep.

Before the Fire Kirin could turn around, the blade light transformed into a streak of flowing light and flew backward. Three zhang away, it condensed once more into Qi Miaoxuan's figure. He flicked his fingertips, and blood beads rolled from the blade, scorching sizzling white smoke from the rocks when they struck the ground.

"Roar—!"

The Fire Kirin howled in pain and threw back its head, spraying out a fan-shaped pillar of fire. The flames were not ordinary red, but golden-red with the texture of glazed crystal. Wherever they passed, even space rippled with distortion.

At that moment, the Plague God's black fog coiled around its neck like a ghost. Dark green poisonous fog seeped from the black mist, infiltrating its flesh through the gaps in its scales. The flames around the Fire Kirin's neck immediately dimmed several degrees, and web-like black spots emerged across its scales.

"Beast, die well..."

The Plague God's cold snicker came from within the black fog. He let the Fire Kirin's flames repeatedly pass through his body, constantly burning away the black mist, only for it to gather again the next moment. No matter how the Fire Kirin burned him, it could not harm him.

"Nascent Soul!"

The Fire Kirin shook its head in fury. A chain of explosions erupted from its mane, and the sound waves hammered outward in all directions. Suddenly, it spat out a purple-red flame, which instantly condensed into a Fire Lotus. The phantom Fire Lotus abruptly bloomed, then closed in the next instant into a ball of fire. In that moment, the air burned into ashes and the earth scorched apart inch by inch.

The Plague God was wrapped inside the Fire Lotus like a moth to a flame. A shrill scream erupted from the black fog. No matter how he struggled, he could not break free. This flame could actually burn and imprison even a Nascent Soul.

"Ah! Beast, you deserve to die..."

The Plague God transformed into streams of poisonous fog and slammed madly against the fireball like headless flies. Then he suddenly roared, "You two, stop standing there watching the show!"

Following the Plague God's shout,

Qi Miaoxuan leaped into midair and transformed into a spear, thrusting toward the fireball. Countless streams of spear qi fell like silver rain through a forest, and under the dense barrage, the fireball was pierced apart.

The Plague God immediately floated out. Poisonous fog gathered around him once more as he shouted, "Don't let your guard down. This beast has mastered the Great Dao Fire Source. In theory, it can burn anything..."

However, before the Plague God could finish speaking,

The Fire Kirin had already charged into the sky, its body falling like a meteor crashing into the earth. When its front hoof came down, dazzling sparks burst from the air.

The spear transformed from Qi Miaoxuan was crushed beneath the giant beast's iron hoof, humming and trembling. The mysterious light along the spear body shattered inch by inch, and his true body was sent flying like a kite with its string cut.

At that moment, the Fire Kirin spat out a light beam toward Qi Miaoxuan. Just as the beam caught up to him, Qi Miaoxuan crossed his arms before his chest. Golden light immediately blazed around him, and a Golden Great Bell engraved with patterns expanded with a boom.

"Clang—!"

Before the bell's chime could fade, it shattered into countless pieces of gold foil. The light beam, carrying the tyrannical force of the Great Dao Fire Source, smashed Qi Miaoxuan backward. Along its path, the ground was ploughed into charred black deep ravines, while rubble burned into flowing fire amid the energy waves.

He finally crashed against a stone wall beside Gu Mo, but Gu Mo casually slashed the splashing magma into powder with one stroke of his sword.

Gu Mo twirled the Grand Void Sword into a sword flower, and the Sword Qi lifted by its tip extinguished the flames on Qi Miaoxuan's robe hem. He mocked, "Old Qi, you're not much either. How did you manage to wound this Fire Kirin single-handedly back then?"

Qi Miaoxuan quickly got up, patted the dust from himself, and transmitted irritably, "Kid, stop making sarcastic remarks here. I do have a move that can kill the Fire Kirin, but aren't I saving it to help you deal with the Plague God later? If I use it now, how are we supposed to fight the Plague God afterward? Don't be fooled by how the Plague God looks suppressed by the Fire Kirin right now. That fellow is holding back!"

Gu Mo said, "You don't need to hold back. I really want to see that move of yours..."

"Don't fool around," Qi Miaoxuan said. "Kid, I know you have a sword technique capable of unmatched slaughter. In a moment, I'll get the Plague God to cooperate with me. We'll forcibly restrain the Fire Kirin. Take that instant to stab half a zhang beneath its right front leg. There's a wound there that I left behind back then. It can kill the Fire Kirin!"

At this moment,

The Fire Kirin repelled the Plague God again, then descended with sky-filling fire clouds. What spewed from the giant beast's nostrils was no longer flame, but solidified Golden Sound Blades that slashed toward them like countless interwoven ring-pommel sabers.

In an instant, the city wall and the ground were sliced apart evenly by the sound waves. The terrifying might bore down upon Gu Mo and Qi Miaoxuan.

A bow instantly appeared in Qi Miaoxuan's hand. He drew it hard, and dense arrows appeared, transforming into countless streams of light that shot out and severed those sound waves. At that same instant, his entire body transformed into an arrow and shot forward, piercing several wounds into the Fire Kirin and knocking off several scales. The blood seeping from the gaps in its scales had already become burning sparks, yet those wounds squirmed and healed at a visible rate.

The Plague God's black fog darted toward the Fire Kirin's knee joint like a venomous snake. Human-face phantoms rolling within the poisonous fog gnawed at the newly grown scales.

The Fire Kirin swung its burning tailbone, and the fireballs blasting from its tail tip crashed toward Qi Miaoxuan's arrow rain like meteors.

Golden-red firelight collided with countless streams of light. Amid the rubble flung up by the energy wave, Qi Miaoxuan flew backward like a kite with its string cut. Yet before he could strike the rock wall, he abruptly transformed into a short blade, its cold gleam stabbing straight toward the Fire Kirin's furiously widened eye socket.

The Fire Kirin violently shook its head, its claw carrying scorching fire-wind as it slammed toward the short blade. Sparks scattered with a crisp clang, and Qi Miaoxuan's figure dispersed again, transforming into a spear, a halberd, a shield, and other weapons that attacked the Kirin's body in turn. Each transformation carried a different Martial Dao True Intent—spear thrusting like a dragon shattering blazing flames, halberd sweeping like waves shaking scales, shield standing like a mountain blocking the fire flow. The Fire Kirin roared again and again, while the clash of weapons in the void became as dense as a sudden downpour.

The Plague God's black fog followed like a shadow. The instant the Fire Kirin raised its head to block Qi Miaoxuan's battle axe, the fog abruptly transformed into countless poison needles that shot toward its open giant mouth.

The instant the poisonous fog exploded in its throat, the fire pillar spewed by the Fire Kirin was dyed a bizarre dark purple, like ink dripping into boiling water. Even the energy wave it exhaled carried a pungent, fishy sweetness.

It smashed the ground apart in fury. The magma gushing from the cracks had barely touched the poisonous fog diffused by the Plague God when it sizzled and solidified into purple-black crystals, stabbing back at the Kirin's feet like spikes.

At the same time, the mountain-splitting axe transformed from Qi Miaoxuan struck its shoulder blade with the force of wind and thunder. With a thunderous bang, the azure-gold scales split apart. Yet flesh buds wriggled madly from the wound like insects, forming even harder new armor within several breaths. The scale surface even glimmered with the glaze-like sheen of cooled magma.

Within the battle circle, Qi Miaoxuan's ever-changing weapons restrained the Fire Kirin's movements like a kaleidoscope, every attack landing precisely on old wounds or gaps in its scales. The Plague God's poisonous fog, meanwhile, clung like maggots to bone, always seeping into its flesh whenever the Fire Kirin's defenses opened and slowing its regeneration.

One man and one Nascent Soul coordinated without a single crack—when Qi Miaoxuan transformed into a long whip and wrapped around the Kirin's neck, the Plague God's black fog slipped into its ear; when the Fire Kirin swung its tail and knocked aside Qi Miaoxuan's halberd, the Plague God had already laid down a poison barrier where its feet would land.

Though the azure-gold giant beast possessed flames that could burn the heavens and an undying body, it gradually found itself unable to cope under such dense attacks. The flames around its body flickered between bright and dim from the erosion of poison, and every roar carried suppressed pain. It was steadily pinned down by the two in the center of the scorched earth.

And at this moment,

Gu Mo flew backward onto the rooftop of a ruined wall. The Grand Void Sword was already wreathed in radiance. He stood with both feet crushing tiles beneath him, his robe hem swelling like a sail under invisible Sword Intent. The moment his sword tip angled toward the heavens, the cloud layer was split by Sword Intent, opening a silver seam.

True qi flowed and gathered along the sword spine, condensing into a light pearl about an inch long at its tip. The pearl flickered constantly, and every flash made the air produce a faint cracking sound—he was pouring all his true intent into the sword embryo, brewing the Vertical and Horizontal Sword Intent capable of piercing the Fire Kirin's defenses.

Roar!

The Fire Kirin sensed Gu Mo gathering strength. It suddenly arched its body and sprayed out a circular fire wave, sending Qi Miaoxuan and the Plague God flying before charging straight toward Gu Mo.

At that moment, Qi Miaoxuan's figure abruptly scattered, transforming into a thousand black iron chains that shot from ground fissures and the shadows of rock crevices. The chains danced like spirit snakes, weaving into an iron net in midair that covered the Fire Kirin's neck.

The Plague God's black fog seeped into the chain links like oil stains. Corrosive white smoke rose from every inch that touched the Kirin's scales.

"Roar!"

The Fire Kirin wildly shook its head. The sound waves erupting from its mane made the iron chains hum, but the poisonous fog spread backward along the chains, corroding web-like cracks across the scales around its throat. The chains suddenly tightened, and boundless force erupted where the links crossed, binding its four hooves—which had crushed the ground apart—like a rice dumpling. Even its flailing tail was tightly bound by several chains.

"Gu Mo, make a move!"

The instant the Fire Kirin struggled with all its strength and sparks erupted from its scales, Qi Miaoxuan's shout came from the void.

In that instant, Gu Mo's figure split the sky like a meteor. At the moment he landed, heaven and earth suddenly lost their color—the morning light within ten li was swallowed by ink-colored ripples, the city walls faded into the plain white of Xuan paper, and the whole world fell into black and white.

The raging flames around the Fire Kirin solidified into glazed cracks, and even the scattering sparks hung suspended in the air like crushed diamonds cast across the sky.

Time twisted into a motionless string. The path of wind sweeping away tattered clouds froze into a long ink-wash painting. The lines of shattered rubble hung in midair, and even the violent light in the Fire Kirin's wide-open pupils turned into fireflies trapped in amber.

At the same time, Gu Mo unleashed the Dao Heart Seed Demon Great Technique. A pale-gold current of Nascent Soul light surged from the center of his forehead, wrapping around the spine of the Grand Void Sword like a living thing.

The sword body gave off a dragon's roar-like hum in the black-and-white world. Ancient runes emerged upon it and lit up one by one, linking together like stars forming a river. Gu Mo's Nascent Soul Power flowed along the sword guard, and the instant his fingertips touched the hilt, soaring Sword Intent erupted from the scabbard.

At that instant, the Vertical and Horizontal Sword Intent exploded. The Grand Void Sword transformed into a ribbon of white light that tore through the night curtain, and before the sword force even arrived, it ploughed out a ravine three zhang deep across the ground.

The Fire Kirin's scarlet pupils contracted sharply. It had just begun to lower its head to spray out a pillar of fire when the white light precisely pierced the wounded gap between the thinnest scales of its chest armor.

The instant the vast Sword Intent pierced its heart,

A thunderous explosion burst within the Fire Kirin's body. Azure-gold blood mixed with flames spurted from the wound, while ice crystals rapidly condensed around the penetrating injury.

Its enormous body trembled violently, the light in its burning eyes gradually fading. Finally, it fell to the ground with a muffled sound. Amid the splashing flames, Gu Mo stood with his sword sheathed, the blood beads on its blade already evaporated by Sword Intent into curling white vapor.

Boom!

The instant the Fire Kirin hit the ground, the earth suddenly trembled violently. The savage light in its burning pupils had not completely faded, and a dying beast's low growl, mixed with blood foam, rose from its throat.

Its fiery body suddenly arched upward. Its broken ribs gave a crisp crack beneath the skin, and the unhealed wound at its shoulder blade suddenly erupted with red-gold sparks. This giant beast actually used its front hooves to brace itself, attempting to lift its mountain-like body. The extinguished flames in its mane suddenly reignited, transforming into glazed flames that wrapped around its limbs.

"Roar..."

That roar carried the sound of silk ripping in unwillingness, shattering the tattered clouds overhead and causing Gu Mo's Black and White Domain to break apart and vanish like an illusion.

However, it had barely set one hind hoof upon the ground when countless piercing Sword Qi erupted from within its body!

The Vertical and Horizontal Sword Intent attached to the Dao Heart Seed Demon Great Technique that Gu Mo had injected into its heart meridians erupted suddenly. Like sleeping thunder awakening, it spread in a web from the penetrating wound to its limbs and bones.

Azure-gold blood mixed with ice crystals spurted out. Every drop condensed into a burning meteor in midair, while Sword Qi shot from the gaps in its scales like a flowing galaxy, slicing its attempting-to-rise body until sparks flew everywhere.

"Pfft—!"

A wrist-thick stream of Sword Qi burst from its tailbone, slashing the city wall behind it into powder.

The Fire Kirin's enormous body convulsed violently. The newly gathered flames were shredded by Sword Qi into countless light butterflies, while ice crystals crawled along its blood vessels and covered its heart, freezing its final trace of life.

It swung its head futilely, its horns smashing the nearby pillars of magma. Yet more Sword Qi surged from its eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, weaving a dense, airtight sword net across its body.

At last, this giant beast that had once burned the heavens and split the earth released a long, mournful whimper. Its burning pupils completely turned to dead ash, and its enormous body crashed down, shaking deep ravines like spiderwebs across the ground.

At that instant, the System Prompt sounded in Gu Mo's mind:

[Slain Seven Star Wanted Criminal]

[Obtained Star Reward—Max-Level Tathagata Divine Palm]

[Claim?]

Gu Mo was somewhat surprised. He had actually killed it, and with this kind of mortal power.

In terms of energy and destructive force, the Fire Kirin was immensely powerful. But in terms of Life Level, Gu Mo felt that it seemed inferior even to an Ascension Realm cultivator. At the very least, it was difficult to kill an Ascension Realm cultivator with such purely mortal power.

Yet now, this Fire Kirin had been killed.

However, at that instant,

Gu Mo suddenly sensed a strange energy emerge from the Fire Kirin's body. He looked up and saw a wisp of peculiar light seep out from within it.

It was a thumb-sized Purple Flame, like a congealed star fragment. As it floated in the charred black air, it caused the surrounding flames to lose their color—it was as small as a firefly, yet glazed patterns like crystallized magma flowed across its surface. Every flicker released energy ripples that shook space itself, making even the Nascent Soul at Gu Mo's forehead quiver.

Before he could think further, his fingertips had already drawn upon the cold energy around him. In an instant, frost fog across the sky gathered into a mysterious ice prison, closing around the Purple Flame like a giant clam snapping shut.

Yet when the ice sphere touched the edge of the flame, it was as if it had touched air. There was no temperature and no substance. The Purple Flame passed directly through the ice wall like it was a phantom, while the glazed patterns on its surface grew even brighter.

Gu Mo's pupils constricted. He instantly spread out the Black and White Domain. Heaven and earth within ten zhang abruptly lost their color. Burning rubble froze in midair, and even the flow of time rippled with stagnation.

But the Purple Flame still passed through the gray-white curtain of space without obstruction, and he still could not sense any tangible existence from it.

Gu Mo's pupils narrowed slightly as Nascent Soul Power poured into the Grand Void Sword like a raging tide.

The blade erupted with piercing green light, transforming into ribbon-like Sword Intent that slashed toward the Purple Flame. Yet the instant the blade touched the flame, it passed through like a flowing shadow, without the slightest sense of contact.

He could only watch helplessly as that wisp of Purple Flame floated away, utterly unable to stop it.

At that moment,

Several dozen dark-red iron chains suddenly extended from the void, instantly binding the Purple Flame. With repeated crack, crack sounds, the chains wildly twisted and wound around it, quickly forming a fist-sized blood-red iron ball that trapped the Purple Flame and fell rapidly.

At the same time, a figure emerged from the void. It was Qi Miaoxuan. He caught the Blood-red Iron Ball in one hand and said with a light smile, "Gu Mo, you once asked me how White Jade Capital could be killed. I told you there were two methods, but I only mentioned one at the time. Now, I'll tell you the second!"

Gu Mo recalled that night more than ten days ago, when he had first arrived in Mobei. He had asked Qi Miaoxuan how to deal with White Jade Capital. At the time, Qi Miaoxuan had only mentioned the first method: gaining power on the same Life Level as White Jade Capital.

Because Ye Jinglan had interrupted them at the time, Gu Mo had forgotten to ask about the second method.

Qi Miaoxuan said, "The second method is to kill it as we killed the Fire Kirin. In truth, the Fire Kirin's origin is the same as White Jade Capital's origin."

Qi Miaoxuan weighed the iron ball in his hand and said, "This Purple Flame is the Ancestral Fire of heaven and earth. For various reasons, it developed intelligence and became the Fire Kirin, becoming an existence with genuine life.

"In truth, the highest Life Level in this world is the Ascension Realm. Things like White Jade Capital and the Ancestral Fire are not really lifeforms. You may understand them as being Above Ascension, or you may understand them as laws.

"Laws cannot be killed. But once a law possesses life, its intelligence can be killed. As for its true body, it can be sealed with matter of the same level, such as this iron ball in my hand.

"So, if you want to kill White Jade Capital, you can wait for—or guide—White Jade Capital's intelligence to mature and become a true lifeform, just like this Fire Kirin. Once its intelligence has been erased, White Jade Capital will need countless years and countless chance encounters before it can possibly develop intelligence again and regain the ability to wreak havoc upon the mortal world."

Gu Mo nodded. "So that's how it is!"

At that moment, the fire realm vanished, and the scorching heat between heaven and earth disappeared in an instant. But in that very instant—

The sky curtain was suddenly soaked through by black fog. Thick black fog poured down from the Nine Heavens like churning asphalt, swallowing the streets and towers whole.

The final wisp of daylight was dragged by the mist tide beneath the horizon, and the world sank into sticky darkness. Only warped fog shadows floated through the void like drowned souls, sometimes gathering into savage ghost faces, sometimes transforming into claws that ripped the night curtain, producing faint hisses amid the spreading miasma.

"Long Life Being, Gu Mo..."

Within the darkness, amid the black fog that filled the sky, the Plague God floated indistinctly in the void and spoke in a heavy voice. "There is no mortal enmity between us. Now that the Fire Kirin has been slain, your purpose has been fulfilled. I can allow you to take the Fire Kirin's Body. From now on, we shall keep to our own sides of the river and never offend each other. How about it?"

Gu Mo and Qi Miaoxuan exchanged a glance.

The two nodded at the same time. Then Qi Miaoxuan suddenly charged toward the Plague God and transmitted, "Gu Mo, make a move!"

At that instant,

Qi Miaoxuan directly transformed into a saber, instantly slicing through the domain formed by the Plague God and cutting apart the black fog around him. He immediately transformed back into human form and struck with his palm, forcing the Plague God's Nascent Soul Body out of the black fog.

At the same time,

Gu Mo thrust out with his sword. The Black and White Domain descended, and in a flash, Nascent Soul Power attached itself to the Grand Void Sword as he unleashed the Vertical and Horizontal Sword Intent once again.

This sword was so fast that it left neither shadow nor trace.

With this sword, Gu Mo's Nascent Soul left his body.

Yet this sword did not strike the Plague God's Nascent Soul Body. Instead, it pierced straight into Qi Miaoxuan's chest, its tip passing through his heart and emerging from his back.

At that instant,

The Nascent Soul and sword passed through Qi Miaoxuan's body, then vanished.

Qi Miaoxuan looked down at the blood hole in his chest, then slowly raised his head. A faint smile appeared on his face. "When... did you discover it?"