Hongyun Falls, Violet Qi Splits into Three

Kunpeng appeared soundlessly behind Hongyun, clad in dark green feathered robes, his cheeks gaunt. Pitch-black North Sea Mystic Water coiled around him; wherever it flowed, all things withered.

The bone-piercing North Sea Mystic Water and the blazing Solar True Fire formed two heavens of water and fire. Above hung a Chaos Bell that froze space itself, trapping Hongyun tightly in the middle!

All three stared fixedly at Hongyun, their eyes brimming with yearning for the Saint realm. The scene of Yuanshi Tianzun suppressing them all with merely a wisp of his aura remained vivid in their minds.

The saying, "Beneath Saints, all are ants," was no empty phrase.

For Hongyun, this was a dead end! Three of the primordial world's foremost Quasi-Saints, one of them wielding an innate supreme treasure—over a single chance to become a Saint, they had secretly watched Hongyun for who knew how many ages, finally waiting for their opportunity!

Even if he handed over the Primordial Violet Qi, he would not escape this calamity!

From the moment Hongyun left Wuzhuang Temple, he had already been a dead man.

The innate supreme treasure Chaos Bell, together with the River Diagram and Luo Script, a treasure of deduction, concealed the heavenly secrets. Even Saints might not notice, much less Zhenyuanzi.

They had chosen to strike in this place far from Longevity Mountain and close to Kunpeng's lair precisely so that Hongyun would die without even a burial ground!

Hongyun was still a Quasi-Saint, after all. There was no way he would meekly await death. Even if he died, he would never let Di Jun and the others obtain the Primordial Violet Qi so easily.

"Whoever wants the Primordial Violet Qi can see whether he has the skill for it!" Hongyun let out a piercing shriek, battle spirit blazing anew in his eyes.

He slapped his waist, and a dark red streak shot into the sky!

"Bzzz—!"

The red light flared brilliantly, instantly transforming into a colossal gourd as large as a small mountain, dark red all over like fire!

Dark crimson Dao patterns covered the gourd's surface, exuding a savage, vicious aura. From its pitch-black opening came ripples that could throw one's soul and spirit into chaos.

It was Hongyun's natal spiritual treasure, the Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Gourd!

Hongyun formed seals with both hands, his beard and hair standing on end as he desperately poured all his mana into the gourd.

"Soul-Scattering Red Sand! Go—!"

"Boom!!!"

Like a volcano that had slumbered for countless years and could no longer be contained, the gourd's mouth spewed torrents of dark crimson sand across the heavens!

Each grain of blackish-red sand was as fine as dust, yet as heavy as a mountain, imbued with a strange power that corroded bone and scattered souls!

Hundreds of millions of dark red grains blotted out the sky and sun. As they collided, they shrieked like wailing ghosts and howling wolves, seizing the heart and soul as they instantly filled the space sealed by the Chaos Bell!

They surged straight toward Di Jun and Kunpeng.

"Useless struggle!" Di Jun snorted coldly, flames dancing in his eyes.

Light as radiant as the great sun erupted around him. "Screech—!"

A cry that tore through heaven and earth rang out!

As the light faded, a massive Golden Crow appeared, its entire body engulfed in blazing Solar True Fire.

The Golden Crow spread its wings, burning the heavens and boiling the seas!

Endless streams of golden fire, carrying terrifying heat capable of scorching all things, crashed viciously into the Soul-Scattering Red Sand that filled the sky!

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—!!!"

There was no explosion, only the piercing sound of corrosion and evaporation! The red sand rapidly melted away within the true fire;

yet the Solar True Fire was also extinguished by more than half beneath the Soul-Scattering Red Sand.

Just as Hongyun was fully driving the Soul-Scattering Gourd against the Solar True Fire, a sinister killing intent erupted from behind him!

"Die!"

Kunpeng shrieked like a night owl.

His figure transformed into an almost invisible streak of ghostly blue light, moving so swiftly that even Hongyun could not react in time!

A divine art tempered from North Sea Mystic Ice and astral winds condensed into the tip of a spear. A point of dark green icy light pierced straight toward Hongyun's back!

The North Sea Sha Qi, capable of freezing the Primordial Spirit stiff, instantly froze half of Hongyun's body and swiftly spread throughout him.

Hongyun's body stalled for an instant!

In that instant of delay, the Chaos Bell overhead suddenly shook!

"Dong—!"

It directly severed the connection between Hongyun and the Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Gourd, causing Hongyun to lose control of his spiritual treasure.

"Puh—!"

As if Mount Buzhou had crashed down upon his head, Hongyun sprayed blood from all seven orifices, his face instantly twisting out of shape!

"You want the Primordial Violet Qi? Dream on!"

A trace of madness suddenly entered Hongyun's voice. In an instant, he ignited his own body, Primordial Spirit, and the Great Dao under his command, erupting with destructive energy so terrible that even supreme powers such as Di Jun and Kunpeng changed expression!

"Not good! He's going to self-destruct his Great Dao origin! Fall back!"

Taiyi roared in alarm and fury, warning Di Jun and Kunpeng. The Chaos Bell instantly unleashed its full might, seeking to suppress Hongyun's self-destruction.

Boom!!!

An indescribable light of destruction exploded!

"Madman!" Kunpeng screamed, trying to flee.

Di Jun likewise drove the Luo Book and River Diagram with all his strength, cascading radiance falling around him to shield his body.

But it was too late!

"Rumble—!!!"

The destructive shockwave unleashed by the explosion annihilated everything around it.

A mighty expert who had cultivated for countless eras, whose cultivation had reached the quasi-sage realm, had ignited his own mana, fleshly body, Primordial Spirit, and even the laws of the Great Dao. The explosion triggered by setting all of it ablaze at once could truly be called world-destroying!

Space was torn apart layer by layer like thin paper, forming countless black rifts that devoured everything.

The terrifying shockwave was like a raging tide of chaos, madly sweeping in every direction!

Di Jun and Kunpeng bore the brunt of it. Neither possessed an innate supreme treasure for protection, and their cultivation was still a notch below Taiyi's. Their own spirit treasures could only offset a small portion of the power; their protective divine radiance shattered in an instant, and their true bodies cracked open amid the violent energy like two shattered porcelain vessels.

They were violently flung away like kites with snapped strings, their auras withering!

The power of a quasi-sage igniting everything he possessed was truly terrifying!

Space shattered like a mirror, opening into a black hole millions of zhang wide!

The violent power of space completely lost control, tearing and devouring everything!

At the heart of this storm of destruction, a strand of purple qi appeared and gave a faint yet distinct crack!

Before the disbelieving eyes of the three quasi-sages—Di Jun, Kunpeng, and Taiyi!

That foundation of the Great Dao, that key to the realm of sages—the supposedly indestructible Grandmist Purple Qi—snapped like shattered glass!

It broke into three lengths of purple qi, each different in size!

"No—!"

Di Jun let out a furious roar.

"How could it break?!"

Kunpeng's face twisted with shock and fury.

The three strands of purple qi, along with the Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Gourd covered in cracks, were swallowed by the enormous black hole and vanished in an instant into the dark rift churning with chaotic currents, without a trace!

It had happened too fast! From Hongyun's self-destruction to the Grandmist Purple Qi breaking apart and vanishing, it had taken only the blink of an eye!

The longing for the Great Dao on Di Jun, Taiyi, and Kunpeng's faces instantly turned into astonishment, fury, and a trace of inexplicable regret.

They stared fixedly at the spatial rift that was beginning to close, scarcely able to believe it. The duck was already cooked... yet it had split into three pieces? And flown away?

"Chase!"

Taiyi was the first to recover. Golden flames burst from his eyes as he barked out an order. At the same time, he activated the Chaos Bell, seeking to freeze that chaotic stretch of space.

However, at that moment!

"Hongyun—!!!"

A mournful roar, sharp enough to tear the heavens and filled with endless grief, boomed like divine thunder. It came from afar and drew near, instantly spreading through this shattered world that had just been devastated!

A furious roar tinged with grief came from the west, sounding like exploding divine thunder and startling the weakened Kunpeng!

A streak of light shot through rift after rift in space, charging madly toward them!