The newcomer held the Earth Book. His eyes were bloodshot and filled with killing intent. He was Zhenyuanzi of Wuzhuang Temple on Longevity Mountain, a man who had been both teacher and friend to Hong Yun!
He had arrived one step too late!
All he saw was Hong Yun burning away everything he had, his friend becoming a blaze of destruction!
Zhenyuanzi's eyes were so red they looked ready to bleed. He did not even glance at the more gravely wounded Di Jun. Instead, he fixed all his fury on Kunpeng, who was in equally wretched shape!
The Earth Book unfurled in his hands, conjuring phantoms of boundless mountains that crashed down upon Kunpeng!
"Kunpeng! Today, I won't stop until one of us is dead!"
Kunpeng was terrified. He had already been injured by Hong Yun's self-destruction, and all his Spirit Treasures had been destroyed. How could he stand against Zhenyuanzi now?
With a shriek, he assumed his true form: a vast roc that blotted out the sky. He tried to flee with his extraordinary speed.
Di Jun and Taiyi were allied with Kunpeng. They would not stand by while Zhenyuanzi attacked him, so each summoned a Spirit Treasure to intercept Zhenyuanzi...!
Just then!
"Di Jun! Taiyi! You'd better worry about yourselves first!"
A cold voice rang out, thick with baleful intent!
Several immensely powerful figures tore through space with their bare hands and appeared behind Di Jun. They cut off Di Jun and Taiyi's escape route and launched a fierce attack!
At their head was Dijiang, the Ancestral Witch of space and speed. He was shaped like a yellow sack, red as cinnabar fire, with six legs and four wings, and had no face!
Behind him stood several more Ancestral Witches, including Gonggong, Zhurong, and Shebishi!
Sensing Di Jun's and Taiyi's auras appear together, the Ancestral Witches had torn through space to reach them.
"What a move, Witch Race!"
Golden blood spilled from Taiyi's mouth. Furious, he forced the damaged Eastern Emperor Bell into motion. Dong— Its toll surged outward, barely holding back the Ancestral Witches' terrifying first assault.
They could hardly protect themselves now, let alone stop Zhenyuanzi from taking revenge on Kunpeng!
The battle erupted anew!
And it was even more brutal than before!
On one side, Zhenyuanzi pursued Kunpeng without regard for anything else. Phantom mountains crashed down one after another, while the wounded Kunpeng could only flee for his life, relying on his innate speed.
On the other, several Ancestral Witches surrounded and attacked the two gravely wounded Demon Emperors.
Dijiang slipped through space, appearing and vanishing without warning; Gonggong summoned the law of water, which clashed with and consumed the sun's fire; Zhurong's flames set the heavens ablaze; and Shebishi commanded the weather as poisonous miasma spread...!
Powerful laws collided and annihilated one another, plowing over the already shattered land of the Primordial World again and again!
At last!
Covered in blood, Eastern Emperor Taiyi disregarded the damage to his Great Dao and burned his own essence to drive the Eastern Emperor Bell to its limit. Enduring the Ancestral Witches' furious assault, he shielded the gravely wounded, nearly unconscious Di Jun, smashed through their blockade, and plunged into the Spatial Turbulence.
Zhenyuanzi, meanwhile, could not catch Kunpeng, whose speed was unmatched. He could only let out a grief-stricken howl toward the place where Kunpeng had vanished. It shook the Primordial World.
He looked back at the site of Hong Yun's self-destruction, devastated by grief. Earth Book in hand, he searched every stretch of the shattered land, hoping to recover even a trace of his friend's True Spirit. In the end, he found nothing. His rage and killing intent still soared, and he headed north!
The Ancestral Witches saw that nothing more could be done. With cold snorts, they tore open the void and departed.
What remained was a scarred, lifeless land where all things had perished.
The Jade Ruyi in Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi's hand gave a clear chime, and the image projected above the Jade Pure Palace dissipated.
That chime also brought Yellow Dragon and the others back to their senses after the battle they had witnessed.
"Your origins, innate gifts, and good fortune are rare even in the Primordial World. You have also received my personal instruction in the Great Dao. Cultivate with a quiet mind and seek to comprehend it. Your future achievements will surely be considerable!"
Before Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi had finished speaking, a sweep of his sleeve sent all his disciples outside the Palace.
Yellow Dragon looked at the closed doors and bowed toward the entrance of the Jade Pure Palace. Seeing Taiyi and the others still standing there in a daze, he thought for a moment and said:
"Junior brothers, with a Sage to guide us, the Great Dao is within our reach. Let this battle between Quasi-Saints temper our resolve. If we set our sights on their level, it may even be possible to surpass them one day!"
"For now, we should return to our cultivation grounds and meditate on what Master has taught us. We must find the shortcomings in our cultivation, strengthen our foundations, and then climb toward the summit one step at a time!"
As Yellow Dragon spoke, he strode higher into the sky...!
Taiyi and the others followed him with their eyes. All they could see was Yellow Dragon's radiant figure rising above them.
At that moment, thunder burst from the void. A bolt of Jade Pure Divine Thunder appeared and struck Yellow Dragon as he climbed.
"Master, I was wrong... Aah!"
Yellow Dragon managed only that one scream before falling straight to the ground;
"Don't aim too high and lead your junior brothers astray!" Yuanshi's voice sounded softly beside Yellow Dragon's ear.
After Yellow Dragon's encouragement, Taiyi and the others shook off their earlier gloom. They thanked him, then took their leave.
Charred from head to toe, Yellow Dragon lay on the ground until he had finished saying goodbye to his junior brothers. He was just about to get up and return to his cultivation grounds.
But light and shadow shifted. Instead of the open grounds outside the Jade Pure Palace, he found himself inside a Palace filled with the fragrance of pills, where the aura of the Dao was even richer than in the Jade Pure Palace.
A figure sat before an enormous alchemy furnace. Beside him, another familiar figure held an emerald-green fan and fanned its flames.
Yellow Dragon sprang to his feet. With his hair still scorched, he bowed respectfully;
"Disciple Yellow Dragon greets Senior Martial Uncle."
The old man before the furnace nodded slightly. His voice was calm as he went straight to the point, as though discussing a trivial matter. "Yellow Dragon, I have a task that requires you to make a trip into the Primordial World."
"Please instruct me, Senior Martial Uncle."
Yellow Dragon answered respectfully, though his mind raced. What task could require a mere Golden Immortal like him?
"You saw the place where Fellow Daoist Hongyun fell," the Supreme Pure Saint said. Yellow Dragon's heart skipped a beat.
Hong Yun!
"While we were in the Jade Pure Palace, Master used his divine powers to show it to me and my fellow disciples." Unable to guess his senior martial uncle's intentions, Yellow Dragon steadied himself and answered respectfully.
The Supreme Pure Saint gave his sleeve a slight flick. A Purple-Gold Gourd, its surface traced with mysterious Dao patterns, floated slowly toward Yellow Dragon.
"Take this gourd to that place. Hold it above your head and call out the name 'Hong Yun' three times."
"Then carry the gourd as you travel about until it returns on its own. Once it does, your task will be complete. You need do nothing else."
That place... The horrifying scene he had seen in the Jade Pure Palace flashed before Yellow Dragon's eyes: the heavens collapsing, the earth splitting, space shattering, laws thrown into chaos, and resentment soaring skyward. It was the deadly battlefield where Hong Yun had destroyed himself and the Demon Emperors had fought the Ancestral Witches!
"Senior Martial Uncle," Yellow Dragon said, choosing his words carefully as he tried to refuse without saying so outright, "my cultivation is shallow. The aftershocks from the Quasi-Saint battle where Ancestor Hong Yun fell have yet to subside. Baleful energy still lingers there, and it's fraught with danger. I'm afraid I may not be able to approach it..."
The Supreme Pure Saint smiled as though he had seen through Yellow Dragon from the start. He said nothing. With a flick of his finger, he sent a streak of light into Yellow Dragon's arms. It became a jade bottle, smooth and warm to the touch, with yin and yang energies circling its surface and faintly converging.
"An acquired Spirit Treasure..."
Yellow Dragon gripped the jade bottle and recognized its grade at a glance.
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