Sweeping Away the Four Sects

Clang, clang. Clang.

As if divine metal were being hammered, the Lihuo Divine Furnace was immediately battered full of dents and pits.

It looked as though it might burst apart at any moment, yet it stubbornly maintained its rough shape.

"Fire Phoenix Shines Upon the World!" the Grand Elder shouted.

The enormous bronze furnace towering in the sky suddenly released a fire phoenix. It spread its wings and soared into the heavens, blazing with raging flames and endless divine power.

The phoenix's cry shook the heavens, clear and distant, carrying an aura of nobility and mystery.

Eighty-one streams of scorching magma surged upward like rivers flowing in reverse, forming terrifying waterfalls of flame.

Scarlet light filled the sky, illuminating the entire heavens. Even the distant mountain peaks were scorched into a desolate sight.

Such a blazing scene filled people with endless fear and awe, as though the giant bird of flame possessed the power to destroy heaven and earth.

The battle between dragon and phoenix was a mysterious and magnificent spectacle.

Above the sky, a divine dragon formed from condensed Imperial Dragon Qi roiled with an earth-shaking aura.

The dragon formed from Imperial Dragon Qi was dozens of zhang long. Its scales gleamed with golden light, its claws seemed to grasp the sun itself, and its eyes shone with powerful, mysterious force. Its roar shook heaven and earth, striking terror into all who heard it.

The fire phoenix was graceful and peerlessly gorgeous, its flames burning with an indescribable power as the inferno raged.

The Phoenix Dance fluttered through the air, illuminating the entire battlefield in an instant as mysterious radiance filled the sky.

Dragon and phoenix became entwined. Imperial Dragon Qi wore away the fire phoenix's flames, while the divine power of those flames continuously shattered the Imperial Dragon Qi.

The battle grew ever fiercer, but there was only one fire phoenix in the end. Even with the Lihuo Divine Furnace backing it, it was difficult for it to contend against nine divine dragons.

For the moment, neither side could determine victory or defeat. Xia Weier's eyes flickered. Since she could not deal with the Lihuo Divine Furnace, she could simply deal with the person controlling it.

Xia Weier stepped through the void and used the Nine Secrets: Xing to ascend into the sky. Her long dress fluttered like an immortal descending to the mortal world, and in the blink of an eye, she crossed space to arrive beside the Grand Elder.

Imperial aura flashed in her palm, condensing into a Divine Dragon Seal that crashed down upon the Grand Elder.

"This is what I was waiting for!" the Grand Elder roared. His voice seemed to carry a strange rhythm, causing Xia Weier to lose focus for an instant.

After being battered by the nine dragons, the dented divine furnace flew back in an instant, leaving the fire phoenix behind to block the divine dragons formed from Imperial Dragon Qi.

The furnace lid opened, and Lihuo flames surged toward the heavens. A mountain caught in their wake instantly turned into a river of magma.

Xia Weier had only just regained her senses and begun resisting the flames when all the fire suddenly drew inward. The divine furnace became like a black hole, devouring heaven and earth.

A terrifying suction force erupted, and Xia Weier was instantly swallowed by the bronze furnace standing between heaven and earth.

Five-colored radiance flowed as the crystal-clear, glazed lid flew back with a bang, sealing the furnace and suppressing her within it.

The Grand Elder appeared atop the furnace lid, intending to completely suppress and refine Xia Weier.

Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, Jiang Yun, desperate to save his wife, summoned an enormous yin-yang millstone with an ancient aura and crushed the unprepared Grand Elder to pieces.

Even at death, the Grand Elder could not understand what had happened.

The Lihuo Divine Furnace had been Emperor Hengyu's weapon before he became a Great Emperor. If it triggered any divine power, the consequences would be terrifying. Jiang Yun did not dare let Xia Weier remain inside.

Without the Grand Elder's suppression, the furnace lid flew open with a boom. Surrounded by Imperial Dragon Qi, Xia Weier rushed out of the divine furnace.

When she looked closely, she saw Jiang Yun nearby, while the old man had vanished. She quietly let out a breath of relief.

"Hubby, even if you hadn't shown up, I could have fought my way out." Xia Weier waved her little fists a few times, looking adorably fierce.

With no one controlling the Lihuo Divine Furnace, Jiang Yun put it away. The inch-tall furnace was crystalline and translucent, as though forged from dazzling crystal, and exceptionally mystical.

"Wasn't I worried about you? Weier, you performed wonderfully today." Jiang Yun praised her.

Before this, Xia Weier had only killed a few bandits in the Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm. For someone with a somewhat timid nature, it was already extraordinarily rare that she could contend with an opponent two major realms above her and achieve this much.

A timid personality was fine, so long as she did not hesitate and hold back in battle. Jiang Yun had been worried about that before.

"Is this their sect-protecting divine furnace? Why does it look somewhat familiar?" Xia Weier was also drawn to the Lihuo Divine Furnace.

There were some blurry engravings on its body, extremely indistinct. Perhaps they had gradually been worn away by the passage of time.

Looking carefully, one could make out a sun and several divine birds wreathed in flames, but the markings were too unclear to identify.

"Doesn't it look a little like an imitation of the Jiang Family's Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon, the Hengyu Furnace?" Jiang Yun said with a smile.

Xia Weier's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly nodded. Jiang Yun and Jiang Shuanglan were both members of the Jiang Family, so she naturally knew about the Hengyu Furnace.

"Do you think it's possible that the Hengyu Furnace was forged by imitating this?" Jiang Yun revealed the truth.

No matter how much Xia Weier trusted her husband, she still looked disbelieving. "How could that be possible? Impossible."

Extreme Dao Weapons stood at the pinnacle of weapons. If fully awakened, their power could casually annihilate starfields spanning hundreds of millions of li and collapse black holes.

The Jiang Family had produced a Great Emperor, while Jade Pool had produced an Empress Mother. It was precisely because such figures had created world-shaking ancient scriptures and left behind Extreme Dao Weapons that their factions stood high above the ordinary world, flourishing even after one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand years.

If this divine furnace truly had such an origin, then no matter how confident she was, she did not believe she could leave marks upon it.

Jiang Yun merely smiled without offering much explanation. Such a thing was simply too fantastical; no one would dare believe it.

Emperor Hengyu truly loved pretending to be weak before overwhelming his enemies. The weapons he forged were layered one inside another.

The Lihuo Divine Furnace and the Goddess Furnace could match any weapon below the Quasi-Emperor realm.

What terrible taste.

The disciples below finally came to their senses. With the Grand Elder reduced to nothing, they scattered like headless flies, trying to flee and hide.

Jiang Yun's divine sense swept out like a streak of light, finding them one by one and executing them. With the great formation covering the area, no one could escape.

When the dust settled, the Lihuo Sect's once lush and picturesque oasis, like an earthly paradise, had been ravaged beyond recognition by the aftershocks of battle.

Only when a new master came to occupy the oasis would it be restored to its former appearance.

He put away all the great banners and lifted the blockade around the oasis. Even if passing cultivators discovered the place, Jiang Yun no longer cared.

Having obtained the Lihuo Divine Furnace, and with evening approaching, he took Xia Weier and headed straight for the Azure Cloud Sect.

Today, he would wipe out Mysterious Moon Cave, the Azure Cloud Sect, and Seven Stars Pavilion together. Otherwise, delays might bring unforeseen changes, and it would be troublesome if they escaped.

None of those other sects possessed a divine artifact like the Lihuo Divine Furnace to suppress them. Without giving them time to react, Jiang Yun swept through them one by one, without wantonly destroying their sect grounds.

Amid the boundless desolation of the Northern Region, an oasis was a rare treasure. In such a lifeless land, no patch of pure ground should be destroyed.

He still intended to remain here for some time and did not wish to settle in a barren, endless place filled with red earth, scars everywhere, and not a blade of grass.