Forcing Hong Yun Down, Implicating Kunpeng

Seeing Hong Yun's backside about to completely leave the futon, and the wild delight in Zhunti's eyes about to spill over—

Li Qingxiao moved.

He made no flashy hand seals.

He merely casually raised one slender, jade-like hand and lightly reached forward.

This seemingly casual gesture appeared to cross the boundaries of space,

ignoring the tangled auras of the surrounding great powers as it landed steadily on the shoulder of Hong Yun's crimson Daoist robe.

"Buzz—"

The phantom of a flawless Twelfth-Grade Purifying White Lotus flashed across Li Qingxiao's palm before vanishing.

Immediately afterward, an immense, ocean-deep force erupted from Li Qingxiao's hand!

Hong Yun had only risen half an inch to begin with. Under this miraculous tremendous force,

he did not even have the slightest chance to resist.

With a muffled bang, Hong Yun was forcibly pressed back down onto the fifth Purple-Gold Futon!

The force had been controlled with exquisite precision. It did not harm Hong Yun's body in the slightest,

yet it instantly suppressed the mana he had just begun circulating to stand back into his dantian.

Hong Yun stared in stunned disbelief and instinctively tried to turn around,

only to discover that beneath the suppression of that fair hand, he could not move at all.

Yet the instant he was firmly seated again, the exceedingly sharp spiritual senses of a Daluo Golden Immortal suddenly trembled,

and a palpitating sensation of having narrowly escaped calamity instantly swept through every limb and bone of Hong Yun's body!

It was as though, had he truly left that seat just now, he would immediately have fallen into an abyss of eternal damnation!

Cold sweat instantly poured down Hong Yun's back.

Ignoring Hong Yun's lingering fear, Li Qingxiao's frost-cold gaze passed over him

and fixed directly on Zhunti, who was still kneeling on the ground in the posture of hugging someone's leg.

His lips parted slightly, and his clear, icy voice rang through the hall like clashing metal and stone:

"Fellow Daoist Hong Yun, I already warned you during the chaos storm."

"If Heaven grants something and you refuse it, you will suffer the consequences."

"This Purple-Gold Futon is a supreme blessing personally arranged by the Dao Ancestor. It bears immeasurable providence of Heaven and Earth."

"If today, out of a momentary soft-heartedness, you hand this blessing over to another..."

Li Qingxiao's tone suddenly grew heavier, striking Hong Yun's primordial spirit like a morning bell and evening drum:

"Then tomorrow will be the day of your death and complete annihilation, beyond all redemption!"

The surrounding great powers were all shaken, especially Zhen Yuanzi, who stood behind Hong Yun.

He sucked in a sharp breath, and an indescribable gratitude toward Li Qingxiao rose in his heart.

Just now, Zhunti's shameless crying and fussing had thrown him off for a moment as well. He had nearly failed to stop his old friend from doing something foolish.

However, to Zhunti, Li Qingxiao's words

were nothing less than a stab straight through the heart!

The duck was cooked; the heaven-shaking opportunity was practically at his mouth.

He had only been half an inch away!

Yet someone had forcibly pressed it back down!

Zhunti lay sprawled on the ground in a daze for two full breaths before his entire face twisted grotesquely!

"You?!"

Zhunti's bloodshot eyes locked onto Li Qingxiao. He finally recognized the young man before him in a moon-white Daoist robe.

He was the mysterious independent cultivator who, at the foot of Mount Buzhou, right before Zhunti and Jieyin,

had forcibly snatched away the Seven-Treasure Gengjin Bodhi Branch!

Old grudges, new grudges, and the hatred of having his Dao path stolen instantly overwhelmed Zhunti's reason.

"Where did this ignorant madman come from? You stole my magic treasure and spiritual root at Mount Buzhou, and now you dare ruin the West's tremendous opportunity in the Purple Heaven Palace!"

"To sever another's Dao path is like murdering their parents! Today, either you die or I do!"

Zhunti was so furious that his eyes nearly split apart, and he let out a beast-like roar.

Where was his earlier pitiful appearance now?

Consumed by rage, Zhunti completely tore off his disguise, and his violent Mid Great Encompassment Golden Immortal cultivation erupted with a boom.

Without regard for anything else, he sprang up. Golden light flashed in his hand as he directly summoned his natal spiritual treasure, which was still in the process of being nurtured—

the Seven Treasures Wondrous Tree Prototype!

"Die!"

With an enraged roar, Zhunti swung the multicolored branch in his hand, wrapped in the sharp Gengjin aura unique to the West.

It transformed into a seven-colored divine radiance capable of brushing apart the void,

and swept fiercely toward the faces of Li Qingxiao and Hong Yun with overwhelming force!

This strike was not merely born of anger. Zhunti had truly formed the intent to kill,

determined to grind this moon-white-robed youth who had ruined his plans into dust and ashes!

Faced with the seven-colored divine radiance tearing through the hall's void, Hong Yun's expression changed drastically, while Zhen Yuanzi hurriedly activated the Earth Book to defend them.

But Li Qingxiao's response exceeded everyone's expectations.

He remained seated cross-legged in the air, steady as ever, without even blinking an extra time.

He did not even withdraw the hand pressing down on Hong Yun's shoulder.

At the very instant that destructive seven-colored divine radiance was about to strike him,

circles of pure ripples spread through the void beneath Li Qingxiao's feet.

The true body of the Twelfth-Grade Purifying White Lotus did not manifest, but its heaven-defying divine ability, Ten Thousand Laws Immunity, had already been pushed to its utmost limit by Li Qingxiao!

A thin, luminous white barrier, as delicate as cicada wings, silently appeared before Li Qingxiao and Hong Yun.

Boom!

The violent seven-colored divine radiance slammed into the luminous white barrier, yet no earth-shaking explosion rang out.

Instead, the divine radiance, which was enough to severely wound great powers of the same realm, touched the barrier and instantly—

not only failed to break through the defense in the slightest, but was even forcibly refracted by the properties of the World-Cleansing White Lotus!

Moreover, the refracted light carried a powerful rebounding force deliberately guided by Li Qingxiao!

This violent aftermath, fused from the Gengjin killing aura of Zhunti's furious strike and the rebounding might of the World-Cleansing White Lotus,

became an invisible yet deadly heavenly blade, shooting out at a faster and stranger angle than before, and by sheer coincidence...

fiercely slashed toward the sixth futon beside them!

And seated there was none other than Ancestor Kunpeng!

Kunpeng had already tensed every nerve to the limit in preparation for Taiyi using the Chaos Bell to smash him.

Only after Taiyi retreated did he finally relax slightly,

then close his eyes in utter concentration to comprehend the vast Dao intent emanating from the futon beneath him.

He could never have imagined that, despite having provoked no one at all,

such a terrifying attack would suddenly be refracted toward him from beside him without the slightest warning!

Splurt!

Ancestor Kunpeng's Northern Underworld demonic aura, which he had taken such pride in as a protective barrier,

was instantly torn apart like paper before that sudden violent aftermath!

"Ah—!"

Kunpeng let out a miserable scream. His chest felt as if it had been struck by lightning, and he violently spat out a mouthful of green demonic blood.

Under the impact of the excruciating pain and immense force, his cross-legged body swayed violently beyond his control.

He was directly blasted half a foot off the Purple-Gold Futon, exposing an enormous opening!

And in that very instant!

Zhunti, who had been stunned for a moment when his attack was reflected, had his keen battle instincts immediately awaken.

Though he acted shamelessly, he had struggled all the way through the barren West to become a Daluo Golden Immortal.

His vicious grasp of timing was unquestionably among the finest in the Primordial World!