The Engagement

Luo Tianshen had not dared show Futu Yun any displeasure from beginning to end.

He merely told him that the Western Heaven War Emperor had once wanted Luo Li to join the Western Heaven War Temple.

If that had succeeded, the Luo God Clan could have gained the Western Heaven War Emperor's protection, and all of the Luo God Clan's crises could have been resolved with ease.

But Luo Li had ultimately refused.

Still, Luo Tianshen had not expected the Pagoda Ancient Clan to formally intervene in the affairs of the Western Heavens Continent because of this.

After all, that would have been tantamount to going to war head-on with the Western Heaven War Temple.

For the Pagoda Ancient Clan, which was currently expanding its territory across the Tianluo Continent, such a matter was indeed unrealistic.

Futu Yun naturally had no intention of going to the Western Heaven War Temple to demand an explanation.

Yet everyone who knew him understood that Futu Yun had been exceptionally irritable lately.

Qing Yanjing, the woman who shared his bed, felt this most deeply.

Perhaps because Futu Yun had cultivated the Heavenly Sovereign Spirit Body, or perhaps because of his increasingly violent temper,

Qing Yanjing only felt that the pressure on her lower body had grown much greater lately.

And the other person directly facing Futu Yun's violent temper was Ji Xuan.

"I won't beat around the bush. I came here today for my cousin Qingling's lifelong affair."

"It isn't that I look down on Ji Xuan, but how is a good-for-nothing worthy of the treasured jewel of my Pagoda Ancient Clan?"

"Get that good-for-nothing out here right now and have him accept the Pagoda Ancient Clan's letter of annulment."

"Then have him apologize to my cousin Qingling in person, and we'll consider this matter settled."

Futu Yun's impatient words were filled with undisguised contempt.

"What did you say?!" Ji Xuan gritted his teeth in fury.

Not only had the other party come to annul the engagement,

he actually wanted Ji Xuan to apologize to them as well.

How could there be such a ridiculous thing in the world?

This was not an engagement annulment at all. They had clearly come specifically to humiliate him.

"Oh? Since your ears don't work so well, good-for-nothing, I'll say it again. Accept the letter of annulment, then apologize!"

Futu Yun did not take Ji Xuan's rising rage seriously at all.

"This is not a request for your opinion. It is merely a notification."

The veins on Ji Xuan's face bulged instantly.

Futu Yun had gone too far. He simply did not regard Ji Xuan as a person.

"What kind of look is that? Are you trying to bring disaster upon the people around you?" Futu Yun snorted coldly.

"Just like the Holy Spiritual Academy and your family!"

The onlookers around them were all dumbfounded.

They had to know that Qingling's marriage alliance with Ji Xuan had originally been the Pagoda Ancient Clan's gesture of apology for what had happened back then.

Yet now, not only was Futu Yun annulling the engagement, he was even exposing that matter outright?

And what did he mean by the people around Ji Xuan?

The Holy Spiritual Academy and the Ji Family were already gone.

The people around Ji Xuan were none other than bystanders like them who had come to watch the spectacle.

"You're threatening me?" Ji Xuan's heart nearly burst with rage at Futu Yun's threat.

Yet the surrounding onlookers erupted instead. "How dare you speak to Young Clan Leader Futu Yun like that?"

"Hurry up and apologize to the young clan leader for your recklessness."

"Having the engagement annulled and apologizing would only cost Ji Xuan his dignity."

"It has nothing to do with them, but if Futu Yun truly started killing, they would suffer along with him."

"This good-for-nothing should stop trying to win with his tongue and drag innocent bystanders like them into an irredeemable disaster."

Under Futu Yun's intimidation and the coercive pressure of the surrounding bystanders,

Ji Xuan felt as though his heart could no longer bear the strain, yet a savage smile slowly curled across his lips.

Then, an ancient eagle cry so piercing that it made countless people's eardrums ache suddenly resounded through heaven and earth.

Immediately afterward, everyone saw a colossal purple eagle roughly a thousand zhang tall slowly emerge behind Ji Xuan.

The giant eagle had the body of an eagle and the head of a dragon, while terrifying fluctuations swept out from within it.

Having read the original work, Futu Yun knew that Ji Xuan and this Ancient Heavenly Dragon Eagle shared a symbiotic relationship.

To obtain such power, Ji Xuan had also paid an enormous price.

Symbiosis was an exceptionally dangerous method.

The Ancient Heavenly Dragon Eagle dwelled within a human body and constantly sought to seize the host's consciousness and replace him.

Meanwhile, the host sought to completely refine it and turn its power into his own.

It was practically a gamble staked with one's life.

Whichever side failed would pay a grievous price, perhaps even one from which there was no recovery.

Generally speaking, very few humans or powerful spirit beasts chose such a method.

For humans, no one wanted to place such a terrifying bomb inside their body.

For spirit beasts, they were likewise unwilling to enter such a perilous situation at such a terrible cost.

Thus, this kind of symbiotic relationship was actually quite rare.

Back then, Ji Xuan had been blinded by hatred.

He had used the Ancient Heavenly Dragon Eagle's power to break through to the Sovereign Stage, only to be eroded by that power as well.

The reason he had ultimately fallen back to the Peak Divine Soul Stage was because he had forcibly sealed himself.

The Flame Emperor naturally could not see through it, because Ji Xuan had not truly been crippled; he had sealed himself.

He had voluntarily forsaken his harmony with heaven and earth, suppressing his cultivation at the Peak Divine Soul Stage.

Yet the true strength of his Peak Divine Soul Stage was likely even greater than Futu Yun's had been when Futu Yun was also at the Peak Divine Soul Stage.

After all, he could draw upon the Ancient Heavenly Dragon Eagle's power.

Unfortunately, Futu Yun had now reached the Heaven Transformation Realm. With a backhanded slap, he sent Ji Xuan flying and suppressed him.

And so, this farce came to an end.

The higher-ups of the Pagoda Ancient Clan did not blame Futu Yun over this matter.

Even though Futu Yun's actions had further worsened the Pagoda Ancient Clan's relationship with the Five Great Academies and the powers behind them.

"However, before that, you must annul your marriage arrangement with the Wen Family."

"Besides, your fiancée has now become a good-for-nothing. She is simply unworthy of you."

Speaking of which, Wen Qingxuan had originally been a genius among the younger generation of the Five Great Academies, even more renowned than Ji Xuan and Luo Li.

That was because she had only recently succeeded in breaking through to the Sovereign Stage.

Yet the path of a genius seemed forever strewn with hardships.

This proud daughter of heaven, whose reputation had reached its peak, had suddenly suffered the cruelest blow of her life.

The Supreme Sea she had painstakingly condensed over more than a decade of cultivation had vanished overnight.

Her former title as a genius had gradually been replaced by disdain and mockery.

"Such a weakling is unworthy of following in your footsteps. Even your future descendants will become weak because of her."

Futu Yun was slightly stunned.

Wen Qingxuan and Ji Xuan's situations appeared similar, but in Futu Yun's eyes, they were worlds apart.

In the original work, Ji Xuan had been crippled before breaking through to the Sovereign Stage.

Now that he had broken through to the Sovereign Stage ahead of time only to be crippled, it was because the hidden danger of the Ancient Heavenly Dragon Eagle dwelling within him had erupted early.

But when Wen Qingxuan last appeared in the original work, she had already cultivated to the Earthly Sovereign level.

Yet she was now encountering problems at the Sovereign Stage. This meant something had changed.

This was clearly the standard template for a chosen protagonist.

He abruptly turned to Futu Xuan and said, "First Elder!"

"Since the engagement has already been set, I, Futu Yun, am not a man who abandons his woman after beginning a relationship."

"Even if Wen Qingxuan's cultivation is completely ruined, she is still my fiancée, Wen Qingxuan!"

"Please inform the clan that Futu Yun cannot comply."

"I refuse to annul the engagement!"

The smile on Futu Xuan's face instantly froze. This was completely different from the outcome he had expected.