The Misty Cloud Sect atop Misty Cloud Mountain, a clash of dragons and phoenixes within

There was a plaza atop Misty Cloud Mountain, one of the mountain's defining landmarks.

The plaza had been fashioned from an enormous grayish-white boulder. Legend held that the boulder had come from beyond the heavens and landed on Misty Cloud Mountain, like a platform bestowed by heaven.

Thus, the Misty Cloud Sect had established a rule: every generation of new disciples had to quarry stone and build steps. Together, they had created this road to the heavens stretching all the way down Misty Cloud Mountain, symbolizing a sect ordained by heaven and a thoroughfare built by human hands, passed down through the generations, everlasting and indestructible.

Well, if I hadn't transmigrated here, then according to the original timeline, this heaven-bestowed platform and man-made Heavenly Stairway would soon be blasted to rubble by the Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus...

The Misty Cloud Sect would soon be destroyed along with them.

Heaven-ordained, my ass. Never buy into this convenient nonsense...

Countless emotions stirred in Yun Congxin's heart as he looked at the Misty Cloud Sect disciples sitting cross-legged in the plaza. Packed together like a dense white forest, they surrounded the Sect Stele at its center. Engraved upon it were the names of successive Misty Cloud Sect Masters, beginning with Yun Potian and ending with Yun Yun, likewise densely packed and perched high above.

Farther out, a semicircle of pines as tall as enormous towers ringed the plaza. Elegant little cabins had been built among their branches, serving as seats for honored guests.

Yun Congxin narrowed his eyes slightly. Though his Soul Power was relatively weak, he could still sense many formidable presences within those cabins. Presumably, the prominent figures of the Misty Cloud Sect and the Imperial Capital were watching the proceedings from there.

Sky-Piercing Pines holding up the heavens for a thousand years, the Misty Cloud Sect enduring forever, Yun Congxin recited silently. He raised his head to look at the two Da Dou Shi locked in a clash of dragons and tigers in the plaza.

Nalan Yanran! Xiao Yan!

Yun Congxin narrowed his eyes slightly. He sensed countless streams of Soul Power brazenly probing the two combatants. Out of caution, he kept his own Soul Power obediently in place rather than sending it out from between his brows to examine the pair locked in combat.

That... should be our Flame Boy... Yun Congxin felt a little excited. In a manner of speaking, Xiao Yan was his idol. Even now, he still remembered a line of praise Potato had once bestowed upon Xiao Yan through the narration:

He gritted his teeth, held stubbornness in his bones, and broke free of his cocoon to become a butterfly!

Yun Congxin liked protagonists like that. A protagonist ought to be like Xiao Yan, accomplishing what ordinary people could not and doing what others dared not!

That was how a true man should be!

Bang!

With a muffled impact, the fierce, perilous close-quarters battle came to an end.

Xiao Yan and Nalan Yanran shot backward in opposite directions, each landing in a separate spot. Yun Congxin saw numerous fist and boot marks on Nalan Yanran's Dou Qi Armor, while Xiao Yan's Dou Qi Armor bore no shortage of sword cuts and cracks. Clearly, neither had come out ahead in that close-quarters exchange.

The probing should be about over. Next comes the clash of energy blasts, probably... Yun Congxin muttered inwardly, drawing on Yun Shan's memories.

He strained to remember, but could not recall how the Three-Year Agreement had unfolded. All he remembered was that Xiao Yan had won in the end, and Nalan Yanran had broken the agreement.

Oh, right. There was also First Elder Yun Leng, who couldn't take a loss and got all red-faced.

Suddenly, an uproar from nearly a thousand Misty Cloud Sect disciples interrupted Yun Congxin's wandering thoughts. He hurriedly focused his attention on the plaza.

He saw that Nalan Yanran had removed her hair ribbon at some point. Her beautiful hair stirred without a breeze, flowing as smoothly as a black cloak lifted by the wind.

Use Rejoice, and this is the confidence you get?

Knowing how the Three-Year Agreement would end, Yun Congxin felt no concern at all. He cracked jokes inwardly as he watched Nalan Yanran slowly rise into the air with her Wind-Attribute Dou Qi, as though ascending to immortality in broad daylight.

The nearly thousand Misty Cloud Sect disciples present were all excited. They whispered to one another, and although they deliberately lowered their voices, the resulting clamor still seethed like a boiling cauldron.

"Xiao Yan, let's settle this!"

Nalan Yanran's voice drowned out the uproar. She pointed her sword diagonally at Xiao Yan, blazing light gathering at its tip, so dazzling that no one could look directly at it.

Yun Congxin frowned and searched his memories, finding a similar move among Yun Shan's recollections. He muttered uncertainly, "Extreme Wind: Setting Sun Radiance?"

The longsword moved, but very slowly, trailing ripples in its wake. Those were unconsolidated energy, Dou Qi leaking away.

Yun Congxin chuckled. Looking at things from a different perspective really did produce entirely different thoughts.

When reading the book, he had felt that Nalan Yanran's ultimate move exerted tremendous pressure, as suffocating as a slowly descending sun. She had seemed a formidable opponent who required Xiao Yan to bring out his trump cards.

Now, watching with Yun Shan's memories, he saw that Nalan Yanran was barely managing to execute the move. She had somehow turned Extreme Wind: Setting Sun Radiance into Extreme Wind: Running All Over the Place. Though it was likewise a trump card, Nalan Yanran clearly had not trained with the same desperation Xiao Yan had devoted to the Flame Splitting Wave Ruler and the Small Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus.

If Nalan Yanran had gone to the Magical Beast Mountain Range to train desperately like Xiao Yan, throwing herself into the jaws of death to find life, her Extreme Wind: Setting Sun Radiance probably could have forced him to use the Flame Splitting Wave Ruler. She wouldn't have lost to a Small Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus whose power only reached the peak of the Mysterious Tier... Yun Congxin thought.

If Extreme Wind: Setting Sun Radiance lost to the Flame Splitting Wave Ruler, that would be a defeat one could accept wholeheartedly. But losing to the Small Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus was honestly a little embarrassing...

Without realizing it, Yun Congxin had slipped into the perspective of the Misty Cloud Sect Master as he assessed both sides' Dou Techniques, and could not help feeling that Extreme Wind: Setting Sun Radiance had been done an injustice.

On the other side, Xiao Yan had already formed a Small Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus. He said softly, "Go, Buddha's Fury... Fire Lotus!"

Look how much more practiced Xiao Yan was at using his Dou Technique! Both had power at the peak of the Mysterious Tier, and Xiao Yan's Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus was even more dangerous to use, yet he could still form it and unleash its full power! Then look at Nalan Yanran... sigh...

Yun Congxin sighed. Suddenly, a thought sprang into his mind: Why not strip Nalan Yanran of her position as junior sect master? Her name hasn't been carved onto the Sect Stele yet, anyway.

One thought opened the way to a hundred more. Even the collision between the Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus and Setting Sun Radiance in midair failed to interrupt Yun Congxin's train of thought.

Yun Yun isn't doing a proper job as sect master either. A perfectly good sect master, and she acts like a hired fighter. Might as well remove her too and let her gain some more experience first.

The instant the two violent energies touched, a thunderous roar erupted. The Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus spun and disintegrated, releasing the violent, terrifying energy hidden within!

Nalan Yanran's longsword shattered as well, and the full might of Setting Sun Radiance emerged. The two collided in midair, instantly sending a mushroom cloud billowing upward!

Gales howled, and the light seared the eyes. Ordinary Misty Cloud Sect disciples could not see clearly, but Yun Congxin saw it all with exceptional clarity.

Setting Sun Radiance, its energy leaking away disastrously, was no match at all for the Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus. Meeting only slight resistance, the Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus overwhelmed its radiance like rotten wood crumbling before a crushing force!

Like heavenly fire descending, like a sickle reaping wheat, the shock wave swept toward Nalan Yanran and the Misty Cloud Sect disciples!

Oh, right, there's Yun Leng too. That bastard is practically here to ruin me! Once this is over, I need to demote him as soon as possible! As Yun Congxin thought this, he raised his hand and pointed.

The protective barrier erected by the Misty Cloud Sect disciples instantly became as impregnable as a fortress of metal with a boiling moat. The aftershock roared past without harming any innocent bystanders.

The plaza, that heaven-bestowed platform, also remained safe and sound under Yun Congxin's protection!