"You vile creature, die!"
Black lightning coiled around Lei Ying from head to toe, his terrifying aura soaring into the clouds. Such pressure was far beyond what an ordinary eight-star Dou Saint late stage expert could muster.
Yan Jin had all but transformed into a thousand-zhang giant of fire. A flame rune flickered between his brows, while the Nine Serenities Golden Ancestor Flame and Volcanic Stone Flame alternately merged and separated. Vaguely, it seemed he already had half a foot across that immense gulf.
"Heh, this is outright rebellion! You two really don't regard me, a nine-star Dou Saint, as anyone worth respecting! Today, I'll see just how much weight your Yan and Lei Clans carry!" The Nihility Devouring Flame flew into a rage. He could swallow it when Gu Yuan called him a vile creature, but what were Yan Jin and Lei Ying supposed to be? They were calling him one at every turn too.
"Thunder Tribulation Palm!"
"Fallen Flame Mystic Finger!"
Facing the enraged Nihility Devouring Flame, Lei Ying and Yan Jin wasted no words. Their hands never slowed, each unleashing a high-level Heaven Tier Dou Technique right from the start.
"Devour Heaven and Earth!" The Nihility Devouring Flame dared not take them lightly. He immediately unleashed his innate divine ability and clashed with the two.
For a moment, heaven and earth collapsed once more, and the energy storms from the two battlefields swept through the Soul Realm again.
Seeing those few warriors at the very pinnacle of the continent already locked in mortal combat, everyone turned their eyes toward their opponents. The six Ancient Races had allied against the Hun Clan this time, and they had to achieve something. Otherwise, once their armies withdrew, they would likely face the Hun Clan's frenzied retaliation.
The Three Immortals of the Gu Clan, led by Gu Dao, struck first. Their mighty late-stage seven-star Dou Saint Dou Qi surged forth as they charged straight at the Hun Clan's many experts.
"Stop them!" Hun Jing, leader of the Four Demon Saints of the Soul Clan, barked. Hun Tu, Hun Sha, and Hun Yan immediately flew over, blocking every attack from the Three Immortals of the Gu Clan.
"What are you standing around for? Activate the Protective Clan Formation!" As the pillar supporting the Hun Clan's experts, Hun Jing began directing the battle with all his strength.
"Hmph, Fallen Flame Mystic Finger." Clad in a red dress and surrounded by a halo of blazing flames, Fairy Fire Spirit sought out Hun Jing herself. She unleashed a high-level Heaven Tier Dou Technique without the slightest hesitation.
"Just what I wanted!"
"Withering Finger!"
Hun Jing showed no fear whatsoever, countering with a high-level Heaven Tier Dou Technique of the Hun Clan.
Farther back, the many Dou Sheng of five stars and above began pairing off in deadly combat. The collisions of high-level Heaven Tier Dou Techniques thundered across heaven and earth. Anyone who used a mid-level Heaven Tier Dou Technique would earn sneers from opponents and allies alike.
For a time, brilliantly colored Dou Qi blossomed across the Soul Realm. Everyone put their backs into it, unleashing their clans' Dou Di inheritances without holding anything back.
"Hah!"
"Hah!"
"Hah!"
Fierce cries rang out once more. Aside from the Yao Clan's army, which continued watching from far away, roughly twelve million experts from the Gu, Lei, Yan, and Hun Clans formed their battle formations again. Both sides had gone red-eyed with bloodlust. Clan marks blazed between their brows, their Dou Di bloodlines churning madly in resonance with the Emperor Clans' secret arts. Every person's aura rose visibly as they all chose to turn their bloodlines into fighting power.
"Ancient Emperor's Mirror!"
"Thunder Hammer!"
"Emperor Flame Staff!"
"Seal of Destruction!"
Four manifestations, each even larger than before, appeared once more. The entire space could no longer withstand that mighty Heaven and Earth Energy. Black fissures remained open for a long time, and deathly silence filled a thousand li.
Even Gu Yuan and Hun Tiandi, fighting fiercely high above, hurriedly broke apart, their faces filled with alarm as they looked toward the four manifestations, each tens of thousands of zhang in size, about to collide.
This strike would look spectacular.
It would decide not only victory and defeat, but life and death.
Sacred Pill City.
The Apothecary.
"So you're saying that after the Pill Tower sealed its doors, all its experts vanished?" Fan Tian sat in a chair and scratched his head.
"Exactly! They ran faster than rabbits. I heard our Pill Tower Ancestor led the way. I don't get it. With his terrifying strength, surely even those Ancient Races would have to show him plenty of respect!"
"Right! The Pill Tower has stood for a thousand years. Since its founding, nothing like sealing its doors has ever happened!"
Two girls chatted with Fan Tian as they cracked melon seeds.
One was named Cao Ying, the other Dan Chen.
Cao Ying was eighteen, a Six-Star Dou Emperor and a Rank 7 Intermediate Alchemist.
Dan Chen was fifteen, a one-star Dou Emperor and a rank 7 low-level Alchemist.
The two young women had knocked on the door early that morning, saying they had come to continue discussing alchemy with Yao Ling.
As Yao Ling's fiancé, Fan Tian had given them a warm welcome.
"So, Brother Fan Tian, you mean you and Sister Ling'er fell in love at first sight, but her clan's elders took a cudgel to a pair of lovebirds and forcibly tore you apart?" Dan Chen looked at Fan Tian's handsome face and asked with a little pout.
"Exactly. To split us up, her clan sent a Four-Star Dou Sheng straight over." Fan Tian frowned. "Of course, even then, I never yielded in the slightest. I fought that Dou Sheng for three days and three nights, and in the end, I only lost by half a move."
"Wow! You're amazing, Brother Fan Tian! Actually, although my alchemy can't compare with Sister Ling'er's, it's still pretty good. If you need anything, just tell Chenchen. Chenchen will definitely satisfy you!"
Fan Tian took Dan Chen's slender, pale, jade-like hand and gently stroked it. "Will you really satisfy any need I have?"
Looking at Fan Tian's handsome face, Dan Chen blushed. She showed no intention of pulling her hand away, merely turning her head slightly aside and letting him do as he pleased.
"Hmph! Shameless." Seeing the bashful expression on Dan Chen's face, Cao Ying snorted, stood up, walked over to Fan Tian, and threw herself straight into his arms.
She was not like the little girl Dan Chen, acting cute in white stockings and calling him Brother Fan Tian at every turn. She was already eighteen, tall and slender, with exquisite features, long, straight legs, and a bust every bit as full as those of mature women.
Before Fan Tian, even this forceful, ever-confident and flamboyant enchantress of the Cao Family had fallen.
Fan Tian was young and handsome, already a seven-star Dou Zong at eighteen. His cultivation talent could be called unmatched throughout the Central Plains, and he was also the young master of the mighty Sound Valley. In status, talent, and looks, Cao Ying had never encountered a second man like him in all these years.
More importantly, Fan Tian was that woman's fiancé.
A girl with long, pale-blue hair surfaced in Cao Ying's mind. Her expression was icy, her gaze indifferent to everything. That woman had deeply wounded Cao Ying's heart.
Several months earlier, the Pill Tower's elders had told Cao Ying and Dan Chen that a mysterious girl was gaining experience in Sacred Pill City at this Apothecary. Her accomplishments in alchemy were unrivaled among the younger generation, and they should seize the opportunity to learn from her.
Learn?
What a joke.
Who were the two of them?
They were personal disciples of the Pill Tower's Three Giants, one the Cao Family's enchantress and the other the Dan Family's prodigy, towering pillars of the Central Plains' younger generation. The prodigies pursuing them could line up from the southern Central Plains all the way to the north.
They had haughtily sought out Yao Ling to compete in alchemy, only to suffer a crushing defeat before the blue-haired girl, stripped of every scrap of dignity and confidence.
"It's all right. You're already very good. I've met plenty of geniuses, but they all call me a genius." They would never forget Yao Ling's icy words.
And somehow, they both felt that, for the rest of their lives, this woman would keep them from ever lifting their heads in the field they excelled at most.
Dust had settled over their hearts of cultivation, and inner demons had taken root.
That was also why they had not left Sacred Pill City with the rest of the Pill Tower.
Cao Ying sat on Fan Tian's lap, both arms hooked around his neck. "Fan Tian, I can do more than refine pills for you. I can satisfy you in any position!" Suddenly, she took his hand and gently guided it inside the front of her dress.
The two of them seemed to have found the only way to take revenge on that woman.
"Now."
"Carry me to the bed."
"Take me hard!" Cao Ying breathed into Fan Tian's ear, urging him on.
Before you continue