Yao Yue and Wang Xi stood facing each other, their gazes locked, fierce, icy light flashing in both their eyes.
Their intangible auras swept outward like a tsunami. Their clash was silent, yet the young cultivators around them paled and retreated one after another.
Even some of the old monsters narrowed their eyes slightly, a flicker of surprise passing across their faces.
This had nothing to do with cultivation level. It was sheer "momentum"-an unstoppable drive to press forward and suppress everything, something usually possessed only by young supremes.
"These two are extraordinary..." Even one of the old monsters could not help marveling.
Boom!
Just then, a thunderclap rang out between heaven and earth. The firmament hummed and trembled without cease, while the void wailed, almost shattering.
In the distance, a streak of red light exploded, turning into a sky full of luminous rain that drifted down like flying blossoms.
Amid the haze, a crimson phantom emerged. A True Phoenix, gilded from head to tail and wreathed in tribulation flames, broke through the boundaries of the realm.
With a spread of its wings, it stirred up ten thousand miles of billowing fire clouds, sending hundreds of millions of streams of divine flame cascading down.
At the same time, a piercing cry cut through the ages and soared straight into the Nine Heavens, shaking several stars beyond the realm until they tumbled from their places.
"A True Phoenix... It really is a True Phoenix nest!" someone shouted, excitement written all over his face.
In the distance, a divine nest appeared. Chaos energy surged out, golden light scattered, and boundless auspicious radiance gushed forth like a divine spring, dazzling as the blazing sun.
The divine music of the Great Dao rumbled into everyone's ears, and some immediately slipped into a state of enlightenment.
The crowd erupted. At that moment, no one had any attention to spare for the contest between the two radiant beauties. Their blood surged, and they were itching for a great battle.
Was this not precisely what they had come for?
This was a divine phoenix's nest, its value beyond measure. Even if they could not obtain the divine phoenix's precious technique, gleaning so much as a scale or claw of its mysteries would be worthwhile.
Failing that, obtaining some divine objects the phoenix had left behind would still be a heaven-sent fortune.
At that moment, the mighty figures scattered into motion and swarmed toward it, their auras surging and shaking heaven and earth.
The younger generation did not move. This was a struggle for sect-leader-level figures. They had merely come to view the Phoenix Nest, hoping to gain some insight.
Even Wang Xi and Yao Yue reined in their hostility and concealed their sharp edges, finding an empty spot to sit down.
The Phoenix Nest was covered in swathes of inscribed runes, every one profoundly mysterious. Studying them closely would surely bring tremendous benefits.
Just then, Xi Yue sensed something beside them. The Bronze Ancient Pagoda in her sea of consciousness seemed to awaken from an eternity of silence, humming and trembling.
Before she could investigate, the pagoda turned illusory and flew out of her sea of consciousness, becoming a tiny streak of light that shot toward the Phoenix Nest.
"Hmm? What just flew past?" Some with keen divine senses noticed something and looked up, but the sky was empty.
Then they shook their heads, assuming they had imagined it.
"Seriously? You just left me behind?" Xi Yue pouted, bewildered and at a loss.
"Good, the pattern's still here." She looked at her left hand and breathed a sigh of relief.
Although she knew neither the pagoda's origins nor its intentions, it was undoubtedly crucial to her at this stage. If she lost it, there was no telling whether that would trigger a terrible upheaval.
Meanwhile, a great battle was unfolding inside the Phoenix Nest.
Divine light of every color surged, and metallic clangs rang out endlessly. Precious artifacts and battle weapons filled the air like a tide, their sharp edges tearing through the firmament.
All manner of precious techniques collided and intertwined-Taotie, golden pengs, divine silkworms... They emerged in an endless stream.
Vast swathes of runes spewed forth, spraying blood wherever they passed. It burst into bloody blossoms in the air and rained down.
Everyone fought desperately, their divine power surging wildly without regard for the consequences.
For not far away stood a precious pool fashioned from divine stone, gleaming brilliantly and radiating resplendent streams of five-colored light.
It held the blood essence left behind when a divine phoenix underwent nirvana. Its value was immeasurable; even at auctions in the Nine Heavens, it would fetch an astronomical price.
More importantly, this blood essence could help cultivators temper their bodies and fortify their Dao foundations, making them more flawless and allowing them to rival certain primordial vicious beasts.
Moreover, it contained the profound mysteries of the divine phoenix's nirvana. Comprehending even a little, even the merest surface traces, could bring about a transformation that transcended their former selves.
The mighty cultivators battled together as they pressed toward the blood pool, none willing to fall behind.
In mere moments, bloody light erupted everywhere, with flesh, bone, and blood flying through the air.
A sect leader made his move, unleashing a great cauldron. World-shaking divine light suddenly erupted, blasting the surrounding cultivators away. Then the cauldron poured out a swath of brilliant radiance that enveloped the blood pool, attempting to take the whole thing inside.
But the others would not simply stand and watch. Brandishing weapons, precious techniques humming in their hands, they lunged at him.
In an instant, the sect leader coughed up blood. Wounds covered his body, and he was severed at the waist, nearly dying.
At the same time, the great cauldron was forcibly torn apart, its fragments scattering.
Yet these were all sect-leader-level figures. Which of them had not been a prodigy of their generation? They would not perish so easily. He reformed his true body in an instant and plunged back into the bloody battle.
The surrounding cultivators were already seeing red. The blood pool's value defied heaven itself, and it was suspected to contain blood essence left by an immortal-level being. No one could remain calm before it.
The fighting grew ever fiercer. Divine light pierced the heavens, and bloody rain fell, staining heaven and earth an eerie crimson.
Several sect leaders even joined forces to lay down a world-shaking formation. The moment it took shape, it radiated terrifying fluctuations of power and enclosed everyone within it.
This was not a killing formation, but an astonishing confinement formation. They were all old foxes who had lived for tens of thousands of years and understood the ways of the world. They would not truly deal killing blows.
Anyone who cultivated to this level was a dragon or phoenix among men, a pillar of their respective faction.
If they really trapped and slaughtered these people, the factions behind them might well fly into a rage.
Yet while the plan was sound, reality refused to oblige.
The instant the formation took shape, everyone joined forces to shatter it, breaking it into tiny wisps of light that drifted through the air.
Afterward, the sect leaders who had set up the formation received special attention. They were beaten half to death and completely stripped of any chance to compete.
All one could say was that the world was fickle.
Yet while everyone fought their bloody battle, a small pagoda glowed faintly, wrapped in mist, and pierced through layer upon layer of barriers to arrive beside the blood pool.
Runes lit up on the little pagoda, blazing with extraordinary brilliance. They enveloped the blood pool like a divine net that covered all things.
Then it drew every last drop of blood essence into itself. It even took the divine pool along with it.
"No! Someone's trying to take the entire blood pool!" a sect leader roared. Divine light bloomed in his hand, and countless runes combined into divine chains that seemed forged from immortal gold, reaching toward the little pagoda
to coil around it.
Yet the little pagoda turned illusory in an instant, seeming to slip into boundless chaos before vanishing entirely.
"Ah-!"
Some of the old monsters howled, beating their chests and stamping their feet in heart-rending anguish!
It was infuriating. Fortune had been right before their eyes, only to slip away just like that. Worse still, they did not even know who the culprit was.
Everyone's face turned livid, their spirits sinking to the depths. Their divine senses swept madly across every inch of space, blanketing everything and sparing not a single corner, yet they found no trace at all.
"Who was it? You dare take all that fortune for yourself? Aren't you afraid of bringing a deadly calamity upon your head?" someone demanded loudly, convinced that the culprit was right there among them.