Qing Kun suddenly soared high into the sky and circled overhead, his black wings beating like those of a peerless bird of prey.
He was, after all, an imperial bird himself.
"Kill!"
Qing Kun seemed to truly transform into a black sun. "The four directions, above and below, make up the cosmos. My breath shall swallow it all!" The black demonic bird let out a long cry, black feathers burning all over his body.
A grand chant of scripture rang out. Qing Kun was unleashing a secret art, a peerless Ancestral Art of the Heaven Devourer lineage.
"Have you no new moves?" He Xian asked indifferently, golden light enveloping him.
The space around him solidified, as though sinking into a mire, being smelted away into nothingness.
Yet in a single breath, He Xian broke free.
He raised his right hand high, and a golden spear burst from his palm, its edge peerlessly sharp. This was naturally not the Red Spear Edge of An Lan's lineage; He Xian possessed none of that lineage's bloodline power.
This was a supreme battle spear he had created by fusing several arts, with imperishable golden light as its core. Its tip was keen enough to pierce anything, seemingly capable of puncturing the heavens, and a terrifying aura spread from it.
"Get down here!" He Xian aimed at the black sun overhead and hurled it with all his strength.
Overwhelming divine power erupted in an instant. The vast sky shuddered in rolling waves, ripple after ripple reverberating through it, their surges shaking the heavens with world-shocking might.
Buzzz!
Heaven and earth were shattered outright by the shot!
The sight was unimaginable, shaking everyone to the core!
"You dare!"
Qing Kun flew into a rage. This was humiliation! As a member of the Emperor Clan, famed for being able to devour everything, he was now being treated like an ordinary bird to be brought down with a thrown spear. He could not tolerate it.
"Heaven Rend!" Qing Kun swept his black demonic wings like two demonic blades, blocking the golden spear racing toward him.
"Cleave!" he roared, swinging his black wings to unleash a heaven-rending strike.
Riiip!
"How could this be?" Qing Kun was horrified. The raging spear shattered the void, broke through his metallic wings, and pierced his body. He fell from the sky.
"Die!" He Xian's expression remained calm. He looked nothing like someone battling an Emperor Clan expert, but rather someone crushing an ant.
He bent his legs slightly, then kicked off with explosive force, hurtling straight toward Qing Kun's head.
"Damn it!"
Qing Kun's soul nearly fled his body. An overwhelming sense of mortal danger surged through him, instinct awakening a desperate will to survive. He flapped his wings with all his strength, struggling in midair and trying to dodge.
But how could that possibly work?
A pair of golden wings appeared behind He Xian, driving his speed to its utmost limit.
Rumble!
The terrifying fluctuations seemed capable of making all the stars beyond this world shake violently and fall together.
Splurt!
His fist struck, and Qing Kun's head exploded into a cloud of blood mist. His primordial spirit was obliterated along with it.
An elite Emperor Clan expert had died in just two or three moves.
That astonishing scene naturally drew everyone's attention.
Chi Menghong and Ming Si, Yu Yu and Wu Kun all stopped attacking and turned to look at He Xian.
Splurt!
At the same time, He Xian coughed up a great mouthful of blood, his body trembling slightly.
"My very essence really has been damaged," he sighed softly.
"Ha ha ha! You actually still have the strength to fight!" Chi Menghong roared skyward, abandoning his battle with Ming Si and lunging at He Xian.
He had only just hit his stride, and this was the perfect moment for a fight to the death. Powerful killing intent spread from Chi Menghong, while his body burned like a furnace, blazing light soaring into the sky.
"Kill!" He Xian and Chi Menghong shouted simultaneously.
With his essence damaged, He Xian naturally would not drag this out.
The next instant, the two collided like burning suns, illuminating the heavens. Both unleashed a tremendous strike, producing astonishing manifestations.
Bang!
Their divine abilities clashed, splitting all the space above the battle platform. Great black fissures crisscrossed and spread into the endless distance. Heaven and earth shattered, utterly broken once more beneath the supreme clash of these two Emperor Clan beings.
It was as though the world itself were cooperating with them, making this battle even more spectacular.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Their fists and palms collided like the drums of the heavenly court, shaking the firmament until it collapsed and blasting the void apart. They moved at blinding speed, locked together in a fierce, deadly battle.
"I have already been reborn in fire! No one is my match anymore!" Chi Menghong went wild, his expression feverish. He wanted revenge. He wanted to wash away his former shame.
After his last defeat and retreat, the Undying of his clan had sent him into a blood pool, transforming him down to his very bones. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, he had undergone a rebirth in fire!
The current Chi Menghong was terrifyingly powerful, practically without a single weakness!
That was because the blood pool had been left by the Red King for his descendants and contained a little of his true blood. All killing intent had been refined out of that blood, leaving only its essence, which could nurture a peerless embodiment of the arts.
"Transform!" Amid the ferocious exchange, Chi Menghong began to change. His human form became a furnace, crimson as blood, its scarlet radiance splitting the heavens!
His form changed completely, vast and astonishing, releasing waves of unrivaled ferocity.
The Red King Furnace!
The other Emperor Clan beings present all felt tremendous pressure bearing down on them, let alone He Xian, who stood at the heart of the battlefield.
When it came to this lineage, nothing had shocked the world more than the Red King's battle record. He had once slaughtered an Immortal King and refined his bloodied corpse.
An Immortal King buried in a furnace, a supreme treasure nurtured!
Such was the tale passed down through the world, and precisely because of this, a strange secret art had also been handed down.
Clang! He Xian struck the furnace's body, only to produce a crisp metallic ringing. It was astonishing. Was that flesh, or an actual furnace?
"Turning the flesh into a furnace, nurturing the corpse spirit!" a surviving King Clan prodigy cried out involuntarily.
Even some of the Emperor Clan beings were deeply shocked. Chi Menghong had truly mastered this secret art.
It had only been a rumor, yet now it had actually appeared in the world. Some members of that clan had been practicing this secret art, whose origins lay in the Red King's ancient battle.
Turning the flesh into a furnace was a secret art obtained through merging with the Red King Furnace, allowing one to transform one's body into the Red King Furnace.
Of course, that was not its main feature. The most astonishing part was that it could set one upon a terrifying path: nurturing the corpse spirit.
Nurturing the corpse spirit did not mean nurturing the spirit of a corpse. Rather, it meant emulating the Red King's immense boldness: slaying an Immortal King, slaying one's own spirit, and transforming once more to produce an even stronger primordial spirit.
Since that battle long ago, the Red King had remained in seclusion, never appearing in the world.
According to legend, this was because he was practicing a supreme profound art. Slaying the Immortal King had cost him dearly, but it had also presented an immense opportunity.
He had buried the Immortal King's corpse in the Red King Furnace and immersed himself within it as well, never emerging. Using the corpse to temper himself, he slew his own primordial spirit, seeking to birth a stronger spirit through nirvana.
The facts had also proven that the Red King truly had achieved that transformation, except that a later age had produced the anomaly known as the Desolate Heaven Emperor.
"Thanks to the blow you dealt me last time, I was allowed to enter my clan's blood pool, behold the true form of its supreme treasure, and merge with it to obtain this great secret!" Chi Menghong laughed savagely.
His confidence swelled to unprecedented heights. The secret art of turning the flesh into a furnace and nurturing the corpse spirit was truly frightening, enough to make him supreme among the Emperor Clan's descendants and place him beyond defeat.