The Heavenly River Sea-Covering Grand Formation exploded!
A hundred thousand naval troops coughed up blood at once.
Blue formation runes filling the sky shattered into glittering fragments, pouring down over Peach Mountain like a Heavenly River torn to pieces.
Rumble!
Freed from the restraints of law, the Heavenly River Water Aura instantly became a torrential downpour, hammering the fractured Peach Mountain.
The rocks shuddered.
The clouds collapsed.
Soldiers of the Heavenly River Navy plummeted from the sky one after another, their divine armor shattered and their auras feeble, crashing onto the mountain paths with an endless thunder of impacts.
Screams instantly blanketed all of Peach Mountain.
Yang Jian stood amid the ruins at the formation's heart.
Blood mottled his body, but most of it belonged to the heavenly soldiers struck by the formation's backlash.
The Hell Furnace still roared deep within his dantian.
The last wisp of the Heavenly River's water-element law was refined into pure essence by dark-gold divine flames and poured into his body.
Boom!
The fifty-seventh divine elephant particle awakened!
Immediately after came the next.
The fifty-eighth!
The fifty-ninth!
The blood and vital energy around Yang Jian suddenly grew heavy, pressing against the entire expanse of space until it gave a muffled groan.
He slowly raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the Heavenly River Navy strewn across the ground.
There was no pity.
These men had come under the Heavenly Emperor's Edict to suppress him, chain his mother, and trample his family back into the mud.
Since that was the case...
There was nothing to spare.
Yang Jian's gaze finally settled on the other side of the clouds.
Li Jing knelt there.
His face was covered in bloody marks, his expression dazed, and the golden light of the Exquisite Pagoda in his hand flickered erratically.
Before him, Nezha stood upon black-and-red Demon Flame, his Fire-Tipped Spear angled toward the ground.
Nezha was watching Yang Jian too.
Their eyes met across the distance.
One had blood and vital energy as mighty as a mountain, cold as a war god who had just walked out of hell.
One was wreathed in Demonic Qi, an irrepressible fire of resentment burning in his eyes.
Each sensed the same trace upon the other.
It was not the Jade Purity Immortal Method.
Nor was it the divine power of the Heavenly Court.
It belonged to no lineage in the Primordial World.
It was power from the same master.
Nezha suddenly smiled.
"You're Master's disciple too?"
Yang Jian's gaze shifted slightly.
He studied the black demonic mark between Nezha's brows, then glanced at Li Jing kneeling on the ground.
A moment later...
Yang Jian nodded.
Nezha's smile broadened, and he spun the Fire-Tipped Spear in his palm.
"Looks like I've gained a senior brother."
"Tsk."
"Master really does have a ruthless eye for disciples."
Yang Jian did not respond to the joke.
His voice was low.
"You have a grudge against Li Jing?"
The smile in Nezha's eyes instantly turned cold.
He raised a foot and planted it on the Exquisite Pagoda.
Crack!
The pagoda's golden light quivered wildly.
Li Jing trembled all over, as though jolted awake from a nightmare.
"Nezha..."
Nezha bent down to look at him.
"Shut up."
As those two words fell, the father-son karma deep within Li Jing's primordial spirit shuddered again.
His face went deathly pale, and the tiny strand of divine power he had just gathered dispersed on the spot.
Only then did Nezha look up at Yang Jian.
"He hasn't finished paying what he owes me."
"I'll leave his life hanging for now."
"Once I've shattered his pagoda and stripped him of his divine position, I'll make him spit out everything he owes me, debt by debt."
Yang Jian asked no more.
Family grudges.
Debts between kin.
Some things needed little explanation.
He understood.
Nezha also looked toward the fallen Heavenly River Navy.
A black-and-red demonic figure slowly rose behind him, its towering body pressing down upon the sea of clouds.
The Heavenly River magical power, battle formation fiendish energy, and formation backlash still lingering on those naval troops were steadily dissipating.
Nezha licked the corner of his lips.
"All this heavenly river remnant power is a windfall for me."
As his words fell...
The towering demonic figure spread its arms.
Boom!
Black-and-red Demonic Qi swept outward.
The remaining magical power of the naval troops struck by the formation's backlash was forcibly drawn from their bodies, turning into streams of dark currents that surged into the demonic figure.
Some struggled in terror.
But their battle formation had shattered, their magical power was in chaos, and they could not even stand.
What Nezha devoured was their remaining Heavenly River formation power.
And the military fiendish aura they had gathered while carrying out orders to surround and kill Yang Jian.
Black-and-red Demonic Qi entered his body.
The other-transformation demon body Nezha had just reconstructed began rapidly solidifying.
The demonic mark between his brows deepened.
The black-and-red flames on his Fire-Tipped Spear burned even more fiercely.
Yang Jian watched, his brows slightly furrowed, but did not stop him.
Nezha's art was indeed sinister and strange.
But these men were enemies.
They had not come to Peach Mountain to reason with anyone.
Yang Jian turned and descended before the fractured mountain opening.
Yao Ji was pale, still forcing herself to remain standing.
The moment she saw Yang Jian return, she reached out and caught his wrist.
"Jian'er, are you all right?"
The murderous intent around Yang Jian receded somewhat at that moment.
"Mother, I'm fine."
Yao Ji looked at the bloody marks on his body, her eyes reddening.
"Let's leave first."
"The Heavenly Court has suffered such a heavy loss. Haotian won't let this rest."
Yang Jian raised his head toward the Thirty-Three Heavens.
There, deep within the sea of clouds, an icy gaze seemed to be watching through the Haotian Mirror.
His voice was calm, yet seemed to hold thunder beneath it.
"I'll take you home first, Mother."
"Once you're safe, I'll go to the Lingxiao Treasure Hall myself and settle this debt with Haotian."
Hearing those words from afar, Nezha suddenly burst into laughter.
"Count me in!"
He kicked Li Jing, who was still kneeling on the ground, away.
Li Jing tumbled dozens of zhang and smashed through a stretch of the Cloud Platform, looking as wretched as a homeless dog.
Nezha rested the Fire-Tipped Spear on his shoulder, black-and-red Demonic Qi churning beneath his feet.
"Once I've finished refining these remnants of the Heavenly River Navy, I'll join you on a trip to the Thirty-Three Heavens."
"If Haotian dares stand in our way, I'll overturn his Emperor's Throne too!"
Yang Jian glanced at him.
He did not agree.
Nor did he refuse.
The two fellow disciples, who had only just met, turned their gazes in the same direction at that moment.
The Thirty-Three Heavens.
The Lingxiao Treasure Hall.
That was the source of every calamity.
Among distant cloud shadows, Yu Ding Zhenren's expression had become utterly grim.
He had watched Yang Jian break the Heavenly River Grand Formation with his own eyes.
Then he had witnessed Nezha suppress Li Jing with his other-transformation demon body and devour and refine the heavenly river remnant power.
Of these two, one had already strayed from the fate the Jade Void Palace had arranged for him.
The other had slipped out of Taiyi Zhenren's grasp as well.
Yu Ding Zhenren's palms grew cold.
This now involved the Heavenly Court, the Chan Sect, and that mysterious master in the Ruined Temple at Guanjiangkou.
Who exactly was that being?
How could he seize Yang Jian's and Nezha's fates, one after the other?
Why could even Yuqing karma not suppress his transmission of the Dao?
The more Yu Ding Zhenren thought, the heavier his heart became.
He could stay no longer.
He had to report this to his master.
Otherwise, if Yang Jian and Nezha truly fought their way up to the Thirty-Three Heavens, they would smash a hole through the entire grand course of the Investiture of the Gods.
Yu Ding Zhenren gave Yang Jian a long, searching look.
There was shock in that look, and conflicting emotions too.
The disciple who should have entered his tutelage had now set foot upon another path.
A path that tore open the heavenly mandate with his fists.
In the next instant...
Yu Ding Zhenren transformed into a streak of Jade Purity Immortal Light and flew straight toward Kunlun Mountain.
Above Peach Mountain...
Nezha continued devouring and refining.
Heavenly river remnant power poured steadily into his other-transformation demon body.
Guarding Yao Ji, Yang Jian reached out and grasped the air. Dark-gold flames from the Hell Furnace swept forth, refining away every last shattered Heavenly River formation rune.
Boom!
The sixtieth divine elephant particle fully awakened within him.
Yang Jian's aura soared once more.
The Heavenly River Navy troops who remained conscious stared at the two figures in midair, nothing but terror left in their eyes.
Yang Jian alone had already shattered Peach Mountain and broken the Heavenly River Grand Formation.
Then came Nezha, and even Li Jing was forced to his knees to beg for mercy.
These two stood together.
For the Heavenly Court, it was nothing short of a nightmare.
The Thirty-Three Heavens.
The Lingxiao Treasure Hall.
Within the Haotian Mirror, everything on the battlefield at Peach Mountain was reflected clearly before the assembled immortals and gods.
The Heavenly River Sea-Covering Grand Formation had shattered.
A hundred thousand naval troops had been routed.
Li Jing had knelt in humiliation.
Nezha was devouring and refining the remnants of the formation.
Yang Jian shielded Yao Ji as he looked toward the Thirty-Three Heavens.
The entire Lingxiao Treasure Hall was terrifyingly silent.
Not a single immortal official dared speak.
Taibai Jinxing gripped his fly whisk, his knuckles paling slightly.
Thousand-Li Eye and Wind-Following Ear knelt before the throne, their foreheads pressed against the jade steps, not even daring to raise their heads.
The gods of the Thunder Department were silent.
The star lords of the Dipper Department made no sound.
They all knew.
This time, the Heavenly Court had lost more than troops.
It had lost its majesty, too.
Since the Heavenly Court's founding, no one had ever trampled the Heavenly Emperor's Edict, the Heavenly Court's grand formation, and its marshal beneath their feet, one after another, before the eyes of the Three Realms.
Haotian sat upon the Emperor's Throne.
He did not roar in fury.
Nor did he smash the jade table beside him.
The calmer he remained, the more frightened the immortals and gods in the hall became.
After a long while.
Haotian slowly rose.
His imperial robes stirred without wind.
An unbearably oppressive Emperor's Might spread from his body.
Cracks crept across the jade steps, inch by inch.
"Yang Jian."
"Nezha."
He spoke those two names, his voice so cold it held not a trace of warmth.
Within the Haotian Mirror, Nezha seemed to sense something and suddenly looked up.
Through the mirror's surface, he flashed a toothy grin.
"Haotian."
"You're watching too?"
Inside the Lingxiao Treasure Hall, the faces of the immortals and gods changed abruptly.
Nezha had actually detected the Haotian Mirror!
The next moment.
Yang Jian raised his head as well.
His gaze was colder than Nezha's.
He made no threats.
He merely raised his hand, held his fingers together like a blade, and lightly slashed toward the Haotian Mirror.
Sssht!
A fine crack actually appeared on the surface of the Haotian Mirror.
The immortals and gods in the hall all drew sharp breaths.
Haotian's gaze darkened completely.
"Relay my decree."
His voice resounded throughout the Lingxiao Treasure Hall.
"Summon the presiding gods of the Thunder, Dipper, Fire, and Plague Departments to the hall at once."
"Send orders to the Five Directional Guardians to seal off the earth veins of Guanjiangkou and Peach Mountain."
"Dispatch heavenly envoys to the Jade Void Palace and the Western Teachings."
Haotian stepped down from the Emperor's Throne.
The entire Lingxiao Treasure Hall shook with a thunderous rumble.
"I shall personally lead the campaign."
"I shall make every living being in the Three Realms see with their own eyes the price of defying heavenly might!"
As his words fell.
The Heavenly Emperor's Edict transformed into golden light ten thousand zhang high and surged out of the Lingxiao Treasure Hall.
Across the Thirty-Three Heavens, the war drums sounded again.
Above Peach Mountain.
Yang Jian suddenly looked up.
Nezha also stopped devouring and refining, demonic flames flickering in his eyes.
Both felt an Emperor's Might far more terrifying than before pressing down from the nine heavens.
Yao Ji's expression changed abruptly.
"Jian'er, Haotian is coming down in person!"
Yang Jian clenched his fists.
Sixty divine elephant particles thundered in unison.
Nezha hoisted the Fire-Tipped Spear onto his shoulder and flashed a toothy grin.
"Just in time."
A heartbeat later.
The sea of clouds in the nine heavens split apart.
A golden imperial chariot slowly descended from the Thirty-Three Heavens.
Before the imperial chariot, a Heavenly Emperor's War Banner unfurled in the wind.
The banner bore only four words.
The Emperor Personally Campaigns.