The young female cultivator instinctively summoned her magical artifact to rush forward and help, but was pulled back by her companion. Another male cultivator whispered, "Don't go. We can't even withstand the aftershocks of a fight at that level."
Li Xuanqing barely managed to steady himself, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. He stared intently at the Demon Venerable, his eyes filled with both fear and resentment. He knew the Demon Venerable's strength far surpassed his own, but he hadn't expected the gap to be this wide. At a distance of a hundred feet, with a single move, he was forced back dozens of feet, his shield nearly shattered.
"You... you've recovered your power to this extent?" Li Xuanqing wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his voice trembling slightly.
The Demon Venerable, hands behind his back, hovered back in his original position, as if he had merely swatted away a few mosquitoes. He looked down towards the mountainside. The Snow Empress's direction was now radiating an even more intense golden light than before, and the entire mountainside was trembling slightly, with rocks tumbling down—a sign that the Source of Chaos was being drawn to the shallow ley lines.
Time is running out. The Snow Empress is about to extract the Source of Chaos from the ground, and that will be the truly dangerous moment. The instant the Source of Chaos breaks free from the earth's ley lines, it will unleash a powerful wave of chaos, which will be felt by cultivators within a thousand miles. At that time, it will likely be more than just Li Xuanqing and his few insignificant subordinates who will come.
The Demon Venerable's gaze darkened slightly. He raised his head and looked towards the distant horizon. Behind the clouds there, several even more powerful auras were rapidly approaching. One was cold and sticky, like poisonous miasma deep in a swamp; another was fiery and violent, like a volcano about to erupt. And the last one was elusive, indistinct, as elusive as Gui Mei.
"They're here, "the Demon Venerable murmured to himself. Sure enough, those old fogies in the Southern Frontier couldn't sit still any longer.
Without waiting for them to get close, he flashed and appeared within three feet of Li Xuanqing. The two were practically face to face; the Demon Venerable's dark eyes were fixed on Li Xuanqing, his voice low and menacing. "I'm giving you one last chance. Take your people and go back to the Heavenly Dao Alliance. Tell your leader that I will handle the Source of Chaos, if he doesn't want that incident from back then to be brought up again."
Li Xuanqing's eyelids twitched. He understood what the Demon Venerable meant by "that incident back then," and his face turned deathly pale. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but ultimately nothing came out. He remained silent for a moment, then abruptly flicked his sleeves and shouted sharply to the three young cultivators behind him, "Retreat!"
The three were taken aback, but seeing the elder's extremely gloomy face, none of them dared to ask any further questions. The four streaks of light turned around and sped back the way they came, quickly disappearing into the twilight.
The Demon Venerable watched them depart, the smile finally fading from his face. He turned around, looking at the approaching figures on the horizon, and muttered, "Trouble is brewing."
Halfway up the desolate mountain, the Snow Empress's hands were completely submerged in the ground. Golden Spiritual Power poured from her palms into the depths of the soil, Entanglement the Source of Chaos in circles, like golden silkworms tightly wrapping it. The Source of Chaos was now less than thirty feet from the surface, and its power, even through layers of rock and Spiritual Power, still exuded a heart-palpitating sense of oppression.
Snow Empress's vision began to blur. Excessive blood loss coupled with the continuous high-intensity output of Spiritual Power had pushed her body to its limit. The wound on her wrist stopped bleeding, not because it had healed, but because the blood in her body was almost completely drained. The remaining blood, barely enough to keep her heart beating, was simply too weak to seep out any further.
But she couldn't stop. If she stopped, the Source of Chaos would sink back down, and this time its location would be unpredictable, and finding it again would take countless years. She gritted her teeth and forced out the last few strands of her life essence, merging them into the golden Spiritual Power. The Spiritual Power suddenly became intense and dazzling, like a golden dragon soaring into the sky from the ground.
Rumble rumble--
The entire desolate mountain trembled. A huge fissure, several meters wide and bottomless, opened up at the mountainside, from which thick gray mist surged, a sign of the leakage of Power of Chaos. Deep within the fissure, a palm-sized, jet-black stone was slowly rising, its surface shimmering with a faint gray luster, its internal power surging and churning like an ancient Ferocious Beast imprisoned for millennia struggling desperately.
Snow Empress suddenly reached out and grabbed the rock.
The moment she touched it, she felt a violent force surge into her entire arm. Power of Chaos rushed upwards along her meridians, the sensation like having a pot of molten iron poured directly into her veins. She groaned, a trickle of golden blood escaping from the corner of her mouth, but she gripped the stone tightly, her other hand swiftly forming a sealing hand seal. Layer upon layer of golden runes flew from her fingertips, Entanglement the surface of the stone, attempting to suppress the surging power within.
With the first seal falling, the Power of Chaos within the stone calmed down slightly. With the second seal falling, the gray luster dimmed by a third. The third, the fourth, the fifth... Snow Empress's lips had turned grayish-white, her body was trembling violently, but her hands were as steady as cast iron, continuously striking the stone with sealing seals.
The entire process would take at least three days. She knew this very well. The power of the Source of Chaos was too strong. In her current state, each layer of the seal would require a large amount of Spiritual Power and essence to suppress the internal turmoil. It would be impossible to complete the entire seal in less than three days.
Now, she could hear sounds coming from above. They were the sounds of battle.
The Demon Venerable has already engaged the invaders in battle.
The sky atop the desolate mountain was now completely dark, but various lights shone within the darkness. Snow Empress looked up and saw the Demon Venerable's figure tumbling and spinning in the sky, his black robes fluttering in the wind. He held a jet-black longsword in each hand, and wherever the sword light swept, space seemed to be torn apart, leaving behind streaks of black cracks.
His opponents were three. One was a gaunt old man Entanglement in dark green poisonous mist, his face skeletal, his fingernails as long as daggers, each swing of his claws releasing a foul-smelling green mist that sizzled and corroded even the rocks on the ground. Another was a burly man, over ten feet tall, with red hair and a red beard, wielding a giant flaming hammer taller than himself, each strike carrying the aura of scorching magma, melting the rocks that hit into red liquid. The third was an elusive humanoid phantom, surrounded by layers of illusory light, appearing and disappearing, launching cunning attacks from unpredictable angles, each strike silent yet extremely sharp.
The Three Supremes of the Southern Frontier: Poison Elder, Fire Barbarian, and Shadow Phantom.