Xuan Tugu was furious.
Her eyes nearly split with rage, and her whole body trembled. A gigantic azure dragon phantom appeared behind her, stretching its neck in fury and roaring toward the heavens.
Space collapsed.
The entire Central Continent trembled.
Xuan Tugu's heart bled!
The grandson she had poured all her heart and effort into raising...
Her grandson, without equal beneath the heavens!
He had actually fallen!
He had fallen in the Realm of Clouds and Mist, fallen at a human's hands!
Xie Feng!
You and I cannot live beneath the same sky!
Xuan Tugu was overcome with grief. Two streams of aged tears ran down her deeply wrinkled face, and her hooked nose looked all the sharper and more terrifying, glinting with a murderous chill!
She had lost her son before, and now her grandson. Having dominated the world for tens of thousands of years, beyond all the bloodshed and turmoil, she was also a woman in her twilight years...
Her hatred for Xie Feng reached its utmost extreme.
She swore she would sleep on his skin, dismantle his bones, and devour him alive!
Boom-
Suddenly, rumbling came from outside.
Vast Qi surged into the clouds, shaking the entire clan. A towering figure stood high in the sky, rolling Dragon Qi blotting out the sun and heavens, his imposing presence sweeping forth like a rainbow, like a god!
The Azure Dragon Ancestor!
The Azure Dragon Clan's greatest trump card.
He had lived for two hundred and thirty thousand years, witnessing countless upheavals and changes!
After a thousand years in seclusion, his emergence shook the world!
Xuan Tugu led the Azure Dragon Clan's millions in a vast assembly to respectfully welcome the ancestor out of seclusion!
In the sky, the Heavenly Ranking shone with golden light. When the ancestor saw the azure figure in the video, his hair bristled with fury, and he shattered the void with a single palm strike!
Xie Feng had to die!
The Heavenly Ranking's standings settled completely. The names of ten prodigies stood proudly before the world, admired by all.
Especially the focus of everyone's attention, the Heavenly Ranking's number one.
Xie Feng!
"I never imagined he would be so young!"
"He certainly looks composed and handsome, with unmatched grace!"
"But why has the world never heard any legends about someone like him?"
"He's probably a recluse!"
"Still, he certainly has some nerve. By killing Qu Jiangxuan, he's thoroughly offended the Azure Dragon Clan. That terrifying race will surely reduce him to dust and ashes!"
People discussed it in an uproar.
The Azure Luan Clan.
Gu Chen stood proudly atop the clouds, hands clasped behind his back. He raised his head slightly and looked at the Heavenly Ranking that spanned the ages.
In the video, an azure-robed figure swept across the mortal world, shattering heaven and earth with one finger, as calm as the wind and as mysterious as mist!
"So this is Xie Feng's true appearance? He really is...
"Very handsome!
"To dare to kill the Azure Dragon King-such boldness is unrivaled beneath the heavens."
Gu Chen laughed heartily. The deeper meaning behind his laughter was that the Azure Dragon Clan and the Azure Luan Clan were sworn enemies! They had spent endless years locked in a strange balance.
But now...
Xie Feng had broken that delicate balance!
Losing two successive generations of Azure Dragon Kings was a tremendous loss even for a clan as powerful as the Azure Dragon Clan.
Amid his shock, Gu Chen frowned and thought, Xie Feng's actions will surely bring endless pursuit. Can he alone shake the entire Azure Dragon Clan? And what choice should I make?
Sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight?
Or deliver charcoal in the snow?
Then the question is, who should receive the charcoal?
Xuan Tugu?
Xie Feng?
Gu Chen's eyes flickered. Suddenly, he sighed, his meaning unclear. "A pity the Heavenly Maiden has gone into seclusion to focus on refining the Cangwu Divine Huang Source. Otherwise..."
When Xie Feng saw his own position on the Heavenly Ranking, his expression remained unruffled.
The Heavenly Ranking had exposed his face!
But he was already in the Immortal Ascension Realm!
He was a False Immortal!
In this world, he already stood at the summit.
He could face any storm with composure, as still as an ancient well.
At that moment, he arrived at a mysterious, ethereal sea of clouds.
An infinitely high place!
Almost at the very end of the sky!
This place was unbound by the Heavenly Dao's rules, and turbulent currents of space and time surged through it. Even Ascension Realm experts could carelessly fall into danger, their lives extinguished like lamps.
Only immortals dared enter!
Xie Feng's figure moved like an illusion as he passed through, stopping not long afterward.
He turned his gaze forward. A green pine towered into the clouds, nine thousand zhang tall and three thousand zhang wide, stretching beyond sight. All living things were as insignificant as mayflies before it.
Its needles covered the sky like green clouds, and several pine cones hung swaying among them. Countless currents of vitality coursed through it, and its trunk radiated an ancient power of resonance.
This tree had existed for at least several million years!
Forever evergreen!
Never withering!
Because its fruit possessed unfading energy, mortals called its pine cones "Unwithering Jade"!
Xie Feng had come for it!
With his heavenly fate cultivated to a height of nine chi, he could draw upon the Great Dao's power to easily calculate the locations of precious medicinal ingredients. However, this method was extremely taxing on his mind, so he used it judiciously.
With a shift of Xie Feng's mind, Northern Nether Illusory Flame rose around him. Strands of emerald flame transformed into an immense hand that reached eight thousand zhang high and plucked a pine cone wreathed in divine resonance.
The pine cone transformed into dark green jade!
Unwithering Jade!
The second spiritual herb Xie Feng needed for his pill refining!
At that very moment!
In the mortal world.
The voice of the Great Dao rang like a mighty bell, descending with a thunderous crash-
"The third round of rankings has ended!
"The fourth round, the Physical Body Ranking and Weapons Ranking, will be released next!
"Time limit: one year from now!"
As the heavenly voice fell, the world erupted once more.
The Physical Body Ranking, as its name suggested, was purely a contest of physical strength!
The Weapons Ranking compared the strength of weapons!
Though the age of declining Dharma was the twilight of immortals and gods, with legacies handed down since the age of chaos, countless heaven-defying weapons were surely still hidden within the three thousand worlds. Some were enshrined as ancestral secret treasures, some were held by mighty beings, and some lay buried, unseen by the world.
Moreover, the Heavenly Ranking's descent had brought surging fortune to this depleted world. Within this year, some already powerful weapons might well seize the opportunity to undergo a transformation!
Thus, the rankings a year later would once again be a clash of gods and immortals!
"The Heavenly Ranking means to bring all the world's experts into the open!"
"We can only gaze on in wonder!"
"Hurry and train your physical strength. Maybe you can still fight for a place on the Physical Body Ranking!"...
Everyone kept discussing it.
As the heavenly voice faded, the Heavenly Ranking stood above the firmament, looking down upon the three thousand worlds, an awe-inspiring sight.
The Central Continent.
In a forest of towering ancient trees, Sushang sat cross-legged, her almond-shaped eyes gently closed. Her entire consciousness was immersed in her sea of consciousness, and astonishing energy swirled around her.
Her cultivation had already reached saturation. Having traveled with Xie Feng during these days and experienced the events in Eternal Night, her accumulated cultivation had burst forth. She was now at the Mahayana Realm Fourth Stage, and her alchemy had reached seventh-grade great perfection.
She settled her mind and calmed her breathing, rhythmically circulating the resonance of the heavenly cycle. All things in heaven and earth seemed within her grasp.
Suddenly!
Sniff, sniff~
She twitched her little nose.
She smelled a faint scent drifting toward her.
The fragrance of wine?
The fragrance of flowers?
It was more like a combination of the two, and the scent grew stronger and stronger, making her nose very uncomfortable.
Achoo!
Sushang shuddered and sneezed.
She lifted her round almond-shaped eyes and saw a pretty face close before her, with fair, tender skin, limpid peach-blossom eyes, and rosy cheeks...
"Uh..."
Sushang blinked.
The white-robed woman lay limply on the ground, propping up her upper body with her arms. A cascade of silver hair spilled down, and a moon-white sachet and an exquisite white jade wine gourd hung from her slender, graceful waist.
Her head tilted slightly as she stared unblinkingly at Sushang, a faint, woozy flush still lingering on her exquisitely beautiful face.
Seeing Sushang open her eyes, she raised her arm. Her gauzy, cloudlike sleeve slipped down, revealing a stretch of skin as smooth and lustrous as jade.
What was she going to do?!
The little girl leaned backward in alarm.