A Great Battle Loomed

"Is the prey coming?" Zhu Xiaotian pulled a bloody leg from his storage ring with one of his fat, greasy hands. It was covered in thick black fur, but he didn't mind. He ate it fur and all, biting off mouthful after mouthful and chewing with a tremendous racket.

"They're here!" Mo Tao laughed. He could sense the living beings marked by Demonic Qi drawing ever closer, now less than ten li away.

"Ao Jue is truly hateful!" Zhu Xiaotian stroked his chest with his fat, greasy right hand. A gaping hole ran straight through his body, yet he acted as though nothing were wrong.

"All our efforts came to nothing just short of success!" The black-robed man surnamed Chen shook his head as well. Their hunt had been foolproof, but a True Dragon had barged in and ruined it, forcing them to retreat.

"I never expected him to be the Dragon of Time. If Brother Chen hadn't possessed such extraordinary methods, and if he hadn't had something holding him back, I'm afraid you and I would have been left in the Dragon-Phoenix Cave." Mo Tao laughed more wildly than ever, showing no trace of displeasure at their defeat.

"I'm so excited, so excited! Jian Wushuang, Ao Jue, Dugu Baitian-if I can devour them one by one, I'll surpass all the sages of the past." His laughter swept up to the heavens with the Demonic Qi, making hearts tremble.

"Leave that pretty boy to me. I can hardly wait to taste him." Zhu Xiaotian's two large, pitch-black eyes were filled with greed, and his bloodstained mouth looked utterly savage.

"How interesting. I haven't gone looking for them yet, but they've come looking for me first." Fu Yuan beamed, killing intent pouring from his body and sweeping across one corner of the world, stirring up gust after gust of fierce wind.

"Is there any lion meat left?" In the mere half month they had spent together, Fu Feng had become a little glutton and a drunkard, never going anywhere without spirit wine and asking that question every few days.

"There really isn't any left." Even Fu Yuan was at a loss. Had he known Fu Feng would turn out like this, he would have dealt with the problem at its root.

Beneath the blazing sun, the youth gave a radiant smile. "But our luck is good. A Taotie and a pig have come right to us."

"Are they tasty?"

"Even tastier than lion meat. Charcoal-grilled pig trotters, red-braised pig's head, stewed ribs, pork belly..."

As the two talked, they flew several li, until only half a li separated them from Mo Tao and the others.

"Tell me, why does prey always see itself as the hunter?" Fu Yuan asked softly.

Thought was perhaps the most wondrous thing in the world, and Fu Feng, who had only just ventured into it, didn't know how to answer.

"Perhaps it's a matter of perception. They're too confident in themselves, mistaking a True Dragon for a sheep and a Divine Phoenix for an ordinary bird." Fu Yuan answered his own question, his eyes filled with icy cold.

Before challenging the Heaven-Ascending Tower, making a name for himself by killing Mo Tao wouldn't be bad.

"They're here!" Mo Tao's laughter grew more unrestrained, tinged with evil.

"Whoever Mo Tao is waiting for, they certainly aren't friends," the pure-blooded divine beast Qinghua Bird said in a sweet voice.

"Two people are coming. Will there be a great battle?" Someone eager for excitement was itching to go forward and watch.

"There will indeed be a great battle. The newcomers are two imperial scions!" Xuanyuzi's words settled the speculation, revealing that Fu Yuan and Fu Feng were immensely powerful, imperial scions among the very strongest.

No one questioned the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's Heaven-Surveying Technique. It was the pinnacle of Houtian techniques, and paired with Yin-Yang Eyes, it might well rival Double Pupils and the Heavenly Eye in certain respects.

"Mo Tao, you seem quite a bit weaker than I imagined." His ink-black robes swaying in the wind, Fu Yuan walked with blood and Qi surging like a dragon, a peerless god of war in every respect.

"Fellow Daoist, you've certainly surprised me. Such blood and Qi are truly wonderful." Making no attempt to hide his greed, Mo Tao licked his lips, wishing he could swallow Fu Yuan in one bite and suck up his blood and Qi.

"Reeking with filth. Even washed clean, I'm afraid he'd be hard to swallow." The youth looked at the fat-headed, big-eared Zhu Xiaotian, his eyes full of disgust.

"You're delicious, even more delicious than I imagined. I can hardly wait to see you wail." Zhu Xiaotian's voice was muffled and booming. When he opened his gaping maw, a large chunk of flesh he had yet to swallow could still be seen inside.

Killing intent swept across heaven and earth. Fu Yuan's eyes grew colder as he stared at the black-robed man at the back, his voice chilling. "An inheritor of Carefree Manor?"

The black-robed man was startled. He was exceptionally skilled at concealment and had let neither blood and Qi nor Demonic Qi leak out, yet when the other man looked at him, he felt as though he had been seen through.

"Oh dear, it would be troublesome if you said it outright." Mo Tao gave a sinister smile as Devouring Qi and Demonic Qi surged out. "So I can only send you on your way, Fellow Daoist."

A great black hand several hundred meters across came down at the two of them, trailing a torrent of Demonic Qi.

"Whether it's said or not makes no difference. The scenery here is lovely; being buried in front of the Heaven-Ascending Tower isn't a bad end." Fu Yuan flew into a rage, golden light blazing around him. Sword intent surged across the sky, and golden Sword Qi howled forth.

The great hand of Demonic Qi was cleaved apart. Hundreds upon hundreds of streaks of golden Sword Qi tore through the air toward Mo Tao and his two companions.

Mo Tao paid them no mind, letting the golden sword intent strike. Devouring Qi covered his body; he meant to swallow it and turn it into Spiritual Qi to replenish himself.

But the next second, his expression changed. What kind of sword intent was this? He couldn't devour it. Vast and majestic, it was like an emperor among swords, its might unmatched.

Demonic Qi billowed and churned as Mo Tao gathered it together with his Devouring Qi into a battle-axe. Demonic might surged with every swing.

Before the Sword Qi reached him, Zhu Xiaotian opened his great maw. The terrifying suction drew in even boulders a hundred meters away.

His true form was that of the Heaven-Devouring Pig, a primordial ferocious beast that devoured all things. Once fully grown, it could swallow the sun, moon, and stars to increase its size and cultivation.

"Ah!" He swallowed dozens of streaks of golden Sword Qi and opened his sharp-toothed jaws, intending to chew them raw. A searing sensation raced through his mouth. The intent contained in the Sword Qi was so extraordinary that the pain sent him rolling on the ground, shrieking and squealing.

The cultivator surnamed Chen reached a hand out from beneath his black robe. It was so pale that even the veins were clearly visible. He threw out a blue talisman, and lightning exploded across the sky, colliding with the golden Sword Qi before both dispersed.

"Such majestic sword intent. Is it Jian Wushuang of the Sword Emperor Hall?" Even from dozens of li away, they could feel the powerful Sword Qi.

"No. I've met Jian Wushuang before." The Qinghua Bird took the form of a little girl and shook her head in denial.

"An imperial scion of the One Sword Sect or the Ten Thousand Swords Sect?" someone murmured. They had heard nothing of the imperial scions of those two great sword dao sects entering the world.

Among the crowd was a small group of several dozen people, all surnamed Zhuge.

"It's Brother Fu Yuan of Great Luo." Dressed in azure, Zhuge Lingfeng looked graceful and unworldly.

"The Great Luo Dynasty?" Zhuge Yun, one of the Five Heroes like him, was stunned.

Zhuge Lingfeng had only just arrived and did not yet know of the legend Luo Feng had left behind. After the two exchanged accounts, both were deeply shaken.

"The Indestructible Forbidden Zone has entered the world!" They looked at each other and spoke at once. It was too shocking for such a monstrous talent to have emerged from a dynasty, something unseen through the ages. But if he had come from the Indestructible Forbidden Zone, it was nothing unusual.

"My name is Fu Yuan. Remember it on the road to the Yellow Springs!" The Blood and Divine Spirits emerged, and the three bodies became one. Sword Qi filled the sky, moving with the youth.

Calling down countless rains of swords to surround and kill Mo Tao and Zhu Xiaotian, Fu Yuan unleashed his extreme speed and reached out a hand to seize the stars and pluck the moon, going straight for the black-robed man.

"Fellow Daoist, you're far too arrogant!" Mo Tao shouted. Demonic Qi surged forth in torrents and collided with the countless rains of swords. His cultivation at the peak of the sixth level of Nirvana erupted as he transformed into a dark demon god.