The four great kings

High in the air, the Spirit King strode across the void. With every step, his presence grew stronger, until he seemed to become a blazing sun, terrifying beyond measure.

Seeing this, the royal elder went up to meet him and stood a short distance away.

With two Primordial Spirit Realm experts, they finally had the confidence to fight back, rather than being unable to retaliate as before.

"One Heavenly Soul Flower."

The Spirit King spoke in a cold, emotionless voice.

"What?"

Leng Yue narrowed her eyes slightly as she replied.

"Your disciple used up one of my Heavenly Soul Flowers."

A trace of emotion finally entered the Spirit King's voice.

"A Heavenly Soul Flower?!"

Leng Yue's eyes widened slightly.

With her experience, she naturally knew what a Heavenly Soul Flower was. Without exaggeration, if she had one, she could break through all the way to Primordial Spirit Realm Perfection in a short time!

At that realm, she would hold a position of great authority even in the Moon-Gazing Sect and could join the ranks of its sect-protecting elders.

"That was the greatest compensation my Spirit King's Manor could offer."

The Spirit King sneered. "Unfortunately, your disciple was targeted by some unknown existence after all, and lacked the fortune to enjoy the Heavenly Soul Flower's heaven-defying effects."

Xue Yue, who had been silent for a long time, looked at the Spirit King. Her alluring red lips moved as she asked, "So what do you mean by all this?"

The Spirit King stared at the two of them, his tone finally turning cold and stern. "I'm merely telling you that your disciple's death had no necessary connection to my Spirit King's Manor. On the contrary, we even wasted a Heavenly Soul Flower."

"Why must you press us so relentlessly? Knowing the truth is unclear, why are you still willing to be another's butcher's blade and attack the innocent people of my Spirit King's Manor?"

Xue Yue listened to the Spirit King, then laughed, her voluptuous figure trembling like a man-eating devil.

"Of course we know. But who told my martial nephew to die here, in your hands? Since that's the case, you can be buried with him, and perhaps that will ease the anger in our hearts."

"As for the person behind this, I'll make him die a thousand times more miserably than you! Ten thousand times!"

Xue Yue's eyes turned entirely blood-red, filled with the mad savagery she had nowhere to vent!

The Spirit King's expression finally turned cold at her words.

"Leave the Spirit King's Manor within three breaths, or die here."

His voice rang out like muffled thunder, reaching the ears of everyone present and shaking them to their cores.

The blood of everyone in the Spirit King's Manor boiled, and they looked at the Spirit King with fanatical reverence.

Xue Yue and Leng Yue, on the other hand, stared in a daze, as though they had heard something unbelievable.

"Do you know that we are elders of the Moon-Gazing Sect?"

Leng Yue looked at the Spirit King with apparent disdain, her pride on full display.

"Never mind whether you have the strength to do it. Even if you did as you say and killed us here, I can tell you for certain that not only your manor, but the entire Ling Kingdom would be reduced to ashes beneath the terrifying magic power of the Dao Palace Realm."

The Spirit King said nothing, merely shaking his head.

"You think too highly of yourselves."

His tone was utterly overbearing. "I'd like to see whether your lofty Moon-Gazing Sect is willing to send a Dao Palace Realm expert to face the thousand-year foundation of my Spirit King's Manor for the sake of two Primordial Spirit Realm elders."

"Even if my Spirit King's Manor perishes, it won't perish under someone else's oppression. Does your Moon-Gazing Sect dare take that risk?"

"Some things are beyond your qualifications to know. You're only two elders who rose from the mud. How could you know such secrets?"

Now it was the Spirit King's turn to look down his nose at them, as though they were two short-sighted nobodies.

Leng Yue and Xue Yue were furious. More than anything, they hated having others speak of their origins.

"I'd like to see how you intend to keep us here!"

With an angry shout, the two unleashed their cultivation and attacked without hesitation.

"You three have watched the show long enough, haven't you?"

The Spirit King suddenly spoke.

"If you don't act now, I'm afraid you won't have another chance. What, are you dignified kings afraid of two Moon-Gazing Sect elders?"

He made no effort to hide his words from the crowd. Hearing them, Leng Yue and Xue Yue eased their attacks and stopped.

"Hahaha, you jest, Spirit King. Wasn't I waiting for the right moment to strike, so I could kill them in one blow?"

Just then, a laughing voice came from afar. A man in black robes, with a dignified bearing, strode through the air toward them, his presence no weaker than the Spirit King's.

"That's... the current Mystic King of Mystic King Manor, one of the four great royal manors!"

Someone cried out in surprise.

Under the crowd's astonished gazes, another streak of light shot over from the distance like a meteor, finally resolving into a refined middle-aged man dressed in white.

"I'm not too late either."

He smiled faintly as he spoke, opening a folding fan in his hand like a scholar of the mortal world.

"It's the Light King!"

"Three of the four great kings are here. Surely the Azure King won't come too?"

Outside the Spirit King's Manor, the battle had already drawn many people from Myriad Phenomena City. Seeing the kings, who were usually as elusive as divine dragons that showed their tails but never their heads, appear one after another, they broke into animated discussion.

Sure enough, just as everyone expected, the moment after the Light King appeared, a clear cry rang through heaven and earth.

A bluebird came flying gracefully toward the Spirit King's Manor. Standing atop it was a tall woman in palace robes, with beautiful features and a stern, cold bearing.

"The Azure King!"

Everyone gazed at her in amazement.

The Azure King was a woman, the previous Azure King's legitimate daughter. Because of her outstanding talent and profound cultivation, she had remained unmarried and instead become the Azure King Manor's heir as an exception to the rules.

The four great kings, together with a royal elder, made five Primordial Spirit Realm experts in all. They surrounded Leng Yue and Xue Yue, reversing the situation.

"Four at the Middle Primordial Spirit Realm and one at the Early Primordial Spirit Realm, and you think you can keep us here?"

Xue Yue sneered, unleashing her Late Primordial Spirit Realm cultivation in full.

To her disappointment, however, the Spirit King and the others remained utterly calm and unperturbed, shaking her confidence somewhat.

"Three final breaths. If you still refuse to leave, you'll die here forever, just like that disciple of yours."

The Spirit King issued his final warning.

Leng Yue watched their expressions closely, then steeled herself. "What can a power that fell into decline a thousand years ago do to me?"

"Sister, bring out the Moon-Gazing Sect's core inheritance and shatter their pride with your own hands!"

Leng Yue still clung to her original idea. This was the character she had developed over many years... defiant and untamable, vengeful over the slightest grievance, cruel and ruthless, yet fragile and pitiful at the same time, ignorant and fearless.

In this respect, the two sisters were alike, and the disciples they taught were like the youngest sons raised in certain wealthy families, full of naivety and foolishness.

Just as pitiful...

"Holy Cold Heavenly Moon!"

Heaven and earth abruptly plunged into absolute darkness, oppressive and terrifying. Amid that atmosphere, a full, cold-white moon slowly rose.

High in the sky, the moon hung full and flawless, its holy light shining until heaven and earth shared its radiance.

Suddenly, the full moon poured forth endless, ice-cold holy light. In the surrounding space, all the air was shredded into nothingness by that terrifying power, turning the entire hundred-li area into a vacuum and stirring up incomparably fierce gales.

And the thirty-thousand-foot holy light pressed down on the five Primordial Spirit Realm experts without losing momentum!